Release date: June 18th
Record label: Middle-Man
Genre: Emo, post-hardcore, post-rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Pull Track: Do You Feel It Too?
I first heard the Madison, Wisconsin emo band …or Does It Explode? last year when they released Tales to Needed Outcomes, their third LP. Tales to Needed Outcomes found the band (guitarist/vocalist Shawn Bass, guitarist Brandon Boggess, bassist J Granberg, drummer Erik Rasmuson, and vocalist Katya Pierce) exploring post-rock, slowcore, and even orchestral music, which, as it turns out, was something of an outlier for the quintet. Their “normal” sound is much more indebted to the post-hardcore side of 1990s emo, and it’s to this genre they return on their fourth album, the Electrical Audio-recorded Realities Disguised as Symbols.
Like Tales to Needed Outcomes, Realities Disguised as Symbols is sprawling (thirteen songs and nearly an hour long for the CD and digital editions), but the endlessly floating ambience of the last LP has been replaced by something noisier and grittier. Fans of vintage Touch & Go noisy post-rock will enjoy the one-two opening punch of “Instincts” and “Do You Feel It Too?”; “Lucky Even Dead” is the first trace of Tales to Needed Outcomes on this album, but it of course builds to a distorted squall, too. Realities Disguised as Symbols covers plenty of ground, from relatively straightforward rockers like “Ground and Leaves”and “Weaker Gods” to messy post-hardcore like “Noise in the Quiet” and “Baby’s First Rorschach Test” to “big ones” like seven-minute closing track “Shelter”. I quite liked the sound of …or Does It Explode?’s last album, but I do not mind at all that they’ve returned to their roots on Realities Disguised as Symbols; their foundation is as strong as ever. (Bandcamp link)
Or Does it Explode? – Realities Disguised as Symbols (Madison, WI; 2026)
Everything I don't know
I learned from the best
Everything I taught you
I stole from the rest
Madison's ...Or Does it Explode? has written a lot of new music over the past few years. They released a full length album, albeit in a more alternative rock direction than Realities, and an 6-song EP, both last year. They play a lot of shows, traveling and performing with indie, punk, and rock bands across the state and into Illinois and Minnesota. Realities Disguised as Symbols is the result of all of that recording and performing--a tightly wound, post-hardcore noisefest of tense and brooding songs. Realities is their strongest album yet, with their pummeling rhythm section given the opportunity to carry the songs into heavier directions than they have been able to capture on a recording before. Part of the emotional weight of the album is in the shared vocal duties of Katya, whose warmth is matched by the brittle screaming of guitarist and songwriter Shawn Bass. The three songs made available before the album release reveal the band moving away from their midwest emo influences into a solidly post-hardcore mode with gnarly bass lines, lots of weird starts and stops, and the kind of extended breakdowns that lead to cathartic bursts of instrumental noise. The full album releases on June 18. Pre-order the album, then listen to the volatile energy of "Baby's First Rorschach Test."
- Steev Baker - Trilobyte Polka Review
Tales To Needed Outcomes is a new chapter for the punk-leaning (and post-rock indebted) Midwest-emo quintet. After impressing with 2022’s Chrysalis, the band expanded, bringing in vocalist Katya Pierce. At the same time, guitarist/vocalist Shawn Bass was working on an arsenal of solo material. Eventually, that material was brought to the band and morphed into Tales To Needed Outcomes. The quintet softens some of the sharper edges of their earlier work on the album, leaning into aching, Brit-pop territory intermittently. (A trait that is never more true than it is on the Smiths-evoking “Cyclic Living.”)
Emphasizing softness pays dividends for …or Does It Explode across the album, with its triumphant moments sounding even bigger placed within a gentler framework. “Loneliness (I’m Waiting)” is a strong example of this dynamic, with the focus placed almost entirely on conjuring up atmospherics, before Pierce’s gently forceful vocals transform the track into a genre-defying, heartstring-pulling plea. It’s one of many moments across Tales To Needed Outcomes where …or Does It Explode explore compositional subversion with confidence (and highly-technical instrumental ability), leading to a memorable listening experience that points to an enticing future.
