[MadhattanJack]

Three more notables for March 20th:

• Tedeschi Trucks Band, Future Soul: I think this is their tenth studio album if you count the four "I Am the Moon" EPs, or the sixth if you don't. I'm a little surprised at how much I liked this one, since blues-rock is definitely Not My Thing. But then I thought, c'mon, why shouldn't it be? I'm certainly old enough at this point.
  
  
• KillerStar, The Afterglow: It's not their first album, but apparently what happened here is that a guy named Rob Fleming got several of David Bowie's old post-Spiders backing musicians together and said, "let's start a band!" And they did! Only Rob Fleming isn't quite the singer David Bowie was, and when I first heard this I almost started thinking he isn't even quite the singer I am, which would be pretty harsh if true. (It isn't.) But the backing tracks are fantastic, and you can probably get used to the voice. Eventually.
  
  
• Grace Ives, Girlfriend: This is electro-pop with more intelligence and better vocals than your typical radio/streamer-friendly hit-making machine product, and the album impressed even me, but ultimately she's going to need more guitars in there to make me a convert. Still, her voice is great, not quite up to Kate Bush levels but she has similar tone and control. She's just not quite there in the highest registers, but then again, neither am I.

Oh, and that new Girl Scout album really is out and it's definitely my pick of the week. Whew! I was really sweatin' that one, lemme tellya.

[Tap]

I've been slow to get up on the Underscores stuff, it seems like there's so much lore! I'm pretty in the dark but I've enjoyed what I've heard, psyched to hear more.

My big suggestion for this week is

Ali and Charif Megarbane - Tirakat
https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/habibi-funk-034-tirakat

The latest in the Habibi Funk series is a total delight, just so many straight bops on here. Good, good tunes!!

But also, big rec for

Damaged Bug - ZUZAX
https://damagedbug.bandcamp.com/album/zuzax

John Dwyer got stuck on this one for like 7 years!! Extremely rare to get something with so much consideration time from the highly prolific artist, and I think it winds up making this one quite special in his discog

Also a good idea to look out for new ones from Saba Alizadeh, John McGuire, more eaze, and Adam O'Farrill

[MadhattanJack]

Loose Ends: There were only two surprise drops of note this week. One of them is the new BTS (Bangtan sonyeondan) album, entitled Arirang. Most of them are over 30 now, so I should call them a K-pop band instead of a "boy band," but either way I suspect the South Korean government is coordinating these album drops to prevent teenagers from rioting, because I guess that's just what they like to do there. The other drop is from Neurosis, called An Undying Love for a Burning World. This is a doomy "post-metal" band from Oakland who formed 40 years ago, when the word "neurosis" was still being used by psychiatric diagnosticians. But hey, they still rock!

Mostly I just wanted to point out two releases from Friday the 20th that are free/NYOP downloads (at least for now) on Bandcamp, for the benefit of those of you who are still downloaders:

• Suitor, Saw You Out with the Weeds: This band (from Cleveland, OH) bills itself as an "art-punk" act. It's actually their second album (the first one, Communion, is OK but suffers from excessively lo-fi production sound). The album is really good, though the cover art is lackluster at best and so is the band name... still, if you like stuff like P.J. Harvey, Shana Falana, or early Cocteau Twins, or maybe if you think Interpol would have been much better with a female singer, or if you like Alvvays or Warpaint but wish they were more aggressive-sounding, you might very well like this. (I was impressed, anyway.)
  
  
• Dream Deleter, Dream Deleter EP: This is the debut EP from a shoegazey post-rock (with vocals) band from Fort Worth, TX — it's only four tracks, but it's about 27 minutes total, so it counts as an album here on BEA. Its not groundbreaking or anything, but it's loud and has lots of distortion and reverb, so of course I liked it. I also like the idea of being able to delete dreams, since most of mine involve things like plumbing disasters and forgetting to put clothes on for TV appearances.

Finally, fans of extreme-metal bands who wear masks all the time won't want to miss the new album by Gaerea, their fifth, entitled Loss. Even if you like extreme-metal bands that don't wear masks all the time, you might still like it — it's just that extreme.

