“This project was a lot of, just like songs about waking up to the reality we’re in, coping with that and seeing ourselves as victims of it, but then also as participants in it,” explain Georgia‘s Bayou Princess of their fittingly titled new album Dance Tunes for the End of the World upcoming via Indecent Artistry. “And navigating that as a band, rethinking what does a band mean? Or what can it mean, back to that silliness. I don’t want to be a business or a brand. Just an expression of daily living.” The style is introduced perfectly by latest single ‘He Keeps Talking’, a track which seems to barrel towards the encroaching apocalypse and embrace the entropic movement which results, sounding neither ironic nor flippant in the process, but attuned to the reality of a world in turmoil.

Big Warm Bed – June Bug

The new recording project of Leeds-based musician Jacob Andrews, Big Warm Bed has been long in the making. Having cut his teeth with years in the local scene, playing in projects with members of Adult DVD and English Teacher, as well as touring the US with Far Caspian frontman Joel Johnston, Andrews has slowly stepped out and introduced his own work. A long-awaited debut full-length is currently pencilled in for the early months of 2027, but for now we have single ‘June Bug’ to tide us over. Moving away from the post-punk snarl of his collaborators, Big Warm Bed slots into the wistful corner of indie rock, weaving a compassionate picture of friendship and the importance of being there for the ones you love. True to the theme, a full band join Andrews to bring the sound to life, with Niall Summerton (drums), Meg Lama (vocals/synth), Tom Kettleton (saxophone), Jacob Cracknell (bass/vocals), Chris Aitchison (guitar/vocals) and Connal Doo (guitar/vocals) all lending their talents. Watch a live session recorded at The Calm Farm and directed by Andy Little below:

‘June Bug’ is out now via Dance To The Radio and available from the usual places.

Cameron Keiber – Haunted Castles

Back in 2025, Cameron Keiber released full-length Nurser via Midriff Records, an album which confronted the modern world with the scathing eye it deserves. “There’s no hesitance or lily-livered attempts at peace here,” as we concluded in our review, “just a clear fuck you to all those who try to impose their own will upon innocent others.” Fast forward two years and Keiber is back with The Tide, a follow-up which pushes further than its predecessor, embracing the beauty of imperfection both stylistically and thematically and championing the power of the human in a world quickly tipping towards digital oblivion. Opener and single ‘Haunted Castles’ welcomes the listener into the release, opening with a poignant sense of reflection but soon kicking into gear and building into something urgent and cathartic. You’ll notice the beats of Nurser have been replaced by real drums, the guitars have doubled in size, and most importantly Keiber stands atop of if all fervent and compassionate as ever.

Cloudbelly – Phantom Lung

“Holy gods inside me / Why can no one love me / Without running aground?” So ask Cloudbelly on their latest single ‘Phantom Lung’.  The latest track to be unveiled from the project’s forthcoming full-length Throwing the Game, the single is a love song but not in the traditional sense, detailing the slow disintegration of a friendship as it moved from closeness to distance. A warm arrangement foregrounds the intimacy that is being lost, and there is no questioning the fondness which underpins the entire endeavour, though as the sound swells at the conclusion of the track, the answer to the initial question is ultimately fatalistic. “Maybe no one should come in / Nobody, now.”

Throwing The Game will be released on the 13th November and you can pre-order it now.

Darren Hayman – Darling, All the Time

If you’ve been reading VSF over recent months, chances are you know that cult UK songwriter Darren Hayman has been undergoing the mammoth task of making his vast back catalogue available online for the first time (a project you can read about in more depth here). All manner of rarities and deep cuts are being unveiled in the process, with some gems saved from obscurity along the way, but latest release I’m Your Team is one of the most notable to date. The full-length album had been sitting incomplete for a number of years, Hayman prioritising other musical commitments and dealing with artistic insecurities, though came to be viewed in a fonder light by its creator as time passed by. Inspired by the success of the aforementioned re-release project, Hayman has now decided to put out the album in full via Audio Antihero. Recorded in the wake of 2022 album You Will Not Die, I’m Your Team digs further into the same ground to perfect the contemplative, emotive style. “Sometimes after making an album you don’t want to go into a different direction,” Hayman explains. “You want to go deeper into it, and I felt I was just getting the hang of this stripped, slow, emotional music.” Listen to the title track now:

