Little Gold

***Athens, Georgia’s Little Gold, established in 2011, is a collective of musicians with Christian DeRoeck, a founding member of Woods and Meneguar, at its center. On Public Dog, They play power pop with a lo-fi country heart, drawing from the lyrical virtuosity upon which DeRoeck and Davis built their friendship when they first met fifteen years ago. With the easygoing eloquence of a barstool storyteller, Public Dog tackles addiction, early ’90s mixtapes, lost-and-found pets (on the triumphant “Cochise”), invasive wildflowers, and misspelled tattoos (on “Born to Loose,” which echoes the hook-heavy sensibilities of Blunt Bangs, DeRoeck’s band with Black Kids’ Reggie Youngblood).

According to Ryan Davis, “It’s like boiling a John Hughes movie down to only its funniest, saddest, most action-packed moments. There’s no set-up, no filler, no wind-down. Just a whirlwind of curious little details and feelings and explosions. Just the good shit.”