Written by Shea Roney | Photo by Averi Love Little
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the Chicago-based group, Current Union ™.
Current Union ™, the amalgamation of siblings Reid and Kira Isbell (twin coasts), has become one of Chicago’s best kept secrets. But to hell with that label. As the city forges its youthful faction of renegade blues and pop-rattled liaisons, CUT’s explosive instrumentals and post-punk provisionals find common ground between control and chaos. And to their credit, the latter is glorious. Now operating in full force, it’s an alchemical shift, as blood cells count heads and melodic dispositions take aim, Reid’s sharp guitar and Kira’s syncopated drumming are pushed further to the edge by the thrashing of Seamus’s saxophone, Jackson’s turgid bass, and Isaac’s sonic manipulations. Their sound arises from refusal to be afraid, to be cautious, and to capitulate in these dark times. But rather, the band has forged their own way, their demands to dance emphatically and to break the binds of any and all expectations are as clear as ever before. Current Unit ™ may seem like they are building up higher, but they are already big.
About the playlist, CUT shared;
“The falconer cocks his rifle; follow the notion to your own retreat. Screeching echoes and pulsating rhythms: the rocker’s dub and dance club. Like a sound that draws blood, a CUT is as physical as it is volatile.”
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the Florida-based duo, pal.
Through all the noise, the inclusive harmonies, the meaningful acoustic spells and the interchangeable fidelities, pal elicit the most contagious daydreams and infatuated anthems in their short yet mighty collectives. Back in 2024, pal released a tape with Rope Bridge Records that contains nearly their entire catalog. In it you will find the band putting value to the simple and often overlooked, as the duo expand on their environment with a rippling sense of curiosity, an inebriation caught between the security and anticipation that feels to only exist as the sun slowly clocks in for the day. And to their credit, their work exudes with an inherent sense of kindness, offering a quiet respite, a still moment that sticks to you like the hair of a dog, as each piece is picked off one at a time with the care and attention it needs. Filling us with gratitude and yearning for that next special moment with someone we love, pal is here in the meantime to fill that space. Peace and love, always.
About the playlist, the duo shared;
“These are some of our current rotations and some classics we fall back on.”
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the Louisville-based band, PARKiNG.
PARKiNG, the trio of Lizzie Cooper, Boss Benson and T. Moore, create music that is harsh, and gloriously so. The band’s debut LP, PORTRAiTS, released one year ago this month, feels as timely as ever in the hum of western collapse. Defunct, distressed, observant, surreal, but human; PARKiNG home instrumental fixations to combat the dead ends, algorithmic lashes, and the has-beens and the has-been-nots caught between our ever-separating formalities and devotions. And through the searing noise, the breaking infrastructure and melodic demands, PARKiNG builds a podium but declares no winners. Rather, the young band offers refuge in the complexity of these songs, giving space to fill when isolation and unease absorb our world, and pushing us to each take a step up and get a better look at what’s ahead.
About their playlist, the band shared;
“Influence and praising others expression has opened our eyes to glance out at the majestic vast sea of artistry and the waves of construction that follow. Like a sculpture we have become carved and engraved with the strains that passed through our cores. Attend to with intent.”
Written by Emily Moosbrugger | Photo Courtesy of Touch Girl Apple Blossom
Every week, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the Austin-based band, Touch Girl Apple Blossom. Emily also got to chat with the band after a March gig in Asheville, in which they discussed their new record Graceful, released earlier this month via K records.
About their playlist, the band shared;
“Music.. the acceleration of the heart-situation. A bird’s feather floating in the wind could land anywhere, but it landed right here in my hair. Nothing makes me feel more lucky. I call my baby on the telephone when I’m down and he sings a song to me. Nothing makes me feel more lucky.”
The trip Olivia Garner sings about on “Vacation” the third song on Touch Girl Apple Blossom’s Graceful is nothing like the album’s title suggests. Springy riffs twirl around jangly, bouncing guitars setting the bubbly indie-pop backdrop for nasty sunburns, fighting in public and long nights staying up worrying. Garner’s saccharine vocals float through the thick layers with a fluttery lightheartedness as the dreadful scenes unfurl, before she sings: “Well I tried/ Couldn’t find out/ Just how to be Graceful.” Her cool delivery holds a hint of giddiness, making what would be a casual shrug feel more like a quiet triumph.
Touch Girl Apple Blossom is a four piece band based in Austin, who recently shared their first full-length album Graceful. They formed after Garner visited El Paso for a show where she met drummer Charles Powell, who she joined that same night for a karaoke performance of “Drive” by the Cars. The pair parted ways for another several years after that, and in the meantime Garner was getting to know bassist Dustin Pilkington through events he organized in the Austin scene.
One of the recurring shows he hosts features bills composed entirely of bands playing their first-ever gig – for a while, every time he put one of these together he messaged Garner to ask when she was planning to finally start a band of her own. So when Garner decided to start reaching out to potential bandmates, she knew just where to look. “He was the obvious answer,” Garner said of Pilkington. Soon after, Garner, Powell, Pilkington and guitarist John Morales all convened in-person for the first time at the first Touch Girl Apple Blossom practice.
