2024 with Exploding In Sound Records’ Dan Goldin

There are lifters and there are lifers. Dan Goldin is in the latter category.

Co-founder of the excellent New York record label Exploding In Sound, home to the likes of Pile, Kal Marks, Ovlov and many others, Goldin has helped pave the way for some of the most excited guitar-based music since its EIS’ inception in 2011.

Running a label in such economic uncertainty is unthinkable to most, but Goldin has been fighting the good fight for years. Not just with Exploding In Sound, either. You know the excellent online publication, Post-Trash? Well, in his spare time, Goldin runs that, too. How he does it all just about defies belief. Again, though, that good fight, and one of DIY’s nice guys is forever fighting it.

Through facilitating art into people’s homes both via his label and words, if it weren’t for the likes of Dan Goldin, independent, DIY culture simply wouldn’t be what it is.

Earlier this month, Goldin managed to find some time away from his heavy schedule to answer our questions and share his favourite releases of 2024.

Sun 13’s Top 50 Albums of 2024

Sun 13: It’s been another great year for Exploding In Sound. Can you tell us about it?

Dan Godlin: “This year sort of feels like two years to me as I had my first kid right smack in the middle of it. So most things that happened prior to July feel like another lifetime ago, hah! I think it was a great year for the label! We got to release music from so many of my favorite bands, including the long awaited returns from Thirdface and Sour Widows, new releases from Pile and Kal Marks (both of whom we’ve basically worked with since the beginning of the label), as well as the full length debuts from Babe Report and Mandy, two amazing bands from Chicago that we’ve worked with in other capacities before, but these are both new and excited projects. We also did three digital singles from Melkbelly (the honor of a lifetime), perennial favorites Washer, and the surprise new release from the legendary TwoInch Astronaut (who broke up six years ago). Aside from all that we were thrilled to bring Prewn’s debut album to vinyl for the first time!”

S13: The election result has probably overshadowed a lot of things for creatives in the United States. Do you see the label as a crutch to distract you from politics, to kick against it, or even both?

DG: “The election was such an incredible bummer. I know I shouldn’t be surprised and yet I can’t help but be a little shocked. People are dumb. I think our country is in a lot of trouble, not just with our government but the fact that there are so many people who find nothing wrong with voting for Trump. At this point, I try not to pay attention whenever possible. I still browse through the news, but it all feels fairly futile to me to get too engrained in the dread of our reality. I think with the label’s bands that there’s a nice mix of the political and sociopolitical leaning artists and those who make music more as a mental escape. There needs to be a balance.”

S13: There have been some new artists to feature on the label this year. In this climate, is it a balancing act between having a roster of artists both new and old?

DG: “We had three new artists this year (Babe Report, Mandy, and Melkbelly) but each band we’ve had a relationship with for a while. Ben from Babe Report co-runs the label with me and used to play in Geronimo! (which was one of the earliest EIS bands). Miranda Winters from both Mandy and Melkbelly released a really beautiful 7” single under her own name with us during the pandemic. Getting to work with all three of those bands is a real pleasure, kind of a reminder of why we keep doing this.

“I think because we’re a small label we tend to work with a lot of new bands who are looking to find footing or likeminded bands that appreciate the community we’ve attempted to build. With our older bands, it’s great because we (usually) understand how everyone works together and the scope of what’s doable (though that is ever changing). Sometimes people leave the label for new opportunities, but they remain EIS family forever.”

S13: While Bandcamp has changed hand over the past year or so, how vital is the platform for a label like Exploding In Sound?

DG: “I know that the regime change fucked over a lot of hard-working editorial writers, but I do indeed love Bandcamp. I love it as a music fan more than as a record label, but because of that it does influence my commitment to it. I think people are more inclined to buy things on Bandcamp because they like the social aspects of it and building their personal collections. We depend a lot on Bandcamp and while we’d love for folks to mosey over to the EIS website/store, we’re happy to have people buying records wherever it is they want to buy them. Also, the Bandcamp phone app, while undeniably clunky, sounds a million times better than Spotify.”

S13: Running a label must be a stressful vocation, and having done it since 2011… while it may sound stupid, but given the world moves so fast, do you ever have a chance to take stock and look back at the great work you’ve been a part of?

DG: “Funny you ask because earlier this year I was entirely sure that we’d come to the label’s endpoint. There are so damn many obstacles that come with running a micro-sized record label in 2024 and I often feel that we’re not actually ‘helping’ anyone. Then our thirteen birthday as a label came around and a made an enormous playlist with one song from just about every release we’ve worked on and listening back to that (over eight glorious hours) helped me to realise that we’ve built something special and while the results aren’t always what you’re hoping for, it’s a catalog that I’m tremendously proud of and I love the bands we’ve had the pleasure of working with.

“It’s an adjustment but I’m trying to rewire my brain, eschew any lofty expectations and just try to have fun again with it. The music industry can be a slog, but I’m committed to this weird label I’ve built, and it’s a privilege to have released so many of my favorite records.”

S13: What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to in 2025?

DG: “At the top of the year Grass Is Green are reuniting to play three shows together with Ovlov, Speedy Ortiz, Pile, and others. It feels like a family reunion. Grass Is Green and Pile were the first two bands on the label (Speedy Ortiz was the third) and the general catalyst for why the label exists. I think it’s been seven years (?) since Grass Is Green last played and I truly can’t wait. We’re celebrating the occasion by reissuing their debut album, Yeddo, on vinyl for its fifteenth anniversary. It’s never been on vinyl before (and was released several years before EIS existed). It’s one of my favorite records ever made, so it’s a real honor.

