Katherine Perkins - Brooke Annibale - V.V. Lightbody - Night Teacher

Photo - Katherine Emery

Katherine Perkins - Swiftly.

“Swiftly” is kind of a cinematic lullaby for the end of an era — it’s last call at the bar of our youth. It's the final single ahead of the album 'Helpless Love' which is due September 25.

Perkins' first solo record, Being Younger, was primarily an album about friendships and getting older; with Helpless Love, Perkins says she was trying to take a step back and look at humans with a wider lens, "because so much of what we do is so baffling to me."

There are elements of the Americana worlds of Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt, flashes of bizarro humor in the galaxy of Aldous Harding, and something higher-octane that’s hard to put a finger on. For this, her second full-length album, Perkins wrote the songs on piano and recorded them on Wurlitzer. Her band brought a host of musical upbringings and influences to the table, from indie-pop to folk to soul to jazz, and the result is an unplaceable hybrid that is both fresh and deeply familiar.

============================================================================

Photo - Sasha Pedro

Brooke Annibale - Bolder Font (Album).

Indie singer/songwriter Brooke Annibale has released her new album Bolder Font. Her first collection of brand new music in four years, Bolder Font finds the Rhode Island-based, Pittsburgh-native at the precipice of a creative rejuvenation as she rediscovers her self-worth after a series of disheartening and unexpected setbacks. Bolder Font also marks the first time she dove into full creative control of an entire album, including writing, recording, producing, editing, and mixing entirely on her own.

"I learned so much making this record,” stated Brooke. “Not just about recording, producing and mixing, but I learned something quite extraordinary about life in general. The process is the fulfillment. The fulfillment is not the likes, the streams, or any of the visible successes. It’s the quiet moments of making the thing, and making it with my hands, my mind and my whole heart. The release is the celebration of that process."

Capturing the album’s emotional centerpiece is the recently released “Try Again,” which finds Brooke turning the lens on her own complicated relationship with music: the thing that has always healed her is also the thing that has wounded her. The title track “Bolder Font” wrestles with the album’s underlying theme of self-worth and the gap between who we are and the identities that have been placed on us. Additional highlights include the wry and nostalgic “Birthday,” an ode to friendships lost to fading time “wrapping Annibale’s raw, unflinching songwriting in sweet warmth” (Atwood); the electrifying, irresistible “Make You Mine,” as well as “Daily Dose,” a spirited reflection on unfiltered enthusiasm, and “My Favorite Part,” the heartbreakingly vulnerable opening track.

============================================================================

Photo - Shannon Marks

V.V. Lightbody - Two Swans.

Today Chicago songwriter and multi-instrumentalist V.V. Lightbody is sharing "Two Swans." It's the final advance single from her new LP Period Piece and it comes with a video directed by Robert Salazar. 

Quote from V.V.: Anywhere I saw two swans, it felt like a comforting sign from the universe that I was doing something right. I eventually began to question their cosmic potency when I started seeing them too often and remembered that swans are usually portrayed in pairs. “Two Swans” critiques our society’s tendency towards “magical thinking” while also confessing my curiosity and delight in divinatory practices. I feel like this song feels deeply Chicago and combines many of my musical influences - angular guitars, mixed meter chorus, and raging farfisa. Cate Le Bon, but in a cornfield.  

Vivian has long been an in demand collaborator whatever instrument she's on (flute, guitar, vocals, etc), and the fact that she's sought out by folks as diverse as art-rock group FINOM, International Anthem-signed Panamanian drummer Daniel Villarreal, and Harry Styles indicates how highly regarded and diverse her musicianship is. Her collaborators are largely a who's who of the thriving Chicago indie and new jazz scenes, and her own project has always been a place for her to explore songs that cache intense feelings under self-effacing midwestern humor, breezy Brazilian-influenced guitar picking, and gauzy arrangements with sneakily complex moments. "Cate Le Bon in a cornfield or Gal Costa mowing the lawn" as her bio puts it.

============================================================================

Photo - Rich Tarbell

Night Teacher - St. Augustine.

