Big Stir Records is delighted to announce the upcoming release of LAST DAYS OF LOMA, the new album from Long Beach, California-based indie pop-folk trio WORMSTEW. It's the official debut album for the band, featuring the indie hit single “Spinning” and the forthcoming “Tippy Tippy Tea,” along with 12 more utterly charming tracks brimming with witty wordplay, immaculate harmonies and warmly inviting arrangements. The album is out April 24 on Vinyl, CD and Streaming worldwide and up for preorder and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/wormstew-ldol

The endlessly catchy and lyrically fascinating LAST DAYS OF LOMA marks what WORMSTEW consider their “proper” debut album. The band has existed in various forms for over two decades as the main musical outlet for LA pop scene fixture MIKE SCHNEE, whose beloved surrealist comedy alter ego Chissum Worthington also dabbles in tunes of a more humor-centered bent. But something happened in 2024 when WORMSTEW accidentally evolved into its current and definitive lineup including bassist and vocalist TERESA COWLES (EZ Tiger, Dragsterbarbie, Evie Sands) and drummer, vocalist and producer MICHAEL SIMMONS (of sparkle*jets u.k. and solo renown). Not only did they unlock the chemistry of friends who happen to be ace musicians playing together for the sheer fun of it, the change happened to coincide with Schnee completing a new set of songs which marked a watershed of emotional depth without sacrificing the sly glee and gentle humor of what had come before.

Accidents just might be the defining factor in WORMSTEW's journey. On their prior EPs and singles, Schnee had aimed for Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Ween, and various other heroes, only to (by his own estimation) miss the target entirely. Those experiments, though, established something unique: songs that feel familiar but slightly askew, earnest yet dryly funny, guided more by instinct than polish. They were collected on eight homemade albums, handed out to anyone willing to take one. The songwriting and ideas were strong; the fidelity was inconsistent; the looseness was both charming and frustrating, but an organically-growing fanbase was increasingly intrigued. A shift toward coherence began during COVID, when Schnee and Cowles, under the side project alias The Slanket Sessions, reimagined several vintage Wormstew songs and wrote new material, developing a distinct musical and vocal rapport along the way. When Michael Simmons joined in late 2024, he expanded the skeletal tracks with drums, keyboards, and additional instrumentation. It was the same WORMSTEW, but the new ingredients were awaking hidden flavors, and LAST DAYS OF LOMA began to simmer its way toward becoming the rich and hearty main course it is today.

With its wellsprings of whimsy and effortlessly virtuosic arrangements, LOMA is an understated but profoundly engaging record that breaks new ground without sacrificing the serendipitous charm that got it here. It catches your ears and brings a smile from the moment it rides in on the shuffling beat and classic organ riff of its giddy lead single “Spinning,” and by the time the ace harmonies of the chorus hit, it's clear that the band's chemistry is potent. From there, the album throws the first of its many quirky curveballs with “Sheriff Brody,” which is very much what its title promises: a character study about the protagonist (and supporting cast) of the classic movie JAWS. Pop culture references continue to surface on the noir-tinged spy-music workout “Bucket Of Blues,” turning as it does on the line “Danny DeVito and his bad boy behavior was surprising to me,” and the genuinely creepy/funny “J.P. McCartney” on which Schnee imagines himself as “a crazed Paul McCartney superfan who breaks into his house... we strike up a friendship, play each other our songs, and walk around in our underwear.” Elsewhere, the cinematic mission statement “Movin' Along” was conceived as “the closing number in a cheesy mid-’60s Elvis movie,” but these aren't random references for nostalgia's sake: like the warm folk-rock idiom in which the band couches these tunes, these names are being recontextualized into something new and unique in service of Wormstew's singular worldview.

It wouldn't do to say that Wormstew has gotten more “mature” in comparison to their early work, but the humor is more sophisticated and slyly integrated into meditations on deeper themes. There's a touch of the childlike wonder of Jonathan Richman on songs like the jubilant celebration of all things British “Tippy Tippy Tea” (the album's second indie hit single) and the disarmingly sweet “When Our Worlds Collide.” One might also be reminded of Robyn Hitchcock's gift for blending darker themes with funny absurdism in places, as on the miniature masterpiece “When Cats Are Sad,” with its “Waterloo Sunset” feel and chipper melody cloaking an almost brutal contemplation of grief (Schnee clearly loves his pets but refuses to romanticize them, and it hits hard even while it gets your toes tapping). Loss also suffuses the closing title track, an emotional farewell to a longtime residence that's too vividly real in its details to feel saccharine (“I’m uneasy and I’m beat, and I’m tired of the packing and I need something to eat,” he sings matter-of-factly).

Clearly, for all its clever asides and delightful wordplay, LAST DAYS OF LOMA is anything but a novelty album. Schnee zeroes in on one of its core concerns: “A recurring theme in many of my songs is the feeling that I could do better—in life, in love, etc.—while ultimately not changing much at all.” You can hear that in the self-effacing takedown “Assholes” (fueled by the deft banjo of guest Probyn Gregory), the gently fatalistic chamber pop ballad “Forgotten,” and on what may be Schnee's quintessential set of lyrics “Another Stupid Song.” “It's love song about being insecure about being loved,” he says, and the key line “I can be different, I can’t be anything but different” bears that out. It's not a stupid song at all... or maybe it is, but that doesn't stop it from being absolutely heartbreaking, especially when the harmonies and gorgeous AM Gold arrangement lift it into the musical stratosphere. Schnee needn't be worrying that he's a “good person” – we know him, and he most certainly is, in the way that only people who would ask themselves that question can be. But more importantly, on LAST DAYS OF LOMA, he and his bandmates touch the hearts of anyone else looking inward with the same hopes and fears. This is WORMSTEW... grab a spoon and get a taste of one of the most unique and compelling bands on the indie pop menu this year.