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The Dao Jones really expand their songwriting capabilities in Bored of Trade, their third full-length release, and by thatI mean they’re bringing the same anti-capitalist, anti-fascist lyrical content, but blasting it over an expanded set of instrumentation. There’s some discordant saxophone featured on tracks “IPOnYrIPO” and “Ring My Bell,” as well as some acoustic string instruments sprinkled throughout the album. Maybe a fiddle? I don’t know. But there’s definitely a Raincoats vibe on more than one track, if the Raincoats were socialists played at 170 bpm.

Recommended for: EVERYONE. Why does not everyone listen to The Dao Jones. What’s your excuse?

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Multi-instrumentalist Portland synth punk duo The Gaze is at it again with their sophomore record An Album of Sound and Fury. The press release from their label - Iridium Records - explicitly states that “far from signifying nothing, this new record from The Gaze signifies the nothingness that is life’s existence.” So wrap your head around that little philosophical puzzle. Or don’t! Just enjoy the music! Back with a bang, on this record The Gaze ups the distortion on what seems like every instrument they utilize: guitars, drums, xylophones. Perhaps the distortion is what’s making the statement about life’s nothingness, or it’s intangibility, or the disconnect between perception and reality, or... perhaps I’m hearing too much into this...

P.S. I believe whoever did this album cover designed it solely this way so that the top two lines would read “anal bum,” but again, maybe I’m seeing meaning/intention in something that is not supposed to have meaning/intention.

Recommended for: the intersection of the Venn diagram of people that like shoegaze and hardcore.

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Girls on Mars started playing together three months ago and they’ve already released a debut self-titled LP. With a band name inspiring quarantine and abrasiveness, and ripped from a National Archive photo caption, these "girls” (would probably prefer being called women, but I don’t know) bring heavy beats and bass riffs into their industrial funkpunk sound. Think Nine Inch Nails x Red Hot Chili Peppers x Crash Course in Science. I had the pleasure of seeing them live at their record release show and was surprised to find they trade off instrumentation. Each of them takes turns manning the drums, guitar, bass, and sound machine, and this swirl of noise is like it’s from another planet. Buy this record!

Recommended for: when you’re in a #GiveNoFucks attitude and just want to rage.

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I don’t usually put a review out on an album based solely on a single, but here I make an exception for the debut LP from American Leeches, the supergroup from southeast Wisconsin. Anastasia (bass/vox) from The Curious Case of Benjamin Butthole, Bea (drums) from The Fibonacci Sequins, and Chad (guitar/vox) from The Rad, Chad, Tad Band stew up some delicious, straight-up American rock in their first single “Leeches!” I’ve heard them live a couple times in Milwaukee/Kenosha and my ears orgasmed, so I can guarantee this album’s gonna be sick. Comes out September 2nd. Pre-order NOW.

Recommended for: your punk rock Labor Day party.

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The past week my ears have been listening to the debut self-titled EP from the Tennessee Valley Girl Authority. AND MY EARS HAVE BEEN LOVING IT. This duo from NWI is making beautiful sound waves, both with their instruments (Dewane on guitar/vox, Cathy on drums/vox) and with the praises of audience members who are totally digging their minimalist post-punk vibes. I’m hoping they’ll go on a tour outside the midwest sometime soon. Cali/Portland/WA? Boston/NYC/DC? Or even just making it to Tennessee would probably be good. Help them grow their ripples into full blown waves. Better yet, a tsunami.

Recommended for: people into minimalist bands like Household or Marine Girls.

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Clearly someone in The Cavemen went to SUNY Cortland… (track three is “Ithaca Sux”). Olduvai is Gorges & Hominid Remains, the fourth release from The Cavemen, seems both a departure from and a return to - if that makes any sense - the initial sound of their 2007 self-titled debut. The title track “Olduvai is Gorges (& Hominid Remains)” is a superb refinement of the neo-grunge aesthetic the group was founded upon almost a decade ago. Now, how these songs will sound on tour is… (The Cavemen are notorious for live shows that devolve into pleistocenic levels of madness) yet to be heard. But at least there should be some awesome swag.

Recommended for: hominids who like a good skull bashing… I mean, headbanging.

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The Haymarket Squares. An apt name for a second wave riot grrrl band (their label, not mine) from Chicago made up of a bunch of nerds. I’m excited about this - their self-titled first release - because it means maybe they’ll start regionally touring and then maybe I’ll get some sweet anarchist pins and stickers to add to my collection. The musics good too: straight up weird punk, at times minimal, at other times noise. There’s one song on here that references the Haymarket Square Riot of 1886, so I’m hoping their second album will reference the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 in some way.

Recommended for: NERDS who like a good bit of eclectica.

