Blue Cadet-3: A Music Blog by Josh R.

  Ovlov - Am (2013) My copy: 2023 repress on purple/clear galaxy vinyl by Exploding In Sound Records Connecticut's Ovlov got their name by inverting the car brand “Volvo,” which immediately conveys the sort of nonchalant, heart-on-our-sleeve ethos that flows through their slacker (but not too slacker) style of indie shoegazing. Their full-length debut was happily snapped up by Jersey’s Exploding In Sound Records, which makes sense given the band’s proclivity for feedback squeals and heavy bass/guitar combos.  Out of the shoegaze resurgence of the 2010’s, Ovlov rejected the idea that their music had to be devoid of clear pop appeal, which is probably the reason for their most common comparison (to Dinosaur Jr.) along with frontman Steve Hartlett’s sedated, nasally croon that just barely crests over the waves of distortion. Ovlov also borrows the guitar hero sensibilities of J Mascis, though here on Am the solos are usually sloppy and crazed enough that they make for effecti...

  Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Strangers From The Universe (1994) My copy: 1994 press by Matador The Fellers had come a long way. Often overlooked and underrated by typical rock historian accounts, the Thinking Fellers have cred going back to their first cassette ( Wormed By Leonard) released in 1988. A radiating commitment to an original and manic sort of circus-rock kept the California band steady as they grew with the cross-country Matador records into increasingly refined musical clothing. What makes Strangers so widely appealing as an entrance into the imposing catalog of the Thinking Fellers is probably its supreme balance of musical influences and its subtle-enough maturation into a more introspective world.   Where Mother Of All Saints was a whirlwind force of Butthole Surfers chaos imbued with the feverish, rural working class influences of the Meat Puppets, Strangers now found the band embracing softer gestures of love and longing (perhaps in a similar phi...

  Part Chimp - I Am Come (2005) My copy: 2005 press by Rock Action Records As the millennium turned, rock music trends began to shift. In the U.S. a band called Lightning Bolt were establishing themselves as forerunners of modern noise-rock by pushing the music in increasingly weird directions. Across the pond, Mclusky were fighting the good fight with the 2002 Albini-produced Do Dallas, that wove dry, intelligent humor in between bursts of electrifying instrumental poundings. But over in London, another set of noise-crazed rockers got their start around the same time.  Part Chimp’s humor is a touch more on the nose; see album title Chart Pimp, or song title “Hitler and Jews” from the same 2002 debut. But directness is just where a band calling themselves “Part Chimp” excels. As rock began softening and going the way of the Strokes real quick, Chart Pimp offered a bastion of sludge-y rock ferocity that mostly suffered from being less able to fully capture the sheer volume ...

  Geologist & D.S. - A Shaw Deal (2025) My copy: 2025 press by Drag City Avey Tare’s got Pullhair Rubeye, Down There and most recently 7’s among others. Panda Bear has Tomboy, Person Pitch and even the new Sinister Grift on the horizon among others. Deakin’s even got his own Sleep Cycle . All this is to say that Animal Collective fans have been looking to Brian “Geologist” Weitz for his own solo effort for years. 2025 turned out to be the year we would finally get the long awaited debut, though it is technically a unique collaborative effort between Weitz and friend/guitarist Douglas Shaw, whose COVID inspired Instagram jam sessions serve as the basis for the record itself.  Weitz explains that the record is meant more as a gift to his friend, whose guitar playing served as valuable inspiration in the face of a pandemic. And yet A Shaw Deal couldn’t feel more explicitly Geologist; as if the multi-media manipulator behind some of Animal Collective’s weirdest sounds was ...

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) My copy: 2010 reissue by Matador Despite the pretensions that run within any given indie circle, everyone secretly wants a hit. To be known as a de facto force in your styling, to move up and outward or just to command influence over and spawn new generations of “good” music. Sure there are complications, there are demands, all kinds of serious detractors that drive artists to erect barriers around the idea of hitting it big. It’s also certainly valid to criticize an artist who compromises their original vision for attention. But sometimes a compromise is catchy as fuck. When Pavement decided to turn in their Fall records and lean more into the Bunnymen element, they did compromise to a degree. And yet what came to be is also a cohesive vision of 90’s adolescent culture - a coming of age that extends logically from Slanted & Enchanted’s more primal, noisy tantrums. While Slanted contains this raw, primordial spirit, Crooked Rain also p...

  Xiu Xiu - 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (2024) My copy: 2024 mint green pressing by Polyvinyl My relationship with Xiu Xiu across these 20-something years of music consumption has been fairly…complicated. I was first introduced with the somewhat infamous A Promise which clicked near instantly with me - particularly the emotionally recontextualized version of Tracy Chapman’s hit “Fast Car.” “What a shockingly raw and frightful band” I rightly thought, and yet 13” is the first record of theirs I’ve ever purchased.   In all my fawning over A Promise , something about owning a record with a nude Taiwanese prostitute on the cover didn’t exactly sit well with me back then. Xiu Xiu seem to have always been insistent on pushing boundaries, flirting with the uncomfortable to whatever effect; though I tend to fall off the bandwagon when their interest seems to serve shock value and nothing else.  The band has also brushed more with indie pop sin...

Jake Tobin - Torment (2014) My copy: 2014 press by Chill Mega Chill Jake Tobin, the man, is somewhat difficult to pin down on a brief investigation. An enigmatic artist in both realms of visuals and sonics, Torment comes as Tobin’s second full-length LP since his official debut in 2013. Torment as an album, is less enigmatic; rather it is a twisting, clanging rallying cry against the ho hum rudiments of everyday office labor. Borrowing from the post-industrial fury of the no-wave movement (or maybe more accurately the sputtering mids of D. Boon), the guitars at times emulate the clean raking of the contortions and at others shamble through exhaustion-fueled psych melodies that reflect more contemporary influences. A critical inclusion is the honking saxophone, vying desperately for our attention like a cursed windowcleaner’s squeegee interrupting the mundanity of spreadsheet sifting. What Tobin understands is that in office life - that goddamn squeegee holds ineffable power.  I...