The Sidekicks - Runners in the Nerved World (2015)

Growing up is weird. Very few of us ever end up doing that thing for a living that we imagined we might when we were kids. Even fewer end up doing the same thing for the rest of our lives that we were doing as teenagers, even if that thing happens to be making music with our friends. In the case of The Sidekicks, a teenage affinity for playing propulsive punk rock somehow, against all odds, managed to turn into a full-time life pursuit. After nearly a decade of making noisy rock music, releasing albums on tiny local labels, and incubating in the Cleveland scene, The Sidekicks are ready to meet the waiting world with their Epitaph debut Runners in the Nerved World.

For the recording of Runners in the Nerved World the band— Steve Ciolek (Vocals & Guitar), Matt Climer (Drums), and Ryan Starinsky (Bass)—decamped to Seattle to work with famed indie-rock producer Phil Ek, a pairing that proved to be something of a dream come true for Ciolek. The results, on tracks like “The Kid Who Broke His Wrist” and “Deer,” bring to mind the kind of jangly pop euphoria of early Band of Horses or old Built to Spill records, while “Everything in Twos” is the kind of pop punk jam seemingly tailor made for singing along in a car at peak volume.