Greetings, reader. My name is Douglas. I’ve been serving on KDUR’s board of directors since my freshman year at Fort Lewis College, and a musicophile since Smash Mouth's All Star. As of late I’ve been working closely with the Music Department. I feel inclined to bring The Independent reviews of two killer records every two weeks. Welp, let’s get this mudfight underway. First up is…

THE REGRETTES – Feel Your Feelings Fool! – Warner Bros. Records

I know what you’re thinking: “Douglas, Warner Bros. is a major label! What are you, as a KDUR volunteer and student media-liaison, doing recommending us this mainstream ish?” Well, to that I reply with the following: “Feel Your Feelings Fool!” is the Regrettes major label DEBUT. I’m talking well-earned funnymoney for this four-piece Los Angeles-based punk outfit. Warner Brothers merely helped provide this minimalistic group with the tools needed to make a heavy record. After wracking my memories, I remember LA being aggressive, hot, and awesome. The Regrettes are all of those adjectives and more, all the while not giving a single care what their listeners think about their hard-to-pin-down style. Their guitars are grungy, beats consistently necessary, but above all else their lyrics are real. If you’ve ever felt angst, you’ll dig this record. If you’re feeling angst now, you’ll loathe me for thinking I know what media interests you—but you oughta give this record a chance. Several songs on “Feel Your Feelings Fool!” bluntly confront societal expectations of women (A Living Human Girl, Ladylike/WHATTA [Expletive]), while other songs depict the struggles of maintaining a modern romance. Several of the tracks serve as meditations on people who have affected the lives of the Regrettes, yet the listener will always remember an individual unique to their own. Powerful media are about sprinkling our lives with a little agency, right?

FOCUS TRACKS FROM FEEL YOUR FEELINGS FOOL! TO BE STREAMED AT WILL:

(Ranked by rockability):

Ladylike / WHATTA [Expletive]

A Living Human Girl

Hey Now

Lacy Loo

Seashore

How It Should Be

Picture Perfect
 

PLAGUE VENDOR – BLOODSWEAT – Epitaph

I was 16 upon attending Warped Tour in Salt Lake City for 90 minutes, tops. Us three degenerates traveled south to see Wax and Watsky perform their sets, both rappers having greatly influenced my appreciation for quasi-sensitive hip-hop. As a 16-year-old from Wyoming, whatever made me uncomfortable was almost instantly written off as being bad. We spent a good portion of that fateful weekend making fun of metal bands and coming up with faux bandnames of our own (BloodNut, and 666 Feet Deep being the only two I can recall today). One band performing that we dismissed quickly, solely based on their name was Plague Vendor. Five years later, PV releases their sophomore effort Bloodsweat, and it demands to be taken seriously. It’s all too easy to write off PV’s second record as being loud and angry, but once placed in the proper context, Bloodsweat is a passionate half-hour of music working through individual struggles of sexuality and romance, crime, and some good ol’ anti-establishment. PV questions existing societal establishments, wondering who is in charge, and why. Asking what any of it means anymore while parallely offering intense motivation through gritty sound.

“Where’s your country now?

Where’s your country been?

Where’s your country’s son, dear God Uncle Sam?” (Plague Vendor, Chopper)

FOCUS TRACKS FROM BLOODSWEAT TO BE STREAMED AT WILL:

(Ranked by headbang radius, largest to least):

Chopper

No Bounty

Credentials

Giving In, Going Out

Ox Blood