The Orielles - Emily Nenni - Birds Flying Backwards - Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth

The Orielles - Only You Left (Album).

The Orielles new album Only You Left is officially released today March 11 via Heavenly Recordings. “You’ve got to die and be reborn between albums,” begins Henry Wade, guitarist for The Orielles, describing the foundations of the band’s fourth studio album, Only You Left. “It comes naturally,” adds singer and bassist Esmé Hand-Halford, “it’s not something we consciously do.” Through this process of creative renewal, the Manchester-based trio – completed by drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford – have managed to weather a pandemic, defy the fickleness of a trend-led music industry, and emerge, phoenix-like, with something familiarly Orielles, yet altogether different.

Recorded in two locations – Hydra and Hamburg – over the summer of 2024, the 11 tracks of Only You Left sees the band consolidate the bold experimentation of their previous LP, Tableau (2022), with a return to the more stripped-back, song-led approach of their early origins. “There’s nothing more trad than a three-piece,” quips Henry, in reference to the band’s decision to return to their roots as a trio. Originally from Halifax, the Orielles first came to recognition in 2018 with their debut album, the indie-rock Silver Dollar Moment, which is approaching its eighth birthday in February 2026. “These things come in like seven year cycles. So we've come in like a full circle back to a familiar place, just as different people.”

According to Henry, the first ideas for Only You Left came in May 2023. Esmé had bought a freeze pedal, which allowed her to play around with sustained notes on her guitar – these heavy drones would later form the basis for the tracks ‘Wasp’ and ‘Three Halves’. In the lulls between touring, the band began to meet up and record their practice room sessions, later analysing the voice notes to the finest detail. “We recorded everything on our phones, every snippet,” explains Henry. What each song needed or what we wanted to hear from it.”

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Photograph by Emilia Paré

Emily Nenni - Not a Winner.

Emily Nenni will release Movin’ Shoes on May 1, 2025, via New West Records. The 13-song set was produced by John James Tourville (of the Deslondes) and recorded and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, Jason Isbell) at Southern Grooves in Memphis. Movin’ Shoes is Nenni’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2024 album Drive & Cry. Rolling Stone named it one of “The Best Country Albums of 2024” and called it "the most exciting hard-nosed honky-tonk record of the year,” while Bandcamp said, “In a genre overstuffed with craggy male singing voices, Emily Nenni is a breath of fresh air.” Saving Country Music said, “Emily Nenni has released a fun, infectious, twangy, diverse, and career-defining album that will renew your spirits in the state of country music.”  
 
Movin’ Shoes eloquently and wryly blends southern soul from Memphis and Muscle Shoals with southern rock from Macon and outlaw country from Austin. In addition to some of her most incisive lyrics, the album features some of her most powerful vocal performances. These songs percolate with new sounds, like the Rhodes organ that kicks off the supremely funky title track and the Lone Star harmonica that weaves throughout her bluesy cover of Paul Simon’s “Tenderness.” Nenni cites Sly Stone and Linda Ronstadt’s Motown covers as specific influences, but the old styles sound fresh and current because her personality and charisma come through in every note. “This isn’t strictly honkytonk like my former records, even though it’s still all the same influences,” Nenni explains. “I’m just drawing from more artists and genres than I have in the past.” 
 
Yesterday, the album standout “Not a Winner” was shared with Nenni saying, “There’s a song on an early Diana Ross solo record, Surrender, called ‘I’m a Winner.’ It got me thinking how I’d technically never ‘won’ anything in my life, except a dragon-shaped bong in a raffle at a show about ten years ago. Winning looks different to everyone. For some, it’s the accolades. For others, it’s getting to do what you love. It can also just be making it through another day. I’m genuinely grateful for this life, it isn’t easy, and we all work so hard to stay afloat it seems. I just want the chance to try, that’s all I ever wanted. It’s even better when you’re alongside your friends, watching them get after it, too. That’s a win.” 

