New Playlist: November 2022

Welcome to the November edition of Pressing Concerns! This is the last post on Rosy Overdrive before year-end list time begins–yes, you’ll see some of the bands here again soon. Also present here are a few more selections from my 1997 deep dive, which should continue into next month as well.

Kevin Dorff is the only one with multiple tracks on the playlist this time around.

Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (missing a couple songs). 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.

“The Wind Blew All Around Me”, The Bevis Frond
From North Circular (1997, Woronzow/Flydaddy/Fire)

Even by The Bevis Frond’s heady standards, North Circular is a massive one. Over two hours of maximalist British guitar-hero psychedelic power pop—what are you waiting for? For me, it was worth wading into ten-to-twelve minute jam territory to find the hidden pop gems, of which “The Wind Blew All Around Me” is probably the best. Nick Saloman’s vocals remain forceful but can pull off tender here, and although the song does kick into gear, this is The Bevis Frond in “ballad” territory.

“Same Dweller, Different Cave”, The John-Pauls
From Bon Mots (2022, Aagoo)

Bon Mots is a tour de force of an indie rock record, jumping from refined to freewheeling, retaining an economical sound while having three guitarists, two vocalists, and a keyboard player. Phillip John-Paul is the “looser” of The John-Pauls’ two singers—his palpable enthusiasm is easily enough to match the gleeful running-around of “Same Dweller, Different Cave”’s instrumental. Read more about Bon Mots here.

“Only in Love”, The Bug Club
From Green Dream in F# (2022, Bingo)

The Bug Club’s Green Dream in F# is a fizzy, excitable pop rock album from front to back, and “Only in Love” kicks the record off with little preamble and plenty of hooks. Vocalists Sam and Tilly triumphantly sing over a barreling instrumental, chanting the title line just the right amount of times over the sub-two minute track. The Welsh band also offer up an excellent bass groove (provided by Tilly) on that track, which pops on repeat listening.

“Gay Space Cadets”, Lande Hekt
From House Without a View (2022, Get Better/Prize Sunflower)

I’ve enjoyed songs by Lande Hekt before (such as “Lola”, which appeared on last month’s Typical Girls compilation), but “Gay Space Cadets” is the one that’s really gotten my attention. The instrumental is breezy, jangly indie pop that is enjoyable in its own right but primarily serves to accent Hekt’s ace songwriting (the mega-chorus is unstoppable, but she also offers up “I know that the trees change color when the seasons change / I’m not that fucking stupid, I know that my jokes get old” in the verses).

“Sinking”, Rhinestone Pickup Truck
From Adore Me (2022, PNKSLM)

The latest EP from Tristen Colby’s Rhinestone Pickup Truck project was released by PNKSLM Recordings and mixed by Jake Orall of JEFF the Brotherhood—and yes, it does sound like an incredibly catchy mix of Weezer-esque loud power pop and garage rock, good guess. Adore Me’s opening track, “Sinking”, is basically two minutes of just hooks, and the strongest one of them (That’d be “A sinking feeling washes over me”) is a classic entry into the “making the downcast seem triumphant” part of the power pop genre.

“DABDA”, Kevin Dorff
From Silent Reply (2022)

Kevin Dorff’s Silent Reply is a meditation on death and how the people left behind view those who’ve passed; every track is about a friend or acquaintance of Dorff’s who died between 2010 and 2015. The record opens, appropriately enough, with a song called “DABDA”, a multi-part tribute to a friend that soars when it reaches the specifics of its remembrances (“We drove like maniacs, like the park was our personal racetrack / And we were Dale Fucking Earnhardts”) and dives into the grief—as Dorff puts it, “a swimming pool of shit”—elsewhere. Read more about Silent Reply here.

“Sleep Like a Baby”, Dumb
From Pray 4 Tomorrow (2022, Mint)

Pray 4 Tomorrow, the latest album from Vancouver’s Dumb, is a record jam-packed with eighteen songs of garage-y, droll post-punk that excels at nailing a very specific sound. Single “Sleep Like a Baby” is Dumb at their most accessible, adding a toe-tapping drumbeat to the verses before crash-landing into the chorus hook. And since it’s done in a minute and a half, they’ve got time for a trumpet outro as well.

“Entrance Theme”, Jobber
From Hell in a Cell (2022, Exploding in Sound)

Jobber offer up nothing but incredibly strong grunge-y fuzz rock tunes throughout Hell in a Cell, their excellent debut EP. Even considering that, it’s surprising just how much “Entrance Theme” veers into straight power pop—Rentals-esque keyboards and handclaps are lobbed at the listener, even as it doesn’t lose any of the rest of the EP’s bite. Read more about Hell in a Cell here.

“Black Box (Meigs Street)”, Nana Grizol
From Dancing Dogs (2022, Cruisin)

Coming out two days before Christmas, Dancing Dogs is effectively an alternate version of Nana Grizol’s 2010 sophomore record, Ruth. It was recorded earlier than the sessions that eventually comprised Ruth, and judging from the “Meigs Street” take of “Black Box”, Theo Hilton and company were playing looser and rougher here—although the core of this song is fully-formed already. The biggest difference between the two recordings to me is the instrumental refrain, which transforms from being led by a careening melodica here to a more refined, traditionally-Elephant Six-sounding horn chorus in the final version.

“In Space”, Connections
From Cool Change (2023, Trouble in Mind)

I’m quite excited to see that Columbus, Ohio’s Connections are back—it’s been a while by their standards! The six-piece band produced excellent lo-fi power pop records at a brisk clip in the mid-2010s, but they’ve been dormant since their 2018 Trouble in Mind debut, the underrated Foreign Affairs. So, merely hearing that they have a new album coming out in 2023 is good news. But the record’s lead single is also very good, even considering the consistent quality of Connections—the five-minute “In Space” is familiar but probing new ground, really kicking things into overdrive with that busy, captivating chorus.

“I’d Bet My Land and Titles”, The Paranoid Style featuring Patterson Hood
From For Executive Meeting (2022, Bar None)

I’d held off on checking out The Paranoid Style for a while now—I’m very glad that I finally got around to them, because their latest record, For Executive Meeting, is very much up my alley. Elizabeth Nelson is a singular songwriter and a conversational, compelling vocalist—these songs remind me of the likes of John K. Samson, Christine Fellows, and Franklin Bruno, but with a country garage rock sheen (aided in part by Rosy Overdrive favorite William Matheny on keyboards). “I’d Bet My Land and Titles” is a rambling roots rock song featuring vocals from none other than the great Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers (Key lyric for this one: “No one ever calls from Vegas just to wonder how you’re doing”).

“Her Clock Tower”, Ribbon Stage
From Hit with the Most (2022, Perennial)

Hit with the Most is the aptly-titled debut record from New York’s Ribbon Stage—it’s a punchy, brief, and fun noisy indie pop album, and the driving “Her Clock Tower” is one of the clearest highlights to my ears. Despite running under two minutes, the song still takes its time to build itself up dramatically for about thirty seconds before delving into its understated but decidedly catchy pop rock center.

“Pachomius”, Joan Kelsey
From Standing Out on the Grass (2022, Dear Life)

Standing Out on the Grass is as pleasant of a listen as its lyrics are heavy, with Joan Kelsey’s comforting, melodic vocals guiding the listener through a record explicitly about grief and loss. Kelsey’s lifting voice matches the gently flowing folk of album highlight “Pachomius”, with a wide-ranging lyric that touches on everything from the titular history figure to Kelsey breaking down outside a Trader Joe’s. Read more about Standing Out on the Grass here.

“You Said That Last Night”, The Apples in Stereo
From Tone Soul Evolution (1997, Sire/spinART/Elephant 6)

I’m not sure if Tone Soul Evolution is the best Apples in Stereo album, but (at least of the ones I’ve heard so far), it’s certainly the fizziest. The two-and-a-half-minute “You Said That Last Night” is the sound of the band still working within the relatively lo-fi confines of their Elephant Six origins, but pushing—there’s a lot going on in this brief track, and even though there’s a layer of fuzziness here, it’s not hard to hear the intricate, 60s-inspired pop song hidden underneath.

“Forever Far Out”, Dot Dash
From Madman in the Rain (2022, The Beautiful Music)

Washington, D.C.’s Dot Dash have been making an 80s college rock/post-punk/jangle pop triangulation over the course of a decade and seven records, and the opening track to Madman in the Rain is a massively successful example of their sound. “Forever Far Out” is triumphant guitar pop shot through with prominent, melodic bass, and singer/guitarist Terry Banks’ vocals are the song’s subtly emotional core. Read more about Madman in the Rain here.

“Air Guitar”, Sobs
From Air Guitar (2022, Topshelf)

The title track to Sobs’ Air Guitar is one of the most immediate, attention-grabbing pop rock songs I’ve heard all year. The three-piece band hails from Singapore, and their full-length debut is being released by Topshelf (who’ve done a commendable job getting East Asian indie rock to an overseas audience in recent years). Some of the other tracks on Air Guitar show off Sobs’ more underground influences, but “Air Guitar” is three minutes of pure radio-ready, perfectly executed pop bombast (the way the song veers from the last chorus into that guitar solo outro—that’s how you do it). 

“Baader Meinhof”, Delivery
From Forever Giving Handshakes (2022, Feel It/Spoilsport/Anti Fade)

The debut record from Melbourne’s Delivery keeps things high-energy throughout, and early album highlight “Baader Meinhoff” is a prime example of the five-piece band’s big, live-in-studio sound in full force. Forever Giving Handshakes’ lead single, “Baader Meinhoff” shows off Delivery at their pop best, barreling out of the gate with a big hook and congealing into a garage-y power pop hit. Read more about Forever Giving Handshakes here.

“The King of Soft Knocks”, Soft Screams
From Dog Stays Dead (2022, Corrupted TV)

Connor Mac seems to have no interest in resting on their laurels. Fresh off May’s Diet Daydream LP, Mac’s Soft Screams project released two EPs in October: Star Number One and Dog Stays Dead. The latter hews closer to the lo-fi power pop Mac has put out under Soft Screams and as half of Galactic Static; opening track “The King of Soft Knocks” is a two-minute stomp that’s also a great wimp rock anthem (“[I] come from the school of letting go”, in addition to the titular moniker Mac bestows upon themself).

“Continuous Hinge”, Non Plus Temps
From Desire Choir (2022, Post Present Medium)

Oakland, California’s Non Plus Temps (the duo of Andy Human of Andy Human and the Reptoids and Sam Lefebvre) have made a potent debut record of dub-influenced post-punk with Desire Choir. Opening track “Continuous Hinge” brings in guest lead vocalist Amber Sermeno, whose talk-singing holds its ground nicely with the track’s hypnotic, bass-led instrumental.

“Ghetto Godot”, The Negro Problem
From Post Minstrel Syndrome (1997, Aerial Flipout)

I’ve finally gotten around to listening to Post Minstrel Syndrome in full (another band/album I learned about through the great Scott Miller), and this feels like an album that really could have a second life in 2022 (take note, I know some Suits read this blog). It’s an incredibly accessible pop record that ambitiously drives through a handful of genres—album highlight “Ghetto Godot” is refined piano pop rock, directed deftly to accent a hell of a lyric from Mark “Stew” Stewart.

“Up on a Hill”, Gabriel Bernini
From Up on a Hill (2022)

A little over a year after last October’s You Got Me (which snuck onto Rosy Overdrive’s 2021 Year-End list), Gabriel Bernini is already back with a formal follow-up in Up on a Hill. Although Up on a Hill (the record) is something of a departure from You Got Me, its title track and lead single contains the same off-the-cuff-but-smartly-written-sounding folk rock energy. Read more about Up on a Hill here.

“Laurel Heights”, The Laughing Chimes
From Zoo Avenue (2022, Slumberland)

The latest EP from Athens, Ohio duo The Laughing Chimes is a six-song wonderland of vintage jangle pop that evokes both Dunedin and Dayton. Evan and Quinn Seurkamp show a surprising amount of world-building in Zoo Avenue, from the titular street to giddy highlight “Laurel Heights” (which is “a place for you, for me, for everyone”, Evan declares in the chorus). Read more about Zoo Avenue here.

“How It Was Before”, EggS
From A Glitter Year (2022, Prefect/Howlin Banana/Safe in the Rain)

Alright—EggS’ A Glitter Year is another record that is very up Rosy Overdrive’s alley. A Game Theory comparison got me through the door, and I don’t really hear it, but the stuff it does actually remind me of (a louder Miracle Legion, Eleventh Dream Day with a saxophone) isn’t that far off. The Paris band apparently recently added multiple members of En Attendant Ana, and it definitely does sound like big-tent indie rock—but without losing the songs in the throng. “How It Was Before” is a particularly anthemic track off the record, with an excellent male/female dueling vocal structure.

“Grim Judy”, Fazed on a Pony
From It’ll All Work Out (2022, Trace/Untrace)

Rosy Overdrive is writing about under-the-radar New Zealand bands again, big surprise. Fazed on a Pony isn’t the typical Kiwi pop that gets covered here, though—Peter McCall presents a humble but uplifting folk rock sound on It’ll All Work Out that lands somewhere in between the sparer side of Wild Pink and the busier side of Friendship. Album highlight “Grim Judy”—alright, alright, I guess you can call its twinkling verses “jangle pop” if you really want to. But that chiming guitar part is unmistakably dressing up what’s actually gorgeous mid-tempo country rock at its core.

