Pressing Concerns: ODDLY, The Sprouts, Celebrity, Mirrored Daughters

Welcome to the Tuesday Pressing Concerns, which is a bit of an odds-and-ends post collecting some records from January and February I’d been meaning to get to for a while now. We’ve got new albums from ODDLY and Mirrored Daughters and new EPs from The Sprouts and Celebrity! Also, if you missed yesterday’s post (featuring Silo’s Choice, Kinski, Humilitarian, and Spinnen), check that one 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.

ODDLY – Swerve

Release date: February 12^th
Record label: Damnably
Genre: 90s indie rock, noise rock, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Nautilus

I first heard Kyoto indie rock group ODDLY via their 2021 record Odd Man Out–technically it was the trio’s second EP, but given that it was largely made up of the same songs of their first one, 2019’s Loaded, it was basically an expanded version of their debut release. My favorite song on Odd Man Out was “Concrete Jungle”, a really cool jangly dream pop rocker, but other moments on Odd Man Out hinted at a darker and noisier sound; Naoko Yutani (vocals/guitar), Tomoyuki Watanabe (vocals/guitar), and Keita Kishimoto (vocals/drums) have taken their first real chance to show how they’ve evolved since their first recordings to further explore this end of their music. Once again released via East Asian indie rock chronicler Damnably (o’summer vacation, Say Sue Me, Hazy Sour Cherry), Swerve is ODDLY’s long-awaited first LP, and it’s a leveling-up moment for the trio (plus guest musicians Kentaro Kikuchi on bass and Takanori Ito on guitar). The trio pursue a tangled indie rock sound on this record’s busiest moments, a torrent that will likely please fans of Sonic Youth (Damnably, associated with plenty of lesser-heralded corners of 1990s American indie rock, makes a Seam comparison instead).

As for ODDLY themselves, they say they’re influenced by everything from the bedroom pop of Fazerdaze to the modern alt-rock of Wolf Alice–and Swerve does sound like the work of a band who love noisy indie rock and pop hooks in equal measure. It’s all pulled together in this LP–you get both sides of ODDLY from the very beginning, and while one end of their sound wins out in some of these songs, the other side of the coin is never far. “Nautilus” is a friendly-enough opener, a bit of noisy, catchy rock and roll that then plows into the harsher post-punk pummeling of “Alligator”. “Lozenges” is the first song on Swerve that dips back into the catchy dream pop energy of “Concrete Jungle”, and “Zero” impressively takes that attitude and musses it up a bit with some distorted alt-rock. Whichever member(s) of ODDLY that are singing lead vocals in “Easy Mark”, “Artificial”, and “Ride” help these tracks come out on the dirtier (or Dirty-er) end of the record, although the latter song in particular has a sleazy, classic rock/almost power pop catchiness to it. ODDLY re-record one of their old songs towards the end of the record (“Ruh Ruh”) and ramp up the post-punk noisiness, but dream pop ODDLY returns in full force in the record’s last two tracks, “(In) Mates” and “Rent for Mark”. The former song at least has a driving indie rock rhythm section for most of its length, but the last song veers into acoustic “Fade into You” territory for most of its five minutes. Of course, “Rent for Mark” ends with a blistering, cacophonous guitar solo–one last Swerve. (Bandcamp link)

The Sprouts – One Room to Another

Release date: January 31^st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Lo-fi pop, bedroom pop, folk pop, jangle pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Sometimes

I know it’s probably hard to keep all of these Australian indie pop bands straight these days, but The Sprouts are a name you ought to make a note of in your spiral ring. They’re the project of Rob Remedios, who also plays in The Small Intestines, and they’re rounded out by Innez Tulloch, Tom Marinelli, and Matthew Ford. Their debut release was a 2023 cassette called Eat Your Greens on Ford’s record label, Tenth Court, and it’s a nice collection of vibed-out guitar pop music, sometimes folkier and more casual than the full-band excursions of The Small Intestines, sometimes with a garage-y edge to it, but always catchy. I didn’t get around to writing about Eat Your Greens in Pressing Concerns, but there’s a new Sprouts record out, a self-released five-song EP called One Room to Another which promises “15 minutes of music. On 15 tapes. 15 dollars each” (which have already sold out by the time I’ve gotten to writing about this. Sorry for failing you, readers!). Unlike Eat Your Greens, One Room to Another is more or less a Remedios solo release–Marinelli plays on one song, The Small Intestines’ Matthew Liveriadis is on a track, and Remedios’ parents sing on a song, but that’s it.

