News – 7th Level Music

CEREMONY drop “Dark Summer” in the middle of a heat wave.

CEREMONY—the seminal California-based punk band of Ross Farrar, Anthony Anzaldo, Andy Nelson, Justin Davis, and Jake Casarotti—release the new single/video, “Dark Summer” from their seventh album, Tell Me Your Dream, out August 7th via Relapse. Following “Death Destruction Mayhem,” which Consequence says “tak[es] the band’s developed and matured post-punk sound and reappl[ies] it to the hardcore and punk rock that motivated their earliest work,” “Dark Summer” is a jet-black post-punk rumination.

On the track, Farrar says: “In Rock ‘n Roll music, feedback occurs when a guitar is purposely moved too close to an amplifier – like a dark summer – when dread finds you amid brilliant sunshine, it feels disorienting, confusing, and chaotic. What you’re left with is malaise, doldrums of sorts that are both beautiful and terrifying.”

Watch the Video for “Dark Summer”

Tell Me Your Dream reunites CEREMONY with producer John Reis, a punk lifer whose eclectic noisemaking in Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes and other legendary bands runs in parallel to CEREMONY’s multitudes. After working on CEREMONY’s acclaimed 2015 album, The L-Shaped Man, Reis maintains a unique perspective on the quintet — as a hardcore punk band, as participants in the greater California rock-and-roll tradition, and as friends. “John sort of joined the band on this one,” says guitarist-keyboardist Anzaldo. “We could not respect him more as a guitarist, as a singer, as a songwriter. He understands what it’s like to be in every position. So we really gave him the keys.”

Tell Me Your Dream is a reflection of the enduring sense of trust forged within the band. This is no surprise considering CEREMONY’s roots date all the way back to a grade-school friendship between Anzaldo and Farrar. “We’re bound together like family,” says Anzaldo. “Our relationships are beyond the band. CEREMONY is going to live no matter what. We’ve shifted into this dynamic where the choice isn’t ours anymore.”

Deep connections in a shallow world. A clear sense of purpose in uncertain times. These are the reasons CEREMONY continues to grow, to expand, to adapt, to endure. This band can’t stop. And it won’t. To meet the moment, you have to be there for it.

On the heels of back to back weekends playing Coachella earlier this year, CEREMONY’s North American tour will kick off September 9th in Montreal and includes stops in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and more throughout the fall. Tickets are now available here.

Pre-order Tell Me Your Dream

Watch the Video for “Death Destruction Mayhem”

Listen to “Other Hells”

CEREMONY Tour Dates
Wed. Sept. 9 – Montréal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques
Thu. Sept. 10 – Toronto, ON @ East End United Basement
Fri, Sept 11 – Detroit, MI @ Russell Industrial Center Lot (Supporting Turnstile)
Sat. Sept. 12 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
Sun. Sept. 13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Thu. Sept. 24 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Sat. Sept. 26 – Vancouver, BC @ The American
Thu. Oct. 1 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Fri. Oct. 2 – New York, NY @ Warsaw
Sat. Oct. 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sun. Oct. 4 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Fri. Oct. 16 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Hell
Sat. Oct. 17 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
Sun. Oct. 18 – Miami, FL @ Churchill’s
Thu. Oct. 22 – Denver, CO @ Marquis
Thu. Nov. 5 -San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Fri. Nov. 6 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Sat. Nov. 7 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
Fri. Nov. 13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Fri. Nov. 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo

Keep your mind open.

[It will feel like a dark summer if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Matt from Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Stevenson Ranch Davidians (and the rest of us) search for “Love, Light, Beauty & Truth” on their new single.

New York-based collective The Stevenson Ranch Davidians embrace hope, resilience and timeless psychedelic soul on their luminous new single ‘Love, Light, Beauty & Truth’, with accompanying video by Jacob Kedzierski.

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.

[I’ll feel love, light, beauty, and truth if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Jake Xerxes Fussell boards the “Rock Island Line” on his new single.

Singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell announces his new album, The Old Beloved Path, out September 18th via Fat Possum Records and releases the lead single, “Rock Island Line.” Over six unique and very personal studio albums, Fussell has found his musical future by reimagining, reorchestrating, and reunifying the past. By combining different traditional music sources in a completely original way, he routinely creates fresh works of art that are at once rooted in history and ingeniously modern.

It’s Fussell’s inspired intuition that remakes a classic American folk song, like today’s “Rock Island Line,” into something that still rings with inherent wisdom but is completely his own. In the past, Fussell says he might have avoided a song like “Rock Island Line” because it seemed too commonplace to him— many folk singers had already done it. But after listening to a recording of the song by Lonnie Donegan, something about the incantation of the chorus struck a chord. In typical Fussell fashion, his remarkable ear and intellect took over.

“The song struck me as very beautiful, but just singing the verses wasn’t working for me. I couldn’t relate”, Fussell comments. “So, I wound up putting it together with an old English nursery rhyme that I had been kicking around. ‘Wire, briar, limberlock /How many geese is in our flock?’ and ‘If you want to ride you got to ride it like you’re flyin, get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.’ Marrying those two things, I felt like something worked, it felt like a song to me.”

Listen to “Rock Island Line”

The son of two artists and documentarians in their own right, Fussell grew up in Georgia around a community of people who were documenting traditional culture and craftways like storytelling, log cabin building, and basketmaking. Imbued with this deep respect for the past as well as an unquenchable intellectual curiosity, he grew up appreciating the beauty in those supposed lost arts and remains privy to them in a unique way.

“For people in the folk music world, songs are their religion,” states Fussell. “But traditional music is not a bee stuck in amber. I tend to think of everyone who plays traditional music as being on a spectrum from conservative to wildly creative. I am somebody who tends to sit on the edge of those two worlds. I don’t always present these songs in a historical context. I have to relate to them personally. I approach these songs through my own worldview.”

Recorded in North Carolina, The Old Beloved Path was mixed by producer Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), who has also played bass on tour with Fussell. Friends Dominic Billett, Isa Burke, Wayne Horvitz, and Ken Whiteley add their instrumental voices to Fussell’s singular musical amalgams. As producer, Whiteley fulfilled Fussell’s desire to make an album that was more a document of musicians playing live together in a room, dwelling less in atmospherics and musical elaboration. Working together, they intentionally limited their palette – focusing less on all the things a song could be, and honing in on the essential.

The songs Fussell chose for The Old Beloved Path are songs he has heard for years, but many of them felt newly illuminated – hitting different.

“Traditional music gets more intense the older I get. The way that I see the world is through these songs. The world of traditional music has been such a gift to me. If nothing else, a lifelong companion.”

Pre-Order The Old Beloved Path

Jake Xerxes Fussell Tour Dates
Sat. Aug. 1 – Lansing, NC @ Fly Around Festival
Sat. Aug. 8 – Sun. Aug. 9 – Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Folk Festival
Thu. Aug. 20 – Chicago, IL @ Fretboard Summit
Sat. Sept. 12 – Durham, NC @ The Carolina Theater [Eno River Association 60th Anniversary]
Fri. Oct. 2 – Liverpool, UK @ St Michael’s Church *
Sat. Oct. 3 – Manchester, UK @ Hallé St Peter’s *
Mon. Oct. 5 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *
Tue. Oct. 6 – Glasgow, UK @ St Luke’s *
Thu. Oct. 8 – Cork, IE @ Cyprus Avenue
Fri. Oct. 9 – Galway, IE @ Róisín Dubh
Sat. Oct. 10 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Mon. Oct. 12 – Bristol, UK @ St George’s *
Tue. Oct. 13 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 *
Wed. Oct. 14 – London, UK @ Union Chapel *
Sat. Oct. 24 – Buena Vista, GA @ Pasaquan
Tue. Nov. 3 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room +
Wed. Nov. 4 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club +
Thu. Nov. 5 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater +
Fri. Nov. 6 – Centralia, WA @ The Juice Box +
Sat. Nov. 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret +
Sun. Nov. 8 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern +
Wed. Nov. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall +
Thu. Nov. 12 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall +
Fri. Nov. 13 – South Pasadena, CA @ Sid the Cat Auditorium +
Sat. Nov. 14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar +
Wed. Dec. 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Hotel Cecil
Thu. Dec. 3 – Oslo, NO @ Røverstaden
Fri. Dec. 4 – Stockholm, SE @ Nalen Klubb
Sat. Dec. 5 – Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
Mon. Dec. 7 – The Hague, NL @ PAARD
Tue. Dec. 8 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
Wed. Dec. 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Nachstasyl
Thu. Dec. 10 – Berlin, DE @ Theater im Delphi
Fri. Dec. 11 – Cologne, DE @ Stadtgarten
Sat. Dec. 12 – Paris, FR @ Le Hasard Ludique
Sun. Dec. 13 – Bruges, BE @ Duyster Festival

