Pressing Concerns: Norm Archer, New Math, Hits, Kevin Robertson

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Hello, again! The Tuesday Pressing Concerns is another classic, looking at three records that came out last Friday (new LPs from Norm Archer and Hits and a reissue of New Math’s debut EP), plus an album from Kevin Robertson that came out last month. Great stuff, and there’s even more in yesterday’s blog post (featuring Chime School, Melt-Banana, Edie McKenna, and Giant Day) if you missed that one, 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.

Norm Archer – Verb

Release date: August 23rd
Record label: Panda Koala
Genre: Power pop, garage rock, prog-punk, college rock
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: The Weaver

It’s a good time to be a fan of Norm Archer. Frontperson and sometimes sole member Will Pearce started up the project a mere two years ago–after a stint fronting Portsmouth, England punk group Misgivings, Pearce explored his home-recorded power pop side with Flying Cloud Terrace, which ended up being one of my favorite albums from 2022. A sophomore Norm Archer LP, Splitting the Bill, appeared last year and only continued to sharpen up Pearce’s college rock/guitar pop hook-spinning, being every bit the worthy follow-up. Pearce appears to have Norm Archer on the “one album a year” track, as 2024 has brought Verb, the project’s third long-player. And here I am writing about it, because it’s pretty easily as good as the first two Norm Archer albums, at least. Everything great about Norm Archer (who on this record is mostly Pearce, with “some drums” from Ben Whyntie) appears on Verb–huge power pop anthems, Guided by Voices-esque arena pop rock, relaxed, 60s-esque jangly guitar pop, and multi-part prog-pop workouts all abound. Of course, part of the reason why Verb is able to fit all of this in one album is that it’s also the longest Norm Archer record to date–after two albums that would easily fit on one vinyl record apiece, Verb is pushing an hour.

Norm Archer don’t sound like they’re gearing up to surrender to the world of excess as they begin Verb–“The Hell of Neighbours” is an instant classic Pollard-esque garage-pop number that gets the job done in two minutes, and the punchy title track and the no-holds-barred power pop candy of “The Weaver” find Norm Archer practicing precision quite energetically. On the other hand, “Sea Still There” and “Sundry Man” are less frantic but no less catchy–the even-keeled psychedelic pop of the former and mid-tempo college rock of the latter are both album highlights. Pearce can’t help but titling Verb’s biggest ballad “It’s Maudlin”, but while the title might come with a wink, the song is anything but self-conscious–Pearce steps into a rich tradition of melancholic British jangle pop with the song and pulls out something quite beautiful of his own. Effectively, the first eleven songs on Verb are a “normal” Norm Archer album (with the jangle-punk “Million” being a late-record highlight), and then Pearce and Whyntie take the project into completely uncharted territory with the closing duo of “Roaming” and “Wicked Ray”. 

Both ten minutes long, these final two tracks are the entire reason Verb reaches its unwieldy-seeming length–impressively, though, Norm Archer create these twin epics out of fairly disparate ingredients. The former one, “Roaming”, is the classic multi-section prog rock suite, gleefully tossing out a half-dozen songs’ worth of ideas to create an overwhelming sensation. The ghosts of Daltrey and Townshend (well, of their talent, I guess) must be looking down pleasingly as Pearce “wastes” some of the catchiest moments of 60s pop pastiche and world-beating rock and roll on the record by folding them into this garishly bright patchwork. “Wicked Ray”, meanwhile, rejects any common ground with The Jam for the jam. That is, Verb closes with a ten-minute instrumental jam session between Pearce and Whyntie that’s the polar opposite of the orchestrations of “Roaming”. Velvet Underground-baiting title aside, “Wicked Ray” is a bit more laid-back, although there’s enough darkness in its opening salvo to properly earn that “wicked”. Whether you wanted Norm Archer to stay the course, flex their rock opera muscles, or lapse into smoky basement explorations on their third album, Verb decides to just do it all. (Bandcamp link)

New Math – They Walk Among You (Remastered & Expanded)

Release date: August 23rd
Record label: Propeller Sound Recordings
Genre: Post-punk, goth, punk, horror rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: They Walk Among You

New Math are a piece of early American punk rock history. More specifically, they were a key component of upstate New York’s contributions to said landscape, forming in Rochester in 1976 and opening for bands like the Ramones, The Cramps, and The Gun Club whenever they’d come to town. In the mid-1980s, they’d change their name to The Jet Black Berries and gain some notoriety in that iteration, but their work as New Math represents a snapshot of a band in a mid-sized American city that was nevertheless keyed into an internationally volatile era of rock music. Chapel Hill’s Propeller Sound Recordings (who have also reissued music from The Feelies, Too Much Joy, and Love Tractor) kicked off a revisitation of New Math last year with Die Trying and other Hot Sounds (1979-1983), a compilation of early singles and unreleased material from the band, and they’ve continued the campaign this year with an expanded reissue of their debut EP, 1981’s They Walk Among You. Now the length of an LP, the new version of They Walk Among You collects the original five songs of the EP plus six unreleased studio and live recordings, adding some previously-lost and unheard New Math originals and cover versions to their repertoire. 

