by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Way back in 2018, Boston’s Puppy Problems released their full length debut, the sparse yet stunning Sunday Feeling, an album overwhelmed with heart wrenching bedroom pop brilliance. Five years later, we’re still swooning about that record and Sami Martasian’s songwriting, personal and nuanced, clever and immersive. We’ve said before that Puppy Problems is among the best of the melancholic singer/songwriters, and half a decade later, we’re standing by that. Sunday Feeling is damn near perfect. While Martasian has stayed active over the years - sharing demos, playing and organizing shows, drawing fliers, album art, and tour merch, and playing in various other projects - today marks the triumphant return of Puppy Problems and the announcement of their second album, Winter In Fruitland. Due out September 22nd via Anything Bagel Records (Generifus, Joyer, 22° Halo), Martasian and co. recorded the album at Rhode Island’s Big Nice Studio, and while there’s definitely an upgrade in fidelity, the heart in the songs remains ever apparent.
“Rainbow Flag” is the album’s first single, a song about Boston’s rapid gentrification, specifically in regards to those pushing out the communities they seek to support. From the bright acoustic guitars that open the song to the slide-assisted twang, Puppy Problems are picking up where they left off, with that noticeable boost in sonic clarity, everything crystalline in presentation. At the core of “Rainbow Flag” is Martasian and Dylan Citron’s (bedbug) harmonized vocals, singing sweetly as they watch their DIY spaces change into stores and their friends pushed further out of the city. Instead of getting swept into despair over days gone by, the song ends with a beautiful statement, “I don’t want to look back until there’s nothing left to look forward to.” As per usual, Martasian delivers the line with significance in phrasing, its meaning almost shifting until the sentence’s completion. As the duo reflect on if the wealthy yuppies “want to be someone who makes it better,” they stand defiantly in the present, holding their own as the ground crumbles around them.
Speaking about “Rainbow Flag,” Martasian shared:
“Gentrification in Boston has been particularly acute in the last handful of years, as it had been in most cities. This song is about some aspects of that; friends moving away, feeling older and seeing a new group of people who can afford to live in a space that has become too expensive for many to come in with generational wealth and no understanding of the history around them. The rainbow flag is kind of a perfect symbol; all of the sudden there are so many of them in my neighborhood, yet fewer places for my actual queer community to hang out and be together. Despite all this, I want to always honor the people who have been doing great community organizing in Boston and beyond. So many people are fighting to create material change that would make living here more possible for working class people, as well as artists and organizers thinking outside the box to support each other. Check out the Allston Brighton CDC to learn more about affordable housing work here in Boston!”