Freshly Spilt Milk: Pond, Band of Horses, Ezra Furman, Koan Kenpachi and More

Pond

With SXSW coming soon, indie artists are hustling new music into the world, some of which turns up on this week’s new music playlist.

South by Southwest returns starting next week, which means indie artists are hustling releases into the world to capitalize on the exposure SXSW offers. That made picking this week’s playlist a challenge, not because I had to sort through a lot of nonsense to find something listenable, but because I wanted to keep it at a manageable length. That meant a few cuts that were hard to make, including New Orleans’ crushingly heavy Thou (in a less crushing format), the world dub of The Spy from Cairo, and the sweetly co-dependent “Crutch” by My Idea. I was briefly tempted by a live classic rock track led by a former singer for Deep Purple, but I had to admit that the only thing really interesting about it was that someone still found that a satisfying musical expression. 

This week has a few favorites including Pond, El Dusty, and New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas, who I think I’d still mark out for if they weren’t from here. I also want to hear more from Chief Cleopatra, Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, and Miles Francis based on what’s here. 

I also have to admit that it’s not intentional, but I’m pleased with how international this playlist is. When I went to SXSW regularly, my default choice was an international act because the odds were against me seeing them again. I also found hearing their takes on western music instructive as I could hear more clearly what was distinct to the artist or America in the differences between the music I heard there and what I’d hear at home. This week’s list features music with roots in Australia, Norway, the UK, the Caribbean, Mexico, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand.

1. “Lights of Leeming” - Pond: There are times when you can hear the musical overlap that led Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker to play drums with Pond and produce a few albums, but the band’s musical restlessness can take the music in a lot of directions, most of them really engaging. I hadn’t heard this ‘80s synth pop vibe before, but I’m there for it. From the upcoming 9, due out May 20. (We interviewed Pond in 2018.)

2. “Kvasir” - Fjord Fuzz: The maker of fine fuzz pedals in Norway is now making fuzz-friendly music with its debut album, Kvasir, here with a musical assist from Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

3. “Hands Please” - Alan Ward: From a Milwaukee emcee, who doesn’t overcomplicate anything here and settles into a vibe that I could go with for another 20 minutes.

4. “Ocean City, MD” - The Tin Can Collective: I’ll take the good-natured, punk charge of The Tin Can Collective, whose tour for the recently released A Brief Look at Rising Tides has them on the road now and will bring them to Gasa Gasa in New Orleans on March 11. 

5. “Repent” (feat. Killah Priest) - Lyrikal Master: UK rapper Lyrikal Master’s “Repent” made his debt to Wu-Tang Clan clear even before Wu-Tang auxilliary Killah Priest gets on the mic. LM comes from a Christian point of view with a relentless, apocalyptic presentation more concerned with the end times than how to avoid them. 6. 6. “Afrodite” - Chief Cleopatra: Chief Cleopatra draws from a broad musical palate to make a stylish, textured that blurs the lines between hip-hop, funk, pop, and rock. The results don’t sound blurry at all and reflect a clear point of view that I want to know more about.

7. “Shouldn’t I Be” - Scout LaRue Willis: This is Bruce Willis’ daughter, and while part of me keeps doubting this song, the rest of me buys her examination of her self-doubts and insecurities. Her commitment to her performance helps.

8. “Making Sense Stop” - Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul: This meditation on the role of language in the creative process is a clear signal that Adigéry and Pupul think big thoughts, but like Talking Heads—who the title and song nod to—they put them in audience-friendly forms. This makes me want to hear more from their debut album, Topical Dancer, which is out now, and it makes me sad that they’re only doing a handful of North American dates to support the album. 

9. “Our Bodies Weren’t Wrong” - ADULT.: Detroit’s ADULT. draws the line between techno and industrial post-new wave dance music. It’s not a hard connection to make, but since techno’s hypnotic quality can make its contexts fade away, tracks like “Our Bodies Weren’t Wrong” perform a public service. ADULT. is on tour now in support of the recent Becoming Undone, and will play Santos in New Orleans on April 27. 

10. “Estoy Loco” - El Dusty & Lil Ro: Corpus Christi DJ/producer El Dusty has made his rep with compelling blends of 808s, hip-hop, and sounds that reflect his Hispanic heritage. Here he and Texas emcee Lil Ro build a track around the Fania Records’ release “Estoy Loco” by The Lebron Brothers. It’s a nod from one generation of musicians making a place for Spanish-language sounds in America to another, but it feels less formal than that. (We interviewed El Dusty in 2015.)

11. “I Hate the Beatles” - Sofia Valdes: Panamanian singer Sofia Valdes maps the breakdown of a relationship on to The Beatles in this lovely track that initially threatens to flutter away but grows more solid as the songs help her find her way into her feelings.

