Stream: Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 277)
Kevin Bronson on
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On Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 277), we mix songs from recently released albums (Chelsea Wolfe, Pouty, Madi Diaz, Katelyn Tarver and Faire Osciller among them) with tracks from forthcoming records (such as Agender, Lo Moon, Peel, Mini Trees, T.S.O.L. and Thomas Powers). And we stir in singles that just dropped from Plum, Polyglam, Caroline Polachek (in collaboration with Weyes Blood), Night Talks, Lucas Aaron and more. It adds up to 22 tracks that will soundtrack our weekend.
We have background on the songs beneath the player. And you can find our previous playlists on Spotify.
■ Agender, “Jeans” — Well, this is special fun. Agender — the post-punk quartet helmed by Romy Hoffman — dip into the past for “Jeans,” the second single (following “Damaged Girls”) from their third album, releasing this summer. It’s the most pop-punk thing the quartet has done, and it looks good in denim.
■ Chelsea Wolfe, “House of Self-Undoing” — This is a public service message that Chelsea Wolfe’s seventh album, “She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She,” came out this week, and like the majority of her body of work, it’s pretty unfuckwithable. Immerse. Then: Live the Novo on March 30.
■ Lo Moon, “Water” — Accompanied by the B-side “Connecticut,” “Water,” released this week, introduces Lo Moon’s third album, “I Wish You Way More Than Luck,” out April 5. Last October, Lo Moon did a residency at Zebulon and released “Evidence.”
■ Caroline Polacheck, “Butterfly Net” (feat. Weyes Blood) — Natalie Mering joins Caroline Polachek for a reworking of a cut from Polachek’s Grammy-nominated album, the deluxe edition of which (titled “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You: Everasking Edition”) will be out Feb. 14.
■ Peel, “Climax” — Sean Cimino and Isom Innis continue to roll out singles from their debut album, “Acid Star,” releasing March 29 via Innovative Leisure. “Climax,” the follow-up to “Y2J,” is a post-punk-adjacent club banger, inspired, Cimino says, “by the Gaspar Noe movie ‘Climax’ and a bizarre rave I went to in Mexico City.”
■ Pouty, “The Big Stage” — “Forgot About Me” is the title of Rachel Gagliardi’s debut album as Pouty, a collection of punky, puckish pop that’ll have you bopping and smiling. (See also: “Salty” and “Virgos Need More Love”)
■ Faire Osciller, “Flaunt What You Got” — It’s been a year and half since bicoastal duo Faire Osciller (Tim Williams of Soft Swells/Quiet Canyons and AJ Tobey of Ultra Major) released their first two singles. Their full-length, “Drifting,” finally arrived this week. File under optimistic power-pop as imagined by the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Nada Surf. They’re doing a free show tonight in Paasdena.
■ Mini Trees, “Shapeshifter” — The follow-up to last fall’s “Push and Pull,” the aptly titled “Shapeshifter” finds songwriter Lexi Vega retooling in anticipation of a new EP, “Burn Out,” arriving March 1 via Run for Cover Records. Live April 26 at the Troubadour, opening for Eliz McLamb.
■ Lucas Aaron, “Walk Away” — A dizzying slice of power-pop from Lucas Aaron, his first release since the fall of ’22. Free show tonight at Harvard & Stone.
■ Kai Tak, “Blush” — Chris King of Cold Showers has released a half dozen or so songs since 2020 as Kai Tak. “Blush,” which features Claire Roddy of Dol Ikara, is the second single from the project’s full-length, out this summer. Kai Tak is headlining a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday night at Genghis Cohen.
■ Night Talks, “Double Vision” — Buoyant new single from the L.A. trio of Soraya Sebghati, Jacob Butler and Josh Arteaga, and the fourth since they released their sophomore album “Same Time Tomorrow” in 2022.
■ Polyglam, “Vegas” — Here’s the latest single from the L.A. trio (Allie Stamler, Rachel White and John Sinclair). Fear, meet loathing. ““Sometimes life is like a wild night in Vegas,” the band says. “You encounter bizarre characters, you make a bad bet, you go on an acid trip. Whether it’s real or not, one thing is clear: one encounter, one decision, one moment can change the way you see the rest of your life.”
■ Plum, “With You” — L.A. melancholy kids Plum (Ken Chesler, Andrew Geroch, Dawson Timpany and Atticus Boone) released their self-titled EP last May, and they’re back this week with two slices of down-tempo prettiness, “With You” (b/w “Leaving”). Live Feb. 11 at the Moroccan Lounge, opening for Lilliana Villines.
■ Dustin Kensrue, “Death Valley Honeymoon” (feat. Cat Clyde) — The Thrice frontman’s third solo album, “Desert Dreaming” (out April 5) dives headlong into alt-country, and this first single traces its story to his is grandparents, who actually honeymooned in Death Valley. Live May 18 at the Roxy and May 19 at the Observatory.
■ Orgōne, “Lies and Games” — The long-running psych-soul-funk outfit returned this week with the new album “Chimera.”
■ Easy Sleeper, “Timekeeper” — If ’90s indie your thing, Easy Sleeper, founded in Washington, D.C., by Douglas Guttenberger, Alex Lubeck and David Poznansky and transplanted to L.A. in 2019, could be your dudes. They released an EP last year, and “Timekeeper” is the first single from a full-length planned for ’24.
■ T.S.O.L., “Swimming” — West Coast punk legends T.S.O.L. are back Feb. 27 with their ninth full-length, “A-Side Graffiti.” All hail a band that tosses in a cover of “Sweet Transvestite.”
■ Thomas Powers, “Sleep and/or Rest” — You know New Zealander Thom Powers from the Naked and Famous, or perhaps from his work as a producer/string arranger. Powers will release his first solo LP later this spring, and the new harp-accented single “Sleep and/or Rest” puts his music in league with the Postal Service, Bon Iver and Thom Yorke. For more like this, see “Falling Down the Stairs,” released last September. For three minutes of blissful meditation, see December’s single, “Half Pirouette.”
■ Katelyn Tarver, “Just a Person” — After rolling out a slew of breezy singles, Katelyn Tarver this week released her sophomore album, “Quitter.”
■ ZHU, “Thrill Again” (feat. Upsahl) — Fresh off Thursday night’s pop-up Lunar New Year celebration show in L.A.’s Chinatown, the Grammy-nominated artist releases a new track from his new album “Grace,” out March 15.
■ Window Suite, “On Display” — Kate Lanza and Nick Lewandowski debuted their left-field synth-pop project Window Suite in December with “Struck Gold.” Cinematic in a soft-lens way, “On Display” is their second single.
■ Madi Diaz, “For Months Now” — The singer-songwriter spent the better part of a decade hopping between Nashville and L.A., with the Music City as her home base now. We would be remiss if we did not recommend her new album, “Weird Faith,” out this week. Live April 4 at the Troubadour.
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