Pressing Concerns: Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour, Bliss?, Marshy, Seances

The second Pressing Concerns of the week brings us four excellent under-the-radar selections: new albums from Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour, Bliss?, and Seances, and a new EP from Marshy. If you missed yesterday’s post (featuring Cootie Catcher, Penny Loafer, Takuro Okada, and Mantarochen), check that one 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.

Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour – World to Rights

Release date: March 1^st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Indie pop, singer-songwriter, twee, folk rock, soft rock
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Pat’s Uninteresting Tours

Glasgow singer-songwriter Andrew Paterson returned to making music after a fairly long absence last year with Virtual Virgins, the debut album from his new solo project Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour. Paterson established himself as an indie pop storyteller with Virtual Virgins–armed with a British sense of humor, jangly and folky guitar pop foundations, and “conversational, heavily-Scottish-accented vocals” (as I called them then), I found a lot to enjoy in his rambling, character-driven stories. Paterson’s second act continues at a steady clip with World to Rights, the second Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour album in as many years. Befitting the dramatic title, World to Rights sets its aim a bit higher, a more conscious attempt to weave the interpersonal, political, and ecological together with breezy folk rock and C86-inspired pop music. The bright, memorable narratives of Virtual Virgins are still here, don’t get me wrong; there’s just more clear connecting threads. The question that World to Rights suggests–at first in its opening title track, and again and again in later material–is that, now that we all know the world is all wrong in innumerable ways, how do we then proceed with that in mind?

Paterson says that World to Rights contains “perhaps has more raw and honest” writing than his last record, although that doesn’t mean we should take him literally in these songs. The spiel of the overzealous leftist narrator of the opening track is supposed to be ribbing, although it’s an affectionate (and, I think, sympathetic) portrait, and I’m sure there’s a good deal of Paterson in the staunch union-man father figure of “Please Don’t Vote Conservative”. Climate change is a surprisingly frequent topic on World to Rights–in addition to “World to Rights”, Paterson tackles it with various degrees of irony and sardonicism in “Breaking the Ice” (a waltz in which the narrator sadly lists off various weather-related cliches and aphorisms that won’t work anymore in the near future) and “Join the Dots” (whose narrator takes a break from moaning about the struggles of being wealthy to declare of his gigantic footprint: “Don’t just look at me / Because everybody else was doing it”). The politics of World to Rights aren’t particularly subtle (not that that makes something like, say, the wistful ballad “Cost of Living” any less effective); the part that requires a bit of the thinking muscle is connecting it to songs like “The Other Side of Love”, “Pat’s Uninteresting Tours”, and “The Act of Levitating”, which explore pursuits other than raging at the state of the world. I don’t think Paterson is talking about escapism here–in fact, these songs are about how everything from disintegrating romantic relationships to cellar-dwelling football teams can elicit real hurt and emotion. It’s more about diversifying one’s life, keeping in one’s back pocket the ability to make connections with other human beings as well as between capitalism, colonialism, and global warming (Who knows? They might even be related). (Bandcamp link)

Bliss? – Pass Yr Pain Along

Release date: March 21^st
Record label: Psychic Spice
Genre: Lo-fi power pop, garage rock, jangle punk, mod revival
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Living Well

A bunch of punk musicians making power pop? Well, that’s one way to get my attention. Today we have a brand new band from Baton Rouge, Louisiana called Bliss? and their debut album called Pass Yr Pain Along. Guitarist/vocalist Josh Higdon, bassist Hunter Kiser, and drummer Robert DeMouy formed Bliss? last year after playing in a bunch of local punk groups (Self-Checkout Renaissance, Not My Real Job, Meadowhead) due to a mutual appreciation for “REM, power pop, and all varieties of jangly 80s college rock”. Released via a new Baton Rouge imprint called Psychic Spice Tapes, Pass Yr Pain Along is indeed a full exploration of the strains of guitar pop formative to the band–Higdon’s vocals are incredibly Elvis Costello-reminiscent, while the band’s somewhat jangly post-Replacements pop rock and roll sounds like the Gin Blossoms as interpreted by basement punk musicians. It’s not a “punk” record per se, but it absolutely benefits from a little roughness–Higdon isn’t at all shy about putting the vocals up front, and the band are loose but clear in a way that puts the spotlight on a collection of songs that really could’ve been shipped straight from Homestead Records to your local college radio station circa 1989.

