* En anglais uniquement
The Philadelphia band
2nd Grade combine hooky indie pop, sprightly power pop, and gentle indie rock ballads into brief songs that sound like
Guided by Voices taking a crack at the
Teenage Fanclub songbook. The group's leader,
Peter Gill, imbues the songs with an innocent, happy-go-lucky appeal and their first full-length album,
Hit to Hit, is breezy and sweeter than lemonade.
The band in its early incarnation was just
Gill, writing all the songs and playing all the instruments. His first record under the name was a 14-song cassette titled Wish You Were Here Tour, released by the Philadelphia label Sleeper Records in 2018. The songs were short and poppy, combining the brevity of
GBV with the power pop hooks of
Big Star. Prior to starting
2nd Grade,
Gill had played in the bands Friendship and
Free Cake for Every Creature. When he looked for people to join him in
2nd Grade, he turned to his Friendship bandmate Jon Samuels to play guitar. His Philly connections led to two members of
Remember Sports (guitarist Catherine Dwyer and bassist Jack Washburn) joining up as well. The lineup was rounded out by drummer Will Kennedy. This group recorded 2020's album
Hit to Hit, a slightly cleaned-up-sounding take on the style
Gill established on the band's debut. The record was released in May of 2020 by Brooklyn-based label Double Double Whammy. The same lineup of the band re-recorded eight songs from the Wish You Were Here Tour cassette, giving them the full power pop treatment. These recordings, plus the original
Gill-only songs and one previously unreleased outtake, were collected on the 2021 release
Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited. ~ Tim Sendra