BODEGA

“I never thought of us as a post-punk band,” stresses Ben Hozie, singer and guitarist in the NYC-based band BODEGA. “I just thought of us as a conceptual rock band.”

This might come as a surprise to those who’ve been following the band over the last several years. BODEGA’s previous albums — 2018’s Endless Scroll, 2022’s Broken Equipment, and 2024’s Our Brand Could Be Your Life — drew well-earned comparisons to post-punk icons like Talking Heads, the B-52s, Devo, and Sonic Youth.

“Post-punk is conceptual punk, so that lent itself to our thing early on,” says Hozie, “but at the end of the day, it’s about our songwriting.”

Truthfully, the post-punk tag hasn’t been apt for some time now. Our Brand Could Be Your Life, a rerecording of a 2015 album by an earlier incarnation of the group called Bodega Bay, was more inspired by classic indie rock bands like Pavement and Guided By Voices. Last year’s Rot in Helvetica, by the group’s alter ego NODEGA, saw them go in the opposite direction, delving into the sound of classic hardcore punk like Black Flag and 7 Seconds.

BODEGA’s new album, All Inside Aquarium, sees the band stray further than ever from these post-punk origins. The group’s goal was, “Let's go back to melodic tunes, let's be more of a proper rock band,” Hozie explains. Sonically, the band aimed for “this late ‘80s/early ‘90s Stone Roses-meets-Jane’s Addiction thing, with more riffing and guitar solos.”

The latter, in particular, were a major influence (Jane’s Addiction have been Hozie’s favorite band since high school), and there is indeed a palpable “Lollapalooza ‘91 Main Stage” vibe to the proceedings. “We were aiming at something larger, warmer, watery, and metaphysical, inspired by the optimistic alt rock of our half-remembered youth,” he notes. The album’s lush, grungy production harkens back to Alternative Nation arena-isms, while the band’s commitment to Beatle-esque pop craft keeps everything rooted in hook-y pop song structures, with sing-along choruses and middle-eights galore.

“The way that we listen to music is so eclectic, and that’s how we approached this album too,” says singer and percussionist Nikki Belfiglio. “You can have a hardcore song next to a folk song, because there’s no punks on the corner waiting to beat you up.” To wit, the album includes BODEGA’s radical reinvention of Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train,” the title track from his 1979 album of the same name, which is about as far from post-punk as one can get.

Where BODEGA’s previous LPs were largely recorded piecemeal, signing to Chrysalis Records gave them the ability to log serious studio time as a unit. The group spent a month and a half in the UK working with producer Matt Peel (Yard Act, Eagulls) at the Nave.