ASTRONAUT PUSHERS – EP (Lost in Ohio, lostinohio.com)
Originally released in 2005 as a very limited 4-song CD, this super group’s sole release is being reissued, this time with a fifth previously unreleased song. The Nashville outfit is comprised of Grammy and Academy Award nominee Sam Ashworth, Superdrag’s John Davis, Lindsay Jamieson of Ben Folds and Departure Lounge, and Sixpence None the Wiser’s Matt Slocum. Though the songs are nearly two decades old, they still sound fresh and timeless. Not only that, the five songs are incredible varied and wide ranging in their sounds. The EP opens strongly with alt-rocker “Cut Me Off.” It has a subdued intensity, with minimalist guitars providing an understated shriek and a strong jazzy backbeat rhythm from the drums. It comes across as both fierce and relaxed at the same time. “Come On Make It Harder” is gorgeous, and big, with both dreamy and eerie sounds. “Bacharaquattack” is appropriately titled, with a lighter, lither feel of the 70s pop hits of Burt Bacharach, but with a twangy injection of Americana steel guitar. I like “Nobody Knows,” which has a Beatles-esque feel, a song that sounds like something the Fab Four might have written had they been a more contemporary band working in more modern genres. The unreleased track “Monday Morning,” has a loping tempo and a somewhat melancholy mood. Despite the different characters of these tracks, the EP does feel cohesive. A worthy listen.
FAYE – You’re Better (Self Aware Records, selfawarerecords.com)
It’s been a long six years since Faye’s self-titled debut EP was released, forcing us to wait for more. More is finally here, in the form of the band’s debut full-length LP. Some, if not all, of this album was recorded in pre-pandemic days, and the notorious vinyl delays are infamous, so the wait is excusable. And it was worth it. Faye play music that sounds like indie-pop meets grunge. The songs have wonderfully light melodies, a poppy bounce, and clear ringing vocals, yet the arrangements have a grittier heavier sound. The opening track, “No Vibes,” is a perfect introduction to this sound, with growling grumbling bass, emphatically bright poppy vocals, and guitars that alternately soar with clarity and snarl with abandon. “Dream Punches” is full-on grunge, packing a wallop, and “Swing State” combines grungy instrumentals with pop punk attitude and melody. I’m not usually a big ballad fan, but the slow burner, “Confetti,” is gorgeous. The 6/8 time tune has a martial rhythm and alternates between simmering verses and churning choruses. “Wise Words” reminds me of a rougher gruffer Tsunami, the great indie pop band from the DC area. It’s another slower track, and has gorgeously bright vocals, moody guitars, and a loping rhythm. I really like the feel of this LP. It’s breezy and poppy enough, with just the right amount of edginess to balance it out and prevent it from sounding cloying.
KAL MARKS – My Name Is Hell (Exploding In Sound Records, www.explodinginsoundrecords.com)
This fifth LP released under the Kal Marks moniker represents a complete refresh for the band. In early 2020, the band had dissolved, leaving only Carl Shane remaining. The guitarist/vocalist, however, did not give up, and soon a new band was formed to play new songs Shane had already been writing. The resulting album features eleven tracks filled with big dreamy, dramatic, melodic, noisy rock. One of the amazing things is how the band create a delicate balance between melodic riffs and chaotic noise. Typically, noise rock is short on melody or head-bobbing beats, but “My Name Is Hell” has both in spades. Take the opening track, “My Life is a Freak Show.” It has a glorious melody, dreamy ambience, and nightmarish noise repetition that rises and falls. “We’re all animals,” Shane sings; “We all feed from the trough.” The song seems to be telling us that we all have more in common than we don’t. Our lives are freak shows, we’re all fucked, and we have no place to go. That which may separate us is insignificant. As the track evolves, it gets noisier, Shane’s vocals turning into pleading shouts. One of the things that makes this band work so well and drives the songs hard is John Russell’s prominent growling bass. Rather than being subdued and providing the standard foundation to the songs, the bass takes center stage much of the time, as an indispensible contributor to the overall mix. Listen to it on “Shit Town,” a track in which Kal Marks comes to closest to standard indie rock, though the chaos is never too far away. “Everybody Hertz” is a track that has a bright melody and bright guitars, yet the blasts of the bass and the explosive percussion keep the proceedings from being anything but a melodic cacophony. And if you want even more cacophony, listen to “Debt,” the most discordant track of the album; noise swirls all around, as Shane’s vocals are angrily and painfully shouted. But even here, there’s an underlying sense of melody that keeps things from moving too far into the realm of the avant-garde. The bass line on “Mr. Dictionary (A Satire),” along with the spoken/shouted vocals make the song almost reminiscent of the band Shellac – except this song has lush synths, too, giving it a very different feel. The two styles vie for dominance, and both win. “My Name Is Hell” is melodic enough to feel familiar to indie aficionados, yet challenging and adventurous enough to please the most jaded of listeners. A+
TRASHED AMBULANCE – Future Considerations (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
Halfway between the metropolises of Calgary and Edmonton (up in the Frozen North, eh?) lies the hamlet of Red Deer, birthing place of Trashed Ambulance. The band has undergone some lineup changes and have returned with their third full-length LP. The lineup changes have brought them a tighter sound that’s not as raw, but they’ve lost none of the snot and enthusiasm that endeared me to the band when I reviewed their debut LP, “Blurry Thoughts,” a number of years ago. The dozen songs on this album are universally bright, speedy, poppy punk rock, influenced (but not overwhelmed by) skate punk sounds. It’s speedy and crunchy, making it a ton of fun, but thankfully it lacks the metallic technical flourishes that, frankly, turn me off of some bands. Gang vocals are still effectively used, too, adding to the sense of, well, fun. “56” opens the album with a song of introspection and self-examination about what’s really to blame for one’s problems. Trashed Ambulance likes to toss in sound clips – at least they did on the debut LP, and this one has them, too, though fewer) and the track opens with a line from “Futurama,” “Now stand back, I gotta practice my stabbing.” It’s a reference in the lyrics, “As my headspace decays / I’ll ignore all rapport / And keep stabbing in the dark,” speaking to the lack of ability to take cues from our interactions with others and know when to dial things back. Most of the songs are somewhat like this – fast’n’loud, plenty of attitude, plenty of crunchy guitars and plenty of guff. Favorites include “Ecnalumbma” (“Ambulance” spelled backward), a song about the glories of playing shows with and to one’s friends, “Bottleneck,” and “Melting Pot,” a track about getting out of the sticks where there’s forced conformity and moving to a more cosmopolitan melting pot of a city, where you can be yourself. Robbie Morön and Émilie Plamondon make a guest appearance on “Stalk in the Park,” a song that has a relaxed lope in its pace, but doesn’t come down even one notch in intensity. The song is a warning about the dangers of drunken creepers who sexually harass women in the scene, and could be my favorite of the album. An outlier of a track is “Menace,” a song that injects ska punk into the mix, and oddly enough is the song with the darkest edge. Trashed Ambulance have another winner of an album here.
BEACH RATS – Rat Beat (Epitaph Records, www.epitaph.com)
The term “super group” gets tossed around a lot, but in this case, it really has meaning. Beach Rats has an impressive lineup of punk rock luminaries, including Ari Katz of Lifetime on vocals, Bouncing Souls’ Pete Steinkopf and Bryan Keinlen on guitar and bass, respectively, guitarist Brian Baker (of Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, and too many other bands to name), plus drummer Danny Windas. They released their debut EP way back in 2018 and played a bunch of shows, but everything stopped due to the pandemic. Well, not everything. The band found a way to practice and write within CDC guidelines of masking, social distancing, and getting good outdoor airflow through open basement windows. The result is this debut full-length LP chock full of solid 80s style hardcore punk rock, with some songs being pure ragers, others with Descendents-style melody, and some with a more unique modern punk style. I was a “hardcore kid,” back in the early 80's, so I really enjoy the tracks that are fast’n’loud. “Bikes Out!” opens the album with some speedy crunchy hardcore, then tempers itself into a loping melodic punk tune. And “Dress for Sick Sesh” alternates between slower dirge-like punk and supersonic classic hardcore. “Heavy Conversation” and “Rat Beat” take very late era Minor Threat and mix it with early Descendents, hardcore and pop punk. “Saturday” is one of those more modern sounding tracks, with a darker, more metallic sound. And then there are tracks like “Clorox Boys,” softer and smoother, with a post-punk/post-emo melodic style, the instrumentals and passionate vocals reminding me of San Diego’s Pitchfork. Every track on this album is solid, but it’s not often you can hear genuine early 80's hardcore played like it was meant to be. Those tracks are my favorites. But it’s the variety and quality songwriting that make this a recommended LP.
LOS PEYOTES – Virgenes (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
The formerly prolific band, Los Peyotes, released a slew of records in the first decade or so of this century, and then fell silent. Their last LP was way back in 2010, and their last single in 2013. And now, the Argentinian garage-psych band are back, as strong as ever. The vast bulk of this thirteen-track LP is magnificent retro music, dirty, sinful, and gritty as befitting the band, the genre, and the label. Sex and drugs and rock and roll are the key themes, with all lyrics sung in Spanish. Guitar, bass, drums, and electric organ provide a super-‘60’s musical vibe, and the lyrics are growled out with filthy menacing glee. Song titles include, “La Gente Es Una Mierda” (People Are Shit), “Soy La Droga” (I’m the Drug), “El Hombre De Dos Cabezas” (The Man with Two Heads), and more. That moral depravity can be fun is on full display. The tracks are nearly universally joyful. And while most of these songs contain varying levels of psych and garage, “No Quiero Crecer” (I Don’t Wanna Grow Up) is less garage and more pop, with a much smoother sound, but still full of a 60s mod feel. “Cumbia Del Dolor” is the only track I couldn’t get into. It’s psych melded with Latino folk, and just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the tracks. Excluding that one, if you’re a fan of 60s garage and psych, you’re going to be ecstatic at the return of Los Peyotes.
PHONY – At Some Point You Stop (Phony Industries, www.phonyindustries.com)
Neil Berthier, late of Donovan Wolfington and current live touring member of Joyce Manor, fronts Phony, a band that focuses on the dreamier and poppier side of music. The dozen tracks are smooth and lush, with melodies that range between indie and pop music, sometimes mixing the genres, sometimes moving into experimental territory. “The Middle” has a melody that could have come from a commercial pop song, but the arrangement is richer and played at a slower tempo, so it has a lovely somber sound. “Summer’s Cold” has the sound of crossing 90’s post-emo music with 2000s pop punk, then smoothing it over to make it dreamier, and it’s a favorite. “Great White” is very different from most of the tracks, with a brighter synth pop sound, though it’s given a great indie rock melody and a dreamy reverb-laden sound. It’s got an incredibly huge breakdown in the middle of the song that changes the character, slowing things down, thickening the arrangement, and adding some shouted vocals. It’s an abrupt, yet very effective transition. There are some cool experimental bits on this album. “Matter of Taste” is a nice short little track, with “illbient” rhythms and samples. Illbient, for those who’ve forgotten, is “ill” music with an ambient vibe – that is, ambient music with a chill hip-hop rhythm. “LA’s Music” is another short track with a sinister rhythm and samples from voice mails urgently telling someone to “wake the fuck up” and “get your ass” to the club. I really like these explorations in sound. “Kaleidoscope” mixes processed piano and deep growling synths, ambient background, and a solemn melody to create quite a lovely song. From what I hear, Phony will be opening for Joyce Manor on their summer tour. I can understand it logistically, but the bands couldn’t be more different. Nevertheless, I enjoy listening to these songs. If you like dreamy post-emo pop, give this a listen.
VARIOUS – Never Erased (Say-10 Records and Skateboards, www.say-10.com)
“Never Erased” is the first in a new series of compilations from Say-10, featuring LGBTQIA artists, with 50% of the profit being donated to the National Center for Transgender Equality. And this sixteen-track comp is going to bust stereotypes when it comes to the sort of music people associate with the LGBTQIA community. It’s an incredibly diverse community, and the music they listen to and play is just as diverse. You won’t hear any thumpa-thumpa EDM on this comp, but you will hear pop punk, hardcore, power pop, indie pop, and more. I’m not going to provide a full track-by-track rundown, even though every track is worthy of mention (and listening!). But here are some notable tracks, both for their quality, and for the surprising variety on display. Dog Park Dissidents’ song, “S*xual,” is outstanding loping pop punk with fantastic lead and gang vocals. I enjoy the melodic hardcore mixed with pop punk from Dead Format and their song “Soho Nights.” Mixtape Saints have a great melodic tune in “Cheap Thrills,” with lead vocals that remind me of Jack Dalrymple, and reverb laden guitars giving the song a sad lonely sound, even as it has a happy bouncy beat. “Mexican Wine,” from Sarah and the Safe Word, is a lovely unexpected indie pop tune, not the usual fare from Say-10. The chamber orchestra arrangement is gorgeous, as are the intertwining melodic lines. Cheerbleederz is another band that would normally not be on a Say-10 release, but the stripped back indie pop on their song, “Dead Oaks,” is heavenly. Ozello’s contribution, “Boy???,” begins as an ethereal song, with plucked guitar, piano, synth, and vocals. Later, the full band comes in and the song transforms into a pretty great pop punk tune. This is only a fraction of the great music contained on this record. It’s a great compilation for a worthy cause, and is highly recommended, for both reasons.
ADULT SCHOOL – No Party (Lavasocks Records, lavasocksrecords.bigcartel.com)
NorCal quartet Adult School’s latest LP is a varied adventure in indie music, ranging from moody to bright, from pop punk to indie pop to post punk. The band is tight but nonchalant, making the songs sound substantial, yet light and effortless. The combination of dark, heavy bass, lighter guitars, and deep gliding vocals on “Lighthead” is slightly reminiscent of Joy Division or early New Order, while the next track, “St. Sebastian,” is very pop punk meets indie rock, with a song about the complex relationship we have with our fathers. It’s the most raucous of the tracks. “Might As Well,” too, has a boisterous sound, with bright chord progressions. There are quiet, introspective songs on this album, too. “Other Smash Hits” is one, going from spare to lush instrumentation, and vocals that blend Michael Stipe with jazz and indie pop styles. And “Celebrity” is a lovely ballad that has the feeling of a modern day “standard,” the sort of song that’s destined to become a classic covered by others. Halfway between the lively and solemn songs are songs such as “Off Day,” a jangly loping track about the ennui of sitting at home doing nothing. And I enjoy the album closer, “Love Loss,” which runs the gamut from subdued indie jangle to full-throated pop punk. The album has some great songs, is varied enough to hold my interest for the full half hour, and comes off as uncomplicated and easy.
EMBLEMS – Everything Is Strange (Sell the Heart Records, www.selltheheartrecords.com)
Chicago’s Emblems present an 8-song LP of moody and brooding music. Somber sounding vocals smoothly and softly lie atop reverb-laden guitars. It’s, in a way, Goth-pop. It has the melancholy of Goth, but with somewhat brighter poppier melodies and tempos. It’s like The Smiths meets DC band Strange Boutique, one of the progenitors of the Goth-pop genre back in the late 80s. Guitars flutter and swirl, while synths provide an ambient backdrop. I really like the opening intro track, “LO\/M,” with its ethereal atmospherics, no percussion, just sort of floating out there. It’s, sadly, just a short intro under a minute. But then the album begins in earnest, with the more emphatic “Somewhere Safe.” It’s an alt-rock pounding track that’s been Goth’ed up, creating a unique new sound. Some tracks are lovely lilting indie pop, put through the same treatment to give it a somewhat morose sound. “Virgo” is one such track, with a bright melody and tempo, but even as it tries to put on a lively bouncy face, the reverb and subdued vocals cast a pall over the proceedings. It’s a fascinating effect. “Out to Sea” is an alternative rock track with a 2000s sound, except it, too, has been fed through the same Goth-pop filters, and it’s filled with ghostly synths and reverb effects. There aren’t a lot of bands playing music like this. It’s uniqueness makes for a compelling change of pace.
GENTLEMEN ROGUES – A History of Fatalism (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings, www.snappylittlenumbers.com / Rocket Heart Records, www.rocketheartrecords.com)
Austin, Texas based Gentlemen Rogues have been making music for over a decade, releasing a number of singles and EPs, but a number of them have never seen vinyl release. Snappy Little Numbers and Rocket Heart Records have teamed up to correct that situation, and “A History of Fatalism” represents the “A History So Repeating” and “Fatal Music” EPs. The band took the opportunity, too, to remix the thirteen songs. Gentlemen Rogues, as I noted in my recent review of their “Fancy” 7” EP, provide a solid mix of power pop and indie rock, but this collection of songs gives us even more variety, ranging from epic emotion-filled songs to harder rocking tunes, along with the power pop and indie rock. There’s a punk ethos overlaying all of it, and the resulting sound is very appealing. Some of the songs are big and broad, with a post-emo sound. The opening track, “Your Armageddon,” fits this category, as does “Pact and Ready to Go.” “Your Armageddon” injects a little bit of pop melody into it, too. “Mocking Love Out of Nothing at All” is a favorite track, loaded with jangling guitars, power pop melody, and charged with emotion. Another favorite is “A Little Respect.” It has both a retro rock and roll feel and a pop punk feel, and the spare arrangement, with powerful vocals and soaring melody makes it a real winner. I really like “Last of the Famous International Playboys,” too, with a mix of Lookout Records era Bay area pop punk and 90s indie pop. “Thin as Thieves” blends power pop with hard rock and indie jangle, creating a powerful mix. And I think that’s a good summary for this record – a powerful mix. Recommended.
TWENTY2 – Dismissed (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
Canadian kings of speedy melodic punk, Twenty2, are back with their third full-length LP, this time out featuring Luke Pabich and Sean Sellers of Good Riddance. While in COVID isolation last year, Twenty2 front man John Génier felt a need to write some songs, and as was the new method, the songs were shared back and forth, parts recorded separately. Génier reached out to his melodic hardcore heroes, who were more than happy to collaborate on the LP. The resulting record sounds like it could have fallen straight through a time warp from the 90s or 2000s, yet it still feels current, too. It’s speedy and melodic, sure, like a lot of skate punk, but some of the songs are even more on the hardcore end of the spectrum, focusing more on the intensity and anger than the melody, and those are my favorites. “Fuck Your Rules” and “Before You Saved Us” remind me of the straight-edge hardcore of the 90s, fast, loud, and full of ire, massive gang vocals, and crunchy metallic guitars. “Adulteen” is a favorite, sounding like they took a Rocket From the Crypt song, sped it up, and turned it hardcore. The lyrics refer to us “lifers” in the scene, getting older, getting snide remarks from others who think we should “act our age” and wear more appropriate clothing. It’s something a lot of us can relate to, and it’s probably my favorite track of the album. “I Know It’s You” alternates between hard raging verses and melodic pop-metallic chorus, and it starts with a fun movie quote from Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in the film, “Wall Street:” Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. You stop telling lies about me, and I'll stop telling the truth about you.” One great thing to note, besides how good the songs are, is how tight they are, despite the various parts being recorded separately miles apart. If you’re a fan of melodic hardcore, get on this.
SCREECHING WEASEL – The Awful Disclosures of Screeching Weasel (screechingweasel.bandcamp.com/ Striped Records /Rum Bar Records)
I will preface this with a disclosure: I was a huge Screeching Weasel fan back in the day. From the late ‘80s through the mid ‘90s I went to see them perform live often, sometimes in clubs in Chicago, but mostly in suburban locations such as the famous McGregor’s in Elmhurst and Durty Nellie’s in Palatine. I loved how the band bridged the hardcore of the early 80s and the burgeoning pop punk scene, making the music feel both immediate and accessible. Through controversies and lineup changes, front man Ben Weasel continued to pump out great songs through the early part of the last decade. In 2015, though, Ben and the band seemed to go off the rails a bit with their attempt at a punk rock opera, “Baby Fat Vol. 1,” an album with which I was underwhelmed. That was seven years ago. Two years ago they released “Some Freaks of Atavism,” which was a decent return to form (our fearless editor even put it on his Best of 2020 list). Now comes SW’s fourteenth studio album; did they backslide or have they solidified their return to form? Well, a bit of both, I think. Some of the songs are pretty great pop-filled punk rock music, some even harkening back to their early days with some hardcore in the sound. “Six Ways to Sunday,” the track that opens the album, is a reminder of what made Screeching Weasel the powerhouse of a band they were back in the day. It’s fast and loud, snotty melodic poppy hardcore. And it’s the best track of this new LP. Songs like “Any Minute Now,” "My Favorite Nightmare,” “All Stitched Up,” and “Dead or Alive” are more representative of much of the band’s later output. They’re not quite so edgy or snotty, but they’re still solid pop punk and enjoyable songs in their own right. “My Favorite Nightmare,” for example, feels very smooth and poppy compared to classic Weasel tracks. Sure, it’s formulaic, but it still has a great bounce. But then there are songs that try to be too… arty? Like the songs from “Baby Fat Vol. 1,” they try to be overly cinematic and just don’t sound like Screeching Weasel. They come across as being indulgent and overblown. “In La Quinta del Sordo” is one such song, trying to be a Latinesque punk theme or something. “Gates Lift High Your Heads,” too, tries to sound theatrical and falls flat. Some tracks add keyboards, reportedly performed by Ben’s ten-year-old son. And, while the kid acquits himself quite well, synths do seem out of place in Screeching Weasel songs. Nowhere is this more apparent than “In The Castle,” a dark punk track that’s already out of character for SW’s normally bright sound. The keyboards, while played surprisingly well for a pre-teen, are, nevertheless, ill-suited for SW, and even for a song of this genre. On the other hand, “Hey Diana” has electric organ that feels right at home in the bright and poppy song that feels more like Squirtgun than something from Screeching Weasel. It’s downright happy sounding and it’s a love song! So, as I noted at the start of this review, this album has a couple of great songs, a bunch of good songs, and a handful of songs that we could have done without. It’s a mixed bag for me.
