Rock – Page 12 – 7th Level Music

Boston punks La Peste to release big compilation album of rare 1970s tracks.

The story of La Peste can be traced back to a flier Peter Dayton saw in Central Park. The future frontman was visiting New York for a concert that had just been canceled. While wandering in search of something else to do, he came across an advertisement for a show at someplace called CBGB, featuring a band of mischievous looking guys in leather jackets, The Ramones. It was October 26th, 1975. He hadn’t heard of them, or of punk itself. Figuring what the hell, why not, he headed down to the Bowery to check out the show.

Dayton returned to Boston a changed man. “I stood there for 22 minutes, and when it was done, I was like, well, fuck, man, I want to do that,” he says. “And within two and a half years, I was opening for them.”

So begins the story of Boston’s first true punk band. Born as a group of art students who had never played instruments and over a few short years becoming a foundational influence for a Boston music scene that would go on to produce some of the most important and boundary-pushing American bands of the ’80s. They played with the Ramones, worked with The Cars’ Ric Ocasek and earned the attention of the legendary BBC DJ John Peel all with only one single (1978’s “Better Off Dead” to their name).

Today, Wharf Cat Records are announcing the release of a new compilation entitled I Don’t Know Right From Wrong: Lost La Peste 1976-1979 Vol. 1 that will air the band’s unreleased recordings. Due out on April 17th of 2026, the collection tells the full story of La Peste with a presentation of the band’s unreleased studio and loft recordings along with the two tracks that were officially released during the band’s run. The material in this compilation comes from the Better Off Dead 7” sessions, their 1978 studio session with Ric Ocasek, a 1978 session at Electro Acoustic Studios, 4-track loft recordings made by Boston punks Billy Dafodil and Dave Cola in 1977 and the band’s first ever studio sessions in early 1977.

On the A and B sides of this collection Peter Dayton and Mark Andreasson give their first shot at sequencing the La Peste LP that they never got a chance to make. The C side features the tracks from the loft recordings that were not used on the A and B sides. Side D is a window into a nascent La Peste and features studio and 4-track recordings with Curt Naihersey (Pastiche, The Kids, Mr. Curt). The D side also includes a rare curiosity from the La Peste catalogue, their collaboration with Lord Manuel, “Computer Love,” from a sought-after split 7” on Joe “The Count” Viglione’s Verulven label with The Neighborhoods & Lord Manual on the b-side.

To mark the announce Wharf Cat are sharing the Ocasek-produced track “I Don’t Know Right From Wrong” with a brand new video created from archival footage of the band.

“I Don’t Know Right From Wrong” survives as one of a handful of tracks produced by Ocasek, who acted for a time as a sort of unlikely patron and mentor for the band, and gave them a slot opening for the Cars at Boston’s Paradise Theater. He believed he could get La Peste onto the radio with just a little primping, but had the good sense not to give them a full-on pop makeover. With its ghostly synth line hovering above the band’s earthbound churn, “I Don’t Know Right From Wrong” comes across less like the Cars’ slick new wave than it does like Joy Division—who recorded their landmark debut across the pond at around the same time —albeit with a vocal presence that sounds more inclined to nervous mania than catatonic depression.

Peter Dayton says of the track:

“We didn’t really know right from wrong when we formed La Peste. But the song was always great live and everyone believed me when I sang it. It had 2 chords which made it an amazing song for it’s utter simplicity. When I went back to these lyrics to write them all out I couldn’t believe how repetitive I was. The verses were usually very similar and the choruses were almost like I was shouting a political slogan. Our fans had a real connection with each song and often sang along, even though they might not have understood them.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Joanna take us into “Bandit Country” with the newest track from their lost album.

Today Manchester band Joanna share a third look at their long lost debut album ‘Hello Flower’, which will finally be released on December 5th via New Feelings, 35 years after intended.

In 1989, Joanna were on the cusp of something bigger, their sound alive with the same electricity sparking through the North West of England. Yet in a world where gatekeepers decided who would rise and who would vanish, their debut never saw daylight. Now, ‘Hello Flower’ blooms at last — a time-capsule of youthful abandon, freed from the silence it was once consigned to, and finally able to be heard on its own terms.

Following previous singles “If You Don’t Want Me To“ and “Gardeners’ World“, today they share a third look at the record with “Bandit Country” – a track that is pulsing, catchy and flickers with the brightest sounds of the Madchester era.

“’Bandit Country’ is about navigating the years after leaving school and growing into adulthood” the band explain. “Neil’s brother-in-law would refer to areas of other towns you’d have to get through to go and watch Liverpool FC (where the locals would want to beat you up) as “bandit country”. Neil took it as describing life in general when you have no idea what you want to do, never mind how you’re going to get there.”

