Glam Rock

New single: The Stones || Leaning on a Domino b/w (I’m a) Drama Queen

NYC rock-’n’-roll with its chest out

By / / Garage Rock, Glam Rock / Leave a Comment

Late last year, The Stones (New York, not the UK) pretty much knocked the house down with their debut single: throwback rock ’n’ roll played with maximum swagger. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long for a follow-up. Once again, it’s a two-song single, and once again it’s recorded live to tape.

The A-side, Leaning on a Domino, is a grooving, rock-and-rolling number built on cool guitar work and forward momentum—a song about a love that collapses if you breathe wrong, but you keep leaning into it anyway. On the flip, (I’m a) Drama Queen feels like a direct sequel to Rock ’n’ Roll Band. Where that song asked the rhetorical “Ain’t you glad that your man’s in a rock ’n’ roll band?”, this one proudly embraces being the loudest problem in the room (“I think you know just what I mean // That I’m the resident // President // Drama queen”).

So yes, in case it wasn’t clear: the ATW crew approves of The Stones. We think they’re pretty great. File this under: records we’d release ourselves if fear for expensive lawsuits weren’t a factor.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Single review: Seely-Jurgens Band || You Were You Still b/w Take Me There

Kyle Seely and Justin Jurgens make the old school feel current again

By / / Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock / Leave a Comment

Surprise! While on Boxing Day most of us were battling Christmas leftovers and navigating family dynamics, Kyle Seely (Sheer Mag) and Justin Jurgens (Ingrates. Dust Star) quietly dropped a new single under their Seely-Jurgens Band banner. It’s the fourth two-song release from the project this year, and these two tracks might just add up to the most accessible—and most immediately enjoyable—nine minutes they’ve put out so far.

This is a band clearly on a mission to drag classic rock into the 2020s and make it feel vital again. You Were You Still leans gently toward country, but the core SJB magic is fully intact. Flip it over and Take Me There delivers a hook-stuffed rush tailor-made for late-night drives with the windows down. This one flat-out rocks.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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

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

EPs and singles are where bands tend to swing hardest — and 2025 was ridiculous in that department. I started with a longlist of well over 100 short-format releases, and cutting it down to 50 wasn’t easy, but it sure was fun. I was also happy to see some of my cuts pop up in Dennis’ list earlier this week.

Unlike my album list (as well as Dennis’ AOTY list), this one isn’t ranked but ordered alphabetically. To my ears, these releases prove that singles and EPs are no mere afterthoughts, throwaways, or warm-ups for full-lengths — they’re often the main event.

So here it is, our final year-end list: 50 EPs and singles that made 2025 louder, brighter, and better. Over the next two weeks we’ll be taking things a bit slower on the blog, before coming back fully recharged in 2026. Thanks for making this year worthwhile — happy holidays, take care!

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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 / 1 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 || 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 || 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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Single review: Billy Tibbals || Rock n’ Roll Kids b/w Playtime

A single that swerves, struts, and never lets up

By / / Glam Rock, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

While working on your year-end lists (they’re coming soon!), you inevitably spot a release you somehow missed. Usually it’s fine; sometimes it stings. I won’t hand in my resignation just yet, but forgive me for only now catching the latest single from rock-’n’-roll’s finest prodigy — which dropped A FREAKIN’ TWO MONTHS AGO. Sigh.

To those who’ve had these tunes on repeat already: apologies. I’ll try harder. But if you, like me, let this one slip, hit play and prepare for a jolt. Rock n’ Roll Kids opens with a classic ’70s glam stomp before swerving into a glampop-punk’n’roll detour less than a minute in. Tibbals keeps yanking the tempo around, slamming between restraint and full throttle, tossing in sexy guitar lines and hooks sharp enough to bruise. We’re not worthy.

The B-side, Playtime, leans into Tibbals’ theatrical soft-rock impulses — still cheeky, still dramatic, and unmistakably him.

7″ single out now on Billy Tibbals’ own Fizz Fizz Records.

Add to wantlist: Discogs

New EP: Maz and the Phantasms || Maz & The Phantasms

From beach-goth twang to disco pulse in one breathless swoop

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

Fancy some queer glam mayhem driven by reverb-soaked guitars, groovy basslines, and showy synths? Whether your answer is yes or no, Glasgow’s funk-punk vamps Maz & The Phantasms effortlessly convince you of its necessity. Their self-titled debut EP is so heavy on ideas and styles that you expect the band to overextend themselves, but they make it feel as light (and colorful) as confetti.

It’s a sweet yet spicy cocktail of psych, surf, glam, post-punk, rock, exotica, funk, prog, and disco, theatrical, noisy, and chaotic—how a song begins in no way predicts how it will continue. The powerhouse vocals, danceable rhythms, and clever hooks keep you constantly captivated. Ready for a party, any party.



Maz & The Phantasms’ eponymous mini-album, recorded by Luigi Pasquini, is out now digitally (self-released). Featuring Mariam “Maz” El Sadr (vocals), Jamie McKay (guitar), Jude Norton-Smith (bass), and Toby McEwan (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Killer Hearts || Unchained & Bloodstained

Killer Hearts (members of The Wrong Ones) double down on the glam attack

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

Killer Hearts reside in Houston, Texas, but sound like they’d rather be on the left coast (the Sunset Strip, to be precise), or on the East Coast (Max’s Kansas City, for example), preferably in another era. We covered their 2021 debut album Unchained & Bloodstained, and its follow-up came out late October on Screaming Crow Records with some pretty spectacular vinyl variants. Relative to Unchained & Bloodstained, Skintight Electric feels like Killer Hearts moving even further into hard rock territory. They don’t just look the part (a whole lot of black leather? Check! Singer wearing high-heeled boots? Check!), they play the part. Scratch that—this doesn’t sound like acting at all, even though the second half of a song like Demolition Love has so much Mötley Crüe in it, it has to be intentional. This is the sound of a punk band who studied the glam rock playbook front to back, then decided the only way to honor it was to play it louder, harder, and meaner.

Of the ten-song tracklist, High Temptress is my jam. It’s glam rock ‘n’ roll with sharp hooks, killer guitar licks, and an anthemic chorus that demands to be screamed along to from the backseat of a Trans Am you don’t own yet.

Out now on Screaming Crow Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Fruit Tones || Easy Peelers

Dirty riffs, sticky fingers,

By / / Garage Rock, Glam Rock / 2 Comments

Manchester trio Fruit Tones return with album number three, and by calling it Easy Peelers, they make it easy to love—no mess, no fuss, just pure rock’n’roll juice. Across 35 minutes, the band dish out loose-limbed, good-time chaos that somehow feels both tossed-off and razor sharp.

This is pub-born, denim-stained rock’n’roll. Think the looser, wilder side of Natural Child or the swaggering early days of The Rolling Stones—songs so instantly classic you’d swear they’re covers. Fruit Tones know their way around a butt-shaking riff, and their boogie comes with a wink, a sneer, and the swagger of a band born for late nights. Every spin of Easy Peelers peels back another layer of classic rock ‘n’ roll devotion, from garage grit to sleazy charm. It’s scruffy, it’s timeless, and it’s cool as hell. What’s not to like?

Catch them live on their European tour if you can—the Fruit Tones circus is in town.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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