As this description suggests, Bloom Again sees runo plum chart something of an arc, following the Minnesota artist from the dark, despondent days after a heartbreak through to the sprouting of new love. With the release now only weeks away, plum has unveiled the EP’s final single, ‘pink moon’, and the song is indicative of the tenderness with which she approaches this topic. Written in the hours after a successful first date, the track is warm and sensual, bathed in the tentative fondness such new beginnings tend to bring. As such there’s an unapologetic romance to both the tone and lyrics, something which asserts itself through a kind of hyperawareness. Sugar on lips, freckles on shoulders, dimples in cheeks, no small observation slips past the eye. The novelty of a new person announcing itself as a beauty worthy of any natural wonder.

Watch the video by CallMeRambo below:

Bloom Again will be released by Winspear on 8th May. Grab a copy now from the runo plum Bandcamp page.

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The track was the first from patching, the debut runo plum record coming this autumn on Winspear. The album sees the Minneapolis songwriter introduce a new stage of her sound, building upon the affectionate folk foundations she’s developed over the last handful of years into something deeper, with Lutalo and Noa Francis joining to elevate the project into a full band.

Latest single ‘Sickness’ highlights the newfound emotional power of this style. plum has lost none of the tenderness which so marked earlier releases, but is now even better equipped to elucidate the highs and lows of life. Outlining the experience of psychosomatic illness and the constant self-awareness such a phenomenon demands, the track is notably unguarded in tone. One honest about the myriad of afflictions which visit the chronically worried body, yet, like ‘Lemon Garland’ before it, unable to lose a sense of hope in something better and more comfortable.

inevitably, i’ll fall under weather
and then baby blue, i’m gonna find that feather
on the flip side, it’ll be greener tonight
there’s always something new, right?

Watch the video by Marlowe Lee below:

patching will be released on the 14th November via Winspear and you can pre-order it from the runo plum Bandcamp page.

Photo by Alexa Viscius

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There is a repeated line, a single word refrain, in ‘The Glow’, the new song from Aïda Mekonnen Caby, which you may have some trouble comprehending. Fjaðrárgljúfur is the name of a canyon in south east Iceland which Caby and her partner visited in the early days of their relationship, and the landmark’s cinematic majesty leaks into the song’s very DNA, transforming a gentle indie folk song into something rich with widescreen emotion. It also represents something of a new dawn. For one, it is the opening track of the debut Aïda Mekonnen Caby album, Mais Uma, which comes out at the end of August via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. But also because the trip that inspired it and the feelings it evokes marked a turning point in Caby’s life too, one which saw her move first to Portugal and then to France. Mais Uma promises to explore this period of personal change and all its associated heart swells and aches, illuminated throughout with that sense of wonder at newfound love.

Dead Tooth – Song of the Weak

Led by New York-based songwriter Zach Ellis, self-described ‘rodeo-core’ outfit Dead Tooth have made a name crafting an atmospheric and often slightly chaotic brand of post-punk, combining the brooding shadow of the genre with raw energy. With their self-titled debut out now via Trash Casual, Dead Tooth have shared single and opener ‘Song of the Weak’ to introduce their work to the uninitiated. A song full of volatility and bite, Ellis’s vocals spiking with frustration as though driven half-crazed by the constant motion beneath him, or else how it never seems to lead to anywhere new. “In so many words [the song is] about struggling with cyclical destructive decision making,” Ellis explains. “Choosing hedonism over looking in the mirror. I’ve spent many years in NY on what feels like a hamster wheel of trying to fill a void or chase some kind of unattainable self/other. A song written for the darker times that in retrospect I feel have eaten too many years of my life.”

Dead Tooth is out now via Trash Casual and available from Bandcamp.

