The cover image of Tokyo Tea Room‘s new album, Feel Forever, is, if you ask me, perfect for the sound of the record. You might look at it and think, “It’s just a photo of crumbled aluminum foil.”, but after you hear the dreamy, soulful psych-pop of Feel Forever, you think, “Oh yeah, I get it.”
Sam Teather‘s opening drum roll of “Hypnotised” is a perfect start to pretty much a perfect record. Beth Plumb‘s vocal style is like hearing dandelion seeds floating on summer winds, and the rest of the band (guitarist / producer / songwriter / jack-of-all-trades Dan Elliott and bassist Ben Marshall) groove like they’ve been doing it since the mid-80s. “Eyes Off You” is a love song you’ll put on every mix you’ll send to a lover from now until the end of time. “Leave You” has Plumb wanting to stay with a lover a bit longer because returning to the rat race is just…so…boring.
“All Night” continues this theme (with a shimmering groove) of wanting to extend the joy just another night more instead of calling it quits. The slow, smooth sound of “Feeling High” is great, with Teather putting down tight, simple jazz beats and Elliott’s synths and keys acting as icing on Plumb’s vocal cake. Marshall shines on “Always in the Sun” as his bass dances along like a happy cat and the band shows off their love of soul.
Elliott’s guitar on “You’re Mine” moves from desert rock to jazz with ease. “Temporary Love” has Plumb wanting a one-night stand to become a several-night stand at least, and “Last Time” has her wanting to seize the moment with a lover before its over and they go their separate ways. “Slip Away” floats us to bed as Plumb encourages us to “Stay inside, the world outside can wait.”
Getting back to the cover image, Feel Forever is as shimmery and reflective as the pictured aluminum. It’s also just as tactile and malleable. You feel it when you hear it as it wraps around and forms to you.
Shame on me for being late to Frankie and The Witch Fingers‘ excellent 2023 album, Data Doom. As you can guess from its title, the overall theme of the record is how technological creep into every facet of our lives and how it’s helped the rise of lethargy, rage, apathy, and fascism.
It’s another blast-your-face record from them that features a bunch of tracks that have become fan-favorites at their live shows. Starting with the low-end distortion of “Empire” that turns into a riff that feels like a lit match above a pool of gasoline, the album barely lets up for a moment. The outro alone might crush you and gets the whole crowd jumping.
“Burn Me Down” is about lead singer Dylan Sizemore wanting to be cremated after he’s dead. “Electricide” is a fast (check out those Nick Aguilar beats!) warning about letting technology overwhelm you (“Electric eye disrupts the way we know ourselves. So, go on, feed yourself electric pesticide and never question why we live the illusion.”).
“Syster System” is a satirical takedown / warning on the creeping influence of technology and how it disguises itself as a boon while often dehumanizing everything around it (“Syster System you’re the dream. All the planets and the beings. You’re the rhythm that we need for future machinery. Syster System is the code embedded in us to erode.”). The second half of it is a wild ride with Nikki “Pickle” Smith‘s bass leading the charge.
“Weird Dog” has funky, crunchy guitar work from Sizemore and Josh Menashe in a song about encroaching fascism (“Waking up the core, waking up the hive, waking up the Tao, waking may arise. Breaking up the war, breaking up the lies, breaking down your door just to watch you sleep.”).
“Doom Boom” is a slick one that centers the album with a call for an opening of our consciousness and a turn away from being “shackled to lies” (as well as hate, war, politicians, death, work, wait, and idealism). This could’ve been a Parliament track in another life. “Futurephobic” is an instant mosh-pit generator with its chant-ready chorus of “System has no way to connect!” chorus, but don’t miss Sizemore’s biting lyrics about how doom scrolling is creating brain rot and stealing your privacy and information (“Come ye witness the intended marketing, dopamine spiking, hooked up to the ever-changing chattering, listening, gathering.”). “Mild Davis” is another such warning (in 7/4, no less) with lyrics like “You there, ensnared by the god of wired screens, fuels the flicker of the infernal machine.”).
This warning (which also includes consumerism and capitalism) is delivered a final time on the last track, “Political Cannibalism,” with Sizemore’s bluntest lyrics on the whole album: “We consumers eat ourselves. Planet’s been disemboweled. Mass extraction bleeds us out, makes a terrible sound. Glutinous feeders at the helm. They’ve been grinding us down as we dine our own kind. They stack money and count.”
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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Blending the rich traditions of ’60s psych, folk and soul, woven with strands of early American roots music, this is a stirring reminder of the enduring power of the human spirit and its endless emanation throughout the ages into the face of an ancient and unrelenting evil.
Steeped in the aura of the perennially mythologized psychedelic culture of Southern California, The Stevenson Ranch Davidians has revealed itself in shifting configurations, their sound balances spiritual yearning with earthy authenticity. While the lineup has continually coalesced around lead singer-songwriter Dwayne Seagraves and bassist Jessica Latiolait, the collective has always had a guiding vision and goal: to create music that seeks to simultaneously demystify and deify the human experience.
The other members bring a range of talent, experience, and inspiration, including producer and longtime Brian Jonestown Massacre member Rob Campanella on guitar and lap steel, British drummer Misha Bullock, and Sara Minsavage on keyboards, shakes and jangles. On the current single, Andy Campanella also contributes background vocals..
“This song is from a collection of material that was recorded in the spring of 2019, just over a year after the release of our last LP, ‘Amerikana’, and just under a year before the entire world was abruptly thrown into one of its darkest periods in modern history,” says Dwayne Seagraves.
“To say that the music felt relevant at the time is an understatement, yet, somehow the time was not quite right for its release. Now here we are some seven years later and the songs’ relevance hasn’t faded. Maybe that makes it timeless. Maybe that’s exactly what we intended it to be.”
Jessica Latiolait adds, “We will be releasing a series of brand-new singles over several months, each pulled from sessions we recorded back in 2019s. These songs have been waiting a long time to be heard, and we’re excited to finally share them with you. We can’t wait for you to hear what we’ve been holding onto all these years.”
Following the release of their acclaimed third album‘Amerikana’, the band embarked on two extensive European tours while also recording a full length collection of songs. The band began a monthly residency in the Bay Area until taking indefinite hiatus due to various governmental mandates during the Covid outbreak. In 2024, the band re-emerged to the live music circuit, touring with acts such as Micah Nelson and Particle Kid, Levitation Room and Habibi, while writing new material.
Most recently, The Stevenson Ranch Davidians have wrapped up recording their fourth full-length album at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California, with its release planned for early-2027. 2026 also brings a string of performances, including three with Elephant Stone.
‘Love, Light, Beauty & Truth’ is available on streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
Keep your mind open.
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Bollywood music gets a lot of attention, but do you know about Lollywood (Lahore + Hollywood) music? Life Is Dance!, another excellent collection of obscure music from outside the U.S. by Finders Keepers Records, seeks to expand your knowledge of music from Pakistani films in the 1970s.
Most of the songs on this collection are by Altaf Hassain Tafo (leader of a group of family musicians), Nazir Ali, Kamal Ahmed, and M. Ashraf, and nearly all the tracks feature the stunning and prolific Nahid Akhtar on lead vocals. Life Is Dance! practically is an Akhtar album.
Her voice (along with vocals by Mehdi Hassan and A. Nayyar and weird male backup vocalist chants and shouts) get in your brain and under your skin on the crazy “Zambo Zambo” (from the bizarre spy movie Jasoos from 1977). The song combines electronic percussion and hand percussion from Tafo and psychedelic bits that might freak you out. The compilation’s title track (from the 1976 film Society Girl) is next with Ali mixing happy accordion with sci-fi synths, bold horns, and trippy guitar as Akhtar and guest vocalist Mehnaz sing / purr / roar throughout it.
Ashraf’s first track on the album is “Dear I Love You” from the 1975 film Zanjeer. It’s a groovy one with accordion somehow blending with (at the time) state-of-the-art synthesizers and slick bass lines. Ahmed finally goes the party (with Mehnaz on lead vocals this time) with 1976’s “Aage Bhi” (from the film Blackmail). It’s one of the grandest songs on the record with big horn arrangements and thrilling hand percussion.
