As the curtain of 2024 descends upon the world’s stage, Week in Pop shares a brief showcase highlighting just some of our favorite acts that inspired us throughout a surreal year. Forever eschewing dubious quantified ranking metrics; this feature is (as always) a work in progress that illustrates some of the movers and shakers in the creative pop arts that made this year memorable in the most amazing of ways. And once again the following lineup is not meant to exclude the deluge of fellow talented luminaries that caught our ears, eyes, minds, spirits and hears this year, but rather a hand picked collection of upstarts presented in pseudo-chronological order. Without further ado it is now our pleasure and privilege to proudly present:
Week in Pop’s Year in Pop: 2024
zowy
Visions of zowy; press photo courtesy of Pete Madden.
Discovering these new degrees of artistic fluidity is multidisciplinary artist Zoë Wyner who presents their latest inspired endeavor titled zowy with the release beware magical thinking for Lost Sound Tapes. A singular set of visions brought to a radical realization with an assist from Brad Krieger at Big Nice, the Providence, RI tunesmith collects and condenses anecdotes, aphorisms and the expanses of intuition into a cavalcade of illustrious curiosities. Wyner pays homage to the scrappy denizens of the DIY ethos on the punchy arpeggiated synth waterfall of “underdog”, to the impassioned fury of "found" that soars through the celestial stratospheres and burns like an inextinguishable bonfire of purpose pure and true. The title track is an exercise in the alchemy of reminiscences, a sprinkling of magical realism, where charged objects and sentimental memories are delivered a in a mix of percussive woodwinds and expressively dissonant chords.
Josh Stokes
The non-stop pop frontiers fashioned by the one & only Josh Stokes; press photo courtesy of the artist.
With 2024 being the year of big time Baltimore scene buzz, local luminary Josh Stokes continues upon a path of unrelenting proliferation. Pushing the limitations of stylistic production with an invigorated sense of purpose, Stokes released Universal Josh I am You You are Me at the start of the year that delivers a message of the inner-connectiveness at work in our shared plane of humanity. Since breaking out onto the scenes around 2016, the world of Josh Stokes can be chronicled by a dizzying oeuvre from Funktion, Toons, God Jewel, countless collaborations and releases that delivers fusions like a perpetual cosmic tabernacle tent revival. Stokes makes music to stir the soul, music for re-centering, music for healing, music that springs from a limitless well of inspirations that always feels fresh and from a place of sincerity and realness.
And while the world spins in an unpredictable and anxiety inducing tilt-a-whirl; Josh Stokes amplifies ecstatic visions and continues to lift up the culture and universal consciousness even higher with Power released later in the year. Stokes ignites movements towards uplifting personal agency. Having established progressive funk rhythms with a gospel fervor, Power propels itself to realms of futuristic hip hop manifested by an inspired maestro dedicated to edifying the epistemology of all things and everyone inspirational.
Foliage
Foliage’s Manuel Joseph Walker offering expansive expressions upon the overpass; video photo still courtesy of Christopher Madrid.
With the release of Foliage’s latest EP Throwaways, Manuel Joseph Walker heralds the upcoming sixth album with some of the artist’s most dazzling and mesmerizing work to date. Boasting a creative repertoire that spans a multitude of directions from encyclopedic DIY intonations, progressive rhythms, a compendium of the contemporary and modern pop classical, to increasingly elaborate textural touches — Foliage has risen to the prominence as one of the west coast’s most treasured polymaths. Elevating the platform of what bedroom recording can be, what emotive expressions can be captured in the worlds of audio arts, what depth and dimensions the power production can encompass, extoling what can materialize within the polarities of minimalism and maximalism alike.
Get Lost Cassidy Frost
Lord of the DIY craft — Get Lost Cassidy Frost; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Presenting the debut of the new Get Lost Cassidy Frost single “C’mon C’mon C’mon C’mon” — the San Francisco artist shares an intimate anecdotal about a birthday evening spent alone on the floor whilst doing some enlightening soul searching. Following up the recent track "(Till the Flood of my Blood Makes a Moat for your Boat to) Float On", Cassidy Frost continues their own journey of embracing inherent identity, queerness, questioning the health of so-called social norms and finding that grounded center from within. Even while utilizing a catchy economy of minimalist bedroom pop production, Cassidy is able to convey concepts that are very real, serious, sentimental and ultimately life affirming in an opulent timbre and tones that will live rent free in the audience’s heads and spirits.
Joh Chase
Drafting together worlds of wonder with Joh Chase; photographed by Shervin Lainez.