* = with Naima Bock
+ = with Dougie Poole

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Fat Dog release title track from upcoming new album, “Cancel Me (I’m Tired).”

Today, Fat Dog are announcing their second album Cancel Me (I’m Tired). The album is the follow up to their celebrated debut album WOOF., which was released in 2024 and saw them become one of the UK’s most exciting breakthrough bands in the process.

The South London seven-piece Fat Dog have a good reason to be tired. They’ve spent the period since WOOF.’s release spreading their raucous, infectious and irresistible bark around the world. But if Fat Dog are tired with the world, the world is not tired of them. In fact, the world can’t get enough of them. Wherever they went on the tour to support WOOF., new diehards emerged out of the carnage. “Show of the weekend,” raved The Times after they played four shows in 27 hours at Glastonbury last year. “Unserious, unhinged and sensational,” marvelled NME. Their message spread far and wide.

Due out on October 2nd, with Cancel Me (I’m Tired) Fat Dog have created an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock’n’roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives. Over ten mind-bending and melodic tracks, it blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, bombastic strings, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia.

The lead single was inspired by John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep” combined with frontman/songwriter Joe Love imagining what Anatolian rock experimentalists Altın Gün would sound like if they were under siege from a thumping club beat. The title track begins with a riotous declaration. “If you wanna cancel me/Then go ahead and do it please,” It’s the sound of what happens when people push your buttons and your buttons start pushing back.

The video shot with director James Winstanley on the hottest day of the year, sees Fat Dog trying to avoid getting cancelled on an actual night out in London’s Soho.

“Cancel Me (I’m Tired)” follows the release of propulsive, jubilant electro-pop single “Go Fuck Urself” in May and the band’s storming support for Kneecap’s Crystal Palace gig last weekend – the only English band on the bill no less. This week, Fat Dog join Foo Fighters on a run of stadium shows and ahead of their headline UK & European tour starting late October.

When it was time to think about album 2, the band’s ringleader threw himself into recording sessions a day after landing home from a chaotic US tour in which each member of the band took turns in unravelling. “At some point on that tour, everyone had a small breakdown of some sort,” says Chris, who remembers losing his mind in LA, bashing his head against a wall whilst wearing an American Football helmet.

It wasn’t all nervous meltdowns. Romance was also in the air and, midway through the trek, Fat Dog’s frontman got married in Vegas after proposing to his girlfriend in San Francisco. “We played a gig to two people in Vegas,” Joe recalls, “and then the next day I got married.”

And so, it was with depressed Elvis ringing in his ears that Joe got home and began work on the second Fat Dog album. On their debut, Love had left the lyrics until last, letting the heady momentum of the music lead the way, but this time he felt he had much more to say. Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, Chris Tarrant, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms. Cancel Me (I’m Tired) possesses all the rabid frenzy and electrifying excitement of their debut but now delivered on a grand and glorious scale. Big, big things are ahead. Fat Dog are only just getting going.