“Just Like That”, Kevin Dorff
From Silent Reply (2022)

The grunge-y, alt-rock-tinged “Just Like That” is just as impactful as some of the more ballad-like songs on Silent Reply, if not more so. The electric structure of the song (built around a simple but effective riff) causes Dorff’s unspooled lyrics to hit particularly hard, and Dorff deftly balances the “that’s just how it is” attitude of the titular sentiment with the song’s parting lines (“I wish that I had cared for you / I wish I could have caught you”). Read more about Silent Reply here.

“Sniveller”, The Tubs
From Dead Meat (2023, Trouble in Mind)

Another month, another great song from an ex-Joanna Gruesome band. The Tubs released their solid debut EP, Names, last year, and “Sniveller” is the first taste of the first full-length from Owen Williams and George Nicholls’ latest band, although Williams is also in Ex-Vöid. Former Joanna Gruesome vocalist Lan McArdle is in Ex-Vöid, not The Tubs, but she sings harmonies with Williams here in the chorus to “Sniveller”, in which the song goes from a prowling post-punk instrumental to a soaring pop anthem. Got all that?

“Mother Nature Is Son”, The Smashing Times
From Bloom (2022, Meritorio)

“Mother Nature Is Son” is something of the reward at the end of Bloom, the third album from Baltimore’s “psychedelic twee freakbeat” band The Smashing Times. Not that the rest of Bloom isn’t an accessible album, per se, but after pushing forward in terms of spaciness and patchy, sewn-together guitar pop, the group closes things out with a strong, three-and-a-half minute pure jangle pop single. When the song shifts to the refrain halfway through, and then filters it through that brief melodic guitar solo—there’s the payoff within the payoff.

“Norman 4”, The Sylvia Platters
(2022)

I highlighted a song from The Sylvia Platters’ latest EP, June’s Youth Without Virtue, in last month’s playlist—the British Columbia jangle pop band are already back with “Norman 4”, an excellent one-off (for now, at least) single. If the harmonies and the song’s wistful, eternal-youth feeling weren’t enough to give it away, the title of “Norman 4” spells it out: the members of this band are big Teenage Fanclub fans. The song lands decidedly on the punchier side of the TFC spectrum—it’s gorgeous, sure, but it’s got the right amount of fuzz in its guitar tone.

“Julie K”, T54
From Drone Attacks (Remastered and Expanded) (2022, Ally)

Christchurch, New Zealand’s Joe Sampson is best-known to me as a member of the Salad Boys (along with, at various points, Brian Feary and James Sullivan from Jim Nothing, and Ben Woods). Before that group, he led the loud shoegaze/noise pop trio T54, whose 2011 EP Drone Attacks has recently been given an expanded reissue from Ally Records. The live-in-studio recordings and demos are interesting, but the EP’s six original songs, remastered here, still thunder satisfyingly, and the cascading “Julie K” particularly nails an excellent pop rock hook among the fuzz.

“Tyler”, dimber
From Always Up to You (2022, Dead Broke)

I don’t know too much about dimber, a Los Angeles group that declares themselves to be “upbeat music for downbeat people”, promises “charged up rainbow sparkles”, and makes a fuzzy, revved-up, poppy version of trans punk rock on their debut record, Always Up to You. Plenty of the album’s dozen tracks do the job in terms of electrifying pop rock, not the least of which is “Tyler”. It’s anthemic, melodic punk at its core, featuring plenty of “oh-oh”s and triumphant guitar leads contrasting with the song’s lyrics (“I don’t think I ever wanna leave this house again / It’s far too sunny out”).

“Lay Low for the Letdown”, Beulah
From Handsome Western States (1997, Elephant Six)

I’ve loved Beulah’s two “big” albums, 1999’s When Your Heartstrings Break and 2001’s The Coast Is Never Clear, for quite a while, but I wasn’t sure what to expect going into their less-discussed 1997 debut record. Well: it rules, and in its own way it’s just as good as those two. Its lo-fi sound is a shock relative to the shiny indie pop they’d settle on later—album highlight “Lay Low for the Letdown” finds the midpoint between The Apples in Stereo and Superchunk, which I didn’t know I needed until I heard it.

“Splintered”, Gordon M. Phillips
(2022)

For the second time in as many years, Downhaul’s Gordon Phillips has released a one-off new song as the calendar winds down. While 2021’s “The Hotel” was reminiscent of the country-rock that Phillips has made with Signals Midwest’s Maxwell Stern, “Splintered” veers away both from that song and the sparse acoustic sound of his last solo album. Although Phillips’ unmistakable vocals anchor the song as well as ever, “Splintered” finds the singer-songwriter venturing into experimental territory—it has a kind of dark, bass-driven post-punk groove, and Phillips messes with his voice a bit. It’s not quite the cinematic emo-rock of Downhaul’s PROOF—it’s just another intriguing path for Phillips to venture down whenever he chooses.

“Yuma, AZ”, Damien Jurado
From Waters Ave. S. (1997, Sub Pop)

I’ve finally gotten around to listening to Damien Jurado’s 1997 debut album, and I can confirm that he already sounded like Damien Jurado twenty-five years ago. Waters Ave. S. is, unsurprisingly, more barebones than some of his commercial-peak 2000s records—it reminds me of the first Richard Buckner album, which is an unhelpful pull, because if you know Richard Buckner you probably know Damien Jurado. Album highlight “Yuma, AZ” features horn and harmonium accents to its electric guitar skeleton.

“Spitfire Susie”, Starry Skies
From Small Wonders (2022)

“Spitfire Susie” was a real person, apparently; Susie Ross was the neighbor and friend of Starry Skies frontperson Warren McIntyre, and she passed away last year at 99 years old. “Spitefire Susie” the song, then, is the Glasgow indie pop band’s tribute to Ross; effectively a century-spanning biography condensed into a four-minute guitar pop tune that’s incredibly infectious and undeniably tender.

“Puppy Island”, Zero Percent APR
From Higher and Higher Forever (2022, Spared Flesh)

You know what, Zero Percent APR? Puppies do play on Puppy Island—you’re so right. “Puppy Island” is an album highlight hidden back in the second half of the appropriately-titled Higher and Higher Forever, a twenty-three song journey from the lo-fi psychedelic pop duo of Cody Dosier and Juli Keller. The song starts with a gentle, 60s-influenced guitar pop base before Zero Percent APR let it float off with synths and, yes, dog noises in the second half.

“Please Remember”, Subsonic Eye
From Melt the Wax (2022, Topshelf)

Rosy Overdrive has been a fan of Subsonic Eye for this blog’s entire existence—last year’s Nature of Things was one of the first albums covered in Pressing Concerns and made the end-of-year list. Needless to say, the news that they’ve signed to Topshelf Records is very welcome in this household. While the Singaporean band have a new record coming, the brief three-song Melt the Wax EP contains plenty to enjoy in the meantime, particularly opening track and highlight “Please Remember”, an electric but pensive piece of jangle pop.

“Danny Green”, The John-Pauls
From Bon Mots (2022, Aagoo)

Another Phillip John-Paul-led highlight from Bon Mots, the triumphant chugging sound of “Danny Green” effectively matches “Same Dweller, Different Cave” in its joyous 90s indie rock anthem striving. “Sometimes things in the garbage shine,” declares Phillip in the chorus, while sounding kind of like Calvin Johnson fronting a bar band. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of professional basketball can explain how that relates to the titular Danny Green, who currently plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. Read more about Bon Mots here.

“Thin As Flags”, Cindy
From Typical Girls Vol. 6 (2022, Emotional Response)

The latest entry in Emotional Response Records’ Typical Girls compilation series continues to highlight vital and perhaps under-appreciated women and female-fronted bands in the punk, post-punk, and indie pop landscapes. The latter is fully on display with “Thin As Flags”, a sleepy, molasses-slow compilation highlight that’s another pop gem from Cindy, the solo project of Karina Gill (also of Flowertown). Read more about Typical Girls Vol. 6 here.

“Minor Fame”, Big Big Bison
From Big Big Bison (2022)

Big Big Bison is the trio of Matt Schwerin, Ben Grigg, and Kelly Johnson, who used to play in a band called Geronimo!. Since then, Grigg has kept busy with Whelpwisher and Babe Report, and Johnson has the underrated Milked, and now they’re all together in a new band with a solid six-song EP to their name. Highlight “Minor Fame” sounds like a full-band version of the humble but loud and hooky alt-rock Grigg’s been putting out as Whelpwisher (see “Loud Wine Cult”, “Deaf to False Metal”).

“I’ve Got a Feeling”, Ivy
From Apartment Life (1997, Bar None)

Yes, Ivy is very good and Apartment Life (which seems to be their most beloved album) is full of dreamy but incredibly sturdy indie pop songs. The trio, which included a still-establishing-himself-as-a-generational-songwriter Adam Schlesinger, nail a particular sound of the 90s with “I’ve Got the Feeling”, in which guitars and a drum machine comfortably, smoothly provide a backdrop for lead singer Dominique Durand.

Pressing Concerns: Nightshift, Dot Dash, Husbands, Evening Glass

Welcome to the last Pressing Concerns of November! This time, we look at new albums from Nightshift, Dot Dash, and Husbands, and a new EP from Evening Glass. This will be the last Pressing Concerns before Rosy Overdrive year-end season begins, but I plan to mix in a few of these in with the end-of-year list posts as well.

I’ll link the new Rosy Overdrive Discord server here again. 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.

Nightshift – Made of the Earth

Release date: November 25th
Record label: Trouble in Mind
Genre: Post-punk, experimental rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull track: Locked Out

In February of last year, Glasgow’s Nightshift released their second record and Trouble in Mind debut, Zoë. While that album clearly sounded put together by a group of musicians intimately familiar with no wave and the experimental end of post-punk music, it also had a minimalist indie pop accessibility to it. Made of the Earth is not the proper follow-up to Zoë; it features a collection of outtakes and unreleased tunes from the same era as their sophomore record. This cassette presents an alternate version of the band, not a completely different one, but the players—guitarist/vocalist/clarinet player Georgia Harris, keyboardist/vocalist Eothen Stearn, drummer/vocalist Chris White, bassist/vocalist Andrew Doig (also of Order of the Toad and Robert Sotelo), and since-departed guitarist David Campbell—feel a bit more tuned in to the weird and insular here.

Opening track “Hologram” reflects the minimalist, hypnotic post-punk of Zoë highlights like “Piece Together”, although its doggedly-repeated rhythm-based structure puts the song nearly into psychedelic territory—a side of Nightshift that is echoed one song later in the Stereolab drone-pop of “Flower”. The harmonies and strings in “Locked Out” make it one of the more outwardly beautiful songs on Made of the Earth, albeit in a downcast, un-flashy way. The other end of the spectrum is “Landlord”, in which the band decline to trade in any subtlety whatsoever, implore the listener to “know [their] rights and legislation”, and explicitly call for a rent strike (minimalist post-punk is, in fact, good for getting a clear message across, too!).

Made of the Earth surprises toward the end with the noisy “Stimuli”, whose instrumental threatens to eat itself alive in a surprisingly chaotic turn for Nightshift. Not as striking but still impressive is the pastoral, almost-Mekons-y violin post-punk of “The Painting You Live With”, in which the band close the record by amplifying the warmth in their sound. Made of the Earth is made from the same basic ingredients as Zoë, and is a good argument for, at least in Nightshift’s hands, the mutability and depths contained within them. (Bandcamp link)

Dot Dash – Madman in the Rain

Release date: November 5th
Record label: The Beautiful Music
Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop
Formats: CD, digital
Pull track: Forever Far Out

Dot Dash hail from Washington, D.C., and over the past decade or so they’ve been flying under the radar and reliably putting out records with a familiar-sounding but welcome and distinct spin on mid-1980s college rock. In short, they’re the kind of band I love to cover on Rosy Overdrive. On their seventh record, Madman in the Rain, the group (now a trio comprised of vocalist/guitarist Terry Banks, drummer Danny Ingram, and bassist Hunter Bennett) prove that they know their way around a jangly power pop hook, and the album as a whole contains a lot of melodic and upfront bass work that nails a particular subset of 1980s new wave and post-punk.

Although they may be more committed to straight guitar pop than Wire, Dot Dash earn their namesake with their evoking of the more accessible moments of that group, and also with Banks’ vocals, which feel subtly emotional in a Colin Newman-esque way. Madman in the Rain opens with a massive pop hit in “Forever Far Out”, and the Cars and Knack-referencing “Tense & Nervous” not long after rivals it with a roller-rink synth hook in the chorus. The 60s organs stabs of “Animal Stone” and the mid-tempo jangly title track reach into other eras of guitar pop to add some color to the record’s mid-section. Dot Dash sound energetic and excited to present their catchy melodies—this carries well over into the second half of Madman in the Rain, but there’s also an unmistakable theme of mortality hovering over the record’s flip side.

