Cherry Bomb's 'The Pursuit Of Pleasure' is my (and will be your) favorite pop album of 2026!

Today sees the release of what is my absolute favorite pop album of the year, Cherry Bomb's The Pursuit of Pleasure. Cherry Bomb is the pop-de-plume of MisterWives singer Mandy Lee, and her creation of Cherry Bomb was driven by the desire to create a maximalist pop album with all bangers and no filler. And The Pursuit of Pleasure does just that.

On her debut, Cherry Bomb crafts pop that's both smart and visceral. Pulling from a dizzying array of influences, the album's arrangements offer a constant state of stimulation and surprise, and Lee's layered vocals will entrance you, transporting you to a technicolor-infused alternate dimension lit by disco balls and suffused with the perfect blend of Dionysian and Apollonian excess.

Cherry Bomb is a clarion call for all who want to live loudly as themselves, and want to have the times of their lives while doing so. DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS ALBUM!

You can pick up or stream Cherry Bomb's The Pursuit Of Pleasure here.

Since it ain't streaming on Bandcamp, this video of the opening track from The Pursuit Of Pleasure will have to do for those wanting a taste before clicking on any links. 

A Thursday jam from MARVELKiND to you!

The only MARVELKiND photo I could find was from Wikipedia!

MARVELKiND were always ahead of the curve. While scuzzier and dancier rock didn't really start to dominate the club scene until the mid-aughts, MARVELKiND had been getting the underground and artsy hipsters dancing for years before that. 

I somehow missed that their 2 proper albums were on Bandcamp, but I saw it on a friend's list of recent purchases this morning* and immediately shot over to snag both of them since my copies had tons of scratches due to being overplayed in DJ sets throughout the years, and my digital copies were of a bitrate only an early-aughts iPod owner with extremely limited storage would find acceptable.

If you are unfamiliar with MARVELKiND, or it's been eons since you last listened to them yourself, "Cool Off The Jets" is the track I always play to see if someone will get hooked on the group. Turn it up and try it out!

*Bandcamp sends emails of recent purchases from people you're connected to. Don't worry, I am not stalking my friend's Bandcamp profiles!

It's Bandcamp Friday! And I have been SO busy...but not too busy for Best Ex!

Photo by Alps Lifee

Between the 9-to-5, some travel, and the increased social activities in my personal life over the last couple of weeks, I have honeslty had a hard time finding any time for personal writing over the last few weeks. which means I simply didn't have time to pull together a solid Quick Spins for Third Coast Review today. Which bums me out. But I could not let a bandcamp Friday go without at least a single recommendation!

I first encountered Mariel Loveland when I saw her old band Candy Hearts play, and have followed her output ever since then. After Candy Hearts Loveland started a solo project, dubbed it Best Ex, and has continued to release solid music under that moniker.

Her latest album Good Girl sees Loveland keeping a bit of the bubbly pop-punk from her past and tempering it with more expansive arrangements with a sound that sounds more "mature" without feeling "old." 

There's a ton of new good music out there, and I promise I'll profile more of it in the coming weeks to catch y'all up with what you shouldn't be missing. But today, I think you'll have a good time listening to Best Ex's Good Girl.

Now the work begins.

When I cast my ballot yesterday morning, I had hopes Democrats would take the House, and maybe get a seat or two in the Senate, but even my wildest, most optimistic expectations didn't prepare me for the Blue Wave that crashed over the United States of America as the day went on.

I hope the Democrats who will soon be in power doesn't mistakenly view this victory as an overall endorsement of their political party when it is in fact a repudiation of everything Trump has inflicted upon this country since he re-entered office in January 2025. That means their main job is to work on reversing that damage, hold Trump's flunkies accountable, and—most importantly—focus on their services to their constituents. 

I will say this, it was refreshing to enjoy watching election results come in for once without reacting to every AP call as another brick in a an ever-building existential crisis threatening to bury our republic.

Snagging a free moment to check in...

I call this one Reflecting on Medford. Taken by me this week.

Hi there, how've you been! Been a wildly busy couple of weeks at then 9-to-5 and things show no sign of slowing down, but I do finally have enough time to catch my breath, and check in here.

So consider me checked in!