Cancel Me (I’m Tired) is available on DomMart exclusive picture disc vinyl in PVC sleeve, deluxe translucent green coloured vinyl, standard LP, CD and digitally. Pre-order: Fat Dog’s store | Digital

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Adult DVD release “Cowboy on Aisle Three” ahead of their debut album coming September 25, 2026.

Today, Adult DVD are announcing their hugely anticipated self-titled debut album which will be released September 25th on Fat Possum Records. The Leeds-based sextet have carved a niche as one of the most talked-about live bands in the country and an irreverent new voice existing in the space between electronic euphoria and spiky hardcore energy.

Both unique in their approach and thrilling in impact, the band’s music has been shown love by Stereogum, Rolling Stone and The Line of Best Fit among others. Their breakout moment came with the single “Bill Murray,” an incessantly catchy distillation of people on the internet believing Tom Hanks and Bill Murray are the same person. More recently, the glitchy and anthemic “Real Tree Lee” was an A-list record at BBC 6Music and had support from BBC Radio 1.

At both Brighton’s The Great Escape and SXSW in Austin this year the band were championed as one of the buzziest acts of the festival with snaking queues of people waiting hours to see them perform . A relentless touring schedule in 2025 saw them hone their status as festival headliners in waiting, picking up a global army of new fans and playing to huge crowds at Glastonbury, Green Man, End Of The Road and more. The band recently toured Japan where they were greeted by fans in homemade Adult DVD merch, played a series of sold-out shows and saw posts about their performances go viral with millions of views.

To announce their debut, the band are sharing a new single entitled “Cowboy On Aisle Three.”

In the making of their exhilarating debut album, vocalist Harry Hanson and synth-player Greg Lonsdale, alongside Danny Blackburn (guitar/synth), Jake Williams (synth), Jonathan Newell (drums), and George Manson (bass), went harder on what was already working for them: witty observational songwriting based in real-life characters and a pulsating synth-punk sound perfect for both the rave and the mosh pit. Fusing together an intense musical workout with depictions of a motley crew of figures ranging from 5G conspiracy theorists to an existential cowboy, Adult DVD is the electrifying sound of a band exceeding their own expectations while going just as hard, if not harder than their adrenaline-fuelled live shows.

On Adult DVD Hanson and Lonsdale continue to take a screenwriter’s approach to songwriting, filling their lyrics with stories pulled from the outskirts of society yet painting a vivid and comic picture of modern Britain. “We don’t take things too seriously,” Lonsdale explains. “The lyrics have got sillier, the songs have got sillier. We make music for people to enjoy, so let them have a laugh.”

Produced by the band at The Nave Studios Leeds , the general theme of the album is to let go and take life a little less seriously. “Cowboy On Aisle Three” conjures an image of a wrangler swapping the rodeo for a supermarket over a swaggering synth riff . It’s an EQ-pushing beast that merges an existential crisis with the band’s playful spirit and relentless pursuit of bangers.

Speaking on the new single, the band’s frontman Harry Hanson says:

“I came up with the idea when I was in Lidl. I’m sure everyone has thought, ‘Imagine if I just went nuts now,’ to get out of doing the big shop.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media!]

No Joy shares new single, “Barking at the Sun,” from their upcoming EP.

Last month, No Joy announced a new EP entitled Big Life, Big Leaf (out August 21st via Hand Drawn Dracula). The EP is the follow up to the widely beloved 5th LP from Jasamine White-Gluz long-running project, 2025’s Bugland, which like the new EP was co-produced by the heralded Chicago experimental artist Fire-Toolz. That album earned a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork, who called it “a perfect album for our current shoecraze…Bugland is full of more textures, more ambiance, more chunky ’90s guitar. It crushes like a giant box of Gushers,” with further praise coming fromBandcamp, FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, AV Club, Hearing Things, FLOOD, and Exclaim. and wasalso recently nominated for the Polaris Prize.

The new EP was announced with its title track, which was co-written with Japanese Breakfast and Sky Ferreira producer Jorge Elbrecht. Today, No Joy are sharing a second single from the EP called “Barking At The Sun.” that blends dreamy shoegaze with ferocious blast beats and scratching from DJ Diego Juarez..

