This week, we’re covering bands who released one…and only one…proper album in their career. Sometimes they say everything they need to say in one album long statement. Sometimes, they attempt to chase the same feeling of the first album and can’t quite repeat the magic. Sometimes they’re not given a chance.

Our Third Lad knows a little something about being in a "one and done" band. Frank Boscoe’s great ‘90s indiepop band Wimp Factor 14 released exactly one proper album for Little Teddy Records, 1993’s Ankle Deep. Fortunately, more music followed with his mid-to-late ‘90s band Vehicle Flips, 2000s group The Gazetteers, and this decade, The Ekphrastics. Fortunately, The Ekphrastics were NOT "one and done," as they released their marvelous third album, All of a Sudden, Pow!, on Harriet Records in September 2025. Like the two albums that preceded it, it contains the kind of songwriting prowess that makes you marvel at how the songs can be so clever, so novel, so well researched, and yet so infectious and accessible. For example, how about a song called “I’m Going to Read You the Riot Act” where he then ponders where the term came from, and then actually READS you the Riot Act as it was written in 1715 England? Or how about the wind chill factor? Or journeyman first baseman John Jaso?. Experience short stories about aging marching bands, bee stings, COVID testing vans, money-laundering art galleries, rampageous hockey fans, who’s in the obituaries today, and unwritten pop songs. You can get another glimpse into the mind of Mr. Boscoe in his sixth book of poetry, Tiny Delivery Robots All Over Campus.

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ANDY'S MORNING MOTIVATION #25 // Do the Work // Andy Elliott