Punk

New album: Troubles || Red Alert

Fast, loud, and emotionally radioactive

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Troubles crash in with Red Alert, a debut LP that feels like it was recorded in a leaking basement and wired straight into your pulse. The Finnish trio deal in blown-out garage punk with riffs and vocals that compete with each other to see who is the rawest and grittiest. You’ll understand, this is the kind of music that sounds better the louder it gets, recommended for fans of bands like The Coathangers and Dead Moon.

The ten original songs delve into obsessive love, mental unrest, and bodily anxiety, where toxic relationships, intrusive thoughts, and self-image blur into something almost supernatural: “Let me break apart // Then make me whole again” (from Swallow Me). It’s all ghosts and guts, with heartbreak and desire tangled with illness, rage, and a stubborn, feral will to survive it, fitting the jumbled yet catchy performance.

The record was named album of the month by Radio Helsinki, which tells us radio over there is doing something right. The band skipping Spotify on principle only adds to the appeal.



Red Alert—recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ville Valavuo—is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Blue Bear Records. Featuring Ida-Lotta (vocals, guitar), Laura (vocals, bass, piano), and Mikko (drums, percussions), who do not reveal their last names.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Blue Bear || Discogs

The Loose Ends || April 2026

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 2 Comments

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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New album: Arvaa Kuka || 2

From Turku with tension

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Here’s a new band, with a new release on a new label. Arvaa Kuka are from Turku and sing in their native Finnish. The lineup pulls from bands like Tiikeri, The Phoenix Foundation, Miettiin, and Outo Valo, and with Arvaa Kuka they land somewhere between lo-fi melodic punk rock and a few alt-rock leaning detours.

Lyrically, it circles around feeling out of step, keeping your distance, and that reluctant crawl back to a hometown you once swore off. Not exactly comfort listening, but it fits the sound.

The label is Negative Budget Records out of Helsinki. 2 is their second release, following the fun Angry Adults EP from earlier this year. If this hits, keep an eye on them.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Crocodiles || Greetings From Hell

Nine albums in, Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez are still blasting catchy awesomeness

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Punk / 1 Comment

I bet that when Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez met twenty years ago, they didn’t expect to still be writing and recording music together in 2026, but here we are. Album number nine, Greetings From Hell. Not every Crocodiles record has stuck with me, but my fondness definitely kicked back in with 2023’s Upside Down In Heaven. Welchez’s throwback punk project Psychic Pigs from last year was another sign of particularly good form and morale.

Greetings From Hell keeps that momentum going. It’s a strong set of accessible garage pop and straight-up rock ’n roll. Crocodiles have always had a knack for writing songs that feel arena-sized, even if we’re lucky enough to catch them in much smaller rooms. Still Kids leans into the glam side, while I Dream of Genet dials up the melody even higher, both sticking fast.

Twenty years in and they still sound like they’re having a blast. Hard not to get pulled along with that.

LP out now on Wild Honey Records. Hey hey hey!


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Wild Honey

New EP: J Prozac / Space Age Zeros || Split

A split worth flipping over

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A split between two acts we’ve already written about is double the odds of this ending up on the wantlist. Critical Mass Music will release the J Prozac and Space Age Zeros 7″ on May 15, with copies shipping a little earlier. It comes in five variants, if that’s your thing. The full EP is already streaming on Bandcamp, and I highly recommend giving it a spin if you like your pop punk fun, catchy, and just plain good.

This is no leftovers situation. These four songs feel like proper keepers. Digging Holes is a fantastic J Prozac track with killer harmonies, easily one of my favorites he’s done. Chemical Reaction is another great one. The fact that it sounds this good without drums and without going fully electric says plenty about J’s songwriting.

Space Age Zeros are a more recent band, but you can hear the experience straight away, with members tied to Naked Raygun, Bollweevils, The Bomb, I Love Rich, and Urban Idols. They lean a bit more punk rock than pop punk, but it works well next to the J Prozac side. Two well-built mid-paced songs, with Seasons of You standing out, full of heart and a bit of longing.

A really strong split that holds up from start to finish.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Camp Winapooka || Capture The Flag!

A feel-good ride for sunset-chasing souls

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / 1 Comment

Camp Winapooka is a New York City-based punk rock band led by acclaimed author Scott Laudati, who previously also wrote a poetry book with that title. Their new EP, Capture The Flag!, is a genre-defying road trip through nostalgia that lasts way too short. In seven minutes, three breezy tunes pass by, characterized by warm guitars, deamy hooks, and laidback rhythms, cruising into comfort.

Opening track My Gift To You is the biggest hit here, a summery anthem built for golden hours, with a delightfully weathered sound normally reserved for the coolest bands from the Australian coast. Keep It Fresh is cut from the same cloth, but acoustic, before slowing down a bit for closing ballad Rainbow Road, enchanting with harmony vocals. Rich reflections that guarantee a feel-good ride.

Capture The Flag! will be officially released on June 24 via Bone Machine, but is already available online. Featuring Scott Laudati (guitar, vocals), Matt Dabson (bass, vocals), and Caitlin Burke (percussion, vocals).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Gimme 5! Matt Julian Shares the Five Records that Made him Want to Start The Speedways

By / / Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

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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New EP: Drug Bug || Secret Admirer

When devotion turns restless and raw

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For a few years now, Edmonton-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Alex Amesbury (aka Star Starer, and half of the band Willy Rodriguez) has been building a ramshackle discography under his Drug Bug moniker. On April 12, he released the Hell for a Basement LP, followed just four days later by the Secret Admirer EP, featuring four diverse songs that apparently didn’t fit on the album but are too cool to ignore.

The lo-fi blend of noise pop and bedroom punk is the perfect soundtrack for the lyrics, which capture a raw push-pull of longing, insecurity, and self-destructive thoughts, where affection becomes entangled with dependence, frustration, and a lingering sense of emotional exhaustion. Pulsing rhythms, breezy melodies, and vocal gymnastics come together in a loose sound you can be a proud fan of.


Secret Admirer, performed and produced by Alex Drug, is out digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Melter || Cordially Uninvited

Yorkshire grit meets garage punch

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“Royal Headache with a Yorkshire twist” is how I described the debut EP from Melter (Sheffield), and they’re not backing off that claim anytime soon. Their second EP is out now and it’s another loud, raw blast from a band that clearly wants to rock you off your socks.

Melter keep things loose and alive, no overthinking, no polish getting in the way. These songs win you over one by one, all grit, sweat, and hooks that hit before you’ve had time to brace. There’s a scrappy confidence here that feels earned, not forced, like they’ve figured out exactly how much chaos to let in without losing the plot.

Out now on tape via Delicious Clam, and best played loud enough to annoy innocent bystanders.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Stranded || Still

Cologne punks who treat genre like a suggestion, not a rule

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Still is an LP that’s intrigued me all week. After a couple of promising EPs, it’s the first full-length release from Cologne punks Stranded. Now, Stranded is a name that raises expectations, because for any self-respecting punk fan the first association is the Saints classic, which is *checks notes* still one of the best punk tracks of all time.

This Stranded, though, leans more modern. Their sound comes with the restless energy and playful streak of a band like Night Court, the quirkiness of the mutant egg punk scene, and the anthemic indie-punk pull of a band like Lone Wolf (check City of Glass).

Still is a varied record, and Stranded are all the better for it. There are moments where you’d swear your streaming service skipped to a different band, a different album. It didn’t. Stranded just keep shaking things up, keeping it moving, keeping you guessing.

LP out now on My Ruin.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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