12. “Serpents” - Sahtyre & Left Brain: “Serpents” doesn’t try to crowd as many syllables as possible into its lines, but it doesn’t leave much space between them either. Since they’re delivered deadpan in a spare, spacious soundscape with a relaxed groove, I process it more as sound than meaning and could live in that space for an hour or so. 

13. “Alien Summer” - Dust City Opera: My threshold for eccentric, theatrical rock that borrows from carnivals, klezmer and other sounds that get folded into the goth sideshow milieu is limited, so I doubt I could handle Alien Summer in its entirety. For a track though, the fleshed out sonic palate and the resolution into a clear, simple chorus give me something to hang on to. It helps that frontman Paul Hinton’s voice was made to be the storyteller and protagonist in the musical account of an alien invasion.  

14. “Meant for Livin’” - Mondo Cozmo: A good rule of thumb for naming your band: Think about whether you’d feel cool telling it to someone you want to impress. I bet Joel Ostrander introduces himself, “Hi, I’m Joel.” Or, he’s not getting laid as often as the rowdy “Meant for Livin’” suggests he could. The track from the new This is for the Barbarians uses “Subterranean Homesick Blues” as its starting point, but rather than make it all about his Gattling gun delivery, he piles in the band to make the track about energy and the joy of fighting the good, bad, or otherwise fight. He’ll spend late March and most of April on tour in America.

15. “Sword Fight” - Gyasi: Nashville’s Gyasi gives us a 21st century take on ‘70s glam rock, complete with fuzzed out Les Paul riffs, hip-shaking rhythms, and energetic vocals that won’t make sense to anyone over 14. 

16. “Lookin’ Around” (feat. Sean Carey) - Koan Kenpachi: The lyrical territory is familiar, but New Orleans’ Koan Kenpachi’s rhymes and lines sound inevitable and natural, as if the bars he spits were the ones that were always supposed to be there. That, paired with his commonsense delivery, make the song feel like reportage.

17. “Saudi Most Wanted” - $kinny: The son of American mother and Saudi Arabian father, $kinny threads in elements of both of his cultures in “Saudi Most Wanted.” It’s a tribute to what hip-hop has become that you have to focus to hear them.

18. “Bay Boys” - Hot Flash Heat Wave: Another shaky band name, but it’s the kind that college-age dudes could think was clever as hell and use with more confidence than they should. I can’t doubt the new wave ‘80s-influenced chiming guitar sound that seems to have increasing currency these days. Their new album, Sportswear, drops on Friday, and they’ll start a two-month American tour the next week.

19. “Driponomics” (feat. Mother Maryrose) - Soul Glo: The fuzzed tone that drones through the track acts like an urgency multiplier, as if they need to get these thoughts out so quickly that there’s no time to mess around with niceties like getting the needle out of the red. Paired with Pierce Jordan’s delivery, this critique of capitalism feels like the most important three minutes of your day while they’re happening. From Diaspora Problems, due out March 25.

20. “Crutch” - Band of Horses: There was a time when I liked Band of Horses, then a series of albums came out that made me wonder what I heard, or if maybe I talked myself into liking them. This track from the new Things Are Great Out reminded me immediately of what got my attention. I hear an update of the ‘70s California rock sound, but with hooks that come at you in unexpected ways including the sound of Ben Bridwell’s voice.

21. “Stolen Fruit” - Tank and the Bangas: Another song from Tank and the Bangas’ upcoming Red Balloon, which is due out May 13. The album’s roll-out is working for me as the three songs released so far stake out very different musical spaces. “Stolen Fruit” situates itself in a post-Earth, Wind & Fire world, which is something we didn’t hear on Green Balloon. Did I need to hear it? Not until I did, but it’s so immaculately executed that I want to return to it again.  

22. “Rainjacket” - Miles Francis: From the new album,Good Man, due out now. From the press release announcing it: “When I’m in my studio, it feels like being completely free of the outside world, free of gender, free of everything except me. I feel like I’m finally figuring out how to take that freedom beyond my musical expression and bring it into every aspect of my life. Now I want to share that feeling with everybody.”

23. “Never Ending” BENEE: The fluidity of this track is its magic. It takes a while to hear the song to circle back to a musical place it has been before, and when it does, I’m a little sad because I’m engaged by the loose, rambling nature of the song including the way noises threaten to intrude before backing off. The hint of structure ultimately works in the song’s favor though since it makes it easier for me to confidently ride with her rather than wonder where she’s going. From the Lychee EP, out now.

24. “Point Me Toward the Real” - Ezra Furman: This is Furman’s first new track since 2019, and while the song’s context is very specific—what happens next after being picked up after being released from a psychiatric hospital—it feels very 2021 in its desire to find something solid to fix on.