A couple of weeks ago I turned 40. The same day, Converge played in Manchester and I had the good fortune to spend a little bit of my birthday with them. Typically when our paths cross we talk about new bands we’ve discovered or have recently seen live, but this time we also talked about potatoes. In my 41st year on the planet I intend to eat (at least) 52 differently prepared potatoes, so I showed them my list. I only have 46 so far, so if you have an unusual but delicious way of preparing a potato, please do let me know.
Nate Newton plays bass in Converge and also lends his talents to Cave In, Old Man Gloom, and the currently slumbering Doomriders. He declared “I want to be in your newsletter” - so here he is. But with no new Nate-related material to mention, I will instead tell you about a band that he recommended to me last year.
I had a work trip planned to Chicago last December, and upon doing a little bit of research I discovered that STRESS POSITIONS were due to play the day before I arrived. So, I changed my plans and flew in a day earlier to see them. Nate had enthusiastically mentioned this band to me a few months prior - a Chicago-based hardcore four piece featuring former members of C.H.E.W. They have an EP out now called Walang Hiya - six tracks of searing sonic hostility.
Anyway, with my first ever Kuma’s Corner burger in my belly (appropriately for this tale - a Converge burger) and my first taste of Malort still searing my throat, jet lag was hot on my heels as I headed to Sleeping Village for the show with my friend Steve. Stress Positions were a cacophonous whirlwind; relatively straight up hardcore but delivered with immense intensity - and vocalist Stephanie Brooks’ charred scream over the top. Whilst they presented as a fun proposition on stage - all sparkles and pink hot pants there is a darker driving force behind their intensity, with songs tackling the destruction of indigenous culture in the Philippines and the obliteration of women’s body autonomy.
Moments after they finished my transatlantic sleep deprivation caught up with me and I went back to where I was staying - above a music venue. As I brushed my teeth I was treated to a pub-rock style cover of the Star Spangled Banner through the floorboards. Welcome to America!
Keeping to a hardcore theme, another band worth a mention here is ROMAN CANDLE. They seeped into my consciousness via their vocalist, Piper Ferrari - who is also a talented artist and graphic designer. Her name would pop up here and there online, and eventually I followed one of those threads to the Roman Candle Bandcamp. And yes, if you Google for their debut EP, Discount Fireworks, you will indeed get a lot of links for economically priced fireworks.
Roman Candle infuse their hardcore with screamo (which I simply refuse to refer to as skramz). There’s a foundation of soaring melody beneath the abrasive vocals and hardcore chug. They’ve been a band for less than a year and are still finding their footing - once they do, I think they’ll blossom into an unstoppable force. Piper also has her own newsletter here where she writes about art, music and creativity.
In January 2022, SRSQ released the first single from Ever Crashing, their new album. The track was called Someday I Will Bask In The Sun and it is a banger (Spotify tells me it was my most played song of 2022). It’s the sort of song that if there was any justice, people would describe it as “the anthem of the summer” or similar. Except it came out in January and nobody wants to leave their house in January, never mind bask in the sun. It was a painfully long time until the next single (four months), and eventually the album (eight months) but it gave plenty of time for my love to ferment - and in those months a chance to see SRSQ live.
SRSQ is the brainchild of Kennedy Ashlyn - formerly one half of Them Are Us Too - and she has a history of crafting shimmering synth-led shoegazey pop songs (the tension build and release in the track Only One is sublime, especially live). Ever Crashing is a more grandly textured album than the previous offering, Unreality, and the live iteration of SRSQ leans more towards the fuzzy shoegaze component as she was accompanied by a live band when I saw her.
The one thing that I learned about Ever Crashing that forever cemented my respect for Kennedy relates to the track Abyss. It’s one of the longer songs on the album, taking its time to build to a crescendo of lush violins that give the track a melancholy beauty. During the pandemic she recorded each layer of violins herself in her bedroom despite not even actually being a violin player. There’s over 120 layers of them! I don’t know about you, but I just think that’s extremely cool.
Once again, thank you for reading. I am still thrilled every time my email pings to let me know that someone new has subscribed.
~ Becky
Image below shows Chicago by night
Stress Positions! Thanks for this new discovery. "Walang Hiya" means shameless and I'm happy to see another 🇵🇭 related band make waves.