It peaks out a little bit in what feels like a power meditation in “Saints / Pharaohs” (“the lonely road narrows…paved with bones and marrow”) and it fully grips the final four songs, from the harsh realization that “Everything = Dust” (“A simple FYI would have sufficed,” mutters Banks) to the sleep-induced clarity of “Wokeupdreaming” (“I’m not afraid of dying, but I’m afraid of being dead”) to the cheerful sendoff of “Dead Gone”. The dozen songs on Madman in the Rain are all solid in their own right, but the way Dot Dash use them to touch on heavy, universal topics is, perhaps, the strongest demonstrator of their true devotion to this sound. To them, there’s nothing that can’t be tackled with jangly guitar pop. (Bandcamp link)

Husbands – A Diary Index

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Exit Zine
Genre: Slowcore, 90s indie rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull track: Subject

Husbands are a Boston slowcore group that have been quietly releasing records over the past half-decade or so—A Diary Index is their fourth full-length album, in addition to a few EPs and singles. On their latest record, Husbands is still led by guitarist/bassist/vocalist Aiden Page, who also runs Candlepin Records (Garb, Poorly Drawn House, MX LONELY), and also features musical contributions from longtime collaborator Patrick Kenny, multi-instrumentalist Bradford Krieger (who also engineered, mixed, and mastered the album), and two different keyboardists/synth players (Logan Kramer and Katie Rose Byrne). A Diary Index is the kind of sparse, electric slowcore that fits in well with the relatively recent wave of Duster devotees, but there are a few other touchstones to Husbands’ sound.

Page’s voice isn’t buried throughout A Diary Index, letting the vocal melodies hold as much sway over the songs as the atmosphere the music conjures up, and the band (which calls themselves “slowgaze”) veers between simple and uncomplicated to beautiful wall-of-sound in a way that reminds me of Bedhead. The record starts off humbly enough, with the straightforward “Believe in Yrself” and the gorgeous piano ballad “Subject”. Songs like “Hanging Halo” and “Punchline” find Husbands with their amps cranked up a bit, although Page’s vocals and shimmery, floating guitar leads remain prominently in the mix. A Diary Index wanders between these poles through twelve tacks, favoring two-to-three-minute dispatches that flow into each other rather than trying their hand at six-plus minute “slowcore epics”—they’re brief but captivating journal entries. (Bandcamp link)

Evening Glass – Steady Motion

Release date: October 7th
Record label: Crazy Ha!
Genre: Jangle pop, folk rock
Formats: Digital
Pull track: Admiration, Envy, & Love

Steady Motion is the debut EP from Sonoma, California’s Evening Glass (and their second release total, following 2020’s “Lifelong Dream” single); like a good deal of new bands hailing from the Bay Area, the four-piece make themselves at home in the world of jangly, blissful guitar pop music. Evening Glass commit themselves to the quieter, subtler side of jangle pop throughout Steady Motion’s six tracks—lead singer and guitarist Zachary Carroll’s gentle vocals guide these songs through peaceful, pastoral instrumentals inspired both musically and lyrically by the vast, rolling ocean.

Opening track “Stomping Through the Cosmos” is not exactly a “stomp” per se, but the upbeat instrumental features prominent guitar leads and is one of the more outwardly propulsive tracks on Steady Motion. Evening Glass hone their languidity with the transfixing, rippling “On the Ocean” one song later, as well as with the dreamy ballad “Row Back” (which Carroll and Chris Miller nevertheless shade with some animated guitar play). “Admiration, Envy, & Love” has a mid-tempo, sticky guitar hook that, combined with Carroll’s sung-spoken words that strive to tackle universality in humanity in the form of a brief pop song, feels especially Flying Nun-esque. It’s true to say that a six-song jangle pop EP isn’t going to change the world, but what this particular one can do is make one take in and observe the world as it already is that much more keenly. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: The John-Pauls, Staffers, Smirk, Elk City

Welcome to a special Monday Pressing Concerns! It appears that I haven’t bothered with an intro to these posts for a bit, so here’s some housekeeping: recent Rosy Overdrive highlights include Rosy Overdrive Label Watch, in which I choose favorite 2022 releases from a dozen of my favorite labels.

Oh, and there is now a Rosy Overdrive Discord channel: here is a link to join if you’re on Discord. It’s pretty simple at the moment–like your favorite DIY venue, we’ve gotta get a few more people in the door before things really get going. And I have created a Mastodon account for Rosy Overdrive: find it at https://mastodon.world/@rosyoverdrive if you’re on there. I may have never linked my Instagram in any of these posts, either, so: I’m @RosyOverdrive there too.

Anyway: today, Pressing Concerns looks at new albums from The John-Pauls, Staffers, Smirk, and Elk City. This is the only post for this week–Americans, enjoy your Thanksgiving, and we’ll be back soon after. If you’re looking for more new music, you can browse previous editions of Pressing Concerns or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

The John-Pauls – Bon Mots

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Aagoo
Genre: 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull track: Same Dweller, Different Cave

The John-Pauls are a five-piece, three-guitar, two-vocalist group from Texas who make a particularly welcoming version of the vintage 1990s-inspired indie rock that you, as a Rosy Overdrive reader, probably like. It feels wrong to call Bon Mots, the band’s second album, “stripped down”, given that it’s made with three guitar players and a keyboardist (Mikila John-Paul, also one of the band’s two lead singers). Nevertheless, the record has a straightforward, no-frills sound that can be very rewarding when one has the songs and energy to back it up—and with Bon Mots, The John-Pauls absolutely do. As I never miss a opportunity to compare a band to Silkworm, Bon Mots feels like the Italian Platinum era of the band, where they would dial up any of their favorite sub-genres of indie rock on any given track and nail it perfectly.

Bon Mots bounces back and forth in terms of formality, but stays steady in terms of pop hooks. Mikila gives a regal air to the easing-in of the opening title track, the timeless-sounding “Didn’t I”, and the gently shimmering “O.O.O.”; Phillip John-Paul, meanwhile, sings loose enough to match the gleeful running-around of “Same Dweller, Different Cave” and the triumphant chugging sound of “Danny Green” (which kind of sounds like Calvin Johnson fronting a bar band). The second half of Bon Mots messes with this formula a bit, but in a welcome way—Phillip and Mikila duet in the sweet, refreshing “Kindness”, and penultimate track “No Names” balloons itself up to seven minutes merely by expanding the frame of a typical John-Pauls song. The instrumental second half of “No Names” gives way to the brief “Forgetness” in a way that feels exactly right—there’s precious little on Bon Mots that feels unearned or superfluous in any way. (Aagoo link) (Bandcamp link)

Staffers – Asleep at the Wheel

Release date: October 14th
Record label: Propane Exchange
Genre: Alt-country, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull track: Crop Rot

Although Ryan McKeever is currently based in Washington, D.C., the fourth record from his Staffers project is one of the more Nebraska-sounding albums I’ve heard this year. The Omaha-originating singer-songwriter enlists Cornhusker State musicians including Anna McClellan (piano, drums, vocals), Megan Siebe (vocals), and The David Nance Group’s Jim Schroeder (mixing) on Asleep at the Wheel (as well as a host of other musicians that give the record a full-band sound), and the album’s weary country-rock lands somewhere between Nance’s blown-out Midwestern garage rock and Simon Joyner’s more homespun folk. Group effort or no, it’s still very much McKeever’s record, with Asleep at the Wheel’s various moods (jangle pop, alt-country, folk rock) all anchored by McKeever’s dry vocals and deceptively deep lyrics.

McKeever’s writing on Asleep at the Wheel feels personal in a less-than-refined way, seeming to track his thought process through up and downs. The sweet guitar pop of “Love You More” ping-pongs between professing and longing, giving voice to some of McKeever’s interpersonal doubts, and “The Bar Is Closed” also features McKeever making an effort to spend time with someone who, he wonders, may not be as fully committed (“How do you put up with me? Is there somewhere that you’d rather be?”). McKeever pulls himself out of these spirals—find him reaching zen while listening to “classic radio” or getting distracted by a partner while trying to read a book—only to declare “Saturday’s ruined” a few songs later. “You’ve got scars, at least you’re alive,” sings McKeever multiple times on the record (in both “Bent Out of Shape” and “Day of the Triffids”), sounding like he’s reaching a different conclusion on what it means to him each time. Asleep at the Wheel is an album for wonderers and wanderers. (Bandcamp link)

Smirk – Material

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Garage punk, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Souvenir

Nick Vicario began making music as Smirk in 2020—his first two releases under the name, last year’s aptly titled EP and LP, became sleeper hits in the world of garage rock, and this year’s Material feels like a worthy continuation of what Vicario started a year ago. The record zips through ten raging but hooky tracks in 24 minutes; although Vicario gets vocal, instrumental, and even lyrical help on a few songs, Material has a “one-man-band” feel, with Vicario taking fairly minimalist structures and utilitarian percussion and infusing them with a blown-out, all-in energy. There’s a dark streak to Material—this is a West Coast, L.A. garage rock record, sure, but “Material World’s Unfair” opens the album on a pummeling post-punk, even somewhat goth note, and Smirk continues toeing the line from there.

Vicario’s vocals frequently sit a bit low in the mix throughout Material, but he’s still able to evoke paranoia and unease against the instrumentals of tracks like the torrential sprint of “Symmetry” and the careening “Living in Hell”. The record’s poppier, more “accessible” moments are also some of the most interesting ones—“Souvenir” contains 80s new wave flourishes, melodic bass hooks, and a Vicario vocal that flirts with fully embracing melody, and the mid-tempo, sauntering “Hopeless” pulls out call-and-response vocals and some nice, smooth guitar leads. “Revenge” features guest vocals from Iphigenia Foie (whose aural sneering, landing pretty far away from Vicario’s vocal style, suits the song well) and some car-alarm synths. Material signs off with “At the Pantomime”, getting some more stabbing guitars and a galloping drumbeat in one last time under the buzzer and summing Smirk up so far quite well. (Bandcamp link)

Elk City – Above the Water

Release date: October 21st
Record label: Magic Door
Genre: Folk rock, dream pop, jangle pop, psychedelic pop
Formats: Digital
Pull track: That Someone

New York and New Jersey’s Elk City have slowly but surely amassed an impressive discography, having released a half-dozen records since their debut in 2000. October’s Above the Water finds the band continuing to hone their deep, layered sound, mixing swirling, psychedelic folk rock and dream pop into their guitar-driven art pop in a way that somewhat belies their lean 1990s indie rock roots (the band features Versus guitarist Richard Baluyut on bass, Luna guitarist Sean Eden, and Above the Water was released via Magic Door, the imprint co-founded by Guided by Voices drummer Kevin March).

Lead vocalist Renée LoBue has a confidence that isn’t diminished or hidden by the rich instrumentals around her; opening track “That Someone” is a driving pop-rock tune that combines LoBue’s urgent singing with handclaps, careening organ, and a thick low-end for a hypnotic effect. The jangly folk rock of “Apology Song” is perhaps more “easy listening” in the traditional sense, blistering guitar solo aside. With only seven songs, the tracks of Above the Water really have space to stretch out—even the most “minimalist” song on the record, the mostly-acoustic “A Family”, still features violin and electric guitar flourishes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in six-minute closing track “Floating Above the Water”, which begins as an almost ambient, languid electric guitar piece before crescendoing into a crashing, post-rock finish to end the record. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: Joan Kelsey, Cheval de Frise, The Laughing Chimes, Convinced Friend

Joan Kelsey – Standing Out on the Grass

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Dear Life
Genre: Indie folk
Formats: CD, cassette, digital
Pull track: Pachomius

The latest release from the consistently solid Dear Life Records is a humble-sounding but strong entry to their discography. Standing Out on the Grass is Seattle singer-songwriter Joan Kelsey’s second release on the label, following 2020’s House of Mercy and a handful of self-released EPs and a full-length beforehand. Kelsey’s newest record is an extraordinarily accessible and listenable indie folk record, carried heavily by their comforting, melodic vocals and featuring a host of musical contributions from familiar faces to Rosy Overdrive readers (Evan Marré of Russel the Leaf, Ben Seretan, Michael Cormier O’Leary of Friendship).

Guest list aside, Kelsey is the unambiguous center of the album, with the instrumental flourishes coloring the edges of a stark collection of songs that reminds me of last year’s Dave Scanlon album. Standing Out on the Grass is openly a record about grief, written in the aftermath of Kelsey losing a loved one to suicide, the signs of which are present throughout the album. Opening track “Alone” is as pleasant of a listen (led by Kelsey’s finger-picked acoustic guitar and Connor Armbruster’s violin) as its lyrics are heavy: “I know you loved me / Even though you couldn’t say it,” sings Kelsey in the refrain, and then inverting the pronouns when they repeat the line later—and the line that gives the album its title is just as affecting.

Kelsey’s lifting voice matches the gently flowing folk of “Pachomius”, with a wide-ranging lyric that touches on everything from the titular historical figure to Kelsey breaking down outside a Trader Joe’s. Standing Out on the Grass stirs in its middle with “Hero”, in which Kelsey pushes their vocals to compliment a busy instrumental that actually features a distorted electric guitar-colored refrain. Kelsey and their collaborators color the songs of Standing Out on the Grass with just the amount of embellishments (like the clarinet in “Aiden” and the saxophone of “Survivor”) that the material deserves. (Bandcamp link)

Cheval de Frise – Cheval de Frise (2022 Reissue)

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Computer Students
Genre: Math rock, post-rock, experimental rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull track: Connexion monstrueuse entre un objet et son image

Cheval de Frise rose from Bordeaux, France around the turn of the century; the duo released two full-lengths and an EP before disbanding quietly in the mid-2000s. The instrumental group, comprised of guitarist Thomas Bonvalet and drummer Vincent Beysselance, nevertheless left enough of a mark to be remembered by label Computer Students.  CS has previously put together elaborate reissues of other less-than-remembered underground groups like Oxes and Big’n, and this year they have resurrected Cheval de Frise’s 2000 self-titled debut album and pressed it to vinyl for the first time.

