Pressing Concerns: WPTR, Graham Hunt, Autos, Subsonic Eye

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Welcome to the Thursday Pressing Concerns, which also happens to be the first Pressing Concerns of the week (an uncommon occurrence)! We have new albums from WPTR, Graham Hunt, and Subsonic Eye, plus the debut EP from Autos, below. The first half of this week was devoted to unveiling Rosy Overdrive’s Top 40 Albums of 2025 So Far, so check those picks out if you haven’t yet.

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.

WPTR – Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site

Release date: June 13th
Record label: Lame-O
Genre: Lo-fi power pop, bedroom pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: In Bruges

Whenever a musician who’s the unquestioned leader of one band starts a solo project, there’s always the “well, what makes it different?” question. Peter Gill has put out two great albums in the past three years as the lead singer and songwriter of Philadelphia power pop band 2nd Grade–he could’ve put Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site out as a 2nd Grade album and nobody could have stopped him. Hell, some of the best moments on the most recent 2nd Grade album, Scheduled Explosions, were recorded entirely by Gill himself. Gill (who can also be heard playing in Friendship and Hour) has christened his solo output “WPTR”, an inspired name that reminds me of the quote about how Guided by Voices’ Alien Lanes is intended to evoke flipping through radio stations in an alternate universe. Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site stands out from those 2nd Grade albums by following a more personal, insular brand of pop music–lo-fi, outsider bedroom pop and jazz/bossa nova-influenced instrumentals replace the full-band power pop rock and roll of 2nd Grade. Gill’s almost entirely on his own here, with guest vocals on “Deep Blue” by Heeyoon Won (Boosegumps) and Buzz Lombardi (Pacemaker, occasional contributor to 2nd Grade) being the only others. It’s a weird one, but I recognize Peter Gill the familiar songwriter all over Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site.

To be clear, I’m not saying that 2nd Grade isn’t weird. There’s some really strange writing in Scheduled Explosions, which is part of why I love it so much. But it’s certainly easier to push the odd yet evocative lyrics to the side when one isn’t in the mood for them when it’s accompanied by full-band (or full-band-aping) power pop. Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site, meanwhile, starts with “If the Wind Could Talk”, and there’s nothing for us to do but think about “If the wind could talk / It wouldn’t talk” over and over again until Gill moves onto the next song. And move on he does, and quickly–as laid-back and casual as Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site feels, it’s also a restless album, as it feels like Gill is looking for something in (via?) these songs. If WPTR is looking for number one hit singles from a distant galaxy, Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site has ‘em–there’s a song in the middle of the album called “In Bruges” that’s sixty seconds of absolutely perfect lo-fi power pop, like, genuinely up there with the best 2nd Grade songs (I assume it’s named after the 2008 Colin Farrell/Brendan Gleeson movie I saw once and don’t remember very well; the obsession with zeitgeist-removed film and pop culture is another Gill-ism that’s very present in 2nd Grade but becomes more prominent by default here). The closing track, “No Star General”, is another one, less frantic and more “aw, shucks” in terms of power pop archetypes. Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site has its immediate rewards like those two tracks, but it is, of course, also about the journey to get to (and away from) them. I’ve followed the Fading Captain on enough such voyages to recognize a good trip when I see them; Redness & Swelling at the Injection Site has me ready to do the same with the No Star General. (Bandcamp link)

Graham Hunt – Timeless World Forever

Release date: June 13th
Record label: Run for Cover
Genre: Indie pop, psychedelic pop, power pop, Madchester, post-punk, trip hop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Frog in the Shower

Graham Hunt is a longtime Wisconsin indie rock musician, but the past few years he’s been tossing out solo albums at a steady clip, with LPs like 2022’s If You Knew Would You Believe It and 2023’s Try Not to Laugh slowly growing the Graham Hunt cult and beguiling music writers with an ability to write winning power pop hooks (and subsequently win over the modern power pop scene) without cleanly fitting into that box. It’s like an intricate and smooth version of “slacker pop”, the Graham Hunt sound, indie rock with bits of 90s alt-pop as well as electronic and dance touches delivered in a skewed but ultimately sincere fashion. Timeless World Forever might be the most “Graham Hunt” Graham Hunt album to date, and I think that might make it his best work so far. The instrumentals are bright, precise, and adventurous, Hunt’s vocals are all over the place from “burnout” to “soaring emo guy” to basically rap-singing; Hunt approached the album like a “modern pop record”, and there’s plenty of the hazy psychedelia and hip hop structure I’d associate with that kind of world here. Even among the various acts that merge power pop with electronic music and the like, Timeless World Forever feels ambitious; I kept thinking that the next album on my playlist started throughout the second half of the LP, but that’s just Graham Hunt trying on some new hats.

