New album: Goat Yoga || City Love Songs

Despicable wellness trend, excellent indie rock band

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

I am stating the obvious here, but goats are awesome. They are smart, curious, stubbornly independent. They break things, climb everything in sight, and eat whatever happens to be within reach. But goat yoga? I am fairly certain goats want no part of that urban wellness trend. On their personal dislike list it probably sits somewhere between getting hosed down and that annoying neighborhood kid who keeps stealing their carrots, though still comfortably above the slaughterhouse.

Should goat yoga be banned? Well, duh!

But can we keep Goat Yoga the band? We’ve covered this Brooklyn duo before and they have just released their debut full-length City Love Songs, and it is stacked with catchy indie rock that is hard to resist once you dip your toes in. The record sticks to a clear sonic lane, but critics will probably reach for different labels: alt-pop, jangly power pop, geek rock, indie punk. Any of those will do. Sounds a bit like a scrappier version of Hurry and Local Drags (or if you listen to Everything’s So Big: Pains of Being Pure at Heart). The takeaway is that the songs are hooky, punchy, and immediately likable.

So remember: Goat yoga: questionable lifestyle choice. Goat Yoga: great band.



Add to wantlist: bandcamp

New album: The Darts (US) || Halloween Love Songs

"It is a concept album, but not a themed gimmick"

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Seattle’s The Darts have spent the last decade turning sticky club floors across Europe and the US into late-night garage-punk revivals, and Halloween Love Songs feels like the band bottling that neon-lit electricity. What started as a little joke that the holiday deserved so much more than just Monster Mash, led to this concept album with thirteen spooky tunes.

Nicole Laurenne, The Darts’ bewitching lead singer and songwriter (also known for her Black Viiolet project), explains: ‘Side A is chock full of tasty, candy-colored Halloween kitsch, to be played while trick-or-treating as the sun sets, blasted over a school’s public address system, and headlining every seasonal sing-along. But Side B is the soundtrack for after dark, when the bonfire is raging. It’s for sweaty middle-of-the-night dancing, making out on a bed of empty candy wrappers, and spinning through an all-nighter apocalypse.’

Set to fuzzy guitars and gritty organs (actually, the music is the real hero here), B-movie horror imagery (vampires, ghosts, zombies, devils, the apocalypse) becomes a playful language where desire, darkness, and the thrill of the night blur together into supernatural intimacy (“Every night is Halloween // Some nights you kiss // Some nights you bite”). October 31st is still a while away, but anticipation has rarely been this loud, or this much fun.



Halloween Love Songs—recorded and mixed by Mark Rains—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Adrenalin Fix Music (EU) and Meow Hiss Music (US). Featuring Nicole Laurenne (vocals, organ, piano, Mellotron, music box, glockenspiel), Rebecca Davidson (guitars), Lindsay Scarey (bass, screams, Mellotron, sound effects), and Rikki Styxx (drums, tambourine, percussion, screams, dog bowls).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Adrenalin Fix || Cobraside 

New EP: Ryan Allen || They’re Coming For Us

Great songwriting as a coping mechanism and survival strategy

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

The always active Ryan Allen is scared and angry and frustrated, yet unlike most of us, he has the talent to channel all those emotions into fuel for writing catchy rock tunes. It’s a coping mechanism masquerading as a creative habit that, honestly, we are jealous of and grateful for. His new three-song EP, They’re Coming For Us, is a solo outing with Robby Miller on board as producer, mixer, and masterer.

The title sums it all up, and it’s not even figurative. The title track is a punk rock anthem that still has that Ryan Allen spark but carries an amount of venom normally reserved for his other project Big Life. This Ugly meanwhile displays his ’90s jangle power pop tendencies, its edge lying more in its message: the struggle of not wanting to believe people can act this rotten. Allen channels his inner Billy Bragg on closer Hurry Up And Wait, no percussion, just a plugged-in guitar and his voice delivering unvarnished truth.

