Welcome back to Pressing Concerns! Last week, the February 2023 playlist took the spot of a Thursday album post (check that post out, by the way, it’s very good), so here we’re looking at two great albums that came out last Friday (from Taleen Kali and Nagasaki Swim), plus albums from last month from Fixtures and Proto Tip.
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.
Taleen Kali – Flower of Life
Release date: March 3rd Record label: Dum Dum Genre: Indie pop, shoegaze, dream pop, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: Flower of Life
Although Flower of Life is Los Angeles’ Taleen Kali’s first full-length solo album, they’ve been making music in some form for the bulk of this decade. Their previous band, TÜLIPS, released an album in 2015 before breaking up the following year (though they’ve put out a couple of one-off singles since then), and Kali themself released a solo EP, Soul Songs, in 2018, and another one (Songs for Meditation) in 2021. There are certainly traces of TÜLIPS’ lo-fi, poppy garage rock on Flower of Life, but the record as a whole aims for something heavier and denser than their past work. Kali and their band (Royce Hsu, Rhys Hastings, and Miles Marsico, plus contributions from producers Josiah Mazzaschi and Jeff Schroeder) pound through ten loud, electric shoegaze-tinged tracks that still retain a pop core and are carried by Kali’s strong presence as a frontperson.
Taleen Kali and the band come barreling out of the gate with hard-charging opening title track. A swirling, foot-on-gas piece of distorted psych rock, “Flower of Life” blows open the rest of the record–songs like “Crusher” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” incorporate a bit more of a layered, dream pop-esque sound, but still sound like the work of a sharp rock band. Flower of Life doesn’t let up for the majority of its runtime, laying down rockers like the low-end-heavy, post-punk-y “Fine Line” and the speedy “Trash Talk”. The final few songs are where Kali throws a few curveballs– “Summer of Sound” quells the noise for two minutes to deliver a short but sweet, sunny 60s pop ballad, while, in “Vague Flesh”, Kali stretches out and fully embraces dream pop with a five-minute, synth and drum machine-aided track. “Spirit Plane” ends the record by once again returning to fuzzy rock, albeit in a slower and more deliberate way than the rest of Flower of Life–but no less striking. (Bandcamp link)
Fixtures – Hollywood Dog
Release date: February 24th Record label: Naturally/Bobo Integral Genre: Power pop, 90s indie rock, post-punk, “noir pop” Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Emo Phillips (Hole in My Head)
Brooklyn’s Fixtures are a six-piece band that have been around for a bit (they released an EP in 2018, and another one in 2020), and last month saw the release of Hollywood Dog, their first album. The group is led by guitarist/vocalist K. Liakos, and their debut full-length is being co-released by Liakos’ Naturally Records and the great Bobo Integral (Mo Troper, Daily Worker, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness). On Hollywood Dog, Fixtures commit fully to a familiar-sounding but nevertheless distinct sound–they start off with the foundation of sturdy, guitar-forward 90s indie rock and blow it up with a 2000s indie-esque love of big choruses, auxiliary musicians, and several vocal contributions from various members. To put it one way–Fixtures contains multiple full-time horn players (trumpet player Riley Cooke and saxophonist Jules Block) and neither’s prominence feels out of place on these ten tracks.
Hollywood Dog kicks off with “21/1”, a steady-building indie rock anthem that captures Fixtures’ sound quite well–a saxophone intro gives way to chugging, clear-eyed indie rock that then gets punctuated with an instrumental, horn-based refrain. Fixtures offer up plenty of meat and melody on the record’s first half, from the downcast guitar riff that anchors the deliberate “Jimmy Needs the Money” to the way Liakos’ vocals emote in “Ghost Relays” to match the triumphant-sounding horns. The B-side to Hollywood Dog actually might be my favorite half, starting with an excellent three-song-run kicked off by the speedy, handclap-aided title track, continuing into the righteous-sounding but bittersweet “Song for Last Summer”, and then going into the gorgeous, not-doing-too-much “Emo Phillips (Hole in My Head)”. Records like Hollywood Dog are up my alley by nature, but even considering that, these songs are excellently-executed and I’ll be spinning this one for a while. (Bandcamp link)
Nagasaki Swim – Everything Grows
Release date: March 3rd Record label: Excelsior Genre: Indie folk, country-folk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: The Weight, Pt. 2
Nagasaki Swim is a project led by Jasper Boogaard, a musician who hails from Rotterdam, Netherlands but plays a mix of indie folk and gentle country-rock that’s the kind of music that frequently gets tagged as “Americana”. Everything Grows, the band’s second album, follows 2021’s The Mirror, and retains bassist Jasper Werij and drummer Jim Luijten, while also introducing guitarist/pianist Kat Kalkman and featuring a host of guest musician contributions. Everything Grows is an incredibly warm and comforting listen, with trumpets, violins, and lap/pedal steel (the latter provided by Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner of Songs: Ohia) shading the record’s nine songs.
Everything Grows comes in at under thirty minutes in length, and two of its tracks come in at under a minute. Being a brief record certainly doesn’t mean that Everything Grows isn’t a substantial one, however–the album’s first three tracks are all excellent, sublime country-folk songs that showcase Boogaard’s songwriting skills and the band’s range. “American Dipper” is clear-sounding, giving the song space to breathe, while “Window” builds to a big instrumental crescendo. The album’s centerpiece is “The Weight, Pt. 2”–it’s a gorgeous song, with a full instrumental surrounding Boogaard’s lyrics dealing with but not being bogged down by mortality (“Death is on my mind / Some things are just always there / And that’s OK”). “The Weight, Pt. 2” is enhanced by the violin of Molly Germer (Alex G’s band), as is second-half highlight “Sleep”. Everything Grows ends with the end-credits feeling of the title track–it begins with just Boogaard and an acoustic guitar, but like the rest of the album, it builds to something fuller than that. (Bandcamp link)
Proto Tip – S ivice sanjanja
Release date: February 23rd Record label: Pop Depresija/Kišobran Genre: Indie rock, post-punk, noise rock Formats: Vinyl (forthcoming), digital Pull Track: krećem se
Pop Depresija (aka Pop Depression) is a Serbian record label that co-released Macedonian/Slovenian indie rock band Rush to Relax’s sublime Misli last year, and their latest offering is an indie rock group from their own home country. Belgrade’s Proto Tip released their debut EP back in 2017, and their first full-length album, last month’s S ivice sanjanja, has been in the works for the past five years. Befitting of its long gestation time, many people had a hand in creating S ivice sanjanja–Proto Tip began as a trio led by Nikola Čučković, but its membership has ballooned in the intermittent time, and the record features a host of guest musicians as well.
S ivice sanjanja (English: “From the Edge of Dreaming”) is a dark-sounding album, taking a guitar-forward, 90s indie rock core and adding post-punk atmospherics and moodiness throughout its eight songs. Opening track “krećem se” introduces the record with hypnotic, shimmering guitar leads, downcast vocals, and prominent, plodding bass, while “svet se menja” keeps things running with its late-night-drive tempo, alarm-sounding guitars, and deadpan singing. The rest of S ivice sanjanja balances almost-dreamy guitar playing with the never-flagging low-end for an interesting combination of indie rock genres–at least until the heavy, noise rock catharsis of closing track “kako ovde” blows everything away. Although Proto Tip represents the entirety of Serbian indie rock I’ve heard so far, S ivice sanjanja suggests that there’s more worth looking into there. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome, all, to the February 2023 edition of the Rosy Overdrive monthly playlist. While last month’s playlist didn’t yet feature all that much music from the new year, this month I dove into 2023’s new offerings with a vengeance. This is a greatone in terms of brand-new songs, truly. I had to cut a lot of good stuff to get it to a manageable length.
Blues Lawyer and Vista House are the fiends that get multiple songs on the playlist this time around.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify (missing two songs), Tidal (missing three), BNDCMPR (missing four). 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.
“Smoke”, K. Campbell From Smoke (2023, Poison Moon)
Oh, it’s nice to see (hear?) that K. Campbell is back. Back in 2021, the Houston-based power pop musician released the “Breaking Glass” single, and I wrote about that in one of these playlists. Anyway, “Smoke” is Campbell’s first release since that one, and this single’s A-side equals “Breaking Glass” in terms of catchiness to me. There’s a lot to commend here–the steady bass groove, the just-right harmonies in the song’s title line, Campbell’s sharp melodies. One way “Smoke” differs a bit is in how it stretches out, letting Danny Kamins’ saxophone run wild in the second half and transforming the tune from a straight power pop anthem into something a bit more.
“The Riverboat”, Downhaul (2023)
It seems like every time I write about Gordon M. Phillips on this blog, either via his solo work or his emo band Downhaul, he’s done some genre-hopping from the last time we checked in with him. Downhaul’s latest single, the (for now, at least) standalone “The Riverboat”, is no different, but fans of their last record, 2021’s PROOF, should find plenty to like in it as well. The new song represents a turn toward the shinier and punchier for the Richmond group (Phillips cited Cymbals Eat Guitars when he sent me this song, and he’s not wrong to do so), but the core “Downhaul sound” still remains intact as “The Riverboat” builds to its second-half, down-stroked finale.
“Anything”, Frankie Rose From Love As Projection (2023, Slumberland)
Frankie Rose rose to prominence a decade and a half ago as the drummer/vocalist for noise pop group Dum Dum Girls, although she’s had a fairly prolific solo career for just as long a time. I’m admittedly mostly unfamiliar with Rose’s solo albums, so I don’t know for how long/if she’s ever dabbled in synthpop very much, but she does it quite well on “Anything”. The lead single from her upcoming Love As Projection record, “Anything” has plenty of hooks and memorable melodies–I don’t know if the conversational tone of the verses or the simple-but-effective chorus is catchier.
“Do You Understand?”, The Apples in Stereo From Velocity of Sound (2002, SpinART/Elephant 6)
Goodness, what a song. This track and the of Montreal one later on this playlist sort of represent me “wrapping up” my foray into Elephant 6 for now. I put on Velocity of Sound basically at random–it’s a mid-period Apples in Stereo record that no one really talks about–and found one of my new favorite songs in doing so. They’re still doing the incredibly power poppy-fuzz rock thing at which the Apples (and, in a way indicating how important Hilarie Sidney was to their sound, The High Water Marks) excelled, but “Do You Understand?” finds a gear I didn’t know the band had. The way Robert Schneider sings the “Why I hold the dagger/trigger in my hand” shocked me the first time I heard it–now I can’t imagine it any other way. We appreciate The Apples in Stereo here. We’re grateful they kept going into this century and made stuff like this.
“Vivista House”, Vista House From Oregon III (2023, Anything Bagel)
Vista House’s Oregon III is one of my favorite records of the new year thus far; the twangy sound that Portland-based Tim Howe explored in last year’s First Rodeo album is here in spades, in a nice, pleasing country rock package. The busy “Vivista House” is one of the more sonically surprising songs on Oregon III, an excited drum machine-led piece of country-tronica that nevertheless feels right at home in the middle of the album. Read more about Oregon III here.
“Holy Moly”, Young Fathers From Heavy Heavy (2023, Ninja Tune)
I liked Young Fathers’ last album, but Cocoa Sugar was nearly five years ago, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with Heavy Heavy. Well, the Edinburgh trio’s fourth album is a surprisingly excitable pop record that manages to feel incredibly lean but full-sounding all the same. “Holy Moly” is hidden towards the end of Heavy Heavy, but it feels like a particularly “big” moment on the record–Young Fathers “go for it” with the chorus, which is straightforward, massive, and incredibly catchy. And there’s something ballsy about making something as mild as “holy moly” your big hook.
“Taylor Lautner”, Total Downer From Caretaker (2023, Just Because)
Cleveland’s Total Downer is lead by guitarist/vocalist Andy Schumann, and on Caretaker, he and the band use hooky power pop as a vessel to tackle a host of wide-ranging and hard-hitting topics. One of the best examples of this on Caretaker (in fact, I’d go as far as to say the best one) is “Taylor Lautner”, a song about body image that uses the genuinely disturbing-in-hindsight way that a literal teenager was treated by the media at large for a conflicted-sounding but empathetic message from Schumann–and it’s catchy as hell. Read more about Caretaker here.
“In Effigy”, Growing Pains From Thought I Heard Your Car (2023)
I don’t know too much about Growing Pains. They’re from Eugene, Oregon, and for a band with only a handful of songs to their name, they seem to have already built up some goodwill, as the excited reaction in certain indie rock circles to February’s Thought I Heard Your Car demonstrates. I’m happy to report that the band’s new EP is worthy of hype–it positions itself on the alt-rock/power poppy side of noise pop and nü-shoegaze, and highlight “In Effigy” is as infectious as it is loud (listen to that guitar hook!).
“Someone Else”, Blues Lawyer From All in Good Time (2023, Dark Entries)
The third album from Oakland’s Blues Lawyer, All in Good Time, is so stuffed with excellent, weighty power pop tunes that I didn’t even really touch on my favorite track from the record in my review of it. “Someone Else” begins musically as triumphantly as anything else on the record, with singer-songwriter Rob I. Miller wringing a lot out of the phrase “another parked car conversation” in the opening line. Thematically, the song fits right in with the rest of All in Good Time, with Miller punctuating his frustrating conversation in said parked car with “Don’t wanna be your someone else”. Read more about All in Good Time here.
“Bus Stop”, Tee Vee Repairmann From What’s on TV? (2023, Total Punk/Computer Human)
Sydney’s Tee Vee Repairmann have thrown their hat into the “Australian garage rock-y power pop” sweepstakes with their debut full-length record What’s on TV? (following a couple EPs over the past two years), and the results are quite compelling. Highlight and single “Bus Stop” is, at two minutes and twenty seconds, one of the “longer” tracks on the record, which means that Tee Vee Repairman have plenty of time to offer up a solid verse hook, a big old power pop chorus, and even throw some pleasing-sounding guitar leads into the between-verses instrumentals.
“Bats”, Lithobrake From Lithobrake (2023, Cassowary)
Lithobrake is a new and intriguing Washington D.C.-based band whose debut EP is a low-key, 90s-indie-rock-inspired introduction to the group. “Bats” opens EP1 with what feels like a lost slacker rock classic, an incredibly hooky pop rocker with a nice formula of ennui and angst to give it a bit of a bite (“All the nice tomatoes are sold out / Turquoise aviators in a small town”, now there’s a 90s indie rock lyric if I’ve ever heard one). Read more about Lithobrake here.
“Weak Stream”, Closet Mix From 01 EP (2016, Anyway/Tone Scholar)
Columbus’ Closet Mix are a group of Ohio music veterans led by Paul Nini, who played with Great Plains and runs the Old 3C Label Group. The band is working on a new record (they released a single from it last year), but “Weak Stream” from their 2016 debut EP caught my ear, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today. Like most of 01 EP, “Weak Stream” feels like it was made by people who’ve been playing indie rock for a long time and have learned to build a song subtly and intricately. The guitar work that runs through the entire song is beautiful without being overly showy, and the soft-touch vocals and keyboard accents are just right for the track as well.
“Esconaquito”, Jach Ernest From Esconaquito (2023, Safe in the Rain/Bordeaux Rock/Tepane)
Jach Ernest are an indie pop group that hail from Bordeaux, France. They have releases on their Bandcamp going back more than a decade, but Esconaquito is the first record I’ve heard from them, and it’s a decidedly French-sounding, incredibly infectious collection of indie rock. The opening title track to Esconaquito is instantly my speed, with a hard-working rhythm section setting up a motorik tempo over which melodic guitars, low-key but warm vocals, and horns (!) all excel.
“For a Good Time”, Shredded Sun From Each Dot and Each Line (2023)
Each Dot and Each Line is an adventurous, delightfully eclectic indie rock record from Chicago’s Shredded Sun, in which the trio absolutely reflect their years of experience playing together. One of the catchiest songs on the record, “For a Good Time”, is hidden away in the album’s second half, but it’s hard to forget the track once you hear it. The instrumental is quite bouncy, and bassist Sarah Ammerman’s vocals are friendly and full in exactly the right way for the track. Read more about Each Dot and Each Line here.
“Telex Eyes”, Soft on Crime From New Suite (2023, Eats It)
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. New Suite is full of excellent guitar pop like this track, although the combination of eager, early punk-pop, nervous post-punk energy, and big hooks here make it the standout. Not streaming, listen on Bandcamp. Read more about New Suite here.
“Valentine”, Lemon Pitch From Threat of Weather (2023, Repeating Cloud)
“Connecting couplets in your bitter end, a colorectal valentine / A grim suppository truce”. Thanks for that imagery, Alex Merrill. “Valentine” is certainly one of the most memorable songs on Lemon Pitch’s Threat of Weather, a record already overflowing with ideas. It’s a Franklin Bruno-esque melding of classic pop hooks and long-winded lyrical twists and turns (to me, at least–according to Merrill, he was going for “sloppy, American XTC”). It’s kind of like…any song that sticks itself in my brain for as long as “Valentine” has done–well, that’s gotta end up on this playlist, one way or another. Read more about Threat of Weather here.
