If every song is a sort of conceptual collage of sound, with its layered instruments and vocal harmonies, then Early Girl’s EP Do I Even Cross Your Mind? feels like both an auditory and physical collage. It’s a lovingly flipped-through scrapbook of grunge and throwback, capturing the grittiness of hand-cut paper, rough ripped edges and even a smattering of glitter.
With this sophomore effort, Iowa City-based Early Girl is cutting and pasting a lot of old with the new. For one, the five-track record comes with a new band lineup, fronted by mainstay vocalist and guitarist Aaron Longoria, freshly joined by bassist Matthew Prince and drummer Dakota Cairns.
The new musical dynamic brings together bandmates from a patchwork of Iowa grunge, emo and power pop heavyweights via TV Cop and Gunk Lung. Becoming effectively a Midwest supergroup, Early Girl embarked on its first tour and polished their sound. That’s not to say the music they’re making is clean-cut — it rages with whispers of the best in foundational punk and rock music — or rather, shouts of the best.
That rage begins immediately with “If I Could,” a perfectly encapsulated morsel of pop punk with its ragged guitars and robust drumming, exploding with harmonies and quickened tempos that switch from verse to chorus. The ebb and flow between tempos act as the manifestation of a steady heartbeat, quickening with frustration towards a disinterested relationship counterpart. With its rallying cry of a chorus, this opener and the majority of the EP that follows is packaged for a listener to shout along to.
As the tracks in this EP explore relationships that fizzle, the lyrical genius flourishes. If ever in need of a witty comeback, there’s a wealth of inspiration to choose from here, from the biting diss, “You’re better alone/You’re better alone/but you still lit up my phone” during the infectious “Better Alone,” to the consuming reminder, “Ain’t no better company than the skeletons you keep” amidst the ricocheting guitar riffs of “Something Sweet.”
Add them to your burn book, glued together with the neon grunge of “STR8”—the most dynamic track off the EP, both vocally and musically. Longoria places playful emphasis on certain words, shifting octaves, breaking into yells until it all blazes into a chorus of anthemic chanting.
The cover art depicts the trio posed against the backdrop of an electric green forest, all wearing matching patterns of orange and blue splashes of color. It’s clear from the first riffs of Do I Even Cross Your Mind? that this is a band deeply attuned with each other, from their matching outfits to their musical output (two bandmates even share identical birthdays). Only a band deeply in sync could muster equal parts roughed-up revenge and a narrative vulnerability that leaves the album with a final poignant fear: “Have I really grown, or is it in my head?”
This article was originally published in Little Village’s January 2025 issue.
