Slowly, Idle Ray became a real band. It started, vaguely, loosely, sometime in 2019 as one more solo project in a long line of solo projects from Michigan musician and songwriter Fred Thomas. Fred had been playing in various bands and on stages by himself for ages, with some of his best work coming in the form of melancholic, reverb-friendly pop from groups he was in such as Saturday Looks Good to Me and Failed Flowers. At first, Idle Ray was a continuation of that sound, and a return to the dreamy medium of four track cassette as a notepad for Thomas’ short, fuzzy, and always melodic songs. After releasing a self-titled LP in 2021, Idle Ray started booking shows, with bassist Devon Clausen, guitarist/vocalist Frances Ma, and drummer Emily Roll all gradually joining in. As more touring ensued, Nick German rocked the drums at times as well.

It took a couple of years, but this shift from Idle Ray being a solitary affair to more of a collective, breathing entity is reflected in the group’s second album, Even in the Spring. The songs are still captured in rusty colors on four track tape, the performances are energetic full-band affairs. Each songwriter contributes to the album, and each sings lead on the songs they wrote. The contrast in styles and perspectives makes every song on the album just a little bit different from all the rest, with a jumpy, jangly song like the Fred-sung “Backwards” feeling miles apart from the blurry shoegazeiness of Frances’ “Halo Undefined,” or Devon’s surfy “Die at Night,” but still connected. Additionally, the album underwent many, many revisions, with recording happening in phases over the course of the last three years. Different sessions had different drummers, and along with Emily’s minimal floor tom and snare approach and Nick’s powerful full-kit explosions, Jayson Gerycz (Cloud Nothings, Monocot) lends his intuitive playing to a few songs as well.

The ten songs that make up Even in the Spring zoom by in exactly 25 minutes. Despite the band writing and recording dozens of potential songs for this album, the brevity of the final product was a very intentional decision. The album is short and sweet by design, built on energetic hooks and genuine feelings of wonder and the sometimes painful search for clarity. Like some of the best records from the bands that inspire Idle Ray’s sound — the Clean, Orange Juice, Felt, Beat Happening, Guided by Voices, and the like — the album was designed to burn fast and be played on repeat by anyone who finds themselves especially connecting with its sounds. It’s the kind of record that can come to define someone’s spring, summer, or a less formally-ordained phase. The days that represent the start of something important, or the end, or the unknowing of the in-betweens that can ultimately change us even more.

Location: Metro Detroit, MI

Website: idlerayband on Instagram

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjFoQ9EcTss

Julia Steiner writes songs, sings, and plays guitar in the Chicago indie rock band Ratboys. She’s been writing whatever pops into her head since 2006 and has no intentions of stopping.

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: ratboysband.com

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV7J0JFH5oQ 

Psychedelic pop project led by multi-instrumentalist Jennifer Baron, a founding member of Brooklyn’s The Ladybug Transistor (Merge Records, Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records), joined by a close constellation of friends and family. With instrumentation ranging from organs, synths and electric guitars, to saxophone, melodica and glockenspiel, The Garment District creates a kaleidoscopic sound combining indie pop, garage, heavy breaks, organ freak-outs, mystical Allegheny-specific lyrics, Velvets-esque jams, and evocative song titles.

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Website: thegarmentdistrictmusic.com

Music: https://tinyurl.com/38y726v9

Tambourina is a four piece dreampop/post punk band from Kalamazoo, MI, made up of brother/sister Mark Andrew Morris and April (Morris) Zimont, who started the twee pop/dreampop band, glowfriends in the early 2000’s. They are joined by Mark’s wife Holly Klutts-Morris on bass, and April’s husband, Adam Zimont on drums. The two couples are also in two respective side projects, Mark and Holly in Overly Polite Tornadoes, low fi-twee/dreampop duo, and April and Adam in Vida Eterna, a psychedelic, dreampop/shoegaze alternative act.

April and Mark are also responsible for starting the first independent shoegaze/dreampop fest in the US, Kalamashoegazer in 2007, in Kalamazoo, MI.

