Open your mind and zone out, way out, together with Atlanta’s great Arbor Labor Union. The past few years have found the band embracing their Southern roots, channeling their way through cosmic Americana while retaining their weirdo punk sense of adventure. They’ve locked in, exploring krautrock and spliced and frayed psych, while maintaining the fluid nature and rolling boogie of classic rock and twangy punk. Yonder, the band’s latest album is a spiritual successor to 2020’s New Petal Instants, picking up the natural essence and continuing to warp repetitive structures with knotted progressions and disjointed rhythms, landing with a complex choogle that feels as breezy as the front-porch air. Songs like the rattled title track and early single “Hovering Stone” recall the best work of the Meat Puppets, but the itchy tempos (“Undoom’d”) and elastic melodies (“Real Beasts”) of Arbor Labor Union feel unique, pulled from a southern fried core and filtered through a decade of DIY punk pedigree. Up the twang, up the punx… Arbor Labor Union prove it to be possible. - DG