Today, Darn Kelly –– the project of Rand Kelly, singer / founding member of The Slaps and touring guitarist / writing partner for Finn Wolfhard –– surprise releases his debut solo album, Waffle Houseboat. Listen to Waffle Houseboat here. 

Born into soil and raised under the Kentucky sun, Rand Kelly is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and part-time weed puller. His debut album, Waffle Houseboat, reflects on formative friendships, infinite love, and the growing pains in-between. 

In mining life for the quotidian wonders that rescue us from its drudgery, Kelly strikes upon an exquisite sound, conjuring a space between Smog, Frog, Blaze Foley, Kurt Vile, The American Analog Set, and Arthur Russell. 

Album opener “Bunch Of Crap” is a song simply about feeling like crap while effectively fulfilling your wildest dreams. Rand, on the way to play Fallon with Finn Wolfhard, was contending with corporeal sickness and a familial loss — a juxtaposition reflected in its shift from clarion Fleet Foxes-style folk harmonies to a grungy,  almost detuned exasperation. “Naked With The Guys” yields to the careless vulnerability of streaking with your homies, while “Stepping On Flowers” contends with the futile nature of Kelly’s day job, which consists of pulling invasive weeds from the earth. However, “Humble Mumble 2” is sanguine about the prospects of an indie musician in 2026: “I make a dollar for ever thousand songs I make / I’m not complaining.”

Following The Slaps’ 2024 album Mudglimmer — another “delightful surprise” (KEXP) that saw the band reinvent themselves by doubling-down on their avant-garde impulses and emerging with a raw, expressive, and idiosyncratic sound (see their ripping KEXP session) — Kelly is currently on tour across the US with Finn Wolfhard. 

Regardless of the iteration, the output from Kelly is unrelentingly good. With Waffle Houseboat, he takes us even further into the inner mechanics of his mind, pushing forward with lighthearted determination and a keen eye for a moment’s redemption.