Welcome to the second half of December! There’ll be more year-end wrapping up coming on the blog soon (hot on the heels of last week’s Top 100 Albums of 2024), but we’re starting off the week with a Pressing Concerns that pulls from a handful of underappreciated releases from the past couple of months: new albums from Mystery Fix, Possum in My Room, and Schande, plus a two-album cassette compilation from Yuasa-Exide.
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. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2024 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
Mystery Fix – Life to Life
Release date: October 4th Record label: Gare Du Nord Genre: Synthpop, indie pop, pop rock, psych pop Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Cinnabar
It might be unrealistic to hunt down and listen to every record associated with Anton Barbeau, but one could do far worse than trying. We last checked in on him last year upon the release of his double album Morgenmusik/Nachtschlager, but he’s been busy since then; as of late, Barbeau is one-half of the core duo of Mystery Fix alongside Tim Walters, the project’s founder. Walters, an Oakland-based “electroacoustic musician”, might seem like an odd collaborator for Barbeau (if anyone could be considered “odd” next to Barbeau, I suppose), but they’ve both collaborated with Scott Miller and The Loud Family–Walters contributing to Days and Days and Attractive Nuisance, Barbeau taking co-lead billing on What If It Works?–so they’ve got that in common, at least. After a few singles in 2022 and 2023, Mystery Fix has put together an entire full-length called Life to Life, and it’s clear that the combination of Walters (handling all the music aside from a couple of guest horn contributions) and Barbeau (the lyricist and lead vocalist, for the most part) is a winning one. It turns out that Walters has an ear for pop music and can put some great instrumentals to tape when the moment calls for it–the final product is a slightly more synthetic version of the irreverent, freewheeling pop rock of Barbeau’s solo career, and the vocalist is more than happy to meet the music where it’s at.
Walters’ electro-pop and synthpop creations are solid but not overly showy throughout Life to Life–typically, Barbeau’s vocals are the most prominent feature of the record. That doesn’t mean that Barbeau is all that discernable as a writer–for every relatively easy-to-grasp pop lyric like the easy, breezy, somewhat sleazy “Bask and Be”, there’s two tracks where he keeps literal meaning close to the vest. Not that songs like the whirling “Fragments” and the robotic “Insect Crawls” are completely opaque, mind you–every once in a while, Barbeau breaks through the freaky imagery to land something (“Whispers and rumors / The old water cooler / Lies and deception / Immaculate con job” in the former, “Once in a while next door neighbor smiles / Waves in a well meaning way, hello / Strapped to your chin, plastic human grin / You try but still you know” in the latter). One of the strongest moments is an entirely Walters-concocted number–“Cinnabar”, a really spare piece of almost-ambient synthesizer and uncertain but melodic vocals from the beatmaker. Barbeau takes the reins once Mystery Fix want to get a little more chaotic again–like in penultimate track “We Play Along”, where the horns squeal and Barbeau sings “Mingus, Monk, and Bird / The cosmic slop gets stirred / Music from the stars / Beams down into tiny cars”. Barbeau’s clearly bemused by this image, but it’s up to us to make something of it beyond that. (Bandcamp link)
Yuasa-Exide – Information and Culture + Naturally Reoccurring
Release date: November 8th Record label: Round Bale/Ape Sanctuary Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, fuzz rock, noise pop, post-punk, lo-fi pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: RJR Nabisco Takeover
Douglas Busson is a Kentucky-originating musician who’s been a part of Minneapolis-St. Paul’s “sub-underground music community” for nearly two decades now. In 2021, Busson was left in constant pain and with limited mobility due to a spinal injury and subsequent surgeries–and he responded to these difficulties by making entirely too much music. From March 2022 to August of this year, Busson has (by my count) released seventeen full-lengths under the name Yuasa-Exide, as well as an EP, an outtakes compilation, and two “primers” pulling from these releases. He’s gotten help from some regular collaborators (Adam Bubolz, Matt Helgeson, and Emily Garber, among others), but the bulk of the heavy lifting is done by Busson himself. All of these records have been digital-only up until now; thanks to Mankato experimental label Round Bale Recordings, you can now hear Yuasa-Exide on cassette. Rather than going for the “discography-wide cherry-picking” approach of Busson’s digital compilations, the Information and Culture + Naturally Reoccurring cassette is simply the two most recent Yuasa-Exide albums–one on each side of the tape. What we’re left with is nearly an hour of unfiltered music from a persistent talent, an invigorating collection of lo-fi pop, fuzzy basement indie rock, and a few noisy experiments.
Information and Culture is the more accessible and “rocking” LP of the two to my ears, zipping through almost exactly thirty minutes’ worth of clanging, distorted underground indie rock that’s either on the scuzzier end of Flying Nun Records or the brighter end of Xpressway, and is likely going to be up the alley of anyone whose mind has even been blown by a Sebadoh recording. The lo-fi flag-waving is hardly surprising given everything about Yuasa-Exide, but the pop strengths are remarkable; throughout the record, song after song–“RJR Nabisco Takeover”, “Parallel Realities”, “Heaven’s Porch”, “Comfortable as Alex”–is just significantly stronger than the average lightning-quick self-releaser regularly pens (and I’m a big-time defender of a lot of those types, too). I don’t mean to make Naturally Reoccurring sound uninviting by comparison, but it’s a fitting B-side to Information and Culture’s lead-off slot–it’s more likely to echo than rock out, there are more confrontational moments, and even the record’s catchiest songs (the buzzing psych-fuzz pop of “Account Services”, the acoustic but forward-marching “I Never Turn Off the TV”) achieve their successes in a more roundabout way. The format of Information and Culture + Naturally Reoccurring is an enjoyable one–we’re dropping in on something remarkable happening in the upper Midwest, checking out the sixteenth and seventeenth albums from the project of a musician too busy to properly welcome us in but whose work is nonetheless worth the effort. (Bandcamp link)
Possum in My Room – POSSUMGHOST
Release date: October 18th Record label: Sad Marsupial Genre: Alt-country, lo-fi indie rock, post-punk, gothic country, slowcore Formats: Digital Pull Track: Roadkill
Rockaway, New Jersey’s Ted Orbach appears to be a classic Bandcamp toiler–dating back to 2019, their project Possum in My Room has put out a bunch of singles, EPs, and generally informal-seeming releases on a steady basis. As of late, Possum in My Room has been a trio rounded out by Claire Ruiz on bass and Konner Hunter on drums, and it’s this lineup that recorded their latest album, POSSUMGHOST, with Max Rauch at Domestic Bliss Recording. The resultant album is a full-band exploration of a dark Americana, influenced by slowcore and alt-country but without fitting neatly into either of those boxes. Orbach sounds like a biting folk rock singer possessed on some tracks, and smoothly fits on top of polished instrumentals on others. The thirty-five minute LP only has seven songs on it, so Possum in My Room are plenty sprawling throughout POSSUMGHOST, although they rarely strain themselves in the same direction twice (it’s probably reductive to say it reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel just because of guest musician Thor Speeler’s singing saw contributions, but there’s something to that, I think, in parts of the album).
Opening track “Roadkill” is one of the more electric tracks on POSSUMGHOST, but it’s anything but a welcoming opening, as Orbach bitterly unspools a scene of chemicals, carrion, and vices over top of the agitated country-rock dagger of an instrumental. “&&&the Dogs are Howling in the Night” is the only other track on POSSUMGHOST I’d call a “rocker” with any kind of confidence, but it takes a different track to get there–its instrumental is minimal power-trio folk rock, leaving plenty of empty space for the titular line to echo over its significant repetition. In between and around these two tracks lurks the rest of the album, populated with thorny and uneasy songs like “Oystercatcher” and “The Song at the End of the World”, both of which balance slow-moving beauty with the ugliness that never fully escapes Orbach’s writing. POSSUMGHOST certainly benefits from having a full band behind it (not to mention guests like Speeler and guitarist Dan Taggart), with the gothic folk of “No More Love//No More Death” and nine-minute closing epic “The Truth” reaching surprising places I wouldn’t necessarily expect a solo project to find. As the latter track finally staggers to a close, there’s a sense of relief, like the spirit of a hard-luck possum finally stepping out of its corporeal form. It’s not easy to make the feel-bad hit record of this winter, but Possum in My Room are on it. (Bandcamp link)
Schande – Once Around
Release date: September 27th Record label: Daydream Library Genre: 90s indie rock, art rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Palimpsest
Most of you probably don’t recognize the name Jen Chochinov (aka Jen Schande), but she is a thirty-year indie rock veteran at this point, playing in American bands like Shove, Boyskout, and Schande at various times in her life. In recent years, Chochinov (who is also a history professor) has been living in London, and the current lineup of Schande (bassist Giovanni Villaraut and drummer Ryan Grieve) is based in the United Kingdom, as well. Chochinov has also done time in the Thurston Moore Guitar Ensemble (touring with them in 2018 and 2019), so when it came time for the first Schande LP in twenty years (and first record of any kind since 2019’s Pedigree EP), Moore’s Daydream Library imprint was the one who put it out. Despite Chochinov’s somewhat daunting background, Once Around is a pretty straightforward and accessible indie rock record–there are certainly moments in the nine-song, sub-thirty-minute album that feel like they were made by well-seasoned musicians, yes, but the LP feels primarily like a vessel for some sharp indie rock songwriting and to compliment the just-as-sharp interplay between the band’s three members.
Once Around does indeed sound like the work of a band with ties to Sonic Youth, although Schande mostly keep their guitar-forward, rumbling version of noisy indie rock to brief two-to-three-minute bursts. The most obvious example of this in the record’s first half is “Palimpsest”, an excellent version of droning, electric pop music from the get-go, but it’s hardly the only moment on the album where Schande turn their sights to big choruses and instrumental catharsis without any obvious academic hangups. “Apogee” and “Gregor MacGregor” both end up in this bliss zone as well; at their climaxes, Schande sound transcendent, achieving pop music perfection in an unlikely medium without sacrificing anything to get there. Impressively, Schande keep this winning streak going into Once Around’s second half–after the four-minute instrumental chapter-turner “Relevant Campaigns”, Chochinov, Villaraut, and Grieve jump right back into the thick of it. Well, they need a minute to warm up in the sprawling “Double Hackner”, but once the trio have locked in again, “We’re Not Twins” and “52 hz” ensure that Once Around is just as spirited and energetic in its homestretch as anywhere else on the album. Decades into their musical career, Chochinov and Schande seem most interested in making studious, disciplined rock music that’s still a blast to listen to, and Once Around is the rewarding result. (Bandcamp link)
Hey there, everyone! In case you missed it, Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2024 went up this week; if you’re still working your way through those, that’s understandable. However, there’s still new music coming out, and today looks at three albums coming out either tomorrow (December 13th) or this Saturday (the 14th): new LPs from The Sewerheads, Snow Caps, and Magic User. We’ve also got an album from Lose a Leg that came out last week thrown in for good measure, 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. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2024 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
The Sewerheads – Despair Is a Heaven
Release date: December 13th Record label: Tall Texan Genre: Post-punk, art punk, noise rock, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Memories
The tail end of 2024 features a notable beginning–the debut album from The Sewerheads, a new band made up of several Pittsburgh indie rock/post-punk/garage rock veterans. Guitarist/vocalist Eli Kasan is known to some as a member of the underrated Gotobeds, while drummer/pianist Evan Meindl played in the recently-broken-up Rave Ami, violinist/vocalist Shani Banerjee was in Empty Beings, and Matthew “My War” Schor is an engineer who runs a studio called The War Room (and if that’s not enough, Mint Mile bassist Matthew Barnhart recorded their debut LP at Electrical Audio, and it features trumpet and organ from fellow Gotobeds member Dane Adelman). Despair Is a Heaven, the first Sewerheads full-length, falls on the dark and gothic side of the post-punk spectrum, making ample use of Banerjee’s violin and Kasan’s drab lead vocals. String-heavy post-punk always reminds me of the Mekons, and there’s some of them in the album’s lighter moments, but the record’s mix of electric garage rock tangles, prowling noir-rock, and burnt-out Rust Belt folk-punk (in a Poguesian sense) is kin to gutter-scrapers like The Birthday Party, Mark Lanegan, Iceage, and (known Gotobeds collaborators) Protomartyr. Kasan mentions being inspired by outlaw country in his songwriting, and while I’m not going to call Despair Is a Heaven “twangy”, the combination of a rambling ne’er-do-well frontperson with a skilled band that can do both “sprawling” and “tight” is an intriguing one.
Despair Is a Heaven isn’t an overly welcoming album, but at least it opens with “It Came As a Surprise”, which is about as catchy as The Sewerheads’ whole get-up can be. Kasan and Banerjee trade off their vocals in a way that creates a dialogue (a tool that the band utilizes to impressive ends over and over again on the album), while Banerjee’s soaring violin stands on equal footing with Meindl and Schor’s unblinking rhythm section. It feels confrontational to have the particularly grey “Diary of a Priest” in the record’s first half, but if you press forward you’ll reach a couple of songs that flex The Sewerheads’ clanging art punk muscles (“Daughter of a Child of Sorrow” and the title track) and Despair Is a Heaven’s second half, where the band’s traditionalist side gets a genuine spotlight. Kasan and Banerjee commune in “Your Old Bedroom”, the record’s mid-tempo folk rock centerpiece, while “Memories” is the closest The Sewerheads get to “country punk” and the scorching, Banerjee-led “Little Fugitive” is a surprisingly all-in western ballad. Despair Is a Heaven is a lot to take in for a band’s first statement–right up until the final track, “Trick of the Rain”, which lapses into noise and false conclusions to make a taxing last stand. The Sewerheads are on the board now, and Despair Is a Heaven is hardly a record to take lightly. (Bandcamp link)
Snow Caps – Notes
Release date: December 13th Record label: Strange Mono Genre: Post-punk, new wave, bedroom pop, lo-fi pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Broke Bay
I’m happy to introduce the music of Andrew Keller to you all. Well, maybe you’ve already heard of them–they’ve played in Philadelphia bands Hermit Thrushes and Jonagold, and the first album from their solo project Snow Caps came out all the way back in 2008 on Single Girl Married Girl Records (Kate Ferencz, No One and the Somebodies, Power Animal). Snow Caps is new to me, although their latest album, a ten-song cassette simply called Notes, feels oddly familiar. Notes’ version of pop music is warped but still potent; Keller’s influences are iconoclastic experimentalists like Kate Bush and Arthur Russell, as well as literature (citing the works of Virginia Woolf and Edmund White among others), and their music subsequently ends up sounding like offbeat pop rock from several decades past (from The Beatles to XTC and The Cleaners from Venus to They Might Be Giants). The Bandcamp page for this album highlights Keller’s “bizarre, beautiful melodies”, and I really can’t say it better myself–it’s a key ingredient to these ten songs, which are also carried by the inspired bedroom pop instrumentation and Keller’s layered vocals, which sound like an entire choir singing modern new wave hymns.
The non-intuitive left-turns, brisk tempos, and unstoppable hooks are all present from opening track “Blanket” onwards. Notes is never really full-on chaotic, but it’s always on edge; there’s a nervousness to this brief but full-feeling album nicked straight from the genesis of this kind of music. The chorus of “Broke Bay” has an “eerie carnival” vibe to it, wobbling and grinning uncertainly as Snow Caps stick the landing nonetheless. This somewhat mutated version of lo-fi guitar pop marks a lot of Notes, actually–there’s an Andy Partridge-like “pop music but falling off a melodic cliff” component to Keller’s writing, maybe more apparent in “Mere Mirror” and “Projected” but pretty much always present. Notes noodles around a little more in the second half–between the elastic jangle of “Pine Cloud” and the rumbling prog-pop of “Lie Ripened”, Keller has plenty more tricks up their sleeve–but it’s a refreshingly concise and consistent listen, succeeding all the way up to the final duo of “Dry Tone” (a minimal post-punk track that’s no less catchy) and “Shell in the Flower” (the triumphant big finish). The rhythms are firm and deft, the guitars frequently offer up blasts of catchiness, and when synths surface, they do much the same; it’s hard to put one’s finger exactly on what makes Snow Caps so odd, but it clearly has something to do with the attitude of their frontperson. (Bandcamp link)
Lose a Leg – The Vale of Awful Sound
Release date: December 6th Record label: Self-released Genre: Post-rock, folk, psychedelia, chamber music, orchestral folk Formats: Digital Pull Track: I Shot an Arrow into the Air // Crown Shyness
Last December, I wrote about Lose a Leg, the self-titled fourth LP from David Roy’s instrumental post-rock solo project. The Glasgow musician (who’s played in bands like Sputniks Down, Multiplies, and Dananananaykroyd over the years) had been on an (at least) one Lose a Leg album a year schedule since 2020, but the stripped down (only electric guitar, bass, and drums) nature of Lose a Leg was something of a departure for the typically more orchestral-focused musician. Roy has once again returned with a Lose a Leg album right before the calendar flips to another year, this time with a five-song collection called The Vale of Awful Sound. Having gotten his “punk” album out of his system last year, The Vale of Awful Sound marks a return to a more expanded palette; both the “orchestral” and electronic-tinged sides of instrumental post-rock mark the record’s forty-one minutes. If guitars are present on the record, they’re generally of the tastefully-plucked acoustic variety, and while some of the tracks do have a drumbeat, it’s far from an integral, foundational tenet of these wandering, drifting pieces of music.
Roy softly eases us into The Vale of Awful Sound with “I Shot an Arrow into the Air // Crown Shyness”, a bright eight-minute track that features swooning strings, pianos, jazzy percussion, and a sparkling guitar part (it kind of reminds me of a busier version of the most recent Seawind of Battery album). The quiet, fuzzy, almost ambient electronic touches of “The Tree Held Him & Didn’t Drop So Much as a Leaf” make it a remarkable comedown from the commanding opening, cavernously beautiful in its own right, and the steady, hypnotic “A Walk Across the Treetops” attempts to find a midpoint between these two extremes (and ends up somewhere near Tortoise circa TNT, a more-than-welcome landing spot). “The Cailleach // Turning Back the Sun” once again turns towards the bright, folky tones Lose a Leg explored earlier, as do moments of closing track “A Poem Called ‘The Lure of the Pine Marten, The Scent of the Mink’ for a Dog That Went Off Overtoun Bridge”. The nearly twenty-minute finale takes up about half of The Vale of Awful Sound, and Roy really goes through it all on this progressive orchestral folk number–from bright and hopeful to tense and quiet to melancholic and thoughtful to a whipping whirlwind to a cold, empty finish. The song could stand on its own, but here it is hidden in the back of somebody from Scotland’s instrumental Bandcamp solo project. (Bandcamp link)
Magic User – Shadow on the Door
Release date: December 14th Record label: Dandy Boy Genre: Fuzz rock, 90s indie rock, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Mirror World
When I think of Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records, it’s usually related to their position at the center of the thriving Bay Area jangle pop scene (perhaps best exemplified by their recent Martin Newell covers compilation), but the imprint has put out some solid sore thumbs recently, too–the fuzzed-out slacker-gaze of Nothing Natural, the grimy post-punk of Weird Numbers, and the punk blast of Fast Execution. The latest band to debut on Dandy Boy is Magic User, a project started by singer/guitarist Jordan Martich and rounded out by drummer Digger Barrett, guitarist Charles Thomas, and bassist Colin McDonald. Of the previously-mentioned bands, the one that Shadow on the Door reminds me the most of is Nothing Natural, but the main difference is that they’re even more “slacker rock” on their debut LP. Shadow on the Door is a thoroughly fuzzed out throwback to indie rock’s basement era, with the quartet blending loud guitars and downcast melodies together in vintage Dinosaur Jr. fashion while also reminding me of modern groups mining a similar vein like Gnawing and Late Bloomer.