- Tone Madison; Steven Spoerl
https://tonemadison.com/articles/tone-madisons-favorite-records-of-2025/
...Or Does It Explode? - Tales to Needed Outcomes (Madison, WI; 2025)
Feeling your pain
teaching your soul
every day seems true
Or Does it Explode has gone through various line-up changes over the years, but has stayed pretty securely in the post-rock, Midwest emo space. They are a rock band creating knotty guitar songs with clear and expressive vocals—a throwback to the heady days when Deep Elm records was churning out compilation CDs and The Appleseed Cast was popping up on local bills as a troupe of van-riding 3rd wave evangelists. The current crop of emo bands skew toward the skramz and hardcore, and post-rock is sadly silent, so ODiE brings a nice variety to shared bills with punk, shoegaze, and garage pop bands. Their latest album, “Tales to Needed Outcomes,” is quiet and honest, full of sincere songs written and sweetly sung by vocalist Shawn Bass. “Awkward attempts at making space” includes an extended instrumental post-rock interlude featuring trumpet and violin. “Story of Stuff” is propelled by the hugely syncopated drums of Erik Rasmuson. “Loneliness (I’m waiting)” adds keyboard and “Hello Cannon Falls” adds synth drones and backing vocals from Katya, which brings a nice texture into the middle of the record. The slithering guitar interplay on “Hello Cannon Falls” is hypnotic and a good lead-in to the more traditional “Well I Wonder”. Little surprises abound on the album, from the flute melody drifting through “Wonder” to the cello on “Sundered,” that help to break up the chiming electric guitars and crisp snares that anchor every song. This is a mature and deeply considered project, songs that feel warm, comfortable, and spacious as an empty church by candlelight. Limited colored vinyl is available from the band or via Bandcamp.
- Steev Baker - Trilobyte Polka Review
Emmie Magazine - April 2025
Score: 9.278 / 10.000
Highlight Track: “Story of Stuff”
Opening with the hypnotizing ambient “Pretense”, Or Does It Explode sets the tone for their new album Tales to Needed Outcomes. Moving away from the heavier post-hardcore found in their previous albums The Medium is the Message and Chrysalis, TTNO explores a more math-rock centric approach with tracks such as “Awkward Attempts at Making Space” and “Cyclic Living.” The complex guitar melodies throughout the album blend seamlessly with both the vocal and accompanying instrumentals, creating a dense yet fulfilling sound. The new record deviates from their previous works with a distinct lack of samples used though it remains true to the bands previous themes of political unrest and societal inequities. Featuring a range of guest instrumentalists providing cello, trumpet and flute; Tales to Needed Outcomes encapsulates community and the strength found within it.
- Elliot Novak
Release date: February 1st
Record label: Snmyhymns
Genre: Midwest emo, post-rock, slowcore, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: What Is Tough to See
…or Does It Explode? is an emo band hailing from Madison, Wisconsin that have been around since the beginning of the decade, more or less. The quintet (made up of guitarist/vocalist Shawn Bass, guitarist Brandon Boggess, bassist J Granberg, drummer Erik Rasmuson, and vocalist Katya Pierce) put out two albums in 2022 and 2023 that mixed Dischord Records-influenced post-hardcore with more cavernous and exploratory Midwest emo sounds. Even in their more “punk” earlier work, this more intimate side of …or Does It Explode? is discernible among the noise, and it’s this aspect of their sound that they’ve chosen to explore much more fully on their third album, Tales to Needed Outcomes. Interestingly, Bass initially conceived this record as a solo side project, but the rest of the band were fully on board with taking their sound into this direction, and not only do they all play on Tales to Needed Outcomes (recorded by Nick Tveitbakk at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota), but …or Does It Explode? also bring in a host of guest musicians (Rin Ribble on violin, Logan Lamers on cello, Becky Lipsitz on trumpet, and Amy Wiegand on flute) to fully flesh this record out.
