Taxi Girls - Cimarron 615 - Dave Clark - D.B. Tait

Taxi Girls - Static (Album).

Montreal's Taxi Girls arrive with Static, their debut full-length album, out June 26 on Stomp Records. If the first two singles introduced the band, Static is where the full picture develops. Across ten tracks, Taxi Girls pull together giant hooks, sharp songwriting, dual-vocal chemistry, and a deep appreciation for the women who made rock and roll dangerous, stylish, and impossible to ignore. There are flashes of The Runaways, Girlschool, Nikki Corvette, The No Talents, and the melodic punch of classic power pop throughout the record, but never as imitation. These songs feel less like homage and more like continuation.

The album feels born from afternoons spent digging through dusty bins, arguments over forgotten punk singles, and record bags slung over shoulders. Mile End bars become afterparties. Somebody always puts on the perfect 45 at exactly the right moment. The city is everywhere on Static, not as subject matter, but as perspective. It’s the sound of a band raised on great records, great stories, and the belief that a three-minute song can still change your day.

While the album carries plenty of swagger, it also reveals a band willing to dig deeper. Across Static, Taxi Girls explore love, loss, mental health, postpartum depression, self-doubt, and the strange comfort of nostalgia. The songs don't offer neat conclusions or easy answers. Instead, they trace the difficult path toward self-acceptance, resilience, and learning when to let go of the things that no longer serve you.

The album's title captures that tension perfectly. Static represents the feeling of being stuck while somehow remaining in motion, caught between reflection and reinvention. Even the lemon on the album cover reflects that spirit. It's a symbol of making the best of life's worst situations, finding meaning in setbacks, and pushing forward when standing still would be easier.

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Photo - Alan Messer

Cimarron 615 - Aruba.

Acclaimed Americana collective Cimarron 615 returns with Same Sky, arriving August 7th via Blue Élan Records. The band’s third album and most fully realized statement to date, is introduced by the lead single, “Aruba,” a breezy horn-driven reggae ode about escaping life’s daily pressures. “It’s a party song about a lost weekend,” says bassist and vocalist Jack Sundrud. “The story of a guy who goes to the Caribbean on vacation and parties so hard that he not only has no memory of what happened, he apparently didn’t even make it out of his motel room.”

The album finds Poco veterans Jack Sundrud (bass, vocals), Michael Webb (keyboards, accordion), Rick Lonow (drums, percussion), and guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Ronnie Guilbeau, Combined, the band builds on the chemistry that first brought them together following the passing of Poco co-founder Rusty Young.

The story of Cimarron 615 begins with Poco, one of the pioneering bands of the country-rock movement. After Rusty Young’s passing in 2021, Blue Élan Records founder Kirk Pasich assembled Lonow, Sundrud and Webb for a tribute concert and recording project. The chemistry was undeniable. When Guilbeau—who co-wrote Poco’s 1989 Top 20 hit “Call It Love”—joined the lineup, what began as a tribute quickly evolved into a band with its own identity.

Collectively, the four musicians represent decades of American music history. Beyond Poco, their résumés include Burrito Deluxe, Great Plains, Brooklyn Cowboys, Palomino Road, and GYG, along with recording and touring credits alongside Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Loretta Lynn, Chris Stapleton, John Prine, John Fogerty, Hank Williams Jr. and many more.

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Dave Clark - Through The Wall.

The journey continues. Dave keeps us intrigued with “Through the Wall” an intimate reflection on disintegrating relationships and our desire not to accept reality. The masterful guitar complements the lyrics without overwhelming, allowing us to sink into the melody.

Producer Glenn Kerrigan created a lush atmospheric backdrop for the song with floating synths and intricate beats. “We’ve all buried our heads in the sand when things go wrong in a relationship," said Dave. “Rather than write the standard. "You write the now and I’m sad type of song."

"I thought it would bring something new and reflect on how we cling on, even when we know it’s well past its sell-by date." Dave continues to release intriguing and listenable songs, each with it’s own character but recognisably his own, making him one of today’s more interesting songwriters.
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D.B. Tait - Before You Go.

As the latest artist to appear out of the fertile musical soil of Ontario’s Prince Edward County, D.B. Tait makes a powerful first impression with his debut single, “Before You Go.” A haunting cosmic country ballad with echoes of Jason Molina and MJ Lenderman, the song is a preview of a full-length album entitled Losing Time that is sure to establish Tait as a vital new voice within the alt-country world.

Tait explains, “I wrote ‘Before You Go’ as a song about knowing there’s something difficult coming, in any sort of relationship, whether it’s romantic or platonic, and the anxiety and stress that comes with waiting to have that sort of confrontation—almost like waiting to hear if you got a job or if you made the cut on a sports team, but on a more personal and even existential level. The anticipation of that confrontation can be a real struggle sometimes.”