“This Job Is Killing Me” and “Xenogenesis”, The Telephone Numbers From Weird Sisters and 14 (2023, Meritorio/Prefect)
The Telephone Numbers’ Thomas Rubenstein is very quickly becoming one of my favorite new songwriters, and we got two brand-new songs from his band in February. “This Job Is Killing Me” is the B-side to their “Weird Sisters” single, and Rubenstein’s bitterly beautiful music industry disillusionment lyrics make it the equal of its A-side (“I’ve tried so hard imagining / A Sisyphus that’s happy”). “Xenogenesis” (this one’s Bandcamp-only) is on Prefect Record’s 14 compilation, and it’s all Scott Miller arresting vocals and emotionally-bruised lyricism, stripped-down but sounding anything but incomplete or unfinished. Read more about 14 here.
“All Up in It”, Samuel S.C. From High Places (2023, Art Monk Construction/ORG)
Samuel S.C. (originally known simply as Samuel) released 94-95 digitally last December and on vinyl this month; the compilation collected everything recorded by the Pennsylvania band during their initial run (which coincided with the years in the record’s title). At the same time, however, we also have gotten brand new music from the emo-tinged indie rock band with High Places, their debut full-length record. Opening track “All Up in it” indicates that Samuel S.C. still very much “has it”, with Vanessa Downing and James Marinelli’s vocals soaring over a power-pop-punk-y instrumental (High Places is their Majesty Shredding, perhaps?).
“A Good Man”, Algiers From Shook (2023, Matador)
I promise that I like more songs from the new Algiers album than the one “punk” song. In fact, I think that Shook might be my favorite record from them yet, which is atypical for me–historically, bands lose me when they try to have too many genres going on at once, but it works really well for them here. Still, I’m still taking a lot of Shook in at the time of this writing, but the blistering “A Good Man” was an instant “oh, yes, I like this and want to hear them do this more often” from me. Lee Bains III may be featured later on in the record in a spoken word segment, but “A Good Man” is the track where they most reflect his band The Glory Fires’ southern fuzzy punk rock.
“Something Strange Happens”, The Orange Peels From Square (1997, Minty Fresh)
“Something Strange Happens” comes from the tail end of my January project, in which I listened to one new-to-me album from 1997 every day for a month. The Orange Peels’ Square was for the 31st, which meant last month’s playlist was already finalized by then, but “Something Strange Happens” is too good not to share here. This is another song that’s mega-boosted by some inspired, melodic bass playing, and the soaring chorus simply can’t present itself humbly enough to hide its massive hooks–it’s indie pop/college rock at its best.
“See You Next Semester”, Stress Fractures From Stress Fractures (2023, Acrobat Unstable/Old Press)
The Stress Fractures album is one of my favorite emo records of the year thus far. The South Carolina band is led by Martin Hacker-Mullen, who’s also the head of Acrobat Unstable Records ((T-T)b, Cicala) and plays bass for Clearbody. Although it has its Midwest emo moments, Stress Fractures hews towards pop punk anthem/catharsis territory more often than not, and “See You Next Semester” is one of the best examples of this on the record. Hacker-Mullen offers up an excellent singalong chorus in the service of reminiscing about and regretting the fading of a close friendship.
“Sassafras Roots”, Green Day From Dookie (1994, Reprise)
Yeah, I dunno. There’s something really sweet about this song that I never really appreciated until now, when I recently put Dookie on on a whim. First of all, the bass is (as typical for Green Day at this time) absolutely insane and absurdly melodic in a way that most pop punk bands could only dream of pulling off. The main instrumental break where Mike Dirnt is just going at it is as catchy as anything else in their discography. And then, of course, there’s the lyrics: “So why are you alone wasting your time? / When you could be with me wasting your time?” I mean, who could argue with that? When you put it that way, I mean.
“Mourning Dove”, Screaming Females From Desire Pathway (2023, Don Giovanni)
Has it really been five years since the last Screaming Females record? Sure, Marissa Paternoster released a solo album (not to mention her work as Noun), but All at Once came out all the way back in 2018. Listening to “Mourning Dove”, however, makes it feel like they never left. It definitely falls into the “power pop” side of Screaming Females’ oeuvre, sounding like it could’ve fit on Rose Mountain or the lighter side of All at Once, but there’s an alt-rock punchiness to it that I’d recognize from them anywhere.
“If I Were a Cowgirl”, The Fever Haze From An Apple on the Highest Branch (2022)
The Fever Haze’s An Apple on the Highest Branch is an excellent entry into the “album from last year I didn’t hear until the beginning of this year” camp. The fourth record from the Grand Rapids, Michigan band is a comforting and warm mix of fuzzy folk rock, “Americana”/heartland rock, and country-gaze. Importantly, The Fever Haze have the songs to back this up, and none are greater than “If I Were a Cowgirl”, a wide-open, big-sky kind of indie rock song.
“I Wish I Was Your Mother”, J.T. IV From The Future (2023, Drag City)
John Timmis IV (aka J.T. IV) was an unknown Chicago-area glam-influenced songwriter active in the 1970s and 80s. Timmis passed away in the early 2000s, but Drag City released a posthumous record from him a few years after his death, and they’ve returned to Timmis this year with The Future, another compilation drawn from Timmis’ various cassette recordings. Some of the songs on the record hit the same iconoclastic spot as early Guided by Voices, albeit with a bit more first wave punk/Velvets influence, like this very spirited cover of Mott the Hoople’s “I Wish I Was Your Mother”.
“Trouble from the East”, The High Water Marks From Your Next Wolf (2023, Minty Fresh)
It seems appropriate that I end my long, extensive journey through the Elephant 6 back catalog by looking toward the future. The High Water Marks have been shockingly prolific in this decade, releasing three records since 2020 (which, I believe, ties them with of Montreal for the most of any E6-related group). If “Trouble from the East” is any indication, Your Next Wolf is looking like another sublime collection of fuzzy power pop like last year’s Proclaimer of Things was, with the band sounding as enthusiastic about it as ever.
“Tarantulangel”, 13 Necklace From 13N (2023, Candlepin)
One of several highlights from Candlepin Records’ eventful early 2023 is the 13N cassette from New York’s 13 Necklace. On the whole, 13N trades in loud, gorgeous-sounding shoegaze-indie rock, although “Tarantulangel” is the tape’s reverb-y pop moment. It’s still fuzzy and distorted, but 13 Necklace break out jangly arpeggios and chugging power chords in the verses for an excellent song that sounds like a lost 90s indie rock classic. Of course, the song still swells up in the chorus to revved-up, layered noise pop, just to remind you of what 13 Necklace are capable of.
“Limousine”, Fran From Leaving (2023, Fire Talk)
I’d been aware of Chicago’s Fran since their 2019 debut record for Fire Talk, A Private Picture, but “Limousine” is the song that really first grabbed my attention from them last month. The advance single and opening track to Leaving is a slow-burner, a deliberately-moving piece of electric folk rock led by the soaring vocals of bandleader Maria Jacobson. It hits the same notes as the best songs from Why Bonnie and the less distorted side of Wednesday for me–it’s more “singer-songwriter”y than either of those bands, but that’s hardly a bad thing for Jacobson’s writing style.
“Inspect the Receipt”, CLASS From But Who’s Reading Me? (2023, Feel It)
CLASS have been putting out music for less than a year, but the Tucson band is already establishing itself as a reliable, round-the-calendar source for great garage rock/power pop. Following last year’s self-titled EP and Epoca de Los Vaqueros full-length, this year’s But Who’s Reading Me? is four new songs (and two re-recordings) of what we can start to call the “classic CLASS sound”; “Inspect the Receipt” eagerly leaps into it with a lassoing lead guitar and landslide bass, and the chorus is pure loose power pop.
“Sound Advice”, Tiny Microphone From Other Cities (2023, Littlemusic)
Other Cities, the long-awaited second record from the Chicago-originating, Portland-based Tiny Microphone, features no shortage of beautiful melodies carried by Kristine Capua’s friendly vocals. The first half of Other Cities in particular features one excellent pop song after another, with the sublime jangle pop of “Sound Advice” perhaps being the strongest one of them all. The lyrics seem to be a “moving to a new city on my own” feeling (“It pretty much rains here everyday / You’ll get used to it they say / The summers are beautiful, they make it all worthwhile”). Read more about Other Cities here.
“When You Say”, FACS From Still Life in Decay (2023, Trouble in Mind)
With the lead single from their upcoming Still Life in Decay, it feels like Chicago’s FACS are picking up where they left off with 2021’s Present Tense (which made my best-of list for that year). “When You Say” isn’t quite as accessible as, say, “Strawberry Cough” was, but it still sharpens FACS’ dub/industrial-flavored noise rock and post-punk into something relatively straightforward. At least, aside from the instrumental flare-ups that mark the beginning and end of the track.
