Adding to the pile of releases I’m incredibly psyched for is L’Rain’s I Killed Your Dog, out October 13 via Mexican Summer. L’Rain had my favor starting all the way back in 2019 when I saw them twice in a week’s time, opening for both Ava Luna and Grouper respectively, putting on truly remarkable shows. Then in 2021 they evolved into “band I will stan for the rest of time” with Fatigue, a record that still sees no equal in terms of its expansiveness and originality. And going back to their live performances, seeing them open for Animal Collective in 2022 just showed me that they’re continuing to evolve, elevating their catalog that I’d already seen played live three times before then into new creations and turning into bonafide rockstars.

And rockstars they are on newest single “Pet Rock”, with some of the most alt-rock guitar and drums I’ve heard on a L’Rain project, with dissonant chords taking chunks out of the melody and a high-pitched arpeggio driving along the verses (almost sounding like a Strokes song slowed down + put in reverse) and the drummer just completely annihilating the beat with incredibly punchy hits across the entire song. Let’s not discount the bass either, which is always a strength of L’Rain’s music. Acrobatic and nimble, it provides the low end and doesn’t feel content with sitting in the background. It’s a kaleidoscoping trip that again, establishes that L’Rain are, like their Bandcamp tags indicate, not jazz, and actually rock stars. This is a rock record. Well, this is one track. Who knows what else we’re going to get.

Don’t think I didn’t notice how the end doesn’t cut off completely clean either, clearly bleeding into the next track following with lead L’Rain brain Taja Cheek laughing in the distance. That was another thing I loved about Fatigue, was that the wide net of sounds and moods across the record never felt jarring – the band found ways to smear the whole thing into one cohesive piece whether it be with samples, field recordings or other strange bits of noise. This band is the future! It’s also the present! Cmon now!

L’Rain’s I Killed Your Dog is out October 13th via Mexican Summer. Listen more + pre-order below.