Alternative Rock

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Singles and EPs of 2025

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

Last week we posted the overviews of our favorite LPs of 2025 (here is Niek’s, there is mine), but this year also saw countless short-format releases that deserve to be listed. Below you can listen to the 50 singles and EPs that I enjoyed most last year (note: individual songs are excluded), in alphabetical order. Links point to Bandcamp or another sales outlet (the titles), and to previously posted reviews (in the body text).

While I traditionally prefer albums, if only because you don’t have to get up as often to turn the record over, but also because it literally gives you more time to immerse yourself in the artist’s world, I’m increasingly enjoying the pleasures of singles and EPs. They’re often explosions of positive energy packed with hooks, which immediately make for a good time, and that was certainly the case over the past 12 months. If this were the soundtrack to a night out, I’d return home exhausted but utterly delighted.

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Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Singles and EPs of 2025Read More »

Music Year-End List || Niek’s Favorite Albums of 2025

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 1 Comment

Five years of Add To Wantlist, and the underground music scene is still fighting the algorithm with the only weapon that matters: better music. Look, 2025 had plenty of reasons to spiral: A.I.-generated music clogging up the web like malware, streaming services paying artists in pennies while investing in war machines, shipping costs that make you weep, and indie labels on shoestring budgets battling tariffs and trade barriers. And yet—and yet!—the real music kept showing up like it had something to prove.

Because 2025? It was stacked with the good stuff. Tiny labels dropping masterpieces from basements. Bands recording in bedrooms, kitchens, storage units, sheds—somehow crafting songs with more soul than anything focus-grouped into existence. Punk bands running on spite and failing systems. Garage weirdos alchemizing chaos into pure joy. LGBTQ+ musicians turning their most vulnerable moments into anthems that hit like freight trains. Jangle-pop obsessives writing hooks so good they feel like they’ve existed forever. For those paying attention, it was a year full of human fingerprints on every beat, and it was everything.

And here’s the wildest part: people still give a damn. Scenes are rebuilding from the ground up. The daily release count keeps climbing. Bands are back on the road in whatever form of transport their budget allows. I witnessed a legendary pop punk label throw an anniversary show that sold out to a room full of believers who actually showed up and loved every second of it. I stood with 5,000 people losing their minds as the hottest band around redefined what a hardcore band can be. Every week brought a new obsession—some scrappy little record punching way above its weight class. And our blog grew this year, which means more of you beautiful weirdos have joined us in the crates. Welcome aboard!

So yeah, the world’s a mess. The internet’s a dumpster fire. But independent guitar music? Still kicking, still vital, still the best argument for why we started this blog in the first place: community, curiosity, and that unbeatable high of stumbling onto a band that sounds like everything you’ve been looking for.

Here are the 50 albums (plus 50 more) that, for me, made this year worth it. As Dennis wrote in his eclectic and amazing AOTY list this Tuesday—our overlap is minimal, so dig in—rankings are just taste. What matters is the joy, the discovery, that moment when a song connects and suddenly your day is better. My ranking criteria? Simple: which records did I love spending time with the most…

You’ll find all of them below. Enjoy reading, enjoy listening, and if something grabs you, the links go straight to Bandcamp or Discogs—and to earlier reviews when we wrote about them in depth. Check out our favorite short format releases of 2025 next week! Oh, and here is a playlist with 91% of my picks  (FYI: pretty sure this time next year we’ll be on a different streaming service).

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Music Year-End List || Niek’s Favorite Albums of 2025Read More »

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Albums of 2025

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 3 Comments

“When the universe looks right at you // You’d be wise to hold its gaze // Averted, missed opportunities // A crisis on its way” (from Universe Blues by Moon Orchids).

“What once was pure through your childish eyes is complicated by the truth // What once was pure as a shot so sure has you longing for a time // When you could stand judging right and wrong through tight drawn blinds // At safe distance” (from At Safe Distance by Patterson Hood).

