By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring charlie lomonaco’s title-says-it-all ROCK MIXTAPE FOR AWKWARD AND SAD WOLVES and talker’s vulnerable alt pop spectacular I’M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!
charlie lomonaco – ROCK MIXTAPE FOR AWKWARD AND SAD WOLVES
Genre: Noise Rock, Post-Hardcore, Slacker Rock
Favorite Tracks: “pain,” “it’s not your fault,” “tell me why”
Queens-based charlie lomonaco’s ROCK MIXTAPE FOR AWKWARD AND SAD WOLVES is exactly that: wolven minute-long catharses with abrasive guitar strings about navigating meekness, disillusionment, and heartbreak. Also acting as the guitarist for SAMSARA., lomonaco’s solo endeavors on this tape are wildly impressive. The universal struggles they explore are sure to appeal to the entire globe, or rather, the whole wolf pack.
On lomonaco’s website is their credo, proudly displayed: “one thing to expect in every release, is a forward thinking sound that will make you feel something.” Clearly, they succeed. “its not your fault” is jolting with bouncy, Shellac-inspired chords. Frenzied, DEVO-like keyboards underscore its whirlwind follow-up “stuck.” The bluntest cut for its lyrical dejection is “just a friend,” especially the opening words: “Suffocate me darling / I want to be your friend / I’ll fall on my end / Mistakes come out like webs.” Another standout is the gorgeously grungy “tell me why,” thanks to the clash between dispassionate vocal delivery and chugging guitar melody. Humor is still to be had amidst the tempestuous self-reflection—the sole cover track, “hey there delilah by plain white t’s,” is a hopeful acoustic rendition and a chance to breathe. All in all, the music employs crashing cymbals, massive kick drums, and overblown, off-kilter guitar lines to expel frustration in desperate pursuit of emotional relief. It’s safe to say that by the end of it, lomonaco has made you feel something. You can check out lomonaco’s vehement and vulnerable, hard-hitting noise rock on Bandcamp. [Dom Lepore]
talker – I’M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH
Genre: Alt Pop
Favorite Tracks: “Old Enough,” “TWENTYSOMETHING,” “Drag Your Feet”
Merry-Go-Round Magazine published our profile of Los Angeles slacker pop star talker on March 26th, 2020 with a carefully chosen (by me, more than likely) headline that read “Everything Is Bleak, but the Future for talker Is Bright.” The piece, written by the great Becca Lengel, was framed around talker’s headline show at the now-turned-over venue the Bootleg, and was largely written prior to COVID before slowly having to adjust to the mass confusion of that period.
That profile’s lede read “Celeste Taucher is just trying to get her life in order,” both a hopeful in-the-moment observation and a statement of fact that nearly four-and-a-half years later continues to act as a thesis of sorts for the themes explored throughout talker’s slick, vulnerable, and self-deprecating brand of mall pop. Layered within all the youthful insecurities is a radiant confidence, and talker’s debut album I’M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH is remarkably self-assured despite largely focusing on the well-worn anxieties of growing up. The liner notes list a few contemporary peers, specifically “female-driven punk songwriters like illuminati hotties, Speedy Ortiz, and Wet Leg,” but in its biggest and brightest moments, talker delivers music that feels more traditionally mainstream, with radio songs that, respectfully, those namechecked artists are too esoteric to nail conventionally. Instead I’m reminded at times of Alex Lahey’s I LOVE YOU LIKE A BROTHER, with Taucher giving a gauzy update to the similar themes and sounds of that record, with songs that Paramore or Avril Lavigne (or hey, Olivia Rodrigo) would’ve made proper hits out of; “Old Enough” bridges spitfire pop punk choruses with combustibly sentimental songwriting, “TWENTYSOMETHING” hopelessly opines the ires of young millennials and Zoomers, and “Drag Your Feet” is fiercely brilliant Top 40 ballading. Not every song on I’M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH is going for broke—plodding, groovy cuts like “Say My Name” or “Return To Sender” give a lot of texture to the project as a whole. But the high points of the album just reaffirm something highlighted in our profile half a decade ago: talker is a damn star in the making. Blast I’M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH loud in your car, and grab a copy over on Bandcamp. [CJ Simonson]
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