I do have many things to catch up on, but am currently putting together a couple reviews for a Quick Spins in November, and since the next Bandcamp Friday isn't until December, that means I will probably include a few albums not available on Bandcamp.

For not though, here is an album that is currently available on Bandcamp (that I will have more to say about in a week or so) for you to enjoy today. It's a short little EP, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by a) its incredibly cohesive and emotionally affecting storyline that resonates with its forthrightness (is it a mini rock opera or micro-mini rock opera?) and b) it's super catchy and quite fun!

A post with no hidden message, just a song.

Some days you listen to an album in your consideration-for-review queue and one song leaps out, gets stuck in your head, and lifts your spirit (even after a suspicious second and third play to make certain your reaction is consistent). And some days you just want to share that song with other people without any explanation beyond that this worked for me and was an unexpected surprise and I hope you hear it that way too and enjoy it.

People seem upset Apple Fest had a successful year...but isn't that the point?

Two  of our neighborhoods in Chicago, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood, had their shared annual Apple Fest this weekend. Nora and I love Apple Fest, catching the pet costume contest every year and then strolling to check out the vendors of both crafts and easy treats. Every prior year I have left disappointed by the absence of a proper apple cider donut, as vendors tend to offer fancier versions of said food. But this year, Daly's Donuts entered the chat with one of the best cinnamon-sugar covered apple cider donuts I've had in over a decade. So between the pet costumes and that discovery, Nora and I considered this year to be a success!

It appears many other feels it was too successful, as crowds packed Lincoln Avenues and traffic ground to a halt anywhere close the event. And many food vendors ran out of the most popular food items. Just like every other successful street fest. When you throw in the fact that this weekend was blessed with amazing weather, and that Apple Fest encouraged attendance through a lower entry fee than most other street tests, and none of the crowds that gathered seems that odd or alarming to me? And last time I checked, most of the complaints I hear is of under attendance at most street fests in recent years jeopardizing their existence as finance generators for a neighborhood. But I also understand that most coverage is going to steer towards easy outrage and avoid the pragmatic positives since that gets much easier engagement.

I keep waiting for the pendulum to swing back a bit as far as how online discourse runs, but until then I hope everyone reading this that feels inconvenienced by a public event tries to look at an entire situation and evaluate it before logging their complaints. 

A few stops through Chicago's (and my) musical history courtesy the Aadam Jacobs Collection.

A piece I just did on the Aadam Jacobs Collection just went up at Third Coast Review!

Most of what I write tends to come quickly, but this is a piece I actually spent quite a bit of time putting together. Ironically, what once began as a piece with no timely news hook took me so long to finish that by the time I did, there was now a new news hook to make it a timely entry in the reams of copy already written about Aadam’s collection.

This is also a pretty personal post, so I wasn’t sure if it was even working until I got some feedback from a second set of eyes—I am always open to feedback but rarely solicit it on a draft, which tells you something—but in the end I’m happy with how it turned out and hope you all enjoy reading it.

Think about the future!

Happy Mondays in their earlier days. Photo via their Bandcamp page.

In 1990 I would have been scrambling to find anything Madchester-related, following my exposure to The Stone Roses the year before, and reading the descriptions in music magazines and newspapers of other like-minded rock bands playing even heavier music over drums grounded in funkier, dance rhythms. 

So when I finally got my hands on Happy Mondays’ Hallelujah EP, my first exposure to their sound after reading thousands of words describing it, I remember being slightly underwhelmed, hoping for more of a small army of dance-able drums layered over each other (based on what I’d read). But as I played the tape it grew on me, and when I got to the final track on side B, my jaw dropped. It was as if all the original versions and remixes had been building up to “W.F.L. (Think About The Future Mix).” The dance beat felt massive to me (at the time) and the use of a sample from Tim Burton’s Batman—easily my most anticipated cinematic event of the prior year—was just an extra cherry on top.

Over 36 years later I still return to “W.F.L. (Think About The Future Mix)” and it’s always remained just as potent a hip-shaker and groove-strutter as it was the first time I heard it. 

Ready to dace in 3…2…1…

Dive into 'The Haunted Fishtank.'

