Emotional Contracts, the latest full-length album from Deer Tick, catalogs all the existential casualties that accompany the passing of time, instilling each song with the irresistibly reckless spirit that’s defined the band for nearly two decades. Before heading into the studio with producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Sleater-Kinney), the Providence-bred four-piece spent months working on demos in a perpetually flooded warehouse space in their hometown, enduring the busted heating system and massive holes in the roof as they carved out the album’s 10 raggedly eloquent tracks. Emotional Contracts fully echoes the unruly energy of its creation, ultimately making for a heavy-hearted yet wildly life-affirming portrait of growing older without losing heart.

Gymshorts is from Rhode Island and like the band’s home state frontwoman Sarah Greenwell is a petite powerhouse that marches to the beat of her own drum. Endearingly rebellious, fiercely independent, and hellbent on causing a commotion, Greenwell embodies the kind of rambunctious unpredictability that has personified some of pop culture’s most legendary troublemakers; a little bit Bart Simpson, a hint of Kevin McCallister, and a dash of Dennis The Menace form the inspirational foundation of Gymshorts’ particular brand of punk n roll, smoked to perfection in the back of Jeff Spicoli’s van. Gymshorts are a sarcastic grin and a pair of bloodshot eyes behind pitch-black Wayfarers in the back row of class, a best friend and a bad influence all rolled into one.