Lead single “Pure And Radiant Joy” is one of the biggest songs you’re going to hear, with an exuberance that explodes in every tonality explored. Opening with a haunting harmonium refrain that could be the start to the next Halloween movie, the rhythm section quickly devours the proceedings, pounding with enough tension to bend all your silverware.
Grocer blends quirky pop with dissonant punk, jazzy art rock, and a musical complexity that feels exceptionally refreshing and well constructed. On Little Splash, the Philadelphia based quartet have created an album full of dynamics and catharsis, with songs that range from exuberant pop to raw punk and everything in-between.
Their full length debut finds the trio equally freaked out and aggravated, as they grapple with identity, acceptance, and primal emotion that comes from grappling for your place in the world. Mixed and mastered by Todd Rittmann (Dead Rider, US Maple), every moment of their record feels appropriately unhinged and decisively unwound.
Motorists are a new band from Toronto but the members grew up together in Calgary, lifelong friends who have played in various bands for well over a decade. Set to release their debut EP, From The Wreckage, later this month via Planet of the Tapes, the album is a combination of well-worn power-pop, slacker punk, and the gentle side of krautrock.
Chicago’s Sorespot are very good at what they do. If you aren’t familiar with the band, here’s your introduction: there’s heaps of feedback and sweetly subtle harmonies, and they go together perfectly on the band’s upcoming album, Gifts of Consciousness. Due out next month, its bursting with shoegaze bliss that’s steadily heavy.
Settle is back working on Psychic Flowers, set to release his latest album, Gloves To Grand Air, on March 13th via Living Lost Records. Recorded in his basement to an 8-track cassette recorder, the album is willing blown-out power-pop that balances lo-fi fuzz and tape hiss with inescapable melodies. It’s full of home recordings magic.
New York psych pop extraordinaries Lake Ruth are set to release Crying Everyone Else’s Tears, their latest EP, on March 6th. After a string of spectacular singles, the trio continue to explore futuristic jazz and krautrock tinged pop, adopting the templates of bands like Stereolab and Broadcast while subverting them into their own unique shapes.
Whether playing solo or as part of Lily and Horn Horse and Eyes of Love, there’s always a radiant nuance to her music, built entirely without borders but always with song structures that reside brilliantly within the confines of “traditional pop”. It’s Just Like All The Clouds is out March 13th via Wharf Cat Records, a beautiful exercise in experimental bedroom pop.
The Manchester based trio are set to release their debut album, In Threes, on March 6th via Upset The Rhythm and Maternal Voice, a record that is wildly discordant, each song built on sharp angles, bleeding noise, samba grooves, and experimental no wave. There’s a lot of freedom at hand and we’re all the better for soaking it in.
Dead Finks are a duo originally formed in Australia and recently relocated to Berlin. The worldly travelers, Erin Violet and Joseph Thomas (ex-Trust Punks), will release their debut album, Dead Fink Era, via Urge Records on March 20th, a transfixed post-punk record that drifts between haunted synths and harsher punk songs.
St. Louis’ Frankie Valet released their latest album, Waterfowl, a gorgeous record that combines heart warming folk and indie pop with shoegaze, slowcore, and emo tendencies. Out now on It Takes Time Records, the album finds the voice of each member contributing in equal measure, creating the idea of something personal and collective.
On a list of great ideas, a charity compilation to benefit RAICES comprised entirely of Neil Young covers, is up toward the top. Compiled by Yeehaw Junction’s Shayla Riggs, the compilation, Look Out For My Love: A Neil Young Covers Album is built on their idea that “at the core of Neil Young's catalog is the belief that art has the power to transform the world around us.”
Having released their debut EP and a stand-alone single in 2018 and 2019 respectively, the band are set to share the full length debut, Change Is Bad, on April 3rd via Born Yesterday Records. The band swerve between slurred aggression, blaring attacks, and tightly coiled post-punk; unhinged one moment and snapping into place the next.
Following up 2017’s Melt To You EP, Sleepies returns with a new full length, their first in four years. Time v Pleasure, due out February 28th, is an eclectic offering, bringing you both the Sleepies you know and love, and much like it’s predecessor, pushing their sound to unknown territories, experimenting along the way.
The Bay Area’s Sour Widows have been trickling out singles since last August but the wait for their upcoming self-titled EP is nearly over. Due out on February 28th, the young band show a great deal of promise as they mix bedroom pop, post-hardcore, and a penchant for big melodies and wayward structures.
Indy500 part 1, the first (obviously) of the four releases planned for 2020, is preceded by single “Trackstar,” a driving track filled with subtle electronics that accentuate The Human Fly’s already eclectic sound. Mathis’ pop vocal chops are in full swing here, but there are also plenty of instrumental sections.
Mary Vision make that shimmery, humid, taking-a-break-from-roofing-inside-the-barn kind of psych. It's slow burning and crunchy as it mixes it's blues rock tones with the drawn out proselytizing of the psych jams of yore. The vocals are always a little behind in the mix, with the three guitars really putting in work to keep things sonically wacky.
His music tends to take a more somber and subdued look into introspection, searching for meaning from his childhood and all that has resulted since. Set to release his latest album, Youth Pastoral, on February 28th via Whatever’s Clever, the album is a reflection on growing up a Christian teenager and the rebellion that emerged.
