Pressing Concerns: First Rodeo, Artificial Go, The High Water Marks, The Gotobeds

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We’ve got four superb albums that are coming out tomorrow (May 16th) in today’s Pressing Concerns! There are new albums from First Rodeo, Artificial Go, The High Water Marks, and The Gotobeds below–check ’em out! Also, if you missed Monday’s blog post (featuring Festiva, Andhi & the O’Neills, C’mon Tigre, and Monnone Alone) or Tuesday’s (featuring Zero Bars, The Rabies, Strange Devotion, and stef.in), check those 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.

First Rodeo – Rode Hard and Put Away Wet

Release date: May 16th
Record label: Bud Tapes
Genre: Alt-country, country rock, folk rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Nothing

Over the past couple of years I’ve written about a pair of good albums from the Portland, Oregon alt-country act Vista House, which serves as the vessel for the songwriting of one Tim Howe. As much as I’ve enjoyed those Vista House records, my first experience with Howe was as one-half of First Rodeo, another alt-country band he co-leads with the indie pop musician Nathan Tucker. Tucker’s an accomplished artist in his own right (he has a solo project called Cool Original and spent time in Strange Ranger), but the 2022 self-titled First Rodeo album is some of the finest work by either of them, and so I was pleased to hear about Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, the duo’s second album together. Their new label Bud Tapes boasts that First Rodeo have “moved beyond genre constraints to explore collaborative songwriting and arranging”–I’m not entirely sure what they mean by that, but there’s a song on this album where both Howe and Tucker are basically rapping, and there’s certainly nothing like that on First Rodeo, so I can see from where they’re coming.  Still, Rode Hard and Put Away Wet isn’t a huge departure (other than that one song), as it’s still grounded in the roots, country, and folk rock on which First Rodeo built their initial foundation. 

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet does start off on a relatively traditional note, although First Rodeo find an unlikely source of inspiration for it–they repurpose as a couple-years-old Cool Original song called “The Crying Hour” and turn it into a smooth folk rock ballad (rechristened the “Dry Version”, and Howe sings a verse, too). “See If U Flinch” and “Speak Softly” are classic examples of the Howe-Tucker partnership, a casual marriage of roots and pop music whose interesting detours are relatively subtle–and then the song I alluded to in the previous paragraph, “Nothing”, comes out of nowhere with drum loops, “Steal My Sunshine”-esque guitars, and sung-spoken (very nearly rapped) vocals from Tucker. It took me a bit of time to adjust to it, but I’m fairly certain that this nearly six-minute journey is a masterpiece and exactly what First Rodeo should be doing (in particular, the switch from Howe narrating the later verses to Tucker singing the hook is very inspired). While First Rodeo don’t precisely attempt something like “Nothing” again, it feels like that song loosens up the rest of the record, as the hazy synths of “Dusk 2”, the almost industrial-country compaction of “Sunset Highway”, and the simple shuffle of “Familiar” all bear the marks of being a little more tinkered-with. “Pride in the Fall” closes out Rode Hard and Put Away Wet with another kind of peak–while “Nothing” showed the range of the duo, the final track on the album returns to the realm of alt-country with strange little synth parts and desert-warped atmospherics in tow. Either one of those two tracks could’ve been what “evolution” meant for First Rodeo–kudos for Tucker and Howe for just giving us both of them. (Bandcamp link)

Artificial Go – Musical Chairs

Release date: May 16th
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, art rock, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD (with Hopscotch Fever), digital
Pull Track: Circles

The “existential post-punk chamber pop” trio Artificial Go (made up of Angie Willcutt, Cole Gilfilen, and Micah Wu) released their debut album, Hopscotch Fever, last September. I missed it at the time (in my defense, Feel It Records puts out a lot of albums, many of which could be described in a similar manner as the previously-quoted phrase to some degree), but I’ve been given a second chance to get on board the Artificial Go train with their second album, Musical Chairs. Like I said, this is the first time I’ve listened to Artificial Go, and I’d initially just kind of assumed that they’re from somewhere in the middle of Europe based on how they sound–but nope, they’re a bunch of Midwesterners, right from Feel It Records Headquarters in Cincinnati (that would’ve been my second guess). Musical Chairs recalls plenty of offbeat, strange guitar pop artists of previous decades, from Flying Nun Records in New Zealand to The Raincoats in England to the general vibe of Athens, Georgia in the early 1980s. Willcutt, Artificial Go’s vocalist and lyricist, is pretty clearly one of a kind–not content to simply compliment the tuneful instrumentals that the trio whip up, her cutting remarks, non-sequiturs, and frequently…unique delivery are the defining features of Musical Chairs.

That isn’t to denigrate the rest of the band–as memorable as Willcutt is as a frontperson, her performance would be wasted without the talents of a group that can turn “Lasso” into a frantic cowpunk opener and “Circles” into fluffy, bounding jangly indie pop (the way Willcutt says various dog breeds is the first thing that stuck with me on the latter, but that chorus is the real gem of that song). “The World Is My Runway” is an oddly gripping ode to life as performance (“I wear my birthday suit to a fashion show in my kitchen”), but “Red Convertible” is a much more abstract offering from Willcutt. The second half of Musical Chairs features some of its best musical moments–single “Hallelujah” is an ornery jangle pop song, “Playing Puppet” is an overcast, hazy version of that same genre, “Late to the Party” is some spikey dance-punk, and “Sky Burial” closes the album with a bizarre, dub-influenced deconstructed post-punk head-scratcher. The more I listen to it, the more obvious it is that Musical Chairs is a great band album, and that’s how it works as well as it does–for instance, maybe “Tight Rope Walker” isn’t quite as clever as it thinks it is, but the lovely acoustic guitar-led folk-indie-pop instrumental is so well-done and complementary to the contemplations contained in the words that it’s still a success of a song. That’s a good a sign as any that Artificial Go have everything they need already. (Bandcamp link)

