When listening to the blissful indie-rock sound that makes up Mediocre’s debut album, it’s hard not to think of contemporary outfits like Momma—another young LA duo (featuring an auxiliary percussionist) who cranks out earworms inhabiting the space between grunge and more pop-oriented alt-rock music. Yet where the latter band’s influences revolve around the ’90s and even skew back to the days of Fleetwood Mac and Talking Heads, Mediocre feel firmly planted in the aughts. The duo cites Tegan & Sara and Jenny Lewis as the North Stars guiding Growth Eater, and it isn’t difficult to identify how those songwriters’ confessional takes on irony-era indie shine through in Piper Torrison and Keely Martin’s music.
Yet even beyond The Con and the Rilo Kiley discography, the duo explores corners of dance-punk and controlled chaos reminiscent of the era’s indie scene. The influences playlist they threw together for us to commemorate the release of their new album betrays the fact that nothing prior to the 21st century found its way into their sonic palette, with American and Canadian indie-rock royalty populating the 10-song track list below in equal measure—from the eternal power-trio inspo Yeah Yeah Yeahs to the punchy, stripped-down melodies of the currently goodbye-touring Tokyo Police Club.
With Growth Eater out now via Dangerbird Records, stream the LP here and check out the band’s picks below.
Tokyo Police Club, “Nature of the Experiment”
We definitely took a lot of inspiration from Tokyo Police Club’s EP A Lesson in Crime, but this song especially. We love how punchy their sound is while also utilizing space in stripped-down bass and drum verses. We were also excited to incorporate more synth moments with Growth Eater, and we found ourselves returning to this EP a lot while writing.
Tegan and Sara, “The Con”
We were biiig on this album throughout the course of writing Growth Eater in 2023. The arrangements, harmonies, and overall melancholia was a huge influence for this entire project.
Rilo Kiley, “The Execution of All Things”
We kept returning to this song/album during the recording process as a vocal production reference. We were really drawn to how dry and forward they’re presented, and it made us want to try something new and ditch the reverb.
Broken Social Scene, “Fire Eye’d Boy”
Broken Social Scene kind of holds the torch of indie-rocker inspiration. Every sound just weaves together so perfectly, and we wanted to emulate a similar build-up in the last song of our album, “Kindling.”
Metric, “Combat Baby”
It wouldn’t be a Mediocre inspiration list without Metric. This song is a classic to us, and the synth lines throughout this album are mesmerizing.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Y Control”
So many good twinkly, powerful details—love the feel of controlled chaos and how much the song envelops you. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a major three-piece inspiration. The power of Nick Zinner compels you.
The Go! Team, “Huddle Formation”
“Huddle Formation” is so fun and inviting that it kind of forces you to dance. We were hoping to achieve a similar effect with “Fun Time Fix (We Go Go),” so we pulled from the dance-punk grooves of some of our favorites like The Go! Team, The Ting Tings, and CSS.
Modest Mouse, “Paper Thin Walls”
This song is so dynamic and cool. We were super drawn to the back-and-forth arrangements and the xylophone/dinging sounds in the verses. Just makes for very interesting and playful songwriting, which we wanted to accomplish throughout our album—especially in “I Might Be Giant.”
Good Morning, “Country”
This one was mainly a tonal inspiration. It’s so entrancing and very successfully locks you into its world.
Andy Shauf, “You’re Out Wasting”
Shauf is such an insane writer it's hard not to feel inspired by the worlds he creates and feelings he provokes with his music. We loved the soundscape-iness of this song and the droning wind-tunnel-like sound buried underneath everything.
