Good at Rockets is an Orange County Trio that released its latest single “The Margin.” The track certainly bears comparison to late 80s R.E.M. with jangly guitar work paired with poetically introspective lyrics that examine the strange ways humans conduct their lives and engage with the world around them by way of behaviors intended to be statements of identity not often examined enough, a pantomime of intentionality. The spare piano work accents the melodic line and as a subtle element it helps to emphasize an underlying message in the song to think beyond the usual frames and narratives that ring in your life out of force of habit even when situations call for greater nuance, understanding and compassion. Every day, John McCabe suggests in his singing, is a chance to get this dynamic right and to inculcate better habits but self-awareness is a good place to start and without judgment. Listen to “The Margin” on Spotify and follow Good at Rockets at the links provided.
Icarus Phoenix “80’s Night Dance Party Singing ‘Send Me an Angel’” cover
Icarus Phoenix uses the vehicle of power pop Americana with “80’s Night Dance Party Singing ‘Send Me an Angel’” to deliver the realest lines about social anxiety rendered in thoughtful couplets. It’s posed as a series of questions coming from a place of compassionate curiosity and works whether directed to a friend or to oneself. Singing “Why’s it gotta be you feel alive with no one round?” A.R. Herrin sums up what it means to be an introvert but recognizing the limitations of going too far into yourself to the point of isolation. “Riding on my bike abandoning social events every time” is a line at the end of the song that so succinctly creates an image of a habit of a different kind of escapism than simply binging on entertaining media or chemical alteration. The sparkling, jangly guitar work as almost processional strumming frames this song about getting to the root of one’s anxieties that one’s well-constructed system of coping mechanisms aren’t fooling anyone and no longer serve the interests of your heart. Listen to “80’s Night Dance Party Singing ‘Send Me an Angel’” on Bandcamp and perhaps further explore the full album No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell out now on Telos Tapes. Also, connect with Icarus Phoenix at the links provided.
Former Skinjobs vocalist Katja Vale has been releasing solo tracks in 2021 and her latest is “Water Serpents.” With an array of synth swells and layers of ethereal melody and a vocal line that rises and falls with subtle dynamics, Vale offers a song that seems to use the image of mythological creatures as metaphor for the ways people trap and define other people to suit their own needs even as a core human instinct for freedom will unwind that influence and power in the end. Vale sings of the ways we internalize this attempt to control through guilt and people pleasing and a natural desire to do no harm but in the context of a toxic relationship not harming the situation isn’t a sustainable way of being. The song’s downtempo moods and slow-coiling synth line punctuated by bright tonal accents truly makes this song of quiet personal liberation stand out. Listen to “Water Serpents” on Spotify below and follow Vale at the links provided.
Margo Polo’s single “Can You Hear Me?” comes on with a confidence and exuberance propelled by the excitement of the dream and visions that have brought you to where you want to be. But David Provenzano’s lyrics with this project rarely sit with simple hopefulness and bravado. And though the track rushes with great energy, buoyed with upsweeping, ethereal synth melodies and driving, fuzzy guitar rhythms it really does seem to come from a place we’ve all been for two years minimum where everything has felt up in the air, uncertain and filled with doubts about our ability to turn aspirations into dreams and no end in sight to a time of seemingly new challenges every week and every month and now every year. Sure the pandemic is the big disruption but it simply focused larger societal and civilizational issues that have made it increasingly difficult for most people to get by or to achieve many modest goals in life with the unspoken truth that when the under class struggles so hard and the people that are the undercelebrated glue of society similarly struggle the whole thing is in trouble whether the wealthy and powerful recognize it or not and in aggregate they haven’t for years. This song is about being in that place not necessarily trying to fix some bigger picture but just trying to make it through a little at a time while not pretending it’s all okay yet yearning for a state of things that don’t seem like an endless crisis. Heady stuff but Provenzano has a gift for making serious subject matter personal, accessible and uplifting. Fans of M83 would do well to check out any Margo Polo song. Listen to “Can You Hear Me?” on Spotify below and follow Margo Polo at any of the links provided.
