LongRoad – Faith in Greater Things?

LongRoad – Faith in Greater Things?

It's been a, *ahem,* long road for New Jersey-based act LongRoad, but they seem to have all come out on the other side. Formed from a trio of Rutherfordians (NJ) and Vermont's Ted Ames, the quartet originally met at the Knitting Factory in NYC and immediately...

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Hot Spoon, Cold Mango – Paws on Ears

Hot Spoon, Cold Mango – Paws on Ears

"What is it that you see when told stories that have no pictures?" An interesting question posed by Stephen Meeker, the individual behind Hot Spoon, Cold Mango. The curiously-named project (which also includes Stephen's lover) was conceived after the duo used a warm...

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James Bannon – Heat Ghosts

James Bannon – Heat Ghosts

James Bannon is a New Jersey-based act who just released the six-song EP Heat Ghosts (HG). Full of folksy strumming and plenty of 90s-era adult contemporary flavors, HG tells several poignant stories of love, loss, and human connections. Album opener "Kitchens...

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Playing With Fireworks – Runaway

Playing With Fireworks – Runaway

Playing With Fireworks (PWF) is the moniker of Luke Underhill. The Chicago, IL native is here with a new sound, shedding his singer songwriter roots for something a bit more lush and expressive. The result of this new identity is a fresh, new EP, Runaway, a four-song...

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Vast Robot Armies – The What Gallery

Vast Robot Armies – The What Gallery

Vast Robot Armies (VRA) has existed for the better part of a decade, an impressive feat for any band. VRA rose from the ashes of many respected projects, think The Life and Times; Sometimes Why; Shiner; Failure; and Sundiver - bandleader Jason Thomson used his veteran...

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Chris Portka – Trash Music (Vinyl)

Chris Portka – Trash Music (Vinyl)

A few months ago, we reviewed Chris Portka's Trash Music (you can read our original review here) - as a creative, challenging, and utterly unique work of art, Trash Music goes down, at least in our annals, as one of the most left-field recordings we've ever had the...

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Chief Broom – Hidden in Plain Sight

Chief Broom – Hidden in Plain Sight

The story of Chief Broom (CB) is sadly a tragic one. Centered around the songwriting of Shadrach Tuck, this revolving cast of Boise, Idaho natives create songs that focus on "the fragility, monotony, beauty and horrors of everyday life." Crafted in the wake of the...

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Idledaze – Sandbox

Idledaze – Sandbox

Sandbox is a seven song EP from Whitewater, Wisconsin-based one man band Idledaze, released in anticipation of a full length album due out spring of 2024. Idledaze performs as a solo act but also does cover projects as a the Idledaze Trio with a setlist that spans...

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James Beastly – Junk Values

James Beastly – Junk Values

James Beastly. The man, the myth, the legend. One listen through the blistering punk/alternative/slacker/??? vibes of his latest album, Junk Values, and you'll be thinking the same thing. He's self-described as "too indie to be punk and too punk to be indie" and we...

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Couch Cult – The Couch Cult EP

Couch Cult – The Couch Cult EP

Couch Cult started the same as many new acts - a passion project that rose, like a phoenix, out of the ashes of the pandemic. This particular trio watched, ostensibly, from a basement window as the world woke up again. This re-awakening of the world inspired their...

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Made of Mana – Made of Mana

Made of Mana – Made of Mana

Made of Mana (MoM) is a jazz-infused quartet from San Francisco, and their self-titled EP was recently released July 28 - in anticipation an LP coming later this year. MoM is made up of four lifelong friends (Phil, Sean, Dane, Alec) who have worked together previously...

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The Freeloaders – Cheap & Used

The Freeloaders – Cheap & Used

Pittsburgh-based act The Freeloaders are a band that knows their roots. There's never a wrong time to acknowledge where you come from, and this quartet certainly does that (and does it well) on their latest LP, Cheap & Used. This ten song collection is full of...

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Liquid Pennies – A Wake-Ending

Liquid Pennies – A Wake-Ending

St. Petersburg based act Liquid Pennies specialize in an indie-psych sound that toes the oh-so fine line between concise and abstract. After hammering out a new batch of tunes on stage, in between shows, and even on a live radio performance, they're back with a...

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Talking To Shadows – Lost

Talking To Shadows – Lost

Talking to Shadows continues to amaze their listeners with their second EP, aptly titled Lost. Recently released on Bandcamp and streaming everywhere on July 21st, 2023, Lost absolutely solidifies the band's reputation as riffy shoegazers. Cat Van Glide’s ethereal...

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Porcelain Tongue – Goodbye Peggy

Porcelain Tongue – Goodbye Peggy

Porcelain Tongue is here to talk about loss - the tellingly-titled Goodbye Peggy is their latest offering, a stark title for a hard look at what it means to lose somebody you love. The sophomore release from this Boise-based quartet is a shoegaze-tinged approach that...

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The Cast-Iron Canaries – Propagaga

The Cast-Iron Canaries – Propagaga

It's hard to believe that the 90s were 30+ years ago, but here we are in 2023... And that means grimy punk rock act The Cast-Iron Canaries are celebrating a milestone anniversary of their 1993 EP, Propagaga. Although the band thought their work had been lost forever,...

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Shaven Primates – Birds Aren’t Real

Shaven Primates – Birds Aren’t Real

Shaven Primates are a five-piece from Oxford, UK who hit our inboxes with the "alt thought" experiment of their latest EP, Birds Arent Real. The band exists to push the boundaries of independent rock music, typically challenging both ears and brains simultaneously...

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Le Big Zero – At Arm’s Length

Le Big Zero – At Arm’s Length

The perpetually rotating (but nevertheless crucial) members of Le Big Zero (LBZ) have persevered through a lot... Think cross-country moves; DIY tours; and the aforementioned revolving door of necessary-but-temporary bandmates. Since you're reading this review, it's...

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Graffiti Welfare – Revolving Shores

Graffiti Welfare – Revolving Shores

Denver’s Graffiti Welfare (aka, mastermind George Lattimore) makes music to disassociate to. That’s not a dig in any sense of the word – in fact, the lush reverbs and cavernous vocal presence make for an otherworldly experience, perfect for simultaneously zoning out...

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Duster – Stratosphere

Duster – Stratosphere

It's hard to believe that 1998 was 25 years ago... And it's even harder to believe that 25 years after the fact, San Jose's Duster has found viral success on TikTok, of all places. Not to say the band doesn't deserve it - their mercurial blend of "home recording...

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chris portka – trash music

chris portka – trash music

California bay area-based artist Chris Portka has always dreamt of being a musician. With his roots dating back to the dirty, blistering grunge of the '90s, a young portka followed his heart... He fought past crippling stage fright; anxiety attacks during Elliot Smith...

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Disco Sam – American Nightlife

Disco Sam – American Nightlife

In this infinite void of new music, few acts have the ability to transport your mind to a world of infectious rhythms, cheeky melodies, and fun bedroom-pop quirkiness quite like Disco Sam. He's about to release a brand new EP, his 7th (!), one he's calling American...

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ROREY – “Apt 7d”

ROREY – “Apt 7d”

There's no shortage of NYC-based acts that have changed music... The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol - basically any band you'd have seen or read about in the semi-recent Meet Me In The Bathroom documentary. With The Strokes having won a Grammy for The New...

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Anya Baghina – Anya Baghina

Anya Baghina – Anya Baghina

Anya Baghina, who you may know as a member of the Detroit-based act, Soviet Girls, has called many different places home – Moscow, New Jersey, nearby Ithaca, Detroit, Brooklyn, and then Russia again. Longtime collaborator Jonathan Franco has been accompanying Baghina...

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Roscoe Tripp – A Cage Made of Tin

Roscoe Tripp – A Cage Made of Tin

On Roscoe Tripp’s upcoming offering, the five-song A Cage Made of Tin, the band dives deep into a refreshing indie rocking sound, leaning heavily into moody expressions of guitar, synth, and other ambiance. Lead singer Greg Fine has relinquished the reins of...

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Aleesha Dibbs – Paradise Lost

Aleesha Dibbs – Paradise Lost

Aleesha Dibbs might be one of the hardest-working musicians in the world... At the very least in the top 5%. Having cut her teeth in a ton of different bands, (Dive Bell, Prudence, Lorelei, Double Vision, Mvlholland, Lisa Mitchell, and Angus and Julia Stone just to...

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Arson Whales – Galactopus

Arson Whales – Galactopus

As the pandemic raged and live music opportunities closed, the members of Arson Whales (AW) found each other at the perfect time. Since founding in 2021, the group has honed their sound, falling somewhere on the spectrum between psychedelic rock, nu-disco, and...

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Sweet Freedom – Divilmint

Sweet Freedom – Divilmint

Lots of bands grind the cover game for years and years, playing the hits to fans in bars, at private parties, or at the state fair. Hours and hours of practice, honing the rough edges of a carefully curated group of songs, all to bring some much-deserved enjoyment to...

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Helen Kelter Skelter – Chroma Crawl

Helen Kelter Skelter – Chroma Crawl

It's been an odd and unpredictable few years for Oklahoma-based act Helen Kelter Skelter (HKS). And yet, it's an all too familiar story. Tours get scrapped, shows get cancelled, trajectory runs askew, and futures seem bleak (I'm talking about the pandemic, in case you...

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Jon-Olov Woxlin – JUNK TRUNK

Jon-Olov Woxlin – JUNK TRUNK

When you hear the Americana-soaked music coming from Jon-Olov Woxlin, your initial impression might be that of a man living in the southern United States (think Mississippi or Louisiana or something like that). In actuality, Jon-Olov is from Gothenburg, Sweden, making...

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Jovi Skyler – Nothing To Do

Jovi Skyler – Nothing To Do

The latest ten-track LP released by Jovi Skyler titled Nothing To Do brings back the spirit of the '90s spirit with the added bonus of a warped psychotropic feel. The album grabs your attention with its thunderous guitar riffs, pounding drums, and fierce vocals that...

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Pearl Jam – Gigaton

Pearl Jam – Gigaton

These days, the only time you ever hear the word 'grunge' in and around music is as part of the sentence 'grunge is dead.' That's not exactly true, but or is it a large-scale exaggeration. It's now more than twenty-five years since Nirvana's Kurt Cobain took his own...

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Full Body – Always There

Full Body – Always There

Waste not, want not. If one uses their provisions wisely they will never be in need. Rochester-based band Full Body apply those wise words to their musical prowess, and it resulted for them in a wide ranging new album, Always There. Following their much applauded...

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Ever Onward Debuts New EP

Ever Onward Debuts New EP

It’s not very often you hear post rock coming out of Western New York, let alone some serious musical landscapes that can take you on a journey from start to finish. Ever Onward,  the brainchild of Colin Berardini, readies for a big 2020 with the release of his three...

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The Flaming Lips –  King’s Mouth

The Flaming Lips – King’s Mouth

Two years have passed since Oklahoma's Flaming Lips last graced us with an album, with the last arriving in the shape of ‘Oczy Moldy.' Calling anything the Flaming Lips do ‘offbeat' at this point is a complete redundancy, but some of the criticism they received for...

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Hate Club –  A Clear Mistake

Hate Club – A Clear Mistake

Albany's Hate Club are keeping their torches lit. Their latest effort, A Clear Mistake, marks their fourth release in only two years. Besides highlighting their admirable work ethic, A Clear Mistake presents a conceptual recording of a difficult aspect of the human...

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SLUGS –  Cool World

SLUGS – Cool World

Los Angeles-based band SLUGS have released their second EP titled Cool World, and it may just be the perfect summer album. A refreshing take on the classic rock sound our parents taught us to love, Cool World demonstrates an appreciation for the origins of the genre,...

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Mammoth Grinder – Cosmic Crypt

Mammoth Grinder – Cosmic Crypt

It’s been five long, painfully quiet years, but Austin death metal trio, Mammoth Grinder, is back via Relapse Records with a new album, Cosmic Crypt, that will haunt your dreams. Since coalescing in 2006, Chris Ulsh (Power Trip, Impalers), Mark Bronzino (Iron Reagan)...

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Brat’ya –Desire

Brat’ya –Desire

2017 is almost history (thankfully) but former Buffalo-based electronica artist/producer Aleksander Ogadzhanov (aka Brat'ya) isn't done with us yet, with a sophomore album Desire that's beguilingly one of the most outstanding albums from an expat this year. A...

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Tart Vandelay –  Flow

Tart Vandelay – Flow

Rochester indie pop rock act Tart Vandelay have released their second EP. Aptly titled Flow, it is a jazzy and tranquil four song trip. Originally a duo, the now four-piece group is building off of their 2016 debut, which featured more of a loop-based pop inflection....

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