Shadow on the Door isn’t really a “shoegaze” album, but Magic User get their shit together for a proper three-minute wall-of-sound opening track called “Cowboy”, which yanks us into the quartet’s world of distortion and bummer pop forcefully. Magic User then veer right into the world of rainy, bleary-eyed Pacific Northwest indie rock with “Machine” (which sort of reminds me of what Spiral XP are up to currently), the riff showcase of “Like the Moon”, and the stumbling mid-tempo “Never Better” (“I’ve never been better / And I’ve never told the truth” goes the refrain of that one, a 90s rock lyric if I’ve ever heard one). There’s plenty of aloof-but-still-noticeable pop moments in these songs, and they’re still there in Shadow on the Door’s somewhat more heavy second half; “Nothing” and “Thread” both alternate between noisy rave-ups and more subdued breaths of fresh air, and then the record ends with an excellent fuzz-pop tune in “Mirror World”, an oddity in “Flower” (a dark song that eventually disembowels itself into noise) and an all-in dramatic closing track called “The Distance”. You know what, maybe Magic User aren’t slackers after all. (Bandcamp link)
Here we are! Rosy Overdrive’s 25 favorite albums of 2024, revealed today along with albums 50 through 26, and coming a day after albums 51 through 100. I believe I wrote about over four hundred albums on the blog this year, which means that whittling it down to these twenty-five was no easy task. This is the best of the best! Once again, thank you for reading, vote in the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll, and stay tuned for upcoming EP and compilation lists as well as a few more Pressing Concerns.
Release date: June 7th Record label: Ernest Jenning Record Co./Safe Suburban Home/Totally Real Genre: Art punk, garage rock, post-hardcore, dance punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Over the past few years, New England trio Perennial have been honing a unique sound that mixes Dischord Records post-hardcore, turn-of-the-century dance punk, and retro garage rock together with just a hint of frayed experimentation around the edges. Their third album, Art History, finds Perennial doing exactly what they do best–making excellent rock music and pushing just a bit forward. This time around, the 60s pop rock influence feels less “implied” than ever and more and more central to their sound, and the experimentation continues to erode into the pop music. I was already fully on board the Perennial train before this album, and I’m just as excited as ever to witness the band continue to build in real-time something entirely distinct, huge, and befitting of the title Art History. (Read more)
24. Guidon Bear – Internal Systems
Release date: July 31st Record label: Antiquated Future/YoYo Genre: Indie pop, synthpop, folk Formats: CD, cassette, digital
At the end of last decade, two indie rock veterans, Mary Water and Pat Maley, reunited as Guidon Bear, making guitar-based indie folk and guitar-based pop with increasingly prominent synth/electronic elements–which leads us to Internal Systems. The buzzing and chiming synths added by Maley to these songs fit perfectly alongside the duo’s guitar-based indie rock sound–it doesn’t reduce Guidon Bear’s “old” style so much as add to it, and it’s no less devoted to enhancing Water’s incredible songwriting. Internal Systems is a winding, rich listen–it’s a dozen tracks and nearly fifty minutes long, and Water’s lyrics are just as engrossing and vivid as the music they accompany, if not more so. (Read more)
23. Zero Point Energy – Tilted Planet
Release date: May 17th Record label: Danger Collective Genre: Post-punk, art punk, college rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Genesis Edenfield and Ben Jackson played together in mid-2010s Atlanta, Georgia art punk group Warehouse–now based in Brooklyn, the duo have reunited as Zero Point Energy. Their debut album, Tilted Planet, is a collaborative reintroduction to Edenfield and Jackson–both of them play guitar, both sing, and both wrote material for the twelve-song, forty-two minute record. Tilted Planet reinvents Edenfield and Jackson’s sound into something more polished and restrained, but still quite unique. American post-punk and garage rock still abound, but Zero Point Energy also adopt a mellow pop rock attitude that puts them towards the jammier end of classic college rock. Edenfield and Jackson meld together excellently here, creating a beautiful, obstinate, simple, complex melting pot of a debut album. (Read more)
22. Jr. Juggernaut – Another Big Explosion
Release date: August 9th Record label: Mindpower/Nickel Eye Genre: Alt-rock, power pop, grunge pop, fuzz rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
On Another Big Explosion, their fourth LP and first in eight years, Los Angeles alt-rock/power-punk trio Jr. Juggernaut deliver an eighteen-wheeler of a love letter to Sugar’s Copper Blue. Jr. Juggernaut embrace a loud, dramatic sound pulled from the moment “underground rock” bubbled to the surface–there’s nothing on Another Big Explosion that could be described as “slacker” or halfhearted. There’s a Bob Mouldian “pop music as endurance test” element to Another Big Explosion–the ten songs are almost all in the four-to-five minute range, and they’re roaring at full blast pretty much the entire time. It’s a key ingredient in making the album feel like a towering mountain, but Jr. Juggernaut summit it nonetheless. (Read more)
21. Aluminum – Fully Beat
Release date: May 24th Record label: Felte Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop, Madchester, fuzz rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Fully Beat is a huge leap forward for San Francisco shoegaze-pop group Aluminum, both sharpening and expanding their sound to create some of the most exciting, spirited, and downright fun rock music I’ve heard this year. The studied, carefully-constructed band on their debut EP, Windowpane, has been replaced with true believers in loud, bursting-at-the-seams indie rock throughout their debut LP. Fully Beat is the result of a band taking a big swing on their first full statement–it comes at you like a stampede in its loudest, most chaotic moments, but devotes plenty of time to filling in the gaps that they blast into their foundation, as well. (Read more)
20. Teenage Tom Petties – Teenage Tom Petties
Release date: August 2nd Record label: Safe Suburban Home/Repeating Cloud Genre: Lo-fi power pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Three years, three Teenage Tom Petties albums–and oddly enough, two self-titled ones. The lo-fi power pop group ballooned to a three-guitar, five-piece rock and roll band for last year’s Hotbox Daydreams, but the latest record under the name finds Bath, England’s Tom Brown back in his bedroom, recording (mostly) alone yet again, just like the 2022 Teenage Tom Petties album. Hotbox Daydreams was a real leveling-up moment for Brown–maybe the band brought it out of him at first, but Teenage Tom Petties II is a worthy sequel not just to its homonymous predecessor but to the group’s sophomore record too, bedroom or no. (Read more)
19. Best Bets – The Hollow Husk of Feeling
Release date: September 27th Record label: Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream Genre: Power pop, garage rock, pop punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
On the New Zealand band’s sophomore album, Best Bets put together a grounded, unsubtle collection of power pop, garage rock, and even glam rock that eschews the hazier and subtler sides of their home country’s guitar pop scene. The Hollow Husk of Feeling is the first Best Bets album where bassist Joe Sampson steps up for songwriting duty alongside Olly Crawford Ellis and James Harding, and this record feels full to the brim of smart pop craft and energy. The album as a whole is a cathartic listen–there’s an edge to Best Bets’ jangly, fuzzed-out tunes, and its vocalists are more likely to sound pensive or even aggravated than clearly blissful. The “feeling” may be a hollowed-out husk at this point, but Best Bets are going to squeeze every last spark out of it before their latest album is all said and done. (Read more)
18. American Motors – Content
Release date: October 4th Record label: Expert Work/The Ghost Is Clear Genre: Noise rock, post-hardcore, post-rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
American Motors are based out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and have roots in West Virginia, but they could be from anywhere in the United States that’s far away enough from bustling urban centers but close enough that the ruins of something once more lively hover around unavoidably. The trio recorded their debut album, Content, with J. Robbins, who helped them zero in on a Rust Belt-inspired post-punk/noise rock/post-rock sound, keenly sharpened and honed much more finely than a lot of bands in their shoes would dare to even attempt. American Motors understand that the monster you can’t see is even scarier, and Content utilizes a huge amount of empty space to hover around the edges of these songs, while glimpses of something we probably shouldn’t see drift in and out of focus. (Read more)
17. Late Bloomer – Another One Again
Release date: March 1st Record label: Self Aware/Dead Broke/Tor Johnson Genre: Punk rock, 90s indie rock, fuzz rock, college rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
As far back as 2013, Charlotte’s Late Bloomer were melding 90s indie rock, punk, and pop hooks together in a way that’s only gained popularity in the years since. Not only were the trio trailblazers in this specific revival, they’ve also been one of the best to do it–so it’s quite pleasing to hear Late Bloomer plug in their electric guitars and continue to tap into the sort of ragged-but-catchy Dinosaur Jr.-indebted indie rock they’ve done so well in the past on Another One Again, their first album in six years. At the same time, though, Another One Again thematically and thoughtfully reflects the passing of time in a way that makes it distinct from the rest of the band’s discography, entering their second decade as a band with a clear path forward. (Read more)
16. Upstairs – Be Seeing You
Release date: September 27th Record label: Obscure Pharaoh Genre: Art rock, post-punk, experimental rock, indie pop Formats: Digital
Upstairs features Rosy Overdrive regular Jon Massey, and their second album, Be Seeing You, does indeed contain shades of his projects Coventry and Silo’s Choice. The Cincinnati/Chicago quintet are a bit more varied, though–Be Seeing You alternatively embraces electronics, strings, and “rock” instrumentation across its dozen tracks, veering into several ditches but also using “pop music” as a jumpscare tactic (in the form of swooning, swelling indie folk rock or relatively humble piano-pop). Be Seeing You sounds like a mess sometimes, but its most beautiful moments are far from mutually exclusive with this side of Upstairs. Like most incredible art rock LPs, calling it an “incredible art rock LP” hardly does it justice. (Read more)
15. Downhaul – How to Begin
Release date: September 20th Record label: Self Aware/Landland Colportage Genre: Alt-country, emo-indie rock, power pop, roots rock, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
On How to Begin, Richmond quartet Downhaul ditch the massive-sounding, post-rock-indebted emo-alt-rock of their last album (2021’s PROOF) for something laconic, polished-up, and alt-country/power pop-infused. How to Begin is an album made by a band who consciously decided to go into the studio with the attitude of honing songs into sharp points rather than “adding onto” them–it’s a pop album, even if it’s not a “traditional” one. Songs end almost at the exact moment when they feel they’ve made their point, Gordon Phillips’ lyrics are just as thorny and gripping as ever, and Downhaul as a whole still feel like a band that exists in their own little world. That is to say, it’s still a Downhaul album, even as the band have shifted around their angles of attack in executing it. (Read more)
14. True Green – My Lost Decade
Release date: February 1st Record label: Spacecase Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, lo-fi pop, psych pop, singer-songwriter Formats: Cassette, digital
Minneapolis’ Dan Hornsby is a novelist–perhaps unsurprisingly, his knack for storytelling and flawed, deeply-felt character studies is pervasive in My Lost Decade, the debut from his project True Green. What does surprise me is that the singer-songwriter chooses lo-fi, reverb-y psychedelic guitar pop to deliver it all. There are acoustic guitars, but Hornsby isn’t a folk troubadour, rather making music that’s generally thought of as the domain of Beatlesesque bashers like The Cleaners from Venus. My Lost Decade is a pleasingly varied-sounding record, but Hornsby and multi-instrumentalist Tailer Ransom develop a distinct musical style, a busy, kitchen-sink pop attitude that reflects True Green’s confidence that Hornsby’s striking songwriting will shine even if they whip up an instrumental storm around it. And it does. (Read more)
13. 2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosions
Release date: October 25th Record label: Double Double Whammy Genre: Power pop, lo-fi pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Like any power pop band with a penchant for shorter songs, 2nd Grade have been blessed or cursed with Guided by Voices comparisons pretty much since their inception as a Peter Gill solo project–even if Gill’s early writing is fairly distinct from the balance between wonderment and darkness, between lo-fi bashfulness and rock and roll might marking Robert Pollard’s writing. On Scheduled Explosions, the fourth and best album from the Philadelphia power pop group, Gill and company unambiguously shoot for and subsequently nail this aforementioned balance for the first time in 2nd Grade’s brief but fruitful career. A patchwork record, Scheduled Explosions doesn’t abandon the “power” side of power pop even as it’s rarely the sound of five musicians playing together in a room. (Read more)
12. Sun Kin – Sunset World
Release date: April 19th Record label: Self-released Genre: Art pop, indie pop, synthpop, singer-songwriter Formats: Digital
Sun Kin is the project of Bombay-originating, Los Angeles-based Kabir Kumar, who’s been making music under the name for a dozen years in addition to playing in the band GUPPY and collaborating with Rosy Overdrive favorite Pacing. Sunset World, Sun Kin’s latest, is an ambitious pop album in which Kumar corrals a ton of their musical collaborators and acquaintances in service of an eleven-song, thirty-minute record with boundless energy. Sunset World is a record about destruction (“apocalyptic LA pop”, they call it), but it’s bright and sunny and never loses sight of the positives involved in ruins and decay–it’s just clearing more space for what really matters. (Read more)
11. Liquid Mike – Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot
Release date: February 2nd Record label: Self-released Genre: Power pop, pop punk, fuzz rock, alt-rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
The breakout act of 2023 was a punk band from the upper peninsula of Michigan called Liquid Mike, whose eleven-song, 18-minute self-titled record got them a fair amount of buzz. Liquid Mike took eleven months to follow up S/T with Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot, and the group’s pop punk energy, power pop hooks, and 90s indie rock sense of driven listlessness are not only intact, but expanded here. Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is the sound of a band completely rising to the occasion–they’ve turned around and made a record that feels like a huge step forward from the (quite good, mind you) music that got them the modicum of attention in the first place. (Read more)
10. Toby the Tiger – Demapper
Release date: October 10th Record label: Peligroso es Mi Nombre Medio Genre: Emo-y indie rock, singer-songwriter, folk rock, bedroom pop Formats: Digital
Demapper is the first album from Brock Ross and his Toby the Tiger project. Whatever led to this Boise father of two to arrive at recording and releasing original music out into the world, I’m grateful for it, as Demapper is a transcendent indie rock record that walks the line between emo and delicate indie pop recalling Pedro the Lion, Death Cab for Cutie, and Kevin Devine. Ross is adept at unearthing pop melodies, but there’s an electric side to Demapper, too, with Ross using as wide a spectrum as he can to capture what he’s composed for the record. Ross’ writing weaves tangled, religious-inspired webs across its nine songs–Toby the Tiger really do need to use everything from orchestral folk to post-hardcore-tinged emo to do it justice. (Read more)
9. Hell Beach – BEACHWORLD
Release date: August 9th Record label: Uncle Style/Bad Time Genre: Pop punk, power pop, punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Hell Beach seem to be Manchester, New Hampshire’s premiere snotty, hooky, golden-age pop punk group with an odd “beach” titling motif between the band and album name. Well, whatever’s behind the magic of their debut record, BEACHWORLD, is fine by me, as this is some of the straight-up catchiest and most energetic power-pop-punk music I’ve heard in quite some time. I can’t listen to this without getting worked up in some way! BEACHWORLD is an album where I could throw a dart and hit a hook most bands won’t match in their entire career–even though Hell Beach keep things a lean twenty-nine minutes and eleven tracks long, it still feels positively greedy of them.
8. Sonny Falls – Sonny Falls
Release date: March 1st Record label: Earth Libraries Genre: Fuzz rock, garage rock, alt-country Formats: Vinyl, digital
Since 2018, Chicago’s Ryan Ensley aka Hoagie Wesley aka Sonny Falls has been putting out fiery, unique records that are loose-feeling but incredibly deep underneath their garage rock/fuzz-country exteriors. The fourth Sonny Falls album is a self-titled one that feels like an attempt to pack all the ambition strewn across the project in ten tracks and thirty-five minutes. The songs on Sonny Falls don’t sound like anything but Sonny Falls songs, but every track on the album feels stretched and teased out in a new way, Ensley spending a bit more time composing and arranging his sprawling writing instead of fully leaning into his street-raving side. At this point, Ensley has a very strong baseline as a songwriter, but it’s quite exciting to watch him figure out how to add to it. (Read more)
7. Ther – Godzilla
Release date: April 5th Record label: Julia’s War Genre: Art rock, folk rock, post-post rock, alt-rock, slowcore Formats: Cassette, digital
On every record thus far from Philadelphia’s Ther, the band (led by So Big Auditory’s Heather Jones) has reinvented their sound in some form, so it’s no surprise that Godzilla sounds like none of their previous records once again. Godzilla asserts itself in Ther’s discography by embracing electric guitars and loud, dramatic indie rock to a previously unseen degree. Jones has worked with experimental shoegazers They Are Gutting a Body of Water frequently, and while that doesn’t really describe what Godzilla sounds like, Jones has perhaps taken inspiration from that side of indie rock to create what can at times feel almost like a photo negative the skeletal folk of Ther’s last album, in which her vocals alternatingly fight against or become entirely swallowed up by swirling, all-encompassing rock instrumentals. (Read more)
6. Ahem – Avoider
Release date: May 17th Record label: Forged Artifacts Genre: Power pop, pop punk, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
You can call it power pop, pop punk, alt-rock, or college rock–whatever it is, the second album from Minneapolis power trio Ahem has more than enough in its ten songs to please fans of any of those genres. You’ll hear the band’s Twin Cities indie rock forbearers in Avoider, a massive collection of loud guitar-based pop music, and they expertly meld their Westerbergs, Harts, and Moulds with their off-the-cuff “indie punk” style and just a hint of high Midwestern folksiness/rootsiness, too. Whether it’s in service of roaring catharsis or lighter, breezier sunset-strummers, Ahem know what they’re doing and where they’re going–and it’s a treat to hear. (Read more)
