OKLAHOMA CITY – The distinction between summer and fall in Oklahoma seems to be getting more and more difficult to recognize each year, as temperatures hover stubbornly in the 80s and 90s well in October at least.
But with the winds finally blowing some cooler weather our way, we can roll the windows down, enjoy the merciful breeze, and let some new loping, rolling indie rock singles propel us through the shortening days.
From art-punk and driving emo to power-pop and fuzzy neo-grunge, OKC rockers old and new are turning out some songs to soundtrack all of your autumn-time leaf peeping (it’s a real thing, look it up.)
stepmom – ‘Helga Pataki’ – drops October 31st
OKC’s reigning champions of all things pink-hued and protest-minded, stepmom are finally dropping their first new single since last year’s anti-corporate concept EP “Profitpoia” exactly one year to the day since opening their immersive tie-in experience at Factory Obscura.
Halloween will see the release of “Helga Pataki,” a name that’ll be immediately recognizable to a whole generation of Nickelodeon-raised Millennials, and to that era’s lovelorn young women in particular.
For the uninitiated, the titular Helga was the patron saint of unrequited young love in “Hey Arnold!,” always hiding her obsessive romantic feelings behind a deep mask of anger and insult, and that’s exactly what stepmom mastermind Lindsey Cox is invoking in the track’s lyrics of wild-eyed, brain-breaking infatuation.
It’s a jaunty bit of oddball art-pop building to a raucous punk-y explosion in its final minute as Cox espouses not only the power and passion of an unexpected kid-like crush that we long to relive, but also the self-scaring, self-sabotaging intensity that we often forget comes along with it.
“Helga Pataki” by stepmom drops on streaming services everywhere October 31st.
terrible thieves – ‘We Could be Anything (No Sound)’
Like coming through an old, tired radio, the newest single from electrified heavy-emo rockers terrible thieves opens up thin and distant before bursting to life in full force with all the driving, focused rhythm and sparkling guitar melody that’s set them apart in the scene.
“We Could be Anything” sees the band in precision-tightened form, dialing down the chaos and fuzz of many of their peers and digging into the expansive, gnawing emptiness of grief and loneliness.
It all moves with a rolling momentum kept up by a pounding drum foundation that keeps up the pace and power even when the guitars back off to add texture beneath the verses and then barreling even harder whenever the angular lead lines rise up to channel mid-period Thrice.
Singer/lyricist Ashton Prescott stays compelling restrained throughout, imparting the sadly universal feeling of tuning out and blocking off all sound or stimulus for fear that any input will cause the emotions to flood back.
Bonus: no band has ever proven their urban Oklahoman bonafides so quickly or easily as with the line “there’s construction on the way back home.”
There always is.
“We Could be Anything (No Sound)” by terrible thieves is available on streaming services now.
Foam – ‘Bind’
If a little chaos and fuzz is what you’re after, however, Foam has you covered.
The newest addition to the Mystery Class Records roster, Foam is cranking up the grunge and taking cues from some of the best underground hard-rockers of the last couple decades, with clear nods to Failure and (in at least their third mention in this column recently) Cloakroom.
“Bind” is led by a gritty and driven – but always melodic – bassline that kicks off the track and weaves and winds in and out of the vocal, holding prominence and command through all of the song’s shifting loud-soft-loud dynamics.
Defying the usual hard-rock inclinations of obvious key-changing bridges and grandstanding solos, the Foam guys instead strip everything back for a middle section of floating distorted space before crashing back into the beefy main riff and slowly ratcheting up the fuzz textures to a breaking point.
It’s a refreshingly mature and intriguing debut single, and at less than four minutes, leaves you primed and ready for more to come.
“Bind” by Foam is available on streaming services now.
Space Camp – ‘I Feel Like a Fake’
Without a wasted second, pop-rockers Space Camp blast straight into the ear-wormingly catchy guitar melody that leads their newest single “I Feel Like a Fake.”
Pure, guitar-driven alt-rock overflowing with hooks, head-bopping backbeats, and top-of-your-voice singalong vocals, the new track serves as a showcase for everything Space Camp can do, which makes it all a fun contrast, then, for singer Kai Austin’s lyrics of imposter syndrome and feelings of adult inadequacy.
It’s feeling increasingly rare to get something that’s simultaneously fun and deeply earnest, but this well-tuned five-piece pulls it off naturally, nailing the immortal art of the pop-rock chorus, employing some compellingly stacked guitar leads, and landing into a rolling, building bridge that reconstructs the track toward its finale.
There’s nothing “throwback” or nostalgic here. It’s just straightforward, remarkably solid rock music of a kind that we’ll always need.
“I Feel Like a Fake” by Space Camp is available on streaming services now.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
