New to Beehive Candy Royal Commission, the alias of Melbourne, Australia musician Dean Robb have been releasing a single each month in 2026, having listened to a few of the tracks we have to say, there is plenty of originality with a firm emphasis on the 'alt' in alt rock. Going back to the releases most of which make up the debut album ‘Into Rock ‘n Roll’, and will be available from Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services from Thursday, September 24th.
File under alternative rock, post-punk, DIY, 'noise' occasionally, 'outsider' probably, and there are a few 'nice' ones where a bit of melody or a singalong comes through too. Created on a TASCAM Digital Pocketstudio (DP-006) with some second-hand guitars and pedals, a $13.95 microphone from Jaycar and a drum machine. That all gets loaded into Audacity for a basic mix and master and to export a digital file, but that's about it. Bona fide 4-track recording like back in the old days.
Earning kudos from the likes of Dave Graney and Rob Critchley (The Fods) for their sound and recording technique, Royal Commission have been championed on UK radio by Dandelion DJ Mark Whitby, while Louder Than War called them “a raw and ready burst of irreverence and alt-rock charm.”
‘Into Rock ‘n Roll’ collects the singles released between January and September and adds 3 tracks from the ‘Dossier #1’ EP released in March. ‘The Magyar Dancer’ will be released as part of the album rollout in October, followed by a couple of non-album tracks to finish off the year.
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| Photo - Jon Moore |
Acclaimed Western folk singer-songwriter Margo Cilker recently announced her highly anticipated third album, Little White Cross, which is due out October 9 via Fossil Records, a label she formed with fellow musician ISMAY. Cilker previously shared the album's title track as the lead single, and she returns now with album standout "Molly and Me," an unflinching song about the teenage sister of a suspect in a mass shooting, written from the perspective of the sister's best friend.
Cilker recorded the upcoming 10-track set in Lockhart, Texas, with Bruce Robison, the writer/producer behind work by Charley Crockett, Lee Ann Womack, George Strait, and The Chicks. "You could definitely call it a concept record. If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas," she offers. "I had some material so dark I didn’t think I’d show it to [Bruce]. Then I remembered this is the man who wrote 'Travelin’ Soldier.'"
One of the songs she's referring to is today's single, “Molly and Me." It's an artful and affecting display of human complexity that emerged from an insistent urgency that sometimes accompanies Cilker's songwriting: “I often feel haunted by stories, kept up at night by a kind of external pressure to tell them. I’ll write a song just to alleviate the grip it has on me.”
With lines like And her mom did what she could to listen / And it’s true that we sincerely miss him / It’s just a shame they had to die when he did / None of this will ever be undone, Cilker withholds no nuance in conveying the unthinkable, allowing human suffering its due specificity. "Just because something horrible happens time and time again, that doesn’t make it any less horrible," she explains.
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Beloved Nashville-based indie label Dualtone Records just announced the release of Keep Pressing On: 25 Years Of Dualtone, a new 17-song collection of rarities and covers celebrating the label’s 25th anniversary. Out December 4, 2026, the album brings together Dualtone artists past and present including The Lumineers, flipturn, Mt. Joy, Shakey Graves, Kathleen Edwards, and Langhorne Slim in celebration of the label’s enduring legacy and the artist-first vision established by Co-founder (ret.) Scott Robinson and the late President and Partner Paul Roper, who passed away in 2024.
As part of the anniversary The Lumineers have released a new song “Isabelle Fly.” “In April of 2012, we had just released our debut album and were on a pretty intense run; every day seemed to involve the trifecta of morning acoustic radio performances, interviews and shows,” The Lumineers reflect. “On the humid Nashville evening of April 27th, we met an angel in the form of our label head, Paul Roper.
