>> Four songs of beautifully dumb glam-punk make up the debut self-titled EP by Boyfriends released this week, a convergence of current and former members of Whip Hands, R.S.O., and Great Western Plain. Four songs, about 14 minutes; all super slash-and-burn, with simple hooks reluctantly doing their work beneath peaking needle frequencies a la the late Jay Reatard. Tides of high end and treble threaten to steer the melodies off course, with palpable energy surging through the recording. “Sabertoothache” gives us the most satisfaction, with the band launching into a couple of real payoff choruses starting at about 45 seconds in. Portland really got its trashpunk scene in order the last few years, and we hope to get our hands on more Boyfriends soon. | myboyfriends.bandcamp.com
>> The Americana-folk musician Ryan Flaherty, who performs frequently in town under the moniker Muddy Ruckus, put up a studio session on the exclusive sessions music label Daytrotter, putting him in company with musicians like Deer Tick, Tim Kasher (of Cursive), Beach House, and Speedy Ortiz. For people who can’t get enough of mainstream indie rock, the Daytrotter model seems like a hot ticket, pumping some scarcity and preciousness into a digital landscape that tends to saturate and thus devalue music. We’re not allowed to hear Flaherty’s five tracks without paying money, but we can hear the six songs of his old victrola country-folk record Convalescent Angel at his bandcamp. | muddyruckus.bandcamp.com
>> As is their wont, Metal Feathers released a three-song single called Epidural last week, with just about as little fanfare as possible. The trio have perfected the art of writing tossed-off songs as impactful as hits, and disguising their meaningful songs as throwaway trash — basically the rock-and-roll holy grail. We’ll leave you to guess which one is “Such a Good Singer Only Need One Note,” but the seven-minute “Snow Day” is as brilliant as this band gets, spinning a sample of ecstatically bad drum fills into a colorfully dubby post-punk track that sounds like Durutti Column or the Happy Mondays. How they do it we don’t know. The scuttlebutt is that their forthcoming — and fourth — full length is just about ready to go. We hope it’s as satisfying as Handful of Fog, but we’d settle for it being just as divisive. | metalfeathers.bandcamp.com
