Release Radar: Neato 'Future Stunts'

We're kicking off 2025 with a lo-fi gem from The Green Mountain State

Jan 10, 2025

Good Morning!

Today we’re listening to ‘Future Stunts” from Burlington, VT.-based Neato

Over the last few years, our journey to find new music & emerging artists has taken us to some odd corners of the country. We’ve made stops in places as far afield as Bellingham, Washington, Bloomington, Indiana, and Athens, Georgia. Last year, we kicked things off in Portland, Maine. Our first stop of the new year sees us back in New England, this time in Burlington, Vermont.

Burlington seems like a place perfect for incubating a close-knit scene or one that, well, isn't.

Speaking via email, Flanigan shared that it’s definitely the former, telling me:

The music scene in Burlington is awesome! Definitely close-knit but punches far above its weight. Tons of great bands making a cool noise here and just as many little pockets for any genre an audience might want to explore. We're influenced by all of it! We really want to dip our toes in as many different parts of the scene as we can here because it's all so cool and inspiring. I think it helps us to stand out a bit around here becasue we pretty much are into being on any kind of bill.

Neato is Ayden Flanigan and Mason Kosman (vocals/guitars), Adam Morenberg (bass), and Lily Kulp (drums).

The tracks here will all feel familiar in the best way(s). The vox evokes images of Malkmus. The guitar will bring Dinosaur Jr. to mind. This is the sort of well-polished-yet -rough-enough-around-the-edges sound that was their stock in trade. The opener, “Ginger Lemon,” is a catchy bit of pop catnip. Flanigan might be singing, “I want to see this go bye-bye-bye,” but on the other end of the speakers, that’s the last thing you’re hoping for.

“King Fisher” is a bit more dissonant and chaotic. It’s disordered but never messy. “Union Bust” is catchy with some incredible wordplay in the lyrics, including shouts to Fontaines DC (the band) and DC (the capital). It’s a bolt of power pop— the sort of song Malkmus would’ve likely made if he wasn’t so consumed with being a slacker. If I'm honest, my only gripe is that a lyric sheet isn’t included (or a link via Bandcamp). That’s a me problem, though.

“Hideaway” is a standout track that sails along on a woozy groove and Flanigan’s plaintive vocals. When he wails, “My hideaway is fine, but it’s keeping me inside of just one thing,” it just hits differently.

The first notes of the closer, “Quiet Thing,” remind me of Sonic Youth’s “Teenage Riot.” This probably only makes sense in my head, but the sounds all rang similarly. What will make sense to everyone else is that it starts poppy before shattering into a million pieces and regressing into a noisy end to the EP.

It's fair to say that older listeners will spend a good portion of time listening to this, trying to put their finger on just who or what Future Stunts reminds them of. But to slap a “Gen Z version of Pavement” sticker on the screen and call it good would be both reductive and unfair. It’s one thing to conjure fond memories of ‘91 or ‘92-and the band doesn’t pretend to shy away from them. To take these elements, fully embrace them, and forge something new takes something else: talent.