Soft Loft - Alex Dupree - Allegories - Penny Lane Pickets - Marie Dahlstrom

Soft Loft - Wednesdays.

Soft Loft returns with their new single “Wednesdays,” an uplifting indie-folk anthem about learning to rely on yourself. Inspired by the iconic Mean Girls line “On Wednesdays we wear pink,” the Swiss collective flips the script: happiness doesn’t come from being chosen by others. 

Driven by warm acoustic guitars, catchy melodies and Jorina Stamm’s unmistakable voice, “Wednesdays” celebrates personal growth and finding comfort in your own company. The track is lifted off the band's forthcoming album Throw The Dice out September 4th via [PIAS] Recordings.

Wednesdays is about sitting with yourself and feeling real good about it. It's about trying to feel good without depending on others for validation or happiness. It's about buying yourself flowers, taking walks or simply telling yourself today is going to be okay. It's about a tension between isolation and comfort, between feeling unseen and learning how to sit with yourself and be okay there. 

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Photo - TJ Masters

Alex Dupree - I Can See Her In Your Eyes.

“I Can See Her In Your Eyes” is the final glimpse into Talking to the Dog before the full album arrives August 14 via Scissortail Records. The record was produced by Michael Krassner, and it’s an album I’ve really loved spending time with. For all of its thoughtful, layered lyricism, it never feels weighed down — it feels alive. Like a band in a room, discovering the songs together, following the energy, and capturing those moments when everything clicks. There’s a spontaneity and warmth running through it that makes the whole record feel immediate and human.

Quote from Alex: "I love country duets, they have so much narrative possibility. The initial spark for this song came while writing for a duet project with Whitney Mower (They/Live) called “Dawn & Dupree”. It’s two perspectives on the same relational dead-end — he’s still hung up on an old love, and she can tell. The fun comes from how the language works on both sides. 

Having Jolie Holland sing on this is a dream come true. She’s an absolute legend, and hearing her album 'Catalpa' in high school probably changed my life. At that time, I hadn’t heard anyone so tapped into the deep vein of American music. I didn’t know it was possible to still go there. Not as a genre thing, but as real, true embodiment. And she’s still doing it! Jolie is on another level."

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Allegories - They'll Never Suspect Us.

Experimental duo Allegories return with “They’ll Never Suspect Us,” a deceptively beautiful and unsettling new single that reframes the idea of the murder ballad as something colder, more detached, and strangely euphoric. Built on ethereal dream pop textures and gliding indie electronic production, the track pairs some of the duo’s most luminous instrumentation with some of their darkest lyrical content to date, collapsing beauty and brutality into the same breath. It’s the latest single from Allegories’ upcoming new album, By accident, On purpose, set for release on October 16th, 2026.

At its core, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” is an imagined scenario pushed to its most uncomfortable extreme: a gleeful, fictional descent into violence narrated with eerie confidence and emotional distance. “There’s a long tradition of murder ballads,” Adam Bentley explains. “But what about murder anthems? A song that gleefully imagines the act, while rubbing the victim’s face in the idea that no one will care about their demise.”

Rather than leaning into shock alone, the track uses its narrative extremity to interrogate perspective itself, folding humour, discomfort, and abstraction into a single unsettling lens. “It’s a morbid, bleak, and weirdly fun exercise in trying on the hat of a truly reprehensible sociopath,” Adam adds. “And setting it all over what might be the dreamiest instrumental on our entire record? That somehow makes it even more twisted. Sometimes imagining the worst can bring out your best.”

That contrast becomes the defining feature of the song. Sonically, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” drifts through hazy dream pop atmospheres and understated indie rock momentum, anchored by soft focus melodies that feel almost calming in isolation. But the emotional framing destabilizes that calm, turning the track into something quietly disorienting; a lullaby with intent hidden just beneath the surface.

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Penny Lane Pickets - Best Damn Time.

Following the high-octane sunshine of their debut, Santa Cruz’s Penny Lane Pickets are dialing in a heavy, street-level groove with their upcoming single, "Best Damn Time." Shifting gears into a mid-tempo 160 BPM stomp heavily inspired by the infectious energy of modern ska-punk icons like The Interrupters, this track is a raw, grounded anthem dedicated to the sacred, gritty spaces where we escape the daily grind.

Built on a foundation of dry, punchy production, "Best Damn Time" features sharp, rhythmic electric guitar upstrokes and a fluid, melodic walking bassline that drives the entire track forward. Right from the very first second, a powerhouse brass section kicks in, commanding the melody and carrying the song side-by-side with an unforgettable chorus. The raspy, honest delivery of the lead vocals is perfectly elevated by soaring, 3-part Beatles-esque harmonies, striking that perfect, unique balance between 60s pop hooks and raw punk-rock attitude.