“Labrador”, Ottis Cœur From Léon (2023, Howlin Banana/Modulor)
It seems like there’s a lot of good indie rock coming out of France right now. I discovered Paris’ Ottis Cœur through Howlin’ Banana Records (EggS, Hoorsees, Unschooling), who recently released their Léon EP (as well as a vinyl compilation of Léon and their previous EP, Juste Derrière Toi). Ottis Cœur’s latest opens with “Labrador”, a piece of busy, post-punk-flavored indie pop that drives at a brisk tempo through its verses and then stops and starts agilely in its chorus.
“Crystals 26”, John Vanderslice From Crystals 3.0 (2023, Tiny Telephone)
New John Vanderslice songs and releases come out at a steady pace these days–they either fall into the category of purely experimental electronica or into the “classic, singer-songwriter-mode John Vanderslice but enhanced with various electronic touches” camp. “Crystals 26”, the lead single from Vanderslice’s upcoming Crystals 3.0 record, is a member of the latter–it features Vanderslice’s distorted acoustic guitar and worried-sounding vocals, but with synths wriggling and crawling all over it. The lyrics are similarly scrambled, taking some pretty universal songwriter-type topics and presenting them in an odd way (“Love: small word / Alcohol: big word”).
“Buhd”, Wish Kit From Rock Against Bush (2023)
Late January’s Rock Against Bush split EP brought together four like-minded practitioners of power pop, 90s indie rock, and pop punk to create a short but compelling record. The EP opens with “Buhd” by Wish Kit, the one group on the release that I hadn’t previously covered on Rosy Overdrive–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. Read more about Rock Against Bush here.
“All the Wild Horses”, Outwest From All the Wild Horses (2023, Candlepin)
On their third EP, Ventura, California’s Outwest employ plenty of distortion in the service of loud, anthemic fuzz rock. Throughout All the Wild Horses, Outwest come off as, more than anything else, a wildly in-the-red punk rock group. The record’s title track is forcefully catchy in a vintage California indie-pop-punk anthem kind of way, barreling its way excitedly into its bellowing of the titular line. Read more about All the Wild Horses here.
“Chance Encounters”, Blues Lawyer From All in Good Time (2023, Dark Entries)
Blues Lawyers’ All in Good Time opens with a big power pop statement in “Chance Encounters”, which sounds massive but also has a melancholic, almost nostalgic streak to it that evokes their stated influence of Teenage Fanclub (there’s some nice early TFC-esque revved-up lead guitar on the track), as well as countless 80s indie pop bands. Past-evoking instrumental aside, however, lead singer Rob I. Miller’s first line on the album finds him declaring “I wanna stop talking about the way things used to be”–a duality that All in Good Time goes on to explore throughout its fourteen tracks. Read more about All in Good Time here.
“Eklund Garden”, Frightful Places From Frightful Places (2023)
Connecticut’s Frightful Places is the solo project of Kevin Tiernan (Mighty Tortuga, Moving Brooklyn), and its five-song self-titled debut EP has been about eight years in the making. Frightful Places was produced by Chris Teti of The World Is a Beautiful Places & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, and it’s a shined-up but still fairly vulnerable-sounding mix of emo and alt-rock; if you’re into later TWIABP or bands like the also-appearing-in-this-playlist Downhaul, Tiernan makes music in a similar vein. “Eklund Garden” is my favorite track from the EP, with a hard-hitting instrumental and a classic emo refrain (“Looks like I got where I wanted / But I lost myself/my love in the process”).
“King of Rock N Roll”, Vista House From Oregon III (2023, Anything Bagel)
Tim Howe shows a few different sides to himself and his Vista House project throughout its latest record, Oregon III. Advance single and early record highlight “King of Rock N Roll” is a determined-sounding roots rocker that shows off Vista House in loud, anthemic alt-country mode. The instrumental roars along, and Howe gives a characteristically animated vocal performance–it takes a while to get to the shout-along ending part, but it’s well-earned. Read more about Oregon III here.
“Dirty Dustin Hoffman Needs a Bath”, of Montreal From The Early Four Track Recordings (2001, Kindercore/Polyvinyl)
I find early of Montreal (well, all of Montreal to a degree, I suppose) to be pretty hit-or-miss; I love Cherry Peel, while The Gay Parade and The Bedside Tragedy: A Petite Drama do little to nothing for me. I’m happy to report that The Early Four Track Recordings winds up in the former camp in my book. With its shrug of an album title and absurdities of song titles, the compilation feels pretty low-stakes, but Kevin Barnes was writing great pop songs around this time, particularly the poppy lo-fi charming opening track “Dirty Dustin Hoffman Needs a Bath” (sigh).
“Apology Letter”, Yo La Tengo From This Stupid World (2023, Matador)
Like anyone with ears, I like the new Yo La Tengo album. I will pump the brakes on the “maybe it’s their best ever?” discussion because it’s not really trying to be on the scale of what I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One or And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out are, which it’d need to be in order to top those for me. Let’s just appreciate This Stupid World for being a very good Yo La Tengo album (a commodity that maybe has gone undervalued in recent years). I think “Apology Letter” might be my favorite one, although it’s an incredibly close call. This song feels like it’s always been around; Yo La Tengo could’ve put it out at any point in their career and it would’ve been a highlight.
“In This Moment”, Grapes of Grain From Getaways (2023, Drag Days)
Dutch indie rock group Grapes of Grain formed in 2005, and released an album and a couple EPs in the latter half of that decade before disbanding. 2023’s Getaways is the result of singer-songwriter Alexis Vos becoming inspired to make music again and (remotely) assembling the lineup of his old band from thirteen years ago. The five-song EP is a tranquil mix of jangle pop, folk rock, and indie pop, with the quietly beautiful “In This Moment” sounding like the big standout to me. As muted as the song is, it still builds from a carefully plodding bass guitar riff and steady acoustic strumming to the plateau of a chorus.
Welcome to a Monday Pressing Concerns! For the last edition in February, we’re looking at a reissue from Ivy, a compilation from Prefect Records, and two brand-new records from Nicholas Merz and Lemon Pitch. Something for everyone here!
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.
Ivy – Apartment Life (25th Anniversary Edition)
Release date: March 3rd Record label: Bar/None Genre: Indie pop, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: I’ve Got a Feeling
Ivy emerged from New York in the mid-90s, a trio made up of Andy Chase, Adam Schlesinger, and Dominique Duran whose lineup stayed consistent until their final album in 2011. The three of them combined their love of 1980s jangle pop and C86 bands with 90s dreaminess and electronic influences to make some of the best indie pop music of their era. Apartment Life was the band’s sophomore record, following 1995’s debut Realistic and it represents the absolute pinnacle of the band’s accomplishments (arguably, yes, albeit an argument I’d be happy to make). A lot of Rosy Overdrive readers are probably already familiar with and love Ivy. However, it’s not every day that a record like Apartment Life gets a proper reissue (as Bar/None Records has done for its 25th anniversary, and plans to do for the rest of the band’s discography eventually), and it’s more than worth taking advantage of that to revisit it.
At the time of Apartment Life’s release, Adam Schlesinger’s other band had already released one record, establishing him as a force of nature in terms of power pop. Fountains of Wayne fans coming to Ivy looking for pop hooks will not be disappointed by Apartment Life, although the differences in the two bands otherwise are stark. Teamed up with Chase and the Paris-originating Duran, Ivy pull from breezy French pop, synth-accented dream pop, and more traditionally guitar-based alt/indie rock across Apartment Life’s dozen tracks. Often the genre-hopping happens in the same song, like when opening track “The Best Thing” starts off with a lightly electronic feeling before roaring into soaring power pop in its second half. Songs like “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “I Get the Message” are massive pop songs that balance the guitar-based and electronic sides of the band fairly evenly, although when they dive deeper into the former (“You Don’t Know Anything”) or the latter (“Never Do That Again”) they’re just as adept at it.
