SubmitHub – Page 2 – Queen City Sounds and Art

MAKEUP Breathes Otherworldly and Fantastical Melodies Into the Ethereal Synthpop of “Finger Driver”

The swirls of ethereal harmonics and melodies in the hazy synths of MAKEUP’s “Finger Driver” pair well with a background of icy tones and a spare electronic beat. The artist’s processed vocals offer an emotional uplift in a song that could otherwise be melancholic. The mood is reminiscent of lightly fogged DIY skate parties in the late 2010s and like a soundtrack for a more hopeful indie science fiction thriller. Fans of Chromatics and Electric Youth will find some strong resonance in MAKEUP’s mastery of tone and organic yet otherworldly and fantastical melodies. Listen to “Finger Driver” on Spotify.

The Notwist Brings a Fragile Jangle Pop Delicacy to Lovers’ Heartbreaking “How the Story Ends”

The Notwist’s new album News From Planet Zombie is out March 13, 2026 via Morr Music on LP, CD and digitally. But now you can hear a bit of what’s on offer with the group’s delicate but confident cover of “How the Story Ends” by Lovers from its 2008 album I Am The West. The latter was an indie pop band that made a splash in the underground before going on hiatus in 2014. Rather than synths, The Notwist employs a kind of repeated jangle guitar riff but keeps in place the vocals that sound a little raw and fragile in conveying words about a deep heartbreak and lingering heartache of the kind that comes back to you when you remember an intense relationship that ended a little messily and without the kind of closure you might want from a connection that can still unsettle your heart to think back on it because not all stories end neatly in the way of myths or fiction with a satisfying denouement. Listen to “How the Story Ends” on YouTube and follow The Notwist at the links below.

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New Wolves Reconciles the Contradiction of Being Comfortable in Ones Restlessness in the Downtempo Psychedelic Pop of “Sleep It Back”

New Wolves return with the more downtempo pop of “Sleep It Back.” Its languid pace and the subdued but slightly haunting tone of the vocals seem to be set back into the mix slightly yet always forward in arrangement of sounds from the band’s signature almost sound design approach with noises coming in and out of the song to give it a cinematic quality like special effects in a movie to convey a deep sense of place. But the sounds here aren’t random so much as idiosyncratic bits of music like horns, crystalline synth glimmering in the background, whooshes of harmonic white noise, ethereal string lines and the ever present bass line and clipped guitar like something from a Bossa Nova band guesting on a jazz record. It all adds up to contribute to this ever so slightly psychedelic song about being caught between contradictory impulses and not knowing how to reconciling them and settling into not making that choice and being comfortable in being a little restless. Listen to “Sleep It Back” on YouTube and follow New Wolves at the links provided. Look for the debut New Wolves album out Summer 2026.

New Wolves on Twitter

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Dream Pop Single “moonlight” by sydastry and Its Warmly Ethereal Melodies Brings Clarity to Uncomfortable Thoughts

An early morning, dreamlike energy courses through sydastry’s “moonlight.” The songwriter’s vocal style shifts easily from singing to more spoken word passages to suit the moment as the song progresses. It seems as though the more spoken sections represent reflecting in expository fashion and the singing more in the moment and being in the present tense. The music is melodic and ethereal, breezy, luminous and gentle whether in forward motion or lingering on a feeling. It’s the kind of pop song without standard arrangement or structure that has a seemingly intuitive flow of rhythm and tonal flourishes that invites one into its own entrancing logic. It’s like a song that should have been in a Satoshi Kon film that was never made, imbued with a comforting mood as it lays out uncomfortable subjects in a manner that make them seem more explicable. Listen to “moonlight” on Bandcamp and follow Dallas-Fort Worth/based artist sydastry at the link below.

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Pullman’s “Bray” is a Cinematic, Uplifting and Gently Urgent Flow of Invigorating Tonal Textures

Pullman released its new album III via Western Vinyl on January 9, 2026 (vinyl, digital download, streaming). The group comprised of Ken Brown (Tortoise/Directions in Music), Curtis Harvey (Rex), Chris Brokaw (Come/Codeine), Doug McCombs (Tortoise/Eleventh Dream Day) and Tim Barnes released albums in the late 90s and early 2000s before going on extended hiatus. The new record is the result of a collaboration that ran from 2016-2023 continuing after Barnes’ public announcement of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2021. The completed album is a development of the group’s signature cinematic sound. The single “Bray” and its collage of footage from nature including plants and geological formations has a hazy and uplifting aesthetic that is visceral in its washing through your brain with its rapid and distorted shimmer. Rhythmic lines linger and outline where the higher pitch tones flow freely and with an energetic inner urgency for a mixed dynamic that generates a sense of well-being. Watch the video for “Bray” on YouTube and follow Pullman at the links below.

