I’d forgotten until my friend told me that Danny Elfman‘s show at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom was the first of his “rock show” tour. No orchestra, no choir, just him and a group of solid musicians.
Elfman started with “Sorry,” one of his recent tracks, and mixed up songs from multiple eras. After “Sorry,” he launched two Oingo Boingo tracks to send the crowd into a frenzy – “Insects” and “Nothing to Fear (but Fear Itself).”
Another Oingo Boingo treat came after “Native Intelligence” when Elfman announced he hadn’t performed “Just Another Day” since 1994. He sounded great. More recent tracks came afterward with “Sayonara” and “Happy,” and also a brand new one called “Upside Down.”
There’s nothing to fear.
The only song from his extensive film work he played was “This Is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was a pleasant surprise, as we didn’t expect any film music.
Even if there are ghosts and vampires in the venue.
Another new one, “The River of Life,” came afterwards. It’s an interesting, slightly psychedelic track, making me want to seek out the new album. They played “Dead Man’s Party,” of course, which sounds weird without the Oingo Boingo horn section.
They closed with “No One Lives Forever,” another one that they’ve morphed into almost a metal track. The encore was “Who Do You Want to Be,” which almost blasted the back of the building into dust.
It was a fun show, full of memories and damn loud. Josh Freese on drums puts on a clinic with each song. Also, Elfman is ripped. He looks great. I hope I’m that fit in my seventies.
Everyone now wants a full Oingo Boingo reunion tour, of course. I somehow doubt it will happen, but this might be the closest we get.
This Friday, Wild Pink — the NYC-based band fronted by John Ross — will release Still Coming Down, their sixth studio album and strongest offering to-date, via Fire Talk. Today, Wild Pink unveil Still Coming Down’s final advance single and title track alongside an accompanying visual helmed by Wes Sterrs. After battling and beating cancer, and now becoming a father for the first time, Ross’ perspective has hairpin-bent its way into a simpler significance, where creating music is less about the bigger picture, and more about being present in the moment. The sauntering “Still Coming Down” captures Ross’ ability to pinpoint some of the more painful parts of life with an eye on a more hopeful horizon. All’s not lost despite the darkness, as Ross relays “I used to be pure // I just try to be good now,” over guitar from Meg Duffy (of Hand Habits) and Landon George’s fiddle.
“Still Coming Down” is presented alongside the final installment of Still Coming Down’s visual chapters, which have all continued along a lost conspiratorial plot that completes and complexifies the album narrative. In Chapter IV (“Still Coming Down”), the plot reaches an unsettling conclusion.
Ross says of the track: This is my favorite song on the record right now so I’m glad this one is out today. I love Meg Duffy’s sinewy, slow motion fretless guitar playing and Landon George’s fiddle in the middle. This song isn’t about any one single thing but it’s mostly about my son and feeling overwhelming love.
In support of Still Coming Down, Wild Pink will perform an intimate album release show at Cassette in Queens, New York. The Still Coming Down album release show — presented by Stereogum and Fire Talk — precedes an extensive world tour that will take Wild Pink on the road for the remainder of 2026. A full list of tour dates are below, and all tickets are on sale now.
Wild Pink have been a staple of the indie rock scene for the better part of a decade, and it’s on their sixth album — Still Coming Down — that John Ross cements the voice he’s been steadily honing over the years. Propelled by the witty and ravenous wisdom of 2024’s Dulling the Horns, Ross’ poetic form has only gained traction, as jocular, heartfelt stories pour with a clever and distinctive ease. NFL bros cruise alongside big guys in grocery stores with even bigger tattoos: ghost stories and references from the cinematic haze of movies like Heat, Moneyball and The Town buzz in the background while Ross also points to Waterworld and The Perfect Storm — heroes who wander, looking for answers at the end of the world.
