Check out the Good Reads Book Club
Get Psyched intro music was created by PME, used by permission. Find PME on Spotify
Author: WKNC Admin
ALBUM REVIEW: The Transonics – Lost In Time
BEST TRACKS: Lost In Time, Love and a Blue Light, You’re So Pretty
FCC Clean
This 6-piece band from Columbia very aptly named their debut album, Lost In Time, as it sounds like a blast from the past, belonging to the early 80s but by some heavenly fluke was born in the year 2020 instead. The Transonics are a severely underrated band, with less than 1,000 listens on any given song on spotify. However, when fantastic yet obscure bands are in need of a spotlight, that’s when college radio really shines. With the release of Lost In Time, the transonics are starting to take college radios across the country by storm. This eleven song album soars from beginning to end. What really excites me about this album is that the Transonics are a female-fronted band and strong feminine energy courses through every song in both the vocals and the writing.
The Transonics sound like a mix of the fun and infectious powerpop of No Doubt and the grungy rock and roll of Foo Fighters, with a twinge of early 80s psychedelica. The thing that stood out to me most was that lead vocalist Patti Davis has an electrifying voice that sounds uncannily similar to Gwen Stefani. After a short, 30 second intro, Lost In Time opens with the dreamy title track ‘Lost In Time’ which contains glittering hooks and spacy lyrics about wishes and daydreams.
Lost In Time is reminiscent of simpler times, when the grilled cheese Uncrustables were still a part of school lunches. This album caught my attention because of the album cover, which looks like it came straight out of a Lisa Frank coloring book, and it kept me listening, enchanted, with its exhilarating energy and irresistible riffs. I recommend this album if you want something sweet and lively to boost your mood after a gloomy session of browsing social media, or if you’ve ever been obsessed with the Bratz movies.
Safia
Categories
New Tunes From May
In this series, I try to highlight some of my favorite tunes I listened to this month. May was another month full of new releases, but here are just a few that I find myself going back to a lot.
Was It Something I Said (feat. Cavetown) by MyKey – I love how this song has a very old school sound to it. The music instantly comes out sounding very 60s(?) influenced, the guitars and violin make it a soothing trip back in time. The album art also reflects this ‘classic’ style. The song is definitely a heartbroken tune, and the music makes it feel incredibly authentic. The collaboration was brilliantly done, as the two artists’ voices mesh well together.
Dance Alone by Blanks – Blanks is an Indie pop artist and his music is incredibly catchy and fun to sing along to. The artist made a lyric video for youtube where he said ‘Got bored in quarantine so I wrote a song’. The song is the perfect tune to dance to if you ever feel a bit lonely during this time. The hook is catchy and fun; and the guitars, bass and drums really make the song hard not to dance along to.
Social Drinker by Ballyhoo! – It’s been a while since I’ve listened to this artist, but I was really excited after my first listen to this song. I find the lyrics are extremely relatable. The singer talks about social pressures often associated with drinking, and how hard growing out of this can be. The artist is over avoiding their problems and always turning to drinking. ‘Save me from myself’ is a lyric that reflects how the artist knows that they are responsible for themselves and what they choose to do, but that they understand their environment contributes to these choices. The song also reflects the struggles associated with growing up.
I would love to know what your favorite picks from May were, definitely let me know!
A full playlist to even more new tunes can be found here
– DJ Psyched
Scales may not always be the most exciting thing to learn about, most people would much rather just learn easy songs to start (that’s definitely my favorite way), but given how foundational they are to understanding an instrument and the basics of music theory, they’re a good place to go once you have the initial basics down. I did a blog post on ‘Learning the Basics’ a little while ago, it will be linked below for reference if you need it.
What are scales?
Scales are the ‘tonal base of music’ and are composed of ‘tones from which you can build melodies and harmonies’. Basically, they provide you with notes that sound good together.
