Browsing Tag

Pavement

Mert Spalty’s PODUNK Brought Queens Alt-Rock to a Scuzzy, Sweat-Slick Punk Crescendo

Posted on 20 July 2026

The writing is on the basement-venue wall; Mert Spalty’s LP, PODUNK, is the kind of woozy, scuzz-laced release to get the alt scene moving to the exhilaration of posture-free punk rock again. The Queens-based independent musician has played north of 300 shows since 2022, and that live-wire through dodgy PA conditioning burns straight through the album’s beer-spilt bloodstream.

With the same devil-may-care authenticity as Pavement, the raw emotional accessibility of garage-punk heavyweights Fidlar and inklings of Modest Mouse through the campy eccentricity and existential slacker humour, PODUNK traverses the alt spectrum with unruly purpose. Recorded in a shared practice space and Spalty’s apartment, then self-produced and mixed, the record captures bar basements packed with friends, cigarettes outside and punk rock with a bossa nova flute interlude.

The alt anthems are slick with the sweat of an artist uncaging himself. It just so happens that the outpouring of his fervent candour takes the form of some of the best alt-rock and punk instincts: almost innocently childlike creativity, high-fidelity lines ignored, sanitised mainstream potential kicked aside, reality placed front and centre.

With Fletcher Gull tracking drums in a single day before flying home to Australia, and a sold-out Ridgewood release show already proving the songs’ physical pull, PODUNK feels built for rooms where people remember why guitars and gigs you don’t have to skip rent for still matter.

PODUNK is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Siggy Confronted Neural Control in the Sardonic Snarl of Their Post-Punk Hit, ‘Wirehead’

Posted on 15 March 2026

Take the swagger of Pavement, the kaleidoscopes of polyphonia associated with Grandaddy, the raucously raw guitars of proto-punk, and drift in the postmodernist conviction of post-punk, and you are left with something that snarls in the same vein as Siggy’s Wirehead. Through vocals that give John Lydon a run for his money and the woozy experimentalism of Magazine, Siggy prove that hooks can cut just as sharply inside eccentric hymns about what we stand to lose if humanity slips into the ether and algorithms quietly delete autonomy as they do in plastic pop. Beyond the playful synths, this harbingering hit exposits an unavoidable future where Elon Musk has full access to our synapses, and it does so without slipping into parody or preaching.

The track carries that riled-up intelligence Siggy has honed since their late 90s inception in Los Angeles. Formed around Galen Buckwalter’s vocal volatility, alongside Ryan Howes on guitar, Deborah Buckwalter on bass, and Paul Netherton on drums, the band have spent decades balancing urgency with songwriting that hits hard without switching off its brain. Wirehead, the title release from their forthcoming album, pushes further. Inspired by Buckwalter’s direct participation in a brain-computer interface study, the record threads neural-signal-derived textures through loud, hook-driven arrangements. The concept digs into agency, control, stimulation, and overload, asking what remains human in a wired world without resorting to sci-fi cosplay theatrics.

Siggy’s live reputation backs up their reputation for ferocity, favouring loud amps, tight execution, and a no-frills stage presence that prioritises intensity over gloss. With Wirehead, they amplify punk’s original spirit of risk and defiance, charging it through a future-filtered lens that feels unsettlingly close to home.

Wirehead is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

snailosaur – Nature:  A Panorama of Eccentrically Untempered Alt-Rock

Posted on 21 September 2024

snailosaur’s seminal single ‘Nature’ shreds through the veneer of indie banality with a ferociously eccentric bite. This single, paired with ‘Kaleidoscopic Mind’ in their double A-side release, is a gritty symphony of dissonance and melody, interlocking the spirits of alt-rock, shoegaze, and noise/art rock. Laced with spoken word, the tracks assert themselves as fierce declarations of style.