The gospel according to Los Angeles by way of Seattle artist Joh Chase is the fantastic devotion to the edification of the self with the world debut of “Gone”. The ecstatic opener to the hotly anticipated new album SOLO for Kill Rock Stars, Chase follows up the recent heartland rumble of “Avalanche” with a personal ode to letting go of the trappings that no longer serve or suit you. Having been brought up in evangelical congregations where they began the development of their musical chops, Joh’s journey charts the pathways from leaving the church to find their own calling and place within the myriad clusters of cultural constellations. SOLO is the sound of a wide-eyed dreamer finding their visions manifesting in the material, terrestrial plane. Joh presents the aura of unity in a world that is broken, increasingly divided and presents songs that are fashioned to the tune of home. A place of one’s own. Joh Chase specializes in the statements of sound that are committed to building bridges, paths of friendship, roads of belonging amid a country of obstacles, barriers and prohibitive walls.
Leisure
Legend of Leisure — Jon Jurow; press photo courtesy of the artist.
In the grand tradition of these seismic solstice shifts is the return of Leisure with the haunting and hypnotic “Seasons”. We didn't mean to wait till the end to finally release this material, bandleader Jon Jurow explains, but now more than ever we feel and hope these songs can bring a sense of comfort, escape and inspiration to those who hear it. The then NYC-based pop group had been developing an album under the working title Hand In Fear after the release of Gone Again back in 2014 but was shelved as the world became consumed in chaos and instability. “Seasons” is the first listen from these sessions, recorded with Gryphon Graham, Leif Anders, and Eric Cardona to create a sound submerged in the chrysalis of creating a sound that gracefully sparkles like an embellished ornament of shimmering lead crystal.
The Fourth Wall
Pub booth meetups with The Fourth Wall; photographed by Lisa Haagen.
The Portland-based group of bandleader Stephen Agustin with Kasey Shun, Chris Lau, Kendall Sallay, and Andrew White presents Return Forever; a cycle of songs dedicated to the pursuit of perpetual jest and a transcendental level of happiness. Agustin draws from his family's own histories from Korea and the Philippines respectively, specifically a story involving a close relative that left behind her daughter when she moved to the United States. The poetry of forgetfulness concept is the groundwork for the album that strives to understand the intricate lineages and complicated challenges of assimilation and identity and all the conflicts that lie therein. Return Forever is an adventure into the eternity of the stars, entertaining the eternal return that can be found in observing the cycles of life that repeat themselves and discovering the traces of joy that connects us all.
Strange Men
From left, Ashley Clayton and Róisín Isner of San Francisco’s Strange Men; photographed by Laura Cohen.
Leading us once again into the zeitgeist of the storm is Strange Men, San Francisco’s rising duo of Róisín Isner and Ashley Clayton who present their new hard raging rocker, “Do What the Boys Do”. Complete with a video that was filmed and edited live at the SF’s studio the Complex by the iconic Panda Dulce (aka Kyle Casey Chu) and George S. Rosenthal with the aid of AI frame blending — Róisín & Ashley ferociously observe the waves of self destruction that surrounds us in hand with our own vulnerabilities. Raging against the status quo and the toxic machines of our own making; Strange Men show us a reflection of the weird, wild and out of control worlds we call home. While we are beset in an age that is obsessed with wellness, putting in the work, addictions to therapy and shopping, parasocial posturing and so forth — “Do What the Boys Do” is a dark ride romp into the malaise that consumes our communities and offers a sense of awareness and all its varying causes and effects.
FINE.
Channeling the futuristic frequencies of FINE. (photographed by Frankie Ferrari)
Experience the visceral, vulnerable and venerable album of ambition and actualization (W)HOLE [via SELF LUV] from Providence, RI band FINE. A basement pop project that began with Iz Dungan and Ly Barber, turned trio with the addition of bassist Betty Amrhein together create queer positive sonic symphonies that orchestrate exuberance and unflinching honesty through unrelenting energetic audio arts. On the immediate surface it might appear that FINE. are following the alternative rock playbooks from your favorite hedonistic heroes from the vintage terrestrial radio dials, but upon a closer listen they have made a record for our current time. Iz, Ly and Betty pour out the contents of fallen soldiers from all of yesterday’s parties, symbols of remembrance of liberties lost in the faces of our world’s acrimonious attacks on trans people, tributes to those that are no longer with us, motions to make more inclusive communities both in our front and backyards and harnessing a thunderous sound that makes melodic moves towards the infinite skies.
R.E. Seraphin
Basking in a world of natural splendor with R.E. Seraphin; photographed by Morgan Stanley.
And as the world went sideways, Ray Seraphin graced us with the sounds and styles that graced our lives whilst quarantined in our home digs. We rocked out to Tiny Shapes, we rolled on with bedroom dormitory dalliance of A Room Forever, the skint, spent & suave Swingshift and now present the debut of the grandiose long player masterpiece — Fool’s Mate via Take a Turn Records / Safe Suburban Home Records. The Vallejo artist teamed up with recording at the Crockett, CA home studio of the Papercuts' Jason Quever with the enlisted brass of Joel Cusumano, Daniel Pearce, Josh Miller and Luke Robbins to round out the full send that Seraphin had been envisioning for over half a decade. The edges of previous works can still be found, with the scrappiness traded in for a fuller sound developed with the aid of a full band to bring Ray’s visions to their brightest zenith.