Night Teacher has shared a new single produced by and featuring Allen Tate of San Fermin. Brooding and sultry, “St. Augustine” is an introspective ode to the complexity of love, as songwriter Lilly Bechtel’s vocals delicately braid into Tate’s moody baritone. 

Songwriter Lilly Bechtel shares: St. Augustine is about love in its many forms and the tough work of caring deeply for something without holding on so tightly that it doesn’t have room to change. It is about letting go of preconceived ideas of what love looks like, and the painful paradox that any ‘great’ or ‘lasting’ love is ultimately about having the courage to watch that person leave. It’s about the strength it takes to soften and allow that process to occur; to let love wash over us the way it is meant to, which is rarely—if ever—what we had in mind.

Night Teacher released her sophomore album ‘Year of the Snake’ last fall on First City Artists. Produced by Matt Wyatt (Lowland Hum, David Wax Museum), its gritty, propulsive, and off-kilter sound gathered editorial attention from NPR, Stereogum, WNYU, Atwood Magazine, MAGNET Magazine, Northern Transmissions, and many more.

============================================================================

Margo Mann - Song People - Scaled Alps - Eliza Hull - Detalji - The Goods

Photo - James Morris

Margo Mann - The Worth Of It.

Released today Margo Mann's "The Worth Of It" is a tender, devotional, piano-driven love song. Bare-boned, raw, and timeless, it captures a kind of love that says: whatever comes, I’ll still choose you. Taken from her debut album, Love Is A Dog, arriving October 16 via [PIAS] Recordings.

Margo Mann brings her forthcoming debut album Love Is A Dog to life live, backed by her 5-piece band. The record was written and recorded in France with producer Burke Reid (Julia Jacklin, Olympia, Jack Ladder). It’s cinematic chamber pop with a theatrical edge, bringing hints of the 90’s LA Largo scene to Naarm.

Margo Mann's work lives at the intersection of intimacy and other-worldliness. Drawing on the theatricality of Bowie and Aldous Harding, the layered seriousness of Paul Thomas Anderson films, and the warmth of Fiona Apple's sonic palette, her project creates a world that feels both elevated and cinematic, yet deeply vulnerable.

============================================================================

Photo -  Ian Maley

Song People - The Cone.

"The Cone," the latest single from Song People's upcoming album Tho I Seem Tame, which drops via Strange Mono on October 9th and is sure to set the indie rock world on fire. "The Cone" is existential croonery at its finest, Shaina Kapeluck's elegant, statuesque vocals brimming with romantic abandon and floating effortlessly over a liquidy, Johnny Marr-esque guitar line. If you can imagine Sandy Denny fronting The Smiths or Yo La Tengo you're halfway to understanding the vibe of "The Cone."

Lyrically, the song was inspired by a trip Shaina took to Brattleboro, Vermont, during what's called "Blackberry winter" - when there's a last sudden cold snap before the weather gets warmer. "It felt as if time were moving in reverse," she says, and therein lies the key to the song: all the rhododendrons, azaleas, and floral images symbolize the passage of time and the often disorienting ways in which we experience it.  

Tho I Seem Tame as a whole is how it doesn't feel quite like any other post-punk album around today. It's music that calls to you from some distant place outside the bounds of modern folk, where dream pop and 80s jangle are overlaid with references to Old English poetry, rabbinical legends, and folk tales all but lost to history.

============================================================================

Scaled Alps - Let the Alpine Play (Album).

It's an absolute pleasure to feature 'Let The Alpine Play' on Beehive Candy. We are always on the lookout for artists who test musical boundaries without coming across as self indulgent. Scaled Alps recently released album achieves that. It keeps the listener in expectation as each track unfolds, whilst there are enough hooks, moments of audio pleasure and plain simple original "what's not to like" music.  

The band tell us: Scaled Alps is a Los Angeles band built around singer and lyricist James Quentin Devine and instrumentalist Anthony Percoco. On Let The Alpine Play, Sean McCarthy plays drums and Steve Fishman plays upright and electric bass. Stewart Tuttle recorded the album at The Altar Studios in North Hollywood, and we released it through our own BLUHELL imprint.

