Blues & Roots

New album: The Karma Effect || Cruel Intentions

Sleaze, soul, and stadium-sized ambition

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots / Leave a Comment

On Cruel Intentions, their third full-length album in as many years, The Karma Effect sharpen their “modern vintage” mantra into something bigger and bolder. The London five-piece delivers eleven hard rocking songs that revive the golden years of Headbangers Ball, pairing mighty vocals and chunky blues riffs with soulful swagger. Every box gets ticked here, from towering stadium anthems to lighter-in-the-air power ballads, all blasting from the speakers at full volume and built for fists-in-the-air moments. The tales of obsession, temptation and self-destruction are captured in sound that drips with a sleazy charm that stops things becoming too heavy, the sound of a hungry band pushing for more.



Cruel Intentions—produced by Michael Charman—is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Earache Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Earache

New EP: King Automatic || Playing 6 Garage & Sixties Hits!

The perfect Collision of 60s garage grit and classic rocksteady rhythms

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

The title of this EP is telling, but leave it to French one-man band King Automatic to flip the script on raised expectations. Graeme Allwright’s Akou (aka Them’s Gloria), The Gories’ Thunderbird ESQ, The Seeds’ Pushing Too Hard, Jacques Dutronc’s L’augmentation, and The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction are transformed into gritty Jamaican rocksteady, driven by King A’s signature live-looped orchestra of sound. It works incredibly well, but as a surprising cool icing on the steaming cake, Prince Buster’s One Step Beyond is inverted, stripped of its syncopated ska roots, and hammered out like a primitive 60s garage stomper. Greasy and lo-fi but danceable and powerful, this is an inimatable masterclass in genre-bending rhythm, beat, and fuzz.


Playing 6 Garage & Sixties Hits!—arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed by King Automatic—is out digitally and on 10″ vinyl through Slovenly Recordings.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs || Slovenly

New album: eleanor on earth || eleanor sings and swings

a fascinating kind of warped pop

By / / Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Indie Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

Some bands do CAPS. eleanor genzer keeps everything in lowercase. eleanor sings and swings is her second full-length in three months, with an EP in between and another record already lined up for May. What?

Genzer didn’t exactly enjoy making this one either. By her own account, it kind of forced itself out of her.

If that sounds like a warning sign, think again. These nine songs hit in a way you don’t quite see coming. eleanor sings and swings feels like Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson holed up somewhere, demoing warped pop songs for a side project no one was supposed to hear. At the same time, genzer points to a deep influence from Black American music of the 20th century, especially hill country blues, which gives the record an extra layer beneath the odd angles.

This isn’t a standard release by any stretch, but the melodies are strong and direct, and genzer’s voice pulls you in fast. Stranger than it looks, catchier than it has any right to be.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Dusted || The Best New Cover Songs Of April 2026

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

Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, e.g. as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are—in a kind of random order—a bunch of successful covers from last month—links to pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.

Fade To Black (Metallica) by The Tubs — digital track (Merge Records)

Don’t Look Back (The Remains) by The Peawees — from More Scraps LP (Wild Honey Records)

Problem Child (AC/DC) by Neo-Magics — from Leaving on a Jet Plane EP (Half A Cow Records)

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Dusted || The Best New Cover Songs Of April 2026Read More »

New album: Garret T. Willie || Bill’s Cafe

Whiskey-soaked riffs and hard-earned scars

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots / Leave a Comment

In Bill’s Cafe we ​​meet characters chasing love, escape, and second chances down highways that never quite lead to peace. Between toxic relationships, small-town confines, and hard-living habits, Garret T. Willie‘s sophomore album shifts from freedom to consequence, where every choice feels urgent and every mile carries both hope and regret, illuminated by neon and whiskey.

Worn storytelling rooted in Alert Bay memory is central to the nine songs, carrying the weight of family ghosts, hard lessons, and a restless need to move. The mighty voice of the young blues rocker from British Columbia, Canada anchors it all, giving each track a lived-in feel that never drifts into nostalgia cosplay, but just as important are the mean riffs and big sound.



Bill’s Cafe—produced by Tom Hambridge—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Gulf Coast Records. Also featuring Kenny Greenberg (guitar), Audley Freed (guitar), Tommy Mac (bass), Kevin Mckendree (keyboard), and Mike Rojas (keyboard). The record is named after Garret T. Willie’s grandfather’s pool hall café in Alert Bay, British Columbia.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Cordova Bay || Discogs

New album: Adam Donen || Bible Stories

Stripped-back meditations from the edge of emptiness

By / / Blues & Roots, Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

“My demons keep me pampered // For the little that it’s worth // In my peaceful life, abandoned to // Inheriting the earth.” After a decade off the radar, South African-born/Germany-based singer-songwriter Adam Donen returns with Bible Stories, his fifth full-length album. Its eight songs are a mix of dusty gospel-blues and stripped Americana, with folky instrumentation and confessional lyrics. Opener What Doesn’t End sets the tone: skeletal, poetic, quietly devastating. There’s a deliberate smallness here that works in its favor, where every line feels carried uphill, true to its intention: “It’s hard to be / Sincere / When there’s nothing to gain.”

