by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan)
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "Extended Listening" section of new and notable releases. It's generally written in the late hours of the night and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking it all out (especially as we try not to repeat from last month). There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.
ERYKAH BADU & THE ALCHEMIST
“Before The World Blows” LP
Before The World Blows feels timeless, a transmission from an alien planet, beamed through the galaxy for the betterment of all species. Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have worked magic, their mutual admiration inherent across the much anticipated album’s sixteen tracks, bridging the gaps between R&B, hip-hop, soul, and jazz with a sense of enlightenment and a dissolution of ego. If something is working, the duo let it ride. Badu’s first album in over a decade marks another chapter in her career, a space-age vision of artistic clarity and freedom, elegant maneuvers in real time with Alchemist’s rolling production, warping and weaving around psychedelic loops, live in-studio percussion, atmospheric synths, and skittering jazz. While the tempos drip like molasses more often than not, the depth of the record is boiling over in double time, the pair really exploring what’s possible, reaching out on limbs without losing any sense of cohesion. The glue is in the duo’s artistry, trusting their mutual instincts and working collaboratively to bring out the best in each other.
INSPECTAH DECK
“Dragon’s Breath” LP
Let’s get it straight, Inspectah Deck is one of hip-hop’s all time greats. As an MC, there are few that can match his bars verse to verse. He’s embodied the essence of rap music linguistics from the earliest days of the Wu-Tang Clan and he’s been on his grind ever since. We all know the story about the flood that erased what would have been his RZA produced solo album circa 1996 (one of rap’s greatest tragedies), but Deck has always stayed determined, kept his head down, and his consistency over the past three decades is legendary. Dragon’s Breath, Rebel INS’ sixth solo album, often feels more like a lyricist lounge mixtape than it does a proper album, but that’s a result of Deck’s commitment to the underground. There are a lot of features on the record, the songs unfolding with an army of MCs known to really spit, and Deck as the conductor bringing everything together. What it lacks in decades old allegiances, it makes up for in unfiltered bars and hard-headed brilliance. This is a rap album for people who dig into the raps, Deck’s verses setting the tone with punchlines, OG wisdom, and plenty of super fly shit talk. Together with the next generation of poetically inclined MCs (Ransom, Che Noir, Sa-Roc, 7xvethegenius, ANKHLEJOHN), underground vets (Flee Lord, Skyzoo, RJ Payne, Eto), and longtime peers (Raekwon, Cappadonna, Esoteric of Czarface), Deck is the surgeon, operating on these beats with precision and grace.
JULIA JACKLIN
“The Hardest Thing”
There are plenty of alternative folk darlings out there, but there’s just one Julia Jacklin, an exceptional songwriter whose lyrics hit like a genuine and earnest ton of bricks. There’s a universal quality to her songs of love and agitation, heartbreak and comfort. You get the feeling that she’s going through life’s ups and downs, trying to make sense of it all, and there’s an overwhelming reminder that maybe we’re less alone than we realize. With her fourth album, The Gem, due out on September 25th via 4AD (Aldous Harding, @, Pixies), Jacklin presents the record’s third single, “The Hardest Thing,” a song that pulls between the raw emotion of her lyrics and the minimalist burn of her guitars. It’s a dazzling push and pull with just the slightest amount of twang providing texture for her immaculate voice as she wrestles with the idea of being loved. The song is built with an ease of momentum, the drums shuffling and harmonics buzzing in time with the beautiful sound of Jacklin’s vocals.
JUNE MCDOOM
“Without You”
Four years ago we were introduced to the beauty and magic of June McDoom’s self-titled EP, a record that felt weightless and free of friction yet full of depth and a visionary sense of wonder. Following a few more singles and a string quartet reimagining of the EP, the time has come for Follow The Light, June McDoom’s full length debut. Due out October 16th via Jagjaguwar (Dinosaur Jr, Chanel Beads, Bon Iver), the album continues to blur the lines between soft psychedelic folk and subtle dub influences, the patchwork of the band’s compositions majestic and hazy. “Without You,” the record’s lead single leans toward the English folk influences in June McDoom’s music, as her gentle voice leads us through a labyrinth of the most gorgeous melodies, perfectly foggy production, and layers of nuanced keys, strings, and lightly echoing rhythms.
