Having put Bomb The Music Industry! to bed earlier this year, band mastermind Jeff Rosenstock left himself with little time to rest. When Fake Problems’ vocalist and Smith Family T-shirt creator Chris Farren visited Rosenstock in New York, the pair quickly took to launching a podcast about Lost and working on new music. The result of that collaboration is Antarctigo Vespucci, and the band’s seven-song debut Soulmate Stuff bears the mark of its creators, but also the little help they got from their friends—The Gaslight Anthem’s Benny Horowitz played drums, Laura Stevenson offered vocals on “Guest List Spots,” and Mike Campbell of Stevenson’s band and Long Island’s Latterman played bass on “Sometimes.”
In many ways Soulmate Stuff, which The A.V. Club is premiering below, is the spiritual successor to Rosenstock’s Bomb. The fuzzy melodies ripped from the diary of Rivers Cuomo are in full effect on “I’m Giving Up On U2” and uproarious closer “Bang!,” while the glockenspiel-laced chorus of “Don’t Die In Yr Hometown” could be a long-lost track from an ’80s Springsteen album. Soulmate Stuff can be streamed in full below, and physical pre-orders can be found via Rosenstock’s Really Records, while it will see a free digital release via Rosenstock’s other label, Quote Unquote Records, tomorrow. The band has its first (and perhaps only) show on April 26 at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium, with Chris Gethard, Mikey Erg, and YJY supporting.