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Photo - Dessy Baeva

Birds Flying Backwards - Lovebirds (Album).

London-based six-piece Birds Flying Backwards today release their anticipated debut album Lovebirds (March 11th via Real Love Recording Co.). Building a reputation for their blend of alt-country, indie-folk, psychedelic rock and timeless 70s aesthetic, Birds Flying Backwards have quickly established themselves as one to watch. Lovebirds captures the band’s warm, organic sound through rich acoustic instrumentation, worn-in textures. Moving fluidly between folk, Americana and psychedelia while maintaining their stylistic, tightly locked dual vocal harmonies, and reflective yet uplifting tone throughout.

Mixed by Joe Wyatt at Abbey Road Studios (The Smile, The Beatles Anthologies) and mastered by Timothy Stollenwork (Kevin Morby, Drugdealer, Arthur Russell), further enhancing its earthy, timeless feel, the album was recorded entirely live over four days in early 2025. The 10-track album foregrounds intimacy and immediacy, allowing the band’s chemistry and emotional clarity to shine. From the melancholic whimsy of ‘One Heartbreak To Another’ and ‘All I Need’, to the emotive sweller, ‘Moving On’, to the driving Fleetwood Mac-esque approach of ‘If There’s Any Justice’ the album showcases the band’s Diversity and feel for beautifully arranged, melodic songcraft. 

Speaking about the album, “Lovebirds is an ode to love in all its forms — romantic love, love for friends, familial love, heartbreak, and the process of learning to love yourself. Love feels more important than ever to us. Love, compassion and solidarity are powerful tools with which to oppose oppression, dehumanisation and a political elite intent on dividing us. Recorded entirely live over four days in early 2025, Lovebirds stands as a testament to the unifying power, enduring beauty and the profound but life-affirming sadness that love, in all its forms, inevitably brings.”

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Photo - Sam Johnson

Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth - Automatic Days.

Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth will release the debut album, Nowhere, NW, on May 15, 2026 via Strolling Bones Records. The 10-track set was produced by the multi-instrumentalist Ben Hackett (Patterson Hood, Craig Finn) and recorded at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. The remarkable debut emerges as a sort of equilibrium state, balancing Morris’s breezy heartland and lo-fi garage influences with his ‘70s singer/songwriter and ‘90s grunge sensibilities. 

The songs are mature and reflective, reckoning with loneliness, regret, and mortality, and the performances are raw and vulnerable to match, with lean, muscular arrangements. It’s an honest, empathetic meditation on purpose and impermanence delivered by a keen observer of the human condition, one who’s only just begun to truly understand himself. “When I started writing these songs as Mountain of Youth, it felt like I’d finally found my voice,” Morris reflects. “For the first time, I felt comfortable saying what I needed to say.” 
 
Born and raised in Georgia, Morris didn’t begin taking music seriously until college. After a brief stint in Wyoming, he returned east to settle down in Athens, where he found work as a fly-fishing guide and launched various rock bands. After a few years, he was then ready to strip things back to their barest, most essential elements. The material he began penning was deeply autobiographical, but often filtered through the perspectives of characters at various crossroads in their lives. “All the characters on this record are choosing their path up the slope or looking back on the route they took and wondering what life would be like if they’d done things differently.” 

The characters are also contemplating the passage of time and the loss of innocence, which he suspects is deeply intertwined with his work as a fly-fishing guide and conservationist helping protect and restore the streams and forests of North Georgia. “There’s a youthfulness and a joy and a curiosity that comes with being out in nature,” he explains, “and I always find myself trying to go places that have been left undisturbed by man. There’s a purity and a beauty in those ecosystems that I think we’re all searching for in ourselves.”

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Cello - Jessie Altman - Deer Tick

Cello - Vitamins.

