Pressing Concerns: Minorcan, Outro, Above Me, Nobody’s Dad

Good morning! Monday Pressing Concerns time! Two records from last week (an LP from Minorcan and an EP from Outro), plus two EPs from January I don’t want to leave behind from Above Me and Nobody’s Dad. Bunch of good records in this one that I don’t think I’ve been seeing anyone talk about online; let’s be conversation-starters today.

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Minorcan – Rock Alone

Release date: February 14^th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Indie pop, lo-fi pop, power pop, Americana
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Nightmare Rider

Ryan Anderson was born in northern Florida and spent time in Georgia and Austin, but he’s called Asheville, North Carolina home for more than a decade now. Somewhere in there he started Minorcan, a “basement arena rock experience” that appears to basically be an Anderson solo project. The title of Minorcan’s most recent album, Rock Alone, seems to acknowledge this–Anderson wrote, played, recorded, and recorded everything on this record on his own, and he’s self-releasing it, too (albeit with distribution help from HHBTM Records, who released some of his solo albums in the 2000s). Anderson reminds me of vintage southern college rock/power pop/alt-country troubadours; he’s someone who came up on Elvis Costello and indie rock but doesn’t try to erase his region of origin (and as a frontperson, he’s somewhere between William Matheny and Hiss Golden Messenger, if either of them ditches the backing band for simple beats). The old aphorism “alone, not lonely” comes to mind listening to Rock Alone; it may just be Anderson and a drum machine on the tape, but the writing reflects somebody plugged into community, family, and other fulfilling relationships and urgently but happily wanting to underscore their importance (to him, to us as a species).

So, Rock Alone isn’t shy about the positivity at its core, but if that reads to you as too corny or “cringe” or whatever, at least hear Minorcan out. There’s a clear logic undergirding all the moves that Anderson is making alone in his basement–see the first song on side B, “Here on Out”, which rejects norms on both an artistic and societal level. Anderson sings a song that’s defiantly content in its domesticity, because, as he says, “They’re telling us to be ashamed / Screamin’ loud, sayin’ we can’t make art unless we’re suffering” (and, plus, consider the fact that his line about “abolish[ing] gender” would be subject to state censorship under this current regime–can your favorite art punk band say that?). It’s not that there isn’t darkness on Rock Alone, to be clear, but Anderson has fun with that, too–see “Burial Insurance”, a country-rock tune about a failed songwriter writing one last “Hail Mary” to “pay for [his] funeral”. It’s funny and playful, but when Anderson sings “I’ve worked all my life, but I can’t afford to die,” it’s very real, too. The best political music to me is the incidental kind–it seems accidental, and it probably is sometimes, but it intersects in all the right ways. Minorcan wrap everything up neatly and nicely in the final and best track on the record, “Nightmare Rider”, a song that’s anything but naive in its continued pursuit of its ideals. “To live without you, ooh, that’s my nightmare / To live without you, ooh, that’s my worst fear,” Anderson sings in the refrain–the lingering on the fear in this, the biggest moment on Rock Alone, is telling. “I say it all with gritted teeth / They want us to stay lonely,” goes the next line, and I shouldn’t have to tell you what the one after that entails. (Bandcamp link)

Outro – Broken Promise

Release date: February 14^th
Record label: Repeating Cloud
Genre: Art rock, post-punk, garage rock, psychedelic rock, Paisley Underground, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl (“Villages” and “New Home” only), digital
Pull Track: Fool