Ten songs. Thirty-five minutes. Most tracks landing between three and four minutes. This may be their first rodeo together, but Bliss? already have this kind of thing down pat on Pass Yr Pain Along. Everything is just right in the opening track, “Raft Song”, which captivates us with a tough rock and roll backbone cradling a basket of melodies, and “Living Well” is the classic short, punchy, giant-hook-featuring single in slot number two. “Murmurs” has more than a bit of Costello new wave in its DNA (with the stop-start power chords and basslines, it also reminds me of another point of comparison for Pass Yr Pain Along, Chisel and Ted Leo). At their zippiest (like on, say, “Bulwark”), Bliss? come off as a more openly jangle pop/college rock-indebted version of 90s melodic punk groups like Jawbreaker, although they’re not too streamlined to let “Leave the Lamp On” sprawl or to take “Heard v Hurt” into a stranger, more post-punk direction. The biggest oddball on Pass Yr Pain Along is probably penultimate track “Serotonin Syndrome” (there’s a bit of Paisley here, as the band turn their jangle into a five-minute piece of psychedelic guitar pop), but there are excellent rockers on either side of it to keep us grounded. There’s a lot of great guitar music still being put to tape, and one of this year’s best examples thus far comes straight from a Louisiana basement. (Bandcamp link)

Marshy – Light Business

Release date: February 28^th
Record label: Marsh Slope
Genre: Dreamy indie rock, emo-y indie rock, indie pop
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Line of Best Fit

The world needs small indie rock bands making EPs of catchy, electric indie rock. I get the feeling that something very bad would happen to the universe if we ever ran out of them. Say what you will about New York City, but the Big Apple is at the very least helping us out on the supply side with these bands. Marshy is the latest one–I can’t tell you a whole lot about them, but I can say that they put out two singles last year before graduating to a full-on EP this year, that they appear to be made up of Gab Grieco, Max Steinbach, Emma Todd, and James Vees, and that they’ve spent the year or so since they formed playing shows with bands like Still Submarine, Dagwood, and Dogwood Gap that would also qualify for the description I gave in the opening paragraph of this review. All of this brings us to Light Business, the first-ever Marshy EP, self-released by the band digitally and featuring four songs and thirteen-minutes of pure, uncut Marshy–making it the band’s biggest (and only, singles excepted) statement yet. There’s bits of power pop, dreamy/jangly indie pop, shoegaze-adjacent fuzz rock, and maybe just the smallest bit of emo on Light Business–most importantly, though, it’s a collection of songs displaying that Marshy’s collaborative take on writing and playing just seems to work.

“Line of Best Fit” opens the EP and is my favorite on the record by a fair amount–I thought of just highlighting it on a playlist and calling it a day, but the other songs kept growing on me too, so here we are. Still, “Line of Best Fit” is clearly Light Business’ “hit”–ascending, triumphant power pop chords, sweeping, expertly-wielded distortion, and unbothered vocals melodies will all do that. “2 Birds” is the one that comes closest–it’s not quite as “all-in” as “Line of Best Fit”, but it’s Marshy’s cleanest, most polished foray into jangly guitar-led indie pop, and the quartet pulls it off with a no-nonsense skill which makes them sound developed beyond their relative infancy. The other half of Light Business is the heavier and less-immediate half, but Marshy have something going in these tracks, too–“Lemon Verbena / Breathe” is more downcast, fuzzed-out dreamy indie rock for the majority of its length, and the end of that song is the closest the band gets to actual shoegaze on the EP. “Lucked Out” is the finale, sending the EP off with chugging, gas-pedal-floored alternative rock that alternates between “fast and intense” and “slowed-down just enough to get a couple of hits in”. The planet is safe for just a little bit longer. (Bandcamp link)