Tait recorded “Before You Go,” as well as the rest of Losing Time (release date TBC), largely in his home studio, tracking most of the guitars and vocals on his own. Close collaborators Ian Roantree and Mitch Cory from the band Kojak added overdubs, while fellow Prince Edward County singer-songwriter and Littleknown Records head David James Allen handled the mix.

Since co-founding Kojak in 2018, Tait has gradually embraced a parallel path as a solo artist in order to express different themes of life’s everyday problems and how facing them helps to break free of destructive cycles. His songs explore how these actions affect love, death, relationships with friends, and the need to gain control of one’s self-governance. In naming the album Losing Time, Tait is essentially taking up the fight for all of us against letting our personal hourglasses run out.

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Izzy Oram Brown - River Shook - Peter Parcek - Sam Burchfield - Twin Bloom - Empty Melon

Photo - Natalie Jordan

Izzy Oram Brown - What I Want (Album).

“Love U the Same”—a plainspoken, broadly strummed pop ballad and the emotional highwater mark of Izzy Oram Brown’s new LP What I Want sketches out a journey toward accepting emotional paradox. Singing in hushed but soulful tones that bring to mind Christine McVie, the Massachusetts-born, Queens-dwelling songwriter returns to chords that she reframes in every verse, setting up a resolution that never comes, mirroring the lost promise of a broken compact between lovers who really tried to make it work. An ambiguous chord, neither bright or despairing, frames both an admission of hurt and bittersweet statement of re-devotion (“But no matter what I do or say, you’re with me.”) 

It is only after the narrator accepts that only time can make mutual empathy and acceptance possible that the harmony settles and the arrangement expands: “If we tire of the work/of finding who’s to blame/I will remember/I love you the same.” With its nostalgic, carefully arced melody and lyrics, the song holds pain, contradiction, and a genuine warmth of spirit easily. It’s a combination which often eludes even the greatest artists who write about romantic wires getting crossed.

These strengths permeate What I Want, Brown’s sophomore release, from beginning to end. Each song dramatizes a frank and comprehensive self-analysis session in their basic structure. Throughout the album, Brown convincingly tackles the broadest possible thematic material with deliberateness and clarity. Though she began life immersed in singing folk songs, she has spent much of her musical career as an accomplished session and touring guitarist—known for her work playing with musical legends like Julian Lage as well as rising NYC bands like Why Bonnie and Youbet. 

Taking a break from jazz studies, she moved to Nashville in her late teens to do live and session work, and fell in love with the architecture of pop songwriting. For her, writing music is as much a responsibility as a pastime. “Every song I’ve ever written happened because I decided it was time to write some songs,” she explains. Hesitant to waste anyone’s time, including her own, she writes when she is ready to, and as a result, the songs on What I Want ring out with the lucidity of someone who has thought hard about what they are going to say long before they say it. 

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River Shook - River Shook (Album).

River Shook’s self-titled debut album is out this weekend via Blackberry River. On River Shook, arrow-to-the-heart honest lyrics, rock-god guitar solos, shimmering pedal steel, and Shook’s unmistakable voice cuts like a ray of light through a great darkness. A sense of poise, a contagious strength coaxes the listener towards a deeper level of honesty about ourselves, our choices, and the shifting landscapes of modern life.

In the spring of 2025, River Shook was getting through the remaining Sarah Shook & the Disarmers’ tours. The beloved country rock band’s decade-long run was set to come to a close that summer, but Shook was mentally miles ahead already, dreaming up a new future as a solo artist. Despite a powerful armory of brand new songs, Shook’s demos yielded no bites from labels. Frustrated with the slow-turning gears of the music industry, Shook pitched an unconventional idea to their lead guitarist and partner, Blake Tallent - they would make the entire record themselves on a shoe-string budget, and sort out a label deal down the line.

The Disarmers played their final show at the end of June 2025. On the first day of July, Shook and Tallent dug deep into their small home studio, and got to work. The songs felt light years ahead of Shook’s past writing. “I’ve talked a lot about evolving as an artist, about personal growth as a tool to avoid stagnation or hitting a plateau,” explains Shook. “The finality of the Disarmers disbanding felt like a weight had been lifted, like I was seeing my life with perfect vision for the first time. Evolution wasn’t enough for what I wanted to achieve with this record, I had to die. I had to completely kill my old self, and all inhibiting beliefs about myself, my potential as an artist, and my limits as a creator.”

Shook and Tallent pulled off the impossible with River Shook - in a modest home studio in rural North Carolina, two people created an album that feels larger than life. Vast, rolling landscapes of sonic layers gently envelope timeless themes into each other: a great sacrifice that gives nothing in return, a false friend’s betrayal, a longing to be truly seen by an emotionally unavailable parent. Throughout the album, Shook gently illuminates themes we tend to mentally avoid, reminding us we’re braver than we think, we can handle hard truths about our lives, and we can change course the moment we’re ready.


