Sunday, August 02, 2026

PLRLS - Sleeping in a Dress

Sleeping in a Dress is the fourth full-length album from long-running Baltimore-based band PLRLS. And while I'm loathe to reach into my bag of cliches in just the second sentence of a review, I believe the phrase "breath of fresh air" sums up this record nicely. The world needs more music like this. This band combines creativity, quirkiness, a spirit of fun, and infectious hooks in a way that's classically new wave-ish yet genuinely contemporary. I hear elements of post-punk, power pop, punk rock, and indie rock all coming together as if the music gods had deemed it. The challenge of being inspired by later '70s/early '80s new wave yet creating music that sounds like 2026 is a formidable one, yet PLRLS pull off that very thing in impressive fashion. Each of the ten songs on Sleeping in a Dress is completely different from the others, yet there's clearly a vibe that ties it all together. If you like earworm pop songs that are kind of weird but also super endearing and sure to make you want to dance like a maniac, this album and band are for you. These folks sound like they had so much fun in both writing and recording this material. And the quality of the songs is maintained all the way to the final track. Very often, the term "post-punk" brings to mind dreary, emotionally-detached music. Well, PLRLS are the opposite of that. The moment I knew this album was special was when I tried to play it in the background while I was working and quickly found myself too distracted to work. Some music just refuses to live in the background. New wave is alive and well!

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Vista Blue - So Much Music!


I've noticed, and I am sure you have too: the sheer amount of music that's out there and available to listen to these days is vast, overwhelming, and growing exponentially. But leave it to Vista Blue to remind us that that's not necessarily a bad thing. On its new single "So Much Music!", the band reflects on this world we now live in. There really is so much music out there that no one could ever keep up with everything. We will all die without hearing hundreds of records we may have loved. You've got new bands and artists popping up every day. You've got reissues of old stuff you love and old stuff you may have never heard but would like to hear. Heck, The Glow Bots broke up in '98 while recording "Genie in the Amp," and their label just released the unmastered tracks on Bandcamp. But you know what? It's all OK! 

This song manages to poke fun at the deluge of music that's literally at our fingertips yet still frame it in an ultimately positive light. And the cover art is a tribute to all of you out there who love music too much to ever worry about there being too much of it. You can say that the worst thing about music today is that anyone can release a song. But isn't that also the best thing about music today? Aren't we better off without corporate suits dictating which music the world gets to hear? That would be like allowing one franchise to dominate Major League Baseball (oh, wait). Sure, with all the options people have for "consuming content," it's harder for bands to get anyone to listen or care. But still, you eventually find your niche and connect with your people. "So Much Music!" is a vintage Vista Blue song. It's upbeat pop-punk that mixes humor with a genuine spirit of love for music. In a way, it's like a sequel to  "Somebody's Favorite Band." You've got a lot of things going on in life and may never actually check out that new Chromadome EP. But someone out there knows every song by heart. 

On the virtual B-side, the faster, punkier "She Only Listens To Blue" is another love letter to music geekery. It's a simple concept, as it's about a girl who believes that the blue album is the only good Weezer record. I could probably start a war if I stated an opinion on this topic, so I'll just say a lot of you will have your own strong opinions one way or another. And isn't that the sort of thing that makes it so much fun to be a rock nerd? You may know someone who only listens to blue. You may be that person. But you probably don't have to travel far to find someone who is willing to die on the hill of Hurley having a couple of good songs. I like that the narrator in the song is a good sport about all of this. If two people with very different opinions about Weezer can maintain a functioning relationship, there has to be hope for this world. 

I know what you're thinking: What's Vista Blue doing releasing music on any day other than Friday? Well, you know there's so much music out there. Sundays are lighter traffic for new releases. And now you've got all week to find four minutes to listen to this gem of a single. Hey, all you bands out there putting music into the world: I salute you!

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Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin and The James Clark Institute - Split single


For the seventh time, Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin have released a digital split single that finds them swapping songs with another band or artist. If this just involved straight copies of the original songs (like you might hear at a live show), this series would have gotten stale by installment 2. But somehow Moss has turned the "Let's both cover one of each other's songs!" concept into a proper art form. I always look forward to these splits, and I'm always pleased by what I hear. Part of that is the musical diversity of the bands and artists Moss collaborates with. But an even bigger part of it is the approach.  

In this latest installment, Moss teams up with Toronto's The James Clark Institute. Moss notes that The James Clark Institute's cover of "A Donkey" (from Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin's album Now with More Rockets) is very, very different from the original. But he points out that's an entirely good thing. "That's what keeps me interested in doing this series of split singles, " he says. "The one rule is that no one does a note-for-note cover. But beyond that, there are no limits on how one goes about reinterpreting the other's song." You can really hear that no-limits philosophy coming to life on TJCI's version of "A Donkey." While the original is all fire, fury, and snarl, Clark reimagines it in his signature style of modern and slightly quirky guitar pop. It's fascinating to hear two very distinctive vocalists with extremely different styles put their stamps on the same song. Here the remake proves to be as powerful as the original but in an entirely different way. If you didn't know better, you'd think Clark wrote the song, part of which is because he made many changes to the lyrics. It would not sound out of place on any of his records. 

On their half of the split, Moss and Skin-Tight Skin cover "Bettie Page Rides A Donkey" from Clark's album Sideshow Unattraction. That's right: both songs on this release mention donkeys, which makes for a very cool connection. Moss, backed by Glenn Kowalski (from 7 Door Sedan) on lead guitar, Tom McNally on bass, and Steve Naff on drums, transforms Clark's stripped-down, melody-driven original into a deliberately paced and somewhat other-worldly glam-punk rocker. The significantly altered arrangement and Moss's cool, understated vocal delivery completely change the feel of the song. Moss and his band manage to honor the genius of Clark's original, but they don't hesitate to make it their own. This is what doing cover songs is all about! 

Out of all the split singles Moss has done since he launched this project in 2024, this particular one shows the highest degree of creative reinterpretation yet. If you appreciate someone else's song enough to want to record it yourself, you ought to appreciate it enough to want to make it your own. Both of these tracks here sound like almost completely new songs, and I love it! If you're a fan of Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, be on the lookout for another split (with TA-80) in September and a Moss solo single in October!

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