New Music Report – July 17, 2020
We’re getting into a bit of a summer lull right now with new album releases. Things were pretty crazy back in May and June, and I expect things to ramp back up again around October and November, as these things usually do. That said, this time last year was chock full of releases, but we’re right at that point in time where COVID came about before the people that were planning on mid-summer releases were able to announce their album, so I know that affected a lot of release schedules. Thankfully, we’ve still got plenty of good music coming out every week. Here’s a couple from this past week.
Lawrence Arms – I’ll be honest, I never really paid enough attention to The Lawrence Arms growing up. I know they’re one of the great underrated, yet still incredibly important (alt) punk bands of the last two decades but that’s about it. And you know, that’s a really big oversight on my part. I admit that. I love all the bands these guys are often compared to like Alkaline Trio, Gaslight Anthem, The Swellers, etc. and friends of mine have sung their praises for years, but I just never took the time to really dive into them. But now that I’ve checked them out, man, this is a fun band. I honestly have no reference point against the rest of the back catalog spanning two decades, but I love this album as it stands alone, completely fresh to my ears. But that said, I’m about to do some digging into old albums and find out for myself.
If I Were You – The Dreambound bands have always been interesting to me. First off, I’m still not sure if it’s actually a record label or just a promotional company, but either way they’ve done an excellent job absolutely blasting YouTube and Facebook with a barrage of Warped Tour-era post hardcore bands. Which just so happens to be my favorite thing in the world. That said, it’s a prime example of throwing shit at a wall and hoping something sticks. They have a ton of truly incredible bands (Captives, Imminence, etc.) but so many of them are woefully forgettable. And honestly, I think that’s a problem that’s indicative of the genre itself, but this carpet bombing promo technique really brings it to light. That said, If I Were You is one of the highlights that I’ve come across from them so far. Now, they do sound very similar to what you’d expect from Dreambound bands, but they just do it so much better than most of them. Which happens to be exactly how I feel about Captives, just not quite as strongly. So, I have a feeling this album will be sitting in the rotation until the Captives album comes out.