Tag: indie rock

New Video: Dublin’s THEATRE Shares Shimmering “Gaudete”

Originally formed in Limerick and currently based in Dublin, the rising Irish quintet THEATRE — Maeve O’Shea (vocals), Oscar Halpin (guitar), Dara Gooney (guitar), Gerry Sheil (bass) and Sean Storan (drums) — have received rapturous praise internationally from Stereogum, NME, The Line of Best Fit, Dork, Clash Magazine and Wonderland, as well as airplay;ay from BBC 1 Radio‘s Sian Eleri and Alyx Holcombe, BBC Radio 2‘s Jo Whiley, BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd, Apple Music‘s Matt Wilkinson, Radio X‘s John Kennedy, as well as others.

The rising Irish outfit’s debut EP Incarnate was released yesterday through BMG/Echo. And as the band’s Maeve O’Shea explains, “Incarnate as a body of work feels like the physical embodiment of what our band has been for us over the past few years. These are some of the first songs that we wrote together, but they have gone through an evolution of their own after touring them for so long. They follow a theme of a changing-like person, someone who has two sides to them, but as a whole this EP is a presentation of our work finally in the flesh, real and ready. We’ve waited a long time to bring them out to the world in their truest form.” Much of the EP’s material is an ode to Limerick and its people, and how it shaped the band through often very dark, uneasy times.

The EP’s latest single “Gaudete” is a shimmering bit of 80s inspired post punk that subtly references Irish folk and brings early U2, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the like to mind while showcasing O’Shea’s breathtakingly gorgeous, yearning vocal and the band’s knack for rousingly anthemic and cathartic hooks and choruses.

“‘Gaudete’ was written in the early days of the band,” O’Shea says. “At the time I was listening to a lot of English and Irish folk music, and Steeleye Span was one of the most prominent inspirations. In their album Below the Salt they recorded a rendition of ‘Gaudete,’ a 16th century Christmas hymn – I heard the melody entangled in a guitar melody that Dara brought to a rehearsal and was determined that the two could be married together. The result was an original song that references the choral aspects of the ancient ‘Gaudete’ and plays with a dark lyrical theme to contrast the Latin meaning behind the word, rejoice or be joyful.”

Directed by Flo Webb, the accompanying video for “Gaudete” is a decidedly early 80s MTV-inspired yet cinematically shot visual that also showcases the breathtaking beauty of Ireland.

New Audio: Lolabelle Shares Anthemic, Mosh Pit Friendly “Limb”

Buxton, ME-based indie rock band Lolabelle can trace their origins back to the summer of 2024, when three neighbors– Caroline Homer (vocals, guitar), Kurt Fedora (bass) and Gene Gill (drums) — met in their backyard and bonded over a shared love of 1990s alt rock. This meeting of the minds, bought together an unlikely pairing of musicians: Fedora has recorded with J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr., Mark Lanegan, Gooblehoof and a lengthy list of others — and is a grizzled national touring circuit veteran; Gill, is a music educator and saxophonist with a background in both classical music an jazz; and Homer, a former opera singer and late-in-life guitar player.

That casual meetup quickly became a vehicle for Homer’s songwriting and the trio would regularly sneak into the dusty, unfinished basement of their apartment building to jam. When Robert Samantha‘s and God’s Furniture‘s Stephen Bennett (lead guitar) joined the band, the quartet quickly established a sound that’s bittersweet, deeply visceral and cathartic yet fun and full of driving energy while making the rounds of the Portland, ME area live music circuit, including Blue Portland Maine, The Apohadion Theater, The Portland Club, Hey Sailor! and the Starboard Lounge, Hi-Fdelity Brewing, Fogtown Brewing Company, DIY shows and more.

The band went to the studio to record their debut EP, which is slated to drop sometime this month. The EP will be supported with a planned Northeast tour, too. In the meantime, their debut single, “Limb” is a melodic bit of indie pop that channels 90s alt-rock like Veruca Salt, Dinosaur Jr, Letters to Cleo and the like, complete with the classic, alternating quiet verses and loud hooks and fuzzy, distortion pedaled power chord-driven choruses. It’s a fun, mosh pit friendly party starter of a tune that can light up a room.

