By It’s our Bandcamp Picks fo the Week, featuring pond 1000’s well studied indie rock debut DAFFODIL and saoirse dream’s emo twinged hyperpop self-titled album.
pond 1000 – DAFFODIL
Genre: Indie Rock
Favorite Tracks: “sugar cube / small cloud,” “rivulet,” “that mall was mine,” “feed the dust”
Maine’s pond 1000 have been around for a while. The group was formed in 2023 but comprises longtime individuals involved in northeast and midwest DIY indie rock scenes—Spirits Having Fun, We Are Winter’s Blue and Radiant Children, Tredici Bacci, and (New England) Patriots are some of the independent acts the members have their fingerprints on. Google searches of each provide their respective Bandcamp pages, hosting everything from spindly melodies (Spirits Having Fun) to cathedral-esque monolithic noise (We Are Winter’s Blue…). The takeaway is that this quartet have trained their musical muscles incredibly well.
Their collective strength shows in the pond 1000 debut album DAFFODIL, a set of swirling, warm guitars and trepidatious grooves. Immediately, the group means business with the unfolding two-part opener, “sugar cue / small cloud.” Running on an insistent, shuffling beat and gusts of distorted chords, that relentlessness is embellished with lead vocalist Katie McShane’s fragile voice. It’s a fantastic push-and-pull of auditory calculated chaos, evident in its unperturbed second half. The following track, “rivulet,” is impressively more so—its start-stop, near-motorik groove doesn’t let up, with McShane’s coos relieving its angst. On the quintessential indie rock gem, “that mall was mine,” the descending bass line paves the way for swampy riffage that’s later regurgitated on the subsequent cuts. Elsewhere, the impeccable closing number “feed the dust” dials back the tempo to end the album on a sombre, marching rhythm.
Every member of pond 1000 is adept at their craft. Their musical chops stack up against the best of ‘90s Dunedin sound and broader college rock, namely evoking Built to Spill’s earliest noodlings where they’d play the same chords for minutes on end. But it’s a smart strategy to get those intense grooves stuck in your head—DAFFODIL knocks that out of the park. We’re in an age where indie rock bands are popping up more than ever, so pond 1000’s accomplished edge confidently cuts through all of the clutter. Listen to DAFFODIL on Bandcamp. [Dom Lepore]
saoirse dream – S/T
Genre: Emo Pop, Indietronica, Hyperpop
Favorite Tracks: “down in flames,” “i want it all (trophy),” “bug”
Each record from Catherine Egbert, aka saoirse dream, is a step that keeps moving towards an answer being sought. Since her debut album in 2021, saoirse dream has unpacked blends of hyperpop explosions to expound upon emo-tinged emotions that come from her personal trans experience. Flipping through pages of anguish sourced from internal and external happenstance, for saoirse dream, it seems that getting older each year gets heavier and messier. But despite that thought, saoirse dream moves onwards, eventually coming close to catharsis on her self-titled record.
SAOIRSE DREAM embraces a mix of hyperpop sparkle and indie rock gusto, the latter genre lightly explored on her 2022 album, STAR★☆, now fully implemented across this 2025 effort. The organic guitars and drums are exceptionally produced and mixed to blend well with the buzzy bit synths, drum machines, and all sorts of cheeky samples. Creating a sonic palate that has a clear comparison to someone like Underscores, saoirse dream’s approach is tightly packed, with a flow that transitions precisely to the next song and snappy melodies that just go off. The sharp riffs and drum lines on “down in flames” alight as they proceed into the chorus and beyond, the gliding progressions of “i want it all (trophy)” creating a soothing atmosphere before the guitar solo rips it all to smithereens. Meanwhile, the straightforward indie rock direction of “the lich” has a hazy atmosphere that’s drenched with blissful coats of synths and distorted guitars.
Behind all those compelling moments comes saoirse dream’s personal lyricism, sketching out what has occurred over the past two years, the experiences of her adult life sharpening her confessional detail. Struggling to live and connect amidst so many of the US environments and policies that deem things unsafe and unsatisfying for trans people like her, she’s eventually pulled downwards as she tries to confront certain parts of her life. These snapshots come through the most via the slow-moving yet hammering grunge melody of ‘broad shoulders!! gold star!!’ that potently depicts her struggles trying to get out of the city as she keeps things together with her strained parents, and the shimmering acoustic progressions of “bug,” where she processes her life as a trans person, questioning so much about her own identity, feeling like she deserves all of the struggles and loneliness that she’s been experiencing for so long. It’s a heart-crumbling moment.
While optimism is present here and there, it materializes the most on the brightly polished tune of “something cool.” Despite still carrying all that stress in her life, so much of the song emphasizes the feeling of pushing through the tough times that saoirse dream is wading in. It’s the line that best represents her strength, allowing her to continue living and deftly focus on the music that gives her a much-needed solace amidst all that chaos. Check SAOIRSE DREAM out on Bandcamp. [Louis Pelingen]
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