This EP comes unexpected, but its urgency hits hard. Digital EP out now on Setterwind records, with all proceeds going to Democracy Forward.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Common Holly || They Will Draw Halos Around Our Heads

Softly sung reflections that question expectations and reclaim inner space

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

On They Will Draw Halos Around Our Heads, Montreal’s Common Holly—the band around singer-songwriter Brigitte Naggar—continues refining the hushed, introspective world she explored on last year’s beautiful Anything Glass LP. In the five new songs (the opener is instrumental), softly sung reflections, gentle piano, and finger-picked guitar remain central, but the arrangements feel looser, almost diary-like. It’s hushed indie-folk that sketches pressure, patience, and identity.


They Will Draw Halos Around Our Heads—produced by Devon Bate and Brigitte Naggar—is out now digitally via Keeled Scales and Paper Bag Records. Featuring songwriter Brigitte Naggar (vocals, piano, guitar), Devon Bate (piano), Alex Rand (bass, guitars), and Thomas Sauvé-Lafrance (percussion).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Dream Machine || Fort Perch Rock

Stormy hooks and salt-soaked soul

By / / Garage Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

These days, in an infinite musical universe, it’s not enough to simply make good music (which is hard enough). If you don’t have much luck or the right connections, it’s a matter of hard work to be heard. UK garage-psych quintet The Dream Machine is living proof that this can pay off, as the audience and the praise grew with every performance where they played songs from their debut LP (Thank God It’s The Dream Machine) and its follow-up (Small Time Monsters).

With their third full-length album (Fort Perch Rock, named after the coastal defense battery built 200 years ago to protect the Port of Liverpool)—they call it “a gritty love letter to seaside life, brimming with raw emotion and fuzz-soaked guitars” (citing The Lemon Twigs, Felt, The Strokes, Television, and The Walkmen, but also Phil Spector’s productions, as inspirations)—they continue their upward trend. Guitars still roar like the tide, but the twelve new songs are a bit warmer and more controlled (call it maturity), resulting in a magnetic effect that reflects the band name to a greater extent.

This is what a bold path to an unruly triumph sounds like.



Fort Perch Rock—self-produced—is out now on CD and vinyl LP through Run On Records / Modern Sky UK.

Add to wantlist: Openstage

New album: Tamarack || Room Service!

"Lovesongs for the crumbling midwest"

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

Let me introduce you to Flint, Michigan’s Tamarack, which features Tanner Morgan (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar) and Braden Erard (percussion). Their new album Room Service! appears to be their debut full-length, following 2024’s Velveteen EP. It’s a ten-song affair: six brand new tunes plus four songs originally written for another EP but never released due to general unhappiness with the recordings. Coincidentally (or not!), several of these rerecorded tracks are among my favorites on Room Service!

The opening duo of Window Pane and Everything You’ve Heard give off that college rock vibe of a band understating its appeal, delivering melodies so casually you almost overlook how well written and effective they are. Hearing The Byrds, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, and Alex Chilton namedropped in a chorus tells you some of what to expect from this record (good rhyming, by the way). Another rerecorded song is Surfin ’63, which offers an enticing mix of slacker indie rock and surf rock. Of the truly new songs, the jangly Right Into You (I’ll Bloom) and Tangerin stand out, while Couldn’t Believe (Never Tell) reminds me of the songwriting and delivery of Shane Dupuy from Laika’s Orbit – which I love.

Throughout it all, Tamarack present themselves as a lo-fi and jangly indie rock outfit with fine ideas and even better songs.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Geoff Palmer || Last Call At Mickey’s

Good things happen when Geoff Palmer and friends get together

By / / Punk / Leave a Comment

Geoff Palmer dropping surprise digital singles sounds like a New Year’s resolution for 2026 we can all get behind. Here’s the first one, and it’s a full band effort that feels loose, fun, and slightly unhinged in all the right ways. Last Call at Mickey’s is a tribute to one of Geoff’s favorite bars, which automatically makes it relatable to a solid portion of his fanbase. The gang used the Ramones’ Pet Sematary as their sonic compass, which is pretty random and entirely right for the song. I Ain’t No just oozes fun, the kind of song that sounds like it was recorded in one take because everyone was having too good a time to overthink it.

