Our first glimpse of an EP forthcoming via AWAL, new single ‘wes anderson (your dog)’ was conceived in a fit of boredom during a screening of Anderson’s Asteroid City, and channels the experience into a sound capable of exploring wider themes. Guitar from LA-based producer and musician AYUSH and drums by New York’s Giulianna Iapalucci (pka Rocco!) flesh out the track, and mixing from Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and mastering by Nick Garcia make this perhaps the most collaborative boyhood. release to date.

It’s a slow creeper which looks to escape the sluggish rhythm of its present situation, evolving with an organic grace into something dreamy enough to transcend the moment. “Feeling stuck (but free to leave) in my seat echoed the feeling of being stuck (but free to leave) a relationship that isn’t working anymore, he describes. “This song is an ode to the monotony of a certain kind of cyclical dysfunction.”

‘wes anderson (your dog)’ is out now via streaming services.

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This lush sound can in good part be explained by the team of friends and collaborators which helped Quinn Devlin bring it to life. Jordan Wolff (drums), Andy Shimm (bass, vocals), Jack Broza (guitar), James Wyatt Woodall (pedal steel, lap steel), Dylan DeFeo (piano), Annie Nikunen (flute), Eli Aleinikoff (soprano saxophone), Sarah Cicero (vocals), Jack Jobst (vocals) and Sahil Ansari (shaker, tambo) all lend their talents, with Ansari also taking care of mixing, engineering and production and Phillip Shaw Bova the mastering.

Latest single ‘PBR Song’ serves as another example of how these various parts cohere into a compelling whole. A slow-burning folk song which might sit on the shelf alongside the likes of Adeline Hotel, the track again leads the listener from intimate quiet to affirming peaks, the harmonious vocals building a sense of communal compassion. “She taught me how to show affection, tell me friends I love them,” Devlin sings in the opening lines, “with a warm embrace,” and the song plays as a realisation of this advice. Arms extended to envelop the listener, no matter how far away they might be.

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As ‘Scabs’ suggested, the record sees Dupuis explore large issues with a personal eye, and latest single ‘Ghostwriter’ is perhaps the most direct example. A song which focuses on a central tension of being alive and active within the contemporary moment. Because while anger is the only logical response to a world marked by widespread injustice and climate-based catastrophe, it is also an exhausting emotion to live with. The risk is getting caught between stations, too angry to rest, too tired to act, and here Dupuis attempts to navigate the experience in manner which might allow for some degree of longevity. “While ‘Ghostwriter’ ruminates on the horrible realities that stoke my anger,” she explains, “it’s also about trying to live with less rage in the day-to-day. And not always succeeding, but not getting mad about that, either. And sometimes directing that angry adrenaline toward positive actions.”

The track comes complete with a video directed by Alex Ross Perry which features a whole host of guest appearances. From musicians like Ted Leo, Spencer Peppet (The Ophelias), Nicola Leel (Doe/Customer), Kate Meizner (Jobber) and Zoë Brecher (Sad13/Bruce Springsteen), to authors such as Rax King, Amy Rose Spiegel and merritt k, through to cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein and comedians Josh Gondelman and Emily Panic. Not to mention fellow United Musicians and Allied Workers organizers Spencer Compton and Marshall Moran. See who you can spot in the crowd below:

Rabbit Rabbit will be released on the 1st September via Wax Nine Records and you can pre-order it now.

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With an EP on the way, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh has now released brand new single, ‘We Could Be Comets’. A snaking, smouldering song which burns steadily and quietly with a sense of longing, casting its gaze across the years to bring impressive depth to the yearning tone. “The night I met you / Old hotel, two doors down,” Tranbaugh sings, “heard someone singing / So I went following the sound / To a room full of bodies and bottles and bliss / I remember the way you smiled when I sang the fifth.”

The second verse jumps into the present, that same voice ringing just as clear eight years later, bringing all the old love back, albeit through a complicated situation of context and circumstances. So instead, in her compassionate and always controlled tone, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh suggests something different. Accepting that a happy ever after might not be possible, instead parcelling the feelings into brief moments which burn bright if only for a moment.

