#48: Blab School 'Blab School' - Small Albums Best 50 Albums of 2024

[Repost from Small Albums; December 16, 2024]

#48: Blab School 'Blab School'

Here is a pick from each of our fave 50 albums we heard this year:

ALBUM: Blab School-Blab School

[Repost from Small Albums; June 26, 2024]

North Carolina's Blab School has one of the coolest band names in the world, and a sound to go along with it. There's a music descriptor trope that I hate, and that is the concept of "windows down on a summer day" sound. Blab School is 100% the antithesis of this sound and mindset. Play, "I Hate the Summer" and feel the bad vibes rise.

Blab School works in a certainty of heaviness without a tipping point. It stays on the shores of oceans full of red-eyed creatures and furious fangs, but who gets bit? And who just gets startled?

From the start, the darkness in the chord changes and the sickness in Ryan Seagrist's snarling delivery of lyrics, there's no room for a window to even be cracked. The smoke is staying inside. Elizabeth Killian shares lead vocal duties with a carelessness like screaming into a broken mirror and already having an answer you don't want to have to hear anyways.

The tumbling guitar lead of "Scrolls," or the absolute punishing of "Never Enough" keep a continual dirge of days that can't be differentiated from night. It's just all bleak and sounds amazing.

All the way through to the closer with the most appropriate title of this bummer-fest "(Don't Forget To) Give Up," Blab School leads in like a storm cloud and multiplies through the album into a crushing galaxy.

It's music to listen to when the sun devours space or vice versa.

New album: Blab School || Blab School

[Repost from Add to Wantlist; by Niek, June 12, 2024]

North Carolina quartet Blab School are a Craigslist success story. Veteran drummer Dave Cantwell (Analogue, Cold Sides, and In the Year of the Pig) put up an ad on the site and ended up forming a kind of supergroup that includes Ryan Seagrist (Discount, The Kitchen), Lizzie Killian (Glowing Stars, Teens in Trouble), and Fikri Yucel (Veronique Diabolique).

Their self-titled debut LP is out now on Fort Lowell Records. If you spun a carbon copy of this record, you’d find it rooted in the ’80s and ’90s alternative rock, new wave, and post-punk scenes. The diverse backgrounds of the musicians shine through in the variety of sounds Blab School explores. They practice a kind of DIY democracy where every member’s ideas get equal play, yet their collective sound remains as tight as a drum, striking with the impact of a single, unified vision. Bands like The Wipers, Superchunk, and Jawbreaker come to mind, but there are also echoes of Killing Joke.

Blab School is a noisy and dynamic record where nostalgic vibes and fresh energy go hand in hand. Don’t miss out!

Blab School – Blab School | Album Review

[Repost from Swim Into the Sound; by Brad Walker, June 10, 2024]

When you grow up in the orbit of an older brother, especially an older brother who could be considered “cool,” there is a sort of unapproachable quality to the bands he listens to… Or at least I think that’s how it is; I don't actually have any older siblings, cool or otherwise.

This is a long walk, but go with me.

I was twelve years old in the year 2000, so all the cool older brothers in my orbit were into bands like AFI, Deftones, Green Day, Bad Religion, Nirvana, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, etc., etc. Being one step removed from these bands may have actually made them seem even more unapproachable and cooler to me. There was something about the scorching disaffection and pseudo-masculine rage of this era of music that I found dangerously alluring at the time. It felt like I was getting into these bands at my own risk, which was part of the appeal.

Blab School’s self-titled debut album reminds me of this era of rock music, not necessarily in tone and sound, but in pure, intimidating coolness.

So, how does one talk about a band whose defining characteristic is that they sound cool? They say comparison is the thief of joy, but this is a band that wears its influences on its sleeve. In addition to my projecting the likes of Deftones, AFI, and Tool onto Blab School, it’s easy to hear the bands they’ve been openly inspired by. In their bio on the Fort Lowell Records website, they namecheck the Wipers, Talking Heads, Joy Division, and Killing Joke as their sonic and philosophical progenitors. More contemporaneously, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see them sharing a bill with bands like Flasher or Protomartyr. This is a record that is steeped in nostalgia, but you’re going to have to adjust your idea of whose past lives we are talking about when we use the word “nostalgia,” this isn’t The Strokes or The Black Keys.

