Konradsen - Liya Shapiro - Bandits On The Run - Layla Kaylif - Plain Mister Smith - Gráinne Duffy

Photo - Marthe Thu

Konradsen - Hunt, Gather (Album).

Northern Norwegian duo Konradsen the project of Jenny Marie Sabel and Eirik Vildgren - have now released their new album ‘Hunt, Gather’ via Norwegian independent label 777 Music. Konradsen will celebrate the release of their third album with a unique headline show at Oslo's MUNCH Museum on 10th April. Featuring collaborations with Gia Margaret, Angie McMahon, Bruce Hornsby and Beharie, 'Hunt, Gather' sees Konradsen expand on their distinctive indie/folk-pop - where organic instrumentation meets subtle electronics, and intimate songwriting unfolds with cinematic scope.

Written between studio sessions and Jenny’s home in Northern Norway, the album reflects a shift toward a more instinctive, atmosphere-led process. Across its ten tracks, Konradsen explore themes of adulthood, responsibility and the search for grounding - choosing closeness, protecting relationships and asking difficult questions about the lives we build.

Konradsen's music treats everyday detail with cinematic patience - folding observations, overheard voices and small domestic details into arrangements that feel intentional without ever sounding forced. Jenny Marie Sabel’s voice carries a rare steadiness - intimate without tipping into sentimentality - while Eirik Vildgren’s production feels tactile, curious and understated. Across their discography, they’ve built a space where emotional clarity and subtle production sit side by side, creating songs that stay close to the body while thinking far beyond it.

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Liya Shapiro - Another Woman.

Liya Shapiro is a London-based singer-songwriter exploring the depths of love, identity, mental health and emotional fragility through her music. Having studied the history of art, fashion, and anthropology, each field tangibly shapes her artistry: art informs the way she hears and interprets sound; fashion fuels the visual identity she directs; and anthropology helps her explore the human condition. Through layered storytelling and intentional creative direction, she builds a world that is deeply personal and reflective of her journey to self-worth. 

The title-track from her upcoming EP, “Another Woman,” channels that same introspection, diving into the ache of unrequited love. Written after she thought she had already healed, the song was sparked by discovering that the person she once loved had moved on. “Watching someone you once loved be with someone else when you never even got the chance. Knowing it’s irrational, that you don’t even love them anymore, but feeling it anyway.” The lyrics confront that contradiction head on, as she sings, “I don’t love you anymore, not at all. But why does it still hurt somewhere deep in my heart when I see you embraced by another.” The song captures not just the emptiness of unshared love, but also the way struggles with self-worth can intensify that longing. While the single reflects on past pain, it also hints at transformation. The EP as a whole explores both closure and new beginnings, she’s now another woman, not only looking back, but moving forward.

Sonically, “Another Woman” captures this uncomfortable ache. The track’s chamber rock sound mirrors that emotional ebb and flow, showcasing soft, melancholic verses that swell into a crescendo, delivering something that is raw and frustrated, yet cathartic. Her vocals feel effortless yet theatrical, full of character and feeling, while the live-recorded instruments add a visceral authenticity.

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Bandits On The Run - Rough Magic.

Between their innovative arrangements, instrument swapping, scope of emotions and experiences conveyed in their songwriting, and an eclectic group of old friends and collaborators, NYC-based trio Bandits on the Run are truly living up to what they call their “ethos of artmaking” on their new album, Rough Magic.
 
With rotating lead vocals and varied instrumentation, Adrian Blake Enscoe (guitar & suitcase drum), Sydney Shepherd (cello), and Regina Strayhorn (accordion) combine to evoke the 60s and 70s spirit of bands like Fleetwood Mac while also carrying the sonic inventiveness of the modern folk power pop acts like First Aid Kit and Bonnie Light Horsemen, and trios like I'm With Her featuring impeccable harmonies and elevated songwriting so good they make the balancing act seem simple. The band's sophomore full-length, Rough Magic, is about friends — how we connect with them (or fail to), how we fight with them, and most importantly, how we love them. It's a testament and a celebration of what's possible when making something from nothing with your nearest and dearest. Relationships, old and new, are the heart of this LP.

“The cheat code for us has always been that if you surround yourself with good people, chances are the art will be something you're proud of,” Strayhorn shares. “And we are so incredibly proud of Rough Magic.” The song strips away the band's frequent kaleidoscope of instrumentation to the bare essentials  just guitar and three vocals; their rawest selves speaking straight to the listener. “'Rough Magic' is a message to slow down, release, and trust the timing is just right to share what's inside you. And that those who see your magic will be there sharing in it with you. And what better thing could one dream up than that?”

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Photo - Rebecca Miller

Layla Kaylif - Call Of The Yoni (Album).

This weekend, Layla Kaylif releases her new album Call Of The Yoni. Dripping in alt-rock, singer-songwriter vibes, the new album is an immersive experience for all that come across it. An organic mixture of world music built on Arabic instrumentation, chamber strings, and lyrics-forward composition, the new album by Layla Kaylif focuses conceptually on the "7-in-1 woman". Each track is a part of a continuous cycle that dissects different arenas of the female experience: innovation, eros, sovereignty, spirituality, roots, sight, and transformation. 

The English-Arab singer-songwriter's new magnum opus Call Of The Yoni is a testimony to what genuine womanhood looks like. With each track completing a piece of the puzzle, the singer showcases her most vulnerable side yet. Aptly released during Women’s History month, the album features seven introspective tracks that analyze what womanhood means while offering a unique perspective on feminism.

