Community Picks is a weekly series where artists submit a release to be voted on by members of the Nina community. Once a week, the release with the most votes will receive editorial coverage. This week’s winner is the album Bestseller by Hit, which was released by the band’s label One Weird Trick. The record is 11 tracks of melodic, abrasive indie rock, with influences culled from a variety of eras and styles. We sent over some questions to Hit's Craig Heed, read the interview and listen to the album below.

Where are you from? 

Craig Heed: We’re based in New York. Cameron and I live in Queens, Charles is in Brooklyn, and Justin heroically commutes down from Beacon.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it? 

We’ve gotten a few good ones from other people. One was “Sparks meets Butthole Surfers,” another was, “if JG Thirlwell and Johnny Marr did some shit together.” Probably our favorite was from Rosy Overdrive, who asked, “is this what Ween sounds like to people who like Ween?”

Tell us about your release on Nina.

Bestseller is our first album, and was recorded and mixed between late 2021 and summer 2024 at Charles’ studio Tiny Panther Recording, which he first built in Mount Vernon, but has since moved to Bushwick. We recorded 21 songs in total, which were stylistically kind of all over the place, ranging from paisley power pop to noisy experimental stuff. At a crossroads of which album to put out, we opted for the noisy experimental one, although some of the poppier stuff made it on too. In that regard, I’d like to think that while it’s a cohesive record, it’s also a document of our evolution over that three year period.

What kind of tools do you use to make music?

I think the two big ones are my 12-string Danelectro, and a Digitech Vocal 300 pedal. The consensus on the vocal pedal seems to be that it’s a piece of junk, but I read that Avey Tare used it for a while, so I got one off eBay. I’m a fan of cheap-ish multi-FX pedals in general, and while we already wrapped up tracking by the time I got it, I’ve used it to both recreate some of the weirder vocal sounds from the record at live shows, and for warping my voice on new songs. It’s not perfect, but I’m hoping to push things even further in a crazy, Tim Taylor-type direction.

Who are some independent artists you think people should check out? 

Justin and I have another project called Miracle Sweepstakes, which put out an album last year called Last Licks that people who are into Bestseller might also like. Our pal John V. put out a great record earlier this year called john v. variety loves u ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡ that’s also on Nina Protocol. It was produced by Marcy the Baptist, who seemingly puts out a great new song every couple weeks. The new Garden EP is good, I think it’s cool that they get virtually no press, make whatever type of music they want, put it out on their own label, and have legions of fans who are all like 13 years old.