Audiopile Review: Vinyl debut from Portland outfit Shop Regulars, though this follows about a half dozen self-released cassettes that stretch back to 2018. Spearheaded by Matt Radosevich—a Portland-based musician who might be best known prior to this for his indie rock project, Honeybucket— he’s joined here by members of contemporary bands like Lithics and Spatulas, as well as members of ‘00s garage-punk acts like Meercaz, and Meth Teeth. Drawing a squiggly line that runs through post-punk (think early Fall, Swell Maps), the locked-groove of early VU, and the hot-wired rock and garage prominent 15+ years back, Shop Regulars land on a sound that might be tough to pinpoint if it didn’t have a date on the record. They feel just as out of time as our recent faves from the SF/Bay Area scene, Famous Mammals or Cuneiform Tabs, together forging a West Coast shield of new DIY rock that’s as equally nostalgia-inducing as it is refreshing. Moving away from the cleaner edges of their earlier cassettes, Radosevich and co. have opted for a lo-fi aesthetic that suits the hypno-kraut racket of the twin (or triple??) guitars, a knot of bass loops & crashing drums, and Radosevich’s talk-sing vocals, the blown-out overload pushing everything into the red in a delightful head-rush sort of way. Might have missed this one if we hadn’t been tipped off by one of our *ahem* shop regulars (thanks, Matt Goody!), issued in a tiny edition of 200, and ordered direct from the artist.

After six years and seven self-released cassettes, the time has finally come for Shop Regulars to commit their singular vision to LP. The resultant, eponymously titled Shop Regulars is truly a distillation of concept and a beautiful example of what can happen when you patiently and consistently chip away at an idea over a long period of time.

Formed by Portland guitarist Matt Radosevich after the demise of his former outfit, the much-beloved Honey Bucket, Shop Regulars has developed into something of a local institution. More than one man’s vanity project, Radosevich is a band leader in the classic sense, recruiting a revolving door cast of friends to sit in for a while before shaking things up again. “Regulars” coming and going with the music serving as a hub around which they interact in myriad combinations.

Despite this ever-changing stream of lineups and personalities, the band has maintained a remarkably steady sense of identity. Each new release has seen the core idea pushed a little further and “Shop Regulars” continues this outward and upward trajectory. The original touchstones of the sound—something like the hypnotic repetition of Bo Diddley meets the broken abstraction of the Magic Band and early Fall—have been thoroughly absorbed and refracted into a unique and truly peerless signature. Radosevich’s coolly delivered vocals float over a tangle of porcupine guitar and clattering percussion. The sophisticated musicianship of drummer Patrick Barrett (the only other consistent fixture of the group besides Radosevich) holds the whole thing together, getting dangerously close to the edge of the cliff without ever falling off. Shambolic in feel but tightly controlled, each song seems designed to go on infinitely if left unchecked.

Shop Regulars is the sound of continuum, events acting in and out of relation to one another, repetition holding steady amid the bustle of life.