News – Page 4 – 7th Level Music

The Black Wizards get “Loose” with their newest single.

Today, The Black Wizards announce their new album ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’, set for release on September 4th via Hassle Records. Alongside the announcement, the band share new single “Loose”.

‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is named after the legal phrase used to describe uncontrollable circumstances, reflecting both the chaotic conditions surrounding the record’s creation and a sense of dark humour and defiance that runs through the album’s ten tracks.

The Porto-based trio of Joana Brito (guitar/vocals), José Gomes (bass/vocals) and Helena Peixoto (drums) present their fourth album and their first since 2019’s ‘Reflections’, marking a decisive break from their past. The doomy haze and sprawling stoner-rock tag that once followed the band has been stripped back in favour of something sharper and more poised, deftly traversing a wider sonic palette. These songs don’t lumber forward so much as lunge.

It’s a fresh take on their sound, embodied with the garage rock swagger and bluesy stomp of today’s new single “Loose”, which Joana describes as “a groovy wandering on anxiety thoughts and feeling trapped inside your own head.” She adds: “It’s about accepting those thought patterns and learning how to navigate through them. With everything happening right now in this cursed world, we ride the everyday struggles of 9-to-5 jobs, low pay, poor working conditions, and so on. While it can be difficult to keep up with all this, we wanted to make it a sharp song with a straight to the point chorus, but also release the tension on the verses, relying on the wobbly synth (it’s the first time we use a synthesizer in such highlight) and steady beat.”

“Loose” official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfM3liGboaY
Other ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ links: http://blackwizards.ffm.to/force-majeure

There’s something knowingly tongue-in-cheek about a band called The Black Wizards naming their album after bureaucratic disaster terminology. That tension between absurdity and confrontation runs throughout the record itself: funny, sharp, politically charged and constantly pushing forward. Written as political landscapes across the world spiral into disarray, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ channels frustration and urgency without ever sinking into hopelessness. “The world is going the way that if you finish writing a song about something that deeply touches you, by the next day there is new shit happening,” says José.

While compiling lyrics for the record, front-woman Joana Brito had been reading books on politics, gender and toxic masculinity, including Grayson Perry’s The Descent of Man, and those ideas bleed through songs that take aim at hollow leadership, social tribalism and the performance of power. Recent single “Killing The Buzz”, released earlier this year on 7” single, in particular cuts through the noise with a sharp sense of humour, mocking political spectacle while refusing to surrender to it.

The recording process itself became its own exercise in chaos management. The band had originally planned to record in Sweden with Cooper Crain of CAVE and Bitchin Bajas, but after a sudden health emergency forced them to abandon the sessions and return to Portugal, they improvised. Instead, Crain flew from Chicago to Porto, where the band cut ten songs in just five intense days at Arda Recorders. Long hours, barely any breaks, constant pressure. They initially planned to record to tape, with Crain even flying over with reel-to-reel machines from the US, before technical problems forced a last-minute pivot to digital recording.

Still, the urgency works in the album’s favour. Nothing here feels overly polished or ironed flat. The rough edges remain intact, giving the record a volatile energy that mirrors the instability that inspired it. “It’s kinda nice to see imperfections these days when everything evolves into AI-based,” says Brito.

For all its anger, though, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is ultimately driven by connection rather than nihilism. Long embedded within northern Portugal’s fiercely independent rock community, The Black Wizards remain committed to collaboration, grassroots creativity and building spaces for outsiders like themselves. “We want to encourage kids to get off their smartphones and pick up a guitar, paint, or just be creative,” says Brito. “We want to make the world a safer place for all the freaks like us.”

In the face of chaos, The Black Wizards choose movement, noise and each other. There’s magic in that.

