by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Its been three long years since Susie Derkins, the recording project of Samantha Stoakes, released an EP of demos, written and recorded between their past home of Boston and their relocation to Philadelphia. While it originally started as a solo project, the band has since grown to include members of Boosegumps, DUMP HIM, and AllegrA. Together the band will release their official debut, How To Talk, a new EP due out November 13th via Musical Fanzine (DUMP HIM, Lydia Deetz). While four of the five songs first appeared on the pair of demos, they’ve never sounding quite like they do with a full band support. The quartet create super-charged pop, full of big hooks and accessible jangle in the vein of bands like Veruca Salt and maybe The Breeders are their poppiest.
Lead single “Gutless” is a song Stoakes wrote about that feeling when a good thing starts to feel weird and uncertain, causing you to second guess relationships while spending too much time in your head. Opening with a sugar-coated riff and delightful gang-vocal count it, the song is busting with power-pop fuzz and a bouncing rhythm. It’s light and breezy, even as Stoakes explores the more exhausting sides of relationships and the things not said (that probably should be). There’s plenty of thoughts on communication and the breakdown of it, as Stoakes wonders, “And is it overdramatic or overbearing to think that we had something? Am I learning what you forgot when I’m trying to talk?”