Tafo and Akhtar return for “Shalo Sa Bharka,” another track from Jasoos. It feels darker and grittier than the first, which is not a put-down by any means. Then, the duo flip you on your head with 1979’s “Naughty Boy” (from the film Adawat), in which Akhtar scolds a lover for having naughty thoughts…which might be the same ones she’s having. Sohali Rana‘s lone contribution to the album is the instrumental oddity “Cobra Sway” from the 1970 film Khyber Mail.
Ashraf and Akhtar return for “Sheeshy Ki Botal” (from 1975’s Surat Aur Seerat), which features a nifty saxophone mixed with guitars that sound like they were plugged in after being buried in an ash pit for about three weeks. Abdul Hameed steps in for one track with Akhtar, the sexy and fun “Catch Me If You Can,” one of a few in which Akhtar throws in English verses and phrases now and then to grab your attention. The horn section on it is a lot of fun, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been resurrected into a modern film soundtrack instead of just languishing on the 1978 soundtrack to Dil Ke Daag. Akhtar’s playful vocals on “Too Ne Pyar Se Dekha” (from 1976’s Shabana) are delightful, as is Ashraf’s blend of classical instruments and hand percussion. It makes you want to dance around the room.
Another track from the two of them follows, “O My Love,” from 1977’s Shama-E-Mohabbat. It’s a grand, lush tune with some of Akhtar’s loveliest vocals on the compilation. She teams back up with Tafo on “Wey Titly Non Par” (from 1978’s Cheeta Chalbaz). Tafo hands the mic to Jehan and Cheeku on 1975’s “Dil Be-Qara Mangda Ae Pyar” (from Nawab Zada). The mix of tinny guitar, rapid tabla beats, and jaunty accordion is bizarre and fun.
Ahmed comes back for two more songs, the first being “Don’t Drink” (another from Blackmail) with Akhtar opening the song with her breathy request of “Oh…Don’t be silly.” You’re under her spell right away. The second is “Jawani Meri Bijli” (from 1976’s Warrant) with Jehan belting out powerful vocals over sizzling hand percussion beats and groovy synth bass.
Finally, from 1976’s Society Girl, we have Ali teaming up with Akhtar and Mehnaz for a song that you’ll put on your holiday playlists from now on – “Happy Chrismis.” You have to hear it to believe it. You’ll love it.
You’ll love this whole thing, really. It’s full of gems.
Vacations—the Australian indie rock band of lead songwriter and vocalist Campbell Burns, bassist Jake Johnson, guitarist Nate Delizzotti, and drummer Joseph Van Lier—announce their new album, Pursuit of Anything, out October 2nd on Nettwerk, and release the lead single/video, “Holy Grail.”
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.
This is on display on today’s single, “Holy Grail,” a diamond of a pop song, the sort of music you want to listen to while lying out in the sun. The track is impressionistic and melancholy: “How can I fool myself,” Burns sings in the song’s opening moment. The synths around him twinkle and the song lilts.
“‘Holy Grail’ was based on a stressful Zoom call we had together as a band last year,” Burns reflects. “We were in this period of wanting to write and record new material, but then also being stuck in a loop of unsustainable touring. So many people I know have devoted their entire lives to music, and yet, at times it can feel as if you’re in pursuit of anything just to make it work for you. This push and pull dynamic of something I love so much is fascinating to me. I may struggle at times, but I will always return to it because it brings so much joy and fulfillment and ultimately outweighs any negative.”
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.
This summer, Vacations will embark on their Holy Grail Tour across the U.S., Asia and Australia. The run of dates also includes the band’s very own MATES Festival with the third installment taking place at Knockdown Center in NYC on Saturday, June 20th. The all-day, full-building, multi-stage event will take over the Main Hall and Ruins at Knockdown Center, and feature Vacations, grentperez, girlpuppy, Mamalarky, Alex Lahey, Horse Jumper of Love, Thelma Plum, and Winter. Tickets for all dates are on sale and available here.