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I was sitting around eating donuts and listening to cassettes with my friend when he told me about this new band out of Copenhagen that sounds like The Slits. I’m always in the market for more Slits-esque post-punk, so he tosses me the s/t tape and I am immediately rolling on the floor dying because the band is called The Double Slits and they are from Copenhagen. My friend (not a scientist) did not get it. That’s all expositional to say, the five piece from Copenhagen seriously knows where their sound fits within the punk schema in addition to knowing their quantum mechanics history and the importance of their home town in the development of such things as atomic bombs and iPhones (listen to their song “iPhones and A-Bombs (Not With a Bang)” for more information).

Recommended for: nerds who like party-cull-rave duality (horrible pun, sorry) and are looking for a new band with a sort of folksy/Slits sound.

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On their newest album (or rather, the latest digital download I’ve discovered while obsessively searching Tumblr, Blogspot, Wordpress, etc., to find more of their material), The Dao Jones serve up considerably grungier riffs. This is no surprise given the reverential cover art, which features a photograph of when J.P. Morgan beat a photographer with his cane. Lyrical content of songs titled “Carnegie,” “Rockefeller,” and “Duke” allude to historical events while also maintaining a contemporaneous air. Compared to Zen and the Art of Hostile Take Overs, The Dao Jones’ Industrial Savage is just as impressive, if not more.

Recommended for: punk juniors studying for their AP US History exam.

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Imagine a mashup between the 80s post-punk band Minutemen and the 90s hip-hop/R&B group TLC. Can you imagine that? Probably not since it sounds absurd. BUT IT’S NOT. Pick up the debut full-length from Consumerism - Who Knew Style Came This Easy - and you’ll see why it’s AMAZING. Elements of punk rock, prog rock, and funk blend wonderfully while backing schizoid lyrics about modern day consumption (the using up of resources, not the disease). All that’s missing, in my opinion, is a song titled “This Ain’t No Scrub’s Picnic.” Maybe next album.

Recommended for: You wanna rock and oppose the capitalist patriarchy, but you also want to wear heels and buy an iPhone. Are those things mutually exclusive?

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“To know what you know and know what you do now know - this then is wisdom.” I know nothing about The Dao Jones. Literally nothing, except that they’re FREAKIN’ AWESOME. I stumbled upon a blogspot during a fit of mindlessness web browsing and discovered their new album -  Zen and the Art of Hostile Take Overs - which they’ve released completely free as a digital download. Anti-capitalist lyrics over clean, angular riffs over precision drum beats fill these tight songs with titles apparently ripped straight from an investment banking glossary. Ummm... yes please. 

Recommended for: people who spend their weekdays banging their heads against the wall wondering how they can end neoliberal oppression and their weekends head banging in a mosh pit.

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Finally! A band of all women that uses a male gender signifier in their band name (I’m looking at you Violent Femmes, Girl Band, Black Girls [actually all white guys… don’t get me started.]). Last week, The Cavemen put out their first LP in over two years. On Eat Grit and Die, their blues-grunge sound has evolved (LOL, GET IT?!) considerably since their most recent release two years ago. Anagenesis never sounded so good.

Recommended for: people who like a little bite with their bark.

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Straight outta Tacoma, it’s the second EP from J.P., Phoebe, and Thea, AKA, the minimalist post-punk band Eurydick (pronounced “yr a dick”). Despite the grainy album cover, Don’t Look Back rejects the scuzzy sound you may be expecting from a Washington rock band, in favor of short, angular riffs. However, despite the declarative album title, Don’t Look Back is filled with ruminations on a recent break-up. AWKWARD.

Recommended for: when you want to wallow in the aftermath of your breakup instead of just getting over it.

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Rubber. Do You Get It? Do you get it? The Rubber band. Yeah, this is 100% a joke band. When the font = fucking Comic Sans, this should be obvious. Do You Get It? is Rubber’s first release, done via their own label, which probably consists of a microphone in a basement. Roxy (drums), Phil (bass), Jake (keyboard), Maria (guitar/vox), and Taylor (guitar/vox) play the stripped down, shit-fi kinda punk that reeks of “I’ve never played this instrument before.” However, it has an endearing quality to it.

Recommended for: people who appreciate a good guttural scream over out of tune and off beat power chords.

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Four Bay Area post-docs got sick of writing scientific journal articles no one would read and decided to start writing music no one would listen to. Rhizopussy was born. Now the world has their debut LP Get Hyphae. These ladies and one dude dish up art-sci-dreamy-surf rock complete with lyrics that sound like they were straight up ripped off from an article in Science (“disparate taxa roughly placed in analyses / you and me were like these”).

Recommended for: the soundtrack to your quarter-life crisis.

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Hot off the skillet - it’s the new EP from Mr. Meat Man, the Milwaukee neo-grunge, industrial rock trio. In All-American Beef, heavy licks and visceral lyrics gut the carcass that is “the mainstream.” These thirty-somethings take shots at a variety of societal ills, from the collapse of the housing market to the mere existence of the television channel TLC.

Recommended for: people who drink Budweiser but also hate honey boo boo (the show, not the child).