New Orleans Scene Update
Bands that have blown up in New Orleans this year or are doing cool new stuff
Few cities are as weird and fxxked up as New Orleans. I’m not going to say some cliche like “nowhere else compares,” but I will argue that there hasn’t been a punk scene this vibrant and active that has remained so poorly documented. And since it's been a while, I figured a scene report at least briefly mentioning some of the awesome punk, metal, and alternative bands right now might do some good. I hope you, dear reader, check out some of these acts.
Big Scene Breakouts
Brat
Turning heads and breaking necks, Brat stands at the forefront of NOLA sludge metal. Even legendary local act EYEHATEGOD approves, taking them on tour almost like a symbolic passing of the torch.
Self-avowed “bimbo-violence,” Brat sounds like being impaled by acrylic nails that turn nail polish chips into festering gangrene. A Britney Spears sample between songs feels intensely refreshing in a scene full of machoism, sexism and general snobbery.
Their timing also couldn’t be better with the recent wave of metal and hardcore bands fusing the aesthetics of soft girls and bro metal like Scowl, Gel, and Gouge Away, to name a few. It’s not the first time something like this has happened in the punk world but Brat does it well.
They’re tight, brutal, and Liz Selfish's vocals will make you question your gender biases.
Kawaii AF
Pop punk and grindcore seem diametrically opposed in every way. Still, the beauty of NOLA’s underground is that anime-loving scenesters like Kawaii AF can cohabitate with the bands on this list.
Although I’m not a huge fan of selling nostalgia and this style, Kawaii AF speaks to a nerdy branch of punk kids who are not “hard” enough for hardcore but too “weird” to be normies. I have to mention that their claim to fame is a viral cover of a Five Nights at Freddies song— do with that as you will.
Suburbanites get a lot of hate (sometimes deservingly), but these Metairie mall rats open the gates to counter-culture with their influence locally and on TikTok. Beyond that, Kawaii AF is helping create a space in the scene for POC, teaming up with organizations like Punk Black to do it, so they have my respect.
Special Interest
The esoteric disco punks fighting their damndest to not be type-cast as anything other than no-wave while championing working-class struggles, queer and POC issues. They’re one of those bands with mountains of hype online at all the major music publications but they actually deserve it.
It’s throttling, electric dance-punk at its finest, full of thoughtful lyricism and dynamic experimentation. There isn’t much I can say about this band that hasn’t been said, but they deserve your ears regardless.
Dog Park Dissidents
If Special Interest is the band too cool for labels, Dog Park Dissidents is the band that is painfully on the nose. Their songs “Queer as in Fuck You” and “Trans Starship Feminist Bdsm Paradise” sums it up.
New Orleanian by way of Long Island and Philly (so maybe they aren’t NOLA but I’ll give it to them), write straight-up melodic punk similar to The Ergs but like Brat, aren’t afraid of including a little Britney Spears into their set. They also have a penchant for politics and mischief.
At Southern Decadence this year, one of the largest gay pride events in the South, they booked a mini-festival with Pansy Division. Sponsored by Bad Dragon, the event they called “When We Were Hung" had hundreds of people show up but was cut short before Pansy Division could play.
The cops shut it down, threatening to arrest some of the band and the audience over a zoning issue. Hosting a major queer-core festival and getting forced off stage by the cops might be the most punk thing anyone on this list has done.
Sick Thoughts
Rock ‘n’ roll punk built for outrageous performances, drunken brawls and scummy dudes, Sick Thoughts is Drew Owen’s brainchild which he started alone as a teen seven years ago. He stepped away from the project to work with other notable punk bands in NOLA, like Trampoline Team, Total Hell and Fat Savage.
Four years later, Owen’s returned with his latest album, “Heaven is No Fun,” which has earned decent attention on top of the 19-show tour they’ve been on for the past month. It’s fast, jangly guitar pop with fun lyrics on songs like “I Hate You” and “Mother, I Love Satan.”
I’m a relative newcomer to the NOLA scene, so the popularity for classic UK-style punk here that sounds like a garage version of the Ramones has fascinated me. Sick Thoughts stands as a pillar in that time capsule of community that proves punk is not dead so long as NOLA exists.
Bands to Watch
So many new local artists are doing cool stuff that deserves more attention. I threw together a few others that I’ve enjoyed this year and maybe you will too, probably idk:
UT/EX
Melodic hardcore of the skramz variety with driving drums, doom-esque guitars and bass with a lunging vocalist who does everything from piercing screams, deep gutturals and even spoken word moments. I think they’re recording a proper debut album currently.
Pope
You know how music writers like to call bands “All the best parts of ‘90s alternative” or something? Of course you don’t. Who reads that stuff? Anyway, Pope is all the best parts of ‘90s alternative. Something, something Dinosaur Jr., something something Pavement, something something Nirvana.
Also, they’re ex-members of Donovan Wolfington if you’re into that midwest emo or Turnover stuff.
Sodomite
Blackened crust punk with bleak basslines, complex drum patterns, noisy guitars and vocalist, [redacted], whose presence haunts the stage.
Guts Club
A weird little project morphing from twee-ish singer-songwriter to folksy roots to its current iteration as brutally heavy, doomish noise. Their latest release, “Cliff/Walls” Hyper repetitive, unrelenting walls of sounds that translates emotion into its most fundamental essence.
Hey Thanks!
Pop punk with spacey, synth hooks who signed with historic punk/emo indie label Iodine Recordings. They’re one of the leading artists in the current crop of “mopevvave” bands, a DIY movement centered around Louisiana bands. Read my interview with them here.
D. Sablu
Maximumrocknroll-core recorded by one guy, gov’t name David Sabludowsky, with filthy basslines, shredding guitar, a minimalistic drum machine and David’s empowered vocals.
Other mentions:
Casual Burn, Crush Diamond, Metronome the City, The Nancies, Poose the Puppet, Rich Octopus, Tiny Dinosaur, Where Nothing Burns, Joystick!, Bad Operation, Delores Galore, People Muesuem, and tons more but I’ll leave it there.
Orbiting Punk Playlist #8
Big playlist with as many of these bands as I could fit.
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