New Orleans duo The Convenience, who released the terrific Like Cartoon Vampires earlier this year, are here to rep for their hometown with five other artists from the scene you should know about: You can check out music from all five of their picks below.
Over a pared-back post-punk beat, Simz details her life's genius plan, namely being free as I can. The first half is spent detailing the roadblocks she's faced in her quest, marching through them like a Marvel hero. Then, as if throwing her arm round a young apprentice's shoulder as she walks, she lays out her six-point plan for greatness with koans of wisdom such as: Never eat with the hyenas / Cause they will look at you as bones.
Their guitarist Vini Reilly was so poleaxed by depression that he was virtually unable to leave his house: 12 different attempts were made to section him over the course of 1979. Believing that Reilly was going to die, Factory Records boss Tony Wilson intervened, buying him a new guitar, then suggested he visit a studio with the label's troubled but visionary producer Martin Hannett as an experiment.
As we become more comfortable in the digital world, our tolerance for any discomfort in the physical world seems to decrease. We stand in the corner at the party looking at our phones to avoid making small talk; we let our eyes flit between screens to smother any thought that we might otherwise have to sit with alone. If this is what we do for fun, then what does work look like?
Brian Eno once said of the Velvet Underground that their first album sold only 30,000 copies, but everyone who bought one started a band. Joy Division's debut Unknown Pleasures sold only 20,000 copies in its initial period of release, but the T‑shirt emblazoned with its cover art - an image of radio waves emanating from a pulsar taken from an astronomy encyclopedia - has long since constituted a commercial-semiotic empire unto itself.
Having purveyed riff based rock for the early part of their existence before incorporating electronic interludes (on 1993 debut album The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird) and experimenting with an all-synthesizer configuration on 1994's Machine Cuisine 10", the 1995 album saw the band attempting to unify these approaches, the result being "one of the most devastating albums of 1995, if not the entire decade" according to Erick Bradshaw, who reviewed the reissue in The Wire 500.
Onstage, Manchester four-piece Maruja conduct a series of distinct rituals. Like Moses commanding the Red Sea, sax player Joseph Carroll might gesture for the crowd to part down the middle, then join them to kick off the first song. Singer and guitarist Harry Wilkinson will peel off his shirt and pump through a few pushups at the top of "Break the Tension." Drummer Jacob Hayes and bassist Matt Buonaccorsi may wave their arms in slow motion, like mediums leading a seance.
At 19 years old, Debsey Wykes stood in front of a sold-out crowd at London's Hammersmith Odeon, her knees literally knocking with fear, as she puts it. It was the end of 1980 and Dolly Mixture were supporting the Jam for a second time, having piqued the interest of Paul Weller. Despite the shaky start, the teen trio made it through the set to appreciative applause.
Letting go. It's one of the hardest things human beings have to do in this life. And-oftentimes-we can't. After all, it's one of the reasons why we invented photography, the ability to capture single moments forever. There's an entire television show dedicated to hoarding. Then there's the oldest and most obvious form of not being able to let go: cemeteries. Our entire species, for thousands of years, has created burial places for our dead because the living can't-and don't want to-fully let go.
Singer Brett Anderson suggests that if 2022's Autofiction their best post-reunion album until now was their punk album, Antidepressants is its post-punk sibling. Influences such as Magazine, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees feed into edgier but otherwise trademark Suede guitar anthems. Helmed again by longtime producer Ed Buller, Richard Oakes's killer riffs maraud and jostle, Anderson's moods run the gamut from impassioned to reflective and the rhythm section brew up a right old stomp.
Formed in London, England in 2012, Shopping drew heavily from the classic post-punk of Mo-Dettes, Gang of Four, and Delta 5. The trio of guitarist Ray Aggs, bassist Billy Easter, and drummer Andrew Milk-all former members of the band Covergirl-first gained notoriety when their 2013 debut album, Consumer Complaints, was reissued by FatCat Records in 2015. Though they repeatedly insisted that they were more interested in making people dance than offering political commentary, Shopping became known for their portrayals of queer alienation under capitalism.
The Psychedelic Furs have influenced the post-punk landscape for four decades, blending rawness and romanticism with hits such as "Love My Way" and "Pretty In Pink."