Total Slacker
Rocking and a bopping in a world of blue with Total Slacker’s Tucker Rountree; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Total Slacker’s Tucker Rountree addresses conundrums of contemporary existentialism in the new single and visual for “Chlorine” from the iconic artful dodger’s fifth album. Juxtaposing the rabid road raging interstates to nowhere of our current states of disconnect by casting the specter from the end of the previous millennium, the double helix of mindless performative mindfulness is mixed with the antiquated aesthetics of the previous dial-toned decades. The everybody is a star mentality that has manifested into the living the best life ever projections of current era showboating is lampooned with a sharp and wry critique that is told through the the camp of classic lifestyles of the rich and famous types of pomp and bourgeois circumstance of yesteryear’s swells and swanky socialites.
Swiftumz
San Francisco hillside styles by Swiftumz; photographed by David Armstrong.
Through the cycles of scenes that have transpired across the Bay Area for over the past few decades, few artists have had the kind of titanic influence over everyone the way Swiftumz has. Creatives and fans alike have name checked Christopher McVicker as one of San Francisco's most beguiling and mercurial stylistic shapeshifters. On the new album Simply the Best for Empty Cellar Records, McVicker has enlisted a top tier roster of fellow icons for the occasion from The Aislers Set, The Bananas, Dirty Ghosts, Kelley Stoltz to name just a few of the shining lights that grace this fascinating new full-length. Just as semantics forever fall short to capture the prismatic pop cult of Chris, Simply the Best boasts a bouquet of musical botanicals that one would expect to hear while digging through crates at the Amoeba Records in the Upper Haight on a foggy afternoon in the spring.
shirlette ammons
Shining bright with shirlette ammons; photographed by Nika Kramer.
The spirit of shirlette ammons’ radical new album Spectacles rises high above the noise and the projections. Based out of Durham by way of Beautancus, NC — the artist meditates on the notions of her own identities of Blackness, queerness, southerness, twinness, not to mention poet, musician, art director, educator and an accomplished Emmy and Peabody awarded television producer into a married embrace of these magnificent multitudes. The follow up to 2016’s Language Barrier is an epic exercise in eschewing the perceptive connotations and nearsighted applications the world at large places on these individual spectacle points of identity and cultural presentations. Spectacles is an astounding portrait of ammons celebrating these myriad kaleidoscopic visions that comprise the beauty of the self and one another. With a production assist from Phil Cook, shirlette’s new album features a dazzling array of collaborators that includes (but is not limited to) Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso, Mavis SWAN Poole, Jessamyn Stanley, G Yamazawa, Kane Smego, the Central Park School For Children, Brevan Hampden, Daniel Chavis, Darion Alexander, DJ Harrison, Chris Boerner, Brad Cook, Nyk Baglio, Matt McCaughan, Mykki Blanco, Fred Moten, Shorlette Ammons, Anansj Stephens, DJ Doowop, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Vivica C. Coxx, Tunde Wey and many more…
Sarah Once Was
A stroll about the great outdoors with Sarah McNamara of Sarah Once Was; photographed by Aja Dewolf Moura.
Delivering these psychic and lunar visions of heart is the debut of "Thumbnail Moon" from Sarah Once Was, accompanied with visuals of natural splendor courtesy of Aja Dewolf Moura. The musical outfit of Sarah “Mac” McNamara, known for work with the studios Wiggle World, Universal Hair Farm and countless other creatives, shares a lullaby for 2024. A song that that provides mindful pause in a world that is always going and going without stopping to appreciate the beauty that surrounds in abundance. “Thumbnail Moon” is a song to quell the pangs of anxiety, a song that assuages the stressors that weigh upon the psyche and soul that allows the serendipity of a sacred space where the entire natural realm feels like a sanctuary or a spa for the spirit from within to safely dwell in the warmth of a blissful solitude.
Zoya Zafar
Streams of sentiments, reflections, thoughts, memories and more with Zoya Zafar; photographed by Ada Chen.
Candid processes permeate the understated majesty of Some Songs from Zoya Zafar. The Orlando by way of Lahore, Pakistan artist follows up the Spaceless Craft EP with a full-length album that has been years in the making. Spanning years that have contended with the pandemic, battling an auto-immune illness and world travels; Zafar delivers music that is made with heart and the utmost care. With production and mixing assists from Max Helgemo and Gia Margaret, each mesmerizing movement on Some Songs glimmers and glows like the planetary stars that keep our humble globe company. An ineffable beauty and striking humility are found all throughout the record, as Zoya elevates the caliber and class of what chamber torch songs can be in a new era of constant kinesis, worldwide clamor and a chance to find a greater enlightenment.
The Doozers
Dilly dallying about with The Doozers; press photo courtesy of @euges.film.