Layla Kaylif is an English–Arab singer-songwriter and filmmaker known for her genre-bending, lyrics-first approach that blends poetry, pop, and cinematic storytelling. After studying Arabic at Oxford University, she signed with Edel Records and released the international hit "Shakespeare in Love", which received critical acclaim as BBC Radio's Record of the Week and a top ten success across Southeast Asia. 

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Plain Mister Smith - Lucian & Frances Ft. Tyson Motsenbocker.

Plain Mister Smith returns this weekend with a delicate indie-folk track called “Lucian and Francis.” Simply put, the track focuses on the majestic paintings of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, who often depicted raw, yet realistic portrayals of the human body.

Available now on most streaming platforms, “Lucian and Francis” is a chill tune that features the fluorescent vocals of Tyson Motsenbecker. His presence on “Lucian and Francis” packs a punch, as his textured vocals create a luscious sonic soundscape throughout. Featuring a pleasant mash of synths, mesmerizing guitar strums, and a poised drum beat, the new single by Plain Mister Smith feels like a perfect anthem to usher in the springtime.

Plain Mister Smith’s music continues to be simple, yet effective, focusing on cut and dry themes that penetrate deep within the soul. The new track perfectly captures the rush of dopamine and elation these legendary painters carved out. At its core, “Lucian and Francis” is a great tune for fine art buffs, as it highlights the amazing artwork humans can create with just a brush and some paint.

A veteran of Canadian indie scenes, Plain Mister Smith (formerly of Moev and Cinderpop, and current cellist with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra) blends indie pop, baroque folk, and psychedelic sensibilities. His sound draws inspiration from an eclectic range of artists including The Beatles, Bryce Dessner, Matt Maltese, Led Zeppelin, and The Zombies, and even 20th-century classical composers like Prokofiev, who subtly influence his layered, string-laced arrangements.


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Photo - Barry McCall

Gráinne Duffy - Streets of Love.

Gráinne Duffy continues her steady rise as one of modern blues and roots music’s most compelling voices with the release of her new single, “Streets of Love” off her forthcoming Spring release, recorded at 64 Sound Studio in Los Angeles and co-produced by Justin Stanley and Marc Ford (The Black Crowes.)

Gráinne explains "This song was inspired by a beautiful bike trip around Amsterdam. I was there to see Lucinda Williams playing one of my favorite venues, The Paradiso. While I was cycling around I was watching the life of the people on the streets and all the beautiful interactions people were having, waving hi to one another, lovers kissing goodbye on the street, friends meeting each other at the traffic lights with their kids in the wooden baskets in the front and it was all so peaceful and humane. I loved that feeling of being an observer of that kind of humanity which exists everyday around us. We are constantly in these times bombarded with all the negative aspects of life from war to murder to horrible injustices in the world that we can forget that there’s actually another way to see the world in the very ordinary everyday exchanges between people which are often beautiful and full of love. That’s what this song is about really, my internal hippie speaking out I suppose! "

The Spring release was made in Los Angeles with producers Justin Stanley and Marc Ford (The Black Crowes), and you can hear that lived-in, analog warmth right away. It’s got some serious players behind it including drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney), bassist Jørgen Carlsson (Gov’t Mule), keyboardist Peter Levin (Blind Boys of Alabama), Marc Ford, and Duffy’s longtime collaborator Paul Sherry. Duffy’s story starts back in County Monaghan, Ireland, where music filled the house instead of television — everything from Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton to B.B. King and Fleetwood Mac. You can still hear that mix in what she does now: blues at the center, but always pulling in other colors.

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Realmonte - Lala Salama - The New Pornographers - Ashley Monroe - Alys North - The Clockworks

Realmonte - Go Go Go.

With their new single “Go Go Go,” Realmonte from the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland invite you on a musical excursion that stylishly blends past and present. The band has created a captivating earworm that not only gets stuck in your head instantly but also makes your heart beat faster.

Over the past years, Realmonte have built up a solid fanbase through countless live performances. When they’re not writing their own songs like “Go Go Go,” they enjoy taking on current hits and reinterpreting them. They run these songs through a retro filter—refined, soulful, jazzy, with a touch of swing and a bluesy note. The result is a charming mix that revives the spirit of the 1950s and 60s without losing its modern edge.

With their own track “Go Go Go,” the band stays true to this style while delivering an energetic piece that combines vintage aesthetics with a contemporary pop attitude. The musicians certainly have the skill. Among those in Realmonte is Ramaon Vaca, a bassist who has played with countless bands and is still well known from the Basel indie pop heroes of the 1990s, Phébus.

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Lala Salama - Muistot haalistuu.

Helsinki-based Lala Salama released their new single Muistot haalistuu on Friday, March 27, marking the band’s first new song since their acclaimed debut album Miltähän me näytettäis yhdessä. The single also opens a new chapter for the band’s line-up, with Elli Holmström, known from Drug Store Raid, joining as bassist.

Muistot haalistuu brings out a more wistful and atmospheric side of Lala Salama. Moving between dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock, the song centres on the pain of letting go, memories that slowly begin to fade, and the feeling that when something ends, something new may also begin to take shape.

“We’re super excited about this new phase and about Elli being part of it. This song is maybe a kind of in-between point, and it’s really from here that we start properly building the new Lala Salama,” says guitarist and singer Rosa Jules.

“The song was born in a space of transition. It captures the feeling of leaving something meaningful behind: a person, a moment, or an entire phase of life. At the same time, it reminds us that even when something disappears, new possibilities begin to open up.”