The Black Wizards live dates:
26 June – Paimpol, FR – Paimpol in Rock Festival
27 June – Tours, FR – La Dérive #1
28 June – Manigod, FR – Namass Pamouss Festival
30 July – Guimarães, PT – L’Agosto Festival
7 August – Madrid, ES – Wurlitzer Ballroom
8 August – Benalua, ES – BenaRock Festival
2 October – Karlsruhe, DE – PsyKA Festival
3 October – Pratteln, CH – Up In Smoke Festival
30 October – Oviedo, ES – Lata de Zinc (w/ Death Valley Girls)
31 October – Bordeaux, FR – Deus Ex Machina
23 January – Vienna, AT – Dragged Into Bliss Festival

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Fat Dog pull no punches with their new single – “Go Fuck Urself.”

Fat Dog—the undefinable, raucous South London band—are back with a bang with their subtly named new single, “Go Fuck Urself.” With 80s-tinged, airy synths and dripping in melodica, “Go Fuck Urself” is three minutes of propulsive, jubilant electro-pop. It’s an irascible, exasperated rant wrapped in joyous hooks and Balearic grooves.

As frontman, songwriter and chief rabble rouser Joe Love coolly sings: “Some jokers play the same old game / No one to annoy / Find a mirror and the person to blame,” the song breaks out into a euphoric, technicolor anthem—an ode to escapism when the thing you are trying to escape is yourself.

Co-produced by Love with Oli Bayston (Kelly Lee Owens, Alexis Taylor), “Go Fuck Urself” follows Fat Dog’s standalone singles “Pray To That” and “Peace Song” and their “brilliant, dark, and downright batshit crazy” (DIY) debut album, WOOF., released in 2024.

The video, directed by Nine Screens (Dylan Coates and Travis Barton), sees the band take to a wrestling ring to convey the message they must share with the world. Watch the Video for Fat Dog’s “Go Fuck Urself.”

Stream “Go Fuck Urself”

“Go Fuck Urself” marks the first taste of music from the band—Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, Ellis Dickson, Michael Dunlop, Dillon Harrison and Jed Bevington—in 2026 and sets the stage for new music to come. Alongside the single, Fat Dog have confirmed a mammoth UK and European headline tour including a hometown show at London’s Brixton Academy on October 24th. Before that, the band will play their largest ever shows supporting the Foo Fighters at three European arena dates, support Kneecap at their Crystal Palace show in London, and play a number of festivals including End of the Road, Dour, Reeperbahn, Bearded Theory and more. It looks like we’re set for another Year of the Dog.

Fat Dog Tour Dates
Sun. Jun 21 – Landgraaf, NL @ Pinkpop Festival
Mon. Jun 22 – Zagreb, HR @ In Music Festival
Sat. Jun 27 – London, UK @ Crystal Palace Park *
Wed. Jul 1 – Berlin, DE @ Olympiastadion +
Fri. Jul 3 – Vienna, AT @ Ernst-Happel-Stadion +
Sun. Jul 5 – Milan, IT @ Ippodromo Snai La Maura +
Fri. Jul 10 – Trenčín, SK @ Pohoda Festival
Sat. Jul 11 – Neuve-Église, FR @ Décibulles Festival
Sun. Jul 12 – Normandy, FR @ Chauffer Dans La Noirceur
Fri. Jul 17 – Herk-de-Stad, BE @ Rock Herk
Sat. Jul 18 – Dour, BE @ Dour Festival
Thu. Jul 23 – Brindisi, IT @ SEI Festival
Fri. Jul 24 – Siena, IT @ TV Spenta
Sat. Jul 25 – Topcliffe, UK @ Deer Shed Festival
Sat. Aug 8 – Brno, CZ @ Pop Messe
Sat. Aug 29 – Sheffield, UK @ Rock’n’Roll Circus
Sat. Sep 5 – Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Thu. Sep 17 – Sat. Sep 19 – Hamburg, DE @ Reeperbahn Festival
Sat. Oct 24 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
Thu. Oct 29 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma
Fri. Oct 30 – Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli
Sat. Oct 31 – Paris, FR @ Élysée Montmartre
Mon. Nov 1 – Nantes, FR @ Stereolux
Tue. Nov 3 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Wed. Nov 4 – Cologne, DE @ Die Kantine
Fri. Nov 6 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Sat. Nov 7 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
Sat. Nov 14 – Manchester, UK @ Victoria Warehouse
Wed. Nov 18 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Thu. Nov 19 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Tue. Nov 24 – Cardiff, UK @ Depot
Wed. Nov 25 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
Thu. Nov 26 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
Fri. Nov 27 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
Sat. Nov 28 – Glasgow, UK @ Old Fruitmarket
Thu. Dec 3 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City

* = supporting Kneecap
+ supporting Foo Fighters

Keep your mind open.