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Photo - Tom Hazeltine

Peter Parcek - Twistified.

Acclaimed guitarist, singer-songwriter, and blues innovator Peter Parcek returns with Most of the Time, a powerful new album arriving August 14th. The album’s first single, “Twistified,” captures Parcek’s fearless approach to modern blues. Fueled by roaring guitar, hypnotic grooves, and a nod to Mississippi bluesman Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, the track honors blues tradition while pushing the genre into bold new territory, setting the tone for an album that is both rooted in history and unmistakably forward-looking. Listen here.

A 13-song collection of originals and inspired interpretations, Most of the Time showcases Parcek at his most expressive—as a songwriter, vocalist, arranger, and one of today’s most distinctive guitarists. From the haunting title track, written by Bob Dylan, to soulful takes on Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands,” John Hiatt’s “Mississippi Phonebooth,” and Mose Allison’s “Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing,” the album balances emotional depth with extraordinary musicianship.

The album also marks new territory for Parcek, incorporating horns on four tracks for the first time and featuring an exceptional lineup of guests, including Duke Robillard, Luther Dickinson, Mickey Raphael, Kevin Barry, Danielle Miraglia, and Tom West, alongside longtime bandmates Marc Hickox and Tim Carman.This is Parcek’s fifth major release and follows an acclaimed run of albums including the Blues Music Award-nominated The Mathematics of Love, the EP Pledging My Time, Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven—praised by Premier Guitar for its “close to the bone” approach and “earthy and ethereal” sound—and 2020’s Mississippi Suitcase, which expanded his signature blend of blues, rock, folk, and gypsy jazz.

Peter Parcek · Twistified

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Photo - Aram Aghababian

Sam Burchfield - One More Setting Sun.

Sam Burchfield has released a new single on Cloverdale Records (Evan Honer, Winyah), “One More Setting Sun.” Over rapturous rhythm and zagging electric guitars, Burchfield celebrates another year of vibrant life. 

He shares: We're just little eternal beings trapped in bodies trying to love each other and navigate the cosmos. The world is beautiful, we are in it and we are part of the beauty.  I wanna love you forever—that’s what this song is. What else can I say? It’s a summer bop.

This is the second glimpse into a new full-length expected later this year; details to be announced. Burchfield shared “Leave the Light On” this spring to acclaim from Northern Transmissions, Atwood Magazine, DittyTV, and Whiskey Riff among others, amidst a rolling tour including dates with The Strumbellas. The run continues with headlines as well as support for Joe P, Wilderado, Max McNown, and Evan Honer.

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Twin Bloom - Summer's Gone.

Twin Bloom’s self-titled debut EP, slated for release in summer 2026, captures a moment of transition, caught between looking back and pushing forward. Lead single “Summer’s Gone” distills the band’s approach most clearly, pairing an easy, driving rhythm with a bittersweet sense of seasonal shift. Twin Bloom isn’t chasing trends or big statements. The band is focused on writing songs that stick, sound good turned up in the car and feel just as natural on the tenth listen as the first.

Twin Bloom makes indie rock that balances momentum with atmosphere, drifting between the glow of 80s new wave, the haze of shoegaze and the melodic pull of classic guitar pop. Based in Oakland, the band leans into warmth over sharp edges. Guitars shimmer and blur, melodies stick quickly, and close vocal harmonies give the songs a familiar, lived-in feel. Influences like Teenage Fanclub, Alvvays, The Cure and The Strokes are present, but never foregrounded, filtered instead through a sensibility shaped by years of playing rooms, basements and clubs.

There’s patience in the band’s writing, but also a steady sense of drive. Songs unfold gradually, carried by chiming guitars and propulsive rhythms that keep things moving even as textures bloom and recede. The arrangements stay lean and focused, favoring clarity over excess and letting repetition, tone and melody do the work. The music feels emotionally grounded and immediate, well suited for hazy summer drives and warm, nostalgic nights that stretch on longer than expected.

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Empty Melon - Don’t Look Away.

Created and developed in Montreal’s DIY scene, Empty Melon (the solo project of Ada Lea bassist/producer Summer Kodama) follows up on her debut single, “Hoping to Find,” with “Don’t Look Away,” an atmospheric, dark, and emotionally charged song that transforms late-night spiralling into something strangely beautiful. Blending experimental electronics, art pop textures, and cinematic sound design, the track embraces discomfort rather than avoiding it, finding clarity through directness, vulnerability, and self-confrontation.

“Don’t Look Away” first emerged during a solitary drive in the early hours of the morning. “It started with spiralling while driving alone at 2am and improvising on the bass guitar,” Summer explains. What began as a fleeting emotional moment gradually evolved into a meditation on honesty, both with others and with oneself. “I think there’s a catharsis to expressing yourself and your needs with plain, direct language,” she says. “It allows you to facilitate an alignment with your most authentic self. Honesty is the most important component of self-expression.”

