My Son The Doctor - Glamours

Threading the needle between 90s slacker rock and infectious 00s pop-punk, Glamours, the debut LP by Brooklyn four-piece My Son The Doctor, serves to encapsulate the often riotous, sometimes irreverent, and consistently catchy sound of an act at the forefront of the Five Boroughs’ indie rock scene.

The end result of a musical collaboration extending back nearly a decade, the songs on Glamours reflect Brian Hemmert (vox), Joel Kalow (guitar), Matt Nitzberg (bass), and John Mason’s (drums) expeditious—and at times feverish—approach to songwriting and performing. Forged in the crucible of NYC DIY (where they’ve frequently shared the stage with Big Apple peers such as Bodega, Gustaf, and Teenage Halloween), the record’s ten tracks crystalize the outfit’s white-knuckle energy as well as their nimbly reactive take on song craft, employing both anthemic and raucous qualities in equal measure—discordant, occasionally jagged riffs interweave with memorably off-kilter free association wordplay and tightly wound percussion, creating a space that’s transgressive, spirited, and delightfully weird throughout the album’s 30-minute runtime.

Sourced from an improvisational environment and written on a knife’s edge, Glamours emblematizes the project’s fast-and-loose philosophy, built on a foundation of tension and resolve; tender introspection gives way to memorable, maudlin hooks on “Drunk Kids,” meandering subway impressions shift into rowdy call-and-response on “Laurence Bigando,” and breakneck malaise transforms into untuned relief on “Pink Banana.” While steeped in inspiration from alternative heavyweights like Sonic Youth, Hop Along, Jeff Rosenstock, and Weezer, the album embodies the undiluted verve that’s come to define My Son The Doctor alone, a reverberation of sweaty, sold-out shows and the atmosphere one can only find out at the gig.

Recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium in North Carolina, engineered by Jeremy Snyder (Pure Adult, Idles, Gilla Band), and presented with artwork from Gustaf’s Lydia Gammill, Glamours presents an uncut take on New York-bred indie rock in the 2020s—one that’s never faked, non-algorithmic, and constantly in flux. – Connor Beckett McInerney