The Cascadian Divide
To the Sky
Independent (2026)
The Cascadian Divide is a Washington state based melodic skate punk band that formed during the infamous COVID lockdown. Although it started as an experiment, it soon became a passion project for the band members. The band has seen its share of line up changes over the years, but the commitment to maintaining the sound and integrity of the band … Read more
The Crosses
Outlier
Rushmor Records, Spectragram Records, Triple Eye Industries (2026)
There’s always a risk when a band forms out of legacy. Especially one tied to something as influential as Die Kreuzen. Lean too hard on the past and it becomes nostalgia. Push too far away and you lose the thread entirely. On Outlier, The Crosses manage to thread that needle, delivering a debut EP that feels less like a revival … Read more
The Downstrokes
The Furious Hours
Independent (2026)
There is a specific kind of sultry, salty sweat that only happens in a room with low ceilings and a tube amp screaming a warm hum for forgiveness. You can smell the lingering kerosene and the stale beer on The Downstrokes’ latest LP, The Furious Hours, before the needle even hits the groove. It’s the sound of a band that … Read more
The Dumpies
Lub Dub
Dirt Cult (2026)
Ok full disclosure, I sung backups on (allegedly) three of these songs and one song is a cover (albeit a stretch lol) of a song I co-wrote. What can I say tho? I was a fan of The Dumpies from the get go, before we all became very close friends and constant tour mates! Dub music diehards might be a … Read more
The Dwarves
Jenkem
Greedy, MVD (2026)
The Dwarves first cut me off on my path with their 1986 garage-rock debut, Horror Stories, on Voxx Records. Been a fan since. Over the forty years they've been around, some albums hit, some didn't connect as much. Their last main outing, Concept Album, bloated into a 26-song deluxe CD. Jenkem returns to familiar territory: 14 tracks screaming by in … Read more
The Flyboys
Complete Flyboys 1979-1980
Frontier Records (2026)
The archival hunt for the "missing links" of first-wave California punk usually leads through a trail of grainy handbill Xeroxes and tape traders' overdubbed copies. But with The Flyboys, the story has always been a bit more elegant—and a lot more colourful. Long before they were swept into the gravity of the Hollywood scene, frontman John Curry was already performing … Read more
The Heads
Yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell
Independent (2026)
This record is a sprawling, smoke-covered, raging slab of feedback. After decades of lurking in the Bristol shadows, The Heads haven’t just returned with Yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell; they’ve brought the sound of the walls closing in as fingernails scratch at brick. It’s a dense, suffocating, and majestic mess of a record—a jagged middle finger to the sanitized, algorithm-friendly "psych" scene. I like … Read more
The Library Is On Fire
Degeneration Elegies
The Abyss, Ltd. (2026)
There’s a certain kind of band that never quite fits the moment they arrive in. Sometimes too jagged for one scene, too melodic for another. The Library Is On Fire were one of those bands in the early 2000s, hovering somewhere between indie-punk urgency and power-pop instinct without fully settling into either. On Degeneration Elegies, their first full-length in over … Read more
The Mekons
Horror & Horrorble (The Mekons Vs. Tony Maimone In Dub Conference)
Fire Records (2026)
When Horror dropped last year, it was well worth the privileged price of entering the collected world of The Mekons. I was lucky enough to find their first LP—"The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen"—in a thrift store many blood moons ago. This began my foray into the ever-changing world of The Mekons and their many ever-changing forays into the … Read more
The S.E.T.
Self Evident Truth
Flatspot Records (2026)
Hardcore doesn’t need reinventing; just needs conviction. On Self Evident Truth, Baltimore’s The S.E.T. come out swinging with a debut EP that’s built on exactly that. It’s got groove, urgency, and a clear sense of purpose. Clocking in at around fifteen minutes, the EP wastes no time establishing its identity. From the opening moments of “This Chain,” it’s all forward … Read more
The Sleeveens
National Anthem
Goner (2026)
National Anthem is the second album from The Sleeveens, a Nashville, TN band fronted by an Irishman. The band play that perfect mix of protopunk and classic rock 'n' roll that's built on a verse/chorus/verse structure and melody without any frills. It's leather jacket music for the common folk. The debut grabbed me by my collar and spun me around … Read more
The Went Wrongs
This Isn't What I Ordered
Transcendental Revolution (2026)
I'm not sure what's happening to me in middle age. I used to find samples clever and a nice change-of-pace technique on albums. But lately I feel like they interrupt instead of compliment what I'm hearing. This Isn't What I Ordered starts off really strong with fast, melodic and personalized punk over the first few songs. Then the sound clips … Read more
Tigers Jaw
Lost on You
Hopeless (2026)
Tigers Jaw was formed in 2005 in Scranton, PA by high school friends. After a brief hiatus in 2013, the band is once again carefully crafting and delivering a sound that is equal parts upbeat angst and mellow moodiness. The current lineup, consisting of Ben Walsh (guitar, vocals), Brianna Collins (keys, vocals), Mark Lebiecki (guitar), Colin Gorman (bass), and Teddy … Read more
Time Thieves
Come Home/If You Survive Extended Edition
Independent (2026)
Time Thieves, of Chicago, IL, bill themselves as power pop in the vein of The Rentals or Fountains of Wayn or Weezer in their bio and they double down on that with the smooth as silk, uplifting melody of "Cover Your Eyes," the first song on their Come Home/If You Survive Extended Edition LP that arrived on my doorstep, literally … Read more
Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs
Pigus Drunkus Maximus (Reissue)
Blind Owl Records (2026)
If rock ’n’ roll ever had a smoky, beer-soaked, throbbing heartbeat, it lives in Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs’ Pigus Drunkus Maximus. Recorded in 1981 but not released until 1987 on Restless Records, the album always felt like a document out of time — lightning caught like fireflies in clumsy hands, then bottled too long. This newly remastered reissue, … Read more
Toys That Kill
Triple Sabotage
Recess (2026)
If you were lucky enough to catch Toys That Kill live last year, you were maybe treated to a set that included classic F.Y.P bangers like “Come Home Smelly” and “Jerkoff”. I made the trip down to Seattle to see them with Off With Their Heads specifically for this reason and was in no way disappointed. I had somehow managed … Read more
Tyler Sonnichsen
The Dead Milkmen
J-Card Press (2026)
When I saw The Dead Milkmen at Toronto’s Diamond Club back in the late 1980s, the floor was a volatile, beautiful mess of colliding subcultures. It was like different species of house flies bumping into one another, wondering what the hell you were doing in the mason jar. You had suburban high school pocket-pen-protector pencil-neck nubile nerds, college radio snobs … Read more
Ultrabomb
The Bridges That We Burn
DC-Jam Records, Virgin (2026)
Ultrabomb just detonated. The Bridges That We Burn isn't some polite "heritage act" victory lap. It smells like a hand-rolled cigarette lit with a blowtorch in a damp Minneapolis alleyway. No reunion uranium glow here—just three lifers who’ve spent their lives in vans and aren’t interested in anything but the friction prediction. The DNA is legendary, but they aren’t coasting … Read more
