Atlanta Soundtrack: New music from Latto, Upchuck and vintage Rock*A*Teens

Latto | “It’s Givin” 

At just 23 years old, Alyssa Michelle Stephens, aka Latto, is already a hip-hop veteran, having started rapping as a teenager. She’s also gained an enthusiastic following as a force to be reckoned with, as demonstrated in her latest funny, gutsy single off her sophomore album, 777, which rolled out this spring. Joining forces with another powerhouse, she’s now on tour opening for Lizzo through mid-November.

In addition to her rising music career, Latto is a prominent reproductive-rights advocate. After the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, she partnered with Planned Parenthood on a public service announcement to support their “Bans Off Our Bodies” initiative. That video ran during the widely watched MTV Video Awards on August 28. As a champion of women’s access to healthcare, she told Rolling Stone, “We all deserve to be safe and it’s every person’s right to make decisions about their own bodies. As an artist, I want to use my platform to let these politicians know: My body is for no one to control but me.”

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Upchuck | “Boss Up”

Blending garage and hardcore punk, rising ATL rockers Upchuck came together roughly around the end of 2018. Charismatic vocalist KT told punk and emo music publication The Alt Club that the group’s visceral name signifies “pent up emotions that need to be purged from oneself.” That exorcism of explosive frustration slices through the air like a skateboard in this rowdy video, showcasing a tune from their forthcoming (and first full-length) album, Sense Yourself.

You’ll have plenty of opportunities this fall to experience firsthand the group’s all-out performance style that’s kept them a solid favorite in the DIY scene for years. Their album release party will take place on September 30 at Criminal Records. They’re also opening for Amyl and the Sniffers at Variety Playhouse on September 21 and then making several tour stops in October with The Paranoyds.

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Rock*A*Teens | “Black Ice”

Rarely have two little asterisks proved so crucial as when used to differentiate 1990s indie band Rock*A*Teens, responsible for our weird and vaguely sinister Vintage Track of the Week, versus upbeat 1950s rockabilly Rock-a-Teens, the one-hit-wonders who gave us 1959 earworm (and John Waters movie favorite) “Woo Hoo.”

Hailing from Cabbagetown, the ‘90s-iteration Rock*A*Teens laid a gritty and unpredictable foundation with a local legend lineup: frontman Chris Lopez, guitarists Kelly Hogan and Justin Hughes and drummer Chris Verene. They built a cult following playing gigs at dives like the Clermont Lounge — back when the Lounge was a gorgeously dilapidated club under a rotting hotel and not the spruced-up tourist attraction it is now.

Part Munsters theme, part punk, part Southern gothic literature, the darkly funny musical world of “Black Ice” — with its howls, screams, and incessant, frenzied riffs — hails from their 1996 album Cry and is our Vintage Track of the Week. Given their dynamic sound and longevity, it’s astounding that they never quite hit the big time. Perhaps they weren’t conveying the right kind of grunge for that era. After an impressive run of five albums over eight years, the group called it quits with a farewell gig on New Year’s Eve 2002. But, like so many bands that can’t seem to quit each other entirely, they got back on stage — with some new faces to replace a few of the original members — for reunion shows in 2014 and then released their first new album in almost two decades, Sixth House, in 2018.