The words “instant nostalgia” are sung in a Beach Boys’ waterfall of golden vocals on the song of the same name off of 2nd Grade’s latest album, Scheduled Explosions. While Peter Gill, the indie mastermind behind the Philadelphia band, is steeped in the old greats like Otis Reading (“Like Otis Reading”) and The Troggs (“Like a Wild Thing”), there is a sense of creative irony and modern distrust to his songs, that Brian Wilson would never risk or perhaps even consider, resulting in songs on this album with titles like “Jingle Jangle Nuclear Meltdown” and “Fashion Disease.”

Like a marriage of Teenage Fan Club and Guided By Voices, it is a twenty three track album, with most of the songs between the one and two minute mark. But they are jam-packed full with adventurous guitars and melodies and playful but often ominous poetry. “Come squeeze another hit out of me / And tell me I’ll always be / The commander in chief / of the ice cream social acid test.” He takes our common anxieties (high gas prices, social alienation, the nuclear threat, “the cruel rule of American rhythm”) and recontextualizes them, poking fun with a serious sadness at our propensity for emotional and mental distraction, all the while entertaining us with the most pleasing of rock n roll.

“Everything’s a little bit messed up / when I’m out of the hive,” he sings towards the front of the album, perhaps talking about the times we have to leave the safety of our homes or perhaps talking about the “hive mind” that the internet and modern society has forged. There are a million clever word plays on the album, like that, and a mastery of sophisticated song construction that is nevertheless always fun. He matches Robert Pollard’s prolific propensity for angular, fuzzed-out ear worms that get the body and the heart moving, but where Robert Pollard’s poetry is always just esoteric enough that you can never tell exactly what he is pointing his finger at, Gill’s poetry is aimed with laser precision.

It’s an album with a happy sound and an often dark lyrical underbelly. But his gift for understanding and moving within our shared culture, whether it is Beat poets or “Pepperidge Farms,” lands him firmly in our world and shows his relatability and his observational astuteness. It is ultimately an exercise, it seems to me, in rocking out for fun and utilizing the full powers of our minds for good. The album starts with “Live From Missile Command,” and ends with the plea, “I Wanna Be On Your Mind.” Perhaps if we don’t ignore the problems in our world but think about how to best serve each other with creative brainstorming, everything will turn out ok in the end.

Order Scheduled Explosions by 2nd Grade HERE