Nik Havert

Rayon takes us “Shopping” on their new single.

No-wave, angular post-punk outfit Rayon present their beautifully whacked-out single ‘Shopping’, a tongue-in-cheek ode to consumerism and travel born from near-burnout and a revitalizing trip south of the border. The video for ‘Shopping’, filmed with their awesomely nostalgic Super 8 video, showcases grocery store antics before being kicked out, proving that new life can always be found on aisle five.

Along with B-side ‘Running’, the single is available on 7″ vinyl and as a two-track digital release via Little Cloud Records. This is the first in an exciting new series of similar records in the works for Rayon.

The project of long-time North Portland resident and Detroit-area native Eric Sabatino, Rayon now also involves members of Sun Atoms, Yuvees, Pastilla and Martha Stax – namely Anna Sabatino, Riley McLaughlin, Eric Rubalcava and Derek Longoria-Gomez. Recording on rainy weekends in a garage studio packed with old reel-to-reel tape machines, partially-functional tube amps, and leaky British motorcycles, these songs were recorded onto 16 tracks of 1/2” tape, while running the tracks through a slightly-wonky sounding tape echo.

Sabatino broke tradition with this release, deciding to mix it together with famed recording engineer Larry Crane (Cat Power, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, The Go-Betweens, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie) at Jackpot Recordingand Timothy Stollenwerk (Yo La Tengo, Grouper, Morphine) at Stereophonic Mastering.

“Doing everything on film and tape is a bit of a safety check-valve, to make sure we make everything like humans with no autotune, copy/paste or AI. I’m becoming an imperfectionist,” says Eric Sabatino.

“This was the first time we’ve engaged a “professional” to work on our recordings. The education we received was immense, and Larry was kind with his explanations of everything we had previously done “wrong” with our recordings, was willing to work with what we provided and willing to get weird with us.”

Written in two parts, ‘Shopping’ is a tongue-in-cheek song about consumerism and travel, written by a person who travels and consumes quite a bit. ‘Running’ is an anxious song about the people you love and the addictions that they can’t shake – and the sound of a tape echo that’s about to stop working.

Rayon spent last winter honing these and other songs through a series of live shows, including an epic trip to Guadalajara, which served as creative fodder for the band’s latest inspiration and re-invigoration.

“This EP almost didn’t happen. I nearly walked away from Rayon. The last record wasn’t selling, a lack of decent show offers, festival rejections and a general feeling of burnout was happening. Our second guitarist left, and then our drummer. The addition of guitarist Riley McLaughlin (from Yuvees and Club Deluxe) and Eric Rubalcava (drums) and Derek Longoria-Gomez (percussion and bass) from our “band-in-law” Sun Atoms brought new life and energy to the band,” says Eric Sabatino.

“We played some of the first enjoyable shows in a few years, and a new energy emerged. We started functioning as a band, we traveled to Mexico, and came back to record these songs. And another record is in the works. As for the new video, we got kicked out of two grocery stores making it. The Mexican Tienda was cool as hell; they loved it. We shopped and goofed around in stores, drove the old car down to the park under the bridge and had a picnic. Jeff filmed it all on a cute old Super 8 camera.”

Before forming Rayon, Eric Sabatino spent years playing with bands in Southern Michigan and Portland, sometimes with as many as six projects on the go at the same time. Self-described as “a guy who grew up on 80’s/90’s post punk and grunge trying to reconcile their love of R&B, Soul and 60’s British Pop”, Sabatino is now fully focused on this one project, built on the experience of years of writing, collaborating, studio work and touring with some of the Pacific Northwest’s hardest working bands.

‘Shopping b/w Running’ is out now digitally and available as a limited pressing of 150 blue transparent 7″ record and 150 black 7″ vinyl. It can be ordered in all formats via Bandcamp.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you head off to the store.]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR!]

Blackwater Holylight ask, “Heavy, Why?” on their newest single.

