Bah, Humbug. It’s Love Month. Luckily there’s 14 tracks in ‘ere that’ll warm my cold, dead heart for a bit.

It’s been a super busy start of 2024 here at TheZineUK, Caff documented a just a week of it in the previous article.

These playlists get more and more eclectic but… For the most part this playlist was chosen and curated before the Government Report exposing sexism in the music industry (Stating the obvious?), but I clearly had caught an angry wave with my choices this month…

Starting off with a lesser heavy track with Cynical by The Carmens, it’s just sing-a-long guilt free indie goodness with a nostalgia kick. Then Great Park Avenue and Talking All Night About my Feelings, Swedish indie via London that’s all about the overtly catchy guitar hooks that stays with you long after first listen.

Getting a bit heavier, and continuing for much of the rest of the playlist is Problem Patterns with Y.A.W - Politically charged, feminist riot grrl-esque from Belfast. “And who do we call for help, when the help seems like a threat to me?” This band deserve to be massive - the 2020’s Bikini Kill...But better. That guitar too.. Talking of which, I had to include the Lambrini Girls, with The Boys in the Band - who are probably one of the most exciting bands to ever exist. “Problematic and well connected/But it's still being deflected/Because we separate the art from the artist.” No one encapsulates the femme experience in the scene like they do - and we love them for it.

Then, The Menstrual Cramps with Body Politics (I swear I wasn’t going for a theme), for a band I found because -to me- they sound like a young Vice Squad, they always deliver fucking tunes. Bristol-based (this also is becoming a theme) but now signed to Alcopop, we’ve probably not seen this band at their best yet - but this comes bloody close.

A Caffy-Recommended Cherym next with the body-positive, fuck off weirdos song Alpha Beta Sigma - calling out the Andrew Tates and incels through the medium of incredibly catchy choruses and guitar sounds. Caff’s ear is never wrong, and this further proves it.

Foreign Flesh next, with a Killing Joke-ish Inside Out, Outside in is an existential psychedelic gothic punk acid trip from the sunsetted California skies and we’re all for it. More please Foreign Flesh.

Track 8 on the playlist, and I’m not sure why it’s taken this long to include, is Prison Song by Berlin-based Lolita Terrorist Sounds. Debut album St. Lola has too many tracks to choose from but Prison Song probably shows them at their most versatile. It gives glittered-gutter glamour with all the best industrial nu-wave influences and expert story telling.

Leogang on track 9 with Budapest Sex Lights. “Does music from the 80’s get you in the mood?” feels like an attack but it’s forgiven with the catchy choruses and a vocal delivery of kitchen sink lyrics. The next band I found through our mates at R*E*P*E*A*T, Wales has always been known for good music, and Baby Schillaci are proving the point. Dead Wrestlers is a trip - garage punk, with big beats and fast guitars. Rumours of a tour soon are swirling, and we’re gonna be there.

I Don’t Speak French, synth-guitar goodness is always going to get me hooked, but the clever lyrics and scuzzy hooks and just a teaspoon of shoegaze make Bomb Shelter Garden the perfect post-apocalyptica soundtrack.

Chaidura is indescribable. The type of artists people reviewing hate, but in a good way. Chaidura needs to be experienced. in The Light, there’s a blend of all the genres at once tied up in a theatrically large goth bow. How it works, must be nothing short of alchemy.

Talking of juxtapositions, the insanely catchy To Be in The Right Mind by New Rebel Cult is pop-punk feel goodness with searingly honest lyrics. The buzz about this band is legit.

Finally, for the unusual flashback track I’ve got into the habit of - some shameless plugging of Weather Underground’s Sister Palestine. A song from 2019 about the apathy of the world governments’ to the Gaza Strip and beyond. “Suffocated by state-sanctioned control/the world watches as it deafens the soul/No person, no place, no country/Weaponise history/drown it in the Red Sea.” Seems much more relevant today.

Right, I’m off to re-read the S.C.U.M Manifesto then…

Fancy being on the #ZeenageDaydreams playlist for March? Just click here to email me with a link to your Spotify.