We live in uncertain times, but music still knows how to meet us wherever we are, whether by giving voice to our feelings, offering an empathetic hug, or simply providing a much-needed distraction. The journeys songwriters take—often more compelling than any destination—lead us through personal and family reconciliation, anxiety and imagination, nostalgia and escapism, emotions and vulnerability, holding on and giving up. Bridging past and present, my favorite musicians and new discoveries shape their messages and sounds with equal parts mind and heart (usually with a guitar in hand, but that goes without saying). Throughout last year, there was plenty to appreciate, if not get completely lost in.

In 2025, I checked out 2,600+ new albums—it’s far from possible to listen to everything that came out—which ultimately led to a diverse longlist of 130 wantlist-worthy releases (the ones I was able to buy are shown in the photo above). Let’s dive in. The 50 records I liked and played the most—is there any accounting for taste?—are listed below, each with a standout song embedded (it’s all about the music after all). Links point to Discogs or Bandcamp (the headings), and where available to our previously posted, more extensive reviews (in the body text). As always: add to your wantlist—or even better: your collection—whatever you like!

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New EP: The Gunshy || Hurricane Umbrellas

Like spending time with a friend who works hard at his craft because he loves it, and so do you

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Indie Pop / 1 Comment

“I’m barely a guitar player, I can’t sing worth a damn, and I put too many words in my songs, but I really love making music.” Matt Arbogast of The Gunshy knows his limitations, yet he delivers a full-lengther that’s more than worth your time. Hurricane Umbrellas not only has a beautiful title, but also beautiful music and lyrics. You’ll hear twelve warm, quietly devastating folk-rock tracks—late-night, word-heavy stories—built from thousands of satisfying hours in his Chicago home studio, and it shows in the best way.

This may be the seventh Gunshy album, but it feels more like a debut from someone who’s already lived several lifetimes. After two decades of gut-punch songwriting, Arbogast has rebuilt himself: sober and cleaned up, he created his most welcoming, lived-in album yet, full of honest details, softened edges, and contributions from a dream team of players who know exactly how to serve a song.

It may be a bit wobbly, but even more so it’s charming and fascinating—an intimate portrait of an artist rediscovering purpose and presence, where hard-won wisdom and comforting arrangements shape a stunning reinvention. For fans of the work of David Berman (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains), Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.).




Hurricane Umbrellas—produced by Sean Bonnette—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Sleep Recordings. Also featuring Sean Bonnette (AJJ), Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner (Magnolia Electric Company, Wild Pink), Mark Glick (AJJ), Kara Eubanks, Ben Grigg (Babe Report), and Max Stern (Signals Midwest).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || The Gunshy 

New album: Heritage || Blood and Tears

Classic rock instincts with hardcore teeth

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

Heritage are hardly the first band to claim that name—hence the (50) slapped onto their Discogs page—but this version feels like the one you’ll actually remember. Built around Jason Wood (Grinning Death’s Head) and backed by a stacked lineup of underground lifers—Jeff Jelen, Mark McCoy, Nate Wilson, and Ian Jacyszyn—Heritage sound like five people playing as if they’ve got something to prove. And on Blood and Tears, they do exactly that.

Trying to categorize this thing is an impossible task. At times they sound like a hardcore punk band reverse-engineering classic rock anthems; other moments feel like street-punk kids chasing their love for Springsteen. Town Hall is basically what would happen if Skid Row went punk rock. Break the Bank leans into snarling street energy. Witness Protection lands somewhere in that sweet spot where bruised punk meets big-hearted heartland rock. What ties it all together is the songwriting—every track comes with either a massive chorus, an unexpectedly catchy hook, or both.

Despite its fixation on societal collapse, Blood and Tears is surprisingly uplifting. The anger and frustration are there, sure, but so is the catharsis—the sense that the world may be burning but Heritage are handing you the match and saying, “Let’s go.” It’s a jolt of conviction, sincerity, and sheer rock-’n’-roll vitality. A perfect year-end palette cleanser.




Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Natasha Sandworms || The Band Not The Person

Intricate songs with real emotional pull

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

Natasha Sandworms, who we wrote about before, state it up front: they are a band, not an individual—and more specifically, a four-piece from San Jose that scratches the itch for ’90s alt-pop while repainting it in brighter, more vivid colors. The five songs on this EP are layered and full, the kind of tracks that reveal new details each time through.