The record began with two concentrated days of writing and demos, followed by two days in the studio. We arrived with the material fresh enough to surprise us and recorded much of it without a click. The resulting performances retain their natural movement, including the occasional rough edge or unrehearsed turn. The sixteen songs move through heavy rock, electronics, piano, dub space and stranger forms of pop without settling into one fixed arrangement. The voice remains the point of continuity while the machinery changes around it.

Los Angeles enters the album through specific places, objects and encounters rather than as scenery. North Hollywood strip clubs, empty roads, expensive surfaces, temporary lives and overheard language all found their way in. We wanted the record to feel less like a portrait of the city than something the city had done to us.

============================================================================

Photo - Michelle Grace Hunder

Eliza Hull – Better.

Dja Dja Wurrung Country/Castlemaine-based multi-award-winning songwriter, musician, advocate and writer Eliza Hull just announced her forthcoming album You'd Think We'd Be Used To Change By Now (out 4 Dec independently). The album announcement comes alongside tender alt-pop/indie single plus intimate shot-on-film video 'Better.' 

At its core exploring change and nostalgia, "looking back at who we’ve been while growing into who we’re becoming" - the album moves through relationships, womanhood, desire and the ways we continue to shift and evolve throughout our lives, ultimately a testament to resilience and listening to your instincts steeped in evocative textural production via Hull in her first album co-producer credit alongside ARIA Award-winner Pip Norman (Missy Higgins, Baker Boy, Mia Wray). 

The announcement follows Hull's return to music in June this year, also receiving an O.A.M. in May for her contribution to music and disability advocacy, further cementing her reputation as one of the country's most important voices across both culture and accessibility.

============================================================================

Photo - Federico Cabrera

Detalji - Dancing (With What's Left).

Today, Finnish alternative electronic artist Detalji has shared 'Dancing (With What's Left)', the latest single to be taken from their new album Imagine Life. The album, a genre-fluid electronic record that moves between dreamlike synths, alternative pop melodies, club influences and 80s nostalgia, is set for release next month on October 16th. 

New single ‘Dancing (With What’s Left)’ captures a period of anxiety and the need to escape. "I was suffering from heavy anxiety when making this song, and I was in a place where I had trouble being alone and wanted to be intoxicated all the time," explains Detalji.  "The lyrics are pretty literal in this case. I enjoyed singing with my more gothic voice and creating the arrangement which is refreshingly straightforward when you compare it to many of my other tracks."

Imagine Life is a record about navigating contradiction, the desire to escape and the need to connect, the pull between nostalgia and moving forward, and the search for identity within the chaos of everyday life. Throughout the album, themes of longing, desire, heartbreak, anxiety, liberation and connection emerge repeatedly.

Written across Helsinki, Los Angeles and Berlin, the album captures a year of transition, exploring love, loss and reinvention. Across nine tracks, Detalji weaves together elements of electronica, trip-hop, house, drum & bass and synth soundscapes into a cohesive journey. “Imagine Life is a glimpse into a year of my life,” explains Detalji. “I was moving between different cities, ending a relationship and figuring out what kind of life I wanted next. The album feels like a mixture of LA sunsets, Nordic melancholy and gritty Berlin basement beats.”

============================================================================

The Goods - Goodbye Summertime (Album).

Oakland, California power pop outfit The Goods return today September 16 with Goodbye Summertime, the sophomore LP on Dandy Boy Records. Less than a year after Don't Spoil the Fun, songwriter Rob Good delivers the rare follow-up that doesn't simply build on a debut, it blows the walls out around it. Drawing from Beatles-inflected psychedelia, Brian Wilson-esque balladry, sunshine pop, jangling folk rock, and the timeless pull of classic guitar pop, Goodbye Summertime is a record that refuses to sit still, chasing melody around every corner without ever losing sight of the hook. 

For anyone who's spent time around the Bay Area underground, Good has always been there. Playing clubs too small to remember their names. Loading gear into the back of a car after midnight. Watching rehearsal spaces disappear, venues close, neighborhoods reinvent themselves, and another generation of bands figure it out the same way he did. That perspective runs quietly through Goodbye Summertime. It's a record made by someone who understands that places change, people change, and the trick isn't hanging onto the past. It's deciding what deserves to come with you.

