\n
![](\"\/images\/cctv.jpg\")
The NWI punk scene (that’s “Northwest Indiana”, believe it or not) has been responsible for an overflowing cornucopia of top-shelf punk music this year, mostly at the hands of one Mark Winter and his friends. The Coneheads certainly got the most recognition (the dreaded “people outside of the immediate underground punk scene taking notice and giving praise” scenario), but this 7″ by CCTV is its finest export thus far. I first heard this band from a freakin’ Tumblr MP3 link and was immediately hooked, and this four-song EP builds on that wonderfully, exhibiting ultra-speedy undistorted new-wave punk that instantly worms its way into your brain. It’s proof that a thoughtful four-track recording will forever out-do laptop recording software (or even most studios), and that no matter what the musical climate, there will always be amazing weirdos doing what they wanna do all by themselves. <\/p>\n![](\"\/images\/daughncarnation.jpg\")
I willingly acknowledge that I am probably Daughn Gibson’s biggest fan, but even with full awareness of that fact, where was the rest of the world when Carnation<\/i> came out? It’s not even that the vast majority of indie critics and radio DJs and bloggers who loved All Hell<\/i> hated on Carnation<\/i>, it’s that no one even seemed to acknowledge its existence at all. Fucking SPIN<\/i> lists Daughn as one of their “artists to watch” or whatever and then doesn’t even review the follow-up to his Sub Pop debut! I suppose that’s a not-totally-unexpected outcome for a record as singularly-minded and fearless as this, carving out an entirely separate path from whatever people expected of Daughn Gibson and breaking into territory I can only assume the world will eventually catch up to. The whole record exists in a mist of sad longing, while each track takes on a different role, like eleven fascinatingly different movies from the same director, all rich with their own bent characters, evocative moods and all-too-real human emotion. I must’ve listened to “For Every Bite” a hundred times this year, and each time it made me feel like I was Charles Bronson, walking into a bar where ZZ Top is playing pool and George Thorogood is pouring shots, fresh from the revenge-murder of the thugs who kidnapped my daughter. What do you want music to do for you if not that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"