Welcome to a new Pressing Concerns! I’m glad you’re here. Today features new albums from Vista House and Dignan Porch, a new EP from The Royal Arctic Institute, and a reissue of the discography of Grey Factor. Earlier this week, I shared some thoughts on a bunch of albums from 1997 that I listened to for the first time this year, so check that post out too if you missed it.
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.
Vista House – Oregon III
Release date: February 10th Record label: Anything Bagel Genre: Alt-country Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Vivista House
Portland, Oregon’s Tim Howe first appeared on my radar last year as one half of First Rodeo, a project he started with Cool Original’s Nathan Tucker and whose self-titled debut was one of my favorite records of 2022. Howe has also fronted the country rock group Vista House since the mid-2010s, and 2023 sees the release of Oregon III, the latest full-length from the band. Released on cassette tape by Anything Bagel Records, Oregon III contains plenty of the twangy sound found in Howe’s contributions to First Rodeo, but it also feels on the whole a bit fuzzier and rockier than the more folk-rocking First Rodeo. It achieves a full-band indie rock sound in places, although it also has a bedroom pop charm in others as well. Howe’s voice is the main constant throughout Oregon III, a comforting and deep-felt presence throughout the record.
Oregon III eases us in with “Halfway Home”, a collage-esque opening track with piano, saxophone, and audio clips that feels a bit like Howe’s take on Cool Original’s kitchen sink pop, before the determined roots rock of “King of Rock ‘N’ Roll” shows off Vista House’s louder, anthemic side. Songs like “Fate” and “Room to Breathe” hit on big choruses that show off Vista House’s power pop and 90s indie/alt-rock influences, and both of them have fun wrinkles (the melodic guitar leads in the former, and Howe pushing his vocals in the latter). The busy “Vivista House” is one of the more sonically surprising songs on the record, an excited drum machine-led piece of country-tronica that nevertheless feels right at home in the middle of the album. The last two songs of Oregon III sum up the record quite well: the acoustic duet “Prickly Bear” tiptoes its way into “Rage On”, an electric alt-country tune that closes things out with grinning straight-up classic rock–and Howe sells them both equally enthusiastically. (Bandcamp link)
Dignan Porch – Electric Threads
Release date: February 10th Record label: Repeating Cloud/Safe Suburban Home/Hidden Bay Genre: Lo-fi pop, psychedelic pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Pictures
Dignan Porch began over a decade ago in South London as a vehicle for singer-songwriter Joe Walsh, whose early, Captured Tracks-released records revealed a knack for slightly fuzzy, slightly psychedelic jangle pop music. Now based in Manchester, Walsh remains devoted to lo-fi, hooky indie rock, as the fifth Dignan Porch record, Electric Threads, reveals enthusiastically. Clocking in at under half an hour and featuring ten songs, Electric Threads is split fairly evenly between brief, zippy lo-fi indie rock tracks and some longer numbers that embrace the project’s more psych-indebted side.
Opening track “Pictures” is an immediate acoustic-guitar led pop song that feels reminiscent of 60s pop rock groups (particularly The Kinks), and Electric Threads offers up a few more quick hits in the brisk noise pop of “Hidden Levels” and the brightly-hued “Mezmerized”, neither of which break the two-minute barrier. The first third of Electric Threads certainly feels like the most straightforward part of the record, although “Simulation One” and (especially) “Walk!” hold down the pop rock fort in the album’s second half. The midsection of Electric Threads is where Dignan Porch really let the songs float along, with the title track and “VR Park Keeper” taking their time to get to their destinations, and while “States Revealed” has a quicker tempo, it settles into a drone-pop groove over its four minutes. Electric Threads is a subtle record–there’s quite a bit to reveal itself here, and it’s worth spinning it until the landscape begins to come closer into focus. (Bandcamp link)
Grey Factor – 1979-1980 A.D. – Complete Studio Recordings
Release date: January 27th Record label: Damaged Disco/Tiny Global Productions Genre: Synthpop, post-punk, coldwave Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: All in a Day’s Work
Grey Factor surfaced in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, originally a four-piece group made up of Jeff Jacquin, Joey Cevetello, Jon Pospisil, and Paul Fontana and later featuring Anne Burns and John Cevetello during their brief two-year window of activity. Grey Factor was an early West Coast outpost for synth-heavy post-punk music, recording two EPs that saw no official release beyond self-dubbed cassettes handed out at shows before breaking up in 1980. Some four decades later, Damaged Disco (a new label run by Dave Trumfio of The Pulsars and Mekons) has given the group’s The Perils of Popularity and The Feel of Passion EPs a single vinyl release, revealing an intriguing sound that still sounds fresh today.
The first six songs of 1979-1980 A.D. are from The Perils of Popularity, and they’re the more “minimal” version of Grey Factor–these songs are pretty much just synths, vocals, and a drum machine. This combination proves more than enough to fully realize these tracks, however–the pure dread of “Guerilla Warfare”, the driving synthpop of “You’re So Cool”, and the electronic pastoral charms of “All in a Day’s Work” showcase the band’s range. The instrumental expansion of the final four tracks (The Feel of Passion) doesn’t result in a new “Grey Factor sound” so much as the band exploring a few new lanes–the industrial, bass-led “No Emotion Needed” is the closest the band got to a “normal” post-punk song, “Inhibitions Run Wild” remains minimal despite some prominent saxophone, and “Looking for the Hotel” is a bright and shining song that fully takes advantage of the band’s expansion. (Bandcamp link)
The Royal Arctic Institute – From Coma to Catharsis
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Already Dead Tapes Genre: Post-rock, jazz rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: K-Style Circuit
New York five-piece group The Royal Arctic Institute have been establishing themselves as consistent purveyors of instrumental jazz rock and post-rock over the past few years, as exhibited by 2021’s Sodium Light and 2022’s From Catnap to Coma EPs. Their third EP in as many years, From Coma to Catharsis positions itself as a sequel to last year’s Royal Arctic Institute record just by the title, and, like From Catnap to Coma, the band recorded it at Neumann Leather Factory in Hoboken with Yo La Tengo’s James McNew and is releasing the record on cassette via Already Dead Tapes. From Coma to Catharsis finds the five-piece lineup of The Royal Arctic Institute solidifying, with the three newer members (keyboardist Carl Baggaley, guitarist Lynn Wright, and bassist David Motamed) taking a more active songwriting role alongside the founding duo of drummer Lyle Hysen and John Leon.
The Royal Arctic Institute is already a fairly “chilly” sounding group, and From Coma to Catharsis may be their mellowest through-journey yet–there’s nothing as openly dramatic as From Catnap to Coma’s “Shore Leave on Pharagonesia” here, although the cresting “Passover Buckets” and some particularly inspired guitar work on “K-Style Circuit” give the EP some immediately attention-grabbing moments as well. Perhaps the best example of subtlety on the EP is Wright’s “The Elated World”, a swirling bass-led track that fits right in with the rest of the half-dozen tracks. From Coma to Catharsis marks something of the end of this fertile era of The Royal Arctic Institute, with Wright moving to Berlin and subsequently bowing out as a full-time member of the band. Judging by “The Elated World”, Wright’s contributions will be missed, but I suspect The Royal Arctic Institute will continue to soldier onward. (Bandcamp link)
Today, I take a break from my typical new music posts or playlisting to present something a little different. My “archival” listening habits are typically done one year at a time, and with new music slowing down at the end of last year, I decided to really tackle 1997 in January by listening to one new-to-me record from that year every day. I mentioned that I was doing this in the Rosy Overdrive Discord, and RO Discord power user Dan Gorman (aka The Discover Tab) suggested I keep a log of what I listen to in a channel there.
So I did, and what I ended up with is, I think, something interesting enough to share with the entire class, so to speak. Some of these albums are acclaimed and beloved, and some are quite off the beaten path. It’s a bit more casual than your typical Rosy Overdrive post, sure, but I can be casual, too. Anyway, enjoy, and if you’re interested in things like this, I’ll probably do it again in Discord at some point in the future, so I recommend joining in the action if Discord is something you use (or, if not, it’s a great opportunity to start!). 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.
January 1st: Fuck – Pardon My French (Matador)
Ah, the band with the name. Fuck are frequently cited as a great undersung version of the kind of 90s indie rock that I like, although Pardon My French’s sixteen slippery tracks are less of the underdog lo-fi Sebadoh/Guided by Voices variety and more of a mix between Unrest’s vibe-y indie pop and Yo La Tengo’s atmospheric side (a lot of this is, like, weirdo soundtrack music). But they’ll also bust out acoustic sleepy tunes like “For Lori” and whatever “Raggy Rag” is. I’d say I find it interesting more than straight-up “like” it, at least initially.
January 2nd: Chris Whitley – Terra Incognita (Sony)
Apparently he’s more associated with Americana/roots rock, but Chris Whitley’s third album is very 90s alt-rock, even going into grunge/post-grunge territory. Whitley has a blues background, which is apparent in a couple songs, but not overly. I originally heard the song “Power Down”, which I still think is an excellent radio rock-type song. “Automatic” is another highlight that comes close; he kind of sounds like an edgier guy from Counting Crows there. Production bogs this record down, it becomes a slog to listen to by the middle with the dated alt-rock sound. There could be more good songs buried in here, but they aren’t sticking with me.
January 3rd: The Softies – Winter Pageant (K)
I already knew the title track, it’s on my Christmas/winter playlist, but I’ve never listened to this as a whole. The just electric guitar/vocals setup asks for more of your attention than the rockier, more naturally-head-turning Tiger Trap and Go Sailor (blink and you’ll miss some of these songs) but it’s still charming pop music. I like the two-guitar interplay.
January 4th: The Holy Cows – Blueberrie (Big Pop)
Alt-country/college rock from Michigan. Somewhere on the more energetic/pop-punky side of the R.E.M./Westerberg/Gin Blossoms spectrum. I’m predispositioned to like this kind of music, and the album’s pretty consistent throughout (even when they slow it down and get extra rootsy). Bet they’d be fun live. Not life-changing, but if you have a soft spot for, like, Buffalo Tom (as I do)—or for that matter, newer bands like Big Nothing—you’ll find stuff to enjoy here.
January 5th: Tsunami – A Brilliant Mistake (Simple Machines)
I thought I would like this album more on the second listen, and I was correct. Grower energy. I’m familiar with Jenny Toomey through her Franklin Bruno covers; Tsunami never grabbed me too much, but this is solid no-frills indie rock. Really—no bells and whistles here, it’s all about the songs. Which are pretty good, especially in the first half—second could’ve lost a couple of tracks.
January 6th: Strictly Ballroom – Hide Here Forever (Waxploitation)
Alright, now we’ve got some really spaced-out emo music. Like a lot of similar bands at this time, it balances pretty and ugly, but hews more toward the former. There are moments of this album that’ll appeal to slowcore and post-rock fans (the last song is fifteen minutes long!), but it’s first and foremost a good, clean 90s emo record with just a bit of post-hardcore screaming in a couple tracks. Fun fact: bassist Jimmy Tamborello went on to become, yes, the other Postal Service guy.
January 7th: The Summer Hits – Beaches and Canyons 1992-96 (X-Mas)
This one is really intriguing on paper. California band that combined surf rock and sunshine pop with heavy noise pop, lo-fi fuzz-fest indie rock and almost-shoegaze. A sound that’d become a lot more popular in recent years. But is it actually good? Well—since it’s technically a singles etc. compilation, it’s not surprising that it’s kind of hit or miss, but the songs that “hit” that dug-up lost-sound pop peak (“Stony Creation”, the title track, “Caramel Feelin’”) really nail it. Fun fact: drummer Josh Schwartz went on to play in Beachwood Sparks with (in a complete coincidence) Chris Gunst from yesterday’s pick, Strictly Ballroom.
January 8th: Cornelius – Fantasma (Trattoria)
I liked this more than I thought I would. I listened to it sort of out of obligation—it’s one of the “big” critically-acclaimed loosely-defined indie records from this year I hadn’t heard—even as these stitched-together 90s records rarely hold up for me. This one does, however—it feels like a bunch of songs, for one. The collage elements are a factor, but not the whole thing; I’m listening to a lot of Elephant 6 right now, and the similarities would be there even if Robert and Hilarie from Apples in Stereo didn’t guest on a track. Now, hopefully there aren’t any weird scandals about this guy that’d detract from my enjoyment of this music…..
January 9th: Bruce Cockburn – The Charity of Night (True North)
Revered in Canadian singer-songwriter and folk circles, unknown out of them. Bruce’s career had been going on for a quarter-century at this point, but this album does contain one of his most well-known songs, “Pacing the Cage” (apparently covered by Jimmy Buffett, oddly enough). If you like long, winding, frequently political progressive folk with impressive fingerpicking, The Charity of Night continues to explore Cockburn’s strengths. Needless to say, it’s not for everyone.
January 10th: Plumtree – Predicts the Future (Cinnamon Toast)
Canadian punk-pop group, most famous for their song “Scott Pilgrim”, which apparently later became a book or a movie or something, I don’t really care. You could call this album twee if you wanted to, but it sounds slicker than most of their contemporaries in that genre, and a few of these songs have an alt-rock edge to them. So, fairly radio-friendly. I like it well enough. Carla Gillis is a good frontperson, songs like “You Just Don’t Exist” and the Scott Pilgrim song are both really big pop songs, and I like when they get rockier too, like in “Why Won’t You Stop”.
January 10th (BONUS): Elf Power – When the Red King Comes (Drug Racer)
Not technically part of this, but I’m also listening to a lot of new-to-me Elephant Six albums because I’m reading the book, and since this one is from ‘97 I’ll throw it in here as well. The few Elf Power albums I’ve heard have been pretty disparate; this one feels like a midpoint between the lo-fi indie rock of their debut and the shiny power pop of their third album. There’s some early NMH acoustic distortion going on here sonically, even if the songwriting hews more toward Apples in Stereo and more obviously 60s-inspired tunes. Definitely a highlight of this scene.
January 11th: The Eclectics – Idle Worship (Jump Up!)
This is ska-punk recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. It sounds a lot like ska-punk recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. It does it in a weird way, though, where these are “normal” ska-pop songs that will all of a sudden have a noise punk section, or the bass will sound like the Jesus Lizard for a few seconds. Once the novelty wears off it doesn’t sound like anything super special to me, although I imagine people who enjoy ska more than I do would probably like it. Also, the album ends with Wesley Willis shouting them out.
January 12th: Archer Prewitt – In the Sun (Carrot Top)
Between John McEntire’s work with Tortoise and Sam Prekop’s solo career, Archer is probably the Sea and Cake member I know the least about (I know he was in the Coctails, but I haven’t gotten to them either). In the Sun doesn’t appear to be his most popular solo album, but I have been enjoying it. It’s a very light, airy chamber pop/minimal indie rock album—it’s colored with horns, strings, and woodwinds in various places, but it never gets overly busy or cluttered. It’s not a hidden Sea & Cake album, but as long as you don’t go into it expecting that, there is a lot to like here.
January 13th: Mogwai – Mogwai Young Team (Chemikal Underground)
I can already tell this is going to be more difficult to keep up with as more new music starts coming out. Still, I plan on finishing out the month. Anyway, it’s another “big one” today, as I’ve never heard a Mogwai record in full until now. I think this is fine—it falls somewhere between the sprinting-away-from-indie-rock, Godspeed version of post-rock (that I can enjoy sometimes), and the more American, more indebted to noise rock/slowcore/post-hardore underground version of post-rock (that’s more my thing). I can see myself putting this on if I want to hear something grand and heavy. I get the sense that they softened their sound on their more recent work, which is less appealing to me, but I’m basing this mostly on hearing a song here and there and how people talk about Mogwai, so I know this isn’t exactly a fair assessment.
January 14th: Prolapse – The Italian Flag (Radar)
It’d also be easier to keep up with this if I didn’t keep choosing hour-plus-long albums to listen to, but here we are. According to my notes, I’ve actually listened to every other Prolapse album before this one and they didn’t make much of an impression on me, but this one seems to be particularly acclaimed and the one song I heard was good so…this record is a lot—beefy, noisy British dual vocal post-punk. Clangs and clatters but can also pull out something really pretty like “Autocade”. Good synthesis of underground rock.
January 15th: Veruca Salt – Eight Arms to Hold You (Outpost/Minty Fresh)
Veruca Salt is a band that seems to be taken just seriously enough to be dismissed as less than the sum of their influences. I think I listened to American Thighs forever ago and it didn’t stick with me, but Nina Gordon being a big Game Theory fan has intrigued me and made me want to give her band another shot. “Volcano Girls” is still a really great 90s alt-rock single (and them doing the “Glass Onion” thing with their last hit song is very amusing). There’s a pretty clear gulf between Gordon’s songs and the other songwriter’s—“With David Bowie” and “Benjamin” back to back is one of the record’s brightest spots, while even Post’s most memorable song (“Sound of the Bell”) doesn’t feel quite fully-formed. Much has been made about the Bob Rock production on this one apparently, but that’s not the issue—something like “Loneliness Is Worse” is maybe dinged a little bit with the over-the-top sound but it still shines through because it’s a good song. The problem is that too many of the tracks aren’t on its level.
January 16th: Laddio Bolocko – Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko (Hungarian)
When a band’s “fans also like” section on Spotify includes U.S. Maple, Oxbow, and The Dead C, you know you’re in for some shit. Laddio Bolocko was a New York “free jazz-inspired” noise rock band who (as others have pointed out) is pretty clearly indebted to This Heat (a band that in recent years has been added to the experimental rock/art punk canon but hadn’t really reached that level of their cult status at this point). It starts out as fairly typical (but good) instrumental noise-math-rock, and from there the songs start to grow and mutate to the point where the last track is a two-parter that’s half an hour in total. The saxophone gets broken out about halfway through. I’m more into the songs like “Goat Lips” and the first half of “Nurser”, yes, but I can appreciate what “Y Toros” is doing, sure.
