Pressing Concerns: An Academy of Lies, Axis: Sova, Sugardeer, Cast of Thousands

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Even though it’s the final week of 2023, we’ve got a surprisingly full schedule on the blog this week. Yesterday, we unveiled Rosy Overdrive’s Favorite Reissues and Compilations of 2023, and today we get another Pressing Concerns, featuring a new album from Axis: Sova, new EPs from Sugardeer and Cast of Thousands, and a Guided by Voices cover compilation from Rusted Gear Records. And we’ve still got more to come this week! Stay tuned!

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Various – An Academy of Lies: A Guided by Voices Cover Compilation

Release date: December 22nd
Record label: Rusted Gear
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop, fuzz rock, garage rock
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Dust Devil

Eric Gaines is a Tampa-based singer-songwriter who’s released a good deal of music via his solo project, Nova Robotics Initiative–typically of the lo-fi indie rock variety, with hints of punk, emo, and folk in the mix. Like any good bedroom rocker, Gaines has started a record label to release his various projects, and he’s launching Rusted Gear Records with a Guided by Voices cover compilation. I’m of the opinion that there can never be too many Guided by Voices cover compilations in the world, and I’m happy to report that Nova Robotics Initiative and the seven other artists that Gaines recruited for An Academy of Lies are well-stocked with the most important ingredient in making these things work–an excited, all-in energy. The song selection is concentrated from the early-to-mid-90s “golden era” of Guided by Voices, although there are still a couple of surprising choices within this context–but whether they’re playing what are effectively indie rock standards or more off-the-beaten-path material, everyone sounds driven to do these songs justice.

As a nice bonus to regular Pressing Concerns readers, there are a few bands here who’ve shown up in this column before, and all three of them offer up highlights. Soft Screams, a tireless lo-fi power popper in their own right, crunches their way through a power-chord-led version of “Don’t Stop Now”, speeding up the song but keeping its core fragility intact. Post-punk-tinged college rock revivalists Patches are uniquely equipped to take on the bass-led “The Best of Jill Hives”–the original version is one of Robert Pollard’s finest moments as a vocalist, and Evan Seurkamp’s performance is able to hang with it. Iffin’s take on “Dust Devil” might be the most impressive thing on the whole compilation–Mira Tsarina extracts the song’s early-Pollard wistful melody with surgical focus and grafts it seamlessly onto a dramatic, sweeping, Koji Kondo-inspired instrumental. The new-to-me bands acquit themselves nicely here, as well–Tonsil Hockey don’t fuck with “Game of Pricks” too much, because why would you, but Total Vacation’s garage-y power pop version of “Jar of Cardinals” is an inspired revision (as is With Willows’ slow-moving, synth-y ballad version of “Awful Bliss”, maybe the one true “breather” on the album). I think we can close 2023 out by taking some valuable lessons from An Academy of Lies–namely, that Guided by Voices are a good band, and if you put together a cover compilation of their music, I’ll probably write about it, especially if you invite artists I already like to participate. (Bandcamp link)

Axis: Sova – Blinded by Oblivion

Release date: October 6th
Record label: GOD?/Drag City
Genre: Garage rock, glam rock, psychedelic rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Hardcore Maps

Drag City has done a lot of good things over the years, but letting Ty Segall run his own imprint as a sub-label (GOD? Records) is probably one of their better recent moves. I’ve been a fan of one of GOD?’s most prominent bands (Flat Worms) for a while now, but the latest album from another of the label’s flagship acts has caught my attention as of late. Blinded by Oblivion is Axis: Sova’s fifth album, but its first in half a decade–whether they’re reintroducing themselves to you or you’re hopping aboard for the first time (like me), though, the Chicago garage rock trio sound as fresh as anything on their new Segall-produced LP. Rather than Flat Worms’ caustic post-punk, Axis: Sova (led by Brett Sova, backed by bassist Jeremy Freeze and drummer Josh Johannpeter) explore a different side of the Segall spectrum, cruising through loose psychedelic rock and vintage glam-inspired fare in a way that’s heavy, fun, and lively enough to never get stuck in neutral.

