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Ggwendolyn – “pawnshop president”
Ready for an opening lyric to grab you by the lapels and shake up your sonic sensibilities? Try this on for size: “He’s a pawnshop president of breaking hearts, he’ll go hunting and fishing for your weakest parts.” Ouch. The aesthetic it conjures is niche, but the relatability of going for the slime-y choice is universal. As if symbolizing how much you give while they take, sparse few notes on a keyboard underscore the intro before blooming into full alt-pop orchestration that hovers between chipper and broody. Ggwendolyn told KCRW that, “‘pawnshop president’ is about all of the scum of the earth my friends and i have ever accidentally dated ❤️ — none of them deserved their own song so i figured it was most efficient to turn them into one nasty person and write a song [to warn] the rest of the girlies to not make the same mistakes.”
Soft Contact – “American Girl Live At The Cow Palace”
Soft Contact will bleed for their music if need be… And they have(!), including that time when a breakaway bottle made not-soft-contact with the drummer’s head while filming the video for “American Girl Live At The Cow Palace.” The San Francisco based indie band is made up of two brothers and their cousins all “raised on landfill indie” and “inspired by Gen X dad rock.” This track scratches the same itch as the golden age of 2000s elevated pop-punk (think New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack) without sounding rehashed. With slight hints of surf-rock and even slighter hints of Britpop, Soft Contact takes the sonic trends we loved growing up with and introduces them into modernity with crisp, clean production while (crucially) maintaining the classic levels of heart.
Beccs – “f00d”
“f00d” exists within a similar sonic orbit as Imogen Heap and Okay Kaya. Beccs’ vocals are gentle, yet robust over her soft production. Each note is ethereal as it drifts over instrumentation that moves like an ocean wave. The rushing nature of the track elevates the swirling emotions drenched in harmony; a tidal wave pulling you between grief and hope. And Beccs let us in on a little lore about how it all came together: “I wrote about five different B sections to this song until I stumbled upon the meandering chord progression you hear today. I also wrote this song ages ago, in 2018. It was really interesting to revisit such an old song and find a fresh spin on it that could feel viscerally so alive in my body and hands. This song is definitely an outlier on the EP and (emotionally) one I felt very sonically protective over.”
Kit Major – “Garbage Planet”
The grunge of the ‘90s seems inherently at odds with the brightness of the 2000s, but singer-songwriter Kit Major is here to bridge the gap. With one foot in doc martens and the other in sparkly go-go boots, she’s strutting. “Garbage Planet” is a feral, self-deprecating anthem that would make for a perfect theme song to a 2024 Daria reboot. “Part of why I love Garbage Planet so much,” Kit professes, “is because sonically it was created to live in the world of some of my favorite sounds. “That guitar solo never fails to make me feel so hyped.” And it hasn’t failed to make us hyped either!
Francesca Wexler – “I Remember, I Remember”
This one kicks off with a doo-wop-esque loop that seems to crackle as though you were listening to it on vinyl. This retro feel emphasizes the timelessness of navigating religion and love. Wexler fluidly alternates between gut-wrenching existentialism and descriptive details which plunge the listener into a beautifully raw moment in time — all over a stripped back, 1960s Motown-inspired bed. The evocative imagery is delivered with a soothing flow and sprinkled with inflections that confess the heartbreak, confusion, and wistfulness of this brief love affair. Suddenly, your head’s whipping out of the window of a Lexus as you barrel down the road. High school hormones tingle your skin as you hide beneath the bleachers; you can feel the cold metal touch your back as you fade into the song.