That sense of emotional directness is reflected throughout the production. Where “Hoping to Find” drifted through the hazy space between sleep and wakefulness, “Don’t Look Away” occupies a darker emotional landscape. Summer describes the two songs as “polar siblings,” with one basking in sunlight while the other emerges under the cover of night.

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Re Mattei - Blank Instrument - Real Monte - Killian Walsh - Brand New Heartache - Cassandra Coleman

Re Mattei - Hot Mess.

After earning chart success, industry recognition, and a growing reputation for crafting songs that resonate with everyday life, country artist and songwriter Re Mattei returns with "Hot Mess," an empowering new anthem for women who embrace every side of who they are.

Set to appear on her forthcoming album Stories Lived, arriving later this summer, "Hot Mess" captures the duality familiar to millions of women: the polished professional during the week and the adventurous, carefree spirit who emerges when the workday ends. Co-written by Mattei and Courtney Bach, the song is equal parts country swagger, heartfelt storytelling, and unapologetic celebration of authenticity.

Inspired by a group of women Mattei worked alongside in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, "Hot Mess" tells the story of a woman who spends her weekdays making deals in heels but lives for weekends filled with tailgates, four-wheelers, fishing trips, and quality time with the people she loves.

"I was fascinated by how these women balanced so many responsibilities while still making time to enjoy life," says Mattei. "They weren't worried about being perfect. They weren't afraid to get dirty, laugh hard, and simply be themselves. At its heart, 'Hot Mess' celebrates those moments when we allow ourselves to be perfectly imperfect and are loved just as we are."

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Blank Instrument - Brand New.

Boorloo/Perth artist Blank Instrument, the musical project of singer-songwriter Kim Franklin, unveils her new single 'Brand New', out yesterday Friday, June 26, the first taste of her forthcoming debut album 'Jumping at Ghosts', due later this year.   

While the warm, country-tinged folk release explores the end of a relationship and the hope that follows, it also marks the beginning of an album made possible by Franklin's late friend Julie, whose encouragement and generosity helped bring the long-held dream of recording a full-length record to life.

The album's origins can be traced back to one of Franklin's final conversations with Julie, a close friend she met years earlier while working together in the public service. Bonded by a shared love of music, storytelling and conversation, the pair remained close long after moving on to different careers. 

Before her passing in 2023, Julie told Franklin she wanted to leave her some money to help "pursue her dreams". That gift ultimately funded the recording of 'Jumping at Ghosts', allowing Franklin to enter Sundown Studios and realise a project that may otherwise have remained out of reach. More than a debut album, the record stands as a lasting tribute to friendship, generosity and the people who shape our lives.

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Real Monte - Take Me To The Sky.

The vintage soul-pop journey of Real Monte continues with its second chapter! With their new single "Take Me To The Sky," the Swiss band once again has a great tune to offer.  

Swiss radio station Radio Basilisk summed it up perfectly in April: "Real Monte invite listeners on a musical journey that stylishly blends the past and the present." Meanwhile, Belgian music blog Concertmonkey described the band's sound as a "vintage soul-pop journey," and youth radio station 4TNG in Winterthur selected their debut single as its Song of the Day.

Together with countless live performances, these accolades have helped Real Monte build a loyal and steadily growing fan base over the past few years. Their debut single "Go Go Go" achieved remarkable success this spring, receiving more than 500 radio plays on stations across Switzerland and abroad.

Now it's time for the follow-up: "Take Me To The Sky." An upbeat, carefree summer soul-pop song with a modern touch, it captures the timeless spirit of the 1950s and 1960s while bringing it into the present day.

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Killian Walsh - Ise (Album).

Experimental electronic artist and multi-instrumentalist Killian Walsh releases his new album ‘Ise’, accompanied by focus track ‘Let’s Dance’, featuring his daughter Elise SW. Following the release of previous singles ‘Let’s Float’ and ‘Let’s Play Bongos’, the full body of work now arrives as a deeply personal and emotionally expansive collection that cites a journey through grief, reflection, healing and renewal.

The album is named after the Irish word for “she”, with ‘Ise’ serving as a gesture of respect to the women who have shaped Killian’s life. Created during a profoundly transformative period following the deaths of his wife and father, the album emerged organically as a creative response to loss, gradually evolving into a complete work that captures both emotional vulnerability and artistic growth.

Killian Walsh comments: “Music has been part of my life from a very young age, and I had what I can only describe as a pull to do something. This album is effectively the story of the journey of my grief, realising that grief is a form of madness and all the emotions attached to that. It's also the journey of me looking into my past, because you really start looking at yourself and asking, ‘What are you doing? Why am I here? What is the point in all of this?”