Spanning a dozen tracks in about fifty minutes, Tales to Needed Outcomes is an ambitious record that seems dead-set on getting the most out of the circumstances of its creation–a stable of talented musicians and a week at a world-famous recording studio. It’s a lot to take in, but it’s all very well-thought-out and just-as-well-executed, so take your time if you find …or Does It Explode? challenging your attention span at first. Tales to Needed Outcomes is operating in the world of horn/string-laden Midwest emo, orchestral slowcore and post-rock, and good old-fashioned 90s basement indie rock–it has the core of the bedroom project it began as, but it benefits greatly from the full punk-trained band backing it up at all times. It’s hard for me to single out specific tracks on Tales to Needed Outcomes because it’s such a cohesive experience–the post-hardcore backing vocals on “Cyclic Living” stick out like a sore thumb, but that’s in large part because the rest of the song is entirely in line with the rest of the record. When …or Does It Explode? “rock” on Tales to Needed Outcomes, it’s generally in a dramatic, slowcore-influenced indie rock kind of way that reminds me of 90s bands like American Music Club and Idaho (as well as more recent acts in this vein like 40 Watt Sun). There aren’t a ton of current groups making music like this, but maybe by mixing it with more traditional horns-and-guitar-noodling Midwest emo, …or Does It Explode? have found a way to get it to the masses. Maybe not, but it works for Rosy Overdrive. (Bandcamp link)
…or Does it Explode [...] celebrate[s] the release of Chrysalis, a heady post-punk album that took shape as the project morphed out of another Madison band, Our Friends The Savages, repurposing some of the earlier band’s songs and writing new music. It feels like something that’s been simmering for a while, bringing a swirl of lofty ideas into sharp focus. Standout tracks like “Cleveland Harbor Effect” patiently build atmosphere until it’s time for a lean, furious crescendo. Guitarist/vocalist Shawn Bass, guitarist Brandon Boggess, drummer Erik Rasmuson, and bassist J Granberg make the fundamentals sound big and multifarious—all through well-honed dynamic shifts, not just quiet to loud but compression and release. That no-frills approach bodes well for the live set. —Scott Gordon, Tone Madison
[ self-produced | post-hardcore, post-rock, noise rock, math ]
At first listen it could easily be a Dischord classic, from Fugazi to Hoover, but this is 2023 and there's a lot of meat, from the bizarre finishes of Polvo, to American shoegaze, from Nineties emo to June of 44. Unknown it's better (cit.). -https://www.rockambula.com/
… "Dream Deferred," the sprawling, seven-and-a-half minute opener of …Or Does It Explode?'s new full-length Chrysalis, makes it abundantly clear the band's not shying away from ambition. Invoking the unease produced by inequity via a sound collage of speeches laid over a bed of post-rock is a bold move but, here, it works. What follows are nine more tracks proudly bearing the marks of an array of influences: Shellac, American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Wrens, La Dispute, Cap'n Jazz, and Slint among them.
Chrysalis, by virtue of both those influences and its overall scope, is a statement record. Consistently engaging throughout a runtime that brushes up against an hour, Chrysalis is hard proof that …Or Does It Explode? mean business. While Chrysalis includes all three of the tracks ("Dream Deferred," "Killswitch," "The Chrysalis And The Swan") from the band's 2021 demo, the record lays some enticing groundwork for what might come next. . — Steven Spoerl, Tone Madison
…Or Does It Explode? go big with conceptual and sonic reaches on their debut album, Chrysalis. “Shattered Princess,” on the other hand, shows us what the post-hardcore band can do when it pares back, bringing welcome balance to an ambitious record. Delicate, clean-toned guitars, vocals full of weary compassion, and the concise punch of the chorus give this song just as much impact as the band’s lengthier and more grandiose statements. —Scott Gordon
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.