Best New Independent Album Releases (Week of February 28)

Here are three recently released albums from independent music labels I've been enjoying this week:

See Through You by A Place to Bury Strangers (Dedstrange)

I'll always recommend this band. They've been at it for 20 years now and they're still going strong with a fantastic noisy sound.

Gratitude by Abiodun Oyewole (Fire)

One of the founders of The Last Poets has a solo album. Spoken-word perfection.

Myriad Sounds by Claude Cooper (Friendly Recordings)

They're from Bristol, UK and have grooves for days. Psych-meets-RnB-meets Trip-Hop.

Listen to these records and much, much more on CHIRP Radio. My radio show is Sundays from 2-4pm.

What new music are YOU listening to right now? Let us know in the comments!

Mitski - Laurel Hell

"Working for the Knife" by Mitski (from the album Laurel Hell)

The Thompson Twins - Lay Your Hands on Me

"Lay Your Hands on Me" by The Thompson Twins (from the album Here's to Future Days)

Thomas Dolby - Europa and the Pirate Twins

"Europa and the Pirate Twins" by Thomas Dolby (from the album The Golden Age of Wireless)

Animal Collective - Prester John

"Prester John" by Animal Collective (from the album Time Skiffs)

alt-J - U&ME

"U&ME" by alt-J (from the album The Dream)

An Album Review: “Fall in Love Not In Line” by Kids on a Crime Spree

Fall in Love Not In Line, the new album by Kids on a Crime Spree (Slumberland) is a great piece of modern garage rock from a long-running Oakland CA trio. They fuse the noisy stomp of a New York DIY basement show with the bright staccato drive of west-coast pop punk.

The sound is big and the grooves are tight. It’s all buzz-and-reverb guitar, growling bass, and crashing drums, with fleeting, buried-in-the-mix statements of love and longing and social discontent.

The tracks were laid down on a restored TASCAM 16-track analog recorder, which gives an appealing retro feel. This fits the music, which brings to mind the loud and fun guitar pop groups from the ‘50s and ‘60s. At the points where the band slows things down just a tad, they sound a bit like the Velvet Underground at their heaviest.

With 10 songs in 25 minutes, no one of them sticks around long enough to get boring. There’s cool stuff here; Any non-FCC track is worth a spin. This is the band’s first full-length record.

My Favorite Albums from 2021

These are 10 of my favorite albums from 2021. This list is also posted on the CHIRP Radio blog.

Despite all the continuing problems in the world, 2021 was a fantastic year for music. As usual, I was able to enjoy just a sliver of what was out there, but even that resulted in a stack of sounds of amazing quality.

There was so much great stuff, in fact, for the first time I’ve been creating my lists I couldn’t figure out a ranking order. So here are 10 records from 2021 that stood out to me, listed alphabetically…