BROKE ROYALS – Local Support (Byrdland Records, shop.byrdlandrecords.com)
Broke Royals hail from Washington, D.C., and “Local Support” is the band’s third full-length LP. There’s a wide variety of songs here, ranging from indie rock to classic rock to AM power pop. Some of it hits the sweet spot, some of it misses the mark. The press materials mention influences ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Tom Petty, and that’s evident in the songs. Much of the first half of the album has a distinct rock and roll sound, albeit tempered with pop tendencies. The latter half is more influenced by country and folk traditions. The album opens strongly with “Postcard,” a huge epic of a track, the keyboards providing a fanfare-like sound. It’s a glorious and uplifting sound, almost like going to the rock and roll church. The ensuing few tracks sound like songs that could have been lifted from FM radio of the 1980s. On the back half of the LP, “Hardly” is a lovely, quiet ballad that has the feel of singer-songwriter fare, somewhat like a James Taylor tune. And I love the acoustic “Can’t Speak to That,” with a delicate touch and steel pedal guitar providing an ambient backdrop. “Jesus Jane,” too, mixes acoustic singer-songwriter material with a country twang, and the gentle song is packed with passion. “White Flag” and “Go Easy On Me” are two of the big misses, to me. The vocals are heavily processed using effects common in mass-market pop music. The latter, too, has the feel of a country gospel tune, but with pop production qualities. And the title track, which closes the album, uses a vocoder on the lead vocals to give that commercial pop sound, though the melody and use of piano suggest a gospel influence to the tune. Hit or miss here.
THE MORÖNS – The Book of Morön (High End Denim Records, highenddenimrecords. bandcamp.com)
For some, going to punk shows is their form of spirituality. The Moröns take this a step further with their latest LP, The Book of Morön. Just listen to that sermon on the opening track, “Congregation!” All kidding aside, these whacky Canadian punks are back with a new full-length LP full of variety. Their songs range from speedy skate punk to bubbly pop punk and everything in between. And check out the brilliant parody cover art! I like how a lot of the songs blend speed with late 80s and early 90s pop punk style, and the lyrics are loaded with sarcasm. I’m not a huge fan of modern skate punk, but even when The Moröns do it, they temper it with a lot more pop and a huge dose of their unique humor. Examples of this include “I Wanna Be a Hesher” and “Upgrade to Premium.” “Open Bar” is halfway between skate punk and more “traditional” pop punk, but getting “liquored up for nothing” can be a religious experience for many, and the fun song sings the praises of the titular service at some parties. And “Cable” is a dark jangly song about a troublesome relationship with a woman that doesn’t treat our protagonist very well – but she has cable with HBO! I really like “Southwood,” which reminds me of Youth Brigade’s era of less punk more guitar-pop but mixed with Lookout! Era East Bay pop punk. Vocalist Robbie Morön’s singing is smooth and tuneful, and the bouncy melody has just a hint of epicness. “On the Pil” is a favorite track, speedy as skate punk, but loaded with great 90s pop punk sound rather than metallic flourishes. The band includes an unlikely punk rock cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” the 1980s synth-pop disco hit. Of course, The Moröns’ version is grittier and more raucous, and it turns pap into fun music. This is a solid record.
SPRING SUMMER – T.E.A.R.S. (linktr.ee/SPRINGSUMMERMUSIC)
Spring Summer is the solo project of California performer Jennifer Furches. Under the Spring Summer moniker, Furches plays lovely breezy indie pop, with wistful vocals and lush, yet delicate instrumentals. Those instrumentals are stripped back to just guitar, bass, and drums, with heavy reverb providing the atmosphere. There’s some light use of keyboards too, such as on “QMII,” in the form of electric organ that gives the song an ecclesiastical feeling before resolving into a warm, soulful sound, courtesy of some vibrato. The result is a light, airy album full of celestial songs. That’s a plus and a drawback. On a positive note, the songs are lovely, pretty things. But the drawback is there could be more variety. Many of the songs tend to sound similar to one another. I hear themes of loss and ending relationships through the album. The opening track is an ode to perseverance in the face of loss, with a chorus that includes the lines “I am tough as nails / I am a mountaineer.” You can hear the hurt when Furches sings, “You never knew me with my heart opened wide.” Many people shut down after a painful loss, as evidenced in these lyrics. And there’s “I Told You It’s Over,” a song for taking the initiative in ending a relationship. And “Show Yourself Out,” too, is about the strength to kick someone to the curb. These too songs are the few exceptions to the overall sound, though they don’t deviate too far. “Show Yourself Out” has an earthy dance beat, but the keyboards have a more ethereal quality. And “I Told You It’s Over” is a bit different, too, with a deep, dark sound, the keyboards used primarily for bass ambience. “Bitter Cold” is the other one with a little bit of variation; its keyboards have a high pitched strumming effect that gives it the sound of an ethnic folk tune mixed with pop. I like this record; it’s very pretty, but it’s not going to set the world on fire or anything.
AMONG LEGENDS – Take Good Care (radgirlfriendrecords.com/
littlerocketrecords.co.uk)
Canadian pop punks Among Legends live in that space between melodic hardcore, skate rock, and pop punk, blending sounds of bands like Bad Religion and Face to Face. After a series of EPs, “Take Good Care” is the band’s debut full-length LP. There’s a strong sense of “posi” punk in the songs, with a broad emotional feel. The songs have the melodic hardcore content of Bad Religion, but smoothed and tempered by the pop punk of Face to Face. That’s both the band’s strength and it’s downfall, I think. In some ways, the songs seem to play it too safe, too middle of the road. In other ways, some of the songs are catchy enough. “Come Up Swinging” is one such track, with a harder punch and poppier, bouncier melodic line than others. “Baywatch” is a fiery rager of a sing-along that’s sure to open up the pit at live shows. And “Manifesto” lives up to its name, with a big pub-rock sound and charged up lyrics. The rest of the tracks are fine enough, and the band are more than proficient. But even in punk rock, middle of the road doesn’t generate the level of excitement one would want.
THE SLOW DEATH – Casual Majesty (radgirlfriendrecords.com)
Jesse Swan Thorson and his rotating cast of band members return with their first full-length album in five years, their fourth overall. While the lineup keeps changing, one thing remains consistent, and that’s the Midwest emotional pop punk sound that Thorson has honed and perfected over the last several years. Joining Thorson on this outing are Paddy Costello (Dillinger Four), Mikey Erg (The Ergs! and too many other bands to mention), Dan Johnson, Dave Strait, and Josh Goldman (The Raging Nathans, The Dopamines, and Rad Girlfriend boss). The songs have a big sound and heart-on-your sleeve lyrics that provide a winning combination. And the band provides diversity, too, with songs both restrained and rambunctious. The album opens with “Is There Anything Left,” a somber song that asks, “Is there anything left that will make me feel like I felt yesterday?” You can hear the loss, the desire to numb the pain. Right after that, “Now I’m Into Nothing” is 180 degrees, a fast paced track with a gloriously raucous sound, guitars jamming in the background and electric organ providing the warm soulfulness to the song. One thing of note throughout many of the songs is the surf guitar tone. These aren’t surf punk tunes, but the guitar tone makes a strong contribution to the thick sound The Slow Death have. “Imaginary Problems” is one of my favorite songs of the album. It has the classic Slow Death big epic sound with a hint of Hüsker Dü influence. Guest vocals from Lydia Loveless really add to the song. “Young Trees” is another favorite that the band has been playing for a while, and previously was released on the “Nice One” four-way split EP that Rad Girlfriend released last year. The epic song relays the fatalist sentiment of doom the current generation, with Thorson’s gritty vocals singing, “We are the young trees waiting for the axe to fall.” The melody is pretty minimalist, with a few licks that repeat, but it’s effective at conveying the feeling that, while everything going to shit is inevitable, we might as well, make the best of it. I enjoy the punked doo-wop vibe of “I’m Not Letting It Go,” and the Americana-punk of “Not Much for Waiting.” Hell, I like all the tracks, and you will, too. The Slow Death have been at it for over a decade, and thankfully show no signs of dying quite yet.
VISTA BLUE – Stay Gold (wearevistablue.bandcamp.com)
Vista Blue is one of the most prolific pop punk bands today, cranking out multiple releases per year. They’re also one of the most creative pop punk bands today, with releases all centering on a common theme, whether it be a holiday, a season, or movie genres. This latest full-length LP may be their most ambitious yet, delving into a popular film by Francis Ford Coppola. There’s a scene in which two characters are on the run from the law and one reads a Robert Frost poem to the other, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Yep, all of the songs on this album are inspired by “The Outsiders.” Each song centers on a quote from the novel. For example, “Paul Newman and a Ride Home” comes from a scene at the movie house, and the quote, “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” “She’s a Soc” refers to the class distinctions highlighted in the novel, and the quote, “We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder, too… I’m not saying either Socs or greasers are better; that’s just the way things are.” The song “Cherry” is about the character, Cherry Valance.” There’s a song about the rumble and another about being out in the country. Of course, Vista Blue has one of the most recognizable sounds in pop punk, with their distinctive deep buzzy guitar tone and harmonized vocals. That’s on display here, in spades. A couple songs stand out, though as a little different for Vista Blue. “We Turn It Up” is harder and edgier, reminding more of a cross between 80s hardcore-metal crossover music and 80s Chicago punk. It has a big, tough sound. “Marcia” is less buzzy and janglier, more of an indie pop tune than pop punk, with a cleaner sound. Vista Blue are always a good listen, and they’re probably one of the cleverest bands around. It can’t be easy writing all these themed songs and records.
CAMP TRASH – The Long Way, The Slow Way (Count Your Lucky Stars, cylsrecords.com)
Following up last year’s debut EP, Florida’s Camp Trash return with their debut full-length. The band start with 90s indie-rock and take it to the next level, with plenty of pop punk goodness blended in. Listening to the opening track, “Mind Yr Own,” I hear the indie influence of bands like Superchunk, but also the brilliant pop punk of PUP, though very much toned down from the manic sounds of that band. It’s especially evident in the big unison gang vocals and the lead vocal quality. Songs like “Pursuit” have thick, lush guitars and pleading lead vocals. There’s jangle in the guitars, but also a mixing of dreaminess and big wall of sound. “Weird Florida” brings the 90s jangle in spades and lots of poppy bounciness blended with broad smooth arrangements. The keyboards inject a sense of lightness, even as the big chorus lends a sense of gravity. “Lake Erie Boys” adds a thick electric organ to the arrangement, giving it a warm sense of nostalgia. Favorite song: “Church Bells,” a gorgeous song about aging, drifting away from friends, not going out, and self-isolating. The huge guitars ring out like, well, bells, and there’s a sorrowful feeling of introspection. While the debut EP was good, this LP is outstanding.
THE DREADNOUGHTS – Roll and Go (Stomp Records, stomprecords.com)
The PR materials called Vancouver’s The Dreadnoughts “polka punks.” But they’re so much more than that. I like their Facebook page description much better: “World-core Clusterfolk.” The band uses all sorts of ethnic music traditions and folk idioms and punks them up, creating something varied and fun as hell. Fiddle, mandolin, accordion, and other traditional instruments mix with electric guitar, bass, and drums in an Old World meets New World mélange. After an introduction singing the praises of the cider jar to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is “Cider Holiday,” a raucous Celtic punk tune in the tradition of The Pogues or Flogging Molly. Cider seems to be a particularly favorite topic for the band, as they also have another song, “Scrumpy-O,” a song that mixes Celtic and punk, but leans much more heavily on the punk side of things. Scrumpy, for those who don’t know, is a type of rough cider that’s particularly popular in the West Country in England. “Dusty Ground” is another big Celtic Punk tune, a dark sounding jig with enormous presence. Several of the songs have a strong Eastern European folk base, including “Problem,” which mixes in a dose of ska punk to create a boisterous monstrosity of enjoyment. “Tuika,” too, is unmistakably Eastern European/Russian, with violins taking the melody of this instrumental, along with shouts of “Hoi! Hoi!” from men who would presumably be dancing one of those flashy Russian dances. Maritime shanty songs offer fertile ground for The Dreadnoughts, too. “Brisbane Harbour” is the sort of shanty you might have heard aboard a working ship as the hands work the ship’s sails and prepare to push out to sea. “Bold Reilly,” on the other hand, is a gorgeous traditional a cappella song with multi-part harmony and a melancholy feel. It’s a song of farewell, as Bold Reilly prepares to set sail and leave his love. “The Storm” is a fascinating track that seems to mix everything together into a musical melting pot. I hear Eastern European, Celtic, and shanty themes in this epic track. The title track that ends the LP, too, mixes traditional folk with some Eastern European touches and metallic punk, and is a phrase used in shanties to refer to trimming the sails to get some serious speed in the open sea. It’s a song of brotherhood, too, as it sings “I’ve never known a better bunch of bully-lads than you.” The only real polka punk track, as far as I can tell, is “Vicki’s Polka.” It’s a lively one, though it begs comparison to Polkacide, the best polka punk band ever. The Dreadnoughts seem to play it more on the polka side and less on the punk than Polkacide. Nevertheless, this is a rambunctious album that’s a hell of a lot of fun.
GHOST WOMAN (Full Time Hobby Records, fulltimehobby.co.uk)
For the most part, Ghost Woman’s self-titled LP is what I would term “neo-psychedelic” music. It has a super-chill vibe that would feel right at home in the psych scene of the 60s and 70s. The songs are understated and hazy, with guitar, bass, and drums, the latter played with a light tough. Heavy reverb and a slower tempo add to the hypnotic feel. Vocals are extra relaxed, singing to the groove through the album. This theme reaches its height with “Jreaming,” a song that’s so laid-back as to seem to come from that place where you’re half asleep and half awake. The vocals feel almost like sleep talking, and the instrumentals are at their cloudiest. “Dead and Gone,” though still exhibiting all the aforementioned characteristics, is, nonetheless, a little bit edgier than most of the tracks, the guitars getting a bit aggressive between verses, making it a standout. The last two tracks are way different from the rest, and are the best of the album. “Good,” the penultimate song, is a gorgeous song with a lovely lounge feel, while “Comes On” ends the album on an acoustic note with a dusty western folk flair. This is a pretty unique record, as there aren’t a lot of bands playing this sort of music these days. At least not quite like this. Very relaxing.
TOWNIES – Meet the Townies! (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings, www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
A long time ago there were punk bands before they were trying to be “punk.” Bands that took the rock and roll aesthetic and turned it on its head. Townies, a band from the south of Colorado, are a modern version of such a band, caring little about what genre lanes bands are supposed to stay in. Their music isn’t the fast’n’loud raucous stuff that punk became; it’s more influenced by power pop, surf, and garage, in the same way as early bands such as The Dead Kennedys were. The songs are edgy while remaining melodic, raw while still retaining a sense of cohesiveness and immediacy. Between the two instrumental bookends of “Western Intro” and “Western Intro (Outro Version),” we get songs that cover topics both political and social, injecting a wry sense of humor in the lyrics. The very first song after the intro, “Hooray,” is a declaration of crimes of America, from slavery to using atomic weapons, from white supremacy to wars of convenience, and to the encouragement of debt and endless work to pay it off. As I mentioned, Townies give a bit middle finger to the genre police with their country-folk number, “TX Weeds,” a song about conservatives from Texas who cross the border into Colorado to buy legal weed. A highlight comes in the middle of the song, “Do Something,” an anthem about the wide political divide, armchair activists, and hypocrisy. Vocalist Suzanne Magnuson, launches into an admonishment aimed at those who claim to care about life, yet don’t care about the environment (the life of the planet), don’t care about the lives of immigrants, or the lives of school children who get shot on a regular basis in this country. I disagree with the premise of “Jazz is for Assholes,” a tirade against various musicians of the genre, but it’s still a raw fist puncher of a tune that praises the glories of rock and roll. I enjoy, too, the song “COP!” that tells the tale of the high school kid who failed his math tests, worshipped cops, and never had a girl friend yet was always bragging about “pussy.” The kid tried to join the military but failed the piss test, then became a cop as soon as he graduated, and spends his time cleaning graffiti and “looking for signs of trouble.” In an ironic twist, despite including a song titled “I Don’t Like the Beatles,” in which they describe how much they despise the popular UK pop group, they have a cover on the album: George Harrison’s “I Got My Mind Set On You.” It’s a reasonably faithful rendition, though, of course, with a raw garage rock sound. Townies’ debut LP is destined to become a classic.
ART D’ECCO – After the Head Rush (Paper Bag Records, paperbagrecords.com)
Glam rock performer Art D’Ecco’s follow-up to last year’s “In Standard Definition” is here, and that makes for happy listening. The music has a glorious mix of 80s new wave, power pop, and 70s glam with bits of funk in some tracks. As I mentioned in my review of the previous LP, I’m reminded of a mix of David Bowie and Bill Nelson, two excellent artists. Keyboards, synths, and sax mix with guitar, bass, and drums, and D’Ecco’s sensuous vocals ooze with mysterious romanticism. All the tracks are fun for fans of these genres, but I’ll mention of few of my highlights. The mix of smooth new wave and a super-funky bass and drumbeat on “I Was A Teenager” makes it a standout. The vocals get pretty freaky on the bridge, too. I love the loping feel and gliding and glittering synths on “Get Loose,” with its striding bass. The vibe on “Run Away” is a bit reminiscent of “A Swingin’ Safari,” the 60s tune that was used as the theme song for the original “Match Game” TV show, particularly because of the use of a flute to play the opening lines. The interviewing synths on “SAD Light Disco” are strongly reminiscent of Bill Nelson’s solo material (and I’m a long-time Nelson fan). And the closing track, which is also the title track, uses a lovely circle of fifths chord change pattern in the jangly guitars that makes it an instant favorite. The chords are played back by synths tuned to sound like a horn section, giving the song an appropriately anthemic quality. Enjoyable!
HAUNTED SUMMER – Whole (LaunchLeft, www.launchleft.com/label)
Haunted Summer is the Los Angeles husband and wife team of Bridgette Eliza Moody and John Seasons, and the name is appropriate. The music is light like a summer’s day, with haunting dreamy qualities. The songs tend to feel like a melding of easy listening music, 70s psych, and dream pop, with a hazy, relaxed feel. There’s a filmy smokiness enveloping the vocals, as synths create a sense of mystery and an almost orchestral feel. It’s all a little too…Burt Bacharach AM radio meets elevator music for me. There’s even a hint of Brazilian soft samba, as if Jobim began writing what used to be called “adult contemporary” music – easy pop songs. “You Put My Love Out the Door” is a perfect example of that. But there are a couple tracks I enjoy. The title track seems to be influenced, at least in part, by “Dark Side of the Moon” era Pink Floyd. It’s definitely got that spacey acid rock feel. Toward the end of the track, multi-tracking creates an enormous spine-tingling choir. And “Big Knife” is pretty indie-pop, but dreamier, played at a more leisurely of a pace. The song definitely has a bounce to it, and I can hear this song being part of the repertoire of classic indie pop bands of the 90s, like Tsunami, but without the reverb. The guitars actually jangle, and the melody is bright. Other than these two songs, the album really doesn’t do much for me.