Delivering the ultimate sound of spring 2024 is Detroit’s breakout act The Doozers with the debut of “5/3” that arrives not a day too late. The quartet of Sean Donnelly, Kyle Garland, Parker Grissom, and Melanie Kelley combine forces to create a sound that borrows tropes from all the big festival stage acts from the past 25 years (with trace elements of new romantic flair). Taken from their album Becoming an Entity that follows their 2019 EP, cheekily titled Full Length Album, The Doozers bring a sharp style that splashes like a carefree cannonball plunge off a hi-dive board. The cleverly blended electrified elements together bop brilliantly like the heavenly headliner you have never heard of that enamors all in attendance on the big top amphitheater bandshell. The Doozers arrive like the underdog that undercuts the hype and suddenly appears on every big showcase flier that floods your timeline feed.
S. Raekwon
Sweet, suave, serene, and sophisticated….S. Raekwon; press photo courtesy of POND Creative.
We have been anticipating the album Steven ever since we discovered S. Raekwon’s lauded debut record Where I’m at Now. The NYC-based artist Steven Raekwon Reynolds has a knack for presenting candid cantations through an array of styles that convey varying degrees of the vulnerable, the sacred and sentimental. Steven showcases this trifecta of pathos, ethos and logos like a seasoned tunesmith enjoying a residency in a suave Greenwich Village artist salon. Following up the I Like It When You Smile EP, S. Raekwon takes the creative journey further inward in an exploration of identity like a sophisti-pop therapy session.
Female Gaze
Out of the fray with Tucson’s Female Gaze; press photo courtesy of Velvet & Shadow.
Non-linear sequences abound on the new record Tender Futures from Tucson, AZ trio Female Gaze. Bandleader Nelene DeGuzman, Kevin Conklin and Nicky David Cobham-Morgese create a 5 song cycle designed to be experienced like a Möbius film loop. The band prefaces it with the following:
…[Tender Futures] is a cycle meant to be listened to on a loop, starting anywhere but listening in order until you reach your starting point again…
A record that rose out of DeGuzman’s own health struggles where days and nights blended together into the arbitrary atmospheres of ambiguity, Tender Futures offers tangible textures that enrobe the constructs of time and spaces as we embark upon them. Female Gaze gives room for how we perceive our lives, minute by minute, moment to moment. Honoring these aspects of reality, DeGuzman surveys where we are, how we feel and how we are engaging in that very instance. Tender Gaze invites you to experience time not as a simplified flat line but as a circle, where the the rises and falls of solar and lunar intervals are heard and felt according to a planetary alignment that is outside of our own immediate purview.
nicholas
Popping through the prisms of light with nicholas; photographed by Tim Nagle.
Bravery is allowing others to see our uncertainty and earnestness of heart. Bravery is opening up to your fellow folks about the guarded things you feel from inside yourself. Bravery is the new single “888-BE-BRAVE” from Chicago artist nicholas. The creative call sign of Nick McMillan, the follow up to Heat Island Effect works in minimalistic ways. In collaboration with Marcus Darling and mixing/mastering by Brok Mende; McMillan brings a subdued song of passion, humility, apprehension with a soft string strumming stroll. McMillan makes a song to hum while walking home from a difficult day at work. Self-diagnostics are sung sleepily in a hushed restrained refrain as a personal assessment of aspirations and reluctance gently echo through the brisk air of dusk.
Noelle & the Deserters
Among the flora, the wilderness, a michelada, a Mission burrito & Noelle Fiore; photographed by Doug Avery.
Noelle & the Deserters shared band made visuals filmed at Noelle Fiore’s hometown of Taos, New Mexico and all along the Rio Grande for “Canyon”. Featured off their album debut High Desert Daydream from Speakeasy Studios SF, their new record first arrived on our radar with the debut of the excellent and wonderfully exuberant “Born in the Morning” courtesy of our friends at BFF.FM. DIY pop heads will already recognize Fiore from her work in Tim Cohen’s (of the Fresh & Onlys) Magic Trick, playing with Shannon Shaw of Shannon & the Clams and the Deserters themselves starring Graham Norwood (of Bryan Scary, Graham Norwood), Alicia Vanden Heuvel (from The Aislers Set, Speakeasy Studios SF founder), David Cuetter (of Tarnation) along with Noelle’s hubby Jerry Fiore (from Sonic Love Affair). The group shines a light on what contemporary Americana can be, dusting off the records of your favorite cosmic American psychonauts who established the sounds of the southwest and far beyond that connect the otherwise disparate interstates, lonesome highways and all but abandoned trails to the goldmine portals of fuzzy memories.
Yea-Ming & the Rumours
Loitering about with Yea-Ming & the Rumours; photographed by Corey Poluk.
