Mattock – “Daughters”

Mattock has been at this long enough to know what they’re doing, and Daughters makes that pretty clear. Casey Brandt and Jason Fletcher have been circling each other musically for years, and on this record, that shared history actually pays off. The songs don’t feel assembled. They feel lived in.

The band spent about a year rehearsing before tracking a single note, and you can hear that patience in how the songs breathe. The drum performances, recorded at Fletcher’s home setup, drive the whole thing with an intuitive looseness that a lot of home recordings can’t pull off. Bassist John Ranta and Jay St. Peter added their parts remotely, same with additional guitars and keys from Brandt, and the whole thing holds together without sounding stitched. My favorites are “Invitation” and “Boring Life”.

Casey cut his teeth in New York’s underground club scene in the early 2000s, and Fletcher came up in the DMV scene of the ’90s. That combined experience bleeds into Daughters in ways that are hard to pin down but easy to hear. This isn’t a band chasing anyone’s sound. Folk-rock, indie, punk, and classic rock influences all show up, but they blend rather than compete.

Honestly, Daughters is the kind of record I didn’t expect to hit as hard as it did. If you haven’t heard their debut Songs About Birds, go back and start there. And follow Mattock to stay updated on everything they’ve got coming for the rest of 2026.