Produced almost entirely by Good in his Oakland studio, the album captures an artist trusting instinct over expectation. Songs were written, recorded, rearranged, and rebuilt as inspiration arrived, pulling from every shelf in Good's record collection without feeling trapped by any of it. One minute the band slips into kaleidoscopic psychedelia, the next into sunshine pop or chiming folk rock, before circling back to the crunchy guitars and towering harmonies that have always been The Goods' calling card. Rather than sounding like a collection of influences, Goodbye Summertime feels like the moment they all stopped competing and finally started working together. 

That freedom is heard across every corner of the album. "Summer's Almost Gone" embraces the urgency of living in the present before it slips away. "Minor Key" quietly mourns what's already been lost. "Driving" looks back on the years when an empty gas tank and nowhere to be felt like endless possibility. "Wing" captures the terrifying optimism of new love, while "Sleepytime" closes the record with stacked harmonies and a slow-building swell that feels less like an ending than the first deep breath after everything has settled. Like the album itself, each song is searching for solid ground without pretending life ever really stands still.

============================================================================

Mollie Coddled - Dwayne Gretzky - Charlie Horn - Jeremy Porter and the Tucos

Photo - Maddie Taylor

Mollie Coddled - Raincloud.

Yorkshire (England) songwriter and producer Mollie Coddled has just shared the off-kilter pop single 'Raincloud'. The new single follows a previous track 'The Art Of Falling Apart', which received early spins from BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 1. 

The new single 'Raincloud' was inspired by "a suffocation of emotional turbulence and crappy English weather" and written during what Mollie calls "the depths of bed rotting season". Turning emotional shutdown into bright, woozy pop, Mollie's tender vocal harmonies and chorus-soaked guitars are backed by wonky synths, overdriven melodies and reverb-heavy drums.

On the new single, Mollie added: "As someone who pushes it all down in an attempt to avoid spiraling into an emotional mess, I find it pretty impossible to cry. So, I’ve always used listening to sad songs as a way to purge my emotions and give myself permission to wallow; Raincloud is a manifestation of that (I want to cry every time I hear it now, hahaha)."

'Raincloud' teases the release of a new body of work which finds Mollie turning intrusive thoughts, romantic obsession, emotional paralysis and everyday catastrophes into bright, wonky pop songs filled with self-deprecating humour and disarming sincerity.

============================================================================

Dwayne Gretzky - Dwayne’s World Vol. 1 (Album).

After 16 years, more than a thousand live performances, and a reputation as Canada’s ultimate party band, Dwayne Gretzky is bringing the spirit of their celebrated live show to listeners everywhere. Dwayne’s World Vol. 1 collects 20 standout performances from the band’s wildly popular Dwayne’s World YouTube series into their first-ever live covers album, available digitally September 15 and on limited-edition vinyl September 18.

Recorded completely live off the floor inside a painstakingly recreated Wayne’s World-inspired basement set, the collection captures everything that has made Dwayne Gretzky a beloved live act: infectious energy, remarkable musicianship and an unmistakable joy for celebrating some of the greatest songs ever written.

Among the collection’s defining moments is the band’s rendition of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” a natural showcase for the scale and chemistry of Dwayne Gretzky’s ensemble. Tackling a song built around the interplay of two unmistakable voices, the band approaches the classic with the same philosophy that guides the entire project: honour what makes the original timeless while allowing the personalities and strengths of their own rotating cast of musicians to shine through.

“Under Pressure” sits comfortably within an album designed to move with the dynamics of a Dwayne Gretzky concert. From the euphoric singalongs of “Radio Ga Ga” and “Take On Me” to the emotional sweep of “The Chain,” the collection jumps effortlessly across decades and genres while continually building momentum.

============================================================================

Charlie Horn - Antlers.

Released today we have "Antlers" from In The Pines front person Charlie Horn's debut solo album Rhythms Unexplained out later this year as a self-released effort. An emotional gut-punch in an album of nothing but emotional gut-punches. “Antlers” is a reverse haunting where Horn watches, immobile from his perch as the antlers on a wall, as another life he could have lived unfolds around him. Lyrics are juxtaposed with a mid-tempo track that employs layers of swirling, twangy guitars and plenty of righteous bass melodies playing ping-pong with each other. Fans of bands like fellow midwesterners Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band or Tobacco City will find a lot to love.  

