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Superbody is a tiny indie band with enormous music — and maybe the greatest ’80s pop act to emerge from 21st century late capitalism. The outfit is the Tennessee basement-born and bedroom-produced DIY fever dream of 24-year-old producer and musician Robert McCurry. Until recently Superbody was a duo of McCurry and Caleb Dills who together, out of Chattanooga, crafted two albums of weirdo lo-fi ’80s-inspired disco-pop, deliberately overstuffed with the indulgent synthesizers and pulpy electronic twangs of the post-1878 Billboard charts. Their semi-ironic but genuinely catchy tracks and kitschy-as-hell aesthetics have found them sharing stages with Dorian Electra, Diane Coffee and Shannon and The Clams, and even featured on the New York Times Fashion‘s Instagram.

Now, McCurry has taken Superbody solo. He performs live and in video in the alter-ego of Bobbi Superbody: a faux pop star pastiche that’s equal parts cowboy, George Michael and Napoleon Dynamite. Today, he’s debuted his first effort as a solo Superbody: “Hollywood.” The irreverent, campy video expands the narrative of hapless aspiring pop star Bobbi Superbody, as he sashays around Hollywood, moustached, mulleted and single-earringed, like the clown of ’80s Hollywood on a quest to Make It. He practices his terrible dance moves on the beach, under the pier and on palm tree-lined streets; puts casting directors to sleep; and bribes his way into a role in a soft porno so low budget his partner is a blow up doll. It watches like an offbeat comedy that might’ve been written by Spike Jonze, forcing us to stew in the indignities and excesses of the entertainment industry. However, the track: a euphoric ’80s pop bop featuring a buoyant bassline, beachy guitar, plinky synths and an extra-cheesy clap-line stands on its own aside from the cinematic video.

Frequently collaborating with creators like Dorian Electra and Weston Allen (director of Electra’s “Career Boy” video, and who makes an appearance in “Hollywood”), Superbody’s irreverent comedy and performative grandeur mark them as a member of the renaissance of alt-pop creators using camp and satire to poke fun at the absurdities of our lives — and make sure everyone has a good time.

“Rising Atlanta-based artist TAYLOR ALXNDR is gearing up to release her debut EP, NOISE, which will premiere July 7 through Futurehood, the queer label behind underground stars Mister Wallace and KC Ortiz. A self-proclaimed “DIY pop priestess,” ALXNDR leads her breakout project with “Nightwork,” a dense, autotune-heavy track about the oft overlooked hustle of drag culture—especially as a trans person of color. “I would like to somehow know my worth,” ALXNDR coos wistfully, but with a clear sense of self. “Cause I been putting in the nightwork.” ALXNDR’s “Nightwork” video, produced by ACAPULPO, was captured during an Atlanta show she performed at this December. With shots of the singer getting into gig, the visual showcases the behind-the-scenes process of a drag performance—all the gritty hard work that goes into a single night of glamour. “Sometimes you leave the show feeling empty, even with a purse full of tips,” she says, describing how the song unpacks the tug-and-pull relationship of life as a drag queen. Though dreamy and transcendent, the work is also labor-filled and exhausting. “NOISE is a soundtrack to the experiences of my life,” ALXNDR says of her debut. “As a queer and trans person of color trying to live and thrive in this world, you get used to the ‘noise’ or dissonance that comes with existing. From the noise of being a drag queen to the noise of being a part of the Black Trans Lives Matter movement, this EP captures the struggle and the success of my living. It’s a love letter to the communities I’m a part of that, despite the powers that be, still thrive.” -Out.com

What does it mean to be a post hunk? Is that just a clever phrase for a dad bod? Maybe. Or, if we’re referring to the post in a record collector’s sense, then perhaps John Pierce and Alex Teich want to step beyond not just the physical aspects of the stud, but the entire “look-good-to-get-ahead” mentality. Look around in any given dive bar, and you’ll see that the further underground you go, the more rigidly suave the uniform gets; they hang in the same circles, they hold the same casually cool facade, they nod their heads in the same statuesque stance. As a regular partner to man-about-town Yancey Ballard, Pierce has no doubt seen all these patterns on the wall; so while their current outfit Shouldies sidesteps simple punk trappings completely, Post Hunk attacks the norm from the inside. This carnival-crazy debut Celebrity Pets isn’t so much a game-changer, though, as a game in and of itself. With cheeky synths, fuming punk vocals, and perky two-minute tunes, Pierce invokes the wackier new wave hijinks of XTC and Split Enz; even the solemn ballad that opens the album “Late part1” thrusts you at once into the absurd: “I was born two hours ago / am I late?” Granted, that question also launches us straight into the perpetually incoming traffic of the social media era, another toy in Post Hunk’s playpen. “Two steps from irrelevance / life is right on time,” Pierce shouts on “Big Al on Campus,” with enough nonchalance to imply that he’s both in on and outside of the ongoing popularity contest. Why even bother, after all, when—as the title track suggests—a famous stranger’s adorable dog could attract more love and fans than the average human Watching Post Hunk cavort around the crux of our times is fun, sure. But a whole album of such antics would barely stand in an era where bands are now clamoring to tap their finger on the modern malaise. Fortunately, Celebrity Pets balances the duo’s manic satire with some equally strong pop tunes, like the Costello-esque lead single “Sleep.” Of course, even in these relatively calmer moments, Pierce’s keen eye on the crowd doesn’t falter; when he twists an old nursery rhyme into “first comes love, and now the hesitation,” I at least can immediately recall a thousand times that I almost reached out to someone and couldn’t, even before Facebook or Twitter. Could our carefully segmented social spheres hold us back from the marriage and the baby carriage? Or were some of us just stuck in a rut to begin with? All this and more adds up to a solid first outing, albeit one cut criminally short. Celebrity Petsalso doesn’t quite convey the quaint country side to Post Hunk’s exuberant live shows, where Pierce and Teich remind you that they’re really just sweet Southern boys at heart with ears for a good yarn. Granted, that may just mean that the zany duo’s infiltration of the status quo works best in the dives where those calcified cool circles actually congregate. But until that chance comes back around, Celebrity Pets nevertheless answers the basic question that comes with the name Post Hunk—so what does that mean?—with enough verve to convince you that they are, in fact, way better than hunks. Or dad bods, for that matter.