There’s a fragile sparkle, shimmer and grit in the guitar work in Avery Friedman’s “New Thing.” The song is the title track of her debut album (out April 18, 2025 via Audio Antihero on 12” vinyl, download and streaming) and it is like the signature song of the whole record. It’s melancholic in the way that feels like a letting go of the feelings that have held you back for so long. Before July 2024 Friedman hadn’t played a show but by then had found an impetus and inspiration to put the strong feelings she had been harboring into song and “New Thing” perfectly articulates a sense in oneself of needing to gently but with decisiveness and confidence to unravel the gnarls in one’s psyche that have been limiting one’s growth and healing. The vulnerability heard in the songwriting and Friedman’s vocals are a clear example of how that can be done by approaching the raw side of the psyche with a nurturing spirit and a sense of play. Listen to “New Thing” on Soundcloud and follow Avery Friedman at the links below.
There is a bluesy undertone to DEADSET’s songwriting and sonics on the “Party Line” single. It’s a moody post-punk reflection on the worrying upswing of misogyny and violence against women in recent years and the brooding, melodic bass line paired with the edgy guitar tone and nearly ragged vocals fit the subject matter well. The song soars and burns and sways with an internal pressure that cycles up with an intense urgency as the song progresses and flames out in the end. Fans of Bambara’s own genre-bending and Iceage’s swing to dark glam punk will appreciate the style here and the way DEADSET combines a sensitivity with the subject matter and a dramatic flair for rock theater in the songwriting. Listen to “Party Line” on Spotify and follow DEADSET from Hull, UK at the links provided. The group released its latest EP A Place Called Home on May 16, 2025 via Man Demolish Records.
In the heyday of America’s DIY music world of the 2000s and early 2010s The Mae Shi were stars in their own right as staples of the eclectic and joyous milieu around the venue The Smell before splitting up the first time in 2009. In 2022 Tim Byron felt like he had another story to tell that led him to bringing the band back together for another, initially final, album. But those plans evolved and the new album had to be made as a re-branding of The Mae Shi as HLLLYH, the title to the group’s 2007 former swansong, a move to reflect a link to the past and the creation of something new. Informed by Twentieth century mystics like Gurdjieff, Crowley, McPherson and McKenna the new album titled URUBURU relates a tale of a hero’s journey to the spirit world and back but that hero could really be anyone willing to undertake the trials and tribulations involved. The new album is brimming with the raw exuberance, anthemic hooks and analog electronic weirdness that made The Mae Shi so appealing.
Lead single “Dead Clade” with its music 2010’s-era video game graphics video seems to be tapping into a moment of modern doomerism but delivered with a playful abandon. Images of dinosaurs and humans frolicking about getting downed by natural phenomena and other refinements run through the video. And the lyric about “How we’re not special, we’re just what’s left, we’re not chosen, we’re a dead clade” is a bit arcane except for the sentiment about how humanity thinks its the end of the evolution of life on the planet while we’re doing our level best to ensure our extinction and replacement by a successor dominant species through the self-destructive folly of our current civilizational program. HLLLYH, though, with its upbeat melodies and soaring vocals remind us that it’s not all over for the planet when climate change wipes out the human race as it is and the precious artifacts of all we value and hold dear are swept away, but it is probably over for life as we know it. And there’s something comforting in that thought in the grand scheme of things. Of course it’s tongue in cheek but rarely has the end of the world seemed so cheerful and something to celebrate. Watch the video for “Dead Clade” (a “clade” is a “group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor) on YouTube and follow HLLLYH at the links provided.
The Chanel Beads rework of “Corners” by Brooklyn-based experimental pop group LEYA from its 2024 EP I Forget Everything pulls its essential textures and melodic elements and recontextualizes them. The intricate harp work sits back while the stroke of the violin is emphasized as a rhythmic feature and the atmospheric ambiance becomes the salient musical feature preserving the song’s sense of mystique. The original’s use of flecks of discordant tonal structure is deconstructed into the flow of sound where the edges of sound are brought to the center to shine. It’s a fascinating remix that gives a new angle on a song that one might not think of as being able to be remixed in such a transformative way. Watch the video for “Corners,” which is very different in appearance if not in spirit from the original music video, on YouTube and follow LEYA at the links below.
Bad Flamingo has made quite a career for itself with endlessly being able to spin variations on themes of being a rebel on the run from mainstream society and its restrictive social mores. Its “Miles” single shows the band putting some spare yet fiery guitar solos into its tale of passion, lust and a love as star crossed as Bonnie & Clyde. But in that mix too is the group’s always rich array of instrumentation with slide guitar accents, banjo, minimal drum machine and a touch of synth to give some emotive backdrop. But none of those components are throwaway, all serve the song and its mood of leaning into a vagabond love on the run and exulting in the hedonism without shame. And, really, who doesn’t want a love like that where you can be who you are with someone that gets it and celebrates what you have together? It’s a stylistic evolution for the enigmatic duo that always delivers superb songwriting and an ever-growing mythology of noir pop. Watch the video for “Miles” on YouTube and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.
Oakland-based dream pop group Pillow Prince brings powerful blend of urgency, vulnerability and righteous questioning to the single “Care About.” The delicacy of its guitar work and orchestrated swells of emotion hit with real resonance with lyrics that were perhaps inspired in part by the horrific Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs on November 19-20, 2022 but the lyrics expand and resonate poignantly well beyond a specific incident and context. When Olivia Lee sings “When are you gonna care about/Everyone that should be here now/How many faces and names ago/And the hate spewing through their mouths” it is an appeal to conscience and humanity that when delivered with the soaring guitar and an emotionally rich vulnerability it is an example of empathy that reaches deep into you. In the beginning of the song the lines “And finding some little thing to love/Cause everything is fucked” identifies the sense of overwhelming hopelessness that can sink into you which must be overcome if things are to ever get better. The arc of the song traces that psychological path with great nuance and demonstrates how one can find hope in the worst of moments which is a capacity that the world greatly needs now. Watch the fantastic music video for “Care About” on YouTube and follow Pillow Prince at the links below. The band’s new EP pretty, baby! Out April 25, 2025 on download, vinyl and streaming via Dune Altar.
2MX2’s new single “Por Aqui Por Alla” is a stirring call for community unity and cultural solidarity. Utilizing orchestral strings, soaring horns, perfectly accented percussion alongside commanding vocals the Denver-based group makes the prospect of getting people organized seem exciting and inevitable. The lyrics use extended lines in Spanish as one would hope but also in English like when we hear the great line “What the problem is we need to stop and get all our people united like Corky always said” invoking the name of the late, great Chicano movement activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. The production on the song enhances the sheer presence of the performances and captures some of the power of the live show. Listen to “Por Aqui Por Alla” on Soundcloud and follow 2MX2 at the links provided.
Canadian duo Springworks in their usual fashion pair vintage footage and film clips with their increasingly eclectic songwriting as manifested on “Bradbury.” It’s a fond look back at a time when things like going to Mars felt like something that might be a scientific and civilizational achievement for humanity broadly and not a narcissistic, oligarchic power/money grab at the expense of everyone else and everything on earth. Yet the way Springworks composes its layers of sound it’s obvious they’re aware of how even with the best of intentions, our species has a habit of doing perhaps unintentional damage or damage in service to prevailing political and economic ideologies. The piano work flows from melancholic to urgent, guitar provides atmospheric swells, synth a touch of tonal coloring and minimal percussion a textured pacing to the song. It’s lo-fi in a way that fits the aesthetic of repurposing the neglected and forgotten. The keyboard melody later in the song sounds like something out of a Procol Harum song before transforming into a sparkling, cycling shimmer of a sound that fades into an outro that is both abstract and intimate as we see images of a landing craft leave the spacecraft and the worried alien beings there to meet them. They can hardly be blamed. We know how humans can be. The science fiction author invoked in the title had his doubts too. Watch the video for “Bradbury” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links below.
The sense of enigmatic foreboding is unsettling and strong in Lula Asplund’s aptly titled “Awaken In The Marsh.” The energy is reminiscent of the vibe of old forgotten places. The slow cycling drones in subtle layers that interweave and complement one another in a background, ambient sound that creeps into your consciousness is undeniably engaging the way the sheer atmosphere of films like Carnival of Souls (1962) or the aesthetics of German Expressionist films. It sticks with you and lingers like a sound you’ve heard your whole life and which has settled into your consciousness that when gone, and when the song ends, you feel like something is missing until your brain re-adjusts. Think something like an earworm from a David Lynch-ian universe. Listen to “Awaken In The Marsh” on Spotify and follow Chicago-based artist Lula Asplund on Instagram.
On the single “Talk Less” South East London rapper J. Eka delivers a bold message about self-confidence without the performative and endless boasting in plenty of hip-hop. With bars from Jatz and production by ETRNL the track and its attendant video is an example of the message in practice. Surrounded by creative beats that deftly interweave texture and atmosphere into the masterful wordplay the lyrics about people who are chasing being a spectacle rather than speaking from a place of integrity and knowledge hit a little harder but without malice. The tone is both direct and introspective and the underlying vulnerability expressed by both J. Eka and Jatz is striking from jump. Watch the video for “Talk Less” on YouTube and follow J. Eka at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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