Last week, my 11-year-old daughter asked me if she could put on “some indie rock,” which is something I never expected to hear from her. My kid likes Taylor Swift and the Greatest Showman soundtrack. When she was an infant, I rocked her to sleep to the first Lower Dens album, but that was a long time ago. She has been rolling her eyes at whatever music I’ve been playing around the house ever since she learned how to roll her eyes. She’d arrived at “some indie rock” entirely on her own, and she was slightly shocked when I mentioned that I work at “an indie rock website, sort of.” Her favorite band, as of right now, is Beach Bunny. I think that rules so hard.

Beach Bunny, from Chicago, did not break out in the traditional indie rock way, getting praised to the skies on websites like this one. Instead, they blew up when “Prom Queen,” a 2019 song that they’d released on their own, unexpectedly blew up on TikTok. But Beach Bunny’s sound — fuzzed-out power pop with big melodies and thoughtfully precise lyrics — recalls recent-vintage blog-rock stars like Best Coast or Alvvays, as well as ’90s stuff like Letters To Cleo or (as one smart commenter pointed out) Bettie Serveert. They’re really good!

Today, a couple of days after playing their single “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used) at Chicago’s Empty Bottle for Jimmy Kimmel Live, Beach Bunny dropped their new EP. The four-song Blame Game follows the band’s 2020 debut album Honeymoon, and it kicks ass. “Nice Guys”? Fuck, man. Awesome song. My kid was right. Stream the EP below.

The Blame Game EP is out now on Mom + Pop.