Blackwater Holylight have carved a heavy niche in the Los Angeles underground, following their dispatch from Portland, Oregon. Today, the hard rock trio announce the full-length Not Here Not Gone, out January 30, 2026 via Suicide Squeeze Records. The album is shaped by location change, refining a strain of heavy, ethereal doom and shoegaze. Nowhere is this stronger than lead single “Heavy, Why?” Pondering the experience of being disembodied, moody riffs build to an electric climax. The fierce outcome is timeless and innovative.

On the track, singer Sunny Faris shares: “‘Heavy, Why?’ Is a lyrically light and instrumentally heavy arrangement that cryptically but intentionally speaks to the experience of being disembodied and poses the question, simply, of: ‘Why? Why is it such a hard, lonely, agonizing and heavy experience to be turned away from Self.'”

Along with the news, comes a headline tour announcement throughout North America and Europe / UK starting in February through May of 2026.

See all details below.

UPCOMING 2026 LIVE DATES

2/13 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
2/14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit
2/15 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister
2/17- Austin, TX @ Radio/East
2/18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak
2/19- New Orleans, LA @ No Dice
2/20 – Pensacola, FL @ Handlebar
2/21 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
2/22 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
2/24- Charlottesville, VA @ Southern Cafe
2/25 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro
2/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
2/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Meadows
2/28 – Braintree, MA @ Widowmaker Brewing
3/02 – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl
3/03 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle
3/04 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
3/06- Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
3/07 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
3/08 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High
3/10 – Seattle, WA @ Nuemos
3/11 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
3/12 – Sacremento, CA @ Starlet
3/13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
3/14 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
3/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Pacific Electric
4/18 – Tilburg, NL @ Roadburn Fest
5/06 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
5/07 – Hamburdg, DE @ MS Stubnitz
5/08 – Copenhagen, DK @ A Colossal Weekend Fest
5/09 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest
5/10 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument
5/12 – Poznań, PL @ Pod Minoga
5/13 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
5/14 – Berlin, DE @ Desterfest
5/15 – Nuenkirchen, DE @ Stummsche Reithalle
5/16 – Brussel, BE @ Obsidian Dust Fest
5/17 – London, UK @ Desterfest
5/18 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
5/19 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
5/20 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute
5/22 – Helsinki, FIN @ Sonic Rites Fest

Keep your mind open.

[You’re not subscribing? Why?]

[Thanks to David at Suicide Squeeze!]

Home Front embrace their (and our) mortality on their new single – “Eulogy.”

Photo By Lyle Bell | L-R Clint Frazier, Graeme MacKinnon

Home Front reveal new single and video “Eulogy”. The cathartic punk hymn “is a reflection on what it means to lose the people we care about,” the band tells. “In these turbulent times we recognize death comes for us all, but it’s the recognition of someone’s lasting impact that leaves its imprint on us. We all have scars, but wear ours proudly as we move forward into the haze.” “Eulogy” is the latest preview of Watch It Die, their new full-length coming November 14 via La Vida Es Un Mus

For decades Home Front’s Graeme MacKinnon and Clint Frazier have embedded themselves in grass roots music making, community building, and the overpowering ebbs and flows of diy punk. Formed in 2020, they’ve given their lifetime of experience a chance to distill and then power into this musically omnipotent project which equally conjures textured Tangerine Dream sounds in a film montage, or the pummelling soundtrack to the first steps taken towards winning the fight of your life.

Listen / Share / Playlist “Eulogy” | Official Music Video

Home Front holds on to a particular kind of passion. The sort of thing that guides you – like a climbing vine steadily blanketing your bests and worsts, cutting through changes and impasses; victory and loss. MacKinnon and Frazier’s nod to influences and the themes of their lyrics are direct and detailed while maintaining enough creative distance to feel universal and unique. The production has again been bolstered by a team of long time confidants making a huge and unique record under the humble and hard working circumstances of remote pre-production and choosing to do their recording in home studios in their home town in Edmonton, Alberta.

