featuring Cameron Winter, Kassie Krut, forty winks, & MORE
An overwhelming amount of music is released daily, and we're here to help you weed through it all. Every week, we share select releases we are all looking forward to and personalized picks from a few of our editors.
Welcome to our New Releases to Check Out guide featuring the most notable music released the week of December 6.
And don't forget to check out our YouTube, where DeVán reports on the latest music news every Friday.
BLIGATORY Picks
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk
via Partisan Records / Play It Again Sam
write-up by Peter Doherty
Geese frontman Cameron Winter breaks away from the gaggle and sets sail on a solo journey with an intimate palette cleanser to wash the choc-a-bloc calendar year of 2024 with. Ballad-come-folk-come-experimental-train-of-thought tracks line Heavy Metal. Off the bat, Winter's way with words is apparent; they link up in the most awkward of ways. Fresh as fuck and out there to an alarming degree (you love to see it), Heavy Metal offers to unlock a few new doors for many a music lover. See the year out before finalising your year-end lists folks.
Kassie Krut - Kassie Krut (EP)
Glitch Pop, Deconstructed Club
via Fire Talk Records
write-up by Dominick Baglivo
Reformed from the solo project of Kasra Kurt (guitar/vocals in Palm), the trio of Krut, Eve Alpert (guitar/vocals in Palm), and Matt Anderegg—who helped produce Palm’s final record, Nicks and Grazes—shared their first collective offering as Kassie Krut in October with “Reckless.” Their hypnotic and pulsating presence was made further known with additional singles “Racing Man” and “Blood.”
On their self-produced and self-titled debut, Kassie Krut move as a unit in a sleek stutter-step. Both embracing and challenging a wide palette of influences, Kassie Krut is inherently and deliberately confined. A textural tug-of-war across six tracks, opposing sounds are pulled from the combination and distortion of instruments and everyday noise (car alarms, dial tones, and the like).
The EP is inspired in large part by Kurt and Alpert’s teenage years in London, where early encounters with dub, grime, garage—and later, hyperpop and EBM—would become cornerstones to their approach. It was evident in Palm, and it echoes just as boldly with Kassie Krut.
Making maximalist sounds out of a minimalist approach is the formula, and the formula works.
Kassie Krut is out now via Fire Talk Records.
forty winks - "Spurs"
Noise Rock, Exp. Rock, Noise Pop
via Crafted Sounds
write-up by Dominick Baglivo
Coming by way of one of the most underrated and consistent labels out there—Crafted Sounds—is the introduction to a brand new band forty winks. Formed earlier this year, they are another promising sprout in the bountiful garden that is the Pittsburgh DIY scene.
“Spurs” is the noisy, mathy, and dynamic single from the four-piece, both their first official release and a glimpse at their upcoming debut EP.
Singer and guitarist Conner McGee explains, “‘Spurs’ is a song that Kyu and I wrote, produced, and recorded in three hours this past spring in Shadyside. Sonically and lyrically the song is one representation of how new love feels: romantic, but consuming, silent and indelible.”
forty winks is still a band in its infancy, but expect to hear from them in a big way next year, with more shows and more music on the way. Follow them here.
Dominick's Picks
Cheekface - "Hard Mode"
Power Pop, Indie Rock
Self-Released
New Cheekface alert! What a year for America’s local band; they put out their fourth LP, It's Sorted, in January, a three-track EP (b-sides) in May, with two additional singles to boot. They shared the ultra-catchy “Flies” in October and are back already with “Hard Mode.”
Offering some insight into the song’s inspiration, vocalist/guitarist Greg Katz explains:
“This song is about growth and how fucking awkward it is, and it’s about growth’s younger sibling self-awareness, which is not the same as growth, and twice as awkward. The phrase “living life on hard mode” is something our touring keyboard player AJ likes to say when he does something that makes a routine task needlessly difficult, like reaching for something in a clumsy way when you could just ask someone to hand it to you.”
DIY stalwarts, this self-released single is out now. Additionally, Cheekface announced their latest upcoming tour dates for 2025. They have two shows in Winnipeg and Edmonton in January before hitting the road in early April for 36 more shows between then and the end of May.
“Cheekface shows will fix nothing about our shit-ass world, but they are fun to play and fun to go to and that’s good enough. See you out there 🚐 💨”
cootie catcher - "Friend of a friend"
Noise Pop, Indie Pop
via Cooked Raw
Playfully lo-fi and jangly, “Friend of a friend” is the latest single from Toronto four-piece cootie catcher. It’s the lead single for their new album, Shy at first, which will be released in March.
The drumming on here is killer; and the tight, almost hyperactive rhythm is met with a touch of warbled electronics and a devastatingly catchy chorus.
“What the song is pointing out is that despite everyone’s connections, we’re only friends of friends—meaning everyone is only acquaintances with each other and lacking a genuine fondness besides one’s place in the scene or status,” says the band’s Nolan Jakupovski.
Working with the Toronto-based label Cooked Raw (love them), cootie catcher’s Shy at first will be available March 14.
Deradoorian - "Digital Gravestone"
Neo-Psychedelia, Krautrock
via Fire Records
Dutch Interior - "Sandcastle Molds"
Alt-Country, Folk Rock, Indie Rock
via Fat Possum Records
TVOD - "Car Wreck"
Post-Punk, Indie Rock
via Mothland
Peter's Picks
FACS - "Desire Path"
Post-Punk
via Trouble In Mind Records
Chicago trio FACS return with their rhythmically robust dash of post-punk-infused acerbic sourness through "Desire Path." The reverb-laden springs that FACS pull from drip with that signature, serrated Albini sound. The band’s upcoming album—mentioned on pretty much all build-up to album number six—was the last that Steve Albini would engineer before his untimely passing.
The band’s sixth studio album Wish Defense releases February 7 via Trouble In Mind.
FACS tour Europe throughout February and have select dates across the US and Canada in April.
Fatboi Sharif & DRIVEBY - "Malik"
Post-Industrial, Industrial Hip-Hop
via 2nd Street Studios
The sub-two-minute sounds of Fatboi Sharif find themselves wrapped up in harsh noise; fingernails on a chalkboard-type aesthetics. Dialing in to a lost world, or a world that just can't be seen, "Malik" is one of the strangest choices of a single this year. The grinding spin of "Malik" is set to have hairs standing at attention in no time. DRIVEBY states that "Malik" is “a parental guide for lost souls in a cyberpunk society.”
Yves Jarvis - "Gold Filigree"
Neo-Soul
via In Real Life
Yves Jarvis is warming the waters for his upcoming album. Two singles have been released, with "Gold Filigree" being single number two. Programmed drums and a twinkling palette of piano and guitar give way to a more Queen-like feel: chill to performative and back to chill. Jarvis stitches sounds like filigree—fine, delicate parts entwine together to create something worth having.
Jarvis is set to release his next LP in 2025 via Next Door Records.
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