Pressing Concerns: Kilkenny Cats, Matthew Smith Group, Why Bother?, Novelty Island

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Rosy Overdrive is back this week with a full slate of new blog posts, and we’re starting today by looking at new albums from Matthew Smith Group, Why Bother?, and Novelty Island, plus an expanded reissue from the 1980s group Kilkenny Cats. Read on!

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.

Kilkenny Cats – Hammer + Echo

Release date: September 26th
Record label: Propeller Sound Recordings
Genre: College rock, alternative rock, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: To Speak To

Killkenny Cats were a key part of the Athens, Georgia alternative rock underground in the 1980s, releasing an album in 1984 and an EP in 1988 before eventually fading away sometime in the 1990s. Half of Kilkenny Cats’ “core” lineup (Tom Cheek and Allen Wagner) were previously in another Athens band that’s seen a reissue campaign recently, Is/Ought Gap–unlike that band, Kilkenny Cats did see a bit of press and notoriety in their heyday (their LP was released by Twin/Tone, after all), but given that they still remain absent from local retrospectives focusing on the likes of R.E.M., Pylon, and The B-52’s, Propeller Sound Recordings’ reissue series of their music seems like an important endeavor. Kilkenny Cats were a bit “heavier” than their contemporaries, mixing classic rock guitars with their southern “college rock” and post-punk, and it all peaked with Hammer, the 1988 EP that was their final release as an active band. Hammer + Echo collects the original EP’s five songs plus eight “outtakes, demos, and deep cuts” from across the group’s career (“Echo”). 

Hammer stands out today as a distorted, electronic take on college rock–opening track “To Speak To” is nearly proto-grunge, and “Nervous Neville” is the unlikely midpoint between glam and harmonious folk rock. The extra recordings paint a fuller picture of Kilkenny Cats, a band that could hop from lo-fi jangle pop to southern garage rock to moody post-punk with seeming ease. One of the most impressive things about Hammer + Echo is that it’s able to both present an unsung masterpiece in its original form (there’s no need for messing with the initial version of Hammer, no) as well as pull back the curtain and reveal something beyond the final product Kilkenny Cats released in 1988. That’s on Propeller Sound for putting Hammer + Echo together this way, as well as on Kilkenny Cats themselves for leaving plenty behind all those years ago. (Bandcamp link)

Matthew Smith Group – Matthew Smith Group

Release date: September 26th
Record label: Tall Texan
Genre: Psychedelic pop, indie pop, power pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Others

Beloved in the worlds of underground American guitar pop and Detroit indie rock, Outrageous Cherry put out over a dozen records of psychedelic pop, power pop, and all the detours entailed within those genres before the death of lead guitarist Larry Ray put an end to the band in 2017. Thankfully, vocalist/guitarist Matthew Smith has continued on via the aptly-named Matthew Smith Group and has taken the chance to bring some new faces into the fold–Outrageous Cherry’s rhythm section (drummer Maria Nuccilli and bassist Colleen Burke) are still here, but are now joined by new lead guitarist Ava East (of Shadow Show), Chris Pottinger on Moog synthesizer, and Molly Jones on saxophone. And if Matthew Smith Group still sounds quite a bit like Outrageous Cherry, that’s hardly a bad thing. Opening track “Others” is perfect guitar pop no matter what you call it, calling to mind the lighter side of The New Pornographers (who, it should be noted, once recorded a 7” of Outrageous Cherry covers) and the more Beach Boys-indebted side of Elephant 6. Pottinger’s Moog and Jones’ saxophone do push Matthew Smith Group into strange territory on occasion, but this album is eleven pop songs first and foremost–sometimes “jangly”, often psychedelic, occasionally offbeat, but clearly the work of professionals who know how to veer all over the place without losing the plot. (Bandcamp link)

Why Bother? – Case Studies

Release date: October 3rd
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Garage rock, garage punk, lo-fi punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: In Between the Distance

Mason, City Iowa basement rockers Why Bother? have been on a tear lately–Case Studies is the group’s third release in under twelve months, and all of them have been quality rock and roll records. After getting even weirder with April’s You Are Part of the Experiment EP, vocalist/synth player Terry, guitarist Speck, bassist Pamela, and drummer Paul start Case Studies by mostly hewing to the classic dark, horror-infused Why Bother? garage-punk sound, although the LP’s dozen tracks allow plenty of odder moments as well. Believe it or not, Case Studies contains some of Why Bother?’s most outwardly pop moments yet–sure, “I Take Back” does it in a familiar garage rock and roll way, but “In Between the Distance” and “Destruction by Design” are straight-up tinny, hissing, lo-fi jangly/power pop (or, at least, as close to it as Why Bother? could reasonably ever get). To make up for it, Case Studies goes nuclear in its closing quarter–the workout “Indoctrination” and punk-furious closing track “Galaxy Eyes” border two of the wildest entries into the Why Bother? canon yet in the six-minute multi-part basement prog of “Still Remain / Back in Sleep Paralysis” and “The Past Makes Me Sad / Behold! The Great War of 12 Realms”, a rather disconcerting devolution into noise. Another successful creation from Why Bother?’s laboratory. (Bandcamp link)

Novelty Island – Jigsaw Causeway

Release date: October 3rd
Record label: 9×9/Ripe
Genre: Indie pop, folk rock, psychedelic pop, Britpop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull Track: Jigsaw Causeway

Jigsaw Causeway is an interesting proposition–a British kid who grew up on The Beatles and Oasis attempts to make an album incorporating a more disparate collection of influences, including Grandaddy, Beck, and Boards of Canada. Liverpool musician Tom McConnell doesn’t seem like one to do things half-assed, if the painstakingly-created puzzle art of Jigsaw Causeway, the far-flung locales in which the album was recorded, and an accompanying gallery exhibition featuring “surreal papier-mâché props” and “handmade detritus” are any indication. And yet, musically speaking, Jigsaw Causeway is a fairly subtle listen–as far as these things go, anyway, I suppose. Its foundation is British guitar pop (if only there was a way to shorten that term) with bits of tasteful glam, synthetic touches, jangle pop, and folk rock baked into the mix in a very natural manner. The opening title track more or less does it all incredibly smoothly, and from there Jigsaw Causeway cleanly clears slightly synthetic indie pop (“Foam Animals”), slightly folky psychedelia (“I’m Glad It’s Not Sunny”), and bullseye-nailing Beatles-XTC-Britpop hits (“Rainy”). McConnell’s Jigsaw Causeway is an enjoyable jaunt regardless of which element of its patchwork it’s hewing towards at any given time. (Bandcamp link)

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