January 17th: Kenickie – At the Club (EMI/Warner Bros.)
Late 90s UK buzz band that I’m surprised doesn’t really come up more nowadays. Appears to have been marketed as something along the lines of “Britpop’s riot grrl band!” (Oh, British press…) ; it’s probably best appreciated when one doesn’t bring any of that kind of baggage near it. It’s a pretty big-sounding album, often sounding like it’s trying to do too much. Smaller-time songs like “Brother John” are the ones that are sticking with me, although they hit with the “anthems” enough too (“Classy”). And “Punka” isn’t as embarrassing as it could’ve been. A mixed bag, but some worthwhile things here to be sure.
January 18th: My Dad Is Dead – Everyone Wants the Honey But Not the Sting (Emperor Jones)
Now THIS—this is “indie rock”. My Dad Is Dead gets the post-punk tag sometimes thanks to their early cold, drum machine-aided sound (with which I’m somewhat familiar), but here, over a decade into the group’s career, it’s full-band power trio rock music (although the gloominess is still here, yes). It reminds me of other Ohio groups like Gaunt, Ron House’s bands, and Scrawl, or Karl Hendricks—stuff that’s very good but largely hasn’t survived into the 21st century due to lack of huge (on an indie level) success or an obvious narrative hook. This is the best of a certain kind of 90s indie rock, where it’s very confessional while also being loud and rocky instead of treating those two things as opposites. Here’s where my biases come into focus—somebody with less tolerance for no-frills alt-indie-rock stuff might find this record same-y, but I like the zone into which it settles, and I think the record’s best tracks (“Don’t Look Now”, “Two Clean Slates”, “A Million Questions”) are pretty universal.
January 19th: Free Kitten – Sentimental Education (Wiiija)
Hey, we were just talking about Sonic Youth in another [Discord] channel. I heard Nice Ass awhile back and it didn’t do much for me, but this is more like it. Not that it’s the greatest record in the world or anything, but it realizes just a bit of the potential of Kim Gordon, Yoshimi, and Julia Cafritz making a record together. It’s an hourlong marathon to be sure but it starts off great, with actual 90s SY vibes for the first few songs. Most of the second half is taken up by the 10+ minute title track, which is…alright. For the longer/repetitive songs I prefer “Never Gonna Sleep”, which feels like the right amount of SY/Yoshimi fusion.
January 20th: The 3Ds – Strange News from the Angels (Flying Nun)
The 3Ds have always been one of my favorite “second-tier” Flying Nun bands off the strength of their first two records, the noisy pop Hellzapoppin and the slightly more refined Venus Trail, but I hadn’t heard their third, final, and least popular album until now. This one is pretty messy—the first few songs don’t grab me, then they launch into a couple of excellent fuzz-rock songs with “Vector 27” and “Ride the Whale”, and then it feels like the record is oddly backloaded, with songs like “Devil Red” and “Big Red Heart” hitting the electric Sonic Youth/Bailter Space sweet spot. I’d definitely recommend not starting with this album if you’re unfamiliar with the band, but if you like them or are a huge fan of this kind of music you’ll probably enjoy it.
January 21st: Flake Music – When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return (Omnibus)
This is—it isn’t even “James Mercer’s pre-Shins band”, it’s basically the whole first Shins lineup under a different name. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s rougher and more 90s indie rock-indebted than The Shins, sort of like Zumpano vs. The New Pornographers but maybe even a little more stark. In theory “rougher, more rocky The Shins” is something I should like—and I think I do. Me being a casual-at-best Shins fan is a double-edged sword—I’m not going to be disappointed because it doesn’t sound “Shins-y enough”, but also Mercer et al’s music has never meant so much to me that merely approaching it would be enough for Flake Music to stand out on its own. So, it’s a solid power pop-influenced indie rock record, opener “Spanway Hits” kind of towers over everything else, although “The Shins” (the song) lights up the second half nearly as brightly.
January 22nd: The Crabs – What Were Flames Now Smolder (K)
Ah, I love this band! Jackpot! is probably one of my favorite 90s indie pop albums, but I hadn’t heard this one yet. It’s an electric guitar and drum duo, both of them sing, and their best songs sound like pop-punk at its most humble and likable (“February 15th”) or like ageless pop music (“Mission Impossible”, “Private Eye”). Calvin Johnson plays bass on “Temper Temper”, which is also the one that most sounds like a Calvin Johnson song. Towards the end of the record “1863” is definitely an unexpected turn—musically it’s one of their finest moments, and while twee might feel like an odd medium for this kind of message at first, I think the Crabs stick the landing. Great under-discussed band, solid record.
January 23rd: For Against – Shelf Life (World Domination/Independent Project)
Everyone’s favorite dream pop/post-punk group from Nebraska, I’d been meaning to give a full For Against record a listen for a while and this one seemed promising. I’m going in for a second listen right now and this record really benefits from that. This sound never really went away and I’ve heard a bunch of bands/albums that throw both post-punk and dream pop hallmarks in the mix, but the songs here are hooky in a vintage 80s college rock kind of way. The jangly guitar arpeggios and melodic bass are both the best of this kind of music, and I like that the vocals aren’t buried either.
January 24th: Isotope 217 – The Unstable Molecule (Thrill Jockey)
It’s time for some jazz! Isotope 217 is a Chicago jazz-funk sextet featuring 3/5 of Tortoise, including guitarist Jeff Parker, who makes a lot of music like this on his solo albums. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this album sounds like a more jazzy version of 90s Tortoise; songs like “Kryptonite Smokes the Red Line” and “La Jeteé” have post-rock empty-space moments. It’s very much an ensemble album, with no instrument rising above the other—I do wish we heard more of Parker’s guitar explorations here, but I understand that’s not the main point of Isotope 217. This is an enjoyable listen, even as I’m still probably more inclined to just listen to Tortoise (perhaps relatedly, my favorite song on the album, the funky “Phonometrics”, is the least Tortoise-y).
January 25th: The Jayhawks – Sound of Lies (American Recordings)
An album I haven’t heard from the foundational Minnesota alt-country group. Although this one is pretty far away from the country rock of Hollywood Town Hall etc—it’s the first album after co-songwriter Mark Olson left the band, and Gary Louris responds by embracing the power pop/60s pop rock side of the band. It’s sort of like what Wilco did a couple years later with Summerteeth, although not quite as jarring. There are some beautiful songs on here (the piano is utilized excellently, and pretty melodies and harmonies abound), although it’s also quite long and the tracks start to blur together a bit by the time we get to the second half. It’s a lot of elements that I like, so I do like it, but in terms of standing out it doesn’t quite do it all the way through.
January 26th: Discount – Half Fiction (Kat/California Roll)
This is another “first, lesser-known band from somebody who’d get big in the 2000s” pick—in this case, lead singer Alison Mosshart would go on to front The Kills. Discount isn’t garage rock; on Half Fiction, they’re a melodic, driven pop punk band. Discount have a scrappiness to them that puts them in line with a lot of other emo/Replacements/Jawbreaker-tinged indie punk bands from this time, but Mosshart already had a superstar voice at this point, and her singing is key in this record hitting as hard as it does (of course, all those power chords don’t hurt, either).
January 27th: Acetone – Acetone (Vapor)
I have seen Acetone grouped in with your typical 90s slowcore bands (your Ida(ho)s and Bedheads), so their 1997 self-titled album wasn’t quite what I expected. It’s delicate-sounding and plodding like a lot of slowcore, sure, but it’s equally if not more so in the realms of alt-country and 60s pop. It reminds me of Yo La Tengo’s decade-spanning crate-digging indie rock as much as anything else, although it also meanders a bit in a way that more than earns the “slowcore” tag. It’s just less…cold than most of that music. I’m warming to it.
January 28th: Blonde Redhead – Fake Can Be Just as Good (Touch and Go)
I listened to another Blonde Redhead album a few years ago and it didn’t stick with me, but figured it was time to give them another try. And I’m glad I did, because I quite enjoyed this one. They’re very much a 90s underground indie rock group at this point—the Sonic Youth comparisons I’ve seen fit here, and Vern Rumsey plays bass on this album, so I hear Unwound too. Like the best of those bands, the album balances dissonance with beauty; the inevitable repetitive post-punk grooves and the lengthy noise rock instrumental sections both feel like they’ve got real purpose here.
January 29th: Comet Gain – Magnetic Poetry (Wiiija)
The second album from the long-running British indie pop group. Opens with the barnstorming “Strength”, which is a classic of Jazz Butcher-y post-C86 pop music to me. The rest of the record isn’t as immediately grabbing but has plenty of good-in-their-own-right tunes. However, there’s also a couple of unremarkable songs, and at least one of them (“Pier Angeli”) kind of drags; not ideal for an eight-song, 24-minute album. The peaks are high, though, and I’d listen to another record from this band; I get the sense this may not be their best work.
January 30th: Ween – The Mollusk (Elektra)
Alright, fine. I put this one off until almost the end because I didn’t wanna do it. Ween annoy me. But I kinda like the “Ocean Man” song, and how can I completely dismiss Gene and Dean without giving their “masterpiece” a shot? Well, listening to the obnoxious opening track, I’m feeling pretty justified…but the rest of The Mollusk is more interesting. The title track and “It’s Gonna Be (Alright)”—these are good songs, as is the country Ween of (sigh) “Waving My Dick in the Wind”. “Mutilated Lips” is an interesting one; I definitely hear how it influenced Kurt Vile. Is it for me? Still no. Is it awful? Yeah I guess not, either.
January 31st: The Orange Peels – Square (Minty Fresh)
The first album out of many to come from the long-running pop rock group. Square is more indie pop than power pop, but there’s still a fun energy in these harmony-led tunes. Allen Clapp’s vocals and Jill Pries’ bass both stand out in terms of melody. It’s fifteen songs in under 40 minutes so a lot of these tracks kind of fly by at first, although there’s also no shortage of songs that hit immediately here (“Didn’t You Know”, “Something Strange Happens”, “All the World Could Pass Me By”).
Alright, I’ll do one more of these since I wanted to hear this one and didn’t get to it. Rye Coalition’s debut came out in ‘97, but it feels very early 2000s. With its combination of irreverent lyrics/song titles, math-y sections, post-hardcore assault, and stop-start post-punk sections, it fits neatly as the link between 90s DC Dischord groups and, like, the 2000s Providence bands (not to mention the heavier dance-punk groups). It’s interesting; I like parts of it. “White Jesus of 114th Street” is a fun song.
Welcome to the first Pressing Concerns of February! Today, we’re looking at new albums from Soft on Crime, The Men, and Equipment Pointed Ankh, as well as a split release featuring Wish Kit, New You, Mo Troper, and Gnawing. Rosy Overdrive’s January 2023 Playlist went up earlier this week, so check that out as well for a bunch more new music.
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.
Soft on Crime – New Suite
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Eats It Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, psychedelic pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Telex Eyes
Soft on Crime waste no time establishing just what you’re in for with New Suite. The Dublin-based three piece band open their debut record (well, cassette tape) with the massive, triumphant jangly guitars that lead off “Telex Eyes”, a moment that recalls vintage power pop groups like The dB’s and The Soft Boys. It’s a fitting introduction to Soft on Crime’s eager exploration into guitar pop of several stripes–New Suite is catchy through and through, whether the trio are trending in the direction of retro psychedelia, fuzzy lo-fi indie rock, or starry-eyed college rock. The pitch-perfect “Telex Eyes” is the highlight on Side A of the cassette, but New Suite also offers up the nearly-as-catchy “Crying Swimming Pool” early on, which utilizes giddily melodic guitar leads for maximum effect, and the crunchy, almost-glam “Splendid Life”, which closes out the tape’s first half.
Side B of New Suite is a little more subtle–but only just. It contains the album’s straight-up prettiest moment (the gorgeous, sunny jangle-pop ballad “Conditioned Reaction”) and its clearest foray into garage rock (side opener “Posturing”), and the groovy power pop of songs like “I Know You Like Me” and “Born Astride the Rave” are as strong tracks as anything on the flipside. Soft on Crime jam these dozen songs with as many instrumental and vocals hooks as possible per track, even when they’re putting together numbers that reflect their less overtly poppy influences, like the jerky, Devo-ish “Pretty Purgatory”. If you read Rosy Overdrive regularly, you’re aware that the best pop music isn’t coming from the bands with the best numbers on streaming, or those getting the most blue checkmarks to argue about them online–New Suite is one of those belief-reaffirming records. (Bandcamp link)
The Men – New York City
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Fuzz Club Genre: Garage rock, garage punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull Track: God Bless the USA
Brooklyn’s The Men are back with their ninth album since 2010 and their first for Fuzz Club Records. In a move embracing their un-Googleable name, they’ve simply christened this one New York City, and it’s good news for anyone who’d like the quartet to rip through another fiery garage rock record a la 2012’s landmark Open Your Heart. New York City was recorded live to 2” tape by Travis Harrison (Guided by Voices, Cub Scout Bowling Pins), who has recorded The Men’s last couple of records as well. The Men’s most recent record, 2020’s Mercy, was an eclectic listen, putting epic swamp rock and quiet country-folk next to songs like “Breeze” that proved that the band could still indeed rock hard. New York City, then, is a record-length affirmation of their ability to find plenty of fertile ground in their good old garage rock roots.
The album starts off with a full-on assault in “Hard Livin’’”, a grimy and gritty garage punk song, and doesn’t let up with the smoldering “Peace of Mind” following immediately after. “God Bless the USA” finds the band conjuring up their best Dead Moon impression (Fred Cole and Toody, now those are two real reasons to be proud to be an American). The mid-section of the record does have a bit of variation without abandoning New York City’s prime mission, throwing out the riff-rocking “Eye”, the subterranean “Eternal Recurrence”, and the swaggering “Round the Corner”. Album closer “River Flows” hints at some of The Men’s previously-explored rock excess with its six-minute length, but like the rest of the album, it shows how it can be done with maximum precision. (Bandcamp link)
Various – Rock Against Bush
Release date: January 31st Record label: Self-released Genre: Power pop, pop punk, alt-rock Formats: Digital Pull Track: Buhd
Who doesn’t love a good split release? The best releases of this nature give the listener a healthy dose of variety while also holding together due to some common thread between the various bands, and the four-song, four-artist Rock Against Bush split EP does exactly this. All four of these songs are brand-new, and all the offerings are from artists making some combination of power pop, 90s indie rock, and pop punk, leading to what’s effectively a collection of four massive hit singles. Three of the four contributors to Rock Against Bush have been reviewed on their own in Pressing Concerns, and these songs all feel on-par with the songs that made proper records–there’s no dumping of unwanted leftovers here.
The EP opens with “Buhd” by Wish Kit, the one group here that I haven’t written about before–and it just might be the best song on the whole thing. Its combination of fuzzy 90s power pop (check those “woo”s out in the chorus) and slacker rock energy is first-rate, and I’ll be keeping my eye on Wish Kit from here on out. New You’s “Hi-Wire” rivals it in terms of fizzy, catchy alt-rock energy, with the Blake Turner-led group wielding an all-out chorus that would’ve fit well on last year’s Candy EP. Mo Troper’s “Recipe for Loving” is the heart of Rock Against Bush–instead of conjuring up the fuzzier, louder moments of MTV and Dilettante to better “fit in” here, Troper instead embraces his acoustic, intricate Elliott Smith-inspired pop side. Richmond, Virginia’s Gnawing, meanwhile, close Rock Against Bush with a bang, a zippy piece of 90s-inspired alt-rock that’s somewhere between major-label Dinosaur Jr. and something off of Bleach. (Bandcamp link)
Equipment Pointed Ankh – From Inside the House
Release date: January 18th Record label: Bruit Direct Disques Genre: Experimental rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Rubber Slacks
Equipment Pointed Ankh is a Kentucky- and Indiana-based sextet featuring members of State Champion and Tropical Trash, among other bands. Like the group’s previous two records, their third, From Inside the House, probes more experimental grounds than some of the members’ other projects, with the album’s mostly-instrumental seven tracks featuring a whirlwind of percussion, clavinet, synths, and all kind of intriguing sounds on top of them. Particularly in the second half of From Inside the House, Equipment Pointed Ankh explore their atmospheric and their drone-heavier side. For the majority of the album, however, From Inside the House is an experimental rock record that evokes the “rock” side of the descriptor as well as “experimental”, at least as a jumping-off point.
Opening track “Rubber Slacks” is grounded with a steady drumbeat that holds as the clavinet and synths kick in, and the pounding backbeat to “Port of Indiana” one song later sits squarely in the middle of an even busier track featuring an arsenal of synths and some foghorn-evoking brass parts. The minimal brass and techno of “Belmont Hand Wash” gives way to “Late Night A.I.”, a hypnotic mix of underwater sounds, piano, and some of the more palpable Appalachian/folk influences on the record. Nearly half of From Inside the House is taken up by its two most unmoored songs, the title track (featuring spoken word vocals from Jenny Rose) and the ambient, scooped-out sound of “Paper Sink”. It’s a completely different road, but then Equipment Pointed Ankh end things with the industrial stomp of “Swords Against the Ritz”. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to the Rosy Overdrive January 2023 playlist! This one features less “new” music than these typically do–there is some here, to be sure, but the bulk of my January listening was taken up by two “projects”. One was that I read the entirety of Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery by Adam Clair and subsequently listened to about two dozen Elephant 6 albums I hadn’t heard before (plus I re-listened to almost all the ones that I had heard previously), and the other was listening to a ton of music from 1997 (if this part of the playlist interests you, stay tuned for another blog post about it in the coming weeks).
