Television Satellite
Ska Punk, Indie Rock, Sophisti-Pop, Power Pop, Pop Punk, Death Metal and more!
This has been one of those writing cycles for me where I keep telling myself I need to wait longer to space out my posts, and also to collect more thoughts on albums, but before I know it I have more album mini-reviews than I expected. Good problem to have for me, I suppose!
This past weekend I got to see The Get Up Kids and The Smoking Popes live, which was a really good time. Real elder emo hours for sure. TGUK were incredibly tight live and played two sets - Something to Write Home About in its entirety, and then a set of classics and deeper cuts. Great night!
I’m working on finishing part two of my 2 Albums for Every Year I've Been Alive posts. If you didn’t read that one yet, it’s over here:
I’ve also been trying out the chat functionality here on Substack, and right now I’m running an “Album Club” where we listen to a record and comment about it for the month of October. This is one of my fav albums, so jump into the chat and let me know what you think about it!
Otherwise, I hope you have a good week. Here’s what I’ve been listening to lately.
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.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite, the better site, 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!
⛏️ Kill Lincoln - No Normal (2024)
Genre: Ska Punk, Pop Punk, Melodic Hardcore
26 minutes of third-wave ska punk revival from Kill Lincoln. As a band, they took me a minute to warm up to, and a big part of unlocking my appreciation for their previous record was their single "I'm Fine (I Lied)".
They sprinkle in some melodic hardcore elements on songs like "Planted" and there was at least one moment on the record where Lifetime popped into my head. The brevity is a positive here, as they definitely left me wanting more and this will be a very easy record for me to just smash the play button on again when it ends. Might be neck and neck with Can't Complain but I think this inches it out just a bit.
Since this was released a week or two ago, it pretty much hasn’t left my rotation - particularly in the car. Very likely to appear on my year-end list, that’s for sure.
⛏️ Greenwitch - Forced Out of Existence (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Slam Death Metal
Right off the bat, "The Cyberneticist" has the goods when it comes to kinda groovy, breakdown-y death metal. This gets really sludgy and heavy between its death metal blast beats and that is always something I enjoy. There's a real foundation of ignorant beatdown hardcore in some of these riffs to my ear ("Grotto of Obscene Sensation") but then they will also throw in a ridiculous thrash metal solo for good measure. I guess according to the genre tags this is “slam death metal” so maybe I need to investigate that further.
Just dumb nasty stuff with songs called shit like "Spewin' Fluids." This is definitely my speed. Not sure we need 6 minutes of guitar noise before "Severed" but it made me feel kinda like I was listening to a CD and this was the hidden song at the end haha. I basically can’t quit this record right now, there have been days where I’ve spun it two or three times in a row while driving around doing errands. It just rips so hard.
🌱 Tiny Stills - We Really Felt Something (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop, Pop Punk, Midwest Emo
Pretty good Guppy-core crunchy power-pop indie rock etc. Not exactly wildly memorable but I was craving this kind of instant gratification pop-punk adjacent thing this morning and it did the trick! If you’re into this kind of thing, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
✂ Am I Dead Yet?, Villain
🌱 Ripped to Shreds - Sanshi (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Deathgrind
I enjoyed this, but it was a little bit in-one-ear-out-the-other kind of material for me today. There's no thrash-related tags in the genres here but I feel like there's a good bit of thrash in their death metal sound for sure. Very nice, further listens with closer inspection might bring the score up but for now I liked it.
🌱 Drug Church - Prude (2024)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Alternative Rock, Grunge, Melodic Hardcore
There's nothing technically wrong with this album - it is more of the same from Drug Church - but this is the first time I've felt a little fatigued/uninterested with one of their new releases. This hits all the marks you want from a DC album, but again its the first time that it has felt familiar in a middle-of-the-road way instead of familiar in a "hell yeah, here we go again" way.
"Yankee Trails" is a good example of "sounds like a bunch of other DC songs, in a good way" moment on the record for me. "Myopic" was a good pick for single because it's a stronger example of them doing what they do as well.
A lot of times when I feel this way, it just means an album is a grower and over time it'll dig its hooks into me. Going to need to spend some time in a car driving around with this cranked to see where I land, but this is their first album that didn't immediately hit me in the gut in a satisfying way.
Undeath - More Insane (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal
I'm not an expert in deathcore, but this does sound to me like death metal played with metalcore style riff-clarity, moments of breakdowns and an inability to sit still for too long. It's not so melodic that I'd call it melo-death but I guess by virtue of it having metalcore elements in here it's less cookie-monster than your standard death band. I keep thinking "meat and potatoes" when I listened to this but I'm not sure if it's so down-the-middle for the genre or now. But it was a good listen, doesn't overstay its welcome, got my head nodding here and there. Not bad.
Origami Angel - Feeling Not Found (2024)
Genre: Emo-Pop, Power Pop, Easycore, Pop Punk, Math Pop
Appreciating Origami Angel as much as other people in the modern emo scene seems to have escaped me. In small doses I think their mix of emo-pop, power-pop, pop-punk and outbursts of, I dunno, let's just say heavy riffing, is effective and fun. I know they get sub-tags for stuff like Metalcore on their artist page but I think Easycore makes more sense to me. Yeah, they do some really heavy chugga chugga-ing and moments of breakdowns but there's something about this aspect of the band that feels somewhat surface-level to me. Not even in a bad way, it's fun to have these moments pop up, but it's also not going to convince anyone allergic to the rest of their sound. I mean, at least half the time they sound like Relient K, and I say that as someone who has more time for Mmhmm than your average person, lol.
And yet, I feel like none of their albums have hit me as capital A, top-to-bottom albums even though everyone else seems to go nuts over them, particularly Somewhere City. They feel like a quintessential "sure, they've a couple sick songs" band to me. There's another few songs here I liked, and I had an OK time listening to this, but still not so sure if the band as a whole is for me.
Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Space Rock, Progressive Rock, Berlin School
This should be 100% my shit because I love nerdy ass prog-influenced metal and my taste for death metal has been increasing and increasing the last year. The sub-tag has Berlin School, reviews have been name checking krautrock, plus they've got Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream on here. And yet.............
I dunno, I just think the mix here is really awkward. A lot of nice spacey synth stuff just kind of building-blocked around down the middle death metal. Nothing on here is actively bad - much of it is really interesting to me - but it feels like nothing coalesces to rise above just "can you believe they're mixing this stuff together?" May just be a MP not a YP though, so don't let me stop you from checking it out.
⛏️ Sophie and Peter Johnston - Sophie and Peter Johnston (1987)
Genre: Synthpop, Sophisti-Pop, Dance-Pop
This hits a sweet spot in 80s synth-pop that I love, where really slick and enormous, but kind of cheap sounding instrumentation, is used to create depth and warmth that for whatever reason feels oxymoronic.
I wouldn't know for sure, but this sounds a lot like something that could have influenced the early work of Kero Kero Bonito, especially on songs like "Open Up" where there's little quirky sound effects embedded in their compositions, or little spoken word moments. It makes the album full of character and really charming. "Take That Jerkin Off!" sounds like the OST to a water level in some forgotten Super NES game (non-derogatory). I love that kind of shit. "Some Sunny Day" just rips, it's like bombastic, chaotic dream pop or something. "Torn Up" is a major highlight too, with massive soaring arena synths bounding around and underneath an orchestra of reverb-soaked 80s compositions. Delightful.
"Brain Def" is a weird diversion tacked on at the end of the album, kind of a Def Jam diss track. Doesn't really fit on the record but since it's sequenced last it's not too hard to just skip once you've heard it.
⛏️ The Wedding Present - Bizarro (1989)
Genre: Indie Rock, C86, Noise Pop, C86, Post-Punk, Jangle Pop
I know that this one is bolded on Rate Your Music, but IRL I feel like Seamonsters was the album that would always get brought up when it came to The Wedding Present. For whatever reason, Bizarro was the album that connected with me first and foremost, and while I like Seamonsters and love Steve Albini's production work, there's an energy to this record that I find really addictive.
For a long time, I heard the name of The Wedding Present and assumed they were some kind of gothy post-punk moody band and not a slashy crashy noisy buzzy indie rock noise pop band like this. Big mistake tbh!
Glad I eventually rectified it, and revisiting this every year or so is always a nice jolt of energy in the old noggin' for me.
✨ Cumbie - EP (2021)
Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore
Lately I have been revisiting this strange EP that I spun a lot of in 2021. Hard to categorize; has a logo that makes you think of death metal bands, sounds like indie rock with egg punk alien vocals, random bursts of heaviness and Rozwell Kid-esque approach to riffs-n-melodies. Seth Engel (aka Options) recorded this and there's connections from its members with acts like Shady Bug, The Deals, Ronnie Rogers and Gored Embrace.
