The last time we heard from Jersey City indie pop duo Fascinations Grand Chorus, they opted for cinematic horror (the Terror In The Night LP) and girl group-style covers (the She’s Just My Style single). In the three original tracks on their new Summer Love EP, they emphasize their carefree side, or as they say themselves: these tunes “harness analog warmth and sun-soaked melodies to pay tribute to summer’s past, present and future.” Sweet, warm and delightful music, with a sense of romance, optimism and nostalgia, that postpones the arrival of autumn as long as you use the repeat button.
Summer Love, produced by Dennis Pierce & Fascinations Grand Chorus, is out now digitally via Silent Stereo Records.
Kicking off 2024 with a bang, capsuna made their mark with a self-titled debut album that quickly positioned them among Europe’s brightest up-and-comers. Now, their latest single continues to stoke the flames of excitement.
On repeat, capsuna delivers a crunchy lo-fi pop gem that’s begging for heavy college radio rotation. It’s catchy, raw, and has that underground cool factor that’ll stick in your head. Then comes retreat, a more mellow, dreamy flipside that shows a different dimension of the band’s sound. With these two tracks, capsuna proves they’re no one-hit wonders — they’re just warming up.
Spanish trio Tatxers are back with a new 7-track 12” EP titled Ezpatei Disdira!, which continues the momentum from their excellent 2023 self-titled album. Tatxers specialize in crafting pop music with an intense edge, blending punk, new wave, jangle, surf pop, and noise into a sound that’s unmistakably their own. The EP is packed with throbbing, groovy basslines, jangly guitars, and hard-hitting drums, all of which help to further refine the distinctive essence of Tatxers. It’s a thrilling continuation of their genre-blurring, high-energy style.
Brussels trio Charlotte, Julia, and Louise, collectively known as Coeur à l’Index, make a bold entrance with their debut mini-album, Adieu Minette. Fusing elements of twee punk, ’60s girl group vibes, and French power pop, they deliver a sound that’s irresistibly charming. This is the kind of music that feels timeless, and if you’re a fan of French language energetic power pop acts like Alvilda or Pogy Et Les Kéfars, you’re in for a treat.
Tracks like Rattrapez-moi and Dernière fois channel the energy of those classic Girls from the Garage, Girls with Guitars, and Pebbles compilations — perfect for anyone who loves their pop with a side of raw nostalgia. Adieu Minette is out now on La Vida Es un Mus.
“Is it better to burn out or fall apart?” asks veteran New York songwriter Amy Rigby on her new album, Hang In There With Me. Rigby, in typical wry fashion, is drawing a false dichotomy with this question: the option of combusting spectacularly, of going out with a bang, doesn’t exist for a singer in the twilight of her career. The album’s central conceit is that Rigby is too entrenched in her music making ways, too deep in the muck, to fully give up making records, despite her better self-preservation instincts. So, she pulls up her sleeves, gets to work, and produces Hang In There With Me – a sometimes bleak, yet ultimately life-affirming record.
Hang In There With Me, the eighth album credited solely to Rigby, continues building on the strengths established over the course of Rigby’s storied career. Here, you’ll find heartfelt folk songs juxtaposed with wisecracking garage rock, gallows humor brushing against unfettered optimism. As a whole, the album is fairly stripped-down, with only minor production flourishes – a bit of fuzz guitar here, a bubbling synth there – giving way to Rigby’s presence. Still, the songs that stick out the most, like the revenge fantasy Bricks and the plaintive, psychedelic-tinged The Farewell Tour, center Rigby’s voice and guitar from the beginning. To paraphrase musician Jon Brion, these are real songs, not just performance pieces; if you removed all the auxiliary parts, they would be just as devastating.
In one of the album’s most affecting moments, Rigby questions why life must “be so hard” on O Anjali, her voice cracking slightly under the weight of her words. While there’s obviously no answer to this query, Hang In There With Me provides reason enough to keep pushing on.
Hang In There With Me is out now on Tapete Records.
UK duo The Gabys return to the Fruits & Flowers label to deliver more feather-light, homespun recordings in the form of a four song EP. The Gabys create what has been characterized in the Bay Area as “fog pop”—beautiful, spare, slow-moving music, exemplified by the groups Cindy and April Magazine—and add an unexpected brevity to the formula. In addition to short run times, multiple songs feature fade-ins and -outs, suggesting the listener is hearing them in media res; overall, the music has a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, like you’re witnessing the fleeting moments of twilight on an autumn day.