Geoff Palmer and friends tapping into a well of pop punk inspiration is exactly what it sounds like: fast, catchy, and joyful.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Two Dark Birds || Dreamers of the Golden Dream (Vol.1)

Big-hearted pop songs for small, fragile moments

By / / Indie Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

What you hear are Two Dark Birds kicking off spring with their fifth full-length album, Dreamers of the Golden Dream (Vol.1). The band from the Catskill Mountains, New York—songwriter Steve Koester (vocals, guitars, keys) and Jason Mills (drums, percussion), joined by Josh Roy Brown (lap steel, guitar, banjo, mandolin), Tyler Wood (piano, keyboards), Mark Lerner (bass, harmony vocals), and Iris Clementine (harmony vocals)—drop nine new tracks that float somewhere between laidback indie pop and warm psychedelic folk. By the time the almost 10-minute closer, aptly titled The Song To End It All, spirals into a heartland fever dream, you realize: this is big-feeling, open-hearted music that meets the current chaos head-on, and sings anyway. Spring may have arrived, but it’s a gloomy one—with a fitting soundtrack: “There’s a girl right there with the feathered hair // And bombs are exploding in the air.”



Dreamers of the Golden Dream (Vol.1)—produced by Todd Adelman and Steve Koester—is out on vinyl LP through Vfib Recordings. Artwork by Herr K. Volume 2 will be released in Summer 2026.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Vfib

New album: Daniel Young || Another Golden Hour

In full bloom with The Rambling Roses at dusk

By / / Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

Daniel Young and The Rambling Roses deliver Another Golden Hour, ten warm songs cut straight from the fleeting slant of evening light, the kind that turns everything amber before disappearing for good. There’s barely any studio gloss, just a tight union of grit and glimmer through rich instrumentation and graceful vocal harmonies. Baby, Baby Blue, a tribute to the fallen country radio station KSOP, expresses that feeling best: “You hear them old songs // On the radio // AM 1370 is fuzzy // But it always glows // Different frequencies // That aim for the soul // Airwaves that break through // If you’re feeling high or low.” Elsewhere, protest-fueled cuts channel dust-and-blood echoes of American folk’s unruly past. This is a record about endurance, about hard-earned hope, about catching the sun’s rays before they fade.



Another Golden Hour is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP (self-released). Featuring Daniel Young (guitars, percussion, vocals), M. Horton Smith (guitar, pedal steel, piano), Dylan Schorer (pedal steel, guitar), Ryan Tanner (piano, vocals), Marcus Bently (bass), Joshy Soul (B3 organ), and Ronnie Strauss (drums), with Marie Bradshaw (harmony vocals), Julianne Brough (harmony vocals), Melissa Chilinski (harmony vocals), Michelle Moonshine (harmony vocals), Andrew Wiscombe (harmony vocals), J Rad Cooley (piano), and Briana Gillet (trumpet) on select tracks.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New abum: Heavenly || Highway to Heavenly

Zero rust, maximum charm, pure Heavenly

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Life is good when you’re working from home, take a walk during your break, the sun’s out announcing an early spring, and you’re playing the new Heavenly record.

Wait. A new Heavenly record? In 2026?

The band’s last LP came out three decades ago, back when they were splitting time between the legendary Sarah Records and K Records. Now they’re on Skep Wax, the label Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey run as Sarah Records’ spiritual successor, and has quickly become a go-to for the good kind of indie pop.

Speaking of which: Heavenly’s blueprint is all over our site when we write about contemporary jangle and indie pop bands. That makes it even better to have new music by the originals, and have it come across with zero rust, a whole lot of their original appeal intact, and some new tricks picked up in the decades since. Highway to Heavenly is the kind of record that makes you geek out with fellow underground pop fans, but also makes your less shy and more extroverted friends dance in the process. Personally, I love the twee punk vibe of songs like Portland Town and Excuse Me, while you may dance to Deflicted and She Is The One or sway to the classic pop melodies of Skep Wax and Good Times. Heavenly sound equal parts sweet and spiky, melodic and mischievous throughout it all.

Thirty years is a long time to be gone, but reliefs will be sighed, fun will be had. Heavenly still got it!


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

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