The chordophonic limb of hemlock, Free Range, Ratboys, Squirrel Flower, Tobacco City, and more has added another exciting release to their solo discography. On November 21, Andy “Red” PK, released “Red/Waverly”, a dual single release that pulls in two opposite directions.
“Red” has an upbeat and feel-good tempo reminiscent of early 2000s indie-pop. PK emphasizes their expertise with a string-heavy track. The featured strings lean into a surprising, but well-integrated, southern twang midway through. With light and soothing vocals, “Red” paints a picture of sunshine and clear blue skies, whereas “Waverly” takes on the night. Its slow tempo, accompanied by PK’s relaxed voice, calms the adrenaline from “Red.” The track begins with a muffled ticking clock, which almost gives off an altered perception of time. At first, the heaviness of “Waverly” feels like a musical trudge. But the track ends before you know it. Its absence leaves you light and cold, in need of the heavy warmth of “Waverly” all over again.
By recording two contrasting melodies, PK shows the full range of their artistry. Rather than subjecting themselves to one note, they explore the various elements of their talent. The light and dark air surrounding “Red/Waverly” further characterizes the work of a guitarist held so fondly in many ensembles. From collaboration to solo work, Andy “Red” PK submits another beloved project for us to enjoy.
You can catch “Red/Waverly” and the rest of Red PK’s work out now on Bandcamp.
Today, Providence’s newest resident, Sleep Habits, the recording project of Alan Howard, is sharing a new song “Six String” as well as “Mountain Top”, a Daniel Johnston cover. This release comes ahead of Bandcamp Friday as Howard looks to help fund his upcoming record.
“You gotta learn how to rock at an early age,” Howard sings, almost indebted to the noise that has built itself around him and his career over the years. Sleep Habits has always been a point of reflection and curiosity for Howard, giving him the space to explore a unique type of lyrical exfoliation, reinforcing the charm and tradition of indie-folk as each song becomes its own moment within a much larger story to be told. “Six String” settles in its crunchy distortion and drum fueled waltz, falling into those picking patterns of rock n’ roll nostalgia and headbanging romantics.
About the songs, Howard shares, “Six string is a song I wrote about a year ago with no intention of ever releasing. But as I sat with it, I started to kind of like it even though the lyrics are a little more direct than I’m normally comfortable with. To me it’s just a fun song about loving music and wishing I could do it more!
Mountain top is a great song by Daniel Johnston that I became obsessed with after I heard the live BBC session that they released. It’s a terrible recording but the band is rocking and Daniel sounds great; the studio version is great too (produced by Mark Linkous of sparklehorse) but just doesn’t have that same edge! I thought it would be a fun song to cover and have bandcamp Friday coming up gave a good reason to dive in!”
You can purchase “Six String / Mountain Top” now on Bandcamp to help Howard raise funds for the next Sleep Habits album.
Puberty serves as a first introduction to deep rooted societal taboos surrounding aging. The whole hormonal mess would suck enough without being met with shudders from adults and painful conversations packaged in animal + insect innuendos. It also never truly dissipates – it seems as though one could be decades removed from juvenescence and still dodge the word with such vehemence, as if so much as uttering “p*berty” might onset a conglomerate of pimples and a poorly timed voice crack. Not MX Lonely. The Brooklyn based four piece has a knack for complementing their harrowingly good melodies with anomalous and deeply memorable lyricism – whether that be chants of astronaut FMK, stomach-pinching anecdotes about substance use, or merely the choice to quote Elliot Smith amidst a face melting bridge. Today, MX Lonely announced forthcoming record, All Monsters, leading with a single about a trans puberty experience.
“Big Hips” takes a facetious approach to the impacts that bodily changes impinge upon someone who is gender nonconforming. The track is inherently satirical; a witty recontextualization of gender dysphoria armed with a brief comedic interlude. However, the visceral impact of “Big Hips” far surmounts its quips, and the track’s weight lingers far beyond its brevity of 2 minutes and 43 seconds.
