Pressing Concerns: Ther, Under the Bridge, Choo Choo La Rouge, Vessel

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A classic Thursday edition of Pressing Concerns is contained below! In it, you’ll find three albums that come out tomorrow–new LPs from Ther and Choo Choo La Rouge, plus a compilation from Skep Wax Records–as well as a new album from Vessel that came out earlier this week. If you missed Monday’s post (featuring Hello Emerson, Fanclubwallet, The Church, and Magana) or Tuesday’s (featuring Closet Mix, Non La, Sunglaciers, and With Patience), I’d recommend those two as well.

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.

Ther – Godzilla

Release date: April 5th
Record label: Julia’s War
Genre: Art rock, folk rock, post-post rock, alt-rock, slowcore
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Matthew

Ever since Heather Jones’ Ther released their debut full-length record, Trembling, in 2022, they haven’t been content to rest on their laurels, nor have they been interested in repeating themselves. The folk-tronica of Trembling was followed a year later by the record that really got my attention, A Horrid Whisper Echoes in a Palace of Endless Joy, an excellent collection of sparse and intimate-sounding indie folk, and at the end of 2023, they also put out a live record called I’m Not Good at Making Plans that merged Ther’s previous sound with prominent synths, ambient, and electronic elements. Jones has done all this while simultaneously working extensively at their Philadelphia recording studio, So Big Auditory, where they’ve recorded, mixed, and mastered countless records, placing them right in the middle of the city’s vibrant indie rock scene. Almost exactly a year after A Horrid Whisper… and four months removed from I’m Not Good at Making Plans, the third Ther studio album, Godzilla, has emerged, and at this point it isn’t surprising to say that the band (also featuring drummer Jon Cox, vocalist/keyboardist Veronica Magner, guitarist/saxophonist Max Rafter, bassist Amelia Swain, and cellist/guitarist Ripley Tiberio-Schultz) again sound like none of their previous records on this one.

Godzilla asserts itself in Ther’s discography by embracing electric guitars and loud, dramatic indie rock to a previously unseen degree. Jones has worked with experimental shoegazers They Are Gutting a Body of Water frequently, and while that doesn’t really describe what Godzilla sounds like, Jones has perhaps taken inspiration from that side of indie rock to create what can at times feel almost like a photo negative of A Horrid Whisper…,in which their vocals alternatingly fight against or become entirely swallowed up by swirling, all-encompassing rock instrumentals. This departure is more striking on some songs than others, but the first two songs on Godzilla both bear this out in different fashions. Opening track “A Wish” takes its time to get there, opening with Tiberio-Schultz’s cello and only letting the distorted guitars take over as the song draws to a close, while “Moon Ruby” comes right out of the gate with its stabbing alt-rock as Jones narrates some animal horror at the start of the song.

The middle of Godzilla is Ther at their heaviest yet, with “Matthew” and “A Pale Horse Ha Ha Ha Ha” both feeling like instant peaks for the project. Rafter’s saxophone lurks underneath the massive yet workmanlike-sounding electric guitars of the former, and Jones–who spends a lot of the album as a vocalist exploring more subdued and subtler territory–really lets loose in a few places to match the instrumental cathartically. It reminds me of Joel R.L. Phelps & The Downer Trio in a way that very few bands have ever done. “A Pale Horse Ha Ha Ha” I first heard on the For Gaza compilation last year, but it’s even stronger in context, slowly but steadily roaring into one of the most powerful moments on a record with a lot of them. Even in Godzilla’s muddy waters, there are still glimpses of previous Ther work–the two-minute, country-folk “Advil” is the biggest callback to their last studio record (Jones delivers some difficult lyrics, perhaps to themself, as gently as the song allows), but closing track “Star Wars” is also a link to Ther’s past. This is true in a few different ways–both literally in the sense that an experimental synth-rock version of it appeared on I’m Not Good at Making Plans, thematically in the sense that the lyrics feature Jones remembering people in their life now no longer among us, and in its clear, indie folk-like structure. Even so, “Star Wars”, built around a plodding bass, touches of cello, and steady percussion, also feels like new territory for the band. Last year, Ther made their first great album–barely 12 months later, they already feel like so much more than that. (Bandcamp link)

Various Artists – Under the Bridge 2

Release date: April 6th
Record label: Skep Wax
Genre: Indie pop, twee, pop punk, dream pop, sophisti-pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Look Alive!