[If you don’t subscribe, well, you know…]

[Thanks to Matt at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Riviera Gaz release “Monomania” ahead of their sophomore album, “Catacroma.”

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.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Kevin at Calabro Music Media.]

MAQUINA. team up with Dame Area for hot new single – “dança.”

Following electric shows at The Great Escape & across the UK, Lisbon’s party-starters MAQUINA. have shared “dança (ft. Dame Area)” – a second cut from their forthcoming new album ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’, due out July 10th via Fuzz Club.

MAQUINA. embody all the sweaty togetherness and euphoria a collective music experience has to offer. The buzzy Lisbon trio have been getting punks to dance and club kids to pogo – “making the bubbles connect a little bit” – with such fervour they routinely pack out venues and inspire multiple waves of crowdsurfing at any given live show.

On their new LP they bottle that energy, and they don’t waste any time getting started. Today they share the album’s party-popping opener “dança”, a track pumped and primed to turn heads and get the blood flowing, featuring bratty punk vocals from Silvia Konstance and synths from Viktor L. Crux of Barcelona-based duo Dame Area. Inspired by the pair’s work, MAQUINA. invited them to collaborate on the track, with Konstance swapping her native Italian for Portuguese. The track sets up the heartbeat of the record, all relentlessly propulsive 4/4, feral shrieking, and a smoking guitar line that cuts through the three-note bass riff with searing focus.

Speaking on the track, MAQUINA. comment: “‘dança’ explores a moment of introspection: the importance of being with oneself, of making space for an intimate moment, even if through dance. When words fail, the body speaks. “I just want to dance” becomes a statement suspended between inward reflection and the need for release.”

Listen to “dança (ft. Dame Area)”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJubkifWbzY
‘BODY TRANSMISSION’ album links:http://maquina.lnk.to/bodytransmission

With over 250 gigs and numerous festival appearances across Europe already under their belt MAQUINA. are on a high after their first tour of Brazil and KEXP performance. The three-piece ring in a new chapter with their second LP ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’: a head-banging trip through high-energy noise-rock, motorik metal, and industrial punk that doesn’t stop moving.

Bottling the raw power of their now-legendary live shows, ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’ – co-produced by the band alongside Hugo Valverde – arrives following MAQUINA.’s 2024 debut ‘PRATA’, also released on Fuzz Club and largely driven by improvisation, locking itself into the flow state of a live performance. For their new full-length, the band – Halison Peres (drums/vocals), José “Mendy” Rego (bass), and João Cavalheiro (guitar/effects) – opted for less jamming and more “editing”, taking time to mull over the direction of each track while also looking to condense 10-minute meanders into three or four-minute “bangers” that slap.

The result is a full-body rush geared towards the dance-floor with “no breaks”; a club-ready rock record steered by the trio’s guitar, drums, and bass combo. “It was the most challenging and fun we’ve ever had in the studio because we pushed ourselves to write songs rather than just capturing jams,” say the band. “We wanted it to feel heavy, focused, and relentless. We kept the tempo up and the energy peaking – it’s an ‘always-on’ record.”

