Junior Varsity

There’s a beautiful, adolescent chaos that feels like it could only be born in a suburban garage right before everything breaks. That’s the pocket where Greg Varteresian and Zach Michel operate as Junior Varsity. Signed to Kevin Abstract’s Video Store Records, they treat genre less like a set of rules and more like a box of spray paints, collaging blown-out 808s, frantic pop-punk guitars, and shouted hooks into something that feels both deeply familiar and bracingly new. Tracks from their self-titled 2022 EP, like the relentless “Cross The Street,” aren’t just songs; they’re the sound of youthful exhilaration threatening to collapse into itself at any second, and you can’t look away.