Chasing Fridays: Leaving Time, The Hellp, Slow Pulp live, and more

Ayo and welcome back to Chasing Fridays – my weekly dispatch of music criticism and gig reviews. For this edition, I reviewed a new EP from an upcoming Pittsburgh band, and then ruminated on some albums that were recommended to me in a Twitter (rip) thread I started earlier this month when I asked for people's favorite "overlooked gems" of 2024. I've found a lot of amazing stuff in that thread, so thank you to everyone who dropped something cool in the replies. I also wrote a review of a Slow Pulp gig I saw earlier this week. All of that is down below.

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James Castle - spenser ep

spenser ep, by James Castle

6 track album

James CastleBandcamp New & Notable Oct 30, 2023

James Castle are my favorite new band in Pittsburgh. I wrote a little bit about seeing them live earlier this year. The young quartet smoke every time they step onstage, with unrivaled amounts of energy pouring out of the drummer and a gorgeous cacophony of Dinosaur Jr.-y fumes billowing out of the guitars. I think there's some serious magic happening between these four guys, and if I worked for a label with money then I would've signed them instantaneously just based on their live performance. Unfortunately, their debut EP, spenser, is not demonstrative of what makes them so promising.

The outline of a great band is here: hellacious guitar noise, meaty riffs, fragments of what could be tuneful hooks if they were more fully-realized. Stylistically, James Castle flit between TAGABOW-inspired noise-gaze ("dead bugs"), Deftones-y nu-gaze ("shoe"), and straight Dino J. worship ("this house"). Those are three competing identities for a band to wield, and I don't think James Castle have put much thought into choosing which one they want to wear. They're still developing in almost every regard. The songwriting meanders (almost all of these tracks are longer than they need to be) and the homemade production is sub-par, even for a DIY band going for a purposefully lo-fi sound. These songs could've sounded so much bigger and more hard-hitting if they were mixed better, and some of the recording takes even sound a little shoddy.

My criticisms of this band come from a place of great admiration for what I believe they're capable of. This is their first release, and hopefully it's far from their last. Sadly, I don't think it's a great document for selling someone on their band who doesn't live in Pittsburgh, but if you have the opportunity to catch James Castle live, I implore you to. That's where their sound currently thrives, and if they're able to refine their songwriting chops a bit more and capture that live essence on a better recording than spenser, then I'd be sending their music to every shoegazer I know.

Abel - Dizzy Spell

This was a co-release between two of my favorite labels right now, Candlepin Records and Julia's War, who specialize in shoegaze and slowcore – and often a blend of the two. Abel are more a mix of the type of emo people used to call "soft grunge" (Citizen, Balance & Composure, etc.) and shoegaze. There're moments on Dizzy Spell that remind me of Turnover's pre-Peripheral Vision album Magnolia, and one of the album's more shoegazey cuts, "Mantra," brings to mind Pity Sex – a shoegaze band who splashed around the water's edge of emo, and sometimes went in for a full dip. With shabby, lo-fi production and gazey grunge chords like the ones that crackle in "2020 three" and "Wanna" (my favorite track), Dizzy Spell has a more current presentation than those aforementioned early 2010s bands, but the songwriting isn't what you'd typically hear on a JWAR or Candlepin release. I think it's alright. I'm not likely to return, but I was intrigued to hear a band toying with these specific sounds, and I think people who have a higher tolerance for emo than me (I've basically lost all interest in the genre) could be into this.

The Hellp - LL

I read mixed reviews of this album and wasn't sure if it'd catch me, but it did. Big time. The Hellp are lumped in with the ongoing indie-sleaze/electroclash/early 2000s NYC revival, and while I expected this to sound more like The Dare or Frost Children based on their exaggerated rockstar attitude and Y2K fashion choices, I'm pleased that it's way savvier, sweeter, and less irony-poisoned than that bullshit. The best way I can describe LL is that it goes where I wished Porter Robinson went on his newest album. It's got a post-hyperpop, "everything-including-the-kitchen-sink" approach to mushing genres — Strokes-y guitar riffs, glass-breaking Crystal Castles beats, bulbous Skrillex synths, and neon pop-punk hooks abound — yet it never buckles under the weight of its own ambition. And unlike so much of that nauseatingly saccharine Porter Robinson album, LL actually makes me believe that The Hellp are nearly as cool as their chiseled jaws and indoor sunglasses make them out to be. If music like this doesn't make you feel cool just by listening to it, then it fails on some level. This succeeds.