Lyrically, the track captures the hazy, smoke-filled atmosphere of a local urban refuge. It’s an ode to those unplanned Tuesdays at 4 PM that somehow turn into the ultimate Friday night. It’s about peeling bathroom stickers, spilled drinks on tattered maps, and the comfort of familiar faces under an industrial sky, filling the gap between the work, the sleep, and the bills.  

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Photo - Lennon Gregory

Marie Dahlstrom - Night & Day.

Marie Dahlstrom today releases her new single 'Night & Day', the latest taste of her third full-length album 'Marie' due out 18th September via JFH Records. The Roskilde-born & London-based vocalist, songwriter and producer will mark the release of the new album with two headline shows in London (8th October) and Copenhagen (13 October).

The new single 'Night & Day' pairs playful talk-box flourishes with buoyant neo-soul grooves, capturing the everyday work of sustaining long-term love in what Marie Dahlstrom affectionately describes as “a couples’ make-up song”. Speaking on the release, Dahlstrom said: "Love and relationships have their ups and downs. We have to put in the work and stay intentional to make them last."

Her third album Marie arrives at a moment when life has become fuller, busier and infinitely more complex. Since her previous releases, Dahlstrom has become a mother of two while continuing to build a life between London and Copenhagen.

Written over the past two years between London, Copenhagen and Los Angeles, the self-titled record draws on deeper jazz influences, live instrumentation and a close-knit international cast of collaborators, including Corey Fonville of acclaimed Richmond jazz collective Butcher Brown, Los Angeles pianist and producer Elijah Fox, Cuban percussionist Eliel Lazo, and her longtime collaborator (and partner in life) DanDiggas, resulting in Dahlstrom's warmest and most personal work to date.

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Alex Dupree - Yea-Ming and The Rumours - Forget Them Wendy - Maddie Zahm - CattSue - Jenny Gillespie Mason

Photo - Bill McCullough

Alex Dupree - New Meaning.

Alex Dupree has announced his new album 'Talking to the Dog which is due for release on August 14, and this week shares "New Meaning" from the album. Quote from Alex: "Songs don’t often reach me fully formed, but this one did. I sensed the whole shape of it right away: bright and brassy and Big Star-ish. It had the tumbling feeling of coins spilling out of a slot machine. Then I just needed language with the energy to match. The song is essentially working its way up to a “come all ye” type folk lyric: “people gather round, I got new meaning…”

Hank Williams once said that writing a song is just talking to the dog. That little piece of absurdist wisdom has become a title and guiding principle for Alex Dupree’s latest LP. What does it mean? Hank was likely just promoting his then-hit single “Move It On Over” to a radio interviewer. But Alex’s answers veer quickly into the mystical and visionary. He is a poet of rare composure and grace, and maybe for the first time in his 20+ year career, he’s found the band, the chords, and the arrangements to inject an almost inconceivable richness of color into his musical ideas. 

The result is a legitimate mid-career masterpiece that announces Alex as a talent capable of equaling the brilliance of Cass McCombs, Bill Callahan, Neko Case, Ryan Davis, Joanna Newsom, Will Oldham, and other leaders of modern song.

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Photo - Corey Poluk

Yea-Ming and The Rumours - Residue (Album).

Bay Area indie pop band Yea-Ming and The Rumours return with their fourth studio album, Residue. With Yea-Ming’s signature heart-tugging lyrics and Nico-esq voice, she continues to explore the rawness of human experience and emotions. While 2024’s I Can’t Have It All signified a time of change and transition for Yea-Ming, Residue embraces the reset and the examination of reality after a storm, grappling with the overbearing nature of memory (remembering and forgetting) while submitting to the coarseness of love, intimacy and regret.

With the help of long-time collaborator Eóin Galvin (Hoxton Mob, Readyville) on lead guitar and lap steel, Ryli colleagues Rob Good (The Goods, Ryli) on bass and Luke Robbins (Ryli, R.E. Seraphin) on drums, Yea-Ming takes us on a journey of regrowth, with songs like Paper Doll where she admits inauthenticity in a world where one has been taught to please everyone around them to survive. In Treasury of Loved Ones, Yea-Ming explores the permanence of memory, or what appears to be permanent even as time moves on and erases moments out of our lives. 

It’s a sweet and sad ode to remembering our loved ones, especially those we have lost to in time and in death. In Fine Afternoon, we are confronted with the reality of a tainted rebirth as Yea-Ming sings “in this life renewed, you’re my residue” (here we find our album title) and we remember that resets are never clean. The Rumours explore a little bit musically this time as well, which you hear in uncharacteristic danceable numbers like in the catchy but vulnerable and sensuous St. Etienne-like single Sweet Opiate. 

While Good served as the band’s skilled recording engineer, Yea-Ming mixed the album at home; her vision realized through exploring texture, rhythm and sound, making Residue a Yea-Ming production through and through. 

