Bea Elmy Martin - Deer Tick - Eauclaire - Susto Stringband - Georgian

Bea Elmy Martin - Written On Me.

Bea Elmy Martin is carving out a vital space within the UK alternative landscape. London born and bred, her music is defined by emotional precision, blending ethereal vocals, orchestral intimacy and brooding electronics. Raised on the sounds of classic soul artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, Bea developed an early understanding of melody and feeling, using songwriting as a way to process life, love and loss from a young age. She describes songwriting as her journal, a way of breaking overwhelming emotions into something tangible and manageable, allowing moments of beauty, pain and connection to surface naturally.

After the release of her 2021 debut single “Blue Escape”, which earned early BBC tastemaker support from Jack Saunders and Lauren Laverne, Bea began a slow, intentional creative journey alongside her producer Dominick J Goldsmith (HÆLOS). That collaboration led to Under The Yew (Vol. 1), released in May 2025, a luminous meditation on loss, healing and renewal. She has continued that emotional thread through subsequent releases from Under The Yew (Vol. 2), including “Lost”, “Born To Fly”, “Unscarred” and more recently “Anouk”, each one deepening the world of the project ahead of the arrival of her upcoming album Under The Yew (Vol. 2).

“This project has been a personal excavation,” says Martin. “Under The Yew transforms loss into light, each track a step toward resilience.” The record draws comparisons from Air and Portishead to Billie Marten and Adrianne Lenker, all anchored by Bea’s raw emotional clarity. Her new single “Written On Me” offers another intimate chapter in that journey, this time turning toward love, closeness and the ways another person can become part of you. The track captures the feeling of falling in love and becoming deeply intertwined with someone over time. “I wrote ‘Written On Me’ at home one night,” Bea says. “I remember going in without too much of a plan, just a feeling I couldn’t shake. I started playing around with a few ideas and this one just sort of fell out naturally. It didn’t feel forced at all, which I think is why it ended up being such an honest song.”

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Photo - Rich Ferri

Deer Tick - Everything Born.

On 5th June, Providence’s Deer Tick will release their ninth studio album, 'Coin-O-Matic', via ATO. This week, they tease the album with a new single, the intimate 'Everything Born', which touches on the LP’s underlying theme of impermanence. The band’s guitarist/singer Ian O’Neil shares: “‘Everything Born’ was written quickly about the tenuousness of life and the precious time we have to spend with the people that come into our lives. It’s about family, friends, neighbors, strangers and how these thoughts burrow a little deeper the older we get. I was thinking about my son and the people of Providence, RI while writing it.” 

Deer Tick recently went into Rhode Island’s Big Nice Studio and filmed the song live. 'Coin-O-Matic' 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.       
 
The follow-up to Emotional Contracts (hailed by Uncut as one of 2023’s best albums), Coin-O-Matic takes its title from a cigarette-vending-machine company that served as the headquarters of Raymond Patriarca—a legendary mobster who ran one of the most ruthless crime families in U.S. history. “If you grew up in Rhode Island years ago, you’d see all these mobsters on the news and then run into them at a restaurant on Federal Hill,” says McCauley, referring to Providence’s version of Little Italy. “They were criminals but also very colorful characters, and I wanted the album to partly reflect a certain nostalgia for that kind of seediness.”

Deer Tick · Everything Born

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Eauclaire - Heaven On Earth.

“Heaven On Earth” is Eauclaire’s (pronounced “ō-claire”) latest indie-rock anthem, born not in a studio, but in the open desert. Written at the Heaven on Earth Music Festival in Moab, Utah, right beneath the Looking Glass Arch, the song captures a moment where awe meets the ordinary. With driving guitars, heartfelt vocals, and a chorus that feels both intimate and expansive, “Heaven On Earth” wrestles with getting out of your head and back into the present—back into the beauty that’s been there all along.

The bridge takes that idea literally: the gang vocals were recorded live on top of the Looking Glass Arch, with voices echoing across the canyon as the sun dipped low. It’s a song about noticing—wildflowers, starlight, golden hour, morning light—and realizing that heaven isn’t somewhere distant or abstract. It’s here. It’s now. And it’s found in the everyday moments we’re so tempted to rush past.

Formed by college friends Bryant Urich, Kyle Kicker and Justin Barnett in 2010, Eauclaire (pronounced “ō-claire”) released their acclaimed debut, Océan Bleu, in 2019, followed by 2022’s Timber, the latter of which chronicles a deeply personal season of loss and rediscovery for the band. Eauclaire’s single “Depths” was showcased in the CW and Netflix series All American, and their music has also been featured on MTV, MTV2, and in various international advertising campaigns.

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Photo - Chris Brennan

Susto Stringband - Hands In The Dirt.