Living Hour – Wheel

Winnipeg’s Living Hour have announced Internal Drone Infinity, their fourth record, which will release later this year. What the band themselves have coined “yearn-core”, their style combines slowcore, indie rock and dream pop into something shaded by the gauzy texture of memory. The record was in part inspired by lead Sam Sarty’s time as a cinema projectionist, and it exists in a similarly otherworldly setting, its dark backdrop illuminated by a wistful glow as the band express what they call “the quiet magic hidden in everyday life.” To celebrate the announcement, Living Hour have unveiled lead single ‘Wheel’, which shows off both the dreamy yearn and crunchy rock sides of their sound very nicely.

The track comes complete with a video by Leigh Lugosi and Brett Ticzon, which you can see below:

Internal Drone Infinity will be released on 17^th October via Keeled Scales, Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). Pre-order a copy now from the Living Hour Bandcamp page.

Malena Zavala – MELT

Born in Argentina and now living between London and Mexico City, Malena Zavala is a self-taught musician and producer who first caught attention with her 2018 debut, Aliso. Drawing inspiration from both Latin American music and the likes of Devendra Banhart, Beach House and Feist, Zavala’s music layers poetic lyrics over hypnotic and haunting instrumentation. Latest single ‘MELT’, the first single from an EP of the same name that comes out later this year on Zavala’s own new label Paraná Records, is a good example. A soft and cosy love song that Zavala says tries “to express the feeling of being wrapped up in bed,” it’s built on gentle acoustic guitar and her hushed and intimate vocals and accentuated by ethereal harmonies and subtle synths.

‘MELT’ is out now via streaming services

Oh, Rose – For Art

Almost a year on from their last full-length Dorothy, Olympia/Portland mainstays Oh, Rose return in September with For Art, a brand new EP released via the good folks as Antiquated Future Records. The EP finds the band’s members in the midst of some big personal events, like getting married and starting families, and perhaps understandably this has them ruminating on family and relationships. As the label put it, the EP focuses on “themes of long-term commitment and partnership—both in romantic and platonic relationships, as well as to artistic practice itself.” Oh, Rose have released the title track by way of introduction, an unhurried and heartfelt song that captures these themes perfectly. “At first I feel so nervous to be this vulnerable,” Rose sings with courageous clarity, “it’s true that I was thinking about you.”

Routine Caffeine – Green Glass

“A track which marries a taut central rhythm with a dreamy haze, and hints at a sharp bite too, all highlighting just how much control Katie O’Brien Kelley (vocals, guitar), Madison Elizabeth Case (bass, synth, background vocals) and Emma Treganowan (drums) have over the mood of their work.” So we wrote of Routine Caffeine‘s ‘Philodendron‘ back in 2024, a track taken from the Louisville-based trio’s Weeds Under Concrete Stones. Their first release since that EP, new single ‘Green Glass’ is no less evocative, again crafting an immersive atmosphere to explore themes of nostalgia, belonging and the passing of time. “This song has served as a way for me to reflect on my family’s old farm in Michigan, one of my most treasured places,” they explain. But more than a lesson in simple longing for home, the track also charts the changes to the beloved place which accumulate with every return, adding an extra layer melancholy as the familiar slowly shifts into something different, and the past only grows further away.

runo plum – Lemon Garland

Minnesota singer-songwriter runo plum has slowly amassed a following over recent years, her detailed, wistful style of bedroom folk winning plenty of attention online. Having now signed with the ever-impressive Winspear, plum has released new single ‘Lemon Garland’ to celebrate. The first taste of forthcoming debut album patching, the song embodies the fondness and compassion of the runo plum style, as well as the longing for connection which underpins it. “Give me company / barefoot and muddy,” as she sings, “give me pointing / at the birds we’ve never seen before / we’ll stop to pick some veggies / for the big feast at our friendly table.” The result is inherently bittersweet, a hopeful vision of the future shadowed by the suggestion such community remains just a dream, though the lasting feeling is one of affection. As though it wishing for something so simple and fulfilling, runo plum shows our desires need not be so far away.

Watch the video directed by Karlee Boon below:

patching will be released soon via Winspear.

