Another Buncha New Releases!

Approaching the end of 2024, already kinda locked in on a few favorites for the year-end list, but here's some great new music to complicate things.

2nd Grade, Scheduled Explosions

Playful Philly indie band with their 3rd LP, which, like the last two, is basically summed up as "Guided By Voices but more power-pop friendly." And, yeah, it feels like a lazy comparison that's gonna get lobbed at anyone who splays out 23 tracks in 40 minutes--some fully-realized, if brief, delightfully catchy pop tracks; some merely fleeting ideas for a song quickly captured on a handy boom-box. But naming songs "Crybaby Semiconductor" and "Ice Cream Social Acid Test" and "Jingle Jangle Nuclear Meltdown" isn't exactly trying to discourage such comparisons. Anyway, once again, plenty of wicked-fun little gems here, spread out amongst the toss-offs that are over before you know it. First spin was just digesting the hooks; now working on the second spin, where the clever turn-of-phrase lyrics and Big Star name-checks start leaping out.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Mo Dotti, Opaque

Am I ever gonna get tired of bands reviving the heydays of 90s shoegaze? Nah, probably not. Los Angeles-based Mo Dotti, on their full-length debut, do it better than most, conjuring Lush and My Bloody Valentine and Medicine, ethereal female vox over those delightful wall-of-sound feedback-drench slabs of heaven.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Nada Surf, Moon Mirror

Nada Surf are one of those bands (like Ween and, to a lesser extent, Flaming Lips) I mistakenly took a pass on back in the 90s, based on a kitschy novelty single in heavy MTV rotation--only to circle back years later and realize they had loads of great music. Their latest follows the template of their last few--fizzy indie noise-pop that alternates between more upbeat alt.rock-flavored rockers and amiable mid-tempo jangle pop. A nifty blend of Fountains of Wayne, Teenage Fanclub, Sloan, etc. Yum!

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Soccer Mommy, Evergreen

Another winner from Sophia Allison, and probably gonna be stuck drawing the inevitable Phoebe Bridgers comparisons. Beautifully voiced bedroom ballads, but beefed up with some studio muscularity and a few experimental infusions. Lovely, but willing to take chances. Just starting to get into it, gonna be getting a lot of spins in the weeks ahead.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

The Things, Coloured Heaven

The Things, one of the original (if far lesser-known) 80s Paisley Underground bands, have languished in obscurity ever since, their records long out-of-print and never seeing CD or digital release. Finally remedied! Their 1984 debut was reissued earlier this year (finally getting around to it here), and it's great to swap out my old cassette burned from scratchy vinyl--though, remastering notwithstanding, it's not exactly hi-fi. Like their peers the Rain Parade, The Things go for a late 60s garage band sound tripped out with jangly psychedelia, somewhere between the Byrds & the Electric Prunes, updated for the 80s jangle pop college radio scene.

Even better, the follow-up album (and their career peak), 1986's Outside My Window--one of my favorite albums of the 80s--is slated for its own reissue in January. Finally! Yay!

Buy it on Bandcamp.