I Can't Have It All from Oakland’s Yea-Ming & the Rumours sparkles with the honest sentiments that mirror life itself. It is the record that despite the title gives you so much from its roster of talents. Lead by Yea-Ming Chen, the Rumour team is made up and reinforced by Sonia Hayden, Eóin Galvin, Luke Robbins, Jen Weisberg, Jeff Moller, Jasper Leach and more. It follows So Bird… from 2022 with the sound that Yea-Ming & the Rumors have wanted to make since their inception from the mid-2010s. I Can’t Have It All is the record that has it all: the hesitations, the excitement, the apprehension, the ecstasy, the agony, and everything beyond and in-between.
St. Kio
Surfing the sound streets of sueños and more with St. Kio; press photo courtesy of @dentellelamour.
Introducing St. Kio, the creative handle of LA polymath Nicole Bandoquillo who offers the uplifting and ethereal entrances of enlightenment with the debut of “Infinity Mirror”. The artist presents an eternal hymn of empowerment that cuts through the negativity of mindless chatter and manic scrolling with a joyful noise that cuts through the veil of night & day cycles with an aural rush of limitless purpose and inner peace. “Infinity Mirror” conjures up visions of elapsed photography that show the expanses of time through a sped up lens that crashes on through to the mythic other sides of our own respective worlds as we have come to understand them. The almost endless spirals we experience on account of our own programming are interrupted with the senses, sounds and sentiments of new frontiers and new realizations. A track to lift us up to where we belong and want to be that is on the other side of all the thoughts and traumas that bring us down. In Nicole’s own words:
“I wrote this song during a period of heartbreak, loneliness, and isolation. It inspired me to shift from self-pity to self-reflection, focusing on how I could improve and move forward.”
Sophie Swanson
Northeast pop visionary Sophie Swanson; photographed by Abby Clare.
Songs of heartbreak. Songs of healing. Songs of sorrow. Songs of rage. Songs of release. Songs of radical empathy. Welcome to the big surprise breakout hit of the summer, as Sophie Swanson presents the wonder work of Social Burnout. The New Jersey artist captivatingly conveys the strange social awkwardness of breakups, the bliss and burden of friendships, the performative dances we dance, the acts we act and above all the importance of restorative solitude in the face of an overwhelming world. Swanson has made the ultimate record that artists for decades have been trying to materialize and/or perfect. Its the record that you always wanted from the Breeders post-Last Splash, if Avril Lavigne transformed “Sk8ter Boi” into a fully realized subgenre, the record that Olivia Rodrigo keeps trying to make, the best song cycle not ghostwritten by Linda Perry, the solo rock record from Gwen Stefani we never got, and ultimately the sassy and snazzy sound for summer 2024.
Magic Fig
Inhabiting enchanted parks & gardens with San Francisco’s Magic Fig; photographed by Michael Cruz.
And as the technological and pop cultural fashions turn like a carousel of seasons, Magic Fig materializes with their self-titled from Silver Current Records. From the creatives behind favorites such as Almond Joy, Healing Potpourri, The Umbrellas, Whitney’s Playland, and more — Inna Showalter, Jon Chaney, Matthew Ferrara, Taylor Giffin, and Muzzy Moskowitz deliver a sun punch psych dose of pure luminescent solar beams. Levitating at the corner of tranquility and transcendent, Magic Fig journeys into the celestial places of the spirit. Completed with production and engineering supplied by Once and Future Band’s Joel Robinow, along with Paul Korte, and Tim Green — the Magic Fig self-titled sets sail along the cosmic and crystal glass glimmering seas.
Silverware
Silverware’s high rising star Ainsley Wagoner; photographed by Marisa Bazan.
Silverware’s album One True Light for Ghost Mountain Records is the vision of SF by way of Lexington artist Ainsley Wagoner, the track sparkles with a suave serenity that emanates sophisti-pop styles and sounds like the light that passes through the most illustrious gems. Working with Omar Akrouche on the follow-up to 2021’s No Plans, Ainsley casts off the cares and diversions of the world with a sense of resolve, determination, and mindfulness. Joined by a chanting chorus of fellow Bay Area luminaries like Asha Wells, Sarah Simon, Simi Sohota, Taylor Giffin, Tom Smith, and more — Silverware’s lavish creative developments that have been over two years in the making stand as some of the most beautiful and breezy music to compliment the omnipresent San Francisco summer fog.
Close Calls
Jon Bernson and Michael Zapruder seeking new projections of expressions; press photo courtesy of the artists.
With all of this and more in spirit and mind, Jon Bernson & Michael Zapruder launch their collaborative new pop synthesis Close Calls with the single and visual for “JPEGs”. It’s a contemporary sci-fi love letter to the ubiquitous format that threads our connection to others, the earth, ourselves, and any bit of physical and ephemeral matter imaginable. Prolific pioneers of the influential collective and imprint Howells Transmitter, Bernson’s works spans from Ray’s Vast Basement, Window Twins, Exray’s, Higher Lows, holder of an Emmy and Peabody awards, in conjunction with fellow award-winning luminary Zapruder whose projects and developments range from contemporary classical, opera, to current work in rrunnerrss, with a composition doctorate. Together with their talents and visions combined — Close Calls is an exercise in creative concision that works to exhibit our modern day conundrum and curiosities that cuts the 3 minute traditional popular craft by half.
