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

also it's kinda fuckin....eyebrow raising that algiers aren't on spotify's big post-punk playlist cause their "fans also like" artists are....preoccupations, iceage, girl band, hmltd, shame, and protomartyr lol

Protomartyr - honorable mention to Slum of Legs, Metz, & TFS.

halfway through the HMLTD and can't tell if this is terrible or kind of compellingly wacky, but I think it's probably the former

Have enjoyed: Girl Friday, Goat Girl, Protomartyr, Iceage, Slum of Legs. I'd say Girl Friday take it on "Decoration/Currency" alone but wasn't too sure about last year's album, I should try it again.

porridge radio are also pretty much just indie rock with a dollop of extra noise but that album of theirs sounds like a big spiky hug to me rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE7vLPSfw6Q

Shopping

yeah!

of these Viagra Boys, Dry Cleaning at the top

Priests (RIP), Lithics, Nots would be in the running if listed

I saw Protomartyr before they caught any buzz, they sounded like a photocopy of Interpol then. Have struggled to give them a fair shot since.

good poll, but no one is out there saying "listen to preoccupations" i don't think

which is too bad, they may be the best of this bunch

Lithics is a good call

Sweeping Promises, too

wish Flasher would re-emerge

I like a good bunch of the bands in this list.

The one Squid song I’ve heard (“Narrator”) bodes really well for their album coming out on Warp. It starts out like a facsimile of Pop Group or maybe more the Rapture, but it starts melting into something quite different a few minutes in.

So much genuinely terrible music in this poll

Slum Of Legs genuinely in the top 3 here but had to vote TFS

Algiers rounding out said top 3. I could do without the rest frankly

No FACS???

they are better than at least half these bands easy

of these Tropical Fuck Storm easy

facs ate cool but too arty and hip for this list

@milo protomartyr have improved mightily, check out their most recent one if you get a chance

priests broke up??

I should have included shopping

good poll, but no one is out there saying "listen to preoccupations" i don't think

no but algorithms are! they show up in recommendations/"if you like [this] try preoccupations!" pretty much constantly. I like them (they have a few *great* songs) but I still think of them as the meat-and-potatoes version of Women

TFS, Slum of Legs, Iceage and Protomartyr would be my top 4. It’s a toss-up between the first two.

And I wanna use this space to say that lj’s RYM review of BCNR is furiously otm.

iceage have also improved a lot

I haven't made up my mind about BCNR so maybe lj's review will help lol

also only just now realized I fucked up their name in this poll but honestly it's their fault for picking it

voting for black country, new road to annoy imago

nah, in seriousness I’ll probably vote for protomartyr for doing it and doing it well for years, and for making strides with each release

agree that porridge radio likely doesn’t fit here, and idles/fontaines are the ones for who i do not get the hype at all

viagra boys
protomartyr
algiers
slum of legs
idles

^^^ the bands on this list I currently listen to

preoccupations might be a measurably bigger deal now if they hadn't shot themselves in the foot with their silly former name, under which they released most of their best songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOLIHJKCu8M

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh that band

I saw the show where they didn't have a name, we'd gotten tickets then the thing blew up and the hmong student association at the university of mn was going to picket it, they had already announced that they were doing away with the name but hadn't gotten a new one yet so the whole vibe was really weird

Voted Tropical Fuck Storm with Fontaines DC as runner up, but lots of these are very good - most recently was checking out Dry Cleaning and am on the fence about the sprake/sing vibe but the music is top notch.

I confess I don't get shame, idles or fontaines dc at all. fat white family have an incredibly off-putting name but I enjoy their absurd beefs (I honestly wish bands would start more beefs) and a few of their songs

Tropical fuck storm and viagra boys

fat white family <<<<<<<< the moonlandingz

I should have put sleaford mods in here just to be a prick

Imperial Wax (the band the final Fall lineup became) knock spots off most of these, their album is really really good imo

https://imperial-wax.bandcamp.com/album/gastwerk-saboteurs

I've listened the most to Black Midi and they're the only one I've seen, so voted for them. They're soooo young though, I feel like they're either going to become something amazing or break up and do other things.

of these bands I've seen black midi, protomartyr, algiers, tropical fuck storm, iceage and metz live - none improved on their studio work, tbh, except for metz. watching franklin play and sing in algiers was thrilling but unfortunately his voice was pretty shot by the time they got here.

black midi are undeniably extremely talented lads but I agree w/ yr sense, Jordan, that their best work is still to come in one form or another

Shopping

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, February 25, 2021 5:35 AM (ten hours ago)

^^^^^^^^^^ 100% ^^^^^^^^^^

i like some of these bands quite a bit but there’s something about just about all of them (and they do have a pretty consistent sound right?) that i can’t describe but that is missing some crucial ingredient that makes a lot of the early post punk records pop to me. feels a bit rigid and texturally less raw or something

great list of all-time terrible band names

I feel like this list kinda covers the "dudely post-punk with press attention" more than the viciously feminist/queercore underground stuff? Surprised Crack Cloud aren't on here, tbh (a band I do not dislike but find it a bit bewildering how loved they are as everything is so smooooooth and perfectly rendered).

