Welcome to another installment of our monthly local music feature, New Music NC!
Each month highlights some of our particular favorites, followed by several categories to sift through. Think of it as your virtual record store, except all the music is new and local!
[Pst! Get included in a future issue!]
Top Selections
BANGZZ — Maybe She’s Born with it Maybe it’s a Trauma Response [Durham garage punk]
Y’all, this new album from BANGZZ (their second) is a nine-track assault of raw, grungy punk. Erika Kobayashi Libero (vocals/guitars) and Jess Caesar (drums) are not here to subtly suggest you examine your relationship with patriarchal expectations. They’re here to scream about dissociation, reproductive rights, and being conditioned to shrink until you disappear, then invite the listener to join the howl. It’s so cathartically loud, noisy, and satisfying.
If you’ve ever wanted an album that gives you explicit permission to stop being polite and start getting feral, well, here’s your excuse.
Top Tracks: “Hypocritical”, “Stuck”, “I Feel Like Shit”, “Utility”
Boygirl Rising — Campaign Funds & Blood [Raleigh folk punk]
The two years since Boygirl Rising’s first album, This Is An Intervention, have been spent doing everything except sitting still: hosting Slugfest, launching Junkmail Records, and generally becoming a folk punk scene’s personification. Campaign Funds & Blood is a record that proves you can build an interstate queer folk community and still have time for poignant thoughts on the state of an increasingly dystopian world.
Sonically, they’re working that anti-folk trick of making the hyper-specific feel universal, sharing their own messy particulars until suddenly you’re like “wait, that’s so real.” It’s made better by the authenticity that only comes from folks too busy to be held back by perfection.
Top Tracks: “Pipedream”, “Service and Devotion (Work Song)”, “Sluts Have Feelings Too”
Fifth Floor — i put everything into this [Greensboro pop rock]
I won’t lie, these guys became one of my favorite up-and-coming bands in the statewide scene after the first 30 seconds of their debut EP, it’s not that serious. What can I say? They’ve got this catchy blend of poppy rock influences that just hooks me. And less than a year after that EP, they’re back with a full record that goes beyond earworm bangers to include introspective slow jams. The production from the wizards at SpiceHouse is top-notch, elevating these tracks to even higher heights.
Top Tracks: “CRASHOUT”, “ice king”, “WHAT?!?!”, “man, these people can’t drive”
Sufferin’ Fools — Forest for the Trees EP [Weaverville country rock]
Sufferin’ Fools didn’t just record Forest for the Trees in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. They lived through it, then set up microphones and worked through it together because sometimes the only way to process a catastrophe is to plug in and play.
What they’ve created is a small set of woody, lived-in country rock songs about loss, regret, and hard-won acceptance. Cameron Thomas writes like someone who knows the best memories fade and wants to pin them down before they disappear entirely. The band plays like they’re inhabiting those stories themselves, turning personal reckonings into communal campfire confessions.
Top Tracks: “Forest for the Trees”, “Ain’t No Saint”, “Sufferin’ Fools”
Monthly Round-up
Rock, alternative, and punk
American Death Cult — Cult Visions [Greensboro garage rock]
American Goner — The Patina Of Heartbreak [Raleigh alt rock]
Brad Heller — From What You’ve Built [Wilmington roots rock]
Chef Yetti and the Jelly Bellies — Seconds [Wind Blow alternative rock]
cuffing season — The Years No Longer Exist [Hillsborough alt rock/emo]
Herald the Signs Above — Bridges Out [Asheville pop rock]
Kim Ware and the Good Graces — Grand Epiphanies [Kings Mountain country rock]
le Lotus — Midori [Raliegh alt rock/shoegaze/emo]
North Window — This Will All Go Up In Flames [Winston-Salem indie rock]
Once in Kyllini — A Spectre Falls Behind [Asheville alt pop]
Pana Please — Fallin’ Wah Wah Petals [Chapel Hill rock]
Self Made Monsters — Feral [China Grove punk rock]
Walkhome — Big Songs [Asheville rock]
What A Waste — What A Waste [Asheville emo/post-hardcore]
Wednesday — Bleeds [Asheville creek rock]
Electronic, ambient, experimental, and more
Circumvent — Malicious [Greensboro industrial/noise]
Danny.Boi.M — 9 Mundos [Raleigh dancehall/Latin/reggaeton]
Dead End Stop Driving — Dreams of a Past Life [NC lofi rock]
Deformati — Once Upon a Something Normal [Charlotte experimental electronic]
foraging — Water and Wolves [Swannanoa experimental]
Jacoozy — Still Afloat [Asheville rock/jam band]
Lila Cameron — THE LILA CAMERON POWER HOUR [Trinity experimental rock/avant garde]
no1uknw — nsync_backstreets_back.mp3.exe [NC electronic/IDM]
Phillip E. Mitchell — Dream a While: Retrospective Pop Songs [Marble traditional pop]
Stickerbush — hammer down set 9.19 [Charlotte electronic/IDM]
Talismanic — Be Kind [NC oldies/retro/pop]
Folk, Americana, and country
A Man Who Lived — 11-15 [Durham alt folk]
Bobby Laurie — Bragg Street [Raleigh acoustic folk]
Cassi-Oh — Stubborn Light [Asheville singer-songwriter]
Jimmy Thrasher — The Ever-Growing Book of Song [Mebane folk/singer-songwriter]
kelly bridges — porch demo [Raleigh emograss/mathfolk]
Maria Quiles — Dance The Wind [Chapel Hill singer-songwriter]
Ol’ Joey Scrums — A Damn Fine Time [Raleigh folk/Americana]
Pat Van Buren — Something to Take the Edge Off (Demos ’25) [Raleigh grunge folk]
Metal and hardcore
Doomsday Profit — Doomsday Profit [Durham sludge metal]
GLAE — Black Cloud [NC deathcore]
Kill Card — More War [NC beatdown metal]
Lilith Rising — Not Another Eve [Charlotte symphonic metal]
Rune Soldier — Labyrinth of Souls [Raleigh black metal/ambient]
Serrate — Even the Wind Sounds Dead [Asheville screamo]
Temptation’s Wings — StormForged [Asheville stoner metal]
Hip-hop/rap, soul, jazz, and funk
Kunai Chrome — Enviironment. [Charlotte alt rap]
Mr Rozzi and D.R.U.G.S. BEATS — Grumpy Old Men [Greensboro underground hip-hop]
Rrome Alone — Unreasonable Belief (Mixtape) [Raleigh conscious hip-hop]
Ready to get featured in our monthly roundup for new music from NC artists? Fill out this short form and we’ll include your latest release in a future issue!
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