Medusa

"Medusa harnesses the power of Slayer's most evil riffs and filter, twist, and abuse them via the record collector, nerdworthy triptych of Melvins, Lightning Bolt, and The Jesus Lizard. At times they are surprisingly melodic, other moments sound like they're trying to separate your arms from their sockets in order to use them as battle re-enactment swords, and sometimes they're trying to do both...there is definitely no fucking around." - Outburn
Medusa is a Bloomington favorite of mine. Their debut EP, En Raga Sul, is a very impressive work that leaves you feeling like you just fought a war and don't know who won.

En Raga Sul

Official Site

Punch - Push Pull (2010)

Push Pull (2010)

Just as their debut release did, this album covers multiple corners of the hardcore spectrum. The vocals are as shrill as you would expect them to be, and the musicianship just as tight and fun as you would hope from this California powerhouse.

Buy It

Last.fm

Mimicking Birds

Mimicking Birds

genre: folk, singer-songwriter

Mimicking Birds began as the solo bedroom recordings of Oregon native Nate Lacy and eventually expanded to include close personal friends Aaron Hanson (drum) and Tim Skellenger (guitar). The music itself is very minimalist with simple rhythms and sparse arrangements, but what really sets it apart is Lacy's delicate vocal delivery.

I have a natural bias against most singer-songwriters. In my experience, they tend to lean on power chords, sing in cliches, and have massive egos. This is not the case with Lacy. You can hear a certain hesitancy and shyness in his voice as he fingerpicks through cyclical melodies. He's not a rockstar, he's just charming and talented. Plus, his voice reminds me of a less whiny hybrid of Okay and Electric President's vocalists (don't kill me for picking that adjective, I love both those bands).

Although most reviewers seem to favor the song "Loops," my personal favorites are "Burning Star," which is easily the most confident and structured song on the album, and "Cabin Fever."

P.S. sorry for getting this to you so late :c

Myspace // Last.fm

Buy it!

Beast : Beast (2008)

Beast

At some point, I downloaded a song from this album called "Devil" and then proceeded to never actually listen to it.

Fortunately for all of us, today Devil came up on my shuffle. I was floored. I immediately looked up the rest of the album and was similarly impressed. Combining elements of dark cabaret, trip-hop, and funk, Beast melds the electronic and the acoustic to create a unique musical experience that is equal parts Grace Jones and Anticon darling, topping the entire affair with alluring French-Canadian accents.

Myspace

Cloud Nothings

Turn On

Don't be fooled by the minimalist album art, there is a lot of scuzzy-hot goodness going on in this album. I could (and have) listen(ed) to "Hey Cool Kid" all the livelong day.

What are the lyrics??? What are they SAY-ing?? No one knows! But it sounds super rad, so who really cares anyway, right?

DEAD NUNS MIDWEST HARDCORE

Tough shit resides here.

Fidel Catastrophe

And The Bleak Shall Inherit The Earth

Fidel Catastrophe is headed by the Original bassist of the Pomegranates (they're on their 3rd bassist right now), who is clearly a force to be reckoned with. They've been plugging their music via Band Camp, a site for unsigned bands that I'm growing more and more enamored of, though I'm surprised that anticon hasn't swiped these guys yet. They put me in mind of a poppy, concise version of Thee More Shallows combined with a less nasally and less rap-prone Yoni Wolf.

They also only have 3 songs available for download right now, and I've had them on repeat all day. I'm in band-love, guys. Deep, deep band-love. As far as I can tell, they're pressing vinyl right now, so there aren't any tracks on what.cd or waffles.fm. I want an album! The suspense is killing me!

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (2010)

More awesome music from this dude. This new one is really cool, it starts out on this kinda noisy track with lots of random bits kinda thrown in their, reminds me of some of his stuff from KGB man. The rest of the stuff on their is what you would mostly expect to hear on an Oneohtrix record I suppose, but that can't really be a bad thing. Definitely a good listen for the summer too, enjoy!