Her Head's On Fire "College Rock and Clove Cigarettes"

LP - $14.65 / CASSETTE - $7.00
LP UPC: 047338063277
CD UPC: 783495979722
STREET DATE: 7/29/22
CAT#: IOD029
LABEL: Iodine Recordings

Indie rock, of all stripes, is far too long in the tooth—and the classic back catalogs far too crowded—for half measures: If we are to have new “left of the dial” songs in an age where the wry cleverness and heart-on-sleeve (or heart-patch-on-messenger-bag?) vulnerability of yore have listed into a kind of sardonic nihilism, then those songs must be full of that strange alchemic mix of chords and melodies that make hearts flutter and souls soar—they must be incandescent; bright flares that light us up and burn away the pretenses and bullshit the world circa 2022 seems determined to encase us in.

Enter Her Head’s On Fire—a fiery, enlivening quartet with an unfuckwithable pedigree (Saves the Day, Garrison, Small Brown Bike, The Bomb, Casket Lottery, Gay for Johnny Depp) that serves as the DNA for a ten track genetic splicing debut full-length, College Rock & Clove Cigarettes that is not only simultaneously familiar and transcendent, but also very, very good.

Like, cry-on-first-listen, sway-enraptured-on-your-tippy-toes, make-a-mixtape-and-slip-it-into-your-crush’s-backpack good.

If you ever thrilled to the anthems of Samiam, pounded the steering wheel to Superchunk, reveled in the waves of Dinosaur Jr’s melodic fuzz, gladly went over to the Farside, got down to some Elvis Costello, or can remember where you were the first time you heard Sense Field…well, then Her Head’s On Fire’s heart-seeking post-post-hardcore, “emo”tive rock stemwinders will be the best thing to happen to you in a very long time.

Building on the promise of an auspicious bow via last year’s well-received split with living legend J. Robbins, College Rock & Clove Cigarettes is a beguiling and powerful statement: Her Head’s On Fire has your number and a container of clean sonic kerosine. All you have to do is follow the light, open up to the real, and find your way back to the messy, anthem-inspiring glory of love once again.

Her Head’s On Fire is:
Sid Jagger (Garrison, Gay for Johnny Depp) vocals
Jeff Dean (The Bomb) guitar
Rodriogo Palma (Saves the Day) bass
Jeff Gensterblum (Small Brown Bike, The Casket Lottery) drums

TRACK LISTING:

1. Burn
2. Call Me Up
3. Lexicon of Doubt
4. Common Shame
5. Pristine Heart
6. Rising Tide
7. So Beautiful
8. Matchsticks
9. Sugar Lips
10. Are We Enough

MARKETING POINTS:

• Debut LP by Her Head’s On Fire
• Featuring members of Saves the Day, Garrison, Small Brown Bike, and The Casket Lottery
• Produced by Jeff Dean (Samiam, Braid)
• Full PR Campaign by Atom Splitter PR
• Shows and Tours planned for 2022 (US / Europe)

FOR FANS OF:
Superchunk, Samiam, Jawbreaker, Lawrence Arms, and Farside

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Neurosis "Given To The Rising"

2x12"LP - $17.25
2xLP UPC: 658457105016
STREET DATE: 7/29/22
CAT#: NR050
LABEL: Neurot

Given To The Rising is like being submerged in an isolation tank -- it's enveloping, subverting the senses with surreal visions we'd swear were our own, cleverly jarring and disorienting consciousness beyond any footing in reality. As any diehard Neurosis fan will tell you, there's a moment with every new record and live show at which the band will stop as if the world has frozen in position, then suddenly kick into the primordial wail that we've all come to recognize as the "Neurosis note" that forces the listener's head and shoulders to lurch and sway almost uncontrollably. Given To The Rising is Neurosis at its most captivating and hypnotic. Put simply, the album is some of the band's most raw and immediate material to date, but it is also more complexly orchestrated and richly thickened with psych-damaged overtones. Given To The Rising is more than a just a powerful collection of songs -- it's more like a religious experience. While personal epiphanies are repeatedly told by those who've been converted by Neurosis' sensory overloading live show as well as its recordings, there's a hypnotic quality to this album that takes hold from the opening guitar squall of the title track. Once again recording with revered engineer and longtime friend Steve Albini (as the band has for five previous albums,The Eye of Every Storm in 2004, A Sun That Never Sets in 2001, Sovereign in 2000 and Times of Grace in 1999), Given To The Rising bears the band's signature crushing heft and cathartic force. However, it also finds Neurosis delving into increasingly psychedelic effects and twisted, inventive song structures. Much of the dramatic lull of recent works is forgone in favor of full-on attack. While it's reflective of the band's signature aggressive pummeling, Given To The Rising is not just an exercise in Wagnerian thunder. Neurosis instead takes an exploration into psychoactive prog-rock and eviscerating symphonic thud that moves well beyond anything that might fit snugly within a particular genre. It's as though the band has taken cues from such psych-noise predecessors as Hawkwind, Faust, Skullflower and Chrome, merged those elements with the sickening frequency assault of Throbbing Gristle and then submerged them within Neurosis' saturated sonic strata. "We stand encircled by wing and fire" growls vocalist/guitarist Scott Kelly, opening the album and its title track, the band's heels already dug deep in the dirt, blasting forth in all directions at once. It's as though we join the battle already in progress, and by all means we have -- Neurosis has fought hard to maintain its sovereignty not just in the music business, but as a boundlessly creative entity consisting of Kelly, guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till, bassist/vocalist Dave Edwardson, drummer Jason Roeder and keyboardist Noah Landis. The band brought keyboards to heavy punk. It brought experimental noise to metal. It merged antique droning folk with Black Flag's desperation. All the while, forging onward toward new means to explore the infinite realms of catharsis and self-transformation, while myriad bands simply follow in its wake. The guitars grunt and groan like sinister beasts on "Fear and Sickness", propelled by Roeder's clever rhythmic shifts delivered by thunderous, rollicking tom beats that lunge into half-time thumping kick drum and snare blasts. "To The Wind" opens with a deceptively delicate, albeit forlorn melody unlike anything we've come to expect of the band, which is abruptly choked off at the 2-minute mark by one of the most brutally sudden shifts of mood and tempo. A slight, barely audible growl hints at the change to come, but when a wall of chiming bent-notes and drop-tuned sludge guitars, paired with a stomping beat erupt over the melody, it's truly monolithic in impact. Edwardson slings heavy low-end distortion over the top with howling bent notes adding powerful harmonic overtones. But, perhaps the highlight of the song comes during a brief respite, when Kelly lets out an astounding 29-second-long throat-curdling scream at the song's climax. Von Till's rasping whisper sounds downright haunting over the rhythmic churn and Landis' syrupy tones on "Hidden Faces" prove ample evidence to the band's latest evolutionary step. "Through eyes of the wheel I will see you coming," Von Till howls, the band erupting in consensus.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Given To The Rising
2. Fear And Sickness
3. To The Wind
4. At The End Of The Road
5. Shadow
6. Hidden Faces
7. Water Is Not Enough
8. Distill (Watching The Swarm)
9. Nine
10. Origin

