Minor Sick Degrees

Girl Group “Shut Your Mouth (Sometimes)”

“Shut Your Mouth (Sometimes)” gets a lot done in under three minutes: Pithy verses describing annoying experiences with obnoxious men sung by four members of the band over a bouncy yet vaguely sinister groove that sounds like a lost Le Tigre banger; a chorus hook that manages to sound biting, funny, and extremely sad all at once; a thumping electro bop outro. Everything about the song is dialed in just right – fun enough to play at a party or get people going at a show, but dark enough to convey the justified paranoia that any of these slights against them could be prelude to much worse indignities and violence.

Buy it from Amazon.

Osees “Sneaker”

The “Sneaker” in this song isn’t a running shoe, it’s a demonic trickster figure who distracts you, warps your sense of reality, and makes you lose hope and the will to live. So, an algorithmic feed, right? The song swings between two of the Osees’ core competencies – a polyrhythmic groove with a bobbing bass line that sounds like they’re trying to induce seasickness, and a barking hardcore punk section that’s more like whiplash. When they play this live, the pit will get extra wild.

Buy it from Bandcamp.