The Singles Collection is contributor Jason Jackowiak’s weekly column focusing on rare and essential 7″ releases. We gladly accept all types of 7″ for consideration.

Ok, after a few snags and some schedule wrangling, we’re finally ready with our latest all-Sacred Bones edition of the Singles Collection. We’ve made no secret of the fact that we love this label, and true to their ever-stellar form, their latest batch of singles are all absolute must-owns, both from sonic and aesthetic points of view. Since you’ve undoubtedly heard us sing their praises in the past, let’s just get to this latest batch of killer tunes.
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This week, our never ending quest to find you the best new sounds takes us to the remote plains of Bisbee, Arizona, an old mining town that’s since blossomed as an unlikely artistic mecca deep in the desert. It’s here that pummeling death-punk quartet Francis Harold & the Holograms call home, which, given their penchant for ear-splitting noise and shredded songcraft, puts them at odds with the area’s picturesque views and generally calm demeanor. An inscrutable entity, the band never appear in public without their ghoulish masks, which, despite making you think of Slipknot, actually adds an air of the occult to anything they lay their sticky hands on.

They’ve been kicking around for a while, but have, until just recently, only released one 7″, a brilliantly brief (and rather limited) two-song eponymous EP on Going Underground Records. That all changes this month though, with the release of their first full-length, another eponymous effort that is being co-released by Going Underground and Square Wave Records. In addition, there will be a new 7″ on HoZac and a full-scale U.S. tour slated for this summer. So, if mind-shredding noise-punk and (potentially) getting kicked in the face by a guitar-wielding, be-masked psychopath sounds like the perfect night out, make sure to catch them as they steamroll their way through a town near you this June/July.

Francis Harold And The Holograms – “The Eagle Can’t Fly With One Wing”