“This one hits close to home. I had to be convinced by my producers to be ok with the vulnerability I put into the song, “They Might Say”. I literally wrote it in the studio, and in the midst of writing tried to tap into some of that pain I went through during the last year before. I got way more than I bargained for. After having written this song, I remember Dan Dixon being absolutely irritated with me for the next two days in the studio because I was so flattened out by the emotions it brought out in me. Needless to say, it’s real!” -Micah and the Mirrors
“Strange DNA’s debut single ‘CRY’ blends dark electronic pop, synthpop and cinematic textures into an emotional story of identity, isolation and transformation — introducing a visual world where the strange parts of ourselves become sources of power.”
“‘Lesbian Spinsters’ is the penultimate song from the staged version/full-length soundtrack of Lost Grrrl Found. This song finds Izzy and Morgan at their most heartbroken, with both of them having just experienced their first lesbian breakup. A lesbian breakup at age nineteen feels like a world-shattering, earth-crumbling, life-altering situation. We pulled from our own feelings of wanting to swear off love.” -Holly Nance
“More than any other song on the album, ‘Shake the Crown’ is driven by urgency. I wanted it to feel less like a political statement than a reminder that democracy isn’t self-executing. It depends on ordinary people speaking up, paying attention, and refusing to surrender their agency.” -Vivek Jayaram of The Calculus
“Metal Egg” draws on René Magritte’s painting “La Voix des airs” (“The Voice of Space,” 1931), in which giant spherical metal bells hang over a quiet landscape. Musically, the song pairs Durutti Column-style post-punk guitar with a Krautrock beat.
“I played ‘Tilda Lee’ at a solo show. I told the crowd that it’s about a woman who turns to God because her son committed suicide. After the show, from the merch table, I see a woman crying with her husband next to her. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that that’s what happened to them just a month ago. I knew then that the greater truth behind the song was important. Me and my family didn’t have that happen in our lives, but there’s real emotions in it that I’ve seen and experienced.” -Chris Comper
“There’s no reason rock ‘n’ roll can’t be smart and interesting and mysterious and all those things, you know?” -Scott “Delux” Drake
“We dug deep for this EP and pushed ourselves and our musicianship to make something we are genuinely proud of. It includes some of the rawest and most angular music either of us have ever written and we really love the direction it’s taking.” -Holly Carter (Weather Happy)
“This was the second last song written for All Your Worships. This song was a combination of attempting to translate life events into song as well as tipping my hat to country and western music.” -Julien Kitson
‘What Remains’ tackles the visceral feelings of new motherhood through a dripping, sweaty haze of psychedelia-infused rock. -Female Gaze
“The title track ties the whole record together. It was written at the very end, after enough time had passed to understand what the journey had actually been. The idea of “taking the long way” isn’t just about delay or detour. It’s about the path that, in the end, is the only one that makes sense.” -Andy Koh
A long-lost ’90s indie rock album from Japanese trailblazing artist is set to be unveiled.
“Be All The Love,” is the soulful, socially conscious new single and video from Bay Area-based New Earth Farmers.
“I was having a conversation with a few friends about some of the similarities we’d noticed in the behavior of guys we’d dated. Even though each situation was uniquely different in so many ways, there were these common denominators and patterns that kept coming up. That’s where the concept was born. Even though the song is very real to me, I still wanted it to be tongue in cheek and fun, without veering into ‘all men are horrible’ territory because that’s not how I feel.” -Imogen Valentine
Chicago songwriter Brent Penny announces his EP Rings Loud with the dream-pop single “Need,” featuring Low’s Alan Sparhawk and saxophonist Cole Pulice. This single is as driving as it is dreamy.
Veteran British-born singer-songwriter Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) is releasing “One Last Heist,” an album of sweet tunes and tart lyrics.
“This was such dream come true collaboration for me, writing with Matthew and having Samwe produce it. Each of our contributions sound so undeniably true to our unique sounds. I never could have come up with what they each brought to it, and I’m grateful they wanted to work with my unusual dark intensity, too.” -Autumn Luz
“By popular demand—or at least persistent pressure from a not-so-general public—we wrote and recorded this album at the end of 2025 and finished it earlier this year. We also expanded our sound more than ever before, bringing in two of our favorite organ players and, for the first time in Tremolo Beer Gut history, a full horn section.” -Yebo (drummer, The Tremolo Beer Gut)
“‘Landlord’ was in a big pile of songs I started in 2023. I had just turned 29 and was essentially starting over. Most painful, beautiful, necessary year of my life. I was bopping around between friend’s guest rooms and my parent’s basement in St. Louis. Writing is genuinely all I wanted to do. [This version] was one of the first that came out that really excited me…” -Caroline Glaser (Brother Bird)
Rather than representing a departure, Utopia PKWY feels like another dimension within Beckmann’s creative universe—a parallel reality where melody leads the way and possibility outweighs dread. It’s the work of an artist who continues to reinvent his language while remaining unmistakably himself.
“East Coaster is us with the handcuffs off, just being ourselves. It’s a little more ‘out there’ with less worry around it being successful, whatever that means, in today’s world.” -Paper Tigers
Orange County alt-rock band Mac Luster is releasing their debut EP, Ritual, after starting the band over a decade ago. Ritual is worth the wait.
Chicago indie rockers Reserver share new single “Spirit Fauna” off debut LP, Reverser, out August 14.
