Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week’s Side A kicks off with a new single from The Lemonheads. Yep, they’re back. Evan Dando’s got a new memoir out as well. That’s followed by Eleventh Dream Day—a band I missed their first time around, and Ride who luckily, I didn’t. Winged Wheel might be putting out some of the most interesting music these days; their “Sleep Training” was one of my most played tracks last year. The side’s rounded out with the latest from The New Romantics. Synthpop from Knoxville? Yes please!
Side B roars in with Sugar’s latest. I promise it really is 2025. Like Dando, Bob Mould is as good as ever, and this feels like the band hasn’t taken any time off at all. ‘Course when you have a blast furnace for a guitar, the rust probably comes off easy. Anyway, your neighbors will like it too. After that is some power pop from Crossword Smiles and then a 1-2 punch of faves from the Blake Babies and Paul Westerberg, before we wrap up with the latest from Winter and Billie Marten, who’s Dog Eared LP is on the AOTY leaderboard.
Today we’re talking about AI. Or rather the crossroads of AI and music with our pal Chris Dalla Riva.
You don’t have to go far to hear about AI today. There’s everything from wistful think pieces to spicy takes and everything in between. It’s an equal opportunity target. If you’re anything like me, you’ve read a million takes both for and against its use.
Consider this the millionth and one.
Most of us have a strong opinion one way or the other; we either think it’s great or hate it. I’ve yet to see anyone say they don’t much care. Those strong thoughts are particularly divided in the art world/creator economy, where consumers are being overrun with slop and artists/authors are rewarded by having their work stolen and used to “teach” machines or compose hours of mindless music to be piped into fluorescent-lit hallways and your local Anthropologie.
Before we get too far, I want to be clear: I’m all for what has been referred to as the Three C’s: Consent, Credit, and Compensation. Those are largely self-explanatory, but the short version is this: if a tech bro is gonna hoover up an original idea, they should at least be paying the person whose synapses sparked it. A little credit would go a long way, too.
What does that look like in practice? I don’t know yet, but it’s not whatever we have right now.
I also want to be clear that most of the discourse so far has been binary. A lot of bandwidth’s been used in either/or discussions when it should be more of a “yes, and” or “yes, but” dialogue. For example, should a person take a 2-line prompt, generate a 750-word article “in the style of Kevin Alexander,” and pass it off as their own? I think most reasonable people would say no. What about non-native English speakers who use Grammarly to clean up grammar errors in their own words/ideas? Is that okay? I personally think it’s in bounds.
Much of the pushback has been because it feels like we’re being taken advantage of. We want to believe the person whose work we’re reading or listening to actually hammered it out on a notepad, keyboard, or instrument. Modern life never misses a chance to take advantage of us (or sell us more shit), and this often feels like one more in a long line of slights.
But what if the builder is transparent? Does upfront disclosure change the calculus? I think it does, if only because a consumer can then make a more informed choice. Pivoting back to music, that was a huge driver in the pushback against The Velvet Sundown earlier this year. The sting of catching someone trying to pull a fast one on you doesn’t wash away easily. If a singer tells you they’re using AI to give voice to their own words—now what?
Enter
Chris Dalla Riva. Chris writes the fantastic Can’t Get Much Higher which sits at the intersection of objective data and how it relates to the almost purely subjective world of music. He’s also the author of the forthcoming book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, a data-driven history of pop music and a multi-year project that started with him listening to every number one hit in history. Put another way, he knows his stuff. I’m reading an advance copy, and can confirm it would make a great early Christmas gift.
Long-time readers may also recall Chris and me working on a project where he used Python code to extract data points from my Spotify history. He then used those to paint a picture of what I look like as a user, and share what I was “really listening to.” It was fascinating to watch come together. It’s also a situation where I think one could make a use case for using AI. After all, isn’t sifting through large data sets the sort of thing we want AI doing?
