Sit and Stare
Indie rock, emo, industrial metal, pop punk, beatdown hardcore, melodic hardcore, and more.
What’s up, y’all. I’ve been enjoying the brief return of cooler weather in our parts. Used the lower temperatures to try and get more active. Grabbed an old skateboard and took it around the block a few times. Very weird to be skateboarding in the town I grew up in again, but this time I’m almost 40 years old. Also picked up a used bike and have been ripping around on that after work to shake the cobwebs out of my brain. Seems to be working, I think.
I finally made some progress on our record player situation (read: I hadn’t set it up yet.) Having finally drilled holes in the shelving so we can run the wires through for all the equipment, I can actually listen to my tapes and records now.
Not so bad, though I’m pretty sure I need to either clean out the receiver and put some work into it, because it’s scratchy as all hell and I’m not sure the stereo channels are balanced because one is always louder than the other. Another addition to the ever-growing list of things to do! Hurrah.
Anyway, here’s a bunch of music! More than usual, I think, and I threw in some less than glowing reviews of older stuff for good measure just to include my thoughts on ‘em. Hell, I wrote it so someone might as well read it , right?
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 particularly choice cuts from an album.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite if you’d like or better yet 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!
⛏️ Goat Girl - Below the Waste (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock, Art Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Pop, Post-Punk, Grunge
Maybe my memory is wrong, but I feel like On All Fours was a bit more guitar forward than this one. I'm liking their excursions into further neo-psych and art-pop areas though here.
I know that existed on the last record, but they've kind of blown their sound up with a stick of dynamite and scattered it across little interludes and shorter songs alongside longer ones. It works though, which is a tough thing to do. The piano and string laden "take it away" is maybe an example of them overreaching but it does segue into the really cool chamber pop track "pretty faces."
A little messy and scrappy, but in an admirable way. Never strays too far enough to lose my interest completely, so I am digging this one overall.
✨ Bats & Mice - PS: Seriously. (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock, Emo, Alternative Rock
Very cool to hear this strain of emo/indie throwback right now. Feel like there's not a ton of this stuff out there, lightly post-hardcore influenced but very poppy and still very much in the emo vein. Enjoyable!
I have to steal Tiny Engines' list of RIYL because it's too good: Engine Down, No Knife, Pinback, other Lovitt Records bands. I'd even throw in The Velvet Teen there as well.
⛏️ Candy - It's Inside You (2024)
Genre: Metalcore, Industrial Metal, Digital Hardcore, Electro-Industrial
Friggin’ rips man, I dunno. I honestly have a soft spot for working little break beats and electronic flourishes into really aggro hardcore/metalcore stuff like this, and they do it super well here. Chiptune lead lines on "Dancing to the Infinite Beat"? Hell yeah, gimme more, I'm here for it. Sick shit straight up and can see this on my year-end list for sure.
Big Ass Truck - Big Ass Demo (2024)
Genres: Metalcore, Beatdown Hardcore
Sent this to the Tied Down festival group chat before our trip to Detroit and we were all laughing the whole time whenever we passed big ass trucks on the road. I dunno why I find this shit so hilarious, but it's wildly amusing to me.
Yeah, it's bargain bin ignorant dumb guy hardcore beatdown shit but add in the novelty of them singing about big ass trucks and dropping truck horns on the intro and I'm game.
It's super novelty and I'm sure it'll dissipate into the fog of my mind in another month or two... but I'll take a stupid band called Big Ass Truck over some of the standard, takes themselves very very seriously stuff like this to be honest.
✨ Casual - Casual (2015)
Genre: Pop Punk
Feel like this got lost in the shuffle of bands that sounded very similar in the mid-2010s. This has that scrappy, poppy shambly punk thing with the dual vocalist action going on that feels geographically specific (Philly comes to mind?) but then you realize a lot of areas had bands with this sound.
Stuff like early Swearin' or Nona's Through the Head also come to mind immediately as this feels like the melodic elements have a lot of indie rock / power-pop influence. They keep a good bit of pop punk energy though even when they slow down (can see the sweaty live show pogos going off at that part 1:07 into "Staircase Wit" haha).
✂ "Sit and Stare"
✨ Secret Spirit - Secret Spirit (2018)
Genre: Melodic Hardcore
Sits on the melodic hardcore side of the modern punk spectrum. Nice to hear something you can call melodic hardcore like still retains hardcore DNA.
"Machine Operator" justifies the melodic hardcore tag alone and doesn't just sound like a Lifetime also-ran. Probably hems a little closer to stuff like the earlier Kid Dynamite (or even Paint It Black on "Harpoon") releases where there was a lot of grit and hardcore-style intensity in their sound despite being overtly melodic in elements.
They'll end a songs with hardcore breakdowns ("Secret Spirit" or "Jed to Me") and then follow it up with something like "Fault Lines" or "Old Feeling" which are immediately very pop-punk power-pop in tone (and is one of the more overt examples of a Lifetime influence on here.)
Probably getting lost in the weeds trying to explain the jist here but when "melodic hardcore" at once means "EpiFat skate punk bands from the 90s" at the same time as meaning "bands that sound exclusively like Lifetime" I guess you need to clarify.
This is pretty solid though, I enjoyed it.
Bashful - Driving (2020)
Genre: Pop Punk
Revisiting one that was on my 2020 year-end list. Here’s my review from then:
Straight to the point poppy punk from this Richmond, Virginia group. There’s not a whole lot to say here outside of it being fast ‘n’ poppy, which is what I like. Songs cycle through hooks with reckless abandon, and overall Bashful’s sound lands in a nice spot between three-chord thrashers and more ambitious modern indie-punks.
They don't end up doing straight-up nasally Ramonescore worship, but it’s also not just exclusively pointing to beer-soaked orgcore reference points either. Definitely an emo element in the vocal delivery that could bring to mind stuff like Hold Tight!
It’s a nice balance, and only 21 minutes long.
✂ "Boston Shitter", "Song, Too", "Lightheaded"
✨ The Velvet Teen - No Star (2010)
Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop, Pop Punk, Noise Pop, Math Pop, Post-Hardcore
If I had to pick a single release from the band, I'd probably point towards this EP. "No Star" starts things off immensely, and "Forfor" ratchets up the melodic tendencies of a band who were known for bouncing between indie rock, math pop, emo pop, angular post-hardcore and more. Sometimes they'd dedicate entire albums to certain tones - Elysium was their softer, chamber poppy album while follow up Cum Laude ratcheted up unhinged noise math pop face-melters.
But here they're right in the sweet spot of everything they did well - softer melodic moments, guitar ripping crescendos and a beautifully chaotic drum performance. The first half of "Pavlovian Bell" is maybe a few steps too close to some kind of emo-U2 territory but otherwise, great EP.
Fig Dish - That's What Love Songs Often Do (1995)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Grunge
I was re-listening to this album yesterday on a whim, and then in the Rosy Overdrive discord today the announcement that this band is releasing what would have been their third album was shared. Weird coincidence!
Fig Dish are one of those bands that I continue to build up in my mind as being better than they actually are. Maybe it's because the first three or four songs on this album are solid alt-grunge-pop that my memory of it is stronger.
Unfortunately, it's 50 minutes long. Between their two albums (both are 50 minutes! 100 minutes total!! no!!!) there is probably a very nice 30 minute record. Maybe I'll make that playlist some day.
When they keep things upbeat, energetic, thick with riffs and hooky, they are pretty genial. I have a lot of time for this kind of major label release where they give an indie band a budget for big, thick rock songs with hooks so I'm kind of the right audience for it. But they couldn't seem to pull together a top to bottom great record. I'd be really interested in hearing the approach they took on those once-discarded third album songs though 👀
✨ 45 Grave - Sleep in Safety (1983)
Genre: Deathrock, Horror Punk, Glam Punk, Surf Punk
Fun deathrock / horror punk stuff, as featured on The Return of the Living Dead soundtrack.
A big mix of stuff here, some of it you could pass off to someone as new wave ("Dream Hits II") when listened to without context. Other tracks you could pass of as just goth rock, and then there's a sprinkling of punkier moments and surf elements.
It annoys me that the streaming versions have all the bonus tracks and re-ordering from re-releases because now I can't tell if the record would flow or be tighter had I not just accidentally listened to all of them in one go. Score could have gone up a half star had I remembered to check the track listing before playing, haha.
