Further Listening:

5. Tonight’s The Night For Seeing Good Looks

Back in 2022, Good Looks were on top of the world, to widespread acclaim they’d just released the brilliant debut album Bummer Year, a record that took political frustration and spun it into something positive, even hopeful, a blueprint for a brighter, community-led future. What followed was bad luck in extremis, the celebratory moment of a hometown album launch ended with guitarist Jake Ames in hospital with a fractured skull after being struck by a car. Thankfully recovered, the band set out on tour, only to have their van rear-ended by a speeding car, causing an accident that culminated thankfully with no injuries, but with their van, alongside their instruments, merch, and records, becoming engulfed in flames. It might have been easy at that point to start to think Good Looks were cursed, thankfully frontman Tyler Jordan saw it differently, “what better way to heal than to see people that you love, play music and do what you were put on this earth to do“. All of those events played into the creation of their upcoming second album, Lived Here For A While, recorded at the Texas studio of Loma’s Dan Duszynski. The record will arrive next month via Keeled Scales, and this week the band shared their latest single, Can You See Me Tonight?

The track finds Tyler exploring his oldest relationship, the one with his mother, as he puts it, “the connection to why I write songs and perform them, and how it affects my other relationships, turning darkness to light in the process”. Musically, the track is an instant mood changer, opening with a tumbling, insistent guitar line, which gives way to Tyler’s emotive croon, as he reflects on how everything he does never seems to affect the opinions that matter the most, “I keep driving around, to try to make some strangers love me, by the end of tonight, I’ll sing myself hoarse and I’ll still feel empty”. As the track progresses we find Tyler struggling on, fighting to be better, as he concludes, “I’m changing it like you never could”, before the vocal descends into a wordless outro, his howls lost to the guitar’s chugging, visceral feedback. Listening to this vital, thrilling music it’s evident that since Bummer Year, Good Looks have been doing a lot of healing, be that broken bones or emotional scars, now they’re fully fit and ready to really make an impact.

Lived Here For A While is out June 7th via Keeled Scales. For more information on Good Looks visit https://goodlooksband.com/.

4. Stephen’s Shore’s New Single Is Pine Fresh

The latest example of Sweden’s continuing love affair with all things indie-pop, Stephen’s Shore are a Stockholm-based quartet, who’ve been making gentle waves since 2016 courtesy of a string of albums and EPs, including a number for the brilliant Madrid-based label, Meritorio Records. For their next move, the band teamed up with producer Fredrik Swahn on one of the hottest days of the year in Stockholm, quickly laying down the four tracks that make up their new EP, Neptune. Ahead of the band releasing the EP last Friday, they shared the latest track from it, Under The Pine.

The closing track on Nepture, Under The Pine is a beautifully drifting affair, floating along on languid guitar lines and ticking drum beats with a similarly Autumnal quality to that posessed by Ultimate Painting or Real Estate at their most unhurried. Particularly wonderful is Johan Dittmer’s prominent bass playing, while many bands have a tendency to mix this low on slower tracks, here Stephen’s Shore let it sit at the heart of everything they do, a lurching, thumping heartbeat to the song’s gently melancholic whole. If the track is laid-back musically, it’s matched in the lyrical pronouncement, Under The Pine is a track of gentle reassurance, an open-ended promise to be there no matter what happens, always available, always, “under the pine” ready to come to the fore in your hour of need. Something of a wistful wonder, Stephen’s Shore’s return might not come screaming from the rooftops, yet in its own subtle way it’s well worth celebrating.

Neptune is out now via Meritorio Records. For more information on Stephen’s Shore visit https://stephens-shore.bandcamp.com/.

3. Sign Me Up To The Why Bonnie Fan Club

The brainchild of New York-based Texan ex-pat, Blair Howerton, Why Bonnie are doing a pretty good job of ticking off working with some of the finest independent labels. After they released two brilliant 2018 EPs on Sports Day Records, they moved to Fat Possum for 2020’s Voice Box and then Keeled Scales for their 2022 debut long-player, 90 in November. With new music firmly in the pipeline, this week Why Bonnie announced their signing to their latest home, Fire Talk Records, news they celebrated by sharing the fittingly titled new single, Dotted Line.

