Welcome back to Bonus Track, the monthly column where I look back on the last few weeks, share some thoughts, and maybe even put you on to some great music. Glad to have you here.
Here’s what I’ve got this month:
- Talkin’ bout a revolution
- Thoughts on new LPs from Cheekface, Courting, and Coheed and Cambria
- A spotlight on A Place For Owls
Who Must Plant the Seeds of Revolution?
Spring is blooming here in Durham. Somehow, the leaves are just now budding, breaking the several-year tradition of the pollening coming earlier and lasting longer. While February 2024 had me sneezing and reaching for a daily Claritin, we’ve been in a sweet spot ever since. Every season has been as much as you could ask for: not too many scorchers in summer, a temperate autumn, and cold but sunny (and snowy!) winter days. A calendar year to relish in the face of our increasingly worrying climate change future.
Pollen aside, the re-emergence of life — and welcoming of new forms — after winter is my favorite time of the year. The air starts to smell like the end of a school year. Nighttime bonfires with friends starting back up. Eventually, the neighborhood deer aunties wander through the yard with a train of fawns close behind. Like clockwork, one of my favorite lyrics from a previous band pops into my head this time: “We celebrate the rosebuds as if they’re something new / But we’ve never known the springtime as we are today.” (Shout-out to Phil Smith!)
There are also an impressive number of birthdays around March and April, including mine and my dad’s. The latter celebrated his 60th, surrounded by three of his six(!) siblings, a few weeks ago. For them, it was a chance to catch up for the first time in several years. I was excited to do the same but also found it eye-opening to see how they perceive the threat of Trump 2.0 as they enter retirement age.
Claiming that America is in a crisis is not a hot take. How the crisis is defined depends on who you ask and where they draw the line on human rights. Some may be okay with “keeping trans athletes out of sports” without considering the flagrant abuse that both cis- and transgender femmes will suffer as a result. Others can ignore their neighbors being taken for “driving while brown in Maine” or “writing a pro-Palestine essay on a student visa” because they think they’ll be spared.
Make no mistake: an assault on the rights of any marginalized group is an assault on everyone in our society. And as much as billionaires want to say they are unfairly attacked, they’re not. Any abuse they claim to suffer is a small price to pay for more wealth than entire nations. So don’t get it twisted.
Speaking out in justified rage is the only non-violent response we have to literal hate speech. Every day, we are bombarded with terrible new policies. Institutions are bending the knee in advance to save themselves. Our individual existences are being made smaller and more disparate to weaken the power we share as a collective. If there is ever a time to be defiant, this is it.
Find a local group in your city or town. Attend or organize a protest. Tell your federal reps to do more, then do the same with your city/town council.
The world doesn’t owe us, and the future is uncertain. Let’s make sure every moment counts until these oligarch shitheads pay their fair share or fuck off to Mars. Ideally both.
In Case You Missed It…
I only had five articles to share last month, but that number has doubled this time around. How did that happen?! The list kicks off with a guest post of mine for I Have That on Vinyl and follows with the latest posts from around these parts:
- No Band Does Vinyl Packaging Like mewithoutYou — a self-explanatory guest post on my love for mewithoutYou
- Interview: Slow Teeth — Being in a band of “professional side guys,” preparing to open for Explosions in the Sky, and the creative escape of ephemeral art
- New Music NC: February 2025 — Featuring Rosary, Tan and Sober Gentlemen, and 40 new releases from North Carolina artists
- Interview: Fifth Floor — Expanding from solo project to 4-piece pop rock outfit, spreading love in the local scene, and lessons learned from their debut EP
- In Keep Driving, It’s Never Too Late for Now — This new management RPG captures what makes road trips nostalgic with a soundtrack that makes each journey unforgettable
- Interview: Evan Plante (True Optimist) — Giving yourself permission to be different, changing your creative perspective, and what a DIY album rollout looks like in 2025
- Interview: Jacob Ware (Rapt) — Economic realities of being a musician, recontextualizing earlier ideas and influences, and the excitement of turning 30
- Interview: ColorMeKrazy! — Coming together as like-minded musicians, building a fanbase with consistent quality, and translating the in-studio sound to the stage
- Interview: Kinda Nice — Forming at Girls Rock NC 2019, navigating line-up changes during COVID, and having a hit song among 7-year-olds
- Interview: Ben Noblit (of Tan and Sober Gentlemen) — Following your musical ancestry, combining old-time traditions with punk rock, and putting out a raucous live album
Needless to say, it’s been a busy month here at Blank Tapes! But we’re not slowing down; April is already booked with an exciting blend of interviews and a special 20-year album retrospective.