The Tubs, The Apples in Stereo, and The Olivia Tremor Control get multiple songs on the playlist this time.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify (missing one song), Tidal (missing two), BNDCMPR (missing a few). 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.
“Spanway Hits”, Flake Music From When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return (1997, Omnibus/Aural Apothecary)
“Spanway Hits” opens When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return, the only record by proto-Shins band Flake Music. It’s pretty easily the best song on the album, and a lot of what makes James Mercer’s writing on the first two Shins records great is already present here. It’s a little more lo-fi and “rocking” than those big Shins songs, but “Spanway Hits” is deft power pop no matter in what clothes it dresses itself.
“Good I Feel Bad”, The High Water Marks From Songs About the Ocean (2004, Eenie Meenie/Racing Junior)
The High Water Marks are very much still around (last year’s Proclaimer of Thingsappeared on Rosy Overdrive’s Top Albums of 2022 list), but this was my first listen to the debut record from Hilarie Sidney and Per Ole Bratset’s band. They hit the ground running with “Good I Feel Bad”, an opening track that features plenty of the group’s hallmarks: a catchiness rivaling the best from Sidney’s other/older band The Apples in Stereo, a noisiness that colors rather than overwhelms the melody, and excellent trading-off vocals from Sidney and Bratset.
“Wretched Lie”, The Tubs From Dead Meat (2023, Trouble in Mind)
The debut full-length record from The Tubs is here, and it delivers on the promise of their 2021 EP Names as well as singles like “Sniveller”. As the record’s third advance song, “Wretched Lie” was an excellent piece of jangle pop with a chilly streak; as the closing track on Dead Meat, it’s downright stunning. The song is quite full between the post-punk bass and an excellent instrumental guitar hook, and Owen Williams’ vocals deliver the title line (“I have told a wretched lie”) with understated horror.
“Skyway”, The Apples in Stereo From New Magnetic Wonder (2007, Simian/Yep Roc/Elephant 6)
The Apples in Stereo’s reinvigoration/reinvention of themselves as a slick Electric Light Orchestra-inspired power pop group is one of my favorite later-era Elephant 6 developments. The “big” songs from New Magnetic Wonder (“Energy”, “Same Old Drag”) still sound magical and hold up better than you’d think if you haven’t heard them in awhile, but even lesser-heralded tracks like “Skyway” are so infectious and, yes, energetic as well.
“About Last Night”, Peter Hall From About Last Night (2023, Subjangle)
About Last Night is the second solo album by Nottingham singer-songwriter Peter Hall and his debut for Subjangle Records, which proves to be a fitting home for Hall’s jangly indie pop music. The opening and title track to the record brings big hooks out from the beginning, throwing out all the stops from massive leads and brightly-strummed acoustic guitar to full-sounding self-harmonies and melodic bass work.
“Crayon Box”, The Gerbils From Are You Sleepy (1998, Hidden Agenda)
I’ve probably listened to “Crayon Box” more than any other Elephant 6-related song that I’ve discovered since reading Adam Clair’s book on the scene. There’s something really refreshing about, after listening to a lot of music that goes deep into heavy psychedelia and opaque/symbolic lyrics, just enjoying a song that’s openly about indie rock and awkward relationships. Scott Spillane really sells the Portastatic and Sebadoh name-drops, and I can just see the shit-eating grin when he cheerfully bellows “I feel so empty”.
“Live Forever”, Ex-Pilots From Ex-Pilots (2019/2023, Smoking Room)
Ex-Pilots is a Pittsburgh noise pop band featuring members of other excellent groups from that area like Gaadge and Barlow; their self-titled debut record was released four years ago, and has now gotten a remastered release from Oakland’s Smoking Room Records. Ex-Pilots feels like a key puzzle piece to this “scene”, with noisier, more shoegaze-invoking songs sitting alongside tracks like “Live Forever”, which is a very pretty piece of reverb-dressed indie pop.
“Clap and Cough”, Discount From Half Fiction (1997, Kat)
Discount was Alison Mosshart’s 90s band, where she made excellent melodic pop punk before blowing up in the following decade as part of the garage rock revival with The Kills. “Clap and Cough” is an excellent single–it’s clearly part of the Jawbreaker/Samiam/etc wing of indie punk rock that was in full swing around this time, but differentiates itself in no small part due to Mosshart’s voice.
“Gypsum Oil Field Fire”, The Olivia Tremor Control From Presents: Singles and Beyond (2000, Cloud)
The Olivia Tremor Control’s Presents: Singles and Beyond is full of gems like this–these really infectious and catchy lo-fi poppy indie rock tracks that feel like you’re stumbling onto something hidden when you hear them. “Gypsum Oil Field Fire” is originally from a 1994 split single with The Apples in Stereo, which makes a lot of sense–The Olivias hadn’t quite hit on their dense, layered psychedelic pop sound yet, and, at this point, didn’t sound too far off from the 90s indie rock/60s pop synthesis the Apples were also doing. I like where both bands ended up, but this early stuff is very cool too.
“Power Down”, Chris Whitley From Terra Incognita (1997, Sony)
Terra Incognita is a perfectly fine alt-rock album with some blues and Americana undertones, although “Power Down” is the one song from the record that really sticks with me. It’s an excellent song that I could’ve imagined being a hit radio rock single around this time, with Chris Whitley sounding like a post-grunge Adam Duritz in the song’s monster chorus.
“Temporary Arm”, Elf Power From Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs (1995, Arena Rock/Orange Twin)
Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs was effectively an Andrew Rieger solo recording, although longtime Elf Power multi-instrumentalist Laura Carter already pops up on this song playing drums. The record’s lo-fi, home-recorded sound doesn’t quite reflect where Elf Power would end up headed sonically (they got “more Elephant 6-ized” starting with their next album and blossoming with 1999’s A Dream in Sound), but the chugging “Temporary Arm” is as catchy as anything from their later psych/power pop-indebted sound.
“Lilly Isn’t There”, That One Crocodile From Many States (2022, Canadaway)
That One Crocodile is the project of Rochester, New York’s Ben Baker, although it features a host of contributions from other musicians, including bassist Dan Jircitano (Rectangle Creep, Shitcanned) and Ann Rorick, who is the co-lead vocalist on album highlight “Lilly Isn’t There”. It’s a very intriguing song that sets the stage for Many States quite nicely, starting out as a singer-songwriter piano track that morphs into a pedal-steel featuring folk-country tune as Rorick and Baker introduce Lilly and trade off vocals.
“Volcano Girls”, Veruca Salt From Eight Arms to Hold You (1997, Outpost)
It’s not often you’ll find a song that one could also conceivably hear on alt-rock radio in one of these playlists, but I gave Eight Arms to Hold You a full listen last month, and my biggest conclusion from it is that “Volcano Girls” is still an excellent 90s rock single. It’s a big hook and riff fest from Nina Gordon, who I do appreciate as a songwriter a little more after hearing some of her album tracks as well, and I like that they do the “Glass Onion” self-referential thing with the lyrics. That’s amusing to me.
“Weird Sisters”, The Telephone Numbers From Weird Sisters (2023, Meritorio/Prefect)
The Telephone Numbers’ 2021 album The Ballad of Doug was a slow-burner for me that year (it’d be significantly higher on my year-end list if I redid it today), so I’m happy to welcome the San Francisco band back again with their “Weird Sisters” single. I know that The Telephone Numbers’ Thomas Rubenstein is a big Game Theory fan, and I can hear some Scott Miller in the vocals of this song, where the breezy jangle pop of the verses pushes for something higher-up in the chorus.
“Sparkly Green Couch”, Secret Square From Secret Square (1995, Elephant 6)
One of the first new bands to emerge from the Denver division of Elephant 6, Secret Square was the project of Hilarie Sidney (Apples in Stereo) and Lisa Janssen (probably most known otherwise for her bass work on Neutral Milk Hotel’s On Avery Island), who wanted to make weirder music than Robert Schneider was making with the Apples. Secret Square is definitely a more-difficult-to-crack record than anything Sidney’s other band was doing at the time, but “Sparkly Green Couch” is quite catchy in a mid-tempo, late-night/early-morning slacker rock kind of way.
“The Deserter”, Leiah From Endless (2023, Thirty Something/Coypu/Friend of Mine)
There’s something about Scandinavia that seems to excel at producing emo-tinged, nostalgic-sounding indie rock groups at a high rate. Leiah fits into this mold, but it’s also worth noting that they’ve been around for a while–they arose in the late 90s, broke up in 2004, and have returned nearly two decades later with Endless. “The Deserter” is one of my favorite songs of the year so far, a massive power pop tune with an explosive, synth-aided chorus.
“Death Drive with Julie”, Fire Man From Yerself Is Fire (2023)
Yerself Is Fire is a fun and exciting noise rock/post-hardcore record; it recalls the best of 80s labels like Touch & Go and Alternative Tentacles, but its lack of self-seriousness helps it not sound like some kind of dull past imitation. Some of the best moments on Yerself Is Fire are the most overtly pop ones, like “Death Drive with Julie”, which is a “car song” for people with their knuckles gripped ghost-white to the steering wheel that nevertheless explodes into a noisy rock and roll conclusion. Read more about Yerself Is Fire here.
“Rough Necks”, Handturner From Good Moon (2022)
Handturner is the Michigan-based duo of Franki Hand and Isaac Turner, who readers of Rosy Overdrive know as two-fifths of kraut/psych-rockers Wowza in Kalamazoo. Handturner has released tworecords over the past two months; December’s Good Moon is “both an album and a sizzle reel…for those seeking music for soundtracks [etc]”. A lot of the album thusly feels more interstitial, but “Rough Necks” is a solid indie pop tune in its own right, with Hand’s vocals singing melodically over chiming keyboards and percussion. Not on streaming, get it on Bandcamp.
“Boyfriend”, Ex-Vöid From Bigger Than Before (2022, Don Giovanni)
I already talked about The Tubs earlier in this playlist, but the other prominent ex-Joanna Gruesome band is still getting spins from me in 2023, too. I put the Ex-Vöid album at number six on my year-end list; if I made it again today, it might crack the top three. It’s songs like “Boyfriend” that do it–it’s almost too short, cutting out or condensing a lot of the things that feel like pop-song no-brainers (for example, Alanna McArdle cramming some of her best lyrics in between the “normal” verse lines) to make something just slightly off and even more memorable.
“Hooray for Tuesday”, The Minders From Hooray for Tuesday (1998, spinART)
I thought it was interesting how The Minders are discussed by Endless, Endless–Martyn Leaper and Rebecca Cole’s early connections to Robert Schneider and Bill Doss notwithstanding, they’re acknowledged as somewhat as a “peripheral” Elephant 6 band, but they also seem quite revered as people and musicians by a lot of the “core” (read: Athens-based) Elephant 6 figures. I don’t know them personally, but Hooray for Tuesday and (especially) its title track are both great–it’s more straight-up power pop than most Elephant 6 music, sure, but that’s far from a bad thing.
“State Line to Eagleville”, Labrador From Hold the Door for Strangers (2023, No Way of Knowing)
Philadelphia alt-country five-piece Labrador waste no time establishing themselves on the first song of their new record, Hold the Door for Strangers. The gorgeous, jangly instrumental that begins both the album and its first track, “State Line to Eagleville”, is a triumph right out of the gate, shading a song that both fulfills and transcends the band’s “alt-country meets power pop” ambitions. Read more about Hold the Door for Strangers here.
“Autocade”, Prolapse From The Italian Flag (1997, Radarscope)
The Italian Flag is all over the place from Prolapse, a British group that understandably has a bit of a cult following after releasing four really interesting, noisy indie rock records in the 90s. The Italian Flag is probably my favorite one of them–there’s both clanging post-punk and tracks like “Autocade”, a really beautiful early Stereolab-invoking drone pop single.
“Chapter 8 – Seashore and Horizon – ”, Cornelius featuring Robert Schneider and Hilarie Sidney From Fantasma (1997, Trattoria)
My 1997 listening and Elephant 6 listening intersected here–how could I not highlight this song? It certainly helps that it’s a very good track, revealing just how well of a match Cornelius’ cribbed-from-many-decades-before it collage pop is with Robert Schneider and Hilarie Sidney’s 60s inspired music. “Chapter 8 – Seashore and Horizon – ” could very well be an Elephant 6 song, although it’s more Olivia Tremor Control float-along psych pop than the Apples’ more band-centric records.
“Prison Song”, Beauty Pill From Blue Period (2023, Ernest Jenning)
Beauty Pill’s much-welcome Blue Period compilation re-releases their 2004 debut full-length The Unsustainable Lifestyle, in addition to the You Are Right to Be Afraid EP and various non-album tracks. “Prison Song” is a spare, vulnerable highlight from The Unsustainable Lifestyle (there’s a reason why the band explored it again for their 2020 Please Advise EP), with vocalist Rachel Burke delivering lyrics that are almost challenging in how straightforward they ring. Read more about Blue Period here.
“Don’t Look Now”, My Dad Is Dead From Everyone Wants the Honey, But Not the Sting (1997, Emperor Jones/Scat)
My Dad Is Dead was (at this point, over a decade into their career) making power trio indie rock recalling stuff like Karl Hendricks, Gaunt, or Ron House’s bands–very good if not especially-remembered songwriting-first rock music. Everyone Wants the Honey, But Not the Sting is something of a litmus test to see just how barebones you can take this kind of music, but the pop hooks in the chorus of opening track “Don’t Look Now” make this song for everyone, in my opinion.
“Dying to Go”, Spice World From There’s No “I” in Spice World (2023, Meritorio/Tenth Court)
Western Australia’s Spice World land squarely on the “loose and ragged” end of the guitar pop spectrum on their debut record, There’s No “I” in Spice World. “Dying to Go” comes at the end of the record, and the band saves one of their peppiest numbers for last, with a chorus heavy on the “oh oh oh”s. “Dying to Go” is also the song where Spice World establish themselves as the biggest Spice Girls fans in jangle pop by calling out the girl group directly in their lyrics. Read more about There’s No “I” in Spice World here.
“Motorcar”, The Apples in Stereo From Science Faire (1996, spinART/Elephant Six)
Maybe it’s due to the sheen on some of their later work, but I feel like early Apples in Stereo maybe does not get its proper due as excellent lo-fi 90s indie rock. Their 1996 Science Faire compilation in particular is full of fuzzy hooks–Robert Schneider and his bandmates were just as inspired by Pavement as they were by 60s pop groups at this time, and anyone who’s a fan of the more tuneful side of underground 90s bands like Guided by Voices and Built to Spill should give it a listen.
“All Jets Are Gonna Fall Today”, Chocolate USA From All Jets Are Gonna Fall Today (1992, Bar/None)
Chocolate USA was Julian Koster’s band before joining Neutral Milk Hotel and starting The Music Tapes (or, at least, before The Music Tapes became an on-the-record band), and featured at various points Bill Doss and Eric Harris from The Olivia Tremor Control. They don’t seem like the most fondly-remembered group in the context of Elephant 6 (I believe Koster said the records never captured the band in the way he wanted them to), but I thoroughly enjoyed both of their albums, particularly All Jets Are Gonna Fall Today, the title track of which is sublime, sleepy indie pop.
“Strength”, Comet Gain From Magnetic Poetry (1997, Wiiija)
“Strength” opens Magnetic Poetry, the sophomore record from long-running British indie pop group Comet Gain, and it’s an excellent piece of Jazz Butcher-y, post-C86 pop music. Horns feature prominently throughout the track, the electric and acoustic guitars both do their jobs in being melodic and bouncy, and David Christian’s vocals soar to match the giddy instrumental as well.
“Nixon Peace Fingers”, Slime Lush From Custom Slaughter (2022)
Slime Lush are a nineties-inspired indie rock group from Oklahoma, and their latest record, last year’s Custom Slaughter, opens with “Nixon Peace Fingers”, an eighteen-wheeler of a desert rock song. They cite the usual 90s indie guitar hero names (Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr.) on their quest to make indie rock as classic rock, a thing that Silkworm (and, yes, sigh, Pavement) did well. “Nixon Peace Fingers” is six minutes of fairly straightforward rock and roll that derails just a bit before it’s over.
“Punched a Friend”, The Holy Cows From Blueberrie (1997, Big Pop)
The Holy Cows came from Michigan, and they put together a fun Midwestern college rock/alt-country mix on their second album, 1997’s Blueberrie. Like a lot of bands from this time, the Holy Cows land somewhere between R.E.M. and The Replacements, but these songs are spirited enough to not fade into the background. Opening track “Punched a Friend” makes the titular question land like, well, a punch, I suppose.
“Ballroom Etiquette”, Guided by Voices From La La Land (2023, GBV, Inc.)
Hello, it’s another Guided by Voices album! La La Land feels like a departure from GBV’s twin 2022 releases, a bit less muscular than Trembler and Goggles by Rank and Crystal Nuns Cathedral and a little more ornate and regal. The straightforward “Ballroom Etiquette” is a clear and early highlight on the record; it’s jangly and has some nice bass work going on in it, and Pollard’s delivery of the refrain (the “most likely if you go…” part) is nice and understated, letting the hook work for itself.
“Love Athena”, The Olivia Tremor Control From Presents: Singles and Beyond (2000, Cloud)
Another excellent lo-fi pop hit from the early stages of the Olivia Tremor Control, “Love Athena” originally kicked off the 1994 California Demise EP. The band was effectively Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, and Jeff Mangum at this point, and although a lot of early music produced by this trio was fairly experimental, “Love Athena” is a perfect, simple pop song buried underneath fuzz.