New Video: Glimmer Shares Hazy, Summery “Someday Sunshine”

Last year, New York-based grungazers and JOVM mainstays Glimmer — Jeff Moore (vocals, guitar), Jaye Moore (drums), Johnny Nicholls (guitar) and Kevin Dobbins (bass) —released their Jeff Berner-produced full-length debut Get Weak. The album included The Colour and The Shape-era Foo Fighters-like “Dissolve” and the  Dinosaur Jr.-like “Been Down.”

The JOVM mainstay act’s latest single “Someday Sunshine” is the first bit of new material since Get Weak, and the single marks an shift in sonic direction for the band, showcasing a more melodic, dream pop-inspired sound while retaining their unerring knack for pairing catchy hooks with rousingly anthemic, power chord-driven choruses. But just underneath the mosh-pit friendly choruses, the song is underpinned by a bittersweet melancholy, seemingly fueled by the fact that summer will pass and leave you longing for those warm carefree days.

The accompanying video for “Someday Sunshine” was filmed by Digital Awareness and edited by JAM features the band performing the song and reddened in layers of psychedelic colored, VHS tape haze and hiss.

Following multiple tours across the US and Europe, the band will play a June 5, 2026 stop at TV Eye. They’ll head down to DC for Telepathic Windows Fest, before going across the pond for a July European Union and UK tour. Check out all tour dates below.

New Audio: Black Ends Shares Bruising Nirvana-like “All I’m Bone”

Black Ends — currently Nicole Swims (vocals, guitar), Ben Swanson (bass), Karl Fagerström (drums) and Tom Scully (guitar) — is a Seattle-based band, who make music that sounds, well like Seattle: a heady mxi of gnarled and fuzzy guitar chords, gritty and slimy textures, bombastic, ear drum shattering volumes and Swims’ guttural croon paired with Swanson’s propulsive groove. They’ve dubbed the sound gunk pop, an evolution of grunge that’s filtered through a modern lens, and feels perfectly at home in our era of paranoia, unease and overstimulation.

2020’s Jack Endino-produced Stay Evil EP received praise from The Alternative and Post-Trash and more, and airplay from KEXP. Their full-length debut, 2024’s Psychotic Spew landed at #1 on Seattle Times‘ Best Washington Albums 2024 list. And since then, the Seattle-based band have shared bills with Bikini Kill, Otoboke Beaver, Shonen Knife, Skating Polly, Living Colour, English Teacher and Pretty Girls Make Graves.

2026 sees the band returning with a new lineup — Tom Scully (guitar) and Karl Fagerström (drums) — and a new single, “All I’m Bone, ” which marks Scully’s recorded debut with the band. “All I’m Bone” is a bruising Nevermind-meets-In Utereo-inspired ripper, featuring sludgy guitars, a churning groove, thunderous drumming and remarkably catchy, mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses paired with Swims’ guttural croon. While arguably being one of the more straightforward songs of their growing catalog, the song thematically is rooted in a deeply universal sensation — the creeping unease and dread of your impending mortality and the fear of what, if anything, is beyond the mortal coil.

New Audio: CASTLEBEAT Shares Shimmering, Hook-Driven “Stay With Me”

Growing up biracial in Southern California — his father Korean, his mother Spanish — CASTLEBEAT creative mastermind and Spirit Goth Records founder Josh Hwang absorbed a wide range of musical traditions early on, filtered through the quintessentially Californian experience of listening to the radio on long drives. Drawing comparisons to Craft Spells, Beach Fossils and Day Wave, Hwang’s CASTLEBEAT sound can be described as jangly guitar-driven dream pop with melancholic overtones and sharp pop hooks, anchored around a sense of melody and motion.

