Pressing Concerns: Laughing, Alexei Shishkin, bcc:, Kass Richards

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Regular readers know the drill by now, but for new ones: today is the Thursday Pressing Concerns, looking at three albums that come out tomorrow, June 28th (new LPs from Laughing, Alexei Shishkin, and bcc:) plus one that came out earlier this week (the latest album from Kass Richards). Also, a couple of other posts went up at the beginning of the week, so if you missed the Monday post (featuring Nature’s Neighbor, Hayes Noble, Bug Seance, and Workers Comp) or the Tuesday one (featuring Tigerblind, Marcel Wave, Laybrum, and Swan Wash), check those out, too!

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.

Laughing – Because It’s True

Release date: June 28th
Record label: Meritorio/Celluloid Lunch
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Bruised

Rosy Overdrive is a huge booster of all things “jangle pop”. I’ve written about countless such bands and albums, and though I haven’t decided which records will share this entry with Laughing’s Because It’s True, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if at least one other album here could be described in this way. I have to imagine at this point that this blog is on the radar of everybody who is looking to have their jangle pop album, or a jangle pop album on their record label, or one they’re doing PR for, written about (believe me, I’m not trying to say this as a “flex” or “brag”). This is all to say, I’m here to talk about another guitar pop band that could conceivably be compared to Teenage Fanclub. Montreal’s Laughing are a new group, but at the very least, guitarist/vocalist/bassist Josh Salter isn’t new to the game, putting time in with bands like Quivers, Nap Eyes, and Monomyth before linking up with Cole Woods, André Charles Thériault (both guitar/bass/vocals), and Laura Jeffery (drums/vocals) to form a new quartet. Because It’s True, their first album, is a collision of ragged power pop music, an album that fires up a seemingly-endless bag of tricks to hook the listener immediately and keep the engines running long past the initial burst.

“Want to say sorry, but I’m not even sure what for,” humbly begins opening track “Easier Said”, but only after a triumphant instrumental opening salvo of pounding drums and lightning-bolt guitars–a sure a sign as any that a power pop star has been born. The balance between electric bluster and practiced shyness is once again struck in “Bruised”, which is absolutely brimming with winning melodies and professional losers. I promised “jangle” in the introduction of this review, and anyone who gets activated by that descriptor is going to have a field day with early highlight “Pebble”, every bit as strong as the two aforementioned tracks that buffer it even though its guitars are more discreetly deployed. After pulling out all the stops to begin Because It’s True, Laughing reveal their ability to cover all their bases in short, sweet, simple guitar pop packages (“Will She Ever Be a Friend of Mine”, “Don’t Care”) and their ability to let the pop music unfold into lengthy, wandering, introspective numbers (“Glue”, “Secret”), and they continue to pepper in power pop ‘hits’ that could’ve served just fine as introductory tracks (“Sour Note”, “You and I”). Maybe you’ve been burnt out on this kind of music, and you find yourself wondering why, out of all the jangly indie pop albums to go through Rosy Overdrive’s virtual doors, we’re singling out this one as a shining, expertly-delivered highlight in a crowded microgenre. Well…Because It’s True. (Bandcamp link)

Alexei Shishkin – Open Door Policy

Release date: June 28th
Record label: Candlepin
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, 90s indie rock, indie pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: The Drummer

I was introduced to the sprawling world of Queens singer-songwriter Alexei Shishkin earlier this year with Dagger, his first album of 2024. Out via Rue Defense (more or less his home label since a similarly prolific stint with Forged Artifacts last decade), I called Dagger an “enjoyable hazy collection of lo-fi bedroom rock” and appreciated how it’d deliver both no-strings-attached pop music and more bizarre, experimental fare. As I alluded to, Shishkin is generally operating at a “more than one record a year” clip (both in terms of full-lengths and castoff EPs, including Built to Spill and New Pornographers cover collections), so it’s not too surprising that I’m back about four months later to talk about another solid Shishkin album, Open Door Policy. For this record, Shishkin has hooked up with Rosy Overdrive favorite Candlepin Records, and while that label has recently been putting out a good deal of messy, experimental shoegaze, Open Door Policy actually finds Shishkin and cleaning and polishing up his sound. While Dagger was entirely home-recorded, this time around Shishkin used both a proper studio (Bradford Krieger’s Big Nice Studio) and a bunch of collaborators (Krieger, Rue Defense’s Graham W. Bell, bassist Dave Kahn, drummer Ian Dwy, guitarist/keyboardist Bill Waters, saxophonist Ivan Rodriguez, and clarinet/sax from Eyal Sela).

Subsequently, Open Door Policy ends up sounding like the more refined, pop-friendly sides of Shishkin’s 90s indie rock influences (Malkmus, Berman, Linkous, Martsch, and Lytle all come to mind), and there’s also a rootsy streak to the songs that wasn’t nearly as pronounced on his last record. The first half of Open Door Policy in particular feels like a lost underground “best of” compilation, with the laid-back pop of opening track “The Drummer”, the smooth-sailing jangle pop of “Autobahn”, and ever-so-slightly country tinge of “Ruby” being just a few of the A-side’s highlights. Open Door Policy eventually cracks the front entrance a little and lets more “rocking” and “experimental” touches in, but it’s still a pop album–“Animal Control” and “Chowder Powder” are two shining examples of the former, cranking things up a bit more than Shishkin and his collaborators had done previously but keeping in the album’s catchy tradition (and the pure absurdity of the former is worth a confused “thumbs up” gesture). Saving some of its best material for last, Open Door Policy hides “Idk!!!” in the penultimate slot, a surprisingly-strong Neil Young-influenced track from an album that hadn’t really gestured in that direction at all before that point. In a roundabout way, Shishkin goes about creating a “classic indie rock sound” with Open Door Policy–like it organically comes to the same conclusions as some of the greats of the genre. (Bandcamp link)

bcc: – Praise Low

Release date: June 28th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: 90s indie rock, indie pop, power pop
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Magpie in the Commissary 

