Not many seem to understand, but real heads do. Since his debut album back in 2003, Camouflage, billy woods has been confounding listeners with his heady lyricism and innocuous soundscapes that bleed directly into your senses. He’s just released his 19-track opus GOLLIWOG, with an assortment of production that features EL-P, The Alchemist, DJ Haram, Kenny Segal, Human Error Club, and many more. “Lead Paint Test” has Woods trading verses with ELUCID over a somber and melancholic ride. It’s thoughtful and emotional, which is what we would all expect. The gloom & doom surrounding “Misery” has woods offering his storytelling, which is sexual without sexualizing, but then seems to turn into something else altogether. When he says, “I re-up on bad dreams” there’s a sense he’s moving through a welcomed nightmare. GOLLIWOG has a lot to offer through the music and his twisting words, like the “BLK ZMBY” which offers imagery of the Middle East or the Nile valley plagued by pestilence. billy woods is like no other.

Sometimes I think the post-hardcore English act Mclusky was born and existed in a world that wasn’t ready for it because I don’t believe many understood it. After releasing 3 albums back in the early 2000s, the band wrapped things up and called it quits back in 2005, and reformed in 2014. Relatively quiet over the past 11 years, the band has finally released new material with the album The World Is Still Here And So Are We (Ipecac Recordings). But the world is a lot different from it was back then, and our eyes are wide open. Mclusky offers a raucous affair here as songs like “Way Of the Exploding Dickhead” toss in a hefty load of distortion & dissonance to rally the dead and the living alike. Its thundering precision drumming leaves no room for error as the band commands everything around it. But it’s “People Person” that really gets wide-eyed attention because here, the group’s roaring rhythm crashes all around us as ear-piercing guitars ring out. For the kids who missed out the first time, you have a chance to redeem yourselves with the band’s latest offering.

TVOD – PARTY TIME

“Where Brooklyn at, where Brooklyn at, where Brooklyn at?” Yes, Brooklyn is continually referred to as a hotbed of talent, but years ago, everyone was looking towards the Lower East Side. Regardless, transplants have been heading east for years, reinventing themselves and flourishing creatively within the confines of Kings County (that’s Brooklyn to you and your friends). And it continues with band after band playing derivative tracks to their friends and friends of their friends.

This time though, something just feels…different. And it just might be. From the County of Kings comes the Brooklyn-based TVOD (Television Overdose), with its debut full-length release. Mind you, TVOD has released a couple of EPs and a handful of singles since forming in 2019, but it’s Party Time (Mothland) that we’re here to discuss. The band has a freshly packaged sound, delivered with post-punk piss & vinegar. The band – made up of vocalist Tyler Wright, synth Jenna Mark, guitarists Serge Zritzher & Denim Casimir, bassists Mickaela Piccirillo & Elizabeth Wakefield, and drummer/synth player Michael Karson Pahl – were helped along by producer/recorders Félix Belisle & Samuel Gemme who also contributed to the album which was recorded last year.

Lyrically, some moments are captivating, much like on the thoughtful “Take It All Away” where we might find Wright an emotional wreck as he sings “The best thing I ever did was give you my heart to you/the best thing you ever did was tear it apart in two” and “You’re better when I’m not around/I always bring you down.” This self-deprecating moment is surrounded by melancholy, whether it’s in his words or the band’s music, which captures the energy of his emotions perfectly. An underlayer of keyboard washes literally falls under other instruments, although it initially takes the lead, opening the track. The song is nothing short of perfection as it crescendos slightly but is always engaging. But the band lives within a post-punk aesthetic, and when we hear Wright sing at times, it’s easily comparable to say a Mark E. Smith, with a spoken/sung delivery. It’s not often though, because he engages with serious vocal melodies like on “Uniform” as the band rallies around him with guitars and keyboards flailing around. TVOD’s backing vocals accent the song perfectly, allowing for a hypnotic connection. It’s the same with “Car Wreck,” which takes a funky bass groove that could hit dancefloors as Pahl drums away along to it. It’s infectious in delivery, and the guitars around it literally tear apart anything in their way.

