New album: Beefheart & McQuinn || Midtown Downtime

Cosmic folk reflections with a breeze of melancholy

By / / Country & Folk, Psych / Leave a Comment

Reportedly, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of yacht rock, but anniversary or not, smooth soft-rock grooves and nostalgia-soaked folk music seem to be riding a serious wave of renewed affection right now. Midtown Downtime fits seamlessly into that trend, although this is by no means a pursuit of effect, as this sound runs in the bloodstream of the musicians responsible. We are talking about a collaboration of British singer-songwriter Moby Beefheart aka William Murray (Fur) with Australian singer-songwriter Winter McQuinn (Sunfruits), born from a chance meeting.

Their first joint record drifts through soft-focus indie folk with the ease of a half-remembered summer. Drawing from the gentler corners of the psychedelic 1970s without slipping into imitation or antiquation, the two musicians weave honeyed harmonies, warm acoustic textures, and understated grooves into a mesmerizing listen. At times, the songwriting even feels distinctly contemporary, but just look at the titles of the ten songs and you know that timeless is a better label.



Midtown Downtime—recorded, produced and performed by Beefheart & McQuinn—is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Rainflower Records and We Are Busy Bodies.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Album review: The Escape Society || The Escape Society

Fuzzed-out hooks and glam-soaked optimism on a psychedelic joyride

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

The Teletubbies are hardly the poster children for hazardous riffs and hard-hitting drums, although after a few mind-altering substances, those wide-eyed colors might start making a strange kind of sense. Still, the toddler’s icons take center stage in the video for Derelicts in the Fungus Shed, a 2024 single from The Escape Society. The track appears on the Ottawa band’s self-titled debut full-length, a nine-song collection that now gathers the standout singles from the past three years into something that plays less like an introduction and more like a greatest hits set.

Bandcamp lists The Escape Society as progressive rock, alternative rock, garage rock, glam, power pop, and psychedelic rock, and miraculously the band lives up to all those tags, turning big hooks and crazy ideas into kaleidoscopic dancefloor-ready anthems with genuine heart. Theatrical and over-the-top, surreal and infectious? Yes, actually, but it is anything but childish, with fun above all.



The Escape Society’s eponymous debut album—produced by Troy Huizinga and Dean Watson—is out digitally (self-released), Featuring Troy Huizinga (vocals, guitars, bass, synths, drum machine, percussion, handclaps, toy guns), Scott Norris (guitar, bass, backing vocals), Dean Watson (bass, backing vocals, drum machine, percussion, handclaps), and Jay Watts (drums, bass, percussion, backing vocals), with Jacob Elgin (guitar) and Stacy DuBois (backing vocals) guesting on select tracks.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Cable TV || That’s the Reason b/w Static

Crunchy guitars from the edge of Canada

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

Cable TV are a new-ish three-piece from St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador), who have apparently spent the last couple of months (or maybe longer , the band admits), grinding away on their debut album. As a sign of life, or better yet a sign of great things to come, they’ve just released a two-song cassingle on Barely There Records.

The songs are about “wandering the streets of town and wondering what is happening,” which honestly feels pretty relatable. Sonically, this thing lands right in our wheelhouse. Sounding a bit like a mashup of Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements, Cable TV sit somewhere between classic indie rock and power pop, with enough bar-band swagger to keep things from getting too clean-cut. The guitars come in satisfyingly crunchy, the hooks stick, and both songs have that loose, rockin’ feel that makes you want to hear a full album immediately. I’m definitely sticking around.

Also worth checking out is the band’s 7″ from last year, which we somehow completely missed the first time around. Consider that mistake corrected. Mark Cable TV down as a band to watch.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: High on Stress || Still Here

Heartland rock with loud riffs, hungry vocals, and powerful energy

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

High on Stress sounds like the kind of band that’s spent decades inhaling bar smoke, chasing last call, and turning hard miles into sharp hooks. Earlier this year, we shared their take on Tommy Keene’s Nothing Can Change You (in our monthly overview of favorite cover songs), but they are even more awe-inspiring (and more satisfying) with original material.

