Action Packed Saturday
What in the world is going on?!
Greetings, Hello! Salutations!
My oh my… It’s been a minute since you’ve heard from me. You ever hear the phone ring? Maybe check if your phone is on silent. I dunno, maybe that was the case! I’ve been a little busy on my end, so who knows if you called back.
Within the last 2 weeks, we’ve had some absolute bangers to drop. You know what I’m notorious for? Blabbering about my special music interests. It’s crazy how much music can be released within a time frame without you even realising. I’ve been anticipating some of these releases for a while now so writing about them has really ground some gears for me to finally get the word out.
Slo-Anne’s “Whiplash”
A Quick Overview
We are a brother-sister duo with my brother Andy on drums and myself [Cecily] on music & lyrics. We grew up in Connecticut but have mainly been playing around the Boston area for the last decade or so. If you peek in to one of our shows, you’ll catch me popcorning around the stage with my telecaster in hand, bolo tie swinging in the wind. Our main influences include Black Lips, Courtney Barnett, Hop Along, Pixies, Alvvays, The Beths, and CCR.
Whiplash is our more sophisticated sophomore album that follows our release of Squints (2018). I titled the album “Whiplash” in part due to my post-show neck aches from headbanging, in other part the tracks, in my mind, are a variety of singles I had written over a wild 6 years’ time wrapping up our twenties.
Key Tracks
After hearing Mike from Hump Day News say that Whiplash is “An indie rock n roll stomper to get your summer started,” I knew this was a great analogy. Out of all 7 songs on Whiplash totalling a whopping 17 minutes and 25 seconds, I had some great picks out of these tracks.
Ded, Slo-anne’s opening track, is the perfect opener for an album in their style. I haven’t listened to Slo-anne’s previous music and hearing this gave me a great impression for the rest of what I was getting myself into. There’s something about the riffs in this song that really remind me of grabbing Dippin’ Dots ice cream after riding a waterslide out at Cowabunga Bay in Vegas. It’s giving summer day montage and I am so fucking here for that. The vocals really compliment each other in each verse. It’s such a great piece. I’m really proud of Slo-anne already- this excited me to hear the rest of their first studio album!
Another track that really stood out to me on this album was Squelch. I really feel for drums in a lot of songs and this song has the perfect amount of boom-boom-boom in it that really clashes with the vocals so well. The guitar work on Squelch is also absolutely crazy. Everything in this song just scratches the itch in my brain so well. Dude. The lyric “crickets on an august night fill me with dread- don't know why” is so solid. I know this exact feeling and it really is unexplainable. I swear, Cecily’s got some magical powers to realise not everything is an original experience through their lyric writing. It’s a great feeling to know I’m not the only one feeling these types of ways.
Where Are You Now?
Atlantis, under the sea… Under the sea… Alan Walker, what an absolute legend. Jokes aside, Slo-anne has an upcoming release show happening July 31st up at Deep Cuts in Medford, MA, with support from Human Mascot and Hey I’m Outside!
Listen to Whiplash here:
McBryde’s Debut EP “If Heaven Exists Here on Earth”
Eye on McBryde
McBryde is a dad rock loving emo band from Austin, Texas. Consisting of Felix Casey on Vocals, Bryanna Will on Bass and Vocals, Chase Zreet on drums, Kyle Anderson on Guitar and Vocals, and Tim Hayward on Guitar and Vocals, this 5 piece is a DIY band that’s got music that definitely rocks this world. Upon the release of their Debut EP on June 28th, If Heaven Exists Here on Earth, they plan to grow and thrive in the Austin scene.
I found McBryde through a fellow moderator of the Sincere Engineer Discord server. Ough, I know. Discord. Not always a bad place, though- it’s where I find most of my new music interests! Bryanna Will, McBryde’s bassist, had dropped their single Walls in the #music-recs channel. I was a tad bit late when I saw this, but still decided to go listen since I love supporting new music releases. Little did I know I would be instantly hooked with their music! Bryanna later said that there would be an EP dropping June 28th which had kept me on my toes until yesterday… Hopefully I’ll be on my toes again soon trying to peek over people at a live show of theirs!
Walls
I love Walls. I nerded about this song to my friends when I streamed it for the first time. Every time this song comes on while I have my playlists on shuffle, I feel the adrenaline in this song kick me. It’s one of those songs that I have to sit and wait to scream in person; I’m hoping that day comes soon. The lyrical flow of this song really amazes me in so many different ways. Walls is super catchy, and man… let’s talk about those lyrics! “You lost yourself so I chose me instead.” Holy fucking guacamole, chat. Surreal. This song speaks to me in so many different ways, I can’t really explain it. It’s truly groundbreaking and is such a perfect tease for the rest of their EP. Before the EP release date, I got over 500 plays on this song alone. If you know me, I stream the best songs on repeat. If you don’t get my lingo, I’m telling you to stream Walls.
Key Tracks
It’s really hard to say that I had 2 stick out to me when I listened to this EP in full. The entirety of this EP has so many quirks to it to the point where each track’s own uniqueness can’t top each other. Everything about this EP is pure excellence and no one can tell me otherwise.
