There are more wantlist-worthy releases than time to cover them all. Starting this year, Loose Ends is our monthly fix for the great records that slipped through the cracks. Expect a key track and quick take on each release (35 this month!), and a link to add it to your shelves.
Gomez Addams || Let’s Blow Up The World
Fun album title, fun album art! Gomez Addams make their dystopian indie rock sound surprisingly jangly and upbeat on their latest.
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Not sure if David Byrne and Glenn Donaldson coordinated their messaging, but it lines up nicely. Byrne has been telling audiences that “kindness is the most punk thing you can do right now,” while Donaldson titles his latest record Acknowledge Kindness. I’m on board with both. Whether they mean it politically or not, it lands in a world where so-called leaders treat kindness like a weakness instead of something to aim for.
The world can feel cold, which makes a new The Reds, Pinks & Purples record especially welcome. Even when it leans this heavy. To my ears, Acknowledge Kindness is a sad record, but not in a draining way. It’s reflective, a little worn, and quietly gorgeous. It won’t lift your mood, but it will make you feel something, and sometimes that’s the better deal. So grab a coffee, wrap up in a blanket, sit down, put on your headphones, and take it all in. Embrace the goosebumps, don’t hold in the wet eyes.
Donaldson has reportedly written over 200 songs in the past six years and yet continues to find new ways to impress.
Acknowledge Kindness is out now on CD and LP via Fire Records.
Good Dog Nigel is the name Parker Emeigh uses to launch his songs into the airwaves. His label Glue Moon Records calls it “glam-inspired mutant power pop with an infectious quality and timeless feel in the spirit of Guided By Voices + Cleaners From Venus.” Hard to argue with that. The songs feel familiar, like they’re beamed in from some lost AM station, but tuned slightly off. Same hooks, different frequency. A bit warped, a bit quirky, and all the better for it.
The two tracks on the Living In My Shadow 7″ act as a preview for an LP coming later this year, and both will show up again in new versions. For now, these cuts stand on their own just fine, rough edges and all.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
Three and a half years after their Antartica LP, Mallorca, Spain-based twee pop quartet Marlovers return with Sixteen Sunrises from the Soyuz, a concept album that wears its premise lightly and lets feeling do the heavy lifting (as the band puts it: “Astronauts aboard the Soyuz orbit Earth roughly every 90 minutes, witnessing about 16 sunrises and sunsets in a single 24-hour period; our album uses the metaphor of 16 daily sunrises witnessed from a drifting spacecraft and explores how love, identity, and healing evolve [while] being far away from everything”).
The 16 new songs specialize in bright guitars shadowed by poetic doubt, turning slacker pop nostalgia into something oddly life-affirming. There’s a homespun charm to the earnest, slightly scruffy, and disarmingly sincere performances, supported by effective vocal variation and a rocking rhythm section. Emotional gravity and psychedelic comfort hold the entire 50-minute flight, like sunshine through thin clouds: warm, familiar, and just melancholic enough to remain after the last ellipse fades.
Sixteen Sunrises From The Soyuz is out now digitally via Lilystars Records. Featuring Marina Mullor Morata, Simó Reus Mestre, Guillermo Bauzá Muñoz, and Alberto Santolaria de Hevia.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
Season 2 are a hype-worthy new Australian band whose members have a past and present in ATW-approved acts like The Stroppies, Parsnip, and Phil and the Tiles. Their debut LP Power of Now, out on Upset The Rhythm and Spoilsport Records, is packed with fresh energy, a colorful and playful take on ’90s alt-pop and contemporary post-punk.
It’s restless but never loses sight of the hooks. Season 2 sit somewhere between pop instinct and left-field twitch, sounding like a band that could just as easily break into the mainstream as stick around as an indie favorite. Either way, they’re set up nicely, ready for summer festival tents and late-afternoon fields.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Upset The Rhythm
The Freebies are an exciting new L.A. quartet. Their two-song debut carries that sun-soaked California glow, but there’s also a trace of time spent lurking around the local punk scene while digging through stacks of ’60s girl group 45s.