Across the album’s eleven tracks, ‘Ise’ draws upon a broad spectrum of electronic influences including Ambient, House, Trance and Techno, while also reflecting Killian’s roots in traditional Irish music. Developed alongside collaborators in Dublin, Berlin and Australia, including renowned producers and engineers Tobias Neumann and Johannes Manuel, the album balances analogue textures, immersive sound design and melodic depth with an unmistakably human emotional core.

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Brand New Heartache - New Alchemy.

"New Alchemy" is the third single and title track from Brand New Heartache's forthcoming debut album, A New Alchemy (Mule Kick Records), arriving July 24. The single and accompanying video was released yesterday. Brand New Heartache, the husband/wife duo consisting of Eleese and Matthew Meschery, take their cues from the rich traditions of authentic Americana while channeling anthemic, indie-pop vibrations and dreamy harmonies. After having formed the band in Oakland, CA, the pair made a consequential move in 2022 to Madison, TN just outside of Nashville. With a rotating cast of session players that included members of Chuck Prophet’s band, Counting Crows, and Aimee Mann's touring band, they’ve sharpened a captivating sound and built momentum in East Nashville as they gear up for their release on Mule Kick Records.

​Blending dreamy harmonies, Americana roots, and indie-pop atmosphere, "New Alchemy" explores the exhilarating uncertainty of a first romantic connection—that moment when attraction seems to bend reality and transform ordinary time into something magical. As songwriter and vocalist Matthew Meschery explains: "That first hint of romantic love seems to transform time and space and defy the laws of physics and pure reality."

Brand New Heartache is the husband-and-wife duo of Matthew and Eleese Meschery. Originally formed in Oakland before relocating to the Nashville area, the pair draw inspiration from artists such as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Aimee Mann, The New Pornographers, and The Head and the Heart. Their debut album was produced and mixed by Michael Patterson (Beck, The Notorious B.I.G.) and features contributions from an accomplished cast of musicians from the Nashville and Bay Area scenes.

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Photo - Sophia Matinazad

Cassandra Coleman - Maggie.

Emerging singer/songwriter Cassandra Coleman has released her new single “Maggie.” A wistful ode to faded friendships, “Maggie” reflects on the ambivalence of growing apart from someone over time. Coleman’s sharp vocals cut through the driving instrumentation as she reminisces about bittersweet truths and blunt realities. “‘Maggie’ represents friendships lost by time and change - the bittersweet reality of outgrowing parts of our lives while still carrying gratitude for what they meant to us,” stated Coleman. “It hurts to lose a friend and it hurts to get older and realize you invested more into your dreams than your people.”

Cassandra Coleman will make her television debut next week on June 30th where she’ll perform the new single on The Kelly Clarkson Show. After closing out a batch of tour dates with AMBLE earlier this month, Coleman announced she will be performing in front of her biggest audience to date at Hyde Park in London on July 4th with Mumford & Sons. The appearance will cap off a limited run of Europe and UK dates opening for Angus & Julia Stone. This fall, Coleman will also perform at Oceans Calling Festival in September and Austin City Limits in October.

“Maggie” arrives after a series of new singles that have quickly established Coleman as one of indie-pop’s most compelling new voices, hailed for her “immense talent” (Paste) and “an artist who refuses to be defined by any one thing” (Rolling Stone). She previously released the “ethereal…haunting” (Melodic Magazine) “Dying Star” this spring, which finds Coleman with eyes on the horizon as she envisions a prescient visit with her future self. The sweeping instrumentation soars beneath her lush vocals anchored by wisdom-seeking lyrics that grapple with fate, longing, and the search for meaning. “‘Dying Star’ is a walk with the woman that I’ll become,” stated Coleman. “Curious of the knowledge that time has given her, I ask what the future holds. She reminds me that worry is a thief, time is an illusion, and the ones we love make the journey worth walking.”

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The Southern Tiers - HIGHSIGH - T.R. Burge & The Temple - FLOK - Pocket Lint - Samuel S.C.

The Southern Tiers - Holiday.

School's out for the summer, but for many of us summertime doesn't guarantee a break from the daily grind. The Southern Tiers are here to sympathize with their new single “Holiday” - the perfect anthem for your next spontaneous road trip or weekend getaway! Burnout is a real drag, and let's face it, there's not enough red-letter days on the calendar. 

Sometimes you've got to take back a little control, make up your own holiday and take a break from your busy life. The Southern Tiers have self-produced this energetic, freeing jam with mixing and mastering by local legend Evan Sieling, (Luke Bower, Young Mister, Kyle Reynolds, Lance and Lea).  Let it motivate you to pick a destination and head off into the sunset for some much-needed “me time.”

The Southern Tiers sound is exciting, yet also cozy and cinematic. It’s refreshing, while giving a nod to the classic influences that paved the way. Their new single “Holiday” is raw, relatable, and easy to listen and sing along to as the open road beckons your name. Listeners will find solace as this song shows solidarity with anyone who's felt over-worked and in need of a break. 

