Blushed – Johnny
Philadelphia, PA’s Blushed makes candy-coated rock music that’s influenced in equal measure by surftastic garage and glittering dream-pop. “Johnny,” from the band’s new album, I Love You So Much It Hurts (released on Valentine’s Day, that most desperately romantic of Hallmark holidays), features choppy riffs, lovelorn lyrics, and some excellent vocal interplay between guitarist Missy Pidgeon and bassist Alyssa Milman. “Where are you, Johnny???”
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Violent Vickie – Serotonin
Long Beach, CA’s Violent Vickie zaps the classic Riot Grrrl sound with jolts of industrial grime. Her new song, “Serotonin,” out on the Crunch Pod label, is sweaty, noisy, menacing, and chaotic, featuring crushing walls of unspecified grit (the distortion is jacked up so high that it could be guitar, synth, bass, or fucking trombone for all I know) and lilting vocals that beckon the ear like a siren song. You’ll release some serotonin, and probably some epinephrine as well.
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Freshwater Serpent – Gods From The Sky
Whenever you see an artist use “ov” instead of “of,” you know you’re in for some pagan/occult shit. It follows, then, that Freshwater Serpent’s new demo, released by Washington’s Stench Ov Death Produktions, contains “likenings of Abrahamic saviors to the serpent Gods of old.” The demo’s opener, “Gods From The Sky,” is the sonic embodiment of brewing thunderheads. Spooky? Yes. Awesome. Ov course.
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Bored In Pittsburgh 