Chester County (PA) quartet Log Flume make a splash with Splash Hit!, their debut album that’s way easier to love than it is to Google. Speaking of which, did you know the first modern log flume ride, El Aserradero, opened at Six Flags Over Texas in 1963?
Back to the music! Log Flume blend breezy ’90s power pop with contemporary indie punk in a way that’s bound to melt the hearts of power-pop fans and give geek rockers a confidence boost worldwide. Their sound is polished but packs a punch, with palm-muted guitars trading off with huge, anthemic riffs. The hooks are impossible to escape, and the vocal harmonies will make you want to join in, even if you, like me, are tone-deaf.
Hit play on OMIT and you’ll stumble upon a rockin’ guitar pop anthem that feels timeless. This gem lands early on the album, right where the band fully hits its stride. It’s preceded by the alt-pop standout At Your Leisure, and after it comes another highlight in Wilted Dream.
By the end of the record, even though theme parks aren’t my thing, I’ve become a full-fledged Log Flume fan. A second listen reveals all the nuances — like how opener Angel’s Flight nails the Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub sound, or how DB Cooper is a punky power-pop delight. The 90-second Rom Pom Pom builds tension for a full minute before delivering its cathartic payoff, and Elevator Up wraps up Splash Hit! with an explosive finish.
The Collect Pond bring a raw, noisy energy to their latest album Lightbreaker, but their subdued, low-mixed vocals and airy song dynamics soften the sharpest edges, creating an intriguing sense of tension throughout. Given the album’s richness, its brevity caught me by surprise — it feels both full and fleeting. This is the band’s third album, and the first one that truly resonates with me. I’m really digging its lo-fi, jangly indie rock vibe and the punchy energy it delivers.
The Collect Pond (Boston) consists of Danny Moffat (vocals/guitar), Roger Maranan (bass/keys), Rob Carrington (drums), and Ben Bonadies (guitar/bass). Lightbreaker is out now on Candlepin Records.
Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, eg as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are – in random order – ten of our favorite covers from last month – links to the pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.
You already read our review of Dandy Boy’ Cleaners From Venus tributeTales of a Kitchen Porter today, and earlier that of The Half-Cubes’ Pop Treasures LP, but as always there are many more covers worth sharing.
Yipi Yipi Hey! || Cover: Generador || Original: Chan Romero The title probably doesn’t immediately ring a bell, but this is a raucous cover of the 1959 rock ‘n’ roll classic Hippy Hippy Shake in Spanish. It is the closing song of Generador’s four-track Queremos Diversión EP, out on 7″ vinyl through Discos Marginales and Snap!! Records. Cool stuff by Annie Baby (drums, vocals) and J.Horror (guitar, vocals), produced by Jorge Explosión, unfortunately already over after 01:37.
In Between Days || Cover: Vista Blue || Original: The Cure The Cure returns on November 1st with Songs of A Lost World, their first new album in sixteen years, a good reason to look back at their old work beforehand. Nashville’s Vista Blue picked up 1985 hit In Between Days and poured their characteristic pop-punk sauce over it. It is the opening track of their Be Good EP, which also contains covers of Lemon Demon, Waxahatchee and Lightning Seeds. At the same time, they proved once again that they also write fun songs themselves with the Vista Blue Are The Pop Punk Preservation Society single.
Take On Me || Cover: Pacifica || Original: A-ha Last year, Argentinian rock duo Pacifica — internet friends Inés Adam and Martina Nintzel — released their debut album Freak Scene (via Tag Music). Six of the eleven tracks are now revisited in alternate versions on Freak Scene (Live), supplemented by a cool cover with a rocking rhythm section that catapults this 1985 pop tune into 2024.
Autobahn || Cover: Caleb Fraid || Original: Kraftwerk Almost Halloween Time Records, an independent record label based in Italy that you see on our blog with some regularity, has brought together nineteen of their artists on the compilation AHTung! (subtitle: Eine Sammlung von Sauerkraut). The handmade cover art is a nod to Neu!‘s influential eponymous album from 1972, musically it concerns Krautrock in the broadest sense of the genre. Houston-based DIY artist Caleb Fraid unleashed his lo-fi hometaping techniques on Kraftwerk’s 1974 masterpiece (one of three covers here)—the result couldn’t be further from the electronic original, but it’s quite intriguing, as are the rest of the songs on this collection.