The architecture of Watch It Die is simple – 12 songs of danceable, hummable, rousing and honest music that only Home Front could make. The emotion of this LP is what solidifies these musical notions into meaningful art. “For us, ultimately, this is music that comes out of loss and heartbreak and failure, but I hope people have a good time listening to us. You can get rowdy, you can get emotional, you can do whatever you want, but maybe with all of that freedom, we all take a second to reflect on all our fallen brothers and sisters and friends who may have slipped away.”

On previous revered recordings Games of Power (2023) and Think of the Lie(2021), Frazier and MacKinnon gave us a snapshot of a cynical and alienating world. A place where hope was tempered by insignificance, exhaustion takes us, and where 2,000,000 voices screaming in unison can still go unheard. Watch It Dieinstead of asking us why and how we got here, struggling to cope with the sadness of a desperate world, brings us their “step forward” moment. A dose of optimism and ownership in the bleakest of times in which maybe it doesn’t have to feel so bad to be alone or desperate. Where the passage of time is not coloured by the nostalgia of a lost youth but more toward the celebration of wisdom earned. Watch it Die owns the ills it describes and catapults us alongside its creators who have the confidence and presence of mind to live beyond their limitations.

Watch It Die is a road map of hope. MacKinnon and Frazier state: “For all of us in Home Front, ‘Watch It Die’ comes at a very transformative time. Geopolitically, musically and in our personal lives. With friends and close family members dying, to massive uncertainty around the world, this album encapsulates what it’s like for us to step into a ‘new world’ where all the old adages of ‘everything is gonna work out fine’ feel like a joke. We watch rich people get richer while the rest of us struggle just to get by. We watch colonizers kill without consequence and in an age of information at our finger tips we watch people choosing to be ignorant to what’s going on around them. ‘Watch It Die’ speaks about our own humanity, a rebirth into a new world and how we can never go back to the way things were. We suffer for their dreams, but in saying that we must recognize the importance of our own community and look to energize them to build a better way of life. We have always been an anti-war, anti-genocide, pro-peace band. We are against crimes to human rights and all of those struggling through the horrors of imperialism. We stand with the people of Palestine and we stand with the Canadian Indigenous communities who struggle to uphold treaty rights as well as basic human rights like clean drinking water and generational trauma. One takeaway from our music is to make a safe space where our community can come together to air out grievances and find a better way to a new future.”

Pre-Order Physical | Pre-Save Watch It Die

Home Front have confirmed a run of West Coast dates including San Francisco, Sacramento and two nights in Los Angeles at The Palladium supporting Cock Sparrer on November 22 and 23. See below for a full list of dates and stay tuned for additional touring announcements. Home Front’s touring members Brandi Strauss on bass, Ian Rowley on guitar, and Warren Oostlander on drums.

Home Front Live Dates:

Nov 20: Sacramento, CA – The Starlet Room
Nov 21: San Francisco, CA – Thee Parkside
Nov 22: Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium #
Nov 23: Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium !
Dec 13: Winnipeg, MB – The Handsome Daughter +
Dec 19: Calgary, AB – Palomino *
Dec 20: Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room ^
Feb 06-08: The Hague, NL – Grauzone Festival

# w/ Cock Sparrer, Dillinger Four, Castillo
! w/ Cock Sparrer, Dillinger Four, Generacion Suicida
+ Record Release Show w/ Imploders, Pure Impact
* Record Release Show w/ CloseTalkers, Puppet Wipes, Poltergeist
^ Record Release Show w/ Languid, Real Sickies

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe?]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side!]

James Adrian Brown releases first single, “Generator,” from upcoming debut solo album.

Today James Adrian Brown, former Pulled Apart By Horses guitarist, announces his debut solo album ‘Forever Neon Lights‘ out Jan 30th via Castles In Space. After achieving chart success, touring the world, and releasing four critically acclaimed studio albums with PABH, Brown has begun paving a new path in instrumental electronic music and composition. New single “Generator” is online now and Brown will be touring the UK and Ireland throughout November.