MAQUINA. live dates:
20 June – Lucerne, Switzerland – B-Sides Festival
21 June – Martigny, Switzerland – Caves du Manoir
23 June – Bilbao, Spain – Kutxa Beltza
24 June – Madrid, Spain – Café Berlin
25 June – Santander, Spain – The New
26 June – Bergerac, France – La Claque Festival
27 June – Paimpol, France – Paimpol in Rock
28 June – Bourlon, France – Rock in Bourlon
4 July – Sintra, Portugal – Festival Aqui ao Lado
18 July – Lisbon, Portugal – Musa de Marvila (DJ Set)
31 July – Constância, Portugal – Rock ao Luar
6 August – Aveiro, Portugal – Novas Quintas, Teatro Aveirense
7 August – Nuremberg, Germany – Brückenfestival
9 August – Liège, Belgium – Micro Festival
16 August – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – Capitol*
10 September – Šibenik, Croatia – SHIP Festival
12 September – Orléans, France – Hop Pop Hop Festival
* supporting Amyl and the Sniffers

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Desire drop your new favorite summer anthem – “Summer Skin.”

For two decades, Desire have been making music for romantics. Created by Megan Louise and Johnny Jewel, the Montreal group emerged from the shadows of underground synth-pop to build a world entirely their own — where beauty lingers, heartbreak glows, and every song feels like the beginning of a love story.

Later this year, Desire return with Physical, their fourth studio album. Led by the euphoric first single “Summer Skin,” out today via Italians Do It Better Physical is a record about attraction, freedom, pleasure, movement, and being completely present while life is happening.

Windows down.

A favorite song playing at exactly the right moment.

The feeling that summer might never end.

“Summer Skin” opens with the sound of light from our nearest star dancing across the water. Yesterday is here to stay…That cyclical motif echoes the past lives we all carry with us, but each day is new & anything is possible. Summer brings us a recurring romantic optimism. Let’s celebrate & live in the moment. If the world feels like it’s ending…Turn the radio on & dance. Drip Drip…” – Johnny Jewel“Summer Skin” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43bfGZEfKTo

Written between continents, airports, hotel rooms, backstage corridors, and late nights at home, Physical captures the moments we spend our lives chasing — and the memories we carry long after they’re gone.

Since “Under Your Spell” became one of the defining musical moments of Drive, Desire have quietly become one of modern synth-pop’s most beloved cult acts, soundtracking fashion runways, bedrooms, films, dance floors, and late-night drives across the globe.

Desire return with their most immediate and intimate work to date.

“Physical is about falling in love with life again. The people around you, the music you’re listening to, the sunlight on your skin, the moments you wish could last forever.” — Desire

Desire are also set to tour Europe later this year with all dates listed below.

Tour dates:
15 Nov — Prague — Bike Jesus
17 Nov — Copenhagen — Hotel Cecil
18 Nov — Berlin — Frannz Club
20 Nov — Groningen — Simplon Poppodium
21 Nov — Rotterdam — Rotown
23 Nov — Brussels — Beursschouwburg
24 Nov — Lille — La Grand Mix
25 Nov — London — Colour Factory
27 Nov — Manchester — White Hotel
28 Nov — Glasgow — Stereo
30 Nov — Paris — Petit Bain
01 Dec — Grenoble — L’Ampérage
02 Dec — Bern — Dachstock
04 Dec — Ravenna — Bronson
05 Dec — Rome — Monk
08 Dec — Zagreb — Mochvara
09 Dec — Belgrade — Zappa Baza

Tickets: https://lnkfi.re/desirelive

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity!]

You can’t take your ears off Tokyo Tea Room’s new single “Eyes Off You.”

Margate, UK’s Tokyo Tea Room create music inspired by human emotions, exploring themes of longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. Today, they release “Eyes Off You,” an atmospheric track about obsessive love. Written and produced by the band’s Daniel James Elliott, “Eyes Off You” captures the passion of desire through mesmerizing synth, guitar and dreamy vocals by Beth Dunn. True to their introspective universe, yet with a slightly more pop aesthetic, they transform vulnerability into something melodious and danceable.

On “Eyes Off You,” Tokyo Tea Room dive into the murky waters of obsessive love. Weaving a narrative around a love you can’t let go of, even when it hurts, they capture the fatalism of an impossible but all-consuming obsession, singing: “Can’t quit loving you like I was born to lose // Everything I do just leads me back to you.”

