Massage

ADD TO WANTLIST: You regret the things you didn’t do. … and not buying the first LP by the LA based, impossible-to-google masters of jangle pop Massage is one example. That record, the 2018 Oh Boy, is a must add collection piece for any self-respecting fan of underground pop music. It also is impossible to find. Oh Boy is a heartfelt and messy record filled with pop gems inspired by The Feelies, the Go-Betweens, and Twerps.

BANDCAMP DAILY “ESSENTIAL RELEASE”: “Let’s dispense with the reference points as quickly as the band does: the songs share DNA with golden-era Sarah Records and earlier groups like Stockholm Monsters, but those influences are just a starting point. Throughout Oh Boy, Massage spin twinkling guitars and soft-focus vocals into indiepop gold. … Summer is at its peak, and Oh Boy is peak summer listening: airy, winning songs that sucker-punch on first listen.”

RAVEN SINGS THE BLUES: “The debut LP from L.A.’s Massage ingests forty years of jangled history and reconfigures the pieces into hazy, radiant indie pop that touches the shores of England ’86 as often as Australia ’18. … Oh Boy is stuffed with hooks and coated in a lacquer of honeyed fuzz. The record reads like a case study in pop, stitched by studied hands and pressed crisp as linen. … They scoop up nods to The Go-Betweens, Sarah Records and Flying Nun. They pour over Feelies’ riffs like they were scripture. It’s clear that the band were having fun with the idea of sketching out songs and their joy is damn infectious. They chew on every inch of Oh Boy with the zeal of artists who are sustained by the sparkle of their songs.”

SPIN: “​​A couple months ago I came across “Oh Boy,” the warm, feathery second single by Los Angeles-based indie pop band Massage, and never really turned it off. It’s the title track from Massage’s recent album Oh Boy, a tender and unassuming record that reflects their stated interests in the Feelies and Flying Nun Records, as well as band member Alex Naidus’s experience playing in the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. But Massage are also a band of adults with other commitments, and it shows in pastoral pop music that is grounded in true-to-life detail and plaintive without feeling like a downer.”

CLASH: “​​Los Angeles five-piece Massage have a taut, wiry, but ultimately magical feel. The band’s pared back, minimalist take on jangle pop may be refined in its palette, but the songwriting remains enormously suggestive. … A concise, precise, but hopelessly endearing piece of sighing guitar pop.”

DAGGER ZINE: “They’re one of those bands that even though you can tell their influences they sound fresh and not derivative at all. The kind of band that you really hope to discover in 2018. You might think the indie pop/rock genre been played out but you’d be wrong. Smart musicians are still out there writing excellent songs that you’ll fall in love with immediately. Massage is one of them.”

EMMA’S HOUSE: “A full 12-track debut album that jangles as though their lives depended on it. Opening up with ‘Lydia’ and a riff that’s slower but as classic and catchy as the opening of ‘Pristine Christine,’ the album unfolds as a joyous mixture of crystal clear guitars, dead dry drums and alternately upbeat and halting songs. It’s not a record of fancy production details, its sound being more that of a live, all-in-one-room studio recording, which is something that makes the songs themselves and their authentic beauty and drive come to the fore. The equally soft voices of Alex Naidus and Andrew Romano sway over the tunes, supported by Gabi Ferrer’s harmonies in all the right places. Oh Boy is a very clever and distinct tribute to everything that’s ever been great about US indie – from the Lemonheads to Rocketship to Tullycraft and beyond. The album would fit on any of the iconic US indie labels (Sub Pop, K, Slumberland or Matinee). … Easily sounds a lot better and more original than most albums released this year.”