9/18/15 · NF-019
Language is ever evolving. This is not a process exclusive to the people of a single nation or a region; it is also a niche communication we develop between ourselves and the people we interact with daily. Our individual life experiences and the environments we call home help to further shape our dialect. The words we use, the way we use them, they are our glossa. Our tongue. Our language.
4/21/15 · NF-018
The Pretty Greens channel an unapologetic call to social justice and equality reform enlisting inspiration from the likes of Brill Building pop (The Cookies, The Ronettes, The Shangri-La’s), wild and dreamy garage, dark surf, and punk rock. With appreciative nods to the fast and loose clamorous punk-pop of Bratmobile and the garage rock of Nikki and the Corvettes, the band also mixes in the off-kilter and raucous attitude of groups like The Raincoats, and The Slits.
2/14/15 · NF-017
There’s no pretense to Greensboro, NC, four piece Daddy Issues; no unrequited fantasy from afar. These are girls having fun. Their attitude comes from myriad influences, all showing their sense of humor and lack of pretension — North Carolina’s own Link Wray, B-movies, the Ramones, tacos, surf rock, and of course, girl groups before them, like the Continental Co-Ets and the Shangri-Las.
Queer feminist undertones coupled with hyperbolic imagery and an irreverent attitude makes them a true punk band.
3/24/15 · NF-016
Singer/guitarist, Sarah Blumenthal, began to play music with Joshua Robbins, currently of Late Bloomer, in 2013. After months of writing songs and finding their specific voice, the two decided they needed a full-time drummer to cement themselves. Enter Garrett Herzfeld, formerly of It Looks Sad, and Alright were now a fully-formed unit. The band takes the more direct approach to songwriting when compared to their other musical outlets. Most songs are no frills pop anthems coated in fuzz and sugary vocals.
2/24/15 · NF-015
Like a will o’ the wisp over a murky marsh, Midnight Plus One finds light in the dark and dark in the light. Casey Cook’s haunting voice rides ominous throbs of unrelenting energy pulsed forward by John Bowman on drums and Nick Senese on guitar.
Unlearn Everything offers up ten bewitching new tracks creeping in with a brooding tension and Cook's lilting, breathy vocals. Swirling atmospherics and a thunderous beat give way to tides of crashing guitars and a pummeling rhythm section.
2/24/15 · NF-014
Totally Slow deal in immediacy: they wanna shake you out and put some NOW in your system. For three friends who have spent two decades throwing off sparks at basement shows and DIY warehouse spots in other bands, it’s been a rejection of complacency and a conscious commitment to the present moment. Although their music builds on classic sounds, Saccharine Trust as Superchunk as The Replacements, the true pleasure is in how they wield these familiar implements like expert stone masons.
5/26/15 · NF-013
Family Bike's accessible style plays out like a dynamic friendship, capturing the excitement of grade school playfulness as well as the endearing depth of late night talks. Everything You Own Is Anagrammed is an inventive record that exhibits a musical friendship coming-of-age in the 21st century, and, as is the case with a family bike, you can't do it all on your own, sometimes we can all use a little help.
9/27/14 · NF-012
For all intents and purposes, Phantom Glue is Angels of Meth. The band was birthed by Matt Oates and has existed in various states since the mid-2000s. The band was known as Angels of Meth up through the recording of the Phantom Glue S/T'd record. It wasn't until after the recording process was completed for the Phantom Glue's s/t record that the band decided to change the name.
Despite the fairly dramatic difference in sound from this 1st demo to Phantom Glue's A War Of Light Cones (and the soon to exist 3rd full length) the essence of the band; the creative process, aesthetic and lyrical concepts remain the same.
8/19/14 · NF-011
The Pilgrims play ramshackle guitar rock in the Westerberg tradition. Need a modern touchstone? Well, The Pilgrims fall somewhere in between the power pop of Sweet Talk and seventies southern rock of The Golden Boys.
The woozy tunes from Raleigh's Ghostt Bllonde evoke the same eerie sultriness their name suggests. Like lounging poolside, listening to a fading oldies station on a battered transistor radio, they provide the distant warmth of a comfortable longing, odes to love and lust lost and found.