KRIS N. – Tilted Summer (Poptek Records, www.poptek.com)
The ultimate in DIY bedroom recordings, Kris N. returns with a new EP of stripped back pop punk songs. The recordings are not quite as lo-fi as earlier efforts, but not as clean as 2013’s “The Thankful Parade” LP. This new five-song EP is halfway between his solo material and the filled out band of the “The Thankful Parade.” It’s punkier and grungier than previous releases, the opening track (“Pop Music Is Hard”) sounding like a demo for a 90s Seattle band. I like the march-like quality of “This Land Is My Land” (no relation to the Woody Guthrie anthem), with a drum (or is it a drum machine?) and the guitar creating the sound of a chugging train. “Leo the Lion” is the fullest sounding song of the EP, and is a true pop punk song. It should have been the closer for the EP, because it’s got the biggest sound. The actual ending track, the title track, is a return to solo acoustic and, though the song is pretty, with just acoustic guitar and vocals (both multi-tracked), it doesn’t have the oomph of the previous track. I can tell Kris N. is doing this for the love of the music. The EP sounds very personal and intimate, even with a thicker sound than most of his work (not counting the title track).
THE LAST ARIZONA – Forever and Always (Count Your Lucky Stars Records, www.cylsrecords.com)
The Last Arizona is the solo project of Emma Hartman, and has been ongoing since 2016. After a series of EPs and singles, Hartman released her debut full-length LP last fall, and has followed that up with a pair of EPs, this being the second. “Forever and Always” has a quiet, intimate, and ultimately sad sound. The electric guitar, bass, drums, and synths are mostly subdued, and Hartman’s vocals are angst-filled. I love the opening track, “S15E7,” which starts off very restrained and understated, but halfway through the track the instrumentals begin to swell, and the song gets huge. The sadness is palpable, even as Hartman’s vocals explode with passion. “August” has more than a touch of Americana, with bluesy guitar twang and lyrics of self-doubt and hurt. The title track is the shortest, but is, perhaps, the most painful, with menacing guitars playing lines that get more and more chaotic, while Hartman speaks to bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts over the hatred she faces on a daily basis just for being who she is as a trans woman, but ultimately she says she “will still stand sure and unafraid, forever and always, love Emma.” This is a powerful understated EP.
SPYGENIUS – Jobbernowl (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
Canterbury band Spygenius return with another LP chock full of retro mod-psych-pop sounds. From the get-go, Spygenius turns up full-blast with the punny track, “I Dig Your New Robes, Pierre,” a reference to the French revolutionary. The music is bright, with a strong 60s mod/psych sound, and the lyrics are brilliantly written, with labyrinthine rhymes. Many of the songs inject a dose of Motown soulfulness, such as “Sky-Pie, Century 21” and especially “Screwy.” “Screwy” is a fun track that melds R&B with 60s Brit-pop and mod sounds, is a song that looks back at the start of love and the looking forward of where time might take the relationship. It’s a reminder to not take love for granted, but also that “life’s more fun with a few explosives.” “2020 Revision” has a lighter musical touch, but a heavier lyrical burden. It references the difficulties we’ve all faced since 2020 and the loss of friends to a virus. Chief lyricist Peter Watts says the song is an ode to grief and loss. “Once upon a time I had a lovely friend who had this extraordinary positivity about him that was quite unlike anything I’d known… it was a delight and it was really infectious… and then he was gone, in an instant. There was a virus going round, as the saying goes… so…,” he writes, as a reminder to “keep alive the spirit of that all too brief, precious friendship.” “So of the Morning, Go Man Go!” is another song of loss and grief, but this time of a pet. The song, though, rather than being morose and weepy, is a bright celebration of the bond we have with pets, and the way they make all the troubles of the world melt away and seem insignificant in the wordless bond we have. I love the bright “The Marvelous, Mendacious Time Machine,” a bouncy song with a lovely light touch that speaks to the dark side of nostalgia. Those who wish for a time machine to revisit simpler times often forget the grisly nature of those past eras. The song has a humorous dig, too, at Rupert Murdock’s right-wing empire, as it references HG Wells’ book, “The Time Machine,” when it says, “We’ll be Eloi to the Murdocks while they sneer and jeer,” replacing the evil Morlocks with the evil Murdocks. The song ends with synthesized sound effects that bring Doctor Who to mind, another time travel allusion. Spygenius provide yet another varied and beautiful record.
CAMICHES (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
Camiches, hailing from Mexico City, is Wiretap’s first non-English signing, as the band sing all of their songs in Spanish. They have been around the better part of a decade, and this self-titled record is their Wiretap debut. They play big broad emotional music, inspired by the melodic punk of the 2000s, but you can hear touches of post-hardcore and even Mexican folk music in the songs, creating a unique style they call “feeling core.” You can hear this on the poignant, “Durmiendo En El Camino” (Sleeping in the Street). Camiches’ Sinuhé López says of the song that it’s about “adolescence from the perspective of a middle-aged adult.” It’s about not just the freedom and joy of youth, but also the struggle and search for meaning and direction. The song has an easy loping tempo, a big broad melody, and impassioned vocals. The opening track, “Al Ocaso” (At Sunset) probably has the highest “punk” content, with the most raucous guitars, and “El Jardin Oculto” (The Hidden Garden) is the poppiest though it includes a tough metallic breakdown about halfway through, then gets smooth and epic. If you’re a fan of 2000s emo with a twist, check this out. The genre isn’t one of my favorites, but Camiches do a good job here at keeping things varied.
COLLEEN DOW – Inside Voices (Count Your Lucky Stars Records, www.cylsrecords.com)
Solo indie-pop, featuring Colleen Dow, the front-person for Thank You I’m Sorry. The music is laden with keyboards, along with drums (or drum machine in some cases) and guitars. After releasing several singles, “Inside Voices” is Dow’s first proper EP. The songs are fairly stripped back indie-pop, with Dow’s deadpan vocals. Some have a bit of bounce, such as “Bummer Summer,” a song about being in and bored on a Friday night when you should be out having a good time. “Childhood Home” has a hypnotic quality, droning synths providing a base, and other synths swirling between chords. It’s somewhat different from the rest of the tracks and from other indie pop for that matter, with a unique texture. And “Redline” is the liveliest of the tracks, with jangly guitars and bright percussion effects. This is a pleasant, understated EP.
FAILING UP – Stories of a Disturbed Mind (Sell The Heart Records, www.selltheheartrecords.com
) It would be easy to label Failing Up as just another melodic punk band, but that would be selling them short. Sure, they play punk rock loaded with melodic content and metallic tinges, like so many other bands, but they mix in a dose of post hardcore, too, making the songs particularly aggressive. The opening track, “Fry My Mind,” is a perfect example of this, with a tough and energetic sound, only slightly tempered with melodic content. “Parasite,” too, has a great mix of tunefulness and grit. Additionally, some of the songs have more than their share of bright poppiness, giving them a bit of a Descendents sound. “Not Today” is a great example of this; it’s a crackling punk tune with enough pop content to bring out a joyful sound. Then there are songs like “Bully,” which has a more standard dark melodic punk sound, complete with flashy guitar licks and all. Vocalist Tanya Delgado shows great versatility, equally at home with melodic singing and hardcore shouts. The rest of the band are tight and show their flexibility, too, easily moving between subgenres. If you like the melodic punk sound, check this out, because it’s less generic and more fun than most.
HANDHELD – A Canadian Tragedy (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
Let’s face it, skate punk can be pretty generic. When I see a band described as being “skate punk,” I gird myself for some stale stuff that sounds just like a million other bands. That’s not the case with Handheld, an Ontario band that was primarily active from 1998 to 2008. After a ten-year hiatus, the band reunited to play some shows, and then the pandemic hit. So what did they do? They decided to record a new LP. They’re back with their sixth full-length LP, and their first since reuniting. Skate punk is typically identified by its fast tempo, close vocal harmonies, metallic licks, and double-time rhythm section with regular time guitars and vocals. Do Handheld play this style of music? Yes. But rather than stay strictly to formula, like so many bands, Handheld dispense with the metal and add in a heavy dose of pop melody. It makes the songs feel brighter and, well, more fun than typical skate punk. There is an irreverence to Handheld, too. The band have a tribute to Canadian legend John Candy on the album, too, called “Leaving Candyland.” And they have songs with titles such as “The Log Driver’s Waltz” and “Life of a Hitman.” The joy comes through in the playing, too, with snotty vocals and the feeling that you’re in on the gag. If you’re a fan of the genre, check this out, because it’ll open your ears to how good it can be and how boring the much of the music you’ve been listening to is.
THE INFLORESCENCE – Remember What I Look Like (Kill Rock Stars, killrockstars.com)
I get annoyed when I get great new albums from bands and then find out they’re from my adopted home town and I’ve never heard of them. The Inflorescence is from San Diego, and yup, I was completely unfamiliar with them prior to receiving this. I guess I have an excuse: the band is still very new, having only been around for the past couple of years, and they changed their name from The Florescents to The Inflorescence. Add to this the fact that they’re just teenagers, with ages ranging from 15 to 18 years old, and that this is the bands debut full-length LP, it’s all the more remarkable. The nine songs presented show a strong maturity, blending lovely indie pop with raucous pop punk to create compelling music. The songs are exuberant, with passionate and harmonized vocals. The band members are masters of dynamic control, too. You’ve read my complaints about some bands that can’t seem to play anything but one volume level or tempo, but The Inflorescence certainly don’t have any issues there. While most songs are mid tempo or up tempo, “So Much of Nothing” has a slower pace, but a huge dynamic range, going from a quiet tune to huge, thick, and lush. “Last Week” is a sure favorite, beginning with delicate gorgeous vocals over gently raucous guitars. The high-pitched rapid strumming in places reminds me of mandolin. As the song evolves, it gets bigger, turning into a big sing-along, pop punk style, the kind of song where you and all your friends crowd to the front of the stage, arms around each other and fists in the air. From what I can make out of the lyrics, it seems to be a song about breaking up and learning to live independently. “You’re not the same person I hurt last week,” the song declares. “Is your heart still beating the way I thought it did?” it asks. And it declares that I’m “finding my way without you.” Usually these sorts of songs are written from the perspective of the person being dumped, but the turnabout here is interesting, and it’s both touching and inspirational. The closing track, “Board Game,” bares painful emotions about navigating a relationship. As the song opens, we hear the sounds of texting back and forth, and the vocals come in, “I can’t keep trying / To figure out how I won’t get hurt / You seem not to care / So why should I care about you?” The song has a desperate pleading quality to it, and you can feel the hurt and confusion in it. This is an outstanding debut LP.
A VULTURE WAKE – Kingdom (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
A Vulture Wake, if you’ve been living under a rock, was founded as a supergroup made up of Chad Price (ALL, Drag the River), Joe Raposo (RKL), Sean Sellers (Good Riddance, Downcast), and Brandon Landelius (Authority Zero). The band went through some lineup changes over its short life, interrupted by the pandemic, and now includes John Hernandez and Dave Klein. But their sound is as big and tight as ever. The best way to describe A Vulture Wake is “progressive punk.” You can hear the punk rock roots, especially 1990s melodic punk, but the arrangements are intricate and complex, like progressive rock of the 70s. The blend of melodic punk and progressive rock creates something unique, interesting, and exciting. The guitar lines and solos on the opening track, “Virus,” rival those of any of the big mega-popular bands of 40 years ago, but Price’s passionate vocals and the lyrical content keep it feeling present and intimate. The EP includes some metallic flashes, too, but nothing off-putting (I’m not a metal fan, particularly). And there are some bouts of ALL-like angularity. “Moths” is the track that really grabs my attention the most, and is my favorite of the EP. I love the shifting rhythms, the edgy post-hardcore and mathish feel, and the use of guitar harmonics and the angularity of the intervals in the guitar lines are amazing. Six songs, sixteen minutes, infinite enjoyment.
EXTRA ARMS – What Is Even Happening Right Now? (Forge Again Records, www.forgeagainrecords.com)
If you read my reviews regularly, you know I love power pop and pop punk, and Detroit’s Extra Arms are experts at blending the two genres, and sprinkling in a bit of glam for good measure. The band’s latest LP is their best yet, with ten strong tracks, a thick rich sound, and a glorious upbeat feeling. The title is a question a lot of us have been repeatedly asking each other for the past several years, as life seems to spin out of control. Front man Ryan Allen belts out the vocals like his life depended on it, with passion and fury. The album starts out strongly, with “Fun Guy,” a poppy song about working on self-improvement, mental health, and not giving up. After a few bleeps from the synths, the song explodes with epic guitars and Allen’s impassioned declarations, as if he’s trying to convince himself, rather than anyone listening. The retro glam sounds are particularly strong on of “Feeling Alright,” a song that lopes at a slower tempo, and “Click Wars,” a quicker paced bouncy tune. “Vulnerabilities” is a favorite, with more of a 90s indie rock sound. The rolling guitar lines and driving rhythm give it the feel of a train powering down the tracks, and like other tracks the lyrics speak to working on one’s mental health, allowing yourself to be vulnerable. “Life in a Cube” has a great bounce and dark indie rock sound, and there’s even a bit of ALL-like poppy angularity tossed in. “Denial” is a powerful driving track with a cinematic flavor, like it could be used in a movie soundtrack for some sort of edgy thriller. Every single track on this album is a good one, making this a candidate for my best of 2022 list.
GONE STEREO – Don’t Think I Forgot About You (Negative Progression, negativeprogressionrecords. bandcamp.com)
New Long Island melodic punk band Gone Stereo have joined up with a relaunched Negative Progression Records for their debut single. The band plays 2000s style melodic pop punk, loaded with hooks and harmonies. The A-side is the title track, and it’s sort of a middle finger to an ex. It’s up-tempo and bright sounding, with lyrics that assures said ex “That I no longer feel lost without you” and “I’m better off without you.” On the bridge, the huge vocal harmonies soar, giving a sense of freedom and exhilaration. The B-side is “Taste of This,” and it’s more of a mid-tempo track, telling a different story, one that seems to be closer in time to the break-up. After relating memories of “Driving down the 495 and I’ve got the radio blasting with all our favorite songs / With no place in mind, right by my side,” the plea in the chorus comes: “Could you please just, could you please just change your mind? / Cause I don’t think I’m making it out of this time.” The breakup seems fresh and raw. Fans of MxPx, The Ataris, and similar bands will dig this well-played material.
THE INTERESTS – "Feel The Disparity" 7 inch (theinterests.co.uk)
The young indie band from London return with their third single, and it’s their lightest and poppiest yet. Their debut, “Attention,” was dark and solemn, with buzzing distorted guitars. The follow-up, “Capitulation,” had a cleaner sound, and while the instrumentals felt brighter, the vocals still cast a melancholy shadow. This latest song, though, is lighter and brighter. Even the deep vocals have more of a sense of joy in them. It’s a good song for indie fans, but I think I like the darker songs better.
LIVING ROOM – New Years (Fear Icon Records, feariconrecords.bandcamp.com)
This latest LP from long-time Brooklyn quartet Living Room is a bit uneven to my ears. The band attempt to blend emo, shoegaze, a bit of grunge, and a bit of pop punk, with some degree of success, though some of the songs fail to generate the excitement and strong emotion I would expect from such a combination. The music is mostly broad, with some grunge-like melodic lines and gritty guitars, but also with loads of hazy reverb and smoothed vocals. The tempos, more often than not, tend to drag, and some of the arrangements are overly grandiose – too epic of a sound. Many of the songs remind me of 2000s emo-pop, but with a gauziness laid on top of it. One exception stands out somewhat. “Mauve Frame” is more raucous than many of the tracks, with a bit quicker pace to the tempo. Even then, though, the smooth unemotional vocals feel out of place among the bristling guitars, particularly on the chorus. I do like the melody of “Flood,” a dreamier track that follows “Mauve Frame” and contrasts starkly with it. It’s got a calmer feel, like floating down a big wide river. There are moments where the grunge tries to break through, but overall this is a very pretty song – though the vocals still don’t do the song justice. Much of the time the intros show more promise than the songs deliver. “Oh Boy” starts with drums and a jangly guitar, then lead guitar comes in with a staccato line, and I think we’re in for something different, more restrained and poppy – but instead we get another overblown emo-pop song. The album includes the obligatory acoustic ballad, in this case “Moon Room.” But what should be a wistful introspective song falls flat, the vocals feeling uncommitted. Probably the best, most cohesive song of the album is “Muss,” a song with gorgeous dreamy electric guitars and no percussion. The vocals seem right at home on this one, as it seems to waft and drift. I think this one has to be my favorite song of the album. The idea of mixing dreaminess with grunge, pop, and emo is a good one, and I think having a bit more commitment in the vocals would go a long way to improving these songs.
PANDA RIOT – Extra Cosmic (pandariot.bandcamp.com)
A lot of music categorized as “shoegaze” tends to be morose in nature, but Panda Riot sounds downright joyful. It combines pretty indie pop melodies with sparkly synths and angelic vocals. “E.S.P.” is a particular fun one, with a bouncy indie pop melody, Stereolab-like minimalist synths, and a strong driving feel. It’s got the same sort of deep fuzz bass line as Stereolab, and the same sort of Krautrock minimalism in the rhythm section, but the melody is pure pop goodness. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well. “Ultramarine” is the closest the band gets to a more wistful dreamy sound, but even then, the poppiness comes through in the heavenly radiant vocals. The synths and fuzzed guitars blend together to create a gorgeous haze that engulfs the song and listener alike. I really like “Remote Viewing,” which injects an EDM sort of dance beat, adding another layer to the already multifaceted music. “Telepathic Landscapes” is an instrumental right out of a dream, and a glorious one, at that. It shimmers, waxes, and wanes, with a beautiful glow. “Glitterati” is appropriately titled, with its glittery synths, but it also includes grungy guitars to provide an interesting contrast, and an enveloping ambience of synths. And one of my favorites has to be “Future Shock.” It’s got an incredible radiance in the synths and the most buoyant of melodies, and is one of the most cheery pieces of music you’re likely to hear all month. This is dazzling stuff.
SACK – Ripper! (Red Scare Industries, www.redscare.net)
Sack, Kody Templeman’s side project that he formed after The Lillington’s went on hiatus twenty or so years ago, is back. Everyone thought it was a “one off,” with a single LP released in 2005 (“Get Wrecked”). But they reunited during the pandemic and released an EP called “Live in Quarantine.” Now they’ve got another proper album, twelve songs of no bullshit punk rock. Well, maybe some bullshit is involved, because, although the music is pounding and relentless in a Motorhead sort of way, the lyrics are, shall we say, less intense and serious. So we get songs like the pummeling metallic track, “I Hate the Beach Boys.” We get a crunchy dirge called “The Return of Mr. Bong.” “I Tried Suicide” has an appropriately dark sound, dueling guitars playing mysterious sounding lines over a tribal drumbeat, and lyrics about the different ways of attempting to off one’s self (don’t try that at home, kids!). “Live, Laugh, LARP” is a crackling punk rock ode to nerding out to role-playing games on a Saturday night. And the album closes with an epic metal track called “Staple of the Stoner House.” There’s nothing ground breaking here, and it’s not the sort of record I would seek out for myself, but if you’re looking for a hard rocking party punk album, this one will work better than most.
SETH TIMBS – Easy Answers (Kool Kat Musik, www.koolkatmusik.com)
If you’re a fan of piano-based power pop with a Joe Jackson sort of vibe, this is a record for you. Seth Timbs, the Nashville singer-songwriter who has played with Fluid Ounces and Hot New Singles has been doing some solo work the last few years, playing songs that have a sense of the theatrical in them, and even a bit of jazz and funk, kind of like 70s and 80s TV show music. He has a wry sense of humor, too, commenting on our political divide with the opening track, “Easy Answers.” “The world is full of easy answers / Just pick the ones that you like best / And all the other easy answers / Are wrong, wrong, they got it all wrong, despite what the experts say,” the song opens, commenting on the confirmation bias that plagues society. There are references to “brainless sheep,” an accusation made by the most ardent followers of baseless conspiracy theories against more rational thinking people. The music is simple, with piano, bass, and drums, but it hops and skips brightly. There’s even a sad ballad in the form of “What’s Wrong with You?” With impassioned vocals, lounge piano, and even a small string section, the song is absolutely lovely. I adore the retro “Young Lovers,” which sounds like a cross between 70s power pop and modern Americana, and I think the bright piano, acoustic guitar, and darker vocals (including chilling backing vocals) contribute to that sound. At a mere seven songs, though, Timbs leaves me wanting more.