The result lands on something I’d like to call beach twee garage pop. Instantly likeable, and an easy addition to our ever-growing bands to watch list.
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
A Miracle Mile is the sophomore full-length album from Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Gray Dugan, a confident and cohesive set of ten transfixing songs of solid dream pop, peppered with punchy hooks, grooving riffs, and sharp edges. It is a seamless sonic journey in which melancholic melodies and a classic sense of style combine well with charming vocals and a contemporary pulse. Pair that with relatable lyrics, and you’ve got a standout release that deserves far more attention than it’s gotten so far.
Highlights include opener Repeat After Me (with a perfect build-up to a catchy climax of harmonies and handclaps), Set Me Free (with swinging rhythms that will get the audience dancing), Hear Me Out (with a beautiful theme and the even more beautiful voice of Maddy Davis), and She’s Leaving for the Weekend (with a cinematic Crimson and Clover vibe). Ultimately, this is a record that feels effortlessly timeless, rooted in the rich pop history, yet impossible to leave behind in the present.
A Miracle Mile, produced by Evan Pruett, is out now digitally and on CD (self-released). Featuring Grey Dugan (vocals, guitar, drums), Evan Pruett (guitar, bass, keyboards), Ronen Ku (upright bass), Annie Cleaver (background vocals), Sarah Cavanaugh (background cocals), and Grace Szafara (claps).
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share five records THEY love. Photo credit: James Douglas
Here’s the down low. We asked Speedways frontman Matt Julian to drop a Gimme 5 feature onto our doorstep. It turned out he (and the rest of the band) had a lot more to say, which quickly snowballed into an interview. So we split things up: last week we ran the interview, and this week we’re stoked to share Matt’s list.
In it, he picks five albums that helped spark The Speedways into life in the first place. Make sure to also check Matt’s interview at Faster and Louder for even more background on what’s been going on with him and the band.
By the time I’d made it through all the Speedways content, I was fully fired up for new material from the band. Good news: the wait shouldn’t be long. For now, dive in and enjoy the read and the (classic!) records.
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Gimme 5! Matt Julian Shares the Five Records that Made him Want to Start The SpeedwaysRead More »
A typical day at ATW HQ means that between office hours—yes, we also have to hold down a ‘regular job’ alongside running the blog—we scroll through our favorite Bandcamp categories where every click has the potential to make our hearts beat faster. That’s how I stumbled upon Secret Address, a new twee pop duo from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, featuring Emerson Bright (vocals, guitar, drums, synth, organ, banjo, percussion) and Will Vani (bass, guitar, vocals, percussion), who know how to handle a Tascam 424mkIII.
On a typical day in the apartment where they make music, it might happen that a raccoon falls through the ceiling. The animal made it onto the cover photo of their debut EP, but much more importantly, the five songs are well worth listening to. It is lo-fi noise pop full of hooks—lively, messy, and wobbly, like a student kitchen where the used crockery is piled high but everyone feels the space is homey—with jangly guitars and idiosyncratic vocals. Promising stuff. Recorded just this month, but already released and shared here. That’s how we roll on a typical day.
A Typical Day…—written, performed, engineered, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Emerson Bright and Will Vani—is out now digitally (self-released).
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp
In the window of London-based Penny Arcade sits Double Exposure, a compelling sophomore album from the solo project of James Hoare (previously also in Veronica Falls, Ultimate Painting, and Proper Ornaments). It comes across as a cracked-open sketchbook, looser and more experimental than 2024’s debut LP Backwater Collage. At the time I didn’t realize how telling that title was, but this time the patchwork feel is unmissable, matching the cover art. These are ideas caught in motion, often dissolving mid-thought, but that’s the point.
The twelve new songs dial guitars down just enough to let drum machines and woozy organs lead, giving them a hazy, late-night immediacy. There is a bigger role for psychedelics than before, with a hypnotic pulse and uneasy spirals, somewhere between melancholy and motorik daydreams. This record thrives on vibe rather than resolution. Messy, fleeting, but at times brilliant.
Double Exposure—written, performed, and produced by James Hoare—is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Tapete Records.