The Accidentals and Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra, courtesy.

This week’s picks include hard-edged indie rock from Reignwolf, blues rock from David Rosales, throwback country from Kelsey Waldon, the Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra banding together with The Accidentals, math-rock from Standards, and Baby Got Back Talk bringing punk back to its roots.

Baby Got Back Talk, “Model Minority” — Punk music, at its core, is political. It was started by angry young people as a medium to state their grievances to the world. Eventually it became pop-punk and lost its edge, but bands like Baby Got Back Talk are bringing it back to its roots. Like their punk forebears, they’re doing their thing to say their piece. But instead of the “underground,” it’s called the DIY movement. Instead of selling records out of their van, it’s Bandcamp. And the message is about gender and race. “Model Minority” is an excellent example of why bands like this deserve your attention so even more follow.

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The Accidentals and Kaboom Collective, “Lady of the Lake” — Everything is better with an orchestra. That’s just an objective fact. In this case, The Accidentals teamed with the Kaboom Collective, a nonprofit music collective in Ohio for people ages 15 to 25, to record an album with its studio orchestra. The result proves the point. “Lady of the Lake” blends the Accidentals’ rock with the rich, room-filling orchestra sound to make magic. More bands need to follow this lead.

Standards, “Cloudberry” — In general, I’m a word guy—I’m writing this, for example. Thus, I tend to focus on lyrics in music. For that reason, with some exceptions, instrumental music doesn’t speak to me quite as easily or as much. That said, “Cloudberry” follows in the footsteps of some of those exceptions like “Walk Don’t Run” and “Miserlou” as an instrumental song that evokes strong feelings of a laidback summer day. Despite being in a different genre than either of those other songs, it still makes it impossible to dislike or stop listening to this song.

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David Rosales, “Some People” — Blues rock is, of course, amazing. Everyone likes blues rock and anyone who claims not to is wrong. But what lifts this song even higher for me is the horns. A couple weeks ago I saw Chicago and Tower of Power perform on back-to-back days, and that made me intensely nostalgic for brass in rock music. So thank you, Mr. Rosales, for scratching two aural itches at the same time.

Kelsey Waldon, “Tall & Mighty” — As I’ve said before, I am not a country music expert. Anything since Willie Nelson is strange and confusing to me. Occasionally, though, a country song comes across my virtual desk that reminds me of the good old days before I was born. “Tall & Mighty” is one of those songs, largely because the lyrics tell a story of hope and frustration that’s relatable to most anyone born in the last 40 years. And it doesn’t hurt that the voice and singing cadence of Kelsey Waldon  sound a little like Dolly.

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Reignwolf featuring Brad Wilk, “The Woods” — Without looking it up, what city would you guess Reignwolf is from? You guessed Seattle, right? Well you would be right; the grungy, fuzzy, intensely Seattle sound is authentic. Combined with the drumming of Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk, it gives the track a surprisingly hard edge that’s often missing from rock and builds on the foundation set by 2019 debut album Hear Me Out.

Danny’s Pick: I mentioned earlier that I covered Chicago and Tower of Power shows on back-to-back days, which primed me for horns in rock. But more recently I interviewed composer Don Davis about the score of “The Matrix,” which was my music study through most of college. After binging the scores to the original “Matrix” trilogy all week, I was even more primed for the Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra and friends The Accidentals, so I went with “Lady of the Lake” as my favorite of the week.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.