Release date: April 22nd Record label: Exploding in Sound Genre: Post-hardcore, alt-rock, indie folk Formats: Vinyl, digital
This was supposed to be alt-country week on Pressing Concerns (and we’ll still get to it), but I cannot ignore Bunny any longer. The third Mister Goblin full-length record comes a little more than a year after 2021’s Four People in an Elevator and One of Them Is the Devil(which, if you will recall, I named one of the best albums of last year), and what a difference 14 months can make. Four People in an Elevator was largely recorded by Mister Goblin mastermind Sam Goblin alone; Bunny is the first Mister Goblin record featuring a full-on band (bassist Aaron O’Neill and Options’ Seth Engel on drums), and it shows. Sam Goblin wrote of the album that it was his first made “without cutting corners…because of time constraints, money, inferiority complex, whatever” and while (clearly) I don’t think any of his previous work sounds half-finished or uninspired, Bunny in particular sounds like a record made in a full-throated manner.
You might be forgiven for thinking that “no cutting corners” means “embracing being a loud, shouty post-hardcore band” based off of opening track and single “Military Discount”. Although the song definitely features a melody buried in the verses and somewhat uncovered in the chorus, Goblin and the band rip their way through the track with Brainiac-esque reckless showmanship. This is at best an oversimplification and at worst a just plain wrong way to look at Bunny, though—I think Goblin’s quote just means that when the band wants to go for it, like in the desperate-for-musical-fireworks “Military Discount”, they can really go for it.
Other tracks on the record, like “Good Son/Bad Seed” and “Safe Words”, come off as invigorated versions of hard/soft balanced sound that Sam Goblin has been pursuing since his Two Inch Astronaut days, and there are several songs on Bunny that wouldn’t have been out of place in Four People in an Elevator’s more subdued, chillier, indie folk-adjacent climes. That includes the closing acoustic trio of songs (such as the Sadie Dupuis-featuring “Red Box”, which is, to misquote the song, something of a non-shitty sequel to Elevator’s Dupuis duet, “Six Flags America”), but this also applies to the mid-tempo perfect pop song “Holiday World” and album midpoint “Temporary Light”, a curious mortality rumination in which Goblin pulls off “weary” and “spirited” in a way that reminds me of why he’s one of my favorite vocalists.
The other thread of Bunny I find particularly enjoyable is Sam Goblin embodying his new identity as an Indiana Guy. Don’t get me wrong, the D.C.-area transplant to Bloomington is still making Dischord-influenced spiky rock music, and similarly-minded Jawbox’s J. Robbins co-produced it. It comes out in Goblin’s lyric-writing a bit, though—obviously “In Indiana” is the most overt one (“You have the right of way if you’ve got a car or a truck,” he observes at one point, and then later “The land is endless—there’s no one all the way out here to hear you scream”), but you’ve also got “Holiday World” embracing (in a somewhat troubling manner) a piece of local color, “Military Discount” reacting to the Krazy Kaplans Fireworks state line industrial complex in the only sane way possible, and “Red Box”—well, I’m sure they have Red Boxes in states other than Indiana, but I feel like they’re probably somehow more culturally important in the Hoosier state than elsewhere.
The hushed “Red Box” is breathtaking and it’s a gold-star edition to a certain growing subset of Sam Goblin’s songwriting, but it’s the less transparent final two songs of the quiet Bunny closing trilogy that might represent the pinnacle of this side of Mister Goblin. “I’m Out” feels like it’s got the toughest lyrics on Bunny (hell, of the entire Mister Goblin experience); it reminds me of last year’s “At Least”, but at least “At Least” had a big, classic post-hardcore Goblin finish—“I’m Out” offers no such relief, and the rest of the record clues you in on just how intentional that must be. Closing track “One Year Dark” feels a little more generally relatable, speaking to a more widespread shitty feeling, but that doesn’t really make the song go down any easier. Beautiful lap steel from Andrew Krull colors Sam Goblin’s attempts to wring something out of “this mess” (“A rotting piñata, a clogged up artery / All the worst things are free too” is the line I keep thinking about, although the simplicity of ones like “You can’t fall farther than the shoe already dropped” and “It was possible once and now everything’s fucked” is sadly beautiful too).
Four People in an Elevator and One of Them Is the Devil excited me about the future of Mister Goblin because it felt like a showcase for the growing acumen of Sam Goblin the songwriter (and he was already a pretty good one in the first place). Bunny hasn’t deviated from the trajectory one bit, and has added another wrinkle: a full band that is capable of realizing and elevating Goblin’s ambitions for his songs without homogenizing them or stunting their evolution. That, combined with Mister Goblin conquering the Midwest…what’s next?
This week’s Pressing Concerns? New records from Sonny Falls, Jeanines, Crime of Passing, and ASkySoBlack, all of which have come out or will come out the week this post goes live.
Release date: April 20th Record label: Forged Artifacts Genre: Garage rock, alt-country Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Stoned, Beethoven Blasting
Over the course of 2020, Chicago’s Sonny Falls (aka Ryan “Hoagie Wesley” Ensley) released the double album All That Has Come Apart / Once Did Not Exist in multiple installments on Elise Okusami’s then-nascent Plastic Miracles label. It’s a dense, ambitious, dark, but frequently accessible record of country-tinged garage rock that stands as one of my favorite albums of that year today. The recent success of MJ Lenderman has given me hope that there’s some room in the indie rock Overton Window for Sonny Falls, but Ensley’s first record since All That Has Come Apart isn’t exactly the sound of a musician angling for the spotlight. Stoned, Beethoven Blasting is a brief burst of tangled ideas presented with tangled guitars, a constant roar that packs a hell of a punch in its seven unruly songs.
Ensley apparently wrote Stoned, Beethoven Blasting (album title of the year, by the way) working at a pizza chain, “delivering food through quiet streets” early on in the pandemic, and it certainly sounds like an album made by somebody who’s been given either the gift or the curse of a lot of time to explore and roll around in their own head. “This place is never closed / Twenty-four hours a day there’s a show,” he mutters of his own mind in “Audience of Thoughts”, and opening track and lead single “Wringing Out My Brain” finds Ensley doing just that. “I think by spring it’ll be fixed, and we can start to decorate,” he estimates optimistically of the titular metaphor in “House in My Head”, before allowing “[I] feel like that’s always the case”. I can’t quite follow what Ensley is shouting over the Superchunk-esque pogoing distortion-fest of the song before that one, but its title (“Dream Is Drunk”) is in line with the rest of Stoned, Beethoven Blasting.
The rumbling rhythm section and trailblazing lead guitar that open the record’s title track might be Stoned, Beethoven Blasting’s single most “pop-friendly” moment, but the theatrical, splintered classic rock sound of “Joy Is Outta Luck (The Waiting)” (which mirrors the carnival-inspired lyrics of “Stoned, Beethoven Blasting”) is also worth mentioning. I was initially a little disappointed in the record’s length after the nearly hour-long All That Has Come Apart / Once Did Not Exist, but after sitting with Stoned, Beethoven Blasting for awhile, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Sonny Falls has packed more into these 20 minutes than most bands could in a normal LP’s worth of music. And we may not have to wait too long—Ensley is apparently sitting on at least another record after a recent prolific spell. Stoned, Beethoven Blasting is enough to digest for now, though. (Bandcamp link)
Jeanines – Don’t Wait for a Sign
Release date: April 22nd Record label: Slumberland Genre: Pop rock, indie pop, power pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: Wishing Well
The first I heard from Brooklyn’s Jeanines was 2020’s Things Change EP, a casual record of casual guitar pop from the duo of Alicia Jeanine (vocals/guitar/songwriting) and Jed Smith (bass/drums). The band’s follow up, Don’t Wait for a Sign, their second full-length record, sticks to Jeanine and Smith’s hallmarks of a humble guitar pop setup, short (1-2 minute) song lengths, and Jeanine’s confident but not showy vocal delivery, but they sound bigger here, somehow. Jeanines come off as students (or at the very least aficionados) of guitar bands past, from the 60s psych-tinged jangly folk rock that birthed their chosen genre to the British C86/Sarah Records explosion two decades later that came to define it. Don’t Wait for a Sign clears thirteen songs in a little over twenty minutes—tracks that are just long enough to feel fully formed, and not a moment too long.
Don’t Wait for a Sign’s first two songs both clock in at around 90 seconds, and both completely hit their mark as successful pop songs—the former (“That’s Okay”) sets the stage with a simple repeated refrain over a propulsive instrumental, and the latter (“Any Day Now”) features a Magnetic Fields-worthy airy chorus delivery from Jeanine. The barebones instrumental setup doesn’t have to mean “crudely played”, as the busy bass guitar and marching drumbeat of “Got Nowhere to Go” remind us, and the duo bash out “Dead Not Dead” in a way that makes it clear they have everything they need. Songs like “I Lie Awake” and “Who’s in the Dark” have a notably dark atmosphere to them, as catchy and jangly as they are, which adds another wrinkle to the record one might need a couple of listens to catch. There’s a lot going on in Don’t Wait for a Sign, but Jeanines keep it up throughout, perhaps even saving the best song for last with the swaying dreaminess of “Wishing Well”, which jauntily toe-taps its way out the door, ending a very replayable record appropriately. (Bandcamp link)
Crime of Passing – Crime of Passing
Release date: April 22nd Record label: Feel It/Future Shock Genre: Post-punk, synth punk Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital Pull track: Tender Fixation
The latest release from Feel It Records (co-released by local label Future Shock) is a dark post-punk album that comes thundering out from the depths of Cincinnati, Ohio. Crime of Passing’s self-titled record is, after putting out a handful of demos, EPs, and singles, their proper full-length debut—although “proper” might not be the word that comes to mind upon an initial listen to the LP. There is a cold industrial edge throughout Crime of Passing, even as it sounds foremost like the work of a gritty garage rock band. Songs sound eaten up by crunchy distortion, even as synths, guitar lines, and throbbing rhythms all stick out across Crime of Passing. And then there’s lead singer Andie Luman in the center of it all, with forceful vocals that directly counteract the mechanical aspects of Crime of Passing with a decidedly human range of performance.
Pretty much all of Crime of Passing falls under the umbrella of dark, brooding, but energy-spiked post-punk, whether it’s most distinguished by the rhythm-section-driven propulsion of the record’s first two tracks and “Midnight Underground”, or by the live-wire lead guitars that usher “Tender Fixation” and “World on Fire” into basement garage rockers. On the more synth-heavy side of town, “Vision Talk” builds to a chaotic wall of noise while “Hunting Knife” is content to transform into something of a hypnotic dance groove. The album ends with the title track, which beats the listener over the head with a high-in-the-mix drum machine stomp before threading a surprisingly mellow dream pop-esque vocal from Luman and throwing jangly guitar into the fray. Another Ohio punk band with its share of surprises. (Bandcamp link)
ASkySoBlack – Autumn in the Water
Release date: April 20th Record label: New Morality Zine Genre: Shoegaze, alt-rock, post-hardcore, emo Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: See You Scared
New Morality Zine has spent 2022 introducing or reintroducing usto new bands probing different shades of heavy rock music, and Philadelphia’s ASkySoBlack is another spirited addition to their roster. Their second release following last year’s What Is Yet to Come? EP, Autumn in the Water is a four-song collection that’s squarely in the thriving “heavy shoegaze” world, evoking bands like Hum, Shiner, and, yes, The Smashing Pumpkins. Although the typical emo touches appear throughout Autumn in the Water, ASkySoBlack present themselves mainly through a muscular alt-rock sheen, aided in no small part by drummer Alec Martin, who’s doing appropriate Jimmy Chamberlain homage throughout the EP.
