Transient Peak Music Roundup

Hi all!

I haven't updated this in a while as I've tried to get my bearings/my energy back following the last couple of weeks of executive orders and other personal life stuff I won't go into because that's not what you read this for lol. I have a few more interviews to publish, including ones from Piglet, Allie, and Baths (!), and I'll decide what to do from there. I know highlighting queer artists is more important than ever, but this frankly isn't getting the reach I hoped it would and it's a lot of work.

Just to get back in the swing of things, here's a little roundup of queer artists that released music in the last couple of weeks, many of whom I've interviewed or reviewed in the past so this is like comfort food. Apparently, all Hannahcore artists got together and decided to stagger their releases within the last two weeks, and that's made things a bit easier in These Times™.

Want to also mention that I mixed a couple of songs on Eden Ariel's new album Rivers, my favorite of which is the very All Saints-coded "Release."

Pictoria Vark - I Pushed It Down

RIYL: Snail Mail, Lomelda, Bedouine

You wouldn't be reading this without Pictoria Vark, the namesake of Nothing Deep To Say and the guest of the first issue. Their next album, Nothing Sticks, comes out in March, and it's a massive leap even as someone who loved Vark's first album The Parts I Dread. (I still feel weird calling them Victoria Park, it's like calling Chappell Roan Kayleigh.) Recorded at Big Nice Studio with Bradford Krieger, who's made records with fellow queer musicians Squirrel Flower and Patrick Wolf, the songs are more lush than ever before. "San Diego" is the single, but "I Pushed It Down" is the best example of Vark's newfound studio comfort, accentuated by Gavin Caine's gorgeous string arrangements. It almost sounds like something from 70s adult contemporary folk, perfectly complementing the lyrics about compartmentalization and repression. The more ornate sound has a lot in common with another Get Better Records act also releasing their best record yet in the coming months, but we'll get there when we get there.

Partygirl - Fine Fine Fine

RIYL: Black Country New Road, Fiona Apple, Nilüfer Yanya

I've followed this band for a couple of years, and wrote their artist bio (you can read an abridged version on their website). They're one of the best local bands in the NY DIY scene, a bunch of scrappy virtuosos who play chamber pop like an underground post-hardcore band. This is the band's poppiest song yet, their accessible Lilith Fair moment – the title is not an intentional Alanis Morrissette reference, but it's certainly worthy of "Hand in My Pocket." Every maximalist band needs one song you can take home to your parents, and Partygirl skillfully does that as well as they do their more intense moments. They're playing Baby's All Right on Tuesday, so you should definitely see them and fall in love with them like I did.

Black Country, New Road - Besties

RIYL: Regina Spektor and Arcade Fire if neither of them were cancelled, might as well put Partygirl

As someone who also transitioned from male to female [pause for laughter], I I sympathize with Black Country, New Road. There's a lot I liked about the previous incarnation of the band, particularly Isaac Wood's fascinatingly dense lyrics and the band's klezmer influence. I fell out of touch with the band after I couldn't get into Ants From Up Here and Isaac Wood left the group altogether.

I didn't get around to their Bush Hall record, so imagine my surprise when they came back with a delightful harpsichord-driven chamber pop song about kinda almost being in love with your best friend – the classic queer experience. Georgia Ellery leads this one, where she's equally frustrated about being a gay cliché ("I'm a walking TikTok trend!") as she is with the unrequited affection itself ("I know I want something more, and what about you?/in fact don't answer that.")

Mainstream rock producer James Ford (Mumford & Sons, Foals) and indie mixing engineer Nathan Boddy (Nilufer Yanya, Geordie Greep) are odd musical bedfellows who both encourage the quirkiness and give it a studio polish.

Gordi - Alien Cowboy

RIYL: Imogen Heap, Jane Remover, MUNA
Previous Nothing Deep To Say guest Gordi returns with her most experimental song yet, produced with Matias Mora and mixed by Kayla Reagan (Jane Remover, Kali Uchis). In her music, Sophie Payten is often reassuring others, whether it's a friend or a partner. This song is Gordi asking the universe for reassurance, in this case a hope for a gay utopia. It's her most abstract and spiritual song she's made in her solo work, yet more aggressive than anything she's made before.