Bar/None’s reissue of Apartment Life represents the first time the record has ever been pressed to vinyl (something that feels long overdue for an album like this), and the re-release also entails the wider availability of two bonus tracks initially only released in Japan. Both of the songs fit right in with the album proper; the jaunty “Sleeping Late” is certainly the more immediate of the two, but the relatively sparse, Velvet Underground-esque “Sweet Mary” has grown on me as well. It’s not a massive package of extra demos or outtakes or anything like that, but Apartment Life doesn’t need that to still resonate in 2023. (Bandcamp link)
Various Artists – 14
Release date: February 23rd Record label: Prefect Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Xenogenesis
Prefect Records is a Northeast England-based record label co-founded by Owen Williams of Joanna Gruesome and Mark Dobson of The Field Mice around 2019. Initially, Prefect mostly released music from the various ex-Joanna Gruesome bands that sprung up after that group’s break-up (The Tubs, Ex-Vöid, GN), but Prefect has recently branched out to put out music from The Natvral, EggS, and The Telephone Numbers in the U.K. All this has placed them squarely in the center of the international guitar pop scene, as a new compilation from the label, 14, keenly illustrates. As the title implies, it features fourteen contributions from fourteen different jangle pop groups–Prefect Records alumni, like-minded groups, and plenty of bands with whom regular Rosy Overdrive readers will be familiar.
The thriving Bay Area/West Coast indie pop scene (led by labels like Slumberland, Mt. St. Mtn., and Paisley Shirt) is well-represented on 14, with Rosy Overdrive favorites like The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Massage, and Chime School all offering up sublime tunes. The former’s “Monday Is Fine” opens 14 with a perfect piece of Glenn Donaldson wistful guitar pop, while Chime School’s “Summer Sun” is surprisingly noisier and a bit rougher than that band’s last record (but still extremely catchy). New material from these bands is always welcome, but a good various-artist comp also introduces you to new groups, and 14 doesn’t disappoint here–from early highlights from The Kitchenettes and Mt. Misery to Semi Trucks’ Calvin Johnson-shouting-out “Halo Girl” to Dressed Like Wolves’ massive noise pop in “The Death of Girls” to Cosial’s piano-indie-pop closing track, there’s plenty of intriguing material from bands with which I’m unfamiliar or only passingly familiar.
Still, my favorite song on 14 is one from a band I already knew, and a band that falls in the middle of the “Prefect Records bands” and “Bay Area jangle pop bands” Venn diagram. The Telephone Numbers’ “Xenogenesis” is a breathtaking piece of guitar pop, relatively stripped-down but sounding anything but incomplete or unfinished. Thomas Rubenstein is very quickly becoming one of my favorite new songwriters, with his Scott Miller-esque arresting vocals and emotionally-bruised lyricism all wound up in effortless-sounding hooks. If “Xenogenesis” was the only great song on 14, then the comp would be worth it–but that’s far from the case. (Bandcamp link)
Nicholas Merz – American Classic
Release date: February 24th Record label: Aagoo Genre: Alt-country, gothic country, experimental country Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: American Classic
I’m familiar with Nicholas Merz due to his work as one-half of Seattle post-punk/noise rock duo Darto (I wrote about a compilation cassette from them about a year ago), but the now-Los Angeles-based musician makes records of a decidedly different bent under his own name as well. Merz’s third solo album, American Classic, is an intriguing record of dark, country-inspired indie rock songs, a captivating set of a dozen tracks that present Merz as just as adept at more “traditional” songwriting–even as the record remains somewhat skewed as a whole. Merz’s deep sung-spoken vocals are the immediate highlight of American Classic, hitting the same spots as the likes of Kurt Wagner, Scott Walker, or Michael Gira while still being unique-sounding, and the music veers from minimalist to fuzzy alt-country to timeless-sounding American pop music.
Merz makes the bold choice to open up American Classic with “The Dixon Deal”, a sparse piece built around upright bass and saxophone accents, letting his voice take the center stage. The record gets a bit more full-sounding and accessible from this point, although it still ranges a bit, with first-half highlights including the groovy up-tempo indie rock of “Great Spiders”, the baroque country of “Condor”, and the gently crooning “Balding Is Beautiful” (in which Merz concludes “Unless you’re tall–then you’re fucked,” an excellent sample of his lyricism). American Classic has a few more electric moments in the crunchy and incredibly catchy title track and the surprisingly straightforward (musically at least), 60-second “Roger Felgs”. This side of Merz is always great to hear, although as the acoustic-based closing track “Young Man, Short in Stature” reminds us, he certainly doesn’t need to crank the amps up to create something attention-grabbing. (Bandcamp link)
Lemon Pitch – Threat of Weather
Release date: February 24th Record label: Repeating Cloud Genre: 90s indie rock, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Valentine
Lemon Pitch is something of a Portland, Maine supergroup, led by three singer-songwriters who have plenty of other irons in the fire in Brock Ginther (who’s also in Midwestern Medicine and Divorce Cop), Alex Merrill (who makes music as Heaven’s Cameras), and Galen Richmond (who runs Repeating Cloud Records), in addition to drummer Jeff Hamm. Threat of Weather is the band’s second album, following 2020’s Flat Black Sea, and it certainly sounds like the work of a group of artists with a lot of ideas between them. All of Lemon Pitch clearly had their lives shaped in some way by indie rock in the 1990s (Pavement, Sebadoh, and Guided by Voices, sure, but I also get the sense that they went a bit deeper into the Matador and Sub Pop catalogs than those bands as well), yet this album is too overstuffed to get tagged as “slacker rock”.
Not only is Threat of Weather shaped by three different visions, each songwriter in Lemon Pitch has a pretty wide range of their own. Ginther can be the most unhinged of the three, as the stop-start opening track “Mow Around” and the mini-epic “Drown Lotto” show, but he can also turn in a solo-Malkmus-pretty song like “California Commando”. Richmond settles into a Robert Pollard-esque indie-rock-power-pop lane with “Yellowjackets” and “Turbulent Jets”, but his other songs get into thornier musical territory. Merrill reveals himself to be an intriguing writer and gets the closest to sticking with one style with songs like “Valentine” and “Married to the Muse”, which sport a Franklin Bruno-esque melding of classic pop hooks and long-winded lyrical twists and turns–but all his tightly-constructed crafting goes out the window with roaring closing track “First Wasp”. With all this to take in, Threat of Weather is a record in which you’ll find something new to appreciate each time you listen. (Bandcamp link)
Happy Thursday! Today’s Pressing Concerns looks at four albums: records by En Attendant Ana, Shredded Sun, Mui Zyu, and Singing Lungs. All four come out tomorrow (February 24th).
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.
En Attendant Ana – Principia
Release date: February 24th Record label: Trouble in Mind Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: Principia
Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana have been reliably putting out their sharp take on dreamy but approachable indie pop for over a half-decade at this point–I might have a slight preference for their debut full-length, 2018’s Lost and Found, but they’ve been remarkably consistent up to their brand new third album, Principia. Although Margaux Bouchaudon remains En Attendant Ana’s primary singer and songwriter, the latest record features a balanced mix of contributions from the rest of the band as well. The band’s steady rhythm section of bassist Vincent Hivert and drummer Adrien Pollin keeps one foot of the record firmly rooted in post-punk, while Bouchaudon’s melodic vocals, chiming and shimmering guitar work from Max Tomasso, and trumpet & saxophone interjections from Camille Frechou (who, along with Bouchaudon, recently lent her talents to fellow French indie pop group EggS) help push Principia into dreamy indie pop territory.
Principia eagerly slides pop song after pop song out toward the listener in its first half–songs like the mid-tempo, jangly opening title track, the chugging-soaring “Ada, Mary, Diane”, and the fluttering “Black Morning” are not overly showy in their catchiness, but they’re all still instantly memorable indie pop tunes. En Attendant Ana remain a pop band as they reach the middle of Principia, even as they deviate from things a bit with the busy, bass-led, Stereolab-evoking “Same Old Story” and the nearly six-minute acceleration of “Wonder”. En Attendant Ana sound smooth throughout the record, which helps everything they try on Principia sound right together–the straightforward jangle pop ballad “Fools & Kings” sits right next to the slippery experimental guitar pop of “The Cut Off”, and they both feel right at home. En Attendant Ana are operating at a high level on Principia–it feels like the work of a band who we can expect to be a reliable source of good indie rock for a long time. (Bandcamp link)
Shredded Sun – Each Dot and Each Line
Release date: February 24th Record label: Self-released Genre: Psychedelic pop, indie pop, garage rock, noise pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: For a Good Time
Although Each Dot and Each Line is only the second full-length record from Chicago’s Shredded Sun, the trio are indie rock lifers who’ve been at it for quite a while now. Shredded Sun’s debut album, Land Lines, came out back in 2016, and they also have a couple of EPs to their name. Members Nick Ammerman (guitar, vocals, organ), Sarah Ammerman (bass, vocals), and Ben Bilow (drums) have a shared history predating this band as well–most notably, all three of them played in 2000s lo-fi garage punk group Fake Fictions. Their time playing together assuredly is helpful in pulling off something like Each Dot and Each Line, which is a delightfully eclectic indie rock record that combines fuzz rock/shoegaze noiseness, a garage-punk edge, and power pop catchiness.