I know we’re both tangled up right now
If we’re being honest
I won’t ask to be your constant lover
Maybe I could be your comet

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“I tend to get lost in nostalgia—fixated on the past, out-of-touch with the present, uninterested in the future,” explains Balto lead Daniel Sheron. The Californian outfit’s latest single ‘Spanish Wine’ confronts this habit head on, albeit with digressions toward trysts in laundromats, conga lines in Cuba and the ghost of an imagined future with no distinction between state and civil society. “I wrote this song in the height of the pandemic as a rejection of that concept,” Sheron continues. “I needed a reminder that the past is an illusion—it doesn’t exist anymore!”

Big Joanie – In My Arms

London punk trio Big Joanie return later this year with new album Gone Home on Kill Rock Stars and the Daydream Library Series from Ecstatic Peace Library. A record which promises to examine the concept of home in all of its variety, be it where we’ve come from, where we’re going, or some imagined place we work towards and dream about. Single ‘In My Arms’ combines these elements of past and future, reflecting on fond memories as a way to instigate a desired future. Check out the video directed by Lydia Garnett below:

Back Home is out via Kill Rock Stars and Ecstatic Peace Library on the 4th November and you can pre-order it now.

Butch Wifey – Eighteen

Based in Boise, Idaho, Butch Wifey is the recording project of Chloe Ponder, who makes indie pop songs she says “aim to dredge up the uncomfortable feelings associated with queer relationships.” Her latest single ‘Eighteen’ draws upon two periods of anxiety faced several years apart. The first was leaving home for the first time at eighteen, and the second was early-twenties romantic troubles, both of which elicited a similar sense of unease and confusion. But for all the discomfort of the subject matter, the single is ostensibly a slick and summery pop song, Ponder’s vocals providing a nostalgic and wistful edge.

Canary – i used to write you love songs

If there seems to be something of a paradox at work on ‘i used to write you love songs’, the latest single from Pennsylvania‘s Canary, then it’s one which depends on the definition of a love song. Because though the track has all of the tenderness and contemplation of a classic love song, it doesn’t take long for the track to reveal its fangs. By the time Zach Dennis’s guitar goes spiralling and Kat Leverenz sings the titular refrain, it becomes clear this isn’t a love song at all, at least not in the usual sense. What begins soft and sedate blooms into a heavy and dynamic exploration of heartbreak and betrayal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1MYacMeP9s&ab_channel=Canary

‘i used to write you love songs’ is out now and available on streaming services.

Couch Prints – All I Know

Described as “centred around the American car crash,” New York-based Couch Prints’ forthcoming mixtape Waterfall looks to capture the contemporary moment. The project of Jayanna Roberts, Brandon Tong, and Jacob Truax, Couch Prints make synth pop that’s equal parts danceable and introspective, and latest single ‘All I Know’ represents perhaps their furthest foray into the latter aspect of their sound. The song is “a simple expression of the unease caused by the boundless media and content of the modern world,” say the band, “an ode to ignorance is bliss”. Sonically it feels like a balm for this sensory overload, stripping back the dance elements to leave a gently spacious song built on gentle guitar and Roberts’ soft vocals.

dani mack – fleabag

We first featured dani mack, the project of Baylee Barrett, back in April when we covered her single ‘Someday’, released via LA label Future Gods. We called it “bright and disarmingly straightforward…weav[ing] a careful balance between strength and vulnerability.” Now Barrett returns with a new single, ‘fleabag’, a taut and irreverent pop song about trying to let go of residual shame. “In simplest terms, which most can relate to, it’s a nod to dating and how terrible it is,” Barrett explains. “[But] on a deeper level, it’s a song about my own sexual repression and my difficulties with casual relationships. I grew up a devout Christian and letting go of the guilt that was instilled in me from such a young age is still something I still struggle with. There’s still a little part of me that’s afraid that come judgment day.”

‘fleabag’ is available now via streaming services.

Fusilier – No Words

Fusilier is the project of Atlanta-born, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Blake Fusilier. Later this month he will release a new EP, Treason, which promises to explore themes of selfhood, alienation and belonging in a style that draws on a diversity of influences, from Bill Withers and Fela Kuti to TV on the Radio and Nine Inch Nails. But as lead single ‘No Words’ shows, the result is something wholly his own, sleek and sinuous yet charged with a desire to make meaningful change. Namely through a reframing of the self within a wider picture, reaffirming one’s own ability to define themselves beyond whatever outside forces might think or want them to be. As Fusilier puts it, the song is about “letting go of the thought that I’m not the main character in my own story.”

