Marinara offers saucy rock on “I Feel Like Dog,” plays Footlight 2.16

Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet (and presumed tomato-enthusiasts) Marinara provide charismatic lofi indie rock on I Feel Like Dog, a fresh LP evocative of early-2010s college radio rock and their erstwhile 90s slacker compatriots. Tracks like “Desert Schtick” and “Ugly Sleeper” wouldn’t be out of place on a Double Double Whammy compilation, with Nick Cortezi’s plainspoken vocal performance interweaving between warm riffing and a progressive pace. This isn’t to say the entirety of the album is a sunny romp — the band leaves space for downtempo moments of respite on “Marie,” “The Orchid,” and “The Wasp,” the last of which characterized by an unpretentious, six-minute build to one of the record’s best instrumental performances; Cortezi’s season-spanning recollection and quiet vox leads to epic shreds and an energetic percussive breakdown. These various highs and lows help to make I Feel Like Dog the very, very good record that it is — listen to it below ahead of their show at the Footlight on February 16th. —Connor Beckett McInerney