VENOMOUS PINKS - Vita Mors (SBÄM Records, sbam-rocks.us)
A year on from their fantastic EP, “Based on a True Story,” Mesa, Arizona’s Venomous Pinks return with their debut full-length LP (which includes fresh recordings of three of the four songs from the EP). The production quality on this LP is vastly higher than the raw recordings of the EP, giving the band more of a Bad Cop/Bad Cop sound. This is easily explained because BC/BC bassist Linh Le has co-producer credits here. The songs are raucous punk with a big sound, plenty of melody, and just the right amount of snotty attitude in the vocals. The album starts strong and goes at full speed for the entire ten tracks, without letting up. It’s hard to pick “best” tracks, because every single one is strong, but there are a few that are top of mind. “We Do It Better” is a highlight, a bright upbeat song that celebrates the abilities of women to do more than suffer in “traditional” roles. It begins with a vocal quote from “Annie Get Your Gun” - “Anything you can do, I can do better!” - and the song launches into a speedy poppy punk tune. I love one of the opening lyrics, “You gotta be a housewife,” with a gang vocal response of, “Fuck that!” It even has a short ska punk break toward the end. Another highlight is “I Really Don’t Care,” probably the most BC/BC-like song of the album. Its irreverent attitude, call and response vocals, and huge multi-voice harmonies make the song a real standout of the LP. “Hold On” is a bouncy poppy track that I really like. It’s incredibly inspirational, exhorting us to “work hard, play harder every day,” and declaring that “you’ll never have to walk alone.” The Venomous Pinks philosophy, in a nutshell, is contained in this song, when the band tells us, “Alright. You’ve got one life. One chance. Always do your best. Stand for what you believe in. You’re much stronger than you think. When you really want it, you are unstoppable. Hold on to what your heart speaks.” It’s also encapsulated in “Todos Unidos,” one of the songs that appeared on the EP. It’s a powerful, raging hardcore track of unity. Way to ace the debut LP!
BREAKLIGHTS – Wind Down (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
After releasing a handful of singles and EPs, Austin, Texas pop punk band Breaklights is finally releasing their debut full-length LP. Like on their EP I previously reviewed, the songs on the LP blend poppy punk melodies, smooth tuneful vocals, and raucous edgy guitars. Breaklights are definitely influenced by the pop punk bands of the 90s, but they make it their own with some modern touches. I enjoy the striding feel of “When You Talk,” a song that, though it’s mid-tempo, feels like it’s swiftly moving along, like a maglev train gliding above the track. “Aging Well” is a standout, not just for sounding different from the rest of the songs – it’s acoustic – but also for its emotional content. For us “older” folks, it’s something we can relate to, looking back and reflecting on a life poorly spent: “with dreams forgotten we’ve all gone rotten,” as the song says at its conclusion. “Sixty Five” is another favorite, with its big chords and a grand feel; I particularly love the chord progression in the intro. “Fairview 1991,” though, might be my favorite of the LP. It’s slower and more introspective than the rest, a song that seems to touch on childhood issues of dealing with a broken family, disappointment, and feelings of abandonment. This LP has not changed my mind about Breaklights – they’re a band you should listen to.
THE ROUTES – Twang Machine (Topsy Turvy Records, soundflatrecords.de/topsy-turvy-records-releases)
What would have happened had Kraftwerk picked up guitars instead of synthesizers? What if they had been into surf and garage rock and roll instead of angular, electronic, and mechanical sounds? This is the fascinating question The Routes attempt to answer, in this unique tribute to the German pioneers of Krautrock and electronic music. The songs are often barely recognizable, because the sound of twangy guitars is so different than that of synthesizers. Often tempos are adjusted, too, to make the song work in the new arrangement. For example, “Computer Love,” which opens the LP, is sped up considerably and has a more raucous sound than the soft smooth original. “The Model” is more recognizable, but sounds like something out of an old western flick, rather than a European art house. The transformation of these songs is nothing short of amazing. “Tour De France” changes from a track that’s part stark, part dreamy into one that feels like a lovely sunny day at the beach. Of course, the Kraftwerk hits are here. They have to be. “The Robots” is transformed from a stoic piece into a gloriously lively, dare I say, human one, while “Autobahn” changes the idea of driving from utilitarian to one of fun and freedom. The Routes may be from Japan, but the feeling of driving a big old American convertible down the Coast Highway in California is unmistakable in this version of the song. “Radioactivity” and “Trans Europe Express” are here, as well, sounding as far from the originals as you can imagine. What a fun idea for a record!
SUPERCRUSH – Melody Maker EP (KR Records, krrecords.bigcartel.com)
Seattle indie rockers Supercrush return with their latest EP on their own KR Records label. They offer up five tracks of alternative rock with poppy melodies and breathy vocals. “Perfect Smile,” which opens the EP is a pretty typical alt-rock tune, until the bridge, which features piano and close harmonies, with a distinctly power pop flare. Other songs, like “Hey Christine,” blend the power pop sensibility through the entirety of the track, but the vocals retain the huskiness through the whole EP. The title track even melds some retro R&B into the melody. Topics are predictable: love and desire, the difficult life of an artist, and the like. These songs aren’t going to set the world on fire, but if you’re a fan of the 90s and 2000s “alternative rock” scene, you’ll enjoy this EP.
WITH THE PUNCHES – Discontent (mutantleaguerecords.com)
Long-standing NY band With The Punches is back with their first recorded music in nine years. The band that formed in 2008 play the sort of music that was interchangeably called “emo” or “pop punk” back in the 2000s, but to my ears it’s neither. Sure, it’s melodic, and even poppy. It doesn’t approach what I consider emo, which began in the mid 80s in DC, and evolved over the ensuing decade into screamo and other variants. To my ears, the sort of music With The Punches make is more accurately called alternative rock. The opening track is probably the standout here. “Stoneham Blues” starts out speedily with the guitars playing a fanfare-like melodic line. The vocals are belted out, including the harmonized backing vocals. The arrangement is thick and the guitars are flamboyant. I like the title track even a bit more, with its head-bobbing rhythm and poppy melody. The guitar lines bounce and crunch nicely. The balance of the five tracks on this EP are pretty much what you might expect from the genre: melodic punk, with a pop flair and broadly impassioned vocals. It’s generally not my cup of tea, but the band do a solid job of it, so if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll enjoy this.
COMPANION – Second Day of Spring (companionband.bandcamp.com)
Oh, my. After listening to all the raucous punk and indie rock records, Companion’s debut LP is like a breath of fresh air on the titular day. This is pretty folk music, acoustic guitar and closely harmonized vocals from identical twin sisters Sophia and Jo Babb. The songs are delicate, and their vocals are ethereal, like angels from heaven. I adore “If I Were a Ghost,” a waltz time song that has the hazy feel of a dream, with tentative strings and woodwinds creating a gossamer backdrop to the hushed vocals. Even dreamier is “Snowbank,” especially at the end of the song, when the strings swell and it becomes…magical. And songs like “How Could I Have Known” even have a bit of spring in them, pun intended, with a head bobbing and toe tapping rhythm. The instrumentation must include subtle synths, because there’s a shimmer that ebbs and flows in the background, and it’s so gorgeous. This whole album is.
DOUBLE CHEESE – The Black Album (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Dirty Water Records has long been one of the strongest proponents of the garage rock and roll genre, and this latest LP certainly fits in with their core mission. Double Cheese play some pretty strong garage rock, with a great retro feel. But one of the things about Double Cheese is that they aren’t even stuck in one corner of the garage world. Garage, by its nature, has a retro edge to it, but since there have been garage bands from different eras, the music has different sounds, and Double Cheese like to play around in all eras of the subgenre. For example, the opening track “Mean As F*ck,” has an 80s post-punk vibe going on for the first part of the song, but it ends with a full-on early 70s jam. The band also like to crank up the reverb and distortion, creating a tumultuous anarchic sound. I really enjoy “Sound of the Underground,” a song with bright poppy guitars, almost like modern pop punk. It’s still noisy and chaotic, of course, filled with distortion, but it has an immense sense of joy to it, as does “Pills and Wine,” which follows. I think these two are my favorite songs of the LP. Though I’m not a fan of guitar solos, the simple solo on “Pills and Wine” fits in perfectly and doesn’t come off as wanky. “Mash Potatoes” has a 70s acid rock feel, with wah-wah’ed guitars, swirly psychedelic feel, and deep fuzzed bass. “Lightnin’ Never Strikes Twice,” too, has a 70s rock feel mixed with a bit of funk and psychedelia. “HIYW” closes the LP with the noisiest, most chaotic track of the LP, having an experimental pre-industrial feel. Only one track bothers me a little bit. The chord progression on “Jail Time” seems to me to be too close to “Stepping Stone,” a classic 60s garage tune that everyone knows. Maybe it’s homage. But other than that, this is a cool take on the garage sound.
STEVE & GINIE JACKSON – Colder Than the Sea (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
Thousand Islands Records, the label known for crunchy speedy skate punk and melodic hardcore, proudly presents… folk music? Well, Steve & Ginie Jackson call themselves a folk duo, and they do play acoustic music. But the songs certainly have a pop punk attitude and drive. Yes, you can hear Irish, Acadian, and bluegrass influences in the songs, but you can also hear folk punk influences, as well. “Into the Wild” opens the album, and the accordion’s big bold chords play off the insistent strumming of the acoustic guitar. The emphatic phrasing in the vocals has a very punk attitude to it. The muted guitar opening on many of the tracks reminds me of pretty much all the folk-punk songs I’ve ever heard, and even though “7 Billion People” includes acoustic guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, You can hear the song being done by a pop punk band. “There might be 7 billion people but all I see is you, and I don’t care for the money, I don’t care for the booze. I wanna be the lucky one you choose,” sings the chorus. Reflecting a standard topic in pop punk songs, love is the theme here. Listen to “Time to Dine,” especially the “gang” vocals that are sprinkled through the song. The melody is certainly quite poppy, and it’s easy to hear an electric band playing this. “Everybody’s Calling” is a favorite, a darker cast to the melody and huge gang whoa-oh vocals on the chorus. I also really like the lilting introduction to “Take Me to the Bottle,” which turns into a raucous folk punk tune about drinking and having a good time, forgetting about all the worries of the world and living for the moment. I also enjoy the introspective song, “The Hook.” It’s more subdued and solemn, the accordion providing a backing drone to the song, the chorus reminding me of Mission of Burma songs of yore, particularly in how the bass and accordion blend and in the vocal harmonies. It’s gorgeous. Right after this is the raucous “The Fire Is Out,” with a subtle power and melodic line reminding me of garage pop songs of the 60s. If you’re a fan of acoustic punk, give this a spin. Even though the band don’t classify themselves that way, you’re going to love this. I do.
ONE ARMED JOEY – Happiness, To Me (Sell The Heart Records, www.selltheheartrecords.com)
One Armed Joey have been around for some eight years, and have released some EPs to critical acclaim (they’ve won four Bohemian NorBay Music Awards for Best Punk Band), but they’re just now getting around to releasing their debut full-length LP. Hailing from an area more well known for its wine than its punk rock (Sonoma County, California, north of the San Francisco Bay area), One Armed Joey play strong melodic poppy punk, music that was pouring forth from Northern California in the 90s. Though One Armed Joey are late to the game, they’re some of the foremost ambassadors for the sound, playing full tight up-tempo songs that belie the fact that they’re merely a trio. Rather than coming across like a bombastic “bro” band, a trap that is too easy to fall into for bands trying to play melodic pop punk like this, One Armed Joey come across as honest and ardent. The music has a wistful quality to it, even wit the upbeat tempos and rich arrangements, Listen to the lush guitar lines on “Home Sick.” Rather than beat you over the head with their music, they envelop you with their earnest harmonized vocals, their undulating guitars, and their creative arrangements. I love the delicate nature of the lead guitar on “Mirrors,” as it contrasts with the raucous rhythm guitar, bass, and drums, the melody in the vocals equally as delicate, giving the song a sense of floating. The surprise of the song is the rock steady bridge in the middle. I like “Lost Dog,” a song in two parts. “Lost Dog Pt. 1” is a fun loping song with layering in the instrumentals and vocals, while “Lost Dog Pt. 2” is a little more quicker-paced, and extremely well arranged. The pair of songs deals with stress, anxiety, shitty jobs that we want to quit, self-isolation, and immobilizing fear. Part 2’s lead guitars are gorgeous. “Peace In Yesterday” may be my favorite track of the album; the dynamic range is enormous, there’s some fun shifting time signatures, swirling guitars, pretty harmonics, passionate harmonized vocals, delicate quiet sections, epic raucous sections…it has it all. Solid solid debut, and highly recommended.
RIP ROOM – Alight and Resound (Spartan Records, www.spartanrecords.com)
The press materials say this is for fans of Devo and Fugazi. My first reaction was, “WTF?!” Because there aren’t two more different sounding bands and different fan bases, right? But, holy shit, it’s pretty accurate! When I first listened to the first track, “Complication,” I could hear the new wave inspired start-stop and repetitious melodic lines, but the vocals, arrangement, and attitude are pure late 80s Dischord. These songs have that partially sung, partially spoken quality that Dischord bands were doing in that era, and some of the chord progressions and staccato drum licks are very much of that style. But there’s a funky undercurrent that recalls not only Devo, but also NOMEANSNO. “Worth Repeating” is a favorite, not only for the aforementioned qualities, but also for its bridge, with descending guitar lines and a spacey synthesizer that makes an appearance. “The Timing’s Never Right” has a strong post-punk vibe going on in the mix, while “Second to None” is what it would be like if Fugazi recorded the theme song to a 60s secret agent TV show. As the album evolves, there’s less Devo and more post-punk, but the DC sound remains throughout. There’s even an instrumental track, “Discover What Your Monsters Are.” It marries a funky bass line with a cool guitar sound that’s hard to describe: it’s sort of surf-ish, but not surf, loaded with vibrato. The melodic line has lots of stops and starts and shifts. Recommended.
SLANG – Cockroach in a Ghost Town (Kill Rock Stars, killrockstars.com)
If music was on the introvert-extrovert spectrum, Slang would definitely be an extrovert. This debut LP is bold and outgoing, loud and proud. So it should be, because Slang is a “super group” of sorts, made up of Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, Wild Flag), Drew Grow (And the Pastors Wives, Careen), Kathy Foster (The Thermals), and Anita Lee Elliot (Viva Voce). Also appearing as guests on this LP are luminaries such as Stephen Malkmus (Pavement) and Mary Timony (Helium). The nine songs here have a glam feel, but in an indie rock mode. The opening track, “Wilder,” even has industrial underpinnings, with big buzzy guitars and huge backing vocals on the verses, while the chorus drips with dreamy sensuality. I really like the bouncy “King Gunn,” a song that has a pop sensibility, even as it still has a tough exterior from crunchy guitars. Some of the songs have an epic cinematic quality, like “In Hot Water,” a song that feels like it could be the theme to some movie, probably one about the difficulties of relationships. “Wrong Wrong Wrong” is a fun one, with loads of modern glam and more than a nod to Iggy Pop style garage rock. The title track is a little experimental, a little Tom Waits, and a little Bowie, making for a song that’s eerie and soars at the same time, with vocals somewhat gritty and very emotional. This is a lesson in how to do a debut LP.
WALKER BRIGADE – If Only (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
This is the debut full-length LP from LA’s Walker Brigade, and full-length is an understatement! The CD release contains not just 13 tracks, but also has seven bonus cuts, for a total of 20! It’s nearly an hour of punk and grunge inspired power pop with a heavy dose of glam pop. The music is loud and brash, and the pop filled melodies and brightly harmonized vocals remind me of The New Pornographers. There’s a lot of retro inspiration on this album, too, with sounds from the 60s through the 90s. “Tower” is an amazing song that alternately feels like 60s pop music and 90s grunge, while “No,” which immediately follows, has a blend of 70s acid rock and 90s grunge. “Fancy Boots” is a favorite track, with a strong 70s mix of proto punk and garage rock, with a dose of R&B. I love its urgent feel, as if the Stooges and Rolling Stones met in a dark alley. One thing about Walker Brigade is that some of the songs sound like they might be even better live, where there’s more of a raw performance. Some of these studio recordings feel a little smoothed over, and I think adding some rough edges would increase the excitement and intensity level even over what it has now. The main LP itself has a couple of covers, and there are a few covers amongst the bonus tracks, as well. The band do a great cover of Wire’s “Sand In My Joints.” It’s even more manic and jangly than the original, and another favorite of the album. “I’m Tired” is a song written by great Mel Brooks for the film, “Blazing Saddles,” where it’s performed hilariously by the late Madeline Kahn. The Walker Brigade’s version is louder and brasher (and more in tune!). There’s an Only Ones cover, of “Lovers of Today,” which is fairly faithful to the original, but maybe with a more wistful feel in the vocals. There are a couple of Soft Boys covers, as well. The classic “I Wanna Destroy You” is here, but somewhat subdued in comparison to the gloriously huge original. And the album closes with a live recording of the inane jam, “Rock’n’roll Toilet.” Though it’s a bit long, Walker Brigade acquit themselves well on this first outing.
BISHOPS GREEN – Black Skies (Pirates Press Records, piratespressrecords.com)
Street punk? Pub rock?
Canadian Oi? All terms that could be used for Bishops Green, the quartet from Vancouver, BC. There’s
lots of rock and roll with a punk edge. There are gritty guitars and gravely vocals. There are a lot of fist
pump inspiring gang vocals. And a lot of darkness in the sound. If you’re a fan of the genre, by all means,
give this a spin. To me, though, the seven songs all sound too much alike, all the same tempo, all the same
volume level, all with the exact same tone and feel. Unlike most bands that play this style of music, the
songs are not short and biting – they’re long; not a single one is under four minutes, and a couple are longer
than five minutes. It’s all a bit too much of sameness for me. The musicians are obviously talented, but I
just wish they had more variety in these songs.
BOOZE & GLORY – Raising the Roof (Pirates Press Records, piratespressrecords.com)
More street punk
from Pirates Press Records, the main proponent of the genre these days. Booze & Glory is a long-time Oi
band from London with international connections in Poland and Sweden. They play modern English Oi,
replete with huge sing-along vocals and punk-influenced arrangements. These are raging party songs, with
the title track being an ideal closing track to a live set. It’s big and glorious, and sure to get the whole
crowd singing and fist pumping. All four of these songs, really, have a big sound, with lots of encouraging
lyrics and punked up rock and roll guitars. The songs do have some variety in sound, though, with “C’est
Le Vie” featuring darker verses and big bright choruses, and even a hint of ska-punk rhythm. This is how
modern Oi should be done.
BOX ELDER – Minimums (linktr.ee/Boxelder)
Wyoming’s Box Elder’s sophomore release is a six-song
EP full of pop hooks and dripping with emotion. The music is expansive, taking in elements of dream pop,
yet also informed by emotional pop punk of bands like Spanish Love Songs and Western Settings. The
arrangements are thick, vocals soar, and guitars jangle. The title track that opens the EP has a bounce to it,
yet has an immense sound. “Bug” has a lovely pop lilt set against gritty guitars, while the humorously titled
“Chucklefuck” is a striding insistent track. “Keeper” is the obligatory ballad, but it never feels bogged
down; rather it soars. It’s the kind of song that will make you want to pull a lighter out of your pocket and
wave it in the air. I like the mix of indie pop and shoegazy wall of guitars on “Gothling,” and “Salt” closes
the EP with dreaminess and a dash of 80s new wave pop. This is good stuff.
FORMER LIVES – Ceremony of Leaving (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings,
www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
Shimmering guitars, glistening synths, and melancholy vocals make up the
components of the five songs on this EP. The sad melodies contrast with the bright instrumentals, and the
warm analog synths produce sounds that you just don’t hear that often anymore in this digital age. ‘80s new
wave is echoed in the instrumentation in songs like “Cordon Sanitaire,” though the melody feels more like
modern indie, with an almost Stereolab-like ethereal feel in the vocals. The closing minute of this track will
surely make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, sounding like it comes from some misty dream or
a past life. This leads into “Opportunity Dead On Mars,” a short interlude that sounds very otherworldly.
An out of tune piano is a bold choice to introduce the cleverly titled closing track, “Dear In Headlights,” the
grittiest track of the EP, with dissonant guitars and spacey synth sound effects. What a different and unique
record! This is going to stay in rotation for a while.
NO TRIGGER – Acid Lord (Red Scare Industries, www.redscare.net)
New England punk band No Trigger
had most of their activity two decades ago, but they’re still around and stirring again, after five years of
recorded silence. This new EP for Red Scare features five songs that range from hardcore to pop punk,
some of it tongue in cheek funny punk, like the opening title track. It’s a raging metallic hardcore track
complete with amazing sound effects and production. “Ah, hey, Bones! How big of a middle finger can I
create with words?” is the question at the start of the track, and the answer comes back in the form of the
song. It’s speedy and pounding, and obviously the band are having a great time playing it. “Antifantasy” is
an excellently executed song about the decline of the nation, the rise of neo-Nazi fascism, and the political
correctness and virtue signaling of the rest of masses. “Brainwashed” is a fun ska pop-punk song about the
right wing’s active implementation of indoctrination in our schools. Anti-drug education and pushing
Christianity while ignoring core education are features of their agenda that many of us had shoved down
our throats. Red Scare’s been on a roll lately, and this EP continues the streak.
