Pressing Concerns: Charm School, Laundromat Chicks, Open Head, Expose

Hello, everyone! The Thursday Pressing Concerns is here, and it’s got four great records coming out tomorrow, January 24th: new LPs from Charm School, Laundromat Chicks, Open Head, and Expose. It ended up being a pretty noise rock-heavy edition, so get ready for some low-end below. Also, if you missed Tuesday’s blog post (featuring The Gentle Spring, Little Oso, Teen Driver, and Prism Shores), check that out here.

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.

Charm School – Debt Forever

Release date: January 24^th
Record label: Surprise Mind
Genre: Noise rock, post-punk, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Youthquaker

Louisville noise rock quartet Charm School debuted about a year and a half ago with an EP called Finite Jest, although bandleader Andrew Sellers has a lengthy history playing in bands in his home state of Kentucky as well as in New York and Los Angeles. Charm School represents something of a left turn for Sellers, but Finite Jest proved that he and his collaborators (bassist Matt Filip, guitarist Drew English, and drummer Jason Bemis Lawrence) had a knack for noisy Touch & Go Records-influenced post-punk, garage rock, and post-rock (they remind me a bit of Flat Worms, which is a good thing). Now back with a debut album called Debt Forever, Charm School haven’t completely shaken up their sound, but they’re doing something a little different here. Compared to the tightly-controlled bursts of energy of Finite Jest, it’s somehow both looser and angrier; there’s still plenty of that modern Fall-influenced post-punk sound here, but there’s also some San Diego-style post-hardcore/garage rock and turn-of-the-century Washington, D.C. art punk in the mix, too. As the title hints at, Debt Forever spends a good deal of time focusing on financial anxiety and insecurity–whether the alternatively brooding and seething music drew this all-American fear out of Sellers or whether his preoccupations with such matters informed the music, there’s no denying the synergy here.

Debt Forever comes out swinging–on the record’s first four songs, Charm School are an Earth-shaking garage punk group in a way that Finite Jest didn’t really hint at. The gritted-teeth post-punk starts to creep back in as the record moves forward (I’d point to the back-to-back journey of “Breaking the Waves” and “I Wanna Feel It” as the turning point), but so does a surprisingly pensive, more melodic version of Charm School (found in “Without a Doubt” and “Figure 8”). All the while, the threat of an empty bank account stands right offscreen with a loaded gun–it’s there during the stage-setting title track, it’s apparent in the meltdowns of “Boycott Everything Everywhere” and “Crime Time”, and sculpts the prayer-like refrain of “Without a Doubt” (“Don’t let me run out of money”). It’s also baked into the DNA of two of the record’s most transcendent, impressive moments; for one, there’s “Youthquaker”, a song about the American working class (in a way) that somehow shifts Charm School’s sound into a dancefloor-friendly, impossibly-cool kind of punk rock (it kind of reminds me of Perennial, even if it doesn’t exactly sound like Perennial). And then there’s the eight-minute closing track, the eight-minute steady-krautrock finale of “Happiness Is a Warm Sun”. Eschewing bombast, Charm School flex their steady-building muscles on this one, and while Sellers’ final riff on the song’s title (“Happiness is a warm…trust fund”) might not hit with maximum impact out of context, it’s the right cap for Debt Forever. (Bandcamp link)

Laundromat Chicks – Sometimes Possessed

Release date: January 24^th
Record label: Siluh
Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop, lo-fi pop, twee
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Secrets

Laundromat Chicks are a quartet from Vienna led by vocalist/guitarist Tobias Hammermüller and rounded out by a handful of local ringers–guitarist/vocalist Theresa Strohmer and bassist Lena Pöttinger play in the band Topsy Turvey, while drummer Felix Schnabl is also in Salamirecorder and Telebrains (I believe this is the first time I’ve covered an Austrian band in Pressing Concerns, but based off of that list of related bands, it seems like Vienna at least has a nice scene going on in it). Sometimes Possessed is the Laundromat Chicks’ third album in three years (they debuted in 2022 with Trouble, and Lightning Trails followed the year after) and, Vienna residency aside, it contains some of the best British indie pop I’ve heard this year. Laundromat Chicks have clearly learned a lot from classic C86 and Sarah Records artists, as the jangly electric guitars and pastoral acoustic ones give away pretty easily. Hammermüller and Strohmer’s occasionally intertwined vocals are another key indie pop ingredient, and there’s also a darkness hidden in these casual hooks that mirrors the depth found in the best of these sorts of records. Sometimes Laundromat Chicks are serious and wistful, other times a bit more whimsical, but both work together on Sometimes Possessed.