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The New Pornographers - The Former Site Of (Album).

A woman is trapped on a cruise ship. A preacher decides to go down with his town. A man at the florist finds himself lost in the meaning of the arrangement. These and other people at personal and societal extremes are the subjects of ten timely, timeless short stories collected as meticulously crafted pop songs by The New Pornographers on their new album, The Former Site Of, released yesterday March 27 on Merge Records.

The album, like Continue as a Guest, finds The New Pornographers—bandleader A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, and Todd Fancey expanding their already rich catalog in surprising fashion. Joined for this album by legendary session drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, The Cult, The Rolling Stones, Fiona Apple), the space contained in a New Pornographer’s song has never been this clearly articulated or generously textured, giving a distinct pulse to the characters whose lives spill out in Newman’s tender, evocative lyrics.

The Former Site Of adds new depth to the sound Newman shook loose through building and recording in a home studio, fine-tuning the band’s creative process far beyond the lockdown-era necessities of remote collaboration. “Having time in my studio really opened things up,” he explains. “I don’t like wasting my bandmates’ time, and always felt guilty when I’d give them a song, ask them to do something, then completely change the song and ask them to do it again. Now I can get the skeleton of a song together first—just a couple of elements, the key feeling, really as little as possible—before bringing it to the band and running from there.”

Two albums into this shift, The New Pornographers are creating universes of intricately textured sound and narrative detail, every layer keyed to reveal an unexpected new facet. As on Continue as a Guest, one of the more readily apparent layers is the way a song forms itself around a featured instrument. On The Former Site Of, it’s a mandolin which, in Carl Newman’s hands, lends lead single “Votive” its sense of acceleration as it builds from the atmospheric sweep of its synth and keyboard opening to a classic, wide-open jam.

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Ashley Monroe - Dear Nashville (Album).

Ashley Monroe has spent nearly 25 years building a life and career in Nashville, writing songs, making records, and earning the respect of her peers. But even with all she’s accomplished, Monroe has often felt invisible in the very town she’s devoted her life to. On her surprise-released album Dear Nashville, she puts those conflicted feelings front and center.

“I had a writing session on the books with Luke and I’d woken up that morning with a storm in my heart, like, ‘My gosh, have I done this all for nothing?’” she says. “When I got to Luke's house that day, I knew I had to address my hurt feelings and get it out of my system. I told him the idea of ‘I Hate Nashville’ and he loved it. That song put everything into motion. We felt the window of all the muses open, and decided that I’m going to say what I feel and make it a whole project.”

Those emotions come through immediately in “I Hate Nashville,” a title that masks her deep love for the genre. “Country music is the reason I’m alive,” she declares.

“This album started with Ashley bringing the title, "I Hate Nashville," to the room one day,” Luke Laird explains. “The music is what brings most songwriters to this town – but when it comes to the business, that’s when people can get burned out.  So Ashley and I talked that day about our love for country music, the songs and the people – we had such a good day talking about all of our favorite Nashville memories and what led us both here. I love how honest Ashley is in her writing and just how pure her singing is. She really is the triple threat: artist, songwriter, and producer. We had so much fun making this record. No rules… just what felt right.”

Ashley Monroe · Dear Nashville

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Alys North - Replace You With.

Alys North is an emerging artist we think you’ll genuinely enjoy. Alys new single is called Replace You With and was released yesterday. Dynamic, raw, and fiercely authentic, Alys North brings a storyteller’s fire to every stage she steps onto. Raised in a small Northern Territory town, before honing her skills and passion in Brisbane, Australia, Alys can now be found carving out her sound in venues and streets around Cardiff and the UK.

Known for lyrics that land with striking honesty—the kind that stops new listeners in their tracks, Alys’ songwriting is unfiltered and unafraid, offering a powerful mix of vulnerability and grit. For her growing audience, each performance is more than a show—it’s an invitation into the real, unpolished life of an artist who refuses to hold back.

Alys blends heartfelt songwriting with a raw, authentic vocal style, creating music that connects immediately. In the build up to today's release, this track has been played on stations in both the UK and Oceanic scenes, with early charting on Amazing Radio (up to #27 from initial entry at #32!), as well as 'B' Playlisting on Amazing Radio UK, and a fantastic debut and reception through BBC Introducing, which has led to placement on the BBC Radio Wales A List!

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Photo - Nicholas O’Donnell

The Clockworks - The Entertainment (Album).

Galway via London fourpiece The Clockworks have this weekend shared their second full-length musical project with brand-new album ‘The Entertainment’ out now via V2 Records. The Clockworks introduced themselves and their cinematic sound with debut album ‘Exit Strategy’ in 2023 and their self-titled EP ‘The Clockworks’ in 2022, gaining acclaim from the likes of BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 1. With a sonic palate that pulls from seemingly disparate regions of the musical landscape, namechecking Daft Punk next to Pixies, next to Ennio Morricone, they are also influenced through their passion for film and literature. Lyrically, singer and lyricist James McGregor writes with purpose, integrity and emotion, balancing light with darkness and finding poetic intrigue in everyday life. 
 
