I was introduced to the new Frost Children album, “SPEED RUN” by a friend who said that the song “HI 5” seemed like something I would like. Within a few listens the song became a staple on many playlists of mine– the samples of Yoshi from “Super Smash Bros. Melee” made it an easy win in my book.
Pitchfork said in their review of the album that it came off as “creatively vacant,” and that wore away at the listening value of the LP. I’m here to agree on the vacancy described, but also to say that I felt that was the point of the album.
It’s similar to the 100 gecs or Black Dresses use a sense of silliness or airheadedness to add to the appeal of their already-chaotic music. Frost Children adopts this sort of ‘indie sleaze’ idea that is so popular among new and emerging music of 2023 into hyperpop, an ever-changing and growing genre without well-defined limits.
I’ll admit that there are songs on “SPEED RUN” that fall flat and lack much appeal. “ALL I GOT,” which was released as a single alongside “HI 5” and “FLATLINE,” isn’t a song I would write home about. It’s pretty simple and gets grating after a few listens due to its repetitiveness and simplicity.
“SICK TRIP,” heavily criticized in the aforementioned Pitchfork article, is actually one of my favorite songs off the album. It’s cheesy and kitschy in a way that indie sleaze should be. If 100 gecs is praised for songs like “Frog On the Floor” or “I Got My Tooth Removed,” then Frost Children can be praised for the ways they embrace cringe. The duo, siblings Angel and Lulu Prost, have actually spoken previously in an interview with Office Magazine about “embracing cringe.”
Although the album is not a 10/10, it’s fun to listen to and excites a lot of what I love about music and about hyperpop specifically.
Songs to Start With: “HI 5,” “FLATLINE,” “SICK TRIP”
The first time I listened to redveil was earlier this year when JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown dropped their album, “SCARING THE HOES” this past March. When I first heard the track redveil was on, “Kingdom Hearts Key”, I thought it was Denzel Curry rapping given his past feature on Peggy’s “LP!”. I was really confused though when I went back through the album and found out it was an artist called redveil. Curious, I looked through their discography and found this great EP called “playing w/ fire”.
“playing w/ fire” is a hip hop EP that dropped this past April, from the young Maryland-born artist and producer, redveil. It showcases six tracks that are equally as unique in production as they are enjoyable to listen to.
A Lovely Intro
The EP starts off with “stuck” which not only feels like a great intro given its build up with the track’s layering, but it also feels like redveil wants to show off their production skills before we enter the EP. The track adds onto itself constantly for the first minute until it later becomes this grandiose sound. A singer is going off in the background, the bass from earlier in the song is still providing a solid foundation, and now the brass parts, that were originally playing in the lower register, are now playing in the upper register with a confident sound.
As we’re at the peak of this rollercoaster, it immediately cuts all sounds except the organ and a message from redveil’s uncle plays. A message that inspired redveil to name the EP “playing w/ fire”
“Just wanna say, I’m so proud of you man. They don’t know that playing with redveil is playing with fire.”
“stuck” – redveil
After this message, we then move on to the rest of the EP that focuses more on the hip hop aspect of redveil’s music.
The Music
If it isn’t obvious from that spiel, “stuck” is one of my favorite tracks off the EP. However it’s competing with another track I love called “captain”. Unlike the intro, this track gets straight into its melody which makes me jump around while I’m listening. redveil’s style in this “playing w/ fire” just feels so fun to listen to. Although each track is unique, each of them hit that same feeling of ‘I love this so much’ followed by unintentional head jamming or something of the sort.
Because the EP is fifteen minutes long, and because all of the tracks are pretty good, I would simply recommend listening to it in its entirety without shuffle. redveil did a great job at meshing these tracks together so none of the transitions between them feel disjointed.
Official music video for redveil’s track “captain”
Overall
As someone who has never listened to redveil prior, I found this EP to be a great introduction to dive further into his discography with his albums like “learn 2 swim” or “Niagara”. I loved what I heard off of this EP, and am really looking forward to any of redveil’s future projects.
This EP is great listen if you’re a fan of the genre or simply just looking for some good music to pass the time.
I’ve discussed the exclusivity of alternative scenes before.
It seems an inevitability that a subculture hinging on nonconformity and countercultural stylistics and beliefs would eventually grow into something of a monolith itself. We’ve seen this in most alternative scenes, and I’ve specifically discussed its manifestation in the realms of the metal and goth scenes.
Punk is no exception. Though it constitutes one of my all-time favorite genres, I can’t ignore that both historical and contemporary punk spaces tend to be something of a “boy’s club.”
“The punk/riot grrrl band Bratmobile at The Charlotte in Leicester, England in 1994,” uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Greg Neate, licensed CC BY 2.0
Especially in the scene’s earliest iterations, misogynistic convictions abounded. The unhinged vigor and brazenly bellicose slant of the punk subculture seemed to preclude female involvement. Male anger was “cool” and “hardcore,” but female anger was rarely taken seriously.