On a related note, a ‘Key’ is a group of pitches or a scale that are used in a composition of music. So while a key and a scale aren’t exactly the same thing, we do use scales for our keys, so when we see a piece of music and find it’s in, for example, ‘the key of C’ we already know what notes will likely be in the piece, because we know the scale of C. Knowing scales is also useful when you start composing or improvising.
Half steps and whole steps:
The distance between notes and keys on a piano are called ‘Steps’. Visually a whole step on a piano is when two notes have a key between them. If two keys are right next to each other it is a half step (as seen in the image below).
Major Scales are based on the pattern above.
Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half (commonly written: W W H W W W H)
The C Scale is the easiest to perform because it includes only white keys. Since the pattern just so happens to work that way. But other scales, such as the D Major Scale, will include black keys. It still follows the same system of whole and half steps, but starting at D. So, if we follow the D a whole step we get E, and another whole step, meaning two keys over, is an F#. Then the next key, our first half step, is a G.
All major scales follow this pattern.
We play scales starting from the first note and down until we get to the same not in the next octave. So we go from C all the way down to C again, and then you play it backwards.
Now you know all the keys in a C major and D major scale, so you can improvise with these notes!
Next time we’ll look at minor scales,
Stay Psyched about learning piano,
– DJ Psyched
Categories
Daytime Charts 6/9
Artist Record Label
1 LADY LEGS Off Days Communicating Vessels
2 MOMMA Two Of Me Danger Collective
3 MINI TREES Slip Away [EP] Self-Released
4 PEACH PIT You And Your Friends Columbia
5 EMILY ROCKARTS Little Flower Self-Released
6 ROSE CITY BAND Summerlong Thrill Jockey
7 TAMBINO Summerlong Self-Released
8 DAKOTA THEIM Somewhere Under The Sun Self-Released
9 JAUNT All In One Self-Released
10 SIMEN LYNGROTH Muse Self-Released
11 ROOKIE Rookie Bloodshot
12 WHY BONNIE Voice Box [EP] Fat Possum
13 MARINARA I Feel Like Dog Self-Released
14 STEVEN DAYVID MCKELLAR Ethio Sonic Ritual
15 ROSEY DUST Keep for Life Self-Released
16 LASER BACKGROUND Evergreen Legend Self-Released
17 YUMI ZOUMA Truth Or Consequences Polyvinyl
18 HEY CHELS Everything Goes Self-Released
19 HELADO NEGRO"I Fell In Love" feat. Xenia Rubinos [Single] Super
20 KOKO NEETZ I.T.T.I.P. Admirable Traits
21 MY UGLY CLEMENTINE Vitamin CInk
22 PORRIDGE RADIO Every Bad Secretly Canadian/Secretly Group
23 FLAT WORMS Antarctica God?
24 FRANKIE COSMOS Close It Quietly Sub Pop
25 HELLO FOREVER Whatever It Is Self-Released
26 JAPANESE WALLPAPER Glow Nettwerk
27 RACOMA This Front Room Self-Released
28 NATION OF LANGUAGE Introduction, Presence Self-Released
29 TONNE Bridey Murphy [EP] Self-Released
30 PALEHOUND Black Friday Polyvinyl
TOP ADDS
1 HOLY HIVE Float Back To You Big Crown
2 PINEWOOD All Things With Symmetry [EP ]Self-Released
3 ZELMA STONE Dreamland [EP] Self-Released
4 ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER Sideways To New Italy Sub Pop
5 WOODS Strange To Explain Woodsist
6 MANGO FURS, THE Inner Migrations Self-Released
7 JR JR August And Everything Prior [EP ]Love Is EZ
8 COMMUNIST SEX “Compilation Of You” [Single] Self-Released
9 RELIANT TOM Play & Rewind. Diversion
10. SCHOOL OF X Armlock Tambourhinoceros
Categories
Underground Charts 6/9
Artist Record Label
1 EARTHGANG Mirrorland Dreamville/Interscope
