by David Wilikofsky
In a world of information overload, how can you reliably discover great new music? For us, the answer is record labels. Great labels act as a stamp of quality; for the best, any album they put out is well worth your time. Labels need our support now more than ever, so if you like what you hear please head over to their site and order some music!
Looking over Exploding In Sound’s discography feels like reading a who’s who of East coast DIY over the past decade. It’s striking how many bonafide indie rocks stars have come through the label’s ranks, with alumni including Speedy Ortiz, Porches, Lvl Up, Palehound and Palm. But aside from those marquee names, there are many amazing bands represented in their back catalog who helped their local scenes thrive; I became acquainted with many of them personally while doing a stint at Shea Stadium back in 2016. Label head Dan Goldin has an ear for great music, and it shows (full disclosure: I contribute to Dan’s site Post-Trash, which is hands down one of the best music blogs operating today). The label has become a go to purveyor of the best indie rock around and amassed a discography filled with hits. You should be sure to check out their full catalog after looking through our picks, since it’s not remotely possible to capture everything great while limiting ourselves to five albums.
TRADING BASICS | PALM Palm have always straddled the line between disjointed noise and pop music. On their debut album, songs lurch forward in fits and starts, making unexpected hairpin turns at a moment’s notice. Five years later it still feels like some of the most exciting avant-rock of the past decade. They’re one of the only bands around able to turn out music this complex yet compulsively listenable. On top of everything, Palm are one of the best live acts around, well worth seeking out once COVID-19 lifts its moratorium on live music. They’ve since signed to Carpark and moved closer to the pop side of their sound, but this twisted slab of rock remains my favorite from them.
ILLUMINATE YOUR ROOM | BUENO It’s always felt like an injustice that Bueno aren’t huge. The Staten Island five piece served as a house band of sorts at Shea Stadium, which frontman Luke Chiaruttini helped manage. Musically, the band can do anything; on this album you get 90s slacker rock (“I Got Your Back”), Talking Heads-esque art rock (“Eye On The Cards”) and anthemic guitar rock (“Oh Lord I’m Confused”). It may sound like a lot on paper, but it’s all tied together with Chiaruttini’s half sung, half spoken vocals. Severely underappreciated, it’s still easily one of my favorite rock albums of the 2010s.
NAKED PARTY FOREVER | BETHLEHEM STEEL On their debut album, Bethlehem Steel start out with a roar. Opener “Alt Shells” begins as a whisper, but quickly explodes into a full fledged rock anthem. The band had been playing around Brooklyn for five years before recording and dropping this album, and it shows. They’re a force of nature live; experts at building tension and providing explosive releases (similar to the best of grunge), they were able to capture lightning in a bottle on this record.
DEATH ON MARS | MILKED One of my favorite EIS projects was their Tape Club. Every two months they’d release a new album from a lesser known act, and pretty much every tape was fire. Milked rose from the ashes of label alums Geronimo!, with most of this album written soon after that band’s dissolution. The album is the platonic ideal of an indie rock album, complete with sparkling, fuzzed out riffs and hooks for days. The band has since released another excellent album, Crawling Passed.
LUCKY LEAVES | KRILL Maybe this one is cheating a bit, but if so I’ll cheat unrepentantly. Krill were one of THE great Boston bands of the last decade, and it all started with Lucky Leaves. Although released before the band signed to EIS, the label reissued this album along with releasing their final album A Distant Fist Unclenching. In the years since their demise, Krill feel like they helped create the template for modern DIY indie rock. Frontman Jonah Furman yelps over shambolic, roaring backing tracks. The band sounds like a more spastic, scrappier and noisier Modest Mouse. This album also contains the band’s iconic theme song, “Theme for Krill”. Krill forever, indeed.
The label’s only forthcoming release is Dig Nitty’s Reverse of Mastery, out September 18. Check out lead single “Lomita” below