Reptaliens from Portland, Oregon return with the video for “Like a Dog” (made with Tristan Scott-Behrends) from the group’s forthcoming album Multiverse. Though returning to using guitar and drums following the duo’s excellent 2020 minimal synth/post-punk EP Wrestling, Reptaliens haven’t lost their knack for solid, extended melodies and culture jamming with left field ideas about the nature of society, the universe and our place in it freely referencing Philip K. Dick novels and the work of transhumanist philosopher FM-2030 after whom the band named its 2017 album. With “Like A Dog” Reptaliens use popular culture as a vehicle for time travel and create an a kind of alternative history of the 1990s from the over hyped and bizarre late night/overly sexualized daytime commercials, Chris Cunningham’s phantasmagoric music videos for Aphex Twin, the manufactured grit and grime of many alternative rock videos and perhaps the truly eccentric music video programs as seen on the Canada’s version of MTV with Much Music. The nods to Nirvana’s Unplugged performance on the aforementioned MTV, the dramatic daytime talk show parody and air of general boredom with fake excitement that was often in the air once the then most recent wave of youth culture had crested by mid-decade all point to what seems like the absurdity of nostalgia for a time that was too often characterized by glossing over mediocrity with the patina of significance through surreal marketing and performative enthusiasm. The almost hypnotic melody maintained by Reptaliens in the tuneful psychedelic pop song is almost a parallel to the air of the time depicted in the video and yet it also strangely draws you in like some of the recreations of 90s media tropes that accompany the music. Watch the video below when it premiers on November 15.
Multiverse is out on Captured Tracks on January 21 and the first pressing comes with rolling papers since the band works on a weed farm in Oregon when not engaged in musicianly endeavors. The tour in support of the record launches in SLC on 1/24 (other dates listed below including the show in Denver on Tuesday, January 25, 2022).
Thurs. Dec 9, 2021 – Eugene, OR – Sessions Music Hall Mon. Jan 24, 2022 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Tues. Jan 25, 2022 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge Thurs. Jan 27, 2022 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry Fri. Jan 28, 2022 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen Sat. Jan 29, 2022 – Pontiac, MI – Pike Room Sun. Jan 30, 2022 – Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s Tues. Feb 1, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Thurs. Feb 3, 2022 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall Fri. Feb 4, 2022 – New York, NY – Baby’s All Right Sat. Feb 5, 2022 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry Sun. Feb 6, 2022 – Washington DC – Songbyrd Tues. Feb 8, 2022 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle Wed. Feb 9, 2022 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Thurs. Feb 10, 2022 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5 Fri. Feb 11, 2022 – Nashville, TN – TBD Sun. Feb 13, 2022 – Dallas, TX – DaDa Mon. Feb 14, 2022 – Austin, TX – Empire Tues. Feb 16, 2022 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
Mild Wild “Slow Backwards” and “Old Drugs” single cover
Listening to these songs one imagines Mild Wild setting up microphones at the kinds of buildings he uses for the cover images of his various singles and EPs. Like an urban explorer who realized that these settings have a vibe that could inform some songwriting and provide the acoustic space to inspire the informal, lo-fi production that gives the impressionistic pop songs an undeniable mood that draws you in. As though he imagines the kinds of stories and lives that happened in these old buildings and the resonances with his own lived experience.The vocals in “Slow Backwards” echo slightly in the spoken section and draw out in the choruses with reverse delay on guitar to both take you out of normal time and place you in a separate timeframe in which the song exists, the moment before these buildings are again occupied or bulldozed in the name of some developer’s idea of progress. “Old Drugs” sounds a bit like something that was recorded to an old reel-to-reel and processed through plate reverb giving it an intimate feeling akin to hearing an old blues record but musically more like 90s indiepop and lo-fi rock. The romantic sentiments expressed eschew cliché with strong and sensory imagery. Once again, Mild Wild succeeds in using old recording methods and aesthetics in new ways to create music giving a unique listening and emotional experience that dares to be vulnerable and risks imperfection as a more direct reflection of actual human experience.
Griffith Snyder has been writing introspective, ethereal pop songs for years but the final one he writes for the duration might be “Islands 777.” In the wake of turmoil in his personal life, Snyder re-examined the nature of his relationship with other people, with himself, with his creative work and the purpose of that in his life given the demands and compromises and self-promotion required in order to break through to the kind of audience you would need for the art to sustain you. This song with its shuffling beat and hazy melodies feels like a resigned but mournful goodbye to the music world as it is as well as one’s past life up to this point. A necessary step and Snyder seems to have discovered the need for solitude to process these griefs and channel it into the kind of song that makes that break seem not just okay but inevitable. The line “Wanted to be heard” is perhaps most telling as a musician and as a human and it strikes the most poignant emotional chord of the song. Fans of Brothertiger and Washed Out will appreciate the resonances Snyder has crafted with this song. Watch the video for “Islands 777” on YouTube. It seems as though most of Inner Oceans’ social media accounts are gone except for Twitter where maybe Snyder will announce his return to music once his heart and spirit have healed.
Denver’s The Patient Zeros has released its first tracks from a forthcoming 2021 album. The group has been developing and honing its songcraft the past several years and the single “Ms. January” is a fine showcase for the group’s knack for layered dynamics and illustrative turns of phrase. Rather than settling into a subgenre niche of some variety The Patient Zeros seem to have drawn inspiration from a wide spectrum of rock music and its spiritual and creative antecedent, blues. The song follows an drawn out melodic line up and down the scale like the slow moving roller coaster of mood that can be where winter can take you and leave you in spaces of contemplation inside your own mind. January is the dead of winter and metaphorically can seem to be a place of absolute stasis for the spirit but it as with nature it is a fallow time that forces you to face the aspects of your mind you maybe don’t want to face because there aren’t as many potential distractions. The song evokes that tension, resentment and acceptance of these challenges as necessary to personal growth. As the main line of the song progresses the call and answer and subtle details of counter melody give the song a sonic depth that simple rocking out could never provide. Listen to “Ms January” on Spotify and connect with The Patient Zeros on Facebook and Instagram linked below where the group will surely announce the release of the new record.
Colorado-based darkwave band Married a Dead Man takes ‘Til Tuesday’s 1985 hit song “Voices Carry” and interprets it as a baroque pop, Gothic ballad. A fitting treatment for a song about emotional abuse through gaslighting. Aimee Mann’s lyrics vividly describe a relationship in which one person dominates the other through making only the emotions he wants to see expressed as the only ones valid. It was a song like Suzanne Vega’s 1987 hit “Luka” about child abuse and Martika’s 1988 single “Toy Soldiers” about drug addiction and mental illness that put such heavy subject matter to what seemed like light pop songs. It wasn’t the first time pop artists did such a thing but it was the specific framing and context that made those songs and “Voices Carry” so disarmingly resonant. Married a Dead Man with this version of the song emphasizes the dark side and the unvarnished emotions as almost musical textures that are uncomfortable yet accessible. Megan Kelley’s vocals are rich and soaring much as are those of Mann but parallel with her piano work are ethereal guitar highlights, gritty bass lines and gentle flourishes of percussion giving the cover a unique flair. Though these days we have the vocabulary to identify that dynamic of way too many relationships and describe it with clarity, the song and Married a Dead Man’s version take some buzz words and concepts and humanizes them with dramatic tension and poetry and rescues them from the realm of abstraction to place them with immediacy in lived experience. Listen to “Voices Carry” on Spotify and follow Married a Dead Man at the links provided.
Released in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, Marcus Church’s cover of Robyn’s 2010 hit single “Dancing on My Own” had a certain poignant resonance given the circumstances of that time and nearly a year later it remains fairly relevant. Rather than the R&B electro pop of the original, Marcus Church has turned the song, an ode to emotional self-reliance in the wake of a painful reminder of a breakup, into a delicate, jangle rock/power pop ballad. Dustin Habel’s frail vocals are a fine reflection of Robyn’s own powerful delicacy. Musically it’s reminiscent of what might have happened if The Cars came along after and influenced by C86 or some Mitch Easter band. In a year of deep uncertainty and heated political turmoil followed by another in which those tensions continue, Marcus Church’s interpretation of the song demonstrates a gentle hesitancy to look back on the past that brought us here with warm feelings of nostalgia, as is the case with the Robyn original, with an undercurrent of yearning for a time when vulnerability and sensitivity are qualities that are cherished and cultivated rather than mocked by a culture poisoned by a need to express bravado in every situation. Listen to “Dancing on My Own” on Bandcamp and connect with Marcus Church on Facebook (linked below).
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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