It wouldn’t be a proper April 20th without several bands paying homage in some way or another to their favorite pot smoking activities. Boo Dudes, usually known for their yearly hibernation and revival activities around Halloween, have released a new track called “Smoke Unto Me” that stretches out across 4 minutes and 23 seconds of spacey bass lines, samples of hesitant pot smokes and just a general “woah, dude” vibe. It works.

I’m just going to put this out there – Bazookatooth is a great name for a punk band. It’s nonsense and absurd but still sends that powerful, riotous, message that you gotta have with the genre. The self-titled EP delivers exactly what you’d expect; high paced songs mostly under 2 minutes with barked, unintelligible, vocals best experienced in a sweaty mosh pit.

“Precious Boy” – the longest track on the release – showcases some male / female vocal tradeoffs that really work. On the whole, it’s a less than 10 minutes of your life to get amped up and be prepared to fuck the system.

You may have caught this on the Cream already but it bears repeating – the new EP from Katy Kirby is worth your time. Not to be too earnest but there’s an overwhelming mixture of sweetness and melancholy to both her vocal delivery and her lyrics. The songs are upbeat and catchy but seem to tell tales of continuous loss. It’s an emotional mixture but it works extremely well.

My only complaint for the record would be that it’s only three songs and it really leaves you wanting more. Looking forward to future releases.

There are many pleasantly surprising and pleasing things about this new full-length from Lonely Benson. First and foremost, it’s an upbeat, bright, sunny record from a new artist with an incredibly slick production.

Secondly, and no less important, the album was written to be intentionally positive. It started as a Kickstarter campaign from multi-instrumentalist Daniel Young with this synopsis: “These days, even the news is enough to give you a nervous breakdown. That’s why I’ve set out to create music that helps people CHILL.” What could be read as naive optimism actually comes through in spades throughout the record. Young sought to create songs that were “groovy and laid back but also just casual and relaxing” and absolutely nailed that vibe.

If you’re a fan of Toro Y Moi, you’ll probably feel at home here. The smooth production and languid songwriting lends itself to be the perfect backdrop of sitting in a hot place and chilling the fuck out. It’s the respite we deserve.

NPR’s First Listen has the preview for Joshua Hedley’s Third Man Records debut, Mr. Jukebox. The album won’t be released officially until April 20th but it’s streaming in it’s entirety now. As suspected (and hoped for), the album is steeped in Classic Country sounds and serves as a great reminder that Country Music isn’t a pejorative when done correctly.

Fun fact: Jordan Lehning, the subject of conversation in We Own This Town Episode 105, is a co-producer on this album along with Skylar Wilson. Check out the episode to hear how the two got together original and then enjoy Mr Jukebox as one of the fruits of their wonderful labor.

Jesse Wells, aka WELLES, has released the first single off his forthcoming full-length debut, Red Trees and White Trashes, due June 15th. The track, “Seventeen”, is a bit of a ballad that showcases Welles vocal style well – emotive in its cracking and waivering.

For more from Welles, check out the previously released, psychedelic, “Life Like Mine” video or his performance on Carson Daly earlier this year.

The debut full-length from Charlie & The Evil Mothers just hit the Internet the other day and I excitedly dove in. “Strings” has been in regular rotation for the last six months and my assumption was that a larger collection of songs would surely only add to that enjoyment. I am happy to report, I wasn’t wrong.

Unfortunately, my love of the album is hard to articulate. At the core of it, these are pop songs with catchy hooks but there is a subtle dark vibe bubbling underneath many of the tracks. “Baby Black and White” quietly descends into a fading organ and ominous field recording, “I Don’t Feel Eeinmore” fits right in on a Halloween soundtrack complete with a haunting whistle and “I Never R(Eli)zed” is just straight up creepy from start to finish. Despite those examples, there’s also moments of unbridled feel good vibes (“Klondike Bar”) and sweet sweet melancholy (“Happy is the Working Man’s Sin”). The production, the nasal vocal style and somewhat obtuse lyrics also contribute to the difficulty in pinpointing exactly what makes this work but, whatever those specific ingredients are, they work.

A debut record is often the culmination of an entire life’s experiences up to that point. It’s the foreboding reason for the sophomore slump but also the keystone to an expression of diverse emotions spanning a gamut of trials and tribulations. Charlie & The Evil Mothers manage to capture that diversity extremely well and I look forward to putting this one directly into the heavy rotation pile.