Stay Warm, Listen to Music
More new music picks and some light ranting
It's been a minute but I’m back. I’d be lying if I said I was working on new Orbiting Punk writing. I’ve mostly been trying to get my life in order these past few weeks because I quit my job to pursue more writing and photography. As of last Friday, I’m basically unemployed (or self-employed if I want to rephrase it a little more positively).
I grew deeply unhappy with my previous full-time position, effectively working at a call center for a medical corporation. But I’m at a point where I’m logistically capable of taking this leap back into my creative work as I did in years past.
Hopefully, I’ll find a part-time gig somewhere to help while I’m starting out, but if you or someone you know in the New Orleans metro area is looking for photos or help with press kit-type stuff, I’m willing to work. I even do weddings!
I shot a show/wedding last week for an artist in a local band Atomic Broad. They just put out a new EP too which has some of their tightest-sounding work yet— heavily inspired by bands like Green Day, Against Me!, Pansy Division and Dog Park Dissidents. But I’ll get more into them in another round of Orbiting Punk Picks.
It’s been a wild few weeks. We’ve had symptoms of the climate crisis in the form of the California wildfires, TikTok was briefly banned, Trump’s inauguration was yesterday (coincidentally on MLK day no less). The best news was probably the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement but even still all signs seem to point towards the continuation of cultural and systematic Palestinian genocide despite the pause on overt bloodshed.
Let's see what else…
Oh right! New Orleans has been getting a lot of attention for worst reasons again. We had the New Year's Eve attack on Bourbon Street which revealed the city's priorities remain focused on football and tourists over everything.
Our officials treat New Orleans’ issues like a kid cleaning their room, just stuffing all the problems in the closet or under the bed in hopes that no one will notice the putrid filth hidden away.
Why worry about working infrastructure like barricades when you can just put pretty lights on the bridge or paint the interstate poles pretty colors?
They’re even spending over $16 million to round up unhoused folks and throw them in a Gentilly warehouse till the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras crowds leave. This all echoes what the Jeff Landry administration did for the Taylor Swift concerts last year.
Asshole tourists can’t face the reality that the unhoused exist so we gotta clear ‘em out.
New Orleans has a high population of unhoused people for many reasons but it’s my opinion that unhoused folks come here because we are one of the few places in the region that even remotely tolerates their existence.
From hostile architecture to unlivable cities for those without a car, much of the Gulf Coast is inhospitable to homelessness. Louisiana and cities like Baton Rouge have outright banned panhandling with road signs warning “your generosity” is “fatal.”
I’m ranting a bit but to build this to some kind of point, if you come to New Orleans as a tourist, the bare minimum you can do is be respectful to the locals, especially the houseless because they’re being kicked down the road like a can for you being here.
Shit’s dismal but hey, at least there’s music.
Orbiting Punk Picks
Zeta - “Was It Medicine To You?”
Venezuelan post-hardcore outfit Zeta has grown sizable following by touring underground scenes around the country for two decades. Based out of Miami, Zeta has consistently recorded music since 2010 evolving with each record.
However, across the releases, they have maintained a few core tenets— big walls of polyrhythm guitar, an expansive percussion section pulling from Latin music tradition and a message of defiant unity.
This is their first album where they almost entirely sung in English and it features Anthony Green of Circa Survive as well as Money Nicca aka Pierce Jordan of Soul Glo.
The record feels like a leftist rallying cry to break down differences and recognize our shared struggles.
Prostitute - “All Hail”
Droning noise rock from Detroit, Prostitute viscerally captures nightmarish realities experienced by many in the Middle East oppressed by Western foreign policy.
Vocalist Moe specifically aims to capture the experiences of his family and friends in Lebanon but the band has done benefit shows for Palestine and Sudan as well.
This track and its music video (which might be the best use of AI I’ve seen yet in a music video) best presents the frenzied duress of both their lyrics and soundscapes. Using a sample from Japanese experimental rock band Ground Zero, crooning horns rise all around like steep canyons before a rockslide of battering percussion and earthen guitar bury everything within the gorge.
Rosemary nods upon the grave - “EP1”
Another record with the vibe of being crushed by debris, this is the first release from a new Savannah, GA post-hardcore band channeling cryptic and nostalgic lyrics into lush, melancholic soundscapes.
Sidenote, the band was in a cute TikTok (hopefully still available) where a wedding photographer warned the band she’d make a lot of noise using a machine to prepare balloons before realizing what kind of band they were (she even documented going to the band’s release show too).
Side-sidenote, the band features Nat Lacuna of Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir but instead of vocals, he plays bass for Rosemary nods upon the grave.
Atomic Broad - “The Hand Grenade”
The aforementioned Atomic Broad released a three-song EP a week after vocalist Skylar Rose Stravinsky threw a punk show with their partner to get hitched.
My favorite track, “Bite My Tongue” opens up with a marching floor-tom beat similar to Green Day’s “Longview,” as Skylar lays out the story of her younger self aspiring to escape the circumstances that prevent her from coming out completely. It’s a “get-out-of-my-hometown” type track but with an explicitly transgender twist that I think anyone who identifies as queer can find catharsis within.
OMG I'll definitely spend an entire afternoon savoring this... :)))))