The Buddyrevelles are a Chicago-based indie rock trio formed in 1997 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, consisting of Aaron Grant on guitars and lead vocals, Scott Hoch on bass and background vocals, and Dan Reinholdt on drums. Their debut album September, November, released in 1998 on Motorcoat Records after the band relocated to Chicago, earned a 9.1 from Pitchfork, who described the sound as sitting somewhere between Chicago post-rock, the best Galaxie 500 material, and the hope of a better future. Their second album American Matador followed in 2000 to another strong Pitchfork review, and Don’t Quit arrived in 2007 on Chicago’s Solitaire Records. After years away from releasing new material, the band returned in 2025 with the four-song EP The Concession, and followed it earlier this year with the powerful standalone single Anything for Abbey. Now they are back again with Make The Dings Louder, and it is clear this band has no intention of slowing down.
Make The Dings Louder
The title alone tells you something. There is a defiance baked into it, an insistence on being heard rather than smoothed over, and that spirit carries through the track from start to finish. Where Anything for Abbey operated in quiet urgency, this one feels like the band pushing the volume up on purpose. The melodic layered guitars that have been the Buddyrevelles’ signature since September, November are present and accounted for, but there is more edge here, more willingness to let the noise breathe and take up space.
Grant’s vocal delivery has always been one of the band’s most underrated qualities, the kind of voice that sounds like it is telling you something it has been holding onto rather than performing for a room. That quality is intact here. Hoch’s bass sits firmly underneath everything without drawing attention to itself, which is exactly the right call for a song that wants the overall feeling to land rather than any individual part. Reinholdt’s drumming keeps things moving with that same controlled propulsiveness the band has always trusted.
What makes the Buddyrevelles worth paying attention to in 2026, nearly three decades into their existence, is that they have never tried to update their sound for whoever is currently winning. Make The Dings Louder sounds exactly like a band that knows who they are and has decided to lean into it fully rather than hedge. That kind of confidence is harder to fake than it looks, and it is not something you can manufacture. You either have the catalog to back it up or you do not. The Buddyrevelles have the catalog.
Final Thoughts
Two singles deep into their new chapter and the Buddyrevelles are making a strong case that the long gap between records did nothing to dull what made them worth caring about in the first place. Make The Dings Louder is a confident, well-crafted piece of indie rock from a band that has earned the right to be exactly as loud as they want to be. If this and Anything for Abbey are previewing what comes next, the next chapter looks very good from here.
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