Even compared to the comfortable soft launch of Eat Your Greens, One Room to Another is an incredibly laid-back piece of Aussie lo-fi pop rock. The arrangements are simple, the instrumentation is utilitarian, the fidelity “good enough”. “Sometimes” being in the EP’s first slot has a lot to do with that feeling–it’s the longest song on the record at a mean three minutes, and it’s largely made up of Remedios stumbling through some simple acoustic chords with a nice little guitar lead overdubbed upon it. It’s a brilliant song, maybe my favorite on the record, but it’s also far from the snappiest piece of lo-fi pop rock. You’ll get that soon enough, though, if you’re patient–“Black Leather Jacket” (the Marinelli one) is shambling but purposeful, “Up There for Thinking” has a little bit of Chris Knox opaque franticness to it, and the electric guitar-led “Demons” (hello, Liveriadis) is…well, it’s got an electric guitar in it! Just as soon as it began, One Room to Another is wrapping up with “Pash” (which confused me until I learned that it’s a cover of a 90s Aussie pop hit by Kate Ceberano–oh, those Australians!) and “I’m Feeling Good”.  That latter song is the one with the Remedios Family Singers–classic pop style, they answer their son’s lead vocals (“I’m feeling good (He’s feeling good!) / When we’re together (When you’re together!)”). I take back what I said earlier–it’s not really a solo record at all. (Bandcamp link)

Celebrity – Automatic Changer

Release date: February 5^th
Record label: Mach Nine
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, punk rock, alt-rock
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Wildflower

Celebrity appear to be something of an under-the-radar punk supergroup. Vocalist/guitarist Kevin Kiley plays in the bands Militarie Gun and LURK, and the quartet is rounded out by Knuckle Puck’s Kevin Maida (who’s also Kiley’s LURK bandmate) on guitar, Chris Mills of Harms Way and Inclination on bass, and Drew Brown of Weekend Nachos and Hate Force on drums. These bands form an extreme spectrum, ranging from hardcore punk to powerviolence to metal, but Celebrity is pretty far removed from that kind of music (as you can probably surmise by the fact that they’re on Rosy Overdrive). Following a self-titled three-song EP in 2022, the four songs of Automatic Changer dropped unannounced and with little fanfare at the beginning of February, showcasing the work of an exciting, polished, and pretty catchy post-punk band. Kiley’s vocals, while impressive in their own right, aren’t the primary hook-drivers of Automatic Changer–it’s an always-pressing-forward rhythm section and guitars that do their best to fill in the gaps. The album bio references Sonic Youth and Television, although it’s more greyscale and quietly intense than those bands; likewise, it’s somewhat close to the realm of new wave and even goth-indebted punk bands like Home Front and Schedule 1, but without much more than a hint of those acts’ melodrama.

All four songs on Automatic Changer are winners, but “Wildflower” is pretty clearly the (should’ve-been) single; it’s a hard-charging rock-and-roll epic marked by waterfalling guitars, that always-on rhythm section, and Kiley’s most emotive vocals on the entire EP (although it should be telling that they don’t even kick in until over a minute into the track and it’s hardly even noticeable with what the six-strings are doing up until that point). The post-punk party continues on with “New Touch”, the shortest song on Automatic Changer (the rhythm section even drops out for a second at the bridge; this is Celebrity at their “punchiest”). By the second half of Automatic Changer, Kiley isn’t even really singing anymore, instead becoming a rhythmically-speaking rambler as Celebrity move into the dark, bass-led (like, even more bass-led than before) “DSY” (it’s louder and more “rock band”, but it kind of reminds me of R.J.F., Ross Farrar from Ceremony’s post-punk solo project). Celebrity actually indulge in a bit of atmospherics in the final song on the record–“Heads on Fire” starts with a minute of ambient noise, but when the trumpet-blast guitars kick in, the quartet get back to business as usual for four more minutes. The members of Celebrity clearly have a knack for this kind of music, so hopefully they’ll find some more time in their busy schedules to continue this train of thought. (Bandcamp link)

