The Lemon Twigs’ two previous Captured Tracks albums, A Dream Is All We Know (2024) and Everything Harmony (2023), certainly indicated something of a ground zero in their then five album career. “It was the beginning of making records that we would listen to ourselves,” says Michael D’Addario, the younger Twig brother, now aged 26. By the time of A Dream Is All We Know and the future Michael classic “My Golden Years”, The Lemon Twigs’ new era had truly begun. And now comes the third Lemon Twigs album for Captured Tracks, Look For Your Mind!, which underneath its poppy exterior contains an undercurrent of paranoia and suspicion. Opening with title track “Look For Your Mind”, a jangly Michael number, the listener is introduced to the guitar-driven harmony sound that is the centering theme of the album. Much of what was achieved on A Dream Is All We Know is here, just more laser focused. It’s classic Twigs, indebted to the golden age of guitar pop, but in no way slavish. New to this album is the inclusion of live Twigs Reza Matin (drums) and Danny Ayala (bass), as well as Eva Chambers of Tchotchke, to the rhythm section. With the brothers previously having handled everything in the studio themselves, this shows a newfound sense of freedom. “Gather Round” is one of Look For Your Mind!’s bigger productions. A Brian song with joyous orchestrations, it feels like a turn of the century campaign song. The writer is looking for an uncorrupted leader, but resolves that collective action is the only way forward. Musically it’s ornate and delightfully 1967, but the mood and sentiment is distinctly 2026. “Every time we try to write something that's completely straightforward, we can't help adding an element which comes out of left field.” explains Brian. Brian’s “Fire And Gold” starts off with a ringing power pop riff before turning everything inside out. It’s also the first song on the album to feature the powerhouse drummer Reza Matin, whom the brothers favorably compare to Big Star’s Jody Stephens, The Raspberries’ Jim Bonfanti, and The Move’s Bev Bevan. Closing side one on the vinyl record is Michael’s beautiful ballad, “Mean To Me”, with vocals The Beach Boys would be happy to have committed to wax 60 years ago, care of Michael, Brian and Danny. The closer of the second side, “Your True Enemy”, completely throws a spanner in the works. “We at first approached the song as a simple rock arrangement, but it didn’t fit the moodiness of the lyric,” states Brian. “So that's when we started to get more experimental.” The Lemon Twigs sixth studio album may at first seem like a direct continuation of the previous two, but it is also a lot more, with nods to the earlier records, a new found collective spirit, and most importantly great songwriting.

Like Pop Rocks hitting the tongue, New York’s Tchotchke is classic candy-coated rock’n’roll. Sweet on the outside but filled with surprises once properly ingested, the three-piece have been winning over audiences with their Rundgren-tinged sound and masterful harmonies since 2021. Anastasia Sanchez (vocals, drums) and Eva Chambers (bass, keys, vocals) met in the mirror of an L.A. highschool locker room in 2014—they were both fixing their bangs. A deep musical friendship was quickly formed, forged on a shared love of everything from vintage dolls to the Beach Boys, and resulting in a handful of bands together. Several years passed before fellow L.A. musician Emily Tooraen (guitar, vocals) entered Anastasia and Eva’s orbit and everything finally clicked. Tchotchke was born.  A move to the East Coast followed, and the band started working on their first album, produced by power-pop wunderkinds the Lemon Twigs in their Long Island childhood home. Tchotchke (2022) was a full-tilt rock'n'roll gem of catchy guitar riffs, powerpop piano lines and hook-heavy vocals. Tours with King Tuff, Broncho, The Gossip and The Makeup followed, and the band found themselves crossing the U.S. and Europe throughout 2023 and 2024.   With no intention of slowing down, Tchotchke found time in between the touring life to write their second LP. Entering the studio this time with songs fully arranged and demoed, the band once again enlisted the Lemon Twigs to produce—now based in a Brooklyn studio aptly dubbed “The Vegetable Attic” due to the produce warehouse located downstairs. “There’s always cabbage scattered on the street,” Eva says. The album, Playin’ Dumb, was recorded over the course of four seasons. Contending with the Lemon Twigs’ touring schedule, the trio would jump back into the studio whenever there was a chance; from sweating it out above the wilting vegetables to walking on ice with guitars and enduring days without the heat on in order to get the perfect studio sound.  The effort and intentionality paid off, as Playin’ Dumb’s 11 tracks are more sophisticated and sonically complex than their previous work, leaning heavily into the band’s love of 60’s girl groups and outsider popsters like Harry Nilsson, Dolly Mixture, and Sparks. Themes on the album also became evident as months in the studio went on. Particularly, the band says they embraced their femininity on this album, with the result being a sonic impression of girls hanging out and “yapping,” as they like to put it.  Channeling a Shangri-Las style of conversational vocals, the cast of characters that Tchotchke personifies in Playin’ Dumb also embody classic girl group traits of lovelorn winners and losers. The band thinks of these narrators as hyper-feminine caricatures of themselves, with aspects of their personalities amplified to the point of high drama.  On the guitar-driven first single “Did You Hear”, the narrator hopes she is “the one” who can change a man for the better… but eventually the hopeful fantasy just fades into contempt. The bluesy, mid-tempo “Poor Girl,” is an antonymously-named track about spoiled brats that shows off the band’s penchant for lyrics with tongue planted firmly in cheek. On the Joey Ramone-esque title track, a narrator laments behind a wall-of-sound arrangement that she keeps playing the “dim dum-dum” so that her boyfriend feels smart—even though she hates it. An original board game designed by Eva accompanies the vinyl release of Playin’ Dumb. It’s a colorful tabletop trip of girlspeak, gossip and truth or dare prompts that reflect the themes of the album, as well as the band’s personalities and style.