You have no idea just how many times I watched this VHS tape in 1989 to try and understand a band I had totally fallen for at the time. Or how much of a massive expenditure it felt like at the time to lay out dough for a VHS tape about a band that I could only watch at home and not play on my omnipresent Walkman everywhere I went. But ultimately it felt like gaining unlimited access to Love And Rockets by having the ability to see these videos over and over again instead of hoping hoping hoping that 120 Minutes might play one of them.

Nothing to do this weekend? Consider these last minute plans!

Photo of MEGG by Sarah Rosin.

It's a pretty jam-packed weekend in Chicagoland if you're looking for under the radar music options. 

I wrote about MEGG late last year and was knocked out by her "big riffs that would've rocked the original WARPED Tour crowds, mixing of-the-moment pop-cultural references with the maturity someone in their mid-30s, creating a sound that deserves plastering teenage walls with posters off her." 

MEGG plays her first show in Illinois ever just outside of Chicago at Tivoli Bowl in Downer's Grove tonight. I have NO idea what to expect from the other 3 brands on the bill or the venue itself, but I'm diving into the unknown while I still have a chance to see MEGG perform in a teensy tiny space.

And tomorrow, we are ridiculously awash in 2 excellent local music options. Rory Lake's Boosterfest fundraiser is happening in Bucktown, and it has been a heckuva long time since I last visited Post 923, but with a bounce house and bands like The Dead On, Invisible Solids, and Discoveries of the American Scientific you can be sure I'll be making an appearance.

And across town on Saturday, Montrose Saloon continues their 2-day End Of Summer Music Fest. Both Friday and Saturday are filled with great bands, but Saturday features some personal faves including Dave Suh & The Dirty Wings, Danimal Farm, and The Bon Mots. While I Weill never understand why local bands and promoters who are all really tight keep scheduling EVERYONE playing on the same day at different venues, the Montrose show goes late into the night, so one could easily hop from Booster Fest to Montrose and experience a massive Saturday of some of Chicago's best bands. 

Oasis does finally learn to don't look back in anger.

We saw an early screening of Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger last night and we both walked out having really enjoyed the film. 

I laughed, I cried, I got chills, and I felt a greater understanding of the band dynamics that had long been more of a mystery to me.

And I was honestly surprised by how surprised both Gallaghers were by the genuine reactions to their tour all over the world, and their reactions to that. Even the Gallaghers seem to grapple with the unanswerable question of why it was these guys and those songs that conquered the world, and made Oasis into OASIS.*

The movie opens wide tomorrow! And it appears to be playing in quite a few theaters. But if you can't make it out during its run, the film will eventually come to Disney+/Hulu, however I really recommend catching it on a big screen in a theater with a kick-ass sound system if you can. 

*But isn't that the eternal mystery of popular music? I've spent decades of my life watching people try to apply formulas to decide which band will be big and worth an investment and which won't. And the truth is it all comes down to luck, timing, talent...and did I mention luck and timing?

A light Labor Day recap with some urgent suggestions for the artistically curious.

While we did not avoid all labor this long holiday weekend, our labors were richly rewarded. We managed to balance rest and recuperation with reenergizing activities and knocking a few long-staring items off various to-do lists.

A particular highlight was catching the Willem de Kooning exhibit at the Art Institute before it closes in a few weeks.* I'll be posting something on Instagram about that later this week. But if you haven't seen it yet and I've in the area, I found it a really rewarding and revealing look inside a person's work I've been so familiar with for so long, but I've never had the chance to see so much of his stuff that clearly displayed his evolution over the years, transforming what appeared to me as quantum leaps before into more logical paths of pursuit, connecting dots I had never seen before.

In other words, it's pretty frickin' good!

However the highlight of the weekend was probably our little family BBQ on Monday, and not just because of the delicious cookie cake. 

But the cookie cake certainly didn't hurt!

*I also just discovered the mammoth Paradise Lost piece by Raqib Shaw that I've seen a few times, and had anticipated spending years going through and picking apart all the teensy tiny details within, is only on temporary loan to the Art Institute and leaving in November! I don't know if it's moving elsewhere or if Shaw intends to add to the piece and then loan it out somewhere else, and there doesn't seem to be any verifiable answer to that question. The important thing is that it's leaving soon, so I need to get another few visits in, and if you haven't seen the piece at all, I strongly urge you to make immediate plans to do so.