Daniel || Cover: Real Estate || Original: Elton John Earlier this year, New York indie rock outfit Real Estate released their Daniel LP (on Domino Recording Co Ltd). It doesn’t have a title track, so they kicked off their “for Daniels only” release show with a cover of Elton John‘s 1972 hit Daniel. According to BrooklynVegan, the British icon gave it his blessing, reason enough to record a studio version as well. A good story, a good song too.
Baby, I Love You || Cover: The Beatersband || Original: The Ronettes The Beatersband are an Italian trio – Donatella Guida, Leonardo Serrini and Caio Nipi – who have made a trademark of rearranging the 60s girl group style in a punk rock key. As a tribute to Joey Ramone and Ronnie Spector, they just released the album Bad Girl, featuring nine attractive covers, with this one as one of the highlights.
Intergalactic || Cover: ’68 || Original: Beastie Boys Pure Noise Records will release the compilation Dead Formats Volume 3 on October 17th, featuring sixteen loud cover songs (be sure to check out Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 if you don’t know them yet). A few tracks are already available, including Misfits’ Halloween by Cloud Nothings and Pavement’s Harness Your Hopes by Lavalove – very nice – but most notable is this contribution from Atlanta’s noise rock duo ’68 (they made waves last year with their album Yes, and...), delivering 3:48 of musical madness.
Comfortably Numb || Cover: Body Count feat. David Gilmour || Original: Pink Floyd Body Count, the legendary rap metal outfit from Los Angeles fronted by Ice-T, will release a new full-length on November 22nd, called Merciless (on Century Media Records). A six-minute-plus intense cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, featuring none other than David Gilmour himself (the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of the British rock band), is already out as a single. Wow.
On the Darkside || Cover: Broken Gold || Original: John Cafferty Broken Gold is an Austin-based punk rock four-piece, who released the Wild Eyes LP last May, and now surprise with a solid and intense cover that excels in heartfelt vocals.
Death Star || Cover: The Hold Steady & Jesse Malin || Original: Jesse Malin As you probably know, New York songsmith Jesse Malin has been paralyzed since May last year due to a spinal stroke. Since then, a lot has happened, and his musician friends have not been idle. With big names like Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Dinosaur Jr., Frank Turner, Lucinda Williams & Elvis Costello, Spoon, Susanna Hoffs, Graham Parker, Ian Hunter, Low Cut Connie, Willie Nile and Rancid, no less than twenty-seven of his wonderful songs have been re-recorded. Proceeds from the tribute and benefit album Silver Patron Saints (out via Glassnote Records), will go to his Sweet Relief Artist Fund as a contribution to the artist’s recovery journey. We could have chosen almost any of the tracks, but we embedded The Hold Steady’s successful take on New York Before The War‘s Death Star.
I have no idea who Checkeye are or where they’re from, but this self-titled (debut?) EP has been on heavy rotation today. The five tracks exude lo-fi coolness and draw from a wide array of outsider influences. Opener Haunting Me is an immediate standout, sounding like a ‘00s indie rock band experimenting with ‘70s power pop, eventually finding a sweet spot somewhere in between.
The EP continues with Heart Of It All and Gary Trago, two quirky, delightful tracks filled with inventive instrumentation, groovy rhythms, and enough twists and turns to keep listeners hooked. Waiting For The Bus and Holding On, the final two tracks, take a more laid-back approach, giving the EP a bit more breathing room and layering in classic rhythm and blues influences.
Checkeye is definitely a band to keep an eye on. Their debut EP is out now on tape via Clean Demon Records.
Feeling Figures left a strong impression with Migration Magic, but here’s the twist: before their debut even hit the airwaves, the Montreal band had another album ready to go. Now, they’ve just unleashed Everything Around You, the rare “sophomore pre-debut” album.
Like Migration Magic, this new release is packed with quirky, outsider tunes. Feeling Figures are sonic treasure hunters, digging up inspiration where others don’t even bother to look. They piece together these influences into a lo-fi, sweet-and-sour pop masterpiece. Expect a wild mashup of punk, C86, psych, jangle, and post-punk—duct-taped together in a perfectly chaotic way. Tracks often start slow, but explode in unpredictable bursts, with guitar freakouts and sudden tempo shifts lurking in the shadows, ready to jolt you awake. Just take a listen to the strong opening duo of tracks Co-Operator and Doors Wide Open, and it quickly becomes clear why there is so much buzz around this band.
