Tenement – “Morning Mouth” (Stereogum Premiere)

Tenement – “Morning Mouth” (Stereogum Premiere)

Though I happen to own a significant number of cassettes, it’s easy to acknowledge the format’s shortcomings — the sound quality typically sucks, tape unravels, spools break, and they’re easily stepped on and subsequently destroyed. Cassettes can no longer be considered obsolete, but they’re definitely impractical. There are tons of incredible bands whose music is just chilling on the top shelf of someone’s closet, collecting dust, because no one ever bothered to reissue it in another format. There’s a certain poetic beauty to that, sure, but if you’re a fan of a band and you can’t track down a song because whatever tape or 7″ it was released on was never uploaded to Bandcamp or whatever, then it’s not cool. It’s annoying. Tenement have been putting out physical albums for nearly a decade, and though the Wisconsin-based outfit is certifiably prolific, their available releases are numbered. The songs included on Bruised Music Volume One were selected from long since out of print EPs, splits, and 7″ records and have been remastered into a ten-track compilation, and we’ve already heard the first two singles, “Spaghetti Midwestern” and “The Fire Is Out.” “Morning Mouth” is the compilation’s latest offering, a spiraling two and a half minutes of theatrical frustration that dangles from the line, “All I know is the world keeps turning, but I just keep falling down.” Listen below.


Bruised Music Volume One is out 3/10 via Grave Mistake/Toxic Pop.

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