PEARLY - “Peach Fuzz” / “Hazy Blues” (Self-released)
”Pearly is the Brooklyn-based, trans-masc, psychedelic rock project of Kendall Perry (they/he).” That’s from the official press kit. With that out of the way, let’s talk about music. Perry has been working with Oliver Ignatius, the musician/producer/engineer/wizard at Holy Fang Studios, and it’s a match made in heaven. Note the words “fuzz” and “hazy,” they do a lot of the heavy lifting here. Pearly traffics in translucent psychedelia, the vocals wafting down from a cloud and the synths and guitars melting like the clocks in Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory.” Ignatius even fed the guitars through Moog synthesizers for some of these effects. Yet despite all the Frippery, songs lurk beneath. On the surface, “Peach Fuzz” sounds like a lazy, dreamy summer pop song, but the more you listen, the more you hear - Pearly’s voice wrapped in tissue paper, snippets of keyboards, a melodic sub-sonic bass line, disembodied voices, and finally, a celestial choir. Oh, and the ghost of Brian Wilson is definitely in there too; not haunting, but smiling in approval.
”Hazy Blues” pushes the psychedelic feel even further, with Oliver’s voice as pronounced as Pearly’s, their harmonies intertwined as a stiletto electric guitar slashes into the mix, and you feel like you’re trapped inside a lava lamp, big globules of pulsing sound floating past you, up and down, up and down. Listen to Pearly and you won’t need drugs to get high. This has been a community service announcement.
CHEROKEE SOCIAL - “Which Witch?” / “Eeyoko Matayle” (Streaming)
The Denver, CO-based, electro-pop duo of singer Julian Navarro and multi-instrumentalist Alex Creighton will be headlining Hoboken’s River City Festival on Saturday, September 26. The band mixes reverb-heavy electronic pop influenced by Navarro’s Cherokee heritage (although the title “Eeyoko Matayle” is not Cherokee but invented syllables for “I love you.”)
It’s a matter of public record that the City of Hoboken is paying them $10,000, although they’ll presumably be paid somewhat less the day before when they’re at Brooklyn Music Kitchen on a four-band bill with an $11 cover. I’ll spare you the lecture about respecting local bands. None of this is Cherokee Social’s fault, so let’s listen, shall we?
“Which Witch” layers pealing synths, Latin percussion, heavy bass, electric guitars, soulful backup singers, and reverb’d vocals over a lively dance beat. It’s busy but not overproduced, modern pop with a big hook and a strong bottom end.
You can feel the Cherokee influence on “Eeyoko Matayle,” with its oddly syncopated percussion and ethereal, chant-like vocals, plinked electric guitars, heavy bass, and layered synths. This one’s more an indie rock banger than a dance track - more about melody, less about the beat - with stunning interplay between Navarro’s playful, romantic lead vocal on the verses and the echoing, chanting chorus of voices behind him.
Production-wise, Cherokee Social earns high marks for creating cinematic dance-pop mixed with alternative-rock that sounds rich, varied, and exciting. The duo earns high marks in their native Denver for exciting live shows too, so the Mile Square City can look forward to a terrific set.
And we’ll see what the rest of the bill at River City Fest looks like in September.
In all honesty, the decision to spend $10,000 on an out-of-town act that doesn’t have commanding online numbers or a national profile does rankle, but let’s see what the full line-up for River City Fair looks like in September, and welcome Cherokee Social to the Mile Square City. They may not be the Bongos or Feelies, but it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.
THE UNDERBITES - “Modern Times” (I Buy Records)
NYC’s Underbites fly the pop punk flag in a city where that scene has all but died, so “Modern Times” - the third single from September’s Out of Control - arrives as a welcome jolt, mashing the fast, catchy punk of the Buzzcocks with the ripped-from-the-headlines urgency of the Clash. While the band’s last single, “The Ruling Class,” ranted against income and class inequality, “Modern Times” addresses what we all feel - the daily crush of headlines, disasters, economic uncertainty, climate change catastrophe, and political buffoonery. “I just wasn’t made for these times,” wails front man Jon Fox, and he’s not missing the past, he’s addressing the madhouse we live in today. You get verse, chorus, bridge, and a big catchy hook, guitars that churn like the Queers and a singer who reminds me a bit of the late Dave Smalley, all in 2:24. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. (Available on all streaming services August 7, 2026. Pre-order now.)
THE QUEERS - TEENAGE BOTTLEROCK - Split EP (Rad Girlfriend)
Here are two bands that, at one time in my life, were among my very favorites. I still hold them and their music very close to my heart. But sorry, guys, there hasn’t been an original idea coming out of this camp for a very long time. On this split 7-inch (made, I presume, to cash in on vinyl sales, not streaming,) the Queers cover TBR’s “Bloodbath at Burger King” but rewrite the lyrics; now it’s a funny tune about the misadventures of “Hoglog At Burger King” (Hoglog being the Queers’ current - and umpteenth - drummer.) TBR covers the Queers’ “Teenage Bonehead.” I give the Queers credit for writing new lyrics (although posting them on Bandcamp would have been nice, you really can’t make them out,) while the TBR track couldn’t be more rote or by the numbers. I love the Queers, I do; just hearing them makes me happy. And I will always have a place in my heart for Kody and TBR. But this just makes me sad.
TOM WAITS - “The Fly” (Streaming)
What’s this? A new Tom Waits single? And wait… he doesn’t sing! It’s spoken word. A long poem about Tom contemplating a house fly. Do I want to spend the next four and a half minutes listening to Tom Waits rhyme about a house fly? Damn straight I do. “No one’s had a life stranger than you / You know famine, you know war, you know danger /you were brushed from the slacks on the president’s thigh / you live for a day on a dead fish’s eye / Mobile to Yokohama / you probably know the Dalai Lama.” Tom Waits hasn’t released an album since 2011. If he wants to give us a sonnet about musca domestica, I’ll take it... and hope for some music.*
And hey, he does kind of sing at the end: “House fly, house fly, go to sleep and say good-bye. No one will weep when you die.”
*I’m told that Waits does sing on a collaboration with Massive Attack that will be released in September.
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