Everything Around You is out now on Perennial Death and K Records.
Best Bets’ On an Unhistoric Nightwas my favorite record of 2022, and their follow-up, The Hollow Husk of Feeling, might just take the top spot this year as well. This new album has all the elements that first made me fall in love with the New Zealanders: punchy rhythms, jangly guitars, a touch of angst, and irresistible melodies. Their powerpop is a brilliant blend of Britpop, power pop, New Zealand underground pop, and American indierock (listen to the very Superchunk-like When You Walk Out), created by musicians who clearly own more than a few classic punk records. Best Bets plays with the fervor of a fresh-faced band but delivers their songs with the confidence of seasoned veterans.
The record kicks off with Heaven, an anthem perfect for rolling down the windows and belting out the chorus. Then comes Sylvania Waters, an upbeat, sunny jangle-pop hit that keeps the momentum going. Monster follows as one of those quintessential Best Bets songs, with a verse brimming with nervous energy and a chorus that sticks like glue. By the time we’re three songs in, I’m already messaging my brother Dennis (aka Add to Wantlist’s head honcho) to say this album is shaping up to be a repeat favorite.
And the hits just keep coming. Hairshirt is fueled by infectious organ riffs, Spooky Signals is an earworm you won’t shake, and Autumn Morning is a pure powerpop gem. The Last Grand Prix adds a playful twist, while Pensacola showcases a tight bass and guitar love affair. Then there’s the heartfelt power ballad When You Walk Out, the short and speedy Malaise Era, the rockin’ Pillory Parade, and finally, We Are Prepared, which might just be the most New Zealand-sounding track of the bunch.
Yes, I’ve basically listed every song on the album — and yes, it’s that good. The Hollow Husk of Feeling is out now on Meritorio and Melted Ice Cream, and it’s another scorcher from Best Bets. Don’t sleep on it.
Jopy is a glam punk/indie rock trio around British singer-songwriter Jo Parnell, their debut EP is as intriguing as it is promising. The Planet Zombie EP contains six tracks that are reminiscent of The Cramps one minute and Wolf Alice a little later, switching between dangerous and delicious. In addition to the title track, opening song Head Hunters Pub And Grub is the big hit here, thanks to an irresistible 80s vibe. Thematically, these are personal experiences wrapped up as campy horror stories, to give listeners a boost in difficult times. It works.
The Planet Zombie EP, written, performed and produced by Jo Parnell, is out digitally and on 12″ vinyl through Goo Records.
Kingston, Ontario’s The Meringues are back on stage with their sophomore full-length, Pavlova’s Dog. In eleven dynamic songs, Amanda Pants (vocals), Ted Evans (vocals, guitar, synth), Jackson Baird (bass) and Alastair Morrison (drums) break down the boundaries between power pop, new wave, post-punk and alternative rock. They distinguish themselves in provocative vocal interplay, set to a driving backbeat, richly orchestrated melodies and original hooks. Although the introspective lyrics are quite dark at times (“All the games inside your head // I wanted out but the sand was flowin’ down” – from Outta Time), the album radiates so much passion and joy that a cheerful aftertaste prevails.
Pavlova’s Dog, performed & produced by The Meringues, is out now digitally (self-released).
With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share five records THEY love.
This Friday, Dandy Boy Records is dropping a Cleaners From Venus tribute compilation titled Tales of a Kitchen Porter, and it’s definitely one to get excited about. The line-up includes some incredible artists like Yae-Ming, Chime School, Flowertown, Whitney’s Playland, The Smashing Times, Owen Adair Kelley, and Sob Stories — the band fronted by today’s Gimme 5! guest, Joel Cusumano. We’ve already had a preview of a couple of tracks, and you can check them out below.
The upcoming release gave us the perfect excuse to chat with Joel and ask him to share five tracks that influenced his own songwriting. Joel is a talented guitarist with a style all his own, as you can hear in his past work with Cocktails, Razz, Talkies, and his current project, Sob Stories. He’s also an in-demand player, lending his guitar skills to R.E. Seraphin’s band and others. Beyond that, Joel has a keen ear for curation — his Odd Pop playlists are pure gold. If your daily soundtrack is feeling a bit stale, Joel’s eclectic taste will shake things up in all the right ways.