Vacations Tour Dates: Thu. July 9 – Jakarta, ID @ M Block Live House Sat. July 11 – Perth, AUS @ Freo.Social Sun. July 12 – Adelaide, AUS @ The Gov Thu. July 16 – Brisbane, AUS @ The Triffid Fri. July 17 – Melbourne, AUS @ 170 Russell Sat. July 18 – Sydney, AUS @ Metro Theatre Sun. July 19 – Newcastle, AUS @ The Act at Earp Distillery
I knew I was going to buy Bollywood Bloodbath as soon as I saw the cover and read “The B-Music of the Indian Horror Film Industry.” That cover image, by the way, is from the 1981 monster film Janni Dushman (which is readily available on YouTube if you’re interested).
The collection is packed with great Bollywood psych-disco-horror music ranging from 1949 to 1985. It starts with the spooky laughter of Rajesh Roshan‘s theme to 1981’s Sannata (The Silence), which adds synth wind sounds and ghostly vocals to the mix. Pulsing beats lead the charge on Hemant Bhosle‘s funky phantom track, “Sasani Khez Koi Baat” from another 1981 film – Sansani (The Sensation). Bappi Lahiri‘s “He Met Me in the Guest House” (from 1980’s Guest House) is a rare Bollywood track with English vocals (by Preeti Sagar) that’s a mighty fine lost disco track. Lahiri’s horn-filled (and monster roar-including) “Meri Jaan” is another cool gem from another 1981 movie about a weird snake monster called Dahshat (Shock) and has lovely vocals by Sulakshana Pandit, freaky synths, and almost spaghetti western guitar sounds.
Up next are the prolific team of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma with “Aa Jane Jaan” from the giallo-like Intaqam from 1969. It combines bells, spy movie-like horn blasts and hand percussion beats, and mysterious sounds you can’t quite place…and it ends with what sounds like a fight or murder taking place on screen. More mysterious sounds abound in Ratandeep Hemraj‘s “Birha Ki Maari Koi” (from 1979’s Shaitan Mujrim (Satan’s Culprit)) as Jyoti, the lead actress, sings alongside howling dogs, creaking coffin lids, screeching cats, and a horn section that sounds like it might be drunk.
Lahiri returns with the simply titled “Dance Music” from 1982’s Maut Ka Saya – a film about a swamp monster. It’s a rather bouncy track (with sexy, nearly orgasmic laughing) that could be mistaken for a cumbia instrumental upon the first listen. Apparently, this swamp monster is a cool cat. So are the duo known as Sapan Jagmohan, who display their jazz-funk chops on 1978’s “Aji Kahan Gum Ho” from the occult film Darwaza (The Door).
The duo of Laxmikant-Pyarelal return on the theme for 1967’s psychological thriller Anita. The simple hand percussion instruments highlight the lead character’s paranoia. Usha Khanna (Bollywood’s first female music director) provides “Tere Jaisa Pyara Koi Nahin” from the 1981 movie Hotel (the plot of which was pretty much ripped off by Poltergeist a couple years later). Khanna uses a funky bass groove and strange synth notes to craft a slick track.
Roshan comes back to another track from Sannata, this one being “Marjaban Too Kuthe Part 1.” It’s a fun love song hidden in a movie about a series of brutal murders. Sapan Jagmohan’s “Sote Sote Adhi Rat,” from 1984’s Siskeyan is a standout on the record with its great guitar work, funk bass, disco beats, and lush vocals from Salma Agha.
After the short instrumental “Ab Kahan Jayenge Ham (Sad)” by Bhosle (another track from Sansani), we get the exciting theme to 1980’s Andhera (The Darkness) by Sapan Jagmohan. The movie blends a vampire film with a crime thriller, and the “crime” sound is prominent here. You’re expecting a chase scene or a fight to break out any moment. Lahiri’s title to Dahshat follows it with more bat-snake-who knows monster sounds combined with fast tabla beats and warped synths and guitars that sound broken.
Roshan delivers the (in terms of title) out-of-place “Superman, Superman” from Sannata. Two detectives are trying to find the serial killer in this film, not intrepid reporter Clark Kent, so why a song with Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, and Ursula Vaz singing about the Man of Steel is in this movie’s soundtrack is anyone’s guess. Nonetheless, it’s a blast and needs to be in the next Superman movie.