This record offers 40 minutes of gravel, scripture, and smoke, with weathered vocals upfront (in the lineage of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave, according to the press release, and that is not even debatable). It is a stark but absorbing whole, with emptiness that somehow feels full.


Bible Stories, produced by: Robert Harder, is out now streaming via Heldenplatz.

Add to wantlist: Distrokid

New album: Dirt Road Souls || (The Life and Times of) Johnny Moonshine

The kind of story that gets better every time it’s told

By / / Blues & Roots, Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

Dirt Road Souls may be a new band, but their skills and sound are as accomplished as can be. We are dealing here with Boston roots-rock veterans Davis Black aka Dave Yuknat (vocals, guitar), Brian Sargent (upright bass, vocals, mandolin), and Rick Weden (drums). Their debut record spins a myth: (The Life and Times of) Johnny Moonshine plays like a half-remembered barroom yarn, where truth matters less than feeling. Twelve dusty tracks sketch out the rise and unraveling of a small-town anti-hero with a taste for trouble, love, and late-night bad decisions that make better stories.

There’s a loose, lived-in charm and warmth to the remarkably soulful mix of bluesy Americana, country rock, and Southern gothic, with a knack for melody, at times reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. Obviously, the album is best experienced as a whole, but individual songs also hold up well; highlights include Next To You (a glimpse into rural small-town nightlife and the pure optimism of getting near the person you desire most), Dreams (Johnny and Jenny, now together, have a heart to heart—with guest vocals by Ava McCabe), Bright Light White Heat (the rebel’s luck runs out), and Whiskey Bottle Blues (the titular character makes more wrong choices). This is lived experience turned into music, hitting that sweet spot between romanticism and regret. I am an instant fan.



The “roots-rock opera” (The Life and Times of) Johnny Moonshine—written by Dave Yuknat, produced and recorded by Brian Sargent—is out now digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Jim Jones All Stars || Cat Fight

Vintage rock’n’roll dragged through the dirt and lit on fire

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

It’s unbelievable that British garage rocker Jim Jones (previously in Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses, The Jim Jones Revue, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind) has been bringing a sweat-soaked blast of chaos and classic crunch to the stages for about 25 years, and still hasn’t run out of energy. On Cat Fight, the third album with the Jim Jones All Stars, he bottles the intensity of their live shows and lets it spill everywhere.

The twelve new tracks, produced by Chris Robinson (The Black Crowes), feel like an exciting barroom brawl of rock ’n’ roll at its most dangerous and least polite, in which influences from rhythm & blues, doo-wop, and funk (and even more subdued moments) seep through more and more. It sounds vintage without being reverent, with saxophones and harmony vocals enriching the mean guitars and electrifying screams. Raw grooves and ragged glory from the edge of control.



Cat Fight—recorded by Kevin Harris, produced by Chris Robinson—is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Silver Arrow Records. Featuring Jim Jones (vocals, guitar), Gavin Jay (bass), Elliot Mortimer (piano), Stuart Dace (tenor saxophone, backing vocals), Tom Hodges (baritone saxophone), Harrison Cole (trumpet), Carlton Mounsher(guitar, vocals), Ali Jones (percussion, vocals), and Aidan Sinclair (drums, vocals), with Chris Robinson (vocals), Chuck Prophet (guitar), and Gloria Jones (vocals) guesting on select tracks.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

The Loose Ends || March 2026

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

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, and a link to add it to your shelves.

Aswan Dam || In the Playpen of the Damned
Cool new band featuring Harry Wohl of Uranium Club. Jangly guitars, post punk wireness and pop sensibilities complement each other well on their 10-song debut album.

Atlanter || Clock
The pioneers of “viddeblues” sound revitalized, blending their signature Norwegian folk-desert blues fusion with renewed chemistry, intuitive interplay, and a confident push into fresh sonic territory.

Bait Bag || Cut Fruit
Punky garage pop trio Bait Bag (North Haven, Carolina) can sing, really sing well, and while they play their songs with a punk urgency, it is the POP that lingers.

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The Loose Ends || March 2026Read More »

New album: Six Pound Test || Excelsior

A loud storm of distortion and groove

By / / Blues & Roots, Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

As the opposite of ultralight fishing, Six Pound Test steps onto the stage here with heavy guitars and throat-rattling growls. The New York trio drenches gritty garage rock in a thick swirl of psychedelic blues, tough and intimidating. Their debut LP Excelsior delivers eight raw tracks that feel like you’ve wandered too close to the speakers at a sweat-soaked 1970s club show and decided to stay there anyway. Raw and explosive, grooving and just a little unhinged, so pretty cool.



Excelsior is out now digitally (self-released). Featuring Luca Greenspun (vocals, guitar), Jakob Gould (bass, vocals), and Philip Adrian (drums, percussion).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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