Bonvalet plays an amplified classical guitar throughout Cheval de Frise; although the record fits the descriptor of “math rock” with its odd time signatures and exploratory guitar playing, this wrinkle in their setup assures that the album retains a unique sound. The songs on Cheval de Frise feel wobbly—six-minute opening track “Connexion monstrueuse entre un objet et son image” begins with the classical guitar sounding very much like a classical guitar before Bonvalet shifts into more “traditional” rock sounding music later in the song. Similarly, “Construction d’écorces d’arbres” starts off slowly and deliberately before entering into stop-and-start noise rock territory, and ending with a transcendent gallop.

Opening behemoth aside, the tracks on Cheval de Frise are surprisingly brief, frequently coming in bursts of around two minutes in length—and these songs are furthermore divided into subsections, moments even. Some of the most memorable moments on Cheval de Frise include (but are not limited to) a fleeting strut that arises in “Langue hastée” and the massive riff that briefly takes over “Lundi deux mars”—and there are a couple of seconds toward the end of “Incliné et chenu” where the music sounds like a gong being rung. All this is being created with relatively rudimentary instrumentation, as “Douche froide, harmonium”, one minute of classical guitar spiderwebbing, reminds us toward the end of the record. (Computer Students link)

The Laughing Chimes – Zoo Avenue

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Jangle pop, lo-fi power pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull track: Laurel Heights

I’m more familiar with southeastern Ohio than I’d like to be. It’s a land of Bob Evans restaurants, moderately-sized hills, and very little else. It doesn’t seem like a breeding ground for the next great jangle pop band—but Evan and Quinn Seurkamp seem blissfully unaware of this. The two teenage brothers play vintage-sounding jangle rock that recalls the best of classic Flying Nun Records and the mid-fi, wide-eyed sound of early Guided by Voices (which began a couple hours to their west). Evan is also in Patches, who released an excellent record that dealt in everything from bright power pop to dark post-punk earlier this year—with The Laughing Chimes, he and Quinn hone in squarely on the jangly side of their influences to great success on their latest EP’s six songs.

The Robert Pollard comparison is as much for their lyrics and subjects as for their sound and geography; the Seurkamp brothers build a sugary utopia on Zoo Avenue, from opening track “Ice Cream Skies” to the giddy “Laurel Heights” (“a place for you, for me, for everyone”) to the drive through the title track’s street. Evan’s vocals are pitch-perfect for this kind of music, melodic and enthusiastic while wavering a little bit in a melancholic, wistful way. The guitars on Zoo Avenue are always chiming; they soar in the first two, single-ready songs, and they shade the more pensive songs as well, like the slightly-more-psychedelic “Airplane Under Water” and the closing acoustic ballad “King with the Hawthorne Crown”. Next time I’m driving from Dayton to Point Pleasant, I’ll have to remember to put Zoo Avenue on—maybe it’ll unlock something. (Bandcamp link)

Convinced Friend – Convinced Friend

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Relief Map
Genre: Indie folk, alt-country
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull track: White Collar

The Rhode Island-based A.S. Wilson has been playing in bands for a decade at least, although Convinced Friend (produced by Bradford Krieger of Courtney and Brad) is his first solo album. Convinced Friend slots, in a big tent sense, under the “folk-country” umbrella due to Wilson’s occasional use of acoustic instruments and some hints of a southern twang in the Louisiana-born singer’s voice. Really, though, Wilson is a singer-songwriter above any kind of genre adherent, taking influences from artists like David Bazan who let the core of the song dictate its dressings, whether that’s stark or layered, dream pop or country rock.

Convinced Friend opens with the full-sounding, fuzzy folk rock of “White Collar”, the cascading guitars never overwhelming Wilson’s earnest lyrics that take stock and stare down the overwhelming nature of modern life. The rest of the record isn’t as much of a “rock” album as its opener would suggest, but there’s still plenty going on in Convinced Friend. Songs like “Sackcloth” and “Taken Apart” feature layered dream pop synths and R.E.M.-esque southern jangle pop guitars hidden in the mix, and album closer “All at Once” takes this sound to hypnotic levels. Elsewhere, Wilson embraces folk troubadour mode, like in the roaming alt-country of “Safeway” and the mostly-acoustic “Wander”. “Muttering God” is Convinced Friend’s other “rocker”, with steady bass-driven verses cresting in the chorus. Wilson holds together the various aspects of Convinced Friend’s sound nicely, creating a record that sounds of a piece. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Rosy Overdrive Label Watch 2022

Rosy Overdrive has long been vocal about its love of small, independent record labels. They’ve consistently been a key way to find good, varied, new-to-me music, and they remain a valuable, people-based resource for music discovery in an age where the “industry” is openly trying to steer us away from such things. I’ve been thinking about labels a lot recently, and I’ve decided to check in on a dozen of my favorite still-active labels and see what they’ve been up to this year as a way of acknowledging their import. I’ve chosen my favorite 2022 release from each of these labels, plus an “honorable mention” (which can be either my second favorite, something I thought didn’t get as much attention as it should’ve, or something I didn’t have time to review in Pressing Concerns but still merits a closer look).

This is not a “best record labels of 2022” list (although there would, of course, be some overlap with such a list). I chose these labels based on their output from the last half-decade or so; some of these imprints had a relatively lean year this year. Pulling selections from those ones was, in a way, more fun, as it put me onto some records I wouldn’t have listened to otherwise. With this in mind, I’d encourage anyone who’s unfamiliar with any of these record labels to check out their back catalogs beyond 2022.

To read about many more records, some released by these labels, as well as by many other great ones I didn’t have space for here, visit the site archive.

Lame-O

RO Pick: Mo Troper, MTV

The fifth record from Portland’s Mo Troper (hence the “V”) is the power pop songwriter’s first for Lame-O, and it picks up the off-the-cuff-thread left hanging by last year’s Dilettante. Frequently recorded with in-the-red fuzziness, MTV swings from spare and acoustic to noisy and chaotic but remains compelling throughout. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Big Nothing, Dog Hours

The ten tracks of Dog Hours evoke a very specific period of beginning-of-the-90s “college rock”—bands like late-period Replacements/early Paul Westerberg solo material, The Lemonheads, and Buffalo Tom. There’s a weariness to Dog Hours, but it doesn’t sacrifice hooks or pop songwriting either—it makes messiness and uncertainty sound simple and breezy. (Read more)

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Dazy, OUTOFBODY / Dust Star, Open Up That Heart / U.S. Highball, A Parkhead Cross of the Mind)

Feel It

RO Pick: CLASS, Epoca de Los Vaqueros

The debut record from Tucson’s CLASS is an exhilarating eight tracks and twenty minutes’ worth of garage-y punk rock that contains moments of sneering 70s punk, glam-inspired power pop, and hooky 90s indie rock; Epoca de Los Vaqueros hits all the great hallmarks of a Feel It Records release with time to spare. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Green/Blue, Paper Thin

Paper Thin is Green/Blue’s second record of 2022 (following January’s Offerings) and finds the Minneapolis quartet absolutely nailing a particular subset of modern post-punk music. It’s unabashedly guitar-forward in a garage rock way, but it also embraces a dark, reverb-heavy sound that gives it an unexpected but welcome weight. (Read more)

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Crime of Passing, Crime of Passing / Delivery, Forever Giving Handshakes / Freak Genes, Hologram / Private Lives, Private Lives / Romero, Turn It On / Smirk, Material / Spread Joy, II / Star Party, Meadow Flower / Why Bother?, Lacerated Nights)

Post Present Medium

RO Pick: Chronophage, Chronophage

The third record from Austin’s Chronophage is a collaboratively-driven pop album that lets its charms sneak up on you. Chronophage has a looseness to it reflecting the band’s DIY punk ground, while the intricacy of songs like “Spirit Armor” and “Love Torn in a Dream” are developed so seamlessly that they don’t feel incongruous with the more straightforward numbers.

Honorable Mention: Non Plus Temps, Desire Choir

Non Plus Temps is a new Oakland, California duo made up of Andy Human (of Andy Human and the Reptoids) and music writer Sam Lefebvre, and with Desire Choir, they’ve made a potent record of kinetic, dub-influenced post-punk. Hypnotic basslines dance through eleven songs featuring a variety of guest instrumentalists and even vocalists.

Dear Life

RO Pick: MJ Lenderman, Boat Songs

MJ Lenderman continues his recent golden run of releases with Boat Songs, a front-to-back classic album that shows off Lenderman’s songwriting talents nonstop. The lo-fi fuzzy Lenderman is still present in songs like “SUV” and “Dan Marino”, and they get along nicely with the country rock groove of “You Have Bought Yourself a Boat” and the tender “TLC Cage Match”. (Read more)

Honorable Mentions: Shane Parish, Liverpool and The World Without Parking Lots, You’ll Have to Take My Word for It

I’ve covered a huge amount of Dear Life releases this year, but I wanted to cheat here and give a little space to two albums I didn’t have time to get around to. Shane Parish converts sea shanties to instrumental, electric guitar-based post-rock in Liverpool, and Ethan T. Parcell’s The World Without Parking Lots presents ten strong tracks draped in humble ambient folk with You’ll Have to Take My Word for It.

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Courtney and Brad, A Square Is a Shape of Power / Joan Kelsey, Standing Out on the Grass / Little Mazarn, Texas River Song / Anne Malin, Summer Angel / Ylayali, Separation)

Comedy Minus One

RO Pick: The Rutabega, Leading Up To

Leading Up To is The Rutabega’s first record since 2016, and the South Bend, Indiana duo come back after six years in full force. Singer/guitarist Joshua Hensley’s songwriting and vocal delivery are open-hearted and delicate, and he and drummer Garth Mason fully flesh these songs out with winding, adventurous guitar playing and pounding percussion. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Hurry Up, Dismal Nitch

Comedy Minus One only released two records this year, but thankfully they’re both worth highlighting. Hurry Up is a fierce Pacific Northwest punk trio featuring Westin Glass and Kathy Foster of The Thermals and Maggie Vail of Bangs—if bands like X, Dead Moon, and the early roster of Kill Rock Stars are your favorites, then Dismal Nitch is for you. (Read more)

Exploding in Sound

RO Pick: Mister Goblin, Bunny

Sam Goblin has already established himself as an ambitious and talented songwriter post-Two Inch Astronaut, and his third record as Mister Goblin has added another wrinkle: a full band (bassist Aaron O’Neill and Options’ Seth Engel on drums) that is capable of realizing and elevating his songs without homogenizing them or stunting their evolution, whether it’s blistering post-hardcore or delicate indie folk. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Disco Doom, Mt. Surreal

The latest record by long-running Swiss duo Disco Doom is called Mt. Surreal, which is a good name for the album. Its eight songs climb and build to heady heights, but find time to explore plenty of weird, off-the-cuff sidebars along the way in a manner befitting their 90s indie rock influences.

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Jobber, Hell in a Cell / Kal Marks, My Name Is Hell / Pet Fox, A Face in Your Life)

Trouble in Mind

RO Pick: Partner Look, By the Book

Partner Look’s debut record, By the Book, is a nonstop pleasant listen. The Melbourne quartet (featuring sisters Ambrin and Anila Hasnain and their partners Dainis Lacey and Lachlan Denton) shuffle through a dozen sparking indie pop songs, led by both shimmering synths and breezy, jangly guitars.

Honorable Mention: CB Radio Gorgeous, Tour Tape ’22

Recorded so that the band could have some music to sell on, yes, a tour, Tour Tape ’22 is an intriguing look at an up-and-coming Chicago punk band and a solid record in its own right. Featuring members of bands like C.C.T.V. and Negative Scanner, CB Radio Gorgeous rip through seven catchy, punchy garage punk tunes in a way that reflects the quartet’s experience.

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Nightshift, Made of the Earth)

Don Giovanni

RO Pick: Ex-Vöid, Bigger Than Before

Bigger Than Before is the full-length reunion of Joanna Gruesome singer-songwriters Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams, and they’ve created a big, hooky, indie pop record that’s got just a bit of an edge to it. It’s power pop at its wistful best, with McArdle and Williams’ harmonies being shot through with just enough noisiness to punch the songs up a tad.

Honorable Mention: Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires, Old-Time Folks

Old-Time Folks and Bigger Than Before are essentially 1A and 1B; it’s rare for a label to put out two records of this caliber in the same year. Lee Bains has been using his fiery southern punk rock to make grand statements effectively since he started The Glory Fires, and Old-Time Folks is no exception. It rocks as hard as Youth Detention and Dereconstructed at points, but also gives songs like “Rednecks” ample room to breathe.

Sophomore Lounge

RO Pick: Ace of Spit, Ace of Spit

St. Louis’ Ace of Spit are runaway-train garage rockers who embrace a proto-punk wildness and maximum amp-cranked distortion on their self-titled debut record. The songs on Ace of Spit are fuzz-drenched, surf-rock-flavored lasers, and all of them do their dirty work economically except for the eleven-minute journey of closing track “Kaw-Tikvah”.

Honorable Mention: Dan Melchior, CB Odyssey

“It’s a curse, but it could be worse / We could be in the back of a hearse,” sings Dan Melchior in the chorus of the lo-fi country tune “A Translucent Sultana”. This is the tightrope the British-born, North Carolina-based singer-songwriter walks on CB Odyssey, a record that occasionally indulges in contempt at the mundane world but attempts to contextualize it rather than be consumed by it.

Slumberland

RO Pick: Kids on a Crime Spree, Fall in Love Not in Line

Bay Area noise pop trio Kids on a Crime Spree have been kicking around for a decade or so, but it took until 2022 for a full-length record of theirs to emerge, and Fall in Love Not in Line doesn’t disappoint. Plenty of fuzzy, reverb-y pop songs that reflect the Bay Area trio’s “singles band” past abound, but the record takes its 25-minute runtime to expand their sound a little bit as well. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Papercuts, Past Life Regression

Choosing two from Slumberland was the hardest one of these to do, as their releases have been uniformly, consistently sublime this year. In the end, I will go with Past Life Regression, the eighth record from Jason Quever’s Papercuts, which seems to have flown under the radar a bit. It’s a layered, lightly psychedelic and folky dream pop album that’s busy without sounding cluttered. (Read more)

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Artsick, Fingers Crossed / Jeanines, Don’t Wait for a Sign / The Laughing Chimes, Zoo Avenue / Peel Dream Magazine, Pad / The Reds, Pinks & Purples, They Only Wanted Your Soul)

12XU

RO Pick: Winged Wheel, No Island

No Island is truly a four-part collaborative record, pieced together remotely by a group of long-time indie rockers in drummer Fred Thomas, guitarist/bassist Cory Plump, guitarist Matthew Rolin, and vocalist Whitney Johnson. The album’s eight songs are hazy, dense, captivating indie-jam-rock–Thomas’ insistent drumming draws you in early on and, while Winged Wheel slow things down a bit later, it’s never by too much or for too long.

Honorable Mention: Lewsberg, In Your Hands

Originally released digitally in late 2021, 12XU put out Dutch indie rock band Lewsberg’s third album on vinyl in April. In Your Hands finds what had been a quartet reduced to a three-piece, and the 23-minute “mini-album” shifts the band’s sound toward minimalist, Velvets-esque indie guitar pop that still contains shades of the 90s underground rock influences that had previously animated the band.

Mt.St.Mtn.

RO Pick: The Intelligence, Lil’ Peril

With their eleventh album, The Intelligence continue to occupy a unique position within the frequently limiting world of garage punk. Lil’ Peril’s nine songs flirt with synths and electronics, hit as hard as anything in the rhythm section, and play with minimalism and open space in a way that reflects Intelligence leader Lars Finberg’s dub influences. (Read more)

Honorable Mention: Massage, Oh Boy

A reissue, but too good to pass up highlighting here. Originally released in 2018, the debut record from Los Angeles five-piece group Massage is a collection of songs that could pass as lost college rock singles shot through with a “rainy day” dreamy feeling. Oh Boy is a classic jangle pop album, hopping from slow and wistful to peppy and upbeat but always offering up gripping melodies. (Read more)

(Also reviewed on Rosy Overdrive: Flowertown, Half Yesterday / R.E. Seraphin, Swingshift / Tony Jay, Hey There Flower)

Pressing Concerns: Delivery, The Sonora Pine, The Rutabega, Garb

Delivery – Forever Giving Handshakes

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Feel It/Spoilsport/Anti Fade
Genre: Garage rock, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull track: Baader Meinhof

The latest export from the fertile Australian garage punk scene, Melbourne’s Delivery are a five-piece group that, prior to Forever Giving Handshakes, only had a couple of singles to their name. Despite being a relatively new band, their debut full-length record sounds sharp and well-honed with a live-in-studio feel, reflective of the heavy gigging the quintet have done over the past year and a half. The range of Forever Giving Handshakes is also notable—a garage rock record where every song isn’t the same two-minute screed, it contains synths without it falling cleanly under “synthpunk” and offers up power pop and post-punk moments without either tipping the scales. Adding to the variety on the record, all the band’s members sing—even drummer Daniel Devlin is credited with backing vocals.

The first three songs on Forever Giving Handshakes sketch out the full spectrum of Delivery—the record opens on a surprisingly deft note with the tension-building group chant of “Picture This”, lets loose into a vintage garage rock ripper in “Poor-to-Middling Moneymaking”, and brings out a big synth-hook-featuring power pop single in “Baader Meinhof”. Delivery keep the energy high throughout—there’s no slouching throughout the midsection of Forever Giving Handshakes, which hops through the bass-led, spoke-sung stomp of “No Homes”, the spaghetti-punk strut of “The Complex”, and the giant-sounding “Lifetimer”. Nor does the back end of the record peter out, featuring a couple stretching-out moments in “Born Second” and closing track “Best Western”. Brevity is typically the name of the game when it comes to this kind of music—Delivery absolutely did not have to turn in a forty-minute record with little-to-no fat on it for their debut record to be a success, but that’s what Forever Giving Handshakes is. (Bandcamp link)

The Sonora Pine – II (2022 Remaster)

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Husky Pants/Touch & Go
Genre: Slowcore, 90s indie rock, post-rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Long Ago Boy

The Sonora Pine rose from the ashes of Louisville post-rock group Rodan after their 1995 dissolution, formed from half of that band’s final lineup (bassist/vocalist Tara Jane O’Neil and drummer Kevin Coultas) with the addition of violinist Samara Lubelski and guitarist Sean Meadows. As hinted at by that lineup, The Sonora Pine veered hard away from the occasionally scorching post-hardcore side of Rodan and instead probed the empty spaces in between—something that became even more true on their second and final record, made after the departure of Meadows. Originally put out by Quarterstick, the especially spooky sub-label of Touch & Go Records, Ryley Walker’s Husky Pants Records and Touch & Go have remastered and re-pressed II twenty-five years after its 1997 release.

O’Neil handles all guitar duties on II, and while she had already amassed a notable discography between Rodan and The Sonora Pine’s self-titled debut, her playing on this record goes a long way towards cementing her place as the indie rock elder she is today. The songs on II stretch themselves out confidently, rising and falling while O’Neil’s guitar and Lubelski’s violin twist around each other. Songs like “Weak Kneed” and “Baby Come Home” are incredibly restrained, forcing the listener to train their full attention on the two string instruments’ interplay, O’Neil’s vocals fading in and out in the former and disappearing entirely in the latter.

Not everything on II is that stark, but it’s still by and large music in which to get completely lost. The two most rousing moments on II are the opening and closing tracks; the multipart “Eek” features prominent drum work from Coultas, while the eight-minute finale of “Linda Jo” finds O’Neil and Lubelski building an aural ladder to pull the listener out of II’s foggy valley interior before floating off at the end. (Bandcamp link)

The Rutabega – Leading Up To

Release date: October 28th
Record label: Comedy Minus One
Genre: 90s indie rock, power pop, emo-rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull track: Fences

The Rutabega is a South Bend, Indiana indie rock duo featuring the talents of singer-songwriter/guitarist Joshua Hensley and drummer Garth Mason. Hensley began self-releasing music as The Rutabega twenty years ago; Leading Up To is the second Rutabega record on Comedy Minus One (Silkworm, Eleventh Dream Day, Hurry Up) and first record under the name since 2016. Hensley’s songwriting and vocal delivery are open-hearted and delicate, and he and Mason blow these cores up with winding, adventurous guitar playing and pounding percussion. Leading Up To is an album made by the kind of band whose frontman who would record a Fountains of Wayne tribute EP and also be associated with the Steve Albini-originating PRF scene.

Leading Up To opens with a pair of sharp guitar pop tunes in the soaring “Plague” and the head-shaking “Fences”—both of them would be the “single track” on most records of this ilk, but the chorus of “Angles” a few tracks later arguably outshines both of them. One doesn’t have to wait too long in the record before The Rutabega show their headier side, however—the five-minute tension-building “Unsilent” really taps into something primal, and even that doesn’t prepare one for the ten-minute “Gone”, which repeats the title line over an oceanic instrumental in a transcendent way. The first five songs on Leading Up To are so strong that the last few tracks risk getting outshone, but there are surprises there, too—the dark groove, handclaps, and Hensley falsetto of “Barely” make it the weirdest song on the record, for one. There’s more than enough on Leading Up To to make it a substantial record all the way through. (Bandcamp link)

Garb – Stiff As a Feather

Release date: September 9th
Record label: Candlepin
Genre: 90s indie rock
Formats: Digital
Pull track: Shatter / Photoshop

Cathedral City, California’s Garb are a quartet that, like several other bands on their label home of Candlepin Records, probe the dusty and downcast corners of 90s indie rock. I wrote about the Poorly Drawn House record from Candlepin earlier this year; Garb’s sophomore record is less like that band’s haunted post-rock and more of an amalgamation of Duster-esque spacey slowcore, Grandaddy bummer pop, and sprawling, Modest Mouse-esque rural Western indie rock. Stiff As a Feather sees Garb transitioning from the solo project of M. Carrick O’Dowd to a collaborative, full-band sound with the ability to pull off the lengthy instrumental passages and soundscapes that shade the album.

Stiff As a Feather traffics in grounded but frayed indie rock, as evidenced by early tracks like the distant-yet-also-up-close-sounding “Comatose (Nothing Matters When I’m with You)” and the subtle but melodic instrumental of “Rotting in the Garden”. The straightforward, pop-Doug Martsch opening of “Shatter / Photoshop” is somewhat jarring coming after those songs, but it too drifts off eventually. The rest of the record travels through both lengthy indie rock journeys (“Tooth + Nail”, the final couple of tracks), and more straightforward slowcore-adjacent 90s indie rock tunes (“Birds”, “Mallard”). Garb come off engaged and focused throughout Stiff As a Feather, sounding as weary and beaten-down as the music requires, but never lethargic. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: Heavenly, Gold Dust, Shaki Tavi, Thank You Lord for Satan

What’s this? It’s a Tuesday edition of Pressing Concerns! This one tackles an all-timer in Heavenly‘s recently reissued debut album, plus new albums from Gold Dust, Shaki Tavi, and Thank Your Lord for Satan.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can browse previous editions of Pressing Concerns or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Heavenly – Heavenly Vs. Satan (Vinyl Reissue)

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Skep Wax
Genre: Twee, indie pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl
Pull track: Lemonhead Boy

Amelia Fletcher and Robert Pursey of Heavenly didn’t found Skep Wax Records merely to revisit the past. Already, they’ve used the relatively new label to release new music from their current bands Swansea Sound and The Catenary Wires, as well as a record from their long-running indie pop peers The Orchids and a compilation of new material from many early-Sarah Records-era bands and musicians who are still at it. With that in mind, it feels like they’ve more than earned a look back towards what was their most beloved band, Heavenly. Skep Wax is planning to reissue all four Heavenly LPs on vinyl over the next two years, and it begins this week with their re-pressing of 1991’s Heavenly Vs. Satan, thirty years and change from its initial release on Sarah.

Although Heavenly Vs. Satan would eventually be released in the United States on K Records, and Calvin Johnson would sing on one of the band’s later releases, Heavenly always fell more on the “stately” side of twee music than their American counterparts’ ramshackle nature. The band already had a firm foundation by their first full-length—the steady rhythm section of drummer Matthew Fletcher and Pursey on bass, the bright, frequently arpeggiated guitar playing of Amelia Fletcher and Peter Momtchiloff, and Amelia’s conversational but melodic vocals, all of which are on display in the perfect pop of opening track “Cool Guitar Boy”. This version of the band excelled at this breezy jangle pop, with “Shallow” and “Don’t Be Fooled” particularly standing out as highlights.

Heavenly’s punk influences are a subtle but notable ingredient in the eight tracks of Heavenly Vs. Satan, mainly traceable through the lack of extra adornment on these songs (they were still a ways away from adding keyboardist Cathy Rogers) and the frequently brisk tempo with which they played them. The refrain of “Boyfriend Stays the Same” is particularly loud and punchy, and songs like “It’s You” and “Lemonhead Boy” are pleasing-sounding sprints.

The Skep Wax reissue of Heavenly Vs. Satan also includes the band’s first two Sarah Records singles, and seeing as it’s being done by members of the band themselves, it’s a case of collecting similarly-fitting material together rather than just slapping on some bonus tracks for the sake of bonus tracks. The zippy pop of “Over and Over” and “Wrap My Arms Around Him” in particular sound as good as anything from the LP proper. If you haven’t heard this record, it’s pretty essential listening for Rosy Overdrive readers, and even if you have, this is a good a time as any to revisit. See you next year for Le Jardin de Heavenly. (Bandcamp link)

Gold Dust – The Late Great Gold Dust

Release date: November 4th
Record label: Centripetal Force
Genre: Folk rock, psych rock, fuzz-folk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Pull track: A Storm Doesn’t Hurt the Sky

Last year, Kindling’s Stephen Pierce debuted his new solo project Gold Dust with a self-titled debut album, an intriguing record that retained the fuzz-drenched reverb of his old shoegaze band while directing this sound toward singer-songwriter folk rock. Pierce is back with a second Gold Dust album about a year after the first, and The Late Great Gold Dust finds the project being a bit bolder in combining noise and pop song structures. It’s not a huge departure from Gold Dust—if that record resonated for you, its follow-up absolutely will as well—but it feels like Pierce is more willing to let a crashing drumbeat or synth touches briefly rise up in the middle of the songs. The doom folk of the first half of opening track “Go Gently” exemplifies the project’s new sonic territory from the get-go, symbolically capturing the darkness in some of the record’s lyrics.