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Forget Them Wendy - Wise Guy.

Forget Them Wendy are an indie pop/grunge duo made up of Newcastle-based songwriter Laura James, and Edinburgh-born producer and guitarist Oliver Price, now living in London. The band take their name from a line in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan: “Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.” Shaped by their shared love of 90s records from bands including The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins and The Breeders, the pair combine indie pop melodies with grunge influences and playful, self-aware songwriting.

Their latest single, “Wise Guy”, captures the duo’s humour, honesty and reflective songwriting style. Written on Olly’s birthday last year and released on it this year, the track playfully explores the idea of growing older without necessarily becoming wiser. “‘It’s your birthday, look at you, so grown up it isn’t true…’” Laura sings, before the chorus turns more introspective: “‘Then you act like a wise guy, cos you don’t feel smart, why do you act like a wise guy?’” The song acts as a self-deprecating tease while touching on insecurity, identity and the pressure to appear more certain of yourself than you really feel.

Sonically, “Wise Guy” starts subtle, understated and intimate before changing gear unexpectedly into a soaring finale. Laura’s delicate, soft vocals sit alongside melodic guitars and a slow-paced beat, giving the track a calm, relaxed atmosphere. Its muted instrumentation and playful lyrics keep things feeling warm and low-key, while still carrying the reflective themes running through the song, before erupting into a powerful crescendo that brings the track to an uplifting close.

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Maddie Zahm - Everything All The Time.

Alt-pop singer/songwriter Maddie Zahm announces her stunning sophomore studio album, Everything All The Time, arriving September 25, 2026, via MNRK Nashville. Rather than treating growth as a final destination, Everything All The Time embraces it as an ongoing process, one rooted in curiosity, compassion, and the continual journey of coming home to yourself. 

Across the album’s 12 tracks, Zahm channels a warm, kaleidoscopic sense of wonder, crafting a record that is candid, funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human. She recalls growing up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – the show became a north star for Zahm, opening her mind and allowing her to simply be without self-judgment. She looks back on the freedom of this childhood awe, reminding herself to embrace the strange, beautiful flood of becoming yourself on your own terms.

Now, Maddie shares the title track and lead single, “Everything All The Time.” Through her transcendent vocals, she reminds us that tapping into the full breadth of the universe isn’t always easy. The track opens with delicate piano keys before cracking wide open to make room for sweeping acoustic guitar and thunderous toms, her voice rising to the moment, a totemic beam lighting through the clouds. 

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CattSue - A Whisper on the Wind.

We have the deeply moving new release from country singer-songwriter CattSue. Her new single, “A Whisper on the Wind,” arrives today June 12th and it’s already connecting strongly with radio listeners through its honest storytelling and emotional sincerity.

Inspired by the loss of her mother at just four-and-a-half years old, the song reflects on grief, memory, healing, and the quiet ways love continues long after someone is gone. Blending country, pop, and contemporary singer-songwriter influences, CattSue delivers an intimate performance that feels both personal and universally relatable.

Following the success of her debut single “Come Home to Me,” which earned UK iTunes chart recognition and Independent Music Network charting, CattSue continues to establish herself as an artist whose music resonates through authenticity rather than spectacle. “A Whisper on the Wind” is more than a song—it’s a tribute to family, resilience, and the invisible threads that keep us connected to the people we love most.

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Jenny Gillespie Mason - Rungs of Love.

“Rungs of Love” is an intimate folk song from my upcoming album In the Safety of the Light, produced by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart). I wrote the song on a 1976 Martin guitar after a period away from songwriting, inspired by the spiritual folk lineage of Bert Jansch and Vashti Bunyan. The song explores the idea that ordinary human love can be a ladder toward higher consciousness. Sonically it’s warm, spacious acoustic folk with subtle psychedelic textures and a devotional tone.

After more than a decade exploring psychedelic pop, jazz, and electronic textures through her project Sis—most recently as Sis and the Lower Wisdom—Jenny Gillespie Mason returns to the folk music she first began writing and recording as a teenager. Her new album, In the Safety of the Light (out 6/12/26 on Native Cat Recordings), was produced by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart) and recorded in spring and fall 2026 at a private studio in Los Angeles.

Sonically, In the Safety of the Light draws on the pastoral glow of 1970s British folk, with echoes of Catherine Howe and Fairport Convention, while sailing at times into  atmospheric sounds inspired by the ambient music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and the more cosmic folk ballads of Beck. Most of the songs were recorded live as an ensemble, allowing the arrangements to breathe and shimmer around performances by Mason on acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer, and vocals, with Josh Miner Adams on percussion, Todd Dahlhoff on bass, Benny Bock on synthesizers, Gabe Noel on cello, and Alex Budman on woodwinds.

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