We were about to play the Basement, below Grimey’s record shop, and Paul could see we were truly haggard. Earlier that day, we had done a long photo shoot which felt awkward. Paul appeared like a mirage in the desert, opening his trunk to us to reveal his bounty of Dominoes Pizza and a 12-pack of Stella’s. As we ate and drank, we felt looked after. And although it was a small gesture, it defined what Paul and Dualtone have done for us all these years. They do the little things and manage to always show up. It’s a rare quality in a label and a person, and I’m grateful for it.
“The song ‘Isabelle Fly’ never actually took flight. It felt like some sort of failed attempt. But I’ve always loved this song anyway, and am glad it’s got a place on this 25 year compilation so we can share this song finally.”
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| Photo - Silvia Saponaro |
LG Galleon releases “Paralyzed,” his second solo single, via Lost in Ohio. The single comes from Galleon's debut solo full-length, I Am Your Pity, which sees release November 13.
For more than a decade, LG has been the guiding voice behind Dead Leaf Echo, the Brooklyn art-rock collective whose reverb-drenched blend of shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk have earned them comparisons to Spiritualized, Cocteau Twins, and Deftones, and drew collaborators like 4AD producer John Fryer and designer Vaughan Oliver. He also fronts Brooklyn post-punk outfit Clone, whose Martin Bisi recorded debut CL. 1 trades atmosphere for agitation.
'New face, new wounds, new crimes' is about instantly falling in love with someone on sight alone and then the instantaneous fear you have of losing said person or being hurt by someone you don’t even know," says Galleon. "While the 'no more no more no more' Jim Jones sample in the middle adds to a feeling of past betrayal and disengagement over initial feelings of love.”
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| Photo - Elena Cornwell |
North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Lydia Saint George has released her new single, “Lungs,” via Gold Ship Records. The track offers the first glimpse of a new collection of music that Lydia will reveal through a series of singles over the coming months.
Blending atmospheric indie pop and alternative music with folk-rooted storytelling and a haunting gothic undercurrent, Lydia writes songs that feel like quiet confessions unfolding in slow motion. Her introspective songwriting transforms deep emotion and lived experience into slow-burning stories carried by intimate vocals, shadowy textures, and reflective lyricism.
“Lungs” captures the emotional exhaustion of giving everything to a relationship while receiving little in return. Gradually building around an evocative keyboard loop, the song turns resignation and disappointment into something intimate, atmospheric, and quietly devastating.
“This song is about giving up on a person and the relationship between the two of you—being tired of the excuses and the constant lack of effort on their part while you gave everything you had,” Lydia explains.
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| Photo - Susu Laroche |
Art-rock provocateurs Black Bordello announce their new EP, Midheaven Tempest, due 18th September via AWAL, and follow up the single 'Fugue' with a new video for the track this weekend.
'Fugue' offers the first glimpse into the immersive world of Midheaven Tempest, a collection that sees Black Bordello deepen their singular dialogue between art-rock, post-punk and cinematic atmosphere. Expansive yet intimate, the EP embraces contrast, where ornate arrangements meet raw immediacy, and gothic romanticism collides with moments of striking clarity.
With 'Fugue', the band continue to blur the boundaries of artistic, gothic and experimental rock, while drawing more openly from the dramatic sweep and melodic ambition of 1970s rock music. Threaded with baroque flourishes and taut post-punk tension, the single unfolds as a richly layered introduction to the conceptual landscape of Midheaven Tempest, hinting at an EP that is both emotionally resonant and sonically adventurous.
The romantic Hammond-organ introduction to ‘Fugue’ evokes 1920s picture houses and travelling carnival calliopes, hinting at a Fitzgeraldian world of sepia-tinted nostalgia. But any promise of reverie is quickly upended by the verse’s psychedelic, buoyant theatricality. Dripping with the weary, eye-rolling detachment of Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is?, the track instead unfolds in a haze of Velvet Underground fuzz, Black Heart Procession gloom, and Nick Cave–esque refrains. It moves through jarring shifts in tempo and melody, each one underscoring the band’s restless drive to experiment rather than settle into nostalgia.
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