MARKETING POINTS:

• Packaged in a gatefold jacket and includes download code

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Pummel "Headcase"

CASSETTE - $7.00
STREET DATE: 7/29/22
CAT#: SDR083
LABEL: Sunday Drive

Boston hardcore (BHC) is a region commonly noted when reading or discussing hardcore, and with good reason. Important bands in the 80's like SSD, DYS, Slapshot, Jerry's Kids and more all made a huge impact on hardcore and the sound to come decades later. Pummel have this sound embedded in their DNA, and with the mix of the new wave of 00s BHC from bands like Mental, Stop and Think, etc. Pummel are currently carrying the torch for their hometown. Their 2021 self-released EP, "Next In Line" began to show a glimpse of Pummel's next evolution as a band. While maintaining groove, Pummel began to sprinkle in metallic leads, tempo switches and more. A year later, the band is back with the single, "Headcase"—their first release on Sunday Drive Records. "Headcase" further pushes the sound from their last release, overall making this a menacing single. From little moments like the leads in the beginning to the hi-hat break in the middle, Pummel is at their best, creating something fun, new and interesting.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Headcase

MARKETING POINTS:

• Produced by Will Killingsworth (Orchid)

FOR FANS OF:
Outburst, Stop and Think, Rampage

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Bastions “Majestic Desolation”

LP - $16.60 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 7/29/22
CAT#: CRR135
LABEL: Church Road

Seven years on from playing their final note onstage and unexpectedly ceasing all activity, seminal UK alternative hardcore band BASTIONS have announced their return. Eleven years on from the North Wales band’s revered debut album, Hospital Corners, BASTIONS will be releasing their second proper full-length , Majestic Desolation, via Church Road Records on July 29.

Privately reuniting in 2020, the quartet - composed of Jamie Burne (vocals), Jamie McDonald (guitar), Gareth Davies (bass) and Kieran Brindley (drums) - began reconnecting and re-envisioning what a future could look like with BASTIONS in it, a future that held respect for their past efforts without bending to misguided nostalgia or revised history. Discontent with simply resting on their discography's laurels, Majestic Desolation’s eight tracks are the result of a dark rekindling. Returning to The Ranch Studios in Southampton, UK to record with long-time collaborator and old friend Lewis Johns in July 2021, Majestic Desolation is proof that time dulls nothing.

As visceral as they ever were, BASTIONS’ trademark darkened hardcore and unnerving melodicism still convulses and writhes with an air of disquietude. Lamentations of lost time, profound emptiness and grief permeate throughout the entirety of Majestic Desolation’s 25 minutes. No more earnestly is this showcased than the one-two punch of Slithering into Coalfields - with Burne’s howls of “All this loss, all these years” on the latter. Majestic Desolation is less a comeback record as much as it is a continuation of all that made BASTIONS a highly influential UK act in the first place, taking personal hells and finding the universality within them against the backdrop of a sonically ceaseless push and pull.

BASTIONS in 2022 remain as perceptive towards all that leaves us desolate and hurting, with Majestic Desolation knowing when to swing and when to swim in the malaise of it all. Seven years on from that final strangled note at iconic London venue The Black Heart, BASTIONS are back and that sinking feeling of desolation is here to stay.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Haar
2. A Broken Crown
3. Acres of Love
4. Heavy Hearts
5. Slithering
6. Coalfields
7. Darker Paths
8. A Spiteful Reign

MARKETING POINTS:

• Produced by Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Employed To Serve)

FOR FANS OF:
Modern Life Is War, Touché Amoré

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