Local Music Singles Roundup: July 2024
Local Music Reviews
Hot local (music) singles are in your area! Whether you’re looking for a summer of love, melancholy brooding or unbridled rage, you’re sure to find your (musical) match for a seasonal fling here in this roundup of our favorite new tracks by Utah artists.
Blue Bell
“Bonehead”
Self-Released
Street: 05.03
Blue Bell = sign crushes motorist x PACKS
You’re walking alone at night under a dark new moon. On a cobblestone street corner, Natalie Shorr strums her electric guitar with Old-World flair. “Oh, you’re such a bonehead / I don’t know why I want you so bad / Must be all the fucked up things from my past,” she sings passively. Her muffled voice echoes off the crumbling stucco walls. “Maybe I’m selfish, I’m feeling confused / Can I really win if I’ve got nothing to lose?” Lo-fi and bare, “Bonehead” is the first of three tracks on Shorr’s debut EP as Blue Bell, a collection of bedroom demos titled Death Makes the Heart Grow Flowers. Shorr lists her stage name as “Belladona” on Spotify, a reference to the deadly nightshade. It’s fitting. Listening to “Bonehead” conjures up stormy feelings of helpless desire and images of black lace veils—a solemn funeral held for a doomed relationship before it’s even begun. –Mekenna Malan
Bone Throwers
“Psychic Debris”
Self-Released
Street: 05.24
Bone Throwers = The Buttertones + Laughing Clowns
As if taking a new surfboard for a spin and being drowned by the gnarly waves, the track “Psychic Debris” hits you like the sweet salt the ocean provides. With the wisdom of a sea shanty and the grit of Salt Lake City’s local punk scene, Bone Throwers flows between genres with ingenious rhythm and style. By allowing multiple sources of inspiration to ricochet on the soft edges of the brain, the result is a memorable and idiosyncratic sound. The only real way to explain it is this: If the Krusty Krab crew decided to take a tab of acid during a wild night in Bikini Bottom, this would be what the audience hears. While Spongebob and Patrick discuss the parts of their inner world that frighten them the most, Squidward and Plankton stare at the wall trying to find patterns that simply aren’t there. The silly and the solemn harmonize easily when truth is at the center. Still, the sublime contrast has left my skeleton feeling hurled. –Marzia Thomas
The Hollering Pines
“Olive Branch”
Self-Released
Street: 05.03
The Hollering Pines = Sierra Ferrell + The Montvales
One reason I find myself continuously gravitating toward folksy, roots-rock and bluegrass sounds is because it’s rare that you’ll find these artists sacrificing intelligent lyricism for catchy instrumentals (or vice versa). Instead, you’ll likely find an evergreen balance of songwriting, storytelling and the perfect complement of strings and steel guitar. This is true for The Hollering Pines’ recent release, Here’s to Hoping, and especially so for the auspicious “Olive Branch.” With dual, harmonious vocals that hum, haw and bounce throughout the track’s rosy and bright atmosphere, singers and sisters Marie Bradshaw and Kiki Jane Sieger have crafted a cautionary tale laced with religious comparisons and a backing of soft cries that both haunt and inspire. The guitar-centered bridge is true to any classic Americana and perfectly ties the track together while cementing The Hollering Pines as a staple of Salt Lake’s folk-rock community. –Jamie Christensen
Toto Peña
“FUELTANK”
Self-Released
Street: 06.27
Toto Peña = Alvvays + The Strokes
“FUELTANK” is a soft indie track for the summer about a love that’s burning fast and fully. Toto Peña, a musician from Salt Lake City, sings sweetly over a gentle instrumental with soft-paced drums, bass and guitar about holding hands and loving another person so deeply that it burns. It sounds like a song you’d hear over the radio and remember nostalgically years later. It has a romantic indie rock sound, much like “Archie, Marry Me,” by Alvvays or like “Is This It?” by The Strokes. I love “FUELTANK”—it feels like falling in love with someone and knowing it can’t last very long, while wanting to remember each and every second of it, soaking it in like the sun’s rays on your skin. It is a perfect song for road trips and kissing under the sunset this summer. –Cherri Cheetah
Victory Lungs
“Neon Dogs”
Self-Released
Street: 05.03
Victory Lungs = Jeff Rosenstock + Pissed Jeans
Victory Lungs’ new track, “Neon Dogs,” is a pure punk crystal of a song that is honest with its insecurities, merging anger and anxieties like a bee sting. Cy (guitar), Jeff (bass), Jordan (drums) and Shane (guitar/vocals) bring a duel guitar attack that never lets up and a breakneck rhythm section that moves the track forward with a solid shove and a swift kick. “Just when I think I’ve got it all figured out / You go and turn all my faith into doubt,” Shane sings with a worn, ragged voice transparent in heartbreak and abandonment. The vocals are held up with some well placed ‘Whoa, Oh, Oh’ backing vocals that keep the track upbeat and thankfully keep everything from falling into sad-sack rock. With “Neon Dogs”, Victory Lungs present themselves as a great summertime noisy racket. The dogs have been let out of the kennel, and these dogs hunt. I can’t wait to hear more. –Russ Holsten
Voidsmen
“Blood Furnace Part i°: Planet Obsolescence”
Self-Released
Street: 05.19
Voidsmen = Sleep + Pigsx7 + Electric Wizard + Earthless
Ancient cosmic evils and tasty riffs met at a seedy biker bar, smoked a whole bunch of weed and made sweet, sweet love in May of 2023. Nine months later, Voidsmen delivered their EP, Ice Age Part 0: Blood Furnace (much like a stork) to the world, which hasn’t been the same since. Picture the planet crushing riffs of Sleep and Electric Wizard coupled with vocal stylings reminiscent of Pigsx7 complemented by the heavy psych melodies of Earthless—what you now see is the embodiment of Voidsmen’s newest and, in my opinion, most sonically ambitious project. “Blood Furnace Part iº: Planet Obsolescence” kicks off Voidsmen’s second solar jam by smoothly stringing together the varying styles of the aforementioned bands while producing a sound that’s all-original in and of itself. If you’re able to carve some time out from your busy schedule of combating lovecraftian space gods with a sword in one hand and a laser gun in the other, give “Blood Furnace Part iº: Planet Obsolescence” a listen. –CJ Hanck
Read more Local Music Singles Roundups from past months:
Local Music Singles Roundup: June 2024
Local Music Singles Roundup: May 2024