Dig ‘in: American Football, The Spatulas, Touch Girl Apple Blossom
Check out what the No Wristbands team is listening to and what’s in our show calendars this month on our latest Dig ‘in.
INCOMING
American Football - American Football (LP4) (Polyvinyl Records LP)
Here’s the thing about American Football’s emergence that I don’t think gets said enough: they were always going to be a hard band to follow up. Not because LP1 is so sacred—though it obviously is—but because the reunion albums, LP2 and LP3, were good in a way that felt almost deliberately modest. Like the band was earning back trust slowly, not ready to push too hard. I respected it. But I kept waiting for the moment where they swung for something bigger. LP4 is that moment.
This is the most ambitious American Football record since their debut, and it’s also the most emotionally exposed Mike Kinsella has ever been on record—which, given the Owen catalog, is really saying something. The album is about divorce, addiction, and the specific kind of self-reckoning that hits you in your forties when you can no longer pretend the dark stuff isn’t there. Kinsella barely raises his voice above a murmur through most of it, but the subject matter is devastating.
On “Patron Saint of Pale” he proposes playing Rock Paper Scissors instead of signing the divorce papers. On “Bad Moons”—the longest track they’ve ever recorded at eight minutes—he opens up about drinking alone in the dark in a way that sounds like he’s saying it for the first time out loud. “That’s the one where I was like, ‘Oh, fuck. My mom’s gonna listen to this,‘” he later confessed. You can hear that in the performance.
What makes LP4 work beyond the lyrics is that the band has genuinely stretched itself musically. “Man Overboard” opens the record with Steve Lamos’ jazz drumming surging into something almost shoegaze-heavy—it’s a statement of intent. “Desdemona” threads phased, wordless vocals through classic American Football guitar lines in a way that sounds like they’ve been listening to Steve Reich. The guest appearances are all well-chosen: Caithlin De Marrais of Rainer Maria on “Blood on My Blood” doesn’t feel like a cameo, she feels like she belongs there. Brendan Yates of Turnstile on “No Feeling,” recorded the day after the band casually asked him, adds a harmony that somehow makes a song about suicidal ideation feel communal rather than isolating.
I’ve been a fan long enough to remember when LP2 came out and felt like a gift we maybe didn’t deserve. LP4 feels different—it feels necessary. Like a band that has finally decided the reunion isn’t just a victory lap. For a group whose name became shorthand for an entire emotional register, that’s the best news possible. -Mark Joyner
The Spatulas - A Blue Dot (Post Present Medium LP)
Miranda Soileau-Pratt started writing songs after her mother passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2019 as a means of processing grief. She had inherited her father’s Takamine acoustic guitar after he was lost at sea performing work as a commercial fisherman when she was five years old and would begin playing rudimentary chords as an early teen.. She describes her mother as an eccentric free spirit who raised her and her older brother in a hippie community in Eugene, Oregon.
A Blue Dot is The Spatulas’ sophomore album that was recorded last year by Emily Robb at her Philadelphia Suddenly Studio. Traces of Soileau-Pratt’s grief still reside in the striking “Flowers” where she sings: “I’d kinda like to be her, to be inside her brain / I never could imagine her and I separate from this pain.” The title track that follows is a profound recollection of her challenging childhood: “I was led into the deep end of the pool / Across an ocean of delusion / Ah me, a bucket with a hole in it, and me trying to fill it / Only to feel drained for days and days.” Truly powerful stuff that’s perfectly captured by the song’s shifting tempos.
On “A Gold Cord,” Soileau-Pratt reaches for a lifeline to pull her out of peril; the jaunty instrumentation reinforces that hope runs eternal. A Blue Dot is a brave statement—in addition to the bracing lyrics, Soileau-Pratt is unbothered to present her true self, warts in all. The playing sometimes comes across as wobbly, and her voice slips out of tune in spots, but her sincerity comes thru in spades and the record’s singularity deserves to be celebrated. -Bruce Novak
Touch Girl Apple Blossom - Graceful (K / Perennial LP)
In taking their name from a lyric in Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer,” it feels fait accompli that Austin’s Touch Girl Apple Blossom is releasing their debut album on K Records. They reside comfortably amongst the label’s indie pop releases from luminaries like Heavenly, Softies and Tiger Trap.
