New album: The Feeders || Dark Days

Chicago veterans make their punchy guitar pop sound effortless

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

Back in 2021, I described The Feeders’ debut as “like Superchunk channeling Teenage Fanclub, or Superchunk playing good Weezer songs.” For Dark Days, I’d happily throw The Thermals and The Muffs into the mix as well. That still doesn’t tell the whole story of The Feeders, though. Featuring Chicago scene veterans Sam Vicari, Alex Rackow, and John Perrin (NRBQ), this is a band that knows exactly how to write an irresistible guitar pop song.

This is the good kind of alt-pop. It leans indie punk, it leans modern power pop, and every now and then there’s even a hint of doo-wop, not unlike the way Masked Intruder sneaks those melodies into their songs. It’s catchy, punchy, fuzzy, and refreshingly free of unnecessary frills.

The title Dark Days suggests conflict, and many of the lyrics wrestle with it, but sonically this record is all sunshine breaking through the clouds. These songs are ridiculously easy to like. They also create the dangerous illusion that all you need to do is invite two friends into your basement, plug in a few guitars, and start casually cranking out hooks like these. If only it were that simple.

Dark Days is streaming on all the usual places, not yet fully available on Bandcamp though.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Heavenly Bodes || Green Hills

The sound of summer melting into fuzz

By / / Garage Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

The Heavenly Bodes bottle the hazy magic of a Cornish summer on Green Hills, their debut full-lengther following a few short format releases (previously we raved about last year’s A Shelf You Can Applaud At A Distance EP). Tracked to reel-to-reel in a friend’s living room, these nine songs embrace tape hiss, loose performances, and sun-bleached imperfections, rooted in ’60s acid garage.

The quartet blends jangly surf guitars, woozy organ swirls, and driving basslines into a sound that drifts between ragged garage-rock energy and dreamy psychedelia (imagine a mix of Night Beats’ psych, Thee Oh Sees’ weirdness, and Allah-Las’ surf, and you have an idea). The record bursts into life with De Groene Heuvels (inspired by a wild weekend on a Dutch hillside, hence the translation), a two-and-a-half-minute blast of reckless momentum that immediately sets the tone. From there, the band keeps the quality high, never losing a intimate, hypnotic, and wonderfully unpolished pull.



Green Hills is out digitally and on vinyl LP trough Fuzz Club Records. Featuring Paul Ruskin (vocals, guitar), Fin Wilson (vocals, guitar, organ), Iolo Puleston (bass), and Alex Mantle (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Fuzz Club

New album: long odds || the dry land

Indie rock with a lo-fi crunch from Ohio (members of Connections, Times New Viking, Brat Curse and Blood Noize)

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

Here’s something lo-fi, crunchy, and pleasantly slack-ish to start the week off right: the dry land, the second album from Ohio indie rock quartet long odds, out now on vinyl via Clean Demon Records.

I somehow missed the band’s debut back in 2022. Listening to the dry land, though, I immediately found myself wondering whether long odds shared DNA with another Ohio favorite of mine: Connections. Not just in sound, but the art direction as well. Turns out they do. Half of long odds also plays in Connections, with Adam Elliott (also of Times New Viking) and Philip Kim joined here by Joe Camerlengo (Brat Curse) and Courtney L. Hall (Blood Noize).

But don’t expect Connections Part II. While both bands share a love of fuzzy, lo-fi guitars, long odds trades caffeine for patience, Guided By Voices for Silver Jews. They slowly pull you in instead. Stripped down, noisy, and wonderfully unhurried, the dry land is the kind of record that rewards surrender. Put your phone away, let the fuzz wash over you, and you’ll find an easy record to sink into.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Clean Demon

New EP: Alex Kasznel & the Board of Directors || The Burden of Proof

Fast, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful from start to finish

By / / Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

Serious or not, one of the most striking contributions to the extensive Green Day Tribute compilations came from Alex Kasznel & the Board of Directors; BoDSM is a nod to the band name abbreviation, but above all a medley of BDSM-themed titles like Blood, Sex, & Booze and Dominated Love Slave (I hear “All dressed up and bound and gagged up to a chair” and suddenly the frontman’s tie makes more sense). Although more explicit than expected, we shouldn’t be surprised (in our review of last December’s Kitchencore 7″, we compared their pop punk for grownups—euphemism for adult content?—to Green Day), but we’re glad that there is also a new release with five original songs.

Opening track Unnatural Selection is on familiar ground, but after that, the Cincinnati musicians broaden their sound. This applies most of all to Minor League (possibly the heaviest thing yet, thanks in part to Kris Thiele’s screams), and to closer Fake Banter for the Intro (possibly the most subdued music to date, Americana with Keith Humphrey on pedal steel). Behind the wit lies a band with the chops to back it up. It’s time to take the BoD seriously.


The Burden of Proof is out digitally and on CD through Air Quotes Records. Featuring Alex Kasznel (guitar, vocals), Heather Alene (bass, vocals), DM (guitar, vocals), and Ohio Pete (drums, percussion), with Victor Brame (narration), Kris Thiele (screaming), and Keith Humphrey (pedal steel) on one track.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Chutes || The Chutes

Welcome to the jangle

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Right now, the Bay Area underground pop scene is so healthy it’s even luring in hardcore kids. Well, sort of. Kenneth Turner (Beg For Death, Fentanyl, Foghorn) and Erika Calderon-Turner (yes, they’re married) have never exactly hidden their love for Sarah Records, Slumberland Records, and all things properly jangly.

The Chutes is their debut together, with Kenneth handling the instruments while both share vocal duties. Given their pedigree, I expected something closer to scrappy twee punk. Instead, these seven songs are surprisingly polished, built around crisp strummy guitars, plenty of jangle, and an irresistible sense of momentum. Best of all, The Chutes possess that magical quality the finest indie pop bands seem to stumble upon so effortlessly: they somehow sound wistful and sun-drenched at the exact same time.