Hwang’s newest CASTLEBEAT effort, CASTLEBEAT II is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Spirit Goth Records, the label he runs with his wife Sonia. Much like his previously released work, Hwang wrote, recorded and produced everything himself, continuing the lo-fi DIY ethos that’s been at the core of the project. The album is conceived as a ten year anniversary reflection on Hwang’s 2016 self-titled debut. And he approached the album as both a time capsule and a creative reset, deliberately returning to the sounds, instincts and unfinished ideas of his early CASTLEBEAT era — but with a decade worth of refined craftsmanship.

“This album is a 10-year anniversary ode to my 2016 debut,” Hwang explains. “Some of the songs started as ideas from that era that I never finished at the time. Other songs were written more recently, but I intentionally limited myself to the kinds of sounds and choices I would’ve made back then — just with a more dialed-in approach I’ve developed over the years.” Adding to the homage paying vibes, CASTLEBEAT II‘s artwork and song sequencing deliberately echoes Hwang’s 2016 CASTLEBEAT debut, down to the original font on the artwork. “This record is about taking a moment to recount a chapter before moving forward,” says Hwang.

Unlike his previously released work, there is one major departure: Hwang recruited Brian Fisher to handle mixing and mastering. According to the Southern Californian-born artist, it was a decision that took some letting go of. “The hardest part was trusting that handoff and not endlessly tweaking. But once I let that happen it actually made the album stronger,” he admits.

CASTLEBEAT II‘s third and latest single “Stay With Me” features jangling guitar lines and a slacker rock-meets-New Order-like groove paired with Hwang’s achingly wistful vocal and a remarkably catchy hook. “Stay With Me” sees Hwang walking a tightrope between being defiant upbeat and heartbreaking melancholy, evoking a familiar sensation to anyone who’s been in a relationship on the verge of a breakup: the desire to hold on, but the sense of that person slipping away before your eyes.

As Hwang says: ‘Stay With Me’ is an upbeat, home-recorded dream-pop single built around jangly Stratocaster lines and a laid-back slacker-rock feel. Lyrically it’s about wanting someone to stick around when you can feel things starting to slip. Bright guitars, relaxed groove, and a hook that lands quickly.”

New Video: Lukka Returns with Summer of Love-like “Blue Ocean Eyes”

New York-based indie trio Lukka — Berlin-born, New York-based creative mastermind Franzi Szymkowiak (guitar, vocals), Ashley Gonzalez (bass) and Simon “SiFi” Fishburn (drums) — have long operated at the crossroads of space rock, neo-psychedelia and synth-driven indie pop. The band’s sound is anchored around hypnotic grooves, immersive textures and melody-driven songwriting, frequently blending repetition with expansive, atmospheric arrangements featuring driving bass lines, propulsive rhythms, delay pedaled guitars and layered analogy synths, and equally atmospheric production.

Syzmkowiak has travelled across the globe, seeking a musical home that felt right. She had stints living in Australia, New Zealand and Argentina before settling in New York. “New York City felt like the right place to meet like-minded people,” she says. “The reason I make music is that it serves as an escape from everyday reality and the problems of daily life. Songwriting helps me process what is happening around me. Music, and especially synthesizer sounds, takes me to another realm where I can feel at peace and experience emotions I have not felt elsewhere. Creating music almost feels like a religious act. Having a band and being an artist in this city has allowed me to meet so many other interesting people. Through these relationships, I feel that I am part of a larger creative community, which creates a strong and meaningful sense of connectedness.”

The trio’s third album, the Abe Seiferth-produced Wendekind is slated for a June 5, 2026 release. The band’s Syzmkowiak was born around the fall of the Berlin Wall. She explains that children, who were born in East Germany at that time were called wendekinder, a generation born into a new, free world. Her mom would always call her a wendekind. “It felt like the perfect title for the album,” she says. 

Recorded at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Park StudiosWendekind reportedly sees the band expanding upon the sound of 2022’s Something Human while pushing further into much more immersive, synth-driven territory. 

