If You Like Sonic Youth, Pixies, Devo, or The Breeders...

An "If You Like [X] Then You'll Like [Y]" quick hit for your long weekend.

May 26, 2025

I think I sometimes focus too much on brand new, up-to-the-minute releases. Let’s fix that.

Today, I want to tell you about a great record from last year that didn’t burrow its way into my heart until after I had already finished writing my Best of 2024 list.

If you like noise rock, ‘90s alt-rock, grunge, nerdy power pop, or art punk, then you’ll like Grocer.

Spotify is just for easy embedding; please purchase directly from Bandcamp.

I admit I’m a little biased to local Philly bands, but there’s something really special about a record that draws in so many influences without dissolving into an incoherent mess.

The record opens with “Arts & Lit”: punchy, bass-heavy, post-punk/art-rock lunacy that sounds like an oddly effective collaboration between Pixies and Devo.

By the time you’ve hit “Packrat,” the record’s lead single (and strongest track, for my money), you might think you’re listening to a completely different band. It’s a catchy, Letters to Cleo-inspired number ready for primetime on a teen movie soundtrack.

Normally this kind of incongruity would annoy me. It can feel like sonic whiplash if done wrong, but thankfully Grocer knows how to put an album together. The flow from one song to the next lends context and sensibility to the otherwise jarring effect of going from, say, the aggressive and angular title track to the softly geeky “Mating Call.”

In fact, Bless Me is the perfect argument for continuing to listen to full albums even in a time of touch-of-a-button playlists and low attention spans.

Enjoy with my blessing.1

Gabbie