The High Water Marks – Consult the Oracle

Release date: May 16th
Record label: Meritorio
Genre: Fuzz pop, power pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: The Works

We’re living in the golden age of The High Water Marks. Of course, the band has always been a reliable source of guitar pop of the “power” and “psychedelic” varieties, but not even during The High Water Marks’ earliest days–beginning in the mid-2000s as a trans-Atlantic partnership between founding Elephant 6 member and longtime Apples in Stereo drummer Hilarie Sidney in Kentucky and Per Ole Bratset in Oslo–have the band released so many great records in such a relatively short amount of time. Now entirely based in Norway and rounded out by Logan Miller and Øystein Megård, Consult the Oracle is The High Water Marks’ fourth album since 2020, coming hot on the heels of 2023’s Your Next Wolf (quite possibly their best record ever) and a twenty-year anniversary reissue of their 2004 debut album, Songs About the Ocean (featuring a handful of new recordings of the group’s oldest songs by band members both current and former). Consult the Oracle is business as usual at this point–a dozen indie pop songs recalling both Sidney’s previous band and early High Water Marks completed in a little over half an hour, featuring cameos from notable names like Rebecca Cole (Wild Flag, Pavement, The Minders) and Jennifer Baron (The Ladybug Transistor, The Garment District), among others.

I don’t take Consult the Oracle for granted, though. After all, how could I do such a thing with an album that has highs as high as “The Works” (a masterclass in the usage of power pop guitar riffs and handclaps) and the title track (a lovely piece of fuzzy twee pop featuring Bratset and Sidney trading off lead vocals)? Perhaps it’s a tinge more laid-back than Your Next Wolf was, a chance for The High Water Marks to let their slightly jangly, slightly psychedelic pop music marinate a little more than usual. It’s a subtle distinction–The High Water Marks aren’t a chamber pop group all of a sudden, and their 60s garage rock influences are still felt throughout the record in the electric, nervous pop energy of opening track “Postcard”, the aforementioned rager “The Works”, and the stumbling, rumbling “Strange Things”. In between the louder moments are the songs that give Consult the Oracle its personality–the title track, “Don’t Hang Me Out to Dry” (a light retro-pop song aided by Baron’s keyboards), the lo-fi, cloudy psychedelic rock of “Your Stint in Art School”, the dreamy 60s folk-pop of “Secret Hideaway” (for which Megård gets a co-writing credit). Even if it wasn’t part of a larger renaissance, Consult the Oracle would be a strong and sturdy statement on its own–as it is, it’s another key piece in an ever-more-impressive career. (Bandcamp link)

The Gotobeds – Masterclass

Release date: May 16th
Record label: 12XU
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, noise rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Goes Away

The Gotobeds have been garage rocking, noise rocking, and post-punking for over a decade now, and the Pittsburgh quartet have covered plenty of ground in a dozen years and five albums. Are they “your favorite band’s favorite band”? They probably wouldn’t describe themselves as such, but just looking at the credits for their fourth album, 2019’s Sub Pop-released Debt Begins at 30, suggests a certain respect–members of Silkworm, Pavement, Downtown Boys, Protomartyr, Outer World, and more guested on it. Masterclass is The Gotobeds’ first album in six years (although the band’s Eli Kasan has kept busy with The Sewerheads), and it finds them reuniting with 12XU Records, who put out their sophomore album (2014’s Poor People Are Revolting). Recorded by The Sewerheads’ Matthew “My War Matt” Schor, Masterclass is just that–a band that’s been on the periphery for a couple of years retaking the reins and laughing at all of us for not being prepared for everything contained herein (in fairness to us–how could we be?). It’s ten songs in a little over a half-hour, clanging noisy underground rock that’s like Sonic Youth with a newfound laser focus or a more furious version of their peers in Savak.

Tim Midyett of the aforementioned Silkworm describes Masterclass as a “ball of punk, surf, no-wave, Beat-adjacent literature…and bubblegum”, and I’m probably not going to be able to give a more concise single-line description than that (also, you should obviously be taking Mr. Midyett’s word for it if you know anything about this blog). The Gotobeds might be practicing concision themselves on Masterclass, but if so, it’s only because they’ve hammered and pounded these songs into something less giant than their true forms. That’s how I think of the opening track, “Starz”, although there’s nothing wrong with the almost-catchy punk rock of “Goes Away” in the second slot, either. The Gotobeds’ version of “post-punk” is either completely off the rails (“Fante”, which is kind of fun) or the closest thing that Masterclass has to a reprieve (“All Leaves Turn”, which–I already mentioned Sonic Youth, right?). The Gotobeds’ version of “rock music” is a feedback-laden steamroller (get out of the way of stuff like “Non-Fucking Fiction” and “Abasement”; you will lose a game of chicken to these). The Gotobeds’ version of “pop music” is…anything but intuitive, but the hooks are there, alluded to earlier in “Goes Away” and “Fante” and also quite present in “Hey John!”, a musty, bedraggled sock hop which serves as the penultimate track to Masterclass. There’s also a six-minute closing song called “Mirror Writing”, which does indulge in just a little bit of noise-jamming but on the whole keeps to the spirit of Masterclass–as difficult as it is to capture that spirit. (Bandcamp link)

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2 thoughts on “Pressing Concerns: First Rodeo, Artificial Go, The High Water Marks, The Gotobeds”

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