"Holiday" brings to mind the likes of Noah Kahan, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors. Enjoy the dusty guitars, driving drums, triumphant choruses, and playful vocal performances from this plucky Americana duo. Give it a listen and dust off your suitcase for a long-overdue Holiday!

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Photo -  Matt Mehlan

HIGHSIGH - I Love the Room I Live In.

HIGHSIGH have just announced their debut album 'Once Bend' which is due out July 31st on Joyful Noise Recordings. Along with this news, the trio of Robert Lundberg (JOBS), John Dieterich (Deerhoof), and Matt Mehlan (Skeletons) shared the record's lead single and video, "I Love the Room I Live In." The song features vocal and lyrical contributions from Macie Stewart (Finom) as well as percussion from Max Jaffe.

"I Love the Room I Live In" originated from a bassline that Ro Lundberg recorded during a session in Woodstock with Shannon Fields back in 2012. "We were experimenting—listening to lots of Morris Day and the Time, and New Jack Swing, improvising, jamming, extrapolating out from there," Lundberg says. "This bassline popped out as we rolled, and I fell in love with it. It didn’t get used there, but I kept carrying it around in my head for years. It was one of the first scraps I offered John and Matt." Around this foundation, the track took shape with driving drums, layered chopped-up synths, and biting yet lyrical improvised guitar.

The band shared a music video shot by the trio's very own Ro Lundberg and edited by Ryan Hover. In it, time-lapse footage of a hotel room is cut up and abstracted, revealing psychedelic colors, patterns, and textures.

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T.R. Burge & The Temple - Eagle Fly.

T.R. Burge & The Temple released ‘Eagle Fly’ yesterday June 25th, the debut single from the Manchester and Berlin-rooted band. It marks the first release under the band name for T.R. Burge, who has been writing and recording as a solo artist for a number of years, and represents the full realisation of a project that has been taking shape, across cities and collaborators, for considerably longer than its 2024 formation date might suggest.

Recorded at Klangbild Studios in Berlin with producer Martin J. Fiedler, the track is slow-moving and atmospheric; strings-led, dreamy, and built around a slow rock pulse that gives it a cinematic, unhurried weight. It sits in similar territory to the hypnotic, wandering energy of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, an influence the band cite directly, and one that shaped the song's mood and sense of drift from the earliest stages of its writing.

The song's origins are characteristically unplanned. T.R. Burge and an old friend rented a cottage in rural Scotland and worked through a set of initial ideas away from any studio pressure or outside influence — an approach that suited the track's subject matter well. Those early sketches were then taken to Berlin, where the full band recorded with Fiedler at Klangbild, and the song expanded considerably. Aninka Rosa's violin — the element perhaps most central to what T.R. Burge & The Temple sound like — was added as the sessions developed, giving the track much of its emotional reach and the quality that makes it feel both intimate and wide open at once.

Lyrically, ‘Eagle Fly’ is a song about the difficulty of hearing your own voice. Written against a backdrop of personal grief and the particular kind of introspection that brings, it deals with the accumulated weight of other people's expectations — the opinions, cultural pressures, and received ideas that quietly shape how a person moves through the world — and the work involved in setting those aside. It arrives, ultimately, at something hopeful. The connection to both Manchester and Berlin runs through it: two cities that have each, in different ways, demanded something honest from the band.

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Photo - Lucy Craig

FLOK - Stop Turning.

FLOK are a Manchester based four-piece, blending alternative rock with punchy, emotional songwriting. Shaped by the city’s venues and deep musical history, their sound feels rooted in Manchester whilst moving with a modern energy. The band have built a steady momentum in their hometown, growing from the basement of their local pub to the main rooms of a number of the city’s most iconic venues.

Their live presence is defined by high-energy performances, playing to expanding audiences across England, with summer touring dates secured in Sheffield, London, Medway, Glasgow and more. FLOK have recorded two original tracks with Sugar House Studios, including their debut single “Running Out”, which has received support from John Kennedy on Radio X second track; “Stop Turning” follows now and a debut EP expected in September.

With their first release, and live activity widening, FLOK are establishing a reputation as one of the North-West’s most exciting new bands within the grassroots promoter circle, and are now determined to bring their unique sound to venues nationwide!

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Pocket Lint - Wunderkammer (Album).

After many years away from music, Mark Heffernan pulled out his old suits and revisited the fragments his previous band had left behind. What began as an attempt to finally complete unfinished songs soon evolved into something much larger and synthy-er.

Mark first began his musical journey at the Guitar Institute in London between 1999 and 2000, an experience that ultimately taught him he wanted to create from instinct and emotion rather than rigid methodology. Fast forward to the summer of 2020: sitting on his balcony with sheets of sandpaper, Mark attempted to teach himself the art of carving cameos from amethyst. After weeks of purple dust, sore hands, and mounting frustration, he surrendered to another creative instinct and returned to the studio. Pocket Lint was born.