11/15/14 · NF-010
Hot Dolphin, yes it is a Venture Brothers reference, formed in the fall of 2011 and quickly played their first show in February of 2012. The band came together because Robert wanted to play loud, Tim wanted to play sitting down, Alison wanted to play bass and Lindsey wanted to sing. Hot Dolphin started out trying to emulate a proto-punk sound; adding a little surf and psych into the mix for good measure. Their debut 7”, released as a part of the Negative Fun Singles Club, shows the sort of controlled, yet primal, blown-out grind that so many have to work so hard to find, but Hot Dolphin just make it all sound so effortlessly cool.
9/30/14 · NF-009
The Option C 7-inch for Negative Fun Records was recorded with Jeff Ziegler (Kurt Vile, Nothing, War On Drugs) at Uniform Recording in March 2014, and showcases No Other's signature sound from two different angles: the A-side ("Option C") is an intense blast of strangled guitar and staccato rhythms, while its flip side ("Opaque") sways dreamily as it retains an undercurrent of melancholy that surges forward on the chorus.
8/26/14 · NF-008
Midnight Plus One offers up two bewitching new tracks for the Negative Fun Records 2014 Singles Club. "Like Camera" creeps in with a brooding tension and Cook's lilting, breathy vocals. Swirling atmospherics and a thunderous beat give way to tides of crashing guitars and a pummeling rhythm section. "White Flowers" follows suit: the initial tranquility eventually succumbs to a beautifully ominous type of chaos, but Cook confidently yelps and coos her way through the storm and instills a sense of both mystery and electricity into the song.
7/9/14 · NF-007
Self-described "static-jangle-sonic-fuzz-dream-pop," these two fantastic new songs from Richmond, VA's Positive No revel in the sweetly sung yet emphatically delivered vocals of Tracy Wilson as well as a propulsive, angular rhythm section that harkens back to some of the Washington DC area's more revered outfits: Jawbox and Velocity Girl immediately come to mind. There's no doubt that Positive No's contribution to the Negative Fun Records 2014 Single Club is its most striking material to date, embracing the band's discordant post-hardcore roots while forging ahead with a buoyant, infectious mixture of indie rock and dream pop.
6/10/14 · NF-006
Bad Daddies bring a light touch, fast hands, and a sharp tongue to their version of East Bay punk. With so much blood-frothing, sneering negativity in minute-long howlers like three of these four gems, you'd almost be forgiven for missing the rad melodies that edge into you like jagged glass. (Almost. Not quite.) What you wouldn't be forgiven for is missing an actual Bad Daddies epic, pummeling past the three-minute mark with a huge amount of noise and absolutely no bullshit.
8/5/14 · NF-005
The best music can stop time. The best songs have sounds that surround you, drowning out everything else. They annihilate year and age. On Comfort and Safety, Hoax Hunters flood you with a hell of a lot of the best music. Fleets of buzz-rumble guitars that pull you out of your day, wave on wave of songs bust loose, buoy and buffet, like your first favorite record all over again.
7/16/13 · NF-004
Rock and roll is a game of inches. When everybody's influences and inspiration levels are about the same, excellence comes from – and down to – execution, effort, and passion. Attention to detail all more than matter. This Wormburner single is beautifully executed, with total commitment and endless energy. It's much more pleasing to discover that this single is seven inches of inspiration
8/20/13 · NF-003
There's nothing wrong with riffs. Some of your favorite bands probably spend like half their time digging for ever-purer veins of the stuff, and we all look happily forward to the loud nuggets they unearth. But what we've got on this split is two bands who blast out riffs in all directions without ever making them sound like the main thing they're after.
1/23/13 · NF-002
Red Hex are from Tacoma, which sucks. Not Tacoma, necessarily, but that their hometown basically guarantees facile, hacky comparisons to the region's past masters: Sonics/Dead Moon/Hunches/etc. (All adequate descriptive touchstones, though personally, I keep thinking "lost Yardbirds tapes".) But skip the namechecks and fuck the genealogies, because Red Hex make a noise that you will like, a noise that would have sounded good in a 1965 garage, or in a Boston dive in 1977, or in Detroit in '99, or anywhere in 1983, or right now on your turntable.
12/11/12 · NF-001
Two minutes hate? That's what got us here! There's nothing exactly WRONG with it, but two minutes of hate is pretty 1984. Here in our far-flung future, what we need is something better, and with this Crucial Fix split 7", we have it: seven inches and ten minutes RAGE.