I first discovered Frost Children during the George Clanton concert at Cat’s Cradle in October. A few days before, I checked out some of their top songs and did not think much about their music until the concert. While I was mainly looking forward to the other acts, Frost Children ended up being the stand out performance.
After the show, I listened to “Speed Run” and was hooked and wanted more. I did not have to wait long since they dropped their fifth album “Hearth Room” on Nov. 17, 2023. This album cemented the band as more than a budget 100 gecs.
The first time I ever drove on the highway, I listened to an IDLES song.
Gripping the steering wheel with bloodless knuckles, my vision blurring from the sheer force of my skin-prickling anxiety, I barreled down the highway with the lyrics to “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” rattling around in the empty space where my brain was supposed to be.
Cover for “Joy as an Act of Resistance” by IDLES
IDLES, formed in Bristol in 2009, make music specifically for the situation I outlined above. Grimy, manic and thudding, IDLES is delightfully raucous.
“Tank” but with a bit of “G”
Back in October, they announced their upcoming album “TANGK,” which is set to come out Feb 14.
According to the band, the word “Tangk” is pronounced like “‘tank’ with a whiff of the ‘g'” and serves as an “onomatopoeic reference” to the band’s “lashing” guitars.
While the word may sit strangely in one’s mouth, it’s clear that “TANGK” is one of the band’s most ambitious projects yet.
Two months later in December, the band put out “GRACE.”
Most recently (Jan 15, to be exact), IDLES released another single from “TANGK,” “GIFT HORSE.”
Cover for “TANGK” by IDLES
The second song to appear on the album, “GIFT HORSE” is classic IDLES.
More fast-paced than “GRACE” and rougher around the edges than “DANCER,” “GIFT HORSE” — while not particularly striking on its own — is a fairly solid track to bolster the runtime of an album.
According to the band, “TANGK” will consist of 11 tracks and focuses on empowerment, trauma and community. I look forward to being able to listen through the whole thing come February.
On Jan. 13, 2023, crowds from different parts of the world gathered in the heart of Washington D.C. to showcase solidarity with Gaza. The Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas triggered a war that has spanned for over 100 days, where more than 20,000 Palestinians are estimated to have perished. The crowds in Washington D.C. demanded an immediate ceasefire and for the Biden administration to take robust action in pressuring the Israeli government to stop its military operations.
Photo by Abdalla Najjar
The march was attended by several influential figures who have delivered a few key remarks. Cornell West, an independent presidential candidate, called for the necessity of Palestinian freedom. “You won’t have Jewish safety or Jewish security if you didn’t have Palestinian Safety and Palestinian security”, West said. He also emphasized that “Nobody is calling for the annihilation of Jewish brothers and sisters”.
Photo by Abdalla Najjar
In addition to West, Josh Paul, a former director at the U.S. Department of State, delivered an address. Paul recently resigned from his position, citing the American support for the Israeli response to the Oct. 7 attacks as one of the reasons. During his speech, Paul highlighted that the participants of the march and himself “will not stay silent about the atrocities that are continuing in Gaza”.
The participants of the march felt the necessity to voice their concern for the Gazans who have to endure the current war. Some of the participants were from North Carolina and shared their thoughts on why they attended this march. Ben Bienvenu, a Raleigh resident who recently moved from New York City, attended the March with his wife Shanie. Ben mentioned that he “attended the march at the invitation of some colleagues at NY who serve as campus ministers across the USA”. Ben reported that he wanted to “live out faith actively and march to pray and redress [the US government] to account for financing [the Israeli] campaign”.
Photo by Abdalla Najjar
This march comes at a critical time when the ongoing Russia Ukraine war, combined with the Israeli-Palestinian situation, is presenting many challenges for the current US administration. With the elections coming up, one could only wonder how the Administration’s responses could affect the voting turnout for the next cycle. It has been speculated that the Biden administration’s response to the Palestinian situation will alienate a large demographic that has voted for him in the last elections. It is difficult to tell if these marches will pressure the US government to take action in calling for a ceasefire, but it would only be a matter of time before it becomes clearer.
As of writing, I have not had a good, full night of sleep in two days. The fact that the weather has been sub-freezing has not helped, either. There is naught that I desire more at the present moment other than pillow, blankie, and, of course, bed.
I also have a wide variety of music that I listen to regularly before bed to get me into the mood for being cozy and ready for bed. However, I don’t listen to music when actually asleep for fear of what it could do to my psyche, and also because I feel like it’d be weird to wear earbuds to bed, and also because I don’t own any earbuds.
Today, I dare to ask the theoretical question: what if I did listen to this while asleep? What would that do to myself while dreaming? Would it even work at all?
I was going to write about some Chicago hardcore (hc) punk band, but I stumbled across this short little EP instead. Inflicter is from the UK and makes quick, ripping-loud, noisy, thrashy hc music. This kind of music makes my ears pop like they were clogged up from a bad cold.
The sparse smattering of vocals drew me into this album. It feels like spoken word mixed with Egg punk mixed with classic punk vocals. In “Denied” the vocals are echoey and what I would describe as flavorful. They sound like a bubble ready to pop with lots of hatred about to spill out of it. Super cool and unique to put simply.
Inflicter has another EP, “7 SONG DEMO”, that I have yet to listen to all of. The vocals are a little more clear. This band is angry (as are tons of hc bands) and they’re doing their best to voice their social frustrations in a cool way through their own sounds within the hardcore genre.
This band feels extremely new, so there isn’t too much easy to find information about them except for one article that dove into their “7 SONG DEMO” and some of the local bands in the UK they appreciate and find inspiration from.
Their music is currently on Bandcamp, and I hope to be listening to more of their sounds change over the next couple years as they grow and become more in-tune with themselves.