Scree – TV Sometimes

Brooklyn experimental maestros Scree return next month with August, a brand new full-length on Ruination Record Co. The band—that’s primary trio guitarist/composer Ryan El-Solh, bassist Carmen Quill and drummer Jason Burger, plus lots of guests—are hard to pin down, smashing together everything from Romantic classical music, dusty lonesome Americana, improvisational jazz and weighty indie rock to create some of the most interesting and deep instrumental music around. Scree released the title track as the lead single a few weeks back, and have now returned with a second cut, the enigmatically titled ‘TV Sometimes’. The song has been part of the band’s live repertoire for years, and here it gets a richer arrangement with contributions from the cast of collaborators. “It’s something like a love song,” El-Solh describes. “I probably should’ve chosen a more generally intelligible title, but at the time there was really only one person I was trying to reach with this bit of code and she got the message so the title stuck.”

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“This song revolves around the ending of a years-long relationship,” Nona Invie explains. “I felt self-conscious in my small community and spent too many years dampening my presence, not playing music out, hiding my joy and new love for fear of hurting my ex. Some communication finally happened and it was like a cloud lifted and I just felt totally free to be myself and exist in the world.” ‘Last Of Our Shadow’ details this process across its runtime, its slow-building style beginning with mournful quiet but blooming into something warm and affirming, as though quite literally stepping out from beneath a shadow and into the light. “I realized how I had been totally dogged by these feelings of guilt and shame and I needed to move on from the black hole of ruminating I had been living in,” as Invie continues. “I wrote this in a day and never looked back.”

It was the last of our shadow
Loose the hold it had on me
It was the last of our shadow

Found a release today
It’s been five years never too late
Because there’s nothing left to say

Watch the video by Shawna Lee below:

Self-soothing will be released on the 28th February via Boiled Records and you can pre-order it now.

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This sense of rebirth is explored from a multitude of angles and viewpoints, a kaleidoscopic fusion of fact and fiction, memories of the past and imaginings of the future. From the vision of being the last person alive on opener ‘Sun’ (a slow-dawning meditation on place stripped of its history or context), to the anxious thoughts on the monotony of the present on ‘Cigapple’, Nat Harvie gathers handfuls of disparate threads and ties them together in intimate but widescreen pieces of electronic art pop. The result is something of a self portrait, a sonic and narrative collage that reveals a meta-story of personal evolution and queer personhood. ‘Shovel’ is perhaps the perfect example, a song which delves back further into Harvie’s past and grapples with childhood fears and their eventual defeat in order to summon up the courage to overcome more recent hurdles.

I was a child sleeping with a shovel in my bed
I was lining up Mom’s earrings on the floor
I was a germaphobe I could’ve been a murderer
Always stepping back letting anything unfold

The other standout is ‘Cheap’, which adds an air of elegiac Americana to its electronic foundations. Encapsulating the album as a whole, it’s a song that feels both fresh and bruised, sounding somehow at once intro- and extroverted, its visceral vulnerability delivered with carefree candour. Like when Harvie gets wistful when cutting their hair, lies about their age to impress potential suitors (“I tell strangers still I’m only 19 years old /  So I can seem a little smarter than my age”), or admits to past cruelties, it’s all in search of that new start, that clean slate. “It’s not regressive, not revisionist,” Harvie concludes. “I am not winding back the clock of my life, I am bringing a *new* virginity to myself.”

New Virginity is out now via Boiled Records and is available from the Nat Harvie Bandcamp page.

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Right On sees Undlin joined by Pete Quirsfeld (drums), Pat Keen (bass, organ, percussion, background vocals, synth) and Shane Leonard (percussion, mandolin, background vocals, keys), who together create a folk rock sound that’s undeniably richer that previous Humbird releases. The result is what the label call “the project’s most electric, playful, mettled record yet,” but longtime fans need not worry, the signature Humbird idiosyncrasies and experimentalism remain. “Even so, Right On incorporates friendly winks to the more whimsical, soundscape-y improvisations that audiences have come to expect from a Humbird performance,” Nettwerk continue. “Electrified, gritty, Midwest Americana with a little magic fairy dust thrown in.”

