Cookeville’s Pumpkinseed is closing in fast on the release of their third full-length album, Big Believin’ Sky, and have posted two tracks to tease you to the full offering. The latest is “Dumbass Day“, a gently rolling track that builds into a cathartic release with plenty of horns, piano and the occasional yelp. Lyrically, it’s a straightforward tale with plenty of vulnerability, an undertaking many artists tend to shy away from.

If you want to hear more, give “Victoria” a whirl. It’s a bit more straight ahead in its upbeat appeal and confirms Pumpkinseed has more than one trick up their sleeve.

While the entire experience won’t be available until July 13th of 2018, the new full-length record from Murfreesboro’s metal outfit Oubilette can be previewed over on their Bandcamp, complete with snippets of each song and a deep dive into the closing (and titular) track, “The Passage.”

The six-minute track is a cathartic release of screamed and growled vocals mixed with hammering drums and some pleasantly intricate guitar work. It’s definitely metal but it’s not trying to murder you. I’m likely in the minority on this but I find it somewhat calming to be enveloped in a wall of sound and guttural vocal explosions. They exude a confidence in their execution that is refreshing. Looking forward to the full record when it comes out mid-July.

Looking for some thick riffs to keep your Tuesday going? Look no further than the new batch of free songs up on the Hurts to Laugh Bandcamp in the form of the Ninteen Eighty More EP. The three songs were recorded over at County Q Productions with Mike Purcell and feature a “roomier” recording style for the band and more political lyrics.

Honestly, I’ve always felt like Hurts to Laugh succeeded most when it leaned more politically. Even their name, Hurts to Laugh, is an knowing nod towards the pains of political laugh. This may indicate a new era for the band wherein they are more open to comment on the world around us.

One way to verify that theory is to check them out at their upcoming June residency at The Springwater where they will be playing every Thursday. Look to see them with Sheep Shifter, Dead Deads and Gimme the Bad News.

With a title like “When David Bowie Passed Away”, you’d think you were in for a forelorn ballad about the passing of the Earth’s finest Starman but Commander Keen‘s latest isn’t about delivering on expectations. This burst of a song – clocking in at 1:15 – is an outburst of manic energy shouting at the travesty’s of the world. It has all the markings of a punk song but, again, Keen is defining expectations here by delivering a wall of affected guitars and doubled-up vocals that, magically, maintain a harmonious quality without losing a moment of bile.

Commander Keen will release their full-length Dying in the South on July 4th and, if this track is any indication, it’s going to be a rousing good time.

Quichenight, aka Brett Rosenberg, will be releasing their sixth official full-length album (not counting lost albums, EP’s and mixtapes) Cooler Heads on June 1st, 2018. In lead up to that unveiling, he teamed up with Helen Gilley – of Butthole – to create a wonderfully absurd Ode to the Road, or, rather, an ode to leaving the road.

It may be a forelorn love song at the core but the video injects it into green screen madness, ridiculous special effects and delightfully absurd stock footage insertions. Watching Rosenberg and video companion Ellen Pelerossi (also of Butthole) force pizza into each others faces while emoji’s and neon signs swirl around is an undeniable treat.

Cooler Heads is out June 1st on all the streaming networks and vinyl. There’s a listening party tonight, May 31st, at the Bowery Vault to hear the record a tiny bit early.

If you’re familiar with the Nashville Rock Scene, the lineup of members for Exotic Doctors is a litany of known names. Jerry Campbell and Ryan Ervin alone have an impressive resume of bands between them including Spider Virus and The Carter Administration, respectively. It’d be unfair to compare this debut record, Prescriptions, with their prior work but it’s nice context to establish that this ain’t their first rodeo in the realm of crafting a song.

That experience expresses itself most noticeably through a subtle comfort in the delivery of the songs. “Outta My Head” is an emotive release with mounting tensions throughout, while “Love Criminal” goes for straight rocker. The band easily slides between these styles without losing any lyric vulnerability.

It’s also worth noting that half the album was recorded and mixed at Jeremy Ferguson’s Battle Tapes studio and the other half was recorded on a Tascam 8, DIY home recording style. The sonic differences are certainly notable but never unsettling, as they simply add to the diversity of tools that the band deploys with experienced efficiency.

We played some TB8S on Volume 103 of the WOTT Music podcast but haven’t specifically called them out here on the site. If you are unfamiliar, this is an electronic undertaking that combines original synths and beats with samples from old commercials.

In this newest release, the “Bookmarks” single, the source material is culled from a 1990’s Life Savers commercial, a 1973 See ‘n’ Say commercial and a 1980 Apple commercial. It’s extremely fascinating to have the source materials linked in the description of the release as you can dive deeper to hear where each piece was extracted and manipulated into the new compositions.

The music itself is hypnotic and vintage feeling, an understandable vibe considering the elements that created it.