With a sound that carries influence from the legendary Madball and Hatebreed, California’s These Streets know their way around a classic hardcore riff. Their current single blends elements of classic hardcore with a sledgehammer, metal-infused bottom end, leading to a satisfyingly hard-edged sound.
With the world in turmoil and people in isolation, there’s a good chance you have far more on your mind right now than “What are the best albums of 2020 so far?”…but we’d be happy to tell you that House Above The Sun’s ‘Time I Got Goin’ EP is one of the finest releases to emerge from the year’s first quarter.
The last time most people heard from The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco was in the summer of 2018 when they released a stand-alone video single ’39 Grams’. An odd tune, it side-stepped their usual sunny sounds and Steely Dan obsessions in favour of something with bigger beats and musical quirks. Understandably, the response was mixed.
The band actually sneaked out a new track, ‘Cold Cuts’ – a semi-acoustic number that was a little more traditional – at the beginning of 2020. They’ve followed ‘Cold Cuts’ with another off-piste affair ‘Dream Pharma’ which is as quirky as it is catchy.
“Not a day without a murder / Not a week without a bomb” proclaims Jim Bob, somewhere near the peak of his new single. A burst of punk rock anger shows the one-time Carter USM frontman in a particularly angry mood. …And rightly so, since the world seemed to be falling apart as we all hurtled into the new year, unaware that things were in fact about to get worse.
In February 2020, Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out released their debut EP and the sometime Fleshtones man treated fans to a brilliant but short collection of tunes that celebrated many of his power pop and garage rock influences.
Among the self-penned material was a great cover of The Pink Fairies’ cult classic ‘Do It’ (a track also recorded by The Rollins Band and others). As far as covers go, it fit among the unfamiliar material seamlessly, while also showing the band’s slightly angrier chops.