I've been a music fan since my parents gave me a record player for Christmas when I was still in grade school. The first record I remember owning was "Sesame Street Disco." I've been a professional writer since 2004, but writing long before that. My first published work was in a middle school literary magazine and was a story about a zoo in which the animals could talk.
There were a lot of great shows for me in 2025, and we’re now into the top half of the ones I saw last year — and all of this batch were at the Levitation Music Festvial in Austin, Texas.
#20: The Sword – September 26, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Austin heroes The Sword are enjoying their return to touring and this set almost leveled the Palmer Event Center in Austin. The crowd was bonkers for this one and had been digesting a full menu of metal all day before they came out and provided another massive entrée.
Pixel Grip played one of the late night shows on the first day of the festival, and they did it a man down at that. No one minded, however, because they still sounded great and had a loving crowd packed into the Elysium nightclub who were all in the mood to dance and make out, and PG’s live sets are perfect for both.
#`18: Model / Actriz – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
“Come on, Austin, we’re all hot!” was the opening call by Model / Actriz’s lead singer, Cole Haden at their Levitation set. They played a hot set of post-punk that had the crowd roaring by the end and made a lot of new fans.
#17: Boy Harsher – September 25, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Speaking of bands with roaring crowds, Boy Harsher packed people into the Stubb’s outdoor stage area on the opening night of the Levitation festival. It was a sexy, fun set that was a good one for the first night of headliners.
While we’re on the subject of sexy fun, Desire brought plenty of it at Elysium when they played a late-night set at Levitation. Black leather and latex, love songs, lust songs, and cat-like grace across the stage.
Who makes it into the top fifteen? Come back tomorrow!
It’s time for the top twenty of the 40+ albums I reviewed last year. Who’s in the top half?
#20: The Quality of Mercury – The Voyager
This one came out of nowhere and landed much like the alien craft on the cover. It’s a sharp mix of electro, prog-rock, and shoegaze…all done by one guy riffing on the idea of lonely spade travel.
#19: Fugue State – In the Lurch
Wild garage punk that will leave your stereo system feeling like the wreckage on the album cover. This is another band who came out of nowhere for me that I was glad to find.
#18: Dog Lips – Danger Forward
Loud, brash, and energetic post-punk here that stresses the punk more than the post. This was another band that came out of nowhere. Good stuff lies ahead for them, and for you if you snag this record.
#17: Birds of Nazca – Pangaea
Two Frenchmen making cosmic rock that sounds like it was made by at least a quartet because it’s so damn heavy and loud. It’s all instrumentals, too, which I love.
#16: Anika – Abyss
It’s always good to hear Anika, who returned in 2025 with another sultry and spooky record. Anika has a voice that can instantly hypnotize you, and her dark electro music is always alluring. I still need to catch her live one of these days.
Who’s in the top fifteen? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to learn that.
This electro duo (synths + Japanese lyrics) opened the 2025 Levitation Music Festival to a great start with their slightly darkwave dance music. They were one of many bands who made you want to seek them out as soon as you got back home or to your hotel room.
You’re going to see a lot of bands from Levitation Austin (and France) on the list this year (as usual), and Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”) are no exception. They had a great, solid set on day three of the festival for their hometown crowd who gave them a lot of energy to use and feed back to us.
#23: The Raveonettes – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
It’s always good to see The Raveonettes, and they enjoy playing in Austin. They played at the first Austin Psych Fest I attended in 2013 and haven’t lost any of their power. They played a nice mix of old and new tracks to a happy crowd that was enjoying the cooler evening weather.
#22: Population II – September 28, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
A French-Canadian power trio in the afternoon sun? Yes, please! Not many people knew who they were, but they were paying full attention by the end of their heavy set.
#21: DMBQ – Old National Center – October 22, 2025 – Indianapolis, IN
Speaking of bands that barely anyone knew, or knew what to make of, Japanese noise-punk legends DMBQ played a wild, weird set in front of an Indianapolis crowd who barely knew anything about them and were left stunned by the shredding, frenetic drumming, and groovy bass that almost overwhelmed the small venue multiple times. It was a great surprise to see and hear them, and I hope more people in the crowd appreciated it.