New album ‘The Entertainment’ was largely written and recorded in isolation and is a project that looks to loneliness and connection in its exploration of life in the modern world. The framework for the album came intuitively and fast, carving out a sonic landscape built around tension and release; moments of darkness juxtaposed with glimmers of light. A raft of cinematic inspirations were on the moodboard - Bladerunner, Drive, the works of Fellini – alongside cover art inspired by an old LIFE Magazine cover featuring the first theatre to show 3D films. Their second record is not so much a concept album, but more a ‘work of friction’. The band say;
 
“The whole album seems to be filled with push and pull, black and white. There is such a conflict and contrast between everything. Even just recording the music, we did it all separately and then put it back together.” “We had the idea to record in a way that was in keeping with what the album is talking about, and to try and do it in isolation completely. We wanted creatively to turn in and see what we could do, so then when we did bring it all together, the parts had all this tension to play with.”
 
“We had this really strong identity for the album from the start, which meant that we could then spend so much time on the details. It’s like if you have all the beats of the film, then you can tell the actors to go and improv between them.”

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The Rolling People - Travellin' Blue - Sin Cos Tan - The Corner Laughers - Karen Dahlstrom - The Great Emu War Casualties - Brennen Leigh

Photo -  Freya Barber

The Rolling People - A Crack In The Glass.

Manchester risers The Rolling People release the new single ‘A Crack In The Glass’ released just ahead of the anticipated new EP Outlier (due 6th April). Marking a bold step forward in both sound and identity, the upcoming EP captures a band in the midst of reinvention - sharper, more expansive, and unapologetically themselves.The EP coincides with the launch of a new brand partnership alongside Pretty Green. 

Produced by the renowned Richard McNamara (guitarist of Embrace, production credits including Basht., EEVAH), the new single showcases more of the contemplative, 90s alt-rock influenced side of the bands sound, comparable to The Verve whilst bringing a contemporary indie-rock flourish.  McNamara’s influence brings clarity and scale to the band’s evolving identity, balancing anthemic indie hooks with atmosphere and depth to create an expansive and immediate, yet, emotional and reflective sound. 

Speaking about the single, the band explain: “A Crack In The Glass is our most stripped-back work to date. It was one of the songs that was born out of a live recording session, giving us the freedom to build the song up from a more natural-sounding and relaxed setting. For this EP, we chose to go in a new direction in terms of production, and this live and raw style lent itself perfectly to the track.

The lyrics of this song focus on the emotional journey of living with mental health challenges, following the emotional lows and highs and the quiet relief that comes from overwhelming thoughts. It felt important for us to address this topic, as music can be a cathartic outlet that helps people feel heard and understood, especially when managing personal and unspoken issues.”

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Travellin' Blue - Take Me Home.

Started late 2020 as 'full Belgian' band, Travellin' Blue Kings had a major update in autumn 2023, displaying solid letters of nobility and an impressive pedigree: Blues Lee, Last Call, The Electric Kings, The Scabs, Hideaway, Howlin' Bill, ... just to name a few. Travellin' is not in the name by chance, these five gentlemen worked with their respective bands all over Europe. 

One could find them on festival stages in Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. And of course, in every corner of Belgium and the Netherlands. The 'Bending The Rules' album, released in 2022, has been very well received and generated considerable airplay in Europe and the States (64 weeks (!) in Roots Music Report's Top 50 Blues Rock Album airplay chart in the US), resulting in the band being booked in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway.

But from now on, never say 'Travellin' Blue Kings' again, but say 'Travellin' Blue' !! A modified line-up, a renewed repertoire, written for the 3rd album, which does even more justice to the previous album title "Bending the Rules", prompted the band members to make this (minor) name change.

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Sin Cos Tan - Wall of Stone.

Finnish synthpop duo Sin Cos Tan continue the Greed era with the single “Wall of Stone,” the fourth release from the upcoming album. Formed by producer-DJ Jori Hulkkonen and singer-songwriter Juho Paalosmaa. 

Sin Cos Tan are known for their rare balance of Nordic melancholy, classic pop songwriting and precise electronic production. Their music lives in the space between nostalgia and forward motion: restrained, melodically exact and deeply connected to the tradition of European electronic pop.

Sin Cos Tan have received an Emma nomination, toured across Europe, and enjoyed long-standing support from international critics. Their music has also been featured in the AMC series Halt and Catch Fire. Their previous album Living in Fear (2022) received a full five-star review from Soundi.

Sin Cos Tan · Wall of Stone

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The Corner Laughers - Concerns Of Wasp And Willow (Album).

Northern California indie pop/folk outfit The Corner Laughers have been weaving a rich tapestry of timeless sounds and lyricism since the early 2000s to ever-increasing acclaim, solidifying their quintessential lineup of Karla Kane (vocals, ukulele), Khoi Huynh (bass, vocals and more), KC Bowman (guitar, vocals and more) and Charlie Crabtree (drums) on their 2015 breakthrough album Matilda Effect. When last we left our heroes, they'd spent five years crafting its follow up, the band's Big Stir Records debut Temescal Telegraph, only to have its release date coincide with the onset of the 2020 pandemic. 

In a musical miracle for troubled times, the album's themes and musical settings resonated with the unease of the year and offered solace for the losses and isolation of that bleak miniature era. The global music press took note: Goldmine Magazine called it “a wonderfully enticing triumph,” The Swindonian labeled it “a magical otherworld, idyllic and innocent and yet poignant in its many charms,” and Shindig! Magazine's five-star review concluded “Every track is absolutely brilliant, brimming with vim and vigor.” In the end, the album was not just a leap forward for the band, but a lifeline of comfort for fans old and new.

We haven't been treated to the unique wordplay, inventive arrangements and sheer idiosyncratic ebullience that characterize The Corner Laughers' music for the half-decade since, and it's arguable that we need them more than ever. The world remains unsettled, and anyone possessed of empathy might find themselves vacillating between profound sadness and the need to reclaim the joy on which hope is founded. With their new album Concerns Of Wasp And Willow, the band audaciously and artfully create consonance from those very contrasts. 

