We’re beginning the week with a Pressing Concerns full of records guaranteed to improve your Monday morning. New albums from Vacation, Nihiloceros, Leah Callahan, and Jon Mckiel (all of which came out last Friday, May 3rd) await you below. All four of these artists are new to Pressing Concerns, but they’re all great additions.
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.
Vacation – Rare Earth
Release date: May 3rd
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Power pop, punk rock, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Sanity’s Sake
Something of a missing-puzzle-piece band for this blog, Vacation are a quartet out of Cincinnati that have been making their brand of rock and roll to the tune of a decade and a half and nine LPs at this point. Between the four of them (Jerome Westerkamp III, Evan Wolff, John Hoffman, and John Clooney), they’ve played in several Feel It Records groups (including Good Looking Son, Motorbike, and BEEF), so I was surprised to see that Rare Earth is actually their first album for the Cincinnati-based label. They’ve hopped from Let’s Pretend to Don Giovanni to Salinas Records throughout their career, but the garage rock, power pop, and punk rock concoction of Rare Earth fits just fine on their new home. They have the same urge to play pop music loud and fast that Feel It flagship group The Cowboys have, but Westerkamp (the group’s primary songwriter) also reaches over to neighboring Dayton for inspiration, as there is a mid-period Guided by Voices “meaty but hooky” attitude to a lot of this record as well. Add in a dash of Midwestern, blue-collar pop punk (not unlike former labelmates ADD/C, who not coincidentally recorded their most recent album with Hoffman), and you’ve got one of the most inspired-sounding rock records I’ve heard in quite a bit–huge-sounding, catchy, with the edges anything but sanded off.
“Worlds in Motion” kicks Rare Earth off with a proof of concept–anyone can write the “rock and roll song that’s about rock and roll”, but Vacation display a feverish devotion to the song’s concept in its execution, something that only becomes more apparent as the record advances. The first half of Rare Earth backs the opening salvo up with a varied collection of excited ideas–the glam-influenced classic rock revival of the title track, the zippy power-pop-punk of “Kink”, the eager-to-please showstopping pop of “Big Hat World”, and the garage-y purgatory of “Cheap Death Rattle”. The mid-tempo lurch of the latter song feels of a kin with Robert Pollard’s songwriting post-“lo-fi” era, and the second half of Rare Earth explores this with an incredible array of Guided by Voices-esque rockers. In particular, the power chord punch of “Life Beyond Eceladus” sounds like a thundering TVT-era fuzz-rock tune (and with a title to match, too!), and the earnest, chugging “Sanity’s Sake” captures Pollard’s ability to imbue his lyrics and vocals with both triumph and melancholy. “Sanity’s Sake” is an obvious success as a pop song, and it’s no small feat that Vacation turn a song with lyrics like “Corrosion of a paradise / A patina that shines / Let your theories oxidize” into not only a hit, but a deeply felt one, too. The album ends with a woozy, lo-fi song called “Sailing”, and it’s a case of the casual, less-polished presentation making the beauty at its core more obvious. The trick to Rare Earth is that, behind the loud guitars, every other song on the record is just as strong and fragile as “Sailing”. (Bandcamp link)
Nihiloceros – Dark Ice Balloons
Release date: May 3rd
Record label: Totally Real
Genre: Punk rock, power pop, alt-rock, pop punk
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Purgatory (Summer Swim)
I recently heard a cool new band from Brooklyn called Nihiloceros. Except they’re not new–they put out an album called Samantha in 2016, and EPs in 2017 and 2021. And the co-leaders of the band, guitarist/vocalist Mike Borchardt and bassist/vocalist Alex Hoffman, apparently have an even longer history together, playing in bands in Chicago and Alaska before moving to New York and beginning Nihiloceros (along with a couple of different drummers–German Sent plays on Dark Ice Balloons, and Glenn Gentzke is currently playing with the band). So, the minds behind Nihiloceros have been around for awhile–that’s something to keep in mind going into their latest record, Dark Ice Balloons, a punk album about death. At least, that’s what Borchardt refers to Dark Ice Balloons as, and it’s not like the black-balloon-clutching ghosts on the album cover, the ferries of death and purgatory references in the lyrics, and the dark alt-rock guitars all prove him wrong. Dark Ice Balloons is also, however, a beast of a pop album–admittedly Jawbreaker and Husker Du devotees, Borchardt and Hoffman stack their record with huge melodic punk/pop punk hooks strong enough to stay intact as the band crank up the loudness and drama.
