Hard to believe, but this week’s newsletter marks the second anniversary of Freak Scene. Thank you all so much for reading and subscribing. Local support for the arts feels more important than ever, a perspective underscored by the destructive layoffs this week at The Washington Post, which eliminated most of the paper’s arts critic jobs (and the entire sports department). Fortunately, things are much sunnier here at Freak Scene HQ. This week, we get a jump on the new album by Western Mass. band Landowner, and hear the latest from New Haven musician Kevin MF King.

The relentless onslaught of noise and aggression in so much of hardcore punk has never appealed much to me. Though early hardcore bands often included social and political themes in their music, the songs could be humorless and preachy in an off-putting way. This is probably an oversimplification, but the whole thing seemed like a purity test, a way of separating the poseurs who like melody from the true punks who only want gnashing guitars, screaming vocals and the churning mayhem of the mosh pit.

Landowner come at it from a different angle. The Holyoke group plays what singer Dan Shaw has called “dinky hardcore,” a minimalist approach that is a caricature of hardcore while retaining the essence of the music. Landowner are loud, fast and political on songs that have a certain musical angularity that is penetratingly intense, but without the dour machismo. There’s also no guitar distortion, which makes Shaw’s vocals easy to discern — and all the more unnerving for it — on the band’s new album, Assumption (out Feb. 27, but Landowner play Saturday at the Drake in Amherst with Slant of Light and Outro; tickets).

LandownerAssumption

Shaw is questioning preconceptions in their various forms on Assumption, from something as seemingly banal as predictive text in word processing on the title track to more tangled themes like environmental degradation as it intersects with what our culture has long viewed as “progress.” He talk-sings in a gaunt voice, and while he’s switching between muttering and hoarsely yelling out dense knots of lyrics, guitarists Elliot Hughes and Jeff Gilmartin are locked in the musical equivalent of a bōjutsu stick fight, moving skillfully back and forth in tandem through intricate, shifting rhythms from bassist Josh Owsley and drummer Josh Daniel.

Many of the songs have a satiric tone. As Shaw outlines the foundational need of capitalism for obedient, unquestioning consumption, he expresses puzzlement about why anyone would buy into that concept. “You could help me understand wanting ignorance,” he bellows. Later, on “Uninhabitable,” the rest of the band lays back with a brooding musical arrangement as Shaw drily describes a frontier couple practicing their version of self-reliance in an increasingly withered landscape, where Death waits with a picnic basket. Shaw lays out a whole history of western civilization on “Linear Age,” which plays like an apocalyptic version of the text-based 1980s Apple II strategy game The Oregon Trail, with each new discovery leading inevitably to collapse. You have died of dysentery, indeed.

It's a dark view of human evolution, but Shaw tempers his cynicism on the last track, “Normal Returns to Normal.” A rotund bassline barrels through bright shards of guitar in a musical figure that repeats over and over while Shaw confronts his own assumptions that social and environmental calamity is a foregone conclusion. “You know so much you think you know your future,” he shouts. “You know so much you think you know everything.” This reminder that he doesn’t — that none of us does — feels like Shaw is giving himself permission to exhale and view his assumptions with a more skeptical eye. There’s a deeper implication here, too, which is that if a few more of us questioned our preconceptions, instead of refusing to absorb evidence that runs contrary to them, maybe we could have avoided this fix in the first place.

Kevin MF King Makes Soundtracks for ‘Fake Movies’

While we’re on the subject, Connecticut’s hardcore scene is where the New Haven musician Kevin MF King got his start, playing guitar in the band Intercourse. Since leaving the group before the pandemic, he’s gone in different directions on an ever-growing string of releases. Some of them are steeped in a rootsier, porch-jam kind of sound, while others he thinks of as soundtracks for what he calls “fake movies I make up plots for.”