Who’s in the top twenty of live shows? Come back tomorrow for more!
It’s time for my annual review of my favorite albums of the previous year. Who made the top 25 (or 40+) albums I reviewed? Read on!
#25: GoGo Penguin – Necessary Fictions
This is a solid jazz / prog album full of great beats and slick piano work. It was a pleasant surprise to discover it and this band last year.
#24: Beta Voids – Scrape It Off EP
This is a wonderfully nuts punk EP with songs about women kicking ass, people named Alan, and how much toxic masculinity sucks. A full LP from Beta Voids is in the works, so watch out before they run you over and laugh on the way out of town.
#23: Ric Wilson – America Runs on Disco EP
Speaking of good EPs that came out last year, here’s another. Ric Wilson is still somehow a secret force despite being a top-notch producer, songwriter, rapper, and cheerleader for the overly maligned city Chicago (Don’t believe what you hear. Go spend a couple days there, especially in the summer.). This EP is funky and joyful, which was exactly what we needed when it was released and still need right now.
#22: Bonnie Trash – Mourning You
On the opposite side of the spectrum, here’s an album about grief that’s one of the heaviest records of the year. The lyrics cut deep if you’ve lost a loved one, or even witnessed someone’s grief from afar.
#21: Dusty Rose Gang – A-One from Day One
Just when you thought rock might be taking a vacation for a little while, along comes this quartet to deliver one of the best straight-up rock records of 2025.
oday, Winged Wheel share “I See Poseurs Every Day,” the third track released in advance of their forthcoming album, Desert So Green, due January 9 on 12XU. The song’s greasy steel guitar riffing evokes a truck stop showdown between ZZ Top and the Silver Apples, offering another glimpse into the band’s quickly evolving sound as they move toward the release of their third full-length in just four years.
In its premiere at Magnet, Winged Wheel’s Fred Thomas explains: “The working title was ‘Truck Stop’ because of how dirty and gruff the riff was—like something you’d hear in a nearly abandoned, potentially dangerous truck stop in the middle of nowhere. It’s way more choogling and crunchy than the kraut-inspired improv of our previous album, Big Hotel, or the more textural air that makes up the rest of Desert So Green. The official title was also pulled out of the ether, from a breakfast conversation on tour that turned into a running inside joke—though it’s not without a shred of truth. We do see poseurs every day, and we need to let them know we’re watching.”
An “experimental super-band” comprised by Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack (Water Damage), and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), Winged Wheel is a creatively and geographically scattered collective, with each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s interpersonal alchemy.
Early long-distance file trading between a few members yielded 2022’s debut album, No Island. As awareness and buzz grew around the band, they expanded their membership and met in person for the sessions that became 2024’s Big Hotel, a surgically assembled murk of high-energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies. Fast forward, and the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green. The nine-track collection takes them into a space of sharpened dynamism and more nuanced expression. Things move a little slower, and the aftershock hits harder than the initial adrenaline rush. The energy that arrived all at once in loud explosions on earlier albums is refracted here, and ultimately all the more transcendent.
In January 2026, Winged Wheel will tour Europe for the first time. The band is also set to perform at Big Ears Festival in March 2026, while additional North American tour dates will be announced shortly.