Blab School doesn’t have a narrative arc; that’s not the kind of band they are. In fact, the record is a pretty lean affair, clocking in at just over in just over twenty minutes. Blab School is not trying to tell a story with this record, but that is not to say that they aren’t trying to convey a feeling, and that feeling is chilly disaffection. This fire-and-ice combination of unattainable coolness and simmering rage puts them in a lineage with every band they have likened to by both me and the band themselves. It’s also a proven method for creating compelling music.

This can be heard from the jump with the first two tracks: “Small Simple Ways” and "Scrolls." The former sounds like it would fit beautifully alongside The Smashing Pumpkins on the Batman & Robin soundtrack, and I mean that in the best way possible. The latter is a particular favorite of the band, as it is the first song they wrote post-lockdown, which seems appropriate for a song about doomscrolling (“can’t seem to stop, I’m clicking on buttons, just staring at nothing, back to the top… scroll down, scroll down”). This feeling of dissatisfaction with modern society is on display throughout the record, from “Quit Yr Job” (particularly poignant to me as I write this article while on the clock at a job I’m getting laid off from at the end of the month), to “Never Enough” (we all hate capitalism in this house), to the closing track, “(Don’t Forget to) Give Up” (try the refreshing taste of nihilism today).

But one of the most fascinating tracks on the record is “I Hate the Summer.” On this penultimate track, the band sings, “I hate the summer, I pray for rain. I hate the sunlight, mimosas, and champagne. I hate the beach and all the sand it brings. I hate the blue skies; I hate most hot-weather things.” They’ve got that summertime sadness! Now I’m from Ohio and Blab School is from North Carolina, so we experience very different summers, but I have always found folks that detest the sun and revelry of summertime a little… dorky? But you see, that’s what makes this song so important! In the context of the record, it might be the most important song of all. I’ve gone on and on about how impenetrably cool this band is for this entire article, and we get to the second-to-last song on the album, and it’s just someone whinging about how they’re too hot? It’s brilliant! It makes them human! It invites other dorky folks who get cranky when the weather gets above 72° to be like, “Yeah! They get it!” before bringing it back around to the realm of the unfathomable and the unflappable to wrap things up with “(Don’t Forget to) Give Up.”

Ultimately, there’s something to be said here about the anachronistic idea of “coolness.” What does it even mean to be “cool” in 2024 when the internet has rendered each and every one of us “cringe”? That may be overstating it, but at the very least, social media has revealed that most of us are relatively ordinary in our day-to-day lives... or maybe it’s just leveled the playing field. You can see pictures of Blab School all together as a band on their Instagram, and they look very normal despite the fact that they have made a profoundly cool record. They just look like me and my friends, and I appreciate them more for it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you can see that as a testament to everyone’s humanity. Just as your friends’ cool older brothers eventually become regular accountants, bitcoin miners, and managers at Chipotle, cool rock musicians are regular people, too. The coolness is part of the performance.

Pressing Concerns: Blab School

[Repost from Rosy Overdrive; June 6, 2024]

Blab School – Blab School

Release date: June 6th
Record label: Fort Lowell/Clearly
Genre: Punk rock, post-punk, noise rock, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Small Simple Ways

Blab School are a new band formed by four longtime North Carolina indie rockers in guitarist/vocalists Ryan Seagrist (Discount, The Kitchen) and Lizzie Killian (Glowing Stars, Teens in Trouble), drummer Dave Cantwell (Analogue, Cold Sides, In the Year of the Pig), and bassist Fikri Yucel (Veronique Diabolique). The band formed via a Craigslist ad in Durham, but Cantwell has since moved to Carolina Beach–however, rather than slowing things down, Blab School remain quite active, and their drummer’s relocation even led to their self-titled debut album coming out via Cantwell’s new neighbors, Wilmington’s Fort Lowell Records (Kicking Bird, Common Thread, James Sardone). Blab School’s members come from all sorts of musical backgrounds, but the eight-song Blab School (recorded in Yucel’s living room by Nick Petersen) has a meaty, tough, unified sound that straddles the line between “punk” and “post-punk”. Underground rock movements like Dischord-ish limber post-hardcore/post-punk and Albini-recorded noise rock/punk come to mind in places, while in others Blab School sounds straight out of the early 1980s.

