Kai Slater does not stop. The young Chicago auteur splits his time between Lifeguard and Sharp Pins, his own project of shimmering '60s-style gems, and he's frighteningly good at both. Slater, still in his early twenties, dropped the excellent Sharp Pins album Balloon Balloon Balloon last year. It was a stunner. Since then he's stayed busy: a spot on the Red Xerox compilation, a reissue of the 2023 tape Mod Mayday 23, and the one-off single "Saturday Sun."
Now there's more coming. Early next year we get a fresh Sharp Pins EP called Electric My Icebox, and the first taste is "How Can I Explain What She Does To Me?" It's got that jangling, sun-warped power-pop craft Slater has been chasing since the start.
The momentum here is wild for someone this early in the game. Few people this age write hooks this sharp. Slater keeps building, track by track, and the catalog just keeps deepening.
Do not sleep on this one.