Queen City Sounds
By Tom Murphy
Published Issue 138, June 2025
Candy Chic – Suite 6
As a live band Candy Chic has an eclectic flavor, and this album reflects that mélange of Man or Astro-man?-esque psychedelic surf and post-punk infused with manic punk energy. Hearing these songs recalls late nights driving while listening to a mixtape filled with only Jon Spencer, Dead Kennedys and The Cramps before waking up the next day to write a whole set of wholesomely demented party music. Think mutant, synth-tinged New Wave buoyed by sheer exuberance and a killer rhythm section.
Dead Pioneers – PO$T AMERICAN
An album this dense with pointed social and political commentary, delivered with intense poetic flow incisively taking on topics like the brutal American colonial project and its destructive fallout since the nation’s inception, is rare. Especially when paired with charismatic vocal delivery and the kind of angular punk that sounds like it’s tearing down some outmoded foundations of the American psyche. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe frontman Gregg Deal’s vocals are practically spoken word style, as he dismantles the myths of white supremacy and the legacy of capitalism in a thrilling stream of sly invective. See more of Dead Pioneers here.
Glass Human – The Hive
The title track of Glass Human’s The Hive EP conveys a deep sense of space and blissful contemplation in its introduction before the ethereal swirls give way to more grounded and finely textured instrumentation, accented by lingering keyboard tones. It’s this well-balanced dual quality that serves as a base from which the song spirals outward into an orchestrated dissonance sonically and emotionally. The rest of the EP showcases how this band is always much more than any short sampling of its songs might suggest. Yes, there is the shoegaze-inflected art rock aspect, but also psychedelic jazz fusion underpinnings and downtempo all in the same song, without any of the tracks sticking to formulaic structures.
RAREBYRD$ – Pa$$-A-Fi$t
This is the culmination of the band’s exploration of production methods and styles serving as the perfect vehicle for its songs of love, lust, personal aspiration, radical vulnerability and charismatic bravado. The fusion of trap production, organic percussion, ambient soundscapes, synth pop melodies and soulful vocals seems to find endlessly fascinating forms that are like experiencing a living, continuous thing in the listening. It’s tempting to compare this to a great gangsta rap record for the 21st century, if that music went beyond gangsta to freaky, fun and introspective, without losing a certain earthiness that lends it a constant immediacy. Pa$$-A-Fi$t is available on vinyl here and on streaming services.
Roger, Roll – One Thread
Eric Peterson halted his indie rock project Roger, Roll 15 years ago but relaunched it this year with One Thread picking up essentially where the songwriter left off. Its five songs include a re-imagining of “Picture Perfect” from the 2010 Polaroids in Reverse EP as well as a song with that title. There is an added degree of warmth and intimacy to this iteration of the band. Its reflective songs are a blend of a type of Americana tonally illuminated with incandescent keyboard melodies, spare rhythm guitar and Peterson’s expressive and commanding vocals. Peterson spent many of the intervening years abroad and these tracks feel like he’s reconnected with a neglected part of himself, giving voice to that specific range of emotions experienced after taking stock of one’s life and rediscovering a part of your psyche that tenderly needs nurturing now.
Wave Decay – Reflections
In the realm of shoegaze-adjacent music Wave Decay stands out, and not simply because its roots seem to draw heavily on Krautrock, psychedelic and space rock. There is an attention to sonic detail and songwriting that elevates the impact of its music. The use of abrasive distortion on “Sea Glass” is glorious in its creation of a cavern of sound in which it echoes in on itself. The motorik beat of “Motel Creeps,” with its sustained fuzz tone alongside spectral keyboards and the expertly accented bass line, would be enough to keep you in the song. But the dynamic shift a third of the way through completely transforms the mood into something more dreamlike. The whole album is full of electrifyingly kinetic entrancing soundscapes worthy of any of the band’s influences.
For more see queencitysoundsandart.wordpress.com
Tom Murphy is a Denver-based music writer and science fiction/fantasy/horror creator. He is also a musician, historian and itinerant filmmaker.
Head to our Explore section to see Tom’s monthly install of Queen City Sounds.