It becomes apparent from the beginning of Dark Ice Balloons that Nihiloceros have appropriately brought their populist instincts for this universal topic–opening track “Penguin Wings” is as revved up as it is nervous-sounding, a sledgehammer-esque refrain wielded to maximum effect, while “Killing Ghost” colors things a shade darker but without losing the “full-throated punk chorus” side of the band, and by the time we’ve gotten to “Krong”, Nihiloceros have decided to see what Green Day would sound like if they weren’t afraid of extended passages of noisy but hooky guitar playing (pretty good!). Dark Ice Balloons’ secret is that the second half might actually be better, between the weird power pop mad scientist creation “Skipper” (the way the vocalist switches and the synths come alive in the chorus requires a strong navigator, indeed), the no-expenses-spared pop punk rager “Martian Wisconsin” (joining the pantheon of “great punk songs about aliens”, no less), and “Purgatory (Summer Swim)”, the last and best song on the record. “Purgatory” (co-written with someone named Amanda Gardner, per their Bandcamp) sounds like a lost radio-ready punk single from the 90s, from the way the melody and electric guitar spill out at the beginning of the song to the basketball dribble beat to the esoteric fist-pump of the chorus. Nihiloceros try natural disasters and weapon-fellating on for size, but it’s the open-ended question in the song’s refrain that defines Dark Ice Balloons. (Bandcamp link)
Leah Callahan – Curious Tourist
Release date: April 29th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Art rock, dream pop, 90s indie rock, alt-rock
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Ordinary Face
Leah Callahan is a Boston-area music veteran–from the mid-90s to mid-2000s, she played in the bands Turkish Delight, Betwixt, and The Glass Set, in addition to releasing a solo album in 2003. After The Glass Set’s last album in 2007, it appeared that Callahan was done with recording music, but she’s recently broken a 13-year hiatus with a prolific streak–she released two full-length albums (Simple Folk and Short Stories) in 2021, and followed them up with 2022’s Cut-Ups. Curious Tourist, therefore, is the fourth Leah Callahan album in about three years, and its ten songs feel like the work of seasoned professionals. It’s Callahan’s name on the cover, but it’s far from a “solo” effort–the contributions of multi-instrumentalist and co-songwriter Chris Stern are particularly felt, but the rest the record’s musicians (drummer Alex Brander and viola player Jeremy Fortier) make their contributions known as well. Callahan mentions Britpop and shoegaze as touchstones for Curious Tourist–she and Stern specifically bonded over Lush, and she also recalls experiencing Swirlies and Medicine firsthand during her stints in 90s indie rock groups.