Susto Stringband, led by frontman Justin Osborne of the highly lauded alt-country band Susto, just released their new single “Hands In The Dirt.” The track comes from their upcoming Susto Stringband (Volume 2) LP, which is out on May 29 via Missing Piece Records. The album features bluegrass and old-time reworkings of Susto favorites alongside a couple tracks that have never been released including today’s new single, which Osborne wrote before Susto began to take shape. Built around a mournful fiddle, the song reminds the listener to literally touch grass in times of turmoil and despair.

“‘Hands In The Dirt’ is an older tune of mine that actually predates Susto,” says Osborne. “I wrote it based on some advice my dad gave me in my 20s, when I was feeling burned out from DIY touring, and ready to give up on the dreams of writing and performing that I’d been pursuing. His advice was basically to work harder (lol) which over time has proven to be sound advice. 

My dad passed away back in 2020, and since then I’ve enjoyed bringing this one back into the sets from time to time, because it really reminds me of my dad and makes him feel closer. It was a blast to work up this Susto Stringband version of the song for Volume 2, and I’m really proud to finally be re-sharing a song that I’ve had such a personal connection to for many years.”

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Photo - Aaron Farrimond

Georgian - Crackled Grounds.

Manchester-based Georgian begin a fresh chapter today with the release of their new single ‘Crackled Grounds’ and the announcement of their first full body of work with the ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ out on 12th June via Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s).
 
Formed in 2024 and with three previous singles in their musical catalogue, Georgian are a five-piece outfit comprising Georgia McKiernan (vocals, acoustic guitar), James Poole, James Polglase (both lead and rhythm guitar, BVs), Connor Alder (drums) and Harry George (bass). Together Georgian have an expansive sound that reflects each of the band’s tastes, retaining a modern approach, but keeping the sound of their influences alive. Wrangling ‘60s pop, country, folk, shoegaze, psychedelia and further-flung traditional styles, their songs tell tales of navigating harsh emotional environments and lived experiences.
 
The debut ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ was laid down with producer Arno Stols at Magenta Studio in the peaceful Amsterdam countryside. Taking a leaf from Brian Jonestown Massacre’s melodic revivalism, Georgian began emulating the warm, unsettling, mysterious 60s-70s production of artists to which they had mutually become accustomed. Lyrically taking the listener to a place of escapism, the songs tell of battling the elements, female empowerment, and deep-rooted nostalgia.
 
The first introduction to their forthcoming EP is the alternative Western-inspired title track and new single ‘Crackled Grounds’, which atmospherically recalls a barren apocalyptic landscape where the sun is blazing and rain feels like a distant past. Blending haunting imagery with beautiful instrumentation and poignant vocals, it is a mournful song that also inspires reflection and hope. The band says; “This song was probably a result of watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and listening to Nancy & Lee within the same week. We got the opening riff and then it blossomed very quickly from there. It feels like the ultimate culmination of our journey so far.”

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Joe Pernice ft. Aimee Mann - Bea Elmy Martin - The Foot & Leg Clinic - The Green Apple Sea - Fur Blossom - Chloe Violette - St.Arnaud

 Photo - Colleen Nichollson

Joe Pernice - Deep Into the Dawn (ft. Aimee Mann).

Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers and Scud Mountain Boys will release his debut solo studio album Sunny, I Was Wrong on April 3, 2026 via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by Pernice and features Aimee Mann, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub. Rodney Crowell, Jimmy Webb, and includes liner notes written by Warren Zanes (author of Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska). Pernice is also joined by Jim Creeggan of Barenaked Ladies, Mike Belitsky of The Sadies, Mike Evin, and Mike McKenzie as his backing band across the album. Sunny, I Was Wrong follows the 2024 Pernice Brothers album Who Will You Believe. 

This week, Pernice shared the album highlight “Deep Into the Dawn (ft. Aimee Mann).” He says, “Of all of the recordings I have ever made, this is my favorite. The musicians played beautifully and what can I say about Aimee Mann’s singing? As I was writing the song I had her voice in mind. I’ve said a lot already about her greatness as a songwriter, musician and performer. She’s a legit hero of mine. Obviously, I was pretty stoked when she agreed to sing with me. And she sang perfectly. I’m so pleased with how the song turned out. I’m almost able to listen to it as if it were not mine. Almost.” Pernice previously shared the album’s first single, “The Black and the Blue” as well. 
  
For the past 30 years, Joe Pernice has crafted a remarkable catalog that boldly reinterprets and recasts classic American pop. First with the alt-country legends Scud Mountain Boys and then with the indie-pop mainstays Pernice Brothers, he has etched bittersweet stories out of songs that echo Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, and Paul Williams. Instead of the Pernice Brothers moniker, he emerges as a solo artist with Sunny, I Was Wrong, his first studio album under his own name (after two solo efforts home-recorded and self-released during the pandemic in 2020: Richard and the Barry Manilow tribute Could It Be Magic).  “It was always just me and other people, but in this case there’s almost none of those other people. My brother Bob sings one vocal and Patrick Berkery plays one drum track. They’re the only two left who I was playing with regularly. It felt like it was time to move on.”