LA engineer and musician Jacob Floyd Ross has been sharing his music under the name Crumpler since the 90s, and today he announces his next album Evolution Is For Lovers. Featuring Tim Rutili from Califone, Crumpler’s “The Cowboy Taliban Took My Daddy Away” pays homage to the Ramones while painting his own picture of how he found his own truth while growing up in the Bible Belt.
“A love song for trying times. A song of reassurance [that says] ‘I am here, and you can rest, and you don’t need to explain yourself, and you don’t need to say anything at all, and some days might feel long, and we still have each other.’ It’s the idea that if we do see things fall apart, that’s less about devastation and more a marker of how long we’ve gotten to be together.” -Ruby Alexander
“Sometimes when I write and know that something will be part of a larger body of work, I often conceptualize parts like a screenplay — scenes, key details, even phrases of dialogue, and they all end up in the notebook to cut up and sort later. ‘It Might Sound Better That Way’ kinda began like that…” -Scott Whiddon
Danish acoustic techno trio Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) premiere their Better Company Studios Live Session for “Total Full Power Extreme Nuclear Confusion 2000.”
“You know that meme where Squidward watches from his window as SpongeBob and Patrick have all kinds of fun? That’s essentially what this song is about. It’s about picking up your life and leaving a place you’ve known forever—say, New York City—and relocating 300-plus miles away to a city that couldn’t feel more different… From afar, all you can do is rot away watching on social media as other bands play your favorite venues back home—shows you can’t be at. In many ways, this song is about homesickness, but also about how isolation can completely distort your perspective. Musically, it’s one of the heaviest songs in the Gooseberry catalog, and it owes a great debt to Soundgarden.” -Asa Daniels
Veteran Hoboken indie rockers Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help’s third album is filled with sharp hooks and vivid storytelling.
Chicago indie rock trio The Feeders share new single, “Sara, You’re My Savior” off sophomore LP Dark Days.
School of Design premiere “Slowdance,” a widescreen, dream pop study in love, loss, and letting go.
New England indie-rock band Happy Just To See You embraces alt-country twang on new album, Last Week’s Horse. Their new music video for “Rat U Out” captures the emotional rollercoaster of losing oneself in a relationship that’s running its course, along with the hope to find oneself again with help from the band at a house show.
Ancient Waves’ new record is a sweeping Americana-tinged indie-rock debut that finds beauty, heartbreak, and hard-won hope in the long road home.
Chicago soul singer Manasseh brings in longtime collaborator Galaxy Francis for the electric and smooth single “Junie.” Off of his upcoming second album R&B[eyond], the new single truly goes to R&B and beyond, merging with psychedelic soul, hip-hop, and electronic production.
“There’s a subtle nod to compliance and people-pleasing in the verses, but the choruses are strong and defiant. I spent most of my adult life in groups I felt unknown and unwelcome in. You know it in your body, but it takes a while for your brain to catch up. ‘Pariah’ is an embracement of that feeling, but a refusal to conform. There’s a confidence in this character that gets more and more apparent as the song plays. It’s this shift from acknowledging the pain to acknowledging their desires. Like the kid who isn’t welcome at the ‘popular’ table, but then realizes the popular table actually totally sucks. And always has! A triumphant little anthem for the inner-alien.” -Caroline Glaser
The song feels like seeing those first rays of sunlight at the end of a long, long night.
“At first, this seems like it’s your typical story about throwing a pizza party and not inviting someone to said party. It goes into some of the details of why this individual deserves to be excluded, and how it’s turning into such a wild party. However, later in the song it’s revealed that the protagonist is actually the one that is not invited to the pizza party. What a twist!” – Sam Mulligan
Orange Doors build and build layers of horns and guitars to create a whirlwind of texture.
“My mother always saved all the corks from her wine bottles, packing them away in a kitchen drawer, proposing one day to use them for an ‘art project.’ It always felt like a constant reminder of the disease that surrounds alcoholism, lingering throughout the many houses we lived in. This song was written at an extremely low point in my relationship with my mother.” -Tahlia Amanson (Myra Lee)
“It’s about not giving up when it feels like you are being pushed off the path you’re trying to achieve. It’s about being resilient and having determination while following your passion, or simply just living your life. Sometimes, it feels there’s something getting in the way, especially in the world and country we’re living in today.” – Today Junior
“This song is about how fun it is to just want. To want love, to want your people, to want your dreams. Being in that state of yearning and creating is a beautiful place to be.” -BETS
“The lyrics came about after recalling a wedding I attended. Extremely sleep deprived after some really late nights, I found myself consumed with paranoia during the reception. This was sort of the jumping off point for a high-energy song, which ultimately touches on themes of music and film industry issues.” -Justin Iacovino (Something Sneaky)
“‘Man in Shorts’ is about losing a friend to addiction — someone who helped others heal through music while quietly fighting his own battles. It’s the most personal song on the record, and a tribute to his humor, humanity and irreverent spirit.” — C. Gibbs
“We’ve always challenged ourselves to be more: to be expansive, to be curious. Combined with all the years spent honing our chops as multi-instrumentalists and songwriters, Velveteen represents a collection that could only exist from a commitment to the craft.” -*Phosphene*
“Mississippi Queen” is Sonic Youth/Pussy Galore beat-assassin Bob Bert’s unprecedented NO-guitars, drum-tastic reinvention of Mountain’s hard rock classic. It’s the first single from his first proper solo album, Beach Bongo Bloodbath.
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Washington “dark folk” artist Zack Pass shares an exclusive pre-release stream of his new record Down By The River.
“‘Miss Ego’ is a sleek and cheeky song about how much space a girl can take up in relationships, on stage, and her place in the world.” -Kit Major