Lead singer Jordan Shteif’s vocals are probably the least outwardly intense aspect of Autumn in the Water, although they’re not a “weak link”. Shteif prefers to lean into the Matt Talbot way of doing things, a somewhat emotional but clean and calm delivery cutting through the noise, rather than opting for post-hardcore theatrics. Although the EP is only eleven minutes long, ASkySoBlack already show a bit of their influences’ ambition in opening track “Made Up Face”, which surprisingly shifts its tempo mid-way through, and in the way “Tell By Touch” veers from the hardest to softest moments on the EP. Shteif lets a little emotion crack the vocals in the quite dark closing track “Defacing You”, straining through the lyrical climax (“I don’t think I’m coming home this time / Coming home tonight”). It’s a nice touch, but ASkySoBlack have already proved they don’t need to just rely on it. (Bandcamp link)
This week’s Pressing Concerns features new albums from Bad Heaven Ltd., Brush, and FonFon Ru, as well as a new EP from Janelane. As per usual, it’s a star-studded entry.
Release date: January 28th Record label: Self-released Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, dream pop, slowcore Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Al
Bad Heaven Ltd. is the solo project of Pennsylvania-based John Galm, and In Our House Now is his third album under the name since 2016. I didn’t know anything about Galm before hearing this record, but I later found out he was in Snowing, a cult favorite emo group with which I’m passingly familiar, as well as several other groups. In Our House Now, however, falls squarely into the category of “hazy, downcast indie rock” and sounds more like bands such as Hovvdy, Sparklehorse, and Grandaddy than anything else. Like the best records in this genre of music, Bad Heaven Ltd. avoids the common pratfalls of grayness and facelessness with memorable melodies and inspired instrumental choices from the get-go. In Our House Now starts off on a subdued yet strong note with “Al”, in which Galm’s tender vocals glide over synths and programmed drums.
Galm’s voice is a highlight for me throughout In Our House Now; it’s striking despite sounding humble and breathy, sneakily selling songs like “Night 2” and reminding me a good amount of the aforementioned Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle. Nowhere is the comparison more apt than “Love Hurts”, a six-minute original that incorporates the melody of the Everly Brothers tune of the same name and ends up sounding like a take on Grandaddy’s cover of that track. The music of In Our House Now isn’t an afterthought to Galm’s singing, though—it’s complementary, with even heavier songs like the psychedelic “Without” and the shoegazy “Back to You” sounding handled with care. The odyssey of “Almost Cut My Hair” is really the only moment of In Our House Now that doesn’t resolve into a deft pop tune. Like “Love Hurts”, it’s also lengthy (and like “Love Hurts”, it borrows the name of a more famous song), but the 8 minutes of “Almost Cut My Hair” wander through noise and near-silence before bowing out. It’s hypnotizing, and then the sunny pop of “Heads Gone Away” that immediately follows sounds even brighter. (Bandcamp link)
Brush – Cabeza
Release date: April 8th Record label: Self-released Genre: 90s alt-rock, punk, alt-country Formats: Digital Pull track: Astral Plane
New York’s Brush is a group comprised of former members of Adult Dude, Chumped, and Katie Ellen, and though they’ve been around for a couple of years now, Cabeza is their first full-length record together. The band sound more mellow than the relatively high-energy pop punk of Chumped or the emo-tinged rock of Katie Ellen, but aside from a few pleasantly surprising appearances of pedal steel guitar, the record confidently rolls along in its “alt-rock/punk rock-adjacent” lane. There’s a world-weariness that colors the songs of Cabeza, starting with opening track “One Too Many Times”, which feels like the aural equivalent of rolling up one’s sleeves and saying “Ah shit, here we go again”. Like the Big Nothing record from earlier this year, Brush find a way to spin memorable tales from this weighed-down energy. “Cat” and “Suffer” are the songs that slip into the aforementioned pedal-steel dressing, both in the service of melancholy ballads—the waltzing latter song in particular is a successful left turn.
In a different genre but not a world away, Brush shift fully into 90s alt-rock mode with the vaguely-dark, muted power chords of “Doll”—work up some of-the-time single artwork featuring a ragged doll covered in dirt, and it’d slot in rotation nicely in between Everclear and the Goo Goo Dolls. This post-grunge subdued roar is where Brush seem to find their comfort zone, and it’s also where they push out of it the most. “The Exit Might Be Behind You” takes its mid-tempo groove and finds a subtle optimism to it, and the lighter-holding power ballad “Between You and Me” doesn’t even need to be subtle about it. My favorite song on Cabeza, “Astral Plane”, finds the band deep in kayfabe, committing wholly to quiet-loud dynamics with dreamy verses shot through with a “Brain Stew”/Blue Album-esque chorus. “Sign” closes the album with what I take as a good-natured shrug, its uncertainty resolving into a spirited finish mirroring Cabeza as a whole. (Bandcamp link)
FonFon Ru – Collapse of the Silver Bridge
Release date: April 15th Record label: Repeating Cloud Genre: Post-punk, punk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: Fatty Tissue Thorn
Bridge collapses are the platonic ideal of a subject for a certain strain of post-punk music. You’ve got the cold, metallic, industrial, structural angle on one hand, but you also have the human-based horror of a potential mass casualty event and, at least in the specific instance FonFon Ru have chosen to title their latest record, the specter of the supernatural. With all this in mind, I’d expect the Portland, Maine trio to be practitioners of the dour and grim side of their chosen genre, but Collapse of the Silver Bridge doesn’t really slot into that particular mold. This becomes apparent from album opener “Fatty Tissue Thorn”, an upbeat, energetic alt-rock banger, and a couple tracks later, “Manicure Manager” takes this even further by being positively giddy sounding. Lead singer Harry James’ delivery is refreshingly dexterous—they can deliver a melody like in the previously mentioned tracks, but they’ve got the more traditional post-punk modes of sing-speaking (“Don’t Let the Cat Out”) and growling (“Tu”) down as well.
Those latter two tracks are particularly solid examples of how Collapse of the Silver Bridge, despite not feeling overly “grim”, isn’t an “un-serious” record either. The former resorts to a straightforward boil to rage against income equality, and the latter burns down the end of the album with some Dischord-esque rhythmic post-hardcore energy (see also “I’ll Let You Lick the Salt Off My Hands”, which shambles its way into something approaching psych rock). Even the “pop songs” go beyond the initial rush they provide in the context of Collapse of the Silver Bridge—“Fatty Tissue Thorn” introduces the health anxiety that fuels the rage in “Don’t Let the Cat Out”, and “Manicure Manager”, underneath its makeup, contains a sincere message about embracing “non-traditional” outlets for male anger. FonFon Ru aren’t the first post-punk band to concoct a record that mixes in red meat, healthy vegetables, and sugary sweets, but Collapse of the Silver Bridge does it without ever sounding dumbed-down or feeling like homework. (Bandcamp link)
Janelane – Okay with Dancing Alone
Release date: April 14th Record label: Astoria Tracks Genre: Pop rock, indie pop, power pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Ask Me Why
Los Angeles’ Sophie Negrini has been performing as Janelane for nearly a decade at this point, and she’s released a handful of singles and EPs under the name since 2015, even as she’s also spent time touring as a member of the underrated Canadian garage rock hitmakers Peach Kelli Pop. The latest Janelane release is the four-song Okay with Dancing Alone EP, a brief but enjoyable showcase for Negrini’s pop songwriting skills. The four tracks of Okay with Dancing Alone all sound like they’ve come from the same mind, even as Negrini injects each one with its own clear backdrop.
“Goodbye to Heartache” is Okay with Dancing Alone’s maximalist piano rock opener, “Another Drug” is the reverb-y jangle pop tune with a decidedly retro-sounding hook, “Fool for Yesterday” is the stripped down, heart-on-sleeve acoustic closing track, you know. All three are quite successful, as is “Ask Me Why”, which combines the rolling-with-the-windows-down propulsion of “Another Drug” with the showmanship of “Goodbye to Heartache”. Although, really, “showmanship” could be applied to every song on this EP; Negrini takes control of these songs like she’s got a dozen full-length albums under her belt instead of about one LP’s worth spread across several years. With that in mind, I look forward to where Negrini takes Janelane in the future. (Bandcamp link)
Release date: April 1st Record label: Fire Genre: Post-punk, art punk, experimental rock Formats: Vinyl, digital
Nuke the Whales2006-2014 is the fifth in Fire Recordings’ series of box sets compiling the vital work of Cleveland’s Pere Ubu, an anthology that has provided hours of proof that the band has a lot more to offer than a handful of early punk rock-era “hits”. The last few reissues (Les Haricots Sont Pas Salés 1987-1991 and Drive, He Said 1994-2002) have resurrected several unheralded masterpieces of albums, but the material on Nuke the Whales has never been my favorite era of Pere Ubu, so I wasn’t quite sure how I’d feel revisiting these albums. I’m happy to report that the high points from these records sound even better than I recalled, and I found plenty to enjoy behind even those.
The two records I expected to enjoy going into Nuke the Whales were the bookends (2006’s Why I LUV Women and 2014’s Carnival of Souls) and both of them eagerly held up their ends of the bargain. They’re the two that best exemplify what this period of Pere Ubu sounded like: the dark, driving art rock of Drive, He Said mixed with the off-the-wall experimentation of Architecture of Language 1978-1982. I’ve seen Why I LUV Women grouped with the Drive, He Said albums before, and it definitely does sound like St. Arkansas and Pennsylvania in places. It feels looser than either of those records, though—it’s a warped garage rock album that honestly isn’t even that warped in many places. The band stomps through rockers like “Two Girls (One Bar)” and “Caroleen”, while the quitter, noir-sounding tracks feel like they could ignite at any moment.
Carnival of Souls has the backbone and spirit of Why I LUV Women, but takes it to decidedly odder places. This reissue ups the strangeness by adding in B-sides “Throb Array” and “Moonstruck”, primal soundscapes that somehow widen the depths of the record even further when placed alongside tracks like the gentle Ubu-country of “Irene” and the full-throttle opening track “Golden Surf II”. Carnival of Souls was originally conceived as a live score to the movie from which it gets its title, and the Nuke the Whales version emphasizes its evocativeness, but also the “live” part, too. Sure, “Golden Surf II” is an exciting full-band rocker, but even the weirder tracks like “Drag the River” and “Bus Station” hammer the listener with percussion blasts.
The biggest surprise for me was 2013’s The Lady from Shanghai. I never disliked the record exactly, but the album’s dense forays into electronic music always left me a bit cold. David Thomas’ remixing of the album didn’t exactly turn it into Pet Sounds, but these songs (shortened to fit on one vinyl record) now strike me as hypnotic and transfixing in an intriguing way, and it’s slowly rising to the level of the previous records for me. Shorter tracks like opener “Thanks” and “And Then Nothing Happened” are interesting ideas that fly by in a daze, and Thomas thrives over the dark precision of “Mandy” and “Musicians Are Scum”. The final two tracks (the harrowing “414 Seconds” and “The Carpenter Sun”, which sounds like what I imagine people who don’t like Pere Ubu think all their songs sound like) are still a trip, but they sound exactly like how The Lady from Shanghai should end.
