Last year, East Vancouver post-punks Aversions put out the full-length You Wanted The Bike, an album which “combine[d] heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment,” as we put it in a preview. Songs like ‘Undecider‘ channelled this raw energy into a sound of “anxiety and latent violence, drawing on a whole host of political and social themes in three and a half minutes of Strummer-esque polit-punk.” Recorded at the same time as that album but not quite sitting right among the rest of the tracks, latest single ‘Wormhole’ sees the three-piece reaching further afield for their stylistic influences, dialling back some of the ferocity to allow in alt-country sensibilities. But the lyrics are as cutting and contemporary as ever, charting the rise and fall of an internet personality who, after selling their soul for recognition, is left lonely on the other side of fame, banging the locked door leading back to normal life.

Blue Canopy x A Beacon School – Bright Spot II

When Blue Canopy‘s Alex Schiff asked Patrick Smith of A Beacon School to remix single ‘Bright Spot’ after its release back in 2022, he probably didn’t quite expect the level of collaboration and vision which followed. Fast-forward eighteen months and the result has now been released as a single via Grind Select. ‘Bright Spot II’ is not so much a remix as a reimagining, a sister track which drags a cover of darkness over the original’s sunny wistfulness, carving out a nocturnal space of electronics which further amplifies the themes of regret and longing in a song about facing difficult periods with a long-term partner. “I just wanted everything to be OK between us,” Schiff explains, “and this song sorts through my feelings throughout that time, hoping for a resolution.”

The song comes complete with a video by Ebony Davies with additional edits from Chase Wagner:

‘Bright Spot II’ is out now via Grind Select and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Dead Tongues – Body of Light

“Baby there ain’t no rules here / we can just slide / keep bending and drawing new lines / all shapes defined.” So opens ‘Body of Light’, the title track from one half of the upcoming double record from Ryan Gustafson’s The Dead Tongues on Psychic Hotline. Described as a pair of “interweaving and disparate albums,” the release embraces the diaphanous, intangible sentiment offered in those opening words, refusing to calcify into solid form in favour of something ephemeral. As the lead single suggests, the result is something intuitive and ever-shifting, mapped along the unseen currents of both our own interiors and the natural world. “Maybe you don’t know what to call it,” as Gustafson sings, “or it ain’t got a name / i’m here for it all just the same / all colors and shades / i’m just a body of light.” Watch the video by Gustafson and Cat Siravantha below:

Body of Light will be released digitally on the 14th June, and physically as a double album with I Am A Cloud on the 9th August via Psychic Hotline. Pre-order it now.

dog eyes – fair

dog eyes is the recording project of Oakland‘s Davis Leach and Haily Firstman which started when Leach helped produce Firstman’s previous project Mr Marigold. The pair soon realised their collaborative chemistry could stretch much further. Following on from the earnest, delightfully lo-fi debut good, proper sendoff on Grand Jury Music, new single ‘fair’ continues to develop the dog eyes sound. A track about friendship and its strange ebb and flow, the childlike wonder of the vocals is shaded by a lingering wistfulness, as though every perfect moment foreshadows its inevitable end. “When you’re a kid and you make a new friend you think they’ll be your friend forever and often they are not, the band explain. “They were there for a season. A love or crush can be the same.” Watch the video directed by Ev Fitzpatrick below:

‘fair’ is out now and available from the dogs eyes Bandcamp page.

Joy Guidry – I Will Always Miss You

Writing in March, we described how Brooklyn-based bassoonist and composer Joy Guidry was releasing new album AMEN via Whited Sepulchre Records, where Guidry experiments with the multitude of Black American music styles to create something new. Previous single ‘Members Don’t Get Weary’ combined jazz and gospel music into something impassioned and triumphant, whereas new track ‘I Will Always Miss You’ takes an entirely different path. Built upon a foundation of lush ambient synths and boasting some of the most evocative bassoon you are likely to hear, the instrumental piece offers a meditative space that’s rooted within the wider experience of life—where mourning and joy marble into a single whole.

