post-punk – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Bodies Obtained Take Us on a Headlong Tour Through Liminal Moods on Zero Chill IDM Post-Punk Single “Utmost”

Detroit’s The Bodies Obtained have long blurred any lines between post-punk and more experimental electronic music and its new album Bouncing Off The Curb (released May 15, 2026) offers some reprieve from the wave of toxic and destructive mundanity that plagues the world right now. The single “Utmost” comes in with a pulsing beat and maximalist layers of flowing sound and texture. It’s like mid-90s Aphex Twin processed through a modern version of techno and Big Beat. But the tonal shimmers that thread through the beat and the slightly echoing vocals lend it a sound like the more recent music from Sextile but more sinister. It’s zero chill IDM and more rewarding a listening experience because of it. The pace is urgent and insistent until the last third of the song where that energy clears up a little but the grit and the hauntedness remains until the rapid sputter out in the end like we’ve been on some kind of tour of liminal spaces and let out after some therapeutic disorientation. Listen to “Utmost” on Spotify.

Jupe Jupe’s Post-Punk New Wave Single “A Game of Wait and See” is a Song About the Downside of the Attention Economy

For the new single “A Game of Wait and See,” Seattle’s Jupe Jupe give us a video where it looks like the band has infiltrated an office building after hours to film in the backrooms (reference intended) where the industrial infrastructure of the building is maintained out of sight. At the beginning of the video the four members of the band check their phones before getting to it. Which is fitting for the subject matter of the song which seems to be a commentary on the attention economy seemingly mandatory for anyone trying to make more of their art or even of their own lives than simply sharing it with their immediate circle of friends. But for bands in the current era it’s not like anyone is trying to promote what you do unless you’ve already made it big outside of simply playing small venues or house shows. Which is fine enough in reality but there is a pressure to be on the grind to get attention for your efforts and how that can warp how you present yourself and think about what you’re doing in a way that prioritizes platforms and methods regardless of whether it actually resonates with people beyond a surface level.

The song itself is a moody and introspective with pulsing synth rhythms, spidery guitar, expressive saxophone and vocals that provide the emotional hook that questions the dynamic many of us in the modern world find ourselves drawn into as a matter of engaging with each other when we’re not connected by proximity. It addresses the whole issue of waiting to see if anyone has in fact engaged with your “content” and yearning for that low level affirmation and wondering if you’ve been buried by the algorithm or deemed not worthy of the moment it takes to acknowledge what you’re putting out there. And yet the song reminiscent of the more New Wave end of Giorgio Moroder and the pop side of The Sound feels like the hold of social media as pervasive as it is can also be elusive and unsatisfying and possibly something that loses its grip on one’s psyche. One can hope. Watch the video for “A Game of Wait and See” on YouTube and follow Jupe Jupe at the links provided.

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Forever Factory’s Darkly Humorous and Surreal Post-Punk Single “Never Boring” Weighs the Options of Social Activities and Self-Isolating

Forever Factory, photo courtesy the artist

Forever Factory sounds like a long lost, experimental post-punk band from Scotland on the “Never Boring” single. It has a downcast and surreal energy that nevertheless draws you in. Its hypnotic beat is akin to something out of mid-80s The Fall and its gloomy guitar melody and spoken, almost whispered vocals have the intensity of a repeated mantra. The intro to the song going into the song proper brings to mind a bizarre mix of The Residents, Cabaret Voltaire and a minimalistic, spooky Viagra Boys. The lyrics sound like the words of a self-isolating person of misanthropic tendencies contemplating coming out of the comfortable confines of his own sanctum sanctorum because that’s what you’re supposed to do on a Saturday night even if you don’t really want to be in artificial social situations with the deep potential of dull interactions. Why bother when you can stay home where it’s, apparently, never boring. The song’s menace suggests a self-spiraling habit of isolating oneself and finding justifications for how not having at least some stimulation and human contact is not boring, “not if you have something to do it with.” The track is a rare modern post-punk song that doesn’t rely on trendy sounds and dares to go off the deep end into uncommon subject matter with honesty and a touch of dark humor. Listen to “Never Boring” on Spotify and follow Forever Factory at the links provided. Forever Factory’s debut EP Violence Is Everywhere But Not Here released March 27, 2026.