Back in 2022, I wrote about a remarkable compilation called Under the Bridge, put together by Skep Wax Records. In it, label co-founders Amelia Fletcher and Robert Pursey (of Heavenly) brought together fourteen brand-new recordings from musicians who were once labelmates with them on legendary indie pop/twee imprint Sarah Records. Under the Bridge proved that, decades removed from the heyday of “twee”, several of its key figures are still making vital music, either still in the same band (Even As We Speak, The Orchids, Boyracer) or via new acts made up of ex-Sarah veterans (like Fletcher and Pursey’s current band, The Catenary Wires). Given the success of the first Under the Bridge, it’s not surprising that Skep Wax has put together a sequel, and it’s similarly not surprising that some more bands wanted to get involved this time around. The result is Under the Bridge 2, a twenty-song double LP–twelve of the fourteen bands from the first album are back, along with eight new/old faces. 

The second compilation becomes neither diluted nor disjointed with the extra length–like the first, these songs range from fuzzed-up indie pop punk to smooth sophisti-pop and from immediately hooky to more patience-requiring and experimental, but both compilations have the overarching feeling of familiarity and craft, like they’re the products of people who’ve been “at it” for a long time, who’ve devoted their lives (in some form or another) to making this kind of music. Sometimes, this experience leads the bands on Under the Bridge 2 down some stranger alleys–like Useless Users, an oddball art-pop-rock act featuring members of Action Painting! and Secret Shine that’s been brewing a concoction of the more avant-garde side of vintage Bowie, or Sepiasound, the current project of Blueboy’s Paul Stewart, who now seems inclined to make instrumental, ambient-pop folk music (even The Catenary Wires’ own contribution captures an odder, less structured side of the group).

There is, of course, a ton of great pop music on Under the Bridge 2–as much as these musicians may have diverged from one another since the days of Sarah Records, they all have that in common. That’s the linking thread between the drum-machine folk-pop of The Hit Parade, the 80s post-punk-tinged Leaf Mosaic, the blown-out shoegaze of Secret Shine, the fluttering soft rock of Gentle Spring, and the guitar pop drama of Tufthunter. And, of course, if you’re just looking for fast tempos, loud guitars, and big hooks delivered with maximum possible impact, plenty of bands use their Under the Bridge 2 slot to reassure us all that they still very much can offer this–St Christopher, Boyracer, Jetstream Pony, Action Painting!, and Wandering Summer all offer up pop hits that are ripe and ready for the mixtape. Listening to the lengthy, excited instrumental passages that intersperse the classic Boyracer hooks in their “Unknown Frequencies” or the earned wistfulness with which Wandering Summer (led by former Boyracer drummer Geddy Laurance) inject “Wake the Silver Dancing Waves”, though, it dawns on me that there really is no “typical” sound on Under the Bridge 2. There are twenty different artists on here with twenty different visions for what pop music is, and they’re all correct. (Bandcamp link)

Choo Choo La Rouge – The Sunshine State

Release date: April 5th
Record label: Kiam
Genre: College rock, folk rock, alt-country, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: I’ll Be on the Lawn

Choo Choo La Rouge came out of Boston in the late 1990s. It was a period of transition for indie rock– bands like their neighbors in Hallelujah the Hills were bridging the gap between the obliqueness of the waning decade and the coming sincerity-based new slang of the 2000s. Choo Choo La Rouge managed to get a few EPs and two-full lengths (2004’s I’ll Be Out All Night and 2009’s Black Clouds, the latter on Jennifer O’Connor’s Kiam Records) out before seemingly fading into obscurity at the end of that decade. Yet a decade and a half later, the band (singer/guitarist Vincent Scorziello, drummer Jon Langmead, bassist/vocalist Chris Lynch) have returned, playing shows with some other longtime indie rockers like Antietam, Lupo Citta, and O’Connor, and releasing a brand-new third full-length album, The Sunshine State. Choo Choo La Rouge’s latest (named for the state to which Scorziello moved at the age of ten after growing up in New York) is a brief (under 30 minutes) but rock-solid return–it feels like classic New England college rock, with some jangly guitars, some offbeat Miracle Legion-esque pop rock, a bit of Silos/Vulgar Boatmen-esque rootsiness/folksiness, and even a bit of darker, Paisley Underground/Dream Syndicate-ish desert sound.

