Freak Scene #49: The Year End Edition

In this week’s Freak Scene, Jamie Johns discusses the year’s best singles, full lengths, cassettes and shows. Somehow it includes no mention of the band Emeralds. Check her writeup after the jump!

Read More

Video: Grass Widow, “Over the Hill”

The name Grass Widow refers to a woman who has had an illegitimate child or a woman separated from her husband, either by divorce or temporarily by the sea or space or something like that. It also sounds like the name of a super villain or a witch. Not sure if this video is meant to be creepy, but the sustained shot of the band in wedding dresses slowly walking toward a camera on a serene hill in the middle of the day is borderline bone-chilling. But the song is still great—pair it with this, and then tell the band they need to press more copies of their album.

Read More

Grass Widow, “Yellow Balloons” MP3

When we first saw Grass Widow a couple months back they played on a small stage separated from a bar by a massive curtain. We crammed up against their merch table and watched as they tore shit up with a sound that combines the stripped-down energy of early K Records bands, high register vocals and a bass that bulldozes through pretty much everything. But now there’s more: “Yellow Balloons” has a horn section that changes it from what is essentially a rickety and somewhat twee (in a good way) anthem into something more grand and calamitous. Grass Widow have an album out right now on Make a Mess and a 7-inch coming out soon on Captured Tracks.



Download: Grass Widow, “Yellow Balloons”