Frankie Tillo "These Songs Will Melt"
Pardoner "Peace Loving People"
From Paste Magazine:
“Organized around skew-whiff pop hooks and hardcore-punk dynamism, Peace Loving People is a stream of Gen Z consciousness. It’s a therapy session in which many stones are overturned: relationships (romantic and canine); ambition and failure; drugs, lots and lots of drugs; the Second Amendment; big cities and small paychecks; the ever-shifting alternative landscape; the end of the world as we know it; whether we’ll be fine. Each topic is given equal attention and rubs up against the rest, just as in real life—just as in your Twitter feed.
Some of these subjects are tackled with the sardonic wit that characterized Came Down Different, such as when Freeland (co-guitarist/vocals) snarls, “You gotta change with the times / What else can you do? / Nice belief system, man / Did your mommy make it for you?” But others require a kind of melancholy reflection, an earnestness that we haven’t seen the group offer to this degree: “I got so much left to lose / Seems like I never learn a lesson / Unless the lesson leaves a bruise,” he sings on the crisp, poppy standout “Dreaming’s Free.” Striking a similar tone, “Rosemary’s Gone” may well be Breakup Song Of The Year, molding gnarled guitars and diaristic candor into an alluring, Wowee Zowee-esque puddle of pain (just like love..?).
Behind the pithy insights is pithy guitar music. Pardoner’s sound lives in the same world as peer bands Dumb, Dazy, 2nd Grade and Cheekface—those postmodern indie rockers whose love for acts like Lilys and Polvo lingers in their music in the way one’s accent reveals their origin but not their whole story. In other words, Peace Loving People is more than an amalgam of influences. Of course it is. Pardoner have been doing this a while now, and their confidence comes across in these more ambitious arrangements. Fast, loud and even obnoxious one minute; heartfelt and reposed the next.”
The Roof Dogs "Here You Are"
You’ve been testing out all your angles, your arms and legs are tangled up there in your room, the Roof Dogs sing on Starpower, the penultimate track from “Here You Are.” Written during 2020 lockdowns, the Roof Dogs’ first LP leans into repetition, drawn out musical passages, and lyrical themes of isolation and fatalism. Musically the album is less concise than previous releases. The songs are longer and are arranged around extended instrumental passages, with lyrics sometimes taking a backseat to the band’s playing. Keyboard instruments rise to new levels of importance, with almost every track including serious contribution from the synthesizer, organ, or piano. Despite these developments in style, characteristic Dogisms such as Maher’s syncopated and groove-heavy bass lines remain. The record was recorded over 2021 between Strange Magic and Jamdek recording studios in Chicago, as well as the band’s practice space and apartments with help of frequent collaborator Tristan Huygen.
Cory Hanson "Western Cum"
Western Cum (say it three times fast! Nope, doesn’t help) departs radically from the acoustic existentiell of Cory’s first two solo releases, torching their haunted dreamscapes by upping its heat to molten levels, six strings at a time. A darkly comic evisceration of the end of the American road; great tunes to modern dance along with, too.