Welcome to August, the real rat days of summer. Every month here at RCR we publish a playlist of 10 songs we’re really digging. Aside from the fact that we’re a couple days late, we’re deciding to publish a feature piece to go along with the playlist, to put some words to the sounds. Here’s some of what will be in our ears this month, we think you’d like it, too! -Remy Merlot

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

QWAM: ...Something Bad

...Something Bad is the opening track from QWAM’s brand new sophomore album girls aren’t afraid of blood. This song is ominously noisy while also being perfectly sardonically melodic. Its tension and release are expertly bottled up, pointed straight at the heart, and shot out. We’re in the middle of the album as we write this, and it’s shaping up to be a zero-skipper. It’s like the best parts of Hole combined with the best parts of OG Avril Lavigne.

Dead Tooth: Chuckin’ and Wingin’ it

We featured a Dead Tooth song in our email newsletter, Jack Dawson. It was the final single in anticipation of their self-titled debut album. Now the album’s out, it’s good, and we want to feature another song from it. Chuckin’ and Wingin’ it has this outlaw-psychedelic energy to it that feels melted down by a scorching hot sun. It’s rugged, gritty, but also slightly dreamy. Another standout song from a standout debut LP.

Nilufer Yanya: Treason

This is the closing song of Nilufer Yanyas brand new four song EP Dancing Shoes. It’s slow, shuffling, intimate, hypnotic. It’s not quite jazz, not quite RnB, not quite alternative, not quite soul, but quite addicting. The soft breathiness of her voice and the relaxed, lush instrumentation have a transporting effect, and the whole EP does indeed make us want to put our dancing shoes on and hit a dimly lit rooftop to sway the night away.

Frost Children: WHAT IS FOREVER FOR

We’re a little late to the absolutely raving Frost Children party, but better late than never. A friend took us to a show in May where they opened for The Dare with a DJ set and we were knocked flat on our tails. It was like all the musical highlights from the Myspace Emo era got together in a club, took a hit of ecstasy, took another because they couldn’t feel anything, then promptly got electro-clashed into another dimension. Main point, don’t do drugs, you don’t need to because the music of Frost Children exists. WHAT IS FOREVER FOR is the third single from their new album Sister coming in September.

Flowers For The Dead: Perfect View

Perfect View is a quarter of Flowers For The Dead’s new EP First Place. We were first introduced to the group at NYC’s New Colossus Festival this year and we’ve been following the Washington D.C. trio ever since. Like a rose, their music is gentle with sharp thorns that have the ability to draw blood. They just wrapped up an East Coast tour, releasing the EP as a final celebration. We’re still kicking ourselves for missing their July show in NYC...

Fcukers: Play Me

Is Fcukers Rock and Roll? They rock, that’s for sure. And they make this list because their live show truly is a live spectacle that gets a room moving like no other. Our first introduction to them was as the jaw-dropping opener to one of LCD Soundsystem's Brooklyn winter residency show series. They’re in the middle of blowing up, with only an EP and a handful of singles to their name. We keep having fever dreams where we’re in the middle of their debut album, and we always wake up covered in sweat. Wish we had the words to describe what it sounds like.

Water From Your Eyes: Playing Classics

Playing Classics is a recent single from this Brooklyn duo's upcoming album It’s A Beautiful Place, out August 22nd. Water From Your Eyes have been around churning out critically acclaimed indie work for nearly a decade now, so we find it odd that we’ve barely even heard their name until recently. We haven’t dug into their history or discography with any good amount of due diligence, so we don’t want to say much about them. But we want to say that this song found its way to our little ears and is so intriguing that we can’t get it out of our head, and is making us curious enough to dive into their discography.

Forth Wanderers: Spit

Forth Wanderers made a splash on the indie scene in the early 2010’s, making it all the way to the Sub Pop roster and with a critically acclaimed self-titled album in 2018. Then they went silent, disbanded on a hiatus that seemed more permanent with each passing year. And now, surprise! They’re back with a brand new album The Longer This Goes On. Many thanks to a close-in-the-know friend for putting us on to this one.

Shred Flinstone: Wires

Did you remember to take your Flintstones vitamin today? Who are we kidding, it's probably been decades. Well, take a hit of this. This new single by the New York City shredders hooked us instantly with a thicker than butter baseline sliding into a whimsically heavy hitting riff. The bass muscles its way throughout the whole song, leisurely walking up and down hills as the song sings “I’m so tired, cut my wire”. We’re suckers for blended male/female vocals and this song hits that combination perfectly. We’ve seen Shred perform on several occasions, a favorite being a 2024 show at Tompkins Square Park where it rained cats and dogs among a dozen other crazy things.

Frog: JUST USE YR HIPS VAR. VI

This title makes us laugh every time we read it. It’s something you call a chaotically assembled demo that you don’t know what to do with. Like Water From Your Eyes, Frog are also indie cult heroes with a stretch of albums dating back over a decade. We got into them when they released 2023’s GROG. This song is from their most recent album 1000 Variations on the Same Song, released back in February. We love the sound of an old, fucked up, past-its-prime piano, and this song is built on a bed of ivory keys that have seen better days.