“California Summer”, The Summer Hits From Beaches and Canyons 1992-96 (1997, X-Mas)
The Summer Hits were a California band that combined surf rock and sunshine pop with heavy noise pop, lo-fi fuzz-fest indie rock and almost-shoegaze on a string of singles collected here. Not every song on Beaches and Canyons “works” for me, but the big “pop” hits of the compilation are all great realizations of an intriguing combination of genres. “California Summer” is brightness and chaos all at once.
“Illusion Pt. II”, The Tubs From Dead Meat (2023, Trouble in Mind)
The Tubs open Dead Meat with “Illusion Pt. II”, a song that references (but is not the same as) “Illusion” from their 2021 Names EP. The original “Illusion” was a sharp two-minute pop song about not feeling like a real person; “Illusion Pt. II” stretches itself out to over four minutes with a post-punk bass groove running underneath it, highlighting the urgency that The Tubs always seem to be putting out on display in some form or another.
“Bumper Ships”, Hello Whirled From The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun (2022, Sherilyn Fender)
Late 2022 and early 2023 saw the release of three Hello Whirled albums over the course of as many months. The IN THE NO trilogy, as Hello Whirled head Ben Spizuco deemed the three, found the project both excelling in and pushing around their lo-fi indie rock core sound. “Bumper Ships” is from the second of those albums, The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun, and it’s one of the most intriguing things I’ve heard from Spizuco. It’s a tight march of a pop song with some fun synth additions, a key addition to the ever-expanding Hello Whirled songbook. Read more about IN THE NO here.
“Meadowport Arch”, The Ladybug Transistor From The Albemarle Sound (1999, Merge)
The Ladybug Transistor were, along with their sibling band The Essex Green, a couple of New York groups that became associated with Elephant 6 thanks to Robert Schneider’s efforts to expand the label in the late 90s. Unlike The Essex Green, I don’t think Elephant 6 released any of the Ladybug Transistor records, but listening to songs like the baroque pop “Meadowport Arch”, there’s a clear stylistic fit here.
“Glide”, Status / Non-Status From January 3rd (2023, You’ve Changed)
Following last year’s Surely Travel (which appeared on Rosy Overdrive’s 2022 best-of list), Status / Non-Status rang in the new year with the three-song January 3rd EP. My favorite song on the record is the acoustic closing track “Glide”, an incredibly moving tribute (to “our dear mother, mentor and friend who slipped into the ice and never came home”) that bandleader Adam Sturgeon left unfinished for emotional reasons.
“Life Forms (Transmission Received)”, Major Organ and the Adding Machine From Major Organ and the Adding Machine (2001, Orange Twin)
Major Organ and the Adding Machine is the quintessential Elephant 6 project, comprised of recordings made by, seemingly, almost everyone in the Athens Elephant 6 scene and passed between each other for years. The result is a very strange record; few of its tracks are as straightforward as closing track “Life Forms (Transmission Received)”, whose vocal chant is obscured but is otherwise a pounding, uplifting benediction song.
Welcome to another Pressing Concerns. Today, we have new albums from Moscow Puzzles and The Drin, a new EP from Florry, and a reissue from Beauty Pill to discuss.
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.
Beauty Pill – Blue Period
Release date: January 20th Record label: Ernest Jenning Record Co. Genre: Experimental indie rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: You Are Right to Be Afraid
In 2004, Beauty Pill put out The Unsustainable Lifestyle, the first full-length record from Chad Clark since the dissolution of his previous band, the critically-acclaimed Dischord group Smart Went Crazy. The Unsustainable Lifestyle retained many of the great qualities that marked the final Smart Went Crazy album, Con Art, while at the same time establishing Beauty Pill as a separate and unique entity–it received rave reviews from many notable music publications and sold extremely well. It should be noted, however, that this success came about twenty years later, when it was included as part of Blue Period, a compilation made up of the first Beauty Pill album, 2003’s You Are Right to Be Afraid EP, and a few outtakes and demos. The record’s contemporary reception isn’t really worth getting into here.
To me, The Unsustainable Lifestyle is up there with Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are, the band’s triumphant 2015 comeback album (and both of them are up there with the justly-beloved Con Art). The record doesn’t hold one’s hand, sure, but giving yourself over to the music (a worthwhile endeavor in most cases, and particularly in the case of an artist who had already made and would continue to make great records) reveals a lot. “Goodnight for Real” makes a fuss about turning its back on you, but Clark’s “There’s only so much oxygen” is, in its own way, a surging chorus. Co-lead vocalist Rachel Burke adds another dimension to the band’s sound; her stoic delivery in “Lifeguard in Wintertime” (by my metrics, one of the heaviest songs ever to come out on a Dischord release) is key, and the exuberant “Such Large Portions!” and the weary “I’m Just Gonna Close My Eyes for a Second” land impressively far off from each other in no small part due to her voice.
The other half of Blue Period is split between You Are Right to Be Afraid and a half-dozen previously-unreleased recordings. The former is a smaller-stakes release than The Unsustainable Lifestyle, but its peaks (the title track, a rocker that sounds like nothing else Beauty Pill ever did even as the strutting chorus hits the familiar “dread” notes, and “You, Yes You”, a spare, vulnerable song that rivals “Prison Song”, The Unsustainable Lifestyle’s champion of this) are no less high. The unearthed, new-to-us material is a nice mix; in particular, the alternate version of “This Is the Hidden Track”, a very good song from 2001’s The Cigarette Girl from the Future EP, is welcome, and “I Don’t Live Today” joins the Beauty Pill repertoire of song “studies”, being a take on the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name. And the towering “Fugue State Companion”, which doesn’t exactly sound like most of the songs from this period and yet feels like it would’ve fit well on either of the original records, is worth it on its own. It’s far from being on its own on Blue Period, however; here, it’s one more great song from an era finally getting its due. (Bandcamp link)
Moscow Puzzles – Cicadas Are Sensitive to Parallel Lines
Release date: January 13th Record label: 5cm Recordings Genre: Math rock, post-rock, noise rock Formats: CD, digital Pull Track: Radix
Instrumental duo Moscow Puzzles come from Iowa City, Iowa, and the band (drummer Tony Andrys and guitarist Tobin Hoover) make the kind of barebones, basement-friendly post-rock that’s befitting of such a lineup. Their debut full-length record, Cicadas Are Sensitive to Parallel Lines, is five songs’ worth of lengthy jams that feel indebted to 90s indie labels like Thrill Jockey and Quarterstick, and Moscow Puzzles sound invigorated whether they’re exploring their louder, noisier side or probing into something sounding a bit more subtle and intricate. Opening track “Radix” is the only song on Cicadas Are Sensitive to Parallel Lines that doesn’t break the seven-minute mark (it’s an easy four-and-a-half), and it’s Moscow Puzzles at their most “noise rock”, pulling together a swirling, Unwound-esque riff with some distortion and a pounding drumbeat.
The rest of the record has louder moments, but typically contained as one movement in a series of several per song; “Channel Nine”, for instance, reaches a loud, rocking conclusion, but not before spending several minutes building a power-duo version of Tortoise-esque clock-ticking post-rock and then stepping it all up. Closing track “North/Northwest” is the other song on the record that more or less follows the “build-up” structure, ending Cicadas Are Sensitive to Parallel Lines with a bang. The center of the record is made up of “Salted Pine” and “Colt”, which together stretch to about eighteen-minutes; the former races out of the gate only to pull back into something more pensive, and with “Colt”, Moscow Puzzles build their biggest song out of, primarily, tension and uneasiness. (Bandcamp link)
Florry – Sweet Guitar Solos
Release date: January 25th Record label: Dear Life Genre: Alt-country Formats: Digital Pull Track: Cowgirl in a Ditch
Florry is a Philadelphia alt-country band led by Francie Medosch, who were last seen releasing the album Big Fall in 2021. Since then, the group has ballooned to a seven-piece band (featuring dedicated pedal steel, lap steel, and fiddle players Sam Silbert, John Murray, and Will Henrikson in addition to vocalist Victoria Rose, drummer Joey Sullivan, and bassist Jared Radichel) and signed to Dear Life Records. The first release from this new version of Florry is the four-song Sweet Guitar Solos EP, featuring two all-new songs, an updated version of an older Florry tune, and a Drive-By Truckers cover.
Dear Life Records has a good track record when it comes to records made by DBT-indebted musicians with “Guitar Solo” in the title, and Sweet Guitar Solos doesn’t disappoint on this front. Opening track “Cowgirl in a Ditch” takes full advantage of Florry’s current configuration, turning in a wonderfully ragged, steel-guitar-heavy country tune sung by committee. The other new one, “When I Kicked You Out of the Band (I Wasn’t Kicking You Out of My Life)”, is just as fun, leaning hard on the fiddle even as its starts and stops put it more on the “rock” side of country rock than the last song. Their version of “Lisa’s Birthday” is surprisingly restrained, but the energy returns in full force with “Big Fall”, which ramps up a track from Florry’s last record excitedly, so much so that the band keep going long after the “song” ends. (Bandcamp link)
The Drin – Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom
Release date: January 27th Record label: Feel It/Drunken Sailor/Future Shock Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, experimental punk Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital Pull Track: Venom
Feel It Records began highlighting the rich underground rock scene in their adopted hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio last year with the release of Crime of Passing’s self-titled debut record, and they continue to dig up gems by signing The Drin and putting out their third record on vinyl (Like Crime of Passing, Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom is being co-released by Cincinnati cassette label Future Shock, and Drunken Sailor Records is stocking the record in Europe). Although The Drin may frequently be grouped in with other Cincinnati punk bands like Crime of Passing and The Serfs, they differentiate themselves clearly on Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom.
While all of the aforementioned bands embrace a Midwestern/Rust Belt industrial-adjacent sound, The Drin rely more on empty space and post-punk and experimental leanings rather than their peers’ icy synths. Lead vocalist Dylan McCartney’s vocals are neither Crime of Passing’s catharsis nor The Serfs’ Devo-core robotics–they primarily skew toward “absentminded mutterings”. “Venom” is lo-fi, up-close garage punk at its finest, although The Drin proceed to deconstruct things from there, whether it’s the drum-led “Peaceful, Easy, Feeling” or the dub-inspired “Eyes Only for Space”. Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom still offers up plenty of rocking moments– “Stonewallin’” is inspired punk buried beneath some grime, and six-minute closing track “Mozart on the Wing” is a genuine post-punk anthem–but it doesn’t stay there. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to the second Pressing Concerns of 2023! Today, we look at new albums from Fire Man, Megadose, and Spice World, and a new EP from The Primitives.
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.
Fire Man – Yerself Is Fire
Release date: January 13th Record label: Self-released Genre: Noise rock, punk, experimental rock, post-hardcore Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Death Drive with Julie
Fire Man is the solo project of Caio Brentar, who also plays in the post-hardcore band Died and seems to be a decently popular music critic under the handle “Punk Revolution Now!”. Following a couple of EPs and a compilation of early material, Yerself Is Fire is the debut Fire Man full-length, and it’s a blast. It’s an exciting noise rock record, both heavy and playful in a way that recalls a host of 80s underground bands and labels (Touch and Go, SST, Alternative Tentacles…), and it’s too excitable to sound like some kind of dull past imitation. Caio sends most of these songs into post-hardcore howling tailspins at some point, but Yerself Is Fire has its share of humor, fun, and even pop hooks as well. The band’s bio cites Nomeansno, a band that walked this particular tightrope well; I also hear no small amount of Alice Donut in Caio’s vocals and lyrics.
At seven songs, Yerself Is Fire doesn’t exactly have any breather or filler tracks; all of these songs are heavy hitters, unless you count the pin-drop, almost-slowcore first three minutes of “Just Around the Corner…” before it explodes into a full-throated post-hardcore scorcher at its end. The rest of the record’s songs similarly have multiple sections, covering a range of genres– “Gun Cures Brain” lurches and tiptoes its way to a big, lumbering riff-rock chorus, and “I Feel Like Dying” and “Machine” both veer from lean punk rock into heavier finishes. Some of the best moments on Yerself Is Fire are the most overtly pop ones; “Death Drive with Julie” is a “car song” for people with their knuckles gripped ghost-white to the steering wheel, and, against all odds, “Twenty-Five” ends with a big old (albeit depressing) singalong. Yerself Is Fire doesn’t really differentiate between the noisy and poppy “sides”; they’re all smashed together here. (Bandcamp link)
Megadose – Heating Up
Release date: January 20th Record label: Self-released Genre: Power pop, pop rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Tahuya Cruisin’
Seattle indie pop quartet Megadose have their roots in Anacortes, where frontman Stephen Steen and guitarist Mikey Ferrairo grew up, and were rounded out by rhythm section Laura Seniow (bass) and James Kasinger (drums) when they formed in late 2019. Their debut full-length, Heating Up, is a slick-sounding record that is colored with 80s new wave, reverb-y dreaminess, but Megadose make things clear enough for these songs’ pop hooks and Steen’s vocals to shine front and center. Heating Up is a leisurely record, “slacker rock” at its most ornate. The triumphant jangle pop of opening track “Silver Cup” and the rippling sophisti-pop of “Rock Yer Head” have huge pop choruses, but neither are particularly showy about it, and both of those tracks are less meandering than single “Hey 911” one song later.
Heating Up gets a little peppier with the appropriately-titled “Tahuya Cruisin’”, where Steen’s vocals ground the song even as it zips along, and “Jackie’s Gotta Run”, in which Megadose indulge in a little bit of rootsiness and in one big finish. Steen’s delivery of “I need a second to think!” in “Pig” demonstrates that he can push himself out of his vocal comfort zone to rewarding results, and the second half of Heating Up as a whole feels a bit more exploratory. The atmospheric turns of “Minor Groove” and “Fade In” showcase some of the band’s more overt dream pop leanings, and “Mote of Reflection” does this a bit too before it gives way to the loudest, noisiest song on the record. Nevertheless, everything resolves with the pristine chamber pop of “The Voyeur” to close out a pleasant, warm listen of an album. (Bandcamp link)
Spice World – There’s No I in Spice World
Release date: January 20th Record label: Meritorio/Tenth Court Genre: Jangle pop, lo-fi pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Dying to Go
If Megadose are on the slick and shiny end of the guitar pop spectrum, Australia’s Spice World have staked out on a position among the “loose and ragged” side of the genre. The five-piece band formed in Fremantle, Western Australia in 2021, and their full-length debut There’s No I in Spice World is ten songs of meandering, unhurried pop rock that’s equally likely to sound laid-back and content or wistful and melancholic. Spice World (whose name, they prove by quoting “Spice Up Your Life” in “Dying to Go”, does not coincidentally share a name with the Spice Girls’ 1997 film) sound economical, not cluttered, on their first album–voices drop in and out, and not infrequently, there’s only one instrument playing at any given moment.
Opening track “What a Pity What a Shame” sets the mood with its easy-out-of-the-gate stops and starts–it captures the feeling of halfheartedness while still sounding full itself. “Useless Feeling” and “Decorated Boy Scout” kick the energy up in the record’s first half without being true changes of pace–from that point on, Spice World save their most upbeat moments for the shortest (the sub-minute-jangle of “Time Time Turn Around”) and last (the “oh, oh, oh”-chorused “Dying to Go”) tracks on the record. There’s No I in Spice World is a rolling album, and while the more brisk tracks are the “peaks” in terms of tempo, they aren’t always the clearest highlights–Spice World is a band that works very well with sparseness and emptiness as well. (Bandcamp link)
The Primitives – Don’t Know Where to Start
Release date: January 20th Record label: HHBTM Genre: Indie pop, power pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Don’t Know Where to Start
Like a lot of people, I’m mainly familiar with The Primitives via their excellent college rock-era indie pop hit “Crash”, but over the past decade or so, the band has put together a substantial second act, releasing a couple albums and EPs since their reunion in 2009. The latest of these is the four-song Don’t Know Where to Start EP, headlined by the record’s title track and featuring a few more pieces of indie pop. Don’t Know Where to Start is brief and only features two all-new songs, but what is there makes the most of its short time.
Among the two new tracks, “Don’t Know Where to Start” is the obvious “single”, with singer Tracy Tracy leading an incredibly catchy, 60s girl-group-inspired song that feels particularly timeless. The bass-led, Paul Cort-sung “Till I’m Alive” is still catchy, although here the Primitives’ pop is shot through with a bit of post-punk obscurity. The other two songs on Don’t Know Where to Start are a live version of “Panic” (an actual 60s girl group song originally by Reparata and the Delrons and covered by the band on their 2012 album Echoes and Rhymes) and an acoustic version of “Don’t Know Where to Start”–the former in particular finds the band paying tribute to their influences with an infectious energy that puts it on the same level as the Primitives originals. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to January 2023, and the first Pressing Concerns of the new year. And it’s a good one! I look at new albums from Labrador and Julian Never, a new EP from Perfect Angel at Heaven, and catch up on the latest threeHello Whirled records. What a great start to the year, no?
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.
Labrador – Hold the Door for Strangers
Release date: January 13th Record label: No Way of Knowing Genre: Alt-country, country rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: State Line to Eagleville
Labrador is an alt-country band based in Philadelphia and led by singer-songwriter (and music writer) Pat King. Although Hold the Door for Strangers isn’t the first Labrador release, it’s the first one from the Philadelphia incarnation of the group (which was formerly a Brooklyn-based King solo project). Now a five-piece, Labrador’s latest record (produced by Kyle Gilbride of Swearin’) is a full-sounding folk rock album that takes full advantage of contributions from violinist Grace Kim and drummer Chris Arena, not to mention the two-guitar method of King and longtime collaborator Kris Hayes. The upstate New York-originating King sings in a hollering, lonesome manner, which contributes to the cavernous feeling of Hold the Door for Strangers’ nine songs in a way that reminds me of one of Labrador’s biggest influences, Jason Molina and the Magnolia Electric Co.
