Momma’s Album, Household Name, Makes a Powerful Punch Into the Indie Rock Scene

Momma – Household Name Album Review

Momma made an expressive and heavy-toned album that swept the indie rock nation. The band members wanted to make a powerful punch into the rock scene, and they achieved just that with their newly released album, Household Name.

Household Name was produced by Momma, an indie rock/alternative band from California. The release of the album was a clear representation of where they stand in the music world as young musicians. They lie in a genre that relates to many young adults with topics such as moving on, individualism, and personal growth.

The songs consist of vocals by both guitarist Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten with Zach Capitti Fenton on drums. The album is wonderfully produced all the way through by music producer, Aron Kobayashi Ritch. The songs off the album are very expressive, cool, mosh worthy and deserve to be played out loud on speakers. My favorite songs include, “Speeding 72“, “Motorbike” and most popular, “Rockstar.”

Momma decided to record a short documentary, Momma- Making of Household Name, of their recording process. It was their first time producing their own album in a professional studio so they wanted to capture every moment. Aron Kobayashi Ritch, Momma’s recording engineer, states in a recent interview with Fader: “Planning out every detail and production choice and sound, and then getting to bring it to life in a real studio with a real budget was always a goal for us” (Helfand, 2022). The album, Household Name, is a symbol of their advancement into the professional world of music. They started recording off GarageBand and now have found themselves working with professional equipment.

Etta Friedman, vocalist/lead guitarist states in the Fader interview: “I’m glad that we decided to pick up the handheld camera because the documentary feels like it’ll be a kind of time capsule that bookmarks our memories from recording (what feels like) our first real record” (Helfand, 2022). In the documentary, you get a good feel of their recording process.

The album was heavily inspired by 90s alternative rock acts such as Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins. The band started the album with inspiration from well-known groups such as Nirvana, Oasis and Blur. Their songs off the album have a similar vibe and you can hear the fuzzy guitar sound that makes their sound heavy. They use a ton of guitar pedals to distort their sound to achieve a unique but familiar sound. It’s cool, because in their documentary, Momma- Making of Household Name, you can watch them listen to different 90s songs in the studio for inspiration for the album.

Momma consists of young musicians in their twenties who are going and have gone on tour with well-known performers such as Surf Curse, Wet Leg, Foals and Alex G. They are well off in their music careers. Their journey is very inspirational for up-and-coming young indie artists. They are most likely going to perform songs off their new album, Household Name, at their tours coming up.

They recently just announced their upcoming shows on their social medias. They’re not performing in Houston, but I would recommend taking a road trip to go see their show in Dallas or Austin because it would be well worth it.

Go give the album a listen and see if you can tell if it was heavily inspired by 90s alternative rock back in the day! Comment below your thoughts and if you think the album sounds like the 90s.