Los Angeles, CA’s Rocket have announced their highly anticipated debut album, R is for Rocket, due out Oct 3rd via Transgressive Records / Canvasback. Lead single “Wide Awake” is a jagged, fuzzed-out introduction to the band’s leveled up sound, balanced out by vocalist Alithea Tuttle’s sweetly hypnotic vocals.

“R is for Rocket is about relationships, the most important part of life; relationships with your friends, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and most importantly your relationship with yourself,” share the band. “‘Wide Awake’. is the perfect balance of all the elements of this record, after years in the making and countless versions, we’re excited to finally share it.” Read more about the band’s debut album in today’s in-depth Rolling Stone profile, who wrote that the album is an “an explosive introduction” and “levels up their dynamic, Nineties-inspired rock sound.”

Comprised of Alithea Tuttle (vocals, bass), Baron Rinzler (Guitar), Cooper Ladomade (Drums) and Desi Scaglione (Guitar), Rocket have had a busy few years. The Los Angeles crew with friendships stretching back to their childhood formed in 2021, convening in an unmarked shed to put their debut EP to tape. Despite it being the first time any of them had seriously approached the idea of a ‘band,’ they seemed to arrive fully formed with combustible, airtight songs.

R is for Rocket, the quartet’s remarkable debut album, is a joyride through sonic terrain that is gloriously loud, anthemic, bombastic and beautiful, with instantly captivating songs that achieve the rare feat of evoking nostalgia while sounding completely new. The band’s jagged, fuzzed-out sound has antecedents in ‘90s guitar bands like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, but Rocket are doing something uniquely their own with those touchstones. It’s no wonder they are widely considered one of the most promising guitar-forward bands of their generation.

While the album builds on the energy of their critically lauded Versions of You EP, R is for Rocket is also hugely evolutionary, elevating the band’s craft in major ways. By the time they began work on the album in early 2024, they’d been on a near constant touring schedule, spending countless hours on the road opening for their heroes Ride, Sunny Day Real Estate and Silversun Pickups, and writing in their modest studio – a back house in drummer Cooper Ladomade’s parents’ yard – both refining and expanding their sound.

Rocket’s 2023 debut EP was praised by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Paste, and Consequence, among others, and landed the band their first cover story at NME. The forward momentum put the band on the road for most of 2024, opening for iconic bands like The Pixies’ Frank Black, Ride, Sunny Day Real Estate, Silversun Pickups, and peers including Julie, Bar Italia, Hotline TNT & more. The band appeared on festival stages around the world, including Pitchfork London & Paris, Bumbershoot, Best Friends Forever, and many more.

The quartet have been slowly releasing their first new music since the 2023 EP this year, sharing album cuts “Crossing Fingers” & “One Million,” a harmony laden and soaring ode to accepting you’ve given all you can in a relationship. The standalone single “Take Your Aim” was written shortly after the release of their debut EP, and will appear on the tracklist of the newly reissued EP, available on vinyl & CD for the first time.

“All of the touring led to the songs changing for the better,” says Tuttle, “because we got to play them for so many different kinds of audiences and hear what worked and what didn’t.” Whenever they got home from a tour, they were infused with new ideas for how to finish the in-progress tunes, and many were upgraded in major ways thanks to the time Rocket took to hone them. “Recording the second half of the album eight months after the first half gave us a lot of time to think about what we were doing,” says Scaglione. “We ended up re-recording three songs because we felt like we could just do better.”

With guitarist Desi Scaglione again at the helm as their producer, Rocket logged time at two Los Angeles studios that provided the perfect balance between those extremes. They tracked the more introspective elements at 64 Sound in Highland Park, which offered an array of tasty vintage gear that was ideal for the quieter, more intimate tunes. The heavier moments were captured during sessions at the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in Northridge, where they could get the massive drum sound they wanted for tracks like “Crossing Fingers” and “Wide Awake.”

RIYL: Momma, Wishy, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr