Ribbon StageHit With The MostK Records [2022] Ribbon Stage are a trio from NYC that have created a debut album that is a compact earworm of noise pop. Hit With The Most is a 20 minute joyride of tight drums, fuzzed out distorted guitar and the floating vocals of Anni Hilator which cuts through it … Read more
The StroppiesLevityTough Love Records [2022] After the release of The Stroppies debut Whoosh and the Look Alive EP, the Melbourne quartet firmly established themselves as a top tier indie jangle pop band that followed a very Flying Nun sound. Their carefree approach comes off effortlessly and that same confidence caries their sophomore full length, Levity. … Read more
Mike Baggetta/Jim Keltner/Mike WattEverywhen We GoBIG EGO Records [2022] I can’t be the only music fan that has imagined what it would be like to bring together some of your favorite, world class musicians for one day of jamming. Well, sometimes even musicians wonder what it would be like to invite some folk they haven’t … Read more
The Reds, Pinks & PurplesSummer At Land’s EndTough Love/Slumberland Records [2022] San Francisco’s The Reds, Pinks & Purples can write some of the most gorgeous tragic indie pop songs you will here on the current scene. The group is the primary work of songwriter Glenn Donaldson and Summer At Land’s End is the forth full … Read more
GIFTMomentary PresenceDedstrange Records [2022] Brooklyn-based GIFT are a psych-rock quintet that have blended a classic shoegaze approach with muscular indie guitars and airy vocals to create a memorable debut in Momentary Presence. What makes this record immediatly stand out is how confident and constructed its ten tracks firmly flow out of your speakers. The tracks … Read more
WeezerSZNZ: AutumnCrush Music/Atlantic Records [2022] Sure as autumn follows summer, Weezer has delivered their third volume in this year’s concept album project, SZNZ: Autumn. While the story line is less clear, songwriter Rivers Cuomo has held onto the basic themes, but more importantly delivers a handful of fun songs that capture those reliable Weezer pop … Read more
Wild PinkILYSMRoyal Mountain Records [2022] I don’t use the word gorgeous very often to describe music as I feel it never really defines the artists I typically have in my ear. That trend stops with ILYSM, the fourth full-length from Wild Pink. The record is carefully constructed and is both confident in its approach but … Read more
MarthaPlease Don’t Take Me BackSpecialist Subject/Dirtnap Records [2022] Now on their fourth album, Durham, England’s Martha has perfected their indie pop punk formula as they have released one of their most engaging records to date. Please Don’t Take Me Back has an early DIY sound with loud crashing guitars and drums while the group comes … Read more
Simple MindsDirection Of The HeartBMG [2022] Scottish band Simple Minds came to the attention of American rock audiences in the early 80’s alongside UK bands like Big Country, The Waterboys, The Alarm, and, of course, U2, making what became known as the “big music,” for its larger-than-life atmospherics. It was inevitable that The Waterboys would … Read more
Death Cab For CutieAsphalt MeadowsAtlantic Records [2022] While responses to the 2018 release from Death Cab For Cutie were mixed, there were hints in several tracks on the back half of the album that suggested that songwriter Ben Gibbard and new bandmates Dave Depper and Zac Rae were beginning to see their way to the … Read more
Surprise ChefEducation & RecreationBig Crown Records [2022] In the music critic business, you would be surprised sometimes on how promoters create large reaching descriptors for artists just to grab a publication’s attention. Many times, they are not even close but sometimes just asking the band is the best source as Melbourne’s Surprise Chef describes their … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardChangesKGLW [2022] Changes wraps up King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s trilogy of new albums released in October 2022, and it’s the hardest to categorize of the three. While Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (IDPLML) and Laminated Denim felt very similar in their jammy, psych-prog explorations, Changesbreaks the mold by bringing in both the … Read more
DrugdealerHiding In Plain SightMexican Summer [2022] Michael Collins has always been an interesting character in music since the early 2010’s. After a legal battle over the name Run DMT he emerged in 2013 under the moniker Salvia Plath with the 60’s psych bent of The Bardo Story. Well, with band names like that why don’t … Read more
The 1975Being Funny In A Foreign LanguageDirty Hit/Polydor/Interscope Records [2022] One of the challenges in describing the music and albums of The 1975 in the past is that there was always a lot to take in. And it wasn’t just that singer and primary songwriter Matthew Healy wrote about anything and everything that crossed his … Read more
Arctic MonkeysThe CarDomino [2022] When Arctic Monkeys released the lounge affair that is 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, I think every fan and follower settled in on that its thematic and low-key delivery was a one-off artistic deviation from the indie rock they ruled the air waves with on AM (2013). Well, it has … Read more
PlainsI Walked With You A WaysANTI- [2022] “If it’s all you got, yeah, it’s all you gave, I got a problem with it. If you can’t do better than that, babe, I got a problem with it.” This is the catchy chorus you hear in Plains single, “Problem With It,” and it is incredibly hard … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardLaminated DenimKGLW [2022] Laminated Denim is the second album King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard has released this month, and we’ll cut to the chase: if you liked the previous album (Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava), you’ll like Laminated Denim too. The album is billed as a sequel of sorts to Made … Read more
No. 2First LoveJealous Butcher Records [2022] It’s been 20 years since Neil Gust last played with his Portland, Oregon band-mates in No. 2, the aptly named second band for the singer/songwriter and guitarist. Gust’s first band, Heatmiser, recorded three albums in the 90’s, but is perhaps best remembered as the launching pad for deceased singer/songwriter … Read more
Beth OrtonWeather AlivePartisan Records [2022] When Beth Orton came on the scene in the mid-nineties with her mix of folk and electronica, aided by then boyfriend and producer William Orbit, it was her distinctive vocals and provocative poetic lyrics that made her music special. The British singer/songwriter went on to collaborate with the techno band … Read more
The MurlocsRapscallionATO Records [2022] The Murlocs have returned quickly since last year’s more piano driven Bittersweet Demons album with a batch of rock n’ roll that may represent some of their most frantic psych-tinged concoctions yet. The Melbourne five-piece never feels like a side project even though its members have duties in other bands especially … Read more
King’s XThree Sides Of OneInside Out Music [2022] When a band with a 40-plus year history and a modest but devoted following returns to the recording studio for the first time in 14 years, you can expect heightened expectations among their most ardent fans. Such is the case for King’s X, a rock power trio … Read more
The BethsExpert In A Dying FieldCarpark Records [2022] With the release of their third studio outing, Auckland, New Zealand, power-pop/indie rock quartet The Beths are three for three. In 2018, Future Me Hates Me found vocalist/songwriter Elizabeth Stokes delivering powerful melodies, big power-pop guitars, and delightful vocal harmonies from the boys in the band, a … Read more
Built To SpillWhen The Wind Forgets Your NameSub Pop Records [2022] Since its inception in 1992, Built To Spill and founder Doug Martsch can undoubtedly be called consistent. Martsch doesn’t make a bad record which is simply proved by going back and listening to any album in Built To Spill’s catalog. There definitely are some … Read more
GA-20CrackdownColemine/Karma Chief Records [2022] Crackdown is the third LP from blues, roots-rock, and country revival trio GA-20. The album expands on their previous sound and blows out your speakers with a modern electric blues that honors the past but feels imaginably modern. What GA-20 are good at is making the blues spread across other genres. … Read more
Ezra FurmanAll Of Us FlamesANTI- [2022] Singer/songwriter Ezra Furman draws the title of her 7th album from the song “Book of Our Names,” a declaration from the marginalized trans community where she insists “the names will be our real ones that are ours/Not the ones given us by the enemy powers.” Given the disposable nature … Read more