5. The Triceratops – Charge!
Release date: November 1st Record label: Learning Curve Genre: Punk rock, noise rock, power pop, alt-rock, fuzz rock, grunge Formats: Vinyl, digital
The Triceratops are a new Brooklyn-based duo formed by two indie rockers who go way back together; their first record is called Charge!, and it feels like a special one to me. It’s an urgent-sounding album–it does feel like the work of a couple of people who haven’t gotten to make a full-length statement of an LP in a while and maybe don’t know when or if they’re going to get to again, so they’ve put as much as they can into it. The Triceratops deliberately and intentionally walk the line between “pop” and “heavy” rock music on Charge!’s fifteen songs. It reminds me of, more than any other band, the Archers of Loaf–huge and catchy without being dogmatically “punk” or “noise rock”. It’s just The Triceratops. (Read more)
4. Miscellaneous Owl – You Are the Light That Casts a Shadow
Release date: March 1st Record label: Self-released Genre: Indie folk, indie pop, bedroom pop, singer-songwriter Formats: Digital
Huan-Hua Chye’s latest as Miscellaneous Owl is You Are the Light That Casts a Shadow, a dozen-song record she wrote, recorded, and played entirely on her own over the course of February (which is, apparently, “Album Writing Month”). Given its method of incubation, it’s not surprising that You Are the Light That Casts a Shadow could loosely be described as a “bedroom pop/folk” record, although that doesn’t do justice to the music contained herein, which covers jangly, almost twee indie pop, offbeat guitar-pop singer-songwriters of decades past, and beautiful straight-up indie folk. Chye’s writing is clearly the work of a major talent, and just about everything on You Are the Light That Casts a Shadow merits much thought and engagement. (Read more)
3. Bad Moves – Wearing Out the Refrain
Release date: September 13th Record label: Don Giovanni Genre: Power pop, pop punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
At their best, D.C. power-pop-punk quartet Bad Moves are a walking, talking, harmonizing example of how pop music can be jam-packed with meaning and intent without losing any other part of itself in the process–and Wearing Out the Refrain is Bad Moves at their best. The band have always smashed heady, whip-smart political and cultural observations and firecracker, all-in, hook-laden power pop together like it’s no one’s business, but this one ups the ante even further. Wearing Out the Refrain lives up to its name; it’s the sound of some of the best hook merchants in broadly-speaking punk music leaning fully in and capturing the moment the rollercoaster starts gaining downhill momentum. (Read more)
2. Mister Goblin – Frog Poems
Release date: April 26th Record label: Spartan Genre: Singer-songwriter, alt-rock, folk rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Frog Poems is notable in that it’s the first time Sam Goblin has released new music on a label other than Exploding in Sound Records (dating back to the first single from his old band, Two Inch Astronaut, in 2012)–and it feels like a new era by collecting and expanding on everything Mister Goblin has done up until this point. Frog Poems is a statement of active intent, a declaration that regardless of who’s around Sam Goblin (who’s moved states multiple times in the past few years) and what label he’s on, Mister Goblin will find a way to exist, with the “post-hardcore power trio” and “introspective folk rock” versions of the project both showing up here. (Read more)
1. Rosie Tucker – UTOPIA NOW!
Release date: March 22nd Record label: Sentimental Genre: Art rock, power pop, pop punk, alt-rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
The snippets of Rosie Tucker’s discography I’d heard before now definitely did not prepare me for the adventurous, overstuffed, and punchy rock record that is UTOPIA NOW!, an album seemingly engineered to appeal specifically to me. As a songwriter, Tucker is lethally sharp, pulling out massive power pop/pop punk hooks out of nowhere, oftentimes completely at odds with where the track had been leading up to beforehand, but never in a way that feels overly shoehorned. UTOPIA NOW!’s sound is just as commendable–like the majority of Tucker’s output, it was produced by themself and their longtime collaborator Wolfy, and they gleefully veer between chilly bedroom pop/folk/rock, slick alt-rock, and limber, jerky art rock/new wave across the record’s thirteen tracks. Nothing else makes me feel the way I do when listening to UTOPIA NOW!. I did my due diligence (not that Rosie Tucker is a household name, but they’re the most high-profile artist to nab the top slot so far, so I really thought about it), but in hindsight this was always going to be at the top of this list. (Read more)
Hello! Welcome back (or just welcome) to Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2024! Today reveals the top 50 albums on the list. Yesterday unveiled numbers 100 through 51, so be sure to check those out as well if you haven’t yet.
Release date: September 6th Record label: Self-released Genre: Garage rock, power pop, psych pop Formats: Digital
In 2023, Chicago power trio Shredded Sun dropped a pair of releases depicting a group of underground rock and roll veterans (who’ve been playing together since the mid-2000s) honing in on a winning combination of fuzz rock, garage-punk, psych pop, and power pop and hitting a creative stride. Even so, I wasn’t expecting another Shredded Sun album in 2024, but Wilding blessed this year with thirteen more songs and nearly fifty minutes of brand new Shredded Sun material. If you enjoyed Each Dot and Each Lineand Translucent Eyes, the trio pick up right where they left off, but (perhaps ironically given the quick turnaround) some of the tossed-off psych-garage energy of their last two records gives way to something just a little more deliberate and measured. (Read more)
49. Daniel Romano’s Outfit – Too Hot to Sleep
Release date: March 1st Record label: You’ve Changed Genre: Power pop, punk rock, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Although the proper records from Daniel Romano’s Outfit generally hew more towards “studio rats” than “garage punks”, those who’ve followed the prolific Canadian troubadour know about his band’s energy and ferocity in their live shows. I’ve been waiting for something like Too Hot to Sleep from The Outfit for a while now–a genuine live-in-studio sounding garage rock scorcher of a record. Romano and his crew really honed in on something potent with this ten-song, twenty-seven minute collection, which is looser-sounding than typical Outfit fare but still led by a smooth operator of a pop songwriter. Even if you think you know Daniel Romano’s deal by now, I’d recommend Too Hot to Sleep to any power pop and/or garage rock fan–it’s one of his strongest albums yet. (Read more)
48. Quivers – Oyster Cuts
Release date: August 9th Record label: Merge Genre: Indie pop, power pop, college rock, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
On their third album of original material and first for Merge Records, Melbourne quartet Quivers are dogged pursuers of perfect guitar pop–their mix of college rock, C86, power pop, and new wave is as shined up and sparkly in its presentation as Sam Nicholson and Bella Quinlan’s vocals are intimate and distinct. For all its ambition, Oyster Cuts stubbornly declines to embrace anonymity–it doesn’t hide the fact that it was made by Australian indie rock lifers who love The Chills and Pavement, nor does it stop at that surface-level descriptor. Oyster Cuts is something of a proof-of-concept for “indie pop” as something as potent as “real” pop–Quivers are just as precise and hard-hitting as the giants in these songs. (Read more)
47. Oceanator – Everything Is Love and Death
Release date: August 30th Record label: Polyvinyl Genre: Alt-rock, punk rock, fuzz rock, emo, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
In a move that makes too much sense, Oceanator’s Elise Okusami linked up with renowned Philadelphia producer Will Yip for her band’s third album, Everything Is Love and Death. Yip (who also plays drums and keys on the record) helps Okusami accentuate the anthemic, immediate aspects of Oceanator’s sound–hard to categorize, but containing a distinct mix of emo, power pop, and even grunge-y 90s alt-rock. Despite the apparently months-long gestation time, Everything Is Love and Death is very streamlined, paring down much of the moodiness of Oceanator’s last record and the lengthy rock journeys of their debut. It’s Oceanator at their most outwardly friendly (without losing Okusami’s distinct voice); there’s never been a better time to get on board. (Read more)
46. Dummy – Free Energy
Release date: September 6th Record label: Trouble in Mind Genre: Psychedelic pop, art rock, noise pop, trip hop Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Los Angeles noise pop group Dummy approached their sophomore album, Free Energy, with the clear intention of making something different than their 2021 sensory overload debut Mandatory Enjoyment, and the band indeed have grown into something new. The shift on Free Energy is palpable but subtle and harder to pin down to one distinct subgenre, as one would expect from an always-omnivorous band like Dummy. The resultant album is something that’s sleek, slick, and smooth–rather than come at you at full force, Dummy dart around us and leap over top of us, marrying fuzzy, distorted shoegaze-pop with alternative-dance elements in a way that’s frequently surprising but always coherent. (Read more)
45. Jim Nothing – Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn
Release date: October 18th Record label: Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream Genre: Jangle pop, Dunedin sound, fuzz rock, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn continues to mine the rich veins of classic Flying Nun-inspired jangle pop, psychedelic pop, and noise pop that New Zealand’s Jim Nothing so effectively explored on 2022’s In the Marigolds, but this one feels like a more wide-ranging take on this kind of music. Christchurch-originating, Auckland-based James Sullivan recorded half of Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn in a studio and the other half in a garage, which makes sense–sometimes, the Jim Nothing of Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn feels like a sturdier, louder rock band than ever before, other times feeling like a home-recorded Sullivan solo project. Sullivan’s songwriting is still sublime, though, and more than capable of weathering a more involved journey. (Read more)
44. Ethan Beck & The Charlie Browns – Duck Hollow
Release date: May 31st Record label: Douglas Street Genre: Power pop, college rock, jangle pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Duck Hollow is the proper full length debut from Pittsburgh power poppers Ethan Beck & The Charlie Browns, and it pulls together giant hooks with electric alt-rock (at its most euphoric) and explores the terrain of delicate guitar pop music (at its most pensive). Duck Hollow is loosely a Pittsburgh-based concept album, with everything from the titular neighborhood to the one where Beck grew up (Squirrel Hill) to the Wabash Tunnel populating these songs. Recalling many great power pop records before it, Duck Hollow succeeds in placing us emotionally and geographically right next to its narrator as he traverses the Three Rivers. (Read more)
43. Mount Eerie – Night Palace
Release date: November 1st Record label: P.W. Elverum & Sun Genre: Folk, experimental folk, lo-fi indie rock, post-rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
I’m not sure what there is to say about Night Palace, the latest triumph from Phil Elverum’s Mount Eerie. Every music website that still exists has already extolled its virtues, and they’re right to do so; if you’re someone who appreciates Elverum’s canonical works like The Glow Pt. 2 but have fallen off in recent years, or if you can appreciate A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only but find those records difficult to listen to on a regular basis, Night Palace (in all its sprawling, eighty-minute glory) is something that can pull you right back into that world of fuzzed-out lo-fi rock, folk music as wide as the Pacific Ocean, and a songwriter who’s just as imposing at his best and (at the very least) unparalleled at all times.
42. SAVAK – Flavors of Paradise
Release date: March 1st Record label: Peculiar Works/Ernest Jenning Record Co. Genre: Post-punk, garage rock, college rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Coming a little under two years after their last record, Human Error / Human Delight, Flavors of Paradise adds to the language SAVAK have been developing since their debut in 2016, contracting it in some places and expanding it in others. The Brooklyn trio recorded the album at Electrical Audio last year, and while they’ve always been a “no nonsense” group, Flavors of Paradise finds the band plowing through twelve songs triangulating garage rock, post-punk, and college rock with a fresh, live sound. It’s easy to take for granted just how well SAVAK click together, but Flavors of Paradise is the work of several indie rock lifers determined to harness their experience into something accessible but still doing justice to the trailblazing nature of their influences. (Read more)
41. Greg Saunier – We Sang, Therefore We Were
Release date: April 26th Record label: Joyful Noise Genre: Art rock, noise pop, post-punk, math rock, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Considering just how much great music he’s been involved with over the past quarter-century, it’s perhaps not surprising that Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier can carry an album all on his own, but still, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed We Sang, Therefore We Were, somehow his first-ever solo record. As it turns out, he’s a killer, unique pop songwriter when left to his own devices; the album’s dozen tracks certainly are recognizably “Deerhoof-esque”, but the one-man Saunier band (he wrote, played, recorded, mixed, and mastered everything here) is truncated and streamlined, throwing jagged, catchy guitar riffs and shapeshifting, form-fitting vocals over top of everything in a keen manner. (Read more)
40. Adeem the Artist – Anniversary
Release date: March 29th Record label: Four Quarters Genre: Alt-country, country rock, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Adeem the Artist put out an album called White Trash Revelry in 2022 that I really enjoyed–I wasn’t necessary expecting the Knoxville-based alt-country singer-songwriter to match it with their follow-up record, but I’m pleased to note that their latest full-length, Anniversary, is even better than the one that preceded it. For those of us already on board, Adeem takes several steps forward and outward in their writing, shooting for the stars by embracing polished, confident country rock and continuing to tackle the impossible task of writing about queer Southern experience in a powerful yet personable way (and if it were possible, it’d certainly sound pretty damn close to Anniversary).
39. ADD/C – Ordinary Souls
Release date: March 29th Record label: Let’s Pretend Genre: Punk rock, pop punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Ordinary Souls is ADD/C’s first new music in over a decade, and it’s a sweeping, wide-ranging punk rock record (seventeen songs in under forty minutes!) from a band with nothing to lose and no reason to keep “doing this”–other than the music itself, which is more than enough on its own. “Heartland rock” has come to mean something fairly polished and critic-friendly, but Ordinary Souls is perhaps a truer version of the term: catchy and decidedly rough-around-the-edges pop punk made by two-decade-plus rock and roll veterans strewn across tertiary-market cities in the South and Midwest with several lifetimes’ worth of fucked up shit to write about. (Read more)
38. Mope Grooves – Box of Dark Roses
Release date: October 25th Record label: 12XU/Night School Genre: Lo-fi pop, art pop, post-punk, experimental punk, twee Formats: Vinyl, digital
Box of Dark Roses is Mope Grooves’ posthumously-released final album, and it’s a double LP full of ramshackle pop music drawn from clanging keyboards and buzzing beats and vocals that regularly surprise. Box of Dark Roses is so easy to follow despite everything about it because its leader, the late Stevie Pohlman (stylized simply as “stevie”), is unfailingly consistent in her worldview as a writer and doesn’t shy away from following these core tenets to wherever they take her. I hear, in stevie’s art, a real fury and fervor with regards to the unjust precariousness of the people around her–collaborators, friends, and comrades. Box of Dark Roses stares down the cognitive dissonance and open contradictions one is required to accept in order to be a “respectable” member of society, and rejects them. (Read more)
37. Mary Timony – Untame the Tiger
Release date: February 23rd Record label: Merge Genre: Folk rock, progressive rock, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The amount of definitive rock music that Mary Timony has made in several different bands over the years is staggering–and it’s continued in recent years to the degree that I can’t be the only one to not realize it’s been fifteen years since a proper Timony solo album. Any indie rock musician who’s taken influence from Autoclave, Helium, or Ex Hex should get out their pen and paper for Untame the Tiger, a record that shows that Timony is still better than most at creating something intricate, immediate, and shockingly deep. Untame the Tiger is a surprising album, basking in the sun in plain sight but sneaking up on you at the same time–its leader sounds free, untamed, and absolutely thrilled to be still pressing ahead in the form of inventive, unique rock music. (Read more)
36. St. Lenox – Ten Modern American Work Songs
Release date: October 25th Record label: Anyway/Don Giovanni Genre: Indie pop, singer-songwriter, synthpop Formats: Vinyl, digital
The fifth St. Lenox album, Ten Modern American Work Songs,traces Andrew Choi’s journey from a graduate student and aspiring philosophy professor at Ohio State University to a JD program in Manhattan to his current status as a lawyer. Musically, Choi’s distinct style of indie pop is as bright as ever, corralling piano pop, synthpop, and occasional folk and violin touches into something that never threatens to distract from the lyrics but sharp enough to compliment them. Choi’s huge voice is just as incredible, and his pointed ramblings remain pointed and rambling as he tackles a subject that has shaped (and continues to shape) his life and music head-on. (Read more)
35. J. Robbins – Basilisk
Release date: February 2nd Record label: Dischord Genre: Post-punk, post-hardcore, 90s indie rock, alt-rock, art punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
We’re probably lucky that we got a sophomore J. Robbins album at all–the D.C.-based musician is a prolific and in-demand engineer these days, and his influential 90s Dischord group Jawbox have reunited and even released new material in recent years. Basilisk sounds familiar in a most welcome way, with Robbins evoking his golden era in a way few 90s indie rockers are still doing today. That being said, Basilisk doesn’t exactly sound ripped from the world of Jawbox circa 1993–it picks up about where 2019’s Un-Becoming left off, with Robbins writing art-punk anthems with both “maturity” and “edge” and a fearless awareness of the present. (Read more)
34. Norm Archer – Verb
Release date: August 23rd Record label: Panda Koala Genre: Power pop, garage rock, prog-punk, college rock Formats: Digital
Will Pearce started up Norm Archer a mere two years ago, wanting to explore home-recorded power pop–and Pearce has proven quite adept at college rock/guitar pop hook-spinning. Verb, the project’s third long-player since 2022, features everything great about Norm Archer thus far: huge, arena-ready power pop anthems, relaxed, 60s-esque jangly guitar pop, and multi-part prog-pop workouts all abound. Pearce takes Verb to some new and wild places, too, particularly in the twin epics that close out the hourlong record. Whether you wanted Norm Archer to stay the course, flex their rock opera muscles, or lapse into smoky basement explorations on their third album, Verb decides to just do it all. (Read more)
33. Dancer – 10 Songs I Hate About You
Release date: March 15th Record label: Meritorio Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, art rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
After two stellarEPs introduced the Glasgow band last year, 10 Songs I Hate About You is Dancer’s first full-length. It’s remarkably comforting just how stubbornly the quartet show up in the same clothes with the LP–the album was recorded live to tape at Green Door studio with Ronan Fay just like their EPs were, Gemma Fleet is still announcing every song’s title before it begins, Andrew Doig’s bass is all over the place and a treat to observe, and so on. Dancer had already covered quite a bit of ground on their first two EPs–all the ingredients for an excellent first album were lined up, and 10 Songs I Hate About You knocks it out of the park. (Read more)
32. Humdrum – Every Heaven
Release date: October 18th Record label: Slumberland Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, new wave, post-punk, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Chicago guitar pop veteran Loren Vanderbilt has a keen grasp on a very specific time and place in the history of indie rock on the debut record from his new solo project, Humdrum–specifically, vintage jangle pop, new wave, college rock, and dream pop. Every Heaven is largely the work of a singular pop-minded visionary, with everything from its prominent, pounding mechanical drumbeats to its New Order-y synth washes to sprinkled guitar arpeggios all working in tandem to service the melodies and hooks. Unfailingly upbeat but also unafraid to incorporate the more wistful side of Vanderbilt’s influences, Every Heaven is crystalline, both in how it reflects a bygone era of “indie music” and how it freezes its leader in his own moment in time. (Read more)
31. Mint Mile – Roughrider
Release date: February 23rd Record label: Comedy Minus One Genre: Alt-country, 90s indie rock, folk rock, Crazy Horse stuff Formats: Vinyl, digital
Mint Mile’s Roughrider, their long-awaited second full-length, is their first to wrap its business up entirely on two sides of one vinyl record, finally adding the “tight”, forty-minute single long-player album to their resumé. Roughrider has a “snapshot” and “wide-ranging” feel that–while not absent from their sprawling debut, Ambertron–becomes more pronounced here due to the shorter timespan. After years of being the “new” band of Silkworm/Bottomless Pit’s Tim Midyett, Mint Mile has traversed a ton of ground in its first decade of existence, and the band pull from several aspects of it (meandering country-rock, sunny pop rock, moments of surprising bareness) throughout their latest triumph. (Read more)
30. Christina’s Trip – Forever After
Release date: July 5th Record label: Cherub Dream Genre: Indie pop, dream pop, noise pop, twee, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Despite the nods to noisemakers Sonic Youth and Eric’s Trip in the band and album names, Forever After by Christina’s Trip is the most pop-forward record I’ve heard from Bay Area shoegaze label Cherub Dream Records yet. Led by namesake Christina Busler’s clear vocals, the record’s eight songs float pop melodies towards the listener wistfully but confidently. The guitars are loud but not overly distorted or blanketing, recalling undersung 90s indie rock groups like The Spinanes and Velocity Girl and even early guitar-based dream pop, while the band’s lo-fi, off-the-cuff attitude evokes prime K Records. Consistency is key in just how strong a debut Forever After is, and I’m excited to hear more from Christina’s Trip. (Read more)
29. Adam Finchler – The Room
Release date: July 12th Record label: Window Sill Genre: Indie pop, soft rock, anti-anti-folk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Adam Finchler’s debut solo LP has been a long time in the making, and The Room is a world away from the sound of the former anti-folker’s previous music. These ten songs are given polished pop readings, clear but streamlined, placing Finchler’s songwriting front and center. As a writer, Finchler is vaguely in line with what one might expect from an anti-folker–irreverent, wide-ranging, and fairly unpredictable. The short stories, snapshots, and character sketches of The Room can be genuinely funny and just-as-strongly gripping–combined with the serious, straightforward guitar pop dressing that Finchler and co-producer Danji Buck-Moore pursue, it ends up being one of the most striking and unique-sounding albums I’ve heard this year. (Read more)
28. Shellac – To All Trains
Release date: May 17th Record label: Touch & Go Genre: Noise rock, math rock, post-hardcore Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
It’s as good as I’d hoped it’d be. I can enjoy Big Black in a certain mood and obviously “appreciate” it, but Steve Albini’s work with Todd Trainer and Bob Weston has always been my favorite from him as a musician. To All Trains is ten more songs and twenty-eight more minutes of possibly the greatest-sounding rock and roll band of all-time doing their thing, re-announcing their dominance by honing their metallic, razorblade-sharp sound into levels of concision and prickliness previously thought impossible to reach by mankind. It fucking sucks that this is the last Shellac album. It fucking rules–this, the last Shellac album.
