Brooklyn’s Mikey Buishas (formerly of Really Big Pinecone) makes music under the name 0 Stars, and although we don’t assign ratings around here outside the Number Ones franchises, IMO his new album World No. 2 deserves several more stars than that. Released last week, it’s the first release from this project since 2019’s Blowing On A Marshmallow In Perpetuity, and it came to my attention from one of the good people in the Stereogum Discord.
World No. 2 is an often trembling, occasionally rocking record that reminds me of a lot of acts on the indie-folk/indie-pop divide (e.g. Elliott Smith, the Microphones, Grandaddy, Loney Dear), but there’s a celestial post-rock quality to some of the music as well. I love how effectively the band conjures that kind of stark, haunting atmosphere and how abruptly they shift back into scrappy full-band indie rock mode. There’s some real “studio as an instrument” business going on with these arrangements. I was also drawn in by the lyrics from “Reloaded,” which begins, “It is just beginning to dawn on me/ I would never be kicking serious butt on TV/ Fell asleep to interviews with Carrie-Anne Moss/ Google kung fu near me, the dream just goes on and on.”
This band is nothing if not distinctive. You will either find Buishas’ voice mesmerizing or be put off by his high-pitched affectation, but if you like that RIYL list above, I suspect you’ll land on mesmerizing like me. Find out below.
World No. 2 is out now via Worm Records.