OMNI OF HALOS – Care Free (Lövely Records, llyrecords.com)
Take one part heavy rock, one party
dreamy alternative, toss in a large spoonful of pop sensibilities and a pinch of country twang, and that’s
Omni of Halos, the alternative rock band from Gothenburg, Sweden. This four-song EP represents the
band’s recorded debut, and it’s a sign of great things to come. Growling fuzzed bass and guitars combine
with pop-filled melodies, recorded with the quiet musings of a steel pedal guitar, and painted over with a
lo-fi brush, adding a haziness to the proceedings. The title track is a favorite, with a stronger rhythm and
melodic sense. But I also like “Out of Control,” with its epic nature, rising notes singing out from the steel
pedal guitar and an old school 90s emo sensibility in the bass and vocals. The overall effect is very unique,
like being in the middle of a swirling storm, but there’s a strange sense of order to the chaos. I really like
this.
SEMANTICS – Paint Me Blue (SideOneDummy Records, sideonedummy.com)
This is a very promising
debut LP from Australian indie-pop-punks Semantics. For the most part the music is bouncy and fun, like
the opener, “Carousel.” After an angular dissonant start, the song instantly turns into a fantastic pop punk
tune, up-tempo, with a great melody, some crooning in the vocals, and an insistent rhythm. “Didn’t Wanna
Hurt You,” too, is a driving song, with broader vocals and pounding rhythm. The gang vocals and poppier
melody on the chorus is a nice contrast to the darker sound of the verses. But Semantics can get wistful,
sometimes, too. “This Love Could Kill You” goes for a grungier sound, with heavier guitars alternating
with a lighter sad sounding song, and an alt-rock melody. “Lighter Grow” goes deeper into dreamy ballad
territory. And the appropriately titled “Sad Songs” is a quiet acoustic track, with passionate vocals. The
album seems to be reasonably split between pop punk and introspective indie, and keeping things varied is
always a key to success. Like I said, this is a very promising debut. Keep an eye out for this band.
STATE DRUGS – Explosions on the Radio (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings,
www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
State Drugs follow up their 2021 LP, “Live, Laugh, Love,” with a new
five-song EP. The band is the project of former hardcore musician Chris Kuhn, who records and plays
under the State Drugs moniker with a rotating cast of friends. The resulting music is deeply rooted in 90s
alternative rock and indie music, with a bit of punk sensibility. The five songs are buzzy and breezy, with a
wistful emotional sensibility. I love the opening track, “Don’t Be Afraid,” which has a warm feeling
courtesy of the subdued electric organ, a driving rhythm, and tense, passionate vocals. “On the Radio” is
another buoyant song, relaxed and easy. I like the tension in the lead guitar toward the end of the song,
when it sounds like a train blowing its whistle is driving right through the tune, though the brief guitar solos
feel a bit thin. Though “The Twelve” is a lonesome sounding ballad, most of the tracks have a more upbeat
hopeful feel. Overall, I like the mix of light pop, buzzy guitars, expressive vocals, and a pop punk heart.
GRADUATION SPEECH – Controlled Burn (jetsam-flotsam.com)
Kevin Day, front man for New Jersey’s Aspiga, also records solo material under the Graduation Speech moniker. “Controlled Burn” is Day’s latest release since last year’s “Private Anxieties” EP. This outing sees Day stripping things back, playing songs that feel more somber and introspective. Where the previous EP featured a full band and upbeat songs, “Controlled Burn” is more acoustic, more melancholy, and more reflective. Acoustic guitar and piano are the primary instruments, with occasional electric guitar. Even with the minimal instrumentation, the songs pack an emotional punch. And as much as I enjoyed the full-band version of Graduation Speech, I think I like this simpler version better. The piano, particularly, gives the songs a pensive feel. My favorite song of the EP has to be “Climb,” which opens the EP. The tentative nature of the melody at the opening is stunning. Even as the song speaks of failure, if offers encouragement: “You can climb your way out of this / I believe in you, I believe in me.” We all could use this sort of encouragement from time to time.
MOONRAKER – The Forest (tinydragonmusic.bandcamp.com/bypolarrecords.com)
Hailing from Santa Clarita, California, just north of LA, Moonraker play huge epic pop punk, with driving rhythms and thick arrangements. Massive backing vocals add to the density, and dueling lead vocals often create variety in the textures. There are creative touches, too, in intros and outros of some of the songs, such as the orchestra tuning up at the start of “Incendium,” the opening track, along with an audio clip about the lies exclusionary people tell us. I love the intro and outro on “Fogdancing.” The track starts with a music box playing a lovely little ditty, and it’s a lost opportunity that the band didn’t incorporate it into the song. The ending, as the punk rock fades, is the sound of a jazz quartet in a hazy nightclub – and this time they do it right, recapitulating the song’s melody. Trumpet, piano, upright bass and drums play it as a lazy ballad, while club patrons have conversations in the background. It’s interrupted by the sound of smashing glass and a car starting – a theft? In between these bookends is a hard driving dark punk song with just enough pop melody and lyrics about living a life of uncertainty. “Autumn,” too, starts out quietly, with pretty violins and subtle vocals, before the full band explodes into a speedy skate punk frenzy. “Vanishing Act” is notable as a great crunchy song, faster and louder, with gritty hardcore influence, but still grounded in a melodic sensibility. And I really enjoy the more relaxed lope of “Soot,” which closes the LP. The tempo may be at less of a breakneck pace, but the song is every bit as crackling as the rest of the album. Solid effort here.
PULLEY – The Golden Life (SBAM Records, sbam-rocks.us)
Everyone who listened to punk rock in the 90s knows Pulley. The band is the epitome of the melodic punk rock of the era, and unlike so many contemporaries, they never got overly bombastic. They were also notable for the day job of lead vocalist Scott Radinsky, who was a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. While active all along, the band had a large gap in studio recordings, between 2008 and 2016. They’re now signed to SBAM, and put out an EP last year, and are back with their first full-length of new music since their 2016 release. One of the great things about Pulley is their focus on melody and arrangements. Not satisfied with sounding like so many other bands, they have some really creative sounds, with unique arrangements and melodies. Right from the start, “Repeat Offender” gives us soaring backing vocals that act as a clarion call and play against the jangly pop of the verses. Listen to the complexity in the arrangement of “You’ll Be Lonely Someday,” and you’ll hear chord progressions that are more interesting than typical melodic hardcore and punk. These touches make Pulley really stand out from the crowd. “Align the Planets” is a favorite song, starting out as a quiet acoustic song, just guitar and vocals. When the full band comes in it’s with a blend of Latin, surf, and 90s punk, a pretty killer sound. The chorus gets big and wistful, too. On their darker songs they reflect the 90s Epitaph sound – they were on that storied label, after all. But even then, melody and arrangement are all-important. A good example of this is “The Golden Life,” which has a strong 90s/Bad Religion vibe, but even then Pulley do things with the song that make it different enough that it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of so many bands trying to get that sound. Pulley does it again!
SAY SUE ME – The Last Thing Left (Damnably Records, linktr.ee/damnably)
One doesn’t expect catchy indie bands to be coming from Asia, but here we are. Say Sue Me hail from Busan, South Korea, and apparently they’ve been around for quite awhile, having released two previous LPs and a plethora of singles and EPs. Most of their releases have been with Damnably, a small London based indie label, but a couple of early releases came out on major label Warner Music. After a subdued instrumental opening, the album features lovely and catchy indie pop music. “Around You,” which was a lead single from the album, is bouncy, breezy, and fun. It’s got a skip in its step, with an infectious feeling of elation, like walking on air. Easy pop tunes abound on the album, like “Still Here,” “We Look Alike,” and the ethereal “To Dream.” They’re exquisite and delightful, especially “To Dream.” It’s lush and gorgeous, combining a delicate touch in the vocals and guitars and a thick full sound. “Photo of You” is a ballad with a retro 60s girl group feel, while the other ballad, “Now I Say,” is acoustic, quiet, and introspective sounding. “No Real Place” takes the best aspects of both types of songs and mixes them to create something that’s lush and dreamy, but bouncy and poppy at the same time. It’s a favorite of the LP. If you’re a fan of indie pop, I strongly recommend this.
JOEL TYLER WALL – F.I.T.H. (Kool Kat Musik, www.koolkatmusik.com)
This is a little off the beaten path for Kool Kat Musik, a label that focuses on pop and power pop records. Joel Tyler Wall plays music that, I suppose, falls into that camp, melodically, but the arrangements are thick and heavy, gritty and distortion-filled. It’s like if pop songs were played by grunge bands on acid. It’s a pretty unique sound, and I have to say, it’s really effective. Wall plays all the instruments and handled all the production himself, quite a difficult time consuming set of tasks. But I think it was worth the effort, because this is a great sounding record. “No Job Nose Bleed” is the opening track, and I can hear what would normally be a sparkly pop tune, but it’s been deconstructed by rough and raspy distortion. Some songs have a cool bass drone that reminds me a bit of Silver Apples, the 60s experimental electronic rock band that was way ahead of its time. “Stranger” is one of these, yet the melody is more akin to 60s pop. “Rescue” is another, and though it’s got a lighter pop melody over the bass, it’s got a trippy retro psychedelic sound. “My Dream” is aptly titled, as behind the noisy distortion and overdriven guitars and bass is a dreamy psychedelic melody. “Problems” is darker garage surf-punk, with 80s no wave vocals, a cool mix. Several of the tracks have a psych bent, but none more than the closing track, which is also the title track. Standing for “Fucked in the Head,” and named for a middle school punk band from Wall’s youth, this song is noisier, punker, and more psychedelic than all the others put together. Vocals are multi-tracked, eerie, and buried in the mix, giving the song the sound of an acid trip. This is one of the more unique records I’ve come across in awhile, and it’s recommended.
THE RUMJACKS / FLATFOOT 56 – Split EP (therumjacks.com/the-rumjacks-flatfoot-56)
Hot on the heels of their recent EP, “Brass for Gold,” Celtic punks The Rumjacks are back, this time sharing the stage (literally – the two bands are touring together) with Chicago’s Celtic punks, Flatfoot 56. Each band contributes three tracks, and though they both play in the same general genre, they have very different sounds. The Rumjacks have more traditional sounds of Irish melodies mixed with raucous pub-punk. The opening track, “Whitecaps,” is a dark song that’s heavy on traditional sounding folk melody but a little lighter on the traditional instrument. They make up for it on “Fifth Ward Firestorm,” a very Irish sounding song, complete with penny whistle on the chorus. Their third song is a loping tune, “What Was Your Name in the States,” a song with a party atmosphere, lyrics referring to people changing their names to hide past transgressions. As enjoyable as The Rumjacks songs are, the real revelation here is Flatfoot 56. Coming from Chicago, they have a pretty solid Chicago pop punk sound, with a big wall of gritty guitars, augmented with Celtic instruments. I love “Mud,” with its striding epic feel; it’s my favorite song of the EP. While “Mud” uses banjo,” “Sorry” has the sound of an Arrivals song played with bagpipes in the arrangement. Did I say “Mud” was my favorite? Sorry, it has to be “Sorry.” “Trouble” closes the EP, and it’s a more loping track, still solid pop punk, but the Irish instruments add a cool effect. I hear bagpipes and I think mandolin on this one. Really makes me wish this tour was coming to the west coast, because I’d love to see these bands live. Recommended.
THE DROWNS – Lunatics (Pirates Press Records, piratespressrecords.com)
The Drowns have been having a good time with genre bending records lately. The band that made their bones with a couple of solid street punk albums have been rocking out on recent singles and EPs, and this newest EP shows they’re still having a blast. The six songs on “Lunatics” are joyful and moving, literally and figuratively. “Live Like Yer Dyin” opens the EP with a 50s rock’n’roll jam, raucous guitars, keys, drums, bass, and vocals over a blues chord progression played like a speedy punk rock tune. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, and the sentiment in the lyrics is something we should all heed: live life to its fullest every day. Another rocker is “She’s The Knife,” continuing the band’s exploration of the world of classic rock. I like the moving “Look What We’ve Become,” a song that starts out with acoustic guitar and Rev’s gritty vocals. As the song evolves, more and more of the band joins in, as Rev sings about the strife and division that have torn our country apart. Two of the tracks, “Lunatics” and “Tokyo Red Alert,” are poppier, yet still have a street punk quality to them, like some of the great pub punk of the 80s out of the UK. But I think it’s “The Working Dead” that I love the most on this EP. This is an Andy Wylie jam, and it mixes power pop and pop punk in perfect proportions, topping it with clean clear vocals about the daily grind of thankless work. This one reminds me of bands like Odd Robot and even The Smoking Popes, a bit. If you think music should be fun, you should be listening to The Drowns and pick up this EP.
NIGHT COURT – Nervous Birds Too (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings, www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
Hot on the heels of “Nervous Birds One” which came out a mere few months ago (check further down this column for my review), this newish band is back with the second installment from their recording session. Apparently, after recording too many songs that were all keepers, they made the decision to split them between two LPs. Canadians Night Court play music that blends power pop, garage, indie, and just a dash of punk to create music that’s very listenable and enjoyable. But listen carefully, because the thirteen tracks blow by in a mere twenty minutes, each song flying by in an average of a minute and a half. These songs are certainly gems deserving of your attention. There isn’t a bad track here, but a few are notable standouts. “Shitty Confidential” is heavier on the garage side, but has a great pop melody. I love the swirly sounds of “Titanic,” and “Brighten the Corner” is a slower, less raucous track, but is an absolute favorite. It’s the longest track, too, at two and three quarter minutes, but the melancholy loping feel and epic shining guitars are irresistible. “Surfin Iona” has a B-52s vibe, in the melody and rhythm, and especially the vocals, though it’s not a new wave track. The shortest track, clocking in at a mere 49 seconds, “sticksrtrees,” is outsized bouncy indie pop fun. This album is an unexpected surprise of the best kind.
PARADE OF HORRIBLES – Listen In (paradeofhorribles.bandcamp.com)
Parade of Horribles is a two piece, featuring Jason York on bass and vocals and Chris Mazzola on drums. Their music is rooted in skatepunk and hardcore, but they inject a dose of funk to create a hardcore-punk-funk sort of hybrid. The music is manic and intense, and the growling bass has a full enough sound and gives the proceedings an almost industrial air. There’s even a strong beat, good enough to dance to, if that’s your thing. The genre-spanning music keeps things lively and interesting for those who listen to music with their heads, while the intensity will keep the adrenaline flowing for you pit junkies. “Keep It Going” is a track that goes through multiple changes over its two and a quarter minutes. Starting with a jazzy swirling bass, it soon turns into raging hardcore alternating with a spoken word art-punk thing, vocals switching between talking and shouting intensely. There’s a smooth jazz break, too, which threw me for a loop. The lyrics seem to reference friends working together toward a goal, but there’s a falling out. The others “keep it going,” though, and remain hopeful of the return of missing comrades. This may be a reference to the Punk Rock Food Drive, an annual fundraising program that Parade of Horribles runs each year. It’s not just a fundraiser show – they work with local restaurants to donate a portion of their proceed on certain days, and recruit a plethora of local vendors to sell merch in a fair-like atmosphere that the actual show is. It all raises money to help those in the community who need a hand acquiring food for their families. I love the funky bass lines in “Doing the Work,” an otherwise gritty song about life in the corporate grind. “I got spreadsheets to track my spreadsheets / A thousand things left to do / I’m gonna craft the most beautiful email / To craftily be ignored by you,” the song declares. The title track is an intense hardcore rager about the isolating influence of social media addiction. “Holding Pattern” mixes grinding growling bass with jazzed up funk via syncopated phrasing. But this one is likely the heaviest and hardest hitting track of the EP. The lyrics appear to speak to being paralyzed, waiting for the “perfect moment” for something, yet ending up going nowhere. The EP ends with “Better Without You,” a song with mathish rhythm changes, power-laden verses, and a poppy chorus. Parade of Horribles call themselves “experimental, and I can see why they might say that. They do defy genre categorization, so let’s just agree to call it good music.
TONY JAY – Hey There Flower (Mt.St.Mtn., www.mtstmtn.com)
Upon listening to the first track, “The Rain Drops,” I was certain I was in for a strange experimental sonic journey. The track is eerie and mysterious, loaded with trepidation and uncertainty. And, in some ways, this is such an exploration, but the remainder of the album is less eerie, but more melancholy. This is lo-fi pop, and it has an air of hazy dreaminess about it. Breathy vocals add to the feeling of unreality, that you’re visiting someone’s dreams. The persistent hiss in the recordings adds, rather than detracts, from the songs, especially on the gorgeous “September Skies.” A simple guitar and female vocals provide the feel of girl group songs of the 60s, but slowed down and stripped back. The dark emotions of those sorts of pop tunes are brought into clear focus through the haze of time. That’s a common theme through these songs; it’s like listening to someone’s misty thoughts, at twilight, with the fog rolling in. These songs would be right at home in a David Lynch/Twin Peaks world. The title track is the most upbeat, but even that track, loaded with reverb, has an otherworldly feel. Listening to this may warp your sense of reality. I highly recommend it.
THE WILFUL BOYS – World Ward Word Sword (Big Neck Records, bigneckrecords.com)
When I began listening to the first track of this third LP from The Wilful Boys, I though I was in for some noisy metallic grinding shit. Thankfully, I was wrong. Though The Wilful Boys do focus on noise, this is the noise rock of the 90s. Through the chaos and insanity, there’s melody and order, too (once you get past the opening track). The lead single, “A Watched Pot,” mixes 90s noise and 70s hard rock. It’s got the blood and guts of hard rock and the distortion, angularity, and vocals of the 90s. This track immediately got my attention, no longer dismissing this record. “Classic Action” rages with NOMEANSNO funk-bass intensity, but has more of a hardcore intent, even as the guitars ring out. Even more hardcore is “Silly Season,” with raging guitars and shouted vocals, but it still has a melodic sense. “Heaven” is darker than one might expect from a song with that title; feedback and dissonance clash with the melodic intent, and vocals teeter between blasé and ireful. Guitars scream and jab intently.” Horrible Way” is not horrible at all. It uses repetitive lines effectively and regularly injects massive angularity played heavily. Imagine early Black Sabbath as a math-noise band (!). The bridge gets chaotic, and the outro speeds up like an out of control locomotive about to run off the rails. If you’re a fan of hard driving rock and 90s noise, get on this. It’s one of the tastier releases I’ve heard lately.
CHUCK YOAKUM – Paisley Garden Project (Kool Kat Musik, www.koolkatmusik.com)
Paisley was a popular pattern for clothing in the 1960s, with its psychedelic style. It went with the love and flowers pop music of the time, which often had hints of mod and psych. Chuck Yoakum does more than pay homage to that era, he dives in and makes himself at home in it with this LP. It’s chock full of the sort of music that was all the rave back then, especially in England. Vocals are subdued, while the music is sweet and moody at the same time. Think about the earliest Pink Floyd albums, loaded with psychedelic pop, but then smooth out the rough Syd Barrett edges and you get an idea. One of the really nice touches on this album is the use of orchestral-like arrangements, including lush strings, and even piccolo trumpet here and there. “The Sky Is Blue Hello Good Morning On With The Show” is a favorite, for its clever arrangements, including the aforementioned instruments, plus piano and harmonica, harpsichord, French horns, and even a rooster! The track, which is really three or four songs in one, has a lilt to it, a bounce reminiscent of Sgt. Pepper era Beatles. “How To Do It” has a familiar 60s pop liveliness to it, feeling almost theatrical with its insistent beat provided by the piano. “Let It Go” blends the orchestral pop of the mod era with sitar and back-masking of the psychedelic era, to create a track that’s both freaky and poppy. Juxtaposing the two genres of the era is quite a clever thing to do. This is an interesting journey into our collective musical past.
BRING ON THE STORM / CALL IT A DAY – Through The Distance (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
This new split, uh, I guess I’ll call it a full-length EP, contains four songs from each of two bands, Canada’s Bring on the Storm and France’s Call It a Day. So, each contributes an EP’s worth of material to make up a full-length release. Both bands play what would loosely fall into the skate punk camp, but the two approach it from different directions. Call It a Day focuses on the speedy melodic hardcore end of the spectrum, while Bring on the Storm focuses more on metallic flourish; their songs are played at a more moderate tempo, and they’re more melodic and way more metallic. Both bands acquit themselves well, though I prefer Call It a Day’s tracks, as being more punk. Bring on the Storm is more metal and less punk, sounding like they’re trying to be a big arena band (or what we used to call a “hair band”), and it’s just not my thing. Metal fans will likely disagree, and may enjoy it. Skate punk fans will enjoy both bands.