Lake Michigan – Rituals

Described as an album about “love, OCD, class, addiction and probably a couple of other things too,” La Madrugada is the latest full-length release from Mexico City-based Lake Michigan on Start-track. The record continues the project’s gloomy, intimate bedroom pop style, with arrangements stripped back to their sparest elements to sound like raw messages as voiced in the latest hours of the night. Focusing on OCD and the general unease so intrinsic to the condition, single ‘Rituals’ is great entry point, its vocals emerging through the lo-fi sound as barely a murmur, heavy with weariness yet afraid of relaxing, as though compelled by the need to balance the world.

Mr. Sam and the People People – Go People Go (Part One)

This summer sees the release of Again! Again!, the new full-length album from New Orleans-based songwriting project Mr. Sam and the People People on Tape Dad (distributed by Gar Hole Records). Opening single ‘Go Baby Go (Part One)’ introduces the compassionate tone with a mindful reflection on the beauty inherent in simple things. Mr. Sam Gelband’s vocals land somewhere between Dean Johnson and Frederick Squires in their fond baritone. “I wrote ‘Go Baby Go’ to honor […] my closest people, the lake, the porch, the mountain, the shoreline, the neighbourhood, the quiet moments with myself,” Mr. Sam describes. “I know now that these things are the keepers of my truest joy, and I thank them.” Watch the video by Mayme O’Toole and Sam Gelband below:

Again! Again! is out via Tape Dad on the 11th June and available for pre-order now.

shn shn – Glimmer

We’ve covered the work of shn shn several times in recent years, always admiring how Toronto-based producer, singer-songwriter and creator Shanika Lewis-Waddell reimagines what the project might be with each release. “[shn shn] aims to do more than merely convince the listener to examine themselves,” we wrote of Form(s) last year. “Rather, it allows them to drift off to new frontiers. That is, to dream.” With its expansive ambient tones and idiosyncratic details, new single ‘Glimmer’ furthers this aesthetic. A meditation on the power of patience and understatement which coalesces into something quietly triumphant. “Building up gradually,” Lewis-Waddell sings, “unexpectedly found myself /so close yet so far / to a glimmer of hope.”

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With album yoyo coming next month on Grind Select, New York‘s A Beacon School has unveiled new single ‘Alone’. Following on from the frustrations of previous track ‘KITM‘, the song offers dawning light, ramping up the rhythm within the shimmering air as if to chase after the feeling. “‘Alone’ is about the moment when you feel like your luck is finally turning,” Patrick J. Smith explains. “Nothing’s been going your way, so when you catch the faintest glimmer of hope you grab on to it as tight as you can.”

Bret Mosley – Wayside

Bret Mosley’s new album Through the Fire is a product of a personal journey across many years. “After arriving in Australia, I was excruciatingly alone—contending with life-threatening abuse and battling to hang on,” explains the Melbourne-based songwriter. The record might have started as a way of processing this trauma and isolation, but ultimately became a vehicle to help Mosley escape from it. Single ‘Wayside’ captures this catharsis in all of its heartfelt authenticity, channelling the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Will Johnson in its earthy, often stark lyricism, and building towards a searing conviction.

And here I hang by the wayside
Gladly the man ordained
The dark red reign
Long weathered was not in vain, and
I’m fine to hang by the wayside

Corrine Sharlet – Belief and Imagination

“A woozy, cosmic atmosphere, like a message of devotion beamed across the void of space from the lunar surface referenced in the title.” That’s how we described ‘Pink Summer Moon‘ by Portland‘s Corinne Sharlet back in 2021. The title track from new EP Belief and Imagination, Sharlet’s latest single might be more grounded in earthly emotions, though is no less devotional in tone. Built on subtle instrumentation and Sharlet’s arresting vocals, it’s a song which draws inspiration from working as a therapist to champion the fundamental importance of storytelling within the human experience.

telling lies just to say something real
choose to hide or you choose to reveal
what do you know you only know what you feel

Daffo – Poor Madeline

The recording project of Philadelphia‘s Gabi Gamberg, Daffo is preparing to release an EP, Pest, next month. Latest single ‘Poor Madeline’ serves as the perfect introduction, a portrait of a title character down on their luck, where every small pain only serves to bring back memories of a larger one. The sound captures the mood in its gradual transformation. What begins as an intimate folk song escalates into something altogether louder, as though there’s a fire lit beneath the sound that slowly grows, before going up in a blaze in the final minutes.

