New single: Friends Of Cesar Romero || Gameboy America

Write a check mark behind #35 in the Doomed Babe Series by Friends Of Cesar Romero. The latest single in the series arrived at our doorstep yesterday, a mere 5 weeks after we wrote about #34. It’s titled Gameboy America and features 3 brand new hits by the songwriting machine J. Waylon Porcupine. Feelings of longing and heartbreak are never far away with FOCR, and that certainly applies to the new songs. “You took my money and my time too. I turned your gray skies into blue. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be true. I’m just your Gameboy America,” J. Waylong sings on the title track. And before you know it, you’ll be singing along to the bittersweet lines of Somebody’s Somebody: “Baby. Are you avoiding me. Cause I think you’re somebody’s someone, Somebody’s someone, Somebody’s somebody now.”

As always, in spite of all the heartbreak, the songs of FOCR remain infectious and upbeat. And as always, the songs are to the point, none more so than the 54 second Punching Ian Sharp that ends with a well aimed F- You. Good times!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Carolina Otero & The Someone Elses || Popalina

And now for something complete pop…listen tot Popalina, the new LP by Carolina Otero & The Someone Elses from Spain. The band cites influences ranging from classic to modern indie rock, including Veruca Salt, François Breut, Pavement, Weezer, PJ Harvey, Waxahatchee, Alvvays, Big Thief, Wolf Alice and Angel Olsen. And while those influences definitely shine through, Popalina is very much an indie pop record to my ears. A good one as well. The songs on Popalina are super sweet, infused with rays of sunshine, but also have plenty of punch to offset dental plaque. The guitar work is particularly tasty, and Carolina Otero’s vocals are a thing of beauty, or envy, depending on your level of ambition. The experience and skill of band (Popalina is the outfit’s fourth record already, but just the first in their native language) shines particularly bright on standout tracks like Íbex En Flor, Una Foto De Man Ray, Polaroid and El Nuevo Titanic.

Open your curtains, open the windows, let the sweet melodies of Carolina Otero & The Someone Elses in. Popalina is out now on LP through No Aloha Records.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Bottom Shelf || Pud Master Johnson

A collaboration between Natural Child and Strange Boys sounds like music to my ears, but that’s only a fantasy. However, I imagine it would sound something like Bottom Shelf. They are a Raleigh, North Carolina-based five-piece, featuring Mike Steward (guitar, vocals), Riley Methner (guitar, vocals), Sam Olson (keys), Steve Kinsey (bass), and Jamie Ranta (drums). Their sophomore full-length Pud Master Johnson hovers firmly in the authentic roots rock corner of the musical spectrum, but with garage and psych elements. The eleven heartfelt songs here are raw and fascinating, with awesome gritty vocals. Hopefully this one will be released on vinyl in due course, then it deserves a place at the front of the record rack.



Pud Master Johnson is out now digitally (self-released). Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Thing || Here’s The Thing

Great band name, great album title, great looks, and – most importantly – great music full of hooks. Please meet The Thing, a new indie rock trio from Brooklyn, New York, who are quickly winning over local hearts with their energetic live shows. With their full-length debut album – indeed: Here’s The Thing – they will also conquer the rest of the world. The nine songs here are confident and exciting, dynamic and magnetic, tight but quite rough around the edges. Their sound is refreshing but also familiar and versatile, incorporating garage and psych influences. The tracks designated as singles (Beige Bouqet, Dirt and Dixie Queen) are all hits (the others are not much less – Country Song II being one of my favorites), with memorable lyrics (“Some days I think I’m Elvis, some days I think I’m king”). Suddenly a Long Live The Thing t-shirt feels like an indispensable item.



Here’s The Thing is out now digitally through Onion Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Tito Ramírez || El Prince

And now for something completely different. Tito Ramírez started out as a masked mystery, but after five singles, one album (which really needs a repress!) and some exciting live shows, we now know we’re dealing with artist Pedro Poyatos aka Peter Boogie Parker (Los Granadians), who has dubbed himself “His most excellent perversity”, “The Kink of Mambo” and “El Prince”. The last two names are also the titles of his previous and new LP. On El Prince you’ll hear thirteen pieces of psychedelic rhythm ‘n’ blues, exuberant and uplifting, all danceable for people who know how to do the boogaloo. Expect a mash-up of timeless Latin soul (unmistakably the main ingredient), 60s garage beat and 50s rock ‘n’ roll, like an exotic soundtrack that doesn’t need a movie, because it takes no effort to envision a colorful world full of swinging adventures.

El Prince, produced by Óscar Martos, is out streaming and on vinyl LP through Antifaz Discos & El Volcán Música.