“And I know you said one thing but we recently became involved in talks to release two new records from a pair of my favorite bands on the planet, and while I don’t know if either will actually happen, it’s a real honor just to be asked and thought of for these records.”

S13: The all-important question. What are your favourite albums of 2024?

DG: “Where do I begin? Hah! In my ‘spare time’ I run the site Post-Trash, so between that and the label (and I have a day job at another label), I feel uniquely attuned for ‘end of the year’ season. This year I whittled my favorite records down to about 52 albums for my ‘short list’ and ranking them feels more trivial than ever (which ultimately I think is a good thing). Different records scratch different itches. How do I compare my favorite death metal records with my favorite art pop records? I think I need the balance of extremely beautiful music and extremely ugly music to appreciate each more… if that makes sense? Anyway… I suppose these are my top 10 non-EIS releases (in alphabetical order, which makes it look like I picked five beauty albums and five heavier albums, but that’s pure coincidence, hah!”

Anna McClellan: Electric Bouquet
Father/Daughter Records

Anna McClellan has to be one of my favorite living songwriters and her albums never disappoint. I listen to them pretty obsessively, her words occupy a space that often feels comforting in a “you’re not alone” kind of way. There’s so much profound depth to her writing but it’s always fun and apparent that she’s having a good time making music with her pals. Electric Bouquet is thoughtful, beautiful, funny, and undeniably human.

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Dana Gavanski: LATE SLAP
Full Time Hobby

I wasn’t familiar with Dana Gavanski before this year, but I love the attention to detail that LATE SLAP is built on. Every nuanced shift of the vocals and the bent but layered melodic sensibilities bring you ever deeper into this art-pop gem, a sweeping and stunning mix of immediately engaging songs and surrealist reflections.

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Finom: Not God
Joyful Noise Recordings

Not God is pretty much flawless from start to finish. I have no notes. I got to see Finom play the album in full in Brooklyn and everything about was just radiant. Both Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart are exceptional musicians and this record sort of feels like the album they’ve been building towards, a mutant pop hybrid of krautrock, art-punk, and folk songwriting that works for them in such magical ways.

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Mary Timony: Untame the Tiger
Merge Records

It’s been fifteen years since Mary Timony released a solo album and I’m pretty sure that Untame the Tiger is the best one yet (and my favorite Timony record since the Helium days). There’s a lot of variety to the songs and yet they all seem to carry Timony’s signature voice, her writing gluey with hooks and songs that feel so effortlessly classic.

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Naima Bock: Below A Massive Dark Land
Sub Pop

There is none more beautiful. I’m consistently floored by both Naima Bock’s stunning voice and her songwriting. Below A Massive Dark Land is so damn gorgeous, soft but dynamic, impossibly warm but still somehow inexplicably raw. The production is amazing, it’s clean but never feels sterile. There’s so much emotion and inquisitive thought in every song Naima Bock writes and it’s all rather jaw dropping. She’s the best.

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Sumac: The Healer
Thrill Jockey

There is but one Sumac, art metal’s finest trio. The Healer could be their masterpiece, a sprawling record that’s weight and intentionality feel unmatched. It’s a cathartic album that perfectly erupts from the meditative and serene to emotionally wrought sludge and apocalyptic bellows. Every structural shift is designed for maximum impact, their resonance built between carnage and patience, each aspect equally brilliant.

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Thank: I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Hurt
Big Scary Monsters

Thank’s second record is joyously deranged, an oozing hybrid of noise-rock, post-punk, and pulsing no wave that’s as sordid as it is fun. The compositions are punchy and disorienting, often motorik at first impression before exploring into a brash dirge of pummeling low end. Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe weaves between sarcastic portraits of terrible people and harrowing views of deteriorating culture, and when you’re not quite sure what he’s on about, you simply enjoy the chaos.

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Tropical Fuck Storm: Inflatable Graveyard
Three Lobed Recordings

Is it wrong to include a live album among your favorite records of the year? I don’t know, but if it is, I don’t want to be right. There’s no one like Tropical Fuck Storm, quite possibly the most interesting band of the past decade (as far as I’m concerned). Inflatable Graveyard captures the band live in Chicago, their set blisteringly loud, sonically unglued, and yet wildly melodic. Bent and bleeding distortion is paired with some of the most hypnotic hooks, as TFS eviscerate and reshape our fried brains.

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Uranium Club: Infants Under the Bulb
Static Shock Records

There are a lot of post-punk bands out there (some would say far too many) but Uranium Club stand in a league all their own, their nervy art-punk weirdness matched only by their impeccably tight playing. The visionary Minneapolis punk band’s songs are brainy and agitated but also primal and animated. There’s a flux to the structural arc of Infants Under the Bulb that works throughout the record, an alien odyssey that spirals from one tightly coil to the next with an intelligent unpredictability.

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Vampire: What Seems Forever Can Be Broken
Televised Suicide

Melbourne anarcho punk band Vampire’s debut album has all the intensity of a sledgehammer to the face. A political force that aims to stomp out the many many injustices of the world, the record hits like an avalanche, pummeling and grooving in equal measure, swinging for the fences while clawing at political greed and societal decline. The real magic of What Seems Forever Can Be Broken comes from the unlikely male/female vocal harmonies, an incredible texture to an otherwise corrosive rampage.

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