Although lumbering, Neil Young-inspired country rock doesn’t always make the most room for variety, Labrador pull out their fair share of it throughout Hold the Door for Strangers. The gorgeous, jangly instrumental that begins both the record and “State Line to Eagleville” is a triumph right out of the gate, leading into a song that both fulfills and transcends the band’s “alt-country meets power pop” ambitions. The spoken-word “I Lost My Gun” reflects their quieter, folk-troubadour-inspired side, and one song later the scorching “Guy with a Job (That Nobody Wants)” is Labrador at their most Crazy Horse. One of the most “country” things to me about Hold the Door for Strangers is its tempo–it’s not afraid to take its time. Even when the songs sound urgent, the album doesn’t come off as hurried. I do, in fact, believe that this album would take the few extra seconds to hold the door open for me. (Bandcamp link)
Hello Whirled – IN THE NO (It’s a Difficult Joy, But It’s a Joy / The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun / Here Comes the World)
Release dates: November 4th / December 2nd / January 6th Record label: Sherilyn Fender Genre: Lo-fi indie rock Formats: Digital Pull Tracks: The Makings of a Cop /Bumper Ships / Falling into Your Head
It’s been a bit since we checked in on Hello Whirled. Last year, the Ben Spizuco project released its physical debut, the Hoping for a Little More…Pizzazz cassette, on Repeating Cloud Records (Teenage Tom Petties, Log Across the Washer, FonFon Ru) but I’m guessing the notoriously prolific Spizuco has been–oh, Jesus, we’ve got three whole albums to cover now. Hello Whirled closed out 2022 and are opening 2023 with their IN THE NO trilogy, unveiled over three months with November’s It’s a Difficult Joy, But It’s a Joy, December’s The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun, and January’s Here Comes the World.
IN THE NO finds Hello Whirled continuing to explore heavier sonic territory. Spizuco is associated with noise pop groups like Ex Pilots and Gaadge, and while these aren’t shoegaze albums, Spizuco is as game to amp up the fuzz and distortion on his lo-fi 90s-inspired indie rock as ever. It’s across these albums, but particularly apparent in the second half of It’s a Difficult Joy…, from longer noise collages (“Girlfriend with Bangs”) to brief, chugging pop-punk (“The Makings of a Cop”), and “You Can Be a Hero When You’re Dead”, which might as well just be shoegaze at this point.
The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun boasts a similarly-beefy sound (with eight songs in 35 minutes, Hello Whirled’s stretching out a bit here), but it feels a bit more varied musically. “Bumper Ships” is one of the most intriguing things I’ve heard from Spizuco, a tight march of a pop song with some fun synth additions–and none of my other favorite tracks from the album (the warped ballad “Imaginary Star”, the gliding “Breathing Underwater”, the minimal “Self Parody”) sound much like each other, either.
The third installment of IN THE NO goes even further, recalling 2021’s Masters Copy in how it offers just six songs over half an hour. Here Comes the World accomplishes this with a couple of multi-part, Spizuco-prog tunes; the seven-minute “Your Bright Blue Evening” and twelve-minute blowout closing track “I. Disappeared Boy. II. Destroyed Man. III. I Am Obliterated”–although the quieter in-between songs are, I think, where this record shines. If I have to choose the best album of the trilogy, I’d go with The Kids Don’t Wanna Have Fun, but all three are distinct and full enough to stand on their own. (Bandcamp link)
Perfect Angel at Heaven – EP
Release date: January 6th Record label: Self-released Genre: 90s indie rock, noise rock, post-punk, no wave Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Tunnel Vision
Perfect Angel at Heaven is a new Indianapolis trio made up of members of other Hoosier state bands–vocalist/guitarist Casey Noonan played in Spandrels, bassist Alex Grove in Kevin Krauter’s band, and drummer Daniel Thacker with…the Indianapolis Colts drumline. The group’s debut release is a self-titled EP that feels inspired by 1980s and 90s underground rock–Perfect Angel at Heaven specifically cite Sonic Youth and no wave, although these songs don’t fit neatly into those boxes. Even though Perfect Angel at Heaven only spans four songs, it doesn’t feel slight for a first record–all the songs are substantial, and “Miami” and “Tunnel Vision” especially find the group stretching out beyond basic indie rock structures.
Even as the band take inspiration from noisier groups, there’s a refreshing clarity to Perfect Angel at Heaven, both in Noonan’s upfront vocals and in the instrumentals, which have a pristine, unadorned feeling, even when the trio launch into long instrumental breaks like they do in “Tunnel Vision” (and the more chaotic moments, like the pretty overtly no wave middle part of “Miami”, feel like natural progressions). Noonan’s vocals hew toward the theatrical side, almost crooning at points, in a way that evokes a completely different kind of 1980s music than the rest of Perfect Angel at Heaven. It works to add another layer of intrigue to Noonan’s observations and questions that populate the EP, from him asking “Is it God or is it Mom who keeps you from having fun?” in “Is It Mom”, or opening “Tunnel Vision” by matter-of-factly stating “Every man I’ve met needs a mother / But my body can’t deliver” over a post-punk instrumental. (Bandcamp link)
Julian Never – Pious Fiction
Release date: January 13th Record label: Mt.St.Mtn. Genre: Jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Silver One
Julian Elorduy was a fairly active musician in the late 2000s and early 2010s, playing in Sacramento bands like Mayyors and Fine Steps, but after a few quiet years and a couple of self-released solo recordings, Elorduy is beginning 2023 with the full-length debut of his new home-recorded jangle pop project, Julian Never. Pious Fiction is nothing if not generous, featuring fifteen songs of light, synth-touched guitar pop that recall both C86 and 80s sophisti-pop. The album was recorded over several years and in several locations (mostly by Elorduy on his own, but aided in part by Mark Kaiser of Mayyors and Male Gaze), and it feels about as “sprawling” as this kind of music can be.
Pious Fiction is a consistent and steady listen; Elorduy keeps the songs flowing into another naturally even as some tracks (“Come On (Now)”, “High School”, and “Silver One”) shoot for big pop rock anthem status and others (the slow-moving “Grassharp”, the blurry noise pop of “Luv”) occupy their own lanes. Pious Fiction is too casual to feel overstuffed, but it does take a few listens for one to appreciate each individual pop moment and turn (especially when a few of the record’s best songs, like the post-punk-inspired “Precious” and single “Radio Memphis”, are tucked away near the end of the album)–and that’s a fairly good problem to have. (Bandcamp link)
I’ve been meaning to go into my playlist archives again for a while, and early January seems like a good time to do it. So: we’re skipping back half a decade, looking at what music I was listening to in January of 2018. It appears that it’s mostly 2017 albums that I discovered through year-end lists or otherwise missed the first time around, a lot of which is from bands I still enjoy regularly today. There’s a couple 2018 songs in here, and some archival picks (mostly 1992, it seems).
Lost Boy ?, Lilly Hiatt, Racquet Club, Friendship, WV White, and Mary Lynn all have two songs on this playlist. Mo Troper has three. The more things change…
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (the latter two 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.
Rosy Overdrive’s 2023 will start soon.
“Paradise”, Alejandro Escovedo From Gravity (1992, Watermelon)
We start things off with a heavy-feeling Alejandro Escovedo song–is there any other kind? Not from Gravity, at least (a record that has appeared in these playlists before). “Paradise” begins Escovedo’s 1992 debut solo album with a sparse acoustic guitar and “Did you get your invitation? / There’s gonna be a public hanging”. From there, the song rises and falls, a sweeping and worthy opening statement.
“The Underside of Power”, Algiers From The Underside of Power (2017, Matador)
I came to The Underside of Power thanks to the acclaim it got at the end of the year, I’d imagine–and while in hindsight it doesn’t rank among my favorite records of 2017, the strongest tracks from the album (“Walk Like a Panther”, “Cry of the Martyrs”, and this one) are as good as anything else that came out that year. The title track especially is where Algiers’ post-punk and gospel congeal into something streamlined, sharp, and hard-hitting.
“Hollywood”, Lost Boy ? From Canned (2015, PaperCup)
I stumbled onto Lost Boy ?’s Canned around this time, which I still think is a very fun pop rock album. Lost Boy ? is the project of New York’s Davey Jones, and it’s associated with Exploding in Sound band Baked somehow, though I don’t remember exactly how (Lost Boy ? themselves previously released an EP on EIS as well). Jones’ vocals are high and kind of cartoony, matching Canned’s album cover, and the music on “Hollywood” is fun, too–but in a more straight-up power pop way.
“Dictator Out of Work”, Mo Troper From Exposure & Response (2017)
Exposure & Response definitely stands up as one of my favorite records of 2017. It actually feels a little weird to listen to now, as Mo Troper’s current lo-fi, home-recorded fuzzy recentrecords are a world away from his clean, horn-laden era. Still, I think Exposure & Response is the best of the “buttoned-up and full of bile” Trooper period, and “Dictator Out of Work” goes down incredibly smoothly (impossible to not enjoy his delivery on “a hero on the campaign trai-AIL”).
“Trinity Lane”, Lilly Hiatt From Trinity Lane (2017, New West)
Trinity Lane is just a solid country rock record through and through, and the title track still sounds really good to my ears. Lilly Hiatt’s tribute to the titular Nashville street is a hand-clap-heavy rock and roll tune that begins with Hiatt declaring “I get bored, so I wanna get drunk / I know how that goes, so I ain’t gonna touch it” and ends with her concluding “It’s workin’ all right for me”.
“dOn’t turn me Off”, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya feat. JD AKA ThrashKitten and Mal Devisa From DROOL (2017, Sooper/Father/Daughter)
Like a lot of people, I think, DROOL was my first exposure to Chicago’s NNAMÏ, back when he was still going by his full name. Although he’s blown up a bit in recent years, Ogbonnaya already had his fingers in several genres by this point (see the math rock of 2013’s Despondent EP). Sure, compared to his more recent work, “dOn’t turn me Off” is a relatively barebones rap song, but that’s an asset here for NNAMDÏ and his guests (including an always-welcome Mal Devisa).
“The Bar Is Low”, Pissed Jeans From Why Love Now (2017, Sub Pop)
Ooh, yes. This one’s on this playlist. “The Bar Is Low” is one of my favorite songs from 2017, and, in a bizarro world in which noise rock has Top 40 currency, a should’ve-been number one hit single. We don’t even necessarily need to get into the song’s subject matter to see why–it’s a two-parter, the first part getting by on a classic rock guitar riff and all the low end you can want, and then the cameras get really, uncomfortably up close to Pissed Jeans in the scorching second half. As for what the bar is, exactly….ah, just listen to it. It’s self-explanatory.
“Brickwall”, Fred Thomas From Changer (2017, Polyvinyl)
Damn, some of my favorite songs ever are on this playlist. I don’t know if “Brickwall” is the best thing that Fred Thomas has ever written, but man, it’s gotta be up there. Using one of the most underrated setups in indie rock troubadour music (that’d be: electric guitar and vocals only), Thomas delivers some opening lines to remember before launching into a pop song that’s almost violent in its jaunty-music, dire-lyrics juxtaposition. The animals are right, Fred, there’s gotta be a better way.
“End of the World with You”, Calexico From The Thread That Keeps Us (2018, Anti)
Alright, so now we get a couple of singles from then-upcoming 2018 records. I remember the full album disappointed me, but Calexico’s “End of the World with You” is still a nice, pleasant, big-sky folk rock tune that I don’t regret sticking on here. Does the song flirt with anonymity? Maybe, but some weird guitar work and the very excited-sounding James Turrell shout-out make this one stand out.
“Turn Twice”, Trace Mountains From A Partner to Lean On (2018, Figure 2)
The prevailing narrative (i.e., something I probably read in one album review ever) about Trace Mountains is that Dave Benton’s post-(and also during, yes) LVL UP project gained its footing with 2020’s Lost in the Country after the forgettable lo-fi A Partner to Lean On. Bullshit! This album is still the best one, and “Turn Twice” is still Benton’s best non-LVL UP song. And you know that I’m right, because “Turn Twice” isn’t even a song I’m pre-programmed to like. I definitely did not want anyone from LVL UP doing AutoTune-heavy synthpop, but this song is so well-done that it doesn’t even matter that it doesn’t sound like Return to Love.
“Funeral”, Mary Lynn From My Animal (2016, Anyway)
I haven’t thought of this one in a while. Mary Lynn is(?) a Columbus band led by Mary Lynn Gloeckle (whose other band, This Is My Suitcase, apparently made an album last year, so she’s still making music), and their most recent record is 2016’s Anyway-released My Animal. “Funeral” is a piano-pop-rock tune that bounces along happily to the funeral in the chorus, which appears to be metaphorical and relationship-derived.
“Beating My Head Against a Wall”, Jeff Rosenstock From POST- (2018, Polyvinyl/Quote Unquote)
Justice for POST-! Like a lot of people, I was initially underwhelmed by Jeff Rosenstock’s follow-up to WORRY.– and then I downloaded it and went somewhere with no reliable internet for three months, and came back loving it! At this point, I wasn’t there yet on the admittedly least-friendly of Rosenstock’s solo records, but I did like the effortless Rosenstockian pop punk charm of “Beating My Head Against a Wall” pretty much immediately.
“Skip to the Good Part”, Friendship From Shock Out of Season (2017, Orindal)
Remember when I was talking earlier about how some of my favorite songs ever are in this playlist? Well, here we are. I must have discovered Friendship via this song during this month; they’re now quite solidly one of my favorite newer bands. And while last year’s Love the Stranger has plenty of contenders, I’d still have to choose “Skip to the Good Part” as my favorite Friendship song. It’s their “ambient country” era at its peak, with the drum machine and synths contrasting–no, not contrasting, fitting perfectly with Dan Wriggins’ vocals.
“Alt Shells”, Bethlehem Steel From Party Naked Forever (2017, Exploding in Sound)
Yes, I still fuck with Party Naked Forever. I bought it on vinyl not too long ago (and no, not entirely due to Nicole Rifkin’s excellent artwork). Bethlehem Steel were still a three-piece band at this point, and opening track “Alt Shells” is a fairly straightforward and catchy 90s alt-rock/punk-influenced anthem that feels right at home on Exploding in Sound (who, if you haven’t noticed, figure pretty heavily into this playlist). I should revisit Bethlehem Steel’s 2019 sophomore album, which didn’t grab me at the time.
“Controlling the Sea”, Flotation Toy Warning From The Machine That Made Us (2017, Talitres)
Oh, here’s a fun one. The Machine That Made Us was Flotation Toy Warning’s long-awaited sophomore record, coming over a decade after 2004’s Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck. Long-awaited by other people, I mean–I only just discovered them through the newer album. Since I wasn’t really part of their cult following, I have no qualms about saying I like The Machine That Made Us a little better–their mobius-strip chamber pop that frequently stretches to seven-minute range is a really compelling sound, but “Controlling the Sea” gives the best of Flotation Toy Warning in a bite-size form.
“Drag Down”, WV White From House of Spiritual Athletes (2017, Anyway)
Here’s another one I haven’t thought of in quite a while. WV White (they’re named after a butterfly, apparently) is a Columbus slacker rock/90s indie rock/lo-fi rock group that hasn’t released anything since 2017’s House of Spiritual Athletes, but this record holds up, especially “Drag Down”. It’s simple enough, based around one shambolic but catchy guitar riff and some mumbled but melodic vocals. Come back, WV White!
“The Poet Laureate of Neverland”, Mo Troper From Exposure & Response (2017)
I had to double-check which Exposure & Response songs are on here, because I really could’ve chosen any of them (No “Your Brand”? Seriously, me?). “The Poet Laureate of Neverland” is a pretty inarguable pick. Not that this era of Mo Troper dealt much with “subtlety”, but this one’s a little less in-your-face than “Dictator Out of Work” (even as it falls squarely into the “withering character study” camp). At the very least, it’s restrained enough that the final “You’ve got the head of a politician / And a sloth’s ambition” chorus feels built-up-to.
“Last to Sleep”, Fazerdaze From Morningside (2017, Flying Nun)
This is a good song off of a good record, simply put. Morningside is typically described as dream pop– “Last to Sleep” is certainly pop music, for sure, and it marries mid-tempo, lifting guitar chords with synths and a drum machine to kind of feel like what a modern Flying Nun release should be. Fazerdaze would go on to not release anything for five years, and I never even listened to last year’s Break! EP in full. Maybe I’ll do that.
“New Granada”, Racquet Club From Racquet Club (2017, Rise)
Racquet Club is a band that features members of Knapsack, Samiam, and The Jealous sound, and their 2017 self-titled debut (and, to this date, only) record sounds approximately like what an “elder statesman” version of those bands’ sound would be. “New Granada” is a pretty good example of Racquet Club’s “restrained punk rock”, all tension-building power chords and prominent bass in the verses that eventually explode into a huge chorus.
“Marigold”, Lemuria From Recreational Hate (2017, Asian Man/Turbo Worldwide/Big Scary Monsters)
I know Lemuria has some hardcore fans; I dunno too much about the Buffalo band, but I do like this song. I think Lemuria was one of those bands that were doing scrappy, lo-fi/90s indie rock-inspired music before it became the dominant strain of guitar music again the second half of the 2010s, so 2017’s Recreational Hate (to date, still their newest record) is, probably unintentionally, a victory lap album. “Marigold” is a fun multi-part hooky alt-rock track, jumping from mid-tempo banger into a faster, bigger finish.
“Nashville”, Indigo Girls From Rites of Passage (1992, Sony)
The most recent Rosy Overdrive playlist has an Indigo Girls song on it, this one from five years ago has one–it’s comforting to see that one thing hasn’t changed in a half-decade. And why should it? “Nashville” is an excellent song in which Amy Ray goes in on the titular city both culturally and musically. It’s a gorgeous, full-sounding folk rock tune (harmonica, accordion, cello, and violin all make an appearance), and also, I like how she pronounces “human” weirdly (“Hu-mon”?) in “Nashville, you forgot the human race”.