This Gimme 5! has been a long time coming, and we hope you enjoy diving into Joel’s picks and seeing how they’ve shaped his approach to songwriting as much as we have. He wraps things up by explaining his choice for the Cleaners From Venus track he covered with Sob Stories, which will be out this Friday. Pre-order your copy here!
1. John Cale || Fear Is a Man’s Best Friend (from 1974s Fear)
“Music is godlike. Creation ex nihilo, conjured from vibration. John Cale is some sort of trickster deity; luring you in with deceptively sweet melody and arrangement while smuggling in stories of violence, rape, and obsession in the lyrics. That tension of levity and darkness is really appealing to me as a songwriter. This song’s great paranoid druggy opening line recalls one of The Velvet Underground’s most notable songs: “Standing waiting for a man to show / Wide-eyed, one eye fixed on the door”.”
2. The Adverts || Cast of Thousands (from 1979s Cast Of Thousands)
“Around age 15, I dove headfirst into ’70s punk after buying the US version of The Clash’s first record at Sam Goody. I think I bought Highway 61 Revisited that day too. Anyways, The Adverts were a discovery of that era, but only later did I hear their second album, Cast of Thousands. I loved that early punk music wasn’t restricted to the strict power chord chugging that it became (though I still love those kinds of records). This album is in line with other punk bands’ sophomore albums that opened up their sound with different instrumentation, arrangement, rhythms, etc. If there’s a single guitar other than the one in the B section, I don’t hear it. The song’s condemnation of dehumanizing, sensationalist media is brilliant. The recording quality on Cast of Thousands notoriously “sounds bad”; but that’s wrong, it sounds perfect.”
3. The Church || Violet Town (from 1984s Persia)
“I got heavily into The Church a few years ago, having only previous known their US hit Under the Milky Way. On a trip to Venice the week of New Year’s Day 2019, I was listening to their first few records on repeat as I wandered the freezing streets. Venice was founded on a swamp by Roman refugees fleeing Attila the Hun’s army. It became one of the wealthiest cities of the Middle Ages, and, its glory days now long gone, is a romantic and haunting mausoleum of an ancient world. I don’t know what Violet Town is about, but for wandering the streets of Venice you couldn’t do better. The Church have a knack for evoking an impressionistic mood on their records, and this is one of their best tunes.”
4. Graham Parker || Love Without Greed (from 1980s The Up Escalator)
“I was and am a huge Elvis Costello fan, but age has helped me appreciate Graham Parker, from whom Costello controversially (may have) derived his early sound. I think it’s very easy to love them both. Parker’s songs cover comparable angry young man angst, but his language is clearer, more direct and more confrontational. And Brinsley Schwarz is a hell of a guitar player. Love Without Greed finds Parker mining rich territory — the transactional nature of love and the destructive power struggle that results. “He may get your kiss / and believe that it’s his / But you know baby I hit your heart / where the others only missed” — damn, wish I’d written that!”
5. Cleaners from Venus || Victoria Grey (from 1986s Living With Victoria Grey)
“When Bobby from Dandy Boy Records said he wanted Sob Stories to cover a Cleaners from Venus song for his upcoming tribute album, I immediately knew I wanted to do Victoria Grey. The jazzy chord progression in the verse is fantastic, and the post-chorus guitar tag is killer. I’m a bit of an Anglophile (could you tell by this list?), and this is one of the most distinctly British of Cleaners songs. A song about the specter of Queen Victoria that references the UK miners’ strike and Falklands War possibly sounds odd sung by an American. I hope we did it justice.”
Listen to Sob Stories’ version of the song below. Read our review of the compilation here.
They’re Just Like Us by Celebrity Sighting might not be the easiest title to Google, but it’s definitely worth seeking out. The band from Madison (Wisconsin) delivers a scrappy debut full of punky alt-rock and garage-y noise pop gems. Most of the songs are short, lo-fi bursts, perfect for fans of bands like Night Court.
Tracks like Stuck Up POV and Hourglass immediately stand out with their catchy riffs and raw energy. Meanwhile, songs like Are You Insured? and Trust might draw in fans of The Breeders, offering a different shade of the band’s sound.
Overall, it’s a charming and punchy first release from Celebrity Sighting, one that is out now on Nightbell Records.