Not everything is perfect though, as the group’s take is sometimes an admittedly juvenile-like approach on its upbeat and quirky title track. Here is where Wright sings “You like to party, I like to party, come on let’s go get naughty/we’ll take off our clothes, we’ll go get wasted/we’ll dance on the table butt-ass naked!” Ok. It might be a moment of self-abandon and freedom, but the silliness within it can’t be ignored. There’s a hefty amount of redemption throughout the album though, especially with “Empty Boy” as fingers slide down guitar strings into a majestic oblivion through the song’s chorus. Oh, it’s glorious as it bridges over the horizon and back again. This is what we’re all here for, it’s a blessing in disguise. And here, we get a sense Wright’s lyrics are about another relationship that didn’t make it or an unresolved argument. Not attempting to go too deep into his lyricism, but there is some mystery there.

As far as TVOD is concerned, there’s a lot of interesting work with its instrument use, creating sound structures within genres that are familiar but also captivating through the band’s use of melody, dissonance, and inventiveness. Party Time is a good album that seems to capture the challenging essence of the band. Yeah, I’m keeping this on rotation.

PREOCCUPATION – ILL AT EASE

We’re thrown together and establish friendships out of need and circumstance. There are those we cut ties with because, well, they were never real friends to begin with. At the same time, there are those that don’t ask questions when you need them. It’s a you’ve-got-my-back-regardless mentality. We sometimes live it time and time again, or at least I have.

With that said, I’ve never shied away from expressing my fascination with a band like Canada’s Preoccupations, and you’ve never heard me utter a negative remark about the group. Yes, I’m biased and no fucks are given. The band quietly just released its latest full-length release, Ill At Ease (Born Losers), its fifth long-player and fourth as Preoccupations. Ok, so the cat’s out of the proverbial bag through admission, but no one really cares as long as the music delivers, and believe it, the music does deliver here. One doesn’t have to play through the entirety of the album to realize there’s something different and much more engaging about the band. This is the first time I’ve found something familiar about the group itself. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, on “Bastard,” singer/bassist Matt Flegel takes his lead from Richard Butler. It could possibly track, simply because both post-punk outfits have similar qualities and a knack for allowing punk identities to flourish atop cooing vocal melodies. The keyboards and bass are the focal point as the band makes us all wait for the shift in dynamics, which are pretty subtle at the 1 minute and 13 seconds mark. When the guitars fill in empty spaces, it’s almost orchestral! This alone here lifts the song to another level altogether. This is where I backtrack though to the opening “Focus” because the band utilizes more backing vocals here, and you hear those luscious female voices mixed with others. The song may seem simple in its delivery, but it’s infectious, and the subtle nuances of those captivating vocals make it even better.

The band – Flegel (bass), Scott Munro (guitar, synths), Daniel Christiansen (guitar), and Mike Wallace (drums) – are by this time seasoned musicians. And it shows. The album’s subdued title track is completely unexpected and seemingly effortless in delivery. The band rides a melody without forcing anything upon us. It circles and creeps around, slowly hypnotizing, with the notes hitting everything just right. The guitar solo isn’t over the top but fills the need within the song’s structure. Make no mistake, the band doesn’t relinquish its hard-hitting punch, and “Andromeda” offers a racket worth noting. Walls of guitars hit the walls of its musical canvas, filling it with deep colors of sound. Bass and drums hold everything together with the punchy rhythm as Flegel’s breathy vocals drift around. It’s jaw-dropping. This doesn’t mean the band won’t make you feel uncomfortable because that seems to be what “Sken” is supposed to do as it opens with drums and guitars seemingly moving within different time signatures, unmatched, sporadic, right before it halts for a moment and the band comes together in unison and the combination is utter sweetness. But there’s another shift when the bass drum hits it double time, changing things slightly but reverting back and forth again.

There’s so much energy Preoccupations put into Ill At Ease, and we now see and hear the band completely comfortable within its own skin. Even as the album closes with “Krem2,” there’s a pop band within the mix that everyone should hear and pay attention to. Its cooing backing vocal harmonies are almost majestic. But enough of that, the band’s music speaks for itself, and it speaks loudly with minimal effort.