The Fresh Five: The Fever Haze, You Said Strange, Artemas, Gouge Away, and Hannah Frances

For the Fresh Five we pick out five great new(ish) jams that we’re currently obsessing over.

Started in the early 2010s as a solo project completely played, written and recorded by Jackie Kalmink, The Fever Haze has evolved over the years to a full five piece band. Kalmink still handles most of the recording and production work for the band which has evolved over the years from a more garage rock focus to some classic shoegazey dream pop. Their debut on Graveface records, Moonbow, dropped in late March.

Turns out we’ve caught French band You Said Strange before! “My Own God” is anchored by a classic post-punk sounding bassline and leaps into a big loud rock chorus.

UK producer Artemas is making plenty of waves across Europe at the age of 24. What caught my ear here was the strong 80s influenced goth guitars over a modern pop song. The male/female sounding alternating vocals are apparently both done by Artemas which makes the whole thing even more impressive.

Gouge Away has been making a name for themselves over a decade now, moving from a more traditional hardcore band to bringing in a lot of 90s noise rock, shoegaze and grunge sounds. Album closer “Dallas” is a full blown fuzzed out pop song straight out of 1994 or so. Catch them at the Turf Club with Metz on May 10th. Already on my favorite albums of 2024.

Hannah Frances manages to meld avant-folk, progressive rock, jazz and a few more things together for a very exciting sound behind her powerful voice. “Keeper Of The Shepherd” moves along a propelling snare beat and guitar, with a pedal steel providing beautiful texture behind her. Her latest album is getting plenty of well deserved accolades already this year so also watch this one on your yearly best lists. Turns out Frances played Eagles 34 in 2022 but don’t expect such an intimate venue next time.