By Hannah Greve
On Monday we got new music from Dave Benton’s side project, Trace Mountains. Dave is one-quarter of the band LVL UP. Trace Mountains takes a different turn from their original indie rock vibes of LVL UP. What is considered to be a solo project is actually a collaborative one, including the band Crying’s Elaiza Santos, and live members Jim Hill and Liz Pelly. They put out Buttery Sprouts in 2018 and two years later, A Partner To Lean On was released. That album included cleaned up versions of the early recordings from Buttery Sprouts. Trace Mountains twanged out guitars, with some distortion and some country-leaning songs separate them from the band LVL UP. Trace Mountains still has some synth-heavy songs. If you are looking for an indie rock band that is pushing their sound and are extremely well produced, Trace Mountains is the band for you.
Reissue Tuesday was kind of Alarming, in a good way. The Alarm is a band that was socailly concious of its time and used relgious imagery. The band’s sound is an anthemic rock and roll that is so heart-on-its-sleeve, so sure of its conviction, so not tongue in cheek, it’s hard not to admire. The two albums that got rereleased way Eponymous (1981-1983) and Declaration (1984-1985). The rereleases contain remastered versions, alternate takes, unreleased singles, and live recordings that will please both the casual fan and the collector/complete-ist. Both projects were overseen by founding member and lead vocalist Mike Peters.
Wednesday was on the emotional side with Pllush. If you are a fan of Mazzy Star, Kate Brush, and Kim Deal then Pllush is going to be your new favorite. This band classifies themselves as sob-rock, a genre I never heard of until recently. Their forthcoming album Stranger to the Pain, due out June 8, we’ve got the track “Shannon,” a song that epitomizes what sob-rock likely is. If you ever want to get into their feels, this is the band to go with.