This Month in Music
Cheekface — Middle Spoon [Self-released]
Cheekface, America’s local band (and 2024 Rewind entrant), did it again. They took their meat and potatoes of catchy “nerd rock” and found some exciting ways to spice it up. The end result manages to top their previous best record, It’s Sorted, which came out less than 14 months earlier.
Like the group’s approach, there’s no need to overcomplicate things here. The hooks are hookier, the lyrics are more biting yet fun than ever, and nearly every song is worth your attention. The most surprising track for fans and newbies is “Military Gum”, which features Richmond, VA rapper McKinley Dixon over one of the band’s heaviest instrumentals.
Overall, this record is yet another reminder from Cheekface that building a following without a label’s backing is possible. You might be living lo-fi, but you’ll be living.
Top Tracks: “Art House”, “Rude World”, “Military Gum (feat. McKinley Dixon)”
Courting — Lust for Life, Or: ‘How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story’ [Lower Third / PIAS]
I wasn’t familiar with Courting before their third album was released on March 14th. But I saw their name pop up from some writers I admire and gave it a shot. After a short string-led intro, my immediate impression was “oh god, is this the whole album?” Not to say what I heard on “Stealth Rollback” was bad — in fact, it’s one of my favorites now — but I worried its rave vibes would become one note.
Fortunately, the record pulled the “in the club” veil to reveal a complex blend of rock, electronica, and punk. “Pause at You” and “Namcy” were the double-header I needed to bounce around the house, curious to know what other tricks Courting could pull. And despite the roughly 26 minute runtime, it never manages to drag on or overstay its welcome. In the case of the title track, it ends right at a moment where you can’t help but want another few seconds.
If that wasn’t enough, the band is from Liverpool. (Let’s go, Reds.)
Top Tracks: “Pause at You”, “Namcy”, “After You”
Coheed and Cambria — The Father of Make Believe [Virgin]
I have to bend my self-imposed rule of only independent or NC-local music for this one, y’all. I hope you’ll forgive me because this is just a fantastic album from a legendary band.
For the uninitiated, Coheed has been putting out emo prog rock for over 20 years. All but one of their albums are a part of The Amory Wars: a sci-fi space opera that’s been expanded with comics and novellas. The “main arc” concluded with the band’s fourth album [No World for Tomorrow] in 2007 and has been followed up with prequels, sidequels, and sequels a plenty.
I didn’t get on the bandwagon until 2013’s The Afterman: Descension (not a bad entry point, IMO) and loosely kept up ever since. That lasted until 2022’s A Window of the Waking Mind, which consumed me for weeks with its dabbles in synth-pop and an epic proggy conclusion. And now we’re at The Father of Make Believe, their eleventh album and one of their best. It’s everything I love about the band in a new package. While it doesn’t top the highs of its predecessor, it’s still a fantastic and often tragic listen that ends up uniting disparate story threads.
Top Tracks: “Searching for Tomorrow”, “Play the Poet”, “Someone Who Can”
Overall, here are my top records from the month so far:
And here’s a convenient playlist of my favorite new songs in 2025:
Follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm if you feel so inclined.
Artist Spotlight: A Place for Owls
It’s hard to stand out in noisy physical/virtual worlds, especially for indie bands. And yet, whatever A Place For Owls is doing works because they were impossible to avoid in my social realm. Most people I follow and interact with on Bluesky love them; the band’s account and various members are active, making it fun to keep up with their antics.
After an excellent second LP [how we dig in the earth] last year, their newest release is a split 12” EP with Birthday Dad called My Friends Were Here. The 4-song batch has each band covering each other and contributing an original track. And y’all, it’s just some good poppy and emo rock. If you know me, you should know how much I love bands putting out excellent split EPs. I’m glad to see these two acts keep the format thriving.
That’s all for this month’s column. Thanks for reading, stay safe (and sane), and support local music. 🤘
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