5 Charms 8.24

Redshift Headlights - If You Are Around Still (Oshkosh, WI; 2024)

Let's start a band / if you are around still

Much has been made of the video footage taken during the "If You Are Around" sessions at Steve Albini's Electric Audio studios--it may well be the final footage of Albini recording a band before he died 2 months later. But the album is not about Albini, and the story of the music is not about Albini, it's the project of another Steve: Oshkosh singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve McCabe. Redshift Headlights has been McCabe's project for many years, starting as a community-assisted solo album (2017's masterfully written Inside Voices). This album is arguably the first "full band" Redshift album, and it's more closely in line with their live performance sound: bigger and louder than any Redshift record has been. Lyrically, McCabe's authorial remove has served previous Redshift albums "Oshkosh", "People!", and "Inside Voices," "Around Still" has more "we" songs–collective stories of growth, change, and love.

McCabe has recorded, performed with, and connected with a dizzying number of Fox Valley players from the 1990s until today. "If You Are Around Still" is a great mix of local influences and sounds--the not-quite midwest emo guitars, the clang of the cymbals and drums fills, heavy synth melodies, mathy starts and stops. This iteration of Redshift features Chris Sasman on drums, in addition to players from the previous album, and this time everyone has a hand in writing the music. Bass player Dean Hoffman shares lead vocal duties with McCabe this time around. They have a great energy--Hoffman's sweet and quiet tenor contrasting with the McCabe's gruff, world-weary delivery (see "Camera in Every Hole" and "All You Do Is Lose"). "Around Still" is written, engineered, mixed, and produced with warmth and care, a collaboration between visionary musical artists that results in one of the best-sounding indie rock records of the year.

Redshift Headlights is:

Guitar, vocals: Stephen McCabe
Bass, vocals: Dean Hoffman
Guitar: Jay Spanbauer
Keys: Justin Mitchell
Drums: Chris Sasman

Lunar Moth - Stranger (Madison, WI; 2024)

If I lived alone
Would you take me out for coffee and scones?
Would you hold my hand as we walk down the street?

I reviewed Lunar Moth's first record back in February, and I was excited to see they were releasing a new one already. These noisy, buoyant pop gems are perfect for summer--if you like your summer with lots of fuzz. Lunar Moth sounds like that first belly flop into the pool, where water gets up your nose, and you come up sputtering for air only to have some other kid jump in on top of you. The sweat and bug bites of a summer night. These are love and longing songs, revenge songs, tired-of-your-bullshit songs. They aren't angry, exactly, but they do grab you by the face and insist you listen. The album doesn't slow down from "If I Lived Alone," to album closer "Stranger," and you can easily listen in one sitting, a bubblegum burst of punk fun and doomy distortion. Go find it on pink vinyl or get the download above ^^^

Lunar Moth is:

Vocals, Guitar - Amber Moth
Bass - Mac Moth
Gage Moth - Drums, Percussion, Organ, Synths

Shoobie - What's Left (Oshkosh, WI; 2023)

Is this an EP or a full length? It doesn't matter. It's 22 minutes of music that takes you on a trip through Shoobie's brand of post-hardcore noise. You can listen to it in the car while you drive to the dog park. You can put the record on at home, listen to it once, then eat a bowl of cereal and go back and listen to it again. You'll hear something new and exciting every time you hear it.

Shoobie started playing in Oshkosh in the pre-covid era, a lo-fi punk band anchored by Parker Sweeney's impassioned vocals and murky, reverb-drenched guitars. On this most recent record, Shoobie showcases its reinvention as a louder and darker act. "Teeth," "Some Nylon Thread," and "All in a Wooden Box" show them in full noise mode, distortion on everything, ears ringing from every song. "Some Nylon Thread" is the standout here--five minutes and thirty seconds of blissful and harsh post-punk. Grab the album, then go see Shoobie play live and remember your ear plugs.

Shoobie is:

Vocals, guitar: PARKER SWEENEY
Drums: ISAAC LAMERS
Bass: NICK MATTESON
Guitar (on What's Left): LEAH DAVID
Keys/ live guitar: NICK MORRISSEY

Julia Blair - Better Out than In (Appleton, WI; 2022)

suck the venom from the wound
shine the light into the tomb

You all know Julia Blair! She’s the keyboard player and singer in Appleton psych/country band DUSK and an integral part of the Crutch of Memory label/studio. Julia has an incredible voice–mellow and loud and soulful. Songs like “Barbara” and “Lullaby One” could almost be sung in church, up there in front of the pulpit into the big square microphone. Tunes “Relax” and “Make the Darkness Go Away” are more DUSK-like with their strutting electric country groove. Meanwhile, “Just a Cue” and “Fantasize” are straight-up soul jams. This record is all over the place, which makes it really fun. Besides the great production, Blair’s voice is the connecting tissue of all of these songs. Go get it on digital, then stream the incredible non-album single “what i could and could not do”.

Vocals, acoustic and electric pianos: Julia Blair
Drums, guitars, strings, bass, etc: Crutch of Memory folks

Graham Hunt - Try Not to Laugh (Madison, WI; 2023)

Well Molly's in heaven with a rope in her mouth
Growling and daring God to pull it out

There's a trick to what Graham Hunt is doing on his new record--somehow crafting sticky and weird indie rock songs without moving too far into the world of outsider folk or twee pop. There's a 90s vibe here, the grit of the guitars, doubled vocals, and snap of the drums. It's a little Beck, a little Beat Happening, a dash of Danielson Famile, but it's more earnest and musical than any of them. Hunt has a whole slew of local music people helping out, the track by track credits include names like Ivette Colon and Neal Jochmann of Combat Naps, Shannon Connor and Isaac deBroux-Slone from Disq, composer/pianist Emili Earhart; honestly these are all of the people I'd like to help me craft songs into stories you can dance to. This is Hunt's 4th album since 2019, all of which showcase his knack from writing great pop songs and working with talented collaborators. So what's the trick? How in the world do you write so many cool songs? How do you create an album where every track could be a single? I wish I knew. Until then, I'll listen to Graham Hunt and marvel at this strangely under-the-radar Madison record that everyone else should also listen to.

Graham Hunt plays a lot of things and sings on the record. Lots of other people play other things.