Emerging beneath, “the weight of capitalism”, Dotted Line was inspired by Blair being, “broke as hell”, and finding her mind spinning in overdrive, “I was thinking of all the things we’re told are markers of success, and how at this rate, I’ll probably never have any of them“. The track dives into the old Faustian bargain, Blair considering a Robert Johnson-like deal with the devil, casting herself in both roles as she battles for her musical soul. The song starts with Blair pleading with the universe for a much-needed break, “give me something to believe, give me something I can’t reach. Won’t take too much of your time, three easy steps to rewire your mind”, before she flips into the devil on her shoulder, “it’s easy as one-two-three, if you just put your faith in me. Let all your problems melt away, good days ahead after you pay”. Fittingly for a song loaded with creative frustration, Dotted Line is arguably Why Bonnie at their spikiest, their always luxurious vocal harmonies, underpinned with a jagged guitar and racing drum rhythms, a sound that fans of Broken Social Scene or Rilo Kiley are likely to find themselves swooning over. Marking the new home with an excitingly fresh new sound, the promise of Why Bonnie has never been greater, begging the question, did Blair sign that deal with the Devil after all?

Dotted Line is out now via Fire Talk Records. For more information on Why Bonnie visit https://www.whybonnie.com/.

2. Darren Hayman Makes A New Start Under The Striplights

Darren Hayman made his name in a band. It’s not a shocking statement sure, but it’s true. His six-year run in Hefner remains arguably his most adored period as a songwriter, four albums, now more than two decades old that scream out in a back catalogue of countless solo releases and intriguing musical projects. For everything that has come since, one could argue that Hefner’s end is the point where New Starts begins, as Darren puts it, “I wanted a band again”. Darren began reaching out, looking to capture that spirit, “when we form our first bands in our teens we just find some friends and work through the musical differences“. On board came Joely Smith of adults un-auditioned on account of bringing, “the correct number of guitar pedals”, bassist Giles Barrett and drummer Will Connor of Tigercats, to drag Darren out of his propensity for “the ‘road runner’ rhythm“. The result is a proper band, four members with an equal say in every studio decision, trying things out, working through the differences – a true collaboration. This week came news of New Starts’ debut album, More Break-Up Songs, set for release in August via Fika Recordings, and with the news, their debut single, Under The Striplights.

A love song of sorts, Darren describes Under The Striplights as, “a plea for a simpler more straightforward type of love“, it depicts a couple at their lowest ebb, where they can’t agree on anything other than how down on their luck they’re both feeling, “Under the Striplights or Under the Moon, means they could be anywhere, the location isn’t the problem, the solution can be found anywhere”. Musically, there’s an undeniable freshness here, that slightly off-kilter collision of ideas that’s at the heart of all the best bands, the propulsive rhythm creating a base for the guitars to play off against one another, Darren’s driving melodies battling against Joely’s choppier, against the grain style, reminiscent of Graham Coxon’s playing on Blur’s spiky self-titled album. An intriguing introduction, New Starts feels more than just a name, by digging back into their earliest musical memories, they might just have created a blueprint for where these talented bunch of musicians are going next.

More Break-Up Songs is out August 1st via Fika Recordings. For more information on New Starts visit https://fikarecordings.com/artists/new-starts.

1. Neutrals Know The Daft Stuff When They See It

Neutrals are a band from Oakland, California, a fact that’ll come as a bit of a shock to anyone when they hear the clear Scottish accent of vocalist Allan McNaughton. It’s not just the accent though that seems to root Neutrals in a distinctly Scottish setting, they called their debut album Kebab Disco, and a subsequent EP was dedicated to Bus Stop Nights, and a current of what they describe as “doomed Thatcherism”, runs through everything they do. For their latest move, the band are offering up a New Town Dream, the whole thing reeks of despondent outsiderism, of being offered paradise and finding yourself shunted to the margins, of the undelivered, long-forgotten promises broken, of Milton Keynes, Skelmersdale or East Kilbride. Introducing the record, which is set for release at the end of the month via Slumberland Records, this week the band shared their new single, That’s Him On The Daft Stuff Again.

The single lifts its title from an overheard diatribe, as Allan explains, “an elderly Lanarkshire woman ended her rant by proclaiming, “and he’s always smoking that daft stuff!” The songs write themselves don’t you know.” From a gift of a beginning, Allan seems to spin an entire drama, one full of nosy neighbours observing how he, “never puts his bins out on the right day”, a small-time drug dealer who lives the highlife and, “eats every meal from a different take away”, and our rather sad title character, who for all his efforts, keeps finding himself, “on the daft stuff again”. Musically, it’s like the middle ground of The Just Joans and Orange Juice, all choppy guitar jangles, pounding drums and grimy realism. It’s intriguing seeing the recent spate of retro janglers, while the influences, both sonic and lyrical, might be pure 1980s, the feelings of hopelessness, cheap thrills and inequality between the haves-and-have-nots is sadly just as relevant to the world of 2024 as it was forty years earlier, on the plus side the songs are just as good too.

New Town Dream is out May 31st via Slumberland Records. For more information on Neutrals visit https://linktr.ee/Neutrals82.

Header photo is Neutrals by Mark Murrmann.