Seances – Power Is a Phantom

Release date: February 28^th
Record label: Triple Eye Industries
Genre: New wave, post-punk, synthpop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Crimes

Seances are a new project from a longtime Milwaukee indie rock and punk veteran, Eric Arsnow. Over the years, he’s played in bands like garage rockers Devils Teeth and “Dungeons & Dragons-inspired” stoner rock supergroup Fight Dice, but in the back of his mind he had a desire to make an album in line with the post-punk and new wave that he grew up on (and continued to love as an adult). Seeing The Chameleons live in 2023 finally spurred him on, and Arsnow quickly began writing New Order/The Cure-esque gothic/new wave pop songs on his bass guitar. These ideas congealed into a full-on nine-song debut LP called Power Is a Phantom, largely played and recorded by Arsnow himself (Jason Kartz contributes guitar to about half of these songs, and a couple of guest vocalists receive the only other outside credits). Power Is a Phantom does sound like the work of somebody who’s cut their teeth in garage and punk bands, but it is very much “new wave”, edge or no. Arsnow’s melodic, Peter Hook-inspired bass playing and deep, gothic vocals are the defining features of Power Is a Phantom, although the euphoric guitars, synth accents, and propulsive programmed drums all help Seances achieve the sound for which they’re reaching as well.

Arsnow nods a bit towards “Melt with You” in opening track “Crimes”, and while the song as a whole is a bit more synth/goth-pop than Modern English’s guitar pop sole hit, it’s a good reference point for understanding Power Is a Phantom’s pop aims. “Forgiveness” ups the speed and the post-punk influence, but there’s still a brightness in between the choppy guitars and soaring solos, while “Fade” is Seances’ clearest foray into darkwave. “Armour” is perhaps the most openly bright song on Power Is a Phantom–Arsnow finds a little more melody in his vocals than he had previously, and the bass guitar is afforded space to really reach New Order heights (the swooning synths help, too). On the other end of the spectrum, “Fathom” descends into loud, angry basement post-punk/garage rock, and “Hours” investigates the dark and dubby corners of early post-punk with its frantic, frightened guitar-led sound. Seances end their first statement by finding more transcendence in synths and bright new wave signifiers, though–between the dramatic synthpop odyssey of “Surface” and the subdued dream pop of closing track “Fire”, Power Is a Phantom strains to escape the basement rock from which it spawned. A bold step in Arsnow’s music career, it’s nonetheless an incredibly successful one. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

• The Ex – If Your Mirror Breaks
• Dexter Dine – Bulb
• Daniel Kleederman – Another Life
• The Primitives – Let’s Go Round Again • Second Wave Singles & Rarities 2011-2025 
• Vonnie Whatever – Joie de Vivre EP
• EEL MEN – Stop It! Do Something.
• Dean Wareham – That’s the Price of Loving Me
• Coming Down – Curve
• Perfume Genius – Glory
• The Gertrudes – City Noise
• Bart and the Brats / Jacket Burner – Good Cop / Bad Cop EP
• Korine – A Flame in the Dark
• Beach Shoppe – Boating School
• Shurr Jr. – Red Shelter EP
• Ultra Deluxe – The Floria Wars
• Spitzer Space Telescope – II EP
• Mark Thackway – Twisted
• Girlpuppy – Sweetness
• Cloakroom Q. – Tune You Have To Dance To
• Raccoon City – FUGUE
• Drone Eye Omi – Liminal Mass
• David Ramirez – All the Not So Gentle Reminders
• Fernando Perdomo – Waves / Waves 2 / Waves 3
• Matt Tecu + Fernando Perdomo – Getting Warmer
• Whatever the Weather – Whatever the Weather II