Category: 2020 Alt Rock Songs

Anesthetic Youth is a four-piece alternative indie rock band based in Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam, of all places. The band caught our attention with the 2020 single and video, “Fortune and Fame.”

The song is a blend of emotional lyrics and experimental alt-rock jamming, powered by muscular guitar riffs, precise and driving rhythms, and a fiery front-woman leading the way.

Formed in 2017, the band is a multi-cultural unit: vocalist Giand Kieu is Vietnamese; bassist Jesus Carrillo is Peruvian; drummer Luis Zapiola is American and guitarist Angelo Silva is Portuguese.

“Giand and I worked on it on a very cheap acoustic guitar which I still use to write our songs since they always sound a lot better on the electric guitar, and by the time we jammed the song with the rest of the band, the lyrics and the guitar parts were finished.”

Anesthetic Youth formed in 2017 as a metal/hardcore band. After several line-up changes, however, they evolved into more of an experimental rock band. Two years ago they received high praise for their debut single, “Self Portrait” which was followed by the band’s debut EP, Dystopia, in February 2019.

facebook.com/anestheticyouth

The new 12-track album from the Kansas City band Suneaters launches with a big wall of guitar riffs on the track “Light” which teases along until it launches into a full-on rocker.

Throughout the track a succession of guitar solos and stops and starts mark the song.

That’s followed by the theatrical and fizzing track, “Cold N Wet,” which is a bit off-timing then we prefer. But it’s an intriguing track.

“Night” is a quieter, slower and dreamy track that is appropriately suited for the night hours and perhaps plays into the album title as well; repeating the line “it’ll be alright” followed by a desert rock-style guitar solo.

The grunge-influenced “Come Alone” is a bipolar track that rockets and rivets from slower, ambling rock to blistering Nirvana-like explosions.

“Unfinished,” at the album’s midpoint, is very much a progressive/alt. rock track that borders on the edge of experimental. It sounds a lot like its title – a bit unfinished.

That demo-loving number is followed by “Lit.” The majority of the song is not really impressive in any way that’s measurable other than it’s the longest track on the album.

Progressive rock consists of much more structure and form than silly theatrics at the end of a song. There’s no conceivable understanding why this track was included.

“Bubblegum” is a terrific comeback after the malaise of the middle chunk of the album and the same can be said as well for the fun and spirited weird-rock track, “Frogarrow,” complete with a spine-tickling guitar solo reminiscent of rock days of old when solos mattered.

It would have been preferable to the album’s flow if those two tracks, which are nicely paired, were higher up on tracklisting.

The album’s title track, which is slow-moving, unformed and lacking progression for much of its run time, is again theatrical, experimental anti-rock stoner rock. It has more potential if it were reworked and polished up.

The mood changes radically again on “Ninja Funeral,” which, like others, lacks cohesiveness or form.

Again there is some kick-ass guitar work, but the bass lines (which are almost non-existent; the mixing or whatever of the bass went terribly wrong) are distant and largely repetitious across the 12 tracks. The drumming is often hollow and lacking a punch which is what the drums are supposed to do so.

The album is mainly a collection of 12 mostly experimental anti-rock tracks – with progressive rock elements – that too often lack a consistent message, form or intrigue.

That’s not to say the album is a bust. There are some awesome tracks worthy of circulation, and which seem more like what the band’s sound might be instead of the other styles experimented with on the L.P.

There’s no question that the album is a good overall effort by Suneaters, but I really feel it would have been stronger with half of the tracks.

Much of the album sounds like free-form jamming and playing with LogicPro in a basement. A lot of people like that so obviously different people will have different opinions and preferences than my own.

We review free-form, lo-fi, recorded-raw music that we dig all of the time. Some times it’s great; other times it doesn’t connect.

There also needs to be more cohesiveness in the instruments’ alignment, mixing, and timing. That’s OK for lo-fi to a point.

A search online comes up with nothing that shows any organic results for the album. The band would definitely benefit from improving their own search results (which many musicians are not aware of).

For alt. rock, experimental and anti-rock fans, Arrive is a treat to indulge.

London indie band Black Midi has followed up a successful debut album, Schlagenheim, with the new rhythmic single, ‘Sweater.’

After a minimalistic instrumental intro, “Sweater” bursts into a full-throttle chugger with turbulent, ringing guitars and chugging percussions.

Black Midi creates amazing post-punk arcade-fueled experimental music that sounds nostalgic and yet feels refreshingly new, with a vocalist, frontman Geordie Greep, that stands out like few other frontmen.

The other band members of the quartet are award-winning drummer Morgan Simpson, guitarist Cameron Picton, and bassist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin.

A few years back, the band built a reputation for their dynamic, collaborative energy and uncompromising live shows from the start and blew attendees away at last year’s SXSW festival.

Not long ago, the band released an Ed Sheeran diss track titled “ded sheeran,” a bizarre song that trolls singer/songwriter superstar Ed Sheeran.

The track dropped on the band’s Soundcloud but was quickly removed. But a it found its way on to YouTube.

Lyrics include: Ed Sheeran sucks/ you sellout ginger prick/ your music is doodoo/ believe me man/ we don’t need you.

Kansas singer/songwriter Nicole Springer‘s debut solo E.P., Willing, is chock-full of emotion and serves as a musical outlet for painful life experience.

This is Springer’s first solo E.P. The six-track recording straddles the musical spectrum, from Americana and folk to classic rock and R&B. The tempos switch back and forth like an ebbing river.

The album opens with the emotive title track and is followed by the attention-grabbing, ominously-titled song, “Hell.”

“It’s one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written and the reason I returned to music after a year and a half hiatus,” she says.

A year ago she made what she calls “an emotional decision to cut a parent out of my life.” That’s a pretty heavy helping of stone-cold potatoes on anyone’s plate.

“My response to cutting those ties was to write ‘Hell,'” she exclaims. “The song nearly wrote itself as I poured every bit of my heart’s pain into the words and music.”

The result is not a weeping ballad but an empowering piece wrapped in warm melodies. Standout songs like “Come Clean,” a personal track full of emotion and conviction, and the closing track “I’ll Never Be A Bitter Woman,” demonstrate her range of emotions and convictions.

“It’s my personal favorite on the record,” she says.  “It’s a true story about my wife and me on the eve of our wedding and the days, weeks, and months after.”

“Up until the night before our wedding, we both had struggled to be completely honest about how deep some of our pains were rooted,” she adds. “We came completely clean on that night and it has led to the truest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Springer is an award-winning songwriter, vocalist and folk-pop instrumentalist who has written original music for The Good Hearts, Heart Machine, and others.

In an era when women are deciding if and when/where/how they should speak of sexual violence or harassment, putting the words and emotions into song are Springer’s way.

She vowed to overcome, rather than be a victim, writing “I’ll Never Be A Bitter Woman” for that reason and as a message to other women.

“I decided to use music as a tool to heal and boy did it work,” she exclaims.  “This song is one of the most empowering pieces I’ve written; my favorite line is this: “Despite the urge to forget about all the lessons that I could’ve lived without/ I’ll make use of them in some way/ like I’ll never be a bitter woman.”