KING’S EVIL
“Private Failure”
King’s Evil is a new band that pairs together songwriters Sami Martasian (Puppy Problems) and JM ((T-T)b), two distinct voices that have left a mark on Boston’s DIY scene over the past decade. Together with Nick Dussault (drums) and Alex Judd (synths), the quartet are getting ready to release their self-titled EP on September 8th on Worry Bead Records (Night Moth, Tuxis Giant, Vesuvian), a collaboration born from a long standing desire to work together and a growing wealth of ideas. With an eponymous track already out, King’s Evil shared their second single, “Private Failure,” a triumphantly heartbreaking song with a minimalist structure of sustained guitars and a rhythm that creeps in and out, a few beats here and there, an ever expansive backbone to Martasian’s reflective lyrics. Like the best of her Puppy Problems songs, she’s able to shift sentiment and wrap sentences in shapes that give one impression only to land at another. We can’t wait to hear more of this.
NEPTUNE’S CORE
“Pivot” LP
Following a string of promising singles and an EP, the Chicago based sister act (the band is comprised of two sets of sisters) Neptune’s Core have released their dynamic full length debut, Pivot. Out via Shuga Records Label (Feller, Ulna, Uniflora), the album is built on a refreshing mix of ramshackle alternative rock and warbling harmonies. While the band’s songwriting is inherently “pop” at the heart of things, they circumnavigate their paths, opting for the unpredictable route without losing the essence of what gives their music its discordant glow. With vocals that trill in four part unison and songs that seemingly collide within their own tight structures, Neptune’s Core are exploring just how far they can push the envelope of FM gold alternative rock and the results only get better and better the further out they seem to travel. Pivot is a rewarding and adventurous debut from yet another great young Chicago band that truly seems to “get it”.
THE ODYSSEY CULT
“The Night Archer”
While their first two albums took a solo approach, Ethan Miller (Comets On Fire, Feral Ohms, Heron Oblivion) decided to expand The Odyssey Cult into a collective of forward thinking collaborators for Vol. 3. Released via his own Silver Current Records (Lee Ranaldo, Orcutt Shelley Miller, Howlin Rain), the albums pulls together a host of frequent collaborators including Brigid Dawson (Osees), Inna Showalter (Magic Fig), Zoh Amba, Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and more to create an album that rips like a tornado though the desert before locking into hypnotic trance. It’s a psych rock masterclass from Miller and the gang, exploring the outerworlds with unflinching reverence. While the album should absolutely be heard in full, “The Night Archer” presents one of the record’s highlights, a surrealist blend of driving krautrock, dream pop, and sinewy psych rock that really comes together in a gloriously mesmerizing way. With everything tightly in place, Miller’s guitar and tape loops are given room to wander, coloring inside and outside the lines of a blissed out song.
OSEES
“Live In Los Angeles” LP
For anyone that ever wished the Osees would revisit the sound of their glory days (assuming you consider their first decade together to be the glory days), Live In Los Angeles was recorded for you. Together with the great Brigid Dawson once again joining John Dwyer on vocals, the band played a string of shows last year reaching back into their vast catalog and emerging with a set of rampant and reckless hits from albums like Carrion Crawler / The Dream, Help, Floating Coffin, The Master’s Bedroom, and beyond. Burning with the energy of the sun, this record is pure adrenaline, a band at their current live height revisiting their catalog heights (again, this is subjective) with walls of psychedelic guitars, incredible double drums, and mind-melting repetition that hits like a tsunami. Live albums don’t always come across as essential releases in a band’s catalog (especially a band that has as many as Osees do), but Live In Los Angeles feels like a special moment, a look back in time constructed with forward momentum.
RAPSODY
“God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops” LP
It’s long been established that Rapsody in one of modern hip-hop’s best lyricists, each of her albums taking on new conceptual heights, her bars delivered in the form of high art and cultural reckoning. Influenced at a young age by Lauryn Hill, it’s only fitting that she’s earned comparisons to her as an artist whose deeply thoughtful music transcends time and space while planting deep roots. Her new album, God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, is a celebration of black culture, a record that refuses to stay in one lane, skipping between afro-futurist pop to acidic jazz and smoked out soul to immaculate boom-bap-centric rap with the bars to match. She’s operating at a whole different level, scrutinizing every detail of a record that feels both personal and instinctual. As a lyricist, Rapsody is in a world all her own (Black Thought sometimes feel an apt comparison), her words pointed and powerful, poetic and emotional, every line expanding on the thematic depth.
SHUDDER TO THINK
“Who Sent You?”
Shudder To Think were always one of the more adventurous bands in DC’s legendary post-hardcore scene, a band that broke all the rules and let their own freak flag fly high, creating two of the 90’s all time great albums in the process (Get Your Goat and Pony Express Record are as classic as they come) before calling it a day back in 1998. While they’ve reunited for some shows here and there over the years, last year marked the band’s official return as they band released a new single on Dischord Records (Fugazi, Sensor Ghost, Black Eyes), Shudder To Think’s first new music in nearly three decades. The great news is, the reunion continues with Who Sent You?, a new three song EP due out on September 11th. The record’s first single and title track is a great return to form, with tangled rhythms, Nathan Larson’s unpredictable riffs, and a vocal performance from Craig Wedren that’s both reflective of his youth and decidedly absurdist. While the edges aren’t as serrated as they were thirty years ago, there’s no denying the strange magic of Shudder To Think is well in tact.