Despite their SEO-hostile band name, I somehow stumbled onto the Northampton, Massachusetts quartet Outro back in 2023, when they released their debut album, The Current. At the time I didn’t know much about them, but I enjoyed their Paisley Underground-reminiscent indie rock/college rock sound (I threw out names like The Dream Syndicate and Eleventh Dream Day), and I’m thrilled that they got picked up by Repeating Cloud Records for their newest release, a five-song EP called Broken Promise. I now know a little more about the band–for instance, they’re made up of vocalist/guitarist Josh Levy, guitarist Adam Zucker, bassist Peter Sax, and drummer Noam Schatz, they rehearse in a practice space at Justin Pizzoferato’s Sonelab studio (which is also where they recorded Broken Promise), and the band members have played in a bunch of groups like Mobius Band, The Capitulators, the Lucky Shots, and Bring It to Bear. Outro don’t break from The Current too much on their newest record (whose release is accompanied by a 7” single featuring two of the tracks), but that’s hardly a bad thing–in addition to the aforementioned artists, the band mentions Steve Albini as a recording influence, and while Broken Promise isn’t precisely a “noise rock” record, it does capture the same energy of Electrical Audio-associated bands who make or made unflappable, unbothered indie rock from Silkworm to Stomatopod.

Broken Promise is worth checking out for its opening track, “Fool”, alone–it’s one of the best things I’ve heard this year so far, easily. It’s impossibly cool-sounding, sometimes like a chill explosion and other times like running water. Everything is positioned perfectly, from the roaring opening guitar riff to the rat-a-tat drums to the split-second bass spotlight to the rolling melodic guitars that eventually take over the track to Levy and Zucker’s harmonies in the brief refrain. It’s a high bar, but Outro round out Broken Promise with songs that hold their own–after “Fool”, they immediately launch into the lead single and biggest “rocker” on the EP, “Gila”, which definitely helps the record’s momentum. “Villages”, which leads off the physical 7”, is the other rocker, but instead of “Gila”’s careening post-punk, Outro achieve their goal on this one by turning the guitars (and bass) way up to make some almost peaceful-feeling, Sonic Youth-style electricity. The “psychedelia” in Outro’s sound is always on the more “implied” side, but I do hear plenty of paisley in “New Home” and its shimmering guitarplay, while the closing title track dabbles in this arena by alternating between swirling walls of guitars and more withdrawn instrumental moments that feel like the band is fading away before our very ears. They never do, though; Broken Promise ends on an abrupt, perfunctory note, with Outro seeing us through to the very last moment. (Bandcamp link)

Above Me – Above Me

Release date: January 31^st
Record label: Dandy Boy
Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop, dream pop, psychedelia
Formats: CD, digital
Pull Track: Out of Body Out of Mind

Among the staggering amount of new albums that Slumberland Records has released over the past couple of years, Blue Ocean’s Fertile State is probably one of the least accessible, but the San Francisco band’s noisy, experimental post-rock-influenced take on shoegaze won it praise in certain circles. Apparently Blue Ocean’s Slumberland debut will also be their final record, as they quietly broke up sometime between Fertile State and now–but this bad news is tempered by the announcement and debut release from co-founder Rick Altieri’s new solo project, Above Me. Above Me’s self-titled debut EP (which is eight songs and twenty-seven minute long, making the “EP” designation more of a stylistic choice than a necessary one) was mostly created by Altieri alone, with vocals from Kati Mashikian (Mister Baby, Cindy, Tony Jay) being the only outside contribution. Still certainly operating in the wider worlds of “shoegaze” and “noise pop”, Altieri (who also has an impressive Bay Area pedigree beyond Blue Ocean, playing with acts like Ryann Gonsalves and Blue Zero in recent years, among others) doesn’t try to recreate the sensory overload sensation of his previous band on Above Me, instead taking advantage of the self-recorded, drum-machine-heavy pallet to make some heavily fuzzed-out, psychedelic pop music.

Above Me is in the same vein as recent records from Dummy and Aluminum, but because it’s functionally impossible to recreate those albums with what Altieri’s working with, Above Me ends up being something else entirely anyway. Much of the first half of the EP (I would say first “side”, but it’s only on CD) is the more openly pop-forward side–the blossoming fuzz-dream-pop of opening track “Out of Body Out of Mind”, the lifting grooves of “New Pains”, and the psych pop new wave-gaze of “Grass Mouth” are all probably immediately catchier than anything off of Fertile State. Those worrying that Altieri might’ve lost his experimental streak need not worry, though–at first it’s just restricted to the slowed-down thirty second snippet “Weather”, but the second half of Above Me sports the soundscape of “Shine Thru” and the psychedelia-drenched “Place and a Day”, both of which dabble in atmospherics over instant pop gratification. Low in the mix, Altieri’s vocals keep Above Me grounded in the realm of classic shoegaze; not even Mashikian can lift the singing to more than a mumble over the walls of guitars. The trick that Above Me pulls is making the basement feel gigantic when it’s time to fly–like in closing song “Stone Mossy Lime”, which, after a glitchy opening, proceeds to make the drum machines and fuzz sound stadium-huge. (Bandcamp link)

