By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the latest stadium sized self-titled album from Plight, out now via à La Carte Records, and Tuskers’ cheeky country colored album START CALLING MORGUES, out now via Just For Now Records.
Plight – S/T
Genre: Alternative Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Hole in the Sky,” “Lying Dogs”
Plight’s been shedding the dead weight for years. Their debut LP, 2023’s PLASTIC SUN, expanded on the slithery slowcore of 2019’s six-track, nearly 30-minute EP LINGER, diving into the Hum-inspired heavy shoegaze of the moment to fill out and sharpen the softer edges of their sound, going for something leaner and more immediate. With their new seven-track album, they’ve trimmed the fat even further. When they released the lead single, “Hole in the Sky,” it hinted that Plight would take things in a more streamlined, cleaner, and catchier direction; with the release of PLIGHT, not only is that proven true, but it’s clear that was the right call.
The songs that make up their self-titled release have shorter runtimes compared to their previous work and tighter structures. “Hole in the Sky” is a driving slice of alt-rock, a nice kick in the teeth to open PLIGHT, skipping any buildup and getting right into things. It’s one of the stronger cuts on the album, and a neat representation of exactly what Plight offers here.
On tracks like “Right for Rain” and “Save Yourself,” Plight sounds sleek and hooky, immediately gratifying in a work their work’s never been before; when they do get more aggressive, it provides a nice counterweight. “False Teeth” and “Late Shift” are jagged, just in case some moments feel too soft; the buzzy closer “Lying Dogs” has the biggest riffs, spiky and soaring, paired with the most disaffected vocal delivery anywhere on PLIGHT, like an East Coast take on the sound of Milly’s recent ETERNAL RING and YOUR OWN BECOMING albums. It’s a nice reminder that Plight began in that realm: suffocatingly thick guitar lines threatening to swallow the song whole. But the rest of PLIGHT is proof that Plight’s capable of far, far more than that. Grab it on Bandcamp and see what they can do. [Zac Djamoos]
Tuskers – START CALLING MORGUES
Genre: Alt-Country
Favorite Tracks: “Clean As You Go,” “Giving The Game Away”
Every so often, Spotify gives you something impossibly special (though we recommend checking this one out on Bandcamp, obviously.) Sitting there in my office on a Sunday, metacognitively reflecting on my depression ahead of the week, Spotify played “Clean As You Go” off Tuskers’ 2024’s START CALLING MORGUES… it was spiritually similar the National’s ALLIGATOR, but somehow better—as if the better angels of the band’s nature had encouraged them to get a little high and find some danceable light in the doldrums. As someone who used to like the National, but always wished they could find their way back to the magic they harnessed in 2010, I stopped looking up new SSRIs and checked the track to see it was the genius work of something called Tuskers.
It’s incredible how exacting a project START CALLING MORGUES begins. Their sound is beautifully washed in the production of the 2010s by way of mid-‘90s crackle—in these hazy, almost hopeful tracks, you hear a bit of Berninger and Co, but really it’s an addictive gumbo of Neil Young, Alex G, Orville Peck, Kurt Vile, and Cloud Nothings, spinning into some beautifully potent poignancy. The music—written, arranged, and performed by ClickHole writer Chris Gilman—leads a Prince-level chase of perfect sound in production, with a neat trick of having each sound not only be distinguishable, but fade from one side of your headphones to the other, making it that much more dynamic.
Lyrically, the songs are relatable, splitting the difference between Dave Grohl-ish universal bluntness, the adult emo defeat of Bartees Strange, and the country poetry of a John Prine or Sturgill Simpson. On “Giving the Game Away,” for example, the first two lines are, “I got the strangest way of telling on myself / It’s like my soul has got a motor tic tic tic.” The sturdiness of the lyrics, which often have a refreshingly funny undercurrent, speak to the album’s staying power; a lovely violin part accompanies the words, toeing the line of sincerity and slight parody of sad songs like it, which only makes the song more engaging.
The bright production of the record helps the genuinely magnetic (hypnotic?) quality of the arrangements to truly shine. Every doubled vocal and harmony (“Rawmeat and Rainfall”) or Epiphone hollow-body lick (“In Living Preface”) is clear and warm, making the listen comforting bordering on necessary—even urgent. It’s exciting to hear something new you can really fall in love with, and word on the street is that there’s an absurdist Steam game coming with a brilliant MIDI score from Gilman next. For those looking for something mature with real production value, Tuskers might be your next favorite artist. Give it a scope over on Bandcamp. [Eric Farwell]
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