SWEEPING PROMISES
“You Say I Romanticize” LP
It would seem that Sweeping Promises simply can do no wrong. Each of their albums feels like a masterpiece and then the next one comes along and sure enough, it’s even better. One would imagine at some point that has to end, but we haven’t reached that point yet. You Say I Romanticize, the duo’s third album, is easily their best so far (which really does say a lot), a record with sweltering art punk hooks, unbridled live energy, profound lyrics, and their own lo-fi version of clarity. Don’t get it misconstrued, this album sounds amazing, but for all the attention to detail, Sweeping Promises retain that just-beneath-the-fuzz essence that really makes everything pop (without excessive sheen). There’s a brilliant variety of songs and sounds on the album, soaring for the cosmos one moment and digging violently into the dirt the next. You Say I Romanticize is an aggressive record, not just by Sweeping Promises’ standards, but by any standard. Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug are fired up, and the album feels like pure catharsis.
THANK
“62 Cigs (Live)”
Last year I ventured over the pond to Leeds with the explicit interest of seeing Thank play a show together with Blacklisters and Kal Marks. It was a hell of a good time, a swarm of abrasive joy and sardonic dread from start to finish, a smile firmly plastered onto my face. Fast forward a year and Thank are celebrating ten years together as a band, which is reason enough to release their first live album, 10th Birthday Party: Live at Wharf Chambers. Break out the cake and candles as we all get to experience one of modern noise rock’s absolute best reliving their unhinged birthday show in perpetuity. While the band worked many catalog favorites into the set, they also used the opportunity to capture a few new songs. “62 Cigs,” one of those new songs, finds Thank in fine form, Steve Myles pounding away at the drums, Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe shouting about perfunctory friends and being fed “reasons to be an idiot,” while the melody comes in a kinetic dust storm of damaged electronic pulses and dour bass. Pure tongue-in-cheek depravity that’s as raw as it is brilliant. The song rules. Thank rules. Here’s to another ten years (and more).
V.V. LIGHTBODY
“Dull Knife”
Six years after the release of Make A Shrine Or Burn It, V.V. Lightbody returns with her third album, Period Piece. Vivian McConnell has been busy during those years. She formed Valebol, a psychedelic soft pop duo together with Daniel Villarreal. She’s collaborated and toured together with Cassandra Jenkins, Lala Lala, and Finom. She’s been in high demand, but her focus is once again back on V.V. Lightbody, and things have never sounded better. With the album out October 9th via Egghunt Records (Tōth, Rubblebucket, Hannah Mohan), McConnell took the production reigns, arranging and performing with an unfiltered art folk vision. The results are lush and gently psychedelic, her new music exquisitely composed and sonically free to explore, silky but engaging. “Dull Knife” is the record’s third single, a soulful breeze of rolling drums, swirling keys, and out of focus harmonies. There’s a sense of surrealism at its core, but “Dull Knife” keeps its warm groove in the natural world.
WEIRD 1000
“Grass”
Sometimes it would seem the pieces simply fall into place. Weird 1000, a new trio from New Orleans (which features Lawn’s Rui DeMagalhaes and Jake Silvas of the late great Pudge among their members), has come blasting out of the gate. Set to release their debut EP, Just Desserts, on September 25th via Tough Gum (Steef, Avery Island BCE, Fake Last Name), the band come to life bouncing from wall to wall on the record’s first single, “Grass”. The spring-loaded post-punk song is vibrant (occasionally reminiscent of the great Fake Fruit), warping circular riffs and sharp hooks with motorik drums and a rubbery bass groove. There’s so much energy wrapped into the progressions and the put-on-your-dancing-shoes rhythm, it makes you think that summer might never end (which in New Orleans is far more possible than most places). Weird 1000 are taking the time to step away from the bullshit and simply sit in the grass. Keep an eye (and ear) on this band.
more essentials:
BIMBO
“Things Keep Getting Worse”
Marquette’s Bimbo are a special a band, the kind of band that can play something odd and complex with the end result feeling catchy and accessible. There’s a sunshine fury to their music that rattles of its axis; deranged, delightful, and ultimately distinguishable. With their upcoming album, The Bimbonacci Sequence, due out next month, the brother and sister duo of Gretchen and Dawson McKenzie share the record’s second single, “Things Keep Getting Worse,” a song written about vermin infestation that would seem to apply to the world et large these days. With a rhythmic focal point in constant motion, the song weaves gluey melodies (that tend to devolve with the lyrical sentiment) and jagged riffs between the time-warping punches in a haymaker of splintered empathy flipped upside down. I love this band with every ounce of my being.