27. Stomatopod – DrizzleFizzle
Release date: October 4th Record label: Pirate Alley Genre: Garage rock, punk rock, 90s indie rock Formats: CD, digital
As one might guess of a Chicago-based, Electrical Audio-patronising power trio, Stomatopod could be reasonably described as “noise rock”, but it’s their own version of it–streamlined but expansive, unmistakably Midwestern, punk-y and garage-y, dark but “pop music”. DrizzleFizzle is their fourth album, and it’s a doozy, nearly twice as long as their last one and made up of ten enormous songs. The snapshot of brilliance that was 2022’s Competing with Hindsightis blown up onto the big screen here; it’s a dizzyingly complete, uncomfortably-up-close version of three rock and roll veterans hammering out songs because they must be hammered out. (Read more)
26. Ex Pilots – Motel Cable
Release date: August 23rd Record label: Smoking Room Genre: Noise pop, alt-rock, shoegaze, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
On what will likely be an introduction to Ex Pilots for a lot of people, the Pittsburgh sextet do what they do best–kick out fifteen songs and thirty-seven minutes of hook-laden, shoegaze-informed indie rock shot through with a sense of Robert Pollard-esque propulsive melancholy that’s equally present on the loud, punk-y rave-ups and Motel Cable’s more pensive moments. Similarities with their sibling band, Gaadge, abound, but Ethan Oliva (more or less Ex Pilots’ ringleader, while Ex Pilots bassist Mitch Delong largely helms Gaadge) seizes the opportunity to delve more full-heartedly into huge Guided by Voices-indebted rock anthems with distortion on tap. (Read more)
Welcome to part two (of four) of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2024! This post covers albums 75 through 51. For any and all background info, see part one.
75. Friko – Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here
Release date: February 16th Record label: ATO Genre: Indie pop, college rock, fuzz rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here is the debut full-length from Chicago’s Friko, who’ve been associated with the Windy City’s “Hallogallo” scene since they arose around early 2020. Friko recall the playful guitar pop of several associated acts, albeit with a bit more “rock” in tow. Niko Kapetan is a compelling vocalist, sounding in command but close to breaking while delivering sharp melodies over top of instrumentals that veer into noisy indie rock freak-outs and then back to gorgeous chamber pop with ease. Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here swings drama and intensity around, but the projectiles are enjoyably well-crafted, going a long way towards defining Friko as standouts in a crowded and talented scene. (Read more)
74. Crumbs – You’re Just Jealous
Release date: May 17th Record label: Skep Wax Genre: Post-punk, punk, garage rock, indie pop, dance punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Coming in at a dozen tracks in under 30 minutes, every song on Crumbs’ sophomore album, You’re Just Jealous, goes on for exactly as long as it needs to and not a second more. The Leeds group cites bands like Gang of Four, Delta 5, and Chic as influences, and it’s apparent that You’re Just Jealous was made with the perspective that post-punk can and should be catchy and fun to listen to. The record combines the danceability of 80s post-punk, the hooks of classic indie pop, and the sharp edges of 90s Kill Rock Stars indie rock groups–it’s bullseye vocal melodies, Andy Gill guitar licks, and rumbling rhythms right up to the end. (Read more)
73. Spirit Night – Time Won’t Tell
Release date: October 4th Record label: Self-released Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop, synthpop, post-punk, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Last year, Dylan Balliett released the long-awaited fourth album from his project Spirit Night, Bury the Dead, and it felt like the culmination of the emo-shaded indie rock present throughout his musical career. Rather than trying to top it, Balliett decided to try something different with Time Won’t Tell, the second Sprit Night LP in as many years. Time Won’t Tell embraces a less-seen side of Balliett’s songwriting, exploring jangly Flying Nun-esque guitar pop, synthpop, and even a bit of post-punk and new wave. Time Won’t Tell is neither a logical extension from previous Spirit Night records nor is it a clean break from the past, both in terms of the music and Balliett’s writing (evoking Bury the Dead at times but unmoored from its vivid desperation). (Read more)
72. Vista House – They’ll See Light
Release date: November 22nd Record label: Anything Bagel Genre: Country rock, alt-country Formats: Cassette, digital
Last year’s offering from Tim Howe’s Vista House, Oregon III, was an excellent and adventurous take on alt-country, Americana, indie rock, and power pop, and I’m certainly happy to see the Portland-based musician back with a follow-up LP in short order. They’ll See Light is far from a departure for Vista House–once again, Howe leads the band through loud, rambling country rockers and softer, still-rambling folk-indebted music, but the cobbled-together feel of their last album is replaced with something more focused and streamlined. They’ll See Light sounds like the work of a well-oiled rock band who’s decided to record a bunch of great songs in one go because they know that they’re on a roll–and they’re right. (Read more)
71. Guitar – Casting Spells on Turtlehead
Release date: February 7th Record label: Spared Flesh/Julia’s War Genre: Shoegaze, experimental rock, noise pop, fuzz rock, garage rock, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Cassette, digital
Portland’s Saia Kuli brings a louder, noisier sound to his project Guitar’s latest release, and he also gets a little more help this time around compared to 2022’s mostly self-recorded lo-fi post-punk Guitar EP. Kuli linked up with experimental shoegaze label Julia’s War for Casting Spells on Turtlehead, and, as it turns out, a more fleshed-out Guitar sounds surprisingly like it fits right in with the current wave of omnivorous noise pop/shoegaze acts. Like an early Guided by Voices EP, Casting Spells on Turtlehead feels like a collection of disparate but connected moments–beautiful, melodic guitar riffs, basement-acoustic immediacy, lumbering but fun fuzz rock, trippy dream pop. Guitar have stepped things up a bit on their newest release, and we should all take notice accordingly. (Read more)
70. Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel
Release date: August 23rd Record label: Slumberland Genre: Jangle pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
I’d been waiting for a follow-up to Andy Pastalaniec’s 2021 self-titled debut as Chime School for some time, and The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel is a worthy sequel to that special record from the Bay Area jangle popper. It’s once again self-recorded and largely piece together by Pastalaniec himself, but there’s plenty of development from the singer-songwriter rather than trying to carbon-copy what made Chime School work. Nonetheless, there is plenty of twelve-string jangle and quick tempos, and even though there are a few moments of musical subtlety in the midst of its jangling barrage, The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel is only really “mellow” compared to the last Chime School album. (Read more)
69. Vacation – Rare Earth
Release date: May 3rd Record label: Feel It Genre: Power pop, punk rock, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Vacation are a quartet out of Cincinnati that have been making their blend of garage rock, power pop, and punk rock for a decade and a half now. Rare Earth, their debut for Feel It Records, displays a belief that pop music should be played loud and fast, but it also reaches over to nearby Dayton to snag a mid-period Guided by Voices “meaty but hooky” attitude and, last but not least, throws in a dash of Midwestern, blue-collar pop punk. All in all, Rare Earth is one of the most inspired-sounding rock records I’ve heard in quite a bit–huge-sounding, catchy, with the edges anything but sanded off. (Read more)
68. The Smashing Times – Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys
Release date: November 1st Record label: K/Perennial Genre: Jangle pop, psychedelic pop, psychedelic folk, twee Formats: Vinyl, digital
Baltimore’s premier mod revival quintet have returned with yet another collection of gloriously fractured and free-ranging guitar pop. This time around, The Smashing Times have come up with a record called Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys that’s clearly indebted to the weirdest detours on some of the most classic rock albums. All the blissful psychedelic jangle-beat melodies that marked the band’s last album are still here, yes, but (as one might gather from its title) Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys leans into the eccentricities of British pop of the past across its fourteen tracks. I wouldn’t expect anything other than pop music on their own terms from The Smashing Times, but Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys is a strong reminder of why it’s so fruitful to accept those terms. (Read more)
67. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Release date: September 6th Record label: Anti-/Dear Life Genre: Country rock, alt-country Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Manning Fireworks is the first album made with any kind of expectations for Asheville singer-songwriter and Wednesday member MJ Lenderman, and it feels like a transitional one for me. The follow-up to Lenderman’s breakthrough 2022 album Boat Songscontains a few different paths that Lenderman could potentially wander down–sometimes, Manning Fireworks nods towards the delicate and traditional, other times it sounds like Lenderman is hellbent on following his heroes the Drive-By Truckers into the world of blustering, loud country rock and roll. There’s always something interesting going on in Manning Fireworks–and it’s frequently something other than the qualities that helped his music leap out of the weirdo alt-country world from which it came.
66. Amy O – Mirror, Reflect
Release date: May 20th Record label: Winspear Genre: Lo-fi pop, bedroom pop, singer-songwriter Formats: Cassette, digital
Last time I wrote about Amy Oelsner (aka Amy O) on this blog, I called her underrated, and I nearly went and proved my own point by leaving Mirror, Reflect off this list until I revisited it. The more I listen to Mirror, Reflect, the more favorite moments I find; this album, pieced together “at [her] home and friends’ homes” over two years, is a gorgeous mid-fi guitar pop album which loses no potency whatsoever via the casual way Oelsner approaches it. In fact, the patchwork nature of Mirror, Reflect is essential to its charm–even as it sounds complete in its own right, it also hints at a larger, vibrant world that this album only captures for thirty-odd minutes. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard so much contained within the lines “dribble dribble drop drop” and “rumble rumble splat splat”.
65. Frontier Ruckus – On the Northline
Release date: February 16th Record label: Sitcom Universe/Loose Music Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
I first came to the work of Michigan singer-songwriter Matthew Milia via his excellent 2021 solo album Keego Harbor, but he’s probably most well-known for fronting the long-running folk rock band Frontier Ruckus. On the Northline is the first Frontier Ruckus full-length I’ve heard, but I can tell you that it’s great–it sounds like Milia’s solo work, but folkier! Frontier Ruckus’ peers still feel like indie rock and guitar pop groups to me–I hear Grandaddy, Fountains of Wayne, and even some Elephant 6 in On the Northline, but the mandolins, banjos, and acoustic guitars that populate these tracks are always the exact right accompaniments for Milia’s songwriting. On the Northline invites us to get lost in a vaguely familiar Midwestern world across its forty-seven minute journey.
64. Rain Recordings – Terns in Idle
Release date: April 12th Record label: Trash Tape Genre: Emo-y indie rock, 90s indie rock, folk rock Formats: CD, cassette, digital
Carrboro-based Evren Centeno and Stockholm, Sweden’s Josef Löfvendahl have been collaborating remotely for a few years as Rain Recordings, but Terns inIdle is the first album that the duo recorded in person in the same studio. Ceneno and Löfvendahl sound like they’ve spent a good deal of time with essential 90s indie rock groups like Modest Mouse and Built to Spill, but Terns in Idle isn’t entirely devoted to this bygone ornery era of guitar music–there’s also some Neutral Milk Hotel-ish folk ambition, the earnest, wide-eyed 2000s version of indie rock, and even a bit of emo mixed in, as the duo take advantage of the studio setting to expand their sound. (Read more)
63. American Culture – Hey Brother, It’s Been a While
Release date: May 3rd Record label: Convulse Genre: Punk rock, Madchester, power pop, jangle pop, noise pop, college rock, psychedelic rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Denver quartet American Culture’s sound has a lot of familiar ingredients, but it’s a unique and captivating blend that’s found on Hey Brother, It’s Been a While–they’re “punk rock” in a loose sense, yes, although in the older underground version of the term, while also leaving room for indie rock and pop of several different stripes (mid-to-late Replacements jangly power pop, and even some psychedelic Madchester influences). Some of the variety of Hey Brother, It’s Been a While can be explained by the band having two main singer-songwriters, Chris Adolf and Michael Stein–without getting too into it, the two distinct voices are key to the narrative of the album, which deals with a community-level traumatic event from two different perspectives. (Read more)
62. Sharp Pins – Radio DDR
Release date: May 19th Record label: Hallogallo Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop, jangle pop Formats: Digital
Last year’s Turtle Rock was one of the breakout debuts of 2023, an exuberant and well-crafted collection of lo-fi pop that put Sharp Pins square in the center of Chicago’s “Hallogallo” scene. How does Kai Slater (Lifeguard, Dwaal Troupe), one of the most exciting talents in indie rock, follow it up? With a brand new sophomore album called Radio DDR coming scarcely a year later. As great as Turtle Rock was, Radio DDR advances the journey of Sharp Pins without losing the humble charms of his first record under the name. Radio DDR is refined and polished in both its writing and recording, finding the Pins inching closer and closer to power pop perfection. Two great and distinct records in as many years–pay attention to Sharp Pins.
61. The Softies – The Bed I Made
Release date: August 23rd Record label: Father/Daughter/Lost Sound Tapes Genre: Twee, indie pop, indie folk Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Two decades removed from their last album together, The Bed I Made is a reminder of why The Softies specifically have endured, even as their music is deliberately less immediate than most of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia’s other projects in the realms of indie pop and twee. When the duo sing together and play their guitars together, they don’t need any additional accompaniment–these songs don’t seek the spotlight, but neither do they shrink from the light shone upon them. When the duo reach a particularly resonant moment in one of their songs, the words just hang there, Melberg and Sbragia taking no measures to shield themselves from their impact. There’s nowhere to hide on The Bed I Made, even if The Softies wanted to do so. (Read more)
60. Micah Schnabel – The Clown Watches the Clock
Release date: May 15th Record label: Self-released Genre: Country punk, alt-country, Americana, cowpunk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Columbus country-punk institution Micah Schnabel has always come off as somebody with a lot to say in his lyrics, both as the primary frontperson of his cult alt-country group Two Cow Garage and in his just-as-worthwhile solo career (and even, more recently, as a novelist). His latest album, The Clown Watches the Clock,balances Schnabel’s long-winded tendencies with his punk rock instincts admirably–he wanders a fair bit in the songs’ verses, but there’s a conscious effort to return to clear, catchy, and concise refrains again and again on the album. The Clown Watches the Clock is a record about the ambient sights and sounds of middle America: guns, Jesus, and debilitating, humiliating, irritating poverty, delivered with none of the treacly, pandering romanticism in which lesser writers love to indulge (but, rather than cynicism, our narrator emerges out the other side with something much more potent). (Read more)
59. Silo’s Choice – Languid Swords
Release date: March 29th Record label: Self-released Genre: Folk rock,prog-folk, art folk, new age Formats: Digital
Built largely around meandering acoustic guitar playing and upright bass, the seven-song, 40-minute Languid Swords backs up the John Fahey influence that Chicago’s Jon Massey cited when he emailed me about Languid Swords. The latest LP from his long-running Silo’s Choice project takes its time and isn’t overly concerned with offering up pop hooks immediately–not that it doesn’t indulge in “pop music”, but it’s always on Massey’s own terms. It’s a bit more challenging than the experimental yet accessible take on Chicago indie folk rock of his other band, Coventry, but Languid Swords is gripping and spirited in its own steadily smoldering way. (Read more)
58. Office Culture – Enough
Release date: October 18th Record label: Ruination Genre: Art pop, jazz-pop, art rock, experimental rock Formats: CD, digital
For the fourth album from his jazz-pop/soft rock project Office Culture, bandleader Winston Cook-Wilson decided to try something different–he decided to make a CD. The seventy-three minute, sixteen-song Enough was deliberately inspired by “the CD era”, embracing the ability to blow everything up to new proportions. Guest vocalists, experimental electronic instrumentation, and songs that cross the five-minute barrier without breaking a sweat all abound on Enough, an album that finds Office Culture and their twenty-something collaborators finding out just how many directions they can stretch Cook-Wilson’s distinct sophisti-pop songwriting at once. (Read more)
57. Cloud Nothings – Final Summer
Release date: April 19th Record label: Pure Noise Genre: Garage rock, punk, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
In a world where Greg Sage and Robert Pollard are Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Cloud Nothings vocalist/guitarist Dylan Baldi would be a folk hero, churning out loud, pummeling, hooky rock music at a steady clip for a decade and a half now, aided deftly by longtime drummer Jayson Gerycz and bassist Chris Brown. One could cherry pick a few details from Final Summer–like the way that krautrock-y intro of the opening title track gives way to a big-sounding, saxophone-featuring “heartland rock”-ish version of the Cloud Nothings sound–and spin a “Cloud Nothings as you’ve never heard them before” narrative, but to me Final Summer sounds like the band at their most comfortable, like a group of ringers completely confident in their abilities. (Read more)
56. Russel the Leaf – Thought to an End
Release date: September 1st Record label: Records from Russ Genre: Art pop, indie pop, experimental pop, psychedelic pop Formats: CD, digital
Thought to an End is Troy-based producer and musician Evan M. Marré’s return to pop music after a few more experimental and improvisational records with his Russel the Leaf project–and it’s a triumphant one. Spanning twenty-one songs and seventy-five minutes, Thought to an End is quite possibly Russel the Leaf’s magnus opus. Thought to an End has the feel of a classic double LP–it’s got room for everything, from streamlined, breezy 60s-influenced pop rock to layered orchestral and psychedelic passages to heady art rock to, indeed, the experimental/jazz moments of the last couple of Russel the Leaf records. (Read more)