While the band is often thought of as purveying “sunshine” pop, Kane's lyrics and the band's musical textures have always balanced the dark and the light. On 'Concerns', erasing that dichotomy becomes a mission statement with endlessly fascinating results. Listeners first heard this new blend last Halloween when the single “Dark Matter” appeared, its title belied by its jubilant beat and bright melody as Kane celebrated (not for the first time) ravens and crows, inviting listeners to join the band's “new crone coven” in solidarity with anyone who's ever felt like an outsider. 

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Photo - Rosie Cohe

Karen Dahlstrom - Love These Days (Album).

“When I realized I’d been wrong to doubt Willie Nelson, that’s when music really started to make sense.” Brooklyn-based musician Karen Dahlstrom grew up singing in show choirs and Jazz ensembles, a popular soloist earnestly emulating Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald. “I enjoyed performance, but I also knew my limitations. You have to have a certain focus on technique in order to go really far.” She accepted what she considered her constraints and stopped singing for the better part of her twenties. Today, listening to Dahlstrom’s incisive, unflinching lyrics, delivered straight to the heart with a husky, insurgent depth, it’s hard to imagine pesky technique was ever the point.  

Around age thirty, at a turning point in her life, Dahstrom’s relationship to music began to change. Visiting a friend in San Francisco, she scavenged Amoeba Records for vinyl and perhaps even a rejuvenated sense of self. “I didn’t even know what music I liked anymore.” She was surprised to find herself drawn to artists whose music didn’t rely on any complex arrangement—Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett, The Stanley Brothers, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Jean Ritchie—folksters palpably at ease alone with their instruments. “Three chords and the truth suddenly seemed like enough. Plenty, even.” She opted for High Lonesome over high brow, sentiment over skill. “The kicker was discovering Gillian Welch,” she says. “Other singers had made me want to perform, but she made me want to write.” In her third decade, Dahlstrom picked up the guitar. 

Back in Brooklyn, Dahlstrom began sitting in on sessions at Jalopy and Sunny's in Red Hook. “You can’t help but learn from other people,” she says, wistfully recollecting a time akin to a freshman year. She answered a Craigslist ad for a rhythm guitar-player who could sing harmonies, and soon enough, joined the all-female Americana trio Bobtown. The band released four acclaimed albums from 2010 to 2019; Dahlstrom’s late-blooming love of folk didn’t just endure, it flourished. 

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The Great Emu War Casualties - Public Sweetheart No.1 (Album).

Growing up is hard. Dissecting those universal feelings and turning them into art is much harder, but that’s exactly what The Great Emu War Casualties have achieved on their debut album ‘Public Sweetheart No.1’, out today Friday, March 27. 

Across three EPs, Melbourne indie-rock outfit The Great Emu War Casualties have steadily sharpened their sound and songwriting, building toward their most fully realised work yet. The band recently shared the first glimpses of what was to come with the singles ‘Donut’ and ‘Wanna See You’, two tracks that capture different sides of their melodic, emotionally direct indie rock. 

Now, it all comes together on their debut album ‘Public Sweetheart No.1’, a record that reflects on personal missteps, relationships, and the search for clarity amid chaos. Blunt, reflective and at times wryly self-aware, the album frames these reckonings through punchy, guitar-driven songwriting and sharp lyricism, presenting an honest self-examination that balances remorse, humour, and a determination to confront the past. Speaking on the album, Joe Jackson shares:

"‘Public Sweetheart No.1’ is a blunt, honest self-assessment of my own behaviour over an extended period of time and the various ways in which I have affected the people closest to me, so I’ve at least tried to make it catchy in order to better live with myself. It’s about the clarity I’ve found in going back to basics, in trying to remove the chaos and noise of the world in favour of honesty. An anthemic apology, with some ‘sorry, not sorry’ sprinkled on top. I am sorry though, really." 

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Brennen Leigh - The Traveling Kind.

Known for penning tunes that Lee Ann Womack, Charley Crockett and others have recorded, Texas singer-songwriter Brennen Leigh flips the script on her new single “The Traveling Kind.” A cover of a song released eleven years ago by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, it’s set for release in March on Truly Handmade Records, a Nashville-based label owned by Guy Clark, LLC.

Leigh’s version of the song, which was co-written by Harris, Crowell and Cory Chisel, strips things down to just two musicians. The exquisite and heartfelt rendition features Leigh playing mandolin and lead vocals, with her husband Kevin Skrla on acoustic guitar and backing vocals.

Leigh and Skrla recorded the song at the request of Truly Handmade Records president Tamara Saviano, who wanted a fresh version of the tune to use as the theme song of her new Wisconsin radio show. The Americana music program, which also will be called The Traveling Kind, will air from 5-7pm on the third Saturday night of each month beginning March 21 on Monona, WI, community station WVMO 98.7 FM.

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EDIE - DOPESICKFLY - Dani Ivory - J Mau & The Kiss Off - Yea-Ming and the Rumors

Photo - Jenna Elson

EDIE - Fall Of Man.

It is frustrating waiting for someone to change, and even more so when defeat and hopelessness begin to settle in. Perth/Boorloo-based artist EDIE captures that anger and despair as she ushers in a new era on her latest single 'Fall Of Man', out Thursday, March 26. Following her 2024 EP 'unsaid' and the sharp-edged singles 'Bleed' and 'Girl’s Girl', 'Fall Of Man' signals a striking shift in EDIE's sound. Where her earlier releases leaned into indie pop/ alt-rock, she trades guitars for synths in this new chapter. 

