I always spend the first few weeks of any new year in an intensely nostalgic musical headspace. This particular mix is proof of that. It started with a sudden desire to revisit my favorite Los Campesinos! songs. Then I had a conversation with a friend about some of the other bands that cropped up around the same time as them and seem to carry a lot of similar ethos and influences, the result being an earnest, enthusiastic cross between punk, twee pop, and indie rock that's heavy on alternating male/female vocals and sardonic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. In their heyday, these bands were never particularly respected (or even acknowledged) by establishment indie outlets, but many of them are still around today, having built small but devoted fanbases off the backs of their remarkably consistent discographies.
That being said, I'm mainly interested in their origins here, those raw, exuberant early albums before they grew up and became jaded by the music industry machine, leading them to either their inevitable demise or down a more mature, meditative path. If I'd had time, I would've filled in the gaps with other bands from the same period who I never got into back then, but that might've turned into a bottomless rabbit hole, so, instead, I've added a few more recent bands that seem to carry a similar spirit. Overall, rediscovering this music has been a nice change of pace for my pop-saturated brain, and now I look forward to digging further into the release histories of these bands, many of whom I stopped regularly following after their first or second albums.
1. The Joy Formidable - The Magnifying Glass
The Joy Formidable's music is layered and atmospheric, an epic combination of shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk. As effective as they are at stretching a song to galactic lengths, though, their more straightforward cracks at blistering two-minute rock songs are just as thrilling. There's no room for expansive guitar solos or slowly unfolding melodies. Instead, the song blazes from beginning to end, a fiery tangle of noise perfect for those moments when it's better to thrash around to loud, fast music than destroy everything around you. My recommendation: turn it up as loud as you can handle.
2. Land of Talk - Speak to Me Bones
Land of Talk deserve to be better-known, but, in a way, it's also nice to feel like there's a secret band in your pocket making incredible music just for you. I'll never forget the first time I heard Applause Cheer Boo Hiss; in a genre as oversaturated as indie rock, it was fresh and bold and exhilarating. To this day, nothing else pumps me up like this track, a grungy middle finger to all the shitty men in the world. The final build-up, Elizabeth Powell insisting brashly, "Not every girl is a nail/You're not a hammer," obliterates my mind every time - which explains why I only just remembered I put it on a mix last year, too. It's that good, folks.
3. Be Your Own Pet - The Kelly Affair
I remember Be Your Own Pet were lambasted when they came out for being a bunch of bratty, privileged, industry-connected teenagers trying to make punk music without the ethos to back it up. And, okay, sure, their music is shallow and derivative, but it's also a shitload of fun. Jemina Pearl wrangles her immaturity into a commanding vocal delivery that punches a hole through the rest of the band's charmingly ear-splitting and imprecise musical backdrops over and over again with hilariously vulgar one-liners. I've rarely had as much fun screaming along at the top of my lungs with anyone else.
4. Johnny Foreigner - Cranes and Cranes and Cranes and Cranes
You know what might actually be an unsung masterpiece? Johnny Foreigner's 2008 debut, Waited Up 'Til It Was Light. Honestly, I'm kicking myself for spending so long without revisiting it because the more I hear it, the more I'm convinced there's not a single mediocre track. To me, this album encapsulates more than any other a distinctly British, late '00s, DIY indie punk movement in a way that's simultaneously of its time and absolutely timeless. Not only do Alexei Berrow and Kelly Parker have voices perfectly suited to abrasive punk wailing, but they also share a vocal chemistry most duet partners only dream of.
5. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
If I had to name one band that's been the most consistently and undeservedly underrated, Los Campesinos! would certainly be in contention. More than a decade after forming, they're still making damn good music, which is more than can be said for a lot of other indie rock veterans. In terms of their early work, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is often overshadowed by their debut, but it contains at least a couple of classics, including the title track, which is especially notable for its lyrics, such as the so-relatable-it-hurts millennial lament, "We kid ourselves there's future in the fucking, but there is no fucking future."
6. Martha - Christine
I really liked Martha's most recent album when I first heard it; unfortunately, most of it hasn't stuck with me, but I still feel the urge to put on this song, its opener, every now and again. For not even being two minutes long, it leaves a lasting impression that's difficult for every song after to live up to with its ramshackle, lo-fi clash of instrumentation and charmingly accented vocals shouting in full sincerity, "I never heard a more romantic story/Christine, everybody else just bores me." It's a formula the band masters so well here that anything after seems almost redundant in comparison.
7. Joanna Gruesome - Honestly Do Yr Worst
I could hardly get away with using "yr" in the title of this mix if I didn't include a song that illustrated that convention in action, now, could I? Joanna Gruesome already score major points for turning a pun on Joanna Newsom into one of the greatest band names ever. It only sweetens the deal that their two-minute nuggets of noise pop are also incredibly addictive. This band excels at alternating between extremes, juxtaposing sickly sweet twee harmonies against aggressive bursts of throat-scouring screams. The ultimate effect is as disorienting as it is enticing.
8. Pity Sex - Gigantic
This is a Pixies cover from an obscure split 7" release, which may seem like a random choice, but something about it just fit the vibe I'm going for here more perfectly than any of Pity Sex's other music. Britty Drake's voice seamlessly bridges the gap between impassioned and lackadaisical, never quite tumbling completely into one or the other. The instrumentation, too, seems to teeter on the edge of carelessness, giving the entire thing a charmingly impromptu atmosphere. It's pretty clear that a lot of effort went into it, considering how much it sounds like it took no effort at all.
9. Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
Why did I ever stop listening to Blood Red Shoes? I used to love them, and despite not hearing their 2008 debut, Box of Secrets, since probably the year it was released, I felt every word, melody, and riff deep in my bones upon revisiting it in 2019. They'd already mastered the art of establishing a consistent, immediately recognizable sound without just playing variations on the same song. Here, minimalist verses quickly make way for a pummeling, urgent, never-ending chorus, Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell chanting in militaristic harmony, "Bury your head, bear your heart, but I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't."
10. The Long Blondes - Separated by Motorways
Although the Long Blondes lean in a more new wave direction, Kate Jackson's massive, gutsy wail lends their songs a thrilling punk edge, particularly on this track, which finds her at her most urgent and unhinged. In it, "two lonely girls go on the run," escaping from old men in pubs and solicitous boys on sidewalks into the arms of one another. Their friendship is depicted in almost romantic terms, Jackson crooning tenderly, "Wipe your eyes, darling, it's okay," atop an appropriately noisy wall of angular, '80s-indebted guitars.
11. The Grates - Rock Boys
Are the Grates a great (oops, unintentional pun) band? Probably not. Like Be Your Own Pet, though, they have an undeniable charm, like an adorable but badly behaved puppy panting and wagging its tail at you innocently, and you can't help but love them, even as you recognize their immaturity. "Rock Boys" is as close as they come to a ballad, and for all its blunt roughness, it's strangely moving. Chalk this up to Patience Hodgson's raw, impassioned delivery of the nearly wordless refrain, which rises and falls with the steady crescendo of guitar and drums. It's simple but very, very effective.
12. Pretty Girls Make Graves - This Is Our Emergency
I never got much into this band, but this song fully transplants the consciousness of my younger self into my current self's body for reasons I can't quite explain. Somehow, it just perfectly encapsulates a very specific feeling, one that's decidedly emo but in the best way possible. There's really nothing more cathartic than singing along to its effervescent chorus: "Stand up so I can see you/Shout out so I can hear you/Reach out so I can touch you/This is our emergency." The message may be vague, but it's clear whoever is being summoned is the most vital person in the world - it's up to you to decide who that person is for you.
