Adia Victoria will release her next full-length record, entitled Silences, on February 22nd. We’ve heard “Dope Queen Blues” and seen a few teasers from the record but “Different Kind of Love” is the first full-on video we’ve been graced with.

You may have seen this over on the Cream already but it’s worth multiple viewings. The black-and-white piece emulates 60’s and 70’s television performances but there’s a wonderful mismatch between the somewhat innocent visual styles and the sinister tone of the song.

The combination of saxophones, crunchy guitars and foreboding vocals is very telling of a record entitled Silences, a phrase that undoubtedly speaks to the frustrations of being a marginalized voice. Full insight into the messages contained with the record will have to wait until late February but my money is on this record being an obvious candidate for year-end lists.

Making compelling music in the genre of Post-Rock is a tricky endeavor. The tenants of the music are well defined; plenty of quiet-to-loud crescendos, voluminous guitars and, often, instrumental. The risk of getting lost in a sea of bands doing the same thing is very high.

The full-length, self-titled release from Murfreesboro’s Weathertalk runs that risk of getting lost with eight songs of vocal-less post-rock. However, the outfit does a good job of differentiating themselves from the pack with some distinct flourishes of electronic instrumentation, an ability to integrate unique, surprising, changes and enormous walls of guitar when the moment calls for it. These things aren’t necessarily unique to the genre but the way they’re implemented here is fresh and memorable.

Aside from the band making quality music worthy of praise, it should be noted that the album art from Jen Regnart is also quite captivating; providing a fitting visual for the turbulent sounds that the band is capable of.

The last release from German Error Message came out in 2016; a long enough time ago to make the assumption that the project had been gently laid to rest and songwriter Paul Kintzing had moved on to something, or nothing, else entirely.

Fortunately, while that may be an understandable assumption, it is an incorrect one. Kintzing has released “Murmuring“, the first track from his forthcoming album Mend due in 2019.

The track continues the familiar songwriting style of previous releases; quiet, almost fragile vocals with sparse musical backing interjected with what feels like field recording flourishes. There’s a bit more percussion involved with this particular track and the production sounds more professional, though it manages to maintain a lo-fi vibe. That may sound like a statement at odds with itself but give a listen and you’ll agree.

There’s no firm date on the release of Mend but “Murmur” is an incredibly enticing preview of things to come. You can hear the track on Bandcamp, Spotify or wherever you like to stream your music.

First, a little background. Sockhat is more of a label than it is a band and it’s more a demo testing ground than it is a place for official releases. It’s a little murky but releases from Sockhat are works-in-progress.

In respect of that, these DGLPII recordings are demo’s for the second Dialup Ghost LP – hence the acronym’ed title. This is a similar occurrence to the original Dialup Ghost demos that eventually became the full-fledged release, I’m Fine, I’m Fine. It’s unclear why Sockhat shares these demos but it’s a fascinating process to be able to reference these rough versions in comparison to the polished final versions. Maybe that’s exactly the point.

Aside from the curious fascination that comes with hearing a band work through their songwriting process in public, there’s some real gems in here. I implore anyone reading this to listen to “If You Find Heaven” as the Daniel Johnston vibe is so strong I was convinced it was a cover. Google set me straight. The track was also included in a DG single but it’s nice to see that the band hasn’t forgotten about it.

Murfreesboro outfit Big, If True describes themselves as “Punk Rock for Sad Dorks and Meme Lords” and have released a 3-song EP of tracks entitled Lenny Kravitz is a Serial Killer (​.​.​.​and We Think You Ought to Know). If you assume it’s a somewhat sloppy, lo-fi, bratty but poppy collection of not-so-serious songs, you’re exactly right.

While I have a warm appreciation for the choice of album title (and accompanying title track), the real gem here is the second track. “Reddit Doesn’t Think I’m Funny” is a high-energy, frantic, sub 2-minute diddy that manages to capture that ridiculous-but-catchy vibe that you’d hope for from a feel good offering such as this one.

I’ve got to assume that Big, If True probably has no desire to receive any such semi-serious writeup about their work and who am I kidding? It’s absurd and stupid but since it’s on purpose, you’re free to enjoy it.

We cover the High-Bias Cassette-Based Operations fairly regularly so it’s likely you’re familiar with the regular output from the label. While this new track isn’t one of the four-track undertakings that they are known for, all you really need to know is that this track is a collaboration with Davis himself (Superdrag, Epic Ditch, The Lees of Memory), Andy Herrin (Cavo, Two Chalfonts) and Matthew Caws.

If that last name doesn’t ring a bell, go back and revisit any Nada Surf album liner notes and you’ll see that he’s the lead vocalist and one of the primary songwriters. If you have funny feelings about Nada Surf, you haven’t been paying attention for the past twenty years, as they have grown to be a rightfully beloved rock band with just the right balance of sensitivity and powerful execution. If you have warm feelings about them, you’re in the right place.

Musically, the song pounds its way forward with an anthemic call to arms expressed through the perfect marriage of Davis and Caws vocals. Lyrically, it’s also rather optimistically leaning with phrases like “I’ve got a feelin’, I see it in the sky. let’s raise up the ceiling, and treat each other kind.” Great advice for 2019 and beyond.

The Blog That Celebrates Itself has been providing underground and indie music coverage for a solid ten years. Along with that, they also put together special compilation projects that may pay homage to one of their favorite artists or fit a particular theme. You might have seen their Smashing Pumpkins or Fleetwood Mac tributes. Or maybe heard one of their planetary comps.

Most recently they released Little Fury Things, Dinosaur Jr. Revisited that features 17 bands taking on various renditions of the Dinosaur Jr classics. One band on that compilation is Nashville’s own Your Gaze and their cover of “In a Jar“, originally from the 1987 release You’re Living All Over Me. As one would hope, the band did a wonderful job of reinventing the original and infusing their shoegaze styles to it.

It’s subjective but I dare say the Your Gaze version is superior to the Dinosaur, Jr. version. That’s a blasphemous take if ever there was one but the song works extremely well as a wall-of-sound onslaught.