✨ SSQ - Playback (1983)
Solid forgotten synth pop featuring Stacey Q before they went solo. The band is most notable (aside from the Stacy Q thing) for their song "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)" as featured in Return of the Living Dead. Not featured here, but the version on Spotify has some remixes alongside that track.
Some of this is a bit featherweight ("Big Electronic Beat") but it's enjoyable even so. "Synthicide" and "Walkman On" are highlights. Worth a look if you like stuff like this, which I do.
✨ Counterfit - Super Amusement Machine for Your Exciting Heart (2002)
Genre: Emo-Pop, Midwest Emo, Indie Rock, Pop Punk, Math Pop
Emo-pop that kinda reminds me of Hot Rod Circuit, Mock Orange or Hey Mercedes in moments, as well as wussier stuff like The Juliana Theory.
Has that vaguely angular kind of indie-rock thing from this era as well. Not sure I'd go as far to call it math pop or post-hardcore influenced or what but there's a bit of something there in their guitar riffs and off-kilter rhythms. Some effective stop/start chugga chuggas in songs like "Managing the Details of an Undertaking". There's a pinch of the emo-influenced pop-punk that was about to blow up in a year or so as well, like on the chorus of "Better Late Than Never" as well.
It's all well performed and I didn't mind it while it was on, but not sure it's something I'd return to very often. "Pleasant" is the word that keeps coming to mind.
Treble Charger - Detox (2002)
Genre: Pop Punk, Alternative Rock, Power Pop
For a time in Canada there was a real divide around people who listened to Treble Charger - of which I wasn't really either of them. But there were people who got pissed off they stopped being a Can-rock indie band (circa-1996/1997) and those that only knew them only once they turned into a radio pop-punk band (see: "American Psycho", Wide Awake Bored).
Basically, they used to sit on the shelf beside stuff like Sloan but by 2000 their album made more sense alongside something like The World According to Gob. They went from this to this in about 5 years. Which checks out, as Greig Nori basically discovered, managed and produced Sum 41 in the early 2000 and helped them out with improving their songwriting. Members of Sum 41 also get credits for backing vocals on here too so, again this all checks out.
That's not to say this is a pop punk album exclusively. Stuff like "The First Time" is still too power-pop and Sloan-esque to be comparable to Sum 41. I straight up went to the credits to see if one of the Johns from They Might Be Giants were on guest vocals for that song.
Actually nothing here has any punk DNA to be able to trace a line to straight up pop punk. "Hundred Million" gets close. The whole thing does make me wish these songs had as much energy and as catchy a hook as "Hundred Million" does because it's clearly the best song here. The rest? Eh, pretty all over the map.
Even for all that can be said about their transition from indie pop to poppy mainstream punk... they never seemed to ditch the feeling that they're a band constantly in search of a sound. Not much here is memorable to me and I feel like I can’t even recommend it to anyone unless you’re very, very curious.
✨ Disciples of Power - Ominous Prophecy (1992)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal
First track, and I'm thinking this is pretty cool tech thrash that has a vocalist that borders on that guttural death metal barking sound. Probably gets a progressive thrash sub tag just by virtue of how it restlessly hops from riff to riff over the course of these mostly 5 and 6+ minute songs. The first song in itself has tons of stops and change ups, plus breaks to clean passages to solo movements and then back again, pretty all over the map. If that exhausts you… might want to sit this one out.
Thankfully, I like my tech thrash to be a bit restless and songs that just hammer one thing for too long can tire me. The lengths here do drag on, though, so I can see someone hating it by the halfway mark.
They really lean on the whole "stop dead in their tracks for a second..................... boom back to it!" gimmick as well. Particularly in the song "Nature's Fury (Betrayed Earth)" where I kept thinking my speakers gave up. I say particularly in that song, but honestly as the album went on, that was my main complaint - they do it way too much! Less is more y'all!
Mostly, I find the mix of sounds here to be very intriguing. Not bad at all. Probably 10 minutes too long (hook appears on stage and drags me off.)
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Is that receiver in the photo a Pioneer? I had an SX 1050 and that thing hated to be moved; I had to have it serviced twice, for similar sounding issues and finally after one more house move, I gave up on it and sold it for like, $50...which is a steal even with the needed servicing.
I haven't heard that Disciples of Power, but that reminded me I have "Power Trap" and need to give it a relisten!