AM Radio: March 2024
The best new hardcore and community-made music, updated monthly for Anti-Matter.
It’s a big month of solid adds to AM Radio, with 20 new songs making the cut for March. Stylistically, there’s a little bit of everything: You’ll find post-hardcore and melodic fare from One Step Closer, Stateside, Frank Turner, and The Story So Far. There’s crushing new metallic hardcore from Simulakra and Knocked Loose. There’s harsh and dirty classic hardcore from Stretch Arm Strong (featuring Sick of It All), No Way Out, and Big Deal. And much more. If there’s a story this month, it’s that our community has range.
Just to reiterate, AM Radio is not a running list of every new release, but a list of personally handpicked songs that I am actually listening to right now. No outside influences come into consideration for what gets added—and that’s a promise. A new selection of standouts follows below.
FOLLOW & LISTEN TO AM RADIO: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
LIFE’S QUESTION “When I Meet God” (Flatspot)
They’re preparing to release their Flatspot Records debut on April 19, and having heard an advance, I can tell you: Life’s Question is truly leveling up. “When I Meet God” is a wildly well-executed existentialist’s anthem that manages to find the connective tissue between Killing Time and Failure. For my money, it’s the best new song I’ve heard this month.
J. ROBBINS “Deception Island” (Dischord)
Famed producer and longtime Jawbox frontman J. Robbins released his second solo record for Dischord in February, but since it took a little time for it to get to streaming, it also took a little time to hit AM Radio. If you haven’t heard Basilisk yet, “Deception Island” is a good place to start. The riffs are angular enough to recall Jawbox, sure, but I’m here for the unabashed melodicism. J.’s depth of experience is palpable.
ROMAN CANDLE “Can We Watch Something Happy?” (Second Born Sound)
Following up on their 2022 Discount Fireworks EP, Las Vegas hardcore upstarts Roman Candle have dropped two new songs from a vaguely promised “debut full length album coming in the near future.” Luckily, there’s a lot here to tide us over: “Can We Watch Something Happy?” sounds like Touché Amoré being pummeled by kick drums, while singer Piper Ferrari’s delivery is so tortured you want to feel sorry for her vocal chords. Visceral is the key word here.
BUY IT: Bandcamp
THE HOPE CONSPIRACY “Those Who Gave Us Yesterday” (Deathwish Inc.)
The Hope Conspiracy surprised everyone with an out-of-nowhere EP in November, and last week they went for the hat trick by announcing a new album: Tools Of Oppression / Rule By Deception will arrive on May 31. New single “Those Who Gave Us Yesterday” opens the album with air raid sirens, but more important than that, with a throughly updated take on a vintage hardcore stomp track. This is how you mount a comeback.
KIDNAPPED “Disgust” (DAZE)
Nothing gets me more amped up than putting on a record by a band I’ve never heard before and feeling like I’ve just been immediately punched in the face. This is, I presume, why Kidnapped insists on picking up the “powerviolence” mantle. But from my vantage point, “Disgust” gives me the same rush I got from hearing the first Infest 7-inch in 1988—which is also the moment I realized that no one ever said there were limits to how brutal hardcore could be.
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