AM Radio: October 2023
The best new hardcore and community-made music, updated monthly for Anti-Matter.
October’s AM Radio drop goes stylistically across the board, featuring music from some exceptional new albums by Harms Way, Year of the Knife, Koyo, and Open City, as well as more melodically-inclined singles from Alkaline Trio, Modern Color, Phony (from Joyce Manor guitarist Neil Berthier), and Nave (featuring Gel guitarist Maddi Nave), just to start.
As always, AM Radio is not a running list of every new release, but a running list of select songs that I have personally handpicked to share. This is what I’m actually listening to; no one else influences what gets added. Below are a few standouts.
FOLLOW & LISTEN TO AM RADIO: Spotify | Apple Music
CALLING HOURS “Curtain Call” (Revelation, September 2023)
Farside is probably one of the more under-heralded bands of the early ‘90s melodic post-hardcore boom, but their influence is still undeniably felt today. Calling Hours—the new band from Popeye with members of Don’t Sleep—build on that distinct history with the benefit of experience to become instantly memorable.
HOLD MY OWN “In My Way” (DAZE, October 2023)
Hold My Own bring a tasty update to the late ‘80s New York street-core sound of bands like Breakdown and Killing Time, but it’s this utterly self-aware and lighthearted video directed by Hate5Six principal Sunny Singh that sealed their favor with me. Because if your hardcore isn’t also fun, it’s not my revolution.
MANY EYES “Revelation” (Perseverance Media Group, October 2023)
We got two new bands from the Every Time I Die divorce, with Many Eyes being the latest dispatch from singer Keith Buckley. If I’m being honest? I’ve probably listened to this song more than any other new song this month. The absolutely raging crescendo of the closing refrain—“Fuck off, I’m in love!”—has not yet failed to stop me in my tracks. Every. Single. Time.
BUY IT: Bandcamp
MIL-SPEC “The Days Don’t End” (Lockin’ Out, October 2023)
Mil-Spec unintentionally dropped a new album out of nowhere this month (true story!), and while the Ned Russin-produced Marathon doesn’t break the mold they set with 2020’s World House, it certainly solidifies their position. “The Days Don’t End” has all the pathos and despair of a mid-‘80s Dischord record; it’s food for thought for the Sound and Fury generation.
ANXIOUS “Down, Down” (Run For Cover, September 2023)
The latest one-off single from Anxious—which Grady Allen and I spoke about in detail over a couple of weeks ago—is also one of their best tracks to date. “Down, Down” is a relentless cycle of tension and release that never gives into hopelessness. They just continue to level up.
BUY IT: Bandcamp
Anti-Matter is reader-supported. If you’ve valued reading this, please consider becoming a paid subscriber and backing independent, ad-free hardcore media. Thank you, friends.
Mil-spec has found the perfect blend of melody and hardcore while allowing the former to add to the latter rather than dominate. They are a melodic HC band that hasn’t forgotten they’re a HC band.
100% on the Farside shout-out. Rigged and The Monroe Doctrine are underrated gems. And I think I'm starting to "get" Mil-Spec.