Brandy Zdan “Secretear” 2018. Tallest Man Records, translucent pink vinyl variant. Zdan was one of our favorite new-to-us acts at this year’s Mile of Music festival in Appleton a couple of weeks ago. We often base our picks on the MoM app’s filters (rock!) and then the artist description, followed by a preview of a few tracks available via streaming. Zdan’s was “brandy ZDAN (zuh-dan) is a Canadian artist & Record producer based in Nashville TN. After two JUNO nominations (Canada’s Grammy) and years on the road as a session guitarist, ZDAN carves out a rock n roll/post punk sound reminiscent of the Runaways, Bikini Kill, with some 80’s Bryan Adams thrown in the mix. She is also quickly making her name as a sought out record producer with her dark and raw sensibility, approach of serving the song, and creating a sonic palette unique to the artists she works with.” Check, check and check. We caught her set at The Bar on Friday afternoon and it was excellent! She’s an engaging performer, lots of smiles + attitude; and we’re fairly certain her touring bassist (no clue if she’s in the band full-time) performed with Gloom Girl at Mile last year. Secretear is Zdan’s first label release; she has a couple of records from 2015 that appear to be self-released and she has another LP, Falcon, from 2021. Since I haven’t heard those other releases I don’t know what her sound trajectory has been or became, but Secretear is definitely more country/Americana inspired than her performance, which was for sure more straight up guitar-forward rock. She also has an amazing voice. My top picks from the record are the rocking opener “Get To You,” the dream-pop, girl-group inspired “Run Away,” the banger “Wild Fire” and  “Night Rider” – an 80’s inspired slow-burner upon which her voice is simply angelic, bringing to mind the great Pat Benatar.

Circle Jerks “When the Shit Hits the Fan” limited edition red vinyl, Repo Man version 2025. Trust Records. Last night we saw Circle Jerks perform a full set at the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee, followed by a Q&A with Keith Morris, Repo Man writer and directer Alex Cox, and Circle Jerks’ bassist (though not when the movie and song was originally released) + Repo Man actor Zander Schloss (he played Kevin, the nerdy, acne + curly mohawk’d friend to Emilio Estevez’s Otto); this all before a screening of the full 1984 film. What an experience!!! The evening started with Alex Cox taking vocals on the song “Repo Man” (by Iggy Pop) – in the Q&A we learned that Keith refused to sing it because he thought the lyrics were stupid…and Alex knew all the words. The Keith came out and the band ripped through a full set of, like, everything like “Coup D’Etat,” “Wild in the Streets” and “When the Shit Hits the Fan.” The Q&A was hilarious – Keith let us know he hated the lounge version of “When the Shit Hits the Fan” — which appears on the b-side of this single and we got to hear all about the filming for that scene in Repo Man (it was the hottest day of the year and they spent something like 18 hours in their custom tuxes waiting for that scene to be shot), how Zander got the role (Chris Penn was the original Kevin) and got hooked up with Circle Jerks, and a bit about Alex Cox’s other past, present and future projects. The absolute highlight of pretty much the whole night was when a little boy who couldn’t have been over 8 years old and under 4 feet tall took the mic to ask, sweetly, “How did you come up with the name of the band” to Keith. The entire sold-out theatre erupted into hysterical laughing and it only got more raucous as Keith proceeded to answer the question in great detail, yet he somehow managed to keep his answer (mostly) PG. We then screened Repo Man, a movie I first saw back in ’86 on VHS (or maybe Beta), its soundtrack one of the punk staples in the 80’s. We purchased a bunch of merch, too, including the show poster (this tour is extremely limited to I think five or six dates around the Midwest), this single plus a Circle Jerks/Descendents split, a t-shirt and one of my favorite show souvenirs ever, a generic Repo Man x Circle Jerks beer coozie.

The Boojums “The Boojums” 2025. Limited edition red vinyl (and sleeve), Having Fun Records. The debut LP from Nova Scotia’s The Boojums. They’re a tight, lo-fi, hard rocking three piece power pop garage rock band and it’s my first listen/first exposure. I think we picked this up last month when we were in Toronto (I’m delighted to learn that this album was partially funded/supported by the Canadian government, Factor Canada – an arts organization from what I can gather, plus what looks like a coalition of Canadian radio broadcasters. Imagine, real public funding for the arts!). The riffs are heavy, the drums thundering and the vocals reminiscent of 80’s/90’s punk and grunge with a dash of Waits-gravel. My top track is “Garden of the Sun” which leans garage punk – the video looks like it came from a well-worn VHS tape from 1985. Also great are the dance-punk opener “Outta My Head” and angular, thrashy single “Wings of Fire.” Other tracks lean more garage pop and/or 80s rock (like Springsteen with jangle) like “Football.” Heavy indie pop, too, like on the grooving “Gravy” and “Dan’s Transmission” upon which the sole female member, bassist Sara Johnston, takes over lead vocals. If this was one of the LP’s recommended by Toronto’s excellent Sonic Boom record store clerk, she made a great pick.