Eliza Edens – Old Home Video

Continuing to pave the way for full-length Death Drive, coming later this month via First City Artists, Eliza Edens has shared new single ‘Old Home Video’. While previous track ‘Hot & Mean‘ was certainly personal (“turning its attention to the queer experience in the contemporary moment, especially the rollercoaster of dopamine highs and lows facilitated by the access we’re granted into the lives of others by social media”) ‘Old Home Video’ takes things even further. A song Edens wrote while their mother was living with dementia which not only struggles with the cruelty of that present but also begins grieving in anticipation for the inevitable loss. As you might expect, the result is the most poignant and unguarded track on a release full of them, the very sound marbled with a combination of fondness and sorrow.

Death Drive will be released on the 30rd October via First City Artists and you can pre-order it now.

Fleur Geurl – stone in the stew

Back in September, Brooklyn-based songwriter Danielle Sorokin, AKA Fleur Geurl, released full-length 11:11, a collection of chamber folk songs which allow the personal and the mystical to blend together into something with real weight. It is not uncommon for recent folk music to bare its vulnerable heart in order to communicate more authentically, and there’s certainly an open, confessional dimension to Sorokin’s work, but where Fleur Geurl stands apart from its contemporaries is its willingness to play with the tension between display and concealment, clarity and opacity. Take single ‘stone in the stew’, a track indicative of the headspace of a record caught between cold reality and portentous dreams.

soon, I’ll sink into the stew
I’ll let it be true, I am too
a hue of geranium blue
soaks every room
every room

Generifus – Bird Beak

We last wrote about Spencer Sult’s Generifus back in 2024 with the release of Summerberrys, an album which provided “a welcome expansion of the Generifus universe,” as we put it, “again using Sult’s eye for the seemingly mundane details of day to day living to explore themes of growing up in the Pacific Northwest amid the wider backdrop of a hostile world.” Now Sult is set to return with brand new record Pulling on the Seam, and lead single ‘Bird Beak’ hints at the direction of the album. A meditation on hard truths and dashed dreams that comes to accept that moving on doesn’t always mean a clean break, the shrapnel of the past destined to remain embedded no matter how far we might run towards the horizon.

Good Wild Gods – Breathe It In

After meeting on tour in 2017, Luke Sital-Singh and Ben Cramer (AKA Old Sea Brigade) quickly developed a strong creative rapport, working together under the moniker Good Wild Gods and releasing the EP All The Ways You Sing In The Dark in 2020. Both artists returned to the successful solo careers thereafter, though a reunion at Cramer’s Swedish home studio rekindled the project once again, the duo this time pushing things further than before to embrace something closer to a full band richness. Sometimes I Go Missing is the result, a full-length album which builds upon what All The Ways… established yet reaches much further. “‘Sometimes I Go Missing’ is the culmination of many years we could have never seen coming,” as Sital-Singh explains. “We made the music we wanted to make.” Listen to latest single ‘Breathe It In’ now:

Sometimes I Go Missing will be released on the 19th March 2027 via Nettwerk Music Group and you can pre-order it now.

Kin Hana – Shōmetsu / Kodō

“Manages to locate the yearning for connection and community which has persisted from our first days, and will persist to the last,” we wrote of ‘Earthrise’ from Kin Hana‘s new LP Howling World forthcoming via Black Meadow. “The result centers the mythic presence of both the past and the future, twin otherworlds which loom large over the present, warping the material of our existence with equal parts pessimism and possibility.” The track embodied the spirit of an album concerned with how we engage with a world at once woeful and wondrous, moving with equal parts curiosity and dread in the hope of making sense of our irrational present. With the album just days away, Kin Hana has unveiled new single ‘Shōmetsu / Kodō’ to further tease the release. A mighty, haunting track which extends over eight minutes, Aaron Hodges joined by Jared Ashdown (Open Head), Gabriel Birnbaum (Wilder Maker) and Otto Hauser (Vetiver, Espers) to push the sound from a mournful piano piece into a cataclysmic doom metal number.

