DWARVES – JENKEM

So….the Dwarves return with a new album but if you had to guess, the band never left. Sure there have been pauses or breaks within the band’s career but again, the band never left.  Still consisting of members Blag Dahlia and HeWhoCannotBeNamed, the band, with an ever changing lineup is rounded out by Rex Everything, The Fresh Prince of Darkness, and Snupac.  The punk purveyors of filthy punk just released its new Jenkem (MVD Visual) and it’s what you might come to expect here: loud, fun, angry, dirty, energetic. It might be difficult to believe with a career spanning over 40 years, there still remains the intensity fueled by its fiery hunger to create sonic assaults that would make the band’s contemporaries blush. As punk goes, yeah, this gets added to the playlist. The Dwarves are here and they don’t give a fuck if you like it or not.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – I BUILT YOU A TOWER

While moving from one direction to another doesn’t normally mean you’re leveling down, it does mean you’re trimming the fat that’s probably been surrounding you for some time. Is it complacency? Maybe, but it’s just business. There are certain things that come to mind, a mindset of sorts: back to my roots, a phrase penned to a song by dälek in his alter ego IconAclass. It’s more common than we might think, with artists eschewing major label life for one that allows for much more self-control independently. Artists like Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Pixies all began musical careers as independent artists and found success maneuvering through major labels. But they all did make their return through independent channels and were able to move outside of the corporate machine. Continued success doesn’t always follow an artist once they’re dropped from a label or even leave voluntarily, although it can happen.

After years of releasing albums on Atlantic, Death Cab For Cutie makes its return to the independent world with I Built You A Tower (ANTI-), releasing its first album for Epitaph’s sister label. So what does this mean now? Absolutely nothing, DCFC has the support from its fanbase, and with the new album, there’s no regression in sound quality. While the band has had substantial growth since releasing its 1998 debut Something About Airplanes, there’s no going back. There’s never been a moment when anyone has slept on the group’s penchant for piecing together clever melodies and chord progressions, and here it doesn’t seem as if anything is much different.

Still ever present is the flurry of lush soundscapes, which doesn’t always rely on guitars, much like “Trap Door,” filled with keyboard and piano interplay, with backdrops awash with musical notes that are more akin to the changing seasons of the year. Ben Gibbard’s voice always remains soothing, inviting – never over-the-top – with thoughtful lyricism, “There’s a trap door in your heart / where everyone disappears / when they reached to pull you near / there’s a trap door in your heart / I wish I knew / and now I’m falling through.” What’s interesting is Gibbard isn’t moved, and there’s no sense of regret. Some songs aren’t without their, um, issues. It’s not so much an issue as it is a similarity. Through “Riptides,” you might linger within the throws of familiarity, and no one would hold or blame you for it. For the record, this is a song you may just fall in love with, but it may be on a nostalgia factor. For me, it might be a little bit of that, adding in how my feet are firmly planted in the present. While they’re two different artists in so many aspects, there is a progression that shares a similarity to Eddie Money’s “Baby Hold On.” For the record, Gibbard and Money share absolutely no other similarity, and this is, in fact, a DCFC song through and through.

Yes, the band has its own unique mastery over its instruments and song development, and we can all hear that on “Punching The Flowers,” where Death Cab’s aggression is offset by the beauty of melody. Although the band creates a thoroughly vibrant track that’s sonically enticing, Jason McGerr’s throttle is the star of the show here. His consistent drumming is what drives the band, and everything else atop it all is just gravy. Well, not really, but you get the drift, as guitars occasionally rage with a bassline that’s quickly covered in distortion. Again, it’s the silkiness of Gibbard’s voice that brings it all together. There’s also a gooey sweetness to many of these songs, not unlike “The Flavor Of Metal,” a jangly pop without the jangle as Gibbard throws us all back with lyrics about the fear of razorblades in candy, probably something every parent fears on Halloween, and now gives me pause hearing this. There’s even a clever little portion that just might be an ode to Peter Hook, but either way, the song gets stuck in your head with no relief in sight. That’s not a bad thing though. 

Where does this leave Death Cab For Cutie? I Built You A Tower contains 11 songs on the band’s 11^th album, which is rich with fine melodies and generous textures you don’t often find within music. Music is sometimes about extremes, and with this new album, songs are extremely contextualized in a manner that appeals to the casual listener, the rabid fan, as well as the music nerds who occasionally need to dissect things at random. This is, in fact, one of the best albums released this year.

FUCKED UP – YEAR OF THE MONKEY

How difficult would it be to shift your persona into another and believe others will continue to look at you the same way? For some, the answer is simple: Step out of your comfort zone, change your name, and move forward with however you’d like to proceed. All that, while others just think, “Eh, let me try something different here and maybe people will dig it, maybe not. In the end, at least we tried.”

While Canada’s own Fucked Up has spent its formative years in Hardcore punk circles, as of late, it’s been working again on its Zodiac series. Considering the series began back in 2006 with Year Of The Dog (Tankcrimes) the band is doing something right.  The release of 2025’s Year Of The Goat was just the first in its 3 part series, subcategorized as Grass Can Move Stones. The latter seems to be the mind state Fucked Up finds itself in. Part 2, Year Of The Monkey was just released, and it’s a collection of 4 songs, each over 24 minutes long. For this segment, the band has tapped a number of artists who make guest appearances like John Brannon (Laughing Hyenas), Carson McHone (The Outfit), Walter Schreifels (Quicksand), Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Off!), Jake Bannon (Converge), Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles), Chris Colohon (Left For Dead, Cursed), Leigh Arthur (Extravision, Sissy), and Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says).

While the songs are listed in 4 parts, it’s much more than that. Each track is built around multiple songs and the energy shifts anywhere from hardcore to powerfully symphonic, straying into pop, and then sometimes heading into spacey uncharted territory. 7 minutes into “Monkey Meets The Dragon,” there’s a quick squeal, the sound a mouse or rat might make as the group’s ethereal transition lasts for about 2 minutes. But it’s the Peter Gabriel-like backing harmonies that surface, which make for an interesting texture. Here at the 10:43 minute mark, the band picks things up again, like a thoroughbred racing to the finish line, yet we haven’t made it to the finish line yet! This is inviting though, and the band’s own brand of skewered pop, with so many additional voices ringing throughout, doesn’t allow listeners to figure out who is singing. But no one should care because it all blends together seamlessly.

It’s difficult to break things down around Year Of The Monkey, because songs are so tied together to one another. But it doesn’t mean the release isn’t audibly inviting. To the contrary, with this lengthy piece of work clocking in at around 104 minutes, Fucked Up has created a fucking masterpiece.