One more sneaky suggestion, just under the wire.

I wrote up a Quick Spins that will go live in a bit went up today for Bandcamp Friday, but I was shocked at the number of albums I'd originally wanted to write up that don't come out for another couple of weeks...so I guess I'll just have to do another Quick Spins in a week or two!* But if you're the sort who's willing to take a chance on a pre-order before hearing the whole thing, and you're looking to help support a truly independent musical group, might I suggest adding Perennial's forthcoming Modernism to your consideration set?

It's non-stop, energetic fun!

*I love getting music months before it's released, but it is a sweet kind of torture to have to sit on stuff that gets you fired up from months as well. And sometime I get confused and assume something I've listened to for months must be out by now, only to discover nope; you gotta wait another couple of weeks.

Ready for a photo round-up of recent activities? Of course you are!

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Earlier in the week we used the tickets Nora's sister gifted her and checked out the Balloon Museum. I usually approach art pop-ups as being traps form Instagram influencers, however while I did capture some fun photos of our experience, the exhibits were far more rewarding when you interacted with them than  captured objects that just looked good in a photo.

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We closed out our busy week with a few excellent musical experiences at both Old Town School of Music (inspiring solo sets by Jessica Dobson and Meg Duffy) and Cobra Lounge (raucous sets by Time Thieves, The Feeders, and Fig Dish), and taking in some outdoor art (and other flora) at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

(And thanks for participating in my experiment to bring some more Instagram content over here without creating super long posts with tons of individual photos.)

Reserver charges full steam ahead on 'Reverser.'

Photo by Dan Wendt.

I popped in the advance of Reserver's debut album Reverser last week, expecting to give it a quick listen and see what they were about. Roughly 20 minutes later I was rushing to my laptop to order my own copy of it. I'm saving a slightly longer review for a future Quick Spins on Third Coast Review, but they play their album release show at Reed's tonight, and I couldn't let that go without at least a little advance buzz to try and get you out to see them.

Reserver's sound channels a bit of Pavement, a touch of The Amps, and a lot of early Dinosaur Jr. on the squalling and snaking guitar front. And on a few songs I even hear the influence of Local H on some of the band's popper excursions. But they keep things so compact that all of that fits into roughly 3 minute bursts, overstuffing your pleasure centers (for those of us who find pleasure in those sounds).

Reserver's music is so catchy, lively, and slathered with so much swinging energy that I'm incredibly eager to see how it all comes together on stage. 

Catching up with recent Third Coast Review activity—Quick Spins and 20 years of OK Go on those treadmills!

If you're looking for 8 solid new music recommendations, I did a Quick Spins last Friday covering recent releases from the Mountain Goats, Paycheque, Mermaid Island, The Format, Primitive Ring, Parts & Labor, Hit Like A Girl, and Tyler Sabbag.

And on the home front, I did a quick little piece celebrating the 20th anniversary of OK Go's Here It Goes Again" video that arguably unlocked the wider success the band still enjoys today.

Sorry I didn't post this earlier in the week!

A glitter-spangled rawkin' banger designed to elicit immediate fist-pumps, party-party partying, and plenty of "oooOOOooo"s.

Photo by CJ Simonson.

One of the reasons I listen to just about everything sent my way (on top of my own constant search for anything new that will hit me just right) is you never know when you’re gonna find a buried gem. While I was enjoying Mac Luster’s debut EP Ritual, my main impression was that it sounded like a nicely solid middle-aged take on emo with a bit of Midwestern grit.*

 

And then the EP's penultimate song “Sofia” crashed into my headphones; an ’80s pop-metal pastiche driven lyrically by a fleeting meeting at a show, and musically by a party bouncing its way through the fretboard and all over the drum kit. 

 

Give it a spin. Since it’s so different from the rest of the EP, I can’t promise it’ll make you a fan of the band, but it might. And at the very least I think it’ll make you a fan of the song, and that’s where it always starts anyway, right?