Laundromat Chicks make the inspired choice to open Sometimes Possessed with a cover–a hazy take on “This Strange Effect”, a 1965 song written by Ray Davies and first recorded by Dave Berry. It’s a disorienting version of psychedelic pop and folk, Hammermüller and Strohmer welcoming us to the album by inviting us to feel confused and unsure where we are. The two Hammermüller-penned songs that follow it, the title track and “Cameron”, are more pop-forward (particularly the almost-power-pop excitement of the latter), but the writing still recalls confusion and disorientation. Sometimes Possessed charms us nonetheless–with ten songs in under thirty minutes, Laundromat Chicks have to make every moment count, and they do. Between the breezy jangle pop anthem “Secrets”, the aching pop balladry of “Time Zones”, the simple 60s-inspired “Spiders Inside You”, and warm-fuzz-blanket closing track “Ruins”, there’s always pop brilliance within arm’s reach on this record. Strohmer contributes one track to Sometimes Possessed, and “How Do You Know” does stick out like a sore thumb in its own way–there are plenty of vocal duets on the record, but Hammermüller and Strohmer actually have a conversation in these lyrics, and it’s a little more brisk and less relaxed musically, too. However, “How Do You Know” still fits right on Sometimes Possessed–as Strohmer lashes out at Hammermüller, playing a therapist, it’s funny but not a joke, and it’s another tale of someone groping for some kind of control and coming up beautifully empty-handed. (Bandcamp link)

Open Head – What Is Success

Release date: January 24^th
Record label: Wharf Cat
Genre: Noise rock, post-punk, art punk, no wave
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: N.Y. Frills

Open Head aren’t your typical New York art punk band. Well, for one, they’re actually from a bit further up the Hudson in Kingston, and they still claim the mid-sized upstate New York town as home even after a few years of modest but real indie rock victories–putting out a debut LP in 2022 on I’m into Life, playing shows with bands like Dummy, Cola, and Water from Your Eyes, and signing to Wharf Cat Records for their sophomore album, What Is Success. Open Head–made up of founding members Jared Ashdown, Brandon Minervini (both on guitars and vocals), and Jon McCarthy (bass), with drummer Dan Schwartz joining after their debut–had grand ambitions for their second LP, naming hip hop and electronic music as equally influential on it as punk and art rock. Of course, any adventurous and forward-thinking band ought to be looking outside their own genre for ideas, and just because the resultant What Is Success is “merely” a rock album doesn’t mean that Open Head weren’t successful in making something that genuinely feels informed by things other than “merely” post-punk and noise rock.

Although, to be clear, I do hear a lot of good noise rock and post-punk bands in What Is Success’ sound, too–maybe upstate New York is the perfect place for this kind of music, situated in between the noisy no wave of New York City, the chaotic Exploding in Sound-associated post-hardcore of New England-originating bands like Pile and Kal Marks, and Rust Belt noise rock from acts like FACS (on the more experimental end) and Meat Wave (on the more “punk” side), not to mention The Jesus Lizard and U.S. Maple before them. There’s a heaviness to What Is Success, yes, although it manifests in odd and unexpected ways sometimes–we start with the purely deconstructed minimal art rock of “Success”, and while “Fiends Don’t Lose” is similarly scrambled, the fiery vocals are the record’s most aggressive moment up until that point. The first no-holds-barred rocker is the pounding “N.Y. Frills”, but as cathartic as it is, Open Head don’t lean too much on this kind of release throughout What Is Success. Whether they’re acting like a proper rock band or something else, the rhythm section is key to Open Head’s foundation, with McCarthy’s expressive, unflagging basslines being the secret hero of the album. I’m not sure if it’s properly “electronic rock”, but the prowling, seething synth foundation (courtesy of an Arturia Brute SE played by McCarthy) of “House” really pushes it into new territory, and the disintegrating “Bullseye” and the already-disintegrated “Julo” continue the late-record swoon. Whatever it takes to make a record like this sound inspired–chemistry? knowledge? anger? being societal outcasts?–Open Head have it here. (Bandcamp link)

Expose – ETC

Release date: January 24^th
Record label: Quindi
Genre: Noise rock, art punk, post-rock, jazz-punk, post-hardcore, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: The Constant

The Los Angeles noise rock group Expose have been around since the late 2010s, although they’ve only recently become the sprawling collective you hear on ETC, the second Expose LP. The band began as the solo project of Trent Rivas, who played everything you’ll hear on their early demo EPs, the 2019 E full-length, and the 2022 Tour Tape Sept22 EP. Somewhere along the way, though, Expose added new blood, and their most recent album and debut for Quindi Records features seven regular contributors (Rivas on drums and vocals, Jeff Stephens and Duke Guisness on guitar, James Novick on synth, Jake Getz on bass, Coleman Sawyer on viola, and Brian Bartus on saxophone). The name “Expose” sounds very hardcore to me, and while ETC is a “punk” album, it’s not really that kind of punk rock. It’s “experimental” and incorporates jazz and post-rock like other Quindi-associated bands, but unlike the soft pop of Monde UFO (whose Ray Monde guests on the record) or the downcast slowcore of Bondo, ETC brings the noise to the forefront. Song structures and instrumental choices may be unusual more often than not, but a healthy helping of Rivas’ incessant drums, some dirty and aggressive guitars, and moodily muttered vocals are all strong reminders that there’s a bunch of punks behind this cacophony. 

We’re thrown right into the middle of things with opening track “Dutch Field”–we’re hit with a blast of amplifier feedback and percussion before Expose launch into a hypnotic, aggressive post-hardcore guitar riff that gives way to a saxophone row in about ninety seconds. “Speed Dial” and its quick tempo and monotone vocals introduce a bit of post-punk action into the mix, and while “The Constant” isn’t precisely “pop music”, it’s a more peaceful version of Expose’s exploratory sound with the guitars allowed to delve into “melodic” territory. Not to worry, though; “Road Railing” is there one track later to rev up some noisy jazz-punk and get us back on course. Such it is with ETC; for every curveball like “Reverse 3” and “Sink”, there are more earnest indie rock expressions like “Self Terror” and “No Adrenaline” and mussed-up rock and roll explosions like “MBB” and “Description”. ETC is never boring, in large part due to its clearest and quietest moments–something like the sky-gazing expanse of “No Adrenaline” sounds even more majestic coming in the midst of sewer-circlers like “Sink” and “Glue”. Whatever methods Expose used in the lab to produce these tracks, these clinical trials are sounding very promising. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

• Power Pants – Live @ Pie Shop 12/16/24
• Elizabeth A. Carver – The Cart Before the Horse
• Lots of Hands – Into a Pretty Room
• TICS – Unmirrored Gaze EP
• Minibeast – The Maze of Now
• Molasses – The Ring of Fire
• Curtis Miles – What Could’ve Become Of
• GNATS – EP
• High. – Come Back Down EP
• HEALING – DEMO
• Molchat Doma – Live at Panorama Hotel
• Oh the Humanity! – Ground to Dust
• Winterforever – Home Feels Like a Luxury Hotel
• Molbo – s/t
• Shutdown – By Your Side
• Brigid Mae Power – Songs for You
• RAUT – III EP
• Melissa Mary Ahern – Kerosene
• Alpaca Sports – Another Day
• Grassy Knoll – Hardcore ‘24
• Fabienne Ambuehl – Thrive
• ZORA – BELLAdonna
• Public Assassination – Public Assassination EP
• Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra – Vida
• Poison Spear – Institutional Trust EP