Since then, Pocket Lint has create his own sound and atmosphere, with a penchant for storytelling. Drawing influence from Bowie, Roxy Music, Soft Cell, Human League, Japan, Magazine, and Sakamoto, while channelling the poetic romanticism of Shelley and Coleridge, Heffernan creates music that feels both timeless and deeply rooted in his present. His releases have already earned recognition including Bandcamp’s New & Notable honour for the album Gallery, while the single “Cyanometer” received praise from Moonbuilding Zine.

Now, Pocket Lint presents his most immersive and ambitious work to date: Wunderkammer. Inspired by the German concept meaning “cabinet of curiosities,” Wunderkammer transforms the album into a sonic museum, a collection of strange, beautiful, and emotionally charged exhibits waiting to be discovered. Museums, galleries, forgotten artefacts, literature, and historical fragments all informed the creative process, with each song representing its own carefully curated object inside the collection. “A Wunderkammer has no such pretensions” Heffernan explains. “All it hopes to do is present objects that the owner thinks are beautiful or interesting. By doing so, they create a multi-faceted mirror. This is my Wunderkammer.”

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Samuel S.C. - I Need A Moment.

Today Samuel S.C. releases the latest track in its single series, "I Need A Moment." Produced by the masterful J. Robbins, the track barrels through two minutes of classic indie featuring uncluttered verses and soaring choruses, complete with the band's trademark boy/girl harmonies -  before ascending into a breathtaking prologue led by vocalist Vanessa Downing. It’s a powerful conclusion to a dynamic year of music—and a thrilling teaser for the band's upcoming 2027 full-length album.

Samuel S.C. (FKA Samuel) continues to bridge the gap between '90s indie-rock and timeless punk. Originally a cornerstone of drummer Eric Astor’s legendary Art Monk Construction label, the band reformed in 2021 with their DIY spirit firmly intact. Five years, one LP, one 7”, one split 10” and a 2nd LP in the works, S.C. isn't just maintaining momentum—they’re accelerating.

The group's 2026 trajectory is defined by a prolific streak that finds the band continuing to evolve and explore sounds that refuse to fall neatly into any sub-genre. Releasing one single per month since January, this month SSC shares their final installment of the series, “I Need a Moment”. Equal parts soaring indie rock and contemplative post-punk, "INAM" arrives on the heels of a dynamic set  -  the casual shimmer of "Mind Flies" (May), the straight-ahead melodic crunch of “Celestial” (April), the simmering and moody “Get Red” (March), the unbridled howl of "Push the Needle" (February), and the wistful, nostalgic "Another Good Lie" (January). These single releases follow a landmark year featuring a 10" split release with Florida’s Pohgoh and standout performances at Fest (Gainesville) and the inaugural Several States Festival in Chicago. 

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Johnny Delaware - Nicole Atkins - Late Stay Ultra Girls - Nora Stanley

Johnny Delaware - Regret Town.

Johnny Delaware (co-founder and former member of Susto) will release On God’s Time on July 24, 2026 via Normaltown/New West Records. The 10-song set was produced by Delaware and recorded in his adopted hometowns of Mexico City and Charleston, SC - the album follows 2024’s Para Llevar. This week we have “Regret Town” as a taster for the album. Talking about this Delaware says, “For ‘Regret Town,’ I wanted to be able to express some internal emotional concerns about my relationship with life, the lifeline of everything, what’s important to focus my energy on, and what I needed to fulfill so I don’t grow older with any distaste. I wanted to project that existentialism into a song along with my dreams to be on the big stage.” 

The captivating On God’s Time isn’t so much a meditation on mortality as an embrace of our ephemerality. The collection looks to death as a means of putting life itself into focus, as a lens through which to understand the meaning and purpose of our dwindling days on this planet. The songs here are firmly rooted in the spiritual realm of the cosmic drifter, full of larger-than-life characters navigating their way through a world of tragic beauty and infinite wonder, and the performances are loose and raw to match, guided by instinct and tracked live and in the moment. 

It’s a moving snapshot, a timeless exploration of love and loss and gratitude and regret rooted in the promise that our impermanence isn’t a curse, but rather a gift. Delaware says, “Life is wonderful and painful and a lot of times it’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy. We’re all on a mission to do what’s in our hearts before they stop beating. That’s the only journey that matters.  

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Nicole Atkins - When The Night Falls.

Nicole Atkins is proud to announce her long-awaited new album 'Drama', arriving via Sun Records / Wicked Game Records on Friday, 18th September. The acclaimed singer-songwriter’s seventh studio album and first all-new full-length release in over six years, 'Drama' is heralded by the first single, 'When the Night Falls', available everywhere now.   
 