The varied styles here, focus on memorable melodies and overall brevity only makes me wish they'd put out some more music because I'd really like to here what they do next.
✨ Torch Song - Wish Thing (1984)
I seem to have a thing for dance-y yet melancholic synth-pop, and this is a good set of that kind of music. Lyrics are usually a weak point in music like this, and they're no great shakes, but the mood keeps things together. I particularly liked instrumental excursions that break up the poppiness of the album, like a buzz-saw gritty synth bursting into the room on "Prepare to Energize" and doing its thing for a while and then leaving. They toss some slight reggae rhythms in on "You Said You Were Coming" as well which is a bit of a left turn, but not a bad one.
✨ Big D and the Kids Table - The Gypsy Hill EP / LP (2002)
Genre: Ska Punk
Big D and the Kids Table had an album problem. Their problem was that they never seemed to be able to release a strong, concise and top-to-bottom record. Strictly Rude is their closest, with a lot of really high highs, but it's almost an hour long. How It Goes similarly has some very good tracks, but it's 76 minutes long, what the fuck? Edit yourselves, guys!
I guess then it makes sense that the closest to being a front-to-back release they ever put out was this EP (or I guess they added a song and turned it into an LP eventually.) Here, they hit on their strengths of heavy-ish riffs and big ska-punk melodies ("Check List.)
Songs like "Apologies" break away from the "alternate between a punk bit and a ska bit" most third wave bands do, and it just kicks ass. "Find Out" is a skip though. They haven't yet delved into their whole "Stroll" thing so there's nothing as major a banger as "Shining On" on this. But it comes in under half an hour, so whatever, haha.
✨ Big Kids - Hoop Dreams (2010)
Genre: Pop Punk
Scrappy, gruff punk rock with a melodic through line and some emo/post-hardcore elements ("Our Team"). This comes just a hair away from being anthemic in that orgcore kind of way, but doesn't the vocals are a little obfuscated. Still effective though. Good stuff if you're into the genre and a little weirdly forgotten for something that came out on Topshelf Records circa- the revival genre's explosion.
⛏️ Hey Mercedes - Loses Control (2003)
Genre: Emo-Pop, Indie Rock, Midwest Emo, Power Pop, Pop Punk
I've just always preferred Hey Mercedes' straight and to-the-point hook-laden music to Braid, and their second record didn't buck that trend. Even when their chunky riffs-and-hooks approach feels cloying or corny ("Playing Your Song"), it still works for me anyway because hey, it's catchy.
There's nothing here except naked (non-derogatory) attempts to write really big, melodic rock music that gravitates between foundationally emo power-pop, vaguely angular indie rock and that kind of post-90s melodic alt-rock thing.
As usual, this stuff is best when it's louder and faster, but overall this is still right up my alley, even if their previous record edges it out because it has more baked-in nostalgia for me.
✨ Madder Rose - Panic On (1994)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Power Pop, Dream Pop, Jangle Pop
Very solid album of alt-rock power-dream-jangle-pop etc. with some 90s noisiness to it. Unfortunately it's 52 minutes when 30 - 40 would have sufficed, but the material here is mostly strong. Bands like this usually lose my interest on slower tracks like "Day In, Day Out" but Madder Rose can pull the dreamy pop dramatics off well.
Abandoned Pools - Humanistic (2001)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Post-Grunge, Emo-Pop, Post-Hardcore, Power Pop, Trip Hop, Alternative Metal, Post-Britpop
This was a College-era classic personally, but it has been years and years since I heard it (mostly due to it being unavailable on streaming services.) There's a few post-grunge alt-rock-pop gems on here, like "The Remedy" or the Clone High featured "Start Over" which has that one-hit-wonder, sampled-beat-and-strings vibe going on. The record has a real identity crisis at times, jumping in and out of genres a lot (particularly in the second half.) Really, the record is its strongest in the opening 5 song run. I know this has a cult following (again helped by its relation to Clone High) but it really doesn't hold up as a 45 minute album for me. There's a thrill in revisiting stuff like "Monster" or "Mercy Kiss" though.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Loved that Tiny Stills album!
That Torch Song LP is goooood! I'll take all of that ya got. I'm spinning it in rural WI, and it seems almost subversive in a weird way.