Maya Lucia – numb or something

‘numb or something’ is the latest single by indie rock artist Maya Lucia, who makes angsty and exuberant songs that allow her to vent her emotions in the healthiest way possible. Taken from a forthcoming album, miss girl world, the song is a great introduction for newcomers, a stormy and infectious pop song that’s noisy enough to purge any lingering frustrations. “This is the song you scream in your room after a long day,” Lucia describes. “It’s melodrama at its core — the feeling of the world ending only to realize you’re crying over nothing.”

You wouldn’t care if I went and disappeared
You wouldn’t care if I drowned myself in tears

miss girl world comes out on August 19th and you can preorder it from the Maya Lucia Bandcamp page.

 Mol Sullivan – Deep End Dive

Cincinnati‘s Mol Sullivan has made a name over the last decade making earnest and unflinchingly intimate songs leavened with pop melodies and confident vocals. Latest single ‘Deep End Dive’ is described as “a reflection of a regretful approach to a loved one,” and combines difficult soul searching with feelings of growth and hope. Born of Sullivan’s recent sobriety, the track displays a genuine sense of self-reflection and reconciliation, a clear mind piercing the storm clouds of the past and allowing more positive progress into the future.

‘Deep End Dive’ is out now and available from the Mol Sullivan Bandcamp page.

Prudence – Waste Some Time

The recording project of Sydney‘s Tom Crandles, Prudence makes what we’ve described previously as “human traits wrapped up in a gloominess as grey and chilly as the Cold War-era of the post-punk and new wave it references, revealed only in the intermittent illuminations made so prominent by the twilit tones.” New album Negatives looks to continue the aesthetic, a fitting soundtrack for the troubled world in which it was created. Lead single ‘Waste Some Time’ introduces the shadowy and conflicted atmosphere, a lean and linear pop song that’s all sinew and forward motion, forgoing the repetition of the conventional verse-chorus structure.

Negatives is out on 26th August and you can pre-order it now from the Prudence Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Braindead II

After a series of releases on Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records, Portland, Maine’s Snake Lips have unveiled brand new record Happy Anxious. The title feels like the perfect fit for their hectic sound, lead Cody Mitchell’s vocals delivered with both volatility and wry humour, as though strung out between hope and despair and choosing to ride the instability. Single ‘Braindead II’ sets the mood, its lo-fi punk style barrelling along with real pace as Mitchell shouts, shrieks and smirks about the hand life has dealt him.

Zack Keim – Canyon

Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Zack Keim cut his teeth in music from an early age, forming bands from his early teens and touring as the frontperson of punk outfit Nox Boys when only sixteen. But, despite the band’s success, his creativity wasn’t satisfied, turning to solo work as a new outlet with the 2017 album First Step. New single ‘Canyon’ represents Keim’s first solo work since, emerging from some major life changes as well as the usual global turmoil with a newfound freshness and confidence. A bright-eyed refusal to back down from his passions and will to create, and perhaps the first time he has really started to develop his artistic voice.

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Writing of the “distinctively sardonic style” of single ‘Sunny <3‘, we hinted at the tongue-in-cheek tone of McTigue’s work. “Do not be fooled by the title,” we wrote, “or at least be sure to excavate its wry connotations, as this FOMO anthem does not find joy or self-actualisation at the end of a productively jammed day. Just creeping panic as the pressure to be better and better coils like a spring.” The song is indicative of the first half of the record, where the cutting edge is still sharp, the meanness still fresh. Be it coming from a seemingly personal point of view, as on ‘I Hate You :(‘, or that of a frustrated Chrissy Moltisanti (‘The Family’). But as the album progresses, there’s a slight change of tone. The edge dulling somewhat, the meanness softening, fondness breaking through like a reluctant weed. Perhaps not quite scientific proof of the value of vitriol, but a promising start at least.

Alongside the album, Pacing set up web project anxiety.place, a portal which asked people to submit their deepest insecurities anonymously. The results have been collected into a brand new video for the song ‘Who has ADHD now lol?’, where the fears pop up as an incessant stream of notifications over the archive footage and internet memes. “I am a brand new person / Now that I’ve received medication,” McTigue sings in spite of these unwanted messages pinging in at random. “Don’t expect me to be a f-up / You’ll be out of luck / Cause I’m a damn brand new human being.” This being Pacing, things are of course rarely so simple, but if you can laugh about it then perhaps you might forget to worry too much?

hatemail is out now and available from the Pacing Bandcamp page. The anxiety.place form is still live too, so if you have any burning insecurities to share, you know where to drop them.

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It is unsurprising then that Light Play takes inspiration from the speculative and socially-aware sci-fi of the likes of Octavia Butler and the Strugatsky brothers. Fiction of imagined futures and distorted pasts which refracts the present back to us in all of its strangeness, able to describe not only its outrages and weirdness but that which is absent too. (is) conjures her own world of synths and static and subdued beats, an “ambient album for the apocalypse” which evokes what we’ve lost, what we’re in the process of losing and what never came to be.

Take the spacious drift of opener ‘Deep Time (Degenerating Spine Mix)’, which together with its spoken word poetry evokes the present as a thin line between unknown future and primordial ancientness, rendering its banal cruelties in all of their ridiculous transience. The brooding creep of ‘Psychoprobe Console’ unfurls into a kind of melancholic march, while ‘Diffraction (Bellona Transmission)’ blurs any line between organic and digital in its verdant textures. Though, as in final track ‘departure’, the clarity which comes with this sense of the natural is invaded by distortion. Staticky glitches that reveal the whole thing to be a dream or projection, something we might have had. The mood is central to the release, one which demands we return to the present against our wishes or failing judgement. “Hovering somewhere between signal and noise,” the album notes conclude, “Light Play echoes back from (im)possible futures to ask a singular question of the uncertain present: what now?”

Cover art by Vin Tanner

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This spring sees the release of Numbers Game, the second Grocer album that’s out via Grind Select. Initially conceived as an EP, the release came into being during a stay in rural Georgia in early 2021, and by the time the band had finished a tour in the summer of that year, the full record had taken shape. A collection of songs seeking interior spaces as a refuge from the exterior chaos, only to find such an escape impossible. The slow and unnerving discovery that we are not separate from the blights of the world, and indeed most probably bear some blame as to their prevalence due to the way in which we live. The perfect themes, that is, for the tumultuous and chaotic Grocer aesthetic.

Lead single ‘Pick A Way’ delves into the outlandish justification and rationale surrounding toxic masculinity, especially in light of events such as the Jan 6th insurrection. A tale of frustrated hopes and aborted futures. A voice looking to be heard among many others. “I don’t hear my name / so I shout it out,” go the lyrics. An attempt to persevere beyond the moment, to make yourself lasting within a system slowing falling down.

Done gazing in no longer lingering on
Why this entire planet must envision me wrong
Some rush, white and in the front
Poking just for fun
Pick away and run

Check out the video by Nicholas Rahn below:

Numbers Game is out on the 6th May via Grind Select and you can pre-order it now from the Grocer Bandcamp page.

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The journey informs Ol Whitetail, the self-titled debut album which draws upon the various experiences and influences to craft a nuanced and heartfelt style of folk. Combining the more formal side of Thompson’s training with self-taught invention and a poet’s eye for detail, the record utilises references both musical and literary to explore social and philosophical issues. Traditional folk repurposed for the contemporary moment.

Lead single ‘Low In The Laurels’ is the perfect example of the Ol Whitetail style. Contrasting Thompson’s childhood in conservative Appalachia with the experience of returning as an adult, the track is a considered and often poignant meditation on what has changed and what has not. Both in terms of the town and Thompson herself.

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This autumn sees Swim Camp return with Fishing in a Small Boat, a brand new full-length to be released via Know Hope Records which continues this exploratory descent into the intricacies of personal relationships. Rooted in introspective intimacy yet made vivid by Morris’s creative vision, the are songs indebted to the classic bedroom pop aesthetic but able to transcend it. Maintaining the earnestness of the genre but moving past its lo-fi style.

Lead single ‘Melt’ is a perfect example. Opening with a murmured, confessional tone, the sound has all the hallmarks of the genre. Though as the track develops, so does the sound. Lively drums shake the song forward as Molly Germer’s violin hovers behind the vocals, and eventually the various elements coalesce into something bright and clamorous. Something alive.

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