55. Spring Silver – Don’t You Think It’s Strange?
Release date: August 23rd Record label: Self-released Genre: Fuzz rock, experimental rock, noise pop, art punk Formats: Digital
Maryland’s K Nkanza has been making D.C.-ish post-hardcore/art rock crossed with both shined-up power pop and electronics and synths as Spring Silver for a few records now, but Don’t You Think It’s Strange? still surprised me. Even though it was recorded entirely by Nkanza alone, the album actually sound like the most “rock-band-focused” version of Spring Silver yet, even as Nkanza approaches this from a unique vantage point. Still recognizably themself, Nkanza takes on the difficult task of making lengthy, rumbling, but still pop-focused rock songs on Don’t You Think It’s Strange?; it’s a singular listen, and it’s impressive how accessible it is in spite of all this. (Read more)
54. Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates – Restless Spirit
Release date: February 17th Record label: WarHen Genre: Alt-country, country rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
If 2021’s Alive and Dying Fast was the sound of Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates slowing down and displaying enough confidence in Riggleman’s writing to let it take the unquestioned center stage, Restless Spirit is where the West Virginia-based band show that they can maintain the captivating quality of that record’s songs while also injecting just a bit more rock and roll into things. No one’s going to mistake Restless Spirit for a garage punk record, but it is very clearly an album where Riggleman’s formative alt-country and power pop influences peak through with regularity, and this suits his writing–always with chaos and darkness hovering around, but determined to keep it in check rather than overwhelming everything. (Read more)
53. Female Gaze – Tender Futures
Release date: May 17th Record label: Fort Lowell/Totally Real Genre: Psychedelic rock, art rock, desert rock, post-rock, jazz rock Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
After retiring the name of their old band, The Rifle, Tucson’s Nelene DeGuzman and Kevin Conklin formed Female Gaze with Nicky David Cobham-Morgese, and the former garage rockers undergo a remarkable transformation on Tender Futures, their debut album under the new name. Stretching five songs across thirty-two minutes, Tender Futures is an expansive, vast record, with the band embodying the American southwest more than any of their projects ever have before. Inspired in part by DeGuzman’s chronic health issues that had left her in a “painful limbo”, Tender Futures explores the desert using empty space and towering nothingness as its language, intentionally evoking haziness and disorientation through psychedelia, post-rock, and even a bit of jazz-rock. (Read more)
52. Beeef – Somebody’s Favorite
Release date: September 6th Record label: Self-released Genre: Power pop, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Boston’s Beeef put out a pair of excellent jangly college rock records in the late 2010s before going quiet for a few years, but thankfully the quartet is not only alive but quite well. The third Beeef LP, Somebody’s Favorite, is just about everything one could want in a New England guitar pop record–immediately catchy, smart, and friendly, with plenty of depth below the sparkle and shine that feels like it will age incredibly well. Beeef can be one of the greatest modern pop bands whenever they feel like being one, and they’re in a great mood on this one. Somebody’s Favorite even existing at all feels like a victory, but it’s an even greater treat to hear that Beeef sound, more than ever, quite sturdy and built to last. (Read more)
51. Climax Landers – Zenith No Effects
Release date: May 10th Record label: Gentle Reminder/Home Late/Intellectual Birds Genre: Art rock, post-punk, indie pop, college rock, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Although Will Moloney is clearly the ringleader/lead carnival barker of the Climax Landers, Zenith No Effects is just as palpably a record made with full collaboration welcomed. As a frontperson, Moloney frequently offers up his lyrics in a conversational talk-singing fashion–he’s got a little bit of the Minutemen-esque “post-punk as folk music” attitude towards things–but he’s hardly a one-note leader. Zenith No Effects is an offbeat but sincere guitar pop record at its core, with classic pop rock and college rock (aided by Paco Cathcart’s violin, Ani Ivry-Block’s accordion, and Charlie Dore-Young’s bass) shading the record–and Moloney ups his game to match the rest of the Climax Landers. (Read more)
Hello, one and all! Welcome to the fifth annual edition of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Today, albums 51 through 100 are being posted, and tomorrow (Tuesday, December 10th), the top 50 will be revealed.
Once again, thank you to anyone reading this list, anyone who has shared Rosy Overdrive with others, or anyone who even just makes it a part of their music life in some way. I am grateful, and it’s been a pleasure to share new music with everyone all year long. I put a lot of work into this blog in 2024, because I believe in the music that you’ll read about below and think somebody ought to be writing about it. I want something like Rosy Overdrive to exist, so I’ve done my best to make it real. I fully intend to keep Rosy Overdrive going strong into 2025!
Here is a playlist featuring all of the records from this list that are available on streaming services: on Spotify, on Tidal. As with last year, separate lists for EPs and compilations/reissues will go up over the next couple of weeks. To read about more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. And you can also be part of the blog’s year-end rundown by voting in the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll! Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to the list.
Release date: April 26th Record label: Crafting Room Genre: Jangle pop, lo-fi pop, power pop, indie pop Formats: Digital
British musician Grant Gillingham has made no secret of his love of 80s underground indie music–post-punk, C86 indie pop, college rock–and Once Upon a Time in Battersea reflects this, pulling together all of these influences ambitiously and successfully. One key wrinkle to the first record from his solo project Grr Ant is a bit of wide-open Americana in its jangly indie rock–recalling a bit of the British-Invasion-via Midwestern basement rock of early Guided by Voices, or modern GBV-inspired bands. The end product is something like a British person’s conception of an American’s conception of British pop-rock music–if this is the sound of Grant Gillingham taking us full circle, it’s very enjoyable to listen to. (Read more)
99. Bacchae – Next Time
Release date: July 5th Record label: Get Better Genre: Punk rock, post-punk Formats: Digital
Washington, D.C.’s Bacchae unfortunately broke up this year, but not before delivering one last full-length statement. On Next Time, Bacchae incorporate their different sides a bit more seamlessly–rather than doling out furious punk rockers, spiky post-punk tracks, and polished pop songs one at a time, the band triangulate everything at once. Although the disjointedness of their last album, 2020’s Pleasure Vision, was part of its charm for me, this level of evolution works very well for Next Time, a record that’s nervous, fiery, and spirited as the band’s steady but forceful hand guides us across a unified LP. Bacchae will be missed, but Next Time cements them as a key D.C. punk act for the duration of their existence. (Read more)
98. Motorists – Touched by the Stuff
Release date: May 24th Record label: Bobo Integral/We Are Time Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, college rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Toronto trio Motorists introduced themselves as punchy understudies in a vibrant Toronto power pop scene with their debut album, Surrounded, back in 2021, which was an impressive collection of college rock and jangle pop-inspired music with a surprisingly tough post-punk backbone frequently rearing its head, too. For their sophomore album, Touched by the Stuff, the group display a subtle but palpable sonic evolution as well: the post-punk edge is less pronounced and more seamlessly baked into the sound, as Motorists embrace being a straight-up, rollicking power pop group more than ever across Touched by the Stuff’s dozen tracks. (Read more)
97. Weak Signal – Fine
Release date: September 20th Record label: 12XU Genre: Psychedelic rock, garage rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
New York’s Weak Signal have rode a distinct mix of chugging psychedelic rock, precise, fuzzed-out garage-y indie rock, and post-punk rhythmic excellence through four albums now. The ten songs on the trio’s latest album, Fine, continue Tran Huynh, Sasha Vine, and Mike Bones’ ability to feel streamlined but unhurried, forming an effortless-sounding mix of seediness and transcendence that’s musical comfort food to a certain subset of indie rock sickos. Even the moments on Fine that don’t adhere to Weak Signal’s signature propulsive, electric rock and roll feel perfunctory, like well-curated detours before hopping back on the highway. (Read more)
96. Biz Turkey – Biz Turkey
Release date: May 31st Record label: Third Uncle Genre: 90s indie rock, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
If you like the less jammy side of Built to Spill and the more guitar-based music of Grandaddy, I’ve got great news for you with regards to what the self-titled debut from Maine group Biz Turkey sounds like. Biz Turkey may be a new band, but the quintet is made up of several longtime collaborators, and their first album establishes them as having a clear handle on their specific style of pessimistic-feeling, pop-friendly electric indie rock. Biz Turkey captures the moment where the basement indie rock of the 90s started transforming into something larger and more aware of the concept of “the outdoors”. Vocalist Graham Wood sounds lost but still alert in the midst of these wandering instrumentals; sometimes Biz Turkey sounds quite driven, but Biz Turkey sound great when they’re groping about in the darkness too. (Read more)
95. The Dreaded Laramie – Princess Feedback
Release date: July 5th Record label: Smartpunk Genre: Pop punk, power pop, alt-rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
In the first lyrics you hear on Princess Feedback, the debut album from Nashville’s The Dreaded Laramie, lead singer M.C. Cunningham prays for the painful death of an ex–and in the very next line, Cunningham sings “I don’t need you to tell me I’m pathetic / I understand what I’m doing”. Musically, The Dreaded Laramie are power pop/pop punk mercenaries, zeroing in on the mainstream side of 90s alt-rock revival and blowing it up with unabashed classic rock/Weezer-y guitar solos–Prince Feedback is as huge and polished-sounding as its inner contents are messy and uncomfortable. A nice, big giant explosion obliterates everything in its vicinity, so why not toss your least favorite parts of yourself right in its epicenter? (Read more)
94. Hill View #73 – Night Time Is the Grace Period
Release date: March 15th Record label: Trash Tape/9733 Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, experimental rock,fuzz rock, noise pop Formats: Cassette, digital
Night Time Is the Grace Period is the debut album from Hill View #73, which is the project of Atlanta, Georgia’s Awsaf Halim. Halim gets plenty of help on their first LP (including from members of Dwaal Troupe, Deerest Friend, and Post Office Winter), but Hill View #73 is pretty clearly Halim’s project–they wrote all ten of these songs and play most of what you’ll hear on the record. Night Time Is the Grace Period has a familiar yet distinct sound, with Halim proving quite capable of switching between noisy fuzz rock, Alex G/Jeff Mangum-ish bedroom folk, and bright, vibrant synth-colored pop–sometimes within the same song. Halim pulls together noise and pop music together with the skill of much more well-known and well-established indie rock acts throughout Night Time Is the Grace Period, establishing the singer-songwriter as one to watch. (Read more)
93. The Reds, Pinks & Purples – The World Doesn’t Need Another Band
Release date: September 5th Record label: Burundi Cloud Genre: Jangle pop, folk rock, singer-songwriter, indie pop Formats: Digital
Last year, Glenn Donaldson’s The Reds, Pinks & Purples was the only project to appear on Rosy Overdrive’s favorite LPs, favorite EPs, and favorite compilations/reissues lists. The prolific Donaldson generously added to the Reds, Pinks & Purples oeuvre again this year–including the Slumberland-released “proper” album Unwishing Well, the outtakes/covers collection This Is Adult Art School (and the similarly-themed Restless When You Sleep EP), an expanded vinyl edition of 2022’s Still Clouds at Noon. My favorite one is a self-released digital-only album called The World Doesn’t Need Another Band. It’s a bit more “rock”-focused than Unwishing Well, and feels kind of like a more informal companion to last year’s The Town That Cursed Your Name to me. Soaring anthems like “Park Statues”, “My Toxic Friend”, and “Unloveable Losers” are as good guitar pop songs as any that Donaldson’s penned, and there’s at least one show-stopping piano ballad in “New Market Space”.
92. Dominic Angelella – God Loves a Scammer
Release date: August 30th Record label: Dumb Solitaire Genre: Folk rock, power pop, alt-country, country rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
God Loves a Scammer, the fifth LP from Philadelphia fixture Dominic Angelella, is a refreshingly timeless-sounding record, one that balances a predilection for offbeat, attention-grabbing songwriting from its frontperson with a casual, laid-back vibe from its players (who’ve played with everyone from Boygenius to Illuminati Hotties). Angelella is an indie rock songwriter who takes cues from the likes of David Berman and John Darnielle, but who is wise enough to understand that the lessons to be taken from them are primarily attitudinal. The music from the Angelella backing band is anything but an afterthought, accompanying their leader’s clear-in-the-mix vocals through rambling alt-country slingers, unrestrained rockers, and quiet and tasteful numbers. (Read more)
91. Lunchbox – Pop and Circumstance
Release date: May 10th Record label: Slumberland Genre: Indie pop, power pop, twee Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
At this point, Lunchbox’s Donna McKean and Tim Brown could be considered Bay Area indie pop godparents–it took the rest of the region a couple of decades to catch up to the 90s-originating group, but when their moment came, Lunchbox was ready. The dozen pop songs on Pop and Circumstance (the group’s second album thus far to come out of their 2020s resurgence) come from people who live and breathe vintage pop rock of the 1960s and 70s–bubblegum pop, mod, psychedelic pop, and soul, delivered with ample experience and honed knowledge. Pop and Circumstance sound fresh and free because of McKean and Brown’s decades of practice at the craft, not in spite of it. (Read more)
90. Dancer / Whisper Hiss – Split
Release date: October 4th Record label: HHBTM Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, dance-punk, punk rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Both groups on HHBTM Records’ latest split full-length album are post-punk bands that know their way around a pop hook, but they’re fairly distinct to me–Glasgow’s Dancer are the irreverent, offbeat Brits who mix new wave-y art punk with fluffy indie pop, and Portland, Oregon’s Whisper Hiss are the heavier, more serious Americans who certainly have listened to their fair share of Dischord and Kill Rock Stars records. Both of them get six songs on this album to make the case for their version of indie rock, and both bring strong material to the table. Dancer even brings a bit of power chords and fuzzed-out indie rock into the mix, and Whisper Hiss mixes indie pop into their death-rock and punk, meeting each other halfway. (Read more)
89. Hit – Bestseller
Release date: October 25th Record label: One Weird Trick Genre: Experimental pop, noise pop, art rock, art punk, prog-pop, psych pop Formats: CD, digital
New York quartet Hit is something of a sibling band to Miracle Sweepstakes (it features half of their lineup), but up until Bestseller, we’d only heard the group in brief, chaotic single bursts. In order to translate those early Hit songs (which merged Brainiac-like noisy post-punk with snatches of heavenly guitar pop) to a larger setting, the band were going to have to get even more creative. And Bestseller is creative, alright–adventurous and exhaustive, too, I’d say. Hit careen through zany, bonkers prog-pop, underwater-sounding psychedelic pop, and something that I can only really describe as “jangle-prog” across the album’s length–if you’re looking for an unpredictable pop album, here’s Hit. (Read more)
88. Fred Thomas – Window in the Rhythm
Release date: October 4th Record label: Polyvinyl Genre: Folk rock, experimental rock, ambient rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, digital
Spanning seven songs in sixty minutes, Michigan singer-songwriter Fred Thomas’ first solo record since 2018is a spacious double album. Thomas and his guitar build a spindly but firm foundation for Window in the Rhythm, which sounds like nothing else Thomas has released before. As the tracks unspool, some of them get louder and more ornate, but Window in the Rhythm uses vastness and absence as a weapon for a good chunk of the hour it takes. It’s a very natural-sounding record, and it still sounds like a Fred Thomas album–his voice and writing guide us through the double LP, still recognizably the ace sing-speaking pop musician even as we enter a world of ten-minute songs with no choruses. (Read more)
87. Ylayali – Birdhouse in Conduit
Release date: October 16th Record label: Circle Change Genre: Fuzz rock, experimental, lo-fi indie rock, lo-fi pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Philadelphia musician (and 2nd Grade drummer) Francis Lyons pieced the latest album from his Ylayali solo projecttogether from 2022 to 2024 at home, and the resultant Birdhouse in Conduit is Ylayali at their most exploratory (especially compared to the last album from Lyons’ solo project, 2022’s relatively accessible Separation). There’s still pop music to be found in Birdhouse in Conduit, but it sits alongside ambient and droning fuzz passages, experimental electronic instrumentation, and blasts of noise. None of this gets in the way of the “core” sound of Birdhouse in Conduit, and is in fact a key part of it–distortion and static have always been important to Ylayali, and this record is no different in shaping these elements into something just as emotional-sounding as the indie and folk rock hidden intermittently between them. (Read more)
86. Uranium Club – Infants Under the Bulb
Release date: March 1st Record label: Static Shock/Anti Fade Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, egg punk, garage punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Infants Under the Bulb is a massive, thorny way to return after a half-decade absence. The Minneapolis Uranium Club was maybe the most emblematic group of the late 2010s “egg punk”/“Devo-core” phenomena that swept the Midwest, and while entire bands have risen and fallen in the five years since 2019’s The Cosmo Cleaners, the garage punks’ long-awaited third LP reaffirms their position as a cornerstone act in a particularly dingy subsection of rock and roll. Dread, anger, seriousness, goofiness, and curiosity all collide in a pile-up of surf-rock guitars, squealing horns, and vocals that’ll restore one’s faith in “speak-singing”.
