Finally, some absolutely breaking headlines! These albums have just been released and are itching for listeners highly attuned to quality hooks and elevated sentiment. Get them while they’re hot!
A new Gregory Pepper EP is definitely a top news story for me. There’s something about his idiosyncratic songwriting and performance style that bolts to the top of my news feed every time. But what is The Dream? If the lyrics here are anything to go by its about shopping at dirt malls, shoplifting at the funeral store, freeing lab animals, and blue-skying the storage possibilities of a brand new dumpster. Then again, perhaps these are snippets of distorted dreams and nightmares rather than literal observations. I’d venture to say that the real dream-like quality of this release is in the music as Pepper is a master of carefully calibrated exercises in sonic shading. It’s the uniquely drawn-out textures of the songs on this EP that really stand out. “Dirt Mall” is a fabulously put-together collision of melodic elements – percussion, guitar, vocals. “Stuck on a Fence” has a roomy feel where the drum is up front while the vocals loom overhead. “Invisible Man” is stripped-back sonic eloquence, defined mostly by just the percussion and bass. “Funeral Store” leans on piano, toy version and otherwise. I love the cacophony of stringed instruments populating “Brand New Dumpster.” Then “What Was The Dream?” layers the vocals in a Beach Boys kind of meditation. For many “We Squish Bugs” will round out this EP with a march-like baroque flourish. But if you source the record from Pepper’s bandcamp site you get two extra songs. One is a rougher take on “Stuck on a Fence” but the other may just be the this outings most outstanding track. “Like You Don’t Already Know (You’re My Voodoo Doll)” sounds like a breezy 1960s pop masterpiece, overlaid with an enticing guitar line.
The new Super Ratones album Camouflage is pure fun. The record pulls together a host of covers originally contributed to other projects as well as reimagined versions of songs from the band’s own back catalogue. The end product is a lively mix of tracks sung in either English or Spanish (sometimes both) that somehow cohere into a real party LP with an identity all its own. It’s also one that takes in the whole scope of the band’s history in terms of their recording career and including contributions from late founding member José Luis “Person” Properzi. The former is covered by the inclusion of an alternative version of “Barbara Anne” that initially appeared on the band’s debut LP Rock de la playa. The latter with “Coplas del musiquero” where the band finished a song featuring a Properzi vocal. The variety of covers here is impressive, ranging from the Beatles, Squeeze, The Posies, John Lennon, Charly Garcia and Fountains of Wayne. Two Tom Petty tracks also make the cut, “Into the Great Wide Open” and “Running Down the Dream” (the latter sung in Spanish as “El sueño que viví”). Personal faves include their treatment of Squeeze’s greatest hit “Tempted,” not an easy song to cover, and the acoustic reimagining of their own “Carreras de aviones.”
Slack Times are back actively Casting for new fans. Think of their new album as an open call to discover what this southern United States indie back have been up to all these years. Hint: everything comes slathered in delicious jangle. The sound is still kinda REM-meets-C86 with perhaps a dash of The Church thrown in. “Right Time” certainly strikes the right chord as the opening number. Feel the rush as the jangly lead guitar bristles in near constant accompaniment to what is going on. “Goodbye” is more easygoing but still ebullient with a lead guitar that practically sings the melody. “Swing the Dial” changes things up again with a more lurching sway. “Cast-out” and “Long Shot” alter the mood with a more melancholic feel. I hear echoes The Primitives on “Wayside” and Together Pangea on “In the Way” but that could just be me. The band even ace a fab instrumental cut with “Smooth II.” I’m signing up for Casting. You should too.
I discovered Toronto’s Jay Feelbender the other night opening for Dent May and I loved what I was hearing. Sure, his onstage banter was droll and amusing. But it was his impressive live sound that really grabbed me, at times blistering and intense, at others intimate and personable. He was mostly playing tracks from his 2025 LP Gallery of Desire, along with few more recent cuts like “1 Hour Photo.” Played live the songs were more rocking but the pop undercurrent defining the album versions remained strong. Case in point, “Benny’s Sleepover,” a song has so many seductive elements working on the listener at the same time. There’s captivating lead guitar licks, understated vocals, and a wall of guitars that drop in from time to time. Personally, I love the shimmering guitar pop goodness defining “Summer Camp Love Letters.” Stylistically, songs riff on the 1950s (“Party Down the Street”) right up the 1980s (“Trust Yourself”) and beyond (“Champagne Coma”). There’s a neo-Springsteen quality to a number of tracks here that speaks to a degree of authenticity that’s impossible to fake. Few artists can sing about ‘getting drunk in your car’ (from “Pink Whitney”) or praying for someone (from “Pray for You”) without descending into cliché. “Angel” even verges on rockabilly in a Springsteen sort of way. What we have here is a great album and a very promising clutch of singles.
These headlines are going to inspire a lot of chatter outside our regular broadcast times. Keep up with the latest development at the hyperlinked locales noted above.
Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