Mirrored Daughters – Mirrored Daughters

Release date: February 21^st
Record label: Fika Recordings
Genre: Chamber folk, folk rock, ambient
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: The New Design

Mirrored Daughters are a collaboration between members of three notable British acts: vocalist Marlody (who released a solo album on Skep Wax in 2023), The Leaf Library (whose drummer Lewis Young initially kickstarted the project and later brought in bandmate Matt Ashton), and Firestations (whose guitarist/vocalist Mike Cranny also contributes). Together with cellist Hannah Reeves, the five of them have combined to create an album of “lo-fi folk-pop and explorative woodland meditations” that is their self-titled debut LP. The members of Mirrored Daughters have backgrounds in various shades of indie folk, pop, and electronic music, but their first record flows together with remarkable ease. Inspired by Greater London’s Epping Forest (where it was partially recorded), Mirrored Daughters is delicately ornate, with strings, horns, and woodwinds (in addition to Reeves’ cello, Young plays violin and Cranny plays saxophone and clarinet) sprawling out slowly but confidently. Bright acoustic guitars and Marlody’s voice ensure that it isn’t wrong to call Mirrored Daughters a pop album, but neither do Mirrored Daughters shortchange the more experimental side of their music; the instrumental, ambient, nature-sound pieces are integrated smoothly alongside the folk songs.

The sounds of bells, birds, and analog synths greet us in opening instrumental “Mirror Descend”, and not even Cranny’s smooth saxophone contributions detract from the ancient, natural feeling that the track evokes. Mirrored Daughters don’t stay there, though–the next song is called “City Song”, and it begins the band’s journey to the tune of string-laden folk music (“Leave the sound / And your heavy head behind,” sings Marlody). “The New Design” and its warm clarinet accents drag Mirrored Daughters into full-on chamber folk territory (well, maybe “drag” is the wrong word; it’s more like “gently float”). Much of the rest of Mirrored Daughters is in the instrumental vein of “Mirror Descend”, although the meditations of “The Ambresbury Daughter”, “Something Hollow”, and “Decrowned” are given olive branches via some of the proper “folk” songs, such as the slightly haunted, wintry dream-folk of “Unreturning Sun”. That song meets the eerier parts of Mirrored Daughters halfway, and while the soft, Belle & Sebastian-like chamber pop of “An Open Door” and “Waiting at the Water” don’t do so quite as much, the band still give them readings that are subdued enough that it doesn’t feel like it would disturb the forest. Right up until the opener’s mirror-image closing track “Mirror Ascend”, Mirrored Daughters sound like they’re drifting and stepping carefully through something much larger than them. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

• Aux Meadows – Draw Near
• Consumables – Infinite Games
• The Campbell Apartment – (510)
• Cloakroom – Last Leg of the Human Table
• Nervous Verbs – Pony Coughing
• The Roxies – Keep You Up at Night
• My Pet Fossil – The Other Shoe Drops
• Tunic – A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung
• Fine China – I Felt Called
• Soft Blue Shimmer – They Will Leave Us With Nothing
• Lucretia Dalt – Cosa Rara EP
• Arny Margret – I Miss You, I Do
• Double Wish – Deeper Ecstasy EP
• Pink Must – Pink Must
• Franklin Gothic – Echoes
• Alabaster DePlume – A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole
• Nona Invie – Self-Soothing
• Pyrex – Body
• Boreal – Winterbirds
• Pink Turns Blue – Black Swan
• Big Black Delta – Adonai
• Young Moon – Paraverbal Orchids/Young Moon Is a Broken Bone
• The Veggies – Vitamins & Minerals EP
• Lilywhite – Silver Lining EP
• Various – We’ll Get Through This: Songs For a More Perfect Union