A post-punk mantra wrapped in biting wit and restless energy, “Vitamins” introduces Cello as a singular new voice: confrontational, playful, and uncomfortably honest. Built on hypnotic repetition and deadpan delivery, the track skewers modern expectations of femininity, wellness culture, productivity, and obedience — turning self-care into something transactional, absurd, and quietly furious.

The lyrics move like a checklist from hell: “I’ll do my homework… I’ll be a good girl… I’ll do the housework… I’ll do your therapy… I’ll do my workout…” Each line lands with increasing tension, exposing the invisible labour demanded of women — emotional, domestic, physical, and aesthetic. When Cello asks, “Why don’t you give them to me?” it becomes less about supplements and more about validation, agency, and control.

There’s humour here, but it’s sharp-edged. “Vitamins” dances between satire and sincerity, capturing the exhaustion of trying to be everything at once: healthy, productive, sexy, compliant, resilient. Its chant-like chorus — “Vitamins, vitamins, yeah yeah” — feels both euphoric and hollow, mirroring the endless cycle of self-improvement sold back to us.

Cello’s background gives her sound an unexpected depth. Nicknamed for her classical roots, she trained as a cellist at the Junior Royal College of Music in London before tearing up the rulebook and moving toward post-punk minimalism. That classical discipline still pulses beneath her work — not in ornamentation, but in control, tension, and dramatic pacing. Every repetition is intentional. Every silence is loaded.

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Jessie Altman - Sleepwalking (EP).

In Jessie's own words: “Sleepwalking” is about moving through life on autopilot - staying in the haze because it feels easier than waking up. It captures that period when you’re going through the motions of your life without being present, and the moment you start to wonder how long you can keep drifting.

Voxwave's Helena Lynch had this to say in summarizing the release  "After her debut album “Aftermath,” which received recognition, the new EP “Sleepwalking” by Jessie Altman demonstrates growing artistic depth and emotional nuances. 

The four tracks of the EP are united by the mood of soft morning light. The singer does not moralize, does not call for “awakening” in the name of something great; she has caught the moment between illusion and consciousness and has managed to distinguish feigned clarity and sincere bewilderment. The EP is for those who are finally ready to open their eyes and see reality in all its complex beauty."

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Photo - Richard McCaffrey

Deer Tick - Mary Singletary.

Providence’s Deer Tick have announced the 5th June release of their ninth studio album,  'Coin-O-Matic', via ATO. The LP casts a bright light on a little-known facet of the American mythos: the hidden histories of the band’s home state of Rhode Island, where the everyday dramas of working-class families long collided with the menace of the mafia underworld. 

As they tapped into their infinite fascination with that strange duality, singer/guitarist John McCauley, guitarist/singer Ian O’Neil, drummer/singer Dennis Ryan, and bassist Christopher Ryan assembled a batch of songs exploring desperation, grief, redemption, and resilience with both cinematic detail and lived-in emotionality. A sharp new turn from one of indie-rock’s most enduringly vital forces, Coin-O-Matic arrives as a complicated love letter to a way of life slowly slipping from the collective memory.   
 
'Coin-O-Mati'c is deeply informed by the singular experience of growing up Irish-Catholic. That is exemplified by the album’s lead single, the ramshackle jangle-pop “Mary Singletary”, which Deer Tick share today. It tells a tender yet irreverent tale of interfaith teenage lust. “Most of the stories on the album are from my parents’ generation and the generation before that, when the idea of a Catholic and a Protestant getting together was very scandalous,” says McCauley. “With that song in particular, I liked the idea of writing about Catholic guilt and pre-marital sex and adding in a little bit of Looney Tunes-style violence—sometimes as a young Catholic boy, I did imagine a vengeful God cutting me down in a cartoonish kind of way.”

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Hook - Black Hats - SONS

Hook - Blackline / I'm Your Man.

Based in Dublin, Ireland Hook are described as new wave indie rock which may seem a bit of a conundrum until you hear them, then each aspect falls into place.

