Pressing Concerns: Big Bluestem, Softjaw, Loto, Shapes Like People

Posted byrosyoverdrivePosted inPressing ConcernsTags:, , , , , , , ,

In the first Tuesday Pressing Concerns in a “hot minute”, the blog is looking at new albums from Loto and Shapes Like People, a compilation from Softjaw, and a new EP from Big Bluestem. Check ’em out, and if you missed yesterday’s blog post (featuring TV Star, Urq, Dipper Grande, and Lupo Citta), load that up 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.

Big Bluestem – Take Care, Stay Warm

Release date: April 14th
Record label: Midewin
Genre: Singer-songwriter, indie folk, lo-fi folk
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Where Our Rivers Meet

Back in 2023, I wrote about Mike Fox’s music via his work as one-half of the Chicago folk rock/studio pop duo Coventry alongside Jon Massey of blog favorite Silo’s Choice. It’s a beautiful record–one of my favorites from that year–so I was excited to hear that Fox has (after releasing an intriguing electronic album in 2024) returned to folk-based songwriting with a new project called Big Bluestem (named after the iconic native Midwestern prairie grass, of course). The six-song, twenty-five minute Take Care, Stay Warm (is it an EP or album? Not sure) is nonetheless pretty different from Coventry, and in fact can be seen as a reaction to the polish of that band’s debut album: it was recorded “on a handheld recorder with a hard three-take limit”, the instruments (baritone guitar, piano, and Wurlitzer) are all played by Fox himself, and the songs themselves are hushed and intimate in a way that clearly benefits from the recording style. I compared Fox’s voice to Bill Callahan when I wrote about Coventry, but this is the first time that the songs actually sound Smog-like.

Opening track “Where Our Rivers Meet” does actually feel Coventry-like in its comfortable, jazzy piano playing, but that instrumental is slowed to a crawl and accompanied only by Fox’s whispered vocals, welcoming us into the world of Take Care, Stay Warm while giving us a realistic picture of where Fox is at on this record. Fox pulls out the guitar for a trio of sparse songs in the center of Take Care, Stay Warm; the sendoff of the title track and its repeated refrain give way to thornier laments in “Is It Worth It?” and “Dead on the Vine”. The six-minute “Portraits” feels like the most complex song on the record in multiple ways, the opening lyrics (“We can’t rely on our memories / Images fade into mystery”) effectively mirrored by the recording itself. The grand finale is the one song on Take Care, Stay Warm that takes on a classicist version of folk music, the John Prine-ish epilogue of “Root for You”. The limited palette isn’t at all a hindrance for the journey on which Big Bluestem take us on their debut record. (Bandcamp link)

Softjaw – Softjaw

Release date: April 1st
Record label: Dandy Boy/Bachelor
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Undercover Lover

We’re always able to count on Dandy Boy Records to deliver the finest West Coast power pop. The Oakland label’s latest acquisition is a quartet from Long Beach called Softjaw, co-led by singer-songwriters Dustin Lovelis and Tanner Duffy. On the group’s self-titled debut EP in 2024 they were joined by drummer Vinny Early and bassist Daniel Michicoff; on subsequent recordings, Graeme Whynot has replaced the latter. Those “subsequent recordings” are two original singles released last year and two covers from early this year; Softjaw, their debut for Dandy Boy, collects all nine Softjaw tracks thus far in one handy vinyl and/or CD package. The group’s first physical release is a twenty-five minute tribute to classic 1970s power pop–hooks, harmonies, and guitars, not “punk” or “garage rock” precisely but certainly knowledgeable about “rock and roll” enough to give these songs an extra kick.

