Habitual Eater‘s second and latest single “She’s No Pressure” much like its immediate predecessor is a glitchy bit of dance punk centered around propulsive drumming, angular blasts of guitar and fluttering synths paired with lyrics delivered with a distracted deadpan - and yet, the song is centered around a complicated mix of loathing and desire. Lavie’s Van Goose full-length debut Habitual Eater is slated for a Marelease, and as you may recall, album single “ Last Bus” was a twitchy and propulsive bit of post-punk that to my ears reminded me of Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, early DFA Records, as it featured a lean yet throbbing bass line, chintzy drum machine and processed beat and hollowed out synth flashes paired with surrealistic, ridiculous lyrics it’s dance music for hyperactive and neurotic nerds, who can’t dance yet want to. It felt oddly safe.”Īfter that project’s run, Lavie pursued two entirely different paths - he joined the multi-platinum selling act Marcy Playground in 2008 and started his solo recording project Van Goose. “We had people with gas masks handing onions to the crowd, dancers and a rubber rat. “I was playing a character - wearing face paint and screaming in a raspy, Tom Waits-y voice,” he recalls. That’s when I started writing my own music.” Lavie’s first post-Habiluim project was something like a manic theater piece with an electro-punk soundtrack rather than a proper band. “I always felt like something was missing,” Lavie explains in press notes, “like there’s a whole world inside my head about to explode. If you were frequenting this site late last year, you would have come across a post on Shlomi Lavie, an Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and drummer, best known for stints Habiluim, an unlikely Israeli major label act that developed a reputation for pairing dark and subversive lyrics into a heady mix of punk rock, Balkan folk and klezmer music - and it eventually brought him and his bandmates to a Brooklyn recording studio.

The band has two upcoming NYC area shows - Jat The Footlight and Augat 11th Street Bar. “Golden,” Wild to Be Born‘s latest single is an anthemic, mosh-pit friendly bit of fuzz pop centered around layers upon layers of power chords, thunderous drumming and ironically delivered lyrics - and while the song will remind some listeners of Dinosaur, Jr., JOVM mainstays Dead Stars, The Colour and the Shape-era Foo Fighters and others, the hook driven track possesses the urgent and anxious air of our sociopolitical moment the one we feel and observe within out every interaction, thought, movement and dreams. Interestingly, the album’s title is derived from the untamed sentiment of the album’s material - and a general feeling of being ravenous for some kind of awakening.

Recorded at Brooklyn-based Holy Fang Studios, Big Cheese’s third album reportedly find step band expanding their sound with the material drawing from Americana, grunge and others. The band’s forthcoming Oliver Ignatius-produced third full-length album, Wild to Be Born is slated for a Septemrelease. Since their formation back in 2012, Brooklyn-based indie rock act Big Cheese has released two albums - 2014’s Loose Teeth and 2016’s Supersonic Nothing -that have helped the band develop a reputation for crafting 90s alt rock-inspired fuzz pop anthems paired with sarcasm-soaked lyrics.

The footlight bar