Watch the Video for Tokyo Tea Room’s “Eyes Off You”

Tokyo Tea Room is a timeless project whose message transcends the music itself. The band arouses passions and emotions, taking listeners on a journey within a tender, comforting bubble. Their debut album, No Rush, established them as one of the most compelling emerging acts in alternative music, resonating with a growing global audience. With millions of monthly listeners and a sold-out debut North American tour, the band are rapidly building momentum, particularly in the US, where their audience continues to expand. With new music on the horizon, Tokyo Tea Room are entering a defining new chapter, evolving their sound while staying rooted in the emotional depth that defines their work.

Tokyo Tea Room will return to North America this fall touring in support of forthcoming new music. A full list of dates are below and tickets are on sale now.

Tokyo Tea Room Tour Dates:
Thu. Sep 24 – Vancouver – Hollywood Theatre
Sat. Sep 26 – Seattle WA – Neumos
Mon. Sep 28 – San Francisco CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club
Wed. Sep 30 – Los Angeles CA – Teragram Ballroom
Fri. Oct 2 – San Diego CA – Quartyard
Sat. Oct 3 – Tucson AZ – Club Congress
Mon. Oct 5 – Austin TX – 29th St. Ballroom
Tue. Oct 6 – Houston TX – White Oak Music Hall
Wed. Oct 7 – Dallas TX – Club Dada (indoors)
Fri. Oct 9 – Atlanta GA – Terminal West
Sat. Oct 10 – Durham NC – Motorco Music Hall
Sun. Oct 11 – Washington DC – The Atlantis
Tue. Oct 13 – Brooklyn NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Wed. Oct 14 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom
Thu. Oct 15 – Boston MA – The Sinclair
Fri. Oct 16 – Montreal QB – Bar le Ritz
Sat. Oct 17 – Toronto ON – Mod Club
Mon. Oct 19 – Chicago IL – Lincoln Hall

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t take your eyes off the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

You’ll fall in love with Wishy’s new single, “Lovesick.”

After exploding onto the scene with their acclaimed 2023 EP Paradise, Wishy released their debut LP Triple Seven on Winspear in the summer of 2024. The album was one of the more critically-beloved debuts in recent memory, earning praise from outlets like Pitchfork (“a standout voice in a new generation of shoegaze”), Stereogum (“one of the best indie rock debuts in recent memory“), the NME (“one of the most exciting new rock bands operating anywhere right now“), Paste (“one of the most irresistible, unshakeable albums of the year“) Uproxx (“one of the best new bands in indie rock writ large“), and landing on Best of 2024 lists from publications like The New York Times, GQ and Alt Press.

The band’s run of success has showed no signs of slowing in 2025, which saw the release of a follow up EP called Planet Popstar, a Colbert performance, a run of tour dates with Momma, and appearances at Kilby Block Party and Riot Fest.

Today, Wishy are back to announce their sophomore LP Nature’s Pill (out October 2nd on Winspear). To mark the occasion they are sharing the album’s lead single “Lovesick,” a swooning gem sung by Nina Pitchkites that recalls The Cure at their most pop-forward and The Sundays at their buoyant best.

Pitchkites says of the track:

There’s not much more that needs to be said about yearning in 2026, but here it is anyway. Kevin and I are stupidly romantic people who like twee pop so that combination alone was a recipe for a cheeky “main character” song. We really leaned into the overzealous lyrics here because 1) we’re allowed, 2) can do whatever we want and 3) it’s fun 🙂 yay!

In addition to previously announced August tour dates with The Beths and Beach Bunny, Wishy are announcing a run of headline dates that will take them across the US in the fall. Full details can be found below.

Wishy’s origins go way back, to when Krauter and Pitchkites met in high school in Indianapolis. Some years and a few projects later, they joined forces to form Wishy, rounding out the lineup with guitarist Dimitri Morris, bassist Mitch Collins, and drummer Conner Host. The group’s musical synergy was intense from the jump and the beginning of their career has been a prolific burst: the Mana and Paradise EPs in 2023, debut LP Triple Seven in 2024, and a follow-up EP Planet Popstar in 2025. After those releases met acclaim and the band’s stature rose, the conception of Nature’s Pill was fundamentally different.