2 PAT JUNIOR I Thought I Knew Be Absxlute
3 BROCKHAMPTON Ginger Question Everything/RCA
4 CASHINOVA Big Dragon Stophouse
5 YOUNG THUG So Much Fun 300/Atlantic
6 DENZEL CURRY Zuu Loma Vista/Concord
7 YOUNG RJ AND MEGA RAN 2HANDSUP Ne’Astra
8 ANDERSON.PAAK Ventura Aftermath
9 TYLER THE CREATOR Igor Columbia
10 REASON"Trapped In" [Single] Top Dawg
Categories
Afterhours Charts 6/9
Artist Record Label
1 CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS La Vita Nuova [EP] Because/Capitol
2 YEULE Serotonin II Bayonet
3 KEDR LIVANSKIY Your Need 2MR
4 OURI We Share Our Blood Remixes Ghostly International
5 HOT CHIPA Bath Full Of Ecstasy Domino
6 DEATON CHRIS ANTHONY BO Y Self-Released
7 COWGIRL CLUE Icebreaker Vada Vada
8 DANCE SYSTEM Wind ‘Em Up (Radio Version) [EP ]Monkeytown
9. SONNIKU, LIZ, SOPHIE"Sweat (Sophie Remix)“ [Single] Bella Union
10 GRIMES Miss Anthropocene 4AD/Beggars Group
Categories
Chainsaw Charts 6/9
Artist Record Label
1 CURRENTS The Way It Ends SharpTone
2 MAKE THEM SUFFER “Soul Decay” [Single] Rise
3 CARNIFEX “Cursed” [Single] Nuclear Blast
4 FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY"Fear Tomorrow" [Single] Nuclear Blast
5 HOLEHEARTED Hivemind Redzone
6 KNOCKED LOOSE A Different Shade Of Blue Pure Noise
7 CREEPING DEATH Wretched Illusions eOne
8 GATECREEPER Deserted Relapse
9 THE GHOST INSIDE The Ghost Inside Epitaph
10 DESERTION “Imperfection” [Single] Self-Released
Check out the Good Reads Book Club.
Get Psyched intro music was created by PME, used by permission. Find PME on Spotify.
ALBUM REVIEW: CLIFFFS – Panic Attack
BEST TRACKS: You Are Freaking Out, Panic Attack, Tilt
FCC Clean
CLIFFFS is a lively three-piece band from Dallas, Texas that brings an unparalleled sense of purity to the scene, taking garage punk back to its roots. I love three-piece bands for their simplicity. A guitar, a bass, and drums are all anyone really needs to make an astounding punk album. Four years ago, CLIFFFS released Bill, You’re Only Human, an album about which there is very little to complain about, to say the least, except that it lacked the element of passion and fury I seek in a punk album. What CLIFFFS’ debut album lacked, their sophomore album, Panic Attack, has in abundance. Panic attack shows the immense growth of the band over 4 years and leaves me eagerly awaiting to see what CLIFFFS has in store next.
Panic Attack exhibits fast, slightly surf rock-esque guitar riffs and solid, grounding baselines. The fourth track, ‘You Are Freaking Out’ is my favorite, sounding dark and urgent. The rises and falls of intensity in this song are masterful, starting out with a nervous, anticipatory riff that then gets propelled into a cathartic climax by thrashing drums and elevated vocals. Other tracks, such as ‘Tilt’ and ‘Life’ are less dark, having brighter melodies, and are truer to the legacies of the OG garage punk gods like Descendants and All. Punk albums have a bad habit of sounding messy and unpolished. Panic Attack is a punk album that is very cleanly put together and puts a focus on melody, making the music sound passionate, powerful, and beautiful- not just loud and noisy.
A common theme throughout this album is anxiety, as the album title might suggest. True to this theme, Panic Attack fills me up with nervous energy (in only the best way). This short, 13 track, 24 minute album makes me want to get out of the house and shred some asphalt- the sign of a truly excellent punk album.
I recommend CLIFFFS if you like bands like Descendants, All, the Frights, and the Orwells.
-Safia