Each Dot and Each Line hops around from the get-go: opening track “Japanese Wave” is a psychedelic, dreamy jangle pop tune sung by Nick that’s led by Sarah’s rumbling bass–and then Shredded Sun immediately veer into the crystal-clear, Heavenly-esque indie pop of the Sarah-sung “Outside”. “Rivals” marries bright jangle pop with a bit of first-wave punk attitude in a seamless manner, and “Golden Void” closes the first half of the record with a noise pop, almost-shoegaze distorted roar. Shredded Sun clearly pull from several different eras of “alternative” and indie rock in a Yo La Tengo-esque, “music fan first and foremost” way–Each Dot and Each Line as a whole reflects this in spirit, but songs like “Dark Day” that bend sound around an emotional core in particular emphasize the comparison. Sonically, Each Dot and Each Line is an incredibly entertaining record, but the pop songwriting of the record is just as key–and this aspect stays true throughout, with some of the hookiest tracks on the record–the bouncy “For a Good Time” and the bittersweet “Ordinary Colors”–coming in the album’s final third. (Bandcamp link)
Mui Zyu – Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century
Release date: February 24th Record label: Father/Daughter Genre: Dream pop, experimental pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull Track: Demon 01
London-based, Hong Kong-originating musician Eva Liu makes music as part of the indie rock group Dama Scout, as well as on her own under the name Mui Zyu. Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century is the first full-length Mui Zyu record, following 2021’s A Wonderful Thing Vomits EP, as well as last year’s debut Dama Scout album, gen wo lai (come with me). Eva Liu’s first album as Mui Zyu is a transfixing pop album, led by her subtle but melodic vocals that are frequently accompanied only by atmospheric industrial sounds or by spare piano or guitar playing; the album has a non-busy ambient pop feel to it. To Liu, Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century represents a conscious effort to merge her interest in dreamy indie pop with her Chinese heritage–this is most apparent in her incorporation of traditional Chinese instruments erhu and guzheng in these songs, although the record bears these influences from its title on down.
The record’s opening track, “Rotten Bun”, begins as a sparse piano singer-songwriter tune before exploding into swirling psychedelia in its closing minute, while tracks like “Ghost with a Peach Skin” and “Hotel Mini Soap” anchor Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century with their offerings of steady, minimalist, but substantial synthpop. Eva Liu particularly pushes the range of Mui Zyu as Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century moves into its second side– the gentle guitar piece “Dusty” gives way to the washed-in-feedback dream pop of “Demon 01”, the disintegrating, corrupted-sounding “Dancing for Drinks”, and the stomping electro-pop of “Talk to Death” all in a row. These songs give way to the quieter but no less texturally-focused final quarter of the record–it’s an adventurous album, even as Liu keeps the songs grounded in some form of indie pop throughout. (Bandcamp link)
Singing Lungs – Coming Around
Release date: February 24th Record label: Count Your Lucky Stars/Sell the Heart/Engineer/Waterslide Genre: Punk rock, pop punk, alt-rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Static
Michigan group Singing Lungs play an energetic, catchy, and rough-around-the-edges version of pop punk and power pop–they’re a punk band that comes from the Bob Mould school of wielding a hook in one hand and blunt force in the other, and there’s a bit of 90s alternative rock in them as well. Coming Around is the band’s second full-length record, coming a few years after 2018’s Groan (with a couple of EPs released in between to bridge the gap). Coming Around is a consistent and even listen, with its eleven songs largely declining to add much in terms of bells and whistles and letting their core structures carry them.
Coming Around is more than full of enough strong songwriting to make it a damn solid punk rock record, beginning with opening track “Where I’m At” and its sharp mix of “perky” and “weary”, and continuing into early highlights like almost-title track “Around Again” (whose chorus is simple but perfect for the rest of the song). Singing Lungs are more than happy to roll along with power chords and brisk percussion–but they’re willing to let up on it just enough, like in the middle of the record, where “Static” contains a few dramatic stops and starts. Songs like “How Could I Know” and “Present Tense” reflect the band’s Lemonheads/Gin Blossoms “polished but still weighty alt-rock” side, as does closing track “What You Hide Behind”, which ends the record with a quite pleasing group-vocal refrain. These full-throated, attention-grabbing performances are the throughline of Coming Around. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to Pressing Concerns! Today’s issue looks at new albums from Total Downer, The Church, and Cor de Lux, and a new EP from Jordan Holtz. This Friday (February 24th) is a pretty big release day, so I’m going to be tackling records from this week for a while.
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.
Total Downer – Caretaker
Release date: January 27th Record label: Just Because Genre: Power pop, pop punk, emo Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Taylor Lautner
Total Downer are a Cleveland quartet led by guitarist/vocalist Andy Schumann and also featuring bassist Arfil Pajarillaga, guitarist Clay Reid, and drummer Dante Foley. Schumann’s been making music under the name for a while now, but Caretaker is Total Downer’s debut full-length album, and it’s an excellent collection of punk-y power pop tunes that establishes Schumann as both a hooky and weighty songwriter. Caretaker is a brief record, coming in at about 26 minutes, but Total Downer tear through thirteen fiery and catchy tracks that find Schumann covering lyrical subjects that can be as wide-ranging as they are hard-hitting.
Caretaker doesn’t start in the shallow end, so to speak–opening song “Stupid Smile” is a sixty-second pop punk song that’s unmistakably about childhood sexual assault. Over top of a careening instrumental, Schumann’s uniquely emotive vocals swing between understandably violent imagery and a couple moments of more pensive self-analysis–it’s the strongest example I’ve heard in a while of wielding a “fun” genre like power pop in the service of pure catharsis. Total Downer simply roll on full speed ahead from that point on, with a handful of pop-culture-figure referencing songs in “Dr. Phil” (which feels like it’s grasping at straws in a personal way), “Dolly Parton” (also grasping at straws but on a, like, societal level), and “Taylor Lautner”. The latter of the three is Caretaker’s finest single moment, a song about body image that uses the genuinely disturbing-in-hindsight way that a literal teenager was treated by the media at large for a conflicted-sounding but empathetic message from Schumann.
Schumann’s lyrical subjects stay memorable throughout Caretaker, whether he’s enjoyably skewering a shitty boss in “Big Man”, calling down an acquaintance who’s hurt other people in “Big Mouth”, or mourning the loss of a close friend on closing track “Luis”. Total Downer offer up an excellent rendition of Blue Album-esque loud power pop on most of these songs, but the record sounds freewheeling enough that all the songs differentiate themselves (and some of the biggest departures from the “Total Downer sound”, like “Shut Up”, which combines Dazy-esque minimalist, groovy power pop and some Cheekface sing-speaking, are some of the most successful). Caretaker is an instantly enjoyable and listenable record, but both Schumann and the band leave plenty here to reward coming back to it. (Bandcamp link)
The Church – The Hypnogogue
Release date: February 24th Record label: Communicating Vessels Genre: Psychedelic rock, college rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull Track: C’est la Vie
When I think of Sydney, Australia’s The Church, I (along with, I imagine, a fair amount of Rosy Overdrive readers) recall their 1988 record Starfish, which is a masterpiece of psychedelic-tinged jangle pop and the catalyst for some commercial success beyond their home country, as well as some of the records immediately preceding and succeeding it. It should be noted that The Church never went away after their time as college rock stars, with sole constant member Steve Kilbey (vocals, bass) continuing to explore and expand his band’s unique sound for over four decades at this point. The Hypnogogue is The Church’s twenty-sixth record, and the first since 2017’s Man Woman Life Death Infinity. Although that six-year gap represents the largest between The Church albums up to this point, Kilbey and his crew (drummer Tim Powles, guitarist Ian Haug, and newcomers Ashley Naylor and Jeffrey Cain) offer up a massive record that certainly doesn’t feel like the work of a band intending to slow down.