What it comes down to most of all, though, is that Timeless World Forever might just have the best pop hooks of any Graham Hunt album yet. “I Just Need Enough” and “East Side Screamer” are so much more than their choruses, and the winding roads they take to get there are just right, but it’s those huge refrains that’ll stick with me most of all. “Spiritual Problems” is a jaw-dropper; that chorus is sweeping and mountain-summiting, and Hunt just puts so much into the lines that end with “This weight is a gift that you’ve given to me” that it feels like whatever healing he’s talking about here is just within reach. If It wasn’t for “Frog in the Shower”, “Spiritual Problems” would be the crown jewel of Timeless World Forever, but as it is, Hunt sticks what’s probably my favorite pop song of the year in the album’s second half. It’s just immaculate fuzzy power pop, stitched together with the skill of somebody who’s spent enough time outside the world of straight-ahead guitar pop to find a little extra gas (and, going back to what I said earlier, it’s still kind of hard for my brain to wrap around the fact that the chill R&B-esque “Been There Done That”, the trash compactor dance-punk “Power Object”, and “Frog in the Shower” are not only on the same album, but back-to-back-to-back on it). I haven’t even talked about “Robot World”, which sounds like if the Dismemberment Plan tried to write a sellout anthem, or the bow-tying closing track “Movie Night”, yet. Timeless World Forever is a lot, but the weight of it is a gift, indeed. (Bandcamp link)

Autos – Autos

Release date: June 13th
Record label: Dandy Boy
Genre: Power pop, college rock, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Breakin the Ice

What you got there, Dandy Boy Records? Another power pop band from the Bay Area, eh? That makes sense. Well, “the Bay Area” might be a bit of a stretch for Autos–they’re from Santa Cruz, although vocalist/guitarist and songwriter Brandon Tomovic did spend some time in San Francisco–but “power pop” certainly isn’t. The four members of Autos (Tomovic, guitarist Andrew Coonrad, bassist Rachael Chavez, and drummer Lex van den Berghe) have played in “countless” Santa Cruz bands over the years, but when they get together, they apparently hone in on a West Coast-specific, early punk rock-indebted version of guitar pop. That’s exactly what you’ll hear in the band’s debut release, a six-song self-titled 12” EP from the ever-reliable Dandy Boy. Tomovic kind of reminds me of a more “punk” Ray Seraphin–they’re both frequently-understated vocalists that are nonetheless unafraid to pursue big hooks in vintage college rock/new wave/power pop style. Autos aren’t a “punk rock” group by today’s standards, but (like other Bay Area groups led by aging punks such as Grey Causeway and Smokers) it’s a key part of their sound, at least as much as the chiming guitar melodies are.

Autos break the ice with an opening track called “Breakin the Ice”–our introduction to the quartet is a perfect power pop greeting, bounding through all the melodies a song like this could possibly need in under two minutes (with Tomovic singing about “an awkward fucking handshake”, among other things). If “Stay Clean” and “Into the Grey” have a little bit of a darker post-punk vibe to them, it’s hardly overwhelming and doesn’t get in the way of Autos’ power pop mission statement, and the second half of the EP might actually one-up the A-side in terms of immediate catchiness. At the very least, side two of Autos kicks off with “Spark in the Dark”, a giddy rock and roll song that grabs us by the collar more forcefully than anything else on the EP (not that it’s a competition). The beginning of “Arturo” might be the best instrumental moment on the EP–it takes nearly a minute for the vocals to kick in, and the entire time before that is spent exploring a giant college rock opening that reminds me of guitar work by the dB’s and Game Theory, among others. It falls on “Drive” to keep the momentum going and send Autos off on a high note, and the quartet close things out with nothing less than an instant-classic “car song” that pays tribute to the healing powers of the titular activity. (Bandcamp link)

Subsonic Eye – Singapore Dreaming

Release date: June 11th
Record label: Topshelf/Kolibri
Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, dream pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Why Am I Here

The Singaporean indie pop quartet Subsonic Eye have been steadily been releasing solid records since 2017’s Strawberry Feels–2021’s Nature of Things was my personal onboarding point, 2023’s All Around You (their first LP for Topshelf Records) was that for a lot of others, but there’s no bad way to join them. The band (vocalist Nur Wahidah, guitarists Daniel Borces and Jared Lim, bassist Samuel Venditti, and drummer Lucas Tee) have really honed in on a specific style of guitar pop that’s snappy and hooky but simultaneously expansive and frequently nature-inspired. The band’s fifth album, Singapore Dreaming, doesn’t reinvent the Subsonic Eye formula, but, considering how energized and focused they sound on this LP, there’s no need to worry about them running out of steam. As per usual with Subsonic Eye, Singapore Dreaming is a brief, sub-thirty minute listen; the band say it’s inspired by their hometown city-state, and while it might be a little more uptempo, busy, and/or direct than their last album, the threads that went into creating this album aren’t easy to differentiate from their earlier ones on the surface.

Singapore Dreaming hits the ground running (or maybe skipping) with “Aku Cemas”, in which we join Subsonic Eye in the midst of an excellent example of their typical smooth, polished, wistful pop rock. From there, Subsonic Eye ask “Why Am I Here”, a song that takes a minute to really get going but which eventually builds into a triumphant, explosive guitar tangle in its final minute or so–for them, it’s quite “jammy”. Songs like “Being Productive” and “Situations” are, perhaps, Subsonic Eye’s version of “city” rockers–they’re still quite electric but a little more subdued than I’ve come to expect from the quintet. Maybe Subsonic Eye can still reach the sky in these songs, but the airspace has gotten a lot more crowded. Those who prefer that Subsonic Eye remain fully immersed in the wilderness will still find a lot to enjoy on Singapore Dreaming, and particularly in “Blue Mountains”, the album’s nearly-five-minute (an eternity for them!) closing track. The band sprint up the mountain in the first half of the song before jerking to a halt and slowing things down enough to appreciate the majesty of the titular Australian mountain range. “Blue Mountains” tapers off and disappears somewhere in the alpine mist, a reassurance that Subsonic Eye can never be contained entirely no matter where they situate themselves. (Bandcamp link)

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