“Brick Body Complex”, Open Mike Eagle From Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017, Mello Music Group)
It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Brick Body Kids Still Daydream in full–I remembering enjoying in a consistent way that 2020’s Anime, Trauma, and Divorce didn’t quite hit–but “Brick Body Complex” still sounds great. Like most of the record, it’s based around Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes, in which Mike grew up. In classic Mike fashion, he announces “I’ve got something to bring to your attention” in the midst of a chorus placing himself among similarly-originating “ghetto superheroes”.
“Different, I Guess”, Lilly Hiatt From Trinity Lane (2017, New West)
Coming after the roots rockers at the beginning of Trinity Lane, “Different, I Guess” is a second-half country ballad about a messy sort-of-relationship with a ton of hard-hitting lines. From the failed attempt at keeping distance and trying to “look tough” in the opening lyrics, to the gut-spilling in the chorus, to one blunt object after another (“I don’t think you’ll ever know how deep that I went”), it’s…a lot. In a good way.
“What a Time to Be Alive”, Superchunk From What a Time to Be Alive (2018, Merge)
“What a Time to Be Alive” is the title track and lead single to the Superchunk Trump album. Okay, maybe it’s a little more than that, but there are plenty of lines that timestamp this song (albeit in a not too over-the-top way). It’s Superchunk, though, so it’s a very good pop punk song regardless of subject, featuring both a pogo-ing chorus and a secretly-just-as-good pre-chorus (“There’s a crooked line that runs….”). It’d be interesting to revisit What a Time to Be Alive as a whole once it stops being directly relevant, but it does not seem as if we’re there yet.
“If You See My Beloved”, Friendship From Shock Out of Season (2017, Orindal)
Another one from Shock Out of Season, of course. I think songs from this album kept showing up on my playlists over the next few months (“Fuzzy” definitely did, and I think “Workhorse” too); I don’t know if “If You See My Beloved” is my second-favorite song after “Skip to the Good Part” or not, but it’s an excellent opening track and a solid choice. It’s even more electronics-based than “Skip to the Good Part”, built almost entirely off of its quite noticeable drum machine beat. And Wriggins is on point throughout, from communicating a conversation about Auguste Rodin to “Clouds come on, do their drifty thing”.
“Oh, What a Bummer”, Micah Schnabel From Your New Norman Rockwell (2017, Last Chance)
Micah Schnabel is a one-of-a-kind figure in underground Ohio indie rock-cowpunk-alt-country-rock-folk-whatever. I was, geographically and demographically, primed for a Two Cow Garage phase, and I still have a lot of fondness for that band, as well as Your New Norman Rockwell, Schnabel’s 2017 solo album in which he, somehow, lays it all out there even more than he does with Two Cow. “Oh, What a Bummer” is a trip–it’s a very catchy folk rock song about, well, everything, containing both some very triumphant lines and some genuinely uncomfortable moments.
“UFO”, Upper Wilds From Guitar Module 2017 (2017, Thrill Jockey)
“Roy Sullivan” is my favorite Upper Wilds song (at the time, and probably still now); it must be on an earlier one of these playlists. “UFO”, though–this is a very good song, too. Probably tied with “Vampire Crane” for my second-favorite track on Guitar Module 2017, the debut record from Dan Friel’s post-Parts & Labor guitar band. Like Friel’s best songs, the instrumental squall of “UFO” is very tuneful, and Friel’s vocals in between the in-the-red fuzz-rock peaks are just as catchy.
“High Beams”, Trevor Sensor From Andy Warhol’s Dream (2017, Jagjaguwar)
Haven’t thought about this one for about five years, either. Trevor Sensor is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter who was releasing folk rock on Jagjaguwar barely after turning twenty-one, and Andy Warhol’s Dream is aided by names and bands like Richard Swift, Whitney, and Foxygen. “High Beams” makes a good argument for Sensor sticking out among the retro 70s-folk-rock revivalist crowd: his voice is remarkable, as many have pointed out–and just as importantly, it’s not hidden beneath instrumentals and reverb like too many of his peers seem inclined to do.
“Two & Two”, Mary Lynn From My Animal (2016, Anyway)
A second Mary Lynn song? Sure, why not. Like “Funeral”, here we have another piano-heavy pop-rock song, although in this one, the bouncing piano duets with some melodic lead guitar for pretty much the whole song. It doesn’t rock as much as “Space” (probably my favorite track from My Animal), but “Two & Two” is a very catchy mid-tempo tune that sticks out thanks to another ace vocal performance from Mary Lynn Gloeckle.
“Suck You Dry”, Mudhoney From Piece of Cake (1992, Reprise)
“Pull yourself together, take a stab at forever,” indeed. Is this my favorite Mudhoney song? Piece of Cake surely doesn’t stand up against their earlier records as a whole, but “Suck You Dry” is such an excellent distillation of Mudhoney’s garage-punk into a two-and-a-half-minute single. And, considering how far it sounds from Nirvana (let alone from the other Seattle “big three”), it’s a good an example as any as to why “grunge” was never a purely musical signifier. This wasn’t gonna be a breakout hit in 1992. Imagine, though….
“Old Man”, Mo Troper From Exposure & Response (2017)
We’ve reached the third and final Exposure & Response song on this playlist, and what a song it is. “Old Man” is tucked away near the end of a fifteen-song album, and this is where Mo Troper lets the record’s overall pristine, refined attitude slip a little bit. It’s still more polished than, say, anything off of MTV, but, reflectant of some pretty brutal lyrics, “Old Man” turns in a little bit darker, louder version of clean Mo Troper pop.
“Bank”, Lost Boy ? From Canned (2015 PaperCup)
Oh, nice. This is a fun little song. Davey Jones starts “Bank” with some chugging acoustic guitar and his high vocals, and then it explodes into sunny power pop about a minute into the track. A sunny power pop song about robbing a bank, of course. I like the pop-punk bass that leads the music in the second verse here, that’s a nice touch. It’s such a cool-sounding song; it really does make me want to put on a ski mask and hang out in the Cadillac-ac-ac-ac.
“Broken Arm”, WV White From House of Spiritual Athletes (2017, Anyway)
Here’s another WV White song; the fuzzy alt-rock of “Drag Down” is gone here, replaced by a sparse, echo-y, acoustic-plucked ballad in “Broken Arm”. It’s not as immediate as the other House of Spiritual Athletes track on the playlist, but it’s delicate and intimate and all the other things you get from the best of this kind of music, and it’ll grow on you. Also, this is a pretty Anyway Records-heavy playlist, isn’t it?
“White Punks in Angst”, Milked From Death on Mars (2017, Exploding in Sound)
I’ve always liked this Milked cassette from five years ago. Milked–that’s the project of Kelly Johnson, used to be in Geronimo! with Ben Grigg and Matt Schwerin, and is now in Big Big Bison with them. There was a second Milked record in 2018 that was also good, but Death on Mars is just a nonstop parade of hooky alt/punk-rock, and opening track “White Punks in Angst” is particularly massive-sounding.
“White Knuckles”, Racquet Club From Racquet Club (2017, Rise)
Speaking of catchy alt/punk songs with “white” in the title–here’s another song from the Racquet Club album. Apparently “White Knuckles” is the closing track on Racquet Club, which I did not remember–these songs are all icebergs, big and chilly, and most of them work as a closing statement. “White Knuckles” in particular wields the choppy power chords, stoic vocals, and giant chorus well.
“Ho Bitch”, Jenny Mae From Don’t Wait Up for Me (1998, Anyway)
And we close the playlist off with a Jenny Mae piano ballad called “Ho Bitch”. Perfect. Jenny Mae Leffel had passed away a few months earlier–maybe this was the reason I was listening to more Anyway music than normal, I’m not sure. Leffel’s story is a bit too much to go into here (Anyway’s Bela Koe-Krompecher’s memoir, Love, Death & Photosynthesis, would be a place to start), but–I’ve heard both of her albums, and while there are other good songs in there, “Ho Bitch” is her best song. One of the most gentle-sounding songs with “bitch” in the title, to be sure.
It’s the new year, yes, but that doesn’t mean that all the music from 2022 has expired like–I dunno, some kind of food that expires. Anyway, I spent December catching up on a bunch of records from last year that I missed the first time around, listening to some December releases, and exploring some older records (1997 this time around–stick around for the January playlist for more of those selections). I probably won’t start talking about 2023 releases until next week, but I’ve already got some picked out to cover–It’ll be cool!
Big Rig, Buddie, and Thousandaire get multiple songs on the playlist this time around.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (the latter two 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.
“Lucky”, Model Shop From Love Interest (2022, Meritorio)
“Lucky” is one of these songs that I can try to describe, but–just listen to it. You’ll like it, especially if you’ve been following this blog already. Seattle’s Model Shop are a trio who just released their debut record on Meritorio, and, as one might expect from the label, it’s really sharp guitar pop. “Lucky” is a beast of a song–the chorus is gigantic, but the verses are sneakily the catchiest parts of the song, and the single most memorable moment might just be the quietly-uttered “I’ve been wasting so much time” in the instrumental break. Or maybe it’s the delivery of “You were first to admit there might be something else you wanted” (oof). Or the bouncing bass in the chorus.
“Hit the Breaks”, PLOSIVS From PLOSIVS (2022, Swami)
I figured I’d like the PLOSIVS album; I didn’t think it’d end up being one of my favorite things John Reis has ever done. The debut record from Reis’ new band with Rob Crow (Pinback), Atom Willard (Rocket from the Crypt), and Jordan Clark (Mrs. Magician) is ten songs’ worth of nonstop, catchy rock and roll that shows no signs of slowing down from the garage rock veterans. Opening track “Hit the Breaks” sets the scene nicely, cannonballing right into chugging alt-rock excellence.
“Bar Song”, Thousandaire From Ideal Conditions (2022, Knife Hits)
I’ve done more than enough ranking of music over the past month, but: Thousandaire’s Ideal Conditions, I can say pretty confidently, was my favorite discovery of December. They’re an Atlanta-based three-piece group that pulls from everything I like about 90s indie rock. Songs like their shining achievement “Bar Song” hit it all: the casual, everyman feeling (The full title lyric is actually “That’s a hat you wear to the beach, not to a bar”), the adventurous but tuneful guitar play, and a killer hook. I’m trying to say that it sounds like a lost Silkworm song, which is a very good thing to make.
“New Skin / Good Life”, fine. From Love, Death, Dreams, and the Sleep Between (2022, Subjangle)
Whoa, what a record. Love, Death, Dreams and the Sleep Between is a massive album befitting of its title, a nineteen-song, hour-long late entry into the indie pop album of the year running. And yet, “New Skin / Good Life” still stands out as the best song on the Boston, England duo’s second album of 2022 (apparently they made a just-as-large record at the beginning of the year, which I haven’t heard yet). Liam James Marsh and Alice Kat know the power of the “I never meant any harm, I just wanted to leave” line, and they pull out all the stops to show it here.
“She Stopped Making Art”, Kate Ferencz From You Will Love Again (2022, Magic Pictures)
Kate Ferencz has been making music for most of this century, but You Will Love Again is the first record of hers I’ve heard. It’s a weirdly captivating lo-fi pop album, and the clanging “She Stopped Making Art” is one of my favorite things I’ve found in late-stage 2022. A simple, fuzzy keyboard riff, some pots-and-pans percussion, and a thumping sound make up the bulk of the song, and Ferencz’s vocals are something else, delivering the title line and its follow-ups with a forceful casualness.
“Venus in Retrograde”, Big Rig From Big Rig (2022, Peaceful Tapes)
“Venus in Retrograde” closes Big Rig with another excellent chorus from The Courtneys’ Jen Twynn Payne, a loose banjo-and-acoustic-guitar folk rock sensibility, and a few choice lyrics that have particularly stuck with me since I’ve heard them. Payne shrugs with “You always appear right when I open my eyes” as a way of introducing the situation, and the string of questions in the chorus is presented incredibly casually, but I’ve been there and I know better than that. Payne closes the song and the record with “Take your time, it’s fine / I’ll wait on the line”–she’s left in suspense, but we were already there, no?
“After Silver Leaves”, Smut From How the Light Felt (2022, Bayonet)
Smut don’t really sound like how I’d think a band called Smut would sound, but that’s fine. The Chicago band deftly occupies the poppier end of dream-jangle-college pop rock; if you like The Sundays, for instance, you’ll like their newest record. The undeniable hooks of single “After Silver Leaves” make it the obvious highlight for me–it’s another song on this playlist that has a great chorus that’s outflanked in pure catchiness by its verses (“Feeling rebellious, feeling gigantic,” there’s a delivery).
“Indecision”, Buddie From Transplant (2022, Crafted Sounds)
“Indecision” is the big finish at the end of the Transplant EP (did a four-song EP need a “big finish”? Perhaps not, but Buddie were not to be dissuaded), and it feels like a manifestation of the record’s title and the cross-continent move by lead singer Dan Forrest that preceded it. It’s a hurricane-rocker, taking the uncertainty at the center of the song and spinning it into a strong and firm declaration. “A deluge of relentless indecision / A fork in the road, nothing will be the same again,” Forrest and the band effectively roar at the song’s conclusion. Read more about Transplant here.
“Shame on You”, Indigo Girls From The Shaming of the Sun (1997, Sony)
This song is just too undeniable to leave off this playlist. “Shame on You” opens The Shaming of the Sun with one of the most successful Indigo Girls songs to ever folk-rock–the three-chord track is built off of an electric guitar bed but still throws in all the acoustic, harmonica, and banjo accents you could want. And who’s Amy Ray casting shame upon here? Quite a bit of people, but most notably those in Georgia espousing anti-immigrant sentiment (so, yes, Amy Ray, shame on them indeed).
“It Will Never Stop”, Sparklehorse (2022, Anti)
Man, Sparklehorse was so good. Those four records all sound like classics, still, and if you’ve ever explored their EPs and B-sides, you know a lot of good songs didn’t make it to those albums. The posthumously-released “It Will Never Stop” is very much in line with that–apparently it was discovered by late Sparklehorse leader Mark Linkous’ brother Matt while he was going through his archives, and while the sub-two-minute track could’ve just been an unfinished curiosity, that’s not what we get here. We get, in fact, a sharp fuzz-pop song that, if anything, was probably shelved by Linkous for being too straightforward and hooky.
“Your Doubt”, Lovewell From Around the Flowers (2022, Clever Eagle)
New England’s Lovewell is a duo that’s been making music together since 2018, and their recent Around the Flowers cassette EP is their most substantial release yet. Early record highlight “Your Doubt” is a shiny and punchy example of Lovewell’s shoegaze-y, emo-ish indie rock sound, given an edge from Mark Palladino and Joe Bradshaw’s hardcore backgrounds. Both musically and vocally, “Your Doubt” is incredibly hooky and is more substantial than merely being the product of playing around with some effects pedals. Read more about Around the Flowers here.
“Meaningless”, Jon Brion From Meaningless (2001, Straight to Cut-Out/Jealous Butcher)
The title track to Meaningless is not one of the songs I remember loving when I first found this record, but upon listening to Jealous Butcher’s reissue of Jon Brion’s sole “pop” solo album, it’s one of the standouts (perhaps the standout). In classic Jon Brion fashion, it balances the simple and the complex (the main/intro part is just two chords; the rest of the song contains…a lot more than that) and the song’s subject (the places and things that were “meaningless” before a since-ended relationship gave them meaning) is, yes, a good enough one to take the album title. Is Brion saying that the previously-“meaningless” things are now meaningless again as the relationship is in the past tense? Or, perhaps more accurately, that he merely wishes they were meaningless again?
“Born Yesterday”, Gladie From Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out (2022, Plum)
Gladie is the post-Cayetana project of Philadelphia’s Augusta Koch, and their second record (following 2020’s lo-fi debut Safe Sins and a few EPs) is maybe the point where I stop referring to Gladie as just “August Koch’s post-Cayetana band”. For starters, Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out really does sound like a band–listen to album highlight “Born Yesterday”, a ripper where Koch matches the recently-solidified Gladie line-up’s full-sounding alt-rock with a tough-sounding vocal that holds its own in the music.
“Carolina”, Adeem the Artist From White Trash Revelry (2022, Four Quarters/Thirty Tigers)
White Trash Revelry appears to be something of a breakout record for country singer-songwriter Adeem the Artist, and listening to songs like “Carolina”, it’s not hard to hear why. Adeem’s latest album is a heavy one thematically–they write about growing up queer in the American South holistically, in a way beyond your modern soap-drama-type deal, and I recommend listening to the full thing. “Carolina” is a perfect album opener–restrained musically, anything but lyrically, as Adeem effectively paints their origin story in three minutes.
“Another Realm”, Houseghost From Another Realm (2022, Rad Girlfriend)
Another Ohio band? You bet! Dayton’s Houseghost are a “spooky” pop punk band whose latest album (December’s Another Realm) is probably the most fun record I’ve ever heard that starts with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Funeral Home”. The closing and title track is my favorite cut from it, with brother-and-sister duo Nick and Kayla Hamby singing that chant-along chorus over top of Tyler Beaty’s steady drumming.
“Ladders”, Galore From Blush (2022, Paisley Shirt/Safe Suburban Home)
San Francisco’s Galore are a ramshackle jangle pop group that evoke Flying Nun Records with their lo-fi, catchy indie pop songs. Their five-song Blush EP is a bit more laid-back than their 2020 self-titled debut, but the sharp songwriting is still there, especially on “Ladders”. The biggest pure pop success on Blush, it’s a mid-tempo, jangly tune with a vintage, hooky college rock refrain that Galore nevertheless use sparingly. Read more about Blush here.
