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| Photo - Khaled AlShannan |
Sacred Buzz is a Berlin psych band known for their electrifying live presence and deeply immersive soundscapes. Their sonic palette bridges vintage and modern: garage‑rock grit, krautrock repetition, mesmerizing drones, and proto‑punk drive. On stage, Sacred Buzz conjures a psychedelic ritual: hypnotic drums, throbbing bass, fuzzy guitar reverberating like a lost transmission, droning organ, lo‑fi vocals and surreal lyrics that will rattle your heart out and drive your soul up to the 13th floor in a hazy dream-like vision.
Released today “Lost Highway” captures the feeling of being on the run, hunted by something you can't name, whether it lurks in the world around you or deep within your own mind. A driving krautrock rhythm is spiced with raw guitar and embellished by a brooding synthesizer.
A fuzzy, phased-out riff between verses evokes a sense of being chased with nowhere to run, before it all culminates in a climax that sounds like a speeding car, screeching brakes, and the sudden end of the road. Inspired by dark ambience of Joy Division and fueled with mind-bending imagery of David Lynch, “Lost Highway“ channels the paranoia simmering beneath the daily grind of modern city life.
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| Photo - Henry Croston |
Scottish singer-songwriter Alex Amor releases new single 'Inside' - the final preview of debut album 'Heavenly Bodies' - out 21st August via New York independent label VERO Music. Amor has also been added to the bill for All Points East's Lorde headline day on 22nd August.
The heartbeat of her upcoming debut full-length, 'Inside' is what Alex describes as "a sad-banger lullaby for loved ones gone too soon". A buoyant, guitar-led indie-pop anthem that finds her holding joy and grief in the same hand, "it takes a looking glass to the ugly, scared, and messy parts of my mind," Alex says - from reflections on a world "when friends aren't gonna overdose" to the fear that "if you get too close / I could lose you too".
Speaking more on the release of 'Inside', Alex Amor said: "It’s about coming to terms with compounded grief, generational trauma and taking a stark look at one of the coping mechanisms that defined much of my twenties: dissociation. Pulling away from connection altogether to avoid the pain of needing someone, missing someone, or losing someone. Part of love is accepting loss, making space for grief, and finding the courage to feel it all. It’s a song about connection, the choice to be vulnerable, and learning that the only way through grief is to let yourself feel it."
Originally written as a sprawling poem, 'Inside' arrived in the studio with producer Baz Kaye determined to preserve every word Alex had written. The result is a five-and-a-half-minute centrepiece that pairs some of Amor's most devastating writing to date with an irrepressibly uplifting energy, informed by the sense of optimism Kaye and co-writer Peter Brien carried back from that summer's Glastonbury Festival.
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| Photo - Joshua Black Wilkins |
Josh Rouse has signed to New West Records and will release his label debut Museums and Women on October 23. The 10-song set was produced by Brad Jones, who also produced Rouse’s critically acclaimed 2003 album 1972. Museums and Women showcases Rouse at his most hopeful and romantic, balancing casual poetry and wry humor in equal measure as he conjures up a cast full of drifters and dreamers moving through life with quiet satisfaction.
The music is often bittersweet, with a gentle, seemingly placid surface that belies the deep well of emotion and memory and desire underneath. The result is a lush, cinematic exploration of the endless stream of passing strangers who slip in and out of our lives on a daily basis. He says, “I was drawn to these songs because they’re so observational. They’re full of characters and stories I dreamed up from little moments that sparked my imagination on the road. At the end of the day, though, it’s inevitable that I’m in there somewhere, too.”
The sessions for Museums and Women were quick and raw, with Rouse on guitar, Jones on bass, and Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, The Chicks) on drums. The trio would record live in the morning, cutting multiple songs in a row before returning in the afternoon to complete overdubs while the music was still fresh and new. “At a certain point, Brad had this folder full of recordings on his desktop, and he asked me what to call it,” Rouse remembers. “I suggested Museums and Women because it was the name of a John Updike book I’d always loved, and it just felt right for the kind of stories I was telling.” Indeed, Museums and Women is a particularly fitting title for a collection that observes its subjects from a reverent distance, elevating ordinary moments of human connection (or lack thereof) into gallery-worthy masterpieces.
