Every week, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries live on 88Nine at 10 p.m. every Monday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
Meric Long just shared his debut solo record called Kablooey, and fans of The Dodos — the indie-rock band he leads — should be thrilled because the album is everything you’d expect from that project’s leader: frenetic, playful and captivating indie rock.
If you’re not familiar with The Dodos, 2008’s Visiter was a highwater mark, with the guitar-and-drum duo garnering comparisons to Animal Collective, among others. However, life happened (as it does), and it’s been almost five years since the band’s last release.
Long shared that his daughter’s toy drum set was the thing that broke him out of his lull and served as the inspiration for him to write more music. He worked on the songs for Kablooey between shifts as an in-house engineer at Tiny Telephone, John Vanderslice’s recording studio in Oakland, Calif.
“This album was really meant to be fun and not too purposeful,” Long shared. “I really just wanted to make something that was fun and allowed me to follow my more ‘amped-up kid in a candy store’ impulses.”
Find Kablooey out now on Polyvinyl Records and “A Small Act of Defiance” from Meric Long on the latest episode of What’s All This, easily accessible via the player right at the top of this page.
Best new indie music this week
- Meric Long, “A Small Act of Defiance”
- Snowy Band, “Details”
- Spiritual Cramp, “You’ve Got My Number (ft. Sharon Van Etten)”
- Joyer, “Favorite”
- The Lemonheads, “Cell Phone Blues”
- SASAMI, “Just Be Friends (ft. Soccer Mommy)”
- Cuco, “Homesick”
- Courtney Marie Andrews, “Keeper”
- Galimatias, “Far From Home (ft. Michl)”
- Bartees Strange, “Ain’t Nobody Making Me High”
- Valerie June, “Runnin’ and Searchin’”
- Crayon, “Strange People (ft. Rhye)”
- Sampha, “Cumulus / Memory”
