New album: The Young Sinclairs || Cycles Turning

A low-key comeback that sneaks up on you

By / / Garage Rock, Jangle Pop, Psych / Leave a Comment

In what almost feels like a different life, I was a major fanboy of The Young Sinclairs (Roanoke, Virginia). Then again, I can’t recall when I last listened to them, let alone thought about the band. Then, last (Bandcamp) Friday, I suddenly received a notification that they had just released… a new record? SURPRISE!

After a prolific period between 2007–2014 and going quiet following 2019’s Out of the Box, The Young Sinclairs didn’t so much return as gradually find their way back. The reboot started in late 2023, with a reshuffled lineup built around longtime core members Samuel Jones Lunsford, Daniel Cundiff, and Seanmichael Poff, now joined by friends and fellow scene regulars Ben Hudson and John Pence. What began as low-key attic recordings by Lunsford turned into a full band effort, with ideas passed around and fleshed out across different spaces and setups.

The result is Cycles Turning, a loose, homespun take on guitar pop that hangs together on melody and an unpolished DIY feel. The 13 songs are rooted in garage, psych, and power pop but constantly drifting — jangly twelve-string bits and haze slip in. A GBV-esque take on The Byrds, if you will. The 2026 version of The Young Sinclairs is sure a good one!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Weird Bloom || Wrong Time Wrong Place

Road-worn glam rock with bubblegum-pink grease under its fingernails

By / / Glam Rock / Leave a Comment

The nice folks at Wild Honey have been on a roll lately, and their latest release is wantlist-worthy once again. Weird Bloom’s new long-player Wrong Time Wrong Place is all swagger, grit, and gloriously blown-out edges. The collective from Rome hits glam rock’s sweet spot right on the bullseye with big riffs, stomping rhythms, and just enough sleaze to keep things cool. It feels road-tested (it goes without saying that you really have to experience this kind of music live), and as it should be, it’s messy, loud, and undeniably fun.

There’s a loose, junk-shop appeal in the ten songs, where boogie grooves crash into fuzzed-out noise and bubblegum-poppy hooks emerge like neon signs through the haze. As you might expect, this is really about impact over intricacy, carried by repetition, volume, and attitude, exactly what you want when glam gets dragged through the gutter and comes out grinning. You know what to do: put on your platform boots and good mood, and let the next ballroom blitz begin.




Wrong Time Wrong Place—recorded by Edoardo Elia, produced by Luca Di Cataldo and David Comanducci—is out digitally and on vinyl LP through Wild Honey Records. Featuring Luca Di Cataldo, Adriano Bartoccini, David Comanducci, Mattia Micalich, Lorenzo Masini, and Edoardo Elia.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy || Happy Loving Couples

Your latest sugar (c)rush has arrived

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

If you’re not already in the loop, Sims Hardin’s monthly Bandcamp roundup of the best new punk releases is required reading. April’s edition tipped us off to a new label we somehow missed: Painty Pot, started by Good Flying Birds guitarist Kellen Baker. One of its first releases is this collab between The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy, which Hardin called “a tender bedroom punk masterpiece.” That checks out.

Happy Loving Couples is written by Logan Adam and Carson Brom, who clearly also had fun tipping their hat to pop history with the song titles. What you get is nine lo-fi pop hits that land somewhere between jangle, psych, glam, and bubblegum. The guitars sparkle, the hooks come quick, and it all feels a little giddy in the best way.

Or, as Sims Hardin puts it: “it’s like stepping into an anachronistic timeline where The Beatles opted for ecstasy over acid.” Not entirely sure what that means either, but it sounds about right. This thing is a blast. And honestly, Big Shot (a killer power pop hit) alone makes me an instant fan.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New single: Little Grandad || Sleepwalking / Unmasked

A long-awaited debut that switches between fragility and noise

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

London’s Little Grandad arrive with a debut 45 that feels both overdue and oddly elusive, capturing a band that’s already built serious word-of-mouth through their live shows, yet still resists easy definition. A-side Sleepwalking drifts on dynamic guitars, warm harmonies, and hazy introspection, while its flip Unmasked is more restrained, slowly unfolding with a delicate, almost weightless touch, atmospheric thanks to the beautiful trumpet playing, but not shying away from a powerful tempo change.

The video below says a lot: it smells like teen spirit (searching, just like the lyrics: “I wanna try a life // But not by the book // Don’t wanna get it right // Or care about how I look // In the mirror today”), yet at the same time it is quite solid, structured, and controlled. The approaching hype might actually be justified.

Sleepwalking b/w Unmasked—produced by Kev Jones—is out on 7″ vinyl trough Communion. Featuring Jack Lower (lead vocals, bass), his brother Harry Lower (guitar, bass, vocals), Ned Ashcroft (guitar, trumpet, vocals), and James “Jimmy” Brennan (drums, vocals).

Add to wantlist: Communion || Rough Trade

Gimme 5! Lanny Durbin (Local Drags) Shares Five Records That Never Fail to Brighten Things Up

By / / Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / 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.

Best mark May 29 on your calendar, because that’s when Cool If We Split? drops. It’s already the fifth Local Drags record from Lanny Durbin, one of our favorite contemporary songwriters from the Midwest, and someone who has steadily carved out his own lane with a distinct kind of power pop. Cool If We Split? looks set to be another W in Durbin’s songbook. Plenty of reason to have Lanny over for a feature on the site.

One of the things that keeps pulling me back to Local Drags is the balance between dark and light. Not to go all Darth Vader and Yoda about it, but Lanny has a knack for finding an uplifting hook or a line that sticks, even when the songs are circling heavier stuff. The first phrase that always comes to mind is Shit’s Looking Up, the title of his first album back in 2019 and the line repeated throughout its opening track.

So it makes perfect sense that Lanny went vibes-only for this Gimme 5.

Start by checking out Novellete, the first song on the new LP which comes with a Replacements-like video. After that, keep scrolling and enjoy discovering Lanny’s picks. And go pre-order Cool If We Split? from Stardumb (NL/EU), Brassneck (UK), Endless Detention (AU), or The Machine Shop Rocks (US). Trust me, it’s really great.

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New album: Kitty & The Rooster || Get The Clap

"Banging on a cock, banging on a cock, banging on a cocktail drum"

By / / Garage Rock, Surf / Leave a Comment

Remember Kitty & The Rooster? If you’ve seen or heard the human-like animals before, you won’t have forgotten them. On their third album, Get The Clap, Jodie Ponto (cocktail drums, vocals) and Noah Walker (guitar, vocals) go all the way to confirm what makes them such a blast: blown-out rockabilly riffs—they probably call it cockabilly themselves?—and storytelling ripped from the van after a long, underpaid gig.

The Vancouver duo keep things loose but sharp, turning everyday musician struggles into explicit (or ambiguous) punchlines that undoubtedly will guarantee a good laugh during live shows, sometimes with a poignant undertone and often with pop culture references (or in combination: “Fred Durst did all for the nookie // Bryan Adams did it all for love // ​​I did it all, did it all, did it all for a hundred bucks”).

The ten original songs are rough, funny, and weirdly heartfelt, and I actually like them more than I should, but that odd mix of skills and wit lands exactly right. There’s a warm, even intimate charm in this infectious cocktail of 60s surf worship, hip-shaking garage rock, enchanting doo-wop, and seasoned DIY grind (so yeah, I sing along loudly to the final track: “Encore, encore, give me more, give me more!”).



Get The Clap, recorded and mixed by Corwin Fox(!), is out digitally (self-released).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Chelsea Curve || The Rideout

Boston band find more of their people

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

On their debut album, The Chelsea Curve pulled together the best bits of power pop, punk, mod, and rock ‘n’ soul into something genuinely special. The Boston trio of Linda Pardee, Tim Gillis, and Ron Belanger return with The Rideout, a seven-song EP on Rum Bar Records that hits just as hard.

There’s a strong ’80s glow running through The Rideout, built on revved-up guitars and sweet, punchy melodies. These are songs about freedom and finding your people, about being part of something bigger without overthinking it.

The band spells it out on Rally Round, arguably the most overt pop moment here and a clear standout: “Count your friends. Count your brothers. Keep ’em close. Cut loose the others. Find your people now.”

It’s direct, perhaps a little cheesy on paper, but it lands. The Chelsea Curve lean into it, tossing in a “yeah, yeah, yeah!” here and a “wooheeeooooo” there without a hint of irony, which only makes the whole thing more endearing. It’s proof that sincerity still hits harder than cynicism when the songs are this good.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: The Level || Technocrats

Soft-focus songs for an over-optimized age

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

Technocrats, the debut EP from Brooklyn-via-Pittsburgh alt-rock project The Level, feels gently unraveled in the best way. Across eight tracks (actually seven, if you don’t count the brief soundscape opening), it tackles hyper-optimized modern malaise without getting lost in it, favoring cracked introspection and fuzzy, mid-tempo drift with atmospheric clarity.

When asked, frontman Ian Abels is happy to explain how the songs came about: “I was thinking a lot about the texture that memories bring to life and how so much of daily life feels void of real feeling. (…) Much of the modern age is defined by technology—the hyper-optimization of advertising, the claustrophobia of choice, etc. I found myself continually torn between accepting the world as it is and being overly nostalgic for a past that isn’t coming back. There was a lot of reflection and draw to memory and the permanence of the past—trying to both escape nostalgia while also being deeply moved by the emotion of those memories. At the same time, I had also been reading a lot of Carl Jung and Mark Fisher and so their ideas were floating around a lot for me at this time.”

The theme is solidly packaged, with a heart of wistful melodies and assertive vocals, recalling slacker rock’s softer edges while carving its own inward gaze. Lead single Fate Insurgency, an earworm with a killer hook and irresistible chorus, could easily become a big hit, but actually there are no fillers in these 25 minutes of captivating music. A little comfort in a collapsing world.



Technocrats—engineered, mixed, and mastered by Matt Poirier—is out digitally via Montague Records. Featuring Ian Abels (vocals, guitars), Samuel Nobles (bass, keys), and Shane Luckenbaugh (drums, percussion), backed by Max Kulicke (additional guitars).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Drakulas || Midnight City

Third installment of this Rise Against & Riverboat Gamblers sideshow is another fun one!

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

A co-release between Dirtnap and Wild Honey is always good news. And a return of Drakulas, the concept band featuring Rise Against’s Zach Blair and Riverboat Gamblers’ Mike Wiebe, Rob Marchant, and Ian Walling, is one to greet with ears wide open. What started as a concept clearly took on a life of its own. On Midnight City, their third album, the band sound like a punk outfit dipping into early new wave, like they got a new haircut and picked up a few turtlenecks.

There’s a smoothness to the sound that goes beyond the usual scrappy feel of their labels’ rosters. Sure, there are straight-up pop punk hits here, like Singin’ With My Tongue Cut Out, Is It Enough?, and Guys Like Me, Girls Like You. But there’s also a groove and a slightly angular edge running through the record, like the band is nudging you toward the dancefloor if you dare. And if you don’t, that’s fine too, this thing still lands.

Midnight City might not click with everyone, but it’s easy to see people latching onto this hard. Worth diving into.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Dirtnap

New album: Micah and the Mirrors || Liars Chair

A rough-edged reckoning with everything that fell apart

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

Micah and the Mirrors’ debut full-length Liars Chair eases in with the cinematic sweep of Opus, then pivot to You’ll See and the title track, both of which start like hushed folk ballads but quietly bare their teeth. It feels restrained, almost cautious, but then the record kicks the door in and shifts into full-on rock mode, although with the foot close to the brake.

What’s the play here? It turns out to be a new project by Micah Morris, whom we know from Fast Eddy, but here trades their barroom swagger for something rawer, lonelier, and oddly clear-eyed. Written between the band breaking up, a collapsed marriage, and some other losses, these ten new songs feel lived-in rather than labored over, to great effect.

There’s still grit (grooving riffs, ragged hooks), but it’s tempered by reflection and a sense of hard-won forward motion. Recorded quickly in Atlanta with a tight crew, the album builds on instinct over polish. Starting over rarely sounds this rough-edged, and it hits all the harder for it.



Liars Chair is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Beluga Records (EU) and Spaghetty Town Records (US).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Beluga || Spaghetty Town

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