‘Poor Madeline’ is out now and you can find Daffo at all the usual places.

Deau Eyes – Legacies

Following the release of album Legacies via subflora last year, Deau Eyes (AKA Richmond‘s Ali Thibodeau) has returned with a brand new video for the title track, made with brother and collaborator Michael Thibodeau. “Our whole lives, Michael has followed me around with a camcorder and I used to create songs on our karaoke machine tape deck,” Thibodeau explains, and the ‘Legacies’ video feels like the culmination of the practice. “We spitballed on awkward bits of our childhood, the beautiful melodrama of tradition, and all the unlikely characters that we have crossed paths with over the years.”

Legacies is out now via subflora and available from Bandcamp.

Fazerdaze – Bigger

The recording project of Christchurch‘s Amelia Murray, Fazerdaze made waves back in 2017 with debut album Morningside on Flying Nun Records, introducing a distinctive blend of dream pop and alt rock sensibilities. Now signed with Partisan Records‘ section1, Murray has unveiled new single ‘Bigger’, a song which continues this style to draw the audience into an interior world. It explores the strange sensation of passing into adulthood as a touring musician, where the alluring pull of stardom distorts real life. As the refrain puts it: “We’re caught between this life and dream.”

Watch the video filmed by Tom Lynch below:

‘Bigger’ is out now via section1 and available from the Fazerdaze Bandcamp page.

Ian Davies – Still Hurts

‘Still Hurts’ is the first single and title track from a forthcoming album by Montreal-based songwriter Ian Davies. We’ve previously described Davies’s work as “at once laid back and fatalistic,” and the new song offers a similarly conflicted tone. He calls it “a full blown country rock smash that contemplates the art/pain paradox in the hopes of striking gold at rock bottom,” like a downtrodden country ballad where even the worst of things holds a curious promise. It might be dumb hope, persistent optimism or just the effects of some chemical help, but even the cold floor of your lowest point might just hold a speckled shimmer of precious metals.

Julie Arsenault – Tiny Beam of Light

This autumn, Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Arsenault will release her second album, Nothing Sweeter, via Son Canciones. But despite the release date, lead single ‘Tiny Beam of Light’ is very much a summer song. Wrapped in the golden romanticism of 50s and 60s pop, the song swoons and sways in the melancholic rays of the late afternoon sun. The opening verse sees the protagonist emerge from the depths of winter (“like a vampire, my body pale and cold”) and stretch their limbs in the enveloping warmth of summer, opening themselves up to the promise of brightness of many forms.

I emerge like a vision, a tiny beam of light
Shining in through your curtain
asking you how you slept last night
When you emerge from a dream, like an angel on my screen
‘Cause it’s summertime
Time to look on the bright side

Virgo Rising – Tristan

The second single from sophomore EP Vampyre Year, ‘Tristan’ is the latest track from Winnipeg indie pop band Virgo Rising. What lead Emily Sinclair calls “a loud, cathartic rock song, almost like a messy chant about the boy I would’ve been,” the song has been a fixture of the Virgo Rising live set for a while, where its singalong chorus has made it a fan favourite. In comparison to the gentle folkiness of lead single ‘Nail Biter, ‘Tristan’ has a heavier 90s alt-rock vibe, something accentuated by the decision to record the EP version largely live. It’s big and stormy and emotive and builds to a cathartic denoument.

Volunteer Department – Old Friend

Writing about Volunteer Department‘s Clean Living last year, we noted the “mixture of elegance and ugliness that forms the essence of the Volunteer Department aesthetic.” The Nashville-based project has returned with new single ‘Old Friend’ on Like Your Mean It Records, the track using LA as the back-drop to a similarly ambivalent atmosphere. “Is it safe to drink the dream in LA? / And whatever else they’re pumping it with?” as Oliver Hopkins asks. “Is it safe to drink the dream in LA? / Or is everyone living off promises?” But beneath this lies a picture of love and loss, specifically with a cat named Old Friend, and offers the most heartfelt picture of feline friendship since Virtute.

