There was a bird Matthew Ehler had seen in his backyard before, but he’d never really stopped tolook at it. A red-headed woodpecker, a strange-looking bird. One day, it caught his attention.Ehler and his Cliffdiver bandmates had recently been to hell andback. In some ways, they’dbeen making that return trip a few times over for much of their lives. After years of more self-destructive escapes from everyone’s respective demons and traumas, Ehler started to embracethe stillness of birdwatching. “It was something to occupy my mind,” he explains. His newhobby wouldn’t just lend Cliffdiver’s sophomore album its title, but signal a spiritual overhaulrippling through the band.In the two years since their debut albumExercise Your Demons, Cliffdiver had been back outhitting the pavement, building a name for themselves in the pop-punk and emo landscape. By thetime they finished opening stints with Bowling For Soup and Less Than Jake, and an array offestival dates includingSad Summer Fest—where they played with bands like Taking BackSunday, Hot Mulligan, The Maine and more—the septet was ready to hunker down and writemore music. Riffs started arriving in January of 2023, and an album calledbirdwatchingwascompleted by March of this year. That makesit sound simple. But the journey to their secondouting was full of complex emotional reckonings.The origins of Cliffdiver go all the way back to 2017, when Ehler wanted to move past theunabashed Blink-182 worship of his previous band. Over the years,lineups shifted andexpanded, until early 2021 when the seven-piece had settled into Ehler on guitar, Joey Duffy andBriana Wright on vocals, Gilbert Erickson on guitar, Tyler Rogers on bass, Eliot Cooper ondrums, and Dony Nickles on sax. All of them veterans of Tulsa’s vibrant and interconnectedmusic scene, their collaboration kicked up steam fast—over a host of EPs, singles, andExerciseYour Demons, they went from DIY shows to headlining Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom.By the time all that happened, the members of Cliffdiver had entered their thirties. WhileExercise Your Demonsalready portrayed people aging and trying to figure themselves out, it wasstill filtered through the chaos of waning youths. The album was a frenzied party that, in turn,depicted frenzied partying throughout.birdwatchingis the work of a whole different band, analbum specifically grappling with abandoning cyclical behaviors and addictions that no longerserve you. It’s pop-punk maturing into grown-ass adult travails.WhileExercise Your Demonshad some markers of a “pandemic” album—all the bandmembers in isolation, writing alone—Duffy characterizesbirdwatchingas a “collaborativelabor of love.” Cliffdiver began piecing ideas together, then decamped to Barber Shop Studios inLake Hopatcong, New Jersey for thirty days to work with producer Brett Romnes (Hot Mulligan,Mom Jeans, Free Throw, and many others). On some level, they were freaked out: They didn’tfeel like they had all the material necessary to be ready for the sessions. This ended up being apro, not a con. “The last album, we had all these songs and this story,” Duffy explains. “This one isn’t a big narrative, but a collection of moments, and we got to fine tune it in the studio. We hadthe freedom to say ‘Le

Hailing from the upper peninsula of Michigan, TheCasperFightScene possess thetrademark loud guitars, catchy hooks, and earnest lyrics of emo with their own unique flair.Frontman Jason Swallow’s lyrics touch on past regrets and a palpable fear of stagnationwhile still holding out hope for the future and a willingness to change. From unbridled,angry, and cathartic whales on“Cadillac Death Trap”to crestfallen, meager mumbles of“Geezer”the emotions on display are diverse, direct, and vulnerable. Their earnestrecounting of uncomfortable truths and former mistakes make TheCasperFightScenehumble and lovable. Combine that with the soaring leads, epic solos, and all-around toptier shredding from guitarist Kenny Quick, and the rock solid rhythm section of drummerMichael McGaffigan and bassist Peter Hart, and you have a dangerously charismatic bandpoised to become the next Midwest emo darlings.

“Everyone you love will end up dead,” Isaiah Neal sings on “Ivy Tech,” the second track from
Leisure Hour’s upcoming The Sunny Side. It’s a matter-of-fact lyrics delivered in a matter-of-fact
way––but a second later, Grace Dudas and Raegan Gordon join in to harmonize on a booming
“whoa-oh-oh-oh” chorus. In the span of about three seconds, Leisure Hour’s whole ethos
becomes clear. The Sunny Side is the result of years of writing and recording, the culmination of
a half-decade of lineup changes; by now, Leisure Hour’s reached their final form:
bassist/vocalist Dudas, guitarist/vocalist Neal, and drummer/vocalist Gordon.
The Sunny Side, according to the band, is about “love, loss, and struggle with mental health as
a middle class individual,” and maybe it was a case of life mimicking art. The three of them
struggled to come up with enough money to record and produce these songs the way they
envisioned; they picked up extra shifts at their jobs and, in true DIY fashion, decided to throw as
many music festivals as they could to drum up enough cash to bring these songs to life, and
“the community around us rallied together to make this album happen, and for that we are
eternally grateful.”
That gratitude is the driving force behind The Sunny Side. The eleven songs that comprise the
record are built on shaky hopes and the anticipation of disappointment, but along with that
comes a teeth-gritting resilience and a hard-won appreciation for those small victories. “I can’t
forgive you,” Dudas sings at the end of “Forgiveness,” but she follows it quickly with “But I’m
trying to,” and then she repeats it over and over. Maybe she’s just trying to convince herself, but
it’s the effort that matters. Leisure Hour won’t stop looking on the sunny side anytime soon, and
they’re trying their damnedest to convince you to do the same.