New York musician Bobby Cardos spent the 2010s in the underappreciated indie rock group Doubting Thomas Cruise Control (their last album came out in 2019, although they’ve played live more recently than that), and this year he debuted a new project called Slake/Thirst with Kaitlyn Flanagan and Ian Donohue with the excellent Hunting Dust EP. Since 2020, Cardos has also had a quasi-solo project called bcc:, putting out a cassette in February of that year and following it up with a digital compilation of “songs/snippets” in 2022. The latest from bcc: is an eight-song “mini-album” called Praise Low, recorded in Cardos’ basement with help from Dan Murphy, Pat Murphy, and Johnny Skwirut. Both Doubting Thomas Cruise Control and Slake/Thirst are bands that wear their “90s indie rock” influences on their sleeves, training unadorned, plainspoken vocals and economical arrangements towards low-key pop gems. Praise Low doesn’t disappoint on this front–in fact, it seems that Cardos, left to his own devices, is more prone than ever to writing wobbly, almost-opaque-but-not-quite earnest guitar pop music.

There are some Malkmusian headscratchers of lyrics on Praise Low (the catchiest song on the record starts with “There’s a magpie in the commissary / Pecking at the actuary”), but opening track “Unoriginal” is almost shockingly direct. Like the opening track from Hunting Dust, “Ditty”, it’s under a minute long, and like the self-conscious jamboree of that song, “Unoriginal” is clearly a mission statement (“Try to settle down / Most of us are unoriginal / Don’t let it get you down / Do your work…” is certainly a memorable way to start your basement-made indie rock record in 2024). After that, Cardos and crew launch into the everyman lo-fi pop of “Chamomile”, crank things up for the electric power pop-tinged “Magpie in the Commissary”, and then take a step back for the guitar balladry of “Shadow”. There are no bells and whistles on Praise Low–that we’re transported out of the practice space in the way that we are is a testament to Cardos’ writing. It’s an incredibly well-rounded album–the chugging, baggage-jettisoning “Out of Order” towards the end of the record is one of its most rewarding moments–and even powers through the bold choice of making its two quietest songs the final two. They’re both great, but closing track “HIMYM” has to be singled out. “Wasn’t much/ Some conversation, staring at the dog / Just enough / To keep it going, try to make a start,” Cardos recalls of a first date with, as he says in the notes for this record, the person who would eventually become his wife. It’s not as cleanly a declaration of perseverance as “Unoriginal”, but it’s perhaps an even more effective one. (Bandcamp link)

Kass Richards – New Love Meditation

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Good Cry
Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Dream

Boston musician Kassie Richardson is perhaps most widely-heard as a “frequent collaborator” with art pop group U.S. Girls–she’s a member of their live band and contributed in some form or another to the act’s three most recent records. However, on her own (as Kass Richards), she makes music with a more folk rock bent, although with perhaps a stronger grasp on pop music than a lot of folk/indie rock singer-songwriters these days. The first Kass Richards album, The Language Shadow, came out back in 2020 via Feeding Tube and Good Cry, and though the next few years brought a handful of one-off singles, 2024 is shaping up to be her biggest year yet. Back in February, Good Cry put out When We Were Wolves, an album billed to “Aidan Coughlan and Kass Richards” (Coughlan wrote the songs and instrumentals, both sang and produced), and June sees the release of Richardson’s second proper solo album, New Love Meditation. The record was recorded with a team of Canadian ringers and U.S. Girls collaborators–Geordie Gordon (Islands), Ed Squires (Badge Époque Ensemble), and Simone TB (Fiver)–and it balances Richardson’s clear love of traditional folk music with the rock and pop of the world around her.

New Love Meditation opens with TB pounding incessantly on the drums, an odd but fitting beginning for the breathless folk-pop-rock that comprises the first half of “Dreams”–only for the second part of the song to shift seamlessly into hazy ambient pop. Richardson is a remarkable pop songwriter, and New Love Meditation is set up to show this off to a degree–in particular, the middle three tracks of the record, “Picture”, the title track, and “Blue”, are a bunch of knockouts where the band play smartly to emphasize the core of the songs. However, Richardson’s folk instincts are reflected in that fact that two out of the eight full songs on New Love Meditation are covers of traditional folk music. “Love Is Teasing” and “Blackwater Side” both stand out on the record, but not necessarily due to their historical backgrounds–rather, these arrangements (credited to the entire band and co-producer Maximilian Turnbull) feel even more collaborative and inventive than the majority of the originals. The prominent percussion and droning, almost psychedelic guitar work on both tracks balances the straight nature of Richardson’s singing–these recordings don’t feel like “updates” of old songs so much as the latest turn in a long, twisting musical history. Much like the rest of New Love Meditation, in fact. (Bandcamp link)

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