By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring lots of hands’ lo-fi headphone listen INTO A PRETTY ROOM and kerri’s smooth operating EP DON’T PANIC: THE FALL OF KERRI!
lots of hands – INTO A PRETTY ROOM
Genre: Lo-Fi Indie Rock
Favorite Tracks: “backseat 30,” “rosie,” “barnyard”
I have this compulsion I don’t often talk about. Don’t worry, it’s wholesome. When I stumble upon a fantastic song that shares its name with a close friend or loved one, I must immediately hip them to it. When the boygenius record came out, I DM’d my friend Emily a link to “Emily I’m Sorry.” I sent my friend Jeni a text about Big Thief’s “Jenni,” with the caveat that even though the title contains an extra “n” than her name, it still counts. If I were still friends with this guy I worked with at a content venue over a decade ago, I would have sent him Birthmark’s “Rodney,” even if the lyrics would make him think I had a thing for him back then. (I did.) I stopped sending songs to my friend Mary ages ago. There are just too many “Mary” songs.
Last year, I read something about this song called “rosie” by lots of hands. I don’t remember what the site, blog, or Tweet said about the band; I only saw a variation of my mother’s name, Rosemary. Rosie is what the family called her when she was little, back when she would goof off like a clown in her highchair to make her other siblings laugh. That’s what compelled me to listen. Not some description, bio, or praise, my usual points of entry, but a name. Hey, whatever weird circumstance gets the music to me, I’ll accept and embrace it. I kept “rosie” on my mind for the latter half of 2024, checking back occasionally to see if more songs might appear and eventually shuffle into a record.
Three challenging weeks into what is shaping up to be a tumultuous year, and I’ve already found an album for my Top 10 of 2025 list. INTO A PRETTY ROOM is a delightful blend of lo-fi bedroom sound collages and sweet indie rock. It evokes a longing for lazy evenings on back porches under starry skies, days spent curled up in a cozy chair flipping through yellowed pages of old books, and nights dedicated to writing hundreds of words and nothing else. There are shades of Alex G (“game of zeroes,” “backseat 30”), the vast atmosphere of Broken Social Scene’s YOU FORGOT IT IN PEOPLE (“knave,” “rosie”), instrumental soundscapes reminiscent of experiments by the Books (“fun and loving,” “into a pretty room”), and the slightest hint of early Ween in some of the more interesting vocal effect choices (“backyard,” “the rain”).
INTO A PRETTY ROOM is an interesting and unique record best heard through headphones to allow you to appreciate all the little noises, reverberations, and quiet breaths hidden deep within these tracks. It is a complete work to enjoy from start to finish; allow yourself some solo time to let its sonic vibrations ebb and flow through the space between your ears. [Jack Probst]
kerri – DON’T PANIC: THE FALL OF KERRI
Genre: Alternative R&B
Favorite Tracks: “TELEPORTER,” “STAND ON LOVE,” “FORWARD”
Kerri’s latest mixture of sleek alt-R&B and melancholic psych-pop suggests anything but the downfall that the title suggests. The Montreal-based bedroom producer instead takes great strides on DON’T PANIC: THE FALL OF KERRI, where his usual mystique is replaced with unshielded ruminations on who he is as a person today. “Over the last year as I started to see the world for the first time again, I found myself wishing I had been less afraid,” he reveals in a statement. “THE FALL OF KERRI is really a comment on shedding my past fears and embracing a messy but genuine future.” No longer burying himself in his lo-fi rolling grooves, kerri’s harmonic voice is now at the forefront, inviting listeners to hear his newfound emotional transparency.
The EP opens with the prettiest track, “TELEPORTER,” a bittersweet, lush alt-pop song with a cushiony sound palette. “STAND ON LOVE” is a spacey, drum-heavy psych-pop tune finishing with an acoustic coda and is underscored by kerri’s willingness to stay in love: “Show me how to keep your love / Show me how to save your touch.” “SO DIFFERENT NOW” is more of the same, but instead explores inward change in the presence of a special person: “And when you’re here / The way I feel so different now / The way I breathe so different now.” Closer “FORWARD” features slick guitar licks as kerri encouragingly tells himself to keep moving forward like a mantra. Given the contemplative and musical maturity he’s displayed on his latest EP, kerri certainly can keep it up. Check out his new EP over on Bandcamp. [Dom Lepore]
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