Same Time Next Week
Same Time Next Week
Powerviolence, Progressive Pop, Jazz Pop, Power Pop, Crossover Thrash, Jangle Pop, Americana and more.
Good Monday morning to y’all.
Hope you had a great Halloween. Trying to conjure up what has happened since the last time I wrote one of these introductions to a review-bomb post… we went on a Halloween bike ride around town with other glow-light adorned bikers - that was fun! Gave out candy on Halloween night, though not as many trick-or-treaters than I had expected came by. As a result, the last few groups got some very sizable mit-fuls of candy.
Emma dragged by butt out yesterday for a mental health walk when I was absolutely not in the mood to do so, and surprise surprise it was what I needed to do.
Here’s a cool tree I liked from that walk:
Moving on, here’s what I’ve been listening to and logging lately. Let me know what you have been excited about, music-wise!
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
✨ means worth a look, if you like the genres listed in particular.
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite, the better site, or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Thirdface - Ministerial Cafeteria (2024)
Genre: Powerviolence, Hardcore Punk
Immediately we're back with some “Hell yeah!” material. Some of the shit they pull on "Mantras" is just too good. I loved Do It With a Smile and this was welcome surprise that I didn't realize was coming. Great mix of powerviolence, hardcore, punk and even some noise-rock like the end of "Meander". A lot of fun riff variety. Love that some of these songs could be like six powerviolence songs just strung together.
Sure, nothing they do here is genre-exploding stuff but I always like a band who have more ideas than they know what to do with. When they slow things down and get more melodic or groove-based (or approach post-hardcore elements on songs like "Sour") it works and I definitely dig the textures they're working with.
⛏️ Fievel Is Glauque - Rong Weicknes (2024)
Genre: Progressive Pop, Jazz Pop, Art Pop, Jazz Fusion, Rock in Opposition, Canterbury Scene
I think the nature of how Flaming Swords was written and performed (smaller compositions, more of them, and recorded all in one piece) makes it destined to be something I gravitate to.
The band's follow up, still a longer record with 15 songs, feels a bit more like a "collection" of songs than their last one. They also nudged away a little bit from the poppier elements of their vocal melodies on Flaming Swords for a bit more of a progressive and fusion approach to their jazzy indie sound. Regardless, I love this band and they continue to release really strong material.
This album is a bit more adventurous than Flaming Swords, and I think it will suit a certain type of listener more. I like both sides of the band, and so I'm a bit stuck in the middle trying to figure out which record I like most, the instant gratification of Flaming Swords or the out-there pleasures of Rong Weicknes. Both are great though in their own ways and I imagine this will grow on me.
⛏️ What Gives - Got Lost (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop
What Gives (feat. members of Annabel, Dowsing, and Elway) are back with new member Delia Hornik on keys. Their sound has subtly morphed from the The Get Up Kids meets Rozwell Kid style anthemic emo-power-pop heard on Feels Good into something even poppier and crunchier. I mentioned on a review of their singles that this sounds even more like Motion City Soundtrack and The Anniversary worship, which definitely tracks and also works well for me. They do slow things down for the Future Teens-y ballad of "Turn the Light Off Soon" as well.
I pretty much always have time for crunchy riffs and wee-ooo-wee-ooo synths so I dug this quite a bit. It has a handful of songs that hit a lot harder than the others, but it remains pretty above-average on the whole, so if you are also someone who is always craving the sugary thrills of this kind of stuff, there's a lot to like here.
⛏️ Pest Control - Year of the Pest (2024)
Genre: Crossover Thrash, Hardcore Punk
I really want another full length from this group, but an EP at half the length (10 minutes) of their LP will do. More crossover thrash and hardcore breakdown riffing from the band that is my fav pick of the modern crossover/hardcore scene for sure. They do exactly what you want this kind of music to do, get in with some flashy, thrashy riffing and adding in some good hardcore influenced breakdown moments to get your head banging.
Night Court - $hit Machine (2024)
More from this prolific Canadian act, this time released on the very appropriate Recess Records label, since they play garage-y pop-punk a la Toys That Kill, The Marked Men, Scared of Chaka etc. Night Court benefit from having a bit of an expanded palate, at least compared to some bands in this genre who just do the one thing exactly the same across all their songs. There's definitely a strain of indie-punk in their sound, and a couple songs actually brought to mind stuff like Dogs on Acid ("Permanent Vocation") for me. They also share that power pop sound of poppy punk bands like Tenement too.