Emerging from New York City’s music scene, snailosaur has been tearing up stages across NYC and Brooklyn with their unabashedly raw energy. Following their debut album ‘Talk Therapy’ released in January 2024, the band has etched an indelible mark on the indie map with their sonic scriptures of rebellion and introspection.

‘Nature’ channels the nostalgic echo of The Psychedelic Furs and melds it with the anarchic edge of Dinosaur Jr and the quirky kicks of Pavement as the vocal style, reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s iconoclastic drawl, merges into harmonies that subtly nod to the Beach Boys in the chorus.

The track is a visceral punch of tangled harmonies and textured disarray which peaks with a guitar solo that strips back the layers of grunge to bare the skeleton of Snailosaur’s musical genius—unrefined, unapologetic, and underpinned by technical intricacy.

Nature & Kaleidoscopic Mind was officially released on September 13; stream the double A-side single on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Wrong Party is ‘California Bound’ in their glimmer of indie garage rock nostalgia

Posted on 14 September 2024

The Southern Kentucky/Northern Tennessee fourpiece, The Wrong Party, delivered an irresistible invitation to revisit epochs of rock via an unchartered route with their third single, California Bound.

With nods to everyone from The Strokes, Pavement, Placebo and Iggy and the Stooges in the honeyed with vintage hues production which also teases the distortion of 90s Seattle grunge and grooves through bluesy psychedelic guitar licks, California Bound is pornography to sonic nostalgists.

The way the influences and eclectic stylings enmesh in the garage-rock-esque release is an undeniable attestation to the band’s unique vision and mission to make up for the shortfall in real and raw rock in the past few decades. If you would rather get a lobotomy than listen to Highly Suspect or Royal Blood, The Wrong Party, fronted by Matt McNew, is made for your playlists.

California Bound hit the airwaves on September 1st; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Softener became 21st century icons of indie grunge with their debut single, Brindle

Posted on 28 May 2024

The Fresno, California-based up-and-coming outfit, Softener, used grunge as a conduit for their intimate amenability in their alt-indie debut single, Brindle, which hit the airwaves on May 17.

The submissive lyricism revolves around a tender mantra of “I just wanna be your dog”; Iggy Pop may have popularised that desire, but Softener brought brand-new meaning to the iteration of intent by projecting a sweet declaration of surrender that you can’t help catching feelings for. The heartfelt vulnerability in the lyrics and vocal performance, paired with the grunge-infused instrumentation creates a consoling aural escape that you’ll always feel safe within the confines of.

Whatever they have in the pipeline for their sophomore release, we already have high hopes for; they set the bar high with the sludgy melodies that are sure to be music to the ears of any fans of Elliott Smith, Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, and Sparklehorse.

Stream the debut single from Softener on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Return to the alt-90s with Trailerfuss’ debut single O Rei da Solidão

Posted on 29 April 2024

Trailerfuss’ debut single, O Rei da Solidão, from their EP Roteiro Sem Final, revisits the 90s grunge era via a route never before taken.

By fusing the sludgy rhythmics of Dinosaur Jr and the fierce soul of Hole, Trailerfuss created a solid foundation to lay their innovative approach to evoking alt-90s nostalgia on. They didn’t stop at emanating two influential artists; you’ll hear everyone from Bob Dylan in the opening harmonica blows, Grandaddy in the lo-fi intimacy, the Beachboys in the surfy layered vocal harmonies, and nuances of Pavement and Pixies synthesised between.

The debut single is a visceral statement from the Rio de Janeiro-based band that is strong enough to carry their fans back to the rose-tinted sanctity of the alt-90s while also delivering potent punches of their own authenticity.

Stream O Rei da Solidão on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Find out why the city never sleeps in snailosaur’s indie rock vignette, Apartment Boxes (nyc poem)

Posted on 18 January 2024

Forget what you know about New York from the over-romanticised depictions and acquaint yourself with the true nature of the cityscape, which juxtaposes grit and grime with the monolithic architecture and the egregious egos of Wall Street wolves. snailosaur’s standout single, ‘Apartment Boxes (nyc poem)’, taken from their indie rock LP, Talk Therapy, paints a fond vignette of the infamous city over the luminous tonality of their angular guitar lines, which weave elements of new wave into the nostalgia-kissed release.