85. Deep Tunnel Project – Deep Tunnel Project
Release date: April 5th Record label: Comedy Minus One Genre: 90s indie rock, punk, garage rock, noise rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Deep Tunnel Project is the debut album from a band with plenty of indie rock experience between them; the Windy City indie rock supergroup features John Mohr and Michael Greenlees (both of Tar) as well as Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Mint Mile) and Jeff Dean (Her Head’s on Fire, The Story So Far, The Bomb). Deep Tunnel Project is all Chicago, from the geographically-informed lyrics to the band and album name to the music, which is a garage and punk-influenced take on workmanlike Second City underground rock music. Deep Tunnel Project is part of a grand and ever-expanding tapestry being woven by its creators and many others like them–but it sounds pretty damn good in its own right, too. (Read more)
84. Styrofoam Winos – Real Time
Release date: September 27th Record label: Sophomore Lounge Genre: Folk rock, alt-country, singer-songwriter, country rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
It’s quite satisfying to listen to Real Time and be able to hear the growth that Nashville supergroup Styrofoam Winos has made together almost immediately. The group’s self-titled debut was the work of a band with three distinct songwriters adding their own touch to the songs, but Real Time is a different story; Joe Kenkel, Lou Turner, and Trevor Nikrant meld together here more than ever before, creating a cohesive album that sounds relaxed and comfortable as a whole. It’s not like “laid-back country rock” is new territory for Styrofoam Winos, but the way that they do it here–effortlessly passing the torch between the three of them, creating a singular vibe across these ten songs–is a palpable leap. (Read more)
83. Marcel Wave – Something Looming
Release date: June 14th Record label: Feel It/Upset the Rhythm Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, garage rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
London’s Marcel Wave put out a demo EP back in 2019, so their debut album Something Looming has presumably been in the works for a while. It’s a confident, polished, and accessible first statement that follows in the grand tradition of British “post-punk”/“indie pop” records, balanced on both sides of the spectrum by vocalist Maike Hale-Jones’s delivery and a well-seasoned cast of instrumentalists. Something Looming is “catchy” in some form for pretty much its entire length, but sometimes it’s more traditionally so than others; in all cases, Hale-Jones’ sense of rhythm and force of personality are a great fit for Marcel Wave’s musical playfulness. (Read more)
82. The Ekphrastics – Make Your Own Snowboard
Release date: August 3rd Record label: Harriet Genre: Indie pop, 90s indie rock, singer-songwriter Formats: CD, digital
Described as “a collection of short stories about doing one’s level best”, the eleven songs with words on Make Your Own Snowboard are all self-contained works that encourage close listening. Frank Boscoe led underground indie rock bands like Wimp Factor 14 and The Vehicle Flips in the nineties, but as of late he’s found a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) life with The Ekphrastics. With only a passing familiarity with Boscoe’s previous work, I was immediately drawn in by his latest album, a fantastic exercise in storytelling with laid-back, folk-y indie pop as the fruitful vessel. There’s something very inspiring about Boscoe’s writing, the casualness with which he unpretentiously digs from history rather than lean on what we already know and understand to be common reference points. (Read more)
81. The Sylvia Platters – Vivian Elixir
Release date: April 26th Record label: Grey Lodge Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, indie pop Formats: Cassette, digital
At eight songs and 24 minutes, Vivian Elixir is on the shorter side, but The Sylvia Platters consider it more than just another EP–it’s their first “album” since 2015’s Make Glad the Day, even as the Vancouver-based power/jangle pop quartet have remained fairly active in the interstitial decade. And when you’ve got a bunch of songs that are as strong as these are, you can call it just about whatever you want. The Sylvia Platters continue to assert themselves as one of the best guitar pop bands going with Vivian Elixir, offering up power pop songs of varying stripes but consistent in quality and catchiness–about half of the cassette is “gigantic tune that could’ve been the lead single”, and the other half gives Vivian Elixir some extra character and helps it feel more like a proper album. (Read more)
80. Simon Joyner – Coyote Butterfly
Release date: November 22nd Record label: Grapefruit/BB*Island Genre: Folk, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Simon Joyner is already one of the most rewarding, most decorated, and most secretly influential folk artists of the past three decades, so a great album from the Omaha fixture is hardly a surprise. Referring to Coyote Butterfly as merely a “late-career triumph” doesn’t capture the difficult impact of this album, though, which is a tribute to Joyner’s son Owen, who passed away in 2022. The most viscerally emotional experience I had this year was hearing “My Lament” for the first time, something I’m not sure how to describe. Simon Joyner the excellent folk songwriter is still present in Coyote Butterfly, with songs like “The Silver Birch” and “There Will Be a Time” reaching for the same winning tools he’s used in previous great songs. Be it Joyner’s writing or the departed figure at the center of the record, there’s a poignancy to every link to the past on Coyote Butterfly.
79. Ben Seretan – Allora
Release date: July 26th Record label: Tiny Engines Genre: Art rock, psychedelic rock, noise pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Upstate New York musician Ben Seretan has released a lot of music, but Allora is the singer-songwriter’s first “rock” record in four years. Recorded in Italy over three days after the collapse of a European tour Seretan had booked, Allora is an energetic and forceful return–compared to 2020’s relatively delicate Youth Pastoral, Seretan and his band sound much more immediate here, with the rockers aiming louder and higher and the quieter moments displaying visible seams. Even though the embrace of electric rock music is the most immediately noticeable feature of Allora, it’s just as impressive that Seretan, Nico Hedley, and Dan Knishkowy still find ways to inject the singer-songwriter’s spacey, experimental side into their “power trio album”. (Read more)
78. Supermilk – High Precision Ghosts
Release date: August 9th Record label: Specialist Subject Genre: Power pop, post-punk, indie punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Jake Popyura has been leading Supermilk for a while now, but it’s the London band’s third album, High Precision Ghosts, that finds the quartet truly gelling as a sharp indie rock group. Now far much more than a Popyura solo project, Em Foster, Charlie Jamison, and Jason Cavalier (as well as producer Rich Mandell of ME REX and Happy Accidents) help turn High Precision Ghosts into a polished, dynamic rock album that still works well as a Popyura songwriting vessel. Supermilk’s distinctly British mix of hooky post-punk revival with muscular power pop, alt-rock, and even punk takes High Precision Ghosts into some surprising directions, but the band never wander long enough to waste time on the lean, sub-thirty-minute LP.
77. EggS – Crafted Achievement
Release date: November 1st Record label: Prefect/Howlin Banana Genre: Power pop, college rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Parsian collective EggS got my attention with 2022’s A Glitter Year, and their boisterous, party-friendly, saxophone-heavy version of vintage college rock is still very potent on their follow-up LP. Crafted Achievement doesn’t flag for a second–it’s only eight songs and twenty-three minutes long, but every moment of it is thrilling. Bandleader Charles Daneau’s vocals–in English and front-and-center throughout the album–reach melodic perfection through sheer force, shouting hooks among the tuneful maelstrom of the EggS band to complete the ingredients for a perfect hurricane of catchy indie rock. (Read more)
76. Yea-Ming and the Rumours – I Can’t Have It All
Release date: May 24th Record label: Dandy Boy Genre: Indie pop, jangle pop, folk rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The latest record from Oakland’s Yea-Ming Chen and her band, The Rumours, doesn’t reinvent their sound–Chen is still a sharp, 60s pop-inspired songwriter and a striking vocalist, and the band give these songs a polished but utilitarian, classic college rock reading. What makes I Can’t Have It All feel so full-sounding and like a career highlight is the well-earned, quiet but palpable confidence Yea-Ming and the Rumors display throughout the entire record. Every song on the first half is a “hit” in its own way, and once you get on their level, you can appreciate how The Rumours skip through twee-pop-rock, folk-country, dream pop, and slowed-down girl-group-influenced pop with a steady helping of zeal. (Read more)
Hello, all! The first week of December has been a great one on Rosy Overdrive, and we’re wrapping it up with a Thursday Pressing Concerns featuring four albums coming out tomorrow, December 6th: new LPs from Advance Base, Soft on Crime, Low Harness, and Opinion. If you missed the Monday Pressing Concerns (featuring Mother of Earl, Big’n, Radio Free ABQ, and Miners) or the November 2024 playlist/round-up (which went up on Tuesday), 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. And last but not least: don’t forget to vote in the 2024 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll!
Advance Base – Horrible Occurrences
Release date: December 6th Record label: Run for Cover/Orindal Genre: Singer-songwriter, synthpop, folk Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: The Year I Lived in Richmond
It’s hard to believe that I’m only passingly familiar with the music of Owen Ashworth, given how many people whose taste I respect love it (musicians, writers, all around solid people). Of course, I’m a big fan of the releases he’s curated as the head of Orindal Records (Dear Nora, Tara Jane O’Neil, Young Moon), and was aware that Ashworth’s cult solo projects Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Advance Base–lo-fi, low-key minimal electronic pop soundtracking the artist’s deep talk-singing vocals–are in the same realm of many of those records. Horrible Occurrences, the fifth Advance Base album of original material and the project’s first in six years, is subsequently my entry point into the world of Ashworth–and “world” is a more than appropriate descriptor for what the singer-songwriter creates in these eleven songs. On Horrible Occurrences, Ashworth builds a set of characters and their stories, largely taking place in a fictional town called Richmond (I picture it as somewhere in the Midwest, in part due to references to Wisconsin, Lake Michigan, and Columbus, but I don’t believe it’s specified). As the title of the record hints at, Horrible Occurrences is dark more often than not–murder, grievous injury, abandonment, and the supernatural are among these “occurrences”. In the world of deep-voiced, occasionally synth-curious indie pop storytellers, though, Ashworth is more David Bazan than Stephin Merritt; these are vivid, delicate figures and tales, real-feeling people too complex to simply feel doomed.
Ashworth recorded all of Horrible Occurrences on his own in his Oak Park, Illinois basement, accompanied by “pianos, synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines”. Most of these songs are only built out of Ashworth’s voice and a simple piano or synth part–both ingredients are slow-moving but follow pop progressions and vocal melodies, acknowledging an important part of the power of “folk music”. “The Year I Lived in Richmond” and “Big Chris Electric” both come early on in the album, and subject matter-wise they’re two of Horrible Occurrences’ most dramatic moments, but Ashworth keeps things hushed and quiet in a way that reflects the stark, endlessly-reverberating qualities of major events in a small town. It’s not until the second half of Horrible Occurrences that Ashworth dials up an instrumental with a bit of flair–it’s still in slow motion, but the prominent drum machine beat of “Brian’s Golden Hour” helps paint the picture of the song’s teenage character falling off his roof, shattering his spine and leaving him paralyzed and “lucky to be alive”. Ashworth uses the beats for a decidedly different end in “Little Sable Point Lighthouse”–in it, a character disappears forever as the synths simulate a haze and the drum machines the distant clang of buoys and small craft. The way that the story of “Little Sable Point Lighthouse” spills into “Andrew & Meagan” is chilling, but I suppose that it shouldn’t be so jarring–throughout Horrible Occurrences, it’s apparent time after time that Ashworth’s narrators and subjects are eternally connected to the town at the center of the album, regardless of where they find themselves geographically. It’s not a curse, it’s just life. (Bandcamp link)
Soft on Crime – Street Hardware
Release date: December 6th Record label: Eats It Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, lo-fi pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Villain
One of my favorite albums of last year was New Suite, the debut LP from Dublin trio Soft on Crime. New Suite was a guitar pop cornucopia, stuffed with hooks delivered to the tune of giddy college rock, jangle pop, power pop, psychedelic pop, and new wave. Not only did Dylan Philips, Padraig O’Reilly, and Lee Casey unleash New Suite on us last year, but they also took a rewarding victory lap with an entire second CD/cassette called Rarities Vol. 1a few months later. Although songs on that compilation dated all the way back to 2018, there were some (very good) brand-new recordings on it, too, and Soft on Crime continue their hot streak into 2024 by getting their sophomore album out right under the wire here in December. New Suite was already on the shorter side, and Street Hardware does it one better in terms of brevity, zipping through eight songs in a mere twenty-two minutes. Soft on Crime also sound looser and more streamlined on their newest album–aside from brass played by J Sousa on “No Story”, the core trio is all you’ll hear on Street Hardware. It all amounts to a relatively low-key follow-up, but the reduction in bells and whistles hasn’t weakened the power of Soft on Crime; in fact, with some of the group’s more offbeat tendencies largely sidelined, this might be the trio’s smoothest ride yet.
Do you want to hear a garage band hammering out lost power pop classics, seeming aloof with regards to the gold upon which their sitting? Well, Street Hardware has plenty of that in its brief runtime, not the least of which is the bouncy opening track “Way Facing”. “Tonight” surely belongs in this category as well, as does “Crackdown”. “No Story” is the one time on the album where Soft on Crime allow themselves any kind of excess, and they use it well–there’s the aforementioned brass accents, as well as flamboyant usage of what sounds like a harpsichord and some sky-high melodic power pop guitar leads straight out of New Suite, too. With a limited palette, everything Soft on Crime does to give extra power to these songs is subtle brilliance–the stopping and starting in the mid-tempo pop of “Villain”, and jovially strummed acoustic guitar underneath “Bread & Roses”, and so on. I did mention that the “offbeat” side of the band is a bit reduced on Street Hardware; it’s largely concentrated in two tracks, the weirdo psychedelic rumble of “Repo Man” in the second slot and “Favourite Band”, the strange lo-fi rock opera that closes the album. Soft on Crime had already proven that they can dip into these detours without losing any pop appeal, and both of these songs feel like the trio reminding us (and themselves) of a key part of their music that’s a bit less prevalent on Street Hardware. I don’t know what aspects of their sound Soft on Crime will emphasize on their next record, but they’ve earned my trust in whatever they choose to do. (Bandcamp link)
Low Harness – Salvo
Release date: December 6th Record label: Krautpop! Genre: Post-punk, art punk, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Redux
It’s a tale as old as time–a couple of British musicians bond over a shared love of arty European post-punk and underground American 90s indie rock/noise rock, polish up their influences together, and make a buzzy and inspired record together. In the case of Low Harness, it’s the story of four musicians from Falmouth who came together last year but have been playing locally in various bands for a while now, specifically vocalist/guitarist Hannah Gledhill (ex-H. Grimace), guitarist Martin Pease (ex-Hanterhir), drummer Ed Shellard (ex-Witching Waves), and bassist Alex Harmer. Frankly, the members of Low Harness have been at all of this for far too long to bother with demo cassettes and debut EPs–their first release together is a nice, full eleven-song long-player. Salvo is certainly an album made by a band who cut their teeth on Sonic Youth and Wire records, but it’s not that simple to get a handle on what this record sounds like. Aside from a couple of memorable moments, Low Harness eschew the more outwardly abrasive sides of their influences and pursue enlightenment through hypnotic, droning rhythmic rock music, non-intuitive pop songwriting, and a way of carrying themselves that does sound kind of “punk” from a certain viewpoint.
The opening salvo of Salvo, “Ready from the Start”, is a noisy indie rock masterpiece–sharp, pounding distortion and anthemic pop hooks sit side by side, delivered with equal weight. It’s a great introduction to Low Harness, even as it’s something of a red herring–the next few songs, from the sprawling “Exit Plan” to the foot-on-gas rocker “Too Long Together”, move between the extremes of the band’s sound much more subtly. A lot of Salvo’s strength comes from Low Harness continually setting up rock music in which it feels like anything can happen, even if it’s rarely outwardly shocking; they can sound like they’re willing to get their hair a little mussed up (on the title track), they’ll pull a stunningly beautiful pop melody out of absolutely nowhere (“Redux”), they can sound like they’re on edge for the entire track without falling off the tightrope (“Blood Play”). It’s a post-punk album that doesn’t scream “post-punk” in our faces, being content to reinvent this combination of fractured guitars, robust rhythms, and inspired atmospherics from scratch in their own way. I think this lends a hard-to-get-a-handle-on feeling to Salvo that drew me to it more than a lot of records that are similar to it on the surface–although the fact that it’s still a pretty powerful rock record certainly helped keep me around. (Bandcamp link)
Opinion – Troisième Opinion
Release date: December 6th Record label: Howlin’ Banana/Flippin’ Freaks/Les Disques Du Paradis/Nothing Is Mine Genre: Fuzz pop, lo-fi indie rock, bedroom pop, shoegaze Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Microrange
Congratulations to Bordeaux, France’s Opinion for joining the “two LPs in Pressing Concerns in one year” club (the Casual Technicians, Alexei Shishkin, and Mythical Motors also did it this year, and Tony Jay and Dancer both had one and a half). Hugo Carmouze, who writes, plays, and records everything on Opinion’s records on his own, is a prolific practitioner of what I’d call “lo-fi indie rock” or “fuzz rock”; the latest Opinion record, Troisième Opinion, is the twelfth album under the project name. The previous Opinion LP, February’s Horrible, caught my attention with its confrontational take on bedroom rock–it was recorded over a single evening and sounds like Carmouze intentionally pushing the limits of noise and distortion in the presentation of his shoegaze/garage rock-inspired songwriting. Troisième Opinion, conversely, was recorded by Carmouze over several years, and while there’s certainly still plenty of abrasive and noisy moments on the album, it’s much less all-consuming than on the previous Opinion album; with the songs given a little more room to breathe, Troisième Opinion is more recognizable to us as a vintage lo-fi pop, bedroom pop, and even power pop-inspired record.
The forty-five minute Troisième Opinion LP has plenty of pop music on it, but Carmouze clearly enjoys burying these hooks so that we have to work a little bit to land on them. Sometimes that entails the multi-layered walls of sound that marked Horrible, but Carmouze goes about this in other ways, too–like, for example, starting off this album with the six-minute lo-fi rock odyssey of “Neige Florale” and the strange psychedelia-tinged “Un Petit Chat Dans Mes Bras” before we get to the first single, the triumphant gaze-pop of “19”. When Opinion let the clouds part, Carmouze is more than capable of pulling off the increased visibility–there’s a delicate bedroom pop appeal to stuff like “Microrange” and “For Real”, both of which start off relatively low-key before roaring to fuzzed-out conclusions. That being said, it’s still a surprise when the band sneaks a genuine power pop song into the record’s second half–that’s “Cimetière”, which uses fuzz in a much more “Teenage Fanclub” than “Loveless” way. The surging, dreamy noise-pop of “Smile” makes a little more sense, but it’s still an impressive left turn, especially after a couple of late-record confrontational numbers in “Waking Up” and “Gemini”. Carmouze may be prolific, but he’s certainly not spread thin–right up until the Elliott Smith-baiting acoustic closing track “Pour La Nuit, Par La Fenêtre.”, Troisième Opinion sounds like the work of a musician giving it their all. (Bandcamp link)
Oh, man, it’s December! November’s over! I need to wrap this year up! But first, I have to wrap November up. So, here’s the Rosy Overdrive November 2024 playlist, featuring a bunch of brand new and exciting music, some of which has appeared in Pressing Concerns and some of which hasn’t. It’s another great one, if I do say so myself.
Mount Eerie, Two Inch Astronaut, and Vista House are the artists with two songs on this playlist.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal (missing a song), BNDCMPR. Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
“Part 2”, Smoker Dad From Hotdog Highway (2024)
Like many classic second albums, Smoker Dad’s Hotdog Highway is greatly informed and shaped by the band touring their first album on the road. That’s all well and good, but it wouldn’t amount to much if Hotdog Highway didn’t rock–which it does, enthusiastically and expertly. This is hard-charging country rock-and-roll, road-tested and successfully captured by Garrett Reynolds at Seattle’s Electrokitty Sound Studio. If you aren’t charmed by the alt-country party anthem “Part 2” that kicks off Hotdog Highway, then there’s no way Smoker Dad are the band for you. There’s more Hotdog Highway for the rest of us, then. Read more about Hotdog Highway here.
“Check Please”, Two Inch Astronaut From Check Please / Humorist (2024, Exploding in Sound)
Hey, wait a minute! Yes, beloved Maryland post-hardcore-pop trio Two Inch Astronaut are still seemingly on indefinite hiatus, but here we are in 2024 with two new songs from the group. These tracks were written in 2018 and went unrecorded before the hiatus, but thankfully Sam Goblin, Matt Gatwood, and Andy Chervenak decided to get together and record them with J. Robbins to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their 2014 album Foulbrood. “Check Please” sounds just like vintage Two Inch Astronaut–Sam Goblin’s distinct vocals have helped his solo project Mister Goblin feel like an extension of his old band, but hearing the three of them together careening through an explosive, catchy rock song like “Check Please” is a reminder of just what this band was capable of. Oh, and also Sam Goblin says the words “two inch astronaut” in the song, which is pretty cool.