In The Pines is widely known as Cincinnati, OH's next big psych-rock export. Horn's work, however, dials back the bombast of ITP's swelling, spacey songs in favor of stripped-back, emotionally poignant narratives that track some pretty harrowing emotional points in Horn's timeline. Recorded at the In The Pines nerve-centre, a synthesizer repair shop in the basement of a decommissioned Masonic Temple in Dayton, KY, these songs have a world-weary sound of being fully lived in. Fans of Big Star's 3rd, Conor Oberst's Ruminations or the darkness around Kurt Vile's halo of smoke will find a lot to love here. 

"Antlers" is an emotional gut-punch in an album of nothing but emotional gut-punches. The narrative of“Antlers” is a reverse haunting where Horn watches, immobile from his perch as the antlers on a wall, as another life he could have lived unfolds around him. Lyrics are juxtaposed with a mid-tempo track that employs layers of swirling, twangy guitars and plenty of righteous bass melodies playing ping-pong with each other. Fans of bands like fellow midwesterners Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band or Tobacco City will find a lot to love.

============================================================================

Jeremy Porter and the Tucos - Sell Their Souls (Album).

This is a feisty and musically varied rock & roll album from a band that are clearly geared to live performances, however by no means short on the creative front, so what's the background?  Jeremy Porter and the Tucos are an original rock and roll band from Detroit playing classic American style powerpop, rockabilly, roots-rock/Alt-country, and indie/alternative. If you must call it something, call it Detroit Rock and Roll. Their influences include Cheap Trick, Uncle Tupelo, X, Drive-By Truckers, Hüsker Dü, and just about anything else that rocks, swings, two-steps, or staggers.

The Tucos formed in late 2010 in the Detroit suburbs. They've toured the US and Canada many times, and the UK in 2018. They have five full-length albums out and several 7” singles and contributions to comps and collections. They’ve played with several big-name touring bands. The Tucos partner with Lansing, MI-based GTG Records, distributed by Recess Ops Distribution.

Jeremy and his bandmates, Jake and Troy, are easy going, easy to work with, annoyingly punctual (our band tagline), professional, and hard working. They promote like hell and can play any room from the big rock clubs to the corner coffee shops, and adjust the set, volume, and performance accordingly. They can play all night long, or they can fall in on a bill with other bands. They want everyone to feel safe and welcome at their shows, regardless of race, color, gender, gender expression, or anything else.

============================================================================

Royal Commission - Margo Cilker - The Lumineers - LG Galleon - Lydia Saint George - Black Bordello

Royal Commission - Hard To Defend.

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.

============================================================================

Photo - Jon Moore

Margo Cilker - Molly and Me.

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.

============================================================================

The Lumineers - Isabelle Fly.

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.”

============================================================================

Photo - Silvia Saponaro

LG Galleon - Paralyzed.

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.”

============================================================================

Photo - Elena Cornwell

Lydia Saint George - Lungs.

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.

============================================================================

Photo - Susu Laroche

Black Bordello - Fugue.

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.

============================================================================

Miler - Bone Wars - Freyja Elsy - Gary Calamar feat. Mark Mothersbaugh - Kat Greta - Pam Ross

Photo - Archie Lawson

Miler - Betty.

Brighton-based indie-alternative rock band Miler announce their forthcoming EP Your Best, and release the haunting new single ‘Betty’ (September 11th). Led by Hastings-born songwriter and vocalist Calista Morgan, Miler make music that sits somewhere between intimacy and abandon. Their songs move through confessional indie, hazy shoegaze, brooding ’90s grunge, country-tinged slow burners and huge, cathartic crescendos. Music that can feel close enough to whisper in your ear before suddenly opening up into something much bigger.

At the centre of it all is Morgan's voice: soaring and tender one moment, raw and guttural the next. ‘Betty’ is the first glimpse into Your Best, and perhaps its most emotionally immediate one. Written about the final conversation Morgan had with a close friend before her death, it is a song about grief, warning, memory and the things that stay with us. There is weight to it, but Miler let the song breathe and move with a genuine sense of emotion whilst keeping a driving sense of purpose - gritty guitars, tight drums and grounding bass under a vocal performance that feels both exposed and intimate yet completely in control.

