As I noted late last year, I was way late to come across the The Menzingers. They released an album in 2010 called Chamberlain Waits that I found to be extremely enjoyable. Well, lucky for me to have discovered them so late, because they’re already back with a new record. This one is called On The Impossible Past. You can stream the whole thing over at Punknews.org. Below is a link to a song called “The Obituaries.” The good part starts at about 1:43.

Another notable release this week is from the other band from Nebraska: Cursive. I mean, Cursive and 311 are the only bands that have ever come from Nebraska, right? I’m pretty sure I got that question right at trivia once. Oh wait, isn’t Connor Oberst from Nebraska? So, anyway, a third of the bands in Nebraska released a record this week, and that record is called I Am Gemini.

I haven’t listened to Cursive since The Ugly Organ. I’m streaming I Am Gemini for the first time at Rolling Stone as I type this and I am consistently vacillating between “Wow, that is really pretentious and dumb,” and “Actually, that is pretty solid.” This track, “Warmer Warmer”, falls under the latter:

And just for posterity, here is “Red Handed Slight of Hand”, in case you need a reminder of how good Cursive can be.