Indie Pop

Album review: Marc With a C || Steamed Hams

A playful, messy, and moving journey through the human condition

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Twenty-five years into their career, Marc With a C returns with a quirky follow-up to last year’s Flowers For Analog LP. As expected, the umpteenth new album, Steamed Hams, is a wonderfully strange, personal, and moving detour through pop deconstruction and genderfluid self-reflection. Like the Simpsons sketch that inspired its title, the album stretches a premise until it becomes something absurd, honest, confusing, revealing, and strangely illuminating.

The sixteen songs were created while battling chronic health issues and were stitched together with a healthy dose of chaos, yet there are plenty of funny and catchy moments. For the most part, this is acoustic indie pop, but it fans out in all sorts of idiosyncratic directions and emotions. And yet it feels comforting, if only the message that ends the record: Someone’s Always Watching You.

If you can’t get enough, you can also check out a four-track bonus EP called Steamed Clams.



Steamed Hams—performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Marc With a C—is out now digitally, on cassette, CD and vinyl LP, through Needlejuice Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Tony Molina || On This Day

Tony Molina proves less is more, then proves it twenty times more

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

Twenty-one songs. Twenty-three minutes. Tony Molina just made the most deceptively simple record you’ll hear all year and it’s going to ruin you in the best way possible.

Look, most of these songs don’t even crack the one-minute mark, which will either make you think parts are missing from your copy or make you realize Molina is operating on a completely different wavelength than the rest of us. The man writes guitar pop like he’s rationing hooks for the apocalypse—every note counts, nothing overstays its welcome, and by the time you realize how good a song is, it’s already over and the next one is punching you in the heart.

If you’re looking for the buzzsawy alt-pop of years past, you won’t find it here—well, except for Have Your Way, a song I’ve played about twelve times today. Instead, Molina offers a masterclass in writing timeless guitar pop melodies for attention spans too short to sit through a three-minute song. One of the longer and most accomplished tracks is Livin’ Wrong, and even that stays well under the two-minute mark. The only song that exceeds it is Violets of Dawn, coincidentally a cover of an Eric Andersen tune—and what an amazing version it is.

Recorded at home on 8-track analog tape, On This Day has a warm quality enhanced by Mellotron, trumpet, Hammond organ, piano, and bells that never feel cluttered. It is an extremely rewarding and addictive record. You finish it, you hit repeat, you notice things you missed the first three times through. It’s like eating the world’s best cookie one tiny bite at a time just to make it last. LP out now on Slumberland Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Slumberland

New album: Intac || God is Time, Time is Money, and the Money’s Long Gone

Late-capitalist heartbreak set to lo-fi comedy and cosmic truth

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

OK, back to business. We head to Massachusetts, where Intac International, Inc.—self-proclaimed world’s first independent music corporation—tries to tempt us into Sound Investment. The twelve  songs on God Is Time, Time Is Money, and the Money’s Long Gone form a crooked, poetic map of modern disillusionment, where heartbreak, absurdity, and late-capitalist burnout collide with humor and ramshackle DIY charm. Across surreal vignettes of deadbeat dads, doomed romances, and talking dogs, the album skewers the grind of trying to stay sincere in a world that feels like a running joke.

While it may be irony set on a lo-fi foundation of acoustic guitars and functional rhythms, the emotional core is startlingly earnest. Beneath the wit and weirdness lies a quietly devastating truth: being human these days means hustling for hope while knowing that finances have dried up. Anti-folk packaged as corporate pop isn’t something you hear very often, but this kind of music has value, especially in a world obsessed with profit.



God is Time, Time is Money, and the Money’s Long Gone is out digitally (self-released). Featuring Bill Restivo, Lucas Restivo, Josh Rosenberg, Peter Debarros, Jake DeRosa, and Nick Morrone.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Album review: Anthony Ruptak || Tourist

Finding grace in grief, and beauty in the wreckage

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

Colorado singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Anthony Ruptak returns with Tourist, a sweeping, soul-baring album that peers into the heart of modern uncertainty with passion and precision. These ten indie-folk songs mingle fragility with force, and cinematic arrangements with raw, lyrical honesty—delivered by unique, heartfelt vocals.

In almost an hour of music we undergo a powerful emotional and philosophical journey through crisis, compassion, and connection. Written between wilderness trails, city streets, and ambulance shifts—the artist worked late-night shifts as a paramedic—it explores what it means to stay human in an age of chaos. The repeated question hits hard: “Is this real life?”