Hook comprise of Eoin O’Donnell - vocals, guitars. Niamh Carmody - vocals, bass. Morgan O’Brien - drums, and like many other three piece bands pack a punch when needed, however with this comes some well crafted songwriting, and the ability to blend together contrasting and effective styles.

The band tell us that they have attracted comparisons with Pixies, The Smiths, Big Thief and the Velvet Underground, which until you actually listen to them is a pretty encouraging description for starters. In their words "They play direct, honest music about the small moments, the brutality of love and finding the beautiful in the simple".

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Black Hats - Witness To Everything.

Black Hats are an indie/new wave band from Oxford, UK.  Constructed around solid grooves, that are built on deft, reggae-infused bass lines and skittering drum beats. These grooves are then welded to razor wire guitars with an anxious energy and melodies with the same sharp and melodic punk edge that also served the likes of The Jam so well. Finish it all off with witty and catchy lyrics and you have all the ingredients for a great band.

Part of a four track single release for 2026, “Witness To Everything” is a tack sharp song, with an energy built on hope and then despair and a need for change in a world gone mad. 

Black Hats are Mark, Budd & Nick and have worked with Grammy Nominated producer Sam Williams (Supergrass and Plan B) on their first single, “Kick In The Doors”.  They’ve supported named acts including; Reef, Dodgy & Stornaway and have played top UK Festivals and venues, including;  Wychwood Festival, Truck Festival & the 02 Academy Oxford. Their second single,  'No More Smoke’ featured in both Shameless and The Magicians on US TV.

Black Hats · Witness To Everything

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SONS - Surfin'.

Following the success of 3rd album Hallo, Belgian 4-piece SONS deliver an electrifying ode to the dizzying high of new love. That moment when everything feels brighter and you’re simply riding the wave. "Surfin’" kicks off with a sharp surf guitar riff before locking into a tight groove. 

The chorus captures the breathless euphoria of falling hard and fast. It’s lean, punchy and undeniably danceable and produced again by Dave McCracken (Depeche Mode, dEUS, A$AP Rocky). The video was written and Directed by Romy Water, Jules van Eijs with cinematography and DOP again by Romy Water.

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Odd Marshall - Bill Kirchen - Jenn Grant - The Corner Laughers

Odd Marshall - Seconds (Album).

Odd Marshall has officially released his sophomore album Seconds, an eight-song roots rock extravaganza, with the emphasis on rock. Seconds expands Marshall’s sonic palette, blending indie rock, folk-rock, and alt-country while leaning into a distinctly ’90s-influenced sound. The album features Blind Melon guitarists Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn—who also produced and mixed the record—along with contributions from Foo Fighters keyboardist Rami Jaffee, Mathias Schneeberger of The Afghan Whigs, drummer Denny Weston Jr. (KT Tunstall) and bassist Jon Ossman (Chris Botti).

When planning Seconds, the follow-up to his 2024 debut Sand & Glue, Odd Marshall was turned down by a prominent Canadian producer, prompting him to ask, “Who else did I like when I was 14?”

The answer that immediately sprang to mind was the band Blind Melon so, with nothing to lose, he found a contact, sent a cold email with demos attached, and in no time he was chatting with Thorn who agreed to take the reins and bring in his six-string partner Stevens, marking the first time they have worked together outside of Blind Melon. What was initially intended to be an EP quickly blossomed into a full eight-song album once Odd Marshall dug into his song bag and pulled out a few more that could showcase the immense talent in the room.

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Photo - Bob Minkin

Bill Kirchen - Cat Out Of The Bag.

To let a cat out of the bag supposedly means letting something slip, like a secret. But for Bill Kirchen, it means escape, as in freedom — from confinement, convention … even gravity. Freedom to hit the road and play rock ‘n’ roll. That’s the energy driving the title track of Kirchen’s new album, Cat Out of the Bag, which showcases the six-string master — dubbed Titan of the Telecaster by Guitar Player magazine — at his gusto-grabbing best. “That's a good-to-be-alive song,” says Kirchen of the album’s opening track. “It’s a celebration of getting through the worst of the pandemic unscathed, getting back on the road and affirming our belief that the kids are alright.”

The Austin-based guitarist, singer and songwriter confirms his lust for life — and offers up his lyrically referenced “rock ’n’ roll soul” — in several songs exhibiting the rockabilly-meets-honky-tonk style that earned him his “titan” status (as well as a Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy nomination for the chicken-pickin’ song, “Poultry in Motion”). 

The music flowing from Kirchen’s roots-loving heart to his ever-nimble fingers also blends boogie-woogie, jazz, jump blues, Western swing, country, folk and other idioms; yes, he was playing Americana before it had a name. In fact, he helped pioneer the genre, way back when he co-founded what he calls his “hippie country band”: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Back in the ‘70s, Kirchen’s twangalicious, fret-sizzling guitar riffs drove that band’s version of “Hot Rod Lincoln” to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen Co-founder is to release the album Cat Out of the Bag on May 22, 2026 via Last Music, Co.

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Jenn Grant - Queen Of The Strait (Album).

This weekend acclaimed singer-songwriter Jenn Grant releases new album Queen of the Strait, and shares the heartfelt new video for her latest single, "Gonna Be Free," co-starring her beloved dog, Bird. "Gonna Be Free" was filmed on the frozen lake near her home in Lake Echo, NS, the video captures the stillness and quiet resilience that shape the song's spirit.

"Shapes and symbols have always held important significance to me," Grant shares. "I use them in my art when I'm painting, as well as in my daily life, to actively cultivate hope, magic and strength. My first postpartum story was all about me finding my feet again. It was a great challenge, but it also brought me growth and a new perspective on what really matters to me. This pattern of symbols revealed in the snow represents the values I hold dear. Deep thanks to tattoo artist Jason Francis at Super Rad Not Bad Tattoos in Bedford, NS, for gifting me this piece. Shout-out to Bird, my beautiful co-star and forever sweet baby girl. You are the queen of my life."

After a 20-year career, this marks the first time Grant has fully realized her dream production. The tour promises a cinematic, immersive experience featuring a live band, curated film sequences, and interpretive movement, bringing the emotional landscape of the album vividly to life. Jenn Grant's new album Queen of the Strait stands as her most personal work to date — a deeply cinematic exploration of love, loss, and transformation. 


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The Corner Laughers - Dusking.

Indie-pop darlings The Corner Laughers return with their first new album in over five years, Concerns of Wasp and Willow, on Big Stir Records out on March 27, 2026 The band's sixth full-length release and the keenly-awaited follow up to 2020's critically-hailed Temescal Telegraph, the new record balances sunshine and shadow in the band's distinctive style and resonates with wit, whimsy and bewitching melodies. Already previewed by the hit indie singles “Rainbow Cardigan” and last year's “Dark Matter,” the band released their third single, “Dusking,” this weekend.

The musicians on "Dusking" include Karla Kane (vocals), Khoi Huynh (bass, keyboard), KC Bowman (guitar, backing vocals, and Charlie Crabtree (drums).Karla Kane offers some insight into the song's inspiration: A little slice of life – of an evening scene, walking through San Francisco, awaiting public transportation, and taking a Caltrain journey down the Peninsula, watching and pondering the world going by in the fading light outside the windows. More literal and linear (maybe because it follows a path and then a train track!) than usual for me. It was a song started in situ, a stream-of-consciousness – I really just started singing the opening lines as they unfolded in real time (also the case with the second “dusking” song, “Larkspur Landing”). We’re big public transportation advocates, and it’s not always easy to get around that way. The Bay Area is also an incredibly expensive place to live, which makes things difficult for artists. There’s always a sort of wistful romance in train journeys and songs about trains. 

