5 Charms 04.25

Old Pup - Spider Towns (Milwaukee, WI; 2025)

The ghosts are eating all my incense sticks

Another talented Milwaukee songwriter/producer creates a joyous mountain of a freak folk record. Old Pup, aka Will Hansen, is a prolific multi-instrumentalist, although he is widely known for his skill with the pedal steel and celebrated for his lyrical mastery. "Spider Towns" is densely packed, and allows him to throw everything from cello to organ to theremin at a tremendous collection of mostly acoustic songwriter jams. The first half of the album moves quickly, delivering clever lyrics and head-turning melodies on each track. "Spider Towns" is the perfect opening track: immediately "Bee" fizzes and glides like the insect it's named for. "Butter" is a languid and wandering folk tune with frequent collaborator Ben Boehm providing an incredible cello solo that fades into longing like the red sun sinking behind that paddleboarder on Lake Mendota. "Tomorrow's Tape" is lo-fi and bluesy. "Sweet Dreams (When You Get There)" closes the record, a kind of keening prairie lullaby. Like last year's Maximiano record, "Spider Towns" features assistance by the beautiful weirdos of Milwaukee's songwriter/americana music scene: Nate Kinsman, Johanna Rose, Ellie Jackson, and more. Pick up this one at a show somewhere--Old Pup is currently touring on the record and is bound to show up in your town soon.

Dad Bods - Powerbelly (Madison, WI; 2024)

What I say doesn't mean anything

Powerbelly is a good word. I'm not 100% certain what it means, but it could definitely describe how vocalist/bass player Sean Horvath feels as he shrieks and growls through Dad Bods' experimental punk songs. Together with drummer Chris Flowers, Dad Bods is a two-piece band that make the loudest songs you could possibly hear from two people. And it's not even noise, either! These are real songs, with lyrics and riffs and choruses--there's even singing in "Tribal Shit." But these songs will genuinely hurt your ears. Is it worth it? To risk permanent ringing to hear a man scream "Scared of beans, spaceboy?" while drums snap like bones breaking and a distorted bass rips across your tympanic membrane like a rototiller grinding your stubborn garden yard? I'd argue "YES". It is worth it. Dad Bods creates pure feral punk music for distracted bitcoin miners. Catch them live to leave with physical pain in your head. Download this 5-song EP and run around your block several times in the rain.

...Or Does It Explode? - Tales to Needed Outcomes (Madison, WI; 2025)

Feeling your pain
teaching your soul
every day seems true

Or Does it Explode has gone through various line-up changes over the years, but has stayed pretty securely in the post-rock, Midwest emo space. They are a rock band creating knotty guitar songs with clear and expressive vocals—a throwback to the heady days when Deep Elm records was churning out compilation CDs and The Appleseed Cast was popping up on local bills as a troupe of van-riding 3^rd wave evangelists. The current crop of emo bands skew toward the skramz and hardcore, and post-rock is sadly silent, so ODiE brings a nice variety to shared bills with punk, shoegaze, and garage pop bands. Their latest album, “Tales to Needed Outcomes,” is quiet and honest, full of sincere songs written and sweetly sung by vocalist Shawn Bass. “Awkward attempts at making space” includes an extended instrumental post-rock interlude featuring trumpet and violin. “Story of Stuff” is propelled by the hugely syncopated drums of Erik Rasmuson. “Loneliness (I’m waiting)” adds keyboard and “Hello Cannon Falls” adds synth drones and backing vocals from Katya, which brings a nice texture into the middle of the record. The slithering guitar interplay on “Hello Cannon Falls” is hypnotic and a good lead-in to the more traditional “Well I Wonder”. Little surprises abound on the album, from the flute melody drifting through “Wonder” to the cello on “Sundered,” that help to break up the chiming electric guitars and crisp snares that anchor every song. This is a mature and deeply considered project, songs that feel warm, comfortable, and spacious as an empty church by candlelight. Limited colored vinyl is available from the band or via Bandcamp.

Bug Moment - The Lazer Collection (Milwaukee, WI; 2025)

In this life I need sunshine

Most of us have gaps in our musical knowledge and it's hard to catch up if you missed out on a genre the first time around. This is the case for me with early to mid-2000s screamo/pop punk. In those early Napster years, I was into gothic folk, indie rock, backpacker hiphop, and instrumental post-rock. I missed the whole third wave of emo, which is ok with me. Bug Moment did not miss out on this music. Their digital EP, "The Lazer Collection," makes me want to get some huge black cargo pants, a wallet chain, pierce my eyebrow, and dye my hair red. "Destroy All Monsters" launches the album, a guitar-powered , featuring huge vocals by Jasmine Rosenblatt and an incredible guitar outro by St. Louis artist Heccra. So many bands are doing some variation of shoegaze or post-punk, so it's fun to hear a glossy, noisy pop emo track like "Chaos Emerald," with its anthemic sung/screamed vocals and shout-along chorus. Compare this to their first record, 2021's "BUGS," a dreamy, lo-fi concept album about insects--this current version of Bug Moment is a burst of loud energy, ready to rock any size stage. Honestly, get Bug Moment on Warped Tour immediately. Meanwhile, download this record so they can keep playing shows and making new music.

Adelyn Strei - Original Spring (Eau Claire, WI/Brooklyn, NY; 2024)

I could contain the seeds of spring

Before she moved to Brooklyn and became a drone/ambient composer/songwriter, Adeyln Strei performed in Eau Claire and Minneapolis under the name Adelyn Rose. Her full length "Mezzanine", recorded nearly 15 years ago, is a lost midwestern dream pop masterpiece. This new incarnation of her musical artistry is layers of clarinet, ringing guitar notes, delicate and gorgeous vocal harmonies. It's songwriter music, but these are art songs. The album is split between instrumentals and songs with lyrics, but if you listen to it all the way through, in one sitting, in the silence of your sunny dining room, the effect is her vocals swimming through waves of foaming guitars and synths. It's a beautiful record: "Little Ferns" turns into the lyrical "Original Spring," "Reprise Rest Rain" blends into the poignant "Hometown Blues." "Innocuous Night," with its electric guitar based folk melody, borrows the pulsing clarinet from "Near Water". The record ends with a throwback to Strei's earlier style: an indie rock ballad about falling in love. I got to see her play with her band in Oshkosh at the short-lived but brilliant festival "Water City Racket Fest", and the tune "Clouds in Her Eyes" reminds me of that band, swaying and building loops on the dark stage. Pick up the cassette tape or download from her bandcamp, then listen and be inspired.