About a year ago, I made a blog post called “Rosy Overdrive Label Watch 2022“, in which I checked in on what a dozen of my favorite still-active labels had been up to during that year. I really enjoyed doing it (last year I wrote that “[small, independent record labels have] consistently been a key way to find good, varied, new-to-me music, and they remain a valuable, people-based resource for music discovery in an age where the ‘industry’ is openly trying to steer us away from such things,” which, frankly, feels even more relevant now than it did then). I hadn’t planned on making it an annual tradition at the time, but continuing it into this year feels very natural, so here we are.
Like I said last year, this is not a “best record labels of 2023” list (although there would, of course, be some overlap). These are the labels that I’ve grown to love over the past decade or so, some of which were quite active this year (looking at you, Feel It Records), while others were less so. Still, everyone on this list put out enough music for me to choose both a favorite record and a worthy “honorable mention” (which can be either my second favorite, something I thought didn’t get as much attention as it should’ve, or something I didn’t have time to review in Pressing Concerns but still merits a closer look). Also, I added Candlepin Records this year! Much deserved.
To read about many more records, some released by these labels, as well as by many other great ones I didn’t have space for here, visit the site archive.
RO Pick: Seablite, Lemon Lights
In addition to reissuing their 2019 debut album Grass Stains and Novocaine this year, San Francisco’s Seablite also unveiled their sophomore record, Lemon Lights. The shoegaze quartet offer up a sharp collection of fuzzed-out pop songs–some of them whip up more of a wall of sound than others, but all of them display the band’s ability to pull off effortless-sounding but still substantial pieces of indie pop. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: XDS, Bicycle Ripper
On what appears to be their first new album since 2009, Chico, California’s XDS (formerly Experimental Dental School) come back with a vengeance via a delightful, experimental, but accessible rock record. The duo eagerly mixes in bits of dub, psychedelic rock, post-punk, synthpunk and more across Bicycle Ripper, sharpening their noise into something quite pleasing. (Read more)
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Cindy, Why Not Now? / Julian Never, Pious Fiction / System Exclusive, Party All the Time / The Wind-Ups, Happy Like This)
RO Pick: The Reds, Pinks & Purples, The Town That Cursed Your Name
Let’s not take Glenn Donaldson for granted. With a Reds, Pinks & Purples record, one can expect exquisite jangle pop marked by gently-strummed chord progressions, generous melodies, and wistful, melancholic vocals. The Town That Cursed Your Name is no different, even as Donaldson sounds a bit louder, more electric, and fuzzier than he has of late on his full-length ode to fledgling bands and musicians. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Blue Ocean, Fertile State
The hazy, fuzzy Fertile State is maybe one of the less immediate records Slumberland has released in recent memory–indeed, it took me a while to wrap my head around this one. Blue Ocean marry the “avant” side of shoegaze with loud indie pop in a fascinating way here; this one is for the adventurous guitar pop devotees out there.
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Lightheaded, Good Good Great! / Tony Jay, Perfect Worlds)
RO Pick: Teenage Halloween, Till You Return
It took Teenage Halloween three years to follow up their excellent self-titled debut album, but I’m happy to report that Till You Return is every bit that album’s equal in terms of massive power pop hooks and electric punk rock energy. The Asbury Park quartet offer up a murderer’s row of emo-punk songs–just about every track here reaches “anthem” status.
Honorable Mention: Dusk, Glass Pastures
Glass Pastures is the first proper Dusk album in a half-decade, although it finds the Appleton, Wisconsin sextet in just as rare a form as they were on 2018’s Dusk. It’s a timeless-sounding collection of vintage pop music in the form of enjoyable country rock and roll. It’s a summer windows-down album to be sure, but I’d imagine no amount of poor weather would dampen these songs.
RO Pick: Connections, Cool Change
On their first album in five years, Columbus’ Connections sound like reinvigorated power pop warriors. They’re alternatively massive and purposeful, suave and effortless, and subtle and pensive at various points on Cool Change. They’ve recently expanded to a six-piece, which helps it feel like the second decade of Connections’ existence just might be as thrilling as their first. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: FACS, Still Life in Decay
Sometimes it feels like FACS has been making one, long, apocalyptic song their entire career. After putting out four records in four years, the Chicago trio took 2022 off before roaring back with Still Life in Decay, resuming their empty-space-flavored post-punk, noise rock, and experimentalism with a palpable force.