Left Tracks – Popcorn Lung

We last wrote about Left Tracks back in 2023 with the release of their EP End Times Hauling, describing how the collaboration saw Phil Di Leo (DI LEO) and Kabir Kumar (Sun Kin) use group together to imagine a new future in the wake of COVID and the adjacent catastrophes. “[The EP] sits on the precipice of disaster but makes a decision to envisage a different world,” we wrote, “working on the logic that no significant change can occur without first rekindling a sense of imagination.” The project has expanded and evolved in the interim, not least with last year’s record LT2, and now Di Leo and Kumar are back with brand new single ‘Popcorn Lung’ to further mark the direction of travel. A new, heftier version of Left Tracks bolstered by Sam Thorne (bass guitar) and Mark Edwards (drums, percussion) which is capable of both intricate detail and sweeping energy, playing with the tension between lightness and weight to evoke the strange physics of a codependent relationship.

Nick Bellerose – baby

“Paint[s] the experience of falling in love in all of its overwhelming glory with Bellerose’s trademark style, where cinematic richness meets the intimacy of DIY folk.” So we wrote of ‘About Us‘ by Nick Bellerose back in the summer, the DC-based songwriter channelling the likes of Elliot Smith, Sparklehorse and Nebraska-era Springsteen in his authentic style. With EP maybe, someday now announced, Bellerose has shared latest single ‘baby’, and the result is no less sincere. Based within the liminal space between the end of a relationship and the kindling of another, the track “is less about knowing where love might lead than allowing yourself to feel something again” as the press release explains, and possesses all the earnest, homespun charm you want from such a song.

young friend – michael wakes up

Next month Vancouver-based songwriter Drew Tarves, AKA young friend, will release brand full-length New Entertainment via Nettwerk, and single ‘michael wakes up’ highlights how the records signals an ambitious new era for the artist. Foregoing the simplicity of a single narrative arc, the track instead presents a series of vignettes in order to paint a larger picture, each adding up to a mosaic of the human experience in all of its wonders and heartache. “’michael wakes up’ follows a number of characters that are all experiencing different realities in their lives,” Tarves explains. “Michael being told by Shelly that she doesn’t love him any longer, John winning the lottery with his daughter’s birthday as his numbers, Damien being let go from his company but continuing to do what he loves. These people are all experiencing their own beautiful stories.” Watch the video directed by Zachary Vague & Drew Tarves below:

New Entertainment will be released on the 6th November via Nettwerk and you can pre-order it now.

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With the release of Howling World just under a month away via Black Meadow, Kin Hana has shared brand new track ‘Earthrise’. This time turning to the Apollo 8 ‘Earthrise’ photograph as well as Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey for influence, Hodges considers the human condition across its full timespan, from our primitive beginnings to the frontiers of technological possibility. In doing so, he manages to locate the yearning for connection and community which has persisted from our first days, and will persist to the last. The result centers the mythic presence of both the past and the future, twin otherworlds which loom large over the present, warping the material of our existence with equal parts pessimism and possibility.

Watch the video directed and edited by Marjorie LeWit below:

Howling World is set for release on the 23rd October via Black Meadow and you can pre-order it now.