Listen to “Bandit Country” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CJkLNUmKAnI
Also on:Spotify | Apple Music

It’s 1989. The Stone Roses are dominating the Indie scene and music press. Happy Mondays are laying the foundations of what would come to be known as the Madchester era with chaotic live performances. All eyes are on the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Along the East Lancs Road, throughout industrial heartlands between Manchester and Liverpool, punctuated by woollyback accents, four young musicians meet and form the next contender for the scene’s attention, Joanna. Neil Holliday (vocals) and Terry Lloyd (bass), work colleagues from Runcorn and Widnes, join forces with Leigh Music College students Tyrone Holt (guitar) and Carl Alty (drums). They hail from thoroughly working-class backgrounds, raised by hard working dads and harder working mothers. Rejected by other local bands because of their perceived youthful naïveté, the four lads create a world of their own inside Pentagon Studios in Widnes. This world includes a stolen smoke machine and strobe lights, a wooden shack to prevent feedback on the vocals, and the occasional friend who would dance around wildly.

“I think the first tune we rehearsed was called (I Wanna) Marry Joanna,” says Holliday, “I’d never sang into a mic before and had no clue about levels, amps or speakers and started sweating after a couple of failed attempts to vocalize the words I had on a scrap of paper about smoking weed.”

Each track on ‘Hello Flower’ came together in the Pentagon rehearsal room, a fusion of hard-edged indie rock with bass funk rhythms and crunching guitar riffs spiraling into infinity. With a clear sixties influence, Joanna was impossible to ignore and irresistibly danceable. Listening back today, their music evokes fantasies of Hacienda acid trip jubilees, where the hook is secondary to the groove and attitude. Organic and jammy, their demos are infused with a kinetic energy, full of the defining youthful experience of figuring it out.

Their momentum grew quickly. They were interviewed on the cult Kiss FM by future Best Selling author and filmmaker Jon Ronson, performed at the 1500 capacity Ritz in Manchester, International 1 and Liverpool Polytechnic. The band secured coveted support slots for established acts of the time including Shack, Dr. Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, Rig, and Asia Fields. After recording several demos, Joanna had the opportunity to perform in London.

It seemed like a given. The A&R people would show up, the band would sign a contract backstage, and their local-legend status would evolve into international superstardom. They were already mentioning an upcoming record deal in interviews, with a bravado that inspired one journalist to describe Joanna as epitomising “the simple beauty of youth.” Bands like World of Twist, Charlatans, Rig and Paris Angels had all followed a similar route towards recognition and secured record deals. A few hours before their fateful London show after the band had sound-checked, singer Neil bumped into a girl he knew from school. She had started dating a guy with a good job and settled into London life and escaped beyond their small-town limitations. She’d made it out. Neil puffed out his chest and let her know about Joanna’s big show and imminent success. She laughed. Neil returned to the venue in a black mood, leading to a domino-like fall of morale. They were never offered a record deal.

When the long shadows of doubt crept up on them, Joanna started to lose its magic. Wounded, they limped along for another year, never recovering their initial verve. This story doesn’t have the happy ending of instant success, but it does preserve something much more ephemeral and unique. Joanna constantly brushed shoulders with fame as manager and friend Martin Royle pulled the strings with a quiet determination in the background. A major player in the Liverpool scene, Dave Pichilingi, offered to manage the band. The Boardwalk, which later became the rehearsal space for Oasis, asked Joanna to headline their re-opening after a major refurb, selling the venue out. Was a certain young roadie called Noel Gallagher there to witness the evening while he was putting his own band together? Definitely. Maybe. Hand-written letters on headed stationery, recently found in the attic of the Isle of Man home of Royle, show labels like Rough Trade, Factory Records and Polydor courted and encouraged the band to keep playing and recording.

Thirty-five years later, these long-forgotten ¼-inch reel tapes from Pentagon Studios were discovered in the loft of a mutual friend, their manager having handed them off to him 24 years earlier. These musical time capsules contained tracks the band members themselves hadn’t heard in over three decades, offering a poignant reconnection with their creative past and tantalising glimpses of what might have been. “We realised we were actually as good as we remembered,” says Alty. The memories between the band members are blurred and contradictory but the tapes hold everything together, they are real, definite and irrefutable. With the release of ‘Hello Flower’, Joanna is no longer “the most popular band without a record out,” as NME called them in 1990, but their singular spirit is now available for anyone who wants a taste. The simple beauty of youth can only be experienced when you are invincible, fulfilling your natural destiny, buoyed by complete optimism… This record captures innocence untainted by failure. Beyond analysis, beyond critique, just lost in the groove.

