Wand "Laughing Matter"
Wand seem to work very, very hard in an old fashioned way. Touring, recording (3 albums in 14 months!), and seemingly have more to worry about than how many Instagram followers they have. Wand have released Laughing Matter and according to Wand it is about “love during times of terror”. Sounds fun! You know what else is fun? Why Laughing Matter of course! A psychedelic folk trip through the mind of Steven Malkmus doing mushrooms with Syd Barrett. Stereogum said Wand sound like “post-Y2K Radiohead” – which is another way to look at it. Why don’t you vote (my influences vs Stereogum) and check out “Scarecrow” and the ballad-y “High Planes Drifter” (not a Beastie Boys cover, sorry) or the particularly Radiohead-y “Thin Air” (you win that round Stereogum).
doubleVee "Songs For Birds And Bats"
doubleVee are back! Hmm… I wonder, what are the two Vs they’re referring to? Vinyl Vengeance? Very Vintage? Vicious Vanilla? The meanest vanilla in town? In fact, doubleVee’s music would fit very nicely in a cartoon about Vicious Vanilla, a very mean ice cream cone that is terrorizing a western town in a new animated series that exists only in this blurb. Barb and Allan Vest… oh right! Those are the two Vs! Vest and Vest! Anyway, you know Allan from his work as the leader of Starlight Mints, and the sound on their lovely new EP Songs For Birds And Bats isn’t that far off from the quirky orchestral indie pop they were known for-except now we are lucky enough to also get vocal stylings from the talented Barb. Two Vs that sound great together! Songs are replete with sonic shifts, hints of just about everything from doo-wop to glam rock. It’s a cornucopia of wonders! Check out “Ladder For The People.”
Reese McHenry "No Dados (The People On My Floor)"
Who is Resse McHenry? Well, if you look up “swagger” in the dictionary (ok the google) you will see a picture of Resse (hey! who knew dictionaries had pictures in them!?!). If Janis Joplin was around and collaborated on an album with Elle King the result would probably sound something like No Dados. How tough is Resse? Well, she survived four strokes and is still kicking rock in the ass. I get a hangnail and I consider retiring! So get up out of that office chair and turn “Bye Bye Baby” up to 11 or Resse will find you and hurt you bad!
PUP "Morbid Stuff (Little Dipper)"
The latest from Toronto pop punk purveyors Pup doesn’t, at first listen, stray too far from their tried and true pop punk origin story. But the deeper you dig, the more their new LP Morbid Stuff (Little Dipper) reveals. I mean, are there scream-along verses? Yes. Are there plenty of power chords? Sure. Is that it? Nope. There are also intricate guitar lines, sonic shifts, and more hooks that you can shake a now-problematic copy of Pinkerton at. The dudes seems to be working through some shit here (after all, they DID name the record Morbid Stuff) but the only thing more fun than listening to the new Pup record is seeing Pup live. Holler along to “Kids.”