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Bea Elmy Martin - Anouk.

Bea Elmy Martin is quietly carving out a vital space within the UK alternative landscape. London born and bred, her music is defined by emotional precision, blending ethereal vocals, orchestral intimacy and brooding electronics. Raised on the sounds of classic soul artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, Bea developed an early understanding of melody and feeling, using songwriting as a way to process life, love and loss from a young age. She describes songwriting as her journal, a way of breaking overwhelming emotions into something tangible and manageable, allowing moments of beauty, pain and connection to surface gently rather than being forced.

After the release of her 2021 debut single “Blue Escape”, which earned early BBC tastemaker support from Jack Saunders and Lauren Laverne, Bea began a slow, intentional creative journey alongside her producer Dominick J Goldsmith (HÆLOS). That collaboration led to Under The Yew (Vol. 1), released in May 2025, a luminous, grief-to-beauty infused meditation on loss and renewal. Rather than chasing momentum, Bea allowed the work to unfold over time, sustaining its emotional thread through subsequent singles “Lost” and “Born To Fly” from Under The Yew (Vol. 2), before returning in January 2026 with “Unscarred" a track that continued her exploration of transformation and inner strength.

Her new single “Anouk”, offers one of her most intimate moments yet. Written about her best friend, whom she met at university, the song evolved slowly as their relationship changed and deepened over time. “Anouk is a song I wrote about my best friend,” Bea explains. “While recording it, we were living on opposite sides of London, which was challenging at times, but we made it work. Because the song is about someone I love very deeply, every session I felt a push to make it sound more and more ethereal because she is so special to me.” The track became one she revisited more than any other, its structure and feeling shifting alongside the friendship itself. “In a way, the song moved alongside our friendship as it grew and changed. Going back into a song multiple times doesn’t mean you lack intention. Sometimes it’s exactly what a song needs.”

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The Foot & Leg Clinic - Where did all the fruit go?

Glasgow wonk-rockers The Foot & Leg Clinic (fka The Wife Guys of Reddit) return with Sit Down for Rock and Roll (released March 13th via Bingo Records), a raucous, restless and unexpectedly tender debut album led by the urgent new single ‘Where did all the fruit go?’. The Foot & Leg Clinic — Niamh R MacPhail, Arion Xenos, Angus Fernie and Elise Atkinson arrive at this album following what MacPhail describes as “a bit of a shiter the past couple years.” Written and recorded across illness, close bereavements, and a year-long break from live shows, Sit Down for Rock and Roll is the sound of a band forced to slow down and discovering they benefit from it.

With a new name and a deliberately slower creative process, the album marks a clear turning point for the band, grappling with adaptation — personal, societal, and bodily using humour, surreal imagery, and sharp hook. “We were kind of forced to work at a slower pace,” says MacPhail, “but probably for the better of the final product.” Xenos agrees: “It still feels eclectic, but it’s a little bit more focused. We definitely thought about this as an album project when working on it, as opposed to other things before.”

The lead single ‘Where did all the fruit go?’ distills generational unease into a deceptively simple question: “I’ve got nothing to show”. Breathless, hook-heavy and charged with live energy, it’s one of the band’s most immediate and relatable songs to date, pairing jangling urgency with a chorus that lingers long after the last note. “It’s about getting to a point in your life where you thought you’d have a bit more to show for it,” says MacPhail. “To find that you don't.”

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The Green Apple Sea - dark kid (Album).

The theme running through the episodes on the album "Dark Kid" is Stefan Prange's not always easy childhood and adolescence. The fact that his stepfather nicknamed his father "Satan" only seems a bit strange in retrospect. The fact that his stepbrothers chained him to a stair railing with a bicycle lock when no one else felt like watching him might seem a bit cruel in hindsight. But for 10-year-old Prange, it was nothing out of the ordinary. When he tells these stories and sings lines like "I wasn't afraid to die, I was just waiting to die," it's meant with the same pragmatic naiveté with which the protagonist, "Dark Kid," accepts his surroundings.

"Dark Kid" isn't about making the audience feel childhood trauma or depression. It's about transforming sadness into melancholy, bitterness into a shrug, anger into an outstretched hand. The resulting folk songs are so smooth and gentle, so utterly timeless. The term "indie" is only used because The Green Apple Sea have always played in small clubs, stoically carrying on. They were one of the first bands to make this distinctly American music here in Germany. Long before the hype and long after.