Lovelis and Duffy are kindred spirits as songwriters; I don’t think I could differentiate them if the credits didn’t clue me in as to who did which one. Both of them can do really fun rave-ups; “I Need You” and “Undercover Lover” back to back give each of them a chance to helm one (and, given that these are the two newest original Softjaw songs, suggests they’re hitting some kind of stride). The original EP has something of a “flow” to it, with (relatively) mid-tempo guitar pop like “Dragging My Feet” and “Don’t Go Walking Out” hanging out with explosives like “Pleased With Me”. The first cover is “Working Too Hard” by The Paul Collins Beat, which Softjaw give a weird but rocking reading that reminds me of the dB’s (not a bad reference point for Softjaw as a whole), and they end with a version of “Playing Bogart” by the short-lived new wave group 23 Jewels. “Playing Bogart” is as fun as anything else on Softjaw, which makes sense–they are clearly a band who understands good power pop, then and now. (Bandcamp link)

Loto – _____

Release date: April 17th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Art rock, soft rock, chamber pop, indie pop
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: A Home Until Something Better Comes Up

Towards the beginning of 2024 I heard A Year in Review, an intriguing four-song EP from a musician from Montreal named Lautaro Akira Martinez-Satoh, aka Loto. Martinez-Satoh’s work is wide-ranging and fairly experimental, but something about those four songs in particular stuck with me–the push-and-pull between emotional, insistent lo-fi indie rock and polished art pop, perhaps. Martinez-Satoh released a “beat tape” under the name HJKHLHL last year, but the first Loto release since A Year in Review is a six-song album labeled “_____” (officially speaking, it’s untitled). Despite only having two more songs than their last EP, this album is a much grander-feeling affair. Some of that likely has to do with the length–thirty-six minutes long, with the majority of tracks pushing past six minutes–but it’s also in the kind of music Loto pursue in the LP.

Martinez-Satoh and a rotating cast of musical guests (saxophonist Maya Hoss, guitarist Jonathan Theriault, drummers Seyjii Schultz, Michael Jalil Khayat, and Michael Tomizzi, flautist Riley, and bassist Rayne) throw themselves headfirst into art pop, chamber pop, and soft rock, bravely looking beyond “Bandcamp experimentalism” to “60s/70s studio-pop wizardry” for inspiration. The beautiful six-minute opening track “Worst Case Scenario” (title notwithstanding) is all smooth sailing, while “A Home Until Something Better Comes Up” lets a little more “rock” creep into the soft (it’s not quite as electric as their similarly-minded peers in Curling, but it’s in that direction). Loto then drift towards jazzy indie-folk-pop in “Come Back in the Winter” and echoing, dreamy chamber pop in “ttm” before ending everything on a true “noise” note with the eight-minute soundscape “30minstoprovo”. It’s kind of a testament to Loto that they transition out of pop music entirely without it feeling too jarring, and that this still feels like a “pop” album regardless of how it ends. Loto is as compelling a project as ever with this one. (Bandcamp link)

Shapes Like People – Under the Rainbow

Release date: April 17th
Record label: Jangleshop/Subjangle
Genre: Indie pop, dream pop, jangle pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: First Version of You

The British indie pop duo Shapes Like People debuted last year with an album called Ticking Haze, introducing us to the husband-and-wife duo of Carl and Kat Mann (the latter on vocals, the former providing the instrumentals) with a very solid collection of guitar pop of both the “dream” and “jangle” varieties. Merely a year after Ticking Haze, the Manns have returned with yet another twelve songs and forty minutes’ worth of pop music melding Carl’s seasoned songwriting (as the leader of The Shop Windows earlier this decade, and as a songwriter-for-hire before that) with Kat’s knack for dream pop melodic delivery. The 1980s-evoking artwork for Under the Rainbow feels right; it’s not a huge departure from Ticking Haze or anything, but it’s a cleaner amalgamation of new wave, C86-ish indie pop, and jangly, folky indie rock that sounds even more directly of that era. Carl also contributes more vocals this time around, melding his voice with Kat in early highlights like the title track and “Lately”. I tend to hew towards janglier material in general, and the polite power pop of “First Version of You” and the more leisurely “Life of Time” are two excellent examples of the form–but their forays into dream pop (“Be OK”) and post-punk (“Crushing Silence”) are welcome as well. The second entry in their discography finds Shapes Like People being just as impressive at what they do. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Leave a comment