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The latest single from the record, ‘KITM’ offers a glimpse at yet another dimension of yoyo. A Beacon School at its most dreamlike, the vocals suspended within a gauzy haze which even the not inconsiderable energy struggles to fully puncture. As though all of the track’s feeling and weight is submerged beneath a heavy mist, lending a lethargic air even as the guitars and drums attempt to rally.

It’s a fitting mood, given the themes behind the track. The title is short for ‘Keep It To Myself’, and the song sees Smith explains the inexplicable stasis which descends upon even the most enthusiastic artists. Where inspiration is no issue, but acting upon them feels like wading through treacle. “On ‘KITM’, I’m very much talking to myself, voicing my frustrations with how long it takes me to do anything,” as he explains. “I have all these plans and ideas and frustrations, but never act on them. It’s kind of a pep talk to say ‘hurry up and do something!'”

Watch the suitably dreamy video by Alex Beebe and Chase Wagner below:

yoyo is out via Grind Select on the 13th October and you can pre-order it now.

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After the success of previous LP Cola, A Beacon School (AKA New York songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Smith) has announced a return with brand new full-length yoyo later this year via Grind Select. The previous album was notable for its ability to combine bright pop with shoegaze and electronic elements, and lead single ‘Potion’ suggests the new record furthers this style. A song of sunny tones and pressing energy which provides all the lush textures of dream pop without sacrificing any of the detail or momentum. “‘Potion’ was written in one sitting back in 2019 and has been a live staple since then,” Smith explains. “It’s about feeling a burst of excitement about something new but also the fear that accompanies it.” Check out the video by Chase Wagner below:

yoyo is out on the 13th October 13 via Grind Select and you can pre-order it now.

Bo Milli – Making Friends

Be it the digital age dramas of ‘FOMO‘ or the climate anxiety of ‘Good Kid‘, Bergen-based songwriter Bo Milli is an artist dialled in to the pressing issues of the contemporary moment. Latest standalone single ‘Making Friends’ is no less immediate in its concerns, though its focus has a more timeless quality. A track which charts the rollercoaster ride of young life through the prism of a hectic night out, capturing a sense of both the carefree abandon and creeping loneliness of late nights, new faces and a sense of endless possibility.

‘Making Friends’ is out now and available from the Bo Milli Bandcamp page.

Cal Rifkin – Break My Heart

Based in Washington D.C., Cal Rifkin is the project of Erik Grimm (guitar/vocals), Keith Butler Jr. (drums) and Robin Rhodes (bass) who bonded over a “shared love for greasy Ledo’s pizza, early 90s baseball aesthetics, and rock ‘n’ roll music.” Late last month, the trio released Better Luck Next Time, a five-song EP that plays like a distillation of their signature style, namely hook-laden power pop with singalong choruses, vocal harmonies and enough noisy rock ‘n roll grit to keep the rock heads onside. There’s absolutely no filler across the record, but current favourite ‘Break My Heart’ might be the best introduction. It’s an energetic rock song that skirts the line between cool and sincere, complete with a ludicrously catchy chorus.

So come on and break my heart in two
Could be the best thing you could do

Isabel Crespo Pardo – la l​í​nea será

Based in New York, Isabel Crespo Pardo is a Latinx vocalist, improviser-composer and interdisciplinary artist. Combining music, visual art, text and performance, their work is a web of both composition and improvisation that sets out to explore (and then evolve in response to) what they describe as “the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit.” Later this month, Pardo will release an album, el rostro (des​)​cubierto, on Lobby Art Records, “forty minutes of wondering and wandering with hand over heart,” as they put it, “aching in solitude and giving and craving forgiveness.” Lead single ‘la l​í​nea será’ introduces the record’s sound, which sees Pardo joined by Afarin Nazarijou (qanun) Skyler Hill (electric guitar) and Seajun Kwon (acoustic bass) to create something that sounds somehow novel and timeless.

