Album Premiere: Ronnie Rogers—’Denim Jacket Weather’
Posted: by The Editor
Before even pressing play, there are clues in Ronnie Rogers’ Bandcamp pages as to what Denim Jacket Weather sounds like. In the credits for 2018’s Death of a Dumb Guy, bedroom pop aficionado Scotty Leitch—who records prolifically under the name Shelf Life and used to drum in Alex G—is cited as the mixer. Leitch’s music uses lo-fi sensibilities to conjure specific expressions, not out of a blasé disregard for quality. Aaron O’Neill, the songwriter behind the Ronnie Rogers moniker, has a similar approach.
But in the personnel section for Denim Jacket Weather, there’s a shout-out to O’Neill’s other band Shady Bug, a fuzz-loaded indie-punk troupe who are about to drop a record on Exploding In Sound. Many of the guitar leads and ambitious climaxes on this album are more akin to that realm than bedroom-pop, and the way the record teeters between those two branches of DIY rock is its most appealing trait. Songs like “Staying Alive” and the gospel-tinged opener “Leaning On” recall the dusky, Americana-tinged indie-rock of Silver Jews. Whereas a song like “So Bright” edges toward its shoegaze explosion in the way of Horse Jumper Of Love, but with the honey-glazed drip of Alex G’s “Hollow.“
It’s Ronnie Rogers’ second album in less than a year, and it’s got something for everyone with a taste for moonlit indie-rock. Stream all of it below:
Denim Jacket Weather is out 3/1 via It Takes Time Records.
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Eli Enis | @eli_enis
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