<\/p>\n
I’ve heard folks grouse that this is “a bad year for music” (a judgment I’ve heard from somebody or other every year I’ve been paying attention), but me, I keep hearing new songs I like. What more could I want?<\/p>\n
Ber, \u201cWho\u2019s This?\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The ballads were nice, but this is more like it. Atop a rhythm track I must call \u201cWilburyish,\u201d Ber gives Minneapolis a 6 out of 10, tromps to Bull\u2019s Horn for cheese curds and then to CVS for something to \u201cmake my pee sting less,\u201d all while floating along in love as the world turns to shit and her friends ask, \u201cWho\u2019s this bitch?\u201d<\/p>\n In Lieu, \u201cHooligan\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Nikii Post is screaming her head off again, and why not? She\u2019s damn good at it. The title track from In Lieu\u2019s new album, due on October 24, rhymes “caught cutting school again” with “done something uncool again” and clocks in at one second shy of the two-minute mark. And why not?\u00a0<\/p>\n Cindy Lawson, \u201cThe Reckoning\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The indefatigable rocker is back with garage-punk fury, rhyming \u201cavoid\u201d with “schadenfreude” and declaring \u201cKarma\u2019s a bitch and so am I\u201d en route to the the chilling coda: \u201cIf you could get away with it would you do it again?\u201d Lawson is at the Schooner on Saturday, October 11<\/a>, with Crush Scene, who you read about here last week<\/a>, and Green Bay’s Holly and the Near Lions.<\/p>\n May + the Ladies, \u201cHolding On\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n May Klug\u2019s soprano propels itself over a track that\u2019s both spare and colorful, austere and romantic. Arty synth-pop? Synthy art-pop? Poppy synth-art? Yes, and then some.\u00a0May + the Ladies will play Cloudland on Friday, October 10,<\/a> with Extraterrestrials and Scott Yoder.<\/p>\n Ray Gun Youth, \u201cAftermath\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Aesop Rock, \u201cSnail Zero\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n With the big five-oh in sight, the over-erudite backpacker is still cramming his bars to bursting with polysyllables, and his latest, Black Hole Superette<\/em>, is his best full-length in nigh on a decade. Maybe his most down-to-earth too: On my favorite cut, he and his gf find a snail in their home aquarium that multiplies with shocking haste. Runner up: \u201cJohn Something,\u201d about the guest lecturer in art school who turned Aes on to When We Were Kings<\/em>.<\/p>\n Dry Cleaning, \u201cHit My Head All Day\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The novelty of Florence Shaw\u2019s sprechgesang may have worn off for some listeners, but her observations on the first single from Secret Love<\/em>, due next January, are Gang of Four-worthy (\u201cThe objects outside the head control the mind\/To arrange them is to control people’s thinking\u201d). Anyway, Shaw\u2019s always only been half the draw\u2014Tom Dowse scrapes out primo Adrian Belew noise hooks on guitar, and that reconstructed funk still keeps you on your toes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parts Work, \u201cTrenton\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Wednesday, \u201cTownies\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Jubal Lee Young, \u201cSquirrels\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n A swingin\u2019 lil country trifle about how those furry pests mess with your concentration. (Sample lyric: \u201cWhen I get on task they wanna break my focus\/Finishing a thought sometimes seems hopeless\/What was I saying? Oh yeah\/Squirrels.\u201d) Also it made me think of this dumb fun ’80s parody<\/a> for the first time in years. This title track from a sharp album that also boils the Bible down to \u201cDon\u2019t be a dickhead\u201d and addresses the gentrification of Young\u2019s hometown with \u201cWelcome to Nashville, Asshole!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sombr, \u201cUndressed\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Shane Boose’s stealth gift is that it\u2019s so hard to concentrate on his songs, they slip right past you before they truly annoy you. Which is why, though that Gotyesque bassline has stuck in my craw since I first heard it, this “worst new song” is more than six months old. It’s one thing for an alarmingly cheekboned Finnoth\u00e9e Chalohard hybrid to coyly demur to strip for a new sweetie. But \u201cI don’t want the children of another man\/To have the eyes of the girl I won’t forget\u201d is utterly barfworthy.<\/p>\n Wanna get a local song considered for the playlist? To make things easy on both of us, email keith@racketmn.com<\/a> with RACKET PLAYLIST in the subject header. (Don\u2019t, as in do NOT, DM or text: If I\u2019m in a good mood, I\u2019ll just ask you to send an email; if I\u2019m in a bad mood I\u2019ll just ignore it.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a>On the first single from the band’s new album, Second Estate<\/em>, Jake Frazier’s woozy arpeggios hang suspended, his warble crescendos to a full scream, and Travis Clark’s bass and drummer Hunter Theisen fill up the space below with increasing insistence.<\/p>\nNon-Local Picks<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Hop Along singer Frances Quinlan (at least I hope she\u2019s still the singer for Hop Along\u2014it\u2019s been a while) has formed a new duo with Kyle Pulley of Thin Lips. On their first single a fiddle dances about, then a piano muses below, and Quinlan\u2019s voice shapeshifts throughout in all those expectedly unexpected ways that mess with your guts. I\u2019ve been waiting my whole life to hear Quinlan sing \u201cTrenton makes\/The world takes\u201d and I didn\u2019t even know it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a>I appreciated rather than loved this Asheville band\u2019s critical breakthrough Rat Saw God<\/em>, but dullard that I am, it\u2019s the more gregarious and engaging\u00a0new Bleeds<\/em> that’s done won me over. Karly Hartzman looks back at a time when she was \u201c16 and bored and drunk\u201d with good humor rather than self-criticism. And we dullards live for little tricks like that slowed-down coda.\u00a0<\/p>\nWorst New Song<\/h2>\n