Nevermind

 *opens sealed envelope and leans forward*

The 2021 IMU Award for Biggest Surprise goes to Big Nothing - Dog Hours!

I guess that it's fair to say that I was already a fan of Big Nothing, as I liked their debut 2017 EP a lot, and enjoyed their first full-length pretty well, if less than the EP, too. I also saw them play a great show supporting the EP in the summer of 2017 and it was one of those nights that reminds you that punk is good, the scene still exists, and that it isn't you, it's just what you do.*

*A band that my friend Autumn was in opened this show, but the singer started throwing up all over their guitar pedals out of nerves like 20 seconds into the first song and the band didn't start back up after that. I empathize with them, but also can't lie and say that it wasn't funny in a cringe way. After the set Autumn said, in classic Autumn style, "I don't know what they were upset about. It was mostly water." Big Nothing, making me respect them a lot, mentioned how much guts it took to perform at the start of their set.

I knew that I would check out their new album Dog Hours eventually, but it also wasn't at the top of my most-anticipated releases. Colour me dumb because it's by far the best thing that either they or Spraynard have put out. The punk is turned down and the jangle pop is turned way way up to huge dividends. Only at the end of February, but it's at the top of my list so far.

All We Seem to Love is the Darkness

 I first meant to check out Greet Death after they did an interview on blink-155 as a full band, which is basically the best thing you could do to win my attention, and I planned to go see them on tour in Montreal, but that fell apart like the rest of the world did with COVID-19 taking off.

They stuck around in the back of my mind since then, but I also lumped them in with Deafheaven as a blackgaze band for some reason. I listened to one of their new singles on my Spotify Release Radar playlist recently and thought it was good and then found myself thinking "Hey, this is good and right up my alley" when another one came on before I realized it was them.

That sort of experience convinced me that it was finally time and I put on their record New Hell twice today while I worked on my thesis proposal. I know I've mentioned a few times before that there a sweet spot in shoegaze for me and this is absolutely dead centre. The songs hit me pretty well and at certain points it felt like they knew it was currently that awful point between the middle and end of winter, where it's still dark, always wet, and lingering more than you thought it would. I figured that was a coincidence, but when I saw that they were from Flint, I realized they knew this feelings too.

Nothing else to say, just that I am really enjoying this record and it feels perfect for this moment.