This week we're in now looks a little better than last week for the older contingent, what with new stuff from Paula Kelley, The Twilight Sad, and the Young Fresh Fellows, but unless one of those (or the new Courtney Barnett album) is totally mind-blowingly great, my pick-of-the-week is once again likely to be a non-Friday, non-geriatric release — namely the new Cigarettes for Breakfast album, Colour Wheel, which is supposed to arrive on Tuesday.

Until then! 😄

Suitor • Saw You Out With The Weeds (2026)

[Repo]

RELEASE DAY EVE: March 27th, 2026

Does Audience:Band Loyalty Matter? 🤔


The Former Site Of (2026) by The New Pornographers

Does anyone else remember Billy Corgan’s hissy-fit after Adore, one of my favorite Pumpkins' albums btw, was released? The one where he bitched & moaned that Smashing Pumpkins fans weren’t loyal enough since Adore failed to sell quite like Mellon Collie? Did Billy have a point?

Some of my friends are incredibly "band loyal" and focus on just a few select bands; essentially buying every album their favorites put out. Their CD shelves would always look remarkably uniform and tidy – something I sort of admired. Meanwhile, and I’m sure this comes as no surprise, I was constantly jumping around & looking for new sounds. I also had a pretty firm belief that most bands, even the good ones, only had two or three vital albums in them.

So why do I feel just a bit guilty that I’ve totally slacked on my relationship with The New Pornographers? I consider their first three albums – Mass Romantic (2000), Electric Version (2003), & Twin Cinema (2005)- to be absolute classics of Indie Rock in the 2000s. Yet, after struggling to get into Challengers (2007), I sort of ditched them and never looked back.

Until now! Their new single "Votive" positively crackles. Possessing propulsive dynamic shifts & riffs that remind me of peak ‘80s New Order. And the other two singles released thus far are no slouches either! Who knew?! Now I feel like I've been missing out! Waah! 🙀 Anyone have a favorite New Pornographers album post-2005 that I need to check out?! Clue in the clueless! 🙏

What MARCH 27th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! 🔭👀

[MadhattanJack]

There's a ton of "significant" stuff coming out tomorrow, and after this the next two weeks will probably be a lull-period leading up to the big Apr. 17 Record Store Day avalanche. But my own expectations have only changed slightly... 😐

I wouldn't call the new Cigarettes for Breakfast album (Colour Wheel) a "disappointment" — it's still probably the best shoegaze-classic LP of the year so far, but that's actually not saying much. It's just not as good as last year's Cigarettes for Breakfast album, and I've become horribly spoiled because it's the first time this has happened with them. I guess I thought they would keep getting better and better until someone other than me finally took notice, or at least reported them to the Food and Drug Administration.

That means the big revelation is now the new Paula Kelley album, Blinking as the Starlight Burns Out. I knew it would be good, but not this good! For those who aren't aware, Paula Kelley is the lead singer of the Drop Nineteens, an OG shoegaze band from Boston, but her solo records (including this new one) have all been much more pop-oriented, and could even be called straight-up 70s-influenced pop along the lines of the Beach Boys, ELO, or Todd Rundgren, only with vocals more reminiscent of teenbeat singers like Tiffany or April March. Whatever! The fact is, I haven't heard an album like this that sounds this good since Cathy Dennis's Am I the Kinda Girl. That was 1996...


Paula Kelley
Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out (2026)

So that's my pick-of-the-week, and for a while there I thought it might be my AotY (so far) too, but I think that was just initial enthusiasm, maybe...? I get that way sometimes.

In addition to that, we have:

• Courtney Barnett, Creature of Habit: I doubt you're going to see many negative reviews of this one, but the thing I like about her is the occasional silliness, so if she's jettisoned that, I'm not gonna be anywhere near as interested.
  
• The Twilight Sad, It's the Long Goodbye: These guys keep making good albums, but they're practically the definition of a "cult band" because they do that sort of gritty, almost-bluesy western-tinged midtempo stuff that only a small percentage of people really like. And i'm still not sure I'm one of those people... not yet, anyway.
  
• Young Fresh Fellows, Loft: This is probably going to be great, and the usual assortment of friends and co-conspirators is on board, most of whom are now getting very close to retirement age.
  
• Snail Mail, Ricochet: I do like her stuff; there are just others who sound similar who I like more, I guess.
  
• Cult of Dom Keller, Unholy Drum: This is a "heavy psych" band from Nottingham, who are really good but not quite THAT good, so far at least. The preview tracks suggest this could be one of their best albums, maybe their best yet, so fingers crossed for that.
  