White-Gluz says of the track:

This song is driving through empty corn fields with the windows down on the first warm days of spring. During the last solar eclipse, I drove my car to the fields and watched the sun disappear and reappear, feeling like it was both the beginning and the end of the world.

This was the first song Angel & I worked on after Bugland. The song grew out of a very old demo where I played around with Drop C guitar tunings. With this opening guitar riff, I collaged bits and pieces of other demos together to make a patchwork of a song. Angel then took that into her world and made it more technicolor.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Mort Garson’s “Mother Earth’s Plantasia” album gets 50th anniversary re-release and parties.

Today we’re excited to announce the 50th anniversary celebration of Mort Garson’s beloved cult classic Mother Earth’s Plantasia, with Sacred Bones presenting the first-ever authorised eco-friendly reissue of the highly sought-after record. Originally released in 1976, the record was created for the listening attention of house plants and was one of the first ever to use a Moog. It’s available digitally now with the anniversary edition set for physical release on Sept 4th.

Listen / Pre-order here: https://mortgarson.lnk.to/Plantasia

To coincide with the anniversary Sacred Bones have also announced two very special Plantasia events in Chicago and Kingston, NY.

The long-running celebration of ambient and electronic music returns at Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago on September 10th and 11th, taking place over two beautiful days at the end of summer across the entire conservatory nature campus, including a new expanded outdoor stage. Brought to you by Sacred Bones, Empty Bottle Presents and Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, this year’s event features Helado Negro & Reyna Tropical, james k, Makaya McCraven, Flore Laurentine, and many more unmissable acts.

Tickets here: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/plantasia-two-day-pass-garfield-park-conservatory-tickets/14942083

At Seed Song Farm in Kingston, NY on September 19th and 20th Sacred Bones will celebrate for a weekend of music, botanical arts and crafts, workshops, a curated market, plant sales, alongside performances by Gigi Masin, SPELLLING, Mary Lattimore, Green-House, Alabaster DePlume and more. This event is on sale now, grab your ticket while they last.

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/night-howl-sacred-bones-present-plantasia-tickets-1990147578982

Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Mort Garson wrote lounge hits, scored the 1969 moon-landing and plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix.

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the book shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon.

Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.

Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog.

Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson. Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result.

The album gained an enormous cult following decades after its release. Sacred Bones’ 2019 reissue helped introduce Plantasia to a wider global audience, sparking a remarkable second life for Garson’s unlikely masterpiece. What was once a strange artifact of 1970s plant-mania has become a beloved evergreen, rediscovered and re-embraced by a new generation of listeners and flourishing far beyond its original moment.

Now, 50 years after its original release, Mother Earth’s Plantasia marks a major anniversary moment. To honor Mother Earth, Sacred Bones is releasing the first authorised eco-friendly reissue of Plantasia, pressed on 100% recycled eco-green vinyl and printed on 100% recycled paper. It is housed in a 100% recycled jacket, wrapped in bio-based shrinkwrap, and includes the original Mother Earth’s Indoor Plant Care Booklet alongside a digital download presented on a real seed-paper card.

Half a century on, Plantasia continues to resonate – an enduring reminder of Mort Garson’s ability to make the synthetic feel strangely alive and the whimsical feel oddly profound.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Caroline Rose rip-roars with “Yip Yip Yow.”

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.

Watch the Video for Caroline Rose’s “Yip Yip Yow”

Watch Caroline Rose Perform “Yip Yip Yow” in 2015 NPR Tiny Desk Concert

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*

+ = Pop-up Show
* = w/ Modest Mouse

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

You can find a “Holy Grail” with Vacations’ new single.

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.”

Watch the Video for “Holy Grail”

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.

Pre-Order Pursuit of Anything

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

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Yard Act announce new album and new single, “Redeemer.”