Still Coming Down was recorded in one week in Asheville, NC at the renowned Drop of Sun studios with producer and engineer Alex Farrar (Bnny, Squirrel Flower, Samia). Vocal takes were done in two to three bursts, marking a less laborious process than previous records. “There was not a ton of overthinking,” Ross says. Ross looked back to the grunge bands he was obsessed with as a teen, and found that it sparked a deeper presence with his own voice, both in lyrics and performance. He endeavoured to create an album that is as fun to play live as it is for the audience to witness, harkening back to the enthusiasm and motivation he felt growing up. “Strangely, I feel like I’ve found my voice on this record,” he says.
Still Coming Down is a storied expedition that welcomes in the drifters and the kids kicking up dust; the brokenhearted and the cursed; the ones looking for an answer and the ones who simply couldn’t care less. Ross gives movement to the characters in our heads, the faces we see every few years and the ones who pass us by. It’s proper rock meant to be played loud, with your hand out the car window, riding the air as you bound down some highway in the early hours.
Forming soon-to-be-classics that soak in their ability to impact without unnecessary frills, Still Coming Down is about the very nature of songwriting and instinct, learning to trust the process and staying open to the lessons you might learn along the way.
Vacations—the Australian indie rock band of lead songwriter and vocalist Campbell Burns, bassist Jake Johnson, guitarist Nate Delizzotti, and drummer Joseph Van Lier—release “I See Myself In You,” the second single from their new album, Pursuit of Anything, out October 2nd on Nettwerk.
Following the lead single, “Holy Grail,” “I See Myself In You” was inspired by a conversation Burns had with his parents in Sydney before flying back to New York City. He reflects, “I was going through something personal at the time, and they were there for me in a way that felt like I was talking to my best friends, because I was. My relationship with my parents has changed so much over the course of my life and it made me pause and realise how similar we are and our experiences. I also started to wonder if one day I’ll be in their position, having a similar conversation with my child.”
Pursuit of Anything captures Vacations at a turning point as Burns reflects on the disorienting, often contradictory experience of growing up, tracing his path from Newcastle (Australia) to Los Angeles and New York—caught between ambition and the more traditional lives unfolding back home. Written by the band and produced by Burns, the album finds Vacations operating as a fully creative force with Burns drawing constant inspiration from his bandmates’ lives and perspectives: exploring how they’re each living out different lives yet share a common experience, all in their own “pursuits.”
Mixed by Beatriz Artola (Geese, Caamp), the result is a richer, more intricate, and emotionally expansive sound. Pursuit of Anything arrives as the band solidifies their place as one of the most globally resonant indie acts of their generation with sold-out world tours, double-platinum certified hits, and over 3.5 billion streams. The record turns inward, driven by the push and pull of devotion to music, relationships, and self-discovery. It is this tension that fuels an earnest, dreamy pop album that feels instantly classic.
Pursuit of Anything is a labor of love, the product of a group of friends who have been making music together since they were barely out of their teenage years. On it, there are weddings, families, reflections on the past, and hope about the future. “It’s about happiness as a feedback loop,” says Burns of the record’s title, “How you keep chasing the next thing.” It’s a record that feels classic the first time you listen to it, it feels like chasing that rush, that sense of self discovery and rediscovery. And it shows Vacations at the height of their songwriting powers. It’s a pop record that takes pop music seriously. Lovely, earnest, dreamy and hopeful as they come.
Last month, Vacations completed the first leg of their Holy Grail Tour, an entirely sold-out run of dates including multiple nights in Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Toronto, and a blow-out show at Warsaw in Brooklyn. The Holy Grail Tour continues on this month across Asia and Australia. Tickets for all remaining dates are on sale and available here.
Toronto’s Wine Lips return with “If You Don’t Know,” the second single from their upcoming album TV Dinner, out August 28 on Stomp Records. Pulling from the blown-out punch of ’90s alt rock and garage while keeping their signature psych chaos intact, the track lands somewhere between the hook-heavy crunch of The Hives, the fried-out swirl of Osees, and the ragged urgency of Frankie and the Witch Fingers, with flashes of Nevermind-era vocal weight cutting through the noise. Following the sharp, confrontational punch of lead single “Projector,” this one shifts inward, heavier, more reflective, but no less immediate. Built around blown-out vocals, chorus-drenched guitar lines, and a locked-in mid-tempo drive, “If You Don’t Know” leans into the band’s rawer instincts. It moves like a late summer rip down the 401 at sunset, bugs cracking against the windshield, half cut, windows down, volume too loud, head nodding at just the right tempo to make you feel like you’ve tapped into something. The guitars smear at the edges while Aurora Evans’ drums hit like a truck, her snare snapping dead center, physical, sharp, and impossible to ignore.
Lyrically, the track circles burnout, detachment, and the slow realization that time doesn’t move the way it used to. “Been a long long while since 16” lands less like nostalgia and more like a quiet gut check, the kind that creeps in somewhere between last call and the first train home. It’s not dramatic. It just settles in. Over the last decade, Wine Lips have quietly built one of the most formidable independent rock careers to come out of Canada, racking up more than 50 million streams, earning praise from Iggy Pop on BBC Radio, and touring relentlessly across North America, Europe, the UK, and Asia. Somewhere along the way, they became something harder to pin down, a fuzzed-out, road-worn force that thrives just outside the mainstream while pulling in a global audience.
As the album rollout continues, Wine Lips show no signs of slowing down. Following the release of TV Dinner, the band will head back onto international highways with a fall tour supporting Death From Above 1979 and another European run already on the horizon. With TV Dinner, that balance tightens. If earlier records felt like full-tilt psychedelic escape, this one keeps its feet planted on cracked pavement. The chaos is still there, but it’s more focused now, shaped by glowing phone screens, long nights that blur together, and the low hum of everything being just a bit too much. “If You Don’t Know” sits right in that pocket, heavy, restless, and locked in.
Keep your mind open.
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Cor de Lux, who recently announced their signing to Ipecac Recordings, release their label debut, Year Of The Horse, on Sept. 18.
A preview of the nine-song album arrives today with “The Cringe” and its accompanying video (https://youtu.be/GL1308BBhKI). The snarling single charges forward at full blast before veering into an atmospheric passage where the intertwined guitars of Dawn Moraga and Tim Lusk drift into haunting territory.
Moraga says of the track: “Living in a developing country really engraved in my heart about knowing what is important and what is not,” referencing her time abroad in Nicaragua. “Materialism fades like bad jeans. The exploitation of the poor to make the rich richer makes my blood boil.”
Bass player John Bliven adds: “’The Cringe’ explains our disdain of the billionaire ‘elite’ and the system that keeps them rapidly gaining. ‘I make a dollar a day’ refers to CEOs giving themselves a tiny salary while obtaining massive share value. Those shares aren’t taxed unless sold, and even then, that tax rate is less than the income tax everyone else pays.”
Produced by J. Robbins (War on Women, Mary Timony), Year Of The Horse captures Cor de Lux’s competing impulses: abrasion and melody. Atmosphere and momentum, chaos and control. Across nine songs, the Kill Devil Hills quartet balances post-hardcore urgency, shoegaze bliss, and guitar-driven catharsis. Recorded with Robbins, the album preserves the raw chemistry that defines the band while pushing their songwriting into sharper, more immediate territory.
Year Of The Horse is available for pre-order now with the album available on multiple limited vinyl variants (including a hyper-limited Bandcamp exclusive swirl vinyl and Ipecac/Cor de Lux orange effect vinyl), standard black vinyl, cassette, CD, and digitally: https://cordelux.lnk.to/horse.
The band ventures out on a brief tour this Fall, joining SLIFT for a handful of dates:
For a decade-plus, Caroline Rose’s “Yip Yip Yow” has existed as an esoteric fan-favorite, performed at live shows to ravenous crowds, but never officially released. Today, Rose (they/she) finally unveils a recorded version of the song via SUCK Records, their new independent label. “I like to imagine this song being performed by four teenagers in a garage who are equally obsessed with The Gun Club and Britney Spears,” says Rose of the single. “Yip Yip Yow” effortlessly blends elements of psychobilly, pop, alt-country and rock — all tied together by Rose’s commanding, snappy vocals and biting lyrics. Produced by John Congleton, the theatrical track captures the loose, raucous energy that has made it an in-demand staple of their shows.
Reflecting on the song and its legacy, Rose says, “I wrote ‘Yip Yip Yow’ 10 years ago about feeling like I was born in the wrong time, in the wrong place and probably in the wrong body. 10 years later the only thing that’s different is I finally have a recording of it I like. I think what’s taken me so long to put it out is a fear of how simple and nonsensical it is, but now that’s a lot of what I listen to. I love to hear all the freaks making two minute songs about rejecting cultures they never really fit into and building their own little worlds instead.” “Yip Yip Yow” reinforces Rose’s singular artistic vision built upon reinvention, exploration and a penchant for the eccentric.
Rose is a critically acclaimed, genre-defying artist and producer with a career built on reinvention, strong visual identity, and a deeply engaged fanbase. Across four studio albums – I Will Not Be Afraid, LONER, Superstar, and The Art of Forgetting – Rose has moved fluidly between alt-country, psychobilly, synth-pop, and experimental songwriting while maintaining a distinct voice and perspective.
The Art of Forgetting, released in 2023, marked a commercial and critical high point, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package with art direction by Rose. The album was praised by NPR Music, The New York Times, them., Paste, Stereogum and The Washington Post., who lauded the record as “confessional and cathartic, full of shimmery swells that match the lyrical mood.” Last year saw the release of year of the slug, a lo-fi project recorded entirely on an iPhone and distributed exclusively via Bandcamp with no traditional marketing or DSP support. With the launch of their own record label distributed by Redeye, SUCK Records, Caroline Rose is entering a fully independent phase of their career.
In July, Rose will host a series of pop-up shows built around independent spaces and zero ticketing fees for fans. Locations will only be announced to ticketholders on the week of each performance. In the fall, Caroline will support Modest Mouse on a series of dates across the U.S. and Canada. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Caroline Rose Tour Dates Fri. July 10 – New York, NY @ TBA + Sat. July 11 – Washington, DC @ TBA + Sun. July 12 – Washington, DC @ TBA + Tue. July 14 – Nashville, TN @ TBA + Sat. July 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ TBA + Sun. July 26 – Milwaukee, WI @ TBA + Tue. July 28 – Chicago, IL (Early Show) @ TBA + Tue. July 28 – Chicago, IL (Late Show) @ TBA + Tue. Sept. 29 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee* Wed. Sept. 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion* Thu. Oct. 1 – Cincinnati, OH @ MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor* Fri. Oct. 2 – Grand Rapids, MI @ GLC Live at 20 Monroe* Sun. Oct. 4 – Ottawa, ON @ HISTORY Ottawa* Mon. Oct. 5 – Toronto, ON @ Meridian Hall* Wed. Oct. 7 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner* Thu. Oct. 8 – New York, NY @ The Rooftop at Pier 17* Fri. Oct. 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Pier Six Pavilion* Sat. Oct. 10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Citizens Live at The Wylie* Mon. Oct. 12 – Memphis, TN @ Satellite Music Hall* Tue. Oct. 13 – New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans* Thu. Oct. 15 – Austin, TX ACL @ Live at The Moody Theater* Fri. Oct. 16 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory* Sat. Oct. 17 – San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center at Tech Port* Mon. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Financial Theatre* Tue. Oct. 20 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Palladium* Thu. Oct. 22 – Avila Beach, CA @ Avila Beach Golf Resort* Fri. Oct. 23 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24*
Today, The Black Wizards announce their new album ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’, set for release on September 4th via Hassle Records. Alongside the announcement, the band share new single “Loose”.
‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is named after the legal phrase used to describe uncontrollable circumstances, reflecting both the chaotic conditions surrounding the record’s creation and a sense of dark humour and defiance that runs through the album’s ten tracks.
The Porto-based trio of Joana Brito (guitar/vocals), José Gomes (bass/vocals) and Helena Peixoto (drums) present their fourth album and their first since 2019’s ‘Reflections’, marking a decisive break from their past. The doomy haze and sprawling stoner-rock tag that once followed the band has been stripped back in favour of something sharper and more poised, deftly traversing a wider sonic palette. These songs don’t lumber forward so much as lunge.
It’s a fresh take on their sound, embodied with the garage rock swagger and bluesy stomp of today’s new single “Loose”, which Joana describes as “a groovy wandering on anxiety thoughts and feeling trapped inside your own head.” She adds: “It’s about accepting those thought patterns and learning how to navigate through them. With everything happening right now in this cursed world, we ride the everyday struggles of 9-to-5 jobs, low pay, poor working conditions, and so on. While it can be difficult to keep up with all this, we wanted to make it a sharp song with a straight to the point chorus, but also release the tension on the verses, relying on the wobbly synth (it’s the first time we use a synthesizer in such highlight) and steady beat.”
There’s something knowingly tongue-in-cheek about a band called The Black Wizards naming their album after bureaucratic disaster terminology. That tension between absurdity and confrontation runs throughout the record itself: funny, sharp, politically charged and constantly pushing forward. Written as political landscapes across the world spiral into disarray, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ channels frustration and urgency without ever sinking into hopelessness. “The world is going the way that if you finish writing a song about something that deeply touches you, by the next day there is new shit happening,” says José.
While compiling lyrics for the record, front-woman Joana Brito had been reading books on politics, gender and toxic masculinity, including Grayson Perry’s The Descent of Man, and those ideas bleed through songs that take aim at hollow leadership, social tribalism and the performance of power. Recent single “Killing The Buzz”, released earlier this year on 7” single, in particular cuts through the noise with a sharp sense of humour, mocking political spectacle while refusing to surrender to it.
The recording process itself became its own exercise in chaos management. The band had originally planned to record in Sweden with Cooper Crain of CAVE and Bitchin Bajas, but after a sudden health emergency forced them to abandon the sessions and return to Portugal, they improvised. Instead, Crain flew from Chicago to Porto, where the band cut ten songs in just five intense days at Arda Recorders. Long hours, barely any breaks, constant pressure. They initially planned to record to tape, with Crain even flying over with reel-to-reel machines from the US, before technical problems forced a last-minute pivot to digital recording.
Still, the urgency works in the album’s favour. Nothing here feels overly polished or ironed flat. The rough edges remain intact, giving the record a volatile energy that mirrors the instability that inspired it. “It’s kinda nice to see imperfections these days when everything evolves into AI-based,” says Brito.
For all its anger, though, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is ultimately driven by connection rather than nihilism. Long embedded within northern Portugal’s fiercely independent rock community, The Black Wizards remain committed to collaboration, grassroots creativity and building spaces for outsiders like themselves. “We want to encourage kids to get off their smartphones and pick up a guitar, paint, or just be creative,” says Brito. “We want to make the world a safer place for all the freaks like us.”
In the face of chaos, The Black Wizards choose movement, noise and each other. There’s magic in that.
The Black Wizards live dates: 26 June – Paimpol, FR – Paimpol in Rock Festival 27 June – Tours, FR – La Dérive #1 28 June – Manigod, FR – Namass Pamouss Festival 30 July – Guimarães, PT – L’Agosto Festival 7 August – Madrid, ES – Wurlitzer Ballroom 8 August – Benalua, ES – BenaRock Festival 2 October – Karlsruhe, DE – PsyKA Festival 3 October – Pratteln, CH – Up In Smoke Festival 30 October – Oviedo, ES – Lata de Zinc (w/ Death Valley Girls) 31 October – Bordeaux, FR – Deus Ex Machina 23 January – Vienna, AT – Dragged Into Bliss Festival
Margate, UK’s Tokyo Tea Room create music inspired by human emotions, exploring themes of longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. Today, they release “Eyes Off You,” an atmospheric track about obsessive love. Written and produced by the band’s Daniel James Elliott, “Eyes Off You” captures the passion of desire through mesmerizing synth, guitar and dreamy vocals by Beth Dunn. True to their introspective universe, yet with a slightly more pop aesthetic, they transform vulnerability into something melodious and danceable.
On “Eyes Off You,” Tokyo Tea Room dive into the murky waters of obsessive love. Weaving a narrative around a love you can’t let go of, even when it hurts, they capture the fatalism of an impossible but all-consuming obsession, singing: “Can’t quit loving you like I was born to lose // Everything I do just leads me back to you.”
Tokyo Tea Room is a timeless project whose message transcends the music itself. The band arouses passions and emotions, taking listeners on a journey within a tender, comforting bubble. Their debut album, No Rush, established them as one of the most compelling emerging acts in alternative music, resonating with a growing global audience. With millions of monthly listeners and a sold-out debut North American tour, the band are rapidly building momentum, particularly in the US, where their audience continues to expand. With new music on the horizon, Tokyo Tea Room are entering a defining new chapter, evolving their sound while staying rooted in the emotional depth that defines their work.
Tokyo Tea Room will return to North America this fall touring in support of forthcoming new music. A full list of dates are below and tickets are on sale now.
Tokyo Tea Room Tour Dates: Thu. Sep 24 – Vancouver – Hollywood Theatre Sat. Sep 26 – Seattle WA – Neumos Mon. Sep 28 – San Francisco CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club Wed. Sep 30 – Los Angeles CA – Teragram Ballroom Fri. Oct 2 – San Diego CA – Quartyard Sat. Oct 3 – Tucson AZ – Club Congress Mon. Oct 5 – Austin TX – 29th St. Ballroom Tue. Oct 6 – Houston TX – White Oak Music Hall Wed. Oct 7 – Dallas TX – Club Dada (indoors) Fri. Oct 9 – Atlanta GA – Terminal West Sat. Oct 10 – Durham NC – Motorco Music Hall Sun. Oct 11 – Washington DC – The Atlantis Tue. Oct 13 – Brooklyn NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg Wed. Oct 14 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom Thu. Oct 15 – Boston MA – The Sinclair Fri. Oct 16 – Montreal QB – Bar le Ritz Sat. Oct 17 – Toronto ON – Mod Club Mon. Oct 19 – Chicago IL – Lincoln Hall
Over the last year the Portland band Growing Pains have become one of the most buzzed about bands in the Pacific Northwest. Composed of Jack Havrilla, Kyle Kraft, Kalia Storer and Carl Taylor — the band began popping up on bills around when they were still teenagers, and in more recent times have toured up and down the West Coast while sharing stages with bands like MX Lonely, Alien Boy, Been Stellar, Water From Your Eyes, Beabadoobee and Dutch Interior.
Despite the recent buzz around the band, Growing Pains haven’t released any new music since a 2023 EP that came out while they were still in high school. Today, the band are announcing their signing to the label Photo Finish, and sharing their first single since that EP, a track called “Swimming.”
“Swimming” is as an immediate and streamlined guitar pop track with the melodic heft to read like a lost early oughts alternative radio hit. Recalling ’90s icons like Liz Phair and Julianna Hatfield as re-imagined by Joyce Manor, the single is an immensely promising first statement from an ambitious young band determined to meet their moment.
Storer says of the track: “This song is about the helpless feeling that comes from being romantically incompetent. I wrote it after going on a date and they put their arm around me and it felt wrong. I left and went to the airport to watch the planes fly and drink a beer on my truck. Then all of the words came to me—this was the night before our last day of recording.”
Dion Lunadon has a habit of dropping crazy, wild records on a consistent basis and now he’s about to release Rare Gems Volume One.
The album is comprised of ten rare and unreleased studio tracks recorded between 2016 and 2026 and also features fan favorites, 1976 and When Will I Hold You Again.
The first single is the unreleased track, Dead Or Alive, which is already out for your listening pleasure.
Rare Gems Volume One is now available for pre-order. It will be available on 12” black vinyl and a very limited edition run of 2-tone liquid smoke vinyl, CD and digital download.
These bundle options are available through Dion’s Bandcamp page:
