Dolo Tonight is defining his own brand of “awkward anti-pop” with a coming-of-age concept album and a mission to bring fun back into music. The LA-by-way-of-New-Jersey artist, born Jonah Rinder, channels his offbeat energy into everything he does, whether he’s breaking the Guinness World Record for filming a music video at the highest-ever altitude or sneaking onto a high school campus to film a cast of elderly folks for a skit or sneaking onto a high school campus to film a cast of elderly folks for a music video. With millions of views on TikTok and a fanbase that appreciates the unconventional, Dolo crafts vibrant, genre-bending tracks inspired by indie pop greats like Phoenix and Passion Pit, all delivered with a colorful, tongue-in-cheek twist. Dolo knows exactly who he’s making music for: the weirdos, the outcasts, and anyone who’s ever felt like an awkward outsider. His infectious choruses and playful lyrics (about everything from crocheting animal sweaters to drunken cake runs at Wawa) reflect his belief that music should be as fun and authentic as possible. “I’m just a weird, fun dude. I love writing weird lyrics,” he says. “I just like saying weird sh*t.” That authenticity shines on his debut album DVD Rental Store, released via Epitaph Records. It’s a nostalgia-inducing, coming-of-age journey packed with bold anthems and buoyant chords. The project, produced with JUNO Award-winner Ryan Spraker, marks a sonic evolution for Dolo, who learned to let go of genre and perfectionism in the studio and embrace his full creative spirit. Inspired by the lost era of video stores, DVD Rental Store plays like a series of vignettes; With stories of underdogs (“Varsity Lip”), heartbreak (“Hate You Now”), friendship (“Two Pens”), and breaking free from expectations (“Live Your Life”). Dolo’s friends helped to shape the album’s visuals and voice skits, adding another layer of authenticity. At its core, Dolo’s music is an invitation: “You’re allowed to have fun. Let yourself have fun!”
“Speaking for myself, this record might be a snapshot of me deciding whether I’m going to live out the rest of my life as Eckhart Tolle or live out the rest of my life as Ted Kaczynski,” laughs PROPAGANDHI guitarist and vocalist Chris Hannah. In true PROPAGANDHI fashion, the Manitoba, Canada based outfit’s eighth album, At Peace is smart music for dangerous times. “Everything I’m singing about is still coming from being the same person that wrote and sang our first record How to Clean Everything in 1993,” Hannah states recalling the band’s snarky skate-thrash origins. “But what we’re putting into the songs now, probably reflects more despair than 30 years ago when we had similar perspectives, but with strands of hope and naivete. Now it’s the existential dread of eking out a life worth living in this completely failed society.” At Peace was written and recorded as political storm clouds were beginning to darken in the months before Emperor Trump’s ascent to power. It’s an album of poetic and polemic songs written shortly before the American oligarch’s suggestion that PROPAGANDHI’s home country become the U.S.’s 51st State. Songs like the album’s apocryphal “Fire Season” presages the climate-change-driven wildfires that wiped out portions of Southern California. At its core, At Peace is an album of inconvenient and unavoidable truths that hit with all the subtlety of an Orwellian boot stamping on a human face forever.