Polyon, Blue EP
Recommended track: “Faults”

The latest from post-rockers Polyon is called Blue, but don’t think it’s a sob story. “These songs aren’t about being sad,” frontman Ryan McLaughlin tells CMJ.com. “They are about awareness and an inner shift that occurs as you get over berating yourself for your flaws.” Not that Polyon’s blown-out EP (out Nov. 13) contains zero berating — it sounds like drummer Brandon Korch is angry at his kit. Polyon plays Nov. 20 at Songbyrd.

The Split Seconds, self-titled
Recommended track: “Cutting Out” (video)

The Split Seconds call themselves “classic pop punk,” aligning their sound with English groups The Clash, The Buzzcocks and The Damned. But there’s a lot of Southern California on the band’s debut full-length, too — particularly in vocalist Drew Champion’s sneer. (While you’re scanning The Split Seconds’ tunes, I recommend reading this fascinating article about the so-called pop-punk accent.)

Swings, Sugarwater
Recommended track: “Dust”

The last time Bandwidth chatted with D.C. slacker-rock outfit Swings, they told us they had gotten really into Chicago footwork. Now the band has evidently embraced Auto-Tune, as heard on Track No. 1 from Sugarwater, out Nov. 13. But while the effect forces vocalist Jamie Finucane to conform to a pitch, the slurry singer still sounds uninterested in enunciation. Swings plays Dec. 4 at Songbyrd.

Top photo: Young Trynas, July 14.

The video opens with a cringe-inducing close-up of what looks like a tattoo needle probing flesh — until the camera pulls back and we see a banana freshly emblazoned with the band’s name. Seconds later there’s some kind of punk-rock apple, split in half and oversaturated to the point of a nuclear glow. Then… is that breakfast cereal? And a fried egg, followed by bacon and a pizza?

Polyon frontman Ryan McLaughlin says yes, it’s a parade of food — and none of it means anything in particular.

“It’s mostly ’cause it just looks pretty cool,” McLaughlin writes in an email. “I asked my friend Aviv to have some fun and make some weird footage to help with the video. He kinda stumbled upon a couple of the food ideas, and it really resonated with us.”

McLaughlin acknowledges he could be attracted to food imagery because he’s run Dangerously Delicious Pies’ food truck for more than four years. But there’s a fringe benefit to the video’s silliness, too.

“We love how it came out like a video that Beavis and Butthead would make fun of,” McLaughlin writes.

Watch the video up top, and catch the band at Black Cat tonight and Hole in the Sky April 12.

That’s what I asked Bandwidth’s contributors to help me do last month. Our writers sent me their picks for their favorite D.C. music of 2015 thus far, and the result was this extremely awesome playlist (stream it below).

One limitation, though: I had to pick songs that have been uploaded to Soundcloud. As it turns out, not everybody puts their music on the service. A lot of rock and punk bands, in particular, use Bandcamp, and some artists — for reasons my under-30 brain is still struggling to understand — don’t even put their songs on the Internet for free.

So this playlist still isn’t as exhaustive as I wanted it to be, but it’s still pretty freaking great. Give it a listen on your computer or chosen mobile device, and be sure to chide us in the comments, on Twitter or via email for missing your favorite D.C. music of the year. (Seriously! Send me your nominations — we want to hear it all.)

For more coverage of D.C. music, follow Bandwidth’s Track Work series.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image, clockwise from top left: April + VISTA, Kali Uchis, Young Rapids (partial image), Ras Nebyu, Prinze George (partial image), Visto.

That’s because Polyon’s first demo recording on Soundcloud, “Crest,” came across more like space rock than McLaughlin’s other two current projects. And it seems like that’s the direction Polyon is headed with its newest song, “More,” a big and crunchy anthem that sounds powered by rocket fuel.

It’s Adam Lake’s synth whirrs that lend Polyon a streak of prog. Take them out, and you’ve got the bones of a solid post-rock ensemble. But “sludgy fuzz-pop” has been the band’s chosen descriptor, McLaughlin writes in an email — and hey, that works, too.

Lyrically, “More” seems to mirror a creative evolution that McLaughlin has undertaken since his other band Typefighter went from genteel to aggressive.

“I tend to have some trouble saying ‘no’ to people and I have been actively trying to be a bit more assertive,” McLaughlin writes. “So in this one, I am more or less reminding myself that it’s OK to say ‘yes’ so long as I’m not letting anyone walk all over me.”

With his guitar turned up this loud, McLaughlin doesn’t appear to need help being forceful.

“More” is included on Polyon’s three-song demo EP, out digitally this Thursday, when the band tops a bill at DC9. The headlining slot feels like a vote of confidence for a band that still hasn’t played many gigs.

Polyon’s show count falls “somewhere between 10 and 15,” McLaughlin writes. “I think we just passed the 10 mark a show or two ago.”

Polyon plays DC9 March 19 with Solids and Stronger Sex.

Atlanta indie-rock outfit Semicircle joined the lineup late after a cancelled gig at DC9. They shared the bill with a solid lineup of locals, including post-rock ensemble Polyon, a new band from Typefighter and Joy Buttons member Ryan McLaughlin; Witch Coast, which released one of the best D.C. EPs of 2014; pop-punkers Qualms, featuring members of Big Hush, Sad Bones and The Bowlcuts; and headliners The Obsessives, a two-piece indie-rock band worth paying attention to this year.

Despite blistering cold weather, eventual snow and a Super Bowl halftime performance from the talented Katy Perry, more than 50 people came out for the Dougout’s birthday. Maybe this time next year, they’ll be celebrating another one.

Semicircle

Polyon

Witch Coast

Qualms

The Obsessives