is my second book project, under contract with the University of Michigan Press’ Tracking Pop Series.

The book aspires to offer a flexible but helpful vocabulary for talking about the aesthetics and politics of contemporary indie bands like Soccer Mommy, Indigo De Souza, Wednesday, The Ophelias, Vagabon, SASAMI, Jay Som, and more, while also situating their music in a longer historical trajectory.

On the one hand, I am interested in understanding more about the musical sensibilities that many of these bands share, which sound to my ear deeply rooted in a 90s alternative world. On the other, I want to know how these sounds link up with, express, and help to form political and social orientations, building communities through a shared understanding of the world—even or especially in the absence of any overt political content.

An article-length portion of this work was published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, and can be found here.