Happy Halloween weekend. Here’s a playlist I started in 2015 when I was heavily in a really weird phase of musical life where I was listening to *only* new wave music and Nancy & Lee (I… have no idea) which, the former, now, just makes me think of Halloween. Added more recently discovered scary songs, terrifying tunes, and monstrous melodies. Also including a short list of my favorite Halloweenish media: 📚 House of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiI like to re-read House of Leaves once a year, with a notebook full of tons of scribbles, notes, questions, and theories at…

Today Julie Doiron shares a gorgeous new single from her upcoming album  I Thought Of You, out November 26th on You’ve Changed records. The song features just the right amount of twang, with Julie’s clear, wizened, gorgeous vocals and lyrics complimented by Daniel Romano’s ripping guitar line and our friend Michael Feuerstack adding soft and subtle pedal steel. I Thought Of You by Julie Doiron I started writing this song when I was in a particular low point. I was going on lots of walks which always helps clear my head, and where I often come up with melodies and…

Our friend TBJ is back with a new song, the “Blue Sky Morning.” Trevor’s music is warm, inviting and sunny, so a blue sky anthem is especially appropriate. Trevor’s dear friend Rick Swan created the lovely Zuma-inspired artwork to match. Blue Sky Morning by Trevor Beld Jimenez Blue Sky Morning was recorded, mixed and mastered by Joel Jerome (DIOS Malos, Joel Jerome) in Los Angeles, CA. I wrote the song and performed the instruments myself. It’s a song really about not giving up and pushing on… enjoying this miraculous creation we get to be a part of. I’ve been on…

Ryan Pollie just announced a brand new album, STARS, out December 12th and shares the new single, “On The Nose” today, with a rollicking, rolling lead guitar line and twinkling keys that, despite the autumnal glow of the video, remind us that in Los Angeles, every day can feel like summer. Ryan says Inspired by summers seeing the Dead at outside theaters, pregaming in parking lots. Having fun in the car. Rob Dobson plays the lead guitar role of Jerry here, taking John Mayer to school. The lyrics grapple with getting older, missing shows and taking summer vacations for granted.…

Fuck. Yes. Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary artist just released a gorgeous new video directed by Jenny He for his incredibly powerful new song, “Gay Agenda.” Shamir’s unique, melodic voice cuts through the fuzzy noise and layers of synths to condemn socially constructed illusions of reality and proudly rejects heteronormativity and embraces queerness. A true anti-assimilationist anthem. Love it. “Gay Agenda” is a song about radical acceptance internally and externally. We are only leasing our lives, so we gotta make it our own. Shamir About Shamir:His self-titled album was released in 2020 and he just published his first book But I’m a Painter this summer. Shamir also…

Today, NYC-based musician Andrew Smith releases a catchy, bubbly power pop late summer anthem. The song, like many of Andrew’s, is about getting in touch with your feelings, feeling them, and staying true to yourself in the midst of stressful situations (his latest EP was called To My Therapist and he says, “Many of my songs are born of reflections I have about my life, or discoveries made in therapy.”) His piano-driven tunes deal with getting in touch with your feelings, coming out, and self-acceptance. “Magic Mess” was co-written with Jackson Hoffman and Ryder Stuart. Smith states that the song…

On the birthday of the late Tres Warren, Sacred Bones has announced a tribute record of songs by Tres’s bandmates in Psychic Ills, collaborators, and other special guests. Various Artists "Songs for Tres" by Psychic Ills Tres passed in March of 2020. Unable to gather to mourn properly, the other constant half of Psychic Ills, and Tres’s musical other half Elizabeth Hart asked Adam Amram, Jon Catfish DeLorme and Brent Cordero, who’d been playing with Psychic Ills since their latest full-length release (the perfect Inside Journey Out, released in 2016) to create a loving tribute to their dearly missed brother. Hart, Amram, and…

The final single from composer and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi’s upcoming album, Hidemi, is out today: Hidemi by Patrick Shiroishi The inventive album is completely instrumental, aside from a single line in this track, the album’s closer. Shiroishi sings in Japanese, “Is this the end of the storm?” Patrick’s last album, Descension focused on the experience of people in the U.S.-established Japanese concentration camps, while Hidemi focuses on the personal experience of his grandfather, Hidemi Pat ShiroishI, after release. Shiroishi is the sole musician on the entirety of the album, playing alto, baritone, tenor, C melody, and soprano saxophones (who knew there…