The resultant album is a robust indie rock record that actually rocks, while still retaining a relatively straight-laced, song-forward approach. Curious Tourist reminds me of recent albums by Phosphene and Guest Directors, records that could be loud and distorted but without being overly committed to recreating shoegaze moments of the past. “Nowhere Girl” is a huge opening statement, an orchestral, all-in six-minute rocker, while songs like “No One” and “Ordinary Face” find Callahan and her collaborators sharpening their claws and banging out rock music that capture both the darker (the former) and bouncier (the latter) sides of post-punk. These larger instrumental showcases contain plenty of catchy moments, but Curious Tourist really shows off its pop songwriting when it’s more streamlined–the skipping, toe-tapping retro pop of “Super” is perhaps the most well-rounded “pop song” on the record, but both “Social Climber” and “Wish” deploy especially strong guitar-based melodies that give it a run for its money. The record ends with a cover of “You Don’t Love Me (No No No)”, a blues song that has been adapted into a rocksteady-influenced tune over the years (which is the version Callahan and her band play). It’s a huge left turn to end Curious Tourist, but it works as a statement from a reawakened artist unwilling to restrict herself in her second act. (Bandcamp link)
Jon Mckiel – Hex
Release date: May 3rd
Record label: You’ve Changed
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, folk rock, psychedelic pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: The Fix
It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from New Brunswick-based singer-songwriter Jon Mckiel–four years, to be exact, which was when he released his most recent album, 2020’s Bobby Joe Hope. That album was one of my favorites of the year, and I called it “a record of wonderful snake-curled-in-the-grass-by-the-campfire Canadian psychedelic indie folk” (which I stand by), and if that sounds appealing to you, you’re likely going to find plenty to enjoy on its follow-up, Hex. It’s his sixth album and third for You’ve Changed (Daniel Romano, Fiver, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson), once again recorded and produced entirely by Mckiel and his longtime collaborator, JOYFULTALK’s Jay Crocker (saxophone on the record’s first song by Nicola Miller is the only outside musical contribution). Hex is yet again a success as a pop record, and it also has a pleasingly keen sense of rhythm that crops out throughout the album, giving these songs a strong foundation while Mckiel and Crocker seek to balance sharp melodies, folk intimacy, and psychedelic expanse.
Hex’s opening title track is an attention-grabber–at least, as much as this kind of music can be considered “attention-grabbing”. The smooth, minimal lo-fi sophisti-pop instincts of the song are completed by Miller’s saxophone–although it’s the record’s next few songs that really ended up winning me over. I really like Mckiel’s choice to stick “String”–a tangled but mesmerizing mess of low-to-the-ground psychedelic guitars and rhythms–so early in the tracklist, and it feels like Hex is blown wide open when he and Crocker embrace a murky, looping, almost-dub-influenced side in “Still Life” and “Under Burden”, two strong highlights of the record’s first half. Songs on Hex seem to float by, but not without leaving an impression–stuff like the reverb-y, lightly-shined-up “The Fix” and the clear-eyed, synth-touched “Everlee” are guitar pop songs first and foremost and act accordingly. Hex’s sparest moment is the only one not written by Mckiel–the penultimate track is a cover of “Concrete Sea”, a song you could’ve convinced me was a lost Neil Young classic but is actually by 70s Manitoba folk singer and environmental activist Terry Jacks. It’s an inspired song imagining a world beyond the West’s destructive tendencies (perhaps illustrated no more strongly than in his native country). It’s not unreasonable to say that Hex resonates in part because Mckiel is clearly guided by a compass that stretches far beyond the world of lo-fi folk music. (Bandcamp link)
Also notable:
- Adeem the Artist – Anniversary
- Exit Angles – Iterate
- The Third Sound – Most Perfect Solitude
- Caroline Davis & Wendy Eisenberg – Accept When
- Kiran Leonard – Real Home
- Parsnip – Behold
- Rachel Love – Lyra
- Rome 56 – Paradise Is Free
- St. Joe & the Dorms – Grow Up EP
- Zoya Zafar – Some Songs
- Looney – Memory Screen
- Alvin Purple – Billie EP
- Sunwise – Crime Gardens
- Joyer – Night Songs
- Eric Slick – New Age Rage
- Motel Breakfast – I Promise I’m Having Fun
- Ellis – No Place That Feels Like
- Burntmill Ghosts – Old Records
- Amnasti – It Took Me So Long
- Elizabeth King – Soul Provider
- Big Boss Man – Bossin’ Around
- Cassie Kinoshi’s Seed. – Gratitude
- 38 Coffin – Leopard Spots
- Garden Home – Garden Home
- Kinbote – Hemisphere
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