In their earlier days, the songs were mostly written solo by Garner and Morales in their homes and then taken to the other members to be filled out and polished. Since the release of their EP in 2023, their process has become much more collaborative; members will share loose snippets of ideas in their group chat to be brought to practice and pieced into full songs as a group. “When we wrote the EP it was kind of just John and I, and they helped us bring it to life, and then the record was like our actual project together,” Garner said.
Similar to Garner’s revelation on “Vacation,” the band found letting go of expectation would push them into new, more earnest territory. “We wanted to be a certain kind of band, and then with this album, it’s kind of like we wanted to write Touch Girl songs,” said Powell. On “Heart-Go”, the first song the band wrote post-EP, and their most unabashed, heavy-rocking to-date, stuttering feedback and the fast-paced rumble of Powell’s drums lay the groundwork for an opening line that encapsulates the band’s growth in a new direction. “The pen got tired of writing down these things to say to you/ Scratching out, scribbling around the truth.”
In their shows, an imperfection is never treated as a limitation, but a chance to play with the energy in the room – an opportunity approached with a charm and excitement similar to bringing a newly broken bone to school and letting your friends cover your cast in doodles. “I’ve started
to scream when I get nervous because people will just call and respond. You know, people will just do it back, which is sort of a perfect distraction from the song. People will just fixate on that and before you know it the song’s over and you got through it,” Garner said. In a similar way, the band opens the song “Dream From an Eyelash” with a chorus of ‘ahs,’ a tactic they newly established as a way to make that part of their set more comfortable. “That’s a song that I didn’t want to play for a long time because it’s hard for me to hit that note right off the bat,” Garner said. “So they generously have started to just sing it so we can sort of practice before we have to start.”
Throughout Graceful, the band’s first release in which lead vocals are traded between songs, each songwriter’s distinct, sentimental voices complement one another, stitched together like devotional pieces of patchwork. On “The Springtime Reminds Me Of…” Garner swirls in and out of a daydream, bouncing from one starry-eyed musing to the next before slipping away cunningly, leaving us to spiral into the dreaminess ourselves: “I must go, I can’t say no/ The world keeps turning/ The springtime reminds me of…” But where Garner leaves room to fill in the gaps, her bandmates draw us in a little closer, sketching their memories in the adoring details; a clock ticking at the pace of a heartbeat, the extra space left in a lover’s coffee for cream. On “Back ‘N Forth, Garner’s hopeful chants and swooning “la’s,” are sprinkled throughout a nostalgic picture of “the back and forth of a tireswing,” dancing around the lines with the weightless rise and fall of the image they describe.
On many of these songs, these wistful imaginative spells are the narrators’ greatest strengths in the face of uncertainty. The song “Tell” opens with the line, “Make enough to eat/ Most importantly I still have those same dreams,” opening the album with the fearless spirit that is carried throughout. The energy on Graceful, an album brimming with brisk, dancey pop is sustained by an unflinching optimism, a belief in holding onto those dreams and letting go of the rest. The dreaming comes to a head on the penultimate track, “I’m Lucky I Found You,” a slower outlier on the album expressing a deep gratitude for a long-anticipated love over a sweet bed of acoustic riffs and warm cello accompaniment. The verses recount a long series of changing seasons and unanswered questions that dissolve at the euphoric exclamation: “love is back and it’s in my arms!” It’s a revelation bringing fresh clarity, sung with the gushiness and giddy confidence of someone who knows that whatever comes next, they won’t be facing it alone.
You can listen to Graceful out now, as well as snag a copy on vinyl or CD via K Records.
Written by Shea Roney | Photo Courtesy of Thomas Dollbaum
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the New Orleans-based songwriter, Thomas Dollbaum.
Dollbaum is set to release his next album, Birds of Paradise, later this week; a collection that rears through restless thoughts, unfettered folk tunes, old conversations and the sweats from last night’s whisky. Although bound to the past, Dollbaum’s writing becomes synonymous with the scenery and its dwellers as he drives forward, the telephone poles tallying the distance that grows between him and what’s being left behind. It’s not an album of regret, or one of hope for that matter. But rather one dedicated to finding ground below your feet for the first time in a while. One of flubbing around on the guitar until a familiar melody squeaks out. Where memory becomes a practice of good faith and mark of a life lived.
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by the Kingston-based band, $500.
Composed of guitarist Ian Donohue, bassist, vocalist Kaitlyn Flanagan and drummer Lilly Griffin, the trio released their debut record, Twelve Eyes, back in the Fall of 2025. Take any song off that record, you’ll find that these tracks tussle with both color and grit as $500 play off of what’s given to them. At times it can be unforgiving, reeling through the complexities of self, love, apathy and perception. But Twelve Eyes plays out like a daring vestige, as gritty instrumentations hum and pound with the prowess of a neighbor’s old lemon car hitting a pothole. When played out, these songs become a presence to hold on tight to, formative at the heart of some back-pocket-rock, but sobering in the likes of the band’s veering convictions, ecstatic deliveries, and big heart.