Thematically, Wendekind sees the New York diving deeper into the metaphysical, tracing loss and memory, while questioning one’s place in an infinite and seemingly indifferent universe. For Syzmkowiak, the album is a deeply personal and reflective effort, moving between memories of the past, and hopes for the future while touring on space, time, chance and self-discovery. 

“Over the past three years, a series of events pushed me to look inward and question what had been driving my choices and behavior,” Syzmkowiak says. “The album became a deeply personal and spiritual journey, leading me back to my roots and to memories of where I came from.”

The soon-to-be released third album will include the meditative and slow-burning “Fabric of the Cosmos” and its latest single, album opener “Blue Ocean Eyes.” “Blue Ocean Eyes” may arguably be the most Summer of Love-inspired tune of the album to date, with a modern sensibility. Seemingly channeling contemporaries like JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone, the album’s latest single showcases Szymkowiak and company’s unerring knack for pairing earnest lyricism with catchy hooks and shimmering and jangling guitars.

Directed by Jen Meller, the accompanying video for “Blue Ocean Eyes” is split between footage of the band playing in front of psychedelic projections and footage of Szymkowiak wandering around a room strewn with trippy art and lights.

New Audio: Remington Super 60 Shares Shimmering, Dance Floor Friendly “Time to breathe”

Remington Super 60 — currently founding member, primary songwriter and producer Christoffer Schou, Elisabeth Thorsen and longtime collaborator Magnus Abelsen — is a Fredrikstad, Norway-based indie pop outfit the can trace its origins back to 1998 when its founder, Christoffer Schou started the project as a Casio synth pop band. Over the course of the Norwegian outfit’s almost 30 year history, the band’s sound has frequently bounced back and forth between Casio synth pop and 60s-inspired bubblegum pop drawing from Burt BacharachBrian Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Velvet UndergroundStereolabThe High LlamasCorneliusYo La TengoEggstone, New Order, The Cure and Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins, while releasing a handful of albums, EPs and singles through a number of labels across the globe.

The Norwegian outfit’s latest single “Time to breathe” is a decided change in sonic direction. Featuring a disco-influenced bass line and shimmering synth arpeggios, the song’s upbeat, hook-driven, ABBA-meets-Comme dans un penthouse-era Le Couleur-like arrangement serves as a lush bed for Elisabeth Thorsen’s ethereal vocal.

“’Time to Breathe’ is a little more energetic than our usual dream‑pop leanings — built around a groovy bassline and our singer’s soft, airy vocals,” Remington Super 60 founder Christoffer Schou explains, It was recorded in my living‑room studio, surrounded by guitars, basses, and a pile of well‑worn 80s Casio and Yamaha toy keyboards that have quietly shaped our sound over the years.

New Audio: Bel Cardin Shares Introspective “Trust”

22-year old Bel Cardin is an emerging, Raleigh-born and-based singer/songwriter. Coming from a family of music lovers, the young North Carolinian can trace the origins of their music career to when they picked up the guitar at 13. Raised on Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead and Elliott Smith, Cardin later fell in love with a collection of artists that emerged in the 2010s, drawing from those artists’ penchant for melodic and crisp guitar, slightly ambiguous song structures and meticulous lyrical imagery.

Cardin’s debut, 2023’s 10-song Petrify was a melancholy, guitar-driven batch of songs recorded at their college campus’ music studio.

The North Carolinian’s latest single “Trust” is the first single since the release of Petrify. Beginning with a lengthy, dreamily atmospheric introduction featuring strummed guitar and Cardin’s heartbreakingly tender delivery, “Trust” slowly builds into a thunderous climax and gentle fadeout. Seemingly drawing from the likes of Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and others the new single thematically touches upon previously established themes of human nature, vices, loneliness and what it means to connect with the people around them.

Sonically, the new single sees Cardin taking a bold step forward in production and songwriting while retaining elements of her previously released material. It also marks the first track from a forthcoming sophomore album.