I would advise your first listen to be via its music video (directed and edited by Owen Lehman). It leads with a few vibrant clips that set you in a school – a ticking clock, a vacant classroom, a fluorescent bathroom. Simultaneously, the track commences on a note of transient delicacy, luring you in with some coy basslines, Rae Hass’ vocals in their more angelic shape, percussion that feels rational. It’s an introduction, familiarizing you with the silhouette of the track’s melody and intentions (which you soon learn, are to inform you about having big hips for a boy) before it detonates into something you feel at the pit of your stomach, something you can’t possibly fit in a locker – no matter how much of your body weight you use to cram it shut.
The chorus is potent and erratic and catchy as hell (an experience amplified by my suggestion to experience with its visuals of blacktop shredding). It leaves you wondering why more “heavy gaze” projects are not reclaiming their juvenile gender dysphoria by shouting dick jokes at you. It makes you smile thinking of a thirteen year old in Ohio hearing it and feeling seen, and it makes you smile thinking of some cis dude in East Williamsburg boasting his big hips as he listens in the Whole Foods protein powder aisle – because god knows the rest of us have clocked enough hours singing along to his narrative.
“Big Hips” is a thrilling first bite of what we can expect from what MX Lonely will carve out on All Monsters, out February 20th via Julia’s War. About the track, Rae says, “Big Hips is a self-mocking celebration of youthful masculinity. Puberty imbues a sense of dread for everyone, but especially trans people. For me, the onset of feminine curves was met with a sort of voyeurism I didn’t feel I was made to be proud of. “Big hips” were something that happened to you rather than something you owned. The song recontextualizes the dysphoria of my youth in the way young boys would jovially proclaim the size of their phalluses (whether it was true or not). It’s a big dick joke.”
With his first release in four years, Morgan O’Sullivan returns with the latest track from his project, Boreen, titled “Don’t Die!”, the first to be shared from his latest album, Heartbreak Hill out November 21 via Bud Tapes. Beginning back in 2015 when he lived in Portland, Oregon, Boreen has always been a project of marked growth and personal hauntings as O’Sullivan’s writing leads with preservation and perseverance within these corroded love songs and tailored tales that he crafts and performs so well.
“Don’t Die” begins with a piano, one that holds weight to the sticky keys like a family heirloom – uneven, simple and fills the room – as it soon grows amongst the colorful instrumentation. “I was in my bedroom / and far away / the words I didn’t say came rushing forward and took my place / I start to see your face”, O’Sullivan sings, his words weighted against the lofty backdrop of instrumentation as he approaches grief and what comes to follow over time. Soon the track bursts with a gritty guitar solo while indiscernible voicings meddle in the back, filling the void of unanswered questions with the warmth in his production and the comfort in its final release.
About the song, O’Sullivan shares, ““Don’t Die!” is the first song I wrote for this album, and the first song I wrote after my uncle’s suicide in April of 2021. In a lot of ways this song shaped the rest of the album, and the themes that I started with here I kept coming back to over the past three or four years. I see this song, and this album as a whole, as a kind of a stubborn determination to survive. I’m thirty years old now. The older you get, the more life kicks you in the teeth. I wrote these songs at the times when I was most aware of that fact— as a way to record that feeling and visualize the better one that will come tomorrow.
Boreen has always been a solo project, but this album has felt the most collaborative. On “Don’t Die!” the piano was played by Garrett Linck, and the drums were played by Stevie Driscoll and recorded by Evan Mersky. The final version of this song was undoubtedly influenced by the way the Boreen live-band played it, so I feel indebted to Emmet Martin, Stevie Driscoll, and Chris Weschler for bringing it to life so many times over the years.
I started Boreen in November of 2015, exactly ten years ago, in Portland, Oregon. I moved away recently and now live in Champaign, Illinois. For me, Boreen belongs back in Portland, so I’m planning on this being the final Boreen album. To everyone that played a role in this project over the years, thank you.”
You can listen to “Don’t Die” here. You can preorder Heartbreak Hill, out November 21, now as well as on cassette and CD via Bud Tapes.
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo Courtesy of Boreen
Today, on this very evening, this very Halloween night, Nashville bands Bats and Soot have teamed up to release their new split single “Lift Me Up / Square Donuts”. For Bats, this is the first bit of new music since 2024’s album Good Game Baby, which found Jess Awh grappling with change amongst a smooth blend of nostalgic rust and indie charm. Same goes for Soot, releasing their latest album Wearing a Wire back in 2024 and leaning into the brashness of metal and experimenting with dynamic expression. As partners go, these bands differ in notable ways – but this project, a collaboration that’s been a long time coming for the two Nashville bands, brings out the best of both of their worlds.