Tourist—produced by Rich G—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP. Featuring Anthony Ruptak (vocals, guitar, keys), Matt Tanner (drums, percussion), Daniel Stephenson (bass), Caleb Tardio (electric guitar, keys), Jakey Wherry (synths, keys, guitar), Katy Wherry (flutes), Joe Engel (cello), Eric Estrada (trumpet), and Jacob Russo (backing vocals).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Anthony Ruptak

New album: Tristen || Unpopular Music

Ambition learns to breathe

By / / Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

Tristen is the indie pop project of Nashville, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter Tristen Gaspadarek, who has been making idiosyncratic tunes for about two decades, together with her creative and life partner Buddy Hughen. Unpopular Music is album number five, and my initial thought was that the title must be false modesty—most of the acts we write about have far fewer listeners. For Tristen, however, it’s a life goal: “I feel an intellectual responsibility to be unpopular. I love unpopular music. Abstract lyrics, beautiful melodies wrapped with warm-sounding instrumentation. I love unpopular themes that encompass difficult emotions and ambivalence. The kind of cultural critiques that stir and address our discomfort. So let the good times roll, and may your unpopularity be your badge of knowingness.”

Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if this new release only increases Tristen’s fan base, not only because obscurity or independence are coveted badges in this day and age where likes seem to be more important than the truth, but even more so because it simply has a very appealing sound. The ten songs here enchant in melody and vocals, in lyrics and confidence, in instrumentation and emotion. It’s easy to love Unpopular Music.



Unpopular Music—produced by Tristen Gaspadarek and Buddy Hughen—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Well Kept Secret. Featuring Tristen Gaspadarek (vocals, guitars, piano, organ, percussion), Buddy Hughen (guitars, bass, piano, synth, pump organ, percussion, drum programming), and Andy Spore (drums), with Linwood Regensberg (bass), James Haggerty (bass), Pat Sansone (Wurlitzer, mellotron), Vanessa Carlton (keys), Erin Rae (background vocals), Becca Mancari (background vocals), Michaela Anne (background vocals), and Natalie Prass (background vocals) guesting on select tracks.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Error de Paralaje || Imagen Latente

Granada trio blurs all the right lines on this late-year gem

By / / Indie Pop, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

Year-end list season is creeping up fast, but the late arrivals keep coming — and I expect that Imagen Latente, the new six-song EP by Granada trio Error de Paralaje, will crash the conversation among our peers. The band—José (guitar, vocals), Kalim (bass), and Violeta (drums, vocals)—have been at it since 2019, and though this is technically their third release, it’s my first encounter with them. What an introduction.

Imagen Latente blurs the lines between post-punk tension and indie pop shimmer until you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. For an indie pop band, Error de Paralaje play with a sharp, angular edge. For a post-punk band, they’re unexpectedly smooth, groovy, and melodic. There’s also a touch of new wave bite and punk urgency in there — it’s the sound of a band confidently charting its own middle ground.

Out now on 12″ via a whole international crew of labels (Brainwasher Records, Andalucia Über Alles, Cuerdas Fuera Records, Collector’s Series DIY, Metadona Records, Discos Banana, Chicken Attack Records, Crapoulet Records, Discos Darks). Clearly, they all heard what we’re hearing: Imagen Latente is something special!


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Brainwasher Records || Andalucia Über Alles

New album: The Melody Chamber || The Melody Chamber

The past hums softly through the wires of the present

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

Richmond, Virginia-based indie pop outfit The Melody Chamber—not to be confused with Melody’s Echo Chamber, the neo-psychedelia project of French musician Melody Prochet, who has a new album out in a few weeks—make a stirring debut with their self-titled full-lengther. Across ten transcendent tracks, the band of singer-songwriters Wallace Dietz and Dan-O Deckelman channels the chiming guitars, confident synths, and melancholic vocals we know from the jangle pop pioneers of the 80s, and they do it well.

The lyrics here reveal an overarching theme of memory, connection, and rediscovery, tracing the arc from innocence to disillusionment and finally toward renewal. It’s about learning to face the past without being trapped by it, where wistful recollection meets hard-won hope. It’s no effort to imagine the stories outlined (“This time I’m singing to a crowded room // This time I’m blowing all the clouds away”—from Stop Making Sense), that go together seamlessly with the timeless textures and meandering melodies that feel both intimate and cinematic.



The Melody Chamber’s eponymous debut album—produced by Daniel Deckelman—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records and Too Good To Be True Records. Featuring Wallace Dietz (vocals, acoustic guitar), Dan-O Deckelman (guitars, vocals, synth), Randy Mendicino (bass), and Blee Child (drums), with George Laks (synths) and Jessica Pooley (back-up vocals) guesting on select tracks.

Add to wantlist @ Bandcamp: TMC || HHBTM || TGTBT

New album: Emi Pop || No Te Voy a Extrañar

A genre-hopping debut for those who like their music catchy and energetic

By / / Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

Pick any random track from No Te Voy a Extrañar and you might think you’ve figured out Seattle-by-way-of-Puerto-Rico artist Emi Pop. You’d be wrong. Depending on where you drop the needle, this debut could pass for garage pop (Venezia), ramonescore (Quiero Bailar Rocanrol), pop punk (Amigos Vampiros), bubblegrunge (Amor de Verano), beach pop (No Puedo Dormir), electro pop (Lo Sé), or even a ‘60s girl group revival (Te Busqué).

But that’s the beauty of it — Emi Pop refuses to pick a lane and instead swerves joyfully through them all, powered by pure melodic adrenaline. The common denominator? Every song is catchy enough to disarm even the most hardened cynic. NATO may urge you to bolster your defenses, but my advice is simpler: surrender now and and let the hooks take over.

From what I gather, No Te Voy a Extrañar (which translates to I’m Not Going to Miss You) is equal parts heartbreak and liberation. Well, Emi Pop sure turns goodbye into a danceable declaration of independence. LP out now on Fink City.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Fink City

New album: Zenxith || What’s Happening To Me?

Between melancholy and madness

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

Under the name Zenxith, 23-year-old singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Daniel McGee continues to prove that you don’t need a studio or a band or a lot of time to make something honest. With an ever-present sense of restless imagination, he wrote and recorded his 16th(!) DIY album, What’s Happening To Me?, entirely at his home in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, last few months.

The result is a magnetic unpolished set of 13 lo-fi indie pop songs, with jangling guitars, a drum machine, charming vocals, lots of tambourine bells, and lyrics that wander between melancholy confession and surreal absurdity. One moment the musician is whispering confessions in Listen Carefully and Beverly You Are My Cover Star (dedicated to Beverly Lucy Garland, whose photo from 1958 film The Saga of Hemp Brown you see in the cover art), the next he’s spinning ghostly humor through Headless Corpse and Dancing Skeleton. Behind the lo-fi haze lies something honest—a portrait of disconnection, self-doubt, and the uneasy comedy of being alive.

The record sounds like a diary cracked open in real time: intimate, imperfect, and strangely beautiful.



What’s Happening To Me?—written, performed, and recorded by Daniel McGee aka Zenxith—is out now digitally and on CD via Salt Mine Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Clock Radio || Turfin’ Out the Maniacs

A psychedelic daydream dipped in slacker pop brilliance

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock / 3 Comments

Clock Radio is a British alt-pop outfit made up of Chris Genner, Oliver Daltrey, Gary Martin, and Fraser Wilson—four old friends who found their way back to each other after the collapse of their first band more than two decades ago. Their debut full-length Turfin’ Out the Maniacs arrived quietly last May, but it deserves far more praise: these originals are simply too tuneful to slip under the radar.

Expect a mix of timeless slacker rock with sincere lyrics, psychedelic mischief with indie wit, and 80s-infused jangle pop with hit potential. It’s lo-fi and rowdy, but even more so compelling and catchy. The band describes it best themselves: “Over ten, melodic, hook-laden songs, we wrestle with the indignities of middle age, the thrilling absurdities of life, and we unravel some of the tensions of our long history playing music together.”

The vocals feel spontaneous and close-up, the performances unpolished in all the right ways, complete with the kind of background chatter and warmth that make you feel like you’ve stumbled into a late-night session in someone’s living room. It’s one of those rare finds that sounds both familiar and freshly inspired. A (re)discovery worth celebrating.



Turfin’ Out the Maniacs—recorded, mixed and mastered by Dominic Bailey-Clay—is out digitally via Danish Goodtime Reords.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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