These 26 minutes went by fast and easy, for sure. I felt like this gets better and better as it goes, with a particularly strong second side that finds interesting excursions like the Jawbreaker-y intro to "Happy Birthday" or the stripped back "My Last Acid Trip."
Squint - Big Hand (2024)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Melodic Hardcore, Alternative Rock
If you know Squint already from their EPs, you know what this is. If you don't, they play Drug Church-core noisy guitar rock tunes with big riffs and hooks and that hardcore-adjacent vibe that is really big right now. They're one of the best bands to do it, partially because they are ripping from a phenomenal band, but also because their riffs are sick and their hooks are hooky. I don’t like to say reductive things like this, but I think they may have released the best Drug Church album of the year with this one.
Alvilda - C'est déjà l'heure (2024)
Genre: Power Pop, Jangle Pop, Punk Rock
Very fun power-pop stuff from France. A lot of bands are trying to do this sound, but there's something here that works more than other attempts from this year. Really well produced and played stuff, has a good indie/jangle aspect to it alongside the expected vintage power-pop instrumentation. Really nice stuff, I liked this a lot.
⛏️ Big Nobody - Charlie’s Alive (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock
I heard Big Nobody’s album from 2023 - Ripped from the Dream - and enjoyed it, but it didn’t quite have the staying power to end up on my year-end list unfortunately. I knew of this band primarily because their drummer is the brains behind Comfy, one of my fav current indie rock bands. Self-described as “heavy pop”, they play that kind of power-pop indebted indie rock that I love so much.
On their new album (and first as a full-band effort), Big Nobody has taken a considerably large step forward and improved upon their last record in almost every way. Bigger hooks, great riffs, a touch of jangle pop on songs like “Run”.
It’s such a well executed set of varied influences, that seeing their Spotify playlist of influences included such disparate acts as Everclear, Drug Church, Happy Diving, Hum, Thin Lizzy, REO Speedwagon, Weezer, Jeff Rosenstock, The Goo Goo Dolls, Built to Spill, Sum 41 and more made a kind of wild sense to me in the context of their self-appointed “heavy pop” moniker too.
Sleeping Bag - Beam Me Up (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock
As a long-time fan of Sleeping Bag it pleases me they're still quietly pushing along as one of the most consistent acts in indie rock. Not counting their releases of demos and songs written after the names of their fans pets (of which there are 5 lol) this is their 6th or 7th album I think? Sleeping Bag and Women of Your Life are both really underrated and this one is more solid, jangly, hooky, riffy indie rock with that slacker-y, recorded at home vibe to it. I hope they keep releasing music, because I keep liking it!
🌱 Pet TV - Terrarium (2024)
Genre: Alternative Rock
Cromulent indie-alt-rock that feels a pinch above average for this kind of thing. Buzzy, crunchy and pretty fun, hooky tracks here. Has some of that 90s slacker pop on stuff like "Separate Me". At times reminds me of Options with the emo removed and replaced with alt-rock. This is just solid stuff that you can bop along with and not have to pay too close attention to. A pinch of britpop elements as checked by the press-kit as well. There's a lot of this general sound happening right now in indie rock and I feel like this has a bit more memorable melodies to prop it up than some acts do.
🌱 Bent Blue - So Much Seething (2024)
Genre: Melodic Hardcore
This sits somewhere between the "melodic rock music by hardcore band members" thing that is very popular right now, and 90s melodic hardcore worship.
On songs like "Unspoken" they definitely earn the melodic hardcore tag when they get into that almost youth crew style chant-along breakdown thing. Then on "Your Remains" they sound more like they're going for Lifetime with the melodic verses. I think you could also describe some of these songs as Paint It Black-lite. The vocals in particular on some songs reminds me of Dan Yemin a little ("Rough Mason").
A lot of this stuff is really in-one-ear-out-the-other for me, and while this isn't exactly the best of the genre, it held my attention so there's something here that I can't put my finger on that worked for me even if it's very "been there, done that" in sound. I'm torn on rating this higher because it was satisfying upon first listen, but I'm willing to say that it could go up in score with some revisiting.
🌱 Hey, ily! - Hey, I Loathe You! (2024)
Genre: Noise Pop, Midwest Emo, Indietronica, Post-Hardcore, Power Pop
Have never really gotten into this band, but figured I'd give their new full length a try. Seems like they have turned a corner from their mashing up of poppy emo punk and bitpop/hyperpop/bitcrushed whatever genres into something a bit more considered of a blend. This has more elements of post-hardcore and math-rock/post-rock for sure. When they hit the riffs harder on something like "Feel Good Forever" they almost sound like a terminally online version of Bayside or that kind of nearly-screamy emo-pop, before going internet-power-pop-emo on the chorus. When they get into tippy-tappy math rock second wave emo stuff though, I feel like it's a bit of a weak spot for the band.
Mostly I come to this kind of music for music that is cheat code catchy (to borrow a phrase from dewtaylo) and this doesn't get there in that territory. When they get into heavier moments like on the middle stretch of "Wind-Up Toy" or on "Dev Hell" it's a little bit more novel without needing to be super hooky.
I still think this band is a step away from calibrating their sound into something that really kills, but this was a bit of a step in the right direction overall imo, as it all feels stitched together more organically than any loose songs I had heard from them previously.
🌱 Tim Heidecker - Slipping Away (2024)
Genre: Americana, Soft Rock, Country Rock
Probably the most consistent album that Tim Heidecker has put out yet. Although consistency means that nothing on this album hits the highs of something like "Work from Home," "When I Get Up" or "Buddy". Regardless, this is 34 minutes of soft Dad country/folk rock and it's a really cozy listen. This might also be compositionally their most mature sounding album, with their lushest set of songs.
You could probably play "Bells are Ringing" for someone and they might think it's a vintage, lightly psychedelic, rootsy country rock and roll band with its gang vocals chanting "Everything old once was young / Everything young someday dies." It just feels very accurate to the kind of music Tim loves and loves to make.
We're a long way from the kind of "are they really sincere or no?" questions that people had circa-Starting From Nowhere. As such, Tim's discography is long past the need to frame their music that way, but as music that is both attempting to recapture a certain sound or era and also exist as its own standalone thing, this is maybe their most successful yet.
Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible (2024)
Genre: Metalcore, Mathcore, Alternative Metal
It's really unfortunate about what happened with Every Time I Die because now we have two very middle of the road bands instead of one amazing one.
Listening to this album, which is totally... OK..., just bummed me out. It's weird, because a lot of the nuts and bolts of the album work on paper but they don't really add up to the sum of their parts. I feel the same way about Many Eyes, which just sounds like watered down ETiD with hired guns.
It's not that all this album needs is Keith singing on it, because I don't think that would make it a great record, but there's a spark missing from both bands that clearly came from working together.
⛏️ Nanny - Can't Remember, Can't Forget (2021)
Genre: Power Pop
Revisited this record that landed on my year-end list in 2021.
Remains a really good fizzy, effervescent power-pop record. Crunchy guitars, big hooks, good mid-tempo jammers ("Speechless"). Doesn't have the punk DNA to be able to call this pop punk but also it sits comfortably on the shelf beside that stuff just because the math on songs like "8am" is: guitars + distortion + pop hooks + punk-adjacent drumming.
I'm a sucker for this sound in general, so this was always going to be something I gravitated towards but happy that revisiting has shown it has staying power for me.
RIYL: Ahem, Guppy-era Charly Bliss, Nona, Swearin', joyride!, Magnapop etc.
✂ Friday bb, Yearbook, Elka Park, 8am
🌱 The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done (2005)
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Post-Punk Revival, Geek Rock, Indie Pop, Slacker Rock
There's a lot of music from this era of indie pop / indie rock that feels really icky to revisit. I dunno what it is, but that twee-adjacent-ish indie rock pop orchestrated kind of thing can very easily rub me the wrong way. But there are bands and albums that do it really well! I'm working on a project where people share underrated albums with me and this is the first one I'm getting to and it's a really effective example of the grab-bag pop music with aughts indie production thing. Sometimes they sound like blog pop Clap Your Hands Say Yeah stuff, sometimes they have a Stephen Malkmus vibe and other times they resemble Franz Ferdinand. The key is that they have good hooks and melodies that stick. This made me want to listen to Mock Orange's Captain Love again because it's a similar example of this kinda thing done well.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.