Each Fire box set has contained a record of B-sides, cut songs, and general miscellanea, and while 2009’s Long Live Père Ubu doesn’t fit this description, perhaps it’s best thought of as “extra”. It’s a very Pere Ubu-esque musical adaptation of the play from which the band got its name—I have listened to this material long enough to know the plot and enjoy it, although I have no idea how it’d play for new listeners. It’s best to listen to it as a whole to decide if you fall among the small subset of people that Long Live Père Ubu is “for” (which is, of course, part of the slightly less small subset of people that Ubu in general is “for”). I do expect that a few songs here (“Song of the Grocery Police”, “Road to Reason”) work out of context—that’s in no small part due to co-lead vocalist Sarah Jane Morris, who gets the majority of the (non-big sombrero related) lines.
I’m glad that Nuke the Whales 2006-2014 exists; the box set as a whole might be for the hardcore Ubu fans, but with the exception of Long Live Père Ubu, you don’t need to be one to enjoy the music contained therein. We’re always in some kind of “post-punk revival”, and there’s always new buzz bands that are “transforming rock music”, so I know these albums have a broader appeal than to those already converted. Pere Ubu are something like that eatery described in Why I LUV Women’s closing track “Texas Overture”—it might be one barbeque restaurant in a sea of others, but once you find it, it has everything you need, and as Thomas matter-of-factly states, it’s the best in the land.
Today’s Pressing Concerns tackles new albums from Romero, Whimsical, and Renata Zeiguer, plus a compilation of Blackpool, England’s Pumf Records compiled by Pittsburgh’s Floating Mill Records. Check ’em out!
The March Playlist also went up this week, which I’d recommend exploring heartily. If you’re looking for more new music, you can browse previous editions of Pressing Concerns or visit the site directory.
Romero – Turn It On!
Release date: April 8th Record label: Feel It/Cool Death Genre: Power pop, garage rock, punk rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: Turn It On!
The debut album from Melbourne, Australia’s Romero is a non-stop blast of classic punk rock-infused power pop that rips through eleven sturdy songs gleefully and deftly. Most of Turn It On! has a big, go-for-it kind of energy that evokes the 1970s as much as any of the deliberate “retro” flourishes in their music do—it reminds me of Sheer Mag’s starting points of influence, as well as the poppier moments of Screaming Females. And to be clear, Turn It On! is very much a pop album. Romero come from the garage punk underground (the frequently noisy Feel It Records is releasing Turn It On! in the U.S.), the record demands to be played loud, and lead singer Alanna Oliver is more often than not belting out her lyrics, but these are professionally-done pop songs—at the time of me writing this, five of Turn It On!’s tracks have been released as singles, and all of them make perfect sense in this context.
The Free Energy-esque cowbells and “whoo-hoos” in the cruising title track make it an obvious choice for lead single, as does the more mid-tempo vocal showcase “Halfway Out the Door” (the press release describes the song as a “ballad” and “melancholic”; it rocks as hard as anything else on the album). But then, you’ve also got the sprint of “Honey” and the head-bopping “Troublemaker” as advance tracks, and they’ve gotta be up there. And these are just the singles—they all feel like obvious choices until one looks at what remains, including “Crossing Lines” (which, in a record that bathes in “cool”, might nudge its way to being the coolest-sounding song of them all) and “Petals” (which is as exhilarating as “Honey”, but unhinged instead of merely excited). The closest thing to an outlier on Turn It On! is penultimate track “White Dress”, the only track that doesn’t have a clear catchy chorus, preferring to let the lead guitar take the refrain in the context of something slightly more dirge-y. Only in the context of Turn It On!, however; Romero don’t do anything halfway. (Bandcamp link)
Whimsical – Melt
Release date: April 1st Record label: Shelflife/Through Love Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: Crash and Burn
Dyer, Indiana’s Whimsical has been around since 1999 (give or take a ten year hiatus in the late 2000s/early 2010s), and its lineup is now reduced to the core duo of Krissy Vanderwoude (lyrics and vocals) and Neil Burkdoll (everything else). Melt, their fourth record, certainly doesn’t sound like a band running out of steam. It comes less than three years after their last record, 2019’s Bright Smiles & Broken Hearts, and with some one-offcovers released intermittently, Whimsical are currently the most active they’ve been in their career. Melt is a confident album; most of these songs stretch past the five minute mark, but they avoid dragging or excess repetition in their structures. The opening march of “Rewind” kicks off Melt with a groove that plows forward even as Vanderwoude’s lyrics search into the past for inspiration, and the loaded psych-tinged rock of “Gravity” keeps the energy up by following.
The roaring “Crash and Burn” marks Melt’s midway point with an excited number that speeds up and slows down like the rollercoaster to which its lyrics allude. The actual “heart” of the record, though, is the song before it, “Melting Hearts”. The semi-title track is surprisingly soft and tender in pretty much every way; its thawing lyrics mimic the classic shoegaze loud/sensitive, darkness and light dynamics as well as anything. The song seems to unlock the other side of Whimsical, which gets explored in second-half songs like “Searching”, which washes over the listener with a gentle atmospheric feel and resonating synth textures, and “Quicksand”, where Vanderwoude’s vocals glide over drum-machine-aided synthpop. While I remain impressed that Whimsical can shift into shoegaze overdrive like in the first few tracks and “Crash and Burn”, it’s the innovations elsewhere that keep Melt fresh. (Bandcamp link)
Various – Parsnips Under My Feet: DIY Punk & Bedroom Pop from Pumf Records, 1986-98
Release date: April 12th Record label: Floating Mill Genre: Lo-fi pop, post-punk Formats: Cassette, CD, digital Pull track: I Am the Horse
Since 1984, Blackpool, England’s Pumf Records has (and continues to) release loads of music via cassettes, CDs, and digital downloads, frequently in the form of compilations of songs by their regular stable of bands and artists. Even though Pumf is still active, the team-up with Pittsburgh archival record label Floating Mill makes sense, as this is a label that has long excavated similar artifacts of lo-fi and post-punk persuasion. Parsnips Under My Feet collects fourteen songs from seven Pumf-associated acts, although all of the “bands” on the compilation feature Pumf Records founder pStan Batcow either alone or with a group of backing musicians. Parsnips Under My Feet starts with two songs that emphasize the “pop” side of Pumf: the Def-a-Kators’ giddy instrumental “Theme” opening things up, and Howl in the Typerwriter’s perfect lo-fi pop tune “I Am the Horse” right after—contemporaries The Cleaners from Venus would be the recognizable point of comparison here.
Although several more songs on Parsnips Under My Feet are catchy, the rest of the compilation casts a wider net—we get sloppy political garage rock (“War’s a Bore”), cold post-punk (“Retentive-Anal Schoolboy (Loves His Mother)”) and frightening sonic assaults (“Heeby Jeeby Insect Wiggle”). Nearly half of these songs are instrumentals, and oddly enough, they’re some of the most accessible moments on the compilation (other than the aforementioned “Theme”, there’s the bouncy post-punk of “Walk Like a Pedestrian” and the flanged reverb-pop of “Flamboyance”). At some point in Parsnips Under My Feet—maybe it’s at the genuinely confusing “Jaw Meal Terror One”, or at the oddly compelling six-minute history lesson of “Rasputin”—you begin to understand why Pumf were never destined to become the next Factory Records. By the end of the compilation, though, you understand why pStan seems to wear that as a badge of honor. (Bandcamp link)
Renata Zeiguer – Picnic in the Dark
Release date: April 8th Record label: Northern Spy Genre: Indie pop, dream pop Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: Evergreen
On her second full-length album, Brooklyn’s Renata Zeiguer walks the aurally pleasing tightrope of attempting to synthesize old, familiar pop music sounds into something new and able to stand on its own. Picnic in the Dark is a somewhat unassuming record on its surface; it’s clear that Zeiguer and her co-producer Sam Evian, who also plays on the majority of Picnic in the Dark’s eleven songs, put effort into making the album sound airy and straightforward, with Zeiguer’s voice often accompanied by little more than sparse percussion and some instrumental flourishes. The record (equally as deliberately, I’d assume) then sneaks up on you; this is frequently mimicked on the song level, where tracks like “Eloise” start off with light synth tones and drum machine beats only to come to life over the span of a couple of minutes.
“Sunset Boulevard” is a somewhat restrained opening track; Zeiguer accents her centered vocal with harmonies that pop in and out of the mix, and just when the instrumental background sounds like it’s going to get busy, it shies back (it almost feels like dub at times). Elsewhere, “Mark the Date” is a sparkling minimalist tune that is, along with the melancholic, Spanish-sung closing track “Primavera”, one of the more openly bossa nova-influenced tracks on Picnic in the Dark. Like throughout the rest of the record, these are the wrinkles that stand out among the songs on repeated listens—some, like the propulsive hooks of single “Evergreen” or the relatively dark verses of “Whack-a-Mole”, pop more readily, while others, like the acoustic, pastoral “Avalanche” take a bit of time. Eventually the differences become more pronounced which, seemingly paradoxically, smoothes out Picnic in the Dark even more. (Bandcamp link)
Welcome to the latest edition of Rosy Overdrive’s monthly round-up/playlist! It’s almost all new music this time around! There was a lot of it this month! I did listen to some fun older music in March, and a bit of it shows up here as well, but there’s more I’d like to get to at a later date. But this is two hours of good music for you, so no complaints.
Ex-Vöid, Bellows, Blanche Blanche Blanche, and The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau all have two songs on this playlist.
Here are some streaming links for your convenience: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (with a few songs missing on that one). Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one.
“Computer Exploder”, Oso Oso From Sore Thumb (2022, Triple Crown)
Oso Oso seems like one of those bands that I have to relisten to every once in awhile to remind myself, “yes, they are actually that good”. The Jade Lilitri project’s latest release, Sore Thumb, is apparently comprised of what were supposed to be demos recorded together by Lilitri and his frequent collaborator and cousin Tavish Maloney, and then left basically untouched after Maloney’s sudden death last year. It sounds awesome, so perhaps Lilitri should park his music at the demo stage more often in the future. “Computer Exploder” is kind of a weird opening track in that it takes nearly two minutes for the “chorus” to actually show up, but it’s one of the finest things to ever be released under the Oso Oso name yet.
“The Poet of My Dreams”, David West From Jolly in the Bush (2022, Tough Love)
David West is a fairly active indie rocker, playing in bands with which I’m passingly familiar like Rat Columns and Total Control. A song from the Perth, Australia-based musician’s recent solo album, however, is what really caught my attention and has gotten West fully on my radar. “The Poet of My Dreams” opens up Jolly in the Bush, and it’s an excellent piece of jangle pop propulsion. West’s melody and some shimmery guitar leads fall under the “bullseye” category of this kind of music, but there’s a roughness to it that comes out in the brief discordant guitar solo in the song’s second half and the chords being bashed out underneath the whole thing.
“Hold My Hand”, Maggie Gently From Peppermint (2022, Refresh)
The latest release from Refresh Records (Downhaul, Gnawing, Hit Like a Girl) is the debut record from San Francisco’s Maggie Gently. Peppermint features shades of indie rock, emo, and even some pop punk, but it’s the surprisingly rootsy alt-pop-rock of “Hold My Hand” that hasn’t left my head since I’ve heard it. Gently lands the song somewhere in the realm of late-90s post-grunge pop, and from there just dives into a tune about some fairly universal themes…well, one theme in particular. “So I’m asking you to dance or hold my hand, if you want to / You and me, girl, it sounds so nice,” is her offering, and it makes for a hell of a refrain even if it amounts to nothing else (hopefully it doesn’t!).