The second half of “Go Gently” contains a notable shift toward the cavernous, hypnotic, but catchy folk rock that’s closer in sound to Gold Dust—and side one highlights “Mountain Laurel”, “A Storm Doesn’t Hurt the Sky”, and “Larks Swarm a Hawk” are all great additions to this side of Gold Dust. The second half of The Late Great Gold Dust retains the flip side’s surface accessibility, even as Pierce doesn’t sound like he’s always in the spirits to match—“Life is bad, at least it’s short,” he sings gorgeously in “Unreliable Narrator”, and he uses the sugary sweet, TV-theme-esque melody of “All Things Aside” to remark that “time makes an ass of us all, it’s a remarkably embarrassing crawl”. Even late into the album, Gold Dust continues building intricate, ear-catching songs, like the western guitar swings that mark “Weird Weather” and the rolling country rock of “Catalpa Bloom”. The Late Great Gold Dust never stops requiring the listener to take in the breathtaking with the dour. (Bandcamp link)

Shaki Tavi – Shaki Tavi

Release date: November 4th
Record label: Mutation
Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop, fuzz rock
Formats: Digital
Pull track: Hopeless // Devoted

Los Angeles’ Shaki Tavi is a loud rock band led by Leon Mosburg, and the project’s self-titled debut record is a collection of eight in-the-red pop songs that are quite catchy underneath the fuzz. Shaki Tavi is being released by Mutation Records, who also put out the Clear Capsule EP at the beginning of the year, and that’s a good sonic starting point for this record, albeit with less 90s alt-rock revivalism and more straight shoegaze. Shaki Tavi is a six-piece group, featuring three guitarists and a keyboard player, and it’s apparent from opening track “Voices” that they’re going to make the noise of (at least) six people. It’s also apparent that Shaki Tavi isn’t merely content to be a blunt force instrument, judging by Mosburg’s calming, even vocals that sit right in the middle of the song.

Shaki Tavi continues the sonic barrage from that point, and it continues offering rewards for enduring it as well; “Believe in Everything” features melodic guitar leads floating over the instrumental storm, single “Hopeless // Devoted” contains a huge, stomping chorus, and the propulsive noise punk of “The Arm” is positively lean by Shaki Tavi standards. Although they’re still loud, some songs on Shaki Tavi probe different depths, like the dream pop of “Apple Eyes” and the desert psychedelia of “Crime” (featuring guest vocals from Emma Maatman of Dummy). Shaki Tavi is a heavy record that finds plenty of varied angles to present its core sound. (Bandcamp link)

Thank You Lord for Satan – Thank You Lord for Satan

Release date: November 4th
Record label: Buh
Genre: Neo-psychedelia, dream pop, psychedelic folk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: A Million Songs Ago

Thank You Lord for Satan is the Lima, Peru-based duo of Paloma La Hoz and Henry Gates, both of whom have played in several Lima bands before this recent collaboration, and both trade off lead vocal duties in their newest project as well. Their self-titled debut record reminds me a bit, spiritually, of the Courtney and Brad album from earlier this year—it’s the sound of two talented singer-songwriters trying on several different musical styles, with compelling results. The sleepy guitar pop of “A Million Songs Ago” opens Thank You Lord for Satan with a crisp arpeggio that eventually builds to a shoegaze-evoking, fuzzy full band conclusion.

The mid-tempo march of “Wet Morning” is the other rock band peak of Thank You Lord for Satan, dipping its toe into heady psychedelia. The record’s quieter moments deliver as well. “Conversations Al Amanecer” finds a midpoint between dream pop and dub, riding a steady bassline across a handful of minimal but effective instrumental flourishes, and two of Gates’ songs—the lush chamber pop of “Text Message” and the unadorned folk of “Sad Song”—showcase the band’s subtlety. The album ends with “Divine Destiny”, a lightly-bouncing piano-based tune that, in true Thank You Lord for Satan fashion, doesn’t really sound like anything else on the record but is a successful journey. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement, Kevin Dorff, Jobber, Nick Wheeldon’s Demon Hosts

It is time for the first Pressing Concerns of November! In this edition: new albums from Kevin Dorff and Nick Wheeldon’s Demon Hosts, the debut EP from Jobber, and a reissue of the discography of Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement. The October Rosy Overdrive playlist went up earlier this week, so check that out too if you have not yet.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can browse previous editions of Pressing Concerns or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement – Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement

Release date: November 4th
Record label: American Dreams
Genre: Funk, R&B, experimental rock, soul
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull track: Turn Da Fuckin’ Lights Back On

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Chicago poet, artist, and singer-songwriter Marvin Tate was the bandleader of The D-Settlement, a massive group that adorned Tate’s writing with everything from funk and rock to soul and reggae over three records, all the while remaining in relative obscurity. American Dreams Records has taken up the task of making 1997’s Partly Cloudy, 1999’s The Minstrel Show, and 2002’s American Icons available to a wider audience—an endeavor which feels overdue by the host of notable musicians who either contributed to or are quoted in the notes for the reissue (Ben LaMar Gay, Angel Olsen, Eli Winter) alone, to say nothing of the actual music contained therein.

Tate’s vision for the D-Settlement appears to already have been fully in place with Partly Cloudy, even as the record (in which only Tate and C.J. Bani receive writing credits, as opposed to the other two, which are credited to “The D-Settlement”) feels a bit more barebones than the following two. Lyrically, Tate was already hopping from strand to strand of the social fabric he was observing in Chicago, and The D-Settlement were already shooting out funk-hop (“Turn Da Fuckin’ Lights Back On”), piano ballads (“Insomnia in NYC”) and dub reggae (“Who Sold Soul”).

The Minstrel Show feels like more of a fully-realized band record from the get-go with the cosmic jazz of opener “Planet D-Settlement” and the stretched-out funk of “The Ballad of Corey Dykes” not too long after (and, by the time the amp-cranked “Governmental Wolf” comes around in the album’s second half, this notion has solidified), but Tate is still front and center for the most part, gospel-jazz chorus of “Yesterday” aside. The solidifying of the D-Settlement continues into American Icons, almost definitely the most musically-accomplished of the three.

The D-Settlement had never shied away from an extended jam, but the songs on American Icons seem especially likely to balloon to six and seven minutes—and the prominence of electric guitars makes it tempting to call it their most “rock” album as well, although songs like the unclassifiable, eternally-shifting “Gerald” are the D-Settlement sounding like only themselves. By necessity, this overview only really touches on a fraction of what’s going on in these three albums—I’d recommend checking out all that I’m missing here as well. (Bandcamp link)

Kevin Dorff – Silent Reply

Release date: September 16th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: 90s indie rock, singer-songwriter, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Just Like That

Kevin Dorff is a Brooklyn-based, Des Moines-originating singer-songwriter and playwright who is just as detailed in delineating his non-musical influences (Rachel Cusk, Alice Neel) as he is with the literary indie rock musicians (Craig Finn, David Berman) that are the most obvious touchstones for his debut record, Silent Reply. The seven-song album is a crystal clear concept record—Silent Reply is a meditation on death and how the people left behind view those who’ve passed. Every track (or, at least, the six that have lyrics) is about a friend or acquaintance of Dorff’s who died between 2010 and 2015. As such, Silent Reply is one of the thematically heavier records I’ve covered in Pressing Concerns, but these songs are tempered by Dorff’s pleasing 90s indie rock, alt-country, and folk rock-indebted sound and a writing style that declines to focus solely on the darker moments.

Silent Reply opens, appropriately enough, with a song called “DABDA”, a multi-part tribute to a friend that soars when it reaches the specifics of its remembrances (“We drove like maniacs, like the park was our personal racetrack / And we were Dale Fucking Earnhardts”) and dives into the grief—as Dorff puts it, “a swimming pool of shit”—elsewhere. The grunge-y alt-rock-tinged “Just Like That” is just as impactful, with Dorff balancing the “that’s just how it is” attitude of the titular sentiment with his parting lines (“I wish that I had cared for you / I wish I could have caught you”). The way Silent Reply is crafted, every track towers in its own right, containing a whole world in five or so minutes—choosing further highlights is something of a fool’s errand, but I’ll nod to the rolling folk rock of penultimate track “Family Friend”, which is enhanced by its cello-and-piano adornments and features a big, all-out, exhausted finish. The real ending to Silent Reply is a bit more humble but just as memorable, with Dorff making a declaration to a friend from beyond the grave in “Ghost Mind”: “I’m listening now”. (Bandcamp link)

Jobber – Hell in a Cell

Release date: October 21st
Record label: Exploding in Sound
Genre: Fuzz rock, punk rock, alt-rock
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull track: Entrance Theme

New York’s Jobber contains a couple of familiar faces to Rosy Overdrive readers—guitarist/vocalist Kate Meizner and drummer/vocalist Mike Falcone are both in Hellrazor, who released the underrated Heaven’s Gate earlier this year. The duo (who have since added Maggie Toth on bass and Michael Julius on guitar and keyboard) play nearly everything on the five-song Hell in a Cell EP, their impressive debut release under the name. In contrast to the Falcone-led Hellrazor, Jobber features Meizner on lead vocals and (for the most part) she’s credited as the sole songwriter—but those who enjoyed the noisy and catchy alt-rock of Heaven’s Gate will find plenty to enjoy here as well.

After an amusing throwdown of an introduction (oh, did I mention that Hell in a Cell is wrestling-themed? Well, it is), Jobber offer up nothing but incredibly strong grunge-y fuzz rock tunes. The title track saunters in a particularly 90s-influenced way, with Meizner’s vocals grounding the verses in between a cranked up chorus. The EP surprisingly veers into straight power pop with “Entrance Theme”, which lobs Rentals-esque keyboards and handclaps at the listener, even as it doesn’t lose any of the rest of the EP’s bite. If there’s a slow-burner on Hell in a Cell, it’s probably closing track “Heel Turn”, which takes a minute to fully rip into its hook (which is maybe the strongest one on the EP, all things considered). It’s a front-to-back success of a first release, and if Meizner and Falcone want to start any more bands together, I’m all ears. (Bandcamp link)

Nick Wheeldon’s Demon Hosts – Gift

Release date: November 4th
Record label: Le Pop Club
Genre: Folk rock, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Paint the Town

Nick Wheeldon is a Paris-based, Sheffield-originating singer-songwriter who’s played in many bands over the past decade, although Gift is only the second record under his own name following last November’s Communication Problems. Wheeldon cites Gene Clark and Alex Chilton as influences, and Gift is subsequently a record of breezy pop songs that fall towards a more American-sounding version of folk rock. His band for the record, The Demon Hosts, give the songs on Gift a fully-developed sound—the piano playing of Sebastien Adam in particular adds an extra layer to these nine tracks.

The melancholic, Sixties-esque, almost-psychedelic pop of opening track “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” is something of a red herring, as Gift then moves into the rollicking folk rock of “No One’s Never” and “Hail & Thunder”. Wheeldon’s jangle pop influences are best felt indirectly through his melodies, but the pensive “I Am the Storm” and (especially) the steadily uplifting “Paint the Town” place this side of him front and center. The Demon Hosts, who were put together specifically for this record, show their mettle in the murky instrumental back half of “Saint Marie”, but Wheeldon brings everything back together for one last wide-eyed pop song in closing track “I Stole the Night”, a strong and fitting closer for a record specializing in such. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

New Playlist: October 2022

The October edition of the Rosy Overdrive playlist is here! For once, it’s actually being published in October, so, happy Halloween to you all. You’ll find a lot of great new music here, some already covered in Pressing Concerns, some not, as well as some archival selections (mainly from 1997).

Idle Ray has three songs on the playlist this time, and Jim Nothing has two.

Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (missing a couple songs). 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.

“In Time”, Midwestern Medicine
From The Gold Baton (2022, Website)

Midwestern Medicine is a Portland, Maine indie rock group led by Brock Ginther, who also plays in Divorce Cop, Lemon Pitch, and probably more bands. The Gold Baton (engineered by and featuring musical contributions from Bradford Krieger of Courtney and Brad) is the band’s second record, and it opens on a strong note with the ramshackle indie rock of “In Time”. Ginther’s quietly commanding Jason Lytle-esuqe vocals lead a stop-start instrumental featuring mid-tempo power chords and a humbly anthemic chorus.

“Decades”, Fluung
From The Vine (2022, Setterwind/Den Tapes)

Fluung’s The Vine is a revelation for those of us who are susceptible to loud, guitar-heroic-heavy 90s-inspired indie rock, and “Decades” is, in many ways, the peak of that record’s sound. Coming right in the middle of the album, “Decades” maxes out both the loudness and the catchiness—it begins with Donald Wymer shouting the hook out over fuzzy guitars, and it doesn’t let up from that moment. Read more about The Vine here.

“White Collar”, Convinced Friend
From Convinced Friend (2022, Relief Map)

Convinced Friend is the solo project of the New Orleans-originating, Rhode Island-based A.S. Wilson, and the lead single from its self-titled debut record is an earnest piece of fuzzy folk rock that centers Wilson’s lyrics. “White Collar” dives right into the crushing world of a crumbling work-home life balance, student loans, and the resultant burnout—and stares it all down. Wilson’s second-person narrative feels strongly like it earns the “I love you, you are alright” repeated outro.

“Windowpane”, Aluminum
From Windowpane (2022, Dandy Boy/Discontinuous Innovation)

The debut EP from San Francisco’s Aluminum is a compelling listen, hitting the ground running with its opening title track. “Windowpane” is hypnotic noise pop at its finest, starting with the excellent dual vocal team of guitarist/synth player Marc Leyda and bassist Ryann Gonsalves and a steady, motorik indie rock instrumental before erupting into a massive wall of sound that nevertheless doesn’t bury the song’s memorable melody.

