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Hello, and welcome to Swim Select No. 100! I started this little corner of the site in January of last year when I was freshly unemployed and searching for any kind of structure that I could base my weeks around. Publishing a weekly new music column isn’t a world-shattering idea, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed, allowing me to write freely more often and with less pressure. More than…
Streets Of Hate There are few things I love more after waking up on a Monday, slamming a Pac-Man G-Fuel, doing a bunch of bullshit work from home, and getting to the gym than finding a new death metal EP to get me through the rest of the week. Live from New York, it’s Discontent. The self-proclaimed “Northeazt Metal” band is a bit mysterious, with only a few releases under their belt so far and…
Indecent Artistry Last week, Rolling Stone begrudgingly handed the coveted “Song of the Summer” to Ella Langley’s smash hit, “Choosin’ Texas,” an absurdly catchy, slow dancin’ country number. This is the third time a country-leaning track has received this accolade in recent memory, starting with “Last Night” by Nashville’s favorite moron Morgan Wallen in 2023, and followed by Shaboozey’s twangy…
There’s new music coming out constantly, and oftentimes it can feel hard to keep up. Part of this is the constant swirl of social media and how fast everything moves, but it’s also a byproduct of how streaming platforms like Spotify are set up . If you’ve ever found yourself surprised to learn that your favorite band released a new song months ago, that’s kind of by design. Maybe there’s a record…
The Ghost Is Clear The American South is responsible for some of history’s greatest riff-rock, whether you’re talkin’ Texas’ trailblazing trio ZZ Top, NOLA’s heavyweight champions Crowbar, or Florida’s sludge-pop pioneers Torche. Down in the old red hills of Atlanta lies a trio called Thousandaire, a fuzzy guitar group celebrating ten years as a band with their third album, Cowards . Despite this…
Historic New Jersey Recordings When you love someone, it can truly feel senseless. Love has the power to make anything effortless and everything feel possible. Sure, it comes baked-in with heart-fluttering sparks and revelatory highs, but that’s just the beginning. To me, real love is found in that middle stretch that gives way to a constant ascent. Love has the unique capability to take everyday…
To Live A Lie It was an exciting weekend for powerviolence fans across the crusty pockets of the globe, as last Friday saw the surprise return of one of the genre’s most heralded bands of the last quarter-century, Sex Prisoner from Tucson, Arizona. After releasing a handful of EPs starting in 2009, they released their first proper album, Tannhäuser Gate , in 2016 on the legendary…
Pressure If you are as into nerdy pseudonym lore as I am, then you’re going to love, or likely already love, the music of Kevin Richard Martin. Blurring the lines between metal, industrial, and dub techno for thirty-some odd years, Martin is an English producer most notably associated with the name The Bug , and has collaborated with artists like Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu), Dylan Carlson…
There’s new music coming out constantly, and oftentimes it can feel hard to keep up. Part of this is the constant swirl of social media and how fast everything moves, but it’s also a byproduct of how streaming platforms like Spotify are set up . If you’ve ever found yourself surprised to learn that your favorite band released a new song months ago, that’s kind of by design. Maybe there’s a record…
Tankcrimes Genres are still important. Whether you care about them or not, genre distinctions and associations for bands can be vital to publicity, success, and virality – good or bad. The Smiths and R.E.M. both chose band names that would signal no genre, while artists like Metallica leaned into their stylistic aspirations wholeheartedly. It might seem tongue-in-cheek when JPEGMAFIA names his…