Location: Kalamazoo, MI

Website: Tambourinaofficial on Instagram, Tambourina on Facebook

Music: https://tambourina.bandcamp.com/track/dont-fold

When the world — and his previous band Star Tropics — crumbled in the early days of the pandemic, Chicago’s Loren Vanderbilt began rebuilding himself through song. Daydreaming to the chime of IRS-era R.E.M., Felt, The Railway Children, New Order, and 90’s staples like Ride, Pale Saints and Slowdive, he fell backwards in time through records as a means of escape. To break away from the present and embrace the nostalgia of musical eras gone by, Loren formed Humdrum — a band built around his favorite elements of dream-pop, indiepop, shoegaze, and new wave.

On his debut album, “Every Heaven”, Loren establishes himself as a talented songwriter and master of melody across 10 tracks brimming with jangly guitars and lovelorn vocals—all punctuated by the pulse of a driving beat. A deeper listen reveals a juxtaposition between the album’s carefree melodies, and its sobering truths about the life, loss, and the questions of being a queer 30-something artist. With “Every Heaven” Humdrum has presented 10 songs that speak to life’s dynamic moments. And they can’t wait for you to hear them.

Location: Chicago, IL

Websites: heyhumdrum.com + Instagram + Bluesky 

Music: https://heyhumdrum.bandcamp.com/track/come-and-get-me

Modern Cults is power pop trash pop slacker pop rock. With continuing inspiration from Sparklehorse and an added dose of just cryptic enough songwriting from the likes of Stephen Malkmus and Alex G, Modern Cults is urgent and complex but easily accessible with melodies catchier than a cold.

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: @modern_cults on Instagram

Music: https://open.spotify.com/track/56vS55zsza3iVrSumNfUNe?si=8k-n_wbJRX2LseXvYw5ZuQ

Holy Pinto is the indie-rock group led by songwriter, Aymen Saleh. It originally began in his hometown of Canterbury, England and now based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After settling here by way of touring-happenstance, the sound grew from its pop-punk origins into multi-genre-influenced indie– the songwriter tradition donning a multitude of colourful clothes.

Location: Milwaukee, WI

Website: instagram.com/holypinto

Music: https://open.spotify.com/track/2iFfJOi81lZVnBwRnR6kOv?si=505f7aa1233343ce

Nectar is an indie punk band from Champaign, IL founded by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Kamila Glowacki in 2014. Now joined by drummer Jake Mott, bassist Isabel Skidmore, and guitarist Ivan Catron, Nectar has stayed true to their punk and DIY roots and created a fully realized version of Glowacki’s quick and catchy beginnings. Their debut full-length, Knocking at the Door (Infinity Cat Recordings, 2018), introduced their energetic, melody-driven sound and earned praise from Bandcamp for songs that “would have been perfect on the soundtrack for the movie Clueless.” Their sophomore album, No Shadow (Lauren Records, 2022), continued to hone their sound — a vibrant mix of powerpop sweetness and punk grit — capturing what The A.V. Club called a “wonderfully infectious sense of breezy, distorted joy… where blissful harmonies meet pealing riffs and major-chord sweetness.”

Location: Champaign, IL

Website: https://linktr.ee/nectar_il + Instagram

Music: https://nectarnectar.bandcamp.com/track/too-much

Coming from Madison, WI, Gentle Brontosaurus is a five-piece indie-pop band who has been compared to Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, and Velocity Girl.

Location: Madison, WI

Websites: gentlebrontosaurus.com + Bandcamp + Facebook + Instagram

“Lean, scruffy power-pop for punks who want to try their hand at ballroom dancing” -Leor Galil (The Chicago Reader)

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: thefeedersband.com

Monogamy is a loud indie pop music quartet based in chicago il.

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: @monogamyband on Instagram

Music: https://youtu.be/_rqBmX-Kfn8?si=6fKdByHcflC-XowH

Emily Jane Powers plays rock and roll music with her friends. Over 20 years, her music has evolved from rough-edged bedroom pop, lushly orchestrated folk, searing guitar-forward rock, and back again.

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: https://emilyjanepowers.com

Music: https://emilyjanepowers.bandcamp.com