Forever Neon Lights is inspired by Brown’s formative memories of visiting the Blackpool Illuminations as a child. Those bright lights by the sea became a personal symbol of hope, possibility, and escapism, shaping the creative vision Brown now brings to his solo work.On the new single, Brown says ” ‘Generator’ is about creating your own momentum and powering through life’s challenges. Just as the illuminations need a generator to shine, we all have to find and build our own energy source to keep moving forward. For me, it’s about resilience, staying true to your dreams, and making them real.”

“Generator” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-S3w9ILL2I4
“Generator” on other streaming services:: https://ffm.to/generatorjab

Brown’s solo work is heavily electronica-based, utilising analogue synths alongside tape machines, piano, strings, and immersive ambient atmospherics. His focus lies in the analogue process of capturing and creating sound using physical hardware. Taking inspiration from artists such as Boards of Canada, Rival Consoles and Thom Yorke, Brown is exploring, evolving, and pushing his songwriting into bold new sonic territories.

Hot off the heels of producing Benefits’ critically acclaimed album Constant Noise earlier this year, and following a continual flow of live shows, singles, EPs, collaborations and remixes by the likes of Hayden Thorpe, Blood Red Shoes & Benefits.

A deeply personal yet outward-looking debut, Forever Neon Lights is a conceptual record that draws on memory, imagination, and transformation. Across its tracks, Brown reflects on childhood wonder, the excitement of possibility, and the struggles and triumphs of chasing a creative life. The Blackpool Illuminations serve as both literal and metaphorical inspiration: dazzling, unending, and powered by unseen energy.

Sonically, the album finds Brown pushing into new territory with long-time producer James Mottershead, weaving pulsing electronics, immersive textures, and evocative melodies into a dynamic, shifting instrumental landscape. It marks a bold evolution from his guitar-led past into a fully realised electronic vision.

Speaking about making the record, Brown says:

“This album is me laying everything out, the things I’ve carried since being a child, the hopes, dreams, and doubts I’ve felt as an adult, and the stubbornness to see things through. Writing and recording it felt like reconnecting with that wide-eyed version of myself who thought the lights back in Blackpool wrapped right around the entire country every Christmas and went on forever. It’s about taking that feeling and turning it into something lasting and real.”

Forever Neon Lights will be released January 30th, 2026, on one of Britain’s most essential electronic record labels, Castles In Space. The album will be available on limited 12” gatefold vinyl and across all streaming platforms.

See James Adrian Brown live:
20th Nov – Preston – Mad Ferret
21st Nov – Leeds – Headrow House
25th Nov – Manchester – 33 Oldham Street
27th Nov – Belfast – Black Box
28th Nov – Dublin – Crowbar Terrace

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

DITZ really brings your room together with their new single “Don Enzo Magic Carpet Salesman.”

After the release of album Never Exhale at the start of the year, DITZ return with a 9 minute, three-part noise-rock epic new single ‘Don Enzo Magic Carpet Salesman’, and it marks a bold new direction for the band. Fierce, hypnotic and unpredictable, it captures their live energy in full force, and comes with additional track ‘Kalimba Song’.

Both will be also be available on a limited edition 12” on 28th November via City Slang Records, with the first copies sold exclusively on their upcoming tour ahead of this date.

Vocalist C.A. Francis says of the new single, “Don Enzo began as a demo Jack Looker made after our touring wrapped early in the year. It started as one short movement, but after I added lyrics and sent it back, he returned it with five more minutes of music, creating a three-part structure. The song reflects my frustration with AI art – the first part reacting to the issue, the second written from the AI’s perspective, and the final section representing the last gasp of real art before being overwhelmed by artificial output.”

Listen to ‘Don Enzo Carpet Salesman’ / ‘Kalimba Song’ HERE

Keep your mind open.