KEVIN MF KING𝘿𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙃 𝘼𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙎

Death Antiques is part of the latter. King’s latest is a collection of 20 mostly instrumental tracks selected from 98 songs that he recorded in 2025 as part of an effort to record an album’s worth of songs per month. (All 12 albums are available on Bandcamp.) The first half of Death Antiques features softer songs, while the second half trends heavier and more ominous, though many of those tracks are short enough to be quick sketches. King relies on just a handful of instruments here, though the songs often sound more arranged than they are. It’s just bass notes, spare twinkles of piano and a closed hi-hat cymbal on “There’s a Road That Leads to Nowhere,” while dark bursts of overdriven electric guitar crackle through the glowering number “Dissociative Fugue.”

Later, “Pecked Out Eyes” features little more than an ominous booming bass drum and effects-treated vocals that sound like a voice from the grave, while “The Hunt Was Over” pairs a slow bassline and a wash of cymbals with a dream sequence narrated by Robert Benartz, a friend of King’s who died in 2023. It’s eerie and evocative, and just right for cinematic atmospherics. The only thing missing is a real movie to make use of King’s music.

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Upcoming Concerts

There are a couple of opportunities to be part of upcoming festivals. First, Flo Fest 2026 is looking for performers of all types to take part in a day-long event planned for Sept. 19 in Florence. There’s more information here, and a performer application here.

Next, Hartbeat Music Festival in Hartford is seeking acts to perform at this year’s incarnation, which has combined with a food truck festival under the new name Hartbeats & Eats, happening June 16-18 at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza. Acts should have 45 to 60 minutes worth of original material; applications are here. The deadline to apply is Feb. 14.

Also, there’s a screening of the documentary Fanny: The Right to Rock next Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the Jerome Liebling Center at Hampshire College. The movie delves into the first all-female rock band to release an album on a major label. A discussion with Fanny co-founder and all-around badass June Millington happens after the 6 p.m. screening; more information here. (The documentary also includes my big-screen debut as a talking head. I’m shown for about 10 seconds.)

The outdoor stage at Tree House Brewing in South Deerfield features the latest and, they claim, last incarnation of Little Feat June 2 (tickets) and Jason Mraz June 3 (tickets).

Sierra Ferrell plays Sept. 6 at the Pines Theater in Look Park in Northampton (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts a Secret Planet show with Cheo y Los Consentidos de la Casa March 21 (tickets), the jazz act Civil Disobedience April 12 (tickets), Jane Monheit Duo April 15 (tickets), folk-rocker Anders Osborne April 17 (tickets), Boston funk band Bermuda Search Party April 25 (tickets), the Bad Plus on their farewell tour June 17 (tickets) and Cimafunk June 27 (tickets).

The Parlor Room in Northampton has New Hampshire psychedelic-folk trio Party of the Sun March 6 (tickets), a week after the release of their very good new EP, The Twin. Also, there’s a pair of shows with Jane Siberry April 10 (early show and late show), Boston bluegrass group Hound & Handler April 16 (tickets), the Clements Brothers April April 19 (tickets) and the Australian singer Nigel Wearne May 1 (tickets).

Bombyx in Florence hosts an album release show March 21 for Northampton native Indë, who will perform their forthcoming album Role Model in its entirety (tickets).

The Drake in Amherst features Tim Eriksen & Peter Irvine March 20 (tickets) and Alabama singer-songwriter Brenn! with Hudson Ingram April 18 (tickets).

Little Feat also play College Street Music Hall in New Haven May 29 (tickets).

The Space in Hamden brings in Devon Lamarr Organ Trio March 27 (tickets), the great Oklahoma rockers Broncho April 21 (tickets), Woods May 20 (tickets), the Sheila Divine with American Elm and the Shellye Valauskas Experience June 5 (tickets) and Carbon Leaf June 11 (tickets).

That’s all for this week — thank you for reading! If you like what you’ve seen, please share. Also, I’m always open to submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.

Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen, and are gratefully accepted. Previous issues are available in the online archive.