Another nice inclusion is “Dance Music” by Khemchand Prakash from what is considered to be the first Indian horror film – 1949’s Mahal (The Mansion). It’s not dance music for the nightclub crowd. It’s dance music for a strange ritual or for ghosts…or both. Another track from Maut Ka Sava by Lahiri is next, titled “Aafat,” and it combines surf guitar with city pop saxophone and Kraftwerk-like synths. I don’t how it works, but it does.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s “Chal De Rol” from Jaani Dushman is the most meditative track on the compilation with its excellent tabla work and swirling string instruments. My guess is that its supposed to call the crazy beast killing young brides in the film, but I could be far off base. Roshan’s “Marjaban Too Kuthe Part 2” is another lovely cut, and then we have “Dekho Dekho Dekho Magar Pyar Se” from 1985’s Cheekh (The Scream) by Nadeem Saifi and Shravan Rathod that could almost be video game music and has fun vocals by Alga Yagnik and wicked guitar riffs, tabla beats, and horn blasts.
The compilation appropriately ends with “Bindya Tarse Kajra Barse” by Rahul Dev Burman from the 1980 psychological thriller Phir Wohi Raat. Burman is sometimes known as the “Indian Ennio Morricone” for his massive output, experimentation, and talent.
Finding stuff like this is like finding a treasure chest of money in your backyard. It baffles you at first and then you’re elated by it.
Riviera Gaz — the multinational trio of guitarist/vocalist Gustavo Riviera (leader of long-running Brazilian rock outfit Forgotten Boys), multi-faceted bassist/keyboardist Paulo Kishimoto (Pitty, Forgotten Boys) and drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) — have announced the release of their second studio album Catacroma, due August 21 via Shelley’s imprint, Vampire Blues. Weaving together a psychedelic collective consciousness where fuzzy riffs, glam rock energy, fearless studio experimentation, and Can-inspired grooves all melt together to form new mercurial elements, the 11-track collection presents an elevated expression of sound, stretching straight-ahead rock songs into strange and sprawling cosmic experiences. First single, “Monomania (Edit),” an abbreviated mix of the longer album track, is out now and accompanied by a video directed by Tomas Spicolli.
“The song ‘Monomania’ evokes the soundtrack to a road movie, with constantly transforming landscapes, shifting colors and a steady rhythm that takes the listener from earthly horizons to a post-industrial future,” says Riviera. “It’s a celebration of obsession. It presents a world where irrational desires, impossible dreams and personal fixations are encouraged. Within the territory of obsession, of mania, an invitation to surrender to your ‘psychotic dreams’ and trust in the impossible.”
While earlier Riviera Gaz material was largely Riviera’s songs fleshed out by the group, Catacroma is a more completely balanced collaboration, with multiple sessions where everyone contributed from start to finish. Additionally, the band intentionally distanced themselves from the sterile digital aesthetic of modern recording, opting out of using click tracks, pitch correction, or instrument plug-ins, yet embracing the mixing phase of production as a means to organize the wild sound of the record. Extensive editing directly informed by techniques absorbed from famed producer Roy Cicala (John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Forgotten Boys), the subtractive atmospheres of the ‘Elemental Remixes’ of Lennon’s Mind Games, and Brazilian rock pioneer Erasmos Carlos whose most far out material became a central factor of how the songs were composed, resulting in moments like when “Lonely Moon” shifts unexpectedly between earthly heaviness and black hole spaciness, the emphasized tension between stoic acoustic chords and malicious layers of fuzz on “Name the River,” and drawing out of multicolored textures on the slow-blooming instrumental “Crime Scene.”
Lyrically, Catacroma moves through the same waves of the surreal and the unknown as the music. The album title itself is a word made up by the band, assembled from “Cata” (from the Greek katá, something that crosses, that goes downwards or inwards) and “Chroma” (color, tone, tint). This is meant to represent a core of color that expands into sound, but also has a political meaning when color symbolizes territories of dispute — not only sensory elements, but also tools of resistance, affirmation, and confrontation. The word carries the gesture of traversing the chromatic spectrum, dismantling invisible hierarchies that order what can or cannot be seen and heard. This is the starting point for lyrical pictures that summon up haunted hotel rooms, hyper-realistic poetry, a crime in the Hudson Valley where a son believed his mother was Medusa and would turn him to stone, and other shards of abstract thought.