The Chutes EP is out now on CD, with the vinyl available to pre-order from Dandy Boy ahead of its late October release.

Add to  wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Thee Cybermen || Never Said Goodbye

Vintage garage spirit with fresh fire in its veins

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

Founding members Dan Price and Pete Scoundrel are joined by Medway heavyweights Bruce Brand(!) and Hipbone Slim(!), and the chemistry is undeniable. Yet, three decades(!) after their last album, Thee Cybermen return as if they never left. The cleverly titled Never Said Goodbye LP is a joyous blast of British beat, garage rock, surf, and rhythm & blues, recorded entirely analogue to preserve every ounce of intrinsic spirit and gritty authenticity (contrary to what you would expect with a band name like this).

The twelve new songs brim with infectious hooks and melodic guitars that take listeners to every corner of a sweaty live venue. Stomping floor-fillers (Bad Liqour, I Can’t Stand It) take center stage, but fist-in-the-air criticism (Cirsuses & Bread), intriguing storytelling (The Pink Wig), a melancholic summer feel (I Gotta Give You Up, Don’t Look Back), and a cinematic instrumental (Das Bruce) provide variety and originality. If ever a comeback deserved an exclamation mark, it’s this one.



Never Said Goodbye is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Soundflat Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Soundflat

New EP: Twit || Spurts

A snarky, angular, and completely unpredictable Canadian outfit is here to blow you away

By / / Alternative Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Wow. Twit, a Canadian band featuring members of Bootlicker, Headcheese, and White Collar, clearly never bothered reading the punk rulebook. Their debut EP throws snarky punk and angular post-punk into the same blender, then lets the vocalist do whatever the hell she wants.

One moment she’s talk-singing, the next she’s screaming, and just when you think you’ve got a handle on what’s coming, she unleashes one of those impossibly high-pitched howls that seem to shatter the song wide open. Most singers go low for dramatic effect. She goes through the ceiling. You rarely see it coming, which only makes it better.

What a gloriously idiosyncratic debut.

7″ out now on Plastic Roundie Disc.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Bywater Call || Broken Souvenirs

Heartfelt storytelling wrapped in powerful performances

By / / Blues & Roots, Funk & Soul / Leave a Comment

More than anything, Broken Souvenirs confirms that Bywater Call are at our service to make emotion feel tangible. The Toronto seven-piece capture their signature mix of Southern soul, blues, and roots rock into eleven warm, richly arranged songs where soaring horns, empathetic guitars, and Meghan Parnell’s commanding voice carry every note and word with conviction.

The band never loses sight of the human stories at its core; dedicated to two cherished lives lost, the album quietly reflects on grief, resilience and memory without becoming weighed down by them. Between the significance of heartbreak and the pull of hope lies the real magic: music performed with such honesty that it becomes both a refuge and a release.



Broken Souvenirs releases July 29 on CD and vinyl LP through Bywater Call Records / Continental Record Services.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Bywater Call || Discogs

New album: Mouth Washington || To What End

An intense listen from that stays with you

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

The alternative underground keeps serving up hidden gems, even when your latest discovery has already released five albums before finally crossing your path. To What End is album number six from Mouth Washington (Portland, Oregon), and it first caught my attention with artwork that’s impossible to ignore. It looks as though an entire neighborhood has been squeezed into a single woodcut, with chaos happily spilling into every available gap. Did it make our favorite album covers page? Of course it did.

Thankfully, the music more than lives up to the sleeve. To What End is a heavy, intense listen that sits well outside my usual diet, yet offers more than enough reasons to wander beyond my comfort zone. Mouth Washington occupies that fascinating space where singing and spoken word blur together, while horns appear out of nowhere (listen to Three Days In The Air, adding unexpected bursts of color that make you hope they’ll return again.

Then there are the lyrics, which deserve special mention. Take this passage from the song Battle:

The city wasn’t always cement // Your voice wasn’t meant to lament // Your greatest nemesis in the end // The cognitive dissonance in your head.

Bleak yet deeply human, these songs wrestle with trauma, grief, addiction, fractured relationships, and the guilt that lingers long after the damage is done. The intensity feels earned. Much of the material was written during the pandemic, when founding brothers Max and Zach Hansen were living with guitarist Will Held, who passed away suddenly in 2021 at the age of 33.

This is emotional post-hardcore with a story behind it, one marked by loss but fueled by resilience and quiet defiance. I am happy that I gave this one multiple spins, because it took me a while to realize what a special record this is.

To What End is the 50th release from Repeating Cloud Records (congrats Galen!), in collaboration with Ratio Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Sences || Can’t Beat

One foot in 1966, the other on today's dance floor

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

There are still quite a few bands that sound like if they have stumbled straight out of a greasy garage from 60 years ago, but few pull it off like The Sences do. On Can’t Beat, the band from Thessaloniki, Greece builds on the promise of 2024’s debut album Better Than Before with a sharper, more adventurous take on 1960’s beat. These fourteen songs are just as perfectly structured and controlled in their execution as they are inspired, original, and fresh.

Singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Giannis Vlantis and his friends once again use walls of fuzz, a Farfisa organ, jangling guitars, and teenage longing as the foundation, navigating between pop, folk, psych, and surf influences. This is a record packed with hooks, heart, and harmonies (“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”), one that guarantees a good time and even subtly prompts crazy dance moves.



Can’t Beat The Sences is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Lost In Tyme Records (I know, it’s been out for a while, but now that the vinyl release is widely available, I would still like to bring it to your attention here).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

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