The Columbus indie band Minnows assembles five dudes who’ve been active in the Ohio music scene for decades into somewhat of a local supergroup. I still remember seeing one of frontman Sean Gardner’s old bands open for Les Savy Fav in, like, 2003(?), and since then he’s headed up plenty of other great projects of both the loud and soft variety. I started seeing bands featuring Phil Cogley and Adam Lowe in the 2000s too. Back in those days, Alex Weinhardt and Ben Schreiber played in Six Gallery, a twinkly yet aggressive post-rock band that got its start down the road at Ohio University, where we all went to college. I go back even farther with Weinhardt; freshman year of high school, a short-lived band of mine gave our only public performance a New Year’s Eve party in his basement. These days I sometimes hop on Schreiber’s The Upper 90 Club podcast to challenge the hosts with Columbus Crew soccer trivia.

Consider the above my disclaimer that I’m rather close to this one, even if I don’t really keep in touch with most of the band members anymore. That said, I wouldn’t be posting Minnows’ debut Foreign Moon if I didn’t truly believe it was worth your attention. The album combines elements of post-rock, emo, shoegaze, grunge, and more into sleek, gargantuan songs. The music hits hard and feels huge, and it’s laced with incredible amounts of melody thanks to both the dual-guitar attack and Gardner’s crystalline vocals. All throughout the tracklist, there’s a rushing flow to this material that makes me feel like Minnows was a well-chosen band name. And if I might add one more bit of praise: You gotta love that cover art, right?

Stream the full album below.

Foreign Moon is out now. Buy it here.