New EP: Spacebugs || The Fundamentals of Living

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

You wonder what you hear? Spacebugs! Rachel Butler (vocals, piano, trumpet) and Reina Trias (guitar, bass) have been playing music together since they were 11, and as adults they just keep doing it. They are now writing their own original music, which will appeal to fans of Courtney Barnett. After a few singles, the likeable Melbourne-based duo has now released The Fundamentals of Living, an entertaining EP featuring 5 relatable indie pop/rock songs about crushes, travel, love, family and everything that is core to being human. Standout tracks are I Wanna Live and Into You, hits that we will definitely play when we finally launch our radio show soon.

Add to wantlist (streaming only for now): Linktree

New album: Eades || Delusion Spree

By / / Indie Rock / 4 Comments

If there’s one release we’ve been looking forward to for a long time, it’s Delusion Spree, the beautifully titled full-length debut album from UK 5-piece Eades. Single Former Warnings Cluster has been a hit on Add To Wantlist HQ for over a year now, and their EP Abstract Education made it into my top 10 of 2021. In 12 raw and punchy songs, Harry Jordan (vocals, guitar), Tom O’Reilly (lead guitar, vocals), Sam Wilde (bass), Dan Clifford-Smith (drums), and Lily Fontaine (synths, percussion, vocals) mix influences from new wave, post-punk, garage rock, and 90’s alternative. The tracks were recorded live as a full band, which ensures an authentic listening experience. Arty, energetic, expressive, fascinating, fun, infectious, interesting, restless, surprising, urgent – worth the wait. The band members wanted to record a classic debut LP and succeeded.

Delusion Spree is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Heist or Hit.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Heist or Hit

New album: Tha Retail Simps || Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots in tha Dark

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock, Punk / 3 Comments

We listen to a lot of new music at ATW. If you are a regular visitor of our site, you know that being original or different is not a necessary part for great music in our book. Most of the releases we cover, I believe, have an instant likeability from mere exposure to similar sounds in the past, with just the right execution and a certain freshness to still excite us. And then, sometimes you come across a record whose individual parts may sound familiar, but its sum sounding totally different and surprising. The debut by Tha Retail Simps is a prime example.

Its press release reads: “What if the Velvet Underground had written ‘Wooly Bully’ and Sam The Sham ‘Sister Ray?’ If Ron House picked up some bongos and joined CCR or If Half Japanese and Hasil Adkins started a Meters cover band?” If that piqued your interest, wait until you hear the nine tracks on Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots in tha Dark. What a thrill! There is so much to discover, so many detours. It rocks, it rolls, it confuses. It’s loud, it’s dirty and full of attitude, but also suprisingly gentle and nuanced. It’s punk, but will make audiences dance rather than pogo.

A couple of spins in, I still feel I’ve only touched the surface of understanding the true value of Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots in tha Dark. And that is one of the many reasons why this needs to be in my collection ASAP. Available for streaming purposes now, vinyl expected to ship from Total Punk on March 25.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Total Punk

New album: Jimmy Doyle || Going Gray

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

“Pub Rock, Power Pop, New Wave, whatever you want to call it was my inspiration for the sound of this record. Artists like Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ted Leo, Squeeze & Blondie are huge influences of mine & I hope that even a shred of that comes through.”

After reading Jimmy Doyle (The Fad) describing these influences for his first solo record at Brooklynvegan, I was already halfway in. Then I heard the real thing and it doesn’t disappoint at all. If anything, Going Gray sounds more modern than I’d expected, but it’s full of heartfelt uptempo guitar pop hits, none of which hit the three minute mark.

Apparently, the record has been on the shelf for a long time, and we still have to wait until September for the vinyl to arrive. Going Gray was recorded right before the pandemic hit with a strong supporting cast consisting of Tim Hildebrand, Brittany Luna (both of Catbite, who we covered before), Ian Farmer (Modern Baseball/Slaughter Beach, Dog), and Eric Osman (Cherry, Lame-O Records). Let’s hope Doyle and friends wrote more songs in the meantime, because I’d like more of this, please!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Mimi and the Miseries || Mimi And The Miseries

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

Please meet UK’s Mimi And The Miseries (not to be confused with Dutch garage rock band The Miseries). The enthusiastic band members call themselves Mimi Misery. Monday Misery, Myna Misery, and Mona Misery, and they are what could be the new revelation in the garage rock world. They just released their self-titled debut EP, and it’s as cool as it can be, both in sound and in style. It contains four uplifting songs that echo 60’s girl groups, with raw vocal harmonies to sing along to, and awesome organ melodies to dance to. And that’s a good plan anyway.

