We now have Sharp Pins to thank to adding one of his generation’s best examples of latest lo-fi brilliance to the fold for a song with the word “Queen” in its title to compliment that of Guided By Voices’ “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” and “Queen of Cans and Jars”. Bro’d down and beer-goggled like Bob Pollard on a baseball field, Kai Slater certainly is not, however, even if that familiar pop hiss has made its way through the Sharp Pins’ speakers on the latest preview from his second album, Balloon Balloon Balloon. For the difference maker, we turn to the song title’s other two words in tidying up its fringes and adjusting the jangle and cymbals to sparkle anew through the daze. There were a few moments over the last decade where it felt like the next gen had all but destroyed the rearview of indie rock and the underground before it. Here’s your proof that they still live on with royal reverence in the diamond eyes of Kai Slater.

Directed by: Kai Slater & Grace Bader Conrad

Sharp Pins’ Balloon Balloon Balloon will be released November 21st on K Records / Perennial.