Kym Register + Meltdown Rodeo is a transgressive and distorted country music outfit based in North Carolina that places queer storytelling at the forefront. Their music intimately grapples with identity, retribution, reconciliation and queer existence in both modern-day and historical (inclusive of mostly all) southern culture.Register is also contributing a queer lens to the southern rock ethos. By way of supporting cast, Sinclair Palmer (bass), Joe Westerlund (drums), and Matt Phillips categorically deliver. Check out the title track for a perfect example of the band's ability to travel between gritty responsiveness and tender reflection at Register's lyrical instruction. Whether grappling with the constrictions of gender expressions on dating apps ("How Do You See Me"), evoking the semi-autobiographical loneliness of Dorothy Allison's Carolina bastards ("Maureen"), or daring white folks to "get right with their history of compliance in racial capitalism" ("Loamlands"), Register affirms that songwriting, at its best, is a gross but necessary confrontation.Ultimately Register and Meltdown Rodeo (both the newly named band and album) have achieved in eleven songs something the south has only half-heartedly attempted - undoing generational curses by retiring "bless your heart" lip service. - SHIRLETTE AMMONS

Loamlands [now Meltdown Rodeo], a DIY folk-punk band from North Carolina, is Kym Register and Will Hackney. You might recognize Register from their previous band, Midtown Dickens, a folk quartet responsible for songs like "Only Brother" or "Walk, Don't You Run." The band operated from 2009 until they decided to take an indefinite hiatus in 2013. Since then, Register has been focused on two things: running Pinhook, a bar which opened in 2008 but was taken over by Register in 2011, in Durham, North Carolina, and Loamlands, their latest musical outlet with friend and former Midtown Dickens bandmate Will Hackney … Though the record is very much written to directly address North Carolina, the people in the Durham DIY scene, and the area's long history with LGBT communities and police violence, the themes Register and Hackney wrestle with throughout—queerness, police violence, bigotry and general intolerance to those who refuse to adhere to any kind of binary—are poignant no matter where you live. ​Sweet High Rise​ is a folk album to its core, with a few punk flourishes here and there. ANNALISE DOMENIGHINI - (NOISEY / VICE)

LEZ DANCE (CRUISIN RECORDS)

Kym Register’s voice is familiar, the kind of husky twang you traditionally hear on old country records. While the medium of folk music is timeworn, the stories Register spins have a modern slant, as they speak from the perspective of a genderqueer musician living in North Carolina.

“We gotta love that’s so hard to define / Still gotta work and we have to be kind / What is it worth if I’m always on your mind?” Register croons in “Stage Coach,” the second song off Loamlands new LP. Lez Dance is full of music that needs a few turns to truly make its way into your soul; the songs are sweet and complex, dripping with tender, forlorn love. “Maureen” is the kind of sleepy tune that sticks to your bones after a few listens, with haunting lyrics that paint pictures of romance under an Appalachian moon. It’s the raw need, the helpless surrender to passion, that make song after song stand out. - ASHLEY PRILLAMAN (AUDIOFEMME)