With songs like “They Walk Among You”, “Dead of Night”, and “American Survival”, it becomes clear that New Math had become fully swept up into the world of the macabre by the time of their first EP. The keyboard-aided sound of They Walk Among You lands right in between the American horror-rock bands like Roky Erickson and the Aliens and The Cramps and a darker, gothic post-punk attitude. The EP was actually originally released on Erickson-associated 415 Records, and it’s not hard to hear his influence on songs like “Invocation”, but between the post-punk propulsion of the title track, the gothic synth-rock of “Garden of Delight”, and primal garage rock of “American Survival”, New Math were too busy exploring new and exciting rock and roll possibilities to be a pastiche of any one band. The record’s bonus material is a worthy addition to the original EP–although it does seem like New Math made the right decisions when it came to assembling They Walk Among You, outtakes “Dead of Night” and “Two Tongues” would’ve fit right on the record, too. Other unearthed curiosities include a psychedelic cover of “We Love You” by The Rolling Stones and “Second Language”, an original song supposedly inspired by the former. The latter is represented by a live recording, one of several live versions that suggest New Math had plenty to offer on the stage at this time, too. The rock band captured on this version of They Walk Among You was one that was pulling itself in several different directions, but it was always going somewhere. (Bandcamp link)

Hits – World of Dirt

Release date: August 23rd
Record label: Paisley Shirt
Genre: Lo-fi pop, lo-fi indie rock, post-punk, noise pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Totally Bereft

Another key Bay Area indie pop group that I haven’t gotten to talk about on this blog until now, Oakland’s Hits (not to be confused with Hit, the New York experimental pop group) are a group of regional veterans who have been rolling out their version of offbeat rock and roll music together for about a decade now. Led by Jen Weisberg (of formerly of Ruby Pins, and as of late part of Yea Ming & The Rumours) and also featuring Max Nordile (aka Hair Clinic) and prolific engineer Brian Tester, Hits put out a split with Ruby Pins in 2014, linked up with Paisley Shirt Records for 2020’s Sediment Seen, and followed that with Cielo Nublado a year later. Although the members of Hits have all been busy with other projects as of late, the trio found time to make World of Dirt, their fourth album and third for Paisley Shirt. World of Dirt is twenty minutes long and made up of two noise pieces and six warbly pop songs–on the latter, Tester and Nordile tease out Weisberg’s songs with bits of post-punk, psychedelia, garage rock, and twee-pop in a way not unlike other Paisley Shirt-affiliated groups like Sad Eyed Beatniks and Red Pants. Hits have a satisfyingly distinct personality on World of Dirt nonetheless–although the band gleefully clangs along to Weisberg’s singing, the instruments never overpower her.

Although World of Dirt can be a bit messy at times, it opens with a superb first statement in “Plate of Cookies”, an eager piece of propulsive indie pop that sounds somewhere between the post-punk hooks of Dancer and the deconstructed indie pop of the most recent Palberta album. The fuzzed-out melancholy of “Across Town” and the halfheartedly-committed-to-noir vibes of “Purple Noon” are a little less immediate, but they’re still clear and strong pop songs, and the electric, sugary jolt of “1-5-8” at the beginning of World of Dirt’s second side affirms that Hits aren’t just going to trail off into noisiness. “1-5-8” comes immediately after “Future Tense 3”, a genuine piece of formless, instrumental noise rock in which the trio jam assertively. It’s a jarring way to close World of Dirt’s first half, but I suppose it primes us for a return to the well in “Future Tense”, the record’s closing track. The band (alongside guest Steve Whitwill) bang on their instruments for three minutes, finishing off World of Dirt as far away from “pop” as they can get. “Future Tense” comes not long after second half highlight “Thorn By My Side”, a four-minute guitar pop ballad in which the members of Hits seem to take pains to leave the core of Weisberg’s song intact. It all adds up to a record made by collaborators with an “anything goes” attitude, trusting us to come with them on a brief but eventful ride. (Bandcamp link)

Kevin Robertson – The Call of the Sea

Release date: July 8th
Record label: Subjangle/Futureman
Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, psych pop
Formats: CD, digital
Pull Track: Ghosting

Over the past half-decade or so, Aberdeen, Scotland’s Kevin Robertson has been one of the most active and consistent forces in the wider world of guitar pop. First, his band The Vapour Trails released three albums from 2019 to 2021, and his 2021 solo album Sundown’s End kicked off a streak of one LP a year that continued with 2022’s Teaspoon of Time and last year’s Magic Spells Abound. Once again out via Futureman (which has released all of his and Vapour Trails’ music) and Subjangle (who’ve put out his solo records), The Call of the Sea is the fourth Kevin Robertson solo LP, and continues his fruitful journey into the world of 1960s-inspired jangle pop, psychedelic pop, and folk rock. Although there are several guest contributions to The Call of the Sea, the core of the record is Robertson, his son Scott, and drummer/producer Nick Bertling, a trio who help aid the casual brilliance of the elder Robertson’s songwriting. Partially recorded at home and partially at Bertlin’s “DIY recording studio”, The Call of the Sea feels like a glimpse into the world of a musician who’s always (quite expertly) tinkering away at his craft of writing timeless-sounding guitar pop songs.

The name and album artwork of The Call of the Sea evokes the more tranquil side of jangly indie rock, although those who enjoy the more upbeat, power pop side of Robertson’s influences like Teenage Fanclub and contemporaries like The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness will have plenty to enjoy here, too. The first two tracks on the record, “Ghosting” and “The Guilt Trip”, are bright, vibrant hook-fests, and though “Subway Hold” sounds like it wants to relax just a little bit, there’s no restraining the power of that huge chorus. The Call of the Sea eventually eases into something more directly evoking its title, although it’s not a clean separation–the middle of the record is perhaps its most variable part between the plodding, country-esque “Search for Replies”, the 60s-keyboard-heavy “Rain Again”, and the guitar-led psychedelia of “Ode to Stephen” (perhaps the only jangle pop song that has ever quoted Pennywise the Clown). Penultimate track “Fortune Teller Lied” is another electric one that Robertson and his band sneak in over the wire as the record comes to a close, while the closing title track finally, cathartically does finally embrace the ocean. The acoustic strumming and pedal steel ensure that The Call of the Sea is still sailing steadily off into the sunset as it draws to a close nonetheless. (Bandcamp link)

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