Weaver Line (fka The Ways)
London loves Sally & Benjamin of Weaver Line (formerly The Ways); press photo courtesy of the artists.
The most innovative artists beyond time immemorial express themselves from the central axis of infinite flux. London by way of NYC icon and multihyphenate Sally Way (née Horowitz, fka S the Supplicant, Luxe, Secret Lover, et al.) and Benjamin Way have embraced the alchemy that the stage and the pop craft of song afford. From finding each other through the contemporary circuits of underground theatre events, experimental endeavors that straddle the abstract, the absurd, the odd, to all out eccentrically entertaining — Sally & Ben present their creative duality of Weaver Line (fka The Ways). Fusing the places where the theatrical avant-garde and pop song synergy meet in a marriage under the banner of DIY, The Weaver Line present their inaugural offering of “No Heaven”.
Trap Girl
LA’s bad bad baddies, Trap Girl; photographed by Nani Gross.
Cue Los Angeles force to be reckoned with, Trap Girl, as they unveil the debut of “Baddest Bitch” from their new album The Savage Goddess via Kill Rock Stars. Seen recently at Oakland’s Mosswood Meltdown, bandleader Drew Arriola-Sands, with Jorge Reveles, Jocelyn Aguilera, and Daniel Guzman bring their take no crap message to the whole wide world. Broadcasting a self-proclaimed passion for femme supremacy, Trap Girl brings the rage with a powder keg of queer positivity to drown out the harbingers of transphobia and the petty politicians that peddle their anemic agendas of projected insecurities and platforms of unfounded fear and indoctrinated hate.
Slumped
Between the Mission and Potrero Hill with Nathaniel from Slumped; video still courtesy of Timmy Lohdi / True Colors.
This is the sentiment and mentality of Slumped’s new album Last Day on Earth. The Oakland band have been generating buzz since 2017, increasingly elaborating upon their musical productions to create some of the most grandiose rock & roll fit for both humble dives and stadium stages alike. Guided by the vision of bandleader Nathaniel-Thomas Punty, Slumped exalts the slacker pop canons that recall your favorite 90s underdogs and manages to perfect that punchy practice space luster and catapult it to an astronomical degree. As the Bay continues to bring some of the world’s best talents and arts, Slumped contributes to what can only be described and felt as an unstoppable force of nature that is not slowing any time soon.
WUT
DIY pop wunderkinds WUT; press photo courtesy of the artists.
Engaging with our shared world that is weird, widely repugnant, with striking elements of unlimited wonder [not to mention potential prosperity] are Vancouver’s rising vanguards of egalitarian enlightenment — WUT — presenting their new album Mingling with the Thorns via the distinguished DIY institution HHBTM. The central talents of Kaity McWhinney, Tracey Vath (both from Knife Pleat, Love Cuts), and Lauren Smith (of Tough Age, Jock Tears) deliver the successor to their brilliant 2020 visual album NOW with a record that swims through the undertows and riptides toward calmer, kinder, more sane, and sensible seas. Through collaboration that carried through eras of quarantines and sheltering in place, WUT edify and exalt the underground sound scenes established by the Shop Assistants, We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Going To Use It, Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, etcetera into a full on creative platform to portray the cracked communities of our current era and the sacred, eternal search for the self, heart and soul (within a society that is turned sideways like a funhouse hallway).
Chime School
San Francisco’s new pop royalty Chime School; photographed by Kittie Krivacic.
Welcome to The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel, the much anticipated new album from Chime School. Local SF scene ambassador Andy Pastalaniec follows up the lauded 2021 self-titled with a sound and presence that is crisp and magnified to a large scale. Paisley Hotel dwells in a space where the pub circuit set makes the stylistic jump for the big top tent festival stage. Think about the time where your favorite independent idol signed with a major to create their big expensive sounding record, and that industry cliché describes only a fraction of the shimmering semiotics of the new Chime School record. Andy organizes day dream sequences into chapters of song, surfing the shifts of natural progressions with notions of human folly into a musical photo album with ineffably charged energy galore [specially designed to be enjoyed at maximum volume].
Dinowalrus
New York legends Dinowalrus keep the trade alive of dealing mammoth-sized tunes; photographed by Matty Fasano.
Never mind the Oasis reunion hype, as Dinowalrus descends from their DIY throne with the debut of the new single “Tunnel Vision”. The Brooklyn purveyors of brash bops follows up “Blackout Freakout” with a big tune that Richard Ashcroft never gifted us during the heyday of the Verve’s humble beginnings. Call it 90s revivalism, revisionism, resurrection, but don’t call it a comeback. It’s the sound of creativity operating at the speed of sound, racing against the daybreak of inevitable light that strikes at the vanishing point of the horizons that watches days arrive and depart in equal measure.
