Elliot James Reay, courtesy Em Cole.

This week we’ve got a ’50s flashback from Elliott James Reay, a ’70s flashback from Robert Jon & the Wreck, ’90s flashbacks from Peter Landi and Blood Lemon, and some sounds without precedent from Nico Vega and Lambrini Girls.

Lambrini Girls, “Love” — While punk music now is a distinct genre with a specific sound, originally it was “whatever music you want to make, who cares.” And by that definition, this is extremely punk rock. It would take too much time to list all the influences I hear in this song alone—I mean, I will if you ask, but there’s the risk of me going full teacher-y. I will, however, give props to the vocals; labels overwhelmingly demand extremely polished pop vocals from women, and this has the sort of unique character they generally only let men have. More of that would be nice!

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Nico Vega, “I’ve Got My Soul” — I need some crowdsourced help on this one: The beat of this song, and especially the intro, reminds me of something from the late ’90s and I can’t put my finger on what. Now that everyone’s joined Bluesky (right?), hit me up there and please tell me, because it’s driving me crazy. Going to the part I do know, though: The blend of a modern beat, a horn section and soul-inspired soul vocals is incredible. Also, Michael Peña, who played Luis in “Ant-Man,” plays bass. Not as a guest. He’s been in the band from the start as the drummer. Then got famous, then got famous enough to be able to come back as a bassist in 2023. That’s secondary to the song itself but is still pretty cool. We’ve followed Nico Vega for more than a decade and we like them now as much as ever.

Blood Lemon, “Perfect Too” — I’ll warn you in advance that this description may not help much, since I never considered that it could exist, but “Perfect Too” is dark riot grrrl. Not that old-school riot grrrl wasn’t dark, but this is super heavy to the point that the early riff is practically doom metal. It does move a little toward tradition by the end, but the majority of the song has a pleasingly plodding, brutally heavy riff that the current climate for women absolutely deserves.

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Peter Landi, “Somewhere” — Every time my turn comes up for Tuesday Tracks, there’s at least one song I include out of nostalgia because I want the music I listened to in high school to have a revival, and this week that’s Peter Landi. If I heard “Somewhere” on “TRL” back in the day, I’d grab the CD at Tower Records. (Napster wasn’t a thing until I was a senior. We had to rip our own MP3s.) And I mean all that as a compliment, this is really solid alt-rock.

Robert Jon & the Wreck, “Point of View” — I think we can all agree Southern rock is great. Some of the pioneers of the genre aged into some… let’s say questionable social and political views, but the music is some of the best the United States has birthed. And this new one by Robert Jon & The Wreck (in their second appearance in this column) is some classic Southern rock, even though the band’s from the south of California. These dudes even look like they’re from 1974; I wish I could pull off keyboardist Jake Abernathie’s hair.

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Elliot James Reay, “Boy In Love” — There has been a justified cultural reassessment of Elvis Presley. He was an all-time great musician and a one-man turning point in American music, causing one of the most major and immediate shifts in the culture’s taste in the nation’s history, but he also made his name covering but not recognizing Black musicians who did the same thing he did first and better. But that doesn’t mean rockabilly isn’t a genre that desperately needs a revival. There have glimmers of it in indie rock for decades but never a full-blown adoption of the style, something like the ’90s swing revival. I want a new Buddy Holly, a new Roy Orbison. And I can say without hesitation that, given enough exposure, Elliot James Reay could be the guy.

Danny’s pick: It was a tough decision after raving about a lot of songs this week, but the honor goes to Elliott James Reay. I don’t want to overstate it but a full-blown rockabilly resurgence would probably heal the soul of America.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.