Female-fronted punk bands, such as The Slits, faced significant difficulty in garnering the critial acclaim of their male-fronted counterparts during the 70s and 80s.
As frontwoman Ari Up said in an interview with Rolling Stone, being punk was “hard enough for the boys, but for the girls it was a witch hunt.”
It was becoming increasingly clear that the prospect of solidifying women-safe spaces in the punk scene was a punishing task. For groups like The Slits, existing in the punk scene meant existing in a constant battle against misogyny and patriarchy.
A Girl Riot
In the early 90s, a group of women from Olympia, Washington assembled to discuss the pervasion of sexism within their local punk scene.
The idea of the “Riot Girl” blossomed from these talks, with “girl” used to invoke the freedom of a child’s self-expression and “riot” to encompass the movement’s goal of lashing out against a patriarchal society.
While the original punk movement existed in opposition to the oppressive institutions of contemporary society, Riot Grrrl picked up the slack with staunch pro-trans, anti-racist and feminist credo.
“Bikini Kill performing live at Sylvester Park in Olympia, Washington on May 1, 1991,” uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by johnathancharles, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0
The Foundations
Riot Girls carved out their own subculture, producing original music and fanzines to disseminate and network their ideas within a distinct cultural space.
These zines discussed domestic violence, incest and rape and covered themes relating to sexuality and the exploration of identity in relation to femininity.
“Sleater Kinney,” uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Pat Castaldo, licensed CC BY 2.0
Zines served to affirm women’s experiences, disseminate praxis and strengthen the unity of the movement.
Riot girl bands, such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Sleater-Kinney radicalized the masses with evocative and irreverent performances that both centered and destigmatized the female body. Clothing and bodies and language became tools for orchestrating the “girl riot.”
The Significance
Riot grrl’s combination of fashion and performance became an art form in of itself, both a subversion and solidifier of conventions of femininity.
Feminism, a concept previously localized to feminist circles, was projected outwards in a staggering display.
Not only were the women in riot grrrl bands projecting their innermost struggles, desires and beliefs, but they did so in a way that empowered other women and girls.
I can still remember going to my first hardcore show and feeling smaller than I’d ever felt before, walled in on all sides by towering men who hardly seemed to recognize that I was even there.
I hated feeling that way, like I was in a place I shouldn’t be.
Evidently, the women behind the riot grrrl subculture felt the same way. The feeling of alienation that often comes with one’s womanhood, both in the hardcore scene and in general society, is an agony that never dulls.
Riot girls responded to this agony with boldness. No longer content with waiting, they made their own spaces in the scene and defended them with animalistic fervor.
They took their bodies, perpetually objectified and minimized by the male gaze, and created something dynamic and frightening and decidedly hardcore.
“Girl power,” a phrase often derided in contemporary circles for its hollow nature, was once the clarion call of the riot girls. Before its co-opting by mainstream pop artists, “girl power” really meant something. It meant seizing — literally or figuratively — what was owed.
It’s not really called “girl power” anymore, but it still exists.
I’ve seen it when girls at shows huddle together, pulling their friends out of the path of crowdkillers. I’ve seen it when female vocalists wail into the mic, their voices frayed with lifetimes of rage. I’ve felt it within myself at shows when I would shove aside men who invaded my personal space.
While some may argue that the “girl riot” ended when “girl power” lost its kick, I don’t think that’s true. I think the “girl riot” is ongoing, and in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, soon apt to reach a new intensity.
Additional Reading
Zine-Making as Feminist Pedagogy
Just a Girl? Rock Music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth
As I wrote in my concert preview, Joyce Manor has been one of my favorite artists since middle school. I love going to concerts but often feel like a poser of some sort when I don’t know every song an artist might play. Joyce Manor is the group that I can say I would feel confident in my ability to sing every song, knowing almost every word.
Teens in Trouble onstage at Cat’s Cradle. Photo by bel$
Before the headliner went on, Teens in Trouble put on a great show as an opener. My partner and I had seen them play at Double Barrel Benefit 19 and were probably some of the few in the crowd to have seen them twice this year, along with other WKNC DJs at the show.
The crowd was very clearly thrilled to be there and Teens in Trouble provided a fun set that got people moving but still allowed us to conserve some energy for the incoming Joyce Manor pit.
Joyce Manor did not disappoint. Starting their set off with “Heart Tattoo” was a strong choice, and the many of us in the crowd with heart tattoos on us from the influence of that song raised our hands high immediately.
Surprisingly, Joyce Manor only played three songs off their most recent record, “40 Oz. to Fresno”– “Gotta Let It Go,” “Don’t Try,” and “NBTSA.” They made sure to dip into older obscure songs like their cover of The Murder City Devils’ “Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum.”