New Video: Night Talks Shares Strutting and Defiant “People Pleaser”

Los Angeles-based trio Night Talks — Soraya Sebghati (vocals), Jacob Butler (guitar, synth, vocals) and Josh Arteaga (bass, synth, vocals) — features three lifelong friends, who wanted to start a band. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the three Angelenos are also filmmakers and film lovers, because Los Angeles, after all. Their music is sparkly alt-rock/indie rock that’s inspired as much by the films they’ve created and consumed, as much by LCD Soundsystem and Queens of the Stone Age. Fittingly, their work is centered around cinematic stories, dance floor friendly grooves and intricate layers of sound, meant to transport you to a dance floor anywhere you’re listening to their music.

The trio’s 2022 effort Same Time Tomorrow featured “On and OnKROQ’s #1 Locals Only song of the year. Written and produced during the pandemic, the band was able to create an entire visual world of music videos for each track of the album. As a result of both the album and its music videos, the Los Angeles-based trio received rapturous praise and coverage from GrimyGoods, Buzzbands LA and more, as well as airplay from KROQ’s Locals Only. Their songs have been featured on playlist like Fresh Finds, All New Rock and All New Alternative.

Building upon a growing profile, the band has opened for the likes of Couch, Circa Waves, Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and Kississippi. Last year, the band returned to the studio with a fresh pop-forward approach to their songwriting for a new album. Those recording sessions resulted in the release of two singles, “Shadows On The Run” and “Targets” feat Grammy Award-nominated, genre-defying songwriter, producer and guitarist Cory Wong. The collaboration can trace its origins back to 2024, when Night Talks’ Soaya Segbhati appeared as a surprise guest at several shows on Wong’s 2024 tour.

This year, they did a Jam In The Van session and with a renewed energy and big plans ahead, they’re gearing up for a big year. The Los Angeles trio’s latest single, the Eric Palmquist co-written and produced “People Pleaser”features a disco and pop-leaning groove, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses and Segbhati’s soulful, powerhouse delivery. The song is a defiant celebration of a woman finally putting herself first, instead of bending over backwards to people people who aren’t remotely worth her time.

“‘People Pleaser’ is a celebratory song about overcoming your tendencies to put everyone else first, and not wasting time with a person who makes you bend for them constantly,” Night Talks’ Sebghati explains, “Lyrically, we wanted it to be vague whether it’s about a friend or a partner, since this kind of dynamic can apply to any relationship.”The band’s Jacob Butler adds, “We tried to create something more sparse than songs we’ve done before, with fewer layers that each serve to either be either funky or percussive; even the acoustic guitars feel more like shakers in the track.”

Directed by Logan Sage, the accompanying video for “People Pleaser” is a slick, feverish yet textured daydream that features the band’s Sebghati singing, dancing and vamping it up in a studio and various locations in and around Los Angeles. Shot at the band’s Night Talks HQ, Butler says, “We shot on three different cameras, one regular, one with an old TV zoom lens, and a VHS, so that gave the video a bit of a multimedia effect that added to the daydreaming angle.”

New Video: Widowspeak Returns with Swooning “Soft Cover”

New York-based indie outfit Widowspeak — Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas— are one of many bands to crop up in the busy local scene around the time I started this site, almost 16 years ago. They started out shuffling their gear between now, long-shuttered — and deeply beloved — venues like GlasslandsCake Shop285 KentDeath By Audio and a lengthy list of others, and their practice space at Monster Island Basement, which now is a Trader Joe’s. New York has fucking changed, y’all. Speaking of changes: the duo is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Thomas is a carpenter, Hamilton a waitress. 

Recently, the duo announced that their highly-anticipated seventh album, Roses will be released June 5, 2026 through Captured Tracks. Deeply informed by their respective day jobs, Roses isn’t populated with dramatic overtures, but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. There’s the small observations before, during and after work: the ritual-like act of pouring water or coffee for customers, the bemusement and frustration of catching a cold on your only day off. Maybe you’re daydreaming about your life if you won the lottery — or maybe realizing that you already won. 

The 10-song Roses was recorded last January at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek Island of Hydra, a studio located in an old house, tucked into the village’s steep hills. During the winter, without the rush of tourists, it’s quiet. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews and Noah Bond were the session backing band. 

