Pressing Concerns: Me at the Zoo, Rob & Ellen, Avery Island BCE, FOND

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The first Pressing Concerns of the week features a new album from Avery Island BCE, as well as new EPs from Me at the Zoo, Rob & Ellen, and FOND. Check them out below!

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Me at the Zoo / Rob & Ellen – Vol. 1 / In on It

Release date: April 17th / May 1st
Record label: Vacant Stare / Take a Turn
Genre: Fuzz pop, power pop, indie pop, jangle pop, college rock
Formats: Cassette (In on It), digital
Pull Track: Cicadas / So Many Californias

Of the many bands from the San Francisco Bay Area I’ve written about over the past half-decade, few if any come close to the run that Oakland quartet Blues Lawyer had in 2023: that year, they released one of the best albums and one of the best EPs of that year, as well as guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Rob I. Miller releasing a strong solo album. It felt like Blues Lawyer was primed to take over the world of modern indie/power pop at that point, but it hasn’t quite shaken out that way–soon after, vocalist/drummer/songwriter Elyse Schrock moved to Portland and Miller moved to the East Coast, leaving the quartet’s future in jeopardy. Blues Lawyer haven’t broken up (they played a show last year in San Francisco, in fact), but it’s not surprising that the first new music we’ve heard from their members comes via different projects. In Easton, Pennsylvania, Miller started a new band called Me at the Zoo (also featuring guitarist Zach Baransky, bassist Derrek Wismer, and drummer Kevin Hudson), while his Rob & Ellen project reunites Miller with Blues Lawyer guitarist Ellen Matthews; both projects have released a debut EP in the past month or so.

Me at the Zoo’s Vol. 1–recorded by the Pennsylvanian quartet over last winter and released by Miller’s Vacant Stare label–revels in fuzzed-out power pop, cranking the amps a bit louder than Blues Lawyer did (at least not until their most recent record, Sight Gags on the Radio) without drowning out Miller’s otherworldly pop songwriting. In a dozen minutes, Me at the Zoo rip through some wall-of-sound power pop fuzz in “Cicadas” and “New Colors”, update what’s possibly my favorite solo Miller song in “Wedge”, and toss out a couple of more offbeat but still fairly distorted pop rock songs in “Party at E’s” and “Shelly’s Turn”. It reminds me more of Companion Piece (Miller’s solo album) than anything else he’s done so far; this time, however, Miller has found a backing band in Eastern Pennsylvania every bit as understanding of his songs as his California collaborators were.

Rob & Ellen’s In on It, meanwhile, is a full-on embrace of the jangly indie pop side of Miller’s songwriting. Released on cassette via Take a Turn Records (R.E. Seraphin’s label), these seven songs conjure up a more laid-back, “couple of friends making low-key pop music” informal setting. That doesn’t mean it’s slapdash or “slacker”-y, though–the songs Miller brings to this one are just as strong as his Me at the Zoo material, and Matthews’ intricate, melodic guitar lines are a helpful reminder that Blues Lawyer wasn’t “just” a vessel for two talented songwriters’ solo output. Take a Turn references Paul Westerberg, Bill Fox, Tony Molina, Bob Mould, and The Lemonheads as touchpoints–none of them as completely “right” as to how In on It sounds, but I ended up listing all of them here because I do hear a little bit of all of them in this twenty-minute tape. “So Many Californias” is West Coast jangle pop perfection, “Penny Fountain” finds Miller cooking up some interesting aural layers to add to a chugging college rock foundation, “Edge of Spring” (co-written by Matthews) is a nice little Alex Chilton/Scott Miller acoustic pop piece, and “Scene Report” and “Cosmic Error” confirm that Rob & Ellen can fuzz-rock too. Whether it’s with Me at the Zoo, Blues Lawyer, Rob & Ellen, or on his own, more Rob I. Miller music is always welcome, and nothing in the past three years has diminished its impact. (Bandcamp link for Me at the Zoo) (Bandcamp link for Rob & Ellen)

Avery Island BCE – Dom Pump

Release date: April 20th
Record label: Tough Gum
Genre: Art rock, math rock, prog-pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Fear of Difference

It’s been a strong couple of months for Louisiana underground music: first, Tough Gum put out the latest from Baton Rouge-originating garage punk/lo-fi pop act Timeout Room in February, and Exploding in Sound released the debut album from Urq (aka half of New Orleans avant-punk duo Spllit) in late April. Would you believe, however, that there’s another exciting New Orleans debut album that came out in the past month, from an artist on the same label as Timeout Room and who joined the bill for Urq’s album release show? I’m talking about Avery Legendre, who records as Avery Island BCE. Legendre has played in the New Orleans groups STEEF, Jess Joy, and Butte, and added a couple of solo singles to her repertoire over the past couple of years. All this has led to the first Avery Island BCE, Dom Pump, which reveals an interesting and (in Tough Gum’s own words) “hard to pin down” art rock project.

Dom Pump is less wedded to “punk rock” than either of Legendre’s aforementioned contemporaries–in fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s hardly a punk record at all. Opening track “Fear of Difference” is, at the very least, math rock-influenced, but it owes just as much to progressive rock, chamber rock, or even jazz-pop. Like the most recent Urq album, Dom Pump is an omnivorous experimental rock record, but it wanders even further away from basement garage rock in thorny, headscratching compositions like “Throgs Neck” and “Dame Commander”. “In Coppet” takes its time, but eventually becomes a driving rocker, while “1984” is a clearer embrace of 80s post-punk, in a way. Dom Pump feels larger than its nine tracks and thirty minutes–half the songs feel like mini-epics, and even the relative respites (like the soft-pop “Shiva”) work as standalone pieces. If it didn’t already, Louisiana should fully have your attention now. (Bandcamp link)

FOND – We Can Hang

Release date: May 1st
Record label: Slepping In
Genre: Punk rock, pop punk, emo-punk, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Loserville

I first heard the Alexandria, Virginia punk quartet FOND last year thanks to their debut EP, Complacent; after a pair of “demo” releases, that six song EP found the band (guitarist/vocalists Chris Issa and Steve Grosso, bassist Matt Carrier, and drummer Rob Seaver) knee-deep in 90s alternative rock, power pop, and pop punk with the skill and weariness of scene veterans (which the members are, of Richmond and D.C.). We only had to wait a few months for a new FOND release, as they’re already back with a four-song 7” EP called We Can Hang. Coming in at under ten minutes in total length, We Can Hang is a briefer affair than Complacent was, but it’s still a welcome drop-in from a band seemingly on a roll. At the very least, lead-off track “Loserville” is very likely FOND’s best song yet, a massive song comparable with the best of blog-favorite power-pop-punk acts like Dagwood and The Pretty Flowers. And the rest of We Can Hang is pretty good too! “Peregrine” is a sixty-second blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slice of melodic punk, while the messy power pop of “No One Can Laugh” certainly sounds like a band who claims both Teenage Fanclub and Fiddlehead as influences. Perhaps FOND will get a full album together somewhere down the line, but in the meantime, they’re operating very well in these short bursts. (Bandcamp link)

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