The duo of Sean Ahern (bass) and Chris Gervais (drums) make a unique brand of doom rooted in improvisational jams. There’s no long bong-hit riddled writing sessions, just a sludgy sense of adventure that pushes them forward into the darkness.

The guitars and the vocals are political and tell a story in their own right. The video displays that very aesthetic, featuring the destruction of their guitars, their skateboards-- the things they presumably hold dear to them, to show that they mean business.

“We Are Taking You Home,” the second single from The Mall, The Country, is a tender and reflective companion to the record’s first single, “Score Heal Score.” Where the latter was discordant and tangled in its own looped progression, “We Are Taking You Home” is a more serene and tranquil meditation.

Portland’s Cry Babe formed out of a shared necessity, a release from the frustrations around them. The trio’s debut is fully realized and rightfully outraged, an album that finds strength in female empowerment and moving on from previously crappy situations to brighter days ahead.

The band headed out on a short tour in support of the record and documented the trip with their own camcorder. The results are the “Tracy” video, a joyous montage of five friends having a great time on the road.

Bruiser & Bicycle’s soulful and shimmering indie folk instantly reminds me of Old Canes, an old favorite, with their own unique careening noise pop washing into otherwise acoustic balladry. It’s enveloping in its beauty but it also feels intimate in structure.

For the past decade, Taylor Holenbeck (Appleseed Cast, Des Ark, Hospital Ships) has been making music under the name of Heartscape Landbreak, a fitting moniker for songs that are both emotional and invested in the natural world.

There’s nothing like an impeccably written song, and Brooklyn’s Adir L.C. has undoubtedly given us one with “Big Bad,” the first single from his upcoming album, Basket Star, due out May 17th via Birdwatcher Records.

“Naps” is a single from Moon, the follow up to the recent The Sun Shines From Very Far Away. “Naps” begins with echoes of Modest Mouse with its slightly off kilter vocals, banjo and pinging guitar, but veers completely into the nonsensical melody realm of Jack Stauber in the second half of the short song.

Set to release their debut single Do Yeah on February 15th, their sound is a psychedelic trip down the rabbit hole, a vision of the past swirling in every direction. Melbourne’s Bananagun (featuring members of Parnsip and Frowning Clouds) let it rip with a freaky groove from the start, there’s a hit of the gong and it’s all hypnotic from there.

Boon’s art-pop sound is in fine form on the kaleidoscopic “Jasmine Seeds,” a deeply layered effort that plays with repetition and looped vocals just beneath the song’s concurrent verses. It’s psychedelic pop with a lot to take in, but an easy atmosphere in which to do so, the effect nearly sounding like two songs played together in unison.

Second single “Someday” is a song that contemplates the changes we all face as we get older and friendships fade but never disappear. It’s a (dare I say) radio friendly rocker… if the radio still played “rockers” and there’s more than a couple of blistering solos cut between the bouncing punk bass line.

The band will release Leaves on February 15th via Tell ‘Em Tapes, a collect of sunken sentiment and somber reflections bolstered by a rhythm section that slowly slinks toward the void… with an emphasis on slowly. The band moves at the speed of depression, lingering around in no particular rush or motivation.

Following the first two singles, “N.R.E.A.M.” (aka “Negativity Rules Everything Around Me”) and “Keep The Blues Away,” comes “La La La La” a song with a blatant care-free attitude, one that is at ease in its own mental space.

There isn’t much out there in the world of popular music that could prepare you for Chicago collective Nature’s Neighbor, a band most closely related to free jazz, but to pin them to a singular sound would be a disservice and a bold faced fib.

This composition is the hero’s journey made audible; conflict and resolution in a delightful two act play; a spirited take on structure that wants to push you away as desperately as it wants your attention. The intro is so jarring I suspect most people will feel bamboozled and unable to continue, but I assure you, you absolutely should.

Stepping into a Historian album is a bit like sitting down to watch a film by David Lynch. He channels an unsettling, dream-like world that is ripe with dystopian imagery and suburban anxiety, all filtered through a haze of psych rock guitars, lulling pianos and stinging synths.

Glued are set to release Cool Evil, their full length debut, on March 1st via Born Yesterday Records (Landowner, Drool). They’ve pulled back the fuzz and reverb that coated so much of their prior work, and every knotted guitar convulsion and snapped rhythm can be heard in clarity.

Arriving in the wake of “Cemetery Surf” and “A Passing Piece,” two twitchy, whirring pieces of dazzling shoegaze pop, Cathedral Bells keep up the hazy pace with “Time Capsule.” The track’s nostalgia-washed production lands somewhere between Day Wave’s detached effervescence and DIIV’s driving punk swell.

Introducing (or re-introducing) Community College, a brilliant lo-fi collective led by Horse Jumper of Love’s own John Margaris. Joined by his brother, Dan Margaris and Dimitri Giannopolous (also of HJOL), Community College occupies a similar space as their main act, offering warped to perfection pop songs with surreal yet relatable lyrics and earworm melodies tucked just under the fuzzy presence of the room.