Brandy Zdan “Secretear” 2018. Tallest Man Records, translucent pink vinyl variant. Zdan was one of our favorite new-to-us acts at this year’s Mile of Music festival in Appleton a couple of weeks ago. We often base our picks on the MoM app’s filters (rock!) and then the artist description, followed by a preview of a few tracks available via streaming. Zdan’s was “brandy ZDAN (zuh-dan) is a Canadian artist & Record producer based in Nashville TN. After two JUNO nominations (Canada’s Grammy) and years on the road as a session guitarist, ZDAN carves out a rock n roll/post punk sound reminiscent of the Runaways, Bikini Kill, with some 80’s Bryan Adams thrown in the mix. She is also quickly making her name as a sought out record producer with her dark and raw sensibility, approach of serving the song, and creating a sonic palette unique to the artists she works with.” Check, check and check. We caught her set at The Bar on Friday afternoon and it was excellent! She’s an engaging performer, lots of smiles + attitude; and we’re fairly certain her touring bassist (no clue if she’s in the band full-time) performed with Gloom Girl at Mile last year. Secretear is Zdan’s first label release; she has a couple of records from 2015 that appear to be self-released and she has another LP, Falcon, from 2021. Since I haven’t heard those other releases I don’t know what her sound trajectory has been or became, but Secretear is definitely more country/Americana inspired than her performance, which was for sure more straight up guitar-forward rock. She also has an amazing voice. My top picks from the record are the rocking opener “Get To You,” the dream-pop, girl-group inspired “Run Away,” the banger “Wild Fire” and  “Night Rider” – an 80’s inspired slow-burner upon which her voice is simply angelic, bringing to mind the great Pat Benatar.