Recorded with Alex McCrea at his home studio in Brighton and at Hook Studios in Oxfordshire with producer Jamie Biles (Isaac Gracie, Gretel, Miles Kane, Nick Mulvey and Delilah Montague), ‘Betty’ gradually builds from its stripped-back beginnings into something much bigger. Vocal harmonies bloom around the chorus, carrying a fleeting essence of Fleetwood Mac, before the guitars and driving drums crash back in, pulling the song towards a restless, yearning climax.

Morgan explains: “‘Betty’ is about the last conversation I had with a friend before she died, in which she told me to think carefully about my life and what path I was on, before I ended up on a path like hers. This has very much shaped the EP as it is quite a personal self reflection and exploration of my experiences and how I let them shape me, and the parallels in our life that she warned me against.”

============================================================================

Bone Wars - Bone Wars (Album).

Bone Wars are a fearsome psych-rock quartet from Yorkshire, blending classic psychedelia, heavy rock, funk and Turkish psych into an eclectic, high-energy sound that is as comfortable with a huge riff as it is with an eight-minute improvisational freak-out.

Named after the late-19th-century rivalry between American palaeontologists racing to uncover new dinosaur species, Bone Wars turn a fascination with prehistoric creatures into the inspiration for a collection of songs about dinosaurs, extinction, geology and the strange stories behind the science.

Their sound draws on the classic psychedelia of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and The Zombies, the contemporary explorations of The Oh Sees and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, the funk of Parliament/Funkadelic, the electric experimentation of Miles Davis, Turkish psych from Mogollar and Altın Gün, and the heavier instincts of Led Zeppelin and The Who.

At the centre of it all is a band that thrives on improvisation and musical chemistry. Songs are mapped out with enough structure to give the music direction, then opened up to allow the four musicians to explore dynamics, texture and rhythm. The result is music that can move from a tight, hook-driven rock song into sprawling psychedelic territory without losing its sense of momentum.

============================================================================

Photo - Siria Ferrer

Freyja Elsy - to stop the world turning (EP).

Freyja Elsy’s second EP ‘to stop the world turning’ is released this weekend. The record is deeply personal - exploring memory, identity, anxiety and the lasting imprints of formative experiences. Following her critically acclaimed, outward-looking 2023 debut EP ‘Modern Artifice’, ‘to stop the world turning’ turns to introspection. It reflects on Elsy's formative experiences and the choices that shaped her - asking what remains when we look back at the people we once were and understanding their impact on her future.

The four tracks move through nostalgia, emotional numbness, anxiety, regret and reflection before ending with resolution. Elsy’s signature electronic production and classically trained composition weave through fresh, organic piano, strings, guitar and double bass punctuated by intricate, entrancing vocal arrangements. The EP was self-produced, with recording taking place for the first time outside of a home studio in a remote converted chapel in West Wales alongside engineer Owain Fleetwood Jenkins (Tom Chaplin, Billie Marten, Cerys Hafana).

The project has already built strong momentum through its three singles: ‘In My Veins’ was selected as a Fresh Fave by Freshonthenet, ‘Control’ was described by the BBC's Adam Walton as “an elevating slow burn… sumptuously produced”, featuring on Record of the Day, and ‘Another Life’ crossed over to spend two consecutive weeks on the BBC Radio Wales Welsh A-List. The singles have also received support from The Line of Best Fit, Music Observer, Clash Magazine and others. The EP is rounded out by the final track 'From Within', which seeks redemption from a fractured past.

============================================================================

Gary Calamar feat. Mark Mothersbaugh - I Got An Idea.

Gary Calamar has long been celebrated as a true music scene Renaissance man. You've seen his name as a renowned music supervisor in the credits to acclaimed television shows from the iconic Six Feet Under to the recent hit 3 Body Problem, and LA residents have, since the '90s, known him as a popular DJ on the influential radio program The Open Road (originally on KCRW and now airing weekly on KCSN). 

In the 21st Century, Gary has been increasingly heard as a songwriter and recording artist as well, starting with his acclaimed 2014 debut EP You Are What You Listen To on Atlantic Records and continuing ever since with a well-received series of independent singles, all produced by John Would (Warren Zevon, Fiona Apple). He's won fans with an approach that blends the literate storytelling of Lou Reed with the pop hooks of Tom Petty, the power chords of Pete Townshend and a touch of surreal whimsy reminiscent of Robyn Hitchcock, while forging an identity that's all his own.

This year, things are accelerating rapidly for Calamar, and this new version of the catalog standout “I Got An Idea” (guest vocals Mark Mothersbaugh) serves brilliantly as an emblematic starting point for this next phase. With an infectious abundance of giddy excitement over a creative breakthrough packed into its two-and-a-half-minute run time, it's nearly perfect as a statement of intent for what's to come. Veteran LA scenesters may even recall this Calamar original from its first appearance on beloved alt-rock band Eggplant's second album back in 1990 (Gary was the band's manager) or as the lead of manifesto on his own debut EP 24 years later, but the new version on this single is most certainly the definitive rendition.

============================================================================

Kat Greta - I Know What This Is.

Kat Greta's new indie-pop single ‘I Know What This Is’ has her exploring the universal sting of rejection, those ‘almost’ relationships and the bittersweet, frustrating dance of it all.  ‘I Know What This Is’ and the accompanying music video is out now. Melbourne/Naarm-based artist Kat Greta released her debut Indie-pop EP ‘Rhythm and Reverie’ last year and received support across Australian community radio, with her latest single 'Audacity' reaching #1 on the AMRAP Indie/Alternative charts. She has been a guest on Introducing with Tim Blackwell (NOVA), while her music has also been featured on ABC Rage.
 
Throughout ‘I Know What This Is’, Greta balances energetic, driving beats and bright pop textures with raw, vulnerable lyrics, creating an honest and vibrant indie-pop singalong. Co-written and produced by Seetali Mack and mixed by Matt Voigt (Powderfinger, Midnight Oil, KISS), the track layers expressive instrumentation, soaring vocals and roaring electric guitar into a powerful sound that remains warm and vulnerable.  
 
Greta unravels themes of rejection and unrequited love, woven with the signature humorous energy that permeates her songwriting. The repetition of ‘I Know What This Is’ becomes a point of self-awareness, capturing the clarity and acceptance that comes with recognising when an ‘almost’ relationship isn't going to materialise.  As Kat Greta explains:
 
"‘I Know What This Is’ is about an ‘almost’, and the moment you realise that sometimes silence is the answer. It explores uncertainty, anticipation and the feeling of knowing what something is without ever having it fully defined. Bright, energetic production sits underneath a more bittersweet story, creating a contrast between how the song sounds and what’s happening beneath the surface."

============================================================================

Pam Ross - Lost in Heaven.

Award-winning singer-songwriter Pam Ross released her passionate new single, “Lost in Heaven,” yesterday September 11, 2026. Blending country storytelling, Southern-rock energy, and Americana warmth, the track captures the intoxicating feeling of becoming completely lost in the presence of someone irresistible.

Set against a cinematic backdrop of towering pines, shining stars, and a full moon sworn to secrecy, “Lost in Heaven” follows two people surrendering to the electricity of an unforgettable night. Ross establishes the song’s playful, sensual atmosphere immediately, singing about loud music, faded jeans, dancing, and an attraction “hotter than a day in late June.”

“Lost in Heaven” continues Ross’ tradition of refusing to be confined by a single genre. Her music draws from country, rock, Americana, and roots traditions, creating a sound that is both radio-friendly and unmistakably her own. That artistic versatility earned Ross the title of Female Multi-Genre Artist of the Year at the 2024 Josie Music Awards, reinforcing her reputation as a compelling and independent voice within contemporary roots music.

A dynamic performer and songwriter, Ross has brought her music to stages across the country including Nashville, and at Austin’s celebrated South by Southwest music festival. Her songs regularly combine muscular instrumentation and memorable hooks with personal, emotionally direct writing.

============================================================================