i feel like band name and quality of music are actually inversely related here lol

I would like to know if pfizer are secretly funding viagra boys

xp- i’d rate crack cloud above this whole list

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

they are v different but they often show up on the same playlists, recommendations etc

TFS emerged from the ashes of a 20-year previous band, giving them something of a leg-up, but it's still kind of mad that Liddiard's able to make the wildest music of his life at the age he is

giving him all the credit is ofc wrong; Dunn especially seems like she has a lot of input in this sound

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

he truly takes them over the line from 'eh' to 'horrible'

^^^

like i don't think they really succeed at what they seemed to be going for (a slightly jazzier gy!be? are people really getting excited about post-rock stuff in 2021?) but there's bits and pieces where you can hear some potential, but then his vocals are truly dreadful

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

I just found out about this album and came to post about it here, thinking it was some hidden treasure for all you weird postpunkzolofreaks. then I find out it's incredibly popular on RYM, #1 for the year with nearly 4000 ratings. I think it's good! vocals like some young Andy/young Colin fusion but I liked the early XTC and I've really dug this so far (I'm a couple songs in)

checked out Squid..think it might grow on me?

I loved them right away, have listened a lot this week. Perfect mix of energy and weirdness and annoying shouty vocals for me.

Squid - Bright Green Field (Warp 2021)

there is a squid thread fyi

a friend described dry cleaning as "like the smiths with jo brand replacing morrissey" & i don't think he meant it as a putdown

they remind me a lot of Elastica, definitely nail the mannerisms and are good but it feels too professional, no weirdness of the original post punk

though the music doesn't remind me much of the Smiths, like at all

Scratchcard Lanyard has got to be one of the best opening tracks of 2021

I still don't like Chaise Longue but I get why people do

I kinda both do and don't hope "algorithm punk" catches on as a name for this stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8HjWTUqwI

oh bcnr have done something i like somehow. vocalist a lot better in this mode than doing his terrible spoken word-over-post-rock thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMBS8dfvjog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoVbq1K74f0

dream on, bonny lad. you're not the reincarnation.

I really like Sports Team... don't think we've talked about them much, beyond one mention in this thread, and a few posts on the Wet Leg thread(?)

They have a recent-ish song, from a new album out in July:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4qDqo1fY5A

(I didn't picture the singer looking like that... he kinda comes off like a giant dick, lol. Good band, though!)

this seems like the place to say I've been enjoying the new Just Mustard songs and Bas Jan album

What the actual fuck, this is INCREDIBLE

https://watergunsky.bandcamp.com/album/total-swarm-for-young-men

Imagine a gay Gareth Liddiard trying to make a speculative sci-fi album but being assailed by chaotic IDM, all with a melodic sensibility of Montreal wouldn't baulk at, and it being the best music

Oooh. That does sound good.

i think a description that promising needs its own thread

I don't like the new Sports Team album nearly as much as the first one, but this song is a highlight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fix8iUrPnMY

is it too soon to stop calling it "post-punk"

Have to say not loving the newest Crack Cloud as much as previous releases, and furthest away from "post-punk" influences they've gone probably. Always happens when angry young bands get more mature and subtle and leave behind some of that edge. Not all of it, and it def has moments. I've only listened to it once so really shouldn't be quick to judge. Still my favorite thing going these days mostly.

most def still post-punk though is Automatic, playing in NYC soon. Can't wait.

Yard Act are the worst of the latest crop, right?

have heard bad things about Bilk, and the new Cowboyy EP is laughable

we are in for a bad few years of UK art-rock unfortunately

that said it is quite hard to imagine worse music than Yard Act, yes

there's a song on the new shame album that sounds just like wolfmother

Well now!

https://halfemptyglasshouse.bandcamp.com/album/restricted-repetitive-behaviour-an-experiment-in-the-application-of-classical-12-tone-technique-to-contemporary-post-punk-composition

Listen if you are me

Er, "autismcore?" From my city, though ... is this via RYM?

reminds me of Polvo
cool idea!

If my favourite three tracks (1, 3, 6) basically didn't have the same tune as each other...

I feel like this is on the cusp of something amazing, maybe hasn't quite nailed it, but the guitar tone in the louder bits is So Good

<i>Starting the the late 2010's, a number of (mostly) British bands emerged with new and adventurous takes on the broad rock subgenre of post-punk</i>

what are they talking about, like Black MIDI?

excuse the formatting.

i assume yes, but a shame they're not actually referring to Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack

I dig this group English Teacher (from Leeds)... they've released a few really strong singles this year:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6xKTRZm3vI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u9AulY9Gdc

Speaking of Leeds (well, 8 months ago...) I just noticed fellow Loiners Drahla released a second album earlier this year after a long gap.

Do youtubes auto embed? Let's find out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzBjqKqfj3k

oh I heard that recently, it's pretty great!

Damn that is really… “if you liked Errase Errata you will like…” and I <3 EE