“Never Come Down”, Jim Nothing
From In the Marigolds (2022, Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream)

Coming after In the Marigolds‘ dreamy, psychedelic opening track “It Won’t Be Long”, “Never Come Down” displays the other side of Kiwi pop band Jim Nothing’s sound. It’s pure in-your-face, Pixies-eque pop stomp, beginning with both vocalists (James Sullivan and Anita Clark) chanting the hook (“We should get lost ‘cause at least that’s something to do”) and never coming down from that high. Read more about In the Marigolds here.

“Dreamed You Were a Dog”, Idle Ray
From Idle Ray (2021, Life Like/Half-Broken)

Idle Ray showing up on streaming services seems like a good enough reason to revisit one of the best records of last year. “Dreamed You Were a Dog” is the platonic ideal of a Fred Thomas song—vaguely urgent-sounding, incredibly melodic, and smartly affecting lyrically, in this case by using the titular dog dream as a way to long for basic compassion and affection (“They’re never sure what’s happening / But everyone is so happy for you”). Read more about Idle Ray here.

“Left in the Sink”, CLASS
From Epoca de Los Vaqueros (2022, Feel It)

Tucson, Arizona’s CLASS jump between different sides of garage and punk rock throughout their captivating debut full-length, Epoca de Los Vaqueros, and single “Left in the Sink” shows off the best of their high-octane, barreling-forward power pop side. The song gallops over an incredibly catchy, deceptively polished two minutes of rock-and-roll—there’s a moment where bells ring for a couple seconds and it doesn’t sound out of place. Read more about Epoca de Los Vaqueros here.

“The History of the Wild West”, Nervous Twitch
From Some People Never Change (2022, Reckless Yes)

One of the best attributes of Some People Never Change, the fifth record from Leeds’ Nervous Twitch, is that it’s a catchy indie pop record that sounds made by a real, solid rock band. The trio’s abilities are on full display in the runaway train of an opening track, “The History of the Wild West”, which is indie pop punk at its finest, with guitarist Jay Churchley slicing through the bright chords and Erin Hyde delivering a dry but commanding vocal performance. Read more about Some People Never Change here.

“The Bright Light”, Tanya Donelly
From Lovesongs for Underdogs (1997, Reprise/WEA)

It turns out I needed to listen to Lovesongs for Underdogs to be reminded how much of the real deal Tanya Donelly was in the 1990s. Sure, “Not Too Soon” more or less invented the genre of indie rock that’s still effectively the dominant one today way back in 1991, and Belly (reunion album that didn’t really grab me aside) still holds up very well, but this solo album sounds like she went even more all-in than normal in trying to make huge pop songs, and I challenge you to not get “The Bright Light” stuck in your head after one listen.

“Shadows”, Dear Nora
From Human Futures (2022, Orindal)

Dear Nora’s fifth record, Human Futures, features a host of different musical styles, hopping from minimalist to busy, from synths to guitars—highlight “Shadows” is unambiguously a gorgeous folk-country tune carried heavily by Katy Davidson’s self-harmonies. Davidson’s original home of Arizona figures heavily in the song (Tucson, Lake Havasu, and Flagstaff’s Weatherford Hotel get a mention), but “Shadows” isn’t static—in perhaps the record’s most memorable line, Davidson observes that “What was once America is now just a place to drive”. Read more about Human Futures here.

“I Killed the Cuckoo”, The Geraldine Fibbers
From Butch (1997, Virgin)

I’d listened to The Geraldine Fibbers’ country rock opus, 1996’s Lost Somewhere Between Earth and My Home, for the first time last year—but that did not adequately prepare me for their follow-up, the following year’s Butch. It’s a frantic, snarling garage rock record that eliminates a lot (but not all) of the previous album’s empty spaces (who would’ve thought adding Nels Cline to their line-up would result in that?). “I Killed the Cuckoo” is an extraordinarily potent 90s punk song that deserves to be remembered more than a lot of stuff that’s been overly canonized (I’d liked to have seen [censored] begin a song with, uh, that opening line).

“Keep Your Name Alive”, Sloan
From Steady (2022, Yep Roc)

The new Sloan album is (from the couple of times I’ve listened to it so far) a very good late-career highlight, and closing track “Keep Your Name Alive” is, even in that context, a particularly surprising way for the four-piece band to end things. It’s from the Jay Ferguson camp, and its chorus is pure, vintage Sloan, but there’s a looseness to the verses (like when Ferguson stops singing to remark “Well, I guess I had to find out for myself”) that feels like a great place for the band to be at this stage.

“I Believe She’s Lying”, Jon Brion
From Meaningless (2001, Straight to Cut-Out/Jealous Butcher)

Jealous Butcher’s vinyl reissue (well, issue, as it’s only ever been released on CD before) of Jon Brion’s Meaningless has brought out a lot of praise reflective of a record that’s been building a cult following for twenty years, and I will not attempt to fully capture why that is here. But I will give you “I Believe She’s Lying”, a killer pop song that is also extremely weird and shows off Brion’s studio skills. I’m not sure what to focus on here—the ridiculous percussion, Brion’s really odd choices of vocal effects, the guitar accents that jump in and out of the song—but it all works perfectly.

“People Watching”, Ganser
From Nothing You Do Matters (2022, Felte)

Ganser’s latest EP (following 2020’s Just Look at the Sky full-length and last year’s Look at the Sun remix EP) only features two all-new songs, but “People Watching” alone is worth the price of admission. The EP’s lead single expands upon Ganser’s dense, multi-pronged post-punk sound, with a dread-provoking instrumental underlining Nadia Garofalo’s particularly droll lead vocals (the way she delivers the EP’s title line, “Yeah, the world is big / And nothing you do matters” says a lot more than a few certain post-punk revival bands do in full albums).

“Paved”, That Hideous Sound
From Wasted Life (2022, Repeating Cloud)

I highlighted the debut single from Portland, Maine’s That Hideous Sound last year and remarked on its lo-fi garage rock, Wavves-indebted sound at that point. With the release of their first full-length record this month, the Elijah Crissinger-led project has expanded its depth to offer up downbeat 90s indie rock, fuzzy power pop, and basement psychedelia. My favorite song from Wasted Life, “Paved”, is a mid-tempo indie rock groover, sounding kind of like Alex G if he had dug further into his initial alt-rock influences instead of moving away from them.

“Lonedell Wildflower”, Ace of Spit
From Ace of Spit (2022, Sophomore Lounge)

St. Louis’ Ace of Spit are runaway-train garage rockers who embrace a proto-punk wildness and maximum amp-cranked distortion on their self-titled debut record, although mid-album highlight “Lonedell Wildflower” congeals their pure spirit into two minutes of fuzzy, loud power pop. The opening guitar lead careens into a pleasing hook in a way that reflects but isn’t beholden to the band’s surf influences, before rushing through an excellent mess of a pop song.

“J Bird”, Ded Jewels
From Big, Big Wave (2022, Feral Kid)

I love a good various-artist, all-original-tunes compilation, and Feral Kid Records has served up a great one with Big, Big Wave, a survey of Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s surprisingly (or, perhaps not so, given the Magnolia State’s rich music history) fertile garage rock and punk scene. One of the standout tunes, “J Bird” by Ded Jewels, emphasizes the Mississippi inherent herein with a roaring southern punk rock tune that’s equal parts 50s rock-and-roll and early Drive-By Truckers fuzz rock.

“Asking Price”, Dazy
From OUTOFBODY (2022, Lame-O/Convulse)

OUTOFBODY is pretty much exactly what you’d want from Dazy’s debut album: it retains the core of what made James Goodson’s early releases under the name so exciting (the Britpop/power pop/punk-pop/fuzz rock combo) but stretches out a little bit. “Asking Price” almost flies under the radar hidden in the middle of side two, but it’s effectively just one giant chorus and the sentiment (“Seems so wrong, seems so right / Sold my soul for the asking price”) feels appropriate for a long-awaited debut record. Read more about OUTOFBODY here.

“Youth Without Virtue”, The Sylvia Platters
From Youth Without Virtue (2022)

Youth Without Virtue is the first I’ve heard from British Columbia’s The Sylvia Platters, but they appear to have been around since 2015 at least. Judging from the six songs on their latest EP, however, they’re right up my alley—these tracks are expertly-written Teenage Fanclub-esque power/jangle pop touched (but never overwhelmed) by a bit of noise and dream pop distortion. The title track to Youth Without Virtue is a big-sounding number, riding wistful, melancholic melodies all the way to a genuinely jaw-dropping moment: the giant chorus hook gets saved for nearly the end of the track.

“Throw a Smile Toward Me”, Winded
From Schwartz Provides (2022, Community)

The latest record from the Florida-originating, upstate New York-based Winded is a charming sub-twenty minute lo-fi indie rock cassette that displays the songwriting skills of bandleader Thrin Vianale in several genres. “Throw a Smile Toward Me” is one of the more immediate tracks on Schwartz Provides, a mid-tempo, barely emo-tinged fuzz rocker that skips through verses to get to Vianale’s titular plea (why don’t you throw one toward them?).

“Barrier Reef”, Old 97’s
From Too Far to Care (1997, Elektra)

Very savvy of the Old 97’s to release their best record in 1997. Well, I can’t say that definitively, as I still haven’t heard a bunch of their post-90s albums, but Too Far to Care really does feel like their country-power-pop peak. “Barrier Reef” isn’t as flashy as “Timebomb” or “Big Brown Eyes”, but it’s a stealthily great album track, and Rhett Miller’s charmingly incredulous delivery (“She said ‘I’m already dead’’ / And that’s exactly what she said”; “She said ‘Do you have a car’, and I said / ‘Do I have a car?’”) is particularly memorable.

“Terms”, Idle Ray
From Idle Ray (2021, Life Like/Half-Broken)

Idle Ray is a full band now, but the songs on Idle Ray were recorded almost entirely by Fred Thomas alone. It is, somewhat ironically, a more straightforward and barebones effort than the last couple records he released under his own name, but it serves songs like “Terms” well—the guitar leads and vocals are strong enough melodically to stand on their own, and Thomas lets them do so here. Read more about Idle Ray here.

“Channel Master”, Glazer
From Civilian Whiplash (2022, State Champion)

The latest release from New Jersey’s Glazer is a six-song cassette EP on their longtime home of State Champion Records (Noun, Snakeskin) that delivers a brief but welcome dose of their heavy but frequently hooky fuzz rock. My favorite track on Civilian Whiplash, “Channel Master”, falls squarely into the “hooky” category—although the song’s verses find Glazer in anxious mode, the song then rolls into a beast of an anthemic alt-rock chorus.

“Le Vampire”, Death Hags
From The Alice Tape (2021, Big Grey Sun)

Death Hags’ The Alice Tape originally got a Bandcamp-only cassette release last Halloween, but it’s seeing wider availability this spooky season. Like many of the prolific Lola G’s releases under the Death Hags name (which also includes a Christmas-themed album, Frozen Santa), it’s a mix between ambient dreaminess and more grounded guitar pop—with an appropriate goth/darkwave twist this time. Inspired in part by The Sisters of Mercy’s goth classic “Alice” (of which the tape features a very good cover), The Alice Tape also features the bouncy, French-sung pop rock of “Le Vampire”, one of the cassette’s brightest and strongest moments.

“10th and J 2”, Enumclaw
From Save the Baby (2022, Luminelle)

Following their excellent debut in last year’s Jimbo Demo (one of my favorite EPs of 2021), Tacoma’s Enumclaw make it clear that they’re shooting for something higher from the get-go of their gigantic-sounding first full-length, Save the Baby. My current favorite song from the record, “10th and J 2”, falls somewhere between the relative simplicity of the EP and the extra layers of Save the Baby—lead singer Aramis Johnson’s vocals are clear in the mix, atop a swirling shoegaze-inspired instrumental that builds nicely.

“Yellow House”, Jim Nothing
From In the Marigolds (2022, Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream)

In the Marigolds is packed to the brim with humble guitar pop songs that reflect both Jim Nothing’s home country (New Zealand, the land of the Dunedin sound) and the various members’ other bands (Wurld Series, Salad Boys). “Yellow House” picks up the tempo a bit in the middle of the record, but it retains something of a melancholy vibe—and I don’t know what exactly to call the chorus, in which fuzzy guitars, Anita Clark and James Sullivan’s vocal harmonies, and Clark’s violin all come together beautifully. Read more about In the Marigolds here.

“My Work Here Is Dumb”, The Intelligence
From Lil’ Peril (2022, Mt.St.Mtn./Vapid Moonlighting)

Lil’ Peril is, very loosely speaking, a pop record—although its second half dives particularly into garage rock experimentalism, and even the more accessible songs feature plenty of left turns. Album centerpiece “My Work Here Is Dumb” is probably the most “traditional” garage rock song on the album, with a sneering vocal hook delivered by Lars Finberg, even as it stomps and twitches its way to a creepy ambient outro. Read more about Lil’ Peril here.

“Command Performance”, Noah Roth
From Breakfast of Champions (2022)

The latest record from Philadelphia’s Noah Roth, September’s Breakfast of Champions, is a Slaughter Beach, Dog-esque folk/alt-country-tinged singer-songwriter record that has a surprising experimental/studio rat streak as well. For instance—although “Command Performance” is very much a pop song, Roth steers it all over the place, adding and dropping a host of instrumentation to the track as it twists and turns underneath their melodic vocals. Read more about Breakfast of Champions here.