Leeds quartet Yard Act announce their new album, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, out July 17th via Republic Records and release the lead single, “Redeemer.” You’re Gonna Need A Little Music follows the band’s UK Top 5 charting Where’s My Utopia? (2024) and their Mercury Prize nominated debut, The Overload (2022). Recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St. Vincent), You’re Gonna Need A Little Music rings with the chemistry and energy of a band absolutely locked in. It’s simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energized work they’ve laid to tape, but also contains some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, picking up their tale and examining the findings more unsparingly than ever.

For a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, Yard Act’s third album marks the first time that the quartet—frontman and vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell—have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” says Smith. The Overload was written alongside Needham before the band had fully formed; its follow-up, Where’s My Utopia?, was carved out in snatches of time on tour buses and hotel rooms. For the first time in a long time, Yard Act were able to settle into an “uninterrupted five month period” of creativity, crafting “40 or 50 songs” and allowing themselves to follow their ideas with no external pressure. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band.”

Each track on You’re Gonna Need A Little Music has its own distinct character. The ominous guttural ferocity of today’s single, “Redeemer,” sits amongst a sleazy disco odyssey, fizzing indie, and loose, cerebral, meditations. Yard Act may have thrown the kitchen sink, or at least its cookware, at the track, with Meldal-Johnsen concocting a brittle, metallic texture out of a day of rattling pots and pans, but the result is direct, visceral and exciting.

Watch the Video For “Redeemer”

No whimsical walk through suburban England, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music seeks to work through some of the most complicated facets of life. Intentionally, in some ways, it is a step away from Smith’s venerated vignettes and character studies; a move towards something more “impressionistic” and up for interpretation. “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now,” Smith suggests. The questions are deep, but the spirit of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is boundless – not for nothing does its title point to the power of art and creativity to rescue us from the mire.

Last month, Yard Act announced a summer North American tour including stops throughout the West Coast, East Coast and Canada. This marks the band’s first North American run since 2024. Tickets are now on sale and available here. Yard Act will also make several festival appearances across Europe in June and embark on an extensive UK and EU tour in the fall. A full list of tour dates is below.

Pre-Order You’re Gonna Need A Little Music

Yard Act Tour Dates:
(New dates in bold)
Wed. Aug. 5 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Thu. Aug. 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Sat. Aug. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
Sun. Aug. 9 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Mon. Aug. 10 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Tue. Aug. 11 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
Thu. Aug. 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Fri. Aug. 14 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Sat. Aug. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sun. Aug. 16 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Thu. Oct. 1 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Fri. Oct. 2 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Sat. Oct. 3 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Mon. Oct. 5 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria-Theater
Wed. Oct. 7 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich
Thu. Oct. 8 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Music Hall
Fri. Oct. 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Kägelbanan
Sat. Oct. 10 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Mon. Oct. 12 – Warsaw, PL @ NIEBO
Tue. Oct. 13 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory
Wed. Oct. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Fri. Oct. 16 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
Sat. Oct. 17 – Milan, IT @ Magazzini Generali
Sun. Oct. 18 – Toulouse, FR @ La Cabane
Tue. Oct. 20 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo
Wed. Oct. 21 – Madrid, ES @ Teatro Eslava
Fri. Oct. 23 – Lisbon, PT @ Cineteatro Capitólio
Fri. Nov. 6 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
Sat. Nov. 7 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
Tue. Nov. 10 – Newcastle, UK @ NX
Wed, Nov. 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Thu. Nov 12 – Sheffield, UK @ Octagon Centre
Fri. Nov. 13 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse
Sun. Nov. 15 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Wulfrun Hall
Mon. Nov. 16 – Leicester, UK @ O2 Academy
Tue. Nov. 17 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Wed. Nov. 18 – Cambridge, UK @ Junction 1
Fri. Nov. 20 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy
Sat. Nov. 21 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Beacon
Mon. Nov. 23 – Plymouth, UK @ Plymouth Pavillions
Tue. Nov. 24 – Southampton, UK @ O2 Guildhall
Thu. Nov. 26 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]