“Churchyard”, Ex-Vöid From Bigger Than Before (2022, Don Giovanni)
I’m not really familiar with Joanna Gruesome, the Welsh band that rose and fell in the early 2010s, but I’m fully on board with Ex-Vöid after hearing their debut album. Bigger Than Before is the full-length reunion of Joanna Gruesome singer-songwriters Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams—their first band disintegrated after McArdle stepped away from it in 2015, although they released an EP under the Ex-Vöid name in 2018 and Williams has been playing in The Tubs lately. Bigger Than Before is a big, hooky, indie pop record that’s got just a bit of edge to it; album opener “Churchyard” is all triumphant bounce. Two-minutes, in and out, nonstop melodies and McArdle and Williams’ harmonies.
“No One Wants to Be Without a Person to Love”, Bellows From Next of Kin (2022, Topshelf)
“No One Wants to Be Without a Person to Love”, musically, embodies the best of Next of Kin. It’s bombastic in its arresting introduction and in a beautiful, catchy chorus, and reaches deep down in between these moments with a sincere, whispered vocal from Oliver Kalb in the verses. It’s the second song on the record, after the relatively understated opening track “Marijuana Grow”, and does a bit of presenting where Next of Kin goes from there, both in the aforementioned music choices and in Kalb’s lyrics—“Memory, stay where you were / Walk it back down, can’t have you staying around,” sets up something Kalb grapples with throughout the album. Read more about Next of Kin here.
“Only Yesterday”, Blanche Blanche Blanche From Fiscal, Remote, Distilled (2022, La Loi)
Blanche Blanche Blanche is the duo of singer Sarah Smith and multi-instrumentalist Zach Phillips (also of Fievel Is Glauque and a bunch of other bands). The two have made a lot of music together; so far, I’ve only heard their latest record, 2022’s Fiscal, Remote, Distilled, but it rules. “Only Yesterday” is one of the simplest songs from Fiscal, Remote, Distilled, at least musically—it sounds like the song’s basically built around a bass run and Smith’s clear vocals that are sung-spoken but still quite melodic. Horns and synths do punctuate “Only Yesterday”, though, and the lyrics are tantalizing, saying a lot and little at the same time—it’s a testament to Blanche Blanche Blanche that it all still sounds so straightforward.
“Raytracer”, Emperor X From Central Hug / Friendarmy / Fractaldunes (And the Dreams That Resulted) (2005, Disco Mariscos/Dreams of Field Recordings)
Another trip to the Emperor X well, but an older one this time. “Raytracer” is the best song on Central Hug / Friendarmy / Fractaldunes (And the Dreams That Resulted), falling into the genre of Emperor X song that’s “Chad Matheny bashing it out as hard as he can on acoustic guitar” (see also: “Daytrader Stadium”), with a tick-tocking synth the only other accompaniment for most of the song. Central Hug as a whole is more indebted to 90s indie rock than 2011’s Western Teleport and everything Matheny has released since, but the sparseness of “Raytracer” could’ve come from 1997 or 2017 (and I cut it off at ’97 because of the Either/Or mention in the lyrics). “Did you ever make out on the Capitol steps with an AK-47-holding Marxist girl?” is the line that most will remember, but “That’s fine, I’m going home to fail” is the actual best one.
“Women Without Whiskey”, Wednesday From Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up (2022, Orindal)
Wednesday’s version of the Drive-By Truckers’ “Women Without Whiskey” initially appeared in a covers-only Aquarium Drunkard session, which satisfyingly grew into a full-blown cover album. Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up features several selections I already loved, from songs originally by Vic Chesnutt to The Smashing Pumpkins, but Wednesday’s fuzz-country roar is especially appropriate for this tune. “Women Without Whiskey” was one of the three songs on 2001’s Southern Rock Opera (along with “Zip City” and “72 (This Highway’s Mean)”) that announced Mike Cooley as one of the top-tier songwriters of his generation, and it makes so much sense that MJ Lenderman, whose power as a solo singer-songwriter is growing parallel to that of his band’s, gets to sing on it.
“Rocks Off”, The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau From What If It Works? (2006, 125/Omnivore)
The last album that Game Theory and Loud Family bandleader Scott Miller completed in his lifetime, What If It Works? begins in a way that’s both familiar to fans of Miller’s music and unique in his discography. Omnivore’s Game Theory reissue series has shone a proper light on Miller’s penchant for spirited, full-throttled cover versions of his favorite songs, and while those were generally reduced to B-sides, “bonus tracks”, and live recordings, “Rocks Off” doesn’t sound out of place at all kicking off an album. Somehow he and co-conspirator Anton Barbeau (who, if you’ve been paying attention to his considerable solo output as of late, can probably play just about anything) turn the Rolling Stones tune into a Loud Family song. Or (as pretty much everyone involved thought the album should be credited) a Scott Miller and Anton Barbeau song.
“Small Talk”, Fuvkfeaturing Mostyn Griffith From Split Death (2022, Z Tapes)
Split Death is the first release of 2022 from Austin’s Fuvk, following last year’s Imaginary Deadlines and twentytwenty, and it finds Shirley Zhu getting help from a few collaborators. The last three songs on the album are by Mostyn Griffith (hence the “split” part of Split Death), but there is some bleeding into each others’ songs as well—Griffith sings on Zhu’s “Small Talk”, for instance, and contributes “additional lyrics”. Still, it sounds like a classic Fuvk song to me: it’s a mid-tempo indie pop song with a very hooky melody, and Zhu’s voice once again manages to convey emotion while still sounding rather matter-of-fact.
“God’s A-Working, Man”, Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires From Old-Time Folks (2022, Don Giovanni)
The first song I ever heard from Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires was “Crooked Letters”, from 2017’s Youth Detention. It’s a dense, trawling, almost psychedelic six-minute southern rock anthem that didn’t sound like anything else at the time, and still doesn’t. The lead single from The Glory Fires’ long-awaited follow-up album, Old-Time Folks, is similarly lengthy, but they diverge after sharing that. “God’s A-Working, Man” is a statement of intent—despite their clear strength as a fierce rock band, there’s always been much more going on beneath the fuzz, and now Bains is stepping up to the microphone more forcefully than ever. Bains’ gospel influence in his vocals and lyrics has always been there, but “God’s A-Working, Man” leans into it openly in a way that he hasn’t really done since at least the Glory Fires’ debut record, 2012’s There Is a Bomb in Gilead. This’ll be a good one.
“Same Old Fool”, Young Guv From GUV III (2022, Run for Cover)
Rosy Overdrive being a fan of Young Guv is probably the least surprising news ever. I greatly enjoyed GUV I and GUV II, the twin 2019 releases from the power pop project of former Fucked Up guitarist Ben Cook, and I’m happy to report that GUV III is solid as well. Time will tell if it’ll hang with the other Guv records for me, but “Same Old Fool” already might be my favorite song of Cook’s. It’s nuts that a song this good, with a hook this killer, wasn’t one of the album’s five singles and is hidden away in the middle of Side Two, but that’s just how Young Guv roll. And the chorus to “Same Old Fool”, if nothing else, makes me want to roll along.
“Exposure”, ORANGEPURPLEBEACH From d E A T h ~ b U g (2022, Tiny Telephone)
“Lowest I’ll play for is 225 / That’s the minimum to keep the dream alive,” declares John Vanderslice toward the end of “Exposure”, the latest single from his upcoming album under the name ORANGEPURPLEBEACH. “Exposure” was loosely inspired by Vanderslice’s memories of touring, and the line quoted above links it to one of his signature songs (as well as a podcast about his longtime San Francisco recording studio, Tiny Telephone). My favorite songs from the post-Dagger Beach era of John Vanderslice have combined the new horizons opened up by his foray into electronic music with the songwriting of his “classic” earlier albums, and “Exposure” fits this mold like a glove. The song was written on acoustic guitar (which features prominently on the recording) and features a beautiful chorus melody, but the margins and edges are all frayed.
“Bluest Star”, Maneka From Dark Matters (2022, Skeletal Lightning)
Dark Matters is the second album from Maneka, the project of Brooklyn-based Devin McKnight (apparently 2017’s Is You Is is an EP, but I’d thought of it as an album before), and it’s certainly the most ambitious record I’ve heard yet from him. “Bluest Star” comes at the end of a parade of lo-fi rock/slowcore, experimental pop, and jazz, among other genres and wormholes that somehow only lasts 30 minutes. It’s a propulsive indie rock song that surprisingly lifts off into a synth-aided stratosphere in the second half. Toward the end of “Bluest Star”, McKnight sings “At least I have this ol’ guitar”, and then ends the record with a somewhat pensive solo. He has quite a bit more than just that guitar on Dark Matters, but he does indeed still have it.
“Chestnut Blight”, Freakons From Freakons (2022, Fluff and Gravy)
The fungal disease that devastated and nearly wiped out the once-ubiquitous American chestnut tree in 20th century Appalachia has been decidedly under-represented in modern music, but if you think the Freakons are going to neglect it, you’d be dead wrong. The group is, naturally, a collaboration between Jon Langford and Sally Timms of The Mekons and Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean (also of Eleventh Dream Day) with several ringers (Jean Cook, Anna Krippenstapel, Jim Elkington) getting in on the action as well. Freakons is a must-listen for fans of protest folk music, as the two bands find solidarity in the shared coal-mining backgrounds of their states of origin (England and Kentucky). Sample chorus lyric for “Chesnut Blight”: “Jesus walked on water in the Bible / But now the creek’s so filled with slag even I won’t sink”.
“Statement Brickwork”, Good Grief From Shake Your Faith (2022, Everything Sucks/HHBTM)
Saying a band “sounds like Superchunk and Hüsker Dü” doesn’t usually mean they literally sound exactly like those bands, it’s more of a code for “this band likes to make loud, punk-influenced hooky rock music”. And Good Grief are quite good at this (although, okay, yes, “The Pony Remark” has moments that could’ve come right from On the Mouth). The Liverpool trio’s long-awaited debut album (they’ve been together for a decade at this point) has an urgency to it, like they’ve got to cram as much energy and yell-out choruses into eleven songs as possible. “Statement Brickwork” isn’t the loudest song on Shake Your Faith, but it still rocks. The vocals almost push the song into Samiam/Knapsack-esque emo-punk territory, even as it’s an excellent pop song over anything else.
“I’ve Stopped Eating”, U.S. Highball From A Parkhead Cross of the Mind (2022, Lame-O)
A Parkhead Cross of the Mind is U.S. Highball’s third album since 2019, and with it the Glasgow duo have put together an extraordinarily breezy and quite catchy mid-fi guitar pop record. The songs whisk by, even as there is a lot to hold onto in its twelve tracks. Album highlight “I’ve Stopped Eating” is a gorgeous harmony-stuffed track that leans into U.S. Highball’s C86 influences, with chiming guitar leads weaving in and out of a drum machine beat and subtle synths. Read more about A Parkhead Cross of the Mind here.