• MEMORIALS, All Clouds Bring Not Rain: This is a 60s/70s pop-influenced post-punk duo, with Matthew Simms (the guy who replaced B.C. Gilbert in Wire) and Verity Susman (from Electrelane) on vocals and non-guitar instuments. It's their second album and it seems like a safe bet to be pretty good, but I'm not going to get all excited about it, at least not yet.

And in addition to those, there are new albums from the (mostly older) people-you've-heard-of contingent, including Robyn (not that Robyn) with Sexistential; Flea's Honora, basically a jazz/lounge album with some dub; Suzi Quatro's Freedom (which, as you'll recall, must sometimes be paid for in blood); Nina Hagen's Highway to Heaven, a kind of "gospelpunk" album as she's apparently quite religious; Slayyyter's WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA (which I have to say is probably an appropriate title); and Melissa Etheridge's Rise. Repo already mentioned the new New Pornographers album... My experience with them is very similar to his, though I only bought Twin Cinema myself.

Speaking of Robyn — Robyn Hitchcock that is, the "real" one — he just announced a new full-band LP to arrive on July 24, entitled The Confuser. So my year is officially "made," as they say.

This will probably be information-overload for most people, but there's also quite a lot of new stuff from bands you haven't necessarily heard of, way too many to list in full, so I'm only including the stuff I personally liked one or two tracks by. (I don't think any of these have been added to BEA as of the time I'm posting this.)

• Wildernesses, Growth: One of those post-rock-ish, dark-shoegazey baritone-singer kind of bands.
  
• SSAANN, Higher: Chillwave, but very nicely produced, and I really like the singer (who is female, of course).
  
• Green Seagull, Smoke and Mirrors: Retro 60s British psychedelia. Fun!
  
• The Corner Laughers, Concerns of Wasp & Willow: Tweepop, and the "nice" kind at that, from Northern Cali.
  
• Many Tiny Boxes, Moon Touches Earth: Kind of a weird/quirky experimental pop act. Apparently it's a solo release from someone who goes by the name "Aspen Fawn," only there's a Youtuber named @Aspenfawn who is, shall we say, a bit of an exhibitionist who shows no indication of having any musical talent whatsoever. It can't be the same person, but also I can't guarantee it isn't the same person.
  
• The Pretty Flowers, Never Felt Bitter: Melodic punk/power-pop. Very nice, actually.
  
• Dry Socket, Self Defense Techniques: Pretty good hardcore punk/screamo outfit from Portland, OR, notable because the person doing the screaming is a woman. (That's unusual, right? Or am I being sexist?)
  
• Hikes, Winnower: From Austin, TX, this band calls itself a "mathfolk" act, which I think just means they're a folk-rock act with a really good drummer. Maybe too good.
  
• Dead Finks, New Plastik Abyss: A post-punk, jangly-guitars duo, currently based in Berlin, with a straight-up-punk singer.
  
• The Pale White, Inanimate Objects of the 21st Century: Two brothers from Tyneside who do not-quite-lo-fi power pop with occasional riffage. This one is a bit darker than their previous stuff, which seems to suit them better.
  

As I mentioned above, next Friday will be slim pickin's. There should be a new Deary album though, so that'll be good. They sound just like the Cocteau Twins! (Almost.) 😄

[Tap]

I listened to one of those Snail Mail songs earlier today and it was an interpolation of The Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches, I'm sorry but I just cannot go along with that.

As far as hyped acts go, there's this one

Fcukers - Ö
https://fcukers.bandcamp.com/album/-

It seems like it'll be fun. Like I took a glance at it and it reminded me of some of the cocainiest 00's hipster electronic band with vocals type of stuff, but that's not a problem for me.