“A Very Pretty Song for a Very Special Young Lady Part 2”, The Ergs From dorkrockcorkrod (2004, Don Giovanni/Whoa Oh)
Good stuff. What else is there to say? I highlighted the 20th anniversary Steve Albini remix of The Ergs’ 2004 debut album, dorkrockcorkrod, in the 2024 Rosy Overdrive Label Watch; even as the original mixes sound perfectly fine to me and it’s not like this album was hard to hear before now, I’m happy to have any opportunity to revisit a pop punk album that hasn’t aged hardly a day in twenty years (an incredibly impressive feat!). I went with “A Very Pretty Song for a Very Special Young Lady Part 2” for the playlist, and this one distills the greatness of dorkrockcorkrod in an explosive, infectious, roughly two minute package; but then again, so does “Pray for Rain”, and “Vampire Party”, and “It’s Never Going to Be the Same Again”…
“Pontoon Boat”, Orillia From Orillia (2024, Magic Mothswarm)
Orillia, the solo project from Chicago alt-country singer-songwriter Andrew Marczak, is significantly more stripped down than his bands The Roof Dogs and Toadvine. Nonetheless, Orillia is a noticeably varied debut; it’s apparent from the transition between pin-drop quiet opening track “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me” and “Pontoon Boat”, which is in another world entirely. We’re greeted by Trevor Joellenbeck’s bright mandolin playing and some excitedly-strummed acoustic guitar to launch us into what’s just an excellent folk song (I’m torn between “There’s a cave in Kentucky where the snakes all know my name” and “Gonna get a big-girl job at the hotel bar, it’s gonna make my life so easy” for my favorite part of the track). Read more about Orillia here.
“Floodlights”, Capsuna From One Hit for Trainwreck (2024)
Belgium-based, Ohio-associated guitar pop group Capsuna put out a nice cassette at the beginning of this year, but they didn’t stop there–they put out a two-track single in September, and a four-song EP called One Hit for the Trainwreck at the end of October. “Floodlights” is from the latter, and it’s my favorite of this recent batch of Capsuna material–there’s more than a little bit of the American lo-fi pop music of guitarist David Enright’s home state (check out that wobbly descending guitar progression!), but vocalist Louise Crosby gives the track a polished feel despite some of the instrumental rickety-ness.
“Yearning and Pining”, Fightmilk From No Souvenirs (2024, Fika)
Last time London’s Fightmilk appeared on this blog, it was 2021, and I was highlighting my favorite track from their Martha-esque indie-power-pop-punk record Contender. The quartet are back with a new one called No Souvenirs, and they don’t mess with what made Contender so strong in parts. There’s several choices for a highlight on this one, but “Yearning and Pining” gets right to the heart of the matter in two minutes and change–vocalist Lily Rae is yearning. She’s pining. She’s wishing you were hers, and–and so on. “Yearning and Pining” is living in the moment, preferring to roll around in the euphoria of the titular action rather than concern itself with a more concrete interpersonal world. It costs exactly zero dollars to yearn!
“Big Smile”, DAR From Slightly Larger Head (2024, Sophomore Lounge)
I checked out Slightly Larger Head while putting together Rosy Overdrive’s 2024 Label Watch, and while it didn’t end up making the list (plenty of competition this year from Sophomore Lounge), I was decidedly charmed by DAR’s “Big Smile”, an excellent underground pop song if I’ve ever heard one. DAR is the project of Chicago’s Aaron Osbourne, but it’s Sophomore Lounge through and through with label mainstays Jim Marlowe, Jenny Rose, and Ryan Davis helping to realize the off-the-cuff country-rock sound of Slightly Larger Head. “Big Smile” is a triumph, a song that is more than happy to flog its simple chord progression for all it’s worth.
“Nothingland”, Casual Technicians From Deeply Unworthy (2024, Repeating Cloud)
Noticeably less zany than their first album of 2024, Deeply Unworthy is a little sleepier and subdued, although upon closer inspection, the Casual Technicians’ bursting, buzzing, psychedelic pop music is no less complex here. The fervent, dramatic “Nothingland” might be the most affecting thing that the Casual Technicians have put to tape yet, as the power trio steer the song from its strong pop core straight into a bizarre psychedelic finale. Read more about Deeply Unworthy here.
“City Streets and Highways”, Megan from Work From Girl Suit (2024)
Megan from Work is a brand new pop punk band from New England with high-energy hooky songs reminiscent of early Charly Bliss, Chumped, and All Dogs–their debut album Girl Suit is pure catnip for fans of those bands. Singer Megan Simon’s vocals are urgent, piercing and almost emo–they’ve got pop punk showmanship down on their first record, and the rest of Megan from Work chug along with the strength to counterbalance their ringleader. “City Streets and Highways” is my favorite track from the record; it’s a second half highlight that’s just as strong a power pop single as anything else on the record. Read more about Girl Suit here.
“A Lightning Bird Emerges”, Vista House From They’ll See Light (2024, Anything Bagel)
Vista House’s latest album ups the “focused and streamlined rock and roll” part of their alt-country sound, but my favorite song on They’ll See Light is actually the acoustic folk tune that bridges the middle and home stretch of the LP. In “A Lightning Bird Emerges”, songwriter Tim Howe hides some of his best writing yet; the lyrics are surreal depictions of death, fire, folklore, sunlight, soil, animals eating other animals, and cycles thereof, but the simple refrain (which first appeared earlier on in the album in “Intro to Heaven”) is all Howe needs to tie everything together: “I keep on coming back again / Yeah, but it’s not like the first time”. Read more about They’ll See Light here.
“I Saw Another Bird”, Mount Eerie From Night Palace (2024, P.W. Elverum & Sun)
Every music website that still exists has already extolled the virtues of Night Palace, the latest triumph from Phil Elverum’s Mount Eerie. I’m not going against the grain here–it’s very good, and drew me back into the world of an artist whose most beloved works I appreciate but haven’t been as devoted to in recent years. It’s a monster double album, but–like in Elverum’s other best albums–there are plenty of moments of clarity and even brightness to cling to in the midst. One such moment is “I Saw Another Bird”, which gets to Elverum’s roots as a Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter making fuzzy pop music, even as Elverum’s writing picks up the thread of his more recent (good but hard to listen to) material–still, he’s going somewhere now.
“Just Because”, Peaer (2024)
New York indie rock group Peaer (made up of founding vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Peter Katz, joined by bassist Thom Lombardi and drummer Jeremy Kinney) are beloved by a certain subset of underground music fans; their spindly, mathy, not quite emo sound landed them on Tiny Engines in their heyday and they were a nice parallel to what was going on with Exploding in Sound at the time too. They kind of disappeared after their best album, 2019’s A Healthy Earth, but their first new song in five years, “Just Because”, picks up right where the group left off. It’s both immediate and slow-revealing–Katz’s guitar playing is quite gratifying to hear, but it takes a few listens to fully get a grip on everywhere that the six-string goes throughout the four-minute single. There’s a couple of Two Inch Astronaut songs on the playlist, and every time this song’s opening riff starts I think it’s going to be one of them, but the sweeping, overwhelming rock song that follows is all Peaer.
“Head in Flames”, EggS From Crafted Achievement (2024, Howlin Banana/Prefect)
On their sophomore album, Crafted Achievement, Paris’ EggS maintain their boisterous, party-friendly, saxophone-heavy version of vintage 1980s college rock. Charles Daneau’s vocals reach melodic perfection through sheer force, shouting hooks among the tuneful maelstrom of the EggS band to complete the ingredients for a perfect hurricane of catchy indie rock. With a strong anchor provided by the band’s rhythm section, opening track “Head in Flames” is free to push for the stars for its entire three-minute runtime, providing a powerful launching pad for an album that simply doesn’t flag or wane across its brief but potent twenty-three minutes. Read more about Crafted Achievement here.
“Troll 3”, Sleeping Bag From Beam Me Up (2024, Earth Libraries)
I love the chorus on this one. “I’ve been hiding underneath the bridge like a troll,” ah, me too, Sleeping Bag. Dave Segedy’s project (now based in Seattle after a long stint in Bloomington, Indiana) is always good for at least one huge fuzzed-out power pop classic per album, and I think “Troll 3” is the clearest winner from their latest LP, Beam Me Up. Beam Me Up is more polished-up than last year’s more informal collection Pets 4: Obedience School Dropout, but between Segedy’s stony vocals and the blown-out guitars, there will always be a “slacker rock” characteristic that is especially helpful in selling stuff like “Troll 3” (“Ruined my life, no big deal / Maybe after ten years it will start to heal”).
“Wait for Autumn”, Gentleman Speaker From Hell and Somewhere Else (2024)
The third album from Minneapolis’ Gentleman Speaker is infused with stop-start alt-rock and post-punk catchiness, equal parts offbeat new wave and sprawling guitar-centric 90s indie rock in its sensibilities, but with a clear grasp on “pop” music, as well. Hard-working until the end, Gentleman Speaker close things out with a big finish in “Wait for Autumn”, a song featuring a go-for-broke, all-in refrain that only grows in size–it’s maybe the most memorable moment on Hell and Somewhere Else, though it certainly has competition. It’s not “too much”, but it is much. Read more about Hell and Somewhere Else here.
“Snow Window”, Thank You, I’m Sorry From CYLS Split Series #5 (2024, Count Your Lucky Stars)
The four bands on CYLS Split Series #5 have all released great albums on Count Your Lucky Stars Records within the past two years and change, and the exclusive tracks they bring to this EP are all just-as-strong entries into these acts’ relative discographies. I’ve actually written about Thank You, I’m Sorry a little less than the other bands on the 7” (Expert Timing, Camp Trash, and Mt. Oriander), but the Minneapolis-originating, Portland-based emo-pop project ends up stealing the entire show with “Snow Window”, my favorite track on the EP. Between the most recent Thank You, I’m Sorry EP and their new project Mealworm, much of songwriter Lleen Dow’s best work has come in short bursts, and the quick two-minute wintry bummer pop of “Snow Window” holds up against their other highlights. Read more about CYLS Split Series #5 here.
“Tro på spöken”, Dalaplan From Delad Vårdnad (2024, Beluga)
No idea what they’re saying, but it sounds great. Dalaplan are a long-running Malmö-based power pop/garage rock group, and their fifth album Delad Vårdnad (released on even-longer-running Swedish punk label Beluga) continues the band’s mission. “Tro på spöken” (which Google Translate tells me is Swedish for “too much to say”) comes at the end of a rousing, occasionally riotous album, and it’s a surprisingly polished and expertly-crafted pop rock finale. It’s nearly a power ballad, although Dalaplan take the restraint of the opening to more fully-developed places eventually. It almost makes me wish I knew what the band were saying, although I don’t need any help with the closing “Oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh” refrain.
“Dumb Stuff”, Bedtime Khal From Eraser (2024, Devil Town Tapes)
Michigan singer-songwriter Khal Malik has been making bedroom pop for a few years now, but Eraser is the musician’s long-awaited debut LP. It shouldn’t be surprising but it’s still remarkable that Eraser sounds like nothing else Bedtime Khal has done before; there’s bits of fuzzed-out basement indie rock, slowcore, emo, and bright pop music throughout the album. Eraser isn’t “more of” any one thing so much as it’s just “more”. A tougher, more ambitious version of Bedtime Khal is out in full force with “Dumb Stuff”, which is a huge opening track with a roaring wall-of-fuzz chorus; it’s entirely Malik on the track, which is hard to believe. Read more about Eraser here.
“High Beams”, The Laughing Chimes From Whispers in the Speech Machine (2025, Slumberland)
Who’s ready for 2025? Yeah, me neither. But, when we are, The Laughing Chimes will be there for us. The Athens, Ohio jangle pop quartet’s long-awaited second album (and first LP for Slumberland) is set to drop next January, and the record’s lead single is one of the band’s best tracks yet. “High Beams” cuts through the southeastern Ohio haze with a colorful mix of new wave-y keys and synths (provided by relative newcomer Ella Franks) and Evan Seurkamp’s lighthouse-like lead vocals. By the time the song’s over, The Laughing Chimes have taken everything up another gear, cementing it as yet another lost college rock anthem.
“Captain Caveperson”, Night Court From $hit Machine (2024, Recess)
Earlier this year, I wrote about a split EP from West Coast power-pop-punk groups The Dumpies and Night Court; last month, The Dumpies put out a full-length and I highlighted a song from it in a playlist, so now it’s the other side of the 7”’s turn. $hit Machine is true to Night Court’s ethos–seventeen songs in twenty-six minutes, brief dispatches of pop music delivered with underdog punk rock as the vessel. “Captain Caveperson” barely crosses the sixty-second mark, but I think it’s my favorite track on $hit Machine. The Vancouver band assume the mantle of “slacker rock self-help writers” on “Captain Caveperson”, with the titular prehistoric figure resolving to “get something done” today (“invent the wheel, clean up the cave”).
“I’m Done Falling Over You”, wilder Thing From I Have My Mother’s Eyes and I’m Not Giving Them Back (2024, Repeating Cloud)
I Have My Mother’s Eyes and I’m Not Giving Them Back spans seventeen songs and forty minutes of fractured but melodic bedroom psychedelic pop. There’s folk music, hooks, dreaminess, and pure psych throughout, and we’re left with something that balances intimacy with adventurousness, an album that invites you in to watch it go to work. Portland, Maine’s Wes Sterrs follows his muse down some incredibly odd corridors across I Have My Mother’s Eyes and I’m Not Giving Them Back, but there are plenty of pop rewards, and none are greater than “I’m Done Falling Over You”, a nearly-perfect fuzzy lo-fi pop song that recalls the more song-forward bands associated with the Elephant 6 Collective. Read more about I Have My Mother’s Eyes and I’m Not Giving Them Back here.
“Before It’s Gone”, Radio Free ABQ From Destination (2024, Hamlet Street)
Indie rock veteran Dave Purcell recently moved to Albuquerque and started up Radio Free ABQ, and he fully embraces his new southwestern home’s desert-set roots rock/Americana. Travis Rourk’s horns and Ryan Goodhue’s accordion are welcome additions to “Before It’s Gone”, a five-minute parade of a track that’s Destination’s strongest moment as a catchy college rock record. In between the swinging choruses, though, Purcell adds a bit of strangeness and chilliness–“I’m not reminiscing about something that never happened like Norman Rockwell / When you carve it all in ones and zeroes, don’t forget my name,” he sings in the final stanza, balancing “traditional” with “exploratory” and “unsatisfied”. Read more about Destination here.
“Fair”, Dog Eyes From Holy Friend (2024, Grand Jury)
This is nice. Oakland indie pop duo Dog Eyes recently hooked up with Grand Jury Music, a label I most associate with Hovvdy and their related projects, and Holy Friend, their latest album, is indeed a Hovvdy-reminiscent collection of sleepy lo-fi bedroom pop. “Fair” is my favorite track on the album; like a lot of Dog Eyes’ material, it’s a delicate folk-y pop song where Davis Leach and Haily Firstman balance low-key instrumentation and conversational talk-singing vocals with sneakily beautiful melodies and moments of real, deeply-hitting emotion. Seems like “bedroom pop” is in good hands with these two.
“Breath”, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp From Ventre Unique (2024, Les Disques Bongo Joe)
Abundant Living’s Zachary Lipez said that this album sounds like Dog Faced Hermans, which got my attention squarely fixed on Geneva-originating art rock collective Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp. Those of us who appreciate post-punk music with ample usage of horns will find a lot of music in this vein on Ventre Unique, and while Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp get pretty into-the-weeds with it all over the course of the record, my favorite moment is the relatively straightforward horn-pop of “Breath”. The two-minute track has a couple of moments where things get pretty heavy, but for the most part it’s more than happy to lean on horns, rhythms, and vocals to get the job done.
“33s”, Commemorative Cup From For a Limited Time Only (2024)
Ben Husk and Kevin McGrath play together in Massachusetts emo-y indie pop group Sailor Down, and Husk also drums in post-punk/jangle pop band Lost Film. Their new duo together, Commemorative Cup, is I guess closer to the former of those two acts, but really it’s something different altogether–it’s their reverent love letter to 90s emo-punk groups like Samiam and Knapsack. For a Limited Time Only, their debut EP, is full of ambitious four-minute miles, but the first (non-intro) track on the record, “33s”, is the one that’s really stuck with me. Sensitive, catchy, noisy, giant-sounding–Commemorative Cup really have this kind of thing down pat already.
“Mariko”, p:ano From ba ba ba (2024, C.O.Q.)
ba ba ba is the first album from Vancouver indie pop quartet p:ano in nineteen years, and the writing and instrumentation on ba ba ba is inspired by the members’ roots. The band specifically mention formative indie pop/rock bands like Yo La Tengo, Belle & Sebastian, and The Magnetic Fields that were key in bonding the group together twenty years ago, and much of Nicholas Krgovich’s writing is drawn from his experiences growing up in the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam, where p:ano originally formed. ba ba ba is impressively coherent, but the fluttering, conversational indie pop of “Mariko” is an attention-grabber in particular. Read more about ba ba ba here.
“Wednesday, on a Hummingbird’s Wings”, The Smashing Times From Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys (2024, K/Perennial)
All the blissful psychedelic jangle-beat melodies are still here, yes, but Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys is a bit more offbeat than The Smashing Times’ last album,leaning into the eccentricities of British pop of the past across its fourteen tracks. There are some “out there” moments, but the pure pop songs of Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys stand up with the Baltimore band’s best material. I don’t know if “Wednesday, on a Hummingbird’s Wing” is The Smashing Times’ best song yet, but it’s certainly on the short list for the most straight-up gorgeous thing the band have put to tape–it’s five-and-a-half minutes of wobbly but perfect pastoral guitar pop. Read more about Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys here.
“Change the Framerate (Gloria)”, Vista House From They’ll See Light (2024, Anything Bagel)
Vista House’s previous album, Oregon III,had the feeling of a record that had been cobbled together and tinkered with for a while, allowing for some surprising choices, but They’ll See Light sounds like the work of a well-oiled rock band recording a bunch of great songs in short order because they know that they’re on a roll. After a relatively subtle and casual opening duo, though, “Change the Framerate (Gloria)” is the record’s first no-holds-barred barnburner. It’s the moment where Vista House fully lean into dizzying, bouncy country-power pop, generating more than enough momentum to propel the band through the rest of They’ll See Light. Read more about They’ll See Light here.
“Birdhouse”, Ylayali From Birdhouse in Conduit (2024, Circle Change)
Philadelphia musician Francis Lyons pieced Birdhouse in Conduit together from 2022 to 2024 at home, and it’s Ylayali at their most exploratory (especially compared to the last album from Lyons’ solo project, 2022’s relatively accessible Separation). There’s still pop music to be found in Birdhouse in Conduit, but it sits alongside ambient and droning fuzz passages, experimental electronic instrumentation, and blasts of noise. Almost-title track “Birdhouse” arrives fairly early on in the album, and after a couple of noise-filled songs, its relatively clean and hushed sound is jarring in its own right. If you’re in the right space to explore something like “Birdhouse”, though, it’s an incredibly beautiful and surprising five-minute lo-fi pop song. Read more about Birdhouse in Conduit here.
“I Fooled Me Too”, Colt Wave From Cruel Moons (2024, Too Deluxe)
Colby Mancasola and Ken Lovgren’s lo-fi guitar pop project Colt Wave first appeared on my radar via On Call (which came out around this time last year), but the California-based duo had put out several albums in the years before it, and they’ve continued their prolific streak with this year’s Cruel Moons. Fans of On Call (and of low-key, jangly pop music in general) will be pleased to hear that Colt Wave still know their way around a hook on Cruel Moons; my favorite song on the new one is a ninety-second sparkling jangle pop song called “I Fooled Me Too”. The refrain (“Sorry I fooled you / I fooled me too”) is simple but effective, although it’s the excellent guitar lead immediately following it that’s the catchiest part of the track.