In true fog pop fashion, the elements here are subdued: soft-spoken vocals, barely audible through tape hiss, and instrumentation that can only be described as austere. The melodies waft by, as if the singer is drifting in and out of consciousness. Fragmentary narratives, only occasionally heard, are punctuated by probing questions (“Is this a dream?” and “Do you feel the same?” on Cursed) that remind you to stay engaged, preventing you from fully entering a dream state. The Gabys may have a roundabout way of commanding your attention, but you won’t easily forget these songs once they have it.
The Gabys’ second self-titled EP is out now on Fruits & Flowers.
Chicago’s trash-pop outfit Fake Fictions disbanded fifteen years ago, but its band members – Nick Ammerman (guitar, vocals, organ), Sarah Ammerman (bass, vocals) and Ben Bilow (drums, percussion, keyboard, guitar, vocals) – are still going strong, nowadays as Shredded Sun. “I feel alive in a way, a way that’s more than alive // Hooked on a feeling like a sugar rush // I’m here riding the tide” they sing in Breaking Out, one of the thirteen new tracks on their third full-length -length album Wilding, and that says a lot about the reason for this recording project that values the DIY mentality. The trio not only captivates with their wordplay, but also because they alternate male and female vocals just as easily as they blend indie rock, post-punk, shoegaze, dream pop and jangle-punk influences (they aptly describe it themselves as guitar-centered rock music that emphasizes energy and creativity over perfection). “When I first met you, I didn’t know how to dance // Twenty years later, I still shuffle my feet and wave my hands // Like a drowning man with no sense of urgency” we hear in (Another Song Called) Mirror Ball, and we can only hope they continue to do so.
Wilding – written, performed, recorded and mixed by Shredded Sun – is out now digitally (self-released).
I’m at the point where I recognize a band name, know I’ve heard them before, but need to press play to know for sure. A quick look at the album covers in their discography, I discovered I know Perth’s Verge Collection for their Flaneur (2018) album, especially for the opening track on said record: Feelin’ Old — a slacker anthem for anyone over 30. I lost touch with the band after that, but I’m thoroughly enjoying their latest release (their third LP), A Real Miserable Cunt, and let’s be honest, that title rolls off the tongue rather nicely with an Australian accent!
The title also fits perfectly with Verge Collection’s new record. While their guitars are clean and polished, their songs carry plenty of grit. The lyrics are full of dark, self-deprecating humor and existential dread — in the ’90s this one would have come with a parental advisory sticker. Take Cocaïne, for example, one of the slower tracks on the album. Personally, I prefer their more upbeat slacker pop songs like album highlight Live Like a King, which nails that “is this it?” existential crisis with gut punching lines like, “I want to rewrite my whole experience, and relearn how to pretend.”
Another favorite track is All The Little Devils, the album closer. It’s got a rockin’ vibe with a Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue influence, and it’s a perfect way to end the record.
Press play on Joe Sampsom’s new solo album, It Must Be Hard Seeing Me Like This, and you’re instantly transported into a different world. You may recognize Sampsom as the founder of Melted Ice Cream, or from bands like Best Bets (new album coming soon!), Salad Boys, and T54, but this album takes a refreshing turn. It feels like Sampsom rediscovered an old toy and breathed new life into it — in this case, a Zoom RT-123 Rhythmtrak, which he found packed with “ridiculous” preset rhythm tracks. Sampsom started experimenting, plugging in a homemade fiberglass electric guitar and pairing it with a vintage 1974 MXR Phase 100 pedal to create something truly unique.
Recorded sporadically over six years, the album is fully instrumental and plays out like the perfect video game soundtrack, with each of the 16 brief tracks feeling like a new level. For me, it’s the kind of album that induces hyperfocus, pulling me into a zone where time flies and I’m able to shut out the world while working. Hypnotic and ever-evolving, this is a mesmerizing journey of a record.
Out now on Tape at Sampsom’s own Melted Ice Cream label.
New York-based singer-songwriter Phil Sutton has some pretty good music to his name with Pale Lights (we wrote about their Waverly Place LP earlier this year), but he has also played in Comet Gain, Velocette, Kicker, Cinema Red and Blue, and a few other bands. With his solo project Love, Burns he now releases mini-album Blue—seven delicious tracks of melancholic indie pop—with memorable jangly guitar melodies, stirring sun-kissed vocals and flowing, realistic lyrics. Contrary to what you might expect based on the title, the sound is just as colorful as the cover art, and really easy to embrace.
Blue, recorded and mixed by Gary Olson, is out tomorrow on CD through Calico Cat Records, and on vinyl LP through Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten and Jigsaw Records. Also featuring Kyle Forester, Gary Olson and Hampus Öhman-Frölund, with Beth Arzy, Ben Phillipson, Suzanne Nienaber, Alex Curtin and Kenny Wachtel on select tracks.