Joanna will play a sold out show at Manchester’s Low Four Studio on Saturday December 13th. More information here.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity!]

Review: The Limiñanas – Faded

French psych-rock / yé-yé enthusiasts The Limiñanas have returned with a new album, Faded, that includes an impressive lineup of friends helping them pay tribute to many forgotten (faded) film stars of a bygone era.

The opening track, “Spirale,” brings you back to smoky, sexy 1960s French nightclubs with simple, elegant piano tones and guitar fuzz. They team up with Primal Scream‘s Bobby Gillespie on “Prisoner of Beauty,” in which Gillespie sings about women being thrilled with the exotic worlds of modeling and film and later feeling trapped there as time takes its toll. Their team up with French actor / musician / composer Bertrand Belin on “J’adore le Monde” (“I Love the World.”) is a gritty, groovy rocker, as is “Shout” featuring another Frenchman, Rover. “Shout” moves back and forth between trippy verses and a sharp call-and-response chorus while Lionel Limiñana uses his guitar to create a weird atmosphere around you.

Penny joins the band on the title track, and her lovely vocals evoke memories of long-gone girl groups and classic country singers. Anna Jean‘s breathy vocals on “Catherine” will leave you wondering, “Catherine who?” and “Where can I find these women?” You can tell there’s a fascinating story here.

“The Dancer” is an instrumental tribute to Lionel and Marie Limiñana‘s friend frequent video collaborator Foulques de Boixo, known as “The Dancer” or “The Dancing Man” in so many of The Limiñanas’ music videos. Appropriately, it has a great beat from Marie that will have you dancing with de Boixo in spirit.

“Space Baby” is one of two collaborations with Jon Spencer and Pascal Comelade on the album and it has Spencer singing about a woman who’s so far out of his reach she might as well be in space. “Tu Viens, Marie?” (“Are You Coming, Marie?”) can be taken a few different ways. Does it refer to Marie Limiñana herself? That’s a good guess, as the vocals are back and forth between her and Lionel. Does it refer to a journey or something, ahem, else? I like the mystery of it, so I’ll leave it as such.

Their cover of “Louie Louie” is the type of cover only they could pull off, as they turn the weird garage rock classic into a whispered, yet loud, psychedelic freakout. The couple give us a tour of their house, and the stuff from all over the world throughout it, on “Autour de Chez Moi” (“Around My House”). Again, it seems like only they could perform a song like this, turning a walk-through of their place almost into a meditative mantra.

Mr. Spencer and Mr. Comelade return on “Degenerate Star” with Spencer singing about forgotten fame and how fast one can fall from the public eye when the next big thing appears (“All I’ve got is this picture, and your smell. Where did you go?…I was a star, the biggest, brightest star. Don’t you remember? Have you forgotten everything?”).

The album ends with their cover of Françoise Hardy‘s “Ou Va la Chance?” (“Where Does the Luck Go?”). Hardy was a yé-yé icon in the 1960s, who, like de Boixo, died in recent years. She often sang about heartbreak and missed opportunities for love, and the album fading out with a song written by her is a perfect way to end a record about fading stardom.

Faded is a lovely and groovy record that assures us that the Limiñanas aren’t fading just yet and that those who came before them will stay with us a while longer.

Keep your mind open.

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Tombstones in Their Eyes release “Alive & Well” from their upcoming new album.

LA-based indie rock outfit Tombstones In Their Eyes presents ‘Alive and Well’, a beautifully raucous psychedelic rock revival hymn, following the brooding lead track ‘Under Dark Skies’. This unexpectedly fierce and defiant declaration of strength is the second taste of their ‘Under Dark Skies’ album, to be released viaLittle Cloud Records (for North America) and Shore Dive Records (for the UK and EU). This 2-track offering also includes the radio edit.

This song is dedicated to TITE guitarist Paul Boutin, who recently lost his battle with cancer. As Paul Lovecraft, he was a prolific musician, releasing music even after an operation nicked his vocal chords. Having met Tombstones’ main-man John Treanor at Kitten Robot Studios about 10 years ago while working on his own projects, they fell into the same orbital realms until Paul eventually joined the band.

The song features John Treanor on vocals and guitar, Paul Boutin on guitar, Nic Nifoussi on bass, Paul Roessler on keyboards, Stephen Striegel on drums and percussion), and Courtney Davies, Clea Cullen and Joel Wasko on backing vocals,

“When our beloved friend and guitar player lost his life on 10/18/25, we were shocked, confused and incredibly saddened. Paul was so kind, generous, intelligent and always optimistic. Being in TITE was a source of pride and joy for Paul. He was so easy to be around and was dedicated, driving many hours for practices and shows, always bringing his cheerfulness and optimism. We miss him greatly and are glad he is all over this record,” says John Treanor.

“We were initially going to scrap ‘Alive and Well’ as a single after Paul’s passing (for obvious reasons), but because it was one of Paul’s favorites and a song on which he played guitar, we are going ahead with the release. The lyrics are about rising out of desperate circumstances with newfound strength – something Paul himself experienced, having dragged himself out of his own difficulties to ultimately rebuild a life full of joy and purpose. While not planned that way, ‘Alive and Well’ ended up being a statement of intent – a story of a journey from despair to strength.”

The accompanying video was created by Italian multi-arts visionary Francesca Bonci, known for her work with Federale (BJM’s Collin Hegna), British bard Philip Parfitt,The Dandy Warhols’ Peter G. Holmström a.k.a. Pete International Airport and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell.

A year on from their ‘Asylum Harbour’ album, this record emerged during a year of intense personal change, before finally moving into a place of light and gratitude. Recorded and engineered by Paul Roessler (The Screamers, Nina Hagen, 45 Grave) at Kitten Robot Studios, this album was co-produced by John Treanor and mastered by multi-platinum engineer Alex DeYoung at DeYoung Masters (Michael Jackson, BTS, Macy Gray, The Linda Lindas, TSOL).

As of November 11, ‘Alive and Well’ is available everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp, where the ‘Asylum Harbour’ album can also be found on CD and red vinyl. On December 5, the ‘Under Dark Skies’ album will be released digitally and on vinyl via Little Cloud Records (US) and Shore Dive Records (UK and EU).

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR!]

Review: The Quality of Mercury – The Voyager

Check out that album cover. That pretty much sums up how The Quality of Mercury‘s new album, The Voyager, is going to sound.

Jeremiah Rouse, otherwise known as The Quality of Mercury, has come back from a nine-year journey to release his new record, and my guess is that was how long he was cruising around in that spaceship on the album’s cover because The Voyager is full of cosmic riffs and epic sounds that seem to drift around distant planets or alongside speeding comets.

“Moonrise” starts off the journey with Rouse proclaiming, “Sleeping giant rise. It’s time to breathe the stars.” The sleeping giant could be us, the moon, the Earth, a celestial being, or just the sound of the entire album. “Radiate” blasts you with Hum-like intensity and an intense tale of an astronaut fleeing a burning, crumbling ship in one last ditch effort to leap from his craft to a space station and hope his oxygen doesn’t run out before he can reach it. “Ganymede” is a story of how the future, or even distant moons, aren’t far enough to escape heartbreak (“Thirteen was the number of the airlock where you left me…Now I’m broken and still frozen on this ice moon where you left me.”).

“Heaven’s Gate” is indeed about the doomed cult of the same name, but not about its ideals. It’s about how those people wanted to find something in the stars that they were missing on Earth…even though it was around them the entire time. The thick bass line Rouse plays on it is a good touch. “Desperate Measures” has two lovers on opposite sides of space taking great risks to reunite. This theme of longing for connection is prevalent on the whole record, and Rouse has said how “…relationships, both human and spiritual, are at the center of everything.”

“Receiving Hertz” has Rouse (Who, by the way, plays everything on this record.) singing about wishing for a human connection across vast distances as he gets “signals from a distant light. Receiving hertz, but still out of sight.” Rouse’s guitar work on “Selenite” has so many layers to it that it feels like he’s terraforming a landscape with it. The title track, which ends the album, has Rouse leaving on his journey into the stars to search “…for purpose and meaning, but the space goes on and on. Tranquil horizons deceiving.” He thinks he’ll be alone, and he might be right, but he also knows he has to make the launch.

We all do at some point, be it into adulthood, parenthood, a new job, a new relationship, a move across the country or the cosmos. We’re all seeking connection here on Earth and even across our galaxy. It’s the eternal quest, and The Quality of Mercury invites us to take it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shamless Promotion PR!]

Stomp Records celebrates its 30th anniversary with big shows across Canada.

Matt Colyer & Mike Magee of Stomp Records

Thirty years ago, Stomp Records kicked off in Montreal with a simple mission: to give Canada’s independent punk and ska bands a home, a voice, and a way to reach beyond their own city limits. It was an ambitious idea for a couple of musicians with no business plan and even less money, a plan that should’ve crashed harder than a tour van on bald tires in a prairie blizzard. Instead, it helped ignite a national movement and built one of Canada’s longest-running and most influential independent labels. From day one, Stomp Records wasn’t just releasing records, it was building culture. In the pre-internet era, Canadian punk and ska scenes were thriving in isolation, each city a bubble. Stomp burst those bubbles, uniting bands from coast to coast, creating touring circuits, and turning hometown heroes into cross-country road warriors. “This label is built on community, creativity, and helping each other get our shot,” says Stomp co-founder Matt Collyer. “We’re still here because the fans show up, the bands work their asses off, and we love every minute of doing this.”

Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, Stomp helped define the next wave of Canadian punk and ska, not by chasing trends but by championing artists with grit, conviction, and personality. They supported small scenes through compilation series (The All-Skanadian Club) and got in the van with bands — literally and figuratively — helping develop careers from the bar circuit to international festival stages. As trends shifted and the music industry free-fell into the Napster era, most indie labels folded. Stomp didn’t. They embraced digital early, built a full-service ecosystem of booking, management, and publicity, and widened their sonic scope to reflect the beautifully messy realities of underground music. Punk, ska, rockabilly, hardcore, folk-punk, skate-punk, bagpipes, brass, blood, sweat. if it had guts and a pulse of rebellion, Stomp gave it a home.

That fearless curation brought countless Canadian subcultural staples into the world: The Real McKenzies, Wine Lips, The Dreadnoughts, The Flatliners, The Creepshow, The Anti-Queens, Brutal Youth, Belvedere, Bedouin Soundclash, Raygun Cowboys, PKEW PKEW PKEW, The Sainte-Catherines, Down By Law, Snuff… and many more who continue to fill rooms and make noise worldwide. It has never been a smooth ride. Along the way there have been industry collapses, floods, robberies, broken bones, car jackings, even literal Nazi attacks. Somehow, through all of that, a few Juno nominations, a win, and accidental gold and platinum plaques still ended up on their walls.“The odds were stacked against us from day one,” says long-time Stomp partner Mike Magee. “Luckily Stomp Records didn’t, and still doesn’t, give one single flying f*ck about the odds.”

Three decades in, the mission hasn’t changed: artists first, community always, and a stubborn refusal to water anything down. And the stats speak for themselves: nearly 300 releases with distribution in over 190 countries, artists who’ve earned Juno recognition, and alumni who have gone on to perform in Simple Plan, Walk Off The Earth, Kings of Leon, The Stills, Patrick Watson and Broken Social Scene among a long list of others.

To celebrate surviving 30 wild years, and because they love any excuse for a loud night out, they’re celebrating with a nationwide run of absolute blowout shows. A toast to every late-night drive, every curb-side gear load, every sweaty pit, and every fan who ever found belonging in the chaos.

For interview opportunities with Stomp founders and artists, please reach out. -Chad

30TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

Nov 21 – Vancouver – The Rickshaw Theatre

The Real McKenzies, The Planet Smashers, Raygun Cowboys

Dec 11 – Toronto – Lee’s Palace

The Dreadnoughts, The Creepshow, The Filthy Radicals

https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/dreadnoughts-with-the-creepshow-lees-palace-tickets/13786114

Dec 13 – Ottawa – Overflow Brewing

The Dreadnoughts, The Creepshow, The Filthy Radicals

https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/the-dreadnoughts-the-creepshow-the-overflow-brewing-co-tickets/14579493

MONTREAL – DOWNTOWN VENUES

Dec 10th @ Turbo Haus

Capable, Doghouse Rose

FR: https://lepointdevente.com/billets/stp251210001

EN: https://thepointofsale.com/tickets/stp251210001

Dec 11th @ Turbo Haus

Dig It Up, Brutal Youth, Crossdog

FR: https://lepointdevente.com/billets/stp251211001

EN: https://thepointofsale.com/tickets/stp251211001

Dec 12th @ Foufs

The Dreadnoughts, The Creepshow, PKEW PKEW PKEW, K-Man and the 45’s, The Penske File, The Fake Friends, Boids, The Filthy Radicals

FR: https://lepointdevente.com/billets/stp250923001

EN: https://thepointofsale.com/tickets/stp250923001

Dec 13th @ Club Soda

The Planet Smashers, The Flatliners, Wine Lips, The Anti-Queens, Crash Ton Rocks

FR: https://lepointdevente.com/billets/stp251213001

EN: https://thepointofsale.com/tickets/stp251213001

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Chad at No Rules PR.]

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.

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[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

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[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

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side!]

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

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