best out of the current-ish crop of post-punk bands people and algorithms keep telling you to listen to

I guess The Chats are like the Sham 69 version of punk? That's okay by me.

The Chats are Australia's answer to HMHB

Last album a blast too yeah

They’re as post-punk as Idles, which is to say not much but they have elements (groove, MES sprechsang-y bits) that aren’t just ‘punk.’

I would err toward the broad church when it comes to a genre that fundamentally just means ‘came after the first half of 1978 or so.’

Not knocking The Chats here (though I'm not into it enough to make it through a whole album, I still get 'Smoko' stuck in my head every now and again), just can't see a world in which they belong to the genre of post-punk, as elastic as that genre might be. It just feels like it doesn't suit either the music or their own intentions.

I also endorse Brute Heart, they were great.

I think “Welfare Jazz” was referring to some Swedish program to provide funding for musicians that was oriented towards classy/respectable styles of music.

love "smoko"

The Chats are basically a live band Sleaford Mods

more violins in post punk!!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

sometimes i wonder if slum of legs were aware of king of the slums, another noisy violin wielding indie band also with a bit of a gobby singer, except they were from manchester in the 80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCZSB_ktU8c

We weren't until people started comparing us to them! They're cool, though.

This is a tangent but I used to see this band The Danglers in tiny coffee shops when I was in high school, playing heavy prog and Slayer covers with a drums/violin/upright bass lineup, and they would absolutely blow my mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCE3-JjK6XM

really enjoying Dry Cleaning so far, had not been familiar

this video of theirs is cool & funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PuqlOTyJt0

Nightshift belongs in this discussion, really like their album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK4PRgbzWPs

Dry Cleaning remind a little bit of the wonderful Slovenly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQJvZJfFKE

I like this Dry Cleaning thing as well. The guitar tone sounds a lot like something that I haven't been able to place so far.

For some reason A Frames just popped up on Spotify, now there was a fucking band

the disconnect between ILM and RYM is quite funny sometimes. folks over there going ham over squid

2021 - the year postpunk broke

new iceage good

Listening to Squid, and I think I might really enjoy it if I can ever get past the Big Jesus Trash Can vocals.

The wacky vox was the deal breaker for me with Black Midi too. Much prefer the aloof sing-speak of Shopping.

Much prefer the aloof sing-speak of Shopping Dry Cleaning

(god these are getting tough to keep track of)

I can't really take any of these bands too seriously because they don't really transcend any of the many ppl they're ripping off, but that said the new track "Slow" by black midi is a great this heat ripoff

The "aloof sing-speak" over angular post-punk guitars is something I'm running across a lot lately: Fontaine DC, TV Priest and Mini Skirt also do it to varying degrees of success. My blueprint will always be the Blue Aeroplanes, who add more melody to the angular guitars, but these new bands doing it are very enjoyable if not "transcending the people they're ripping off", as Bongo said.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993931617/new-wave-post-punk-brexit-squid-dry-cleaning-black-country-new-road

guitar tone on the dry cleaning album is very much my shit

None of these artists except the new black midi have made anything as interesting as the stuff The Fall were making right up until MES died

I daresay no late Fall record is as good as the last Protomartyr album (and I have heard em all), not that they're particularly similar.

I meant in that article which is specifically about the UK bands

oh durr

I tried the dry cleaning album a few times but the vocals are...not a dealbreaker exactly but it doesn't seem like the most interesting choice

Yeah. As I said before, LWB comparisons are a nonsense

i really like the deadpan voice combined with her abstract/ridiculous lyrics. works for me but obviously won't be everyone's thing.

I do think as far as "trends in indie rock" or whatever go, the results have at least been largely not horrific

For some reason I like deadpan spoken vocals over dance music (Marie Davidson for ex.) way more than over guitars.

checked out Squid..think it might grow on me? his delivery can be too much but at times it reminded me of my beloved Signal to Trust fucking loved that band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJyFW-qs_4A

I know it's a minefield to even bring up the site, but there is definitely something zeitgeist-y going on with this stuff. Black Country, New Road is #3 for the year at RYM and Squid is #1 (BC,NR was #1 for a long time).

ha yeah with the dry cleaning album i enjoyed the spoken word vocals because they were pretty easy to ignore, didn't distract from the real attraction, which for me, is the guitar

well yes

that's the bar for these kinds of bands lol, vocals that aren't actively distracting.

porridge radio and algiers stand out among this particular crowd for having excellent vocalists.

well, Algiers' vocalist is the main attraction which makes them exceptionally rare!

BCNR and Squid have vocalists that actively infuriate me. black midi vocalist seems to have sorted himself out a bit for the new stuff

I like the Dry Cleaning vocals but I can't do an entire album at once with it, two or three at a time max.

Enjoyed Katie Alice Greer's singing (Priests)

I've got a vague thought that Dry Cleaning's guitar remind me of early Suede in a weird way. I can't really articulate what it is, though (in part because I haven't actually heard Suede for ages) but something like ... there's a swagger to Dry Cleaning that could almost be missed in the deadpan-ness, the lyrics declaring "He's a dick".

Squid singer was a bit much

BCNR's should never be allowed to speak or sing into a microphone for the rest of his life

(Not sure that makes any sense or is remotely evidence based - but I like seeing how absorbed in playing Dry Cleaning bloke is).

Bummed that Lithics are opening for Idles but not until the first show after Dallas. I don't think I'll make it to Phoenix for an opener slot.

black midi vocalist seems to have sorted himself out a bit for the new stuff

― imago, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 3:58 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

haven't heard the new stuff, but his old singing amused me because of how much it reminded me of larry blackmon of cameo

again, i say Flasher is kinda blowing it by not being in the middle of all this.

although

maybe we need a separate thread for, like, the "American post-punk band" thing from 3-5 years ago (Flasher, Omni, Protomartyr, Lithics, Priests) which somehow feels distinct from this weirder(?) Euro strain

(i'm not really suggesting a new thread, i'm just saying they're different)

agree

also Tropical Fuck Storm is the best band on this list but probably shouldn't be on it, don't really have much in common