COLOR ROT
“Ick’s Ick” EP
Ick’s Ick, the debut EP from experimental punk trio Color Rot, is properly unstable. The DC based trio consisting of Max Goldstein (Maxshh, Rong, Fred Cracklin) on drums, Jeremy Ray (Dove Lady) on guitar/vocals, and Ryan Plummer (Tosser) on bass, can play pretty much anything and for have chosen to go berserk with art prog and noise punk dexterity to compliment a complete lack of self seriousness. Their EP is as musically ambitious as it is inherently goofy, the band thrashing between one balls-to-the-wall idea to the next with impossible progressions leading their way into bizarre songwriting (“my children look like larva” sort of says it all).
DEAD GOWNS
“Vegas Dream”
A year and a half after the release of the great It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow, Portland, Maine’s Dead Gowns is back. The solo project of Geneviève Beaudoin returns with Vegas, a splendid new album due out October 23rd via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. (Told Slant, H. Pruz, Nara’s Room). Blending together alternative folk, fuzzy indie rock, and a touch of art pop, Dead Gowns’ music is gentle but muscular, as heard on their latest single, “Vegas Dream”. Exploring interpersonal relationships that dissolve when we least expect it, Beaudoin chooses to reflect and ignite, the song unfolding with the weight of her stunning vocals and a distorted crescendo.
GUIDING LIGHT
“Fear On My Own Time” LP
For eighteen and a half glorious minutes, Guiding Light shine with blinding radiance. The Austin based post-punk quartet’s (who we featured back in June) full length debut, Fear On My Own Time catapults itself beyond reckless charm, stabbing and grooving with the combustible force of an explosion on songs like the album’s title track and the rattled frenzy of “Egoismus”. There’s a chemical reaction when the collision speed of the rhythms and knotted riffs meet the glow of Elise Cook’s earworm vocals (sung in both English and German), the impact resolving in one of the year’s most engaging punk albums, aggressive in structure, but undeniably f-u-n. Together with Cel Ray, Spread Joy, and Consensus Madness, Guiding Light are scratching 2026’s itch for brilliant art punk.
MASS TEXT & DOOM FLOWER
“Lodge” + “Never Gonna Leave”
Everyone loves a split seven inch where both sides are equally great, especially when one side introduces you to something you might not have heard before. This is the case (for me) with the new split from Chicago’s Mass Text and Doom Flower who have teamed up for a new split single via Solid Brass Records (Bursting, Normans, The Black Heart Procession). Mass Text, the solo project of Chris Sutter (Meat Wave) has turned full band together with a duo of drummers, Jason Balla (Accessory, Dehd) and Jason Gagovski (Sweet Cobra) for “Lodge,” a brooding post-punk song that hits with a sustained energy. With layers of piano and haunting synths that crawl under thick clouds, the song feels something like a time softened swing of a sledgehammer, heavy in its grip, but not its attack. Doom Flower, led by Jess Price (vocals, guitar) take the dream-state aura a step further with “Never Gonna Leave,” floating between alternative folk and slow-dripped indie rock that echoes and swirls with a Mazzy Star-inspired hazy touch. Together the songs are a magnificent match, the ethereal and the insistent.
SOUR WIDOWS
“Lucky Star”
With their new album Sigil due out on October 23rd via Julia’s War Recordings (Mx Lonely, Joyer, Cashier), Sour Widows are tightening their focus, contracting where they once expanded. While their full length debut was keen to let structures wander and evolve in their own time, Sigil aims for a more immediate approach, keeping the songs lean and taut with the band’s signature harmonies and entangled guitars (occasionally with a nod back at their brilliant self-titled debut). Following lead single “Blood In The Grass,” the Bay Area based trio share “Lucky Star,” a gnarled ripper of tense twin guitars and a sea of tension that really allows the chorus to pop with a discordant splendor (and a bit of Pile in its DNA).
