Now Hear This! #013 – Lydia Can’t Breathe, Pony Girl, Sweetboy, Chief City

Now Hear This! More new, under-the-radar music to wrap your ears around. This week’s selections include Lydia Can’t Breathe, Pony Girl’s latest track, Sweetboy, and Mississippi’s Chief City. These four songs exemplify a range of genres, including hard rock/prog-metal, indie rock, alternative, and low and slow sludge.

We’ll bring you a new post each week, songs from which will regularly be added to our accompanying “Now Hear This” Spotify playlist.

Find all past Now Hear This! installments right here: https://v13.net/features/now-hear-this/.

Lydia Can’t Breathe – “Killerz”

Fusing hard rock with elements of progressive metal, Lydia Can’t Breathe unveils their new single/music video, “Killerz,’ a ferociously muscular track.

Made up of Kyle Bolduc (vocals), Shad Roundy (bass), and Josh Runfeldt (drums), Lydia Can’t Breathe is releasing a series of singles and music videos that allow them to strut their hardcore sound.

Talking about the “Killerz” video, frontman Bolduc says:

“The visuals we got in this video are unreal! We shot it at an airport and got actual skydiving footage! The song tells a dark and heavy tale of a mercenary. The protagonist is consumed by his lust for power and respect, which he derives from his terrifying profession. The chorus is a chilling plea for mercy, suggesting the perspective of the hitman’s victims. The song speaks to the desperation, fear, and regret that can come from making dangerous choices, and the brutal reality of a life ruled by power and violence. It gives a raw and visceral insight into both the psyche of the violent enforcer and the fear of those facing imminent death.”

Pony Girl – “Highways”

Ottawa-Hull-based indie-rock band Pony Girl releases their latest single/music video, “Highways,” a track lifted from their forthcoming album, Laff It Off, slated to drop October 27 via Paper Bag Records.

According to Pony Girl:

“‘Highways’ are the shape of our hearts and minds as we’re falling in love, expanding roads of connection that stretch out through time. New feelings are so pure and fragile—the song swerves as you get lost, then the backbeat guides you home. The journey’s never a straight line.”

Pony Girl Tour Dates:

Nov 2 – Hamilton @ The Casbah
Nov 3 – Toronto @ Monarch Tavern
Nov 4 – Sudbury @ The Townehouse
Nov 9 – Montreal @ The Diving Bell Social Club
Nov 10 – Ottawa @ Club SAW
Nov 11 – Kingston @ The Broom Factory

Sweetboy – “Day in the Park”

Based in New York City, alternative outfit Sweetboy recently dropped their new single, “Day in the Park, the title track from their upcoming album, which the band describes as “the sonic encapsulation of a dream-filled nap on the grass.”

Inspired by a poem written by frontwoman Anna Barnett, Sweetboy shares that “Day in the Park” is “about reminiscing about the past without regrets. It questions if time might not be as significant as we think when we’re looking back at important events and relationships. It’s about honoring the idea that life is not just a linear progression where one moment erases the other, or one love erases another love, but that all moments can be meaningful and cherished.”

Chief City – ‘Chief City’

Hailing from Vicksburg, Mississippi, sludge/doom outfit Chief City will release their self-titled EP, Chief City, on October 6, a five-track collection of black, murky music dripping with subterranean tones of sepulchral gravity.

The band consists of Jordan (guitar, vocals), Jena (bass), Brandon (guitar), and Adam (drums). All the songs on the EP, with the exception of “Jazz Apple,” were engineered and produced by Jason Tedford at Wolfman Studios in Little Rock, Arkansas. “Jazz Apple” was recorded by Josh Harrison in Vicksburg.

Vibrating with massive clots of drop F-tuned guitars, Chief City’s sound takes sludge to depths taut with foreboding dread and inscrutable primitive power.