“Behind the Smile”, Matthew Sweet
From Blue Sky on Mars (1997, Volcano)

Blue Sky on Mars is a good record—it doesn’t have the darkness of Altered Beast, the Brian Wilson overdrive of In Reverse, or the monster pop single that headlines 100% Fun, but what it does have are twelve smartly-written power pop tunes. The brief, straightforward “Behind the Smile” is sneakily one of the best on the album—Matthew Sweet has used the earnest charm of his vocals to get away with all sorts of things over his music career, but here he simply wants to say “I haven’t been a good friend / For a long, long time”.

“Runner”, Alex G
From God Save the Animals (2022, Domino)

Alex G is doing a lot these days, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the songs that still do the most for me personally are the pretty pop rock tunes like “Runner”. Not that “Runner” is one-dimensional—the song’s lyrics are, as is frequently the case, an interesting cypher, and Alex acquits himself nicely as a unique vocalist here as well (his shriek on “I have done a couple bad things” is what’ll get the attention, but I’m thinking more of his delivery on “They hit you with a rolled-up magazine”).

“Polaroid”, Idle Ray
From Idle Ray (2021, Life Like/Half-Broken)

Idle Ray is a record preoccupied with Fred Thomas’ fractured and fading friendships—I’m not sure if “Polaroid” wins the sweepstakes for the strongest portrayal of social anxiety, but the opening lines (“I used to have a Polaroid camera, I took it with me everywhere / I used to take pictures of people so they’d remember I was there”) has to be up there. At the very least, “Polaroid” describes its damage in the past tense, and it’s also one of the catchiest songs on a record of very catchy songs. Read more about Idle Ray here.

“What Would You Like Me to Do?”, Meat Wave
From Malign Hex (2022, Swami)

Alright, Malign Hex is out, and it’s a solid 35-minute document of Meat Wave’s particularly lean brand of noise rock/post-punk. I remember reading somewhere that it was actually recorded (or at least written) before last year’s excellent Volcano Park EP—either way, I hear a lot of similarity in the two, especially in the more atmospheric songs like the chilly “What Would You Like Me to Do?”, which builds into a nervous, bass-driven rock song over four minutes of pure cauldron-stewing.

“Hangman”, Picastro
From I’ve Never Met a Stranger (2022, Stoned to Death)

For their latest release, Toronto’s Picastro take five cover songs and make them wholly their own by applying their stark, beautiful slowcore and the distinct vocals of singer/guitarist Liz Hysen. Opening track “Hangman” (originally by Fire on Fire) is probably the sparest track on I’ve Never Met a Stranger, a hauntingly simple tune that really lets the refrain from Hysen (“Even the worst of men has friends / Even the hangman has friends”) impact the listener. Read more about I’ve Never Met a Stranger here.

“That Kid”, Cash Langdon
From Sinister Feeling (2022, Earth Libraries)

For the first full-length under his own name, Birmingham, Alabama’s Cash Langdon embraces a folk rock sound that retains the pop sensibilities present in his other bands (the shoegaze of Caution, and the power pop of Saturday Night). “That Kid” opens Sinister Feeling with a sweet, jangly sound, and Langdon’s vocals deliver a gorgeous melody. Read more about Sinister Feeling here.

“Like the Last Time”, Will Sheff
From Nothing Special (2022, ATO)

I did not like Nothing Special when I first heard it. It’s growing on me. It might be my favorite front-to-back record Will Sheff has done since The Silver Gymnasium; check back with me in a month or two on that. I’ve got no hesitation on “Like the Last Time”, though—this is clearly Sheff reaching the heights he’s always good to hit at least once even on his lesser records. Since this is my website, I’m forcing all of you to be patient like I was and let Sheff meander through the track’s first two minutes before unleashing the catharsis of the rest of the song—powerful on its own, even more so in the context of Nothing Special.

“Another Round (An Echo)”, Guest Directors
From Oh, to Be Weightless in the Sky (2022)

The latest EP from Seattle reverb-rock band Guest Directors opens with “Another Round (An Echo)”, which draws from shoegaze and psychedelia in its dramatic instrumental to match the impassioned, clear vocals and lyrics of singer/guitarist Julie D. Although “Another Round (An Echo)” doesn’t tip its hand with any specifics, it draws on the band’s hometown’s recent musical past in its description of a musician trapped in a dark spiral of addiction and hurt.

“Senseless”, Nightmarathons
From Hidden Vigorish (2022, A-F)

The second record from Pittsburgh’s Nightmarathons is a particularly spirited collection of mid-2000s-era Against Me!-indebted melodic punk. The AM! comparisons hit particularly close in the verses of “Senseless”, my favorite song from Hidden Vigorish, which combines chiming, three-chord power pop with a potent vocal and lyrical bite. The giant chorus is too busy grabbing the listener for one to care too much about trying to place influences, however.

“I Should Have Helped You”, The Reds, Pinks & Purples
From They Only Wanted Your Soul (2022, Slumberland)

The first four tracks of the latest Reds, Pinks & Purples record, They Only Wanted Your Soul, were initially released as the I Should Have Helped You EP, and it’s easy to hear why Slumberland Records and Reds, Pinks & Purples leader Glenn Donaldson thought these songs deserved a second look. The record begins with an instant classic in the aching, wistful “I Should Have Helped You”, in which Donaldson captures a world of emotion with the simple title statement. Read more about They Only Wanted Your Soul here.

“See You Better Now”, Wild Pink
From ILYSM (2022, Royal Mountain)

I’m not one of the music writers who’s an easy mark for John Ross’ widescreen heartland rock as Wild Pink (I still think the shimmery slowcore of the band’s self-titled debut is their peak), but I always find something special on their records. For ILYSM, most of the highlights for me are hidden in its second side, including the triumphant “See You Better Now”, a just-jangly-enough, just-folk-enough shiny pop rock tune that makes me understand why this kind of music hits home for so many people.

“Johnny Appleseed”, Guided by Voices
From Scalping the Guru (2022, GBV, Inc.)

Example number five-hundred and eighty-something of how any old Robert Pollard song can reach out and grab you at any given time. Scalping the Guru is a trip—trying to combine 1993-1994-era Guided by Voices EPs into a full-length creates something inarguably weirder than any of their records from that period, in a fascinating way. “Johnny Appleseed” is one of the most “pop” songs from the compilation (coming behind the two genuine “hits” on there, “My Impression Now” and “Big School”), and its charm is how wrong it sounds. Pollard and Tobin Sprout’s “harmonies”, the out-of-tune guitar, the random piano stabs—I can’t imagine this song being any other way.

Pressing Concerns: Dazy, CLASS, Typical Girls, Fluung

It’s the Thursday edition of Pressing Concerns! Today we look at three albums coming out tomorrow (Dazy, CLASS, and Emotional Response’s latest Typical Girls compilation), plus the Fluung record from two weeks ago. If you missed Tuesday’s Pressing Concerns, featuring Dear Nora, Mt. Oriander, Puppy Angst, and Austin Leonard Jones, you can catch up here.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can browse previous editions of Pressing Concerns or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Dazy – OUTOFBODY

Release date: October 28th
Record label: Lame-O/Convulse
Genre: Power pop, fuzz rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull track: Asking Price

2021 was truly the year of Dazy. Although James Goodson began the project the year before, last year was the one where it truly came to a head, resulting in a couple of substantial EPs and culminating in MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD, which compiled Goodson’s first 24 songs as Dazy. MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD served, among other things, as proof of the potency in the familiar yet singular sound Goodson developed as Dazy—an enthusiastic and (yes) loud form of power pop that’s equally driven by pop punk, Madchester, Britpop, and fuzzy noise pop. That compilation is better than many bands’ debut records, but it isn’t one—that would be this year’s OUTOFBODY, Goodson’s first attempt to present Dazy in a dozen-track, one-statement format.

It doesn’t take long for OUTOFBODY to establish that Dazy is still at the top of their game. The first three songs on the record all offer up big, hooky fuzz rock, even as they sound fairly distinct from one another—the opening title track holds back enough to feel like a dramatic, even cinematic starting point, the driving “Split” has a breezy jangle pop core underneath the distortion, and the effortless cool of “On My Way” is a bit of every part of Dazy’s influences. The rest of OUTOFBODY keeps the hooks coming, but seems more interested in spreading out over the course of an LP and less concerned with delivering a pure sugar rush (although if you want that, “Choose Yr Ramone” and “AWTCMM?” are there as well).

Goodson’s sound is unique enough that an entire record embracing it wholeheartedly would feel far from stale, and while OUTOFBODY doesn’t deviate from it wildly, it also finds different corners of it to lean into, like the melancholy of mid-record highlight “Motionless Parade” or the extra Madchester touches in “Ladder”. The biggest departure is the acoustic-and-synths pin-drop sound of the delicate “Inside Voice”—if Goodson wanted to make more songs of that nature, it’d be fine by me; as it would be if he went the other direction, as he does in closing track “Gone”. The latter is particularly multi-layered, but Goodson’s voice and the jaunty core of the song aren’t lost in the noise that is still somehow only being made by one person. It’s all still exciting. (Bandcamp link)

CLASS – Epoca de Los Vaqueros

Release date: October 28th
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Garage rock, power pop, punk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Left in the Sink

Epoca de Los Vaqueros is the debut full-length record from Tucson’s CLASS, following a cassette EP that came out in June, and it’s eight tracks and twenty minutes’ worth of exhilarating garage-y punk rock that show off the full range of the band (guitarist-vocalists Andy and Rick, bassist-vocalist Jim, and drummer Ryan). Are CLASS a nervy, Devo-core egg punk group? Are they a rough-and-tumble, glam-inspired power pop group? Are they sneering, dangerously-loitering 70s punk devotees? Epoca de Los Vaqueros has a little bit of all of it.

Album opener “The Way It Goes” in particular rides pent-up rage in its verses up to a robotic, Q: Are We Not Men?-worthy chorus, and the dark “Incomplete Extraction” matches it for post-punk atmospherics. Elsewhere, CLASS offer up high-octane, barreling-forward power pop with “Box My Own Shadow” and “Left in the Sink”, and the mid-tempo “Light Switch Tripper” takes their pop skills even further, sounding like Flying Nun Kiwi pop filtered through the most accessible moments of 90s indie rock bands like Pavement and Guided by Voices.

The punk rock of Epoca de Los Vaqueros is probably best exemplified in “Cockney Rebel”, a seething put-down of a number, but also in true original punk fashion, CLASS end the record on a note of despair and nihilism. “Unlocking Heaven’s Gate” is their “Final Solution”, an alarm-sounding empty tune describing a deadly, destructive virus (well, I guess that’s a reasonable substitute for 70s punk’s Cold War-era nuclear dread). What more could you want? (Bandcamp link)

Various – Typical Girls Volume 6

Release date: October 28th
Record label: Emotional Response
Genre: Indie pop, post-punk, hardcore punk, synthpop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull track: Thin As Flags

Arizona’s Emotional Response Records initiated their Typical Girls series in 2016 with the simple yet welcome goal of highlighting vital and perhaps under-appreciated women and female-fronted bands in the punk, post-punk, and indie pop landscapes. The sixth volume of Typical Girls features sixteen bands from seven different countries, and it’s geographical diversity is matched by that of genre as well. On the heavier end of the spectrum, we have the garage rock/classic punk bands that are perhaps closest in spirit to the Slits song for which the series is named (Fake Fruit, Sweeping Promises, Luu Kurkkuun, Squid Ink), not to mention the couple of hardcore songs that appear on the compilation as well.

The other, softer extreme of Typical Girls Volume 6 is its indie pop side—Cindy’s sleepy-sounding “Thin As Flags” is another gem from the Karina Gill (Flowertown) project, Lande Hekt’s “Lola” is a slice of emo-tinged indie rock from the British songwriter, “Abraxas” by New Zealand’s Wet Specimen is a thorny but accessible piece of 90s-inspired indie rock, and Ukraine’s Glass Beads offer up the goth-adjacent dark pop of “Music Box”. It’s a fairly packed compilation—some of the less flashy contributions (specifically a couple of skewed indie rock tunes from Persona and Body Double and a minimalist synthpop track from Naked Roommate) didn’t grab me at first but stuck out on multiple listens. Effectively, if you like the kind of music Rosy Overdrive covers, you will find a new band to like here, and most likely multiple ones. (Bandcamp link)

Fluung – The Vine

Release date: October 14th
Record label: Setterwind/Den Tapes
Genre: 90s indie rock, fuzz rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital
Pull track: Decades

Seattle three-piece band Fluung are an electric-sounding group whose recently released second record, The Vine, features eight tracks displaying the best-case scenario for a band making 90s alt/indie-rock-inspired music today. Effectively trading in loud pop songs, Fluung offer up fuzz and hooks in equal measure, and it’s a toss-up whether guitarist Donald Wymer’s clear, melodic vocals or blistering solos are the attention-grabbers at any given point in The Vine.

The Vine fails to let up or take a breather throughout its first half—it stomps through crunchy opening track “Hold On”, it slides into the sun-drenched “Run with You”, and then unleashes the choppy, power chord-driven “Truck Song”. “Decades” is in some ways the perfect Fluung song, in that it maxes out both the loudness and catchiness for a completely unforgettable mid-record song. The second half of The Vine is, perhaps, slightly less immediate and more moody, but songs like the title track and “Sunburnt” rival the record’s poppiest moments in the midst of their maelstroms. And Fluung offer up a genuine mountain-scaler of a closing track in the weary but determined “Crooked Road”, making the whole thing seem bigger than it relatively modest sub-30-minute runtime. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable: