Slacker rock is one of those tags that sounds half-serious until a band decides to stand inside it without apologizing. Ricky do exactly that. Not as a joke, not as a dodge, and not as some sleepy aesthetic shortcut either. For the San Diego five-piece, it still feels like the cleanest description of both the songs and the energy behind them. That matters on “What’s The Point,” their third full-length, because this record keeps pulling against the assumptions people tend to make about loose music. It sounds relaxed in places, but it wasn’t thrown together, and it definitely wasn’t made without tension in the room.
The band spent a long time shaping these songs, then made a point not to get too precious once recording started. That balance says more about “What’s The Point” than any neat genre label can. Ricky were careful without becoming obsessive. The songs were crafted, but not pinned down. There’s a difference.
It also helps explain why the record shifted almost immediately once it left the studio. Ricky don’t treat recording and live performance as the same job. Some studio details don’t land the same way on stage, and they knew that going in.
They were already thinking about translation while making the album, so there wasn’t some huge surprise in the first couple of shows, no sudden moment where a song turned into something unrecognizable. Still, the live set has its own kind of movement, and they trust that version more now — the road version, in a room with people, where connection matters more than perfect replication.
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That trust is already changing the songs in small ways. They keep the arrangements close to the album, but tempos are always getting tweaked from one night to the next.
Placement matters too. “Cool Guy,” “Walk,” and “Room” all hit differently depending on where they sit in the set, which is the kind of thing you only really learn once you’re out playing every night instead of staring at the finished record at home. Some parts are built to survive in both settings. Others only really make sense live.
Even the quieter parts have to be handled differently now. Ricky have been careful with dynamic shifts so those more internal moments still carry in messier rooms, without losing the natural freedom that makes a live show feel alive in the first place. That push and pull runs through the whole album. “What’s The Point” isn’t stiff, but it isn’t casual either. It’s a record that keeps its hands loose while still paying attention.
That looseness means something different on this album because Ricky say this one was far more collaborative than the first two. Earlier records were more like solo projects. Here, the band’s wider set of backgrounds and musical styles actually changed the shape of the thing. You can hear that as expansion, but also as a slight loss of singularity, in a good way. The identity feels less fixed, more shared.
That makes sense for a band pulling from punk, blues, and psych while trying to describe everyday Southern California from lower down the ladder, where life looks less cinematic and more familiar. Ricky have been doing that since starting in 2020, across two albums and a handful of singles, but “What’s The Point” feels less tied to one person’s outlook and more like a conversation between different ways of seeing the same mess.
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And the mess, for them, isn’t strictly local. Asked whether the album feels like a document of a specific San Diego moment, Ricky push it outward. The record is more about the current state of the world as they see it, and about a question that can land in two very different ways. “What’s the point?” can mean giving up. It can also mean trying to help someone find their own point. Ricky don’t force either reading, which is probably why the songs have kept opening up once people started hearing them in the wild. After shows, they’ve been having meaningful conversations with listeners about what they take from the record, and those interpretations seem to matter as much as whatever answers the band might have thought they had while making it.
That wider openness doesn’t stop them from sounding rooted in San Diego. From inside the scene, Ricky describe a city full of different kinds of musicians and bands who still give each other real respect. That’s the connective tissue for them — not a single shared sound, but people who’ve been around for years continuing to show up for each other, even when the music itself isn’t exactly their thing. Among the acts and artists who caught their attention in 2024 and 2025, they point to Buckets, GIRL (Guys In Real Life), and Micah Schnabel & Vanessa Jean Speckman.
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By the time “What’s The Point” arrived on March 27 through Dark Horse Records / DHCR Records, Ricky were already rolling straight into touring. There’s something fitting about that. The record doesn’t sit still for long. They build the set ahead of time, then keep adjusting from night to night, depending on what the room gives back. Each show can be different and, as they put it, “of course, flawless.” That dry kind of confidence suits them.
So does the first reality check that hit once album mode gave way to van mode: gas prices, empty toilet paper, and different alarm clocks. No grand mythology, just daily erosion. The usual stuff.
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Ricky have also shared the road with The Frights, Worriers, Tiny Stills, and Decent Criminal, and they’re carrying that road-tested instinct into this stretch of shows behind “What’s The Point.”
If somebody walks in halfway through the run with no context, no press, no idea what the band is supposed to be, Ricky say they’re seeing one thing: full authenticity.
Ricky tour dates:
3/27 — LA @ Bad Dogg Compound
3/28 — San Pedro @ Sardine
3/29 — Richmond @ Planetarium
3/30 — Sacramento @ Cafe Colonial
3/31 — Bend @ Silver Moon Brewing
4/1 — Eugene @ John Henry’s
4/2 — Portland @ Twilight Cafe
4/3 — Olympia @ Le Voyeur
4/4 — Seattle @ The Kraken
4/5 — Spokane @ Chameleon
4/6 — Boise @ Shrine Social Club
4/7 — Salt Lake City @ Bee Hive
4/8 — Denver @ Bobcat Club
4/9 — Colorado Springs @ Lulus Downtown
4/10 — Albuquerque @ The Minnow
4/11 — El Paso @ Love Buzz
4/13 — Phoenix @ Rebel Lounge
4/14 — San Diego @ The Banshee Bar
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