Ivy Sinthetic - meaningless off-screen death

This album by Seattle musician Ivy Sinthetic jitters between electronic noise-pop, breakcore, downbeat, and fifth-wave emo à la Hey, ILY. It's a little too scatterbrained to function as a cohesive body of work, but there're some really compelling moments on here, my favorite being the minute-long nugget of bitcrushed pop perfection, "yet another one of my harebrained schemes has backfired on me." Auto-tuned emo mews are propped above a chittering breakbeat that rattles like a disgruntled neighbor pounding on your back screen door. The crumpled guitars at the beginning recall a chord progression that could've been on Joyce Manor's self-titled, and Ivy Sinthetic's pitched-up bleats are the best vocal performance on the record. It sits somewhere between the most accessible Black Dresses material, Hellogoodbye, and Weatherday, and if Ivy Sinthetic made a whole album like this then it'd make my year-end list.

Leaving Time - Angel in the Sand

Leaving Time are a band from Jacksonville, FL who make grunge-gaze, and by now it's no secret what I think about that strain of shoegaze (too many bands doing it, very little innovation, yadda yadda). If you read me closely then you also know that I'll give credit where it's due for this kind of thing, and I've got to give it to Leaving Time for Angel in the Sand, which dropped earlier this month via Sunday Drive. I was ready to turn this record off after the first two songs (Whirr meets Hyperview-era Title Fight...😴), but the heavy crescendo of "Only Forever" piqued my interest, and the next track, "Wish," had enough groove to hold my attention – and then keep it with a guitar solo that sliced through the haze like scissors on napkin cloth. Leaving Time are on tour right now with Glare (one of the biggest bands in shoegaze) and seem to have a decent buzz around them. I still prefer the recent Trauma Ray album to this, but if you're a fan of this milieu of shoegaze and somehow haven't heard Leaving Time, then fill that gap immediately.

Slow Pulp @ Thunderbird Cafe

Slow Pulp want it. That's what I came away with after seeing them play Pittsburgh earlier this week. The Madison, Wisconsin, band followed a couple good-not-great releases (2019's Big Day EP, 2020's Moveys LP) with one of the best indie-rock records of 2023, Yard. On a podcast last year, I described it as being the perfect distillation of what indie-rock sounds like in the early 2020s; a little Alex G, a little Soccer Mommy, a little country, a little slowcore. Slow Pulp's music sounds right on the pulse of the now, and while that could be interpreted as a vulnerability to be swallowed up by the moment in time they typify, I think their live show says otherwise. This is a band with a vision for longevity, and, crucially, the capability to carry out that vision.

Of all the rising indie stars I saw play sold-out shows in this 350-cap venue in 2024 (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Indigo de Souza, Mannequin Pussy), Slow Pulp had the best, most elaborate production. A huge light rig flashed behind them, fog filled the stage, and spotlights were tastefully employed to either drape the band in shadow or illuminate singer Emily Massey during one of her many knockout long notes. The visuals enhanced what was already a dynamic set on the musical front, traveling from three-guitar riff-fests ("Slug," "High") and vibey head-nodders ("MUD," "Trade It") all the way down to stark ballads like "Broadview" and "Yard" – sharp changes in tempo and tone that never felt manufactured or obligatory.

Massey's voice is spectacular and she wasn't shy about using it. The band looked like they were genuinely having fun while also remaining focused on delivering a spotless performance. Slow Pulp aren't doing anything significantly different than other indie bands of their ilk. Their sound isn't revolutionary and they don't have a personality or a gimmick that's driving their popularity. Beyond having enough solid songs in their discography to construct a setlist entirely absent of dull moments, the main difference between them and their many contemporaries is that they visibly cared about putting on a show. Not just standing there and playing some songs. Slow Pulp are hungry, and they're deserving of their seat at the table.