Khoi Huynh's input on "Dusking": Karla handed me a vocal-only demo of “Dusking” and asked me to add some instrumentation. To emphasize the train theme, I thought it should have a hypnotic rhythm track. I took inspiration from the music of my younger years, specifically the 1986 “Pretty In Pink” soundtrack. Some elements from my over-the-top 80s synth demo can be heard on the final recording. Still, Charlie’s precision drumming and KC’s sunset-over-the-Pacific-Ocean surf guitar really took it into another realm. 

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Mollie Elizabeth - The Yesters - GALVEZTON - Jillette Johnson - Malia Rogers

Mollie Elizabeth - Dog Eat Dog.

Mollie Elizabeth returns with a new song that deepens her distinctive sonic and visual universe, weaving eerie, quirky, and subtly dark textures into her signature femme, classic sound. “Dog Eat Dog” (+ visualizer) is co-written by Mollie and Lucas Sim, who also helmed the production. Mollie Elizabeth adds, “Dog Eat Dog” is centered around the concept that all humans are, unfortunately, natural born predators. In my nature, and I think in many others, all I really want to do is cultivate peace and love, but in reality, this world is not peaceful. There are people who will take advantage of you if you do not accept that whether you like it or not, we live in a dog eat dog world.”

Earlier this year, she shared “The Disappearing Girl” which was written by Mollie Elizabeth, Madison Love and Christopher J Baran, it was produced by CJ Baran, and recorded at VAMP Studios in Los Angeles. 

Gearing up to deliver more subtly penned story songs, the 21-year-old Washington State-based artist Mollie Elizabeth only introduced herself last year, and has already delivered a stunning debut EP Dirty Blonde via Neon Gold / Virgin Music. Known for her whimsical, melancholic, and empowering songs, the Pacific Northwest artist describes her music as “tiny worlds”, a refuge shaped by her upbringing in the Washington woods, suffused with old-Hollywood elegance and emotional depth. Mollie co-produced her newest song, including music video for “Doe Eyed” (dir. Maya Sassoon) HERE, along with her Dirty Blonde EP with Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, Marina) and co-written with Reid and GRAMMY-nominated Casey Smith (Olivia Rodrigo, Ashe, Benson Boone). 

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The Yesters - Freak Show.

Dark theatrical rock duo The Yesters premiered the official music video for their latest single, “Freak Show,” yesterday March 6, unveiling a cinematic visual that expands the song’s exploration of addiction, spectacle, and the uneasy push and pull between self-control and outside influence. At its core, “Freak Show” tells the story of a woman navigating addiction — not as a solitary struggle, but as a constant negotiation with a world that both entices and judges her. The track pairs brooding melodies with a vintage-tinged rock atmosphere, building a sense of tension that mirrors the emotional volatility at the heart of the narrative.

The upcoming music video, directed by Toon de Melker, transforms that internal conflict into a surreal, carnival-like landscape where exaggerated characters and shadow-filled environments blur reality and performance. Through stylized visuals and theatrical staging, the video positions addiction as a kind of spectacle — a world where temptation, observation, and identity collide. Rather than presenting a literal narrative, the imagery reflects the cyclical nature of being pulled toward and away from destructive patterns, echoing the song’s themes of seduction, isolation, and resilience. de Melker noted, “I wanted to translate both the music and the lyrics into a striking visual experience; unsettling, immersive, and deeply personal, exploring what the world might look like through the eyes of an addict of any kind.”

Musically, “Freak Show” channels a dark cabaret-rock atmosphere, pairing theatrical vocals with an undercurrent of tension that mirrors the video’s off-kilter aesthetic. The result is both playful and unsettling — a commentary on the fascination with spectacle and the shifting roles between audience and attraction.

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GALVEZTON - Roll To G-Town.