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Chicago singer-songwriter Jules Klee, who as opened for and/or performed with Joe Pug, Colin Gilmore, John Fullbright, and the West Texas Exiles, released the single "He Don't Know a Thing" at the end of last week. "He Don't Know a Thing" is the first single from her forthcoming album, Roses on My Table, to be released in 2027. "He Don't Know a Thing" (and the album, overall) explores a love that endured distance, addiction, and loss.
Jules Klee is an Americana singer-songwriter, with a voice that knows when to soothe and when to bruise. Her voice can quiet a dive bar—and then carry it. Her songwriting is rooted in plainspoken emotional clarity: songs told without flinching,
“Jules Klee has a Chicago career of her own but shares a huge voice for harmony,” wrote No Depression. “She’s got pipes that rival Neko Case and Kelly Hogan,” added Time Out Chicago, “We don’t know her name.” The line lingered—less as a critique than a kind of unfinished introduction.
Her early work began quietly, through Chicago’s songwriter circles, earning a reputation for an arresting vocal presence that could shift a room without asking permission. “There’s a power and realness in her songs that’s hard to come by,” as stated by Colin Gilmore, fellow songwriter & friend whom Klee has recorded with, and joined on tour.
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Today the UK's Railcard have shared 'Unstable Neighbour' as a further taste of their forthcoming album 'Two Steps At A Time.' Railcard made their live debut in December 2025 and had by then recruited their fourth member: Allison Thomson (Trash Can Sinatras, The Love Band), whose flawless trumpet and swirly keyboard-playing complete the Railcard sound, allowing the band to fulfil the significant ambition and range of the songs, which are mostly co-written and often co-sung by Love and Button. “Flannelette” and “Sunday Sun”, delicate and swoony, could almost be Slapp Happy at their most Bacharach. “Foxy”, mysterious and charming, has more than a hint of Kate Bush December magic.
The raucous duet “I’m A Disaster” is The Kinks meets deadpan Shangri-Las. The title track could have been an alternative theme tune for Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads. “Runaround” is like a school choir doing The Raincoats. “Unstable Neighbour”, mesmerising and insistent: it might make you think of Stereolab; we might imagine an indiepop Hawkwind. Peter Momtchiloff also contributes two wonderful songs on the album: the fragile and hallucinatory “Paper Thin” and the Love-meets-Undertones rush of “Hillman Minx”.
Two Steps At A Time is released on Skep Wax and Slumberland September 18th 2026. An exclusive Dinked edition of 300 copies including a 7 inch single with 2 additional tracks will be available at participating UK record stores. The band have a string of UK dates through the summer and Autumn and there will be a Bandcamp listening party for the album at 8pm (UK time) on September 16th.
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| Photo - Jacq Justice |
Today, the Athens, GA-born Futurebirds released “Pretty Eyes,” a cosmic country meditation on true love from the second half of their forthcoming double album Far Out Country II that will be digitally released September 4 via Dualtone Records. In June, Futurebirds released the full 18-song collection exclusively on vinyl, while just the first 9 songs that comprise Far Out Country I arrived on streaming services.
About the song, Daniel “Womz” Womack explains, “‘Pretty Eyes’ is my most vulnerable song - a slow-burning surrender anthem about the less lofty side of love. It holds one of my favorite lines I’ve ever written: ‘You feel like it’s vanity anytime you cry, you’re challenging the universe.’ I blacked out writing it and when I came to it was written in my notes. It’s the feeling of being torn between self-protection and the relief of being truly seen – not just by someone you love, but by yourself. It’s a song for anyone who’s ever loved someone so much it felt like losing an argument with themselves.”
Later this month, Futurebirds will kick off the final leg of their album release tour with two hometown shows at the Georgia Theater on August 20 and 21, followed by an appearance an AmericanaFest and a run of dates supporting Trampled By Turtles. Futurebirds is Brannen Miles (bass), Carter King (vocals, guitar), Daniel Womack (vocals, guitar), Thomas Johnson (vocals, guitar), and Tom Myers (drums).
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