While the upbeat melodies embed the single with a light and dreamy air as they cruise through the Pavement-esque progressions, the vocals act in contrast with their nonchalant drawls, adding depth to the track as they allude to the sins and cultural salvation of the city that never sleeps – and now, thanks to snailosaur, we know why; the working class are confined to coffins as they live and breathe. Yet, suffocation is a small price to pay to walk the streets that become portals in time, if you know which avenues to take.

Apartment Boxes (nyc poem) is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Jesters borrowed from Pavement in their reinvention of the 90s DIY sound in ‘Magnet’

Posted on 31 December 2023

The standout single, Magnet, from The Jesters may have been released in the Summer of 2023, but it is the perfect hit to place on your playlists as we move into the new year with the underpinning themes of pining for personal reinvention that, on some level, we all know we’ll never achieve because the force of our habits is far too strong to resist.

The grungy pop-punk pierced aura of the track, which finds the middle ground between Fidlar, Pavement and Dinosaur Jr, was the perfect atmosphere to pour the self-disdain into to ensure it rings with relatable and rogue down-and-out blues. Veering away from self-pity and right into the inner trappings of the human condition that compels us to tread the hamster wheel as creatures of idiosyncratic convention enabled Magnet to unravel as every antihero’s feel-good hit.

When it comes to reinventing the DIY sounds of the ’80s and ’90s, few do it better than the Philadelphia four-piece, whose sound falls under the new wave retro alt-folk punk banner while spilling out into other nostalgic avenues to lead you to the sounds you adore via a route never taken before.

Magnet is available to stream with the rest of The Jesters’ three-track release, Mental Model, on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

McKay exhibited cybernetic sickness in their indie folk punk single, Plugged

Posted on 14 September 2023
https://soundcloud.com/mckay-608898721/plugged/s-KL9ziCSNpVD?si=96964519eb94489d9d6a39b352cda082&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

If the Beatles psychedelically strode across Pavement’s indie rock obscurity and checked into the Neutral Milk Hotel, the sonic result would groove in the same vein as McKay’s single, Unplugged.

The indie folk punk outpour of raw striking rancour inhibits nothing as the track veers from kaleidoscopic psychedelia to gritty instrumentation and lyrical volition that allows you to feel the inward visceral frustration that encompasses our inability to be a perfect portrait when the landscape that surrounds us warped by increasingly digital dystopia.

I’m pretty sure we can all relate to the exposition of how toxic dopamine habits compel us to stay hooked up to all the wrong lifebloods and leave us at further odds with ourselves. Given the evocative immersion Plugged provides, it is no surprise that McKay has become one of the hottest indie acts in the Nashville scene.

Plugged will debut on September 14; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Psychosomatik showed their psych-rock ‘Roots’ in their progressively electric single.

Posted on 19 March 2023
Psychosomatik by Psychosomatik

Miami psych rock pioneers Psychosomatik warmed up the vintage overdriven tones to match their sun-bleached climate in their latest progressively surfy single, Roots.

If Pavement saw a little more sun, I’m entirely convinced that Brighten the Corners would have emanated the same colourful radiance of Roots, which hit the airwaves on March 13th. The influences of The Doors and The Beatles are also easy to note in the kaleidoscopic grooves of the release from the independent duo, which amalgamates influences from a wide range of artists and genres to orchestrate a sound that couldn’t be more authentic.

Experimentalism and accessibility don’t always come hand in hand; it stands as a testament to Psychosomatik’s songwriting chops that Roots is a hit that you’ll want to dig deep to immerse yourselves in from the first hit. The vibe couldn’t be sweeter.

Roots is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast