PLOSIVS: Yell at Cloud

I do enjoy when old men continue to make propulsive indie rock music despite both the genre and their testosterone levels being on the declining side of that hill. Even when those men have resumes that include membership in bands the likes of Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt, Pinback and a drummer who has played with like every alt and punk band you’ve ever heard of. In other words, this is veteran crew that in some circles could be considered a super-group of alt-alt rockers of the pop and post-punk variety. Though, I think the super-group moniker is too often and too easily applied when it comes to indie rock. So, let’s just call it a band made up of some dudes who were in seminal bands of the 90s that has a pretty small circle, but some branches of influence that go deep. But, again, this is rock music in 2025, which might as well be fucking jazz at this point.

Which begs the question, has rock music become jazz for the modern age? Appreciated by those who enjoy it, but mostly dismissed or ignored by the larger public. Pushed to the recesses of the streaming platforms and dumb blogs written by over-the-hill hipsters? Something we could all see coming when the “rock” stations in NYC all got converted to talk radio format almost overnight and the world couldn’t take earnestness, nor sarcasm masquerading as earnestness. And why we have to assume that this band made up of respected, but mostly overlooked, rockers titled their album Yell at Cloud. Because we’ve all become Grandpa Simpson. This music is good and important! Sure it is, grandpa. *Shakes fists and curses the cloud* This music IS good and important! And everyone has moved on to scroll their phones to watch whatever talentless nobody has interpolated 30 seconds of some old song, thrown it up on TikTok and become a Grammy winner. And, that, boys and girls, is how you sound like a bitter Gen-X asshat music snob. You’re welcome.

But what does that have to do with PLOSIVS? What I have to assume is a purposeful misspelling of the word “plosives.” Though, being a terrible speller myself, may just be… Well, misspelled. Otherwise it would be like PLSVS or something equally early-Internet cool. Remember when vowels were super-lame? Yeah, me too. Anyway, “plosives” is a real term, and this is a real band. One that feels almost Sunny Day Real Estate in its swirling cadence on opening track, “Death Kicks In.” Which was not at all what I was expecting. But I ain’t mad about it. And then comes track two, “Falls Equivalency,” which continues in that vein, but adds in some serious And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead vibes. Which is all to say that it sounds an awful lot like some late-90s alt, post-rock stuff. Kind of that more theatrical indie rock with a tinge of prog. Given the RFTC and Pinback pedigree, that makes a lot of sense. It has the more showy punkish energy of RFTC, but still maintains some of the more etherial, math-y prettiness of Pinback. Blended together, you do end up with what is a weirdly close match for a SDRE and Trail of Dead mashup, despite none of the bands’ ingredients individually sounding like PLOSIVS. This is all to say that the Internet classifying this band as “punk” is, in my book, not an accurate depiction of what’s going on. It’s entirely too melodic and Jeremy Enigk pillowy-soft in parts to really hit those punk-like notes. Shit, it could be Rush, if I knew what the heck Rush sounded like. Or Hüsker Dü! Which I always feel like I’m familiar with, but then I attempt to listen to Zen Arcade and find the production so off-putting I just quit before I get a real sense of it.

I can’t really say there’s a big market for this stuff. It’s probably too pop for the hardcore people. And too aggressive or artsy for the pop people. I find that each listen unlocks something new for me personally. I did bristle a little at the production at first, finding it a little too divorced in its reverb. But that’s a really common complaint for me. I do enjoy some spit and string noise in my music typically. Yet I can’t help but think of Radiohead when I hear this and similar bands. I know the music itself isn’t necessarily similar, but there is something in the headiness of it and the almost aversion to typical melodies that puts me in that headspace. Granted, I’m not a big Radiohead guy, but there is a musicality that feels like it and some of the aforementioned bands share a universe. It’s not straight-forward music. It’s pop without being simple and constructed in a verse-chorus-verse manner. Or, if it is, that’s not clear to me. Instead we’re served with something a bit more edgy than what is typical. Not edgy energy-wise, but expectation-wise. And any rock fan can and should appreciate that. Even from old pros who understand exactly what they’re serving up.