There's still the Imogen Heap influence in the drum machines and vocoders, but here it's distorted and blown-out, making the central call for a queer paradise all the more urgent. The climax wouldn't be out of place on a Jane Remover song like "Census Designated." So, Gordi makes MUNA's "I Know a Place" by way of Remover and Sleep Well Beast. What, did you think I wasn't going to like it?

Katie Tupper - JEANS (Fall on My Knees)

RIYL: Lake Street Dive, Alicia Keys, Natasha Bedingfield

I just properly got into this artist recently after hearing Tupper's excellent "Live Inside", and knew I had to include this as soon as I heard it. She's particularly known around TikTok for her raspy contralto, which she uses to cover songs with her bandmate Benjamin Millman: if you've ever wanted to hear "Unwritten" sung a full 4th down from the original key, now's your chance. Her own music is strong in its own right.

A lot of Tupper's music depicts enmeshment and obsession (so does my music, iykyk) - "Live Inside" and "She Said" in particular depict losing oneself in a partner and a crush respectively, why that's intoxicating and why it's also exhausting to try and be what the other person likes. On "JEANS", that intensity has worn out its welcome and given way to outright emotional manipulation: "You touch me just to cut it short/and I think that's on purpose/I think that you know it." While slower than "Live Inside", I find "JEANS" equally as promising. Even if this type of neo-soul isn't for you, definitely keep an eye on her.

The Ophelias - Cumulonimbus

RIYL: Julien Baker, Hop Along, Broken Social Scene, RIYLo Kiley
I almost quit music writing back in 2021 – I was working at a label at the time, prohibiting me from reviewing records from the trio of Sony, Warner, and Universal, figuring that at most I'd write the occasional National-adjacent review. Then I heard the Ophelias' Crocus after a RIYL: Julien Baker, Hop Along email in my inbox and immediately fell for the band’s unassumingly dexterous, deadpan-whimsy folk-rock. After that, I decided to focus on smaller artists instead of paralyzing my writing career trying to get the biggest review or interview (and the big ones came, to the chagrin of one Finneas O'Connell), so you probably wouldn't be reading this without them either. I ended up profiling the band as they were on the search for a new label, and their fourth LP Spring Grove is finally coming out in April on the reliably great and reliably gay Get Better Records. And Julien herself is producing!

Spencer Peppet's extremely specific vocal phrasing is one of my favorite things about the band, and here, the band builds around her indie-game-Christopher-Walken intonation: "I! KNOW! that YOU! are gonnamissmemore than you saaay you... WILL!" Drummer Mic Adams, as he's been since their early breakthrough “General Electric”, is the band's secret weapon, sliding into breakbeats and crashing through every chorus. Producers Julien Baker and Calvin Lauber scale the band up to the size of Broken Social Scene or Frightened Rabbit, making this the most powerful version of Ophelias to date even as Peppet’s lyrics remain as intimate and detailed as ever.

NOT SURE IF THEY'RE QUEER BUT I LIKE IT REGARDLESS:

Fiona-Lee - To Make Me Feel Good

RIYL: Sam Fender, Paris Paloma, U2

If Sam Fender was better, he'd be Gang of Youths, but if he were both better and a woman (yes I know "Greasy Spoon", where he says "I am a woman" as if women cannot speak for themselves), he would be Fiona-Lee. That's extreme shorthand, because Fiona-Lee's music is stellar in her own right, but if it caught your attention I did my job. Listen to how she says "You shouldn't have to say more than straight-up nothing to make me feel good" – the enjambment of "straight-up" gives the song much more personality. The ending crescendo is nothing new, I'm not beating the 'earnest forest critter music taste' allegations here. Yet she does that better than the Of Monsters and Men of yore, guitars gaining in volume until the whole track approaches huge "Where The Streets Have No Name" territory. I'm on board with whatever she does after songs as good as this and the massive Florence-esque "When I Wake Up I'm Sad" – we need more musicians making giant music like this.

Nick and June - New Year's Day

RIYL: The National (Boxer era), Pinback

Guess I'm not entirely rid of the National. This is slow, pretty comfort food music, even mixed by Peter Katis who worked on most of the band's golden age material. Much like I'm not sure what "afraid of the house stay the night with the sinners" means, even all the years later, I'm not sure what these lyrics mean whatsoever. What are "lucky bombs"? what is a "new year's face"? But I don't care, I'm just glad I have more of this more quiet "Gospel"-esque sound.