March 2021 Nuggets

Welcome to another month of my nuggets. I hope you enjoy at least some of them.

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Kovacs The Hun – Grave New World

This record reminds me so much of discovering David Axelrod as the basis for the samples that defined the feel of so much of the dusty, break-filled hip hop I loved in the 90s. It feels reminiscent of records by DJ Food (and others I am definitely forgetting) that weave spacey jazz and song structures into tunes that are still decidedly hip hop.

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No Escape – Don’t Poke the Bear

No Escape have new music out! Tim Singer (Deadguy, Kiss it Goodbye) has forever been one of the all-time great “aggressive music” vocalists and No Escape were probably the most straightforward of his bands. They were all but finished by, like, 1995 so it’s kind of incredible that they reformed to record new music. It’s so fun to have Tim Singer creating so much lately with this record, Bitter Branches, and Process Black. I hope he’s having fun.

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Nervous Jerk – 40 Degrees

I got really into this New Zealand band’s 2019 EP, the 1994 EP (huh?), but for whatever reason, I didn’t look back further. Well, that was stupid, because they have more great punk-edged power pop music. Sloppier and a little shaggier than something like Dead To Me, but still coming through with the catchy hooks. I particularly liked the bouncy 40 Degrees and riffy City Slicker from the Cheap Gear EP.

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Fog Lake – Jitterbug

Fog Lake has a new record coming out on April 23rd, and the first few tracks that are out there are so nice and so pretty. It’s music to listen to while sitting on a roof watching the sunset right when it’s warm enough as winter turns to spring.

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Generation – In the House of Being

Ahhhhhhhhh. I’m such a sucker for this new wave of “Revolution Summer”-influenced bands who keep finding ways to make this style sound new and interesting. Fiddlehead, Praise, Stages in Faith, etc. etc. Pump it into my veins.

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Thank you for reading this.