Choo Choo La Rouge don’t pull any punches on The Sunshine State’s opening track, “Hell Is Future Fire”. The mid-tempo power chords and the sober damnation of the lyrics make it the record’s most intense moment, even as it’s still quite catchy (the titular sunshine transforming into something more sinister, Scorziello seemingly taking stock of the trajectory of both Florida and the world at large). The other rockers on The Sunshine State are the 90-second garage rock of “Look What You Done” and the stop-start electricity of “Release”, both of which ensure that the record stays lively even as the trio take plenty of opportunities to explore a less-scruffy, more polished folk rock sound. The meandering country rock of “I’ll Be on the Lawn” is almost a rebuttal to “Hell Is Future Fire” (not that I think the song is interested in such a thing), while “I Wish That I Could Be” and “The 70’s Are Still Ringing in My Ears” both chase blissful jangle pop as the record begins to wind down. In the former of those two second-half highlights, Scorziello shrugs at a perceived inability to express something profound in the present (“This classic rock is taking up all eight lanes / And Dylan beats me to it every single time”), and the latter is an observation (neither painted as positive or negative) of “the wind whip[ping] past like years”. In the closing title track, Choo Choo La Rouge put together a hazy folk rock reminiscence of Scorziello’s Florida-based youth. “Times were good but not quite great,” he reflects, taking a stroll down memory lane but keeping an eye on the exit lest it start feeling like pure nostalgia. (Bandcamp link)

Vessel – Wrapped in Cellophane

Release date: April 2nd
Record label: Double Phantom
Genre:  Post-punk, dance punk, garage punk, new wave
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Lost Appeal

Vessel are an Atlanta-based post-punk quartet who are loudly and assertively keeping the spirit of the kind of weird, groovy, and impossibly cool-sounding rock music that originating in neighboring Athens in the 1980s alive. The group (vocalist/drummer Alex Tuisku, guitarist Keron Robinson, bassist Dan Pulido, and saxophonist/keyboardist/percussionist Isaac Bishop) came together during the pandemic, releasing singles in 2022 and 2023 for Double Phantom Records (Balkans, Abby Gogo, Stranded) while they prepared their debut record, Wrapped in Cellophane. The band’s first full-length is impressive in its cohesion–Vessel already sound solidly in command of their sound, and are able to swing between urgent post-punk, big-sounding party music, and laid-back grooves that cede ground to Tuisku’s vocals. The rhythm section is virtually always keying in on something danceable (whether or not it’s “dance-punk” or something less aggressive), Bishop’s saxophone stabs always jut in at the right moment, and Tuisku is an unimpeachable frontperson throughout Wrapped in Cellophane, with a voice to match the instruments.

Just how fun opening track “Watcha Doin” is can’t be overstated–the rhythm section is locked in from the get-go, Tuisku comes out of the gate singing with all she’s got, Robinson’s guitar sounds absurd in a welcome way, and–just when it seems like everything’s right into place, here comes Bishop with his saxophone to top the song off. Vessel excel when they’re in this mode, although they don’t exactly repeat themselves–for instance, “Abducted” delivers these ingredients in a more stoic-sounding “art punk” package that reminds me of bands like Patio and Nightshift, while “Lost Appeal” veers the other way and breaks into a dramatic, beautiful pop chorus that’s maybe Tuisku’s single best moment as a vocalist (and in terms of saying quite a bit with relatively little, “Who do you believe when it’s not me?” is one of her best as a lyricist). Not forgetting about the “nervy” side of post-punk, “Pull the Strings” and “Telephone” are Vessel’s most notable forays into that territory–and they find the fun in these songs, too, from the latter’s exciting bassline and dial tone sound effects to the call-and-response vocals between Tuisku and Bishop in the former. There are moments on Wrapped in Cellophane that are particularly lean (like “Balance” and “Game”), while it’s not until the nearly five-minute closing track “Some Say” that Vessel give full-on maximalism a try. The song and the album enter the home stretch with layered noise, the keys and saxophone warring overtop of the rhythm section. When the song suddenly ends, though, it becomes apparent just how much everything was working together. (Bandcamp link)

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