Check out the music video for “Never Better” embedded below. While you’re at it, check out our previous features of Robbery Club here and here.

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Outside of the dreamy “Exiting the Maze,” a sonic anchor made years prior in her childhood bedroom, Manke wrote the majority of the record during a temporary stay in Binghamton, NY. It is this very sense of impermanence that translates so well to the record’s sound. On tracks like “Nauseating,” for example, we’re met with a lovely combination of atmospheric pads and bright vocal layers atop a driving guitar riff and a beating kick, underscoring Manke’s understanding of space while reminding us the only direction of travel is forward. “Life Without You” similarly contrasts warm, hollowed out synthesizers with a guitar melody that, after multiple listens, underpins much of the record as a whole. It’s reminiscent of a 2006 Brittle Stars EP in this way, possessing a similar “returning-to” sonic quality that glides through genre. Hearing birds sing throughout only makes it that much sweeter.

Lyrically, Manke writes with an honesty and assurance that is very hard to teach, and in doing so, invites the listener to ask the very questions she seeks to answer. In “The Mold,” for example, Manke aptly and directly exclaims, “I don’t even know who I am or what I want,” as she reflects upon the malaise that can arise through inaction or indecision. Later on, in “Crustacean,” she grapples with the confusing experience of leaving somewhere familiar in an attempt to rediscover oneself, singing “I’m scared to move on / Yet it’s all I want to do.” It’s this very candor that underscores the honesty, warmth and brave curiosity laden across the record.

In I Want to Feel Like I’m Home, Manke has delivered an album that is in no rush to get to where it’s going, but gets there all the same. Sitting with a song or record that demonstrates this type of inherent patience invites the listener to do the same. The result is, when executed as well as Manke does here, an experience that leaves the listener asking their own version of the very question Manke explores throughout: Where does one go and what do they do to find themselves all over again?

Perhaps it’s less about knowing for sure and more about the question itself, allowing it to unfold with the quiet self-assurance most wonderfully reflected in the album’s last few stanzas: “Oh you’ll find your way / I know you’ll find your way.”

I Want to Feel Like I’m Home is available now (March 27) on Bandcamp. All the different ways to support both Mikayla and her band Spiria can be found here. 

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Song one, “Plank Over Constant Slaughter” will give you perfect insight into SDC’s modus operandi. Literate lyrics delivered in a sneering sing-speak over a near constant acoustic guitar jangle – it’s not a stretch to compare it to Neutral Milk Hotel, or even late 2010’s emo acts like Modern Baseball or The Front Bottoms. Project mastermind James Stephenson is a poet through and through – dropping dictionary-level words into lines about his disdain for society. “Apathy,” “malaise,” “entropy.” Fancy words stick out of the folk punk aether – piquing your interest while you take in these songs that are begging to be played at some sweaty secret basement show. Contiguity considered, it’s not what you’d typically expect – but it’s also what makes SDC so compelling.

As you meander through the rest of Worship the Disease, we’re confronted with an astonishingly cohesive offering. The jaunty guitar stabs on “Anthem for Apathy” bring to mind the neurotic sound of The Violent Femmes – there’s a full drum kit presence here, but these songs would feel equally complete (or perhaps even meliorated) by a single, rolling snare drum. The alt-country shuffle of album closer “Fear Acquisition Syndrome” is another banger, with lyrics that belie its backyard hootenanny vibe – “Profoundly uncomfortable / mostly feeling bad / rehearsing the conversations / I know I just had.” Modern society has become so unbearable that it’s not tough to envision yourself having an existential crisis while you watch your bud get thrown off a mechanical bull… But hey, that’s the millennial condition, right? Maybe it’s becoming the Gen Z condition too.

If there were any outlier here on Worship the Disease, it’s the easy-going (and frankly beautiful) “I Can’t Walk Away.” Stephenson’s vocals don’t quite smooth all the edges of his forceful tenor (and we’d never expect him to), but here, a longing lead guitar and a lone acoustic guitar backbone spin a different sort of vexation. It’s hard for us all (well… most of us, I guess) to stay positive in the current not to get down on the state of the world. But while you listen to a song like “I Can’t Walk Away,” it’s a nice reminder that we’re not all alone in our ennui.

Worship the Disease is available now (March 13th, 2026) on bandcamp (below) and Spotify. All the different ways to support SDC can be found here.

The post Sleep Debt Ceiling – Worship the Disease first appeared on buffaBLOG.

Check out the video embed for “Please Don’t Wake Me Up” below, or, stream it on Spotify.

The post The Burkharts – “Please Don’t Wake Me Up” first appeared on buffaBLOG.

A cursory glance at these three songs reveal something telling – they’re all over five minutes long. Odd for a punk rock band, but for Del Paxton, perhaps they’ve they’ve mellowed with time, and the extended runtime of each of these songs is the band’s collective understanding of what it means to let something breathe. Opening track “Another Heaven” is exactly what you’d expect from Del P, flush with quick-fingered riffs, high-octane drumming from Greg McClure, and a great harmonized performance that pairs Dylan England’s distinctive howl with Zack Schoedel’s uncannily complimentary backups. Mid song, the trio switches into a gentle jam, a low-key simmer that climaxes with a feature from Ratboys’ Julia Steiner. With Julia’s help, they repeat “Make time / Make reservations.” Whatever that means is up in the air, but it’s this kind of semi-vague, quasi-nostalgic lyrical play that has always helped Del Paxton songs hit so hard. You can sense this same approach on “Inside Out.” It’s nice to hear Del Paxton come out swinging with a big, poppy chord progression (they haven’t abandoned their roots, after all), but when the song slides into either of its contemplative bass-led grooves, you start to realize that maybe these songs symbolize being present more than anything.

Title-track “Dogeared” is a borderline masterpiece. An intro laced with keyboard (!) is the first telltale sign that this song is going to be something special. Lyrically, when England is on, hes on. His words feel almost like the collages that typically grace the bands’ album art – “Sun made parades in your eyes / confetti and shade / You barely believe it / the river / the streets of your town / You go in between it / the hill and the window and now you fold all the pages.” What hill? What river? And yet, they all come together in a way that makes you feel like you’ve experienced this exact scenario once before. By the time the band kicks into high gear with a tempo shift mid-song, it starts to sound like a long lost Third Eye Blind song. There’s even a borderline guitar solo. Long live Del Paxton.

Dogeared EP can be found everywhere – but we recommend stopping by Del Paxton’s bandcamp first which we’ve embedded below. Did we mention it’s being released by Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It. fame? B-side of the EP will be from Michigan-based act Retirement Party.

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The EP starts with “It’s Getting Worse,” an ode to running out of time and space, in whatever forms those might take. Sickness Anna set the pace here with gigantic guitars, sludgy bass, and vocals that split the difference between singing and screaming. While the music has more in common with their emo and post-hardcore contemporaries, there’s definitely a Corgan influence here (e.g. the prominent guitar solo around the 2:15 mark). By the time the song closes out and you hear Sessanna screaming about getting older and his heart hurting, it’s clear we’re in for a roller coaster of heavy emotions. Sometimes, roller coasters are terrifying, but other times, they’re cathartic… There’s a little bit of both those energies here on SFE.

Big and angry is the main focus here. Joining “It’s Getting Worse” is the album’s angriest song, “Come Back Home.” Raw guitar notes pair with syncopated bass drum hits in a way that beats you over the head before giving way to a quiet/loud dynamic that you might expect from a band like Pixies. By the time the song washes into the guitar-only bridge, Sessanna sings “I could give you what you want, but you would burn it to the ground,” a scorch-everything approach for a situation that’s already, seemingly, been scorched down to the bare earth. The title track “Sorry For Everything” plays around in this territory too, but seems to be aimed more at the narrator; “Do you think I am still a good person? Do you think I am still worth loving?” Dreamy guitars lay overtop pummeling chords in a way that feels somber, and it’s a fitting mood for a song where someone’s apologizing for literally everything they’ve ever done wrong.

Other moments on the album include the indie pop earworm of “All The Time,” the devastating acoustic ballad “The Ghost of You And Me,” and the slow burning crusher “Nothing Mattress.” While the beginning of “Nothing Mattress” could fit on a long-lost The Hotelier or Tigers Jaw album, Sickness Anna bring it back to alt-rock territory (solo included) just in time to ask the void: “Everything’s fine / nothing is bad / will it hurt worse if I tell myself that?”

Sorry For Everything is out now (January 23rd, 2026). The Linktree for all listening options can be found here.

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“Alaska” is available now – check out the video embedded below, or, find all the ways to listen via RV’s Linktree.

The post Romcom Victims – “Alaska” first appeared on buffaBLOG.

The album opens with the palm muted onslaught of “Reach Out” – an excellent introduction to TAKER’s stylings. The guitars do a lot of heavy lifting here, thundering overtop rolling tom beats. The Ramones-esque vocals are a particular highlight, tailor-made for mosh pit singalongs, preferably hosted in a sweaty Tonawanda basement. At a fleeting 1:57, “Reach Out” exists exactly how it needs to – a swift, but welcome punch to the face. Song two gets our nod for album favorite; “For You” is punk through-and-through, but also explores pop melody territory, with a supremely hooky guitar riff and lots of shout-your-heart-out vocals. The ultra-thick guitar tones and fuzzed-out bass here are impossible not to sink your teeth into… Who ever said oi can’t be catchy?

Some particular songs of note include an excellent cover of “Game of Pricks” by Guided By Voices – TAKER trades GBV’s direct-to-tape vibe for a full-throated guitar approach. TAKER’s version comes complete with a reimagined intro and vocals that stay true to the original. On paper, it certainly seems like it would be an album outlier, but it blends in surprisingly well with the rest of the album’s overall vibe – though this one’s mouthfeel is a bit less Ramones and a bit more Archers of Loaf. Same goes for the ruthless “Boots” which features a guest vocal from noted oi contemporary Jenny Woo. Jenny’s snarling delivery rips through the mix like a jagged knife, juxtaposed nicely against the otherwise rhythmic, barking vocals found on “Boots.” In a genre that’s more known for its solidarity than its innovation, it’s really fun to see TAKER taking chances and making fun choices. It keeps this album feeling fresh and modern, even if it harkens back to tried-and-true punk songwriting and delivery.

Elsewhere, TAKER dives deep into skate punk territory. Throw on “No Score” or “Big Step” and it’s not hard to imagine yourself playing a THPS game from 25 years ago. “Town,” too, is a wild ride with a super tough intro – devolving into bass sludge and eventually re-evolving into something that feels like it almost yearns. By the time you make it through the piano-laced closer “Big Divider,” you might feel like you’ve been kicked in the teeth… But, like, in a good way.

Sons and Daughters is out now, including a European release via Contra records – check it out via the bandcamp embed below, or, visit their Linktree for merch and streaming options.

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“Meteor” is available via Spotify – see below.

The post New Words – “Meteor” first appeared on buffaBLOG.

Check out the music video for “Reading With the Lights Off” embedded below.

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