The solo project of Surf Curse frontman Nick Rattigan, Current Joys’ tunefully murky, early-post-punk-colored songs first appeared on the self-recorded Wild Heart in 2013. Often evoking a daydreamy, bedroom version of the Cure , Current Joys released five more albums and a pair of collections before significantly polishing its sound on 2021’s still-moody, 16-song Voyager. Arriving after a significant bump in streams spurred by popular social media posts, it was the project’s first professional studio recording and first to feature a backing band as well as Current Joys’ debut for Secretly Canadian .

A native of Nevada, Rattigan launched Current Joys in Reno with the debut album Wild Heart in January 2013. Around that time, he formed the garage-pop duo Surf Curse with guitarist Jacob Rubeck. Rattigan sang and played drums. They delivered their first album, Buds, that June, the same month Rattigan issued a trio of EPs originally recorded under the moniker TELE/VISIONS as 3 EPs by Current Joys. The Surf Curse EP Sad Boys appeared in October, and between gigs with his band, Rattigan continued to produce solo material. Following the January 2014 full-length 2013, he cleaned house again with the collection B-Sides, Rarities, and Demos in May. It included some TELE/VISIONS recordings featuring bandmates Julian Jacobs (guitar), Clark Demeritt (bass), and Jackson Scribner (drums). Meanwhile, Rattigan moved to New York to work in the film/TV industry, but he struggled to find a receptive fan base there for Current Joys as he released February 2015’s Me Oh My Mirror.

In 2016, Rattigan relocated to Los Angeles, where Surf Curse quickly became a fixture on the city’s D.I.Y. garage scene. Aligning themselves with the artist-run Danger Collective label, they issued their second album, Nothing Yet, in early 2017. Later that year, Rattigan made his directorial debut with a music video for Girlpool (“123”), and Current Joys released a split EP with like-minded artist BOYO . Current Joys’ sixth album, A Different Age, followed in March 2018 as the project began seeing its social media following increase, garnering millions of collective catalog streams online, and selling out theater venues in Los Angeles. Inspired by favorite cult movies, Surf Curse presented third full-length Heaven Surrounds You ( Danger Collective ) in 2019.

Finally opening up to the idea of letting others into the Current Joys universe, Rattigan recorded his seventh album with a backing band, including other vocalists, at Stinson Beach Studios. Reflecting a marked upgrade in production quality, the nearly hour-long Voyager arrived on Secretly Canadian in May 2021. Its expansive indie rock sound and brooding lyrics were also directly inspired by Rattigan’s love of film, namely the highly stylized storytelling of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Andrei Tarkovsky. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

Brutus VIII is Jackson Katz’s rejection of his soft indie-rock band roots into no wave experimentation. Brutus VIII was started in 2013 as a solo project and after a few iterations has remained, for the most part, solo. With jarring and oftentimes abrasive live performances, Katz forces audiences to confront the expectations of a performer. Brutus VIII personifies fear being the root of anger. In its most distilled form, Brutus VIII is a reflection of how society both stokes the flames of aggressive chauvinism and uses escapism to stave off the feelings of being trapped in a cycle of helplessness.