Album: Wayne’s World/ Almost Alive from Dustin’s Kitchen
Artist: Little Tiny Knife
Released: July 31, 2025; Self Release
Little Tiny Knife is a band from the Sacramento area. They were founded by Josiah Masteller and include members such as Jim Soltero and Brianna Carmel. You may remember them from their solo work being featured on the blog last year. This will be their first full album release, having only a single and a feature released prior.
Their album, “Wayne’s World/Almost Alive from Dustin’s Kitchen” represents a departure from Little Tiny knife’s perviously released work, which focused on delivering a chiptune accompaniment along side folkesque vocals. With this album, what they do deliver is a solid indie folk offering with a punk infused ethos. Probably the best display of this ethos is found in the song “Roll up Your Sleeves”. It is a melody driven ballad about making the world better by standing up to oppressors through actions like punching Nazis. This is the track that really sold me on the album. I was like, “damn, y’all I’m really digging your game”. This is my favorite song, hands down.
“Spaceman” has pretty somber subject matter dealing with domestic abuse from the P.O.V. of someone struggling with the aftermath from outside the immediate relationship. Honestly, I was initially perplexed by the spaceman analogy and assumed that it was a reference for a specific person or an inside “joke” but the more I thought about it, the more I am convinced it’s a reference to the 1950’s sitcom the Honeymooners. The blow hard main character infamously used space travel as a threatening metaphor for domestic abuse. While the core message of the song is definitely stark, the song still manages to have a catchy rhythm in parts and has a great vocal delivery.
The last song I want to draw attention to is “Tired of Driving”. This is because this particular song is a revision of a single they released in 2023 that originally came with a chiptune treatment. The new song is more mellow and the chiptune has been replaced with acoustic melodies, tambourine and a bass line provided by Jim Soltero on the up right bass that I would go as far as to say slaps. While I love me a good chiptune, I would willingly trade it for the up right base lines that are laced throughout not only this song, but the album. It is hard to deny that this version really brings it in every way that maters.
Despite “Wayne’s World/Almost Alive From Dustin’s Kitchen” being Little Tiny Knife’s first album, it presents a depth and maturity that you can only get from veterans of their local scene. The Little Tiny Knife Discography just leveled up, big time. Fans of folk should give it a listen or also if you are a fan of the kazoo. Yes, they’ve got a kazoo, some people are just cool like that.
If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—-> Purchase Wayne’s World/Almost Alive from Dustin’s Kitchen via Amazon Music
