Looking for something new to listen to? When in Charlotte, there is always going to be a plethora of choices to pick from, and this Friday, three new releases are paired up with live performance premieres, showing out some of the best talent the Queen City has to offer! Whether you make it out to these venues or have to settle (for now) with the recordings, here are a few collections worthy of your consideration.
Joe McGovern’s Dancing On The Decks – The Evening Muse, 7:30pm, $15
Emotional, versatile, and at times striking, Joe McGovern takes the thoughts on his mind and blends them up through a prism, crafting an album that shines through multiple genres in 2023’s Dancing On The Decks. Through the hip-hop poetry spliced with the casual instrumentation and rock beats on the title track and through blunt statements about how society is forced to exist under the capitalist system in “Jobs”, Joe does not mince words, and that’s the point. There’s a strong heart beating throughout the album that expresses distaste for the current era we live in, but also acknowledges through the ills of it all, there’s still purpose and passion worth finding even after the missteps that we make every so often, present in tracks like “Big Blue Sky”.
It’s Snakes’ Yes – Snug Harbor, 10pm, $12 to $15
Throughout It’s Snakes’ discography, there are countless reasons to start an impromptu dance party, and the trend continues in the band’s fourth album, Yes. Tracks like the starter “Garaji Maharaji”, “Blue Monte Carlo”, and “Finally Foghat” keep feet on the floor through Hope Nicholls’ gleeful vocals that delightfully plays along with the rest of the crew’s upbeat brand of rock n’ roll. A genuine heaviness does set in on other sections of the album, balancing out the tone, whether sheading a tear from the short excerpts from the path of the music business in “Bubblewrap”, the quieted meditation within thoughts present in “Bread”, or in the contrast between “Wash County” and its adjoining refrain. There is an ever-present yin and yang nature to Yes, taken as a whole, giving listeners multiple layers to re-listen through, but taking away none of the enjoyment present in It’s Snakes’ latest hit record.
Distracted Eyes’ Enjoy – Petra’s Bar, 8pm, $7
There is something haunting about Distracted Eyes’ debut EP, Enjoy, and it comes just in time for the beginning of the spookiest time of the year. Through the fuzzed guitar sections present in tracks like “Change” and “Fantasy”, paired with unusual noises that tend to creep in the backgrounds over the six-song collection, vocalist Mary Grace McKusick and producer Te’Jani pay homage to influences within horror game classics like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Often eerie, yet strangely alluring, listeners may come away after finishing the EP checking the nearby dark corners extra carefully, reassuring themselves that the noises are from the headphones and not from inside the house.
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