Duster – Stratosphere
It’s hard to believe that 1998 was 25 years ago… And it’s even harder to believe that 25 years after the fact, San Jose’s Duster has found viral success on TikTok, of all places. Not to say the band doesn’t deserve it – their mercurial blend of “home recording accidents” and “blown-out 2am studio experiments” clearly resulted in something special, Stratosphere, an iconic and well-deserved milestone in pre Y2K slow core, indie rock, and beyond. The 17-song collection is full of Casiotone meanderings; jangly guitars dripping with emotions; and microphone-in-a-room drum tones that sound as iconic today, potentially even more so, as they did back then. If you’ve been on social media any time over the last few years, you’re probably familiar with the now iconic “Inside Out.” Having racked up an impressive 140 million+ streams on Spotify alone (and 7.2 billion (!) times on TikTok), there’s no doubt Duster[...]