Mimi And The Miseries is out now digitally via This Could Prove Fatal. Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Split System || Split System

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Any project involving Jackson Reid Briggs is worth checking out in my book. We’ve already covered his solo release and his full band release last year, and here’s his latest project. In Split System, Reid Briggs fronts a strong cast of characters from other cool bands like Stiff Richard, Speed Week, The Black Heart Death Cult and No Zu. Are you excited yet? Wait until you hear the four songs on their self-titled debut EP.

Split System’s brand of garagepunk absolutely rocks. It blows my mind that these songs were recorded remotely via e-mail. The amount of energy and aggression these dudes have injected in the recordings must have infuriated their neighbors. And it won’t be the last neighbors these Australians will drive crazy, because there is only one way to play this EP: LOUD!

7″ out now through Legless Records. WANT!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Tom Aylott || Calm Is A Superpower

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

This week I listened a lot to Calm Is A Superpower, the new full-length album by UK singer-songwriter Tom Aylott, and I wish you the same experience. It’s a strong collection of ten guitar-driven pop/rock songs that he recorded in his house during a manic week in the first Covid lockdown in Spring 2020. These demos were intended as a framework for later studio sessions, but on second thoughts the raw energy of the first takes turned out to be more than good enough to release. I can only agree with those thoughts. Musically it’s well structured, with appealing hooks and catchy choruses, at times with an alt-rock feel reminiscent of Thelonious Monster (that’s meant as a compliment), but t’s mainly the heartfelt emotions you hear in Aylott’s vocals that makes this LP stand out above average.

“Hold on to what you’ve got while it lasts // Let go if you’re ready or not when they pass // Someday we’ll all be welcomed back // No longer buried in the past”

Calm Is A Superpower is out now digitally (self-released). Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Clown Sounds || Born Under A Bad Sigh

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

When a band is called Clown Sounds, the best you can hope for is a case of underpromise and overdeliver. That is exactly what Clown Sounds do with Born Under A Bad Sigh. This shouldn’t come as a surprise I guess, given that the band consists of a crew of people associated with Recess Records, Toys That Kill, The Underground Road To Candyland, and Nos Da.

Born Under A Bad Sigh is a messy yet exciting collection of punkrock tunes that keeps you on your toes. Thoughout it all, Clowns Sounds make you feel part of their community and the fun they have together. Want to be a bigger part of their community? Pay $20 or more for this name your price and your name will be on the sleeve as an executive producer. Pay $40 (or more) and your likeness will be included in the comic insert that will be included in the LP release.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Salt Lake Alley || It Takes Two

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

Swedish “orthodox indie pop” duo Salt Lake Alley is back with their second full-length album, It Takes Two, and it’s another highlight in the rich C86 tradition. Gustav Tranback (Paper Hearts, Dismal Plight) and Mikael Carlsson (The Honeydrips, Dorotea) combine 12-string guitars with 80’s drum machines and vocal harmonies, and they do it well, but above all they know how to write wonderful twee pop songs. Here you can hear eleven of those sympathetic jangly guitar gems that let the springtime sun shine from your speakers.

It Takes Two is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Shelflife Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Bad Spring || Tape 1

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop / 2 Comments

Awesome new band alert! From Fresno, California straight to our hearts comes Bad Spring. If you like angsty college rock, dreamy powerpop, or rockin’ ’90s altpop, this should be on the top of your listening pile right now.

The biggest appeal of the two songs on Bad Spring’s debut single? The contrast between the heavy yet strummy and jangly guitars (so good!) and the dreamy Teenage Fanclubesque vocals and harmonies.

Bad Spring has arrived and I’m all in! Tape 1 is out now (on tape of course) on Forever Never Ends Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Forever Never Ends

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