The band went off stage, then returned for a three-song encore. Before the second song of the encore, frontman Barry Johnson asked the crowd, “Are there any ‘Cody’ enjoyers out there right now?”, referring to their 2016 LP. Many hands, including mine, shot up, and the band broke into their song “Stairs.”
It was impossible not to move at The Cradle that night. I’d gone into the venue with a full face of makeup, and by the time I got home my face was bare. The venue floor was sticky when people cleared out from PBRs dropped and pit sweat. My bangs were soaked. I have a few bruises and my feet are still sore days later. It was fantastic and it makes me sad that I’ll never be able to see Joyce Manor for the first time again.
Evan Stephens Hall, frontman of Pinegrove, as photographed by Will Fisher. Used under Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 4.0
I will begin this by saying I do not use TikTok. Proud disclaimer. However, because I’ve not been able to avoid contact with the internet in its totality, I’ve become aware of the Pinegrove Shuffle– a dance trend to a song from Pinegrove that’s been going around the video-sharing app.
Pinegrove is a band whose work I’ve adored for years, but some of that admiration was marred when Evan Stephens Hall– the group’s frontman– was accused of sexual coercion in 2017. The band took a year to refrain from releasing any music, and Hall took time to work on himself, stating that he’d begun therapy in the Facebook post in which this was all revealed.
Since then, it seems Pinegrove and Hall have been mostly accepted back into the spot they once had in the music scene. This acceptance has been solidified by the burst of the band’s alt-country music regaining public attention in the TikTok trend.
The Pinegrove Shuffle itself is a mix between the hardcore two-step and something else, resembling a bird flailing. Its movement suggests a melancholy feeling that matches the song– “Need 2,” well.
After the TikTok trend went viral, the band re-released “Need 2,” this time with a slow version, a fast version, and a hyperspeed version. The song hasn’t been reproduced at all but has instead just had its speed altered in the new releases.
Robin Murray of Clash Music describes Pinegrove’s re-ascent into the public spotlight “incredibly, bizarrely unlikely,” given their history. I could not agree more.
Even when an artist has done their time in therapy or has completed the proper reparations after an incident such as the one Hall was a part of, it feels strange to have them resurface at such a public level, especially with Pinegrove in particular. Historically, they’ve been adored, and since Hall’s accusation most have been unsure how to feel about the group.
It seems the dance trend has brought them back to a normal, inoffensive position that old fans and listeners were not exactly prepared for. I can’t say the trend is wrong or shouldn’t be popularized, but I can’t say I adore the booming popularity of a band with a sticky history either. It’s tough territory. In the meantime, I’m still enjoying the sped-up versions of “Need 2.”
After seeing friends’ posts about a recent hardcore show they’d been to in South Carolina, I finally decided to check out DRAIN, and they easily lived up to their reputation.
DRAIN’s first two EPs, “Over Thinking” (2016) and “Time Enough at Last” (2017) garnered public attention and solidified them as a prominent peg in the Santa Cruz hardcore scene. According to DRAIN frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, “When people come to Santa Cruz, they’re like, ‘Oh, I get it, DRAIN looks like what this town looks like.’ We also sound like what you expect Santa Cruz to sound like.”
Following their local roots, DRAIN released “California Cursed” right after the dawn of the pandemic– April 2020. This is the album that first drew me to DRAIN. It’s one of those LPs I can’t help but move to when I listen to it.
Songs like “Feel the Pressure,” “Army of One,” and “Hypervigilance” are undeniably bangers, for lack of a better word, and they’ve helped the album quickly become one of my most-listened for the month.
Having an album released so soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, DRAIN wasn’t able to tour or perform any shows for “California Cursed.” This was especially unfortunate because of how vital live shows are to the fire that fuels the hardcore scene.
“Kids fell in love with music but didn’t have the chance for two years to see it live,” said DRAIN’s frontman. “Now that it’s come back, the feeling is, ‘I want to see it live. I want to go to every show. I want to experience it.'”
DRAIN’s most recent album, “Living Proof,” released on May 5 of this year. Its reception has been wider than any of the band’s other releases, and for good reason.
A review of the album in Kerrang! by Luke Morton reads, “From piledriving opener of “Run Your Luck,” “Living Proof” puts its pedal firmly through the metal, hauling a mix of chunky riffs and frenetic two-steps into a mosh-ready melee, superbly bolstered by Slayer-esque guitars and snarling, spiteful vocals. Despite the aforementioned Sammy being a genuine Good Dude, he is in serious F— You mode throughout “Living Proof,” spitting lines of defiance and individuality.”
I could not have put it any better.
DRAIN is currently on the “Living Proof” tour through the U.S. until the end of June. Here’s to hoping we get a Raleigh show real soon.
