AM Radio: October 2024
The best new hardcore and community-made music, updated monthly for Anti-Matter.
It’s a solid month for upcoming album premieres, and that’s a good sign for the shape of things to come—with this month’s AM Radio update collecting another seventeen new adds to the playlist. Among them, the return of Anti-Matter alum like Scowl, Touché Amoré, and first iteration vets Samuel S.C., as well as fresh cuts from Fading Signal, Firestarter (with a guest spot from Mark Porter of Floorpunch), High Vis, Ways Away, Secret World (a new band featuring Dennis Vichidvongsa from Speed), L.S. Dunes, and much more. The variety is rich.
My usual disclaimer, of course, never changes: AM Radio is not a running list of every new release, but a selection of personally handpicked music that reflects only those songs that personally excite me—with no outside influence or interference ever. As another month comes to an end, these are the songs that stuck with me. An additional selection of standout tracks follows below.
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NO ESCAPE “Silenced” (Revelation)
Before Deadguy and Kiss It Goodbye (and shortly after Boiling Point fanzine), Tim Singer’s No Escape was one of the best new bands to come out of the wreckage of the eighties and chart a path forward for the new decade. Revelation will reissue No Escape’s early discography next month, but until then, we’ve got this remastered version of “Silenced”—a song that originally appeared on the Rebuilding compilation EP and completely held its own alongside Gorilla Biscuits, Burn, and Turning Point. It’s still one of my favorite hardcore songs of the era, easily.
ANXIOUS “Counting Sheep” (Run For Cover)
When Grady Allen spoke with me exactly one year ago, Anxious seemed to be at a familiar crossroads to me: That moment when your band’s quick ascension starts to fuck with your head, causing you to wonder what you really want. In my life, that generally leads to self-destruction, so I’m happy to see that Grady went constructive with it—taking that feeling and investing it into Bambi, the forthcoming second Anxious album. First single “Counting Sheep” is a bold and instantly memorable song that bodes incredibly well for their return.
NO PEACE “Love Letter” (life.lair.regret)
Australian hardcore is on the map right now, and No Peace have been bringing their sociopolitically-minded vision to the scene since forming during the 2020 lockdown. Musically, “Love Letter” is a quick and dirty hardcore song with an early 2000s feel, while lyrically, it’s a community-forward note of appreciation for the Australian scene that fostered them—and it brings on fellow local bands Fever Shack and Death Tax for a little extra love.
BUY IT: Bandcamp
COMMON SAGE “Vehicles” (Equal Vision)
In terms of getting greater faster, Common Sage’s rate of progression is kind of on fire. “Vehicles” is the first single from their second album (and upcoming Equal Vision debut) Closer To;, and it’s the kind of seasoned post-hardcore that cuts the difference between late-nineties clean guitar minimalism and that early-millennium heartfelt hardcore outbreak. Real talk: There aren’t many bands doing this kind of thing this well right now.
THE DOPAMINES “Tamper-Resistant” (Rad Girlfriend)
Dan Ozzi once said the Dopamines “have successfully lumped themselves into the Dillinger Four category of low-expectation punk”—which is to say that they make new music so sporadically, you shouldn’t hold your breath. And indeed, Dan wrote that seven years ago, when the band released their last album. But the new record is out, it’s called 80/20, and “Tamper-Resistant” is a worth-the-wait kind of song that reminds me of the kind of harder-edged pop-punk you’d get from Jawbreaker or Samiam at their prime. Honestly, I cannot stress enough how much I love this.
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Well, that Kin Corruption track started and the next thing I know, I'm opening up the pit in my office. Furniture broken, holes punched in the walls, students getting crowdkilled. And just when I've gotten everything cleaned up, that Punitive Damage track starts and the next thing I know, I'm stage-diving off my desk. Worth it.