“The Other Side”, Black Thumb featuring Inna Showalter (2024, Somber Sounds)
The most recent album from Black Thumb (the solo project of San Francisco musician and former Dusk member Colin Wilde) came out early last year, but we’ve still gotten some new music from Wilde this year in the form of a couple of singles. Back in September, Black Thumb put out a two-song single featuring lead vocals from Madeline Johnston of Midwife, and in November, Wilde linked up with Inna Showalter (Whitney’s Playland, Magic Fig) for the one-off “The Other Side”, which has particularly impressed me. It’s a really beautiful psychedelic folk rock tune that reaches toward Mazzy Star territory; the Paisley Underground appears to be alive and well in the Bay Area.
“Sunday Song”, Mt. Misery From Love in Mind (2024, Prefect)
Jangle pop bands will never stop writing pretty songs about how lovely Sunday mornings and/or afternoons are with you, nor should they. Hartlepool’s Mt. Misery are something of Prefect Records’ flagship act (they’ve appeared on multiplecompilations from the label, and released all their records on the imprint, too), and their platonic-ideal guitar pop is a strong mascot. Their latest album is called Love in Mind, and “Sunday Song” is a pretty good litmus test as to whether or not it’s for you–charmingly earnest, Teenage Fanclub-level tight construction, simple instrumentation but still with a surprising level of hooky electric guitars populating the track.
“Real Grandeza”, Oruã From PASSE (2024, Transfusão Noise/Gezellig/Den Tapes)
Like (I imagine) a lot of stateside indie rock fans, Brazil’s Oruã first got onto my radar due to their association with Built to Spill–one of the band’s many late-period lineups (the one that recorded 2022’s When the Wind Forgets Your Name, in fact) contained half the Rio de Janeiro-based quartet. Oruã’s latest album, PASSE, has a wild psychedelic sound that’s pretty far removed from any 90s Pacific Northwest indie rock group, but it’s right at home next to bands like labelmates Gueersh. “Real Grandeza” kicks the LP off with a four-minute excursion featuring everything from fiery face-melting guitars to dubby experimental passages–okay, yes, I see why Doug Martsch liked these folks’ style.
“I Think I Need You Around”, Ryli From I Think I Need You Around b/w When I Fall (2024, Dandy Boy)
We’re hopping on the Ryli train early, everyone! It’s not hard to do so when we see who’s in the new Bay Area band’s lineup: Yea-Ming Chen (of Yea-Ming and the Rumours) and Rob Good (of The Goods) are the quartet’s co-leaders, and the rest of the band (Luke Robbins of R.E. Seraphin on bass, Ian McBrayer, formerly of Sonny & the Sunsets, on drums) have a quality pedigree, too. Their two-song debut single wastes no time establishing Ryli as the latest jangle pop warriors to come from the Dandy Boy stable of stars–the A-side, “I Think I Need You Around”, is my favorite of the pair, with its toe-tapping beat and Chen’s subtly emotional vocals both doing a lot of heavy lifting.
“Eat Alone”, The Open Flames (2024)
The Open Flames are an intriguing new trio from London with only two songs to their name thus far. Frontperson Dave Eastman previously played in the band Say Yes, Do Nothing, while Evan Sult was the longtime drummer in immortal Seattle group Harvey Danger (and also played in Sleepy Kitty with The Open Flames’ third member, Paige Brubeck). “Eat Alone”, the band’s second and best song so far, is an interesting piece of fuzzy college rock, falling somewhere between Robyn Hitchcock and The Dream Syndicate (with a bit of Giant Sand in there, too). Eastman’s lyrics are pretty clearly about watching someone’s hospital-bound final moments, but it’s hardly mawkishly sentimental about it–sure, Eastman slips “No one has enough time to say their goodbyes” in during the bridge, but the crux of the song is the rather opaque quip from which the title comes.
“Humorist”, Two Inch Astronaut From Check Please / Humorist (2024, Exploding in Sound)
Yeah, I put both of the Two Inch Astronaut songs from the new single on here. So what? Maybe my coverage of “Humorist” will somehow set off a chain of events that leads to Two Inch Astronaut going viral on TikTok and exploding in popularity, forcing the erstwhile post-hardcore-math-EIS-core trio to fully reunite and start churning out new albums. A blog can dream. Either way, at least we get to enjoy “Humorist”, a song that’s a little weirder and slipperier than the relatively kinetic “Check Please” and thus presents itself as a classic “B-side that might be better than the A-side, but it’s not obvious about it”.
“Cutting Marble from a Mountain”, The Moment of Nightfall & Tony Jay From Winter Dream (2024, KiliKiliVilla)
On tour in Japan earlier this summer, Bay Area guitar popper Michael Ramos (aka Tony Jay) linked up with Tokyo sextet The Moment of Nightfall and recorded a 10” vinyl record called Winter Dream together. Ramos brings his slow, dreamy indie pop instincts to Winter Dream, and The Moment of Nightfall are more than capable of playing to this familiar sound and even adding a more robust, grounded (but still delicate) dimension to Ramos’ music. “Cutting Marble from a Mountain”, the third track on the record, is a fully-realized, confident jangle pop success, deliberate and measured but nonetheless triumphant-sounding; it’s the first moment on Winter Dream where the possibilities of the two acts collaborating truly start to unlock themselves. Read more about Winter Dream here.
“November Rain”, Mount Eerie From Night Palace (2024, P.W. Elverum & Sun)
I’m still not even entirely sure how much I like the new Mount Eerie album, but I’ve got two songs from Night Palace on here because the highs are really high. “November Rain” (an original song, not a Guns N’ Roses cover, if that isn’t obvious) is absolutely one of those highs–Phil Elverum spends most of the song speaking conversationally over a stumbling acoustic guitar strum, ruminating on the grotesque (and, as he observes, foolish) displays of wealth visible in his home of Anacortes, Washington, with some moments of fuzz ascension thrown in for good measure. That is to say, it’s a classic Phil Elverum song.
“Something Done Right”, The Triceratops From Charge! (2024, Learning Curve)
I already put single “We Will Shatter” in last month’s playlist, but Charge! has been reverberating in my mind long after I wrote about it. A good deal of that has to do with the record’s penultimate track “Something Done Right”, a primordial mess of caveman noise rock, mythology, evolution, and revolution. “So–monkeys ready on three, throw your wrench in the gears,” yells The Triceratops’ frontperson, John Van Atta, at the song’s climax. It’s a cathartic moment for a record that spends the bulk of its runtime either explicitly or implicitly lamenting the seeming helplessness of us monkeys in the face of grinding exploitation. Charge! has a lot of fight in it, though. Read more about Charge! here.
Hey, why not? I was revisiting the two early Yeah Yeah Yeahs EPs recently, and I really enjoyed this one, so it’s going on the playlist. Much has been written about the thing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs became a part of after these initial releases, and I’m not going to try to get into that–I just want to appreciate how cool “Our Time” still sounds in 2024. There’s not much out there that sounds like this as far as I’m concerned. It’s, like, midway between a Grifters song and a 2000s overly-earnest Big Indie anthem. Change was coming! I wish that it was a little more built around that fucked-up blues guitar and the excellent mission statement of “It’s the year to be hated,” but, nonetheless…
That’s right, folks: it’s back. Last year was the first time I conducted a Rosy Overdrive readership poll, and the results were so excellent and exciting that it was never a question as to whether or not I’d do it again. So, it is once again time for you to tell us what your favorite music of 2024 is.
The first question on the poll is simply: What are your ten favorite albums from 2024? This is the only question that you’re required to answer in order to submit (please, choose at least five), but I do highly encourage you to list your favorite songs, EP, and record label of 2024 in the rest of the poll, too.
Hey there, everyone! Welcome to the final month of the year. Within the next few weeks, you’ll find out what Rosy Overdrive’s favorite records of 2024 are, but I plan to have plenty of new-new music up on the blog, too. It continues today, with a Pressing Concerns featuring new albums from Mother of Earl, Big’n, Radio Free ABQ, and Miners. Oh, and we did have a Pressing Concerns go up on Thanksgiving (featuring OCS, The Moment of Nightfall and Tony Jay, The Innocence Mission, and Hamburger); if you were busy with family matters or other holiday business and missed it, check it out here.
Oh, and one more thing: the Rosy Overdrive 2024 Reader’s Poll is now open for voting! Head over here to learn more about it and submit a ballot by December 27th.
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.
Mother of Earl – Extinction Burst
Release date: November 15th Record label: Self-released Genre: Indie pop, alt-country, folk rock, power pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Departure Street
I first became familiar with the music of Ross Weidman last year via his homespun bedroom folk rock project Promiseland BBQ, which debuted with an inspired full-length called Murder in the Friendly City. Weidman lives in Pasadena but grew up in and until very recently lived in West Virginia–it’s where Murder in the Friendly City was recorded, and it was also where he co-founded the band Mother of Earl in 2019 with Alex Nanni. After putting out an EP and an LP in 2020 and 2021, respectively, Mother of Earl’s pace slowed–Weidman and Nanni, no longer students at West Virginia University, both moved out of state (Nanni is now in Pittsburgh). They continued to work on music together when they could, though, eventually resulting in the second Mother of Earl album, Extinction Burst. Mother of Earl is (understandably, given the full-band setup) more upbeat and full-sounding than Promiseland BBQ, but it’s not hard to see the similarities in the well-worn pop rock music the duo make together–with bits of 60s pop, roots rock, Americana, and college rock floating around in there–with Weidman’s solo material. Weidman handles the drums and Nanni sings and plays most of the guitars, but there’s a regular cast of contributors beyond them (bassists Kaleb Asmussen and Holly Foster, guitarists Tristan Miller, Liam McClelland, and John Kolar, percussionist Kris Sampson)–the revolving musical doors help Extinction Burst hold a casual feel, but the songwriting is strong enough to let us take the album seriously regardless of formality.
Extinction Burst draws plentifully from the well of “pretty pop music, depressing lyricism”–Nanni and Weidman are clearly fluent in it. The opening title track is a meandering, heartbroken lullaby of a first statement that reminds me of another great West Virginia-originating folk-pop-psych songsmith, Mr. Husband. After that, Mother of Earl give us “Life After Death”, a perky song about mortality that enthusiastically declares “Let’s live a lie!” and “Venomous Snake” (which I choose to believe is just a nice song about being a venomous snake with no metaphor attached). Mother of Earl seem to get bolder with their song construction as Extinction Burst advances–the final four tracks on the album all feel like “epics” in some sense of the word. The technicolor “I Saw Stars” finds Nanni doing a pretty solid Brandon Flowers impression for a sweeping, glockenspiel-aided piece of heartland pop, “Just When Things Were Looking Up” is Mother of Earl trying jammy, off-the-cuff retro-rock on for size, “Circus” is a precariously-stacked multi-part prog-pop denouement, and “Everything’s Gonna Turn Out Alright” is the final cooldown. “Ignore the sound above our heads / Just act like everything is fine,” Nanni sings in the verses of the final song, and the title line is qualified with an “I’m still pretty sure”. Their frontperson might sound a bit shaky in this particular moment, but Mother of Earl bring more than enough confidence to Extinction Burst. (Bandcamp link)
Big’n – End Comes Too Soon
Release date: November 15th Record label: Computer Students Genre: Noise rock, post-hardcore, post-punk, math rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: South of Lonesome
The Joliet, Illinois-originating, Chicago-based band Big’n are a key part of Windy City noise rock history. During their initial run from 1990 to 1997, they put out a bunch of singles, splits, and EPs as well as two LPs, both recorded by Steve Albini–1994’s Cutthroat and 1996’s Discipline Through Sound (which came out on legendary underground label Skin Graft). The quartet (vocalist William Akins, guitarist Todd Johnson, bassist Michael Chartrand, and drummer Brian Wnukowski) quietly returned in 2011 with an EP called Spare the Horses, and they’ve been intermittently active since then–at some point, Fred Popolo replaced Chartrand on bass, and the group struck up a relationship with the label Computer Students, who put out their 2018 EP Knife ofSin and reissued Discipline Through Sound in 2022. It all has led up to the third Big’n album and first in twenty-eight years, End Comes Too Soon, recorded by Shane Hochstetler at Electrical Audio in two sessions in 2023 and 2024. Big’n’s return to the big screen is both “bombastic” and “lean” at the same time–the music is sharp and cutting, the most mechanically pulverizing rock music this side of Shellac, while Akins is an unhinged, prowling noise rock frontperson in the vein of David Yow or even Michael Gerald. Big’n (and Akins’ voice in particular) have aged like a fine wine or moldy cheese–they’ve grown into the unflappable, unhurried rock-blacksmiths this kind of music aspires to evoke.
Big’n plow through fifteen songs in thirty-five minutes like a combine harvester–efficiently and all-consumingly. Six of End Comes Too Soon’s tracks are under a minute long and don’t even have proper titles (labeled “XMSN-17”, “XMSN-24”, etc.), but the band put just as much effort and energy into them than the “real” songs–it’s actually kind of disconcerting that Big’n fit full-on noise rock song ideas in forty seconds and it doesn’t feel any less complete than their three-to-four minute tracks. Still, I’m glad we get Big’n in larger increments too, because it allows them to really show off how well they’ve got this whole “pounding, rhythmic” thing down. “South of Lonesome” and “Them Wolves” are immutable, unmoving anchors of rock songs, and Akins is the prowling Sisyphus trying to make something dynamic out of the stone and going insane in the process. You’re not going to get any big surprises after Big’n effectively define themselves by the first few tracks, but there’s enough–the spoken-word, metallic “XMSN-40” and “XMSN-44”, the fiery, drum-led “Arkansas Death Cult”, the eternal damnation of “Capsized”–to make it feel like Big’n are pushing at their edges rather than just going through the motions. And that must be hard for them, given how great they are at going through those motions. (Computer Students link)
Radio Free ABQ – Destination
Release date: November 1st Record label: Hamlet Street Genre: Alt-country, folk rock, roots rock, college rock, psychedelic rock Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Before It’s Gone
Dave Purcell is a thirty-some-year veteran of indie rock, playing in bands like Pike 27 and Ghost Man on Second in Cincinnati and Chicago before relocating to Albuquerque a few years ago and starting up his most recent project, Radio Free ABQ. On their debut record, Destination, Purcell and his new bandmates (bassist Scott Brewer, keyboardist Ryan Goodhue, and trombone player/guitarist Travis Rourk) fully embrace the bandleader’s new southwestern habitat, turning in a desert-set roots rock/Americana album that contains bits of regional legends like Calexico, Alejandro Escovedo, Giant Sand, and Dave Alvin. Just because Radio Free ABQ’s peers aren’t hard to point to doesn’t mean that Destination isn’t a unique record, though–apparently, Purcell had been making primarily instrumental music before returning to rock with this new band, and his latest project enthusiastically throws together mid-period R.E.M.-like college rock, Los Lobos-esque Chicano-inspired rock and roll, and, most surprisingly, synthesizer/space pop-influenced “noir pop” moments in the instrumentals, too. It all amounts to a forty-six minute statement that’s a strong reintroduction to a musician who’s been around for quite a bit but still has plenty of ideas and things to say.
One of the most striking moments on Destination is the opening track “Tito (Far Away, Not Lonely)”, which combines Escovedo-style Tex-Mex rock with swooning, spacey synths to create a New Mexico “Space Odyssey”. Rourk’s horns and Goodhue’s accordion are welcome additions to “Before It’s Gone”, a five-minute parade of a track that’s the record’s strongest moment as a catchy college rock group. In between the swinging choruses, though, Purcell adds a bit of strangeness and chilliness–“I’m not reminiscing about something that never happened like Norman Rockwell / When you carve it all in ones and zeroes, don’t forget my name,” he sings in the final stanza. This exploratory, unsatisfied guiding light takes us through the rest of the record’s more “traditional” first half (marked by a couple more should’ve-been-hits in “Figure It Out” and “Far Away from Everything”) and into a more experimental, spacey second half, populated by more instrumentals (three) than songs with vocals (two). The instrumentals aren’t mere interludes, and are key to the final journey of Destination–the wandering throughout the desert with a synthesizer in “Chapala, Quizas” gives way to “Run Past Temptation”, “End of the World” (the last song with words), and “Mojave Phone Booth”, which close the record by throwing bits of blues, jazz, funk, ska, dub, and even zydeco into Radio Free ABQ’s sound. Purcell and his crew are still picking up a strong signal out in the middle of the desert. (Bandcamp link)
Miners – A Healthy Future on Earth
Release date: October 18th Record label: Flesh & Bone/Kitty Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop, fuzz pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Game Theory
Wollongong, Australia trio Miners have been flying under the radar since the mid-2010s, with a debut EP in 2015 followed by a split 7” with the similarly-named Wollongongers Chimers and a self-titled debut cassette LP in 2021. Guitarist/vocalist Blake Clee, bassist Nick Johnson (who also plays in Mope City), and drummer Wilson Harris have gotten some help from Chicago underground label Flesh & Bone (Greet Death, Doused, Gentle Heat) to get more ears on their sophomore album, A Healthy Future on Earth, and the trio’s fuzzed-out, echoing version of pop music is more than ready for primetime on their latest record. Miners do call themselves a “shoegaze” band, but they seem to be interested in the hallmarks of that particular genre as a way of beefing up their 90s-style indie rock sound (they mention Swervedriver as an influence, which I think helps explain from where the trio are coming here). Miners differ from their main sources of inspiration and a lot of their present-day noisy Australian counterparts due to their love of a good pop hook–if you (like me) find yourself drawn to the Guided by Voices-y, heavy-melodic version of shoegaze-pop practiced by American bands like Gaadge and Ex Pilots, Miners are the Aussie indie rock group for you.
A Healthy Future on Earth, like the best records in this vein, fervently believes that beauty and noise can and should go hand in hand, leading to a ton of truly remarkable moments in the album’s ten tracks. “Sapphire” doesn’t open the album with Miners’ most blatantly accessible side, but there’s still a lot of smart melodies baked into the adventurous multi-part indie rock journey. “Why Can’t I” is Miners’ burnt-out dream pop, taking a minute to get to the full-on fuzz roaring and keeping the delicate core of the track intact when they finally reach it. “Game Theory” is the kind of steady, droning underground pop song that one might pull together after listening to a lot of Sonic Youth and/or Bailter Space–plenty of bands hang their hat on this kind of music entirely, but on A Healthy Future on Earth it sits alongside noise-punk wall-of-sound excursions like “Dead Malls”, slacker rock bursts like “Fade”, and restrained, almost slowcore basement rock exercises like “Caution Horses”. A Healthy Future on Earth isn’t going to turn Miners into international stars (probably), but it’s the kind of album that suggests its creators could have a very long and fruitful partnership together making this kind of music. (Bandcamp link)
Rosy Overdrive 