Rocket, the future of LA rock, releases powerful new track!

Los Angeles’ Rocket have been building a buzz in the UK following major support from NME, Rolling Stone, The Line of Best Fit, Dork and more in recent months, but many fans experienced them in person earlier this month when they played a run of big outdoor shows with Smashing Pumpkins. Meanwhile, their intimate headline gig at the Brixton Windmill inspired Louder to draw comparisons with Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine in a five-star review which hailed them as “The future of Los Angeles rock.”

Now Rocket again escalate the anticipation for the October 3rd release of their debut album R Is For Rocket (Transgressive Records / Canvasback) by sharing the euphoric and sparkling new single ‘Act Like Your Title’.

Vocalist and bassist Alithea Tuttle says: “‘Act Like Your Title’ delves into familial relationships and generational traumas. It’s wishing someone would live up to the standards that are set for them but knowing that they will never ‘act like their title.’ Holding out hope that someone will change, especially family, is such a difficult concept and can feel so isolating.”

The quartet have been steadily previewing R Is For Rocket this year, with ‘Act Like Your Title’ joining ‘Crossing Fingers, ‘One Million’ and the jagged, fuzzed-out ‘Wide Awake’. The quartet’s remarkable debut album is a joyride through sonic terrain that is gloriously loud, anthemic, bombastic and beautiful, with instantly captivating songs that achieve the rare feat of evoking nostalgia while sounding completely new. The band’s sound has antecedents in ‘90s guitar bands like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, but Rocket are doing something uniquely their own with those touchstones. It’s no wonder they are widely considered one of the most promising guitar-forward bands of their generation.

WATCH “ACT LIKE YOUR TITLE” OFFICIAL VIDEO

While the album builds on the energy of their critically lauded 2023 debut EP Versions of You (recently issued on CD and vinyl for the first time with the new song ‘Take Your Aim’), R is for Rocket is also hugely evolutionary, elevating the band’s craft in major ways. By the time they began work on the album in early 2024, they’d been on a near constant touring schedule, spending countless hours on the road opening for their heroes Ride, Sunny Day Real Estate and Silversun Pickups, and writing in their modest studio – a back house in drummer Cooper Ladomade’s parents’ yard – both refining and expanding their sound.

“All of the touring led to the songs changing for the better” says Alitha, “because we got to play them for so many different kinds of audiences and hear what worked and what didn’t.” Whenever they got home from a tour, they were infused with new ideas for how to finish the in-progress tunes, and many were upgraded in major ways thanks to the time Rocket took to hone them.

“Recording the second half of the album eight months after the first half gave us a lot of time to think about what we were doing” adds Desi Scaglione, one of the band’s two guitarists alongside Baron Rinzler. “We ended up re-recording three songs because we felt like we could just do better.”

With Desi again at the helm as their producer, Rocket logged time at two Los Angeles studios that provided the perfect balance between those extremes. They tracked the more introspective elements at 64 Sound in Highland Park, which offered an array of tasty vintage gear that was ideal for the quieter, more intimate tunes. The heavier moments were captured during sessions at the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in Northridge, where they could get the massive drum sound they wanted for tracks like ‘Crossing Fingers’ and ‘Wide Awake’.

Their extensive touring has also included hitting the road with peers including Julie, Bar Italia and Hotline TNT as well as key international festivals such as Way Out West, Greenman Festival, Pitchfork London and Paris, Bumbershoot and Best Friends Forever. This autumn will see Rocket embark upon their debut US headline tour.