It becomes apparent early on in Blinded by Oblivion that Sova is both a sharp pop songwriter and that he has an ace rhythm section backing him–opening track “People” walks a fine line between being a song-length introduction and an interesting tune in its own right in large part to Sova’s melodies and the restrained but forceful instrumental behind him. “Hardcore Maps” is the subsequent payoff, a blistering behemoth of glam-garage sporting a riff worthy of another modern garage rock titan, Cory Hanson. A lot of Blinded by Oblivion works because the songs are, at their core, vintage 60s and 70s pop rock (dare I say power pop?), but punched up by Axis: Sova’s collective might. “Trend Sets” and “Plastic Pageant Show” are both incredibly catchy but also full-on, no-well-of-energy-left-untapped rockers, and even when the band gets more into heavy psychedelic rock in the record’s second half, it’s never completely at the expense of giving up melody. As long as Sova is at the head of the band, they’re going to have one foot in the world of pop music–but as long as Freeze and Johannpeter are behind him, Axis: Sova could end up anywhere from that starting point. (Bandcamp link)

Sugardeer – Good Names for Strays

Release date: November 17th
Record label: Race to the Finish
Genre: Piano rock, pop rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: CD, digital
Pull Track: Papercup

Danny Kit Boyle is a Cleveland-based musician with a background in classical and orchestral music, but as of late they’ve been trying their hand at pop rock with their new project Sugardeer. Since 2021, Sugardeer have put out a couple of singles and a brief live recording, but Good Names for Strays is the project’s debut EP, and it’s a fairly substantial opening statement. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a fairly musically busy record, although it’s also very much a “pop” one (one of Sugardeer’s first recordings was a Death Cab for Cutie cover, and while they don’t exactly sound like that band, they sit at a similar intersection of “pop music”, “indie rock”, and “emotional, not necessarily emo” music). Boyle’s instrument of choice is the piano, although that’s hardly the only one you’ll hear on Good Names for Strays (Boyle alone is credited with clarinet, synth, guitar, and bass, and drummer Ben Wolgamuth and violinist Micaela Murphy also contribute heavily to the EP).

Opener “Papercup” showcases Boyle’s sense of dynamics and song-building–they hold back in the song’s first half before allowing the track to blossom into a full-on orchestral, piano-led rock song about midway through its runtime. Boyle’s vocals are impressive throughout Good Names for Strays, although “Cherry Picker” (an emotional rocker with some choice guest guitar work from Jennifer Weathers) is perhaps their most standout moment as a frontperson. In addition to the in-song ups and downs, Good Names for Strays also rises and falls as a whole–the hushed piano-and-violin ballad “Creek 232” gives way to “Callie” and “The Tower, inverted”, two lengthy, intricate pieces of chamber pop that reach thrilling climaxes before trailing off into the quiet clarinet-led “Wishes” to close the record. One can tell that Good Names for Strays is a pop rock record made by someone coming at it from a different field, and that’s a good thing–the frequently personal writing throughout Sugardeer’s debut EP calls for a similarly human performance to match, without any sanded-down edges. (Bandcamp link)

Cast of Thousands – First Six Songs

Release date: October 17th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Power pop, college rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: I Need

If Rosy Overdrive had been around in 2019, I assuredly would’ve been telling you all about Never See Snow, the third album from Austin trio Flesh Lights. The band had been hanging around the Austin scene for a while (Never See Snow came out on Austin Town Hall Records, the one before it on 12XU, and they started playing together in the late 2000s), but that album was the first I’d heard of them, and I was very taken with Flesh Lights’ high-energy, high-speed take on garage-y power pop. Unfortunately, Never See Snow also proved to be the final Flesh Lights album–they broke up the same year–and while I never completely forgot about them, the band faded somewhat from my memory. That is, until I found out about frontperson Maxwell Vandever’s new band, Cast of Thousands, a couple of months ago. The quartet has been playing a lot of shows locally (with Touch Girl Apple Blossom, Class, and Lewsberg, among others) and rolling out singles since late last year, culminating in October’s First Six Songs cassette EP.

On their debut record, Cast of Thousands proves to be no less of an effective power pop group than Flesh Lights were. Vandever is still quite adept at writing and delivering hooks, and while I would’ve accepted a carbon copy of Never See Snow no questions asked, Cast of Thousands are not just a recreation of the former trio. First Six Songs is less garage-y, and a bit more deliberate, polished, and refined–we’re still in upbeat and propulsive territory here, although decidedly closer to “later Replacements” than “early Replacements” this time around. The half-dozen songs on this cassette offer up timeless, just-a-bit-rootsy power pop (“Mari”, “Hard to Read”), jangly college rock (“New Band in Town”), and a couple of bold slowdowns (“Out in the Streets”, “Is It Really the End?”). One of the most striking moments on First Six Songs might also be the catchiest one–“I Need”, a chugging power chord anthem that surprisingly lasts for five and a half minutes without losing steam. It’s a well-rounded debut, and I’m curious to see where Cast of Thousands go from here. (Bandcamp link)

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