Pullman on Bandcamp

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Silver Liz’s Trip-Hop Glitch Pop Single “Trixie’s Crying” is an Affectionate and Playful Song About Helping to Uplift a Struggling Friend

Silver Liz’s third album appropriate titled III comes out January 30, 2026 (very limited edition vinyl, digital download and streaming) and its string of singles so far point toward an entrancing and genre-blurring listen. “Trixie’s Crying” has a melodic bass line akin to something from The Cure but forward is a panoply of bright tones, shimmering and warping guitar washes and Carrie Wagner’s vocals processed slightly to enhance an ethereal and effervescent quality to suit a song about someone trying her best to help a friend struggling with whatever existential and persistent emotional woes that plague her. The music video with the flickering, almost stop-motion 16-bit visuals of a cat frolicking behind the lyrics captures the affectionate, playful and uplifting mood of the song. Stylistically it traverses trip-hop, dream pop and glitch and for those tuned in might hit a little like later era Curve with a touch of Cocteau Twins circa Heaven or Las Vegas. Watch the video for “Trixie’s Crying” on YouTube and connect with Silver Liz at the links below.

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La LEURENTOP’s Percussion-Driven Avant-Pop Single “The Darkness” is a Song About Embracing the Shadow Side of Ourselves to Come Into Our True Bloom

La LEURENTOP uses a spare, tribal drum pattern to establish a rooted rhythm for “The Darkness.” The song feels and sounds like a personal ritual, a repeating yet generative narrative exploring the parts of our lives that may seem like a mystery, elusive to us when we’re caught up in what we have come to accept as our lives and perhaps our identities yet knowing there’s more possible to us if we’re willing to connect with the parts of ourselves we’ve been denying. When the doubled vocals come in and the acoustic guitar and other percussion the song almost seems to remind us that we’re not alone in trying to expand our personal horizons and that we’re not the only ones. What genre is this? That seems irrelevant to enjoying and garnering benefit from taking in this song that also expands what a pop song can be, what a folk song can be, what an “indie” song can sound like. Listen to “The Darkness” on Spotify and follow La LEURENTOP at the links below.

La LEURENTOP on Apple Music

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Chris Canipe Notes the Absurd Elements of Societal Collapse While Mourning the Destruction on Jangle Pop Single “Barely Stitched”

Chris Canipe and band, photo courtesy the artist

Chris Canipe has penned a song to encompass the state of the American body politic at this moment. “Barely Stitched” lists examples of the crassness, the fragmentation, the division, dysfunction, climate change and the dystopian and impersonal technological permeation of our lives. In the jangle-y melodies and wryly melancholic vocals you can hear almost a resignation to the way complete disaster and dissolution seems to have trickled into and inundated society. You get a sense that the songwriter knows that so much of this feels like we have collectively let go of the wheel and not attended to the things that make society functional and how it can feel completely overwhelming if you haven’t learned a coping mechanism or five like disassociating a little to get some distance from the chaos. In that sense it’s reminiscent of the attitude one heard in some of those 1980s Camper Van Beethoven songs wherein it’s clear the songwriters are taking the subject matter seriously while noting the absurdity of the situation. Listen to “Barely Stitched” on Bandcamp. Canipe’s new album Monuments released January 9, 2026.

Sasha & The Bear Create a Space to Lean Into One’s Feelings of Emotional Abandonment on Downtempo Dream Pop Single “Peaches”

Sasha & The Bear, photo courtesy the artists

Sasha & The Bear display a command of mood and pace on “Peaches.” The warm and intimate vocals are reflective and soulfully melancholic are framed initially by a soft synth melody before the minimal beat comes in and backing vocals augment the sense of loss and emotional pain at feeling left abandoned by someone with whom you felt you had a connection and a bond stronger than something casual. The confusion and hurt in the final lines of the song “you said it wasn’t me/but I watched you choose” is familiar to anyone that has ever experienced being abruptly dumped without fully knowing why by someone who may have their own demons to tangle with but who is lacking the psychological self-awareness and appropriate language to articulate why they have to leave a relationship that doesn’t seem to be toxic. The masterful use of texture, the tonal richness and the duo’s expert crafting or rhythm feels like processing a deep sadness and giving oneself the psychic space to really lean into one’s feelings without having to hold back or be overwhelmed by them. Listen to “Peaches” on Spotify and follow Sasha & The Bear at the links provided.

Sasha & The Bear on Apple Music

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Wishing Well Divers’ “Water Magic” is an IDM Psychedelic Ambient Jazz Trek Into a State of Inner Calm

Wishing Well Diverse, photo by Steven Mizener

“Water Magic” from the new Wishing Well Divers album home sick home (released January 8, 2026) immediately launches into an eclectic stream of interweaving musical ideas. IDM jazz rhythms, swirling harmonics, vocals processed beyond identifiable words and all seeming to flow into an ethereal world of faintly luminous tones. When the twin guitar lines , one distorted and crunchy another bright, come the whole punctuated by horns the energy kicks up a notch before the song floats down through crackling white noise drift and slow descending organ chords through resonating and lingering hazy pitches it’s like we’ve been through a ceremony of mysterious purposes and came out the other side into a realm of inner calm. Listen to “Water Magic” on Spotify and follow Wishing Well Divers at the links below.