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: En Attendant Ana, Principia / Onyon, Last Days on Earth)
RO Pick: Washer, Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends
On their first album in six years, Washer haven’t abandoned their core sound (a barebones blend of punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, and noise rock), but what they’ve been working on, it seems like, is packing it with as much as possible. Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends grapples with a lot of heady subject matter, but the Brooklyn duo do it all over spirited rock and roll. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Shady Bug, What’s the Use?
St. Louis’ Shady Bug are still making frequently noisy and unbridled indie rock on What’s the Use?, their first new record in four years. However, the trio sound more streamlined and focused on this EP than on 2019’s Lemon Lime LP, dialing back just a bit of their insular and exploratory sides to deliver some thorny but melodic hits. (Read more)
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Prewn, Through the Window)
RO Pick: Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Dancing on the Edge
Last decade, Kentucky/Indiana’s Ryan Davis made four great records as the leader of sprawling country-punks State Champion. On his first album of “songs” since 2018, Davis delivers seven tracks in over fifty minutes–Dancing on the Edge is as much a country record as he’s ever made, even as he continues to stretch out his writing even more than I thought possible. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Bilderine, Split Seconds
Sophomore Lounge have dug deep and unearthed an underheralded New Zealand classic with this one. The second album from Bill Direen (rechristened “Bilderine” here), 1984’s Split Seconds, would certainly appeal to fans of more well-known Flying Nun works, although the record’s excitable deconstruction of 60s garage rock with post-punk precision gives it a distinct and unique feel apart from most of the other Kiwi albums of the time.
RO Pick: Fust, Genevieve
As North Carolina musicians like MJ Lenderman and Indigo De Souza have grown in stature, it’s been nice to see a bit of that spotlight hit Durham’s underappreciated Fust. Both Lenderman and De Souza play on Genevieve, which tightens up some of their last album‘s looseness and comes across as a quite deliberate statement of country-folk-rock. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Florry, Sweet Guitar Solos
Their full-length album, The Holey Bible, rightfully got some accolades in August, but I wanted to spotlight this digital-only Florry EP that came out back in January. Two absolutely bursting versions of songs that would appear on the full-length, a Drive-By Truckers cover, and an original tune that lives up to its unwieldy title–it’s hard not to be “all in” on Florry after visiting Sweet Guitar Solos. (Read more)
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Michael Cormier-O’Leary, Anything Can Be Left Behind / Florry, The Holey Bible / Joey Nebulous, Joey Spumoni Creamy Dreamy Party All the Time / Sweet Dreams Nadine, Sweet Dreams Nadine)
RO Pick: Rocket 808, House of Jackpots
Nothing else I’ve heard in 2023 quite sounds like House of Jackpots. As Rocket 808, Austin’s John Schooley combines a minimal drum machine with surf rock and Western guitar playing to evoke a Frankensteined past that never actually existed—although songs like “21st Century Boy” certainly make me favor this parallel universe.
Honorable Mention: Weak Signal, War&War
Weak Signal’s War&War was one of my favorite albums of 2022, so I’m happy to see 12XU give it a vinyl release this year. There’s a cavernous quality and vocal interplay that makes WAR&WAR sound like a fuzzier, edgier Yo La Tengo at times, and there’s also straightforward garage rock stompers that feel loose in a way distinct from Bianca, their previous record.