“I got together with my old friend Emery Dobyns to write a song together,” said Nicole Atkins. “We had these chords, and the feeling from the music reminded me of something I would’ve written for my first album, Neptune City, and I thought about where I was back then. The toxic love affair. And tying it into who and where I am now, and being able to write a song about terrible love from a place of power. Some would call it growth. I’m just still in love with the ‘sound’ of heartache. It gets me like no other.” 

Largely recorded live over four productive days in her current home base of Nashville, TN, with GRAMMY® Award-nominated musician/producer Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense, Robyn Hitchcock), 'Drama' sees Atkins exploring the isolation, separation, and loneliness of a long-distance marriage through her signature fusion of musical genres and intimate lyrical songcraft. The album came together at the behest of her close friend and touring partner Chris Isaak, who signed her to Sun Records as part of his strategic alliance with the historic label as both artist and curator of new projects with his new imprint, Wicked Game Records. Drama spans style and era with smart design and an irrepressible buoyancy, from the girl group rush of “Trippin' On Teardrops” and Memphis soul-styled “For No One” to the James Bond-meets-Stevie Nicks noir of “Danny” and the wonderfully moody duet with Isaak, “Cue The Symphony.” 

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Photo - Tim Burden

Late Stay Ultra Girls - Chasing Rats, Polly.

Late Stay Ultra Girls release the new single 'Chasing Rats, Polly', a track which captures the unique dancefloor swagger meets creeping paranoia that stylises the project. After a decade immersed in the rich and varied musical landscape of Bristol, multi-instrumentalist Tim Burden steps out from the shadows of collaboration to introduce his striking new solo project: Late Stay Ultra Girls. Known for his work across an eclectic spectrum, from the alt-rock urgency of The Hideaways to the country inflections of Billy Driscoll and Taynee Lord, and the high-camp glamour of Doreen Doreen, Burden now pivots to something altogether more personal, visceral, and unguarded.

Under the moniker Late Stay Ultra Girls, Burden sheds the safety of the sideman role in favour of a sound that is deliberately unstable and compellingly “wonky.” The result is a distinctive blend of swung art-rock: barrel-house piano colliding with motorik synth-noir and expansive post-rock noise.

On ‘Chasing Rats, Polly’, Burden takes you on an uneasy journey from bravado to paranoia. Exploring themes of shallow bravado and the ways people bend the truth in an effort to be liked, admired, or taken seriously - it's a reflection on performance, self-image, and the consequences of presenting a version of yourself that isn't entirely real.

Recorded with acclaimed producer Stew Jackson (Massive Attack), musically ‘Chasing Rats, Polly’ undergoes a dramatic transformation midway through. What begins with a blend of off-kilter indie and dance-driven momentum gradually gives way to a dark, brooding bridge. Shifting from its tight rhythms to a more sprawling, anthemic, 70 rock influenced swell of soaring guitars and haunting vocals, the shift adds an unsettling edge to the narrative and provides the song with a compelling emotional arc - moving from swagger and confidence into a sound which is both cathartic and anthemic, yet introspective and unsettling. Messy, inventive, and sonically absorbing.

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Photo - Rachel Andes

Nora Stanley - Catfish.

"Catfish", the second single from Nora Stanley's solo debut, is out today. The track unfolds slowly and beautifully, built from a simple synth drone and delicate nylon-string guitar, with baritone guitar, koto, and layers of saxophone drifting in and out of view. What draws me in most, though, is the vulnerability at its center — Nora sings about the ways emotion can cloud judgment and the clarity that only arrives with distance. It's spacious, intimate, and quietly devastating.

If Nora’s name sounds familiar, it may be from her work with artists like Cassandra Jenkins, The New Pornographers and Fred Frith, or from Distance of the Moon, her acclaimed 2023 collaboration with Benny Bock. As a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser, Nora has spent years bringing her singular voice to other artists’ projects. On Glass, she steps fully into the spotlight, drawing inspiration from Anne Carson’s writing to explore themes of reflection, separation, and the ways we see ourselves mirrored back through others. Co-produced with Nate Mendelsohn (Frankie Cosmos, Dougie Poole), the result is a beautifully crafted indie-rock record that feels both intimate and expansive.

Glass is one of those small big words poets most prize. Reflective and transparent, hard and fragile, natural and supernatural, Glass is polymorphic. As a saxophonist, flute player, clarinetist, and synth player, Nora Stanley has accompanied many of our most cherished living songwriters, including Cassandra Jenkins, Beth Orton, and The New Pornographers. She has performed improvised creative music with Benny Bock, Fred Frith, Kenny Wollesen, and Peter Apfelbaum, too. Luckily for us, Glass is not a simple summation of these not-so-disparate paths. The complexity of that giant noun characterizes Nora’s approach to this record’s production as much as it does the variegated career that led to its existence. Glass is a record of subtly devastating songs by a cool headed observer; a mirror and a window.

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