Exploring darker, alternative electro-pop, sparse synth lines and a pulsing electronic drumbeat form the foundation, allowing EDIE’s melodic verses and ominous choruses to sit front and centre. The result is an entrancing composition with a dreamlike quality. 
  
Co-written with Calvin Bennett, 'Fall Of Man' pairs EDIE's biting lyricism with hypnotic pop production. Controlled and restrained in its opening moments, the track slowly builds tension as EDIE’s vocals hover over the minimal arrangement. What begins as a slow-burning atmosphere gradually swells into a cathartic final section, where waves of synths surge beneath her voice, releasing long-held emotion.

The track explores the emotional exhaustion that comes from trying to help someone who refuses to change, capturing the moment when hope begins to give way to resignation. Speaking on the meaning behind the song, EDIE explains: “This song explores my frustration about someone who is not willing to change or not willing to listen. It’s that feeling of defeat and hopelessness you get when you realise you can’t fix that person.” 

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DOPESICKFLY - Side 2 Side

DOPESICKFLY’s brand-new single “Side2Side” is a high-energy track that encourages listeners to let loose, get on their feet and move their bodies. The song blends the best of Funk, Soul, Disco, and HipHop to create an upbeat anthem about living life to the fullest and dancing the night away. 

With its unique blend of genres, catchy hooks, and infectious beat, “Side2Side” is the perfect soundtrack for anyone looking to add some excitement and motivation to their daily routine. The lyrics reflect the band’s commitment to living life on their own terms. "We're excited to share this new single with the world," says Ant Thomaz, the band’s frontman. "We hope it brings people together, gets them moving, and inspires them to chase their dreams.” This single drop is ahead of their new EP "I Woke Up On My Good Side” due out Summer 2026.

DOPESICKFLY is a band built on friendship, chance encounters, and a deep love of groove and soul. Frontman Ant Thomaz, a singer-songwriter with Creole heritage, is known for his eclectic musical style. Nearly a decade ago in Glasgow, he met singer Wendy Rae at an open mic and was struck by the power and feeling in her voice. When they sang together, the chemistry was instant. What began as friends playing small shows quickly felt like family, with Ant and Wendy sharing lead vocals and a musical bond that reached beyond the stage.

Dopesickfly · Side2Side

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Dani Ivory - No Other Way (EP).

Dani Ivory is back with her EP No Other Way, a project that reads like a late-night confession you weren’t meant to overhear. It’s intimate, unfiltered, and emotionally relentless. At the center of it all is “Looney Bin,” a track that doesn’t just set the tone for the EP, but defines it. “Looney Bin” is messy, loud, and self-aware in a way that feels intentional. Sonically, it leans bright and almost carefree, but underneath that gloss is heartbreak dressed up as rebellion. Ivory comes in swinging: “I’ve been beating down every single door / I got no good shoes left to throw I’m looking for some more / I just can’t wrap my head tight around the thought / You’ve had enough of my love don’t want me no more”

There’s no poetic cushioning, she says it plain and simple. You feel the exhaustion, the disbelief, the sting of realizing the love you were pouring out is no longer wanted. Then the chorus hits, and the unraveling becomes visual: “I turn into a wreck, a nasty mess / Mascara dripping, big hair flippin’ party bitch / I drink too much wine, I stay up all night / I’m a different woman when you’re roaming / Yeah I’m losing my mind to the Looney Bin” This is the heart of the EP. “Looney Bin” isn’t romanticizing chaos, it’s documenting it. Ivory doesn’t pretend she’s thriving. The “Looney Bin” isn’t a place, it’s a state of mind when love turns into abandonment and the house that once felt like home starts closing in.

That diary-like unraveling flows into the rest of No Other Way. On the gut-wrenching ballad “Anymore,” she trades chaos for clarity: “I ain't got much help / Well, I’ve got myself wrapped in a bunch / When I had a hunch you were creepin' behind closed doors / I'm not yours. No, no no no, I’m not yours anymore” Then there’s “Get Through,” which feels like bargaining in real time: “So, we’re gonna get through / There’s no other way around it /We can’t hop skip or go backward / We looked our whole damn lives and found it / Though all my friends think I’m absurd / For sticking around and watching you drown / But if you go down, baby, I go down”

And when you’re in the trenches of losing the person you love, “Hope” becomes exactly what its title suggests, the fragile thread you cling to when logic says let go. This EP is full of feeling, not just sadness, but anger, denial, devotion, and desperation. Dani Ivory stands brave in the middle of it all, spilling every thought without flinching. No Other Way doesn’t offer easy resolutions. Instead, it offers truth, and sometimes, that’s the only way through.

Dani Ivory · No Other Way

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Photo - Zache Davis

J Mau & The Kiss Off - Poison.

Los Angeles, California’s J Mau & The Kiss Off emerge from what they lovingly call their “beloved hellhole” with their debut single “Poison,” out March 25. Founded in 2025 by Justin “J Mau” Maurer, longtime punk lifer and founder of Clorox Girls, Suspect Parts, L.A. Drugz, and Maniac, the project finds Maurer turning toward something darker and dustier without losing the bite that’s always defined him. “Poison” is a cinematic honky tonk murder ballad filtered through decades of West Coast punk history. It’s the first glimpse of a songwriter who’s always followed the feeling, even when it led somewhere uncomfortable.