Nobody’s Dad – Mixtape

Release date: January 18^th
Record label: Sketch Book
Genre: 90s indie rock, lo-fi indie rock, fuzz pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: You Don’t Communicate

Simon Smith works at Trowbridge, Wiltshire music venue The Village Pump, and as of late the promoter and booker has started a cassette label out of a desire to release music from upcoming local acts. Sketch Book Records debuted last year with a promising demo cassette from Steatopygous, a teen riot grrrl-inspired punk trio who’ve recently played shows with Perennial and Other Half, and the imprint continues their early winning streak into 2025 with another debut cassette, this time from Bath quartet Nobody’s Dad. Noticeably different from the Steatopygous record, the four-song Mixtape EP recalls a different side of 90s rock music–grungey but tuneful, Nobody’s Dad recalls bands on the fringes of the early 90s alt-rock “mainstream” like The Breeders and Throwing Muses, with a bit of the noisy-pop wistfulness of bands like The Spinanes and Velocity Girl (and even a bit of classic twee/indie pop) thrown in for good measure, too. Perhaps a cassette EP dubbed “Mixtape” is intended as a soft launch, but the band (Juliet Allarton, Max Earl, Phoebe Stokes, and Rahul Hasler, per their Bandcamp) already sound polished and like they’ve got their sound down pat.

Mixtape comes out swinging with “Angel” (which was Nobody’s Dad’s debut single, originally released last summer), starting with some Deal-Sisters-worthy alt-rock vamping and droll but accusatory vocals, and then unexpectedly taking flight in a near power pop-level chorus. There’s just a bit of “emo” baked into the sound of “Angel”, which serves Nobody’s Dad well as they move into “Margo”, the “ballad” of the EP. It’s a huge departure from the high-flying “Angel”, and the four-minute slow-builder could’ve wrecked Mixtape’s entire momentum if the band didn’t know how to utilize just the right combination of acoustic folk and fuzzed-out, 90s basement indie rock to usher the track along. The second half of the EP might be better than the first–the quick-tempo sadness and confusion of “You Don’t Communicate” is a tour-de-force of winning melodies from its inception and is the best song on the EP in terms of pure pop music, and “You’re All I Ever Wanna Be” is a big, sweeping closing statement with nice, big alt-rock guitars and a ghostly catchy chorus. The more I listen to Mixtape, the more impressive it sounds as a debut release–we should be keeping our eyes on Nobody’s Dad in the future, yes, but these specific four songs also deserve a bit more attention that they’ve received thus far. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

• Dropkick – Primary Colours
• ManDate – Cloud Cover
• Drop Nineteens – 1991
• Numün – Opening
• Ian Fisher – Go Gentle
• Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears – Head in the Sand
• Death by Unga Bunga – Raw Muscular Power
• dadá Joãozinho – 1997 EP
• Gunchy – Over EP
• Confucius MC x Bastien Keb – Songs for Lost Travellers
• Part Time Baby – Came from a Woman
• Jaye Jayle – After Alter
• The Pierce Kingans – Been Kingan About You
• Porq – & BEANS
• HONESTY – U R HERE
• Piston – Capitol Crime EP
• Terra Twin – Static Separation EP
• The White Album – Borders
• Emergence Collective – Chapel
• Utopia Now – Acquainted with the Night
• Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra – Forest Party / Noodle
• John Vanderslice – Music for Running EP
• Traxman – Da Mind of Traxman Vol.3
• Various – Los Angeles Fire Benefit Compilation
• Various – Toadstool Records Presents: 777 Love Songs