Unless you’re Jake Ewald and you produced Notes From A Brief Engagement (At The Boot and Saddle), this has by far got to be one of the first songs I’m really excited to hear live when I eventually see McBryde- Potholes is so… god fucking damn it dude. You don’t come across music like this very often, and when you do, I swear man. This has got to be my favourite track other than Walls. The guitar in this one goes so insane. You know that itch in the brain that the song scratches just right I was talking about earlier? Potholes does the same thing to me. There’s no way each member of McBryde sat down, wrote all their parts and went “Yeah this is fine. Next!” COME ON!!! Potholes deserves a Grammy. It for sure received a… uhm… Rowan-Grammy… Rommy…? No. A, uhm… Yeah! You get the message.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. McBryde, where the fuck did you guys come from??? Something is telling me ya’ll know something I don’t… Shoes is actually so insane. There’s something songs with monologues do to me and this shit is actually driving me up the wall, dude. When I first listened to this track upon waking up Friday morning, I had to sit up in shock; tears were shed quite literally because of how beautiful it is. This song’s lyrics too… Oh my god. “You always tell me to open up, what's there to say? Here I am standing in front of you, standing in my own way” and “Take my hand, show me what it means to live for myself and everything in between.” You’re telling me this is a real song? The lyrics in this song came from some kind of higher being because there’s no way McBryde dropped the most relatable and gut wrenching lyrics by themselves. Round of applause for this one.
More from McBryde
Although McBryde had their EP Release show day of release… Duh…! They have an upcoming show on July 13th at Sunny’s Backyard with Soul Exchange, Houses We Die In, Feed Your Body To The Void, and Virtue. I’m really excited to dive into some of these artists later after writing this article… Maybe a ginger ale and a grilled cheese will do me some justice. My fingers hurt.
Listen to If Heaven Exists Here On Earth here:
Toluca Lake Remembers (WHAT?)
A Quick Moment of Toluca Lake
Toluca Lake celebrated their first release since 2023’s “Sunkissed” on June 21, 2024 alongside a music video made up of casual, fleeting “moments in time” recorded on a camcorder over the months before the release.
Where the last release from the 4-piece, non-binary fronted outfit from Boston, MA (originally a college band from Lowell, MA) saw a sparse arrangement of acoustics, electronics, and soothing vocals, “Remember” is intentionally the opposite: cranked, grinding guitars over an uptempo energy.
Mike, Toluca Lake’s guitarist and vocalist, went into the story behind the song. “‘Remember’ talks about the stage in a relationship or friendship when you realize you gave a little too much of yourself too early to someone else without knowing if you can trust them with that part of you,” Mike said. “We tried to marry that paralyzing fear of realizing you can’t go back with the comfort of looking back with rose-colored glasses and feeling nostalgic about everything.”Much like the rest of their catalog, “Remember” was self-recorded with Toluca Lake’s bassist Matt Cohen and Mike splitting production duties. Toluca’s drummer Cullen Ryan took up video production duties, shooting all of the footage for the music video.
“We’ve been pretty quiet since the pandemic started apart from a split with our Pittsburgh friends in overtheweather, but we have a LOT coming in the pipeline very soon and we’re really excited. We’re back.”
Highlights
Toluca Lake. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we? What does Remember supposed to mean?! Am I forgetting something?! Oh, duh, that you guys write absolutely amazing pieces of music. Silly me! Remember became one of my favourite Toluca Lake releases upon listening to it for the first time. Everything else previously released is so awesome, but this track really shows the direction Toluca Lake was trying to go in- at least in my eyes. This lowkey has been getting stuck in my head and it’s honestly crazy since I don’t get music stuck in my head a whole ton. I’m not sure if this is just a me thing… Upon my first listen, I hadn’t realised I listened to it twice in a row and just kept looping it for a good half hour or so before I realised what was happening. I fuck with Toluca Lake. Did you know that?
Toluca Lake… More Like Toluca Ocean?
With the comeback of Toluca Lake, I’m hoping more shows pop up for them soon. All of their work is truly amazing and is so worth hearing in person. Missing out on them hitting a city near you would probably be like the world ending, bro. I personally haven’t seen them since October of 2023, but when I did, I really enjoyed their set and would absolutely recommend them to anyone else I know! They’ve progressed so much as a band and deserve the expansion of crowds.
Listen to Remember here:
Special Guest is Worrying
Has the special guest ever considered not worrying? This is rough… Told Not To Worry most definitely did. Taking pride in their name, this screamo band from Rhode Island had a pretty killer show at The Boiler on June 23rd. I went to two support shows in Rhode Island back to back which Told Not To Worry played. It was awesome the events racked up about $2,100 total in donations for Palestine! I heard about Told Not To Worry from a few friends of mine suggesting they’re awesome. Did I believe them? Yes. Were my expectations lower than they should have been, and were they absolutely blown away? Fuck yes.
I’m not too familiar with their music, but goodness gracious do I love me some screamo. The two sets I attended were pretty baller- I’m really happy I managed to get them in my portfolio. Told Not To Worry has been the music I’ve been searching for for ages. I’m not sure what kind of music I’ve been craving to hear after so long, but knowing I’ve been getting into new music genres, they were exactly what I needed.
Wrapping Up
With all the new music, I’m sure I’ll have a great rest of my week. I’m really enjoying the productivity of each band and how much they’re thriving, it shows truly how much we as a community support each other in different ways. I’m super pumped to see what drops next week in terms of new music- and hopefully some more shows to shoot for! I know Toluca Lake, McBryde, and Slo-anne will definitely be on loop for a while until I find some more music to hyperfixate on.