Maurer’s story isn’t mythology. It’s messy and real. A CODA raised between Los Angeles and Bainbridge Island by a single Deaf mother, American Sign Language was his first language. Punk became his second. After surviving a turbulent childhood and helping put his abusive father in jail as a teenager, Maurer found autonomy in the underground. By fifteen he was booking shows and touring. By twenty he was releasing records and circling the globe with Clorox Girls. Along the way he built a parallel career as one of the country’s most respected ASL interpreters, working alongside prominent political figures like Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, stage interpreting for punk legends like Alice Bag and The Avengers, interpreting Deaf actor Troy Kotsur’s historic 2022 Academy Award acceptance speech, and appearing with Kotsur on Curb Your Enthusiasm. His life has always moved between worlds.

After stints living in Madrid, London, and Baja California, and in the wake of a divorce that leveled him, Maurer found himself flat on his back in an East Hollywood apartment, cowboy boots still on, old country records spinning. Hank Williams. Buck Owens. Merle Haggard. Gram Parsons. Kris Kristofferson. Townes Van Zandt. He finally understood it. “Real country music is poetry,” Maurer says. “It’s about failure, heartbreak, and the tragic human condition. Music to laugh and cry and live and die by.” That rock-bottom clarity led him to write “Poison.”

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Photo - Corey Poluk

Yea-Ming and the Rumors - Paper Doll.

Yea-Ming and the Rumors have announced that they will release a new album, titled Residue, on Bay Area label, Dandy Boy Records, on June 12th. Bay Area indie pop band Yea-Ming and The Rumours return with their fourth studio album, Residue. With Yea-Ming’s signature heart-tugging lyrics and Nico-esq voice, she continues to explore the rawness of human experience and emotions. While 2024’s I Can’t Have It All signified a time of change and transition for Yea-Ming, Residue embraces the reset and the examination of reality after a storm, grappling with the overbearing nature of memory (remembering and forgetting) while submitting to the coarseness of love, intimacy and regret.

With the help of long-time collaborator Eóin Galvin (Hoxton Mob, Readyville) on lead guitar and lap steel, Ryli colleagues Rob Good (The Goods, Ryli) on bass and Luke Robbins (Ryli, R.E. Seraphin) on drums, Yea-Ming takes us on a journey of regrowth, with songs like Paper Doll where she admits inauthenticity in a world where one has been taught to please everyone around them to survive. In Treasury of Loved Ones, Yea-Ming explores the permanence of memory, or what appears to be permanent even as time moves on and erases moments out of our lives.

It’s a sweet and sad ode to remembering our loved ones, especially those we have lost to in time and in death. In Fine Afternoon, we are confronted with the reality of a tainted rebirth as Yea-Ming sings “in this life renewed, you’re my residue” (here we find our album title) and we remember that resets are never clean. The Rumours explore a little bit musically this time as well, which you hear in uncharacteristic danceable numbers like in the catchy but vulnerable and sensuous St. Etienne-like Sweet Opiate. While Good served as the band’s skilled recording engineer, Yea-Ming mixed the album at home; her vision realized through exploring texture, rhythm and sound, making Residue a Yea-Ming production through and through. 

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Thin Lear - Carly King - The Sh-Booms - Ghalia Volt - Soft Loft - Benny Bleu

Photo - Anna Rhody

Thin Lear - A Cherished Man.

Thin Lear, begetter of elegant melancholia, opens his sophomore album (out April 24th) with a bridge falling and a brother’s death. What’s the reason for me seeing? / What’s the reason for anything? / Tell me angel, if you will / Do you think of me still? This tossing of hands to the sky, a dizzied surrender to the absurdity of existence, drives every song that follows. On album standout “A Cherished Man,” that loneliness manifests in three, distinctly curious characters. Andy drinks himself into public humiliation on a nightly basis; Annie pokes strangers with pins on crowded urban buses; Charlie consumes gargantuan sums of corks, stones, and live animals for performance. It’s a work of masterful poetry, and a poignant testament to the lengths humans will go in pursuit of connection. “I see myself in all of them,” Longo confesses. “They’re looking for love, they’re just not sure how to broker it.” With a delicate wail of despair—almost as though pricked—he sings: They say, you’re only whole / You’re only true / Long as someone dreams of you / And if you’re just set up to fall / You find a way to feel at all. It’s heartrending and conciliatory at once; Longo goes to the freak show, and sees only humans. 

Longo grew up writing short stories; that narrative instinct pervades his music. He tends towards tragedies—some true, some imagined, and some stuck in between. “I’ve always gravitated to bizarre tales to access my own grief and pain,” says Longo. From “The Mothman” event of 1960s West Virginia which inspired “Silver Bridge,” to the “Mad Gasser” mass  hysteria of 1940s Illinois that backdrops “Mattoon,” Longo collects peculiar lore and studies it for insights into humanity. 

He pairs odd plots with placating melodies, his voice as pure and holy as a bell. The effect is uncanny—lyrics like a nightmare delivered through a lullaby. “I need something supernatural to wrestle with, just to understand my own earthly troubles,” he says. “I write to access a feeling and get past it.” Longo may summon the ghosts to dispel them, but Thin Lear’s music remains vibrantly haunted, full of eerie figures loping along, human or otherwise, hoping to heal. Influenced on a fundamental level by the likes of David Bowie and Karen Dalton, Longo builds a kind of sonic bridge between the two—his emotive folk pop aches and articulates from a strange, starry place. 

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Carly King - Three Martinis.