extended listening:
1-800-MIKEY “Pleasant Morning”
ALUMINUM “Killing Time”
ANNABELLE CHAIRLEGS “Beef Witted”
ANTHONY FREMONT’S GARDEN SOLUTIONS “Indifference”
@ “Punish My Mind”
AZATOTH “Veins of Rotten Blood”
BABEHOVEN “Three Reds”
BALACLAVA “The Count of Rat Piss Manor”
BENNY THE BUTCHER “Summer ’26”
BIITA HOUDEI “Night Fright”
BILLBOARD STYLE “Meloxicam”
BILLIAM “Birdman Rally”
BUSTA RHYMES & J DILLA “Spazzz”
C.O.F.F.I.N “13 Days”
CARRIE’S FANTASY “Mint Condition”
CAVALIER “Bring Back Weed Spots” LP
CLAIRE CRONIN “Black Water”
COR DE LUX “Blind Smile”
THE CRADLE “Human Nature”
CURLY CASTRO “The Delectable Negro” (feat. Margel the Sophant)
CZARFACE & FRANKIE PULITZER “All It Takes Is One Bad Day”
DADDY’S BOY “Four Hombres” LP
DAN FRANCIA, ADAM SCHATZ, AND THE TINY SQUID “Dan Francia, Adam Schatz and The Tiny Squid EP”
DISSIMULATOR “Alloyed”
THE DRIN “Haven’t Lived It Yet”
DUMMY “Full Spectrum Dominance”
THE EASY EIGHT “19.15.19”
FRANCES CHANG “Bad Zen”
GASH “Risking Heaven”
GATTA MORTA “Black Hall”
GOBLIN COCK “Remains”
GREG FREEMAN “Cahokia”
HEATHER THE JERK “Hello”
HEAVENS TO BETSY “Ain’t Never Goin’ Back”
HELEN “Dead Shark II”
HELLRAZOR “Gates of Hades” EP
HOLY MOTORS “Hellishly Hot”
HONEY RADAR “Let’s Talk About Swimming” EP
HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE “Heather (2013)”
IMMERSION “What Is Lost Will Return”
INDEX “Earth”
ISMATIC GURU “It’s Nothing”
JAY WORTHY & GEORGE CLINTON “P of the Week” (feat. Larry June & Leven Kali)
JOE GLASS “It’s No Wonder”
KOLEŻANKA “Single Wooden Bullet”
L’RAIN “Elmyra”
LADY BONES “Centerfold”
LILY SEABIRD “The Afterglow”
LOTHARIO “IOU EP”
LUGUBRIOUS GARMENT “Profaned Fountain of Leaden Waters”
MASTA KILLA, KURUPT, & RAKIM “Goin Down” (feat. Kokane)
MUTANT ACADEMY “We’ll Swap It Out Vol. 1” LP
MUTE FORM “Are You In There”
MX LONELY “March 16th”
NEIL YOUNG AND THE CHROME HEARTS “Second Song”
THE OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL "Advice From the Oceans"
P.P. REBEL “Ascension”
PAL “Adam Up”
PARDONER “Twisted”
PINK SIIFU “GOT FOOD AT THE CRIB’!!!!!!!! VOL.8, 9, & 10”
PROTOMARTYR “Feed The Sewer”
PSYCHIC FLOWERS “Go Man Go”
RADIATOR HOSPITAL “Walk With Love”
RANSOM “The Price of Clarity”
RAZ FRESCO “Yesterday” (feat. Blu & Cavalier)
SCARLET “Blink Twice” LP
SEN MORIMOTO “Overthinker”
SLEEP “The Morrisist”
SNAKESKIN “Big Brass Ball”
SNAPPED ANKLES “Shopping Parade”
SPREAD JOY “Iambic Pentameter”
STEF CHURA “Lovesick” / “Thunder and Lightning”
STYLES P “Ghosted You”
STARCLEANER REUNION “Lay On Plastic Moment”
STREET TOMBS “Upset The Grave”
SYSTEM SHOCK “Corporate Rats”
THA GOD FAHIM & NICOJP “Chess Moves 2”
THAO “Catch As Catch Can” (feat. Neko Case)
THIS IS LORELEI “Oh No Now My”
TOADIES “Live on KEXP”
TRAPS PS “Hushed Tones” + “Wild Rule”
TROPICAL FUCK STORM “Stepping On A Rake (Live)”
UNHOLY REDEEMER “Carrion of the Gods”
UPPER WILDS “Reaper”
VANISHING TWIN “Sugar Stone”
WESLEY & THE BOYS “Internet Punk (Live)”
WILLIAM BASINSKI “Passing the Cup of Sorrows 1.1”
WILLIE GREEN “The Speaking Stone” (feat. PremRock, ELUCID, & Cavalier)
THE WOMACK SISTERS “Monster”
YAZAN “Wet Painting”
YOUR OLD DROOG & A-REECE “Pavlovian Effect” (feat. Masta Ace & DJ Harrison)