About the playlist, the band shared;
“hello music enjoyers – here is a playlist of tunes we queued up a few weeks back for our drive out to record what’s gonna become our next release.
no theme really, just some stuff that has been rocking us recently. this music best appreciated with 500 cups of coffee coursing through your system. do not forget to eat your banana.”
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by Micah Wu and Angie Willcutt of the Cincinnati-based project Age of Peace.
Wu and Willcutt have collaborated extensively over the years, forging sustainable creativity as members of the sharply pronounced post-punk band Artificial Go, and the minimal synth project, ROD. Age of Peace is the latest passion project for the duo, releasing their debut EP Ode To Life back in April. As fabled spirits grow like lush spring greenery, thick thistles of hissing tape and string work give volume to Wu’s enduring arrangements, each track makes room for Willcutt’s vocals to become focal points of curiosity and allurement, like a bright red cardinal adorning the shrubbery of its inhabitants. Ode To Life is playful, leaning into the subtle, the grace and the often after-thought beauty, as Age of Peace play through boundless reclamations of what is their own. There are parts that feel inebriated, biting lips and stumbling into a stride, while the duo fluctuates between security and anticipation of what it means to be present in this unpredictable world.
About the playlist, the duo shared;
Angie Willcutt and Micah Wu (Age of Peace, Artificial Go, ROD) have been in a romantic and musical relationship for the past 5 years. They came together as song writers in search of new sound. The two have explored numerous genres, the latest being atmospheric folk music. This playlist is comprised of past and current inspirations, road trip favorites and shared songs from their time together.
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by Nicole Rodriguez of the New York-based project Pearla.
Last week, Pearla released Song Room, a stunning collection of folkloric vignettes that ground a presence where much often goes unnoticed in this fast-paced world. Waking in a blurred daze, Rodriguez tries to find focus through each track, working out what shapes and colors could be interpreted as when compared to what is actually right in front of her. Blending colorful explorations with whispering tinctures that bleed like citrus, these songs peel back with sweet melodies, while dynamic voicings stick in your teeth like the pith of the fruit you bite into. Song Room is a remarkable sense of self, tracking bits of growth that can often be hard to visualize when you are the one laying the groundwork. But it’s in the imaginative depictions, the acute pieces of collective thoughts and the mental dust that builds up over time where Pearla begins to pick and peel at those inner comforts we so often long for.
About the playlist, Rodriguez shared;
“I gathered some songs about singing and songs. I’ve recently been drawn to songs that mention the medium of song itself, and my newest album is called ‘Song Room.’ I am endlessly fascinated and comforted by the form of song, so here’s a variety of songs that either celebrate that or even just briefly touch upon it”
You can listen to Song Room out now. Grab a copy on CD and vinyl. Pearla will also be playing at the Color Club in Chicago on April 30th. Grab tickets now.
Written by Shea Roney | Photo Courtesy of The Sourdrops
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by the Florida-based band, The Sourdrops.
With reverberated guitars that echo in clean chaos, and the inherently sweet melodies that skip hand-in-hand with the natural percussive movements, The Sourdrops elicit the most contagious daydreams and aimable anthems in their short and mighty collectives. Made up of Kate (vocals, recorder), Shad (bass), Gian (drums) and Matt (guitar), the band elicits a sound that feels so timeless, yet these songs own the present. Putting value to the simple and often overlooked, where moments like sharing a quick meal under a red and yellow Vienna Beef umbrella or closing the door behind a departing friend become synonymous to much larger feelings that can be hard to put into words. Late last year, The Sourdrops shared their latest EP, Just Throw It In!, a collection which was embedded in the jangly jurisdiction of lo-fi dreamers, DIY consumers and true-hearted believers that know that a better day is always in arms reach.
About the playlist, the group shared;
“We each picked some songs that we like, and we like what ugly hug is doing. Listen to these songs and have a good time.”
Written by Shea Roney | Photo Courtesy of Westelaken
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by Jordan Seccareccia of the Ontario-based project Westlaken.
Prose etched with keys into park benches and stall doors, the stories embedded within a Westelaken song animate the lines between the humdrum, the overlooked and the unrequited of our day-to-days. Like budding beds of flowers passing the collection bucket to fund the altar, each bandmate builds upon their purpose in the name of the gathered spirit. Releasing music for almost a decade, Alex Baigent (bass), Rob McLay (drums), Lucas Temor (piano), and Jordan (guitar/vocals) break away from any sort of structural dependence as they build out from the grandiose. While their melodies pull straws from folkloric wisdom and false prophets, Westelaken lean into the thoughtfully layered textures and striking dynamic displays that have continuously set them on their own path.
About the playlist Jordan shares;
My favourite radio show is called Barking Dog. It’s a college radio program on CKUW in Winnipeg. It’s researched and presented with such care and curiosity. I love listening to old episodes from their archive (explore it at julianacyoung.com). There’s all sorts of songs here but it can all be roughly categorized as traditional folk and roots music. I put a ton in this playlist. A ton of songs I heard first because I listened to Barking Dog, and some songs I don’t think they’ve played, but that I think fit right in.
the ugly hug 