Nowhere is this more apparent than on closer and latest single ‘Song For The Seeds’. The song (rather aptly) grows into its full band arrangement, building from hushed and humble beginnings into a full-bodied country pop song. As the title suggests, it’s inspired by plants and the near-magical transformation from seed to shoot to sapling, finding hope and joy in their resilience, their patience and the hopeful joy of watching them grow. “‘Song For The Seeds’ is a song that could have been hours long,” Undlin tells Under the Radar. “It’s an unending topic of consideration: plants and all they teach us. I realize this sounds fairly hippy-dippy, but I don’t really care and I don’t think the plants do either. It’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to a sort of mantra within a Humbird song yet and I stand by it.””

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Opener ‘PLPH’ introduces the blend of folk, rock and soul which constitutes the Lutalo sound, as well as the critique of capitalist and racist systems that extends across the release. “I sit inside your pretty little painted house,” go the opening lines, calling out the window dressing on these violent levers of power, and the song ends with a defiant refrain. “I won’t play your game / It’s making me go insane.” With its languid rhythm and grungy attitude, ‘Hold My Head’ is no less evocative, a meditation on addiction that feels like a response to the previous track. A picture of the coping mechanisms required to live in a broken world.

Take my blood
Till I’m bone dry
Give it to me
A bold face lie
Throw my vote
Into the box
Cast me away
An old pair of socks

The rest of the songs on the release cover a variety of topics, though all circle back to the oppression built into our society. “I’m analysing those systems and patterns, and also asking, ‘Can we continue to not perpetuate this?’” Lutalo explains. “Because it’s hurt a lot of people historically. I’m just asking people to question it.” ‘The Old Cast’ asks to be lifted beyond the fate which seems inevitable, and ‘Push Back Baby’ confronts corporate greed head on, both tracks understated in sound but cutting beneath the surface. ‘Strange Folk’ smoulders with a volatile energy, threatening to spill over, but instead just embraces it own momentum. Closer ‘WAR’ rises from this energised, a call to arms which shakes free from the fuzz of the record and grows confident in its contempt.

Held in paper skin
One just wants to feel care
Torn apart from within
In defiance or despair
To war again

AGAIN is out now via Winspear and available from the Lutalo Bandcamp page.

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‘Been a Long Year’, the lead single from Alex Nicol’s forthcoming EP Been a Long Year Vol. 1, offers a picture of grief as a kind of matryoshka doll. Where a wider context of loss and decay couches the personal, and sadness moves ever-inward with increasing weight. The track’s landscape is a town decimated by both the pandemic and chronic neglect (“And all the shops are empty,” as Nicol sings, “and the diners too / The miller, baker, and seamstress / Gotta find something new to do), within which personal tragedies including the loss of a job and the death of friends and family unfold. But with a compassionate, airy tone and guest vocals from Angel Deradoorian, ‘Been a Long Year’ doesn’t try to make sense of such experiences so much as admit the full implication of their difficulty. “I wanted to express my frustration at running from my feelings for so long,” Nicol explains. “It felt like the world was crumbling at the same time as I was pretending everything was fine, but I really wasn’t, and I finally expressed it. It feels like one long exhale for me.”

Been a Long Year Vol. 1 is out on the 30th June and you can pre-save it now.

Alex Gardner – Upside Down Crown

Inspired by everything from the Anthology of American folk music, rockabilly and bluegrass to fairy tales and experimental poetry, LA‘s Alex Gardner combines classic and contemporary styles in his distinctive music. A kind of outsider folk for the twenty-first century, where Gardner teases out the through line from acts like Michael Hurley to the modern indie style. With album Highly Attainable Dreams coming later this week, single ‘Upside Down Crown’ gives an example of what to expect. A tender folk number propelled by a nineties-style indie rock energy, coupled with a suitably nostalgic video by Lauren Slusser:

Highly Attainable Dreams is out on the 12th May and you can find Alex Gardner on Bandcamp.