Graceful gets off to a rousing start with “Tell”—Olivia Garner’s impassioned pleas for sticking things out are matched by the escalating backing instrumentation. “The Springtime Reminds Me Of…” follows, setting a wistful tone set against the the hope for seasonal renewal. Mid-album track, “Heart-Go” is a pop powerhouse that’s pushed across the finish line by Charles Powell’s ballistic drumming. Graceful wraps up with guitarist John Morales assuming lead vocal duties on “Big Star Shinin’.” The album’s lengthiest track provides an opportunity for TGAB to stretch out while breaking into a mid-song psychedelic jam before touching back down as the number draws to a conclusion. Given ample runway, the band delivers multiple flights of fancy that seem destined to thrill anyone who comes along for the ride. -Bruce Novak
UPCOMING
TsuShiMaMiRe at Empty Bottle - June 4, 9:0 PM
When TsuShiMaMiRe’s original drummer Mizue Masuda exited the group in 2017 after seventeen-plus years behind the kit, it might have spelled the end of the band. After all the group’s title was an amalgamation of all three of the member’s names and was created to signify a unique mixture of music distinctly defined by that specific trio. Mari Kono (vocals/guitar) and Yayoi Tsushima (bass/backing vocals) decided to press on with Maiko Takagi now filling in on drums.
Their music integrates seamlessly with Japanese pop culture—at times playful, frenetic and joy-inducing. TSMMR has cultivated a responsive US audience, jumpstarted with a 2004 SXSW appearance and bolstered by unconventional measures like performances at anime conventions and collaborating with Epic Games; the online platform creator known for inventing Fortnite. Throughout it all, TSMMR retains a fiercely DIY spirit, self-releasing their music on their own Mojor Records and continuing to tour relentlessly. -Bruce Novak
Anxiety Patrol at Cole’s Bar - June 6, 10:00 PM
Anxiety Patrol is a trio hailing from southwest suburban Blue Island that displays traces of the rhythmic-forward post-punk of the late ’70s/early ‘80s era from bands like Delta 5 and ESG. Since dropping a half dozen early demo tracks in 2023, the group has steadily progressed as evidenced by newly recorded versions of the songs “In Like a Lion,” “Sophisticated Ruin” and “Gotta Thing.” Drummer and vocalist Stacey Goldschmidt deftly navigates the divide between nonchalance and vehemence; she has plenty to get off her chest but isn’t given to knee-jerk reactions. Anxiety Patrol has been particularly active over the past year recording tracks at Conroy Studios with plans on releasing their first album soon. -Bruce Novak
Party Dozen at The Salt Shed - June 14, 7:00 PM
My initial live encounter with Sydney’s Party Dozen was the front room at The Side Bar in Austin during 2023’s SXSW. The cramped quarters necessitated being right on top of the band in order to catch a glimpse of their performance since there was no stage to elevate them above the audience. In that setting, Jonathan Boulet’s snare rolls felt like machine gun warfare and Kirsty Tickle’s sax bleats arrived like national emergency sirens. Securing opening slots this June for the Amyl and The Sniffers’ North American tour presents a completely different dynamic as the duo takes to Salt Shed’s spacious fairgrounds.
With an arsenal of effects pedals and an abundance of loop tracks, Party Dozen has always sounded larger than the sum of its parts and their unrestrained physicality gives them ownership of any size stage. While the majority of their catalog consists of improvised instrumentals, recent efforts have incorporated more of Tickle’s vocals, albeit usually presented in manipulated form. The duo’s knack for transforming raw elements into otherworldly sounds remains a thing of savage beauty! -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
Beat Happening - Jamboree (K / Sub Pop LP)
To my way of thinking, one of punk’s greatest virtues is its ability to foster outsider communities. The genre carries its most potency when it colors outside the margins of a narrowly-defined sound. One of the greatest manifestations of this tenet can be found in the Olympia, Washington trio Beat Happening.
The group consisted of vocalist Calvin Johnson, drummer Heather Lewis and guitarist Bret Lunsford—socially awkward Evergreen State College students who were marginalized by old school punks for their twee appearance and mannerisms. A year before their formation, Johnson had started K Records with the confrontational motto of “exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982.”
Jamboree, Beat Happening’s second album released in 1988, best encapsulates the group’s DIY ethos and disarming candidness. It showcases the brash primitive thrust emulated from The Cramps on the songs “Bewitched,” “Hangman” and “Crashing Through.” There’s also the unabashed romanticism found on tracks “Indian Summer” and “Cat Walk.” Lewis takes lead vocals on “In Between,” upending the typical love song narrative with existential questions on what might of transpired in the past and what the future holds for the relationship. The most vulnerable moment of the album resides on the titular track—barely a minute long, Johnson channels the inner-neurosis of Jonathan Richman when grappling with issues of identity, desire and self-control. While the members of Beat Happening had already reached their mid-twenties when Jamboree was made, the record deftly captures the joys and uncertainties of the teen experience; reinforcing Johnson’s view that the secret of rock ‘n’ roll squarely resides in the realm of the teenage spirit. -Bruce Novak
We recommend listening along over at our Spotify page. Here’s this week’s content: