Indie Basement (6/19): Pye Corner Audio, Graham Coxon, Office Dog, and more

It’s Juneteenth Weekend in the US and as such a slow week for new releases. I’ve got four albums to review this week: Pye Corner Audio ‘s sunniest yet, a lost record from Blur guitarist Graham Coxon , the first album in 44 years from Haircut One Hundred , and the sophomore offering from NZ band Office Dog .

My Indie Basement Classic for the week is a true mid-’80s college rock staple.

Over in Notable Releases , Andrew listens to new ones from Tierra Whack, Styrofoam Winos, Warning, and Quiet Fear.

BrooklynVegan’s mid-year best of list is coming in a couple weeks but Andrew and Dave get a jump on things by recommending 10 overlooked 2026 albums on this week’s episode of BV Weekly .

On this week’s episode of BV Interviews , I talk to comedian, actor and Slipnutz/A Matter of Trust band member Jon Glaser.

Have a great weekend and the week’s reviews are below…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Pye Corner Audio / Andy Bell – More Songs About the Sun (Sonic Cathedral)

With an assist from Ride’s Andy Bell, synth wiz Martin Jenkins has crafted his most beatific Pye Corner Audio album yet

Most of the music Martin Jenkins has made as Pye Corner Audio has been as dark and mysterious as the haunted imagery on his album art. But beginning with 2022’s Let’s Emerge! , Jenkins started to let in the light, and he’s now opened the shutters wide on More Songs About the Sun . “I wanted the whole record to be awash with distortion and saturation, but not in a blown-out guitar amp kind of way,” he says. “Almost every element has been subject to some form of saturation.”

Jenkins is still conjuring trippy soundscapes with vintage synthesizers, but More Songs About the Sun is nearly pure bliss, leaving the dark side of the moon for nearly a dozen concentrated doses of Vitamin D that positively glow. He’s brought back Ride’s Andy Bell, a collaborator on Let’s Emerge! and a few other records, who contributes to four songs this time, including the album’s two brightest moments. Set to a shuffle beat, layers and layers of synths and twisty leads by Bell — think Spacemen 3’s “Big City” — make “Cycle” possibly the first full-on pop song Pye Corner Audio have ever released. Likewise, “As We Begin” feels like the outer reaches of the Madchester baggy universe, something Andrew Weatherall might’ve spun at the end of an all-night set at the Haçienda in 1990.

There are a few crepuscular moments: “The Breath of Now” is all ominous chording — with a beat right out of that first Enigma album — while author Ian Rankin gives spoken-word lyrics like “No heroes come out at night” eerie gravitas. But a few clouds make you appreciate the sun all the more, and Pye Corner Audio shine brilliantly here.

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Graham Coxon – Castle Park (Transgressive)

The Blur guitarist dusts off this “lost” solo album from the early-2010s featuring some of his poppiest songs outside of his other band

Graham Coxon hasn’t released a solo album since Blur reformed in the early 2010s, though he did score TV series The End of the F**king World and has made two very good albums with his partner Rose Elinor Dougall as The WAEVE. Castle Park doesn’t exactly end that drought, as this album is made up of songs from the same sessions as 2012’s A+E and was intended as its follow-up. (It’s being released as part of a box set featuring his previous eight solo albums.)

It would be wrong to call these 10 songs “leftovers,” as they feel very different from A+E , almost like an experiment in crafting vintage ’60s pop. Anyone who’s heard Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish knows he’s pretty good at it, and the first half of Castle Park contains some of Coxon’s hookiest, breeziest, most gulpable songs ever. “Billy Says” and “When You Find Out” are soulful mod numbers, “There’s a Little House” charms like The Kinks’ Face to Face , and “Alright” comes equipped with an irresistible whistling solo.

The back half of the album explores Pentangle/Fairport Convention-style British folk and orchestral pop. It’s definitely too good to have sat on the shelf for over a decade.

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Haircut One Hundred – Boxing the Compass (October is Orange)

These sophistipop vets release their first album since their 1982 debut

With their marimba-forward sound and fondness for off-white cable-knit sweaters, Haircut One Hundred were never taken that seriously during their short early-’80s run, which nonetheless netted them four Top 10 UK hits. Their debut album, 1982’s Pelican West , contains three of those, and the band didn’t last much longer after that, as frontman and chief songwriter Nick Heyward left the group in early 1983.

Flash forward 44 years: Haircut One Hundred are back with Heyward and most of the original lineup to finally deliver a follow-up. They haven’t messed with the formula too much, offering an album of breezy, horn-inflected funk and sparkling pop. There’s nothing here as catchy as “Love Plus One” or “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl),” but “Someone,” “Dynamite,” and “The Unloving Plum” (hey, there’s that marimba!) deliver the new wave yacht-rock sugar rush they helped pioneer.

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Office Dog – Prime Corner (Flying Nun)

The second album from this New Zealand band gets heavier and dronier

New Zealand band Office Dog’s second album was mostly written while singer-songwriter Kane Strang spent a month house-sitting and experimenting with alternate guitar tunings. You can really feel the latter, as the songs on Prime Corner , while still very melodic, come with a heavy drone and a drop-D low end that you can feel even with all the acoustic guitars. Songs like “Reins,” “Front Row Seat,” and “Homemade Canyon” have more in common with Sonic Youth and Built to Spill than The Clean or The Verlaines, but if you want to keep it Kiwi, fans of The 3Ds and The Gordons will feel right at home on Prime Corner .

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Camper Van Beethoven – Camper Van Beethoven (1986, Pitch-a-Tent)

Just relax and sing a song, like one of the many great ones from the record racks of ’80s college radio

If you look at the headline of this reviews column every week, “Classic indie and alternative” might be self-explanatory, but “college rock” may not immediately be. Well, for a good example, Camper Van Beethoven’s self-titled 1986 album is about as college rock as it gets. Formed in Southern California in 1983, CVB had one foot in punk and the other in hippie culture, with a wry sense of humor that poked fun at both. No better example of that than “Take The Skinheads Bowling” from their 1985 debut, Telephone Free Landslide Victory , that was a college radio hit and a favorite on the The Dr. Demento Show . That album is fun but a bit half-baked, full of instrumentals and covers (like Black Flag’s “Wasted”), but they came into their own a year later with this self-titled album that found Lowery’s songwriting snapping into focus, while getting a little more ambitious with the addition of experimental guitarist Eugene Chadbourne.

The album opens with what is arguably Camper Van Beethoven’s greatest song, “The Good Guys and The Bad Guys,” that is an ’80s stoner classic with its anthemic chorus of “Let’s get high with the radio on / just relax and sing a song / drive your car up on the lawn / and play your guitar.” It’s a song worthy of The Grateful Dead, who are a clear influence, but elsewhere on the album “We Saw Jerry’s Daughter” takes some loving pot-shots at Deadheads all while being a terrific jam.

What else? There’s also the very trippy “The History of Utah” that pulls inspiration from Thomas Pynchon, Hunter S. Thompson and more; guitarist Greg Lisher’s swirling, song-poem “Peace & Love,” and the Petty-eque “Shut Us Down” that closes the album. They still make room for a few globe-trotting instrumentals, and a cover of Syd-era Pink Floyd classic “Interstellar Overdrive.” (“Stairway to Heaven,” meanwhile, is an original.) Camper Van Beethoven is still all-over-the-place, but all of it’s good, and if you can find the 1988 CD that also contains the band’s Vampire Can Mating Oven EP, it’s even better. A true pillar of college rock.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives .

And check out what’s new in our shop .

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Beyond “Blue Monday”: New Order’s Best Deep Cuts

“Dreams Never End” (1981)

New Order were still underneath the shadow of Joy Division in 1981, a hard shackle to shake. Unsure how to progress after the death of Ian Curtis, both guitarist Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook sing lead on New Order's debut album, Movement , and both sound like they're trying to mimic him. "Dreams Never End," which features Hook on vocals, is musically bright and sunny, with Hook, Sumner and Gilbert's instruments swirling around Stephen Morris' insistent, danceable beat. The Cure would crib liberally from this for their 1986 single " Inbetween Days ."

“Procession” (1981)

Following their debut single, "Ceremony" (which had been played live with Joy Division), their next release was "Procession" which felt like a natural progression from Joy Division's Closer , with glacial synths washing over a frantic rhythm section and Bernard Sumner's brittle guitars. Recorded and released before Movement , "Procession" nonetheless feels past it, with Bernard Sumner coming into his own as lead vocalist. While a single, "Procession" didn't make it on to the main tracklist for 1987's Substance , but was instead relegated to the bonus disc of the CD. But it's a pivotal song in their evolution.

“Turn the Heater On” (1982 John Peel Session)

Keith Hudson's "Turn the Heater On" was Ian Curtis' favorite reggae song, says Peter Hook in his Substance memoir, saying it was where Bernard Sumner "got the got the idea for using the melodica," an instrument which would turn up in New Order songs like "Your Silent Face" and "Love Vigilantes." Barney's only playing guitar at the end, after he's stopped singing," adds Hook, only kinda joking that "That became the whole template for the band."

“The Village” (1983)

Power, Corruption & Lies is a perfect record, and none of the songs were released as singles -- "Blue Monday" was tacked onto the U.S. CD release -- so every song could theoretically fit on this list. There are moments of sadness and desolation, but there are also songs of unabashed joy. In much the same spirit as "Age of Consent," "The Village" bounces along like the first day of spring with Sumner singing "Our love is like the flowers / The rain, the sea and the hours." The mid-section instrumental -- with guitars, synthesizers and drum machines joining forces -- remains one of New Order's most magical moments.

> "The synths are incredible from 1:45 so in your face but not overpowering ... then they disappear - my whole taste in music seemed to change because of this song" - The Charlatan's Tim Burgess on "The Village" ## “Leave Me Alone” (1983) Many of New Order's most genius moments come from the interplay between Peter Hook's bass -- which is almost always played high up on the neck to where some mistake it for guitar -- and Bernard Sumner's guitar. Is there a more perfect example than on Power Corruption & Lies ' closing track? The bass hook opens the song, but it's when the chiming guitar lead enters that "Leave Me Alone" truly blooms. (Gillian Gilbert adds further, crucial, counterpoint guitar lines.) A grey-hued portrait of loneliness ("On a thousand islands in the sea / I see a thousand people just like me"), it's one of New Order's crowning achievements, fading out with two more minutes of gorgeous instrumental melancholia. ## “Thieves Like Us” (1984) This is the big concession to the "no singles" rule on this list. While "Thieves Like Us" went to #18 in the UK in 1984, it does not have the stature of "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Temptation," "Blue Monday," "Sub-Culture," "True Faith" or even LP tracks like "Age of Consent" or "Love Vigilantes." But it is one of New Order's best, most deeply emotive songs -- it's Peter Hook's favorite ( you can see his full Top 10 below ) -

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/album-reviews-pye-corner-audio-graham-coxon-office-dog-haircuit-one-hundred-camper-van-beethoven/)._