Texas-native GALVEZTON presents new single “Roll To G-Town.” An eclectic mix of old school Beck meets dusty roads Americana, the new single "Roll To G-Town" is now available via La Izquierda Records. Dripping with charisma and confidence, the new single by GALVEZTON is a love letter to Robert Kuhn’s home state. GALVEZTON’s forthcoming album, is to be released worldwide April 3rd, 2026, (except in the UK where it will be released May 15th.) 

The original concept of the new single was born from kitchenside pandemic hangs with Robert Kuhn and his acoustic guitar. Featuring psychedelic lyrics, folky guitars, and the entrancing backup vocals of Krystal Hardwick, the new single is a perfect springtime jam. Recorded appropriately in Galveston, TX at La Izquierda headquarters between 2022 and 2024, the new single offers a brand new anthem for the Lone Star State. 

Robert Kuhn, the face and voice behind GALVEZTON describes the impact of the new song in greater detail: “Texas country star Rich O’toole heard me play the song at La Izquierda Surf and Music Festival and immediately asked me if he could record it. I agreed of course and after his version came out, Houston hip-hop legend, Bun-B (UGK), heard it and said he wanted to do a remix. Paul Wall, the People’s Champ, soon heard it and wanted to collaborate too, so joined in and the song becomes a Houston area anthem. “Ima take my money an Roll to G-town!”

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Photo - Josie Dunne

Jillette Johnson - The Pain, My Friend (EP).

Jillette Johnson releases her new EP The Pain, My Friend and released the official video for “Good At Lying” featuring Langhorne Slim. Produced by Johnson’s longtime collaborator Joe Pisapia, the 5-song collection captures the pure, instinctual joy that first drew Johnson to songwriting as a kid. In support of the release, she will hit the road for a run of tour dates supporting Fantastic Cat that will kick off on April 11 in Woodstock, NY and make stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and her hometown of Nashville, TN at Row One on April 23. 

About “Good At Lying,” Johnson explains: “I wrote ‘Good At Lying’ at a moment when I was hitting a wall sitting at my piano, trying to write a song and not liking anything that was coming out. I just started banging my hands on the keys and saying ‘I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything,’ and eventually that banging turned into something more musical, and the rest of the song flowed out in the subsequent 30 minutes. It’s about imposter syndrome, a feeling I think every artist feels if they’re doing their art right, which is to say living right on the edge of what’s familiar, peering into the big scary unknown, eventually on their way to making something new. Also, I had a weird feeling while I was writing that I was channeling the spirit of my friend Langhorne Slim, so it’s extra special that he agreed to lend his wild and mighty voice to it. ”

About the EP, she adds: "The Pain, My Friend is a collection of songs about embracing and being with the innate discomfort of being alive, in order to make way for joy. I wrote these songs like I always do, alone in my room, and was so fortunate to record them with some of my favorite musicians out there. The experience was easy and light and fun, and reconnected me with the freedom of making music that I felt when I just started making music as a kid. ”


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Malia Rogers - Sunlight (A Good Death).

Nova Scotia-raised, Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Malia Rogers returns with “Sunlight (A Good Death),” a healing, Celtic-influenced folk single that approaches loss through the lens of gratitude rather than despair. Rooted in the idea that grief is simply love with nowhere left to go, the song reflects on mourning not as an ending, but as evidence of a life deeply shared.

Written while on tour in Ireland in January 2025, the song arrived unexpectedly. After a late night following a show in Tramore on Ireland’s southeastern coast, Rogers woke suddenly at 7:15AM; the exact date and time her grandfather, John Matthews, had passed away four years earlier. A paleoentomologist, teacher, poet, and lifelong music lover, Matthews played a defining role in Rogers’ life and creative development. “We talked about everything, including death and what it might mean to die ‘well,’” she explains. “I cried for two hours alone in that room above the pub, and when I was done, I had this song. It’s a small gift in return for the countless gifts he brought to all who knew him.”

Inspired by the stories shared with her after performances, Rogers is inviting listeners to take part in a collaborative music video celebrating the people who shaped us.

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