Katie Von Schleicher – Elixir

Since her last record Consummation released in 2020 on Full Time Hobby and Ba Da Bing Records, Katie Von Schleicher has released a handful of singles; first two b-sides from the album and then standalone piece ‘could’ which she described as “a fun foray into the world of strings.” Fast forward a couple of years and the Brooklyn-based artist has unveiled a new single, ‘Elixir’. Released via Durham, NC label Sipsman, the track is a duet with Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb) and showcases a lighter, more playful side to Von Schleicher’s work, all droll delivery and cuttingly sincere lyrics. “How can I reach out to the poems that I’ve loved, embrace plain speech more,” Von Schleicher asks of the song’s inspiration, “and how, for just one goddamned time, can I bring my sense of humour into my music?”

my body with blood – Time and Again

‘Time and Again’ introduces the music of Asheville-based slowcore project, my body with blood. Together with Eli Whitlow (drums), Ivo Pestana (bass) and Cass Dayton (backing vocals), they make a melancholic but never morose sound, probing into the frustrations of a repeating pattern. “I lost a friend, his father tried / To bring me back to Jesus,” goes one of the verses. “The year will end / And I’ll count the ways that I’ve failed.” But there’s a certain sense of reflection to the tone, a perspective only gained by some modicum of distance, and with it the prospect that such cycles might at least be weathered if not entirely conquered.

It’s the same
Time, time and again
I’ve memorized the cycle
The cycle by now

You can find my body with blood on Instagram.

Pony Girl – Laff It Off

Following on from last year’s shadowy Enny One Will Love You, Pony Girl are returning later this year with new LP, Laff It Off, on Paper Bag Records. A release described as a sister record to the previous album, examining many of the same themes and situations but this time with a focus on the playful side of things. The title track is itself the twin of previous single, ‘Running in Circles‘, which we described as “a slow-burning pop number which slowly unravels into something more chaotic as another crushingly mundane day in work pushes the narrator to the brink.” The new single presents us with the same situation but reacts differently, a refusal in the face of the employment grindstone which emerges with bright humanity intact. “We first wrote [the refrain] ‘I don’t wanna be working every day’ as a lark,” the band explain, “but ultimately fell for it as a chant to get through the next shift.” Watch the video below produced by K Collective and directed by DELGATZ:

Laff It Off is out via Paper Bag Records on the 27th October and you can pre-order it now.

Quinn Devlin – Movie Scene

Back in April we featured ‘Lilian’, a single from Pennsylvania-born multi-instrumentalist Quinn Devlin, a track we described as “solo intimacy blown up into something communal, the sound’s careful richness developing into an affirming final chorus.” Devlin has since been picked up by Lorkin O’Reilly’s A For Effort Records, and plans to release full-length album Pair Of Threes later this year. In the meantime, new track ‘Movie Scene’ gives a taster of what’s to come. Its winding folk style paints a summer afternoon in all of its ideal fondness, channelling the country classics to invoke a nostalgically golden hue.

Pair Of Threes is out this September via A For Effort Records.

Stephen Steinbrink – Cruiser

With new album Disappearing Coin coming later this summer on Western Vinyl, Stephen Steinbrink has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Cruiser’. The record’s title refers to a magician’s trick Steinbrink saw on Youtube—where a coin is made to vanish in front of a viewing highschooler—speaking to the blend of ordinary and extraordinary which marks the songs. The new single aims to reach for the perspective of this amazed, awkward bystander. An attempt to write from the perspective of a character embedded within the “conservative defoliated suburban environments,” a landscape familiar to Steinbrink from his own youth, with Boy Scouts (AKA Boy Scouts) lending vocals too. As he continues:

This character feels he has to hide what he loves, hyper-vigilant for opportunities to mold himself into a shape that will be accepted by the people around him, independent because no one is paying attention. There are parts of myself in the character, but it’s mostly an amalgamation of friends I grew up with in the punk/DIY scene in Phoenix in the late 2000s before we all moved away.

Disappearing Coin is out on the 18th August via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

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