Winged Wheel 2026 Tour Dates 9 Jan – Amsterdam, NL – OCCII 10 Jan – Groningen, NL – Vera 11 Jan – Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang 12 Jan – Leipzig, DE – Noch Besser Leben 13 Jan – Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft 14 Jan – Prague, CZ – MeetFactory 15 Jan – Jena, DE – Trafo 16 Jan – Kusel, DE – Kinett 17 Jan – Düdingen, CH – Bad Bonn 18 Jan – Strasbourg, FR – La Grenze 19 Jan – Dijon, FR – Consortium 20 Jan – Paris, FR – La Station – Gare des Mines 21 Jan – Les Roches-l’Évêque, FR – Zero Degre Est 22 Jan – Rennes, FR – L’Antipode 23 Jan – Lorient, FR – Hydrophone 24 Jan – Rouen, FR – Le Kalif 26-29 Mar – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival Winged Wheel Desert So Green is available January 9, 2026 via 12XLU on Vinyl and Digital Formats // Pre-Order Available Here
Mandy, Indiana sign to Sacred Bones and announce their new album, URGH, out February 6th, with lead single “Magazine.” On URGH, Mandy, Indiana is a force of uncanny nature, grafting together a record that is as much a call to action as a parlay into oblivion and transcendence. Following their acclaimed 2023 debut, i’ve seen a way, URGH finds the band expanding their far-reaching sound with each member — vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall — actively taking part in the songwriting process. Across ten tracks, Mandy, Indiana interpolate their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, forging a template for a brighter future before it fades to black.
Co-produced and co-mixed by Fair and Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, much of URGH was written during an intense residency at an eerie studio house in the outskirts of Leeds and recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester. The process was shaped by adversity with both Caulfield and Macdougall undergoing multiple rounds of surgeries in the same time frame as the album was being written and recorded. The harrowing experience and the exhaustion of their respective recoveries bleed into the surreality of Caufield’s writing, blurring the line between inner turmoil and external chaos.
URGH is deeply personal, yet also reflects the violent, fractured state of the wider world as Caulfield’s lyrics grapple with assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain. While most of the lyrics are in her native French, the emotional clarity cuts through regardless of language. Caulfield still uses her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between equal parts playful and eviscerating, showcased on today’s single, “Magazine.” The throbbing siren-sound of the song finds the band garnering drama from the juxtaposition of quiet moments and explosive commotion as Caufield sings in French: “Abandon / All hope / Because tonight / I’m coming for you.” The accompanying visualizer was directed by Stephen Agnew.
Commenting on the song, Caulfield explains: “‘Magazine’ is the expression of the frustration and deep-seated violence I felt while attempting to recover from being raped. Just like most victims of sexual assault, I will never get justice, and just like most perpetrators, my attacker will never be punished. My therapist encouraged me to channel my anger into something productive, so here it is: my primal, screaming call for retribution. It is the only way I will ever get to say to my rapist: you hurt me, so I’m going to hurt you.”
Although there are still undeniable “bangers” across the album, from the bristling techno of “Cursive” to the frazzled rap of “Sicko!” featuring billy woods, URGH feels hewn with precise cinema. Fair and Macdougall explain that “a lot of the record is a remix of itself,” a cohesion of the band’s aptitude for collaging sounds and ideas that could operate as a film score or an industrial club night. Where i’ve seen a way drew from escapism, URGH (even from the reactive nature of the title alone) belongs in the physical world, and the artwork by the artist Carnovsky, featuring an anatomical illustration of Andreas Vesalius, underscores the record’s visceral confrontation with the body and its limits.
For Mandy, Indiana, the truth is the only way through. In 2025, the ability to make art that is seen and heard is its own form of protest, and directly addressing these issues is its own reclamation of power and strength in solidarity. URGH is a cathartic first step toward healing and a refusal to let the conversation die.
Mandy, Indiana will tour across Europe next year with shows in London, Paris, Berlin and more. All dates are listed below.
Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates Wed. March 25 – London, UK @ Heaven Fri. March 27 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Sat. March 28 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2 Wed. April 8 – Dunkirk, FR @ Les 4 Ecluses Thu. April 9 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain Sun. April 12 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn Tue. April 14 – Copenhagen, DK @ Huset Wed. April 15 – Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree Thu. April 16 – Hamburg, DE @ MS Stubnitz Fri. April 17 – Tilburg, NL @ Roadburn Sat. April 18 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique