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Back in 2021, Brooklyn-based bassist, composer and singer Carmen Quill released Don’t Get Comfy / Nowhere, a debut album which emerged more from personal need than any sense of creative practice. The songs consisted of nothing beyond vocals, upright bass and background noise but were able to tackle the most intimate of subjects, from romantic relationships to the loss of a parent. Quill’s latest full-length Harmless, to be released this November via Ruination Record Co., builds upon this framework, their compositions slowly yet surely blooming from minimalism towards something richer and deeper. As the title track suggests, this is often achieved by way of the mantra or incantation. The song rises out of a simple, repeated set of questions (“Why do I feel so helpless? / Why do I feel so aimless? / Nothing I do is harmless”) towards a considered engagement with themes of agency and complicity in the age of televised genocide and rampant inequality. As Quill explains: “I wrote ‘Harmless’ in a moment when I was feeling acutely the everyday sensation of not knowing what to do with myself when I look around and see so much big shit going wrong.”

Charlotte Greve – Lighter Blue

After ‘Membranes‘ (“considers the multitudes which exist within any one person, and how this array of dimensions is shaped and grown by our immediate surroundings”) and ‘Own Lap‘ (“an eleven-minute epic brought to life with full orchestral grandeur which nevertheless never loses sight of the personal amid the sweeping majesty”), Charlotte Greve continues to introduce her forthcoming album WATERBODIES with the release of latest single, ‘Lighter Blue’. Centering on geological imagery and underlined by a beguilingly rhythmic pull, the track considers the curative potential of art, as though the will to create can illuminate the otherwise shadowy avenues of our lives and allow us to live with newfound meaning. “The silent crater/volcano represents a period of disconnection from making art and feeling out of touch with it,” Greve explains. “Tiptoeing around, feeling lost and ungrounded because something essential is missing. In that state, doubt about all things arises, making space for insecurity to flourish. The moment music arrives again, suddenly everything makes sense, the path is lit and you can just walk on it. The forever torch, showing you the way to live your life, gifting you melodies that carry you through the day with purpose.”

Watch the video, shot, edited, and produced by Annika Nagel, below:

WATERBODIES will be released on the 2nd October via New Amsterdam and you can pre-order it now.

Chloë Ester – Bitter End

Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Chloë Ester is a songwriter who announced herself back in 2020 with debut EP Dying All The Time, establishing a narrative-led brand of indie rock which was happy to blur genre lines in order to capture a sense of simultaneous vulnerability and empowerment. Now Ester is preparing to return with follow-up EP I Could Be The One to further this style, widening the palette and scope of her sound without sacrificing any of the rawness and heart which makes it so engaging. Single ‘Bitter End’ is an ideal entry point, a reflection on a break-up which pairs personal uncertainty with upbeat brightness to explore the tension between regretful introspection and the desire to let go.

Cloudbelly – Poppa

Described by the band as a “meditation on intimacy, belonging, and the things that complicate them,” Cloudbelly‘s third full-length Throwing The Game promises to take the indie folk formula of its predecessor i know i know i know and push it to the edges of the genre, creating something sprawling and shape-shifting in order to explore the full contours of an emotional landscape which stretches both back into the past and out in the future. After lead single ‘Oh, Antarctica!‘ saw Corey Laitman and co. face down what we called “the dispiriting experience of mourning the future in a present world which seems to be tilting in a bad direction,” follow-up ‘Poppa’ turns its attention in the opposite direction to explore the memories of a loved one, and how dignity can persevere through the trials of later life. Namely Laitman’s grandfather, a man who lived for the wilderness yet ultimately found himself in a high-rise caring for his ailing wife. As the press release puts it: “If there is a contradiction in the coexistence of tenderness and grief, this song doesn’t seek to resolve it. The contradiction itself is the emotional event.”

The Fourth Wall – Future Memory

“Combs through the contradictions of the immigrant experience in order to voice feelings otherwise impossible to convey […] a mixture of hope, denial and genuine love which not only subverts expectations but confounds any attempt to properly reassess.” So we wrote of The Fourth Wall‘s Return Forever back in 2024, Stephen Agustin’s ambitious and confronting writing earning the record a place among of favourite albums on the year. Now the Portland-by-way-of-Hawaii project is back with brand new album Memories of the Future, and the release might somehow top its predecessor in terms of depth and scope. Using Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism and Frederic Jameson’s work on sci-fi and postmodernism as starting points, Agustin explores the collective failure of the imagination when it comes to dreaming of the future, and the personal and political stasis which results. What emerges is the apocalyptic vision our present time deserves, where the hyperactive stimulation of the digital age masks a fundamental emptiness. “How long will it take / To see the future as a memory,” asks closer ‘Future Memory’, a fitting conclusion to a fatalistic yet clear-eyed album about a world in crisis.

Watch the video by Agustin below:

Memories of the Future is out now via DevilDuck Records and available from The Fourth Wall Bandcamp page.

Hour – Pearls

Last month we introduced Ghost Bridge, the new album from Hour coming soon via Dear Life Records, with the title track. “A song, clocking in at near ten minutes which must rank among [Michael] Cormier-O’Leary’s most ambitious and thematically loaded to date,” as we wrote. “The level of detail is striking but there is no ounce of ostentation. Lesser acts might be overwhelmed if tasked with exploring concepts of loss and mortality, prone to slipping into maudlin excess, but with a unique blend of compassion and abstraction, it seems Hour are up to the task.” The achievement is made possible by a rich ensemble cast, and William H. Travis’s video for new single ‘Pearls’ manages the unenviable task of catching them all gathered in one place (with the notable exception of flute player Adelyn Strei), offering a rare chance to see Hour in its (almost) complete form. “I think his footage succeeds in demonstrating the love we all share for one another in our large, many-tentacled band,” as Cormier-O’Leary says. “It’s a perfect moment in time, a pearl if you will.”

Ghost Bridge will be released on the 9th October via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it from the Hour Bandcamp page.

How Strange It Is – Tough Luck

This autumn, Portland, Oregon outfit How Strange It Is will release their new album THERE IS NO EVIL with Disposable America and Pleasure Tapes. Consisting of Jordan Krinsky (vocals, guitar, synth), Caleb Ballard (additional vocals, guitar, clarinet, synth), Annie Miranda (bass), Annie Fifer (additional vocals, guitar) and Kyle Gordon (drums), the band have developed a fuzzy brand of indie rock across a pair of past releases, and the new record only furthers this style. Take latest single ‘Tough Luck’, an atmospheric, almost ethereal track which cycles through the whole gamut of emotions to capture the strange experience of life. “This song leans into the comedy of circumstance,” the band explain. “When you’re going through it and the world keeps throwing cosmic jokes at you. When you meet up to have a post-mortem with your ex and love songs start playing on the radio. It could be a cinematic moment where you realize you’re still in love but its actually over and that’s ok. The rollercoaster of those feelings.”

Watch the video below, directed by Jess Poe and edited by Poe & Jamison Winternintz:

THERE IS NO EVIL will be released on 20th October via Disposable America and Pleasure Tapes and you can pre-order it now.

John Van Deusen – There Is A Way Home

John Van Deusen made a name fronting celebrated Seattle outfit The Lonely Forest for the best part of a decade, releasing two EPs and four full-lengths in the 2000s/2010s. But his solo work is undoubtedly his most ambitious undertaking to date. Released across two years, forty track double album As Long As I Am In The Tent of This Body I Will Make A Joyful Noise confronts Van Deusen’s personal struggles with faith, depression and suicidal ideation, drawing on influences as disparate as The Beach Boys, Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins and Death Cab For Cutie in the process. After the first part was released back in 2025, John Van Deusen is now sharing Pt. 2 to finally complete the project. “What does it mean to be depressed while worshipping God?” he asks in the album notes. “What does it say about being human?” As the title might suggest, As Long As I Am In The Tent of This Body I Will Make A Joyful Noise is able to sit with suffering without reducing the entirety of existence to its confines, and wise enough to contemplate the mystery of God even as the immediacy of pain threatens to obscure our connection to the metaphysical. Listen to single ‘There Is A Way Home’ now:

Kin Hana – Howling World

You might know Hudson Valley songwriter and guitarist Aaron Hodges from his work under the moniker Longshoreman, or as part of the psych-folk band Nighttime, but more recently he has adopted the name Kin Hana to usher in a new era of drone/doom-adjacent folk. Next month, Kin Hana will release Howling World, a new full-length which feels like an embodiment of Hodges’s vision, where personal intimacy is matched by an elemental, almost otherworldly atmosphere (Jason Molina and Béla Tarr are cited as touchstones). The result, as highlighted by the lead single title track, manages to communicate both immediate, instinctive emotion (be that wonder, longing or dread) and genuine thematic depth. “This song came out of René Magritte’s painting Young Girl Eating a Bird,” Hana explains. “I was drawn to the contradiction in the image—she seems to be turning away from the world while at the same time literally devouring a piece of it. There’s something wild and irrational about the act that I felt I understood without being able to fully explain. The ‘howling world’ became both the senseless world she’s turning away from and the one she’s suddenly part of. I realized that feeling ran through much of the record, and the song eventually gave the album its name.”

Kyla Marlena – 21

“To me, this record feels alive. Like it has a pulse,” explains Toronto-based cellist and songwriter Kyla Marlena of her debut album Hold Time. “It’s dynamic within and between songs, it can be unpredictable.” Forthcoming this November via idée fixe, the record is something of a pivot for an artist who started out writing instrumental compositions in relative solitude, offering a rich folk rock sound forged through serious collaboration. Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), Julian Psihoigos (Georgia Harmer, Katie Tupper), Felix Fox (BADBADNOTGOOD, Jonah Yano), Jasper Smith (Benjamin Dakota Rogers), Karen Ng (The Weather Station) and Noah Williamson (Sonder) all lend their talents, Marlena not so much instructing these musicians as corralling their energies, leading to a sound that’s authentic and organic. Lead single and album opener ’21’ gives an indication of what to expect, showing how Marlena explores themes of memory and time in a manner which subverts expectations, forgoing the hazy dreaminess which so often accompanies such ideas in favour of something more immediate, scrappy and raw.

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The music of Kin Hana might not be directly concerned with Kin Hana the man, but something of its sound evokes concepts of memory and loss and time, Hodges’s embrace of drone and metal sensibilities presenting a dark, existential air. Running in juxtaposition to that are Hodges’s vocals, often tender near-whispers cast among the soar and squall like brittle attempts at communication across divides both geographic and temporal. “Fragile but strangely elemental,” we wrote of closing track ‘You’ on the debut Kin Hana album, Au Sable, “it sounds like soundtrack to shifting weather patterns, the ominous sense of an approaching storm […] Hodges’s vocals glimmering within the murk, lighting it up from the inside.”

After standalone single ‘The Wolf’ saw Kin Hana venture into the metal sphere, Hodges is back with a brand new song, ‘Fog’, which we’re delighted to be able to share today. Highlighting another string to his bow, the track is stripped right back to acoustic guitar, pitched somewhere between the stark poetry of Jason Molina and the warm sincerity of Mt. Eerie. Background flourishes emerge as the song develops, subtle orchestral up-drafts and whispered samples culminating in a soaring, shimmering climax.

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Weakened Friends – Blue Again

Weakened Friends are a trio—Sonia Sturino, Annie Hoffman, and Cam Jones—from Portland, Maine. The band are readying their debut LP, Common Blah, a record that promises to deal with the Millennial despair that label Don Giovanni Records describe as “the feeling of being young, stuck, and settling for less,” through sheer catharsis. The outlet comes via heavy instrumentation and Sturino’s intense vocals, the band looking back at a whole host of bad feelings with the force of a hurricane.

Sturino says lead single ‘Blue Again’ is a song about “how tempting it can be to just follow suit and do what you think others would want from you, in art, life, careers, politics, etc., and all the insecurities, anxiety and feelings of worthlessness that can come with that.” It’s an angry yell in the face of expectations, and one that leaves us the listener feeling empowered, a determination to follow our own path, whatever that might be.

Common Blah is set fro release on the 19th October via Don Giovanni Records and you cab pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Primo! – You’ve Got a Million

Hailing from Melbourne, Primo! are a band who this summer put out a new full-length album, Amici. The trio favour a short, sharp brand of pop punk that nonetheless allows the vocals room to breathe. The result is a sound that dripping in attitude and energy that retains a lyrical clarity, an intersection between pop and punk that focuses not merely on making a racket or melodramatic sincerity, but rather something more interesting and sardonic and strange. Take ‘You’ve Got a Million’ as an example, fizzing into life and kicking into rhythm, the vocals having something of a mantra-like quality.

Primo Amici is out now via Upset the Rhythm an you can get it from Bandcamp.

HALEY –  Infinite Pleasure Part 2

HALEY is the new moniker of the artist you probably know as Haley Bonar. After 15 years of recording, Haley decided to drop her paternal surname (and legally change her name to Haley McCallum, her maternal family name). The decision was explained in detail in a post on Stereogum, but the important thing is that HALEY has a brand new album on the way. Pleasureland promises to be something of a change of direction, a stark and minimal album that features no vocals whatsoever.

Our first taste of the record is ‘Infinite Pleasure Part 2’, what Haley describes as “a requiem for a beautiful world. It represents death, chaos, capitalism, self-imprisonment, and the realization of the self through outer and inner turmoil.” If all that sounds rather grand then wait until you hear the song. HALEY proving that you don’t need a human voice to convey emotion as fuzzed-out guitar burns across the track’s shadowy background like a beacon, creating something as rich and epic as life itself.

Pleasureland is to be released via Memphis Industries on the 12th October, and you can pre-order it now via the HALEY Bandcamp page.

Doe – Heated

This autumn sees London three-piece Doe follow up their previous record, Some Things Last Longer than You, with a brand new full-length, Grow into It. So far we only have one single to go on, though all evidence points to another exercise in ultimately optimistic chaose. Indeed, the record itself aims to be the “antithesis of the overdone trope of male bands singing about rejecting adulthood and wanting to stay young and get wasted with their friends forever.” Instead, Doe confront aging with a sense of hope, what lead Nicola Leel describes as “finding light and freedom in age and finding autonomy in death.”

‘Heated’, the album’s first single, starts poised and tense, but eventually hits periods of pure unrestrained pop punk joy. Talking of which, the accompanying video, directed by Jack Barraclough , sees the band have lots of fun with paint and houseplants and lots of orange.

Grow into It will be released on Topshelf Records (US) and Big Scary Monsters (UK/EU). Pre-order it now via the Topshelf Bandcamp or BSM webstore!

internet boy crush – ghost friend

internet boy crush is a collaboration between Hector from Texas and Carlos from Caracas. Taking inspiration from the bedroom pop classics, the pair make an intimate sound shrouded in melancholy, late-night elegies for what is now lost. ‘ghost friend’ makes this clear, as lonely and intimate a song as you could ever wish to hear, taking on something of a lullabic quality, a hypnotic murmur in the dark.

‘ghost friend’ is available to download via Bandcamp now, and more material is due to be unveiled soon.

Kin Hana – You

Kin Hana is the solo recording project of Aaron Carroll Hodges. After ten years of recording under his own name and the moniker Longshoreman, Hodges has adopted Kin Hana, the name of his Japanese grandfather, a sailor who came to the US in the early 1900s. Hodges recently released a new album, Au Sable, via his own Black Meadow imprint, and ‘You’ is the record’s closing track. Fragile but strangely elemental, it sounds like soundtrack to shifting weather patterns, the ominous sense of an approaching storm. It’s not all gloom though, as Hodges’s vocals glimmering within the murk, lighting it up from the inside.

Au Sable is out now on Black Meadow and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment

Bodega are a post-punk band from New York who, as the title of their latest album Endless Scroll might suggest, are keyed into the peculiar, soul-destroying world that is our own. Rather than facing this with hopelessness or sorrow, Bodega channel all of their fury and dissatisfaction into a frenetic flow, taking shots at anything and everyone who might deserve it, from the obviously soulless bodies of late-capitalism to the banal attempts at protest that end up forming just another boneless arm of the many-tentacled beast. Closing track ‘The Truth is Not Punishment’ is a perfect example of the playful and cutting style, the tone falling somewhere between furious, bemused and sarcastic.

“I visited my mother in a Tampa Bay complex
Klonopin and vodka all day
She was pulling on bottles
No pull to eat
Strapped inside of cathode rays
What was most sad of all is that you didn’t want to leave your imprisonment
You said that ‘I’m happy’
I was arrogant I said that you weren’t”

Endless Scroll is out now and you can get it from the Bodega Bandcamp page.

The Cordial Sins – Not Enough

Based out of Columbus, Ohio, The Cordial Sins combine riot grrrl energy with shoegaze soundscapes and 00s indie rock tendencies. Amidst this lay Liz Fisher’s vocals, equally comfortable in nostalgic croon or impassioned yell, as displayed on new single ‘Not Enough’. The track is more atmospheric and grand than much of their previous release, Only Human, forming something of an anthem by the close and forming a considered exploration of human connection and the search thereof. Still, the newly soaring sound does not negate a sense of intimacy and personality, meaning The Cordial Sins achieve the best of both worlds.

‘Not Enough’ is out now and you can find more info from The Cordial Sins webpage.

Upstairs – Trust the Process

Working out of Cincinnati, Upstairs are something akin to what might result if Protomartyr and Parquet Courts were placed in a blender—a verbose brand of indie rock that can’t quite decide between cynical detachment and sincere shouting. Latest album Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now displays an impressive range of styles and sounds, though its closer ‘Trust the Process’ that best captures the Upstairs spirit, a frantically wordy sermon that veers between hip sing-speak and momentous outpouring, all the while weaving a lyrical monologue that is as urgent as it is amusing.

Our Ass is in the Jackpot Now is out now and you can get it from the Upstairs Bandcamp page.

Fanclub – Leaves

Fanclub are a trio from Austin who make music that combines the heartfelt songwriting of Jay Som or Anna Burch and adorns it with dreamily retro electronics, creating pop that sparkles and shimmers like a valentine-pink neon billboard. Their debut single, ‘Leaves’ displays these traits perfectly, Leslie Crunkilton’s vocals the perfect accompaniment to the honey sweet synths and blissful dream pop guitar, creating a song that sounds like a nostalgically fuzzy digital embrace.

You can buy ‘Leaves’ now from the Fanclub Bandcamp page.

Con Davison – Talk

Having been a drummer for various recording projects like Bad Bad Hats and Dreamspook, Minneapolis’ Con Davison has decided to start recording music on his own terms. Set for release this autumn, Far Off Distant Plans is his debut solo EP, wresting back full control and allowing for a process of artistic self-actualisation that has been a long time coming. New single ‘Talk’ gives some idea as to what shape this might take, a half-paced and expressive brand of indie pop that kicks into insistent rhythms, changes of tone that signal the emergence of a sense of earnestness. Therefore, while remaining fun, the Con Davison sound displays a far wider range, ticking all the boxes within a sweet three minute croon.

Far Off Distant Plans will be released on the October 19th so keep an eye on the Con Davison Bandcamp page for more info.

Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

Our Fastest Typist is an indie rock multi-instrumentalist from Austin, Texas. Their latest album, Group Therapy For Imaginary Monsters was released last month, a collection of songs that draw on influences both classic (see Bowie and The Rolling Stones) and contemporary (fans of Car Seat Headrest will find a lot to like). Ranging from the intimate bedroom pop of ‘The Day Vacation Saved My Life’, to 11+ minute rock epic ‘Imaginary Monsters (Go to Heaven)’.

The standout is second single, ‘It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me’, all grainy lo-fi guitar and witty but affecting lyrics. It’s a song about it being sunny outside but feeling cloudy on the inside, and captures nicely how Our Fastest Typist confronts worries and bad feelings with liberating indie rock.

Group Therapy for Imaginary Monsters is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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