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Velatine Injects Industrial Post-Punk Grit and Darkness Into “Whisper Park” and Its Exploration of Spiraling Inner Dialogues

Melbourne’s Velatine returns with the more industrial-tinged single “Whisper Park.” In the music video the band looks like they’re hanging out in an Australian equivalent hideout that Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston from Only Lovers Left Alive would have fled to for a sequel. The guitars are darkly gritty and the slight echo on the vocals lend them a haunting and haunted quality even as they bridge moods introspective and declarative in its words about being trapped by your own personal demons and inner monologue, an experience that anyone with any sensitivity and ability to reflect deeply has likely had.. It’s like the band took the industrial darkness and moody attitude of Sisters of Mercy, mixed it with a touch of the griminess of The Birthday Party and infused that into a unique flavor of modern post-punk. It’s an update of the original 2022 iteration of the song that was more darkwave to give it more presence and physicality and a truly inspired rework. Watch the video for “Whisper Park” on YouTube and follow Velatine at the links below.

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The Poor Luckies Deliver Tales of Getting Through Life’s Dull and Rough Patches on Ferocious Garage Punk Single “Time’s Not Your Friend”

The Poor Luckies have been at it since 2008 when they formed in San Francisco. After a 2012 debut EP the band was on a bit of a hiatus, though not a breakup, while frrontman Danny Cuts focused on raising his son and finally in 2025 the band recorded its debut album Wrong Way which dropped on March 20, 2026. Lead single “Time’s Not Your Friend” is just one of the ten stories on the record and one that seems to tell an overarching theme for the band’s existence and music about striving through adversity and meeting it with some attitude and maybe sometimes just through sheer inertia. The line “Just keep on living, just keep on burning the candle” might sound quaint but sometimes that’s all you can do to get through to the times in life that don’t feel completely devoid of inspiration and like too much static is coming down on you. Musically it’s reminiscent of the kind of garage punk of the 90s like maybe The Fluid, New Bomb Turks and Murder City Devils—emotionally often rough around the edges but honest and imbued with a rebellious spirit and willingness to break with narrow conventions. The record itself has plenty of ACAB rhetoric that comes out of being on the delivery end of abuse for looking and being different and, well, not presenting like some middle class or rich person. It may sound like borderline unhinged garage rock from another era but doesn’t come off like it’s worshiping at the altar of another band and that makes a big difference. Listen to “Time’s Not Your Friend” on Spotify.

Soft No’s Post-Punk Emo Single “Oxford Street” Is an Exuberant But Heartbreaking Portrait of Friendship and Loss

Soft No on “Oxford Street” sounds so exuberant and emotionally vibrant. The melancholic intro and the sweetly orchestral outro, though, frame the song about friendship and tragedy, fond memories and the preciousness of life perfectly. We hear in the song often startling frank portraits of the kinds of complicated relationships with friends that hit with an instant poignancy because friends who are genuine accept each other on their own terms and it hurts deeply when they’re gone no matter the reason. The music and vocals embody the intensity of memories and what we savor with our connection with others and it is that aspect of a song that transcends narrow genre. Listen to “Oxford Street” on YouTube and follow Philadelphia’s Soft No at the links below. The band’s new EP Super Neutral releases on vinyl, digital download and streaming on May 29, 2026 via Abandon Everything Records.