[It would be magic if you subscribed today.]

[Thanks to Amy at AfterHours PR.]

Dion Lunadon releases new gritty and sizzling single – “Gold Standard Love.”

“Gold Standard Love” is the latest single from Dion Lunadon. It comes out as a limited edition 7″ flexi disc inside the Fall issue of America’s only Rock ‘n’ Roll magazine, CREEM. 100 flexi’s inside 100 copies.

150 copies will be available only at shows while stocks last.

“Gold Standard Love” is a futuristic rocker that crackles and grooves out of a thought crime, foregoing any current trends within the 2025 rock ’n’ roll genre.

“The FBI, The CIA, can’t take my dreams away, will you supply, GOLD STANDARD LOVE”.

Keep your mind open.

[Set the gold standard by subscribing today!]

[Thanks to Dion!]

Review: pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km

The debut album from Irish / Portuguese quintet pôt-pot, Warsaw 480km, is an album about feeling adrift during dark hours but also knowing that light eventually will come.

Lead singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Mark Waldron-Hyden wrote most of the album while bouncing around different landscapes and residences…all the while dealing with grief over the death of his father. What emerged was a pretty damn cool post-punk / krautrock / Ennio Morricone (and, believe it or not, James Brown)-inspired album.

“22° Halo” opens the record with a fierce bass lick from Joe Armitage and guitars that you think are going to overwhelm you for a moment but then fade into the shadows. “Sextape” started out as a jam session and became your next favorite song to put on a psych-rock mixtape. The blend of male and female harmonies between Waldron-Hyden and Elaine Malone and Sara Lelsie and near-surf rock guitars from Waldron-Hyden and Mykle Oliver Smith are instantly hypnotizing, and Malone’s harmonium is like incense in your meditation chamber.

“WRSW” was inspired by the road sign mentioned in the album’s title as Waldron-Hyden was riding in a car with his father’s ashes. As the story goes, he saw the sign emerge along the road on a dark night and it gave him the sense that he’d get through both the night and his grief (even in the latter would remain to some degree for a lifetime). The upbeat krautrock rhythm gives you (and Waldron-Hyden) the power to keep moving forward. “Fake Eyes” is a haunting track that seems to just…hover.

The press release I received for Warsaw 480km mentions how “I AM!” is indebted to Lou Reed. That’s correct, as it sounds like a groovy Velvet Underground track you forgot existed. Waldron-Hyden’s swaggering beat on “Can’t Handle It” reminds me of Cramps records – as do the repeated lyrics of “Tell me, baby, do you feel all right? Tell me, baby, would you take my life? Because I just can’t handle it.”

The guitar work on “The Lights Are On” is a great mix of psych-garage and dark country twang. “Hot Scene” continues that Morricone influence and adds a bit of Delta 5 post-punk flair as it builds to a loud buzz in your head. The album ends with “Change Your Life,” which could be a suggestion made by Waldron-Hyden to us, a friend, a lover, or himself. I’m not sure…or if it matters.

What does matter is that you give this album a spin. It’s a great debut and portends more good things to come from them.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Grayson Capps stands up for ladies everywhere on his new single – “My Body.”

Today, Grayson Capps releases “My Body.” It’s the first new song in eight years from the beloved Alabama singer/songwriter. In the interim, Capps has remained active, continuing to play upwards of 150 shows a year and releasing both a retrospective collection, South Front Street, and the album, Heartbreak, Misery & Death, a collection of folk and traditional songs originally performed by Doc Watson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Randy Newman, and others. He stepped back from recording his own material, however, instead devoting his time to raising his two children and caring for his father, who passed away last year after a long decline.

With “My Body,” Capps jumps back into the fray via a snarling, electrified protest song rooted deep in the Southern Gothic where his most enduring work takes shape. Its release is accompanied by a lyric video filmed by Trina Shoemaker and created by Gregory Del Deo.

“The seed of this song began from a young lady’s perspective living in the state of Alabama in 2025,” explains Capps. “More broadly, it speaks for the tolerant and empathetic people of the world who are being pushed into a corner against their will and the collective need to stand up to malevolence.”

In the climactic closing verse, Capps simultaneously reflects and declares: “I was traveling around Ocala, Florida, around two in the morning and saw a sign, and it was confusing. It said, ‘God, guns, guts, and glory are what made this country great,’ and I’m thinking to myself, ‘God, guns, guts, and glory are the very words that make men hate.’”

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Kevin at Royal Potato Family.]

Katzin releases first single, “Anna,” from his upcoming debut album.

Born in Alexandria, Virginia, growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and coming of age in New York City, Zion Battle makes music as Katzin.

Drawn to music from a young age, beginning with the music he witnessed at church (his father is a theologian and priest), he was fascinated with the sound of good records. He wasn’t sure how to go about replicating these sounds, but started early figuring it out: At 13, he began writing and recording his own music, and at around 15, he became a part of a teenage music scene of bands playing New York City basements, rooftops, and wherever they could turn up the volume without (or with) the threat of being shut down.

He went on to study music at both CalArts and the New School, before electing to take a break from his studies when he signed to the Brooklyn independent label Mexican Summer (Jessica Pratt, Cate LeBon, Hayden Pedigo) earlier this year.

Today, Katzin is sharing “Anna,” first taste of his forthcoming, yet-to-be-announced debut album.

Battle wrote “Anna” during his freshman year at CalArts. As he settled into college, he was struck by how the people around him sometimes struggled to adjust to their new lives, and often mourned the adolescence they’d left behind. Weaving together guitar, banjo, and synths beneath Battle’ssearching vocals, “Anna” is a sensitive portrait of young people making room for new realities as their old attachments fall away.

Battle says of the track: “Anna is a song about distant lovers — growth in distance. To be ‘off and on’ can feel like endless torture. But there’s nothing more euphoric than to run back into the arms of something so familiar.”

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Review: LUCKYANDLOVE – Humaura

LUCKYANDLOVE‘s new album, Humaura, has an interesting dichotomy running through it. The band love analog synths, Moog synthesizers, drum machines, and other electronic instruments and deftly use them to create lovely synthwave and dark wave music…

…and yet Humaura opens with “I Am Human” – a song that encourages us to “cut the wire” and back out of all this technology that consumes and does more to separate us than keep us together. Shut off your phone, stop binge-watching shows, get outside and breathe for a bit.

Then come back for the dance party that is “Feelz So Good,” because you do feel good after a break from the cyber-world. You always do. You always remember how good it feels to be present. “Run on Run” is a saucy tale of finding and walking away from love with April Love repeating “Just let me go.” to her former lover, as they’re not “the only one who can have some fun.” Speaking of love, “Name of Love” has some of Love’s best vocals on the record as the song goes from dark wave to electro-disco.

“Lonely at Night” is pure goth-wave as Love relates to all of us feeling isolated in the darkest hours of the evening. “You’re the only one who gets me,” Love sings on “Down to Black” – in which she happily (as happy as you can get in a goth dance tune, that is) sings about finally finding someone who understands her.

Loren Luck ups the percussion on “Secret Is Out,” which is about a vampire who needs to reveal their nature to a lover but is debating the decision. Will it bring relief or misery? “Hawks Do Cry” is another showcase of Love’s excellent vocals. “Melt in Sunshine” might refer to the vampire in “Secret Is Out.” It’s a slick track, with some of Luck’s best beats. It almost becomes dream pop at some points.

Again, it’s an interesting dichotomy – An electro record made with modern and analog technology that encourages you to put away technology, investigate yourself, and find love and human connection. In other words, LUCKYANDLOVE have delivered one of the most important messages of the year.

Keep your mind open.

[Yes, cut the wire, but subscribe first.]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]