At any rate, today Chris brings us two real-world examples worth consideration. The first is an artist using AI to “sing” lyrics she herself came up with. The second is a fantastic breakdown of how it can be used to remaster/rerelease songs long thought lost to time.
Neither of us makes a declarative statement or pretends to have the answers. In my opinion, Chris’s article reinforces that more than anything, we need to collectively decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t, rather than outsourcing that to companies that only see us as data points to extract ad revenue from.
And with that, I’ll get out of the way and let Chris take the wheel.
So, who is this rising star? I’m not sure. She doesn’t exist in the traditional sense.
Xania Monet is the first AI-generated artist to land a song on one of Billboard’s charts. Unlike other AI-generated artists in the news, nobody is claiming that Monet is a real person. “Xania Monet” is a project by Telisha Jones, says Billboard, a “Mississippi woman … who writes her own lyrics but uses the AI platform Suno to make them into music.”
Scrolling through the comments on Monet’s songs, you’ll notice that people connect with it. And most have no idea that this is not a traditional artist. As someone who works in the music business, writes songs, and spends most of his free time chronicling the music industry, I’m all for songs people can connect with. Music can have power independent of the technology used to create it. Still, I think there are some looming ethical issues with fully AI-generated artists.
First, is this music copyrightable? A recent report from the US Copyright Office noted that, according to existing law, “Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.” Furthermore, “Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.” Is setting human-written lyrics to AI-generated music enough human contribution to be copyrightable? It’s unclear.
Second, even if it is copyrightable, should the artists whose music was included in Suno’s training set receive royalties when Xania Monet is streamed? Given Anthropic’s recent settlement with book authors and pendinglawsuits against Suno and Udio, it seems that the underlying music will have to be licensed in some way.
But let’s assume all of the intellectual property debates get sorted out. (They will at some point.) Then, is there an ethical issue with generating music with AI in part or in full? In the abstract, I don’t think so. Generative AI is a new musical technology in the same way that pitch correction and drum machines were once new musical technologies. As I note in my book, new musical technology always faces backlash. Still, when you think about the specific consequences of music made like this, things become dicier.
The Ethical Issues of Generative AI Music
I know next to nothing about Telisha Jones, the person behind Xania Monet. But let’s imagine for a second that I created Xania Monet. For those that don’t know, I am a 30-year-old White guy. Xania Money is presented as a Black woman. I think most people would agree that a White guy using generative AI to make music as a Black woman would be a bad thing. But I don’t see any world where that doesn’t happen without some sort of regulation around the usage of this technology.
Furthermore, generative technologies allow music to be made at an inhuman rate. Since July, Xania Money has released 44 songs. It is certainly possible for a human to release that many songs in a matter of months (see Morgan Wallen). However, products like Suno make it easy for someone to generate thousands of songs quickly. Unless it was choked off at some point in the distribution process, there’s no way streaming services don’t become flooded entirely with musical slop.
Anytime I levy these criticisms about generative music, I am often met with some claim that companies like Suno are “democratizing creation.” I’ve never bought this claim. Though you could argue that music has been democratized since the rise of upright pianos and low-cost acoustic guitars, I think it’s safe to say that true democratization came in three parts over the last 25 years.
The proliferation of digital audio workstations, like Pro Tools and GarageBand, made recording at home incredibly cheap
The rise of digital distributors, like TuneCore and Distrokid, drove the marginal cost of distributing your music around the world close to zero
Mobile recording software, like BandLab, has made it possible to create musical masterpieces with nothing more than a phone
If I am such a downer on AI being used in the music industry in this way, then am I excited by any AI-based technologies? Of course. When I last wroteon this topic, I highlighted a few exciting tools. A year later, the most exciting use case remains stem separation.
On the Joys of Separation
One of the earliest known compositions of country legend Hank Williams is “I’m Not Coming Home Anymore,” a sad tale of lost love that sounds as complete as some of his more mature classics. The problem is that you can’t really hear it. Williams’ beautiful melody barely peaks through an avalanche of static. If only we could pull The Hillbilly Shakespeare’s voice out of that static.
Because of AI, we kind of can.
AI technologies have proven very adept at taking a mixed audio file and separating out all of the instruments. In the Hank Williams case, stem splitting technologies from LALAL.AI, Deezer, Serato, and a bunch of others could almost certainly get a clean cut of Williams’ vocal separated from the static and acoustic guitar.
We have already seen this technology used to great effect. In 2023, The Beatles released “Now and Then,” often noted as their “final song.” This was created from a low-quality home recording that John Lennon had made decades before. The Beatles’ team lifted a clean vocal from the recording using AI-powered technology. The living Beatles then completed Lennon’s demo.
This technology will become ubiquitous in the coming years. Not only will it allow us to preserve the past pristinely, but it will also make it easier than ever before for artists to remix, remaster, and reimagine other musical works.
As you can tell, I am much more excited by this musical technology than the technology that just allows us to generate songs for artists like Xania Monet. This new stem separation technology uses AI to solve a very hard problem. What Suno, Udio, and other generative products do is cool, but I don’t think it fundamentally alters the music-making process.
So what do you think? Are you all in, or are you on Team No F’in Way? In your view, are there acceptable carveouts? If so, what are they? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks again to Chris for his time, and thank you for being here.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting by heading back in time (and just a little bit south of here) to Rockford Illinois, for a dose of Cheap Trick. Are they Power Pop? Maybe. Do they rock? No doubt. From there we’ve got a deeper cut from JAMC, and a brand new one from
It’s Spooky Szn, so Side 2 kicks off with a trifecta of Fever Ray’s “Shiver,” Water From Your Eyes’ “Nights In Armor,” and something from LA Witch, before ending with fresh tracks from Massage, Joel Cusumano, and Petrov, the Hero.
Broken record alert: I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band
The boilerplate intro: Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try to put up.
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are another trio that caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Automatic- Is It Now?
Cover art courtesy of Stones Throw Records
When we last heard from Los Angeles’ Automatic, they had us looking toward the stars. On this latest release, they’re looking at the world collapsing around them.
Is It Now? finds the trio deepening their sound while sharpening their focus. Formed nine years ago, the band has this time teamed with producer Loren Humphrey (Arctic Monkeys, et al.), who brings a lean precision to their already taut mix of minimalist grooves and pop-forward melodies.
When I wrote about Excess, I asked readers to “close your eyes and imagine Devo as a dance band—or a collaboration between the Go-Go’s and Wire—and you have Automatic.” That description still holds, but Is It Now? pushes further into darker territory. The group uses those perky, tightly wound rhythms as a vehicle to deliver commentary on automated warfare, mindless consumerism, and the political machinery of oil and power.
The grooves remain effortlessly cool, but the themes cut waaay deeper.
Of the single “Black Box,” Izzy Glaudini says, “The title ‘Black Box’ refers to the black box in a crashed plane. The repetitive synth is supposed to suggest a plane gliding as it crashes/ an alarm distress call. I was listening to the Leonard Cohen album The Future a lot around the time the lyrics were written. It’s a pretty straightforward critique of people that have sold out on a large scale, specifically within creative industries. Thierry Mugler said, “art used to tell money what to do, now money tells art what to do” and the world is a less interesting place because of it.”
Okay, then!
Elsewhere, the woozy synths on “Mercury” are fantastic—coming in and out of focus, staying just long enough for you to find their rhythm before disappearing again. Those fragmented textures leave you slightly off balance in the best way.
“Lazy” is a chilled-out groove that I played three times in a row, trying to place its reference point before landing on Altered Images. I’m curious to hear if you hear it, too. And I’ll tell you this: “Country Song” doesn’t refer to the genre.
Last time around, I said the band had a bass sound that felt like it “came from the same finishing school as Peter Hook.” I meant that as high praise, and I’ll happily repeat it here, doubly so on the title track. The song is the album’s centerpiece—icy, chaotic, and alive all at once. It sounds like Movement-era New Order at their most up-tempo, and it absolutely hits.
Is It Now? is a record that makes you think as much as it makes you move. The beats are irresistible, the message impossible to ignore. Unlike Excess, this isn’t about escapism—it’s about working your way through the current moment, heavy as it may be. Luckily, Automatic know how to turn reflection into rhythm.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions this past week. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help! Thank you!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting by heading to Portland (the best city on Earth, in my extremely biased opinion) for a taste of “America’s best Krautrock band.” From there, it’s off to Nashville and some very-much-not-country music from palm Ghosts. The first three wrap up with the latest from Coast City Bus.
Side 2 kicks off with a little bit from The Church’s Starfish album, a brand new one from This House is Creaking, and a 1-2 combo of Dummy and Immersion. From there we wind things out with a lesser known SY track, a gem from Pąșśìóň Pïț and a jolt of jangle pop from The Radio Dept.
Broken record alert: I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
The flood of great records continues! Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Immersion and Kathleen Edwards.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at Immersion’s WTF?? and Kathleen Edward’s Billionaire.
The boilerplate intro:
Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try and put up—
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are another pair that caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Immersion- WTF??
Cover art courtesy of Swim
Not too long after I got my driver’s license, my mom signed me up for something called a “skid car” course. For those who don’t know, this is a course where they take a normal car—I’m pretty sure it was something like a Nissan Maxima—and surround it with a sort of superstructure. You drive a circuit the same way you would on any surface street, but the instructor is able to manipulate the handling of the car—for example, taking away control of the front or rear wheels (and later on, both). The idea is to teach you how to navigate the unexpected and literally steer through it. They also taught you how to take curves at high speed (this was held at a race track, after all), but that’s a story for another day.
So you’re driving along, and things are going the way you’d expect them to; your inputs cause the usual reactions. Then the instructor goes to work, and everything starts to feel surreal. You’re operating the car the way you know how to, but everything’s just a little off—the car takes longer to respond to your inputs, or doesn’t at all. On the surface, things are business as usual, but it’s very clearly not.
I’ve been thinking about that class a lot lately as we navigate these “unprecedented times” (sorry not sorry). On one level, life is normal—I go to work, I play with Gizmo, I spin records, etc. At the same time, things are very much not normal. As I type this, my hometown is prepping for an onslaught of federal troops. The economy’s about to fully go off the tracks, and all the things we’ve relied on to keep us on the pavement are being demolished. It’s almost as if America is in one big skid car.
Immersion is one of those projects that slips under the radar until you realize the pedigree involved: Wire’s Colin Newman and his partner Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact. WTF?? marks their fourth full-length and first since 2016’s Analogue Creatures Living on an Island. This time they’ve pulled Matt Schulz in along for the ride. So what’s it sound like? The easy answer would be something like electronic rock (or, if we’re going with Wire, something from more recent years), but that’s reductive at best. It’s a little of both, and it defies easy boxing.
The record kicks off with Defiance, an instrumental that gets things off to a strong start with uptempo beats but refuses to plant its flag in either camp: not synth, not pop, not really anything but itself. Immersion—and Wire before them—thrive in these in-between zones, especially when they let the music do the talking. I tried to categorize their last record, Nanocluster Vol. 4, and failed spectacularly. I know better this time around. It’s A Long Way to Brooklyn is a highlight, a track that doesn’t need words. But the whole thing opens up when they do. Spigel’s voice on Timeline is cool and almost detached, and Newman sidles in with a wry spoken-word counterpoint. Elsewhere, like onUse It Don’t Lose It, his trademark deadpan delivery turns a good track into a great one.
If this all sounds heavy, it is—and it isn’t. At least no more so than something like Talking Heads’ Life During Wartime was back in the day. David Byrne was singing about NYC’s Alphabet City, and Immersion is speaking on a much larger scale. Nevertheless.
WTF?? is an album about the constant low-grade anxiety of modern life, and an era where current events have you saying “what the fuck?” several times before lunch.
Things are bad, but we can still have nice things. Things like this record. The grooves are brisk when they need to be and pared back when called for. The production somehow manages to feel both retro (the analog textures are a nod to history) and way, way ahead of the curve. I’m biased, but most Wire records still sound like they’re from the future. This one sounds like the right record for the right time.
Writing about Geese, Steven Hyden recently noted that “Music critics like to do this thing where they point to an album or a song and declare, ‘This music captures how it feels to live in America right now.’ And, often, I make fun of this. And you probably do, too. It just sounds so foolish and pompous. Because it’s almost never literally true.”
Fair point, but if I may, I’d like to make a motion to exempt WTF??. It’s sharp, a little angsty, and a little bewildered. In other words, it’s a record that—at least to me—captures exactly what it’s like right now.
It didn’t take me long to get why people are so excited about this record. In fact, it took about 30 seconds of the opener “Save Your Soul.” I found myself nodding and saying, “Okay, then.” The line “Line your pockets with gold… Who’s gonna save your soul/When your money’s no good.” feels like a question a LOT of people should be asking themselves in 2025. And just in case Jason Isbell doesn’t already have enough fans here in the community, the solo on this track rips.
That was followed up with “Say Goodbye, Tell No One,” one of those rare tracks whose gorgeous sound is a thin cover for caustic lyrics. It’s incredible. I can almost guarantee someone’s going to use this to get through a bad breakup. They could do worse.
Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter who’s spent a lot of time away from the music business. Part of that self-imposed exile away from the grind (heh) was spent running the perfectly titled Quitters Coffee. She returned to the music scene in 2020 with Total Freedom, made a covers record earlier this year, and is in fine form here.
If there’s a weak link, it’s “Need a Ride.” Clocking in at six and a half minutes, it’s about three and a half too long, and frankly, it feels like a drag on the system. Fair play to Edwards here, though- the lyrics are (again) on point. She’s saying what a lot of people are thinking. “FLA” is an ode to the Sunshine State, shouting everything from Gainesville to Tom Petty to Pelicans. It’s one of the highlights on the record for me.
Towards the end, Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer stop by to add some vocals. It’s a nice touch on a record already overflowing with talent.
I’m many things, but an expert on Americana isn’t one of them—and maybe that’s the best part of Billionaire; you don’t have to be to get swept away by this record.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions this past week. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help! Thank you!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting with one from Former Champ and the latest from Chicago’s Ratboys, before heading down to Louisville for the new single from Second Story Man, a band a reviewer once asked readers to think of as a “female-fronted Jawbreaker.” ICYMI, Natalie Weiner recently wrote a great piece on Amanda Shires for Texas Monthly. Tsar’s 1998 demos are finally (!) seeing the light of day and sound fantastic.
Side 2 kicks off with some Immersion. If you’ve been here a little while, you know what a fanboy I am of Wire and frontman Colin Newman’s solo work. Immersion is the work of he and his partner Malka Spigel. Look for a review of the record soon. There is also a (relatively) deep cut from Depeche Mode, and a little something from Total Wife, before coming back to Chicago and ending with a (definitely) deep cut from Urge Overkill.
I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions this past week. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help! Thank you!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, the pendulum again swings and it’s back to old faves and comfort sounds, with a few fresh tracks mixed in. We start with all-timers The dBs before launching into Home Front and Redd Kross
Side two kicks off with something from John Cale and ends with the Waterboys. Along the way, we stop in Motown, LA, and whatever universe gifted us Brothertiger.
I know I keep saying it, but it’s true: 2025 might be a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
The flood of great records continues! Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from BRNDA, Grant Pavol, Water From Your Eyes, and Die Spitz.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at the latest from BRNDA, Die Spitz, and more!
The boilerplate intro:
Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try and put up—
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below is another batch that caught my attention recently.
A lot of recent releases landed on my radar all at once, and I want to shine a light on them before too much more time passes. Not quite an 88 lines about 44 records kind of deal, but close. More of a clearing the decks, if you will.
Let’s get into it!
BRNDA – Total Pain
Emerging from the D.C. music scene sometime around 2011 or 2012, BRNDA has spent over a decade honing a sound that blends post-punk urgency, twee charm, and occasional nervous energy into something uniquely their own. Their latest record, Total Pain, balances moments of melancholy with bursts of off-kilter humor, producing a listening experience that feels both optimistic and restless.
From the opening moments of Peach Pit, Leah Gage, Dave Lesser, Mark McInermey, and Nick Stavely set a tone reminiscent of Dry Cleaning, pairing post-punk guitars with a detached vocal delivery. Lyrically, the album is sharp, sardonic, and often self-aware. I mean, with lines like “And again and again and again and again and you’re really not making any new friends” and “And you spend and you spend and pretend and pretend that they care that you’re reading August Wilson’s Fences,” what else can you say?
Tracks like Books Are Bad showcase a strolling bass line and vocal stylings that might evoke Chris Frantz for listeners of a certain age, while Burn the Zoo continues the album’s rambling, improvisational mood. MT Eyes offers a lighter, twee-infused interlude, recalling the charm of Tullycraft, while Everyone Chicago hits with angular riffs, urgent energy, and—yes—a flute, adding an unexpected flourish I absolutely did not have on my bingo card.
Go for Gold leans into playful absurdity with squeaks, squonks, and nonsensical lyrics like “Who’s gonna break the code? Do your knuckle worst / Breakfast of mushroom champions eat first / Who’s gonna cut my carbon? Who’s gonna cut my steak?” Yet beneath the humor, the album is suffused with subtle sadness. As the band notes,“We didn’t need to call the album Total Pain… but pain infuses the album.”
The record’s energy bounces between nervous, melodic post-punk and playful experimentation. Parquet Courts comparisons aren’t far off, but BRNDA distinguishes itself by taking turns on vocals that shine brightest when Leah Gage takes the lead, particularly on tracks like Cool Night. Themes of life’s anxieties, domestic chaos, and paranoia weave throughout, creating a record that to my ear feels both intimate and unhinged. Apropos of nothing, I read in an interview that Gage and Lesser are parents of a toddler. Having been there/done that, the frazzled mindset of this record makes sense.
Standout moments like Blenderman exemplify this duality: the repeated line “I could (feelin’ lucky) win or time could beat me / I could (feelin’ lucky) win” captures hope tempered by existential uncertainty. The album closes with the delicious chaos of My Mother, a tense, slightly bonkers meditation on the modern family.
For fans of Sweeping Promises, Dry Cleaning, and Cola. Bandcamp also suggested Gaadge, which, to be honest, isn’t a bad call, either. (Bandcamp link)
Grant Pavol- Save Some Time (EP)
A little bit Krautrock, a little bit Yo La Tengo, with a dusting of twang across the top. This EP is enjoyable from start to finish. Save Some Time is a record Pavol describes as “an adult reassessment of youthful insecurity, carrying the weight of big emotions with a steady hand.” It’s also described as a bit like the Velvet Underground at their most Cale-Forward, which is fair. (Bandcamp link)
Die Spitz- Something to Consume
One thing you should know about me is that I’m a grammar nerd. Words matter. Definitions matter. And I suppose whether or not you consider a record an EP matters where you draw the line. Is it at four tracks? 6? I mention this because everything I’ve seen online refers to this record as the band’s debut. That might make for easy copy, but it ignores 2022 EP The Revenge of Evangeline and 2023’s 7-song release, Teeth.
Okay, rant over.
My elevator pitch for this Austin-based quartet has always been simple: Die Spitz is the Gen Z equivalent of L7. To be clear, that’s meant as high praise. They’re fast, loud, and have something to say— and exactly zero Fs to give. Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Eleanor Livingston, and Kate Halter also happen to be talented musicians. 2023’s record was centered around “Hair of Dog,” one of my favorite tracks of the year, and the EP quickly found its way onto my Best of 2023 list. It set the stage for Something to Consume. Almost a rough draft, if you will. That’s not to say that this record has the edges sanded off- it absolutely doesn’t- but it’s clear that the group has worked to evolve from those early beginnings.
The first notes of opener “Pop Punk Anthem (Sorry For The Delay)” tell listeners in no uncertain terms that this ride is different. It’s almost radio-friendly. Almost. Ditto follow-up “Voir Dire.” If you have a hard rock station in your local market, don’t be surprised to hear the latter on the air at some point. Any concerns that the band might’ve lost its edge (whatever that means) are erased with “Throw Yourself to the Sword” and its piledriver riff. “Sound to No One” balances heaviness with ethereal vocals. “RIDING WITH MY GIRLS” is all gas and no brakes and purpose-built for getting the pit going.
Like L7 before them, Die Spitz’s sound is fueled by rage at the injustice(s) around them. The targets may have changed, the ferocity has not. In an era where terms like “punk” are co-opted into aesthetics, Die Spitz makes it all refreshingly honest again. The album takes the best parts of Teeth and levels up. In a word? Something to Comsume is extraordinary. (Bandcamp link)
Water From Your Eyes- It’s a Beautiful Place
Water From Your Eyes has been bending guitars into shapes you wouldn’t think possible for nearly a decade. The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Chicago duo of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos has built a catalog where the instrument is less an anchor and more a medium. Their live shows are notorious for stretching the songs until they blur into the unrecognizable. I suppose that’s fitting; this band thrives on the idea that the analog and digital worlds don’t need to agree—they just need to collide.
It’s a Beautiful Place opens with “One Small Step,” a blurry half-minute prelude that quickly gives way to “Life Signs,” and we’re off to the races. The song staggers and surges, with all kinds of time signatures
“Nights In Armor” charges further onward with a killer groove, Brown’s voice slicing through the circular bassline with a line that doubles as both invitation and dare: “I just want to fight you ’cause I’m tired.” It’s disarmingly simple, yet lands hard. Then comes “Born 2,” a warped cousin of a Weezer anthem fed through a psychedelic filter. Amos’s guitar churns in heavy downstrokes while Brown hovers just above accessibility.
The interludes scattered across the record serve as a chance to catch your breath and get your bearings.
“Spaceship” takes a break from gravity and order, the guitars dissolving into backward swells and percussion that lands like meteors. Next up is “Playing Classics,” a highlight built on club-ready synths and a deadpan vocal. It’s funny, strange, and incredibly addictive. If you’re in the market for an earrowm, start here.
Elsewhere, “Blood on the Dollar” trades distortion for restraint, Amos’s country-tinged guitar floating beneath Brown’s more reflective delivery. But even here, the band resists simplicity, adding textures that complicate what could have been an easy folk-rock closer. The title track and final instrumental tie everything together nicely, ending the record similarly to how it started.
Across It’s a Beautiful Place, Brown and Amos ricochet between maximalist noise, crooked pop structures, and ambience, every song a shot at testing the elasticity of sound. This record asks you to commit multiple listens before making any judgment calls—not because it’s elusive (okay, it is a little), but because it keeps giving more each time. (Bandcamp link)
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these records! Did I get it right, or am I way off the mark?
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For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we again overindex new tracks, with a couple of old faves balancing things out. We start with community fave Water From Your Eyes before kicking into high gear with a 1-2 punch of Bob Mould & Die Spitz. From there, we’ve got the latest from our friend,
The Ririverse, and we end Side 1 with the latest from a longtime DC area band.
Side two kicks off with a track from a record I once deemed the #4 record of all time, before taking a trip to Pittsburgh to hear some Gaadge. I’m not on Threads anymore, but before I left, I was lucky to meet a couple of you and find Palm Ghosts. Their latest is here. Here’s to silver linings.
I know I keep saying it, but it’s true: 2025 might be a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
Kevin Sent 
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