The album’s material was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with before being mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering

Throughout the album, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, almost sepia-toned, vaseline coated lens. As always, the beating heart of their work is the interplay between Hamilton’s languid, dreamy and textured delivery and Hamilton’s bluesy, visceral guitar work. 

Roses‘ will include the previously released “If You Change,” the lush and cinematic “No Driver,” and the album’s third and latest single, “Soft Cover.” “Soft Cover” is a shuffling driving and achingly gorgeous song anchored around featuring what may arguably the album’s most sweeping hooks and Hamilton’s swooning, heartfelt delivery. The song evokes both the sensation of daydreaming about someone, as you’re going about the mundane actions of your day — and the sensation of longing and hoping to see that special someone as soon as possible.

“Soft Cover” is about infatuation: wanting and daydreaming about someone as you’re going about your day… even if, and maybe especially if, you’ve been with them a long time,” says Hamilton. “We brought in a Rhodes for this one, so it came in a car from Athens, then took a boat, then a donkey carried it up to the studio,” Hamilton adds, describing the unique recording conditions they experienced at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek island Hydra.

Directed by Otium, the accompanying video features the band’s Molly Hamilton as a singing telegram girl, who daydreams of a idealized Shakespearean/Renaissance Faire man (Robert Earl Thomas) courting her with old-timey poetry as she reads from her pulp novel. “The video is the last in the world of the trilogy, where the Singing Telegram Girl is dreaming about an idealized Renaissance Faire Guy while waiting around, reading a pulpy novel,” Hamilton says. “Rob was incredibly enthusiastic about this one because he loves medieval history and we got to pick out some fun costumes from Adele’s of Hollywood. He’s a star!”

New Audio: Alaska Blue Shares Brooding and Groovy “White Spaces”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled a bit of ink covering the Italian indie duo and JOVM mainstays Alaska Blue — singer/songwriter Elisabeta Giordano and musician Davide Cast. The duo recently released their third full-length album, personal troubles are public issues last week.

personal trouble are public issues’ latest single “White Spaces” is a brooding, deeply introspective tune that sees the band blending elements of synth pop, indie soul and soul, featuring a strutting and sultry groove and shimmering synths paired with Giordano’s soulful delivery and the duo’s uncanny knack for catchy hooks. The result is a song that’s perfect for restless, late night drives and makeout sessions while channeling the likes of Geowulf, Still Corners and Tan Cologne among others.

New Audio: lazybed Shares Jangling, Hook-Driven “time”

Macau-based Filipino artist Richard Winstanley can trace the origins of his music career back to high school, when he started writing, producing and mixing demos using GarageBand. His first solo project, a fictional band he called The Yankies saw him writing and recording songs in both English and Filipino. Although he never released those early tracks publicly, this early work wound up laying the foundation for his future musical explorations.

Winstanley stepped away from music while attending college. But after graduation, he found his passion for music re-ignited. He publicly emerged with his second solo recording project Cardz, which saw him release 2024’s mini-album Lok Kuan Express through Bandcamp and YouTube. For the most part, music was a beloved hobby that offered him a creative escape from his full-time job.

Earlier this year, the Macau-based artist emerged with his latest solo project lazybed, which derives it name from “lazy afternoons on [sic] my bedroom making music.” lazybed reflects a shift in sonic direction that sees Winstanley embracing guitar-driven indie rock. jangle pop and psych pop. Drawing from Broken Social Scene, MGMT, Blur, Eraserheaads, Mac DeMarco and more, the Macau-based artist creates songs from his bedroom using his MacBook and Logic Pro X.

The Macau-based artist’s latest single “time” is a remarkably catchy, hook-driven song that seemingly channels 00s jangle pop, slacker pop and New Order while thematically focusing on the inevitable passing of time, getting older and feeling like you’ve wasted both time and your life away. The song is rooted in a timeless theme that would be familiar to someone in their 20s or their 40s — but with a slightly different weight.