This is a band confident enough to write a six-minute song you actually want to replay. Expect intricate arrangements, strong melodies, and an emotional weight that never drags but adds depth to the shine.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: loafers. || beach devil

Hedonism, drunken nights, and surf dude bravado

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

Looking at the cool cover art, you might expect this to be skate punk or surf rock, which isn’t far off the mark, but it’s more than that. We’re talking about beach devil, the debut album from the Vilnius, Lithuania-based noise trio loafers.—Aleksandr Belous (guitar, vocals), Pavel Kolga (bass), and Denis Strunkevich (drums). They don’t use capital letters (except in their music video), but they do put exclamation points after their explosive riffs, pounding drums, and confident screams.

Across nine tracks (including an instrumental at the end), the band threads together a mix of youthful chaos, emotional fallout, and seaside escapism, swinging between introspection and reckless abandon. The lyrics circle around coping with mistakes, the disorientation of growing up, and the fleeting, bittersweet freedom found in loud music, parties, and saltwater. It’s just as cool as the cover art.



beach devil, recorded by Andrius Glušakovas & Kamariškių Dvaras, is out now digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Dead Billionaires || More!

Basement-ready choruses with real punch

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

More loose ends from the year in music: here’s another EP I meant to write about but briefly lost in the shuffle. More! is the aptly titled follow-up to Dead Billionaires’ excellent 2023 Disaster Preparedness Coloring Book, and it comes packed with four loud, melodic punches.

It opens with Hopes & Dreams, a suspenseful indie-rock burner capped by an absolutely massive sing-along chorus—100% guaranteed to blow the roof off any basement with everyone shouting it back. Then comes the killer punk-rock blast Slowly Shifting Change, followed by the band’s own theme song that carries a hint of power-ballad drama without losing its grit. The finale is another sharp punk track in Busted Sideview Mirror and keeps the momentum rolling.

This Richmond (Virginia) trio continues to churn out loud, earnest, hook-heavy tunes, and we’d better keep pace, because they’re not slowing down.

EP out now on Possum Lick Farms Records.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Birthday Squirrel || Higher, Warmer

A candid therapy session disguised as a captivating rock record

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Indie Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

Canadian singer-songwriter Mike Frolick pops up under the wonderful moniker Birthday Squirrel, and his amazing first LP Higher, Warmer feels like stumbling onto a dusty 70s psych-folk gem that somehow knows all your anxieties. Injected with a good dose of alternative rock and unfiltered background noise, the twelve songs here lean into rough edges and charmingly scruffy imperfections.

The record was born out of a period of sleeplessness and looping worry, and you can hear that reckoning throughout: here someone is finally willing to drag the monsters out from under the bed and offer them a seat by the fire. Tracks wander between hazy introspection and melodic shimmer, turning this listen into a 41-minute therapy session disguised as a rock record (“Yeah, we got two chords and the truth”)—intimate and fascinating in both lyrics and music.

Let me emphasize that the album never sinks into gloom, maybe even the opposite; catchy hooks galore, and the confession of love to versatile comedian Marc Maron brings a big smile. Give it a few spins, and this debut will take you higher, warmer.



Higher, Warmer—performed and produced by Mike Frolick—is out now digitally via Angry Pigeon. For fans of Refrigerator, Jon McKiel, Guided By Voices.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Push.fm

Album review: The Guppies || The Answers To Which We Do Not Know the Questions

Meet The Guppies, a wild new outfit from Brooklyn

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

The Answers To Which We Do Not Know the Questions is quite the album title for quite the record. The Guppies are a Brooklyn quartet. What else can I tell you about them? Not much, other than the album cover suggests they enjoy sitting around naked together. But I digress. These 14 songs, recorded in just two days on an 8-track Tascam, show a band with a natural gift for scrappy, garagey pop’n’roll that’s constantly shifting lanes.

The Guppies bounce from catchy punk rock to trash-country detours to surprisingly cool instrumentals. It’s quirky, it’s messy, and it’s absolutely a blast. The kind of chaos that feels less like a place to live and more like a place you’d visit just to hear wild story after wild story.

Disclaimer: to get the full Guppies experience, don’t stop after a couple of tracks—let the whole thing unspool. Cassette out now on 4 Your Ears.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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