“Hide, Not Seek”, Premium Rat From Cope (2022)
Cope, the latest EP from Ypsilanti, Michigan’s Premium Rat, is a mix of spare, intimate indie folk and poppy alt-rock; highlight “Hide, Not Seek” is firmly in the latter camp. It’s Cope’s most musically upbeat song, but it’s not exactly your boilerplate “good times” summer tune. “Fuck my therapist, what I need is a liar / Someone to stop me from staring right at the fire,” vows singer Mer Rey at the beginning of the song, and the repeated allusions to flames and gasoline and scorched earth really do make one question just how literal we’re being here. Read more about Cope here.
“Death of Dog”, Bellows From Next of Kin (2022, Topshelf)
An after-school special piano riff introduces “Death of Dog” in about as friendly a way as possible for a song called “Death of Dog” to be introduced. Like a lot of Next of Kin, the song finds Bellows’ Oliver Kalb ruminating on loss of friendships and loss of innocence, and like a lot of Next of Kin, Kalb and the other contributing musicians make it sound anything but a straight-up sad song. The passing of Kalb’s dog growing up, Loubie, is mentioned explicitly, but it’s another line (“Still feel like a child when I’m in this house”) that gets repeated more, and is perhaps closer to spelling out the heart of what Kalb is getting at. Read more about Next of Kin here.
“Push You Aside”, Star Party From Meadow Flower (2022, Feel It/Tough Love)
Star Party’s debut album Meadow Flower is a tuneful, clamorous noise pop album, featuring eight songs where vocalist Carolyn Brennan delivers indie pop melodies over top of instrumentals almost always cranked up and blown out to eleven. Single “Push You Aside” is one of the more garage rock-sounding numbers on Meadow Flower; the verses have something of an edge to them, even if they’re clearly still inspired by the straightforward hooks of the twee/K Records bands from Star Party’s native Pacific Northwest. Read more about Meadow Flower here.
“Overdry Sensation”, Blanche Blanche Blanche From Fiscal, Remote, Distilled (2022, La Loi)
Another selection from Fiscal, Remote, Distilled here—there are several I could’ve gone with, but “Overdry Sensation” is great and, ahem, distills what’s so compelling about Blanche Blanche Blanche’s latest album. Like “Only Yesterday”, it’s one of the simpler-sounding songs on the record, with Zach Phillips’ arsenal of jazz band instruments restricted to a few brief bursts. “Overdry Sensation” mostly works to compliment Sarah Smith’s vocals, which (again like “Only Yesterday”) are clear and plain-spoken despite being quite melodic.
“A Conversation About Punk”, Buí From Talking to the Walls (2022, Analogue Catalogue)
The Belfast band Buí is led by singer-songwriter Josh Healy, and they’ve released a couple of EPs and a full-length since 2017. Their latest EP, Talking to the Walls, is mostly a relatively sparse collection of indie folk, including a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “The Sun Shines Down on Me” and four physical-release-only tracks recorded mostly by Healy alone. “A Conversation About Punk” is something of an outlier—no, it’s not a punk song, but it’s a full-bodied, shimmery, jangly indie rock tune that elevates Healy’s vocals with fluttering synths and lightly-applied electric guitar fuzz.
“Total Mass Destruction”, The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau From What If It Works? (2006, 125/Omnivore)
“Total Mass Destruction” is probably my favorite Scott Miller-led song on What If It Works?, although I could make an argument for any of them (including “bonus track” “Don’t Bother Me While I’m Living Forever”). I’m not the first person to point out that the casual nature of the making of What If It Works? led to some of Miller’s most straightforward pop songwriting since the early Game Theory days (and I’d go a little farther than that—despite less frequent usage, Miller had actually gotten better at it since the early 80s). “Total Mass Destruction” is the greatest beneficiary of this facet of the record; the chorus practically yanks you up to the stage to sing along to “No one blinks an eye until the total mass destruction comes” (almost certainly originating from the music industry, but, oh man, is it relevant elsewhere).
“All Spring All Summer”, The Silos From Hasta La Victoria (1992, Sonic Pyramid)
There were a lot of these kinds of bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s—groups that played “roots rock” but also were odd enough to fit somewhat into the “college rock” bubble as well. Los Lobos looms large over them—I’m also thinking of bands like The Jayhawks, Miracle Legion, The Vulgar Boatmen, Giant Sand, and the work of Alejandro Escovedo. The modern critical discourse has mostly forgotten them, so it took me awhile to realize, “no, these are actually good and worthwhile bands”, and The Silos are one of the best among them. These groups were embracing classic rock styles in “alternative rock” long before 90s grunge and the 00s soft-rock revival had the genius realization that it’s always been there all along. Maybe I’m overthinking it; just enjoy the five-minute impossibly-cool chorus that is “All Spring All Summer” if so.
“Challenger (Demo)”, Sinai Vessel From LP4 DEMOS (2022, Single Occupancy)
“Loved snow ‘til you realized it’s rain that sticks to the ground,” murmurs Caleb Cordes over quietly-strummed acoustic guitar at the beginning of “Challenger”, one of the five songs released by Cordes’ project Sinai Vessel as “LP4 Demos”. Of course, since this is a collection of what are ostensibly demos (although Cordes has said “this wasn’t supposed to be a record, but I think it is now”), they’re all very barebones. At least one of the songs on LP4 Demos has some rudimentary percussion, but “Challenger” doesn’t even bother with that. I like it just the way it is, but if a “non-demo” version ends up on the next proper Sinai Vessel album, I’d be curious to hear that too.
“No Other Way”, Ex-Vöid From Bigger Than Before (2022, Don Giovanni)
Bigger Than Before is one of those albums where it’s hard to whittle it down to just a couple for the playlist (basically every song is a “hit”; that’s a good problem to have), but “No Other Way” will do just fine. Like “Churchyard”, the entire song is shot through with Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams’ harmonies, although this time Williams’ vocals sound more centered. This is power pop at its wistful best, although, like most of Bigger Than Before, there’s just enough noisiness from louder days remaining to punch the song up a tad. The soaring chorus is what you’ll remember the most from “No Other Way”, though.
“Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, Guided by Voices From Crystal Nuns Cathedral (2022, GBV, Inc.)
The first Guided by Voices album of 2022 is very good, but it’s not exactly a “singles” record (at least by their standards), so the title track from Crystal Nuns Cathedral is the only song that’s getting highlighted on Rosy Overdrive this time. And even as my selected “hit”, “Crystal Nuns Cathedral” is something of an oddity. It’s another one of Robert Pollard’s classic “end credits music” closing tracks—coming at the end of one of this lineup’s heaviest records yet, it’s a brief blast of pure pop fluff. The band steadfastly refuse to deviate from the simple chord progression—there’s not a whiff of “prog” here. And, of course, Pollard’s vocal melody is brilliant in a nice and familiar way. The song feels like one of the singles from the 2010s Guided by Voices reunion records (“Planet Score”? “Unsinkable Fats Domino”?) and I’ll take that.
“She’s in Love”, The Moneygoround From Cruisin’ and Swingin’ with The Moneygoround (2022, Pyramid Scheme)
The Moneygoround is the latest project from Prince Edward Island’s Dennis Ellsworth, who has played with everyone from Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip to Sugar’s David Barbe, in addition to amassing a solo career. The Moneygoround is named after a music industry-disparaging Kinks song (understandable for someone who’s been in it to the degree Ellsworth has), but it’s the pastoral and breezy side of late 60s folk-pop that pops up in “She’s in Love”. Light organs color what’s a sunny jangle rock tune; in Ellsworth’s hands, “I don’t want to fuck it up” sounds as delicate as it could be.
“Halfway Out the Door”, Romero From Turn It On! (2022, Feel It/Cool Death)
Melbourne, Australia’s Romero have put together a blast of classic punk rock-infused power pop with their upcoming debut record Turn It On!; while latest single “Halfway Out the Door” is one of the more mid-tempo tracks on the record, it might exemplify the band’s full-throttle attitude more than anything else. “If you’re halfway out the door / Oh no, I won’t be comin’ no more,” declares singer Alanna Oliver, an “all-or-nothing” ultimatum in the context of a somewhat lacking relationship. As the rest of the band turns Oliver’s words into a soaring pop rock anthem, it’s clear which side Romero prefer. Read more about Turn It On! here.
“Honest Living”, Meat Wave (2022, Swami)
Meat Wave supposedly have a new album coming out later this year (following up 2021’s excellent Volcano Park EP), and while I’m not sure if “Honest Living” is going to be on it, it’s definitely lead-single worthy. It sounds like vintage Meat Wave, with the Chicago trio tearing through their version of lean, garage/post-punky take on noise rock held together nicely by a fiery Chris Sutter vocal (It’s also their first song for Swami John Reis of Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes’ record label, which is a good place for them). “I make an honest living, honestly it’s great / I’m living the dream,” seethes Sutter in probably the least convincing way possible, and things only get more dire from there.
“Bridge Spliffs”, Gaadge From Gaadge / Ex Pilots Split C-30 (2022)
Gaadge’s 2021 album Yeah? ended up being one of my favorite records of last year, with its spirited blend of shoegaze and oddball indie rock making quite the impression. This year, the Pittsburgh group has gone and hidden some of their strongest material yet away on a split cassette release with Ex-Pilots (a band that shares multiple members with Gaadge). The Ethan Oliva-sung “Parcels” would’ve fit right alongside something from last year’s Barlow record, but it’s the wall-of-sound-pop of “Bridge Spliffs” that sticks in my head above any of the other ones. The song combines an up-in-front instrumental that threatens to leap out and grab the listener with Mitch DeLong’s low-key vocals, and there’s a surprising moment of harmony in the chorus.
“Chagrin”, Prathloons From The Kansas Wind (2022, Sweet Tart Lover Thrills)
The Kansas Wind is a well-crafted record of post-rock and emo-influenced indie rock, but Minneapolis’ Collin Dall and his collaborators generally take these materials and turn them into welcoming three-minute tunes. Single “Chagrin” is one of the best examples; after a long percussive opening (that the single version pares down), the track turns into a pleasant melodic drive. It’s got a wistfulness to it that echoes the more sincere since of 2000s indie rock, although Dall’s vocal melody is timeless. Read more about The Kansas Wind here.
“Boatyard Winch”, Teenage Tom Petties (2022, Safe Suburban Home/Repeating Cloud)
Teenage Tom Petties is the solo project of London’s Tom Brown, who is also part of the duo Rural France (fun fact: Rural France’s October 2021 record RF featured a song called “Teenage Tom Petty”, so clearly Brown’s found some kind of meaning in the phrase). “Boatyard Winch” is the debut single from a record yet to be announced and due later this year, and it’s anything but a soft launch. The single takes Rural France’s lo-fi hooky indie rock and makes it noisier and even more lo-fi. It’s a tuneful clatter, though: Brown’s “You’re tuggin’ at my heartstrings / Like a boatyard winch” refrain is catchy in a garage punk way. Read more about Teenage Tom Petties here.
“Mothlight”, Modern Studies From We Are There (2022, Fire)
Modern Studies showed up a few years ago as a “psych-folk” band, but their latest record, We Are There, sounds to me like a gently confident art pop album. Strings, synths, and rock band instruments all meld together on the album in a way that rarely ever feels too busy. “Mothlight” is one of the more straightforward songs on We Are There, with a propulsive bass synth keeping the song on a steady, three-minute pop song track. Singer Emily Scott’s vocals are in control for pretty much the entirety of “Mothlight”, delivering a refined melody even as she’s never the only voice singing on the track.
“Mezzanine”, Real Social Dads From Linoleum Mausoleum (2022)
Real Social Dads is a one-person lo-fi indie pop band currently based in Washington, DC, although it appears to have connections to Madrid, Spain and the United Kingdom as well (“Real Social Dads” is also apparently the name of a football club; no idea if there’s any relation there). The project’s latest release is the home-recorded Linoleum Mausoleum EP, which is a solid collection of wistful, reverb-y, drum machine-aided jangle pop with a couple darker turns. Single “Mezzanine” is my favorite from Linoleum Mausoleum; the Roland drum machine is set to “tally-forth” and the guitar leads are as infectious as the simple yet effective refrain.
“6G Fever”, Whistler From ApocalypzZzz (2022, Post Present Medium)
ApocalypzZzz, the latest EP from Copenhagen’s Whistler, is an interesting little record with quite a bit going on in it. There are moments (like opening track “U&I”) that remind me of the chopped up pop music mess of Low’s latest album, but they’re not above busting out the guitars for an indie rock jam either (see “Broken Lip Lingo”). The six-minute “6G Fever” falls somewhere in between—it’s a prog-pop anthem that slowly rolls itself out as a singalong anthem before suddenly veering off course in it second half. Vocalist Louis Scherfig’s delivery manages to sound both worried and vaguely amused as it travels through a lyrical wasteland (“Get your own apocalypse, because this one—this one is mine”, indeed).
“Tekamah”, Simon Joyner (2022, Grapefruit/Homeless)
I’m writing this the day after the release of “Tekamah”, and it’s been something of a soft launch so far. The only information on it I could find is an Instagram video that gives the name (Songs from a Stolen Guitar) and release date (May 20th) of the album from which it comes. Simon Joyner has always repped his home of Nebraska well in his music, and “Tekamah” is no different. The titular town is located about an hour north of Omaha (a route that, if I’ve got my eastern Nebraska geography right, Joyner’s narrator is traversing in the song) for one, and for another, that’s the Cornhusker State’s own David Nance on backing vocals and lead guitar.
“Alan Is a Cowboy Killer”, Mclusky From Mclusky Do Dallas (2002, Too Pure)
So, Mclusky Do Dallas turns twenty this year (in fact, basically around the time this playlist goes up, which isn’t really intentional on my part) and it still sounds quite fresh musically. I’m not sure if any band since has really been able to hit the same tones of playful, droll aggression since, which explains why it still has a sizable cult following to this day, even as many of the record’s inter-band sniping lyrics have become somewhat (I said somewhat!) dated. I highlighted “She Will Only Bring You Happiness” in one of the first posts on Rosy Overdrive ever, so it shouldn’t surprise you that the (relatively) gentle “Alan Is a Cowboy Killer” is my pick from Mclusky Do Dallas. There’s still some edge in the track (and that’s not even getting into a couple of troubling lyrics), but Andy Falkous basically croons “You were such a stupid child / We should’ve cottoned on”.
“The Last Song”, Destroyer From Labyrinthitis (2022, Merge)
So, apparently I just want Dan Bejar to play songs on the guitar again. I thought I was cool with a decade or so of synth-heavy experimentation under the Destroyer name, and I’m pretty sure I like most of those records (hell, “Poor in Love” might be my favorite Destroyer song—it’s definitely top five), but “The Last Song” affected me in a way that the rest of Labyrinthitis hasn’t, yet. Maybe it’s just that it’s more immediate than something like “June” (which I also like, by the way), but “Dan Bejar playing what could’ve been a standard in a better universe on an acoustic guitar” is one of my favorite modes of his. Or maybe I just like the “nooses / use is” rhyme. And maybe this is too many words on “The Last Song” to say, er, write.
Happy Wednesday! The last Pressing Concerns in March drops in on new albums from Prathloons, U.S. Highball, and Papercuts, as well as next month’s reissue of Balkans‘ self-titled record.
Release date: March 25th Record label: Sweet Tart Lover Thrills Genre: Indie rock, slowcore, emo Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital Pull track: Chagrin
Prathloons is the project of Minneapolis’ Collin Dall, although the credits to The Kansas Wind indicate that he’s hardly working alone these days. Dall’s third album under the name (he previously made music as part of slowcore band Yeah Wings) is a full-sounding record, featuring swelling instrumentals augmented by keys, bells, and strings, among other accents. Dall’s vocals are delicate, frequently tempering the musical tapestry around him. He’s practically whispering throughout The Kansas Wind, such as in opening track “Resemblance of Mercy”, which helps turn it into a somewhat understated start to the record, even as the fully-developed song builds to a big finish. The muted passion of Dall’s voice, the expanded musical palette, and the frequent crescendos all place The Kansas Wind somewhere on the post-rock/emo spectrum, in line with bands like Really From and The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick. With one major exception, though, The Kansas Wind funnels these ingredients into three-minute indie rock songs that are “friendly” if not completely “poppy”.
After a long percussive opening, Dall takes control of single “Chagrin” to deliver a pleasant melodic drive of a song, and “Bedhead” (which I would assume to be a nod to the Texas slowcore band even if the simple piano opening didn’t feel particularly Kadane Brothers-esque) eventually shifts into nostalgic alt-rock. Even though its refrain is the musical equivalent of a sigh, the trumpet-aided “Drawings for Radio Time” is actually fairly upbeat overall, and also features a spirited Dall vocal towards its ending. The one major exception I mentioned (discounting minor ones, like the atmospheric sophisti-pop sort-of-interlude “About Trailing Riviera”) is the thirteen-minute album closing duo of “The Kansas Wind / Matthew I’m Flying”. Even then, though, Prathloons turn in something not entirely foreign to the rest of The Kansas Wind. The first half of the ten-minute “Matthew I’m Flying” feels like something that could’ve fit earlier on the record, except presented looser, with the band letting out something they’d been careful to balance up until that point. And then the equilibrium returns, with The Kansas Wind ending with a long meditation on the lyric that gives the album its title. (Bandcamp link)
Balkans – Balkans (Reissue)
Release date: April 8th Record label: Double Phantom Genre: Garage rock, garage punk Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: Let You Have It
Atlanta’s Balkans released a few singles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but the only full-length they made together was a 2011 self-titled effort. Singer/guitarist Frankie Broyles went on to play with two other notable Atlanta bands after Balkans’ dissolution: Deerhunter (during the Monomania era) and Omni (which he co-founded with Philip Frobos). Balkans is clearly a different beast than either of those groups, but it’s not a stretch to say that the more accessible elements of both of them are present in the earlier band: Deerhunter’s retro pop rock side and Omni’s kinetic spaghetti guitar riffs. Unlike either of those bands, though, Balkans presented it all in a straightforward garage rock package. They got a few Strokes comparisons, and there’s no getting around that Broyles sounds a little bit like Julian Casablancas. The most important difference between the two bands, I think, is that Balkans sounds less like it was made by aliens, and more like an actual garage band.
There are benefits to being a tightly-controlled group like The Strokes were underneath all the backstory, but you’re not going to get something as off-the-wall as discordant album closer “Violent Girls” that way, nor are you going to be content to do something like ride out the mid-tempo “Flowers Everywhere” for four minutes. These moments aren’t really that “out there”, but they’re a nice counterpoint for Balkans’ several fastballs. So many of these songs just come barreling right out the gate—the chiming opening to “I Can’t Compete”, the in-your-face, vaguely creepy riff that leads off “Zebra Print”, the aural paint splatter that kicks off “Let You Have It”—it creates a situation where the cruising-speed post-punk of “Trouble and Done” functions as something as a breather, “angular” riffs be damned.
The reissue’s four “bonus tracks” mainly come from the B-sides of singles—they mostly sound like a rougher version of Balkans, and instrumental “Sarasota” is nice and weird, but the low-stakes pop rock of “Cave” is the one song that stands up to the album cuts. They aren’t essential for newcomers, but I’m sure they’re more than welcome for everyone who’s been listening to Balkans for the past decade and wishing there was more to it. More importantly, they don’t take anything away from the original record, which still sounds incredibly fresh. (Bandcamp link)
U.S. Highball – A Parkhead Cross of the Mind
Release date: March 25th Record label: Lame-O/Bingo Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: I’ve Stopped Eating
U.S. Highball is the Glasgow-based duo of James Hindle and Calvin Halliday; A Parkhead Cross of the Mind is their third record under the name since 2019 (before that, they made music as part of The Pooches). Their latest is an extraordinarily breezy and quite catchy mid-fi guitar pop record—even as it sounds deftly recorded and performed, there’s a directness that shines via a strong emphasis on melodies and the simple yet effective drum-machine backbeat throughout A Parkhead Cross of the Mind. The album’s twelve songs whisk by in under thirty minutes, but there’s plenty to hold onto across its length. The hits start coming early on in A Parkhead Cross of the Mind’s runtime with the triumphant-sounding opener “Mental Munchies” and the excited hooks that run around in “Double Dare”. Not long after, “I’ve Stopped Eating” is a gorgeous harmony-stuffed track that leans into U.S. Highball’s C86 influences.
A Parkhead Cross of the Mind feels like it’s frantically trying to cram in pop choruses up until the referee’s whistle—penultimate track “Jump to the Left” might be the biggest earworm of them all, and while (amusingly-titled) closing track “Let’s Save Bobby Orlando’s House” is an appropriately pensive closer, it’s not so out there that its selection as a single doesn’t make sense. In the context of Hindle and Halliday’s modest indie pop, the bittersweet earnestness of “Grease the Wheel” make it practically feel like a power ballad. But closer inspection to A Parkhead Cross of the Mind reveals that the song’s no outlier—there’s a lot of humanity in the more straightforwardly zippy guitar pop songs, as well. The bite-size power chords and whirling organ are nice touches in “Down in Temperley”, but the refrain of “Why’d you have to be so fucking cruel” is what drives the song home. And a two-minute home run is still a home run. (Bandcamp link)
Papercuts – Past Life Regression
Release date: April 1st Record label: Slumberland/Labelman Genre: Dream pop, psych folk, soft rock Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: I Want My Jacket Back
Jason Quever has been putting out dreamy indie pop as Papercuts for the majority of this century, persisting through the ebbs and flows of the genre’s popularity. It appears that Past Life Regression is the seventh or eighth Papercuts record, and the first since Quever moved back to the Bay Area after a few years of living in Los Angeles (where he helped record another record I’ve written about recently, Massage’s Oh Boy). Past Life Regression is a full-sounding record, the songs layered with organs, harpsichord, hypnotic bass, and strings, among other instruments. It’s a sign of Quever’s experience that it feels as busy as it does without coming off as cluttered. Quever’s vocal melody floats along lazily in opening track “Lodger”, even as the music underneath propels in several directions at once. He never sounds too lazy, though—just like he’s trying to see just how far the song can stretch out. “Sinister Smile” shuffles and shimmers its way to a classic mid-2000s chamber pop/folk chorus, all the while undergirded by a surprisingly sharp drumbeat.
