Recent Adds – Shoegaze and Fuzz Pop

As the year has moved along, the updates here have been fewer and further between, but I’ve still been adding great indie bands and artists to the 2021-a-Day playlist. Before the year ends, and before I get to my own year end best of list, I wanted to highlight some of the more recent additions that haven’t been reflected on the blog. This post focuses on indie rock and pop of the fuzzier inclination – dreampop, shoegaze and in-between and around.

Fuzzed Out Pop from Australia

Bridge Dog describe themselves as “a Sydney-based two piece, combining the fuzz rock aesthetics of Pinkerton-era Weezer, with the meandering indie pop melodies of Belle and Sebastian”. They have a few releases on their Bandcamp Page. The track added to the 2021-A-Day playlist, Smoking Season, was a single from earlier this year. You may also want to check out their most recent release, an EP released December 3rd called Going South.

Shoegaze from Poland

Heathermint are a young duo from Głogów, Poland. Lots of shoegaze effects with a melancholic sensibility. This track Hue Melt was included in their July release, Flority.

Thoughtful Indie from Madrid

From an EP released in the summer, Wthhyb is a great example of the sound from Madrid based kkvtz: “Through a mix of melancholic harmonies and joyous riffs, with catchy melodies and a lot of reverb, kkvtz creates a sound that taps into the best of genres such as alternative, retrowave, shoegaze, or dreampop, all of it resulting in their own unique sound. “

AIKO EL GRUPO | Amigos para nunca (confía y te la lían)

Peppy rock with with an angsty twist from Madrid, Spain.

Since starting in on this blog project this year, I reconnected with Spanish label Elefant Records, one that I hadn’t thought about since a fortunate trip to Madrid more than a decade ago. The prolific indie label has been sharing great Spanish language and international pop since the 1990s and seem to be a big part of the current exciting and expansive Spanish indie pop scene. (As of today their website is down due to a major fire at a data site in France, so you may have to check them out through other sources).

Aiko el Groupo are a young four-piece who write punchy poppy songs for shouting and dancing. Their first full-length Va Totalmente En Serio was released in December and this track comes from it.

Label mates with previous 2021-a-Day playlist band Lisasinson and sharing shouty good vibes All Girls Arson Club and Tough Age. If you liked those tracks, you’ll definitely want to check out Aiko el Groupo via the 2021-a-Day playlist, the bandcamp link above or enjoy this Lord of the Flies meets Wes Anderson video for Amigos para nunca (confía y te la lían)…

Marcos y Molduras | La de Parks

Madrid 2-piece pop band Marcos y Molduras seem to have more single releases than English language reviews, so while I can share this charming pop track La de Parks here today, I have surprisingly little to tell you about them.

The album this track comes from, Te Espero en Casa was released in April 2020 on Discos de Kirlian a Barcelona indie label of A.O.P. (Adult Oriented Pop) that seems to have started around 2011. The songs on Te Espero en Casa move comfortably between quiet slow tracks and this more upbeat pop, but all have the same stripped down, DIY sound. The album appears to be the first full-length from the band who have a number of singles on their bandcamp page.

A nice bit of poppy-international-mystery added to the 2021 a day Spotify Playlist to round out your work week.

Lisasinson | Canción Para Mi Crush

Spanish 4-piece Lisasinson bill themselves as “punky pop” and that feels about right: a little too much edge to be considered pure pop, but slightly too melodic to be called punk straight-out. It’s a mix that works and has been gaining this young band attention in Spain and abroad.

From their label Elefant Records: “LISASINSON is a graphic and musical project that started in November 2018 at the Fine Arts campus in Valencia, with Miriam (vocals and guitar), Mar (vocals and guitar) and María (drums and backing vocals), later Roser would join (bass and chorus). They quickly found their identity: punk drum lines, pop guitar melodies, brazen lyrics…”

The band’s output to this point has been a number of singles and mini-EPs: 6 songs in total.This track, Canción Para Mi Crush (Song for my Crush), has a nice mix of energies, starting mellow but building in intensity and volume and cycling through that pattern. Rumours of an album coming this summer – the perfect season for punky pop!