Cheekface are a trio from Los Angeles featuring Greg Katz on vocals and guitar, Amanda Tannen on bass and backing vocals, and Mark Edwards on drums. Their sound started on the punkier side of indie rock, although that began to shift on 2025’s Middle Spoon to favor more mid-tempo, groove-based songs. Katz’s lyrics tend toward the sardonic when they’re not being outright silly. They often concern the experience of being a neurodivergent person in a world not geared towards neurodivergence.
That is how Podium begins. The ambling “Hostile Street” finds Katz talking his way through a potential relationship, first by enthusiastically encouraging negging, then by offhandedly suggesting that they kiss and hold hands instead. Edwards’ shuffling drums and Tannen’s funky bass hold down the groove while synths and organ provide most of the hooks. The second track, “There Is a God”, is more of the same, although slightly more upbeat. It’s a story song, as Katz follows a woman who “Is looking smart and hot”, ends up at a witch’s coven, and keeps getting distracted by a dog in a “Juicy” sweatshirt.
The bouncy, upbeat “Peanut Butter Prawns” comes next, assisted by horn section hits and solo saxophone accompaniment. It’s a silly story about a pair of GameStop employees doing wacky things and annoying the people around them. The next time Cheekface hits full speed, on the cowbell-assisted rocker “Black Site”, it’s almost irresistibly catchy. The song opens with a goofy pun, as Katz shouts, “I’ve got soul / But I’m not Korea.” Then it takes a lyrical turn for the topical: “If you’re the last to leave / Will you blow out the burning flags? / If you’re the last to leave / Would you put out the burning Bill of Rights?”
Cheekface began during the first Trump Administration, but their early material, through the end of his term and into COVID, was never particularly political. It’s interesting to hear them deal with the effects of the second Trump term now, on an album recorded in the wake of the massive ICE raids in Los Angeles in the summer of 2025. Katz and company do it with their usual sarcasm and sense of humor, but there’s a real undercurrent of anger threaded through the second half of Podium.
“I Don’t Work Here” resembles the funkier side of Talking Heads, while Katz talks his way through the verses, sneering, “I’m not a war profiteer / I’m not a war profiteer / I don’t work here!” The fast-moving sing-along “U Can’t Do It” seems to be taking on grifters turned administration officials like Dr. Oz and RFK, Jr. “Name one fact / See? / You can’t do it.”
The most unique track is “Discrete”, a midtempo, crunchy song with thumping bass, snarling guitars, and angry sax. Katz’s voice in the verses is pitch-shifted way down as he talks about disagreeing with the government and being kidnapped by masked agents and taken away in a van. “Okay, what if I like being in a van / Bet you didn’t think of that, did you? / Manhandle me goons / Manhandle me goons.” The chorus indicts the rest of the people that look like Katz (and me): “They’re getting rid of democracy / We look at phone instead / We’re gonna shop online / We’re gonna stay in bed.”
The back half of Podium isn’t all politics. “EBT”, a rare acoustic song, is a step or two away from nonsense wordplay with a simple but catchy melody. Yet it also contains a strong moment of self-awareness from Katz, “Always on deck with a glib response / Got a glib response when that’s what you want / Got a glib response also when it’s not.” The relaxed, slow “Rent is Down” plays with the concept of “living rent-free in your head.” Over an almost country chord progression, Katz sings, “The rent is down in my mind these days / Things move in, and they don’t have to pay.”
The dating-related “No Fly Zone” may be the record’s best song. Katz does his typical talk-singing on the verses in a relatively low register, while Tannen’s funky bassline takes center stage. This sets up the band perfectly for a pre-chorus with a little more energy, which then blossoms into full singing in the chorus. “I did not remember / I did not take good notes” is a very memorable refrain that is instantly sticky.
Podium concludes with one more politically-oriented track, “I Decline”. For a band already indebted to 1990s alt-rockers CAKE, this song is a pretty on-the-nose homage. The guitar tone is a dead ringer, as is Katz’s vocal delivery, both on the verses and in the sung chorus. “Boss makes a dollar / I made a dime / So I do my leftist infighting on company time,” is the way it starts, but the chorus is more pointed. “If I decline / You’ll see it online / A thousand memes roll by.”
Twenty-five years after pop-punk’s commercial peak, there are still a lot of snotty, sarcastic punk bands out there. Cheekface’s gradual turn towards a touch slower, more nuanced songwriting is starting to set them apart musically from that scene. Podium sounds like a band raised on CAKE and Spoon pulling in influences from all over the place to broaden their sound. Tannen’s increasingly funky basslines really jump out of the speakers on this record.
Since the band are still largely just drums, bass, and guitar, there’s a lot of musical space for her playing to stand out. Katz’s oddball point of view continues to be a big draw for Cheekface. Yet his willingness to turn his sardonicism towards current events this time out is a good way for the band to meet the moment.