Latest Posts

airhockey – “nice day”

September 13, 2026

airhockey urges you to have a nice day on new single, “nice day.” For those of us that prefer to be negative because nothing good ever happens and life is meaningless – that can be a tough message to receive. But hey – for us musicians, we’ve always got our drum machines, our DAWs, and our fancy guitars. airhockey utilizes all three to create the lo-fi goodness of “nice day,” and it’s a nice reminder that next time you feel like sitting around and doom scrolling, you could probably just dust off your instrument of choice and make a cool little song instead. Fans of CASTLEBEAT, The Cure, and Molchat Doma should check this one out.   We’ve embedded “nice day” via Soundcloud below, but it can also be found on Spotify and Apple Music.   airhockey · nice day

Run Along – “Serves You Right”

September 13, 2026

Run Along is a mysterious band – “Serves You Right” appears to be the their one-and-only song. But if this is in fact their debut, it’s one hell of an intro. The band bridges the gap between 2005 emo and modern day pop punk, offering passionate vocals, loud guitars, and a blood-pumping tempo. Sure, they aren’t reinventing the wheel here, but good songwriting is good songwriting, and if this is evidence of what Run Along have in store, we’re along for the ride.   “Serves You Right” can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.    

Sweatbeads – “STAY AWAKE”

September 13, 2026

Who is Sweatbeads? We don’t know. We’re not even sure that Sweatbeads knows. He doesn’t even know if he’s ready to perform – “Here we go – are you ready for my song? Am I ready for my song? Let’s find out.”   We hope we eventually learn who Sweatbeads is because “Stay Awake” is an absolute banger of a song. Chime-y guitars, do-do-do singalongs, and sticky earworm melodies are aplenty here… The songwriting is just absolutely rock solid. This sure to appeal to fans of The Strokes, especially, you know, before the autotune.   You know the drill – “STAY AWAKE” is on YouTube and Spotify.    

Strange Pink – “Gone Already”

September 13, 2026

Strange Pink somehow turned a bleak waltz into a blown out indie-rock banger on latest song, “Gone Already.” The three-piece makes an incredible amount of noise (as all good power trios do), and the track’s transformation into blown-out guitar goodness is fascinating to us. With how much overt energy they’ve stuffed into “Gone Already,” it’s hard to imagine this in its other form – instead, we get a near-shoegaze squall of guitar-driven noise. Noice.   You can find the video for “Gone Already” on YouTube below. It’s also on Spotify.    

Raybees – Seed Funding from the Federal Government

September 10, 2026

It’s Raybees, baybee. Live from the dungeon? Live from the sunroom? Who even knows how songs like these originate? There are only a few things that we do know: 1.) Buffalo-based songwriter Jacob Smolinski is at it again – Raybees is another vehicle for his uber-prolific musical output. 2.) This six-song EP doesn’t even breach six (6) minutes in length. 3.) These songs are weird as hell.   Ok fair enough – here’s a little background. Consider Seed Funding from the Federal Government a palate cleanser, if you will. Smolinski made a conscientious effort this time around to put out some music that felt a little less meticulously crafted than, say, Reaper, Take My Life For Free!. Being a songwriter is hard when you’re also a full time IT guy or insurance adjuster or human resources assistant, so off the clock, Smolinski turned to creating these noisy nugs as a way[...]

The Fourth Wall – “Future Memory”

September 9, 2026

The Fourth Wall reside in Portland, Oregon, and make a delightful blend of shoegaze, pop, and indie rock. “Future Memory” is a great place to start – sounding like a mix between Death Cab for Cutie, Local Natives, and your favorite late-90s one-hit-wonder, “Memory” is both epic and unassuming. Carried by stabs of piano and a bravely anthemic drum presence, this one sounds like what it must look like to watch the birth of a star… From a safe distance, of course.   Check out the video for “Future Memory” below.    

Jayson Andrew – “Deadman”

September 9, 2026

Jayson Andrew is an up and coming singer/songwriter from Orlando, Florida whose “Deadman” caught our ears. His particular brand of indie folk is upbeat and literate with an almost European mouthfeel. It’s low key and very, very listenable – Earthy and vulnerable, his delivery is both inviting and disarming, breaking down your barriers and inviting himself in.   Check out “Deadman” on Spotify or Apple Music.    

Sky Kistler – “you make me feel alive”

September 6, 2026

Sometimes you just gotta reinvent yourself – which is exactly what Sky Kistler is doing on latest offering “you make me feel alive.” Dropping the anon ZSHELL moniker to evolve into “hyperpop nonsense” is a bold move, but with songs like “you make me feel alive,” we think Sky is going to be just fine. Pulsing 8-bit bass drums assault your eardrums while Sky’s voice glitches out uncontrollably. This one hits hard and would have us uncontrollably grinding our teeth on our pacifiers if it was still 2002 and we had any interest in going to a rave.   “you make me feel alive” is on Soundcloud (below) and Spotify.   Sky Kistler / ZSHELL · you make me feel alive

Autumn Luz – “Tattered”

September 6, 2026

Autumn Luz hits us with the creepiest single we’ve heard in a long time… Creepy in a good way, of course. As we inch into fall, the topically-named Autumn offers us “Tattered,” a song that slinks through your speakers with its spindly baritone guitar work and breathy (literally) percussion. The unique vibes here speak for themselves, but sometimes it’s nice to hear from the artist too – here’s what Autumn has to say about “Tattered:”   “I wouldn’t wish anyone the conflicted desperation and frustration behind that song, but I’m glad it came out where it did… Everyone needs somewhere to be messy when they feel destroyed, manipulated, ignored, or angry.”   “Tattered” is available on YouTube (below), or, on Spotify.    

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death – Earthquake Lights

September 3, 2026

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death (EHAFTD) have a long and storied history, and we don’t mean in an Oregon Trail (TM) kind of way. The Ithaca-based post-punk act released a now-revered second-wave emo record in the early aughts and its members splintered onto other projects (in the way that a lot of projects from that era tended to do). Luckily for us, the group has been back since 2016 – and some might argue stronger than ever! Their latest is a nine-song offering called Earthquake Lights – an amalgamation of their multi-genre experiences with an added focus on heaviness.   A heavy Black Sabbath permeates Earthquake Lights – perhaps not so surprisingly, as album opener “Joe Sabbath” has a pretty obvious nod. This one makes use of cranked Big Muff (TM) tone, pairing sludgy Black Sabbath intros with the freak-out post-punk intensity that the band is otherwise known for. Gravel-y[...]

Tough Old Bird – “Come Back, Come Back”

September 2, 2026

Tough Old Bird keeps on keeping on – the fourth song in a string of successive singles that has seen the band put out a new song every three (3) weeks. The process of releasing music is cathartic, especially at a pace like that, and “Come Back, Come Back” embodies that expression. It’s carried by a trembling tremolo guitar; beautiful folksy harmonies; and a slow crawl tempo that really highlights the band’s penchant for modern folk songcraft, especially their super-tight live vibe, which they took extra effort to capture (excellently) here.   “Come Back, Come Back” is available on bandcamp (below), Spotify, and Apple Music.   Come Back, Come Back by Tough Old Bird

Urge Surfer – Camp Club

September 1, 2026

Urge Surfer, a duo of multi-instrumentalists made up of Jordan Maelyn Smith and Chelsea O’Donnell (of Stress Dolls) recently packed up a bunch of modular synths, acoustic guitars, and other gear, and headed out to rural WNY for “Urge Surfer Summer Camp.” The result of their isolation, the new/unfamiliar locale, and a weekend of collaboration is their new EP, Camp Club.   Releasing music is hard… and stressful… and often a labor of love. So this time around, the duo focused on something novel – having fun. The songs were finished up and released quickly, because that’s what making music is about – doing art with your friends so you can eventually create more art. The duo’s work with modular synths is absolutely their calling card, but it stays rooted in organic pop songwriting with the backbone of acoustic guitar. The EP kicks off with “Night Owl,” a pulsating slice[...]

Bayonne – Filters

August 31, 2026

Bayonne has been at it for ten-ish years, crafting unique and textured alt-pop that feels like an experience to listen to. His latest offering is Filters, a 10-song album full of vibrant colors and shapes that just happen to be in the form of sound. Toeing the line of experimental, Filters stays rooted in pop songwriting, although its highly patterned output runs the spectrum between smooth, squelchy, pleasing, and moody. It’s certainly a one-of-a-kind experience – one we’re delighted to detail below.   Album opener “Unexpected” is an acoustic guitar song at heart, but Bayonne layers it thick with insane atmospherics. Marimbas; arpeggiated synths; organic percussion; and beautifully ethereal vocals. This is music that just begs for a night spent with a THC gummy – when we say this is textured, it truly tickles your ears with it’s multi-faceted and layered approach.   Elsewhere, Bayonne continue to delight with different approaches that serve[...]

Ethereal Gone Kids – “She’s Way Too Cool”

August 30, 2026

The word “ethereal” and shoegaze seem to go hand in hand – so the tellingly-named Ethereal Gone Kids are on point with latest single, “She’s Way Too Cool.” This Melbourne quartet makes an incredible amount of noise – between the squalling guitars and thunderous drums, it’s tough to tell which is doing more damage to your eardrums. The instrumentals are set off by a cavernous vocal about the challenges of maintaining relationships in your twenties – an interesting juxtaposition, but ultimately, exactly what shoegaze is about in the first place.   “She’s Way Too Cool” can be found via the Spotify embed below.  

Wolfschmidt – “Svalbard”

August 30, 2026

Wolfschmidt are about to blow your face off with the soaring math rock of “Svalbard.” I didn’t know what a “Svalbard” was – turns out it’s a Norwegian archipelago, one of the Northernmost inhabited places in the world… And now listening to this song makes me want to visit. Wolfschmidt (who happen to be Swedish) make full use of guitar energy – setting it off with a soaring vocal that is shiver-inducing, pun-fully intended. Lyrically, “Svalbard” “explores the duality of dreading drastic changes, for better or worse.” Gnarly.   “Svalbard” can be found on YouTube (embedded below) or via Spotify.