On studio album number six, aptly titled Still Here, the Minneapolis quartet sharpens their wear-and-tear spirit into a dozen guitar-driven anthems that hit the sweet spot between pub rock toughness, power pop punch, and alt-country swagger (a sound you rarely hear these days but which works surprisingly well). The riffs are big and make you at least nod your head along, the rhythm section plays loose and grooving, the lead vocals are raw and charismatic, and the songwriting carries enough lived-in grit to keep things grounded. It makes for a ragged but soulful blast of heartland rock ’n’ roll done right.



Still Here is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Rum Bar Records. Featuring Nick Leet (vocals, guitar, piano, organ), Chad Wheeling (guitar), Jim Soule (bass, backing vocals), and Mark Devaraj (drums).

Add to wantlist @ Bandcamp: High on Stress || Rum Bar

New album: Third Ego || More Ego

Brooding punk rock with some weight behind it

By / / Alternative Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

After their self-titled debut landed in late 2022, Third Ego return with More Ego, 25 minutes of punk rock that is melodic while still carrying a dark undercurrent. Their sound leans heavily into alternative rock territory, with shades of Bob Mould and Mission of Burma, and an emotional weight to these songs that is palpable.

This is not the kind of band sleepwalking through familiar moves. Third Ego clearly have a strong idea of what they want this project to be, and the collective experience from members of NRA, Brat Pack, NEED, Human Alert, and Selfish shows all over this thing. The songs are short and urgent without feeling rushed, sharp without sounding clinical. They give the record a tension that keeps pulling you back in.

There’s a brooding intensity running through More Ego, but also enough melody to stop it from collapsing under its own heaviness. A rewarding listen from a band that sounds fully locked in.

LP (with pretty awesome art by Menno Wittebrood) available through a bullet train of labels including Shield Recordings, White Russian Records, Flight 13 Label, Slow Death, Scuderie Ducali Records, and Serial Bowl.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Shield Recordings || Serial Bowl || Linktree

New album: The Kind Hills || Little Epiphanies

Jangly reflections on heartbreak, friendship and simple pleasures

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

It is nothing short of a miracle that we now can listen to Little Epiphanies. For the third album by slacker-pop collective The Kind Hills, the band members’ ideas and contributions had to cross the borders and time zones of four continents, but Martin (Brisbane), Roman (Lucerne), Brett (Perth), Jess (London), Bea (Los Angeles), and Chase (Hong Kong) managed to pull it off. In no less than fourteen tracks (including a cover of Pavement’s I Love Perth), they add introspective storytelling and sun-faded warmth to jangly guitars and dreamy synths, with variation in male and female vocals that complete it.

In essence, the lyrics here are about finding comfort and meaning in life’s small, ordinary moments, such as bike rides, seaside views, late-night dancing, breakfast with friends, or simply escaping the noise of modern life (and the man flu). Beneath the record’s breezy surface runs a gentle tension between reminiscence and growth, reflecting on heartbreak, anxiety, burnout and digital overstimulation, while implying that joy, friendship, and simplicity remain the best antidotes: “I don’t understand // half the things you say // I do it my way” (from closer Vegemite). This is soft-focus indie pop full of humor, healing, and heart.



Little Epiphanies, written by Roman Gabriel and Martin Brabec, is out digitally and on CD through Subjangle.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Lemon Twigs || Look For Your Mind!

The D'Addario brothers, Reza Matin and Danny Ayala leave you plenty to obsess about on latest Lemon Twigs masterclass

By / / Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

Listen, I’m fully aware The Lemon Twigs do not exactly need the support push from the Add to Wantlist blogging division. This record has already received, and will continue to receive, rave reviews from the Shindig!s and Uncuts of the world. Of course, Pitchfork hasn’t weighed in yet, apparently too busy raving about a reissue of the Super Mario gaming soundtrack and burning down a new Chris Brown record. But I digress.

The reason I still wanted to write about the new Lemon Twigs LP, briefly, is because I was pretty indifferent to the band before 2023’s Everything Harmony. One year later, A Dream Is All We Know is where things really clicked for me. I saw them perform on their tour for that record and realized these guys are not just studio perfectionists, they can actually pull this stuff off on stage too. So if there’s one takeaway here: go see this band live. You’ll probably come away hearing the records differently afterwards. And honestly, that’s why I’m writing about them here. For that one person who has spent years shrugging at this band and might actually be missing out.

The hype around The Lemon Twigs is not just about talent. The D’Addario brothers clearly live and breathe this stuff, and the level of care poured into their new album Look For Your Mind! is ridiculous. Really, it sounds incredible. And if you care about the three big B’s, Beach Boys, Beatles, and Big Star, you’re in very good hands here.

There are layers upon layers of goodness packed into this thing: harmonies sweet as honey, immaculate instrumentation, and production warm enough to make you cancel your streaming services and listen to vinyl records exlusively. There’s bubblegum pop on 2 or 3, psych pop on Gather Round, proper rockers like Bring You Down, and full-blown ’70s power pop romanticism on You’re Still My Girl. Meanwhile Nothin’ But You reaches for Big Star, Mean To Me drifts into Beach Boys bliss, and I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You is pure Beatles-brained pop craftsmanship.

I also love that the band openly admits that in contrast to their earlier records, they are now writing only the kind of songs they themselves want to hear. Honestly, that makes me feel less bad about becoming a fan later in the(ir) game. Because talented, obsessive musicians with impeccable taste making exactly the music they love is still a pretty hard formula to beat.

With bigger hype comes bigger expectations. To my ears, they meet them completely. Look For Your Mind! is out now on Captured Tracks.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New single: The Giant Robots || Spooky Signs

Two-minute anthems for broken hearts and burned-out dancefloors

By / / Garage Rock, Psych / Leave a Comment

There’s something gloriously out of time about The Giant Robots. Thirty years deep into their fuzz-soaked mission, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based garage rock lifers still sound like they’ve just staggered out of a smoke-filled basement club with blown amps. This new 45 is classic Giant Robots, as cool as it should be. A-side Spooky Signs offers graveyard romance, eerie Farfisa shimmer, warming harmonies, and enough distorted swagger to wake the dead. Flip it over for Goodbye, a softer, jangling slice of mid-sixties melancholy that hits the mark with mod-pop sweetness without losing the band’s crooked edge. Produced in style, uplifting in impact; somehow, against all odds, this out of time sound is still very easy to embrace in 2026.

Spooky Signs b/w Goodbye is out digitally and on vinyl 7″ through Rogue Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Blimps || Over The Moon

From a storage unit to our hearts, meet Blimps!

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

You may recall us writing about Tom Lawns earlier this year, a sneaky-good collection of unpolished slacker alt rock and power pop, hiss and tape noise proudly intact. Turns out the guy behind Tom Lawns, Colin Musolf, also has a brand new band called Blimps with his best friend Rocky Mercer. The pair out of Charleston (South Carolina) met in theater class as kids and have apparently been making music together for eight years already.

Blimps is a fully DIY operation, with the duo handling all the recording and playing themselves. Two songwriters bouncing ideas off each other. The seven songs on their debut EP Over The Moon were recorded on an 8-track cassette machine in their storage unit. Listen closely and you might hear some terrible metal band rehearsing in the background, though chances are you’ll be too locked into the songs to notice.

This is another band operating somewhere in the Guided by Voices, Superdrag, and Teenage Fanclub universe, which suits us just fine. Blimps throws Neil Young and Cheap Trick into the mix too. In a local scene apparently filled with bands carrying giant egos and not enough hooks, Blimps go the other way. They keep things raw, loose, on a bare-bones production, but never lose sight of the melodies. These jangly, power-poppin’, alt-rockin’ songs about feeling out of step in a small town hit with sincerity instead of posture.

Definitely a band to keep tabs on. And apparently they’re already writing the next record. We’ll be listening! Limited tape run available through their own Terminal Releases label.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Mick Beaulieu || Nightmare Twang

Riding a retro cult-film vibe

By / / Garage Rock, Surf / Leave a Comment

Without any fanfare, French musician Mick Beaulieu returns with Nightmare Twang, following 2024’s Seashore LP. Doing what he does best, he lets his guitar do the talking. In the slipstream of pioneers like Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and Dick Dale, he performs ten original surf rock instrumentals that sound as if equally inspired by haunted drive-in movies and sun-bleached California highways.

The album blends reverb-drenched licks and splashing organ melodies with a modern production touch that keeps the sound fresh rather than nostalgic. It’s stylish and energetic, vicious yet playful, a testament to the skill of an artist who makes the stars in the dark sky shine just a little brighter.



Nightmare Twang is out digitally via Crash! Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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