Wavers - Look What I Found LP

Salinas / Reach Around (2025)

I shall begin by giving Wavers perhaps the most backhanded compliment I've written in a while.  If this record came out in 1996, I wouldn't have noticed it.  It would have been 'oh, there's another indie sounding band from K / Kill Rock Stars land.'  I don't know that they would have stood out to me at the time as being anything other than 'good.'  But hearing this record in 2026, it kind of floors me because I don't really feel like bands are making this sort of music anymore.  It stands out in a way that I don't know if it could have 30 years ago, even though it's cultivating those familiar sounds.  

Which makes me think, how many bands did I not give a fair shake to back then because of the insane glut of incredible releases dropping what seemed like weekly.  How many gems did I miss?  Many, I'm sure.  Backtracking to bands I overlooked in the 90s in recent years has brought many a band to the forefront that I didn't have the time or money for back then.  I think Wavers would have been the same - appreciated more later.

I hope that doesn't happen to them, as their combination of textured indie pop guitar rock mixed with Rosie's strong, but infinitely hooky vocals are the sort of combination that bands would kill for.  Yes, you can draw a line to other Pacific Northwest luminaries like the Spinanes, Crabs and Go Sailors of the world, but what sets Wavers apart is the music.  This isn't sparse, twinkling indie rock.  This full sounding, bass heavy Indie Rock with a capital I, with those perfect K records style vocals on top.

Again, I don't feel like I hear a lot of bands like this anymore.  Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places anymore, which I won't discount as a possibility (probability?).  But coming across this album is a welcome surprise.

Wavers - Look What I Found:

https://waversoly.bandcamp.com/album/look-what-i-found-2

Dillinger Four - This Shit Is Geniuser LP - Green Vinyl (and Bonus Flexi)

 
Anxious & Angry (2025)

Anxious & Angry has reissued the Dillinger Four singles compilation, dubbing this new version This Shit Is Geniuser.  It takes the existing This Shit Is Genius comp that THD and No Idea put out a few decades ago and spruces it up with a few new tracks.  It is nice to have a new version of this, though I wish they had taken it a step further.  More on that later.  Also included was a flexi of one of the new songs that was added to the album.

As weird as it sounds, this is my favorite Dillinger Four record, even though it's not a proper full length.  The main backbone of it has always been The Kids Are All Dead 7", Higher Aspirations: Tempered and Dismantled 7" and the split 7" with The Strike.  These are the songs that first made me fall in love with Dillinger Four.  I vividly remember when my buddy Alan played me The Kids Are All Dead at Flipside records and in that second, I became a D4 fan for life.  

Particularly because of my favorite song of theirs, "Two Cents."  I can't even describe that song in anyway to do it justice.  An incredible song with a driving, attacking verse that somehow transitions into a the catchiest, bounciest, angriest chorus you've ever heard.  It's ridiculous.  And it's one of many unbelievable songs.  All of those 7" tracks are borderline perfect.  The compilation song "Holy Shit" often gets my vote for the song I wish was three times as long as it actually is.  I love these songs.

This new version has all of those songs and adds in the four from the Mutant Pop 7" and "Like Spreewells On Wheelchairs" from the Rock Against Bush compilation (which is also the song on the bonus flexi).  All welcome additions, but by my count there's at least nine more D4 tracks floating around out there from various compilations and what not.  The two tracks from the Pinhead Gunpowder split 7" being the ones that seem the most obvious.  If it's me, maybe this needs to be a double LP?  Or you do a straight reissue of the original version and then do a volume 2?  Lots of options, but the point I'm making is that my main complaint is that I want more and more and more Dillinger Four in my life.  Give me more of these old song.  And give me new songs, we sure could use them in 2026.

Dillinger Four - This Shit Is Geniuser:

https://dillingerfour.bandcamp.com/album/this-shit-is-geniuser

Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know 2xLP

90s Tapes (2023)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

You Oughta Know is another one of those albums that has been sitting in my to-write-about piles for way too long.  This came out in September of 2023.  That's almost two and a half years ago and it seems crazy that I still haven't gotten to it.  Better late than never I suppose, but this write up is not what I would call prompt.

Sons of Sam existed in the early 90s and were recording tracks during the peak of the golden era of 1993 to 1994.  They released one 12" single and that was pretty much all that was heard of them until some reissues later on.  You Oughta Know is the ultimate of this reissues as it puts out what should have been the groups debut album.  Recorded during the timeframe mentioned earlier (aside from bonus track recorded in 1996) this feels like the sort of record that would have slid nicely into a late 1994 release.

The beats are good and many of the tracks lean towards the more laid back side of the equation.  We're not yet at a full on 1995 and later snoozefest, there's enough ruggedness that propels the tracks forward with hard hitting drums.  If anything these songs are more like the jazzy mellower moments of Tribe with lots of upright bass, but with very different vocalists.  And it's not every song, you get to something like "Get It On" and the BPMs ratchet up while hitting the soul section of the crate digging and we're in the midst of a song that would have definitely been a favorite of mine if it had been released back then.

Lyrically PA-Kid and Xav both bring their A game and the result is two MCs that have that deep voiced gravitas that make their rhymes seem even more important.  Admittedly, I don't always know which one is which as they are not the type of MCs that say their own names all the time, but they are equally skilled and whoever is rapping gets the job done.  

The album recieves the usual lavish 90s Tapes treatment saving this album from the dustbins of history.  When they pull something like this out of obscurity and make it available, that's when they often do their best work.  And Sons of Sam is right up there with their best releases.

Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/ya-oughta-know

Uniflora - More Gums Than Teeth LP - Blue Vinyl

Shuga / Charm Co-op (2025)

Until I was sent this album to check out, I hadn't heard of Uniflora.  Didn't know a thing about them or what I was in for until I started this up for the first time.  My first thought being, 'well that's a very Pixies sounding bass line they're starting off with.'  Which, if you are going to try to get me interested in an album, making me think about the Pixies isn't the worst way to keep me listening.  Uniform doesn't really sound anything like the Pixies aside from those opening moments, but the bass playing stands out on pretty much every song.

I don't feel like I write about a lot of albums and focus on how much I like what the bass guitar is doing, but this is a unique album in that regard.  The songs on here are wildly different as the album progresses.  Slower, math-y ones lead into faster noisy ones lead into sort of poppy ones and every single time the bass is doing something unique and exactly what it should be doing to make the song sound interesting and stand out.  The fact that the drumming is locked in creating a super tight rhythm section only helps to accentuate that.

They lay the foundation which allows the guitar to play a different role in each of the different styled songs.  This is a band that can take chances and succeed when they try something different, which even today I think is something not many can do.  The vocals that tie everything together lean towards the monotone.  Think So Cow or Eddy Current Suppression ring.  Sometimes they work perfect for the song, other times it might be nice if there was a bit more emoting.  But musically, this is a really interesting album to listen to and I'm glad it was sent along.  If you like some post punk math Midwest type stuff, they're worth checking out.

Uniflora - More Gums Than Teeth:

https://uniflora1.bandcamp.com/album/more-gums-than-teeth