Jana Bahrich, the mastermind behind the emotional and epic music by Francis of Delrium, is growing up before our very eyes. With the artist’s debut EP arriving just as the multi-hyphenate was graduating high school in 2020, and thanks to her prolific nature, fans have seen her grow into an unabashed poet, more akin to a troubadour than to any other artist on the alt-pop/indie rock spectrum. That busy release schedule, though, is not for appearances, nor is it an attempt to keep up with the dwindling attention span of a generation chronically online. Bahrich makes ethereal music meant to be felt as a whole, with each complex emotion broken down and every sonic trick felt from the minute it touches your ears to the moment it reaches your soul, and she has…
Category: indie-rock
Iceage have always seemed like a band in a state of constant development. You might say that’s understandable, given the Danish musicians were in their teens when their debut album New Brigade was released in 2011: if you don’t change between the age of 18 and your early 30s, you’re probably in trouble. But rock music isn’t real life, and a less adventurous band might have been minded to stick with a good thing, given the reception New Brigade was afforded. Twenty-four minutes of hardcore blended with noisy Birthday Party-esque post-punk and a sizeable pinch of gothic gloom, it was praised so vociferously that the praise itself provoked heated debate, as claims any one band are the “saviours” of an entire genre are wont to do, particularly when said genre is punk.
The Bug Club are back with a new album. It’s been a whole eleven months since their last. Where have they been?
Every Single Muscle, the band’s fifth LP, arrives May 29th, 2026 via Sub Pop, making it a hat-trick for the Welsh duo and their esteemed Seattle-based patrons. Since Very Human Features, which emerged in June of 2025, the non-stop tour has seen the BBC 6 Music and KEXP favourites ping-pong across the Atlantic like they used to the Severn Bridge. Various festival slots in the summer kept them from having any sort of holiday – who needs one when you live in Wales anyway? – until it was time to head back to the writing room.
So that answers that first question. Not that you’d have otherwise known.
Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me, the near-title homage on Kurt Vile’s album-length valentine to his hometown, is a high time no matter where you’re from: a deliciously hazy twist on Todd Rundgren’s white-soul futurism with pillowy synthesizer, church-bell treble guitar and heartbeat drumming in a sultry-ballad stride that suggests Billy Paul’s 1972 cheatin’ hit ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ with the Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker on that session. At times, Vile sounds like he’s singing in dialect, crooning about a city waterway, the Schuylkill River (“Always hard to spell” and “polluted as hell”), with the marbled articulation of Murmur-era Michael Stipe.
But the greater effect, across the whole record, is universal in trance and gratitude.
The day Robert Pollard stops making music is the day Hell freezes over. The Guided By Voices singer and songwriter has been at it for over four decades now, and his pace hasn’t slowed — if anything, it’s picked up. More impressive than even that, though, is just how consistent the beloved rock band has been throughout the years. They have a formula and, goddamn, have they perfected it. But that doesn’t mean they’re not willing to explore. Take Crawlspace of the Pantheon, the Dayton group’s 44th album (give or take; the exact count seems to depend on who you ask): compared to other recent entries into Pollard’s vast discography, Crawlspace is considerably more lyrical, more intent on content — there’s a strange thread of semi-autobiography running through it, pulled both…
The Spatulas’ Miranda Soileau-Pratt has long been a favorite among Dusted’s rock contingent, whether exploring the “entropic blues” with Nowhere Flower’s Lila Jarzombek or working out an earthy, buzzing, fuzzing full band sound in Beehive Mind and The March Chant EP. In her latest incarnation, she has surrounded herself with an all-new band, which includes Luke Einsiedler, ex of Arvid Noe and (New England) Patriots; Elijah Bodish of Mordecai and the drummer Greg Witz of Invisible Rays and Strange Passage. The result is a fuller, richer, more explosive sound, especially in the guitars where Soileau-Pratt and Einsiedler find a raucous, slashing concord.
Soileau-Pratt sings, as always, with a little wobble, the waver in her voice conveying…
Where has Ecca Vandal been? Nine years have passed since NME labelled the artist’s self-titled album “one of the year’s brightest debuts” for the way she attacked storming guitar riffs as easily as punchy synth beats. Much like Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes or Nova Twins, Vandal juggled her fiery punk spirit with plenty of vocal dexterity, earning support slots with Incubus and Queens of the Stone Age. But after the pandemic interrupted her momentum, she didn’t come racing out of the blocks to chase after it.
Vandal refused to rush her second album. Carefully crafted in producer Richie Buxton’s bedroom in Melbourne – the city where she grew up after moving from South Africa as a child – she hit reset, bided her time and named…
Les Claypool is one of the most creative eccentrics of the modern era, and his latest album under The Claypool Lennon Delirium moniker – The Great Parrot-Ox and The Golden Egg of Empathy – does much to cement that status. It’s arguably the spaciest album of his career, and perhaps the best of his collaborations with Sean Ono Lennon.
After a bonkers “Pro-Log,” the proceedings start in earnest with “W.A.P.” (no relation to Cardi B). Claypool’s melodic bass lines soar over a percussive racket, an impressive and powerful contrast. A spacey organ comes into the mix before Lennon intones his pop lullaby. Lennon’s tune is no more impressive than those written by his father’s overrated band The Beatles, but – thanks to Claypool’s spectacular arsenal…
Lowertown’s Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg almost didn’t survive themselves. After signing to Dirty Hit as teens, they were strapped into the up-and-comer indie rock grind, touring and churning out EPs and an eventual debut album, I Love to Lie, in 2022. The problem wasn’t that they drifted apart, but rather that they got too close. Co-dependently close. After a four-year “break” (three, if you’re counting the Skin of My Teeth EP), Osby and Weinberg have re-emerged with Ugly Duckling Union, their long-awaited sophomore record. Back in Weinberg’s basement, where they cut the earliest Lowertown tracks, the pair return to their blunt yet lyrical writing and unraveling song structures. The result comes with a little more grit and a little less studio polish, which is perfect…
In a recent column for the New Yorker, writer Kyle Chayka details a “lo-fi rebellion” against the aesthetics of tech-driven uniformity: “Anything that appears too smooth these days is suspicious,” he says, citing a recent Weezer tour poster featuring the “Cool S,” the universal sigil of our shared humanity, as a counter-example. Chayka’s subjects primarily operate in the visual worlds of marketing and design, but it’s easy to identify sonic parallels. The kids are selling their turntables and buying guitars, saving rock’n’roll, and banging their heads until they incur nerve damage. In the face of A.I. homogeneity, the human —embodied, subjective, flawed—is in.
MASK, a new collection of songs from Aaron Maine’s indie pop project Porches…
Engraving of Armor is the solo debut of Beck Zegans, an established member of New York’s indie scene with years of experience by this point both as a live sound engineer and guitarist. She’d been writing her own songs for some time but noticed her material taking on a heavier, more confrontational demeanor while holed up during COVID-19 shutdowns. When it came time to record some of these songs for her first album, she worked collaboratively with her band – synth player/bassist Alex MacKay (Nation of Language) and drummer Julian Fader (Remember Sports, Ava Luna) – who took turns building upon Zegans’ demos (guitar and drum loops) in their individual home studios. A fourth contributor on a couple tracks was guitarist El Kempner…
Radhika Dade’s debut album is a dreamy delight that balances her lovely vocals against varied musical backing that’s exceedingly poppy, but not afraid to gently paint outside the lines. Cine-pop is a fine title for the album; she seeks to make each song a different mood and each could fit a different scene in a film. The lilting ballad “Feline Bandits” would be perfect for a melancholy seaside walk on a rainy day, “Starry Eyes” is a fine soundtrack for a swirling party scene, the jangling girl group inspired “Cocoa Butter Eyes” feels like a falling in and out (and back in) of love montage, and “Sleep” is just right for a scene where the lonely protagonist can’t sleep thanks to a nocturnal obsession. Dade’s voice is a fine vessel for the songs, coming across sweet…
A band formed in London in the mid-2000s, The Early Years have garnered critical acclaim as well as a devoted fan base despite a release schedule that has brought albums in only 2006, 2016, and now in 2026. This acclaim can be explained not only by an intangible coolness but by their artful, experimental approach to music that has navigated and combined everything from raw proto-punk and Krautrock to space rock and the sophisticated artistry of post-1986 Talk Talk.
For their third album, Modern Moonlight, the four-piece looked to inspirations including John Cage and Steve Reich, Conny Plank and Georgio Moroder, David Byrne, Radiohead, and Brian Eno and David Bowie. The influence of the latter two is immediately apparent on opening track…
In 2025’s film Dreaming of You, The Coral looked back a quarter-century at the creation of their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album. “It’s the sound of kids with their imaginations cracked open, allowed to run free,” offered James Skelly. “When you capture that, that can’t really be beaten,” added Nick Power. “You never get that again.” Recognising that the past is indeed a foreign country but impossible to escape has been a theme throughout the band’s lifespan, and the documentary process apparently brought this conundrum to the fore when subsequently making this thirteenth Coral album: consciously or otherwise, 388 summons the sounds that first cracked those impressionable teenage heads.
After three more or less conceptual albums…
Bleachers return with their latest album everyone for ten minutes, continuing the project’s evolution under the direction of acclaimed singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Jack Antonoff, an eleven-time Grammy Award winner. Over the past decade, Bleachers have cultivated a passionate global fanbase, celebrated for high-energy live performances and a strong sense of connection with their audience.
everyone for ten minutes is the inevitable culmination of a lifetime of devotion to bands for the six members of Bleachers and, ultimately, finds each one at their creative peak. Despite the moments where it briefly peers into darkness, it’s essentially an optimistic record that feels lovestruck and hopeful, leaping from…
…features five bonus tracks.
On their third LP, Down in Heaven, Twin Peaks hang on to their rough-and-raw disposition while drawing sonic inspiration from favorite albums of 1968, including, per press materials, works by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Beatles.
Bolstered throughout the album by the addition of Wild Onion co-producer Colin Croom to the lineup on keyboards (notably organ), the era, if not a specific year, is resurrected from the moment the needle hits vinyl with the sassy, T. Rex-grooving opener “Walk to the One You Love.” Parts of the record capture the more reflective tone associated with the late ’60s, such as the regretful, even-tempered “Holding Roses” and the brass-embellished “Lolisa,” which could…
Future Islands are an emotionally charged synth pop group, known for their dexterous melodic touch, stately momentum and impassioned delivery. Over the past twenty years they have travelled a rare arc, from promising newcomers to best-kept secret, from cult favourites to heroes of the genre. As they reach this remarkable milestone, they resist the obvious move.
Instead of a ‘best-of’ compilation victory lap, Future Islands present From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth – an immediate and accessible collection – half of which has never appeared on streaming services – comprising alternate hits, rarities, and fan favourites that showcase the band’s palette and bring further colour to their uniquely universal appeal.
This record was a quick work. Kelman came from his home in LA to the center of the dirty winter in MTL December 13, left on the 19th, and by February the record was done. Neither SUUNS nor Kelman had prepared anything, no idea what to expect. We showed up as musicians should – prepared only with the thousands of hours logged at our instruments, agnostic to outcome, only curious about what could happen in the room that day, that moment. Possibilities. We spent most of that time improvising and exploring while tape ran: different versions, getting closer to the idea each time, stripping away, playing less, fewer layers. The less you play, the more possibilities you hear.
Ben sat at a makeshift desk, writing lyrics, sounding it out through The Vocalist, a ghosty old vocoder.
In 1981 a teenage Martin Kennedy watched Steve Kilbey and The Church play at a strange hippie festival in Australia. They were outliers at this festival and he fell in love with their look and sound. He recorded their set on a walkman, and the songs helped spark the beginning of his music career.
Just a year before, an equally fresh-faced Steve Kilbey formed The Church in Sydney, the very beginning of their public life as accidental hit makers. Forty five years later Martin and Steve find themselves working together on their ninth (add a bunch side projects to this epic side project and they’re about 20 albums in) studio album Things We Did On Earth. It’s always so simple: Steve calls Martin: hey we’re touring…
Eleventh Dream Day created a monster of an album where ferocious guitar rock collided with ramshackle cowpunk, neatly held together by the irresistible vocal harmonies of Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean – think John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X. There’s a blistering, untamed energy hovering over Lived to Tell, perfectly exemplified by one of several standouts, “It’s Not My World.
Lived to Tell, the middle record of Eleventh Dream Day’s three album run with Atlantic Records, is back in business! While critically acclaimed at the time of its 1991 release, the band was never satisfied with the mastered sound of the original record. This new issue of Lived to Tell, which will also be coming out on vinyl later this year, is remastered by Carl Saff from the original DAT archives…