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Genre Is Death Savage Inauthentic Aspirations on No Wave Punk Single “Attractive People”

Genre Is Death, photo courtesy the artists

On “Attractive People” Genre Is Death sound like they took a time machine back to 1980s New York (their hometown) and got to experience bands like Live Skull, early No Wave and Pussy Galore firsthand and shed obvious influences on their return to our era. What we hear is a caustic and noisy, haunting and thrilling song that weds mechanistic rhythms to discordant guitar and a hypnotically driving bass line to create a different kind of musical darkness with which the band shreds shallow aspirations and lifestyle over substantive living and creating. The lyrics are minimal, mostly “You don’t have a life/You just want to be attractive” and “It’s just a lifestyle” that can seem general but when combined with the music’s headiness and confrontational sound it speaks to anyone that recognizes certain social phenomena in the culture when there seem to be people who like the association of cool within a subculture or parasocial attachments without having to do anything to actually be so and live in a way that commits to something real which requires actual effort more than being attracted to the image of authenticity and accomplishment. Watch the video for “Attractive People” on YouTube and follow Genre Is Death at the links below. The band’s LP is out May 1, 2026 on In the Red Records.

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The Empty Page Eviscerates the Destructive Anti-Aging Rhetoric of Our Society on Brooding Post-Punk Single “A Feminine Ending”

The Empty Page, photo courtesy the artists

The Empty Page sketches in vivid sonic images and lyrics the toxicity of anti-aging rhetoric in culture and media with “A Feminine Ending.” With almost agonized yet cathartic guitar work and vocals that begin reflective and ramp up to furious the song is like an even darker, noisier early Concrete Blonde song. Shredding how our own self-hatred is marketed to us as inadequacy and insecurity cured by some technocratic capitalist method for addressing specific “flaws” and failing that to encourage us to withdraw from being publicly active and not seeing ourselves as having relevance and power even in our own lives. Especially if you’re a woman. The song feels like urgent resistance against a false and destructive narrative that is somehow still rampant in our civilization and just a thrilling song that gives voice to the instinct to reject being discarded as the worn out parts of the machinery of a deeply dysfunctional society. Fans of Latter and Kaput will deeply appreciate the way The Empty Page combines unfettered emotional expression, sharp social critique and creative expansion of out of obvious subgenres of music. Listen to “A Feminine Ending” on Spotify and follow The Empty Page at the links provided.

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King-Mob’s Industrial Noise Rock Single “Pendulum Days” is the Sonic Equivalent of a Movie Played in Reverse

King-Mob’s “Pendulum Days” sounds like a movie played in reverse. One imagines hearing hammered dulcimer creating tonal textural rhythms, steady and accented cymbal strikes and guitar squalling and sustaining urgent sounds while in the background vocals sound almost as if coming from a trance state. As the song progresses the band takes some chances in more conventional rhythms for a few moments rising in a run for volume before dropping back into what can be described as post-industrial noise jazz. What do you compare this to as a frame of reference? This Heat? Dazzling Killmen? The algorithm recommendations suggest Sightings and Morgan Garrett for more modern references which are apt enough. It’s not quite like that but if you’re into those bands you may find a lot to like in King-Mob’s uniquely creative and strange compositions. Listen to “Pendulum Days” on Spotify and follow King-Mob at the links below. The group’s new EP Arabesque is available now.

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Charm School Sends Up Music Scene Gatekeeper of Privilege on Noise Punk Single “Scene Queen”

Charm School, photo courtesy the artists

Charm School seems to be accelerating the pace the entire length of its single “Scene Queen.” The relentless energy of the song suits its subject matter of the kind of person who is in most music scenes that can be a bit sanctimonious and plays like they’re poor but has a trust fund that they don’t always necessarily try to keep secret but works in restaurants yet is able to pay rent on a warehouse and then move to an expensive city or another county seemingly on a whim once they’ve long outlived their welcome and alienated so many people in the community and leaving mediocre art in their wake. It happens. If you’ve been in any creative community of size there are people that can exert an influence because they have money and thus access to spaces to dangle as important places or the funds to “make things happen” for a little while, sometimes for more than a short bit and seem important but once they’re gone it’s like their significance was way overblown. The song embodies the frustration of dealing with that dynamic with a furious run of noisy, almost abrasive, post-punk that is the band’s signature sound that fans of Drive Like Jehu, mclusky and Angel Hair will appreciate. The group’s new EP Schadenfreude Ploy released February 20, 2026 on cassette, digital download and streaming. Listen to “Scene Queen” on Spotify and follow Charm School below.

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