“No”, Moon Pics From Memoria (2022, Midsummer Madness)
The Memoria EP (at eight songs and twenty-nine minutes, it could be an album if it wanted to be, but “EP” is the Bandcamp description) came out in January, but I only just now came across this solid cassette from Brasilia’s Moon Pics. It’s a record of warmly-familiar-sounding lo-fi, dreamy indie rock–there’s fuzz and reverb, but Adriano Caiado’s vocals are too clear for it to be straight shoegaze. And that’s a good thing, too–“No” features a soaring melody that I’d hate to have to strain to hear.
“Universe”, Thanks for Coming From You Haven’t Missed Much (2022, Danger Collective)
You Haven’t Missed Much (which made my Best Reissues and Compilations of 2022 list) is a cassette overview of the last decade of Rachel Brown’s work as Thanks for Coming, a discography spanning sixty-something-odd releases. “Universe” was, like a lot of the tape, new to me (it appears it’s originally from 2018’s Back at It Again EP), and it’s quickly become one of my favorite Thanks for Coming songs. It’s a short track, but none of Brown’s brief lyrics are wasted, from the “I’ll believe you when you tell me it’s just a simulation” setup to the “I won’t believe you when you tell me we’re not real” conclusion.
“Cry Alone”, Abi Ooze From Forestdale Sessions (2022, Rotten Apple)
Shout out to the Post-Trash year-end list for putting this one in front of me. Abi Ooze is a garage punk artist and/or band out of Hammond, Indiana (nice), and neither they nor the label that put out the Forestdale Sessions EP (St. Louis’ Rotten Apple) appear to have any kind of social media presence (also nice). Opening track “Cry Alone” is as catchy and loud as it is a bummer lyrically, with its loose but spirited interpretation of classic punk rock contrasting with Abi’s adventures with the titular activity.
“Crying in a Corn Maze”, Big Rig From Big Rig (2022, Peaceful Tapes)
While awaiting the third record from Vancouver’s The Courtneys, the trio’s Jen Twynn Payne (vocals/drums) quietly recorded a solo tape earlier this year as Big Rig. And I do mean quietly–I was big on the last Courtneys album, but I didn’t discover Big Rig until about six months after its release. A seven-song, twenty-minute, cassette release screams “low stakes”, but it’s very good, and “Crying in a Corn Maze” in particular excels at melting the Velvets/Flying Nun guitar pop sound of Payne’s main band with a folk/country feel (banjo is excellently provided by Geoffo Reith).
“Dancing to Dance Music”, Waving From If and When I Fall (2022, Klepto Phase)
There’s something about this brief four-song, ten-minute EP from Toledo’s Waving that caught my attention earlier this month. In particular, opening track “Dancing to Dance Music” is the one that stuck with me; it’s probably the biggest-sounding song on If and When I Fall, a two-minute pop punk bummer tune that raises the stakes several times over its length while nevertheless keeping things relatively straightforward. By the time we get to the end of the song, where Jacob Scott declares “We don’t dance to dance music / All we ever do is cry,” and then starts shredding their vocals, it feels earned.
“The War at Home”, Racetrack featuring Sean Nelson From Go Ahead and Say It (2006)
Okay, so Racetrack were a 2000s-era Bellingham trio that released one album and one EP and then broke up. Bassist Chris Rasmussen plays in [b r a c k e t s] now, drummer Jackson Long has been with BOAT for a while, and I’m not sure if vocalist/guitarist Meghan Kessinger is doing anything musically. “The War at Home” is, according to Rasmussen, his “attempt to rip off [Silkworm’s] ‘Cotton Girl’”, and I’m not sure if I hear it, but the end product is an excellent 90s-indebted indie rock tune. Oh, also, yes, that’s Harvey Danger’s Sean Nelson singing here too–his “Ba ba da da da”s are more than welcome up against Kessinger in the chorus.
“I Never Really Knew”, Gloop From Maze Maker (2022)
Baltimore’s Gloop dropped the Maze Maker EP (their second of 2022) in late December, and the four-song release stakes out a position in the world of blues-damaged noise punk pretty much from the get-go with opening track “I Never Really Knew”. The song giddily deploys a Stones-y riff and an insistent drumbeat for Dominic Gianninoto to howl over gamely–fans of the distorted Americana brand of noise rock (from Beefheart to Butthole Surfers to The Grifters) will find a lot to like here. Read more about Maze Maker here.
“Esopus”, Field Guides (2022)
“Esopus” is a one-off single from Brooklyn dreamy jangle pop project Field Guides, coming a few months after their Whatever’s Clever-released full length Ginkgo. It’s a brief track, not even breaking the two-minute mark, but it establishes itself as a remarkable piece of guitar pop all the same. The synth touches give it as much of a 1980s sheen as Benedict Kupstas’ vocals and lyrics do (his delivery of “At the botanical garden, I was telling you / All the names that I knew” is, in particular, a New Romantic gesture hidden in a lo-fi jangle pop tune).
“Faces”, The Fours From Shaking and Moving (2022)
The Fours are a Columbus, Ohio-based lo-fi indie rock group, and their latest album, Shaking and Moving, is a worthy entry into the wide world of Buckeye State guitar pop. If bands like Connections, Smug Brothers, and, yes, Guided by Voices are your thing, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in this record, especially “Faces”. This album highlight has a 90s slacker rock, lightly crunchy feel with an effortless, Tobin Sprout-ish simple but effective melody, making its mark in two and a half minutes.
“Soap Disco”, Kara’s Flowers From The Fourth World (1997, Reprise)
Lmao, sorry for putting a song by the proto-Maroon 5 band on this playlist. But it’d be dishonest if I didn’t; “Soap Disco” has been playing in my head almost non-stop since I first heard it. In several senses, it’s not a particularly “good” song–the lyrics, for instance, are absolute nonsense (“The children had the time / To overthrow the slime / The super-children said they could see…”), but these California teeangers basically stumbled onto a song that does everything you’d want a 90s power pop/alt-rock single to do. It’s two-point-five minutes of all business and hooks. Now, stay tuned for my twenty-year retrospective look at Songs About Jane….
“Buttercup”, Angel Apricot From The Pink Sunset Over You (2022, Apricot)
The latest record from Toronto’s Angel Apricot is everything one could want in a “bedroom pop” album–The Pink Sunset Over You’s thirteen songs are all subtly beautiful, slow-moving lo-fi indie rock tunes. The chorus to “Buttercup” puts it slightly above the rest of the record for me–Angel still sings it relatively quietly, but they inject the performance with a front-and-center energy, and the keyboards and floating guitar leads make the song feel wide open despite the relatively humble setup.
“Blind Contour”, Signals Midwest From Dent (2022, Lauren)
Cleveland’s Signals Midwest have been at it for a while, I think, but Dent is the first full-length of theirs I’ve heard front-to-back (although I did enjoy vocalist/guitarist Max Stern’s EP with Gordon Phillips from late 2021). There’s something about the frantic punk rock of opening track “Blind Contour” that’s stuck with me; the whole album is good, a nice J. Robbins-produced gruff-side-of-pop-punk specimen, but the band really nail the best of the genre in under two minutes with this one.
“Generic America”, Blue Mountain From Home Grown (1997, Roadrunner)
Blue Mountain’s third album, 1997’s Home Grown, is not the front-to-back success that 1995’s Dog Days was, but it does include “Generic America”, one of their best tracks hands-down. The lyric is a well-worn topic for both country and rock and roll (the two genres of which Blue Mountain found themselves squarely in the middle); “I’m a rambler, I don’t fit in your bullshit modern, empty society”, that kind of sentiment. But it’s a tractor-trailer truck of an instrumental, with everything from the “sharper than it needs to be” drumbeat to the “90s southern rock” guitar heroics kicking it up a notch.
“Toward Fire”, Jon the Movie From The Holy Parking Lot (2023, Jon)
Jon the Movie (Long Island’s Jon Gusman) released the A Glimpse That Made Sense EP at the beginning of last year, and it found the hardcore frontman exploring a “prog-punk” sound that incorporated everything from Dream Theater to Smashing Pumpkins to Guided by Voices in addition to his history with hardcore punk. Jon the Movie’s debut full-length record, The Holy Parking Lot, is coming in late January, and judging by lead single “Toward Fire”, Gusman is still exploring this axis, throwing together a pleasing combination of shout-along vocals, blistering guitar work, and some “parse this!” lyrics.
“Chupacabras”, Super Furry Animals From Radiator (1997, Creation)
I finally got around to listening to Super Furry Animals last month via Radiator; I don’t really have much of a strong opinion on it. As I expected, I liked it more than the average Britpop record (that genre’s excess leaves me cold more often than not), but it hasn’t stuck with me, really–other than this dumb one-minute song about the chupacabra. I don’t know why Gruff Rhys is yelling “soy super bien” over and over in the chorus, I don’t know why he calls the chupacabra a “bat”, and I don’t know why this weird unhinged pop punk song is so catchy.
“New Roman Gods”, Tuxis Giant From In Heaven (2022, Candlepin)
The six-song In Heaven EP is a subtle but vital highlight among Candlepin Records’ large 2022 discography. Boston’s Tuxis Giant make a gorgeous version of folk rock that contains shades of slowcore and 90s indie rock, although EP highlight “New Roman Gods” is one of the record’s more upbeat songs. Matt O’Connor’s delicate vocals holds their own against what’s effectively a country-rock instrumental (and if the instrumental isn’t enough, “Sometimes love is a trick you gotta pull on yourself” is a great country lyric, too).
“SWAG”, Christine Fellows From Stuff We All Get (2022, Vivat Virtute)
Another underappreciated singer-songwriter who quietly released a full album towards the end of the year, Christine Fellows has given us something that I’m still digesting with Stuff We All Get. The record’s standout track to me so far is the oddly-titled “SWAG” (it’s an acronym for the record’s title, yes, I get that), a song that reads like it’s built from Internet detritus (“Give us feedback, send a screenshot / Colon bracket, take a 10-minute survey”) in a way that reminds me of a dizzier, less defeated version of John K. Samson’s “Select All Delete”. The closing lines and its demands (patience, grace, peace, space, kindness…) are the key here.
“No Good”, Thousandaire From Ideal Conditions (2022, Knife Hits)
“No Good” opens up Ideal Conditions a bit more subtly than the (relatively) in-one’s-face “Bar Song”, but it’s just as effective in its own way. Since I’ve already started the Silkworm comparison, let’s keep it going–the way “No Good” rolls in with a steady drumbeat and building guitar reminds me of how SKWM started It’ll Be Cool with the six-minute ‘“Don’t Look Back”. “No Good” isn’t quite that large in scale, but it does quite a bit in three-minutes–Thousandaire certainly catch fire over the course of the track.
“Human Kind”, Straw Man Army From SOS (2022, La Vida Es Un Mus)
SOS is the sophomore album from New York’s Straw Man Army, and it’s really just a solid front-to-back record of punk-peeking-into-post-punk. Album highlight “Human Kind” stews in a pleasing way, much like the rest of the record, with a prominent bassline guiding along a minimal but effective instrumental and spoken word, serious-guy vocals. And the song revs itself up just enough times over its two minutes, too.
“If I Think of Love”, OP8 From Slush (1997, Thirsty Ear)
Tucson’s OP8 (terrible band name, by the way–I just got that) was basically a desert rock supergroup: it was made up of Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, and, in something of a geographical outlier, Lisa Germano. “If I Think of Love” (incorrectly labeled as “Sand” on streaming services) was written and sung by Germano, and it’s the clear standout from the one record the band made together, 1997’s Slush. It’s a weird but beautiful alt-country/folk ballad, with stabs of violin and cello balanced by Germano’s even vocals.
“Joined in the Sky”, Hankshaw From Nothing Personal (1997, NS/New Granada)
Ah, damn, major suicide/self-harm content warnings for this song. But I don’t want to leave out good music just because it makes me a bit uncomfortable to write about, and Nothing Personal is a very good 90s emo record. Apparently Hankshaw came out of Tampa, Florida, and their 1997 debut record got re-released last year through New Granada, but I only just now discovered them. Harold Hasselback’s high vocals are the most striking part of Nothing Personal, as others have pointed out–but the rest of Hankshaw are important in putting together this clean, catchy emo-pop-punk sound that’s very accessible even when Hasselback is painting as dire of a picture as he is in “Joined in the Sky”.
“I’m Insane”, Dinosaur Jr. From Hand It Over (1997, Blanco y Negro/Reprise/Cherry Red)
I’m fairly certain that Hand It Over was the last Dinosaur Jr. album I hadn’t listened to in full yet–unsurprisingly, I wasn’t in a hurry to get to what’s effectively a J. Mascis solo album, and one without the recognizable radio hits of their other 90s records. As a whole, the album is…just fine, with the exception of “I’m Insane”, which is probably the weirdest Dinosaur Jr. single. The trumpet (played by Donna Gauger) blaring over top of the whole song is such an odd choice–I’m not going to say “it works” in an unqualified sense, but it doesn’t take away from a sharp alt-rock song that sounds kind of Frankensteined together in a good way.
“Jay”, Hobby From Nombre Parfait (2022, Hidden Bay)
Like their 90s “slacker rock” forebearers a few decades ago, Paris’ Hobby condense post-punk, The Velvet Underground, and friendly but offbeat New Zealand and C86 guitar pop into something barebones and familiar, but inspired. The six-song Nombre Parfait EP is full of pleasing guitar pop anthems, with the triumphant, full-sounding opening track “Jay” being chief among them. Read more about Nombre Parfait here.
“I Was a Stranger”, Smog From Red Apple Falls (1997, Drag City)
I’ve wanted to put Smog songs on a couple of these playlists, but they’ve always ended up on the cutting room floor. So, thanks to things slowing down a bit in December, we can enjoy “I Was a Stranger”, the highlight of Bill Callahan’s 1997 record Red Apple Falls. I still prefer Knock Knock, but I see why so many people rank this one as Callahan’s best album, and there’s something special about listening to “I Was a Stranger” and hearing him walking from lo-fi striver to elder statesmen folk singer and ending up with just a nice country song while in between.
“Broken Limbs”, Alayne May From Strange Beings (2022)
I found Strange Beings from a list of everything Seth Engel (Options) worked on in 2022–he drummed on, co-produced, and mixed this record. Chicago’s Alayne May doesn’t make the chilly emo of Engel’s main project, exactly–their debut full-length record (also featuring, among others, Nick Levine of Jodi) is full of casual but well-written folk/country tunes. “Broken Limbs” is particularly memorable to me–the first line of the refrain (“It hurt when the limb I went out on broke…”) continues to stick with me, in both substance and in May’s delivery.
“Sunday Morning”, Buddie From Transplant (2022, Crafted Sounds)
The Transplant EP is the latest release by Buddie since bandleader Dan Forrest moved from Philadelphia to Vancouver, and “Sunday Morning” opens the four-song record triumphantly. It continues Buddie’s fuzzy and poppy sound that evokes the softer, more melodic side of 90s indie rock, and “Sunday Morning” in particular is a delicate but hefty track with a sleepy, not-yet-awake-enough-to-deal-with-dystopia feel. Read more about Transplant here.
Today, we’re closing out both Rosy Overdrive’s Year-End List season and 2022 as a whole with my favorite reissues and compilations from this year. As this list encompasses a fairly wide range of releases, it is unranked, unlike my Top Albums and Top EPs lists.
Here are links to stream this list on various services: Spotify, Tidal. To read about much more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. Thank you for reading, and see you in 2023.
Balkans – Balkans
Release date: April 8th Record label: Double Phantom Genre: Garage rock, garage punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
2011’s Balkans was the only full-length ever made by the Atlanta group–singer/guitarist Frankie Broyles went on to play with both Monomania-era Deerhunter and Omni after their dissolution, and there are elements of Deerhunter’s retro pop rock side and Omni’s kinetic spaghetti guitar riffs on this record. Unlike either of those bands, though, Balkans presented it all in a straightforward garage rock package. The record offers up plenty of pleasing fastballs with tracks like “I Can’t Compete” and “Zebra Print”, but it also goes off-the-wall, as album closer “Violent Girls” demonstrates. The reissue comes with four bonus tracks, which are inessential but enjoyable–more importantly, they don’t take anything away from the original record, which still sounds incredibly fresh. (Read more)
Jon Brion – Meaningless
Release date: October 21st Record label: Jealous Butcher Genre: Power pop, singer-songwriter, pop rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Like a lot of power pop fans, I’ve long regarded the sole solo album by Jon Brion (of The Grays, countless soundtrack scores, and notable production work for Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann, among others) to be a neglected and unfairly obscure gem of a record. Jealous Butcher’s vinyl reissue (well, issue, as it’s only ever been released on CD before) of Meaningless feels twenty years overdue, but the good news is these songs haven’t lost any power at all in the meantime. Songs like “I Believe She’s Lying” and “Ruin My Day” are pop standards, as far as I’m concerned–they (and Meaningless as a whole) wield a potent combination of incredibly catchy melodies, odd but perfectly-chosen musical choices reflecting Brion’s production work, and a lyrical bite that the record’s prettiness only serves to sharpen.
The Cat’s Miaow – Songs ‘94-’98
Release date: July 15th Record label: World of Echo Genre: Indie pop, twee Formats: Vinyl, digital
The Cat’s Miaow were an indie pop quartet that came from Melbourne, Australia and released a steady stream of cassettes, EPs, and 7”s throughout most of the 1990s (coincidentally, the first record from the four members’ post-Cat’s Miaow band, Hydroplane, was also reissued this year). July’s Songs ‘94-’98 collection is made up of selections from the compilation appearances and singles that comprised the majority of the band’s output during this titular period. The resultant record is thirty-five minutes and eighteen songs’ worth of light, airy, twee indie pop that drifts along breezily and dreamily but not without offering up memorable melodies in the midst of crafting this feeling. Songs like the hypnotic “Hollow Inside” and snappy “Note on the Table” are the more typical pop songs, but the brief numbers like “Crying” also make their mark.