Actress and Suzanne Ciani - Concrète Waves
https://werkdiscslondon.bandcamp.com/album/concr-te-waves

THESE TWO COLLABORATING WHAT. I still need to listen but I am so curious how they're gonna bounce off each other

Shinichi Atobe - Silent Way
https://plasticandsounds.bandcamp.com/album/silent-way
Foote/Dickow - High Cube
https://foote-dickow.bandcamp.com/album/high-cube

If you like dub techno type of stuff you'll want to have these on your radar

Harriet Tubman & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Electrical Field of Love
https://harriettubman.bandcamp.com/album/electrical-field-of-love
Irreversible Entanglements - Future Present Past
https://irreversibleentanglements.lnk.to/futurepresentpast

If you like jazz you'll want to have these on your radar

Andrea Giordano / Kalle Moberg / Jo David Meyer Lysne - Radis
https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/radis
Zosha Warpeha - I grow accustomed to the dark
https://zosha.bandcamp.com/album/i-grow-accustomed-to-the-dark

If you like weird stuff you'll want to have these on your radar

KINACT - Kinshasa in Action
https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/kinshasa-in-action

Nyege Nyege Tapes is always cool


Also re: next week, there's some big ones with Wendy Eisenberg, SUNN O))), Thundercat, and the Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE & SURF GANG split album. And then there's some very promising obscure ones like Cowboy Builder, I bet it'll be a good time!!

[MadhattanJack]

[Keatownrodriguez]

Khimera's Brother (2026) by Khimera's Brother

Here to put on a local band I'm attatched to. Very rough/ diy garage rock

[MadhattanJack]

Before we move on to April 3, which is already tomorrow in my own personal time zone, I've got a list of 8 items I missed from last week — either due to them being surprise drops, failure of the artist(s) to provide preview tracks, or just plain incompetence on my part (though to be fair, there was quite a lot of stuff coming out). The first four have already been added to BEA's database:

• The Clockworks, The Entertainment: Somewhat-commercial alt-rock band from Ireland, this is a significant improvement over their previous (debut) LP, Exit Strategy — it's tighter and more "under control" though, so if you prefer looser and out of control, you might well disagree with that assessment.
  
• Stuck, Optimizer: This is a a three-piece post-punk band from Chicago (yay!), who seem to have a distinct 1979 "angular" new-wave art-punk vibe going, but aside from that are hard to categorize. I guess I'd go with "math-punk."
  
• ampule, life;dismissed¿: These guys don't want you to call them "grungegaze," so I'll just call them "doomgaze" because I insist on being "difficult." This one is probably my personal favorite of these seven, and even better, it's currently free/NYOP on Bandcamp!
  
• Marnie Weber: Returning Home: The Music Of Marnie Weber (compilation): For avant-garde experimental art-pop fans, this is a career retrospective of sorts from someone who is much better known as a visual artist — she did the album cover for Sonic Youth's A Thousand Leaves, apparently. Some interesting stuff here — I thought I was listening to a Colin Newman solo LP or maybe an old Mekons album for a minute there. (Not to be confused with top-shelf guitar shredder Marnie Stern, English pop singer Helen Marnie, or the Alfred Hitchcock movie Marnie.)

These last four have not been added to BEA as of the moment I'm posting this, though they should all be eligible:

• Lauren Auder, Whole World As Vigil: Not my usual cup of tea, but this is a really impressive pop album — she tags herself as "baroque pop," which I guess is fair, but mostly it sort of alternates between quieter, intimate moments and big epic moments in a way that doesn't irritate me the way it does when most people do that.
  
• Still Ill, End Daze: I guess they named themselves after a Smiths song because their singer's voice is an "acquired taste," which is what a lot of people used to say about the lead singer of The Smiths. But if you can get past that, this is a pretty good record.
  
• Winter Crush, Green Flame[: Basically this is a post-rock album, all instrumentals, but it struck me as better than most of the post-rock stuff that I've been hearing lately. Or at least, more varied.
  
• Death Tennis, Thank You. No, Thank You: Maybe I just liked the name, but this is a nice lo-fi guitar-driven indie rock LP with a pretty good female lead singer, which is also free/NYOP on Bandcamp. So why not.

[Repo]

RELEASE DAY EVE: April 3rd, 2026

Freak Funk.


Distracted (2026) by Thundercat

I know next to nothing about Thundercat, but I've seen him often enough on End of Year "Best Of" lists that I've been curious. And after listening to a couple of his funk-tastic singles from his upcoming album Distracted, I'm now even more curious. Especially as it's release promises to be quite the event with numerous all-star guest appearances ranging from Mac Miller to Lil Yachty & Flying Lotus to Tame Impala. I really enjoyed A$AP Rocky's similar All-Star heavy album Don't Be Dumb released earlier this year and felt it was great radio-friendly album. Hoping Distracted is even better!

What April 3rd, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! 🔭👀