RO Pick: The Cowboys, Sultan of Squat
In what feels like a historically stacked year for Feel It Records, it only makes sense that the gold goes to what I’d consider to be one of their flagship bands. On Sultan of Squat, The Cowboys dive even further into polished, gleaming power pop than before, although they do it with an exuberance and energy that reflects their garage rock roots. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Corker, Falser Truths
Corker comes out of the exciting Cincinnati garage punk underground (much of which has been documented by Feel It). Their first full-length, Falser Truths, is some fiery basement rock owes that just as much to blunt noise rock as the more “art punk”-indebted sound of much of their peers. (Read more)
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Advertisement, Escorts / Citric Dummies, Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass / CLASS, If You’ve Got Nothing / Cosmo Jimmy, Under That Dress / The Drin, Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom / Good Looking Son, Confirmed Bachelor / Hard Copy, 12 Shots of Nature / Morwan, Svitaye, Palaye / Motorbike, Motorbike / Private Lives, Hit Record / Silicone Prairie, Vol. II / Spllit, Infinite Hatch / The Stools, R U Saved? / The Toms, The Toms / Wet Dip, Smell of Money)
RO Pick: Slaughter Beach, Dog, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling
Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, the fifth Slaughter Beach, Dog album, is a laid-back folk rock record that finds bandleader Jake Ewald completely in his element. It’s an album made by someone who’s always had a knack for songwriting, but it feels like he’s getting more comfortable and trusting in his work (and in his band, who more than do these songs justice). (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Provide, For Me
Evan Bernard has been playing in Philly-area bands for quite a while now (if you listen to a decent amount of music from that city, you’ve almost certainly heard a record he’s had a hand in creating). With Provide, it turns out he’s more than capable of making hits on his own as well–For Me is a snappy and brief record of punk-y power pop that nails a particular niche of this kind of music very well, and very enthusiastically.
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Golden Apples, Bananasugarfire / Hurry, Don’t Look Back)
RO Pick: Silkworm, Live on WMBR – 4.10.96
I’ve extensively documented my love of Silkworm on this blog; Comedy Minus One didn’t release much in terms of “new” new music this year (something that looks likely to change in 2024), but even if they’d put out more “proper” albums this year I still probably would’ve had to have gone with this excellent unearthed radio session from Silkworm’s Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen (with drummer Michael Dahlquist “out scoring”–”drugs, I don’t mean sex,” Cohen clarifies). The duo pick and strum their way through eight selections from the Silkworm songbook, most of which are from 1996’s Firewater, but the opener, Developer outtake “Ogilvie”, is a rare treat.
Honorable Mention: These Estates, The Dignity of Man & Triumph, Reign
Since Comedy Minus One digitally re-released The Crust Brothers’ Marquee Mark, I could’ve gotten away with an all-Silkworm-related list here. Instead, however, we pay tribute to a band that sounds a lot like Silkworm, Regina’s These Estates. The Dignity of Man (originally released in 2013) and Triumph, Reign (2014) are albums that really get what made Silkworm great, and in the realization of this create two stunningly deep works of indie rock that transcend their influences. They’re both superb; why choose?
RO Pick: Debt Rag, Lost to the Fantasy
Really fun experimental post-punk/art punk stuff out of Olympia, Washington. Debt Rag (from the ashes of Wet Drag) break the world down and rebuild it all wrong on their sub-twenty-minute debut record Lost to the Fantasy–it reminds me of the clang-punk of Handle’s In Threes, although any “punk” album with no allegiances other than “rhythm” is in the same realm as this one.
Honorable Mention: Blue Dolphin, Robert’s Lafitte
Some more Texas oddness here with Robert’s Lafitte, a posthumous collection from Houston/Austin’s Blue Dolphin. Apparently the quartet only lasted for one year (2016) and this album collects their entire recorded output–they had enough to make a somewhat lo-fi but certainly on-target garage-y post-punk album that still sounds fresh in today’s guitar music climate.
RO Pick: Leor Miller’s Fear of Her Own Desire, Eternal Bliss Now!
On Eternal Bliss Now!, Leor Miller pulls in some non-rock influences (hip hop, electronica, and hyperpop) to compete with her more typical dream-shoegaze-distorted-indie rock. As disparate as the touchpoints are, Miller remains laser-focused on interpersonal connectivity and other big but interconnected subjects throughout the record. (Read more)
Honorable Mention: Parister, Here’s What You Wonder
Louisville’s Parister have enough of a twang on Here’s What You Wonder to put them in the realm of modern fuzz-country, although Jake Tapley’s songwriting is the main draw here. It’s a generous album–its thirteen songs all feel full and complete, unfolding with Tapley’s unassuming but steady vocals guiding them to either polished or noisy conclusions. (Read more)
(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: The Collect Pond, Underwater Features / Outwest, All the Wild Horses / Wandering Years, Mountain Laughed)
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