TOP FIVE ARTISTS OF THE WEEK:

DRUGDEALER: After stints making music under the names Run DMT and Salvia Plath, L.A. artist Michael Collins changed his name to the less pun-based, yet still provocative Drugdealer. Run DMT had been a lo-fi psychedelic project starting in 2009 and Salvia Plath, was a folkier, more layered approach. With Drugdealer, Collins changed directions again, looking to the singer/songwriters of the early ‘70s and soft rock pioneers like Harry Nilsson for inspiration. The band’s 2016 album, The End of Comedy, was released by Weird World in September of 2016.

BEAR HANDS: Back on the TOP 5 for a second week in a row. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, this American post-punk and indie rock band, consisting of Dylan Rau (vocals and guitar), Val Loper (bass), Ted Feldman (guitar), and TJ Orscher (drums), was formed in 2006, Signed with Cantora Records in 2010, You’ll Pay For This is their third studio album, which according to AllMusic.com, contains a “mix of slick melodies and urgent post-punk.”

TOUCHE AMORE: Formed in 2007 in Los Angeles, California, Touche Amore blends jangly post-hardcore with emotionally raw screamo to create their unique sound. The band has a plaintive and emotionally intense sound that blends the influence of bands like Jawbox and Converge into something strangely coherent. Stage Four is Touche Amore’s fourth studio album.

THE FLESHTONES: The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976, debuting at CBGB. Often tagged as garage rock revivalists, the Fleshtones mix the fuzz guitar and Farfisa organ sounds of that genre with rockabilly, '50s and '60s R&B, and surf into a potent retro stew the group likes to call “super rock.” And in 2016, the Fleshtones celebrated their 40th anniversary as a band with an album named for one of the group’s mottos, The Band Drinks for Free.

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE: My Chemical Romance was an American rock band from New Jersey, active from 2001 to 2013. The band eclipsed their previous success with their 2006 concept album, The Black Parade, which gained generally favorable reviews among music. On July 20, 2016, the band posted on their official Twitter and Facebook pages a video with the piano intro from "Welcome to the Black Parade”, ending with a cryptic date,“9/23/16”. The video was also published on the band’s YouTube channel with the video titled “MCRX”. This led to numerous rumors and reports on the band’s possible reunion until it was revealed to be a reissue of The Black Parade with unreleased demos. The reissue, titled The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts, includes 11 demos and live tracks.

Check back next week for more “Top Five”!