The Hypnogogue spans thirteen songs and clocks in at over an hour, with the majority of these songs stretching past five minutes. The Church have mixed and changed up their sound over the years; their latest falls squarely into the “dense-sounding, leaning heavily into their psychedelic side” camp. With The Hypnogogue, The Church first and foremost are building an intricate world of the kind of fascinating textures that the album title implies, rather than focusing on offering up friendly pop songs. Still, the “entry points” are there if one is looking for those– “C’est la Vie” and “I Think I Knew” are both pretty and hummable jangly alt-rock tunes early on in the record–once those grab you, you’re ready for the minimal atmospheres of “Flicking Lights” and the towering title track immediately afterwards. The Hypnogogue continues this balance in the second half, with highlights like “The Coming Days” and “No Other You” containing some light in their own layered structures. The Hypnogogue is a lot to take in, but it’s not too much–and it’s a commendable way to approach things for a band who’s been at it for as long as The Church. (Linktree)
Jordan Holtz – Not Close for Comfort
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Pretty Purgatory Genre: Slowcore, 90s indie rock, experimental bass rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Sweaty at Palm Beach
Seacoast, New Hampshire’s Jordan Holtz is known to me through her work in a couple of notable Granite State bands–she’s the bassist and vocalist for Dover 90s indie rock revivalists Rick Rude, and she also plays bass for the Peterborough alt-country/folk group Footings. Not Close for Comfort is Holtz’s debut release as a solo artist, however, and this EP (released on cassette by Maine’s Pretty Purgatory Records) finds her embracing a slow, deliberate sound that utilizes her electric bass prominently. Not Close for Comfort’s five songs are centered around Holtz’s striking vocals and carefully plodding bass, but they are layered with synth and guitar additions from Holtz, not to mention help from collaborators like Pretty Purgatory labelhead Peter McLaughlin, Rick Rude bandmate Ryan Harrison, and Mount Misery’s Ty Ueda.
Not Close for Comfort eases in with “When I’m Around”, which is based on a simple repeating bass riff and some glowing synths. This is the primary mode in which the EP settles itself, although it isn’t overly stubborn in staying there–“Sweaty at Palm Beach” similarly begins with the bass, but it adds percussion, guitar, and explodes into an alt-rock finish. Holtz’s singing throughout the EP is very full-sounding–even on Not Close for Comfort’s weirdest moments, like the deconstructed-sounding “Blinders”, her firm and grounded singing gives the track a foot in pop songwriting. Not Close for Comfort apparently took five years to come together, but coheres thanks to Holtz’s distinctive musical style–she had already developed one with Rick Rude, but stripped of that band’s noisy indie rock veneer, it’s even clearer and more obvious. (Bandcamp link)
Cor de Lux – Media
Release date: February 10th Record label: Self-released Genre: Post-punk, psych rock, dream pop Formats: Cassette, CD, digital Pull Track: Snap Out of It
Hailing from Kill Devils Hills, North Carolina (nope, definitely haven’t written about a band from the Outer Banks before), Cor de Lux is a quartet that makes post-punk music that’s both icy and noisy, reigning in the sprawling nature of mid-to-late-period Sonic Youth with dream pop swirliness. Their sophomore album, Media, finds the band (guitarist/vocalists Tim Lusk and Dawn Moraga, bassist John Bliven, and drummer Thomas McNeely) charging through ten songs of towering instrumentals and vocals that are frequently understated but never enough to get overshadowed or drowned out by the music.
The dramatic “Idol Season” sets the stage for Media with a pensive, meditative opening, hanging up quite a bit of empty space, and then the driving “Futures” follows it by setting up several Cor de Lux hallmarks (shimmery guitar leads, dual vocals, and a steady, brisk tempo) in a three minute pop song. The rest of Media serves up varying levels of Cor de Lux’s noise-and-melody mix, veering into post-punk darkness (“Whose Side”) and bright new wave (“Snap Out of It”) equally enthusiastically. The songs on Media are very tight, with the quartet all sounding in tune with each other–tracks like the speeding “Syncopated” and the crashing fuzz of “Glass Like Drinking” work because every aspect of the songs feel like they’re placed just right. Media closes with “Ships”, a dreamy piece of guitar pop in which Cor de Lux relinquish their grip on the song just a bit and let it float on and stretch out. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to the second Pressing Concerns of the week! This one’s got new albums from Blues Lawyer, koleżanka, and Daily Worker, and a new EP from Spiral XP.
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.
Blues Lawyer – All in Good Time
Release date: February 17th Record label: Dark Entries Genre: Indie pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull Track: Someone Else
Oakland’s Blues Lawyer is part of the Bay Area’s busy and rich guitar pop scene, and have been for awhile now–the band was founded in 2017 by singer-songwriters Rob I. Miller (who also plays guitar) and Elyse Schrock (who drums), and All in Good Time is their third full-length record. They’re now a quartet (also featuring guitarist Ellen Matthews and bassist Alejandra Alcala), which certainly helps round out the sound of their new record–a full-sounding power pop album. It’s not that there aren’t traces of the sleepier, dreamy jangle pop of their San Francisco-areacontemporaries (and of Blues Lawyer’s earlier albums), but that’s just one ingredient in what goes into dressing up Miller and Schrock’s well-crafted, approachable pop songs, of which there are plenty (the album has thirteen songs, and not much in the way of filler).
All in Good Time opens with a big power pop anthem in “Chance Encounters”, which sounds massive but also has a melancholic, almost nostalgic streak to it that evokes their stated influence of Teenage Fanclub (there’s some nice early TFC-esque revved-up lead guitar on the track), as well as countless 80s indie pop bands. Past-evoking instrumental aside, however, Miller’s first line on the album finds him declaring “I wanna stop talking about the way things used to be”. Blues Lawyer remain a band focused on the right-now throughout the record–“Salary” feels like a very time-and-energy-conscious meditation that works as a metaphor or taken at face value, and “Crystal Ball” finds Miller declaring he’s “through with all the what-ifs?” and asking the song’s addressee to “just settle for less with me”.
The songs Shrock sings are more likely to be a little rough around the edges, injecting tracks like “I Won’t”, “Late Bloomer”, and “Return Policy” with an indie pop-punk sensibility, but they sit nicely both musically and thematically with Miller’s songs. In particular, “I Won’t” takes the “underappreciated and undervalued” undercurrents of some of Miller’s tracks and shouts it into a megaphone (and the one Shrock and Miller co-write, “Scenic Route”, is as fluffy as it is weighty). All in Good Time’s songs are full of hard-earned realizations about interpersonal relationships–as uncomfortable or desperate things can get in these songs, however, they all sound fantastic. (Bandcamp link)
koleżanka – Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes
Release date: February 17th Record label: Bar/None Genre: Indie pop, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital Pull Track: Canals of Our City
Kristina Moore has been making music as koleżanka since 2017’s self-released Vessel; they began making music in their hometown of Phoenix before moving to New York and joining Brooklyn art rockers Foyer Red while continuing to develop their solo project. Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes is the second koleżanka record for Bar/None, following 2021’s Place Is, and it’s a hypnotic, busy, space-y indie pop record that recalls bands like Stereolab and Broadcast. Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes is a well-realized creation from Moore; it does sound like the work of someone who’s spent time in an experimental rock group, but it’s also clearly their own endeavor, with Moore leading the songs where they need to go to compliment their voice and lyrics.
Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes pulls off “full-on rock band” songs in tracks like “Koszmary” and “Canals of Our City”, but the record then pulls back some layers to reveal more minimalist tracks like the floating pop of “Mania”, the time-ticking “Slapstick”, and the brisk, bouncy “City Summer Sweat”. Despite all the instrumental layers and busy psych pop moments going on in the record, Moore remains front and center, which particularly makes sense when they delve into traumatic, dark, and thorny subject matter in “Canals of Our City” and “Cheers!”. Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes is an enjoyably-stuffed record throughout, but Moore ups the ante with the last couple of tracks, the swirling “Saddle Up Cowboy” and–especially– the massive six-minute closing track “River Rushing”, which roars to life and calms itself back down before all is said and done. (Bandcamp link)
Daily Worker – Autofiction
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Bobo Integral Genre: Lo-fi power pop, psychedelic pop Formats: Digital Pull Track: Autofiction
Harold Whit Williams is probably best known to power pop fans (also known as “the average Rosy Overdrive reader”) as the longtime guitarist for Austin jangle pop group Cotton Mather, with whom the Alabama native has played since the early 1990s. He also makes music on his own as Daily Worker–and Williams has been especially prolific as of late, averaging at least a record per year so far this decade. For Williams’ latest, Autofiction, he’s hooked up with Bobo Integral (The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness, Mo Troper, Motorists) for a record of lo-fi, home-recorded power pop whose ramshackle charms only enhance Williams’ songwriting.