The album titled "Dark Kid" doesn't try to impose itself, but Prange can sing the songs on it hundreds of times without ever growing tired of them. The stories hidden within can be told countless times. As a listener, you can hear the songs a hundred times, discovering small, loving details and finding new meaning in individual lyrics. (We know this because we already have.) The tracks on "Dark Kid" are episodic, like a new season of a TV series. But if "Dark Kid" is a season of "The Green Apple Sea," then the series is rather old-fashioned. One in which the heroine sends a demon back to hell in every single episode. One in which she ends up holding a hand, or strolling in a sunset, or—best of all—laughing with her friends. The Green Apple Sea distills all the album's stories down to a single sentence in the final song. It's a quote from Terence McKenna: "Oh, I know this now. It's all about love. Making someone else's life a little bit better." Freeze frame, end credits.

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Fur Blossom - Goldsmith.

Coming back out of the haze, Melbourne’s Fur Blossom are fronting the evolution revolution with their latest single ‘Goldsmith’, out Friday, February 20. In 2025, Fur Blossom released their debut EP ‘The She Said Sun EP’, a kaleidoscopic exploration of psychedelic rock. Following up with a regional Victorian tour, the four-piece band have taken to the scene with an unrelenting ferocity. This year will see the band make their festival debut, first at Mordi Festival (Melbourne), then in Tasmania this March at Good Gumnuts Festival, before heading up the East Coast in support of their new single ‘Goldsmith’.

Combining classic elements from the pioneers of the 60s and 70s, and the sleek modernness of the 21st century, ‘Goldsmith’ is a zeitgeist in its own right. Musically, it evokes the time and spirit of an era from the past, but lyrically speaks to the ageless conundrum of changing yourself for someone else, or someone from your past.  

An articulated and undulating guitar riff immediately sets the tone for the slow burn of the extended introduction. The subtle fade in of each instrument creates a false sense of security, and before you know it, you are sucked into a sonic vortex. The crisp and contemplative vocal performance from Craig Tees rises above the instrumentation, before fading back in the chorus, creating depth and dimension to allow every part of the arrangement to speak and demand attention. 

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Photo - Emily Dynes

Chloe Violette - Colourfast.

‘Colourfast’ is made to last. A musical narrative of resilience and reflection, ‘Colourfast’ by Chloe Violette is set for release on Friday, February 20. An artist unafraid to champion topics such as mental health, grief, and claiming space, Chloe blends atmospheric soundscapes with captivating honesty in an indie pop and folk style on her upcoming album.
 
Originally shaped between inner-city Melbourne (Naarm) and regional Victoria on Brataualung Country, ‘Colourfast’ traces Chloe’s shift from city life to small-town living. Swapping the No. 11 tram to West Preston for long V/Line journeys, the now Gippsland-based artist captures a recalibration of pace, place, and identity through songs balancing heartache and hope.
 
‘Colourfast’ is an album born out of lockdown, reflecting Chloe’s inner and outer worlds at a time when motivation felt fragile. It explores themes of monotony, heaviness, and hope, tracing a contrasting emotional journey alongside the sweet, simple moments of humanity.
 
Traces of optimism emerge in the title track ‘Colourfast’, which centres on endurance and forward movement. The lyrics chart a story of graduated resilience, while the music weaves folky acoustic guitars, buttery piano, steadfast rhythms, and subtle harmonies.

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St.Arnaud - Midwest Superstardom. 

St.Arnaud, the indie pop project of Ian St.Arnaud, is set to release "Midwest Superstardom," another insight into their upcoming album, St.Arnaud, due out April 10th, 2026 via Cordova Bay Records. The single arrives February 20th alongside two additional tracks, "Blue Paper" and the already-released "Love You! (For Real)."

The title track chronicles the slow-motion fade of a road warrior who's equal parts delusional and self-aware, chasing the sunset of a forgettable career with a grin still plastered on their face. Built on swaggering, country-soaked instrumentation that explodes into full-throated Americana anthemics, "Midwest Superstardom" asks the question every gigging musician secretly contemplates: "What if the best we can hope for is to be the local touring band? Is that so bad? Are we making it?"

Ian expands on the core concept: "This was an old idea that grew quickly in the fertile soil of a band under pressure in the studio. The question of 'what if the best we can hope for as musicians is to be the local touring band?' wasn't a tough sell of an idea for anyone in the room to reckon with." While maintaining St.Arnaud's signature indie sensibility, the track is part honky-tonk heartbreak, part arena-rock bombast—all delivered with a knowing wink. Ian recalls the creative breakthrough: "After a brief, but very loud, jam of us putting on our best Alberta country band impression, we discovered a little bit of Meatloaf that we tried to lean into."

St.Arnaud · Midwest Superstardom

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