From the start, Soot’s presence on “Lift Me Up” is calculated and reserved, but in no way is it timid. Falling down as a roaming guitar grows amongst a light atmosphere tickling the tracks potential release, Micah Mathewson’s voice is so low in register it feels to be dragged through the rough dirt, picking up elements of the environment as the band caries through. Gaining ground and building the tension and texture the Soot in known for, “Lift Me Up” loves the slow burn, finding solace in the accompaniment of Jess Awh’s (Bats) haunting vocals and Nick Larimore’s (Bats) loose pedal steel, each sticking like the dirt and bugs that have latched on for the ride. And when it’s all said and done, Soot’s reserved composit explodes into pounding percussion, brought out by dark layered screams and a strain to the sincere melody, that at last, has broken loose. And as the band holds their own, as Mathewson asks, “how am I supposed to come back down after feeling so high for so long now?”, there is a moment to finally let go of the breath we’ve been holding in this whole time.
“Squared Donuts” starts off in classic Bats fashion, emblematic of the beloved pop facets and responsive traditions of storytelling that Awh uses to piece together a cohesive, sincere and entirely unique profile within a single song. Through glazed guitars and a tight drum beat, Awh’s words become willfully poignant amongst the starry-night landscape, something that Liam Curran (bass), James Goodwin (drums) and Nick have always helped with in connecting the dots. “I know it was a mistake, you were showing off with that gun / Chinese food from the buffet, square donuts,” Awh sings, a collection of thoughts, reflecting on the loss of a friend and the mythologies that arise from memory and grief in a fractured timeline. Amongst discombobulated bits of noise, trinkets collecting in the background, and the accompaniment of Mathewson’s vocals, Bats adds depth to the frustration that lingers in the face of grief.
About “Lift Me Up”, Mathewson shares, “it is exciting to us as a band to keep open the possibility of making maximally spastic, intricate songs and also equally subdued and somber ones. Lift me up has been a song we started writing a few years ago that was always left incomplete. Unfinished lyrics, no structure, but the backbone was there and it was something we did very much so feel like needed to be completed at some point. When a conversation started happening with Jess from Bats about working on a project, it became evident that this was the time to finish this song.”
He continues, “we had an all-star lineup helping us pull this off. Billy Campbell engineering and mixing made recording live so effortless. What you hear in the recording is just the room that day. For this project we wanted to depart from a lot of the production bells and whistles we implemented on Wearing a Wire [Soot’s most recent album] to really just let the song breathe. Jess’ vocals and Nick’s pedal steel playing really pushed it past the finish line and we could not be more proud of what we’ve made together.”
About “Square Donuts”, Awh shares, “Square Donuts is about gun violence. As a kid and as a young adult, I’ve had friends become victims of horrible situations made possible by the gun laws and culture in our country… the song is about those experiences, and what it’s like to know someone who becomes part of a big tragedy, and the tragedy sort of swallows up their identity in the eyes of the world. It’s about friendship, loss, and how we create mythologies. It’s the first song we’ve ever tracked piece-by-piece (not live) as a band, and the first one we’ve ever recorded to tape! The studio experience was a blast; what a privilege to collaborate with Bill (Second Floor Recording) and Micah (Soot).”
You can listen to “Lift Me Up” / “Square Donuts” out now.
I have never gravitated towards astrology as a tactic for measuring compatibility. Perhaps it’s because I have never done ample zodiac research – instead I turn to slightly more specific litmus tests , like do you insist on using a Brita? Or, what lo-fi bedroom project resonates the deepest with you? Sometimes, the latter is merely a matter of surveying one’s thoughts on the Brooklyn based project, People I Love. It is a somewhat self-serving probe, with lines like “my relationship with words has a gold key” and reoccurring grievances pertaining to attending parties – People I Love’s discography is chock-full of anthems for the socially reserved. But, even if your Myers Briggs begins with an “E”, I think there is a grandeur weaved carefully into People of Love that requires a certain level of intentional and emotionally aware listening to fully appreciate (therefor setting it up as personality assessment gold). Within tracks that rarely surpass three minutes and structures that aren’t trying to prove themselves, there are parcels of complex emotions tucked in the intimate and lived in corners of each song, and an opulence that grows with each listen.
Today, People I Love shared new track, “Perfect.” Featuring Avery Kaplan on drums, as well as and guitar, piano, and slide contributions from Boone Patrello (Dead Sullivan), it’s a song about longing to be perfect…maybe. It strays from commercialized notions of perfection, dodging 9pm bed times, self-improvement books, and $16 green juices (although if I were a hypothetical gym rat, I could see the bridge pushing me to an arm day PR) and instead prods at something darker. “Perfect” opens with going about felt the bloody air / spying around find a violent stare wanna explode – but even without this lyrical agony, the track in its entirety flirts with detonation. Leading with a fleeting warmth that quickly transcends to an intense, pressure cooker kind of heat, “Perfect” conveys a dysregulated mood threatening to burst. The general soundscape is a moving target, springing from cascades of dejected guitar, quirky pitch bending, angular percussion, and Dan Poppa’s signature frothy vocals. It’s also rather catchy, sure to have you seething “wish I was perfect, my blood they’ll inject it” throughout this (appropriately timed) week.
While it is by no means necessary, I am personally fond of a band name that manages to elicit some sort of parallels to the music that said band makes. Not in any super overt way, rather in an intangible sense – like when you listen to Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and think, yeah, this is exactly what a sparkly horse sounds like. Perhaps that one is too abstruse, but think Built to Spill, Rage Against the Machine, Unwound, Brooklyn based Local Weatherman – who just announced their forthcoming EP, Right One. There is something simultaneously idiosyncratic and omnipresent about the notion of a “local weatherman”; whatever striped tie clad character it denotes for you will likely be wrapped in the same blanket of nostalgia as the one that comes to mind for your roommate who grew up Central Illinois and your coworker from New Jersey. Serving as patient zero of the ‘microceleb’, the local weatherman is a household name that belongs to you in a way Emma Stone never could. A star on your television each morning, but one time you saw him buying 2% milk at the grocery store, striped tie swapped for a quarter zip. He’s legendary and he’s human and he’ll occupy a small plot of real estate in your mind forever.
Today, Local Weatherman shared “Thread”, a song seeped in the ideas that make up my introductory tangent. Though it nods to the reigning songs of frontman Fritz Ortman’s childhood, my guess is “Thread” will dredge up some sort of nostalgia for you too. Or perhaps build the foundation for future nostalgia, as its ridiculously hooky bones and unfettered vocals pave the sort of angsty and youthful experience that our brain has no choice but romanticize in some way down the line. Crammed with punchy riffs and metaphors of disastrous failed sewing attempts, “Thread” a full throttle track slated to stick with much longer than three minutes and twenty-three seconds.
About the song, Ortman says, “‘Thread’ is about having no release valve when your mind is racing. It’s the heaviest song we’ve made, but I think the bridge is one of the prettiest moments on the EP. This song also reckons with the rockstar dreams I had growing up (and maybe still have), and each verse ends with a nod to a song I loved as a kid.”
RightOne will be out January 16 via Karol Records. You can listen to “Thread” below.
The irony isn’t lost on the listener that the title of one of Samuel Aaron and Glass-Beagle’s new double singles is called “Home Again,” which is aptly timed with the beginning of their collaborative tour this October and the subsequent music video for their two tracks. The Chicago-based artists will take to the heart of the Midwest this month, traveling to Iowa and Nebraska. Maybe in ways, this Midwestern excursion does encapsulate the idea of home if you shift your perspective slightly.
The music video showcases the collaborative nature and creation of these songs, which is evident throughout their duration, as Aaron takes the lead on the first, and Glass-Beagle is handed the baton on the second. “Home Again” details the sometimes isolating aspects of being home and wanting to escape it, but also the idealization of it despite the fact that it was previously stifling. It’s evident in lines like, “This time I’m on my own, and I don’t like the way I might like this. Always wanted to find a way to feel like I can carry myself home again.” The track soars into its second half with the repeating refrain, “Home is where it’s the hardest.”
These songs complement each other masterfully, transitioning into “Storm Chaser,” which is held together by brushed guitars and steel guitar. Glass-Beagle’s vocalist, Nathan Zurawski‘s plain-spoken vocal styling expresses the uncertainty of the song’s subject, detailing his need to allow them to be free, chase that storm, and maybe that love will come back in time. “And when the rain lets up at last, will our love be gone? Will you have a storm to chase when the highway lights turn on?”
You can watch Samuel Aaron and Glass-Beagle’s new music video for “Home Again / Storm Chaser”.
You can listen to the split single now on bandcamp. Catch Samuel Aaron and Glass-Beagle on their mini-Midwest tour. Find dates here.
Chicago’s own, Josephine, the project of Josephine Luhman, has always been one to cherish reflection and growth. Making bedroom pop under the name Joz in the late 2010s, Josephine has since taken to the Chicago circuit as a full band, bringing a large established sound to the sincerity and grit of Luhman’s songwriting. Today, Josephine returns with “Does It Pay”, a lush track of eagerness and discouragement caught in the mess of financial stability.
“Does It Pay” takes quick control with a head turning drum fill, soon becoming a slow burn of indi-pop romanticism and disparagement in late stage capitalism. As rearing guitars melt away, Luhman doesn’t hold her breath as she sings, “Did you get the job you wanted, do you love it, does it pay,” blasting through corporate wishy-washyness with intuitive dynamics and sincere deliverance. Is it a song of sympathy towards that world? Kind of. But “Does It Pay” also leans on this feeling of relief that Luhman feels in the face of expectations. The line “who am I to say?”, with time and repetition becomes less of a question, and rather a statement of deliberation, what is to be desired in a world caught in the defeating presence of financial strains. And in the noise, crafting dynamic shifts amongst swooning guitar lines and an invigorating rhythm, Josephine’s vocals become a point of reflection, wielding both strength and tenderness as the melody leads with its whole chest, breathing the slightest sigh of relief, as she sings, “I do not envy you”.
Listen to ” Does it Pay” now!
You can listen to Josephine where you find your music.
I used to avoid employing “lived in” as a descriptor for anything music related. Partially because I deemed it a bit overdone, partially because I worried it was too synonymous with “flawed”. However, the most prominent reason I had expelled “lived in” from my vernacular was because I found it reductive, and felt that it inhibited a need to expand upon what is ultimately so compelling about music that resembles the sensation of wearing that “well-loved” utility jacket that never leaves the front of your closet. The reality is, there is no impression quite like the fingerprints left by “lived in” music, and yesterday, as I meandered through an MTA tunnel plastered with advertisements for AI companionship, I realized “lived in” might be the highest form of praise art can receive today. “Lived in” dwells amongst the positive descriptors that swarm my brain when I listen to Guitar, as amidst moments of rich shredding and unforgettable hooks, the Portland project is teeming with pockets that touch on what it feels to be human – in both a complex and fundamentally simple sense.
This past summer, Guitar announced forthcoming record, We’re Headed To The Lake – sharing lead single “Pizza For Everyone” and eliciting hunger cues from anyone nurturing an appetite for power pop spreads and finger-licking riffs. “Every Day Without Fail” followed last month, and as Saia Kuli’s gravely vocals reach an intensity that rivals the face-melting soundscapes it co-exists with, the flammable second single proved that the Portland based project is beyond worthy of its name. Today, Guitar is back with the third and final single off We’re Headed To The Lake, offering a more tender side of the project as Kuli’s signature earnest vocals are replaced with his wife’s singing.
While “Chance to Win” enters with less immediacy than the singles it succeeds, the track parallels their intensities (and windswept feels) through other means. Controlled chord progressions trickle in and escalate gradually, as Jontajshae Smith’s honeyed vocals unfold a poetically disheveled stream of thought. Frenzied feelings of exhilaration, sometimes referred to as “butterflies”, are kindled through lines of “Sit still / First place / Record pace / Long game / Okay” and “Just wait / On the / Count of three / Breath in / One two”. The track is stunning and tousled – much like the adrenaline rush of possibility, and the lingering anxieties that anticipation fosters.
“This song is about the excitement of an opportunity, feeling electricity in the air and trying to stay cool and not fumble,” Kuli says.
We’re Headed To The Lake will be out October 10th via Julia’s War. You can listen to “Chance to Win” below.
the ugly hug 