Still Ruins
From left, Cyrus VandenBerghe, Frankie Soto & Jose Chema Medina of Still Ruins live at The Knockout, SF; press photo courtesy of Week in Pop.
Oakland pop art institution Still Ruins lavished us with one of the best releases of 2024 with their self-titled EP. The combined visions of Frankie Soto, Jose Medina and Cyrus VandenBerghe — they present an in-depth look and discussion of influences and inspirations that span from the obscure to the internationally observed and renowned. A collaborative feature that has been in the works for well over a year, Still Ruins share an exclusive glimpse at the shadows that stretch from the New Romantic era that make up the mesmerizing mixes and molds of songs like “Silhouette”. The deep blue seas and oceanic dimensions that delve into the rapid waters that run from the past and into the modern day tributaries heard on “Perfect Blue”. Tracing back those radical retro radio waves and synth sequenced sensations that informed “Until Then”. The pursuit of perfection and commitment to mining the majesties and maestros of heavenly hymns that gave rise to the blissed out baths of “Of Devotion”. Scouring the scales and archives of nearly infinite ethereal underdogs as arbiters of underground pop knowledge and taste on “Left Against”.
SCHØØL
Tripping, skipping & skating with SCHØØL; press photo courtesy of the artists.
SCHØØL [Francis Mallari (of Rendez-Vous), Erica Ashleson (from Special Friend, Dog Park), Jack Moase (of Liquid Face), and Marble Arch’s Alex Battez] sends the audience to the tattered banks of the earth that are on the brink of total collapse on “The End”. The band entertains what will happen if the world explodes, what feelings remain, and what chances we have as a society to carry on toward something better. Like the previous track “N.S.M.L.Y.D.”, SCHØØL super soaks the soundwaves, the sensations and sentiments that resemble the reckless and riled up youths in rebellion — raging against the monstrous machines. Delivering declarations of defiance in the face of the sordid systems of oppression. The Paris-based band believers in a more beautiful and abundant world lament the lack of peace with projections of anxiety and dismay in the face of perdition.
Baseball Gregg
The beauty and boldness of Baseball Gregg; video still courtesy of Jess Lou.
They are a ray of light. They are a refuge when the going gets rough. They are peace. They are Baseball Gregg. Their new album Briefs from La Barberia, Baseball Gregg’s Luca Lovisetto (based out of Bologna, Italy) and Sam Regan (Oakland, California) celebrate the group’s tenth anniversary with the single and visual for the pensive & poignant “Penetration”. The trademark whistful sea swaying rock carries the weight of confronting prejudices with a vulnerable sense of pride, articulating intimacy and anger in equal measure. Sam confronts the ills and anguish at the work while turning the tables on the negative forces that seek to bring people down.
Slack Times
Having a sit-down sesh with Slack Times; photographed by Newman Evans.
Many meditations, reminiscence, and more can be found and felt throughout the new tape Gone Things from Birmingham, Alabama band Slack Times. The trio of Chris McCauley, Abby Anderson, and Stuart Norman channel the sensibilities and smarts of your favorite cult DIY jangle dreaming act of underrated import in a journey through the ephemeral scrapbooks conjured by the spirit and mind. Mixed by Les Nuby at Ol Elegante, mastered by Álvaro Lissón, featuring additional contributions from Seth Brown; Slack Times’ evolution shows the power of sentimentality when applied to succinct, punchy guitar lead ballads of the utmost sincerity.
Wish Queen
Grace Sullivan, aka Wish Queen, indulging in a cluster of delectable raisins au verts; photographed by Alison Scarpulla, styled by Courtney May.
Wish Queen’s double single Feeder/Floral Sheets is the pursuit of pensive exploration. Cleveland artist Grace Sullivan follows up the album debut Saturnalia with the next chapters that sounds like the foundational beginnings of a follow up full-length. The new duality between the new tracks offers a rewarding journey through the places of up close self-examinations and allowing/opening yourself up to the possibility of an interdependent and ineffable state of amour. Sullivan presents a pair of songs that course through the inward and outward terrain, surrendering and reconciling states of love that unlock new wonder waves of beauty and bliss.
figure eight
Oakland’s fantastic & fabulous figure eight (clockwise from left), Nick Coleman, Nicky Esparza, Nash Rood & Abby Goeser; photographed by jbsux.pdf
Delivering a sweeping and succinct record to sundown a year fraught with frustrations and a litany of grievances is the moving self-titled from one of Oakland’s most beloved bands, figure eight. One of the Bay Area’s best and most slept on acts, they are some of the shiniest and most humble stars of a scrappy—yet prolific—scene of lionhearted upstarts. The principle duo of Nash Rood and Abby Goeser have expanded to a quartet to include the talents of Nicholas Coleman from Softie and Pork Belly’s Nicky Esparza. Debuting with their lauded EP drown, figure eight turns up the tidal roar light of their sound like amplifier vacuum tube bulbs, ever expanding in their creative scope like tungsten filaments rising up n heightened degrees of temperature.