Blab School kicks off in overdrive via the pounding, almost-emo punk rock of “Small Simple Ways” that reminds me a little bit of classic Jawbreaker, but the quartet then swerve into “Scrolls”, a dark, guitar-forward post-punk tune in the vein of Killing Joke or early Siouxsie & The Banshees. At twenty-two minutes, Blab School is a record with absolutely no room for excess or embellishment–the band sound driven and laser-focused for its entire length. Whether that’s the retro, almost garage-y punk of “Quit Yr Job”, the massive slab of alt-rock of “Never Enough”, or the Kill Rock Stars-y emotional spikiness of “Will I Ever?”, Blab School remains captivating into the middle of the record, and they even explore a bit of new territory towards the album’s end. The four-minute “Rhizome” and its hammering, wall-of-sound punk rock and final song “(Don’t Forget to) Give Up”, which incorporates a bit of Touch & Go noise-punk ugliness, are two of Blab School’s heaviest moments, both of which help the record start circling the drain as it begins to sign off. Judging by their opening statement, Blab School are the best kind of “new veteran band”–one that draws from the wealth of music its members have made in the past, but all in the service of a unified, coherent sound. (Bandcamp link)

Blab School: Blab School

[Repost from Here Comes the Flood; by Hans Werksman, June 6, 2024]

Durham, NC based post-punk quartet Blab School looked up a winning recipe in the playbook for recording an angry album. Their self-titled record brushes shoulders with both garage and goth rock, seasoned with a dressing of nihilism and not giving a fuck in general.

Nevertheless, it is very danceable and it will go down well with the dressed-in-black outsiders with a craving for old school twin guitars and an in-your-face rhythm section. It will clear the room of frat boys and sorority girls who might have wandered in by mistake.

Blab School:
Ryan Seagrist: guitar, keyboards, vocals
Elizabeth Killian: guitar, vocals
Dave Cantwell: drums
Fikri Yucel: bass, backing vocals

Blab School is released via Fort Lowell Records (hand-numbered - 100 copies - yellow translucent vinyl, digital).

Tracks:

1. Small Simple Ways
2. Scrolls
3. Quit Yr Job
4. Never Enough
5. Will I Ever?
6. Rhizome
7. I Hate the Summer
8. (Don't Forget To) Give Up

Live dates:

• 06/06 Pinhook - Durham, NC (record release show)
• 06/07 Satellite Bar & Lounge - Wilmington, NC (record release show)
• 07/05 The Cave - Chapel Hill, NC
• 07/06 Monstercade - Winston-Salem, NC
• 07/14 Pinhook - Durham, NC
• 07/27 Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern - Wilmington, NC
• 08/01 Petra's - Charlotte, NC
• 08/02 Cobra Cabana - Richmond, VA
• 08/03 [tbd] - Washington, DC

OUT NOW: Blab School 'Blab School' [Debut LP]

Blab School is a post-punk quartet from North Carolina. Their self-titled debut LP comes out on Fort Lowell Records on June 6, 2024. Taking philosophical cues from American post-punk bands like the Wipers and Talking Heads, also incorporating the goth-adjacent tones of bands like Joy Division and Killing Joke, and adding the often danceable and joyfully nihilistic aesthetic of 21st-century punk, Blab School makes music that is simultaneously urgent and fun, upbeat and crooked, loud and thoughtful.

Blab School came together after a drummer living in Durham, NC tentatively placed a Craigslist ad in hopes of starting a new band. Thus, the band started as (mostly) strangers from New York, California, and North Carolina: Guitarist and singer Ryan Seagrist from Discount and the Bis side-project The Kitchen; guitarist and singer Lizzie Killian’s from Glowing Stars and the still-thriving Teens in Trouble; drummer Dave Cantwell from many North Carolina bands since the early ‘90s, including Analogue, Cold Sides, and In the Year of the Pig; and bassist Fikri Yucel, formerly of Durham’s premiere faux-French new wave goth band, Veronique Diabolique.

Blab School recorded their self-titled LP in Fikri’s living room with Nick Petersen (who has recorded and mastered tons of NC bands, including Megafaun, Des Ark, HC McEntire, and several national acts like Bon Iver and the Melvins). It was mastered by Todd Rittmann (guitarist for US Maple and Dead Rider). “Scrolls” is a special track to the band because it was the first song Blab School wrote after people started getting vaccinated and coming out of the covid lockdowns. It is in some ways their most spontaneous and collaborative song: its chilly post-punk tone is tempered by the Blab School’s elation at a successful return to band life: rehearsals, shows, hanging out, and silly text threads. (The song’s “big dumb rock” ending is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but also an expression of sincere musical joy: when you listen to Blab School, hopefully the feeling makes sense.)

Since Blab School formed, drummer Dave moved to Carolina Beach, NC–almost three hours south of the rest of the band. But Blab School still keeps on going, rehearsing and playing shows at least as frequently as when they all lived in the same area. Dave says, “We’re a two-city band now, but maybe it makes us focused. And we kind of love it ‘cause now we can have twice as many venues to consider ‘home’. I mean, that’s more or less how we hooked up with Wilmington’s Fort Lowell and got this record out!”

Blab School's self-titled debut album is out on translucent yellow vinyl record and on all digital music platforms everywhere.

LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM // ORDER VINYL RECORD

OUT NOW: Blab School "Small Simple Ways" [Digital Single]

The third single "Small Simple Ways" from Blab School’s self-titled debut album is available now on all digital music platforms. For fans of Bad Religion, Buzzcocks, Descendants, Drive Like Jehu, The Faction, The Fucking Champs, Gang of Four, Green Day, The Hives, Hot Snakes, Jawbox, The Jesus Lizard, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Meatbodies, Melt-Banana, Metz, Osees, Pipe, Pissed Jeans, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Superchunk, The Thermals.

LISTEN NOW | PRE-ORDER VINYL LP

Blab School - "Scrolls"

[Repost from If It's Too Loud; by Ken Sears, April 10, 2024]

We were huge fans of Teens in Trouble's album What's Mine when it was released earlier this year. That led me to discover Blab School, which shares Lizzie Killian on guitar and vocals. The North Carolina band just released a new single, "Scrolls," and chances are if you liked Teens in Trouble, you're going to love Blab School. The press release for Blab School's upcoming debut album compares them to bands such as Jawbox, The Jesus Lizard, Drive Like Jehu, Superchunk, and Bad Religion, among others. I can't argue with any of those, but I hear the tuneful early indie rock/emo of Superchunk mixed with the primal power of The Jesus Lizard. If that even remotely interests you (and how could it not?), you're going to need to check out "Scrolls."

You can listen to "Scrolls" above. Blab School's self-titled debut album is due out June 6 on Fort Lowell Records, and is available for pre-order through Bandcamp. For more on Blab School, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram.

OUT NOW: Blab School "Never Enough" [Digital Single]

The second single from Blab School’s self-titled debut album is available now on all digital music platforms. "Early indie rock/emo of Superchunk mixed with the primal power of The Jesus Lizard" ~ If It's Too Loud

LISTEN NOW | PRE-ORDER VINYL LP

Blab School

[Repost from 3Hive; by Todd Simmons, March 11, 2024]

Blab School is a rad new band out of North Carolina. The band consists of Ryan Seagrist (Discount, The Kitchen), Elizabeth Killian (Teens In Trouble, Glowing Stars), Dave Cantwell (Analogue, Cold Sides, In the Year of the Pig), and Fikri Yucel (Veronique Diabolique). I found out about these guys when I read “FOR FANS OF: Bad Religion, Buzzcocks, Descendants, Drive Like Jehu, The Faction, The Fucking Champs, Gang of Four, Green Day, The Hives, Hot Snakes, Jawbox, The Jesus Lizard, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Meatbodies, Melt-Banana, Metz, Osees, Pipe, Pissed Jeans, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Superchunk, The Thermals” on Fort Lowell’s Instagram page, teasing their debut album. I was able to get my ears on a sneak peek from my friends at Fort Lowell, and I have been hooked ever since.

We are beyond stoked to bring you the premiere of the first single, “Scrolls”, from their incredible debut, self-titled album. “Scrolls” exceeded all my expectations from the list of “for fans of” above. It is a burner from the get-go with punishing drums, chunky bass lines, and razor-sharp guitars, sounding like Pretty Girls Make Graves meets Superchunk!

Blab School comes out in June via Fort Lowell Records. This is a must have record! You can pre-order it here and pre-save “Scrolls” here. Enjoy.

OUT NOW: Blab School "Scrolls" [Digital Single]

The first single from Blab School’s self-titled debut album is available now on all digital music platforms. “It is a burner from the get-go with punishing drums, chunky bass lines, and razor-sharp guitars, sounding like Pretty Girls Make Graves meets Superchunk!” ~ 3hive.com

LISTEN NOW | PRE-ORDER VINYL LP

Also, today is a very special for an entirely other reason: Happy Birthday to Fikri Yucel, bass player of Blab School! w00t!w00t! Let’s eat cake, AND rock out! 

Pre-Order Blab School Debut Vinyl LP

Blab School is a post-punk quartet from North Carolina.  Their self-titled debut LP comes out on Fort Lowell Records on June 6, 2024.  Taking philosophical cues from American post-punk bands like the Wipers and Talking Heads, also incorporating the goth-adjacent tones of bands like Joy Division and Killing Joke, and adding the often danceable and joyfully nihilistic aesthetic of 21st-century punk, Blab School makes music that is simultaneously urgent and fun, upbeat and crooked, loud and thoughtful.

For fans of Bad Religion, Buzzcocks, Descendants, Drive Like Jehu, The Faction, The Fucking Champs, Gang of Four, Green Day, The Hives, Hot Snakes, Jawbox, The Jesus Lizard, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Meatbodies, Melt-Banana, Metz, Osees, Pipe, Pissed Jeans, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Superchunk, and The Thermals.

PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD NOW

From concerts to an 'Outlander' cruise, 17 things to do in Wilmington this weekend

[Repost from StarNews; by John Staton, July 12, 2023]

At The Place: Wilmington indie-rock singer and songwriter has assembled a supergroup of sorts for her only scheduled show of this year, a multi-act affair at this scene-incubating Cargo District venue. Shedd, whose darkly groovy new single "Let It Ride" drops next month on Wilmington-based Fort Lowell Records, is a veteran touring and recording artist whose vocals hit the sweet spot between spooky and ethereal, with lyrics that navigate the nuances of life and love. (Her most recent effort, 2019's "The Carolinas," is a gem thanks to such wry rockers as "Tinder Heart.") Shedd's husband and Fort Lowell partner James Tritten will be on drums in her band, along with longtime Wilmington musicians Brian Weeks (Summer Set, De La Noche) on guitar and Sean Thomas Gerard (Onward, Soldiers) on keys. With a stellar array of supporting acts: rapper and lyricist MoeSOS DC, indie rockers Blab School and visual artist Tristan Turner providing projections. 7 p.m. July 15, tickets are $10 at the door.

Wilmington music scene: The good stuffHow the couple behind a growing record label is putting Wilmington music on the map

PRE-SAVE DIGITAL SINGLE

Tracy Shedd / MoeSOS DC / Blab School live in concert at The Place

Wilmington, North Carolina / Saturday, July 15th / 7:00pm / $10.00

CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE