New Music – Page 3 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Milk St.’s Slackery Jangle Rock Single “Good Grief” Attempts to Make Sense Out of a Messy Life

The title track to Milk St.’s “Good Grief” is accompanied by a music video that looks like the opening sequence to a kind of elevated coming of age horror film akin to Talk to Me. Musically it sounds like a gloriously slackery kin to late 80s Flaming Lips, early Beck or even early Ween had those bands come up through 2000s indie rock and 2010s garage psych and indie pop. Though driven by jangle-y acoustic guitar and intentionally off key vocals that have their own, charming musical logic. We hear turntable scratches and flourishes of vocal delivery clearly inspired by hip-hop without strictly being rapped. The life depicted in the lyrics and in the video seems to be one of a dissolute life in search of meaning but accepting things as they are and turning a lifestyle into artistic expression to give it coherent accessible form. If it’s not supposed to have a kernel of humor the song and video nevertheless conveys a sense of the absurdity of life. Watch the video for “Good Grief” on YouTube and follow Milk St. at the links provided.

Milk St. on Facebook

Milk St. on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E17: Cento Threeo

Cento Threeo is a jazz/Americana trio based out of Austin, Texas. Led by guitarist/composer Don Cento the band writes instrumental cinematic pieces that are rooted in composition but allow for improvisation in he classic jazz ensemble mode. Its latest record is Welcome to Mellowtown (SoundBridge Records). The cover with the neon sign evokes 1950s and 1960s noir cinema with a keen sense for crafting mood and texture so that each track seems to convey a narrative without a word. Song titles take on the names of characters like “Dennis Muren” or “Horse-Breaking Hector” and you can all but envision these people. The title “Seven Year Ache” is a clear nod to the 1955 Billy Wilder romantic comedy The Seven Year Itch staring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. The core group comprised of Cento, drummer Norm Bergeron and bassist Phil Spencer seem to have a command of the sensibilities of multiple decades and though the music evokes film noir there is a bright tone to the music so that it doesn’t dip into obvious musical formulations and figures in constructing an emotional resonance with the music. It’s an energetic record that is full of life and not retro or “vintage.” Its mix of styles is very much of the now.

Listen to our interview with Don Cento on Bandcamp and follow Cento Threeo at the links below.

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Cento Threeo on Instagram

Cento Threeo on Bandcamp

Cento Threeo on Apple Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E16: The Claudettes

The Claudettes, photo courtesy the artists

The Claudettes are a Chicago-based pop band that has been offering exquisitely crafted songs that draw upon classic songwriting performed with punk spirit. Since forming in 2010 the group has been led by Johnny Iguana and a shifting line-up with every one of its six studio albums. The latest, Garage Glamour, released June 5, 2026 via Pravda Records, sounds like music for a Broadway stage production with dramatic flourishes and near-orchestral arrangements and production and benefitting from the powerful vocals of lead singer Rachel Williams who debuted with the band in 2023 and the new record being her first with the outfit. The band including drummer Michael Caskey and bassist/guitarist Zach Verdoorn (Iguana of course as is usual on piano) is in spirited form though the entire album has an old school polish that sounds more like a product of the 60s of 70s. But the songs contain sharply observed social commentary on the current era including asides directed at the oligarchy while encouraging listeners to reconnect with the joy of life and one’s core humnanity. Garage Glamour is out now on 140 gram LP, digital download and streaming.

Listen to our interview with Johnny Iguana on Bandcamp and follow The Claudettes at the links below.

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The Claudettes on Facebook

The Claudettes on YouTube

The Claudettes on Instagram

Deniz Cuylan’s Mythical Dream Pop Single “Big Blue” Evokes a Sense of a Cultivated Inner Life

“Big Blue” by Deniz Cuylan sounds like music from a cult fantasy story from Iceland. The sequenced bell tones carrying rhythm and some of the melody seem to run out ahead of the main section of the story like guiding lights along a pathway at night. Strings and harmonic tones course through the song like winds of tone creating a dream like, otherworldly mood as Sarah La Puerta’s elfin vocals provide a warm human emotional coloring relating a story of a garden in the ocean as a metaphor for a cultivated inner life and shared experiences. It’s a song that is both soothing while acknowledging melancholic moods and personal emotional challenges with its gentle, layered textures and hypnotic interweave of near abstract melody. Listen to “Big Blue” on Spotify and follow Deniz Cuylan at the links below.

Deniz Cuylan on Facebook

Deniz Cuylan on Instagram

Dis Fig’s Mix of Ancient and Industrial Sounds on “Psaltery” Generates a Great Sense of Discomfort and Catharsis

Dis Fig centers a sound like hammered dulcimer but is In fact a plucked zither that gives the title on “Psaltery.” In the beginning we hear that sound alongside textural sounds flowing in the background. Then her vocals come in also tracing the emotional edges of the song and building a framework within which the emotional weight of the song can expand. Felicia Chen’s voice nearly cracks with the force of feeling as the song progresses and the sounds of organic percussion in wood and metal join what feels like a ritual procession of sound. Soon enough low end bursts seem to dominate the space preparing us for Chen’s caterwaul and cascade of cathartic release in relentless shocks of vocal outpouring. The song combines the ancient with the modern but to evoke primal feelings that link vast periods of human history and experience and shakes the listener out of any state of comfort in a time when when comfort can be a luxury. Listen to “Psaltery” on Spotify and follow Dis Fig on Instagram. The album What To Make Of These Mortal Hands releases October 23, 2026 via Thrill Jockey Records for digital download, LP and streaming.

Eric Angelo Bessel’s Textural Ambient “Pathways” is an Illuminated Journey Through Dark Spaces

Eric Angelo Bessel, photo courtesy the artist

For the single “Pathways,” Eric Angelo Bessel offers different setting of inspiration than perhaps the most cosmic outer reaches of his previous album Mirror at Night (2025). The lead track from the forthcoming Illusion of an Inland Ocean is paired with a music video of a scene from the near deep ocean with air bubbles and swimming sea creatures drifting by and embodying the motes of harmonic tone and shifting drones conveying both distance and a tactile intimacy of mood. If you’ve ever taken the time to sit in bodies of water and listened you’ll become aware of a different dynamic of existence and a new level of sensory experience which is part of the reason for how sensory deprivation tanks affect various people and their headspace and state of consciousness. The title “Pathways” suggests a journey into another place and another frame of mind but with a calm spirit and sense of being guided by intuition and trust in larger forces beyond standard human cognition. Its sounds shimmer and phase and coax the listener into the next realm Bessel has to offer on the rest of the album. Fans of Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) will be mesmerized by the forthcoming album Illusion of an Inland Ocean out on October 30, 2026 for digital download, streaming and double LP. Watch the video for “Pathways” on YouTube and follow Eric Angelo Bessel at the links provided.

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Lore City Music on Twitter

Lore City Music on Bandcamp

Osmunda Music’s New Age Ambient Pop Single “Truth and Light” is Vibrantly and Uplifting

Osmunda Music, photo courtesy the artist

The vocals on Osmunda Music’s “Truth and Light” feels fully integrated into the layers of ethereal yet vibrant sound from synth and percussion like a New Age equivalent of what Brian Eno did on The Ship (2016). The tones have a distinctly physical and uplifting presence while able to convey a sense of luminous drift. There is just a touch of processing on Rebecca Trujillo Vest’s voice that serves to bring it into alignment with the enigmatic yet warm quality of the instrumentation. It’s a song about how everything and everyone is a part of the energy of the universe and at its core that energy can be a form of information storage as a perceptible manifestation of the essential frequencies that make up reality as we know it. It’s a heady song in terms of the subject matter yet incredibly accessible like every day life. Fans of Alice Coltrane may appreciate the mood and tenor of the song. Listen to “Truth and Light” on YouTube and follow Osmunda Music at the links below. The new Osmunda Music EP Wrapped in Warmth is out now.

Osmunda Music on Apple Music

Osmunda Musicon Facebook

Osmunda Music on Instagram

The Wheel Workers Hope Beyond Hope For a Future For the Human Race Post-Authoritarian Takeover on Psychedelic Prog Pop Single “One More Thing To Say”

The Wheel Workers, photo by Chad Fontenot

“One More Thing To Say” is the title track to The Wheel Workers’ forthcoming album. Originally written in 2006 with the album essentially unfinished when the band broke up for awhile. But 20 years later with reworked and re-recorded songs it turns out the themes of authoritarianism are unfortunately even more relevant now with fascism ascendant globally. The song with its layers of atmosphere and melody around a solid rhythm and expert pacing is somehow reminiscent of a psychedelic pop band of the 90s coupled with King Crimson circa “Elephant Talk” or Hawkwind in the period represented by the album Quark, Strangeness and Charm. Spectral bell tones drift through as a melody while guitars sketch textures and Steven Higginboth sings about a world being dismantled by power mad political leaders who seem to be guided by nothing but ego and self-dealing but feigning vision except that execution of which is chaos and destruction. Higginbotham’s equally introspective and passionate vocals are reminiscent of Peter Gabriel in moments adding to the art rock feel of the song. But it is a song for the current moment sounding both on edge and clinging to the faintest of hope to navigate perilous times. The music video is part animated and collage stop motion depicting Ruben Ramires traversing the troubled earth and witnessing war erupting and perhaps the final conflict that ends everything. Surely a legitimate concern when a certain American president is talking about using nuclear weapons and the leader of a nation formerly part of the most powerful “communist” nation on earth is hinting and the same. We can only hope none of that comes to pass and that more humane heads prevail. Though the song has a touch of menace and urgency it also suggests that being aware and taking action with a little luck might get us through to better times. Watch the video for “One More Thing To Say” on YouTube and follow The Wheel Workers at the links provided.

The Wheel Workers on Facebook

The Wheel Workers on Instagram

Anonymous Seattle Supergroup PUNKTUALS Delivers the Darkly Humorous Garage Punk Single “Death Of The Party”

PUNKTUALS is an anonymous punk band from Seattle comprised of veterans of the Emerald City’s rock scene but adopting stage names for this project. Its second album Hourly Rage is out October 9, 2026 via Friendo Records but lead single “Death Of The Party” you can see for yourself right now. It’s definitely more in the vein of melodic garage punk the type that the Pacific Northwest is perhaps best known for meaning solid hooks, an anthemic energy that makes it easy to get caught up in its momentum. The song appears to be a send up of party culture and in moments its sentiments are reminiscent of songs like “Six Pack” and “Drinking and Driving” by Black Flag. In that it is honest about the down side of partying all the time and being constantly drunk and behaving shabbily toward people and generally making an obnoxious fool of oneself as “the life of the party.” Yet it’s not a preachy downer and the anonymity of the band in the music video adds a touch of mystery to music that is usually very lacking in mystique. The title of the song brings to mind the Missing Foundation logo and of course the title of the 1982 debut album by Talk Talk rendered in a more darkly humorous wording. Watch the video for “Death Of The Party” on YouTube and follow PUNKTUALS at the links below.

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PUNKTUALS on Facebook

PUNKTUALS on Instagram

Jupe Jupe’s “Down With the Setting Sun” Leans Into the Cathartic Potential of Melancholic Melodies to Get Through Dark Times

Jupe Jupe’s new single “Down With the Setting Sun” and its music video looks like it was conceived and shot in the space where the band brings ideas to solidify from feelings and sentiments into the kind of mood the band has excelled at up to now. In the video we see scenes from the Stardate Records studio with engineer Jack Knight on camera juxtaposed with footage from the air and from nature often in black and white to convey a stark sense of wonder and isolation. The song is melancholic but with a touch of emotional urgency fitting themes of the ways in which people can accidentally hurt each other in a relationship in times of elevated tension and a yearning to keep connection even though that hurt seems to weigh heavily in moments. The song doesn’t offer solutions but expresses a complex sentiment with musical elegance. Sure the post-punk style and its lonely piano figure is reminiscent of later period The Sound but not many bands do and The Sound is a group that too wrote songs about feelings that are more nuanced and deep with an ear for how leaning into melancholy can help you get through the darker times. Watch the video for “Down With the Setting Sun” on YouTube and follow Seattle’s Jupe Jupe at the links provided.