Autofiction’s ten tracks are all quite catchy, even as Williams presents his songs in an oh-so-casual manner. Sitting in the second slot, the record’s title track is a low-key power pop masterpiece, managing to sound as big and full as any massive Britpop single or Summerteeth-era Wilco, with only a fraction of the excess production. Much like Robert Pollard, Daily Worker is directly filtering 60s pop rock influences through a fairly barebones filter–this is apparent from the psychedelic streak that runs throughout the album and presents itself early on in “Irish Goodbye” and “The Great Whatever”. A few of the tracks on Autofiction reflect Williams’ southern upbringing and residency– “My Alabaster Girl” and “Posers’ Parade” are rootsy and twangy country songs that still pack a melodic punch. Everything on Autofiction is in service of the pop hook, whether it’s the straightforward stomp of “All the Way Gone” or the new wave-y weirdness of “Like an Echo”. (Bandcamp link)
Spiral XP – It’s Been Awhile
Release date: February 17th Record label: Danger Collective Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop Formats: CD, cassette, digital Pull Track: Deja Vu
It’s Been Awhile is the second release from Spiral XP, a Seattle-based noisy and loud pop group made up of members of other notable bands from the city (Versing, Julia Shapiro’s band, Coral Grief). The five-piece group released their debut EP, Drop Me In, in 2021, and their most recent record finds them stepping a bit away from their last release’s relatively gray, bleak sound. It’s Been Awhile’s six songs feel like a turn toward the more colorful and vibrant end of the shoegaze spectrum–the tracks are covered in reverb and guitars wash over the listener all the way through, to be sure, but these songs bloom and soar instead of trudging along while staring at the ground.
The EP starts with the majestic kick-off of “Deja Vu”, which is essentially a sweet piece of psychedelic pop with the levels thrown into the red–but its pretty and hooky core is never obscured by any of it. It’s Been Awhile kicks up some classic shoegaze-rockers in its first half–“The End” rides Spiral XP’s giddy streak, while “Free Thinking” ends the first side of the EP on a (relatively) dark note. The second half of It’s Been Awhile features a couple of left turns–“The Hunger” is a captivating song in which blaring guitars roar over a baggy-esque drum machine groove, and the record ends with the surprisingly straightforward (and very well done) downer alt-rock of “My Personal Hell”. Hell or no, however, the typically triumphant guitar leads that end the track (and the EP) sound downright heavenly. (Bandcamp link)
Happy Monday! First Monday Pressing Concerns of the year! New music time! Today, it’s new albums from Pearla and Tiny Microphone, and new EPs from Outwest and Lithobrake.
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.
Pearla – Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming
Release date: February 10th Record label: Spacebomb Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull Track: Funny in Dreams
Pearla is Brooklyn’s Nicole Rodriguez, whose debut full-length record Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming arrives three years and change after her first release, 2019’s Quilting & Other Activites EP. Rodriguez’s first EP was a fairly substantial record on its own, but with Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming, she has put together a complete statement of a folk and country rock album. The record’s dozen tracks show off Rodriguez’s songwriting talents–these songs are approachable and casual without sacrificing any of their deeper aims to come off this way, and the music of Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming is fully-realized without getting in the way of Rodriguez’s lyrics and vocals. “Strong” opens Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming with a brief but spirited, gently loping country rocker, a song that wouldn’t be out of place on a Charlotte Cornfield or a recent Julie Doiron album, even as Rodriguez begins the process of staking out her “own” voice here.
Rodriguez takes a few turns away from the sound of “Strong” immediately afterwards, offering up the chirping country-tronica of “Ming the Clam” and the dramatic “Effort”, which pulls off a detour into big-tent indie folk ably. Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming continues to find different sides of Pearla to explore as the record goes on; the folk rock ballad “About Hunger, About Love” and the waltzing “With” highlight the album’s mid-section, and the joyful parade of striking images in “Funny in Dreams” is one of Rodriguez’s finest moments as a lyricist. The record does wind down toward the end with a couple quieter songs, but these are also some of the album’s most rewarding tracks as well–the acoustic folk of “Flicker”, the hushed, slow-building keys-and-horns “The Glistening Onion”, and closing track “The Mysterious Bubble of the Turkey Swamp” could all be my favorite one on different days. With so many of its songs rising to this level, Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming is a record worth spinning many times. (Bandcamp link)
Tiny Microphone – Other Cities
Release date: February 3rd Record label: Littlemusic Genre: Indie pop, jangle pop, dream pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: Holiday
Tiny Microphone is the solo project of Kristine Capua, who began recording under the name in the mid-2000s while living in Chicago, releasing her debut record, Home, in 2008. Capua spent the last decade fronting the bands Tiny Fireflies and Very Truly Yours, moved to Portland, and now 2023 finally sees the release of the second Tiny Microphone album, Other Cities. Home was a relatively lo-fi dreamy bedroom pop record; Capua’s newest record isn’t unrecognizable compared to her older sound, but it feels like a more polished and refined version of guitar-forward indie pop. On the album’s ten songs, Capua is aided by percussionist Hampus Öhman-Frölund, multi-instrumentalist and former bandmate Lisle Mitnik, and multiple guest vocalists, all of whom help give the record more shades and depth.
There is no shortage of wistfully beautiful melodies on Other Cities, carried by Capua’s friendly vocals and a host of instrumental touches. The record’s first half offers up well-crafted pop songs of several stripes– “Sound Advice” is the pure jangly tune, “Night” is a chilly piano-led, 80s-evoking track, and “Holiday” features some triumphant, soaring electric guitar work that matches Capua’s energy. Capua duets with The Ladybug Transistor’s Gary Olson on “Stranger”, a song that, along with “Lighting a Fire”, gives the center of the record a very solid foundation. The first half of Other Cities is strong enough that it took me a bit to appreciate the B-side of the album–through no fault of these songs’ own, as they are quite good too, particularly the string-heavy “Haunted” and “The Lake”, an sneakily upbeat jangle pop track hidden toward the end. Other Cities is an excellently-executed indie pop record–whether it’s Tiny Microphone or another group, here’s hoping we hear from Capua again soon. (Bandcamp link)
Outwest – All the Wild Horses
Release date: February 1st Record label: Candlepin Genre: Fuzz rock, punk rock, 90s indie rock Formats: Cassette, digital Pull Track: All the Wild Horses
Boston’s Candlepin Records has been an early 2023 M.V.P., following up a fertile 2022 (Garb, Poorly Drawn House, Tuxis Giant) with releases from bands like Stalled, Roseville, The True Faith, and 13 Necklace that triangulate various sub-sections of the cassette label’s “modern acts who sound like Numero Group bands” sound. Of their prolific last few months, one release that really caught my ear is an all-too-brief but very rewarding four-song EP from Ventura, California’s Outwest. All the Wild Horses is Outwest’s third EP, and it doesn’t slot neatly into the their label’s typical stable of slowcore, shoegaze, or noise rock. There is plenty of distortion on these four tracks, to be sure, but it’s all in the service of loud, anthemic fuzz rock.
Throughout All the Wild Horses, Outwest come off as, more than anything else, a wildly in-the-red punk rock group. Opening track “Could Have” takes its time, waiting about a minute before launching into a vintage California indie-pop-punk anthem. The title track matches it in terms of forceful-catchiness, barreling its way excitedly into its bellowing of the titular line. The extra-fuzzy “Don’t Let Me Run” rises and falls–it’s the closest thing that All the Wild Horses has to an “instrumental workout” track. Outwest save the biggest surprise for last–closing track “Carousel” is a chugging, straight-up power pop tune that evokes Miracle Legion and Spiral Stairs just as much as Jawbreaker or Samiam. All the Wild Horses is an exciting fifteen-minute snapshot of a talented group, and one I’ll be watching in the future. (Bandcamp link)
Lithobrake – EP1
Release date: February 1st Record label: Cassowary Genre: 90s indie rock Formats: Digital Pull Track: Bats
Lithobrake are a Washington, D.C.-based power trio which formed last year and, as of earlier this month, now have a full EP’s worth of songs to their name. The five-song EP1 is a promising debut release from the group, a record of low-key 90s-inspired indie rock that nevertheless has a punk edge and comes off as the work of a group of musicians that really just enjoy making music together. In one of the EP’s tracks (album closer “Kelly Green”) the band makes a quip about “stealing Yo La Tengo riffs”, but the spirited guitar work that immediately precedes and follows that line is anything but rote repetition.
“Bats” opens EP1 with what feels like a lost slacker rock classic, an incredibly hooky pop rocker with a nice formula of ennui and angst to give it a bit of a bite (“All the nice tomatoes are sold out / Turquoise aviators in a small town”, now there’s a 90s indie rock lyric if I’ve ever heard one). “Stay” and “Kicking” are the two biggest “rockers” on the EP, with the former rolling out some sharp guitar lines and the latter reveling in fuzz-rock punchiness. Drummer Al Shipley (of Western Blot) sings lead vocals on the dark, bass-heavy “Losing a Fight with a Mountain”, an interesting left turn whose empty-space chorus still fits in well with the rest of the record’s tracks–weighty, but not showy. (Bandcamp link)
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)
Rosy Overdrive 