Add to wantlist: Discogs || Antifaz || El Volcán

New EP: Homicide Idols || Homicide Idols

Throughout the years, Scandinavia has built quite the reputation for suspenseful crime books and tv shows. So don’t be surprised to discover a Swedish band naming themselves Homicide Idol. The name combined with the album art of their self-titled (debut?) EP is diagnostic of what to expect from the band’s sound: hardcorepunk! After listening to the EP, I’d change that in hardcorepunk for fans of the Killed By Death series.

Homicide Idols is an 8-song clusterbomb of old school punk proportion. Short and snotty, fast and loud, in your face.




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Deep State || Diary Of A Nobody

Athens (Georgia) is a Cool Town that, some argue, launched alternative music and changed American culture. It also is home to Deep State, a musical project by Taylor Chmura, Christian Deroeck, Michael Gonzalez and Brandon Page – a quartet of musicians with tentacles reaching to bands like Little Gold and Blunt Bangs.

Deep State does not record and release music often, but when they do it’s always right on the money. The band’s last release dates back to 2019 and was called Path To Fast Oblivion. I highly recommended it if this post is your first introduction to Deep State. Strangely, the title of said record would have been a better fit to the band’s most recent release Diary Of A Nobody: The band explicitly states that this 8-song EP (or mini-album) is the final document of the band. Insert mic drop here.

What helps to offset the sadness this message evokes is the simple fact that Deep State goes out with a bang. Diary Of A Nobody is not a sad record, it showcases a band rockin’ out and showing how it’s done one more time. On their final showing, Deep State expertly blend garage pop, alt pop, protopunk and indie rock, with their Polar North pointing toward ’70s classic rock and powerpop.

So don’t expect any complaints here that Deep State is calling it quits, just gratefulness that they existed. Thanx for the tunes Deep State!




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Miesha And The Spanks || Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi

“I got something to prove, I got nothing to lose,” singer/guitarist Miesha Louie proclaims in So Mad, while drummer Sean Hamilton reinforces these lyrics with striking twists and turns.* This captures exactly what Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi, the new full-length by Calgary’s garage punk duo Miesha & The Spanks, is all about (our expectations after the promising single I Can’t Wait b/w Dig Me Out – both present on the album – are easily fulfilled). The tunes here are big on everything, from the mighty vocals and heavy guitar riffs to the straightforward lyrics (about real world problems) and solid sound. This is how you color a concrete wall.

Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi, produced by Daniel Farrant & Paul Rawson, is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Mint Records. *If you’re wondering if the duo are considering adding a bass player, listen to the last lines of raucous closing track I Was Gonna.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Mint Records

New album: Autumn Rhythm || Joy For Tomorrow

Autumn Rhythm are an indie rock four piece from New York who just dropped their sophomore full length Joy For Tomorrow. The record stays just shy of 30 minutes, and offers the kind of underground indie rock that harkens back to the days when punk bands started to display rock and emo tendencies. There is a touch of ’90s alt pop to the sound of Autumn Rhythm as well. Highly melodic, but also unpolished and with an edge, Joy For Tomorrow offers much to enjoy. RIYL: Liquid Mike, Samiam, The Promise Ring, The Appleseed Cast.




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Paint Fumes || Real Romancer

The simple fact that Paint Fumes are still a recording and performing band in the year 2023 is nothing short of a miracle. The band’s backstory includes several emergency room visits, a near death experience, stolen gear and being in the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e., being in Italy when the COVID pandemic hit). For more on the unlikely route to Paint Fumes new LP Real Romancer, read this interview with Elijah von Cramon by S.W. Lauden.

But let’s focus on the music. What stands out with Real Romancer is that Paint Fumes has never sounded this catchy. You’ve got to hand it to Dig! Records and Bachelor for releasing arguably two of the finest powerpop records of 2023 just a month or so apart. The other record I am referring to is The Whiffs’ latest LP Scratch ‘N’ Sniff of course. And while The Whiffs and Paint Fumes have always operated in different corners of punky and hooky guitar pop universe, they have never sounded this close – although both bands’s take on the Stiff Records logo for the album art of their respective records If It Ain’t Paint Fumes It Ain’t Worth A Huff (2016), and Take A Whiff! (2017) should have been an indication that they share strings of DNA. Anyhow, Real Romancer is prime quality power pop. I’m always on the lookout to discover songs like Callin’ Out, Book Of Love, Starting Over and Can’t Stand It. But honestly, all of Real Romancer is essential listening. Rock-‘n’-roll is alive and kicking, and so are Paint Fumes.




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

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