*I say “grit” but by that I do not mean it’s an irritation, but more a worn-in, welcoming authentic feel that is cozy but not soft. A style which seems to be leaking into more and more music coming out of California these days. Midwestern influence or Midwestern infiltration? Curiouser and curiouser, to me.

A quick jam from deep in the vaults of Big Angry Fish.

A few weeks ago I saw Chicago’s Big Angry Fish as they performed at their now-annual Big Angry Fish Fry at The Montrose Saloon. The band’s history stretches back to the ‘90s and when they get back onstage to play these days, their sets bounce with youthful energy instead of old man sentimentality. 

One song they played this year that I was less familiar with was “Serves You Right,” and I found myself humming its melody long after the show was over. Yet I didn’t remember hearing on any of the band’s earlier CDs, though with some in storage, I couldn’t be sure. But some poking around revealed that it probably hadn’t been on any “official”releases back in the day, but it did appear on a pay-what-you-want Bandcamp compilation members of the group put out in 2018 to clear house of some odds and ends … including “Serves You Right!” I whooped with joy at its discovery!

Give it a play and I predict you’ll be bopping along to it, same as me.

Some brief thoughts on the power of the Mountain Goats as experienced from not quite the outside but not quite the inside either.

Photo of the band at Fitzgerald's by me.

Due to my partner being a huge fan of the band, I have now seen the Mountain Goats an unusually large number of times over the past couple of years for someone who was previously a fan of the band, but in a more detached, intellectual manner. 

For someone like me it’s been both fascinating and rewarding to suss out the group’s connection to its fans on one level while experiencing the band’s rapid evolution mastering a sprawling mélange of styles that often seems like both a burst of curiosity and the increasing means to explore whatever musical corner they want to inhabit at that time.

The audience at a the Mountain Goats show is frequently passionate while remaining exceedingly polite, and I have experienced their honest conduit of shared emotions between the crowd and the band, a positive feedback loop of sorts. Of course, this is what most live music aspires to do, but there’s something in the Mountain Goats that makes that bond seem eagerly effortless and natural. And I have enjoyed being allowed to share in that communion and enjoy the energy, even if I sometimes still feel slightly detached and looking in (which is all me and a result of so many years working in, on, and/or writing about music.

We recently saw the group twice in the last week of June—at Summerfest in Milwaukee and as part of Fitzgerald’s Outdoor series—and the show at Fitzgerald’s was a particularly potent one for me: the crowd, the music, the vibes; everything was perfect. But since I posted about the band yesterday, I was hesitant to share anything from last night. But it was too good not to share SOMETHING and mark the occasion. I could have chosen one of “the hits” but I think you can find a million versions of the band playing “No Children” and “This Year” out there. (I’m sure I have shared a few of them myself.) Instead, I’m posting the super-fun Fitzgerald’s performance of “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds” from their forthcoming album ‘Days.’ It rocks, it grooves, it’s ebullient, it’s dark, and it was an early crowd pleaser in the set. I hope some of its magic remans in the video I managed to capture.

The new album is out this Friday and while I am precluded by saying anything much about it until then, I can confirm that it is filled with bangers.

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Y’know, I wrote most of this about a month ago to accompany the Reel embedded above, so I feel the need to add a little extra bonus to this post. (I mean, on one hand I still view this site as the core Tankboy resource, and while I have grown more comfortable cross-posting over the years, I still have the reflexive need to tailor each one slightly for its intended location.) Lemme see…

I’ve got it!

While I focused on the Fitzgerald’s show here, the Milwaukee Summerfest gig was a ton of fun as well, as the band focused their set to festival length due to strict time constraints. And we were treated to something special for a festival gig; a truly unexpected encore. So unexpected that when the band came back onto the stage, the soundman had already left the board. (In their defense, how could they have expected an encore, and how likely was it they were taking a bio break before having to do sound for the next act on that stage?)

The band started playing anyway. I’m still not sure if they knew the house sound wasn’t on at first, but once it became apparent the front speakers were silent, the Mountain Goats kept playing and the crowd stepped in to provide the vocals.

Here is a snippet of that experience I captured, and I can still feel the euphoric rush of the group sing-along, and the rapturous response from the crowd the moment the front speakers finally kicked in. You’ll see. 

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Glorious.