It takes three minutes out of “Fade Out”’s four for the song’s slow groove to click into place, but the payoff is worth it when it does. Single “I Want My Jacket Back” is one of Past Life Regression’s more immediate moments: a clearly-presented, upbeat pop song that still features some of Papercuts’ bag of tricks and manages to be “odd” with its stop-start coda finish. Several of the other most straightforward songs come towards the end of Past Life Regression—the mid-tempo strummer “Palm Sunday” turns its bell-tolling chorus into something of a gallop, and the lifting chorus of penultimate track “Remarry” features Quever and a fluttering synth competing for catchiness. On the other end of the spectrum, the five-minute “Hypnotist” sets its synths to “wash-over” and percussion to “heartbeat” to live up to its title (but even that one is song-first, with no less of a melodic vocal than the others). The extra psych-y moments on Past Life Regression are often just that, extra—flaring up either at the end of or in between verses of pop songs, making for an engaging blend of textures throughout. (Bandcamp link)
Today’s Pressing Concerns looks at new albums from Bellows, Sooner, and Really Great, and a new EP from Mo Dotti. Most of this was written awhile ago and even this intro is several days old at this point, so sorry if anything in here has somehow already become dated.
Release date: March 23rd Record label: Topshelf Genre: Indie pop, indie folk, art pop Formats: Vinyl, cassette, CD, digital Pull track: No One Wants to Be Without a Person to Love
The latest album from Bellows, the project of New York’s Oliver Kalb, has grandiose ambitions, but Next of Kin seems equally concerned with not losing the plot at the record’s sturdy core. Kalb and his group of collaborators (including but certainly not limited to violinist Lina Tullgren, pianist Frank Meadows, and multi-instrumentalist Jack Greenleaf) dress up Kalb’s songs in a colorful, brimming, busy palette throughout the record. Bellows tosses instruments and melodies at you like Kalb and company are rifling through an old chest, looking for something deeper underneath. Even when Next of Kin sounds like the equivalent of a circus or light show, Kalb’s vocals are breathy and impassioned, which preserves the songs’ intimacy. It’s an important wrinkle for Next of Kin, an album that sits with losses that are felt from the slight-remove of the title on down.
Next of Kin is, naturally, a bittersweet record. In songs like “My Best Friend”, “Marijuana Grow” and “Thumb in the Dam”, Kalb is singing about people, places, and times he has loved, and subsequently don’t feel like “sad” songs—even when the past tense is clearly felt. An after-school special piano riff introduces “Death of Dog” in as friendly a way as possible for a song where Kalb starts with the passing his beloved Loubie before delving into the loss of innocence at the heart of Next of Kin. The record’s centerpiece is a six-minute track called “Biggest Deposit of White Quartz”, a fairly dark song that floats across the last few years of Kalb’s life and the world around him in general. It uses the titular quartz sitting underneath Asheville, North Carolina as a jumping off point for a bizarre explain-all theory that, being no more bizarre than reality, illustrates pretty well how the burden of having to make sense of the world of today can lead to broken and astray people.
For a moment in “Biggest Deposit of White Quartz”, Kalb’s friends and family become pieces on a string-covered corkboard, something that only throws the rest of Next of Kin into starker relief. The centering of these strong emotions and interactions, unmoored from time or relationship to the present, are what mark Next of Kin. (Bandcamp link)
Sooner – Days and Nights
Release date: March 25th Record label: Good Eye Genre: Shoegaze, dream pop Formats: Digital Pull track: Boscobel
Brooklyn’s Sooner have been around for over a half-decade and have a couple of EPs to their name, but Days and Nights is the dream pop band’s debut full-length. The group (vocalist Federica Tassano plus an instrumental trio of John Farris, Andrew Possehl, and Tom Wolfson on guitar, bass, and drums) have come prepared for this moment: Days and Nights is equipped with strong, satisfying songwriting and a confident delivery of melodies and vocals in the midst of a genre where neither of which are necessarily required for some degree of success. Opening track “Boscobel” is a flawlessly-executed dream pop single, with Tassano’s vocals soaring to Elizabeth Fraser heights while the band supplies a Sundays-esque a beautiful electric/acoustic guitar mess. Immediately following, the propulsive “Thursday” takes a bit of a different path, holding out for a chorus catharsis, although the melodic bass in the verses is its own reward.
The acoustic “Blue” has the feel of a vintage Smashing Pumpkins ballad, the way it starts out sparse and strummed, then layers on more instruments for a big finish. Possehl’s bass again takes center stage in “Oh”, one of the album’s more hypnotic numbers, but a no less catchy one. Some darker undercurrents pop up in Days and Nights upon further listening, with several lyrics dealing with addiction, depression, or harmful relationships. These topics aren’t too directly correlated with the music—“Thursday” is one of the brightest songs on the album despite the hurt the narrator is clearly experiencing, while one of the darker musical moments on Days and Nights, “Kingdom”, has a more removed and muted lyrical sadness (and this is to say nothing of the horror at the heart of the shimmery “Pretend”). Whatever Tassano is inspired to sing about, she and the rest of Sooner make it satisfying to listen to and follow. (Bandcamp link)
Mo Dotti – Guided Imagery
Release date: March 18th Record label: Self-released/Smoking Room Genre: Shoegaze, dream pop Formats: Cassette, CD, digital Pull track: Loser Smile
Los Angeles’ Mo Dotti make loud pop music. The six songs on Guided Imagery, their latest EP, make extensive use of reverb and noise, but it’s always a tuneful storm, and vocalist Gina Negrini’s voice always finds melodies to match. They’re more of a guitar-forward dream pop band on steroids than a straight-up shoegaze group, even as they’re clearly students of that genre. The pop-friendly side of Mo Dotti is on display early with opening track and lead single “Loser Smile”, an amped-up, propulsive anthem, and the one song on Guided Imagery the band didn’t write, a cover of Stephin Merritt project The 6th’s “All Dressed Up in Dreams”. Mo Dotti don’t sound interested in burying Merritt’s hooks in their cover version, instead working to emphasize them.
Elsewhere on Guided Imagery, the “pop” remains, but Mo Dotti explore the other end of “dream pop” more thoroughly. The title track in particular is a gorgeously-set soundscape, stretching out the song’s simple core over five minutes with lengthy interstitial instrumental passages. “Come on Music” is the other song with a longer runtime, although it reaches its peaks by stringing together a few disparate sections and rocking out all the way through. “Hurting Slowly” takes things down a bit (except for the feedback-laden outro), a bit of minimalist bliss that nonetheless fits right in with the loud family. As friendly as Mo Dotti’s music can be, it’s the stretching out that pushes Guided Imagery over. (Bandcamp link)
Really Great – So Far, No Good
Release date: March 4th Record label: Self-released Genre: Punk rock, emo-punk, pop punk Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Bodybag
Allston, Massachusetts’ Really Great are something of a sibling band to (T-T)b. Guitarist Jake Cardinal and drummer Nick Dussault are members of both bands, and Really Great’s vocalist/songwriter Owen Harrelson has played on some of the latter’s music. There’s very little of (T-T)b’s chiptune influence on So Far, No Good, though—Really Great present their ideas with a decidedly guitar-forward pop-punk sheen. Harrelson’s lyrics (which are begging to be described as “confessional”) and voice (which can veer from “tender” to “emotionally strained” in the same song) both remind me of Jeff Rosenstock’s solo material, among other indie/punk influences. Like Rosenstock’s best work, So Far, No Good is a theatrical rock record that ranges from quiet ballads to loud belters.
So Far, No Good kicks off with two rippers in “Missive” and “JO Bud”. Both rock, and both cram in a lot into their brief lengths—Harrelson shouts out The Weakerthans’ “Manifest” as an inspiration for the brief former track, and the latter is effectively Harrelson coming to terms with parts of their sexuality in a two-minute pop songs. Cardinal’s guitar leads are a somewhat surprising highlight throughout So Far, No Good, with spirited playing and even some straight-up solos figuring heavily into the structure of songs like “Bodybag” and “Whole Again”. Elsewhere, the mid-tempo “All My Problems” is one of the record’s most Rosenstock-y moments, the slow-building ballad “Record Breaker” is a surprisingly subtle turn that has a bit of Midwest emo in it, and “Whole Again” is particularly showtune-esque in the way it speeds up and slows down for emphasis.
Finishing this up, I noticed that the themes of So Far, No Good—of loss, that of innocence, friends, and even a pet—is similar in theme to the first record in this post, Next of Kin, but it sounds completely different musically and (maybe less obviously) Harrelson and Oliver Kalb have different ways of addressing it in their writing. Music is cool like that, no? (Bandcamp link)
Today’s edition of Pressing Concerns looks at Skep Wax‘s various-artist compilation Under the Bridge, as well as new records from Patches, Posmic, and Eyelids. This is a great issue for anyone who enjoys pop music.
Release date: March 18th Record label: Skep Wax Genre: Indie pop, twee Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital Pull track: Lost in the Middle
Skep Wax Records was founded last year by Amelia Fletcher and Robert Pursey, most notably of (arguably) 90s twee’s flagship band, Heavenly. Already, the label has released new albums from Fletcher and Pursey’s current bands The Catenary Wires and Swansea Sound—although the work that generally leads off their press bios is getting to be three decades old, the pair come off as artists most interested in continuing to move forward. Skep Wax’s latest release, Under the Bridge, is a celebration and assertion of this impulse, with aid from another dozen-odd bands that feel the same way.
Under the Bridge is a look-in, of sorts—everyone on the compilation released music on Heavenly’s former home of Sarah Records, either in their original form (The Wake, Even As We Speak, St Christopher) or via older bands who did (Jetstream Pony and The Luxembourg Signal come from Aberdeen, Leaf Mosaic from The Sugargliders, etc.). You could spend the length of Under the Bridge multiple times over tracing the lineages of the bands involved, but it’s not required to enjoy the music at all. The music these groups made in their formative period is known for capturing youthful spirit, but the best twee bands did this against the backdrop of great songwriting, itself a timeless quality. The results of thirty years of growth from fourteen similar starting points are, understandably, disparate.
Synths and guitars both abound on Under the Bridge, some groups playing with a completely different sonic field than they did in the 80s and 90s, while others show their evolution in subtler ways. “Subtle” is a good work for Under the Bridge as a whole—these songs sound made by veterans, to stand up with time. The more C86-friendly songs—Evan As We Speak’s noise pop “Begins Goodbye”, a classic indie pop punk tune from Boyracer with “Larkin”, and The Catenary Wires’ “Wall of Sound”—all shine on their own, and in the context of Under the Bridge’s vast ocean of pop craft. Mile markers of the expanse include swirly, double-vocals shoegaze from The Secret Shrine, lightly psychedelic melodies from The Orchids, synthpop from Soundwire, and a song from St Christopher that manages to incorporate a bit of all of the above. Merely being the sum of its considerable parts would make Under the Bridge worth a listen, but the bands on the record don’t sound particularly content to be that yet. (Bandcamp link)
Patches – Tales We Heard from the Fields
Release date: February 25th Record label: Self-released Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop Formats: Digital Pull track: Parallel Mind
Patches are a new Austin-based trio comprised of Evan Seurkamp (of The Laughing Chimes), RKC, and Aaron Griffin. Their debut release is the full-length Tales We Heard from the Fields, a generous 14-song collection that takes cues from all over the map of the past 40 years of alternative rock music. Several hallmarks of post-punk characterize these songs, and there’s also clear influence from classic guitar pop. The instruments and melodies all sound distinct and clear individually, but there’s an overall murky haziness that might get the record tabbed as “lo-fi”. Plodding, expressive bass guitar tempers some of the brighter moments, and hooks still mark the moodier ones.