TJ Douglas – Lo 2.0
Release date: June 10th Record label: Beach Plum Tapes Genre: Indie folk Formats: Cassette, digital
TJ Douglas’ Lo was initially self-released as a digital-only album in March 2020, and ran seventeen songs and nearly an hour long. Deciding that these songs were worthy of a wider release, Douglas chose ten of them (plus one new song) to re-release on cassette as Lo 2.0 with Beach Plum Tapes, and the result is an intimate-sounding but varied collection of indie rock and folk songwriting. Douglas wrote Lo while attending a seminary, training to become a hospital chaplain, and they view those songs as particularly confessional. Douglas’ lyrics, which frequently reference their faith and struggles with sobriety, are serviced well by this collection of music–although, to be clear, one doesn’t need to be grappling with either of those subjects to get something out of Lo 2.0. (Read more)
The Dream Syndicate – What Can I Say? No Regrets…Out of the Grey + Live, Demos, & Outtakes
Release date: January 14th Record label: Fire Genre: Alternative rock, psychedelic rock, Paisley Underground Formats: CD, digital
Originally released in 1986, Out of the Grey was the first Dream Syndicate record not to feature key members Kendra Smith and Karl Precoda. While the band’s earlier albums split the difference between dreamy psychedelia and speedy desert rock and roll, Out of the Grey zeroes in on the latter, and finds a wide range within it to explore. The “rockers” no longer sound hurried and frantic; on the converse, The Dream Syndicate come off like a band with all the time in the world. On the heels of a long-overdue vinyl reissue of the original record last year, Fire Records has produced two discs’ worth of previously-unreleased bonus material to enhance the CD release of What Can I Say? No Regrets….; the 1985 live set that comprises the second CD in particular is a highlight of the extra tracks. (Read more)
Feeble Little Horse – Modern Tourism / Hayday
Release date: March 11th / October 25th Record label: Crafted Sounds / Saddle Creek / Unstable Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop Formats: Cassette, digital (Modern Tourism) / Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital (Hayday)
2021 was the year of the Feeble Little Horse; the band released both their debut EP and debut full-length that year, and as the Pittsburgh four-piece group have only grown in stature, both of them have seen reissues over the course of 2022. In March, Crafted Sounds put together an expanded cassette version of their Modern Tourism EP, which is a casual record of rough-around-the-edges lo-fi pop rock songs that the band recorded before vocalist Lydia Slocum joined the band. Slocum’s voice is just one of the many differences in the noisier and busier Hayday, which has been given a physical release by the band’s new home of Saddle Creek (co-released with Feeble Little Horse’s own label, Unstable). Even though the Clone High sample is now gone from highlight “Kennedy”, Hayday remains a compelling noise pop album that’s only grown on me. (Read more about Modern Tourism)
Go Sailor – Go Sailor
Release date: June 10th Record label: Slumberland Genre: Twee, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl, digital
Rose Melberg has long been known to me as one-third of Tiger Trap, whose sole self-titled album is my favorite twee record (and, hell, one of my favorite records, period), and is probably almost equally well-known to the world as half of The Softies. Those two groups would be enough for most musicians, but as fans of Melberg know, they’re just the tip of the iceberg–which Slumberland’s recent reissue of the Go Sailor compilation reminds us. The trio of Melberg, Paul Curran (Crimpshine), and Amy Linton (The Aislers Set) only lasted for three singles and a few compilation tracks–putting them all together, as this compilation does, reveals a fourteen-song record of sharp pop songs that is touched with jangly melancholy but injected with a spirited energy from Curran’s bass and Linton’s drumming. The vinyl is already sold out, but according to Slumberland, it will be available again next month.
Guided by Voices – Scalping the Guru
Release date: October 28th Record label: GBV, Inc. Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital
Of the two “re-imagined” records made up of previously-released recordings that Robert Pollard put together this year, Guided by Voices’ Scalping the Guru is the crowd-pleaser. Comprised of lesser-known songs pulled from the band’s “classic era”, combining 1993-1994-era GBV EPs into a full-length creates something inarguably weirder than any of their records from that period, in a fascinating way. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of “hits” here, including “Big School” from the previously-unavailable-digitally Static Airplane Jive (and the inclusion of the six songs from this EP justifies Scalping the Guru on its own). But the record as a whole feels slapdash and off-the-cuff–which, considering this was a time when Pollard could toss off something like “Indian Fables” in forty seconds, this isn’t a problem at all.
Heavenly – Heavenly Vs. Satan
Release date: November 11th Record label: Skep Wax Genre: Twee, indie pop, jangle pop Formats: Vinyl
Skep Wax (the label founded by Heavenly’s Amelia Fletcher and Robert Pursey) is planning to reissue all four Heavenly LPs on vinyl over the next two years, and it began 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’s steady rhythm section and bright, frequently arpeggiated guitar playing already made up a firm foundation, even as their punk influences subtly but notably poke out on a few of these tracks. (Read more)
Krill – Alam No Hris
Release date: November 18th Record label: Sipsman/Sren Genre: Garage rock, lo-fi indie rock, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
Krill’s 2012 debut record, Alam No Hris, is rougher-around-the-edges than their most popular record, 2013’s Lucky Leaves–to say nothing of how it compares to their stretched-out, refined 2015 swan song A Distant Fist Unclenching. Although Krill would half-heartedly attempt to tame their sound over the years, the best parts are already present in Alam No Hris–punchy, jerky post-punk-y garage rock unleashed along with the unmistakable vocals of Jonah Furman. Furman offers plenty of classic Krill lyrical moments throughout Alam No Hris, as well–his muttering of “When did we wear a baseball cap?” in “Piranha Girl” keeps sticking with me, and “Self-Hate Will Be the Death of Youth Culture” is the ad nauseam mantra Krill song of the record.
The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau – What If It Works?
Release date: March 25th Record label: Omnivore Genre: Power pop, psych pop Formats: CD, digital
After reissuing the entire Game Theory catalog, Omnivore’s next Scott Miller-related release is a bit more off the beaten path, but 2006’s What If It Works? is anything but a minor work for both Miller and his co-conspirator Anton Barbeau. Coming some time after The Loud Family ceased being a full-time band, Miller and Barbeau made a casual record together comprised of a few spirited covers, reliably sturdy pop songs from the dependable Barbeau, and some of Miller’s most straightforward pop songwriting since the early days of Game Theory. Their opening version of “Rocks Off” is probably one of the most fun recordings I’ve heard, well, ever, “Total Mass Destruction” is as good a bummer pop song as Miller ever wrote, and the record’s two “bonus tracks” (Barbeau’s bonkers “I’ve Been Craving Lately” and Miller’s six-minute trip “Don’t Bother Me While I’m Living Forever”) pull out new tricks.
Mal Devisa – Kiid
Release date: January 26th Record label: Topshelf Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, alt-R&B Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette digital
Deja Carr has been releasing music independently as Mal Devisa fairly consistently for the past few years–her mix of lo-fi indie rock with rap and R&B has flown somewhat under the radar, but she has a following, which will hopefully only grow after signing to Topshelf Records this year. Topshelf digitally distributed some of Carr’s back catalog, and also released one of her most beloved records, 2016’s Kiid, physically. Kiid remains a compelling album-length look at a singular talent several years later. Carr’s indie rock balladry is on full display on the album–songs like “Fire”, “Sea of Limbs”, “Forget That I”, and “Live Again” grab one’s attention using little more than Carr’s voice and minimal guitar playing–and on the flipside, Carr just as deftly turns out noisier fare like “Fat” and “Dominatrix”, which pull from both punk rock and hip-hop.
Massage – Oh Boy
Release date: March 11th Record label: Mt. St. Mtn. Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk, college rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Originally released in 2018 and recently re-pressed by Mt.St.Mtn., Oh Boy (and, by extension, the band Massage itself) is the product of a group of musically-inclined acquaintances congealing into an actual band, and it sounds like it. The Los Angeles five-piece group come off as excited about their ideas, how they’re going to present them, and who they’re presenting them with throughout their debut full-length. The upbeat songs sound like lost college rock singles, even as they’re shot through with Massage’s “rainy day” side—and conversely, there’s a clarity in the slower songs that works to bridge the gap. Oh Boy is probably the Massage record that is least interested in deliberately cultivating a single mood throughout, but they were already doing it. (Read more)
Ovens – Ovens
Release date: December 2nd Record label: Tankcrimes Genre: Power pop, psych pop, alt-rock, lo-fi indie rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
San Francisco’s Tony Molina has made a name for himself with a solo discography full of fuzzy power pop and psych pop in extremely short, digestible servings. Effectively every alley that Molina would eventually wander down in his solo records he began exploring in his previous band, Ovens, as this self-titled record (originally released on CD in 2009) demonstrates over 44 songs and an hour’s worth of strong guitar pop. Ovens has two main modes that they meld together eagerly on their only release: loud and fuzzy alt-rock that evokes Weezer and Dinosaur Jr. with its triumphant guitar heroics, and an enthusiastic, jaunty acoustic pop sound that reminds me of early Of Montreal. More than an interesting early artifact, there are more than enough gems on Ovens to make this as key a part of Molina’s oeuvre as anything he’s released since. (Read more)
Pere Ubu – Nuke the Whales 2006-2014
Release date: April 1st Record label: Fire Genre: Post-punk, art punk, experimental rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Nuke the Whales2006-2014 is the fifth in Fire Recordings’ series of box sets compiling the vital work of Cleveland’s Pere Ubu, an anthology that has provided hours of proof that the band has a lot more to offer than a handful of early punk rock-era “hits”. The material on Nuke the Whales covers an era of Pere Ubu that had never been my favorite, but I’m happy to report that this remixed and remastered reissue makes an excellent case for these four albums. The warped garage rock of 2006’s Why I LUV Women and the hard-hitting, percussive experimental rock of 2014’s Carnival of Souls are the immediate highlights (well, about as “immediate” as this kind of music can be), and 2013’s The Lady from Shanghai now strikes me as hypnotic and transfixing in a way that it hadn’t in its initial form. Aside from perhaps 2009’s Long Live Père Ubu, one doesn’t have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate these records–anyone who’s been intrigued and subsequently disappointed by a new buzz band that’s “transforming rock music” will find what they’re looking for here. (Read more)
Robert Pollard – Our Gaze
Release date: May 24th Record label: GBV, Inc. Genre: Power pop, experimental rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Our Gaze is a compilation of selections from two frequently-overlooked Robert Pollard solo records, 2007’s Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast to Coast Carpet of Love. On the one hand, both of those albums are good enough to stand on their own, and culling the “best” from both of them leaves out many worthy songs (“Slow Hamilton”, anyone?). But I have to judge Our Gaze as the reissue that it is, rather than the one I’d prefer it to be–and by that metric, it’s an incredibly strong record. Most of Coast to Coast Carpet of Love’s strongest pop songs are here (“Miles Under the Skin”, “Rud Fins”, “Current Desperation (Angels Speak of Nothing)”), and the songs pulled from Standard Gargoyle Decisions, always seen as one of Pollard’s more “difficult” solo albums, shine especially in this new context: multi-part prog-garage tracks like “Pill Gone Girl”, “Hero Blows the Revolution”, and “Folded Claws” feel like early runs at what the current lineup of Guided by Voices has been doing lately.
The Sonora Pine – II
Release date: November 11th Record label: Husky Pants/Touch & Go Genre: Slowcore, 90s indie rock, post-rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
The Sonora Pine originated in 1995 from half of Louisville post-rock group Rodan’s final lineup, but singer/guitarist Tara Jane O’Neil and drummer Kevin Coultras (along with violinist Samara Lubelski) veered hard away from the occasionally scorching post-hardcore side of their previous band and instead probed the empty spaces in between. This especially held true on their second and final record, which has been remastered and re-pressed by Touch & Go (whose imprint Quarterstick initially released it) and Husky Pants Records for its twenty-fifth anniversary. O’Neil had already amassed an incredible discography, but her guitar playing on II feels like a defining moment–these songs stretch themselves out confidently, rising and falling while her guitar and Lubelski’s violin twist around each other. (Read more)
T54 – Drone Attacks
Release date: September 30th Record label: Ally Genre: Noise pop, shoegaze, fuzz rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
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, however, he led the loud shoegaze/noise pop trio T54, whose 2011 EP Drone Attacks has recently been given an expanded and remastered reissue from Ally Records. The bonus material contained in the new version of Drone Attacks turns a six-song, 25-minute EP into twenty tracks and over an hour in length. The original songs, from the massive pop hooks of “Julie K” to the crunchy, speedy “CR Model”, still thunder satisfyingly, and among the extra material, the live-in-studio recordings show that T54 could still make just as much noise in real time.
Tall Dwarfs – Unravelled: 1981-2002
Release date: August 19th Record label: Merge Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, experimental rock, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
While part of me wishes Unravelled: 1981-2002 was comprehensive, the rest of me knows how unfeasible that is with the amount of material the Tall Dwarfs released over their twenty year career, and it’s hard to find fault with the breadth of the 55-song, 2.5 hour compilation. One can poke their head into any part of Unravelled: 1981-2002 and find lo-fi pop gems from the incomparable New Zealand duo: as it’s chronological, all of my favorite “classic” Tall Dwarfs songs show up early on (“Nothing’s Going to Happen”, “Crush”, “All My Hollowness to You”), but perhaps an even neater trick that the compilation pulls is diving into the lesser-discussed later years of the band and coming out with some brilliant songs that I’d heard maybe once before, if ever, and never properly appreciated (“Time to Wait”, “Gluey, Gluey”, “Room to Breathe”).
Release date: November 4th Record label: American Dreams Genre: Funk, R&B, experimental rock, soul Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
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 their discography available to a wider audience–an endeavor that feels overdue by reputation alone, and only backed up by the music contained therein. The barebones but still adventurous Partly Cloudy, the full-band realization of The Minstrel Show, and the stretched-out, jammy swan song American Icons are all strong records in their own right, and taken as a whole, make a strong case for The D-Settlement as underground music champions. (Read more)
Thanks for Coming – You Haven’t Missed Much
Release date: December 16th Record label: Danger Collective Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, bedroom pop, singer-songwriter, indie folk Formats: Cassette, digital
Rachel Brown is most famous as half of Brooklyn weird pop duo Water from Your Eyes, but over the past decade, they’ve also amassed a huge solo discography under the name Thanks for Coming. There are about eighty Thanks for Coming releases on Brown’s Bandcamp page, so compiling an album’s length of them on a single “best-of” cassette, as Brown and Danger Collective have done with You Haven’t Missed Much, seems like a great way to introduce one’s self into this particular world. The songs on You Haven’t Missed Much range from demos recorded by Brown solo to more fleshed-out tunes featuring contributions from Lily Konigsberg, Mike Kolb, and their Water from Your Eyes bandmate Nate Amos, but all fourteen of them display Brown’s talents as a songwriter and lyricist (even though my personal favorite Thanks for Coming song, “Directions”, isn’t included).
The Trypes – Music for Neighbors
Release date: March 18th Record label: Pravda Genre: Folk rock, psychedelia Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The Trypes’ Music for Neighbors hits both subcategories of this particular list, as it’s a reissue of a compilation. Hailing from Haledon, New Jersey, The Trypes are forever linked to their hometown’s most famous export, The Feelies–a band with whom The Trypes shared several members. The original Music for Neighbors came out in 2012, and collected the entirety of their mid-1980s studio recordings. The Trypes pushed their loosely college/folk rock-based sound to psychedelic and exploratory extremes, as everything from the six-minute “(From the) Morning Glories” to the weird minimalism of “Belmont Girl Is Mad at Me” to two blissed-out Beatles covers demonstrates. Pravda Records’ reissue adds plenty of CD and digital-only bonus tracks, including two brand-new Trypes songs which feel right at home here.
Various – Big, Big Wave
Release date: April 25th Record label: Feral Kid Genre: Garage punk, hardcore punk, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital
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. Biff Bifaro, John Angelo, and John Toohill, blown away by a host of Hattiesburg bands on previous tour stops, recorded this entire seventeen-song compilation over the course of one evening, and there’s more than enough here to show why they were inspired to do so. Judy and the Jerks, the most famous band on the compilation, are well-represented with two wild animal-themed punk tunes, but Big, Big Wave also offers up everything from fuzzy southern garage punk (“J Bird”, Ded Jewels) to 80s new wave (“Shield”, Control Room”) to lumbering blues rock (“Golden Zeppelin”, Stellatone).
Wire – Not About to Die (Studio Demos 1977-1978)
Release date: June 24th Record label: Pinkflag Genre: Post-punk, art punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
As Wire seem to get slightly more comfortable with looking back a little bit on their past, 2022 saw the formal release of Not About to Die (Studio Demos 1977-1978), a widely-bootlegged collection of early Wire recordings that serves as a wonderful companion to (and, perhaps, in its own way, equal of) the band’s first three records. The first half of Not About to Die in particular is Wire as a curious punk band, bashing out songs that would either mutate on later recordings or become forgotten–songs like “Oh No Not So (Save the Bullet)” and “Love Ain’t Polite” are brief shots of poppy punk that feature a lot of Pink Flag’s touchstones yet feel like a different path than the one the band eventually went down. Not About to Die is, as a record of demos, stripped-down throughout, but signs of the massive leaps Wire were about to take in a short amount of time were already there; discography cornerstones like “Being Sucked in Again” and “I Should Have Known Better” are already present, basically in their final shapes.
Rosy Overdrive 