Crash Cadet – Better Me
Genre: Grunge, Math Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Idles, Swans
There’s a season for love and a season for hate. And, early January happens to be the season of empty promises. Stick your head out the window and you’re bound to see people exercising, teetotalling, and being polite to their annoying relatives.
It usually doesn’t last for long. If there’s one thing that modern living has done efficiently is to make change seem unimportant. It certainly doesn’t give one the same jolt that most contemporary inventions provide.
Crash Cadet’s Better Me could act as a hymn book for the people trying to improve themselves for the shortest time possible. It’s not a pretty song. It’s inspired by dissonant modern punk after all. But, those resolutions aren’t pretty either. Just know that Crash Cadet is working on some of the same issues as you.
The Stupid Reasons – The Happy Song
Genre: Pop Punk, Americana, Emo
Similar artists: The Front Bottoms, Olivia Rodrigo, Modern Baseball, Neck Deep, Mod Sun, The Wonder Years
What’s punk-rock about? Some nostalgic musicians might say it’s about freedom. But, then again so is Buddhism and other things. And, those folks haven’t written many great 3-minute songs.
If you ask Hollywood, punks are all about leather jackets and mohawks. That, at least, is the obligatory uniform in which they’re portrayed. But, then again, everyone has a uniform in a big-budget movie.
Some might argue that punk’s always been about throwing the rule book away. This isn’t easy with all the rule books that have been thrown away over the years. Everything has a precedent.
There’s still something extremely fresh in the way that The Stupid Reasons play The Happy Song as if wanting to sound bad on purpose and failing at it. This honest, powerful, music sounds like the work of people crawling on their hands and knees while writing it. Most artists won’t let you see that. The Stupid Reasons aren’t most artists.