Tales We Heard from the Fields sets the tone with two 80s-inspired post-punk tunes, with album opener “Plastic and Gold” leaning on propulsive bass and “Canaries” trotting out jagged, frantic guitars and a panicked vocal from Seurkamp. Just when you think you might be getting the hang of what Patches are about, the sunny indie pop of “Parallel Mind” (which I already highlighted a couples weeks ago) blows open the gates. The balance of darkness and light becomes a theme on Tales We Heard from the Fields—songs like the triumphant power pop chorus of “Rosaley” and the chiming “The Back of the Cupboard” sit alongside post-punk workouts like “Wet Cement”, and they both share a shelf with the spacey atmospheres of “A Nice Day to Orbit Saturn” and the swirling textures of “London”. Tales We Heard from the Fields is a deep-probing album, and I’d be curious to hear where the trio go from this starting point. (Bandcamp link)
Posmic – Sun Hymns
Release date: March 11th Record label: Let’s Pretend Genre: 90s indie rock, psychedelia, indie punk Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Fading (All Here Now)
The members of Posmic hail from the Baltimore and D.C. areas, and they’ve been releasing music together intermittently for the past two years or so. Their latest and most substantial release so far is this month’s Sun Hymns, an eight-song collection of brief, curious indie rock songs. The songs on Sun Hymns feel like mini-quests: they’re all trying to achieve a specific combination of sounds, and they bow out just as soon as it feels like they’ve gotten there. And there aren’t many bells and whistles on Sun Hymns, either. One of the bands that the press info compares Posmic to is their geographic older neighbors Lungfish, and they do have a similar “sober psychedelia” vibe to those Dischord misfits. It’s lifting music that’s confident enough to do what that genre does in the clothes of 90s indie rock and little else.
Vocalists Emily Ferrara and David Van help with this, I think. Van’s vocals are a light-stepping drone; Ferrara’s are firmer but still sound at a slight remove. They trade off or harmonize throughout Sun Hymns, one of the key bricks in songs like the quickly-congealing fuzzy opener “Fading (All Here Now)” and the stop-start folk rock of “Mynah Hymn”. Posmic are working to transport the listener throughout Sun Hymns: it does feel like solar rays are hitting you directly in the up-close “I Believe in the Sun”, while the energy in “Change My Mind” has a decidedly underground feel. There are a couple late-record surprises, too, like the acoustic “Nosey Posey” and Ferrara’s surprisingly-straight country rock closing track “Black and Blue”. Ferrara’s voice soars alongside the music toward the end of the latter song. It’s the biggest, most forceful moment on the entirety of Sun Hymns…and then the EP ends. (Bandcamp link)
Eyelids – Everything That I See You See Better
Release date: February 25th Record label: Jealous Butcher Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, post-punk Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: Everything That I See You See Better
Portland’s Eyelids have been a go-to band for quality guitar pop music since their inception. Led by indie rock ringers and Robert Pollard collaborators John Moen and Chris Clusarenko, and featuring a stable of veterans that now includes Camper Van Beethoven’s Victor Krummenacher, their albums feature reliably strong power pop songwriting and a deft touch to realize it on-record. Their latest release, Everything That I See You See Better, came out of the sessions for the official follow-up LP to 2020’s The Accidental Falls (one of my favorite albums of that year), but it’s a standalone 7” single (they’re calling the digital version an EP, which, at three songs and over ten minutes long, I’ll allow).
In terms of Eyelids full-lengths, it’s most similar to 2018’s Maybe More, which mixed new original songs with covers and live tracks. The two original tracks on Everything That I See You See Better are both runs at what Eyelids does best. The title track floats through arpeggiated guitar lines and heavenly vocal melodies, and “Wayhome” cranks up the fuzz a bit but it’s still a spirited pop tune at its core. It’s the third track, a cover of The Fall’s “Fantastic Life”, where Eyelids really veer off a bit. Their version of the tune (originally a non-album single that’s appeared on deluxe editions of Room to Live and Slates) doesn’t try to pretty things up—it remains faithful to the chaos of the original, even to the point of enlisting original Fall drummer Paul Hanley to help recreate the two-drummer stomp of the era of The Fall from which it came.
Whether or not Everything That I See You See Better is in any way indicative of what the next Eyelids LP will be like, I couldn’t say—I would guess that the first two songs reflect the future to some degree, though I wouldn’t be mad if a little bit of the third found its way there as well. The results are solid and worthwhile on their own, nevertheless. (Bandcamp link)
The second Rosy Overdrive post of the week, following Monday’s February overview/playlist, looks at two reissues out this Friday: Feeble Little Horse’s Modern Tourism (on cassette, with bonus tracks) and Massage’s Oh Boy (on vinyl), as well as new records from Star Party and Premium Rat.
Release date: March 11th Record label: Crafted Sounds Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop Formats: Cassette, digital Pull track: Modern Tourism
I probably heard more good music from Pittsburgh in 2021 than I did in every other year combined, thanks to (among others) records by Gaadge, Barlow, and the first full-length album from Feeble Little Horse, last October’s Hayday. Some of that was either directly or indirectly due to the Pittsburgh-based Crafted Sounds, who are also responsible for reissuing Feeble Little Horse’s only other release thus far, their debut EP Modern Tourism. Although the EP (which originally came out last May) is less than a year old, Feeble Little Horse is already a markedly different band: it was recorded before bassist/vocalist Lydia Slocum joined the band (although she contributed by designing the record’s cover art).
Even accounting for the lack of Slocum’s voice, Modern Tourism is still a ways off from Hayday’s frantic, chaotic noise pop. It’s more casual, with Sebastian Kinsler and Ryan Walchonski’s uncertain voices giving it the vibe of Found Music, stuff that just kind of appears on the Internet (especially in their 50-second cover of “I Am Smoking Cigarettes Again”, originally by similar-minded project Adrenaline, Etc.). The two opening tracks are both ramshackle, rough-around-the-edges lo-fi pop rock songs that are probably the most immediate ones on the EP, but the title track’s slowcore-infused restraint might be my personal favorite moment.
Crafted Sounds’ reissue also comes with another five songs’ worth of bonus material, and it’s a solid addendum/appendix to Modern Tourism: the aforementioned Gaadge is featured prominently, covering and being covered by Feeble Little Horse (FLH’s trip-hop/acid-test version of “Murphy’s Law” is a highlight), we get a downer pop version of “When You Sleep” by My Bloody Valentine, and the one Feeble Little Horse original in the mix (“18 Kids”) is a curiosity that doesn’t sound like anything else they’ve done so far. (Bandcamp link)
Star Party – Meadow Flower
Release date: March 11th Record label: Feel It/Tough Love Genre: Garage punk, noise pop Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: Push You Aside
Seattle’s Star Party is a collaboration between Carolyn Brennan and Ian Corrigan, who have created a hell of a noise pop album together with their debut record under the name. Meadow Flower is blown-out pop music at its finest, with Brennan’s voice setting up melody after melody over top of instrumentals cranked to eleven almost all the time. Meadow Flower shares a love of hooks with the twee/K Records bands from Star Party’s native Pacific Northwest, as well as the punk sensibility that runs through a lot of that music, both of which battle against a roaring sound that recalls late 00s/early 10s acts like Times New Viking and early Cloud Nothings.
“You and Me” kicks Meadow Flower off with a garage rock rave-up, and “Living a Lie” keeps the energy up for a fun indie pop punk number. The record’s sugary attitude is only amplified by the lo-fi production and instrumentation choices; “Shot Down” employs a galloping drum machine beat that the rest of the song works overtime to complement, none of which gets in the way of Brennan’s drolly catchy vocals. Under the fuzz, “Veil of Gauze” snakes its way to a smoking garage rock final refrain, the wall of sound congealing into something glam-like.
The gentle title track is a pastoral thing, featuring minimal percussion led along by reverb-heavy jangle guitar and plodding bass, and it’s Meadow Flower’s one true reprieve—although album closer “A Trip Home” merits a mention here too, as it does feel a little more subtle than the rest of its pummeling kin. “You’re a human being, you make mistakes,” is the last thing Brennan says on Meadow Flower; whether it’s meant as reassurance or warning gets lost in the actual ending of the record: more fuzz. (Bandcamp link)
Massage – Oh Boy (Reissue)
Release date: March 11th Record label: Mt. St. Mtn. Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk, college rock Formats: Vinyl, digital Pull track: Lydia
Oh Boy (and, by extension, the band Massage itself) is the product of a group of musically-inclined acquaintances congealing into an actual band, and it sounds like it. Not in the casual “sloppily-recorded and –played basement jams”, way, no—Massage are decidedly not that kind of band. But the Los Angeles five-piece group sound excited about their ideas, how they’re going to present them, and who they’re presenting them with throughout Oh Boy, originally released in 2018 and recently re-pressed by Mt. St. Mtn. after a successful 2021 for the band.
There’s a song midway through the record called “Under”. It’s not my favorite song on Oh Boy, but it’s good, and basically just repeats one line over and over again (“Dummy lyrics”, the song’s notes describe them). You could drive yourself mad trying to figure out why “Under” works, or just accept that it does and roll with it. “Under” is a good centerpiece for the record—it’s got a propulsion that sets it apart from the record’s more wistful songs, but despite its zippiness it has a simplicity in tune with Oh Boy’s quieter moments.
The upbeat songs (the lightly anthemic “Lydia”, the giddy “Kevin’s Coming Over”, the melody-working-overtime “Liar”, the post-punky “Cleaners”) all sound like lost college rock singles that maybe showed up on some compilation once. The dreaminess that caused me to place 2021 Massage firmly on the “rainy day” side of jangle pop is still there even in these tracks—and conversely, there’s a clarity in the slower songs like “Gee”, the title track, and even the sparse closing track “At Your Door” that works to bridge the gap. Oh Boy is probably the Massage record that is least interested in deliberately cultivating a single mood throughout, but they were already doing it. (Bandcamp link)
Premium Rat – Cope
Release date: February 25th Record label: Self-released Genre: Indie folk, alt rock Formats: Digital Pull track: Hide, Not Seek
“It’s not really funny, but it’s how I cope,” allows Ypsilanti, Michigan’s Mer Rey at the conclusion of “Intro”, appropriately the first track on the latest EP from their solo project Premium Rat. What follows is the bulk of Cope, a whirlwind of poppy alt-rock and spare indie folk, both of which are emotional if not formally “emo” (it hits similar beats for me that last year’s Harmony Woods record did). Cope’s six tracks feel fleshed out and the record as a whole feels self-contained—the EP’s unflinching look at both interpersonal and intrapersonal roughness helps its 21 minutes feel quite full.
Second track “Hide, Not Seek” is also Cope’s most musically upbeat song, which, combined with the (maybe) figurative scorched-earth lyrics, send the EP into a tailspin from which it seems to try to recover for the rest of its length. “Vindicated” and “I Asked” are both gut-punchers, the former finding Rey exploring a snythpop-curious sound to “celebrate” the hollow titular emotion and the latter dragging things out as slowly and painfully as possible. “Tell Me That We Made It” closes out Cope on a subdued, uncertain note, but compared to the aforementioned songs (not to mention the quite literal “Deathwish”), it suggests there might be something to Rey’s declaration in the intro track. (Bandcamp link)
