Brandon Can’t Dance

Graveyard of Good Times Lucky Number

Brandon Can’t Dance is the nom de indie rock of Philadelphia songwriter Brandon Ayres. In the manner of rising do-it-yourself stars like Car Seat Headrest and Alex G (with whom he has toured), Ayres has followed several self-releases on his Bandcamp page over a number of years with this official coming-out party on the Lucky Number label.

It’s a bit of a jumble, with Ayres sometimes sounding

like a collection of influences: vocals that alternately recall Elliott Smith, Wayne Coyne, and Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, and songs that mix synthy dance-floor moves (“Smoke & Drive Around”), 1980s Europop (“Pop Queen of the Teen Scene”) and tongue-in-cheek self-mockery (“So Deep, So Tortured, So Freak”). But the catchy tunes keep coming over the course of a 16-track album on which Ayres is too intent on enjoying himself to worry about the identity crisis he’ll surely outgrow.

Hot tracks: “Smoke & Drive Around,” “So Deep, So Tortured, So Freak”