A-Sides: Ex Hex’s rollicking return, plus 4 more great releases you should hear this week
Music Features A-Sides
Potty Mouth, “22”
[Get Better, January 10]
We have no idea how long we’ll have to wait for that new Sleater-Kinney album produced by St. Vincent, and that sucks. But there’s another all-female trio with a knack for big guitar hooks that has new music out now: Northampton punks Potty Mouth, who returned this week after a long hiatus—it’s been three years since their last single, “Smash Hit,” and six since their debut LP, Hell Bent—with news of their second album, SNAFU, due out on March 1. The announcement was accompanied by lead single “22,” a tongue-in-cheek track about dreading your 22nd birthday; “The magic is gone and I’m all that’s left / There’s nothing new about 22,” lead vocalist Abby Weems sings. Potty Mouth has always leaned toward the pop-punk side, but the cleaned-up production on “22” really highlights how tight the interplay between Weems and her band mates has become in the half-decade since their debut, for a vigorous, propulsive sound that can make even the over-30 set feel 22 again. [Katie Rife]
Krallice, Wolf
[Self-released, January 9]
For a band that’s covered as much ground as Krallice has over the past decade, it’s telling that Wolf is an EP of firsts. Not only is it the first release to feature no vocals from guitarist Mick Barr, but also it’s the first time Krallice’s other guitarist, and de facto producer, Colin Marston does sing on a record. It’s also the band’s shortest release ever, boasting the shortest song it’s ever written, at 15 seconds. But Wolf doesn’t suffer from this brevity. These five tracks are a perfect distillation of all Krallice has done over the course of its career, as “Wolf” and “The Mound” mix black metal, death metal, and prog without ever getting lost along the way. In typical fashion, Krallice released Wolf with little advance notice, and while the band’s last surprise drop yielded two full-lengths exploring different facets of its sound, Wolf is the first Krallice album that’s easy to put on repeat. [David Anthony]
12 Comments
Ex Hex is my favorite Mary Timony project.
Yeah, Ex Hex is great. I think the only thing she’s done that I like more is the solo album called ‘Ex Hex’ she released on Lookout.
I’m still a sucker for The Golden Dove but Ex-Hex kicks so much more ass live than her solo stuff (or Helium, for that matter)
I loved Wild Flag. I’d rather hear more of that than either Sleater-Kinney or Ex Hex.
Can’t get enough that meaty drumwork. Janet Weiss is great.
I will still always love Helium best, but I will admit at times it got too proggy and stuffy. Love the embrace of fun rock that started in earnest with Wild Flag and now with Ex Hex. But kinda of hoping “Cosmic Cave” signals a slight turn back toward the Helium sound too (she did have a song “Cosmic Rays” after all).
I can’t wait for the full album release. Bought my tickets for the upcoming tour this afternoon.
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“Hey kid / Welcome to your twenties / Everything is more expensive / And the jokes are less funny”Somewhat ironic singing along to that in my thirties, although I suppose I haven’t really matured much in that time.
<3 Xeno & Oaklander
I’ve been listening tangentially to Krallice since the beginning and still find little of interest in them. I mean on paper they sound like something I would like, but in actual execution they come off as labored and anti-septic, capturing none of the feeling and impulse of great bm (or dm). They may be impeccable musicians, but that musicianship doesn’t lend itself — in my mind at least— to crucial music. They are among those bands that many critics and journos who don’t listen to a lot of metal often bandy about as the future of black metal or whatever, but seem to not know what makes the best black metal vital to begin with. I’ll still give this one a shot I guess at some point. Who knows, maybe this one will change my mind.
Who should I contact at The AV Club to enquire about the possibility of reviewing my album?