Taken in its totality, Riviera Gaz‘s sophomore effort Catacroma is an aesthetic world of its own design. Its eleven tracks are a hall of fun house mirrors where killer songs break apart and come back together organically, never taking expected turns and always ending up somewhere even more interesting than where they began.
According to Wooden Overcoat‘s frontman, Brant Hajek, “Recording this EP almost ruined my life, and I hope it sounds like it.”
Hajek wrote, played, recorded, mixed, and edited Hello Sunbeam by himself, wanting “…to make something that sounds old but fresh…something that sounds warm and dense, but somehow also airy.” Mission accomplished, sir, as the EP is psychedelic, dreamy, and fuzzy.
Opening with “Home,” you immediately get the sense of sunbeams waking you in the morning and moonbeams illuminating your late night party that same day. It’s delightfully hooky. “Finally Arrived,” a song about the frailty of human connection, is lush and almost misty. It’s like catching a jasmine smell on the wind and you don’t know its origin, but you want to find it so you can hang out there for hours.
“Heaven Right Now” continues to explore how frail we are and uses reverb-soaked guitars and vocals to show how many of us are always on the edge of the ledge and ready to fall and shatter…yet it’s still hopeful and captivating. It’s no secret that Hajek wrote the album during a dark period of his life. His mother was diagnosed with cancer, he was going through a breakup, and the world was both literally and figuratively on fire (even his band’s name is a nickname for a coffin).
The vocal harmonies on the closing track, “I Knew You Would,” blend well with the psych-surf guitar and soft beats. I’m willing to bet it’s about Hajek’s relationship turning sour and an outcome he saw coming and knew he couldn’t avoid. The guitar solo on it is a standout.
The title of the EP comes from a mantra that Hajek would say when he felt things crushing in on him. It was to remind him that the sun was still there and, as Gandhi once put it, “In the midst of darkness, light persists.” Hello Sunbeam acknowledges the dark, but also embraces the light.
We’ve reached the top ten of concerts I saw over the last five years, and it includes more bands I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. Starting with…
#10: Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade – Kemba Live!, Columbus, OH – May 31st, 2022
Les Claypool’s side project, The Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, put out one album and a cool double-live album many years ago. I didn’t think he’d revive the project and knew I had to see this tour as soon as it was announced. Sure enough, it was a cool show full of weird psychedelic rock, Sean Lennon on lead guitar, and them covering Pink Floyd’s Animals in its entirety in the middle of the show.
#9: Viagra Boys – Salt Shed – Chicago – February 24, 2023
This was bonkers. It was, according to Viagra Boys’ lead singer Sebastian Murphy, their biggest show in the U.S. so far. It was packed, sweaty, loud, and crazy. The entire indoor stage at the Salt Shed felt like it was shaking and that a drug-fueled orgy might break out at any moment.
#8: TV on the Radio – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Here’s the next band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. TVOTR didn’t have a new album to promote, but they were touring and headlining one night of the Levitation Music Festival. I would have gone to the festival just to see them, and they didn’t disappoint. They brought everything I wanted: Energy, fury, power, and joy.
#7: Orbital – Radius – Chicago – March 23, 2024
Here’s the third band in this part of the list I wasn’t sure I’d ever see. Orbital’s tour was another surprise and it was great to see them in a reasonably small venue. They sounded excellent, and the show felt like being transported back in time to a 1993 rave. I hadn’t danced that much in a long while.
#6: Elton John – Soldier Field – Chicago – August 05, 2022
It was a hot and humid night at Soldier Field when Sir Elton John played his final Chicago show on his final tour. It was a big, fun, and emotional show, and he and his band sounded great. In terms of sound quality, this probably is the best show I heard of the last five years. Every note was clear.
Up next, the top five, and they’re all bands I wasn’t sure I’d ever see.