Brittany Ann Tranbaugh – Pennsylvania

As much a snapshot of a damaged country as it is a personal narrative, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh’s latest single follows a queer couple as they move from a liberal urban setting to their home in rural Pennsylvania. “It was wonderful to live out west,” go the opening lines, “fun to kid ourselves I guess,” the drive punctuated by second thoughts, uneasy vibes and a “radio blaring about divided times,” but also an undeniable fondness for the familiar landscape too. Tranbaugh’s country style captures this mood in all of its nuance, where fear, fury and bone-weary disappointment coalesce into one dense weight, and wry humour is perhaps the only way to lighten the load.

Pennsylvania, it was never easy to explain ya
Sometimes home’s not just an easy chair
Lately home feels like a cross to bear

Greta Ruth – Holy Omen

Writing of her debut album The Fawn back in 2021, we described the music of Minneapolis artist Greta Ruth as “hum[ming] with a quiet dream-like energy,” where “each track is a composition of poetry and tone which slowly unfurls to reveal layers of depth and meaning.” Last week, Ruth released a brand new single ‘Holy Omen’ which again follows this style. Built on gentle vocals, fingerpicked guitar and Zach Waldon’s subtle piano, it’s a song about the awe and calm that comes with real love, “a love that,” as Ruth puts it, “sweetens and strengthens you while the chaos, mystery, and dissonance of life rage on.” Stark and soft and dream-like, it’s a more than worthy addition to the Greta Ruth oeuvre.

headboy – Reservoir

Next month, London post-punk trio headboy will release their debut EP, Was It What You Thought. Comprising of Mars West (guitar, bass, vocals), Jess Collins (guitar, bass, vocals) and Oli Birbeck (drums), the band make a distinctive blend of raucous punk and lo-fi indie pop which tackles themes both personal and political. “We pretty much condensed every emotion we’ve felt in the past two years into fourteen minutes,” Collins describes. “There are moments of anger, fear, and sadness, but also moments of joy, or acceptance, at least.” Latest single ‘Reservoir’ has all the sweaty, smoky allure of a late-night dive bar dancefloor, a shadowy post-punk exploration of “infatuation and unaddressed sexual tension.” Watch the video, directed by West themselves below:

Was It What You Thought will be released on 9^th June via Blitzcat Records. Order it via the headboy Bandcamp page.

Julez and the Rollerz – Wildest Fantasy

Having originated as a solo project, Julez and the Rollerz really came to life when Jules Batterman moved to LA in 2020 and the Rollerz were enlisted. Soon Rachel David (bass/vocals), Shea Carothers (synth/vocals), Hannah Hughes (guitar/vocals) and Emi Borja (drums) were as important a part of the band as any, and the quintet began honing their psych-inflected punk rock sound. With EP Is This Where The Party Is? coming later this month, the outfit have unveiled latest single ‘Wildest Fantasy’ to rope listeners in. A track which confronts the honest difficulties of negotiating the music industry, fighting to maintain enthusiasm in a space so often appearing to drain dreams from artists. But armed with equal parts playful mischief and heart-on-sleeve passion, Julez and the Rollerz power on through regardless.

Nora Kelly Band – Lay Down Girl

Having made a name as part of grunge outfit DISHPIT, Montreal‘s Nora Kelly has until know been known for her unapologetic attitude and energy. And though a pandemic-induced rebirth pushed new project Nora Kelly Band in an alt-country direction, this defiant tone remains. Album Rodeo Clown is out this summer Mint Records, and lead single ‘Lay Down Girl’ goes some way to explaining the LP’s titular image. A figure made to smile no matter the mood. “The lyrics to this song were direct advice that I was giving to myself,” Kelly explains. “To stop staying put, acting sweet and putting everyone else first. Other people’s approval had been my priority for so long that overtime my connection to what I liked and what I wanted had become weak.” Watch the video directed by Gabie Che below:

Rodeo Clown is out on the 25th August via Mint Records. Find Nora Kelly Band on Bandcamp.

The Phone Booth – Wasted

‘Happier at Home’, the previous single from Santa Barbara outfit The Phone Booth, was a slow-burning ode to living against expectations, moving through a sludgy haze of boredom and anxiety. Something of the track must have served its therapeutic purpose, because new single ‘Wasted’ is altogether more upbeat, blending sunny indie rock with slacker sensibilities to signal something of a return to past album Roman, albeit with a new sheen of polish. The song is the lead single from a forthcoming self-titled album, and gives the impression that The Phone Booth are ready to reintroduce themselves in their most confident form yet.

Sarah Coolidge – Ice Pack

Following several singles and EPs over the last few years, Bay Area musician Sarah Coolidge is set to release her debut album, Call Me When You Get There, a collection of ten songs recorded in John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studios in Oakland. Coolidge has a knack for writing deceptively simple songs that are effortlessly catchy and full of tongue-in-cheek humour, and lead single ‘Ice Pack’ is the perfect introduction. Upbeat indie pop soaked in shoegaze shimmer, it’s a song about a litany of eye injuries suffered from 3^rd grade to present, from burnt eyebrows to invasive pepper flakes. Tennessee Mowrey joins on bass and Chris Olson on drums, and together the trio make something genuinely infectious, certainly the most buoyant examination of bodily harm you’ve heard this year.

Virgin of the Birds – Moon Chariot

Following a series of EPs, Seattle‘s Virgin of the Birds caught the attention of Edinburgh label Song, By Toad, with albums Winter Seeds and Secret Kids seeing them join a roster including the likes of Meursault and Adam Stafford. The company felt fitting for a project straddling lo-fi folk and left-field art rock, where literate lyrics are met with experimental sounds, and inventiveness need not come at the expensive of emotion. The Scottish link continues with new EP Viper Summer, with members of Edinburgh folk outfit Storm the Palace joining to add a new dimension to the project, as captured by lead single ‘Moon Chariot’. A track bursting with bright energy and mythical strangeness, where any sense of opacity from the latter is rendered redundant by the conviction of the former. A song of serpents and winged horses in which you can only totally believe.

I rejoiced at seeing the giantess
And the world and its cruelties
And the serpent that sings:
“Now, for the moon, Noreen!”
“Now, for the moon, Noreen!”

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Later this month, Paul Spring will release Thunderhead, a record that promises to take his music in a new direction entirely. Combining electronic and Medieval influences, it’s an album of anachronisms, casting Spring as some strange bard that wanders into your village with tunes so odd and unfamiliar they sound like sorcery. He describes Thunderhead as a record “for fans of Irish Flutes, TR-808s, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Baroque Chorales, The Illiad, and bass that will shake the rear windshield of a 2007 Toyota Prius,” playing the entire range of disparate instruments himself and even going so far as to include a cover of Koji Kondo’s ‘Fairy Fountain’ from the N64 classic.

Ahead of release Paul Spring has unveiled the single ‘Beetle on a Blade’, a song which captures the album’s ethos rather nicely. He extracts the melody from the traditional Irish folk song ‘Stone in a Field’, recombining it with unsteady guitar and the unwavering march of the drum machine, aiming ultimately to “celebrat[e] fleeting moments of joy in a world fallen apart.”

Thunderhead will be release on 16th December.

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Today we have the pleasure of sharing ‘My Good My Sweet My Bright’, the latest single from bad posture club. Recorded at home on a 4 track cassette recorder, the song is an intimate lullaby, a slow croon for warm dreams performed with the tender affection of genuine acquaintance. Like a well-worn blanket pulled up in all its comforting familiarity. And with good reason. Because far from being a new song, ‘My Good My Sweet My Bright’ was in fact first written in the thirties by Kavanagh’s great grandmother Elsie Waters Kavanagh (pictured below) and subsequently passed through the family from generation to generation as a precious heirloom.

The bad posture club version feels like not only a continuation of this process of inheritance, but also a way to capture the beauty inherent within such a thing. A way in which to celebrate the continuity between the past and the present, to cherish that which might otherwise appear lost, and ultimately draw comfort from the knowledge that we are part of something larger and more lasting, no matter how perilous any present moment might feel.

Cover art by Eliza Weber

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