Los Angeles quartet Total Pleasure occupy a particular corner of the guitar-pop landscape — one where the crystalline melodicism of the Dunedin Sound meets the stark, angular gloom of the 1980s Manchester underground. The band — Andrew Peña (drums), Chris Medina (guitar), Brian Ramirez (guitar), and Jonathan Carias (vocals) — filters the shambolic energy of Black Tambourine through the rhythmic austerity of early Factory Records, arriving at something that feels both rigorously disciplined and emotionally unguarded.

At the center of it all is Carias's vocal delivery — a depressive baritone croon that provides a somber counterweight to the band's propulsive, interlocking arrangements. His voice doesn't so much ride the music as anchor it, grounding the band's melodic instincts in something heavier and more persistent. Total Pleasure subvert the expected brightness of jangle-pop with a colder aesthetic, one that bypasses the sun-bleached tropes of Southern California indie in favor of a sound perpetually caught in the blue light of pre-dawn hours.

Their debut EP, Fear of Passing, out May 15th, 2026 on à La Carte Records, is the first full document of what the band is capable of — six tracks of rhythmic precision and melodic decay that carve a sharp, shadowed path through the modern guitar-pop landscape.