BAYEM
Coastal manifestations by BAYEM; photographed by Owen Thomas.
Delivering seasons of sun to brighten up our sullen solstice is rising Indianapolis artist BAYEM with the debut for the California dreaming coastal cool of “Malibu”. Recently bringing the torch song suave of “No Regrets”, to the retro neon pop steeped maximalism on “Avalanche”; the artist ventures into the azure oceans of deep introspection on the enchantment found with an elevated empathetic connection. BAYEM turns the creative dial to the emotive expressions found on the AM stations that our mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers were raised on. The wave streaked beaches of romantic sentiment are dearly blended with tightly crafted production reminiscent of post-disco dilettantes with a sophisticated, windswept, and sweetened atmosphere of fantastical futurism rooted in the retro modernist of the latter twentieth century.
Discus
Chicago cult pop legends Discus; photographed by Clare Byrne of Sunroom/SUN-ROM.
Pondering thoughts on the journey driven media mainstays are Chicago brothers Jake & Paul Stolz with the new Discus single “On Tour” that postulates the perpetual inherent ennui of trail trekking. Known as the rhythm section for Pool Holograph, Varsity, Central Heat Exchange, and many other acts; they hint at future musical endeavors to arrive in 2025 with a massive electric pop mammoth of a jam. Following up the electric retro rizz of 2023’s mini disc, the crunchy key and guitar odysseys connect together even cleaner, exhibiting two sides of the same coin, communicating an acute balance of both introverted/extroverted observations and languid emotion.
Annika Zee
New York by way of Toronto multihyphenate Annika Zee; press photo courtesy of Guarionex Jr.
Opening up the mythic gates to new dimensions of light is one of 2024’s biggest records from one of the world’s most important artists Annika Zee. The esteemed NYC by way of Toronto pop icon presents the magnificent world of Magnolia via Absurd TRAX, an album of heart and soul lead rhythms that rides toward new degrees of affection and a search for understanding. The prolific artist and designer has spent over a decade redefining what dance based music can be, compounding the world of kinetic and canonical creations into new heightened forms of pop crafts that paint new poignant songs that survey our surrounding societies and the sanctuaries of the self. Magnolia is a journey that searches the reconciliation and assertion of the self in a world of hardships and heartbreaks that marks the latest in Zee’s ever expansive catalogue that counts Patience, Bleu, Factory Pageant, Aging Aesthetics, and many other works that assert how art and expressive actualization takes shape in a rapidly shifting world. A singular pivotal force that forecasted the mainstream sartorial intersection of artistic agency once again shows the entire world how it’s done.
Aan
PDX institution of creative cool, Aan; press photo courtesy of the band.
Presenting the long awaited follow-up to 2019’s Losing My Shadow, Portland’s own Aan delivers the video for “Speculum Aenigmate” from their new album Over the Mountain. The new album from Bud Wilson and company dazzles with somatic sentiments on the grooving "My Body", the density dives of "Black Hole", journeying into the unknown ether of "Laced and Lost", to the enchanted and entrancing "Dope Magic". Embracing the ennui and alchemy of "Waiting Around", to scouring the thread lines of "Searching For Seams", to scouring the broken earth on "Break the World in Two". "Neon Orange Leash" shines color saturated light on the roads and sidewalks ahead, concluding the record with the penultimate "Cold Grey Eyes" that arrives at a smoldering piano lead ballad that brings it all back home with an icy and exhausted glance, leaving room for the possibility of infinite joy and approximations of hope on “Smile”.
Parentz
Coin-op arcade hustling with Parentz (from left), Jeremy Sullivan and Jon Hall in a Bart mask; photographed by Claude Cardenas.
In this spirit of gratitude and grace we present Bay Area institution Parentz and the debut of the visuals for “Freaking Me Out” off the long-awaited mega album 1989. A pop entity that first graced our radars in 2011 with the IP obliterating wonder work Big that showcased Oakland artist Jeremy Sullivan re-envisioning/rearranging in a return to anachronistic alchemy that eschews tired revisionist warping in favor of recreation through resurrection, reconstruction, reformation, and above all re-imagining. The follow-up EP with the decidedly 2010s blogosphere-centric title FP&B<3Z1:FLY cast the bright lights on the patented East Bay inflected sound Parentz would pursue from that moment forward. Spending the next decade releasing a barrage of singles, 1989 rides on the wings of a Pegasus toward new future cool clouds that sport a higher degrees of consciousness whilst tech mining the criminally underutilized, underrated, and antiquated electro pop tropes.
…and so many more…
Keep up with all of our features from this past year and beyond here.
Bidding farewell to 2024 and ringing in 2025….