The highly anticipated debut album from Carly King (Loving You Is Easy), has been recorded at Cloverdale Records with Shane Travis (Evan Honer), and is due out May 1 on First City Artists (Alexa Rose, Coco). 

Born in New Jersey, King lost her father at age 4 to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Her family moved to Wyoming shortly after, where King grew up with a vivid sense of life's uncertainty and a profound desire to find its purpose. Now based in Nashville, she brings her insights on loss, love, and living freely to her first full-length. In her stark, sandy voice, King sings of dusty floors, school buses, and cowboy boots with the sparkling pop sensibility of Kacey Musgraves, the full hearted howl of Sierra Ferrell: Loving you is easy / It's the world that's hard.

With singles and EPs alone, King has independently amassed more than 20K monthly listeners, been named an American Songwriter Song Contest finalist, landed sponsorship from Gibson guitars, and conducted a merch campaign successful enough to fund her first full-length. King's fans aren't passive listeners but fervent, supportive members of a grassroots community, one she's built with warm and retable, folk country earworms.

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The Sh-Booms - This Is A Test.

Orlando soul-rock powerhouse The Sh-Booms return with the striking new music video for “This Is A Test,” the cinematic title track from their recently released EP This Is a Test, available now on all digital platforms.

Directed by John Taylor, the video expands the song’s cosmic narrative into a vivid, otherworldly visual experience — one that blends performance with a surreal journey through time, space, and survival.

“The concept kind of dances through themes of time and space travel, unexpected journeys that lead to discovery, strength in survival and love, all woven through a dynamic performance,” Taylor explains. “I envisioned an emergency evacuation back to Earth, perhaps at a different time or in an alternate universe of possibilities.”

Drawing inspiration from classic New Wave-era visuals — including the stylized performance energy of artists like INXS — as well as Taylor’s own upbringing during the final chapter of the space program in Cocoa Beach, Florida, the video captures both nostalgia and forward motion. The result is a visually immersive companion to one of the band’s most ambitious songs to date.

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Photo - Eric Johanson

Ghalia Volt - Ride. 

Ghalia Volt doesn’t waste time easing in. On “Ride,” the first single and video from her upcoming album Burn The House Down, due May 15th (Ruf Records,) she delivers a fierce, groove-heavy blast of blues-soaked rock & roll — gritty, immediate and unforgettable.

With Burn The House Down, produced by JD Simo and recorded in Nashville, Volt pushes that sound even further — capturing the immediacy of her live performances while expanding her sonic reach. Her first single “Ride,” is fierce, gritty and hip-shaking, a blast of blues-soaked rock & roll swagger that sets the tone for the album.

Recently featured on 60 Minutes alongside Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Volt was recognized as part of a new generation carrying blues music forward. It’s a role she’s grown into over the past decade, shaped in part by her move from Belgium to New Orleans in 2016 — a turning point that immersed her fully in American roots traditions while sharpening her raw, instinct-driven approach.

That same year, she released Have You Seen My Woman (2016), a breakthrough that introduced her stripped-down, streetwise sound. She followed with Let the Demons Out (2017), and Not long after, Volt embraced a fiercely independent path, developing her one-woman band setup — singing, playing guitar, and working percussion simultaneously — a format that became central to both her recordings and her reputation as a live performer.

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Soft Loft - Caught.

Soft Loft is a Switzerland-based collective fronted by singer/lyricist Jorina Stamm. From day one, their mission has been to create a space where vulnerability is like oxygen and connecting with another is summer breeze. Their sound is a sticky mixture of ecstasy and melancholy.

After a breakthrough year of headline tours, major festivals & tastemaker praise from BBC 6 to KEXP, Swiss indie collective Soft Loft return with Caught, a high-voltage anthem for twenty-somethings confronting the moment they played it safe instead of fearless. 

Suspended between nostalgia and “what if”, the track builds from introspection into a remarkable scream of release. Written & produced by the band, mixed by Grammy-winner Craig Silvey, it launches the road to an outstanding new album.

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Benny Bleu - When I Am a Fossil.

Pairing timely songwriting with his distinctive instrumental banjo work, When I Am a Fossil is the bold forthcoming album release (due June 5) from New York native Benny Bleu. Ten years in the making and informed by the artist’s prior decade working as a geologist, the project reflects a sustained exploration of humanity’s relationship with the Earth, expressed through original songs, carefully chosen covers, and meditative banjo instrumentals. Both a deeply personal statement and a collaborative studio achievement, When I Am a Fossil pushes at the boundaries of old time music and its intersections with jazz and global rhythms, bridging old time traditions with contemporary sonic exploration.

At its core, When I Am a Fossil is a concept album that draws on geological time. Framed through the lens of a train-traveling, smartphone-rejecting modern-day luddite contemplating reality in 2026, the record offers multiple perspectives on a singular theme: what it means to live on—and within—a changing planet. Geologic ages are defined by their fossils—the preserved evidence of life—and often marked by mass extinctions. Looking ahead, future geologists examining the Anthropocene—the present age defined by human impact—will likely identify another mass extinction event, one humanity both caused (“When I am A Fossil”) and endured (“I’ve Endured”). The album meditates on this paradox while offering shimmers of hope and wonderment in the wistful “Serenity Song” and “All I Want to Be.”

Ultimately, the record suggests that while economies are human inventions sustained by belief, climate change will march on whether we believe in it or not (“March of the Mollusk”). As environmental pressures intensify, future generations may be compelled to live simpler lives with less consumption and greater locality. In that simpler, more grounded world, the album proposes, folk music will not only persist—it will belong.

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