I can totally get where Flycatcher is coming from with their new single ”Sodas in the Freezer” released earlier today and you probably can too because who amongst us hasn’t thrown a soda in the freezer out of sheer indolence and impatience eager for that damn Shasta to be ice freakin’ cold in a matter of minutes but then after a bong hit or six you totally forget about it with explosive consequences and now you’ve got a big mess to clean up but soon after you think to yourself “fuhgeddaboudit, accidents will happen!” and spark up a bowl and toss another Shasta into the icebox which is roughly equivalent to playing an April Fools’ joke on yourself over and over again which just goes to show how some of us never learn. 

And in case you think I’m just talking out my orifice again rest assured the band themselves have confirmed the theory above describing the song as being about “people's tendencies to acknowledge their shortcomings and poor behavior” while exhibiting a total “inaction to fix them” and when things escalate in the lyrics from a soda left in the freezer to our protagonist carelessly leaving a gas appliance on and seeing double from the fumes then the stakes of kitchen-based disaster are raised considerably along with the song’s metaphorical resonance in terms of humanity’s endless capacity for self-sabotage.

As far as a band bio goes Flycatcher are a four-piece rock combo hailing from New Brunswick, New Jersey, three of whom have immaculately sculpted facial hair (well ok one of them has a bushy beard but still it’s neatly trimmed and shaped) and come to think of it ever since residing in Jersey City a few year back I’ve had sculpted facial hair too so go figure. On the musical side of things Flycatcher carry on in the fine tradition of immaculately sculpted extremely catchy power-pop-that-rocks made in the Tristate Area with oft-witty lyrics and a distinctly que será, será attitude as established by such legendary acts as Fountains of Wayne, The Feelies, The Smithereens, and the ripe-for-revival Cucumbers.

Or as Flycatcher’s official bio puts it their music has a “driving, angular melancholy” which is a phrase I may have to steal and use elsewhere because that’s some high quality music crit-speak and certainly applicable in this case (check the melancholy in that floating-in-space bridge section yo) and maybe even more so for their previous single “Games” (see above plus you may wanna check out the band’s 2019 full-length Songs for Strangers too) and thank goodness because let’s be real no one really enjoys flaccid, perpendicular melancholy too much even if it’s omnipresent in today’s world. And finally, for all you true musos out there, here’s how lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Greg Pease describes the genesis of “Sodas in the Freezer”: 

The idea for the song was initially conceived back in 2017 when we performed it a handful of times during that summer. However, the only aspect of the song that truly remained unchanged was the intro/outro chromatic riff. As I was looking for new song ideas I kept playing that riff over and over and eventually found additional chord progressions that complemented it much better than the original composition. I spent the following months composing the lyrics and melodies while driving to and from work in an attempt to make use of time that was otherwise going to be lost to me. 

So let’s all follow Greg’s example and stop slacking during those long work commutes and start using the time to write songs about some of the terrible dangers that face us around every corner! (Jason Lee)

Kirby Grip has released a collection of demos, "Sketches of Bliss", from the recording sessions of their 2021 album, Portrait of Bliss.

This is interesting look at the recording process and how song go from their humble beginnings to fully flushed out pieces.

This is the Alt Rock of Ryan Nolen, Joey Valdivia, Alex Kociper, John Kevin Tiongson.

photo by Nolan Zangas


The first time I heard the name Hello Mary I instantly assumed it must be the name of a Christian puppet show like the ones put on by the inimitable Tammy Faye back in the day (RIP) on her TV programs (PTL Club, The Tammy Faye Show) with the phrase “Hello, Mary!” being the first words out of the resurrected Jesus’s felt mouth after He has risen from the dead, waking with a start and one hell of a hangover, and then taking a stroll outside his tomb to see what’s up nevermind that pesky giant boulder in the way only to find Mary Magdalene and “Big Mama” Mother Mary right there outside waiting faithfully for Him to whom He speaks the aforementioned salutation.

Anyway, it’s a theory. Except in this case the reality is even better than the theory because in reality Hello Mary is a young and upcoming NYC-based-indie-alt-rock trio whose combined age is probably less than the age of Axl Rose’s oldest hair extensions and, I’ll just go ahead and say it, each one of Hello Mary’s songs to date rocks harder and more convincingly/compellingly than the entirety of Chinese Democracy.  

Take their latest single for instance released just days ago, “Stinge” backed by “Sink in,” or “Sink In” backed by “Stinge,” these things are difficult to parse in the streaming age. But anyway “Sting” comes first in the running order, a song addressed to a mercurial character who “may be the one for good” but who “leave[s] just as it gets fun” which is precisely why “they said I should run” and sometimes “they” know best and yes I realize there's an unreasonably large gap between the Bandcamp embed above and this text which I blame on the new Spotify-people owners.

Meanwhile the music of “Stinge” (definition: a person or other entity who is stingy) ably captures the emotional whiplash of the narrator’s romantic longings and loser-induced frustrations flipping back and forth between the grinding riff of the song’s intro, the jangly shoegazy float of the verses with some nice off-kilter chords, and the bridge section that sounds something like an underwater waltz. 

“Sink In” comes next which is quite possibly a song about the stark reality of the previous song fully sinking in where “it starts to drift and fall away / mostly from saying all I had to say” which I gotta say jumping straight to the fifth stage of grief in the second song is an encouraging sign of psychological health and if this is what acceptance sounds like then sign me up because this song rips starting off with a James Iha-esque alternation between a contemplative riff and head-drubbing power chords (the “sink in” part) before bursting open like an overpollenated flower full of “oohs” and “ahhs” ascending to the heavens (one of my fave musical moments of the year so far) and oh yeah there’s a guitar solo too with heavy reverb and note bending and more oohs and ahhs over some altered chords and it’s a pretty exciting ride and a pretty one too.

Across these two songs Hello Mary continue to hone their appetizing mix of heavy musical dramatics spiked with an enticing sense of play (cuz dammit these young ladies know how to write a catchy hook that’s for sure just see "Ginger" below) and a trippy psychedelia-adjacent vibe (see “Take Something” above for another example) and when you put together this mix of heavy and light and just plain weird it’s not entirely unlike (wait for it…) a bizarro Christian puppet show or a close encounter with Axl Rose’s dreads. (Jason Lee)