DEAF LINGO – Lingonberry (Lövely Records, llyrecords.com)
As I began listening to the “Intro” track, I thought to myself, “oh, this is going to be some weird wanky experimental stuff on guitars.” But thankfully it was just an intro, because BAM! The band launches into “Summertime,” and it’s like listening to a less tense version of Radioactivity or Marked Men, and mixed with loping pop punk. This stuff is fantastic! “Sleeping” mixes the sound of those Denton bands with plain old rock and roll, and includes some cool hard metallic bits and surf guitar jabs. It’s a mélange of genre bending that’s pretty damned cool. “Push It” is ace garage punk with loads of power and infused with musical tension. As the album evolves, the songs inject more pop goodness and strip away only a tiny bit of the power. “Friends” is a great bouncy pop punk track that still has a sharp edge, and “Antisocial” slows things down a bit without losing any of the other strengths. It even has some jangle and whoa-ohs in the backing vocals. “Reception” has an amazing post-hardcore feel, completely different from the other tracks. “Cars and Houses” and “Lingonberry” are indie rock bangers. This album is like having three or four EPs from different bands that all feature the same members. There’s variety and there’s consistency of quality. Where is this band from? Are they Texas compatriots of the Denton crowd? Nope. They’re from one of the world’s fashion capitals, Milan. Yes, Deaf Lingo is an Italian band. And this album is a candidate for my Best of 2022 list.
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN – The Way You Shatter (Silver Girl Records, www.silvergirl.com)
I last reviewed music from Dewey Defeats Truman way back in 2000, when their sole full-length LP was released. The band was mainly active in the early 2000s, but have recently come out of hibernation, releasing a 7” in 2018 and a new five-song EP now. I caught them live at the Casbah, very recently, opening for June of 44, and I really enjoyed their set. Much of their set came from this new EP, the songs of which fall solidly into the indie rock camp. The band is only a three-piece (Mark MacBride on vocals and guitar, James Reader on bass and vocals, and Scott Frazier on drums), but their sound is a lot thicker and richer than you might think. The songs have a wonderful mix of indie pop jangle and more introspective indie-emo that really hits the sweet spot. The songs are emotive without being overly emotional; vocals ring out rather than feel strained, and instrumentals are evocative without feeling bombastic. I can hear a lot of Jawbox/J Robbins influence in a number of the songs, which makes it even better (since I’m a big Jawbox fan). One of my favorite tracks of the new EP is “Slow Reaction,” which opens the EP. It’s the perfect embodiment of the Dewey Defeats Truman sound, and I hear plenty of Jawbox influence here. The song has a sort of broad post-emo sound, but tempered with the jangly pop guitars. “The Tower,” especially, has a late era Jawbox sound, especially in the vocals. When they get to the chorus and its vocal layering, the influence is undeniable. Between these two songs we get the straightforward indie-rock of “Serpent’s Kiss,” with a great rumbling and rolling bass and more than a hint of pop bounce, the edgier “Less Than One,” with grittier guitar sound and an almost power pop melodic line, and “Subtract Yourself,” another straightforward indie rock tune, but with gliding vocals, The digital release includes two bonus tracks, “Better During” and “Shots Taken.” The former has a more rocking vibe (within the confines of the band’s genre), but with thick and dreamy guitars, while the latter is a big, broad, epic track, the closest you’ll get to a ballad. I was very pleasantly surprised to see Dewey Defeats Truman last week at the Casbah, and even more pleasantly surprised that they’re releasing new music. Recommended.
MARKET – The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong (Western Vinyl, westernvinyl.com)
Market’s latest LP is their first with Western Vinyl. The Brooklyn band, spearheaded by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Nate Mendelsohn, primarily gives us relaxed, understated indie. But there’s more going on here under the surface, when you listen closely. Lyrics touch on topics of growing up and learning to be an independent adult, the difficulties we encounter and the mistakes we make along the way, and how we often end up being just like our parents, despite our attempts otherwise. “Scar,” one of the lead singles, includes country rhythms, but also explores dreaminess and the avant-garde. The song has a unique arrangement, interjected sound effects, start-stop performance, chaotic noise, and juxtapositions smooth gliding vocals against the aforementioned mash-up. It’s so different from anything else out there, and is a favorite just because of the oddness. “Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War” has less to do with the historic battles and more to do with the battles we fight with our friends and ourselves. “When am I gonna stop writing songs about being an asshole to my friends / and just start never being an asshole to them?” the song asks. At nearly six minutes, it’s the longest song of the album, but it’s also the prettiest and most introspective. The guitar line is vey simple and subdued, as are the vocals, and you can hear the anxiety and regret. I especially love the ending of the song, when a chorus of woodwinds join in, giving the whole thing a nostalgic feel, a yearning for simpler times before life got shitty. I enjoy the math-like meter shifts of “I Would Do That,” a song with off-kilter guitar jangle and those easy vocals singing about difficulties dealing with change, including in relationships, and how it’s hard to act differently than what we’re used to, even in the face of different circumstances. The music may (mostly) be relaxed and restrained, but the lyrics are full of turmoil and doubt. This is a really nice record.
PERSHAGEN – Hilma (Lövely Records, llyrecords.com)
The press materials that came with this release mentions “dreamy and cinematic instrumental music,” where “psychedelic rock intertwines with post-rock, and Scandinavian gloominess melts into colorful moments of bliss.” This is a pretty darn accurate description of the third full-length LP from the Swedish quartet. The music is lush and meandering, presenting sonic landscapes. In my mind’s ear, the opening track, “Klangskog,” is a winding river, a pastoral scene with tall grass blowing in the wind and butterflies and bees floating around the flowers. In contrast, the grittier “Hilma” provides a soundtrack to a sunny day in a bustling city. There are grungy guitars playing off other guitars that ring out, clear as a bell. It’s like the sun reflecting off the windows of the skyscrapers, compared to the grime concealed in the shadows below. Steel pedal guitar sings out the silent sadness of the people. At least this is what I envision when I close my eyes, listening to these tracks. I really love the interwoven folk melodies in “La°ngt bort na¨ra,” which translates to “Far Away Near” and in “Alla minns den sista ga°ngen,” which means “Everyone Remembers the Last Time.” Sometimes Pershage gets into jam territory, such as on “Karelia,” which is where the psychedelic descriptor comes in. Have you ever heard steel pedal guitar in a psychedelic jam? You will here! I think my favorite track may be “Ofog i dja¨vulens sa¨llskap” (Insult in the Company of the Devil). It reminds me of the sort of electronic post-industrial music made by Future Sounds of London back in the day. There’s some minimalist repeating lines and rhythms and a thick layering of sounds from guitar, bass, drums, and synths. I don’t normally go in for instrumental rock music, but this stuff is very evocative, and I like it.
BLEEDING HEARTS – Riches To Rags (Bar None Records, www.bar-none.com)
Some love Record Store Day, others hate it. What began as a way to promote independent record stores in the days of waning vinyl sales has been usurped by major labels and chain stores as a way to rake in money from limited colored vinyl reissues of records that already had seen sales in the millions years ago. But, for those faithful adherents, there are still real gems to be found from indie bands and labels, music that was lost or forgotten or never saw the light of day. Such is the case with Bleeding Hearts, a Minneapolis band that time has forgotten. The band included Replacements co-founder Bob Stinson, and it was the last band he played in before his untimely death in 1995. The band was the idea of singer/guitarist Mike Leonard, and also featured drummer Bob Herbers and bassist Rob Robello, with Stinson filling out the band. “Riches To Rags” was recorded in 1993, but shortly after, the band broke up amidst rancor, and the recordings sat unreleased for nearly 30 years. The 41-minute album features thirteen tracks of power pop, poppy alternative rock, and good time rock and roll. Though not everything here is to my taste, it’s all energetic stuff. One favorite is the title track, which opens the LP. It’s very much a nod to power pop of the previous decade, with gritty guitars playing a bouncy melody. I enjoy, too, the breezy “100 Ways,” that uses an acoustic and electric mix to create an easy feel while still remaining lively. “Gone” is one of the edgier, quicker-paced tunes, with a simpler garage-punk feel. “Happy Yet” blends garage-punk, power pop, and just a hint of twang, to create a fun track. “Know It All” lopes along with a power-pop/indie rock mix that’s easy on the ears. And “Right As Rain” is, perhaps, the favorite of all, with the strongest indie sound of the album. The melody is nice and poppy, while the guitars jangle and growl in just the right way. Some of the tracks that didn’t quite do it for me include the Rolling Stones influenced “Imagination,” and the hard blues-rock “What Do You Want?” The latter uses hard rock licks and harmonica. The short-lived band may have broken up due to personal clashes, but it’s clear from these recordings that they were having a lot of fun playing these songs. You probably will have a lot of fun listening to them.
JEANINES – Don’t Wait for a Sign (Slumberland Records, www.slumberlandrecords.com)
Slumberland brought us Jeanines’ debut LP back in 2019, before the pandemic changed the world. Now they’re back with Jeanines’ sophomore effort. Just like the debut, words like “gorgeous” and “lovely” don’t do it justice. This is simple, jangly indie pop, played by the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith. Since the debut, the pair have become separated geographically and via the isolation of the pandemic. As a result, the music has a more melancholy feel, even as the guitars jangle in an effort to put on a happy face. Alicia’s vocals feel even more influenced by the singers of the 60s and 70s folk music movement, like Buffy Sainte-Marie and Joni Mitchell. There’s a psych-folk feel to the songs, a haziness that overlays the music. “Through The Vines” is a good example of the melancholy feel; it’s a song of romantic troubles and dichotomous feelings. “I want you, I want you all the time, all the time, even through the heartbreak,” Jeanine sings. The guitars jangle and the multi-tracked vocals harmonized with mixed feelings. You can hear the happiness and the sadness in the same song. One of the happier sounding songs is “Gotta Go.” It ha a quicker tempo and big 60s R&B girl group vocals on the chorus. I really love the opening track, “That’s OK,” with its bouncy feel, gorgeous harmonized vocals, and hopeful lyrics. “If you don’t know by now, that’s OK, that’s OK / if you can just hang on another day, another day / You may think you’re not growing / But a part of it’s not knowing / One day it’ll all start showing its face / You’ll find your way / You’ll find a way / You’ll find your way someday.” The song is about feeling uncertain about life and the future, but offers the reassurance that things will work out. It sort of goes with the encouragement of the album title: don’t wait for a sign. Go make it happen. Another encouraging song follows immediately, with “Any Day Now.” This one has a strong psych-folk influence, particularly in those beautiful vocals. One thing to note is how short these songs all are. There are thirteen tracks in a mere 21 minutes, something I would expect out of a hardcore punk band, but hardly from an indie pop band. I like these songs so much that I wish they were a bit longer that Beauty doesn’t have to be rich and lush; simple and stripped down can be so wonderful, and so it is here.
OV STARS – Tuesdays (ovstars.bandcamp.com)
Best known as the former Psychic TV bassist, Alice Genese has teamed up with South African ex-pat musician Shaune Pony Heath to form Ov Stars, and “Tuesdays” is the duo’s debut EP. Don’t expect anything approaching the sounds of PTV, though, as Ov Stars is their own thing, with a very different sound. The music is much more relaxed, with a strong folk and singer-songwriter vibe. There are hints of Americana twang, and steel guitar shows up in some of the arrangements, but the arrangements are much richer than that description would imply. The tracks are both lush and delicate, a balancing act that should be credited to Jeff Berner, another alumnus of Psychic TV, who produced, engineered, and mixed the EP. Four of the five tracks are emotion-laden ballads, and if you aren’t moved by these songs you have no heart or soul. And even the one that isn’t, the track which shares its name with the band’s. is moving. It starts as a folksy track, with jangly plucked guitar and subtle percussion. Genese’s voice is made for singing songs like this, with just the right mix of pain and hope. As the song evolves, more instruments join in, including full drums, bass, and organ, and the track goes from downcast to uplifting, with a lush 80s inspired arrangement. I adore “Crying Time,” a track that drips with desperate passion. The angst carries over from Heath’s vocals into the guitar tone, and you can feel the pain and hurt through the speakers. The song tells the story of lost love, and the chorus makes it plain: “I can’t hold you anymore / Without losing my mind / Love don’t live here anymore / Now it’s just the crying time.” The EP closes with the wistful “Better Things,” a song that seems to be saying that, while it’s nice to remember the good times of the past, we shouldn’t live there because you can’t go back, you can only move forward. What a beautiful, moving EP.
THE SLACKERS – Don't Let The Sunlight Fool Ya (Pirates Press Records, piratespressrecords.com)
After teasing us with singles over the past year or so, The Slackers have finally released a new full-length LP, their first in seven years. The Slackers focus mainly on rock steady and reggae beats, but they branch out quite a lot at times, making this album varied. That’s always a great thing, because the songs hold your interest when they aren’t all the same. In this new album there’s a nice dose of R&B in some of the songs, none more than “Sleep Outside,” the melancholy track about homelessness. Providing the LP’s title, the chorus pleads, “Don’t let the sunlight fool ya / It’s cold outside.” It speaks to the difficulties of life on the street, and in particular the mental health issues facing many of the unhoused. It still has the reggae beat and guitar, but the soulfulness makes it the most different and most interesting track of the LP. Another notable track is “They Are Losing;” it’s a bluesy track with a samba beat and vocals that rival Tom Waits for sheer amount of gravel. The lyrics are about class struggle, and how the old rich guys in suits are resorting to desperate measures because they know they’re on the losing side of history. I love the jazzy tenor sax solo and the dark feel of this song. I really enjoy “Shameboy,” which blends rock steady and 60s pop; imagine the Beatles playing rock steady and you get the idea. “Statehouse” is a more traditional reggae sort of tune for the Slackers, but it’s the most political of the album. It references the removal of Confederate memorials and flags from statehouses in southern states, and it even references the January 6th insurrection. “Boogie Nowhere” is a mash-up of boogie and rock steady, a unique combination. And “Time Won’t Set You Free” closes the album with reggae mixed with a 70s psychedelic sound in the vocals. Of course, the album also contains the previously released and excellent rock steady single, “Nobody’s Listening,” as well as the fun “Windowland.” I don’t regularly listen to this sort of music, but The Slackers’ penchant for genre cocktails is a lot of fun.
FLEXURHEAD II – 2 Song Demo (flexurhead2.bandcamp.com)
If you can’t tell from the title, this is a two-song demo, and it was recorded on the spur of the moment. Felix Reyes (Lifes Halt. Big Crux, Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijacking, and more) was in Los Angeles for a funeral, and visited with Daryl Gussin (Spokenest, God Equals Genocide, Ah Fuck, and Razorcake Magazine guy) on a Saturday night. This led to drinking and an idea to grab a couple acoustic guitars and head to Razorcake’s podcast studio and make some music. The end result was called “Flexurhead” mainly for the resemblance to mid ‘80s DC Revolution Summer music, the sort that came out of Dischord Records and bands like One Last Wish, Red Emma, Rites of Spring, etc. Except it’s acoustic. The first song is “Impulso,” and is sung in both Spanish and English. It has some great intricate lead guitar work, and a feel that starts out light and gliding, and gets more emphatic as the song evolves. The second track, “Distance,” is somewhat simpler, but has an even stronger DC sound, and if I had to pick a favorite of the pair, this would be it. This era of the Dischord sound has long been at the top of my list of favored music, so I’m a sucker for this. I offer the suggestion that Felix and Daryl recruit a couple more people, write some more songs, and record an EP in a real studio.
MEAN JEANS – Hits From The Bog (Fat Wreck Chords, www.fatwreck.com)
It’s party time, the Mean Jeans are here! Hits From The Bog (where’s that missing ‘n’??) is a surprise digital release that contains three unreleased songs from the “Tight New Dimension” LP, Mean Jeans’ Fat Wreck debut. Of course you already know what to expect from these miscreants. I don’t know why these songs got left off the album, because they all rock. My favorite is probably the opener, the pop-filled “Mind Fulla Slime.” It’s got some more interesting chord changes tossed in here and there to give it a slightly different sound, and it has great use of dynamic changes and competing lead and backing vocals. It’s just plain good time fun. “My Body is a Wasteland” is the most standard Ramones-core track of the three. And the ending track, “Twistin off a Cliff,” is bubblegum punk all set for party time. Which, if you know the Mean Jeans, is all the time! So get ready to party and download this digital EP!
TINY BLUE GHOST – The Underneath (Count Your Lucky Stars, www.cylsrecords.com)
It’s been three years since Tiny Blue Ghost released anything, so here they are with a new five-song EP. They can’t be pinned down to a single genre, but the music is lush and dreamy, with glimmering synths and meandering bass. Vocals remind me of torch song singers of yore, singing with passion and a haunting sense of loss. The opening track, “We Intertwined,” is mostly instrumental with just a short vocal section, and it has an intensely spiritual feel. It’s in 3-4 waltz time, starts quietly with just guitars, and gets bigger and bigger. In some ways it reminds me of a Christmas song. “Stone Balloon” starts out with a funky bass and drumbeat, but the entire character of the song changes when the synths and vocals come in. The synths ring out like bells, while the vocals sensually rise and fall. “In Blind Sight” is notably the edgiest track of the EP, with an almost punk like feel in the spoken lyrics and gritty guitars. It still has a rich backdrop of synths, but it’s the lone track of the EP that lacks a dreamy quality. This is beautiful stuff.
WARREN FRANKLIN – Second April (Count Your Lucky Stars, www.cylsrecords.com)
Formerly known as Warren Franklin and the Founding Fathers, they’ve dropped the cumbersome part of that moniker. The band retains its indie sound, but it’s got a lovely lightness to it now. Franklin refers to it as acoustic layering, though the band is still mostly electric. There is some acoustic guitar and piano, but it’s the layering of these sounds I think he’s referring to. Though layering like this would normally make music feel heavier and ponderous, the four songs here are airy, with plenty of room to breathe. Even as the instrumentals have gotten lighter, they’ve also gotten lusher, while Franklin’s vocals are as emotionally intense as ever. The music seems to glide, and it’s quite soothing and relaxing to listen to. It’s only a four-song EP, and I sure could have used more of these songs. It’s a welcome change from a lot of the harder heavier stuff I’ve been listening to lately.
BROKEN HEARTS ARE BLUE – Dark Whimsy and Soft Surrealism (Council Records, councilrecords.com)
We’ve seen lots of pandemic lockdown recordings come out over the past couple of years. Most of them have been lo-fi solo bedroom recordings, but a few have been more professional sounding, with quality recordings being passed back and forth between band members. “Dark Whimsy and Soft Surrealism” is in the latter category. The band that had formed in 1995, released one LP (1997’s “The Truth About Love”), and called it quits all found themselves in the same place in 2018, and decided to record some of the old songs that had never been committed to tape. They wrote a new song, too, and an EP resulted. They had plans to keep things going in 2020, and the pandemic hit. With all plans scuttled, the group decided to spend the time writing, recording, and sending music files back and forth. “Dark Whimsy and Soft Surrealism,” the resulting LP, definitely has a 90s post punk indie feel. It’s mostly big and expansive alt-rock with moments of intimacy and emotion. One favorite track is the opener, “Sentimental Education.” It takes some influence from power pop and 60s rock, but thoroughly updates those sounds and incorporates them into modern indie. I love the quiet “After the World, the World Remains.” Impassioned vocals sing over solo piano that’s been heavily processed with reverb, giving it a sad, introspective feel. I like, too, the big dreamy feel from the huge guitar sound of “Rohmer in the Anthropocene,” If you’re a fan of 90s post punk and emo-pop, you’ll like this. I like it well enough, but feel it’s a tad too long (at nearly an hour), and I would have liked to hear a little more diversity in the sounds. The tempos and textures are mostly the same on nearly all the songs.
GENTLEMEN ROGUES – Fancy (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings, www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
Two new songs are here from Gentlemen Rogues, the Austin, Texas outfit that do a solid job blending indie rock and power pop. This is their first new music since late 2020 and the record includes one original and one cover. The A-side is the title track, and features booming guitars with both jangle and crunch and a gliding poppy melody. The song is about the difficulties of a relationship with a language barrier and the collision of different cultures. The B-side is a cover of They Might Be Giants’ “I’ve Got a Match.” Gentlemen Rogues eschew the light quirkiness of the original and turn it into a fantastic power pop tune. It’s thicker and richer than the original, and sounds more uplifting. There are moments in both songs that remind me a bit of The Smoking Popes, and the short guitar solo in this cover is one. This is a great new single, but after a series of singles and EPs, when do we get a full length LP?
MARK STEWART – VS (Emergency Hearts, www.emergencyhearts.com)
Yes, that Mark Stewart. Member of The Pop Group, and Mark Stewart and the Maffia, and frequent collaborator with On-U Sound’s Tackhead and Adrian Sherwood, Mark Stewart has a new project he’s calling “VS,” in which he collaborates with various other musicians on each of the tracks. While his early career heavily influenced (some would say created) the post-punk genre, he later became intrigued with electronic and industrial music that began flourishing in the 1980s. This album features Stewart’s collaborations with many luminaries of the electronic and industrial genres, such as Front 242, Consolidated, KK Null, and the late Lee Scratch Perry. If you’re familiar with the genre, you know what to expect. If you’re not, you’re in for a treat! The music is hard-edged and trance-like at the same time. It’s got a strong dance beat, loads of ambient sounds, a ton of samples, all put together. It’s cerebral dance music, sharing the experimental characteristics of experimental industrial and the club beats of electronic dance music. All of the tracks are worthy, and bring back memories from the 80s and 90s, when this music was pretty dominant in the underground dance clubs (and I was playing some of this sort of music on the radio in my DJ days). There are some that I’ll highlight, though, as particularly strong. The opening track is called “Rage of Angels,” and it’s a collaboration with Front 242. It mixes the Wax Trax Records industrial sound with dub and spoken word. It’s chill and exciting at the same time. I really like the angular tones of “Ghost of Love,” in which Stewart collaborates with E Random. The powerful beat contrasts with the use of touch-tones, angular synths, and smooth ambience, with vocals digitally manipulated and chopped up. “Outlaw Empire,” a collaboration with Nun Gun, mixes in a reggae dub beat more than any of the other tracks, and is the most chill of the ten. “New Error,” with KK Null, is one of the most “out there” experimental pieces of the album, yet there’s still a discernable song structure and rhythm. It’s more challenging than the other tracks, and one of my favorites of the album. And, as you might expect, the collaboration with Lee Perry, titled “Lee Skratch Perry,” and mixed by Alpha Adrian Sherwood and Peter Harris, is chill industrial dub. If you, like me, were into this sort of mélange of genres, the mix of experimental and dance music, this new project from Mark Stewart will make you happy.
ONE HIDDEN FRAME – I Am Not Here (Thousand Islands Records, thousandislandsrecords.com)
One Hidden Frame is a punk band from Finland, active for the last 20 years. They play fast, thick, and dark punk rock music, bordering on skate punk. You can clearly hear the band’s main influences in their music, Bad Religion and Propaghandi. If you’re familiar with the music those bands play, you’ll know exactly what to expect. There’s loads of multi-part harmony, a focus on melody, hard-edged aggression, and lots of technical guitar work. If you’re a fan of the style, you’re going to love this LP, because it’s flawlessly executed. The band is tight and powerful and the members clearly know their way around their instruments. “Dry Out” is a particularly strong track, as it’s the speediest, shortest, most hardcore track of the record. “Obstacles” has some emotional pop punk mixed in, and thus feels warmer and less aggressive than many of the tracks. To my ears, though, too many of the tracks sound alike. I’m not a huge fan of the sub-genre, but I know a lot of people are. If you’re one of those, I recommend this record, because the recording is pretty strong.
SIMON LOVE – Love, Sex, and Death etc. (Tapete Records, www.tapeterecords.de)
Lovely light pop music with a flair for the dramatic is the key feature in the dozen tracks in this latest LP from the UK’s Simon Love. The title describes the topical content of the songs, which indeed include love, sex, death, and more. The use of the word “Brit-pop” annoys me; nevertheless, it’s descriptive, but in a retro sort of way. I hear loads of 60s glam-pop influence in this album, especially on tracks like the opener, “Me and You,” which might be the most modern indie sounding of the tracks. There are strong glam-pop references, though, especially in the thick orchestral instrumentation, including use of horns and chimes. “L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O” is one of the “sex” songs, and the arrangement with horns and electric organ evoke the transitory period between pop music of the 40s and the pop music influenced by rock that began being made in the 60s. Speaking of 60s influence, “You’re On Your Own” sounds like something that could have come from an early Bob Dylan album; it’s folksy, political, and sardonic, with plenty of twang and loads of attitude. Dylan’s vocal quality is even somewhat mimicked here. There’s country, too, with “I Will Always Love You Anyway,” featuring both acoustic and steel pedal guitar. Love and indifference are covered in “I Love Everybody in the Whole Wide World,” a light pop track that features electric organ and strings. “I love everybody in the whole wide world, except you” is the refrain in this song that reminds me of AM pop of the 60s or early 70s. And death is covered in songs like the 60s tragedy ballad tune, “The Worst Way to Die.” It evokes all those tunes from back in the day that featured a girl singing about her lost boyfriend who died in a tragic auto accident or something similar. In this case, the worst way to die is “without you by my side.” “Au Revoir My Dude” is a delicate song of farewell, just in case “I die before my time.” It provides wishes and advice to others in the event of an untimely passing, and is touching and humorous. If you have a hankering for 60s glam-pop, check this out.
THE SINGLES – L.O.V.E From the Santa Cruz Archives ’82 – ’85 (Kool Kat Musik, koolkatmusik.com)
I’m not sure why a label would want to collect together forgotten recordings from an obscure band that no one ever heard of, but it’s a good thing that Kool Kat Musik has done so. Of the 18 (!) tracks in this collection, only four of them have ever been officially released before (the four tracks from the band’s 1983 EP, “Play It”). If you’re a fan of classic power pop of the ‘70s and ‘80s, this should be a must have. The four-piece never signed a record deal back in the day, but they did win a battle of the bands that featured 70 entrants. They gigged locally in the Santa Cruz area and sometimes ventured out to San Francisco or LA. And though they only ever released the one EP, they continued to record, thus we have this archive. Guitar jangle, poppy melodies, and multi-part harmonies are the main features of these songs, and there isn’t a stinker in the entire hour plus of music. I hear a little bit of Santa Cruz surf influence in the songs, though they aren’t surf music by a long shot. I have a feeling the tracks are mostly arranged chronologically, because I can hear an evolution in the sound, from more classic early power pop sounds to a more commercial AM radio sound as the set of songs plays. The earliest ones are certainly my favorites. The opening track, “Lookin’ Round For You” begins things with a bang. I love the guitar tone, which reminds me a bit of The Plimouls, while the strong harmonized vocals evoke The Beat in their heyday. I also enjoy the upbeat “Just Another Girl,” with the key changes in its chorus, and the guitar licks in “Same Girl” are choice. “Different Shades of Blue” has an introspective feeling and gorgeous lush harmonies, making it a standout. I like the bass recording; I’m not sure it was intentional, but it sounds sort of like a tuba instead of a bass guitar, and it’s kind of cool. “Upside Down” is still plenty melodic, but gets a heavy dose of garage snot, and is a favorite. The album title comes from one of the tracks, “L.O.V.E. (Spells Trouble),” and it’s got some great power pop guitar licks, cool harmonies, and pretty standard power pop lyrics that revolve around love, love problems, and pining over a girl. I’m guessing “Novel of Love” and “No Wasting Time” comes from the later end of the band’s career, as they eschew power pop goodness for a mix of new wave pop and R&B funk that was popular in the mid eighties. Likewise, I’ll bet “Think It Over” is from the later era, too, with a more lounge-like AM radio tone, with hints of R&B influence. These aren’t bad tracks, but they aren’t my favorites. The collection closes with the bright, raucous, and hopeful tune, “Don’t Give Up.” It’s one that’s sure to get your dancing and jumping for joy. As is the collection, as a whole.
EL NO – Hoodlums (Howdy Mouse Records, elno.bandcamp.com)
Mix up electronic, industrial, and indie grunge-punk into one big pot, and you get El No, a band that started as a collaboration between Nate Farley (Guided By Voices, The Breeders) and Craigo Nichols (Bellringer, Fur Coats). One year to the day after their debut LP, they’re back with their sophomore effort. The interesting musical mix begins with “Speed Condition,” a track that starts out with subtle electronics and deadpan vocals, but soon adds noisy guitars, bass, and drums. The vocals get more emphatic, and the whole vibe of the track is very mechanical. The song veers back and forth between these two polar opposites, quiet and chaotic, but always the feeling of being amongst the machinery. There’s a very 90s vibe throughout the album, with obvious influence from The Jesus Lizard. The use of synths in the midst of such turbulent arrangements is unique and intriguing. The title track is one of note, in three-four waltz time, heavily bass driven with intensely processed pain-filled vocals. “Scrape It” is one of the poppiest songs of the album, but still with a hard 90s edge. The vocals sound pained and whiny, though. “Dead Center Blackout” is another poppy song, and it has a strong garage pop flair. ”Séance” has an eerie, off-kilter vibe; it’s a slower quieter song, ballad-like, but with an ambience of darkness and evil. Well, all of the tracks have an off-centered sense about them. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it doesn’t work as well. An obscure band that I’ll have you look up as a comparison is Octagrape, s late lamented San Diego band that did this whole 90s garage pop rock thing, minus the synths and the quirkiness (and I think they were more effective at it). My favorite song may be “Trash and Ashes,” which has moments of DC post-hardcore mixed with 90s garage and post-punk. As a whole, “Hoodlums” has its moments, some enjoyable, some difficult. But that’s true of life in general.
ELWAY – The Best of All Possible Worlds (Red Scare Industries, www.redscare.net)
Taking the album title from Voltaire’s “Candide,” Elway returns with a brand spanking new LP. And the album does, indeed, seem to represent the best of all possible punk worlds. Some of the songs have an almost orchestral quality, and others span big sing along pop punk to speed skate punk. There are lots of interesting touches, little audio clips inserted here and there, and wonderfully surprising arrangements and riffs. The end of the opening track, “Pangloss,” includes a snippet from the operetta version of “Candide,” written by Leonard Bernstein, in which the chorus sings that this is the best of all possible worlds. But as they sing, the tape slows and the singing distorts, as if to show that, no, this is, in fact, a pretty shitty world and all of the optimism is misplaced. “Maximum Entropy” opens with an audio clip from Tom Lehrer’s, “So Long Mom, I’m Off to Drop the Bomb.” And “Plastic Bottle Service” opens with a clip I couldn’t identify, but it sounds like it comes from some opera or musical. That opening track starts out solemnly, lyrics referencing death and loss, but that one would trade everything to be back in this life and this time. The title’s meaning is the viewpoint that everything that happens is for the best. When the full band comes in, the music changes from solemn to ecstatic, lyrics providing examples of the thoughts behind that title. “Unclaimed Graves” is sure to scratch your itch for great big sing-alongs, especially when the band tours to support the LP (I like how we can assume tours are coming nowadays, unlike during the past two years). “The Rest is Posthumous” has gorgeous ethereal string synth in the background, giving a heavenly quality to the otherwise raucous track. Another track of note is “Deep Fake,” an otherwise emotionally loaded song that ranges from ballad to rollicking pop punk song, has the cinematic quality of a spaghetti Western during the bridge. My favorite track of the album, I think, is “The Infirm Dreamers Dream.” Like a lot of the album, it’s not ‘just’ good pop punk; it’s got elements of indie, and the changing and varied textures of the track are gorgeous. In a true goose bump raising moment, “Folly After Death” has a bridge that recapitulates the opening moments of the album, repeating the lyrics and melody of those first solemn moments of “Pangloss.” It was unexpected and moving. The power of the songs, the strength of the diversity in melodies and textures, and the excellence of the production add up to a quality release, perhaps Elway’s best.
EMPEROR PENGUIN – Sunday Carvery (Kool Kat Musik, koolkatmusik.com)
London pop band Emperor Penguin’s latest LP is all over the place, musically. The opening track has gritty industrial sounding guitars and a strong beat, and I thought I was in for some Wax Trax like music. But other songs are power pop, indie rock, and almost 80s pop. My favorite song of the album has to be “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing.” It’s got hints of Brit-folk-pop, and I love the quirkiness and angularity of the melodic line. “Sputnik Sweetheart,” at times has the sound of a Duran Duran song, but it’s harder-edged. The lead vocals and close harmonies is what reminds me of the 80s group. “On the Motorway” has the sound of one of those late era Beatles tunes, with a homey feel that becomes orchestral. Here it’s an oom-pah band instead of a full orchestra. “The Ballad of Billy Farthing” is another Beatles-esque tune, reminding me of “Rocky Raccoon,” with the same loping quality and storytelling vibe. There’s breezy jazz-pop on this record, too, in “Let Me Take You On Holiday.” It’s got the sound of a travel ad, so spot-on, there. Besides the opening track, we also get harder manic rock music from “Fran Times a Zillion.” The band’s PR materials cite diverse influences such as XTC, The Kinks, Teenage Fanclub, Mungo Jerry (!!), and AC/DC. I can hear this in the songs, and diversity and variety can be a good thing, but this much results in a disjointed sound. I liked parts of this LP, others not as much.
MINIBEAST – On Ice (minibeast.bandcamp.com)
Minibeast is a three-piece mostly instrumental ensemble, featuring Peter Prescott, formerly of Mission of Burma (both times) and Volcano Suns, providing guitar, keyboard, and vocals, along with Keith Seidel (drums) and Niels LaWhite (bass). Like his former band mate, Roger Miller, before him, Prescott is moving away from standard indie rock and toward more experimental and mind-bending sorts of music. Those vocals are used less to sing and more as another instrument and as punctuation. This is definitely space jam sort of material, meandering on a journey without a set destination. The drumbeats are tribal and the guitars are eerie and spacey, with a Can sort of vibe. I think “Spiral Funks” is my favorite track of the album, as it’s definitely the weirdest, with a Nurse with Wound sort of Dada feel, various found sound samples mixed together, looped speaking, and funky guitars and beat. “A Few Thoughts About Thought Crime in 1969” is interestingly hypnotic, the repeating bass line inducing a trance-like state while Prescott provides a spoken word rant above, below, and around the music. The oscillating sounds near the end of the track are freaky, like something out of a 1950s science fiction film. The album veers into stoner jam realm with the appropriately named “Late Summer Haze,” a track that might be appropriate after ingesting mind-altering substances that leave you in a haze. After awhile, though, these extended jams (most of the tracks exceed seven minutes in length) get to be a bit too extended. The whole album is an hour and six minutes long. As interesting and cool as some of these tracks are, that may be a bit too much.
NO FRILLS – Downward Dog (nofrillsmusic.bandcamp.com)
No frills, indeed. This is minimalist pop music, thinly arranged and lo-fi. The songs are slightly jazzy, slightly lounge-like, and with hints of kids’ music influence, like some of those 70s songs written for Sesame Street film sequences back in the day. Guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards play relaxed smooth jazz-pop, while relaxed vocals sing nonchalantly. Everything feels light and insubstantial. And it’s also aloof and detached. I don’t get a lot of zeal from these songs. Everything is performed very dispassionately, with an even-keeled tone, resulting in little variety. Minimalist and lo-fi can be great, but lack of commitment is a fatal flaw to me, and I just don’t feel this album.
REMINDERS – Best of Beach Punk (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com / Venn Records, www.vennrecords.com)
The other day a friend posted a link to a music video, saying that this was great. I agreed. It was a band I was not familiar with, so I just filed it away. Today I’m paying more attention because that band was Reminders, and the song was “If You Want It (Don’t Let Me Down.” Reminders are from a small corner of the UK, The Isle of Wight, an island off the coast of an island. Formed by teenagers a scant five years ago, Reminders are not quite a punk band, not quite an indie rock band, and instead falling somewhere in the no-man’s land in between. Best of Beach Punk” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to their origins in a small seaside town, and the fact that this is the band’s debut full-length LP, not a “best of” compilation. The songs cover the usual teen angst sort of topics that young bands write about, but the music is joyous. That they do it without falling into the trap of sounding like too many other bands is testament to their creativity. We do get songs that are punkier than others, like the opener, “Post Paris Blues,” which is a raucous good time blending old school first wave punk and gorgeous pop melody, in the way The Buzzcocks did so many years ago. And even rowdier is “Again, Again,” a song that reminds me of earlier songs from The Dirty Nil but injected with an overdose of pop. The lead single from the album, “Carousel,” is a standout, with its gritty guitars matching the dark mood of the lyrics, even as the tempo and melody try desperately to lighten the mood, almost as desperately as the lyrics would imply. “Does the carousel ever stop spinning? / Cause I've been sitting here watching the wheels go round, round and round / Do the losers ever start winning?” This is the way the song opens, and it’s something everyone of us can related to – the feeling that you’re going to come up short no matter what you do. It’s a song about being angry at yourself and at the world for being stuck where you are, like there’s no winning. I truly enjoy the ride that is “Waiting On You,” a song that has sedate wistful verses and a manic chaotic chorus. And the closing track, “Between Now & Six Thirty,” is completely different from the rest. It’s acoustic guitar, brushed drums, and vocals, sounding just as somber as the lyrics. It’s a song of hurt and regret in the instant after the wrong thing is said. The chorus sums it up: “I know you never meant to hurt me / You know I never want to see you cry / Between now and six thirty / I’m bound to have changed my mind.” Oh, and that song that my friend posted the video of? Truly outstanding. It’s packed with passion and despite the title, it’s less hopeful sounding than the other tracks. Sort of like knowing that you will be let down. It’s my favorite of the album, which is saying a lot, because this is an outstanding album, especially for a debut.
SCRUNCHIES – Feral Coast (Dirtnap Records, www.dirtnaprecs.com)
“Feral Coast” is a great name for this LP, because the music feels wild and untamed. Not in the sense that it’s out of control or anything; quite the opposite. It’s ferocious, though, like this band, despite the cutsie name, isn’t going to take shit and will fight back with zeal, should it feel threatened. The music has a raw quality, coming from a somewhat lo-fi recording, with primal guitar sounds and angry desperate vocals. The band uses clever arrangements, sometimes cutting the guitars completely, leaving just the bass, vocals, and drums, giving it the feel of a primitive war chant. I like, too, the use of shifting rhythmic patterns almost as another instrument in the band, though it never feels like math-rock. No intricacies in the music, just raw power. Even in the quiet sections, you can sense the tension, like an animal about to pounce. I hear hints of mid-period Dischord/DC post-hardcore influence, too, in many of these songs. ”New What” is a standout song, for a couple reasons. One, it’s different from the rest, somewhat more melodic and mostly more restrained. And two, I say “mostly” because it alternates between quiet and lovely and chaotic and noisy, providing some great contrasts and dynamic range. The quieter parts are gorgeous, with a cleaner guitar sound, and that drum-bass combination giving an ominous feel. The chaotic parts are pure nihilism. “Back Egg” is another one that’s got quieter and noisier sections, and the quieter sections have strong melodic content. “Ditch” is another standout track. I love the dark melody and the interplay between guitar and bass in the instrumental breaks. “Feral Coast” represents this Minneapolis band’s sophomore LP. It makes me want to go back and check out their debut.
SUZI MOON – Animal (Pirates Press Records, piratespressrecords.com)
What do we need to say? C’mon, it’s Suzi Moon! As she says herself in the title track, she’s a fucking animal and we’re her little toys. Suzi Moon is all-in no-nonsense rock’n’roll. That title track is the middle of a trio on this new EP, and it’s sensual grunge, if that makes sense. It’s slower, has a tribal beat from the drums, vocals that drip with, well, animalism, and a chorus that goes full-on Seattle. The first track, “Sonic Attraction,” is pure hard rock, a la Motorhead and that ilk, while the final offering, “Gold Record Autograph,” is fun power pop that could have come from the late 70s or early 80s. It’s bouncy and poppy, unlike Suzi’s usual offerings, and it could be my favorite song she’s ever done.
WHIMSICAL – Melt (Shelflife Records, www.shelflife.com)
Whimsical is not an apt description of this band’s music, though “Melt” is a good album title, because the music will melt your cold heart. It’s light, airy, dreamy stuff, with big guitars, floating vocals, and ethereal synths. “Melt” is the band’s fourth full-length LP, and their third since reuniting in 2015, after a 10-year hiatus. “Searching” is, perhaps, the biggest and dreamiest track of the album. It, too, is perfectly titled, with an epic, grand sound, as if on a wondrous journey of exploration. Krissy Vanderoude’s vocals ring out like a bell. The expansive feel of this song makes it an instant favorite. “Gravity” is a good example of what most of the tracks are like: big wall of guitar shoe-gaze, dreamy synths, and those gossamer vocals, so angelic, like something unreal. I’m not as much a fan of the opening track, “Rewind,” as the rest. The opening moments sound like auto-tune or some other vocal manipulation was used, and there are moments of commercial pop in this track that turned me off. While most of the tracks are pretty shoegaze-like, some are not. “Crash and Burn,” though it still has an introspective quality to it, due to Vanderwoude’s diaphanous vocals, the instrumentals and melody have a more urgent feel, with quick tempo and harder edge. It’s not quite bouncy pop, but it’s got a powerful beat and is much more a 90s indie sort of tune than the rest. It makes for a standout. If you’re a fan of big dreamy music with big buzzy guitars, check this out.
BAND ARGUMENT – Cow Tools (Oranj Discs, oranj.bandcamp.com)
Experimental math-pop nerds Band Argument return with their debut full-length LP. Pre-pandemic, the band had released an EP and a single, and I even managed to catch one of their few live shows back then. But, as with everything and everyone else, they’ve been sidelined for most of the past two years. Now that things are opening back up again, though, they’ve managed to release a sparkling new LP and have started to play live again. And, while there are still mathish elements in some of the songs, the quartet have traded in most of their offbeat tendencies for shining and exuberant pop melodies. The opening track is pure pop, bright midi-driven glittery synth tones combined with smooth gliding vocals. The time signature does subtly shift, but that’s not the main highlight of the song, as in past recordings. Melody trumps tricky rhythms on this outing. Most of the tracks are like this: smooth pop out front, more experimental tendencies in the back, quietly supporting the glimmering music. Even on tracks where the off-kilteredness is front and center, like on “Different Kind of Sea Monster,” it’s still smoothed out. Sila Damone’s lead vocals are silky and placid, tempering the effects of any trippy tendencies in the instrumentals. “Full Stop” is a perfect example of this. The instrumentals hop up and down, back and forth. But Damone’s vocals are much more even-keeled, keeping any overboard oddness of the instrumentals from overwhelming the song. There’s always an exception to the rule, though, and “Mango Bug” is it. Though fully melodic and poppy, the power of the shifting rhythms is the most predominant element of this song, even as the time signature remains mostly consistent. This track has the most instrumental diversity of the album, as well, making it a real standout. “Safety Line,” too, has moments where the quirkiness takes over, but other moments where everything gets smooth and sedate. Progressive rock has a long history in music. So does pop. Rarely is there something that could be called “progressive pop.” Band Argument are it. The only suggestion I might offer is to increase the use of dynamics in the songs. There are melodic shifts, rhythmic changes, and tonal shifts in the songs, but not much in the way of volume level. It’s another textural tool to make use of.
GOOD GRIEF – Shake Your Faith (HHBTM Records, www.hhbtm.com)
This Liverpudlian band has been around for nearly a decade, and this latest LP finds them presenting an uneven eleven tracks. Some of the tracks are pretty great indie rock with a poppy edge, while others are closer to bubblegum pop rock sounds. There’s plenty of guitar jangle and some lovely vocal harmonies in some songs, while others have a buzzier edge. Compare the first two tracks. “Metal Phase” is mostly light and airy, with pretty vocals, though the guitar tone is somewhat gritty. And “How Can I Help Falling In Love” is darker, noisier, and thinner sounding. “The Pony Remark” even has the dichotomy inside the song. The verses are great loping power pop mixed with a gritty guitar sound, but the chorus sounds like something from AM radio back in the 70s. I guess a reasonable comparison might be a less full sounding Superchunk; there’s definitely a 90s alternative feel here. “Dimension Jump” is an outlier from the rest of the tracks; it’s a ballad of sorts, but it drags and feels too heavy. It doesn’t have the bounce of the rest of the tracks. But the other ten tracks are pretty darn enjoyable.
NO ONE SPHERE – Isn’t Everything About Something (Broken Sound Records and Tapes, brokensoundtapes.bandcamp.com)
This debut LP from No One Sphere was a long time coming, begun in the pre-pandemic era and taking five years to complete. Dave Mann is the driving force behind No One Sphere, writing the songs, providing lead vocals, and making all the big decisions. Mann would send demos to Jarrett Nicolay, owner of Mixtape Studios, who would track the instruments and turn them into studio recordings. Mann would drop in to record vocals from time to time. The album leans into alternative rock and indie pop, with some strong 80s influences. The opening track, “Twin Coasts” channels power pop and new wave, but tries to grunge it up through use of a grumbling guitar tone. But the melody is too lively and bouncy to be grunge, and the synths add both a sparkle and retro 80s feel. “Where I Was” similarly has an 80s feel; it alternately bounces and glides, with power pop and indie rock trading places on verses and chorus. The synths make me think of the sort of glam pop that was popular in the late 70s. The melding of power pop and indie is most apparent on “Pictures In My Room,” with some of the licks reminding me of Paul Collins songs (The Beat, The Nerves), but the instrumentation is thick and dreamy. It’s a great combination that makes this my favorite track of the album. “Ceiling Fan” is an outlier, and has the sound of a spy thriller soundtrack, with a cool vibe that builds in intensity. It doesn’t feel like it came from the same writer. The album has seven tracks, but six songs. The last track, “Motivation Pt. 2,” is a long piece that exceeds half an hour, an ambient journey in dreamy synths. It ranges from eerie to ethereal, and it’s lovely, but feels even very out of place among the rest of the songs.
YUMI ZOUMA – Present Tense (Polyvinyl Record Co., www.polyvinylrecords.com)
Yumi Zouma hail from New Zealand and play breezy “alternative” synth pop. The music is light an airy, and rather than sounding alternative, it has a distinct commercial pop aura. I could imagine that, with some subtle changes to production, some of these songs could be top 40 hits. Many of them lean hard to “adult contemporary,” very relaxed and easy. The image of the sort of people who make and listen to this music that I have in my mind is guys wearing khaki slacks and white t-shirts, women wearing skirts and sweaters. It’s all very clean-cut and inoffensive. Another image I get is if a movie was made with all those John Hughes teen movie characters from The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and movies of that ilk, and they’re all adults now in their 30s, this would be the soundtrack.
BODY FARM – Living Hell (Blind Rage Records, blindragerecords.com / Dead Tank Records, deadtankrecords.com / So This Is Progress Records, www.sothisisprogress.com)
Hardcore! Body Farm is a four-piece from Ohio that rages, with hardcore, thrash, power violence, and even grindcore elements to their music. They’ve got eight new songs on this ten-minute EP, and their name is their politics. They’re active with NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Sex Militant, and the Black, Queer, and Intersectional Collective. Their lyrics are militantly political and songs touch on topics such as what real justice is, true equality, body autonomy, the harm greed does to society, police murders of people of color, and more. The vocals seethe with righteous indignation, and the instrumentals pummel. Besides the songs, there’s a spoken word treatise in the opening track, “20-20,” and various sampled clips from various sources to illustrate the issues the band is highlighting. The recording is somewhat lo-fi, but the fidelity in the sentiments is strong.
DRUNK UNCLE – Look Up (Count Your Lucky Stars Records, www.cylsrecords.com)
With a name like Drunk Uncle, I was expecting something along the lines of sloppy poppy punk rock, but man, was I wrong! This Austin, Texas band play really great indie that ranges from pop to rock, with emo-ish tendencies. I love the sound of the recording, which includes studio banter between some of the songs, making it feel casual and relaxed, like you’re there with the band, like it’s a house show, more than an album. The band’s command of dynamic range is impressive, as the songs range from hushed to lush, from controlled to chaotic. Guitars swirl and jangle, while vocals are alternately sedate and impassioned. Gang vocals spring up at a moments notice with fiery intensity, pulled back in the mix, like it’s the audience or group of friends singing along. I can’t help but be reminded of 90s Midwest bands, which I, of course, love, being from the Midwest. Captain Jazz and Braid come to mind. After the end of the first track, we hear people chatting as the guitar starts to meander. The song is “Depakote,” and after the initial intro, it explodes with impolite fury before settling into a slightly more relaxed introspective sound, dueling guitars playing off each other. Suddenly it gets very quiet, acoustic and electric guitars picking out a melodic line while a voice is barely audible in the background. Then everything erupts all over again for the finish. Like I said, excellent dynamic control. Contrast that to “It’s Everything,” which immediately follows. It’s a much smoother song with shifting meters and some start-stop hesitation. There are more mathish tendencies on “Get to the Moon,” with more gorgeous contrasts of smooth melodies and impassioned pleading vocals, and there is even a part for glockenspiel! One of my favorites is the slightly experimental sounding “The Sounds Coming Out of My Mouth.” Its texture is thick and complex, synths fluttering and playing an alert of warning. There are found sound recordings in the mix, too, as the track becomes a coherent chaos. This flows directly into “Punch,” with rambling rolling acoustic and electric guitars evoking a pastoral landscape. The track slowly builds, and then suddenly falls back to the lolling acoustic guitar. The bright pop of “Morning Shower,” especially the gang vocal spots, is hard to resist. As is the whole LP. This is recommended.
J PROZAC – Won’t Let Go (Rum Bar Records, www.rumbarrecords.com)
Longtime punk Jay Prozac, he of bands such as The Prozacs and Stiletto Bomb, also releases music under his own name. If you’re not aware of The Prozacs et al, they’re strong proponents of the 90s pop punk aesthetic. The music is crunchy yet poppy. And Jay does it well. The genre is thoroughly explored and well-trod ground, especially if you’re a fan of bands like Screeching Weasel and Squirtgun. But J throws in some cool curveballs that make this record better than just a generic 90s pop punk record. I particularly like “Regret,” a song that mixes in a heavy dose of late 70s power pop while keeping the harder punk edge. “People I Know” is a fun song, with a chorus of warning: “My mom says, my dad says, don’t talk don’t talk to strangers,” and it includes guest vocals from Jay’s son, Tyler. “Days Go By” opens as a lovely acoustic song with more power pop ballad leanings than punk, then the full band comes in. It’s still more power-pop ballad-like, even with the sparklingly bright pop pun guitars that join in. My favorite track is probably the title track, which opens the LP. It has a more urgent feel than a lot of the songs, big backing vocals, and a little more oomph in the chord changes than typical pop punk. Lyrically the songs are very much 90s pop punk, too, with songs that are mostly meaningless fun. A good example is “Building Blocks,” a song about a kid wanting to do nothing but use his imagination to build all sorts of things with the titular toys. One cover appears on the album: “Thirteen Days,” by Dirtbike Annie. Despite the funny bit before the song decrying J Prozac “ruining” a Dirtbbike Annie song, this version is reasonably true to the original and done quite well. The CD version contains six bonus tracks, including another cover, a punked up version of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” Bottom line, Prozac isn’t breaking new ground here, but if you’re a fan of 90s pop punk (and who isn’t?), you can’t go wrong here.
LAMMPING – Stars We Lost (We Are Busybodies Records, wearebusybodies.com)
Canada produces some cool bands, eh? Let’s add Lammping to the list. The band is quite unique, quirky, and psychedelic. They have only been around a short time, but they sound seasoned. They take influence from the music of psych jam heroes like Hawkwind and Blue Cheer, as well as modern Krautrock adherents Stereolab. As such, the tracks are varied and colorful. The album opens with a meandering guitar and keyboard playing off each other in a dreamy sort of way, on “Everlasting Moor,” but after that short introduction the rhythm section begins to throb in a Neu! sort of way, but the melody is somewhat poppy and there’s a freaky psych guitar thing going on in the background. The whole thing feels pretty relaxed with s chill vibe. Next comes “Never Phoenix,” which is quirky in the best way, with a vaguely Eastern European ethnic feel and tuba providing the bass. Guitars occasionally provide a deep jab of psychedelia, and the whole thing has a bit of circus-like flair. I love the rolling feel of “Home of Shadows,” which ranges from folksy to soulful to Krautrock sounds. The short “’21 Interlude” is liturgical music that comes straight from the church of Funk. I love “Beyond the Veil,” which blends indie pop and 70s German experimental rock music, the end of which is cheesy funny Euro ethno-pop. The closing track is “Golem of Garbage Hill,” which borrows both from Krautrock and from Black Sabbath to create a psychedelic hard rock number. All in all, this is one of the coolest and most unique releases I’ve listened to so far this year.
VELOUR ACADEMY – Chisme (Snappy Little Numbers Quality Audio Recordings, www.snappylittlenumbers.com)
Upon listening to the first track of this LP, “Pulsar,” I was confused. Dark, growling synth provides the bass that one would associate with something somewhat industrial, along with a dance-like beat from the drums. But then ethereal vocals and clean spartan guitar comes in with a dreamy indie-pop sound. Other tracks eschew the grittiness for a breezy poppy sound, one that I feel is much more successful. I especially like the hint of retro 50s and 60s girl group pop in some of the songs, like “dsprnggirl” and the gorgeous “All Alone.” The latter almost feels like a ballad, particularly in the opening, though when the drums come in it picks up a bit. As might be expected, it’s a tearjerker of a song, about a breakup. Most of the songs are just lovely indie pop tracks. I like the overdubbed “Something About Your Eyes,” with dueling intertwining vocals, and a couple of gentle new-wave meets lounge pop tracks, “Soda Juice” and “Macrifoam” are lots of fun. The LP is ten songs in 23 minutes, but it goes by so quickly, the only disappointment is when it ends and I want more.
BROKEN FIELD RUNNER – Runner (Jetsam-Flotsam, www.jetsam-flotsam.com)
This new EP from LA’s Broken Field Runner ranges from indie rock to borderline pop music. It’s definitely further along the spectrum toward the mainstream than the last record of theirs I reviewed, 2017’s “Heavy Hanging Fruit.” In between, the band has released a full-length LP and yet another EP. But let’s focus on this new EP. As with the last record I reviewed, the first track is…different. In this case we get an a cappella choir singing a hymn of lament for a grandfather who has passed on. He was a drinker, but he didn’t get mean, he just got real quiet and fell asleep in his jeans. The song continues with a warning against following too closely in his footsteps: “You smell like he smelled / Your eyes are like his / You lean on his casket / Try not to fall in.” The song ends with the certainty that “We’ll all get our flowers, boys / For the first time / On the day that we die, on the day that we die.” It’s suitably solemn, and a beautifully somber way to start what’s an otherwise bright sounding EP. But where the previous EP was expansive sounding indie rock, this new EP is much brighter sounding, much more on the borderline with mainstream guitar based pop music. It’s sort of like the stuff that was called emo or pop punk in the 2000s, very broad strokes, poppy, but with angsty vocals and lyrics. “Baby Satan” has a distinct 2000s alternative rock/emo feel, while others veer directly toward mainstream pop melodies. Besides that first track, this EP lacks the quirkiness that I loved about “Heavy Hanging Fruit,” and the band just sounds more like so many other bands out there. The music is solid enough, and is performed well, so if you like this style you’ll enjoy this record. But it just didn’t do anything for me, and was a disappointment, given that older EP.
CAPTAIN RICO & THE GHOST BAND – Fréquences d’Outre-Tombe (captain-rico.bandcamp.com)
Do they surf in France? They must, because French band Captain Rico & the Ghost Band are an instrumental surf band, sounding like they came right out of the best surf breaks of Southern California. The macabre title translates to “Rhythms From Beyond the Grave,” and it’s an invitation to travel through a time warp to the 1960s, when guitarists like Dick Dale and bands like The Ventures, The Surfaris, and The Shadows ruled the (sound) waves. A notable exception is the opening track, “Sun Worship,” which blends surf with harder garage punk sounds, for a rough and tumbling sort of opener. Many of the tracks, for that matter, are a little gruffer than the progenitors of the genre, with a gritty guitar tone and a coarse attitude. It’s an appropriate updating of the sound, since surfing itself has gone from sedate wave riding to cutthroat competition, carving, and shredding. Captain Rico & The Ghost Band slash and slice through eleven tracks that would make a perfect soundtrack for a modern surf session. With most surf music, you know what you’re getting, but Captain Rico throws in a few interesting surprises. “A Long Time Ago” is a favorite track for it’s unorthodox guitar work on the bridge, using brighter poppier melodic phrasing and rhythms, even as the main portion of the track sticks to a more standard surf sound. “Secret Weapons” is a slower, lazier track, with plenty of bending notes, sounding like something Angelo Badalamenti might have written for Twin Peaks. Yeah, sure, you know what to expect when it comes to surf instrumentals, for the most part, but if you enjoy the genre, Captain Rico & The Ghost Band do a fine job playing it and introducing some modern touches.
EN GARDE – Debts (Count Your Lucky Stars Records, www.cylsrecords.com)
It’s barely a year since En Garde released an EP of music they had been working on for nearly ten years, yet here they’re back with a full LP worth of music. In my review of the EP I noted that I hoped the band was still going to be a thing because they’re that good. So I’m very happy to have this LP arrive and am pleased to announce that it lives up to expectations, but anxious that these are still recordings from the 2012 session that gave us the previous EP. The band is just a duo, consisting of Ross Horvath (vocals/guitar) and Andy Hendricks (drums), yet they sound much bigger than this configuration would imply. The music is a blend of math, emo, and indie; the music is incredibly intricate with shifting rhythms, and Horvath’s vocals are intensely passionate. The labyrinthine guitar work is matched by the equally complex drumming, but the vocals are stark and ardent. It’s hard to pick any favorite tracks, because they’re all outstanding. But I’ll call out “Vice Versa” for it’s great dynamic range, “Not Penny’s Boat,” not just for its title but for the mind-boggling technical nature of the instrumentals – especially those guitar glissandos, and “Friend Fiction,” which has some particularly lush sections, the guitar fully filling out the sound. If you’re looking for music that’s earnest and exciting, you can’t go wrong with En Garde.
GOODMAN – How Close Are You To The Ground (goodmanmusic.bandcamp.com)
Goodman returns with an album full of their modern take on power pop. The melodies are bouncy but unique twists include blending in some great shoegaze guitar buzz and some dreamy synths. The use of different keyboards and guitar tones gives the ten songs a variety of textures, keeping things interesting. And while there’s a great head-bobbing beat to the tunes and poppy melodies, there’s an aura of melancholy, too. This is immediately noticeable on the first track, “One Thousand Channels,” a song with a huge pop sound, but a pensive feeling, particularly in Michael Goodman’s voice. “Mis’rable” is another favorite, with a strong beat and somber synths and vocals. I like the deep buzz of the backing guitars and the contrast with gloomy synths. “Desk W/ A View” starts out with some weird jazz on a loop and undecipherable talking, which made my ears perk up – but though song doesn’t continue the experimental aspect, it’s quite different from the rest of the tracks. It’s more thinly arranged, and the guitar buzz is the thickest aspect. The synths are replaced with piano, and the mournful feel is very apparent, even with major chords and a strong back beat. “Sprint/Marathon” is another one that has deep rough buzzy guitars, and the contrast with the power pop melody is pretty cool. Good stuff.
THE INTERESTS – Capitulation (https://theinterests.co.uk)
After dropping their recorded debut single right at the end of 2021, London’s The Interest are back with another new single. Where their debut was dark and desolate sounding, this new single is bright and bouncy. It starts out with a lonely guitar jangle, but as the drums, second guitar, and vocals come in, it just brightens up, though those deep vocals still have an aura of melancholy. The guitar tone is clean, which contributes to the cheery breeziness. The tempo has a spring to it, though the lyrics are quite depressing, about a breakup. Happy sounding instrumentals with depressing lyrics is always a winning combination, and The Interests are now 2 for 2. I’m now looking forward to see where they go next, a full-length LP, and an American tour.
LIGHTWEIGHT – This One’s On Me (lightweightpunk.bandcamp.com)
Now we’re talkin’! Sacramento, California’s Lightweight gives us their first new music since the pre-pandemic full-length LP, “Sprits Down.” And, man, is it glorious! Huge gang vocals, epic soaring melodies, crunchy guitars, heartfelt lyrics, it’s all here. There are five tracks, but really four songs – the track “Plaza Ave.” is a solemn introduction, lonely guitar and burbling water effects appear alongside pained vocals. But it’s a short appetizer for the main courses. “Whiskey Is Not A Jacket” soon bursts forth, and get ready for true euphoric pop punk music! The tracks flow seamlessly, one into another; “Whiskey” yields to the more raucous “21 Grams Between Us.” It’s harder-edged, but also has an uplifting feel kind of like PUP meets RVIVR. There’s enough of a pause to “flip the record,” and “Bummers, Drive-Ins, and Vibes” continues the ride, this time somewhat more smoothly. The arrangements are intricate and executed with precision that many bands of the genre can’t match. Without missing a beat, the band launches into “Insomnia,” a more moderate tempo song, but no less energetic. Not only are the songs well-written and performed with furious passion and precision, the production is top-notch, thanks to Earthtone Patrick Hills, who recorded and produced the EP. These four little songs make one great EP. Lightweight needs to be bigger than they are right now, and this EP belongs in Best of 2022 lists.
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