Wishy’s Nature’s Pill captures a world where life feels unpredictable and overwhelming, yet full of possibility. On their vibrant sophomore record, Wishy entertains the madness–capturing romantic frustration, neurotic desire and the melodrama that ensues from simply being human in a jubilant remix of the past. Nature’s Pill bears all of Wishy’s trademarks: zany lyrics transfiguring melancholia into freedom, choruses set to become instant classics, and an unholy fusion of sugary grunge, indie rock and dream-pop.

Written more collaboratively than past releases, the group reconvened with Triple Seven co-producer Ben Lumsdaine in Los Angeles, where the quintet packed into a tiny studio and tracked half the songs live in the room, imbuing the album with the immediate energy of a band in sync after heavy touring. It gave them the ability to synthesize an even greater array of touchstones this time around, with the ‘90s dream-pop and alt-rock of Triple Seven fusing with ‘80s college rock and ‘00s indie.

Underneath it all, Wishy locate a tenacity to keep trying anyway. “Being in an indie band feels bizarre when the world is on fire,” Krauter concludes. “What can you do at the end of the day other than carve out some space—at the very least I have my imagination and I can invite others to join me there. At a certain point you need to say fuck it and roll with it.” Sometimes you can’t make sense of it all. Nature’s Pill finds Wishy gleefully giving into the madness. After all: If life is absurd, all the possibilities are up to you.

Tour Dates

07/25 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
07/26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Center *
07/27 – St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall *
07/31 – Santa Fe, NM @ The Bridge *&
08/01 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre *&
08/02 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues *&
08/04 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Madonna Inn *&
08/06 – San Diego, CA @ SOMA *&
08/07 – Pomona, CA @ The Fox Theater *&
08/08 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory *&
08/11 – San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic *&
08/14 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory *&
08/15 – Portland, OR @ Courthouse Square *&
08/16 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo *&
08/17 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club Ballroom *
08/18 – Bozeman, MT @ The ELM *
08/20 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown *
09/18 – Cincinnati, OH @ Fountain Square $
09/26–09/27 – Sao Paolo, Brazil @ Balaclava Festival
10/03 – Indianapolis, IN @ WISHYFEST @ Atomic Duckpin
10/09 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
10/10 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
10/11 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
10/13 – Portland, ME @ SPACE
10/14 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
10/17 – New York, NY @ Racket
10/18 – Washington, DC @ Atlantis
10/20 – Durham, NC @ Stanczyks
10/21 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
10/22 – Asheville, NC @ Revival
10/23 – Nashville, TN @ Blue Room
10/25 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
10/26 – Milwaukee, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
10/27 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall

w/ Beach Bunny
*& w/ Beach Bunny and The Beths
$ w/ Ratboys

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel lovesick if you subscribe…or maybe if you don’t. I’m not sure.]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Shuta Hasunuma projects an “AURA” with his latest single.

Tokyo-based artist and composer Shuta Hasunuma shares new single “A U R A” out today via Virgin Music Group. The track emerges from his ongoing project Shuta Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra, a contemporary “philharmonic pop orchestra” built around collective performance and the interplay of minimalist rhythm, vocal resonance, and layered sonic texture. “A U R A” draws out fragments of memory and sensation, a meditation on self-discovery set against a gently expansive worldview, moving from restless repetition into quiet, luminous stillness.

The single arrives just ahead of Hasunuma’s return to the U.S. for a rare run of solo performances, his first since 2019. He will play New York City at Public Records on June 13 and Los Angeles at Healing Force of the Universe on June 20, both preceded respectively by local DJ sets at The Lot Radio on June 12 and Dublab on June 18.

Hasunuma’s collaborative, interdisciplinary practice spans composition, installation, and genre-crossing work, with a wide range of collaborators including Jeff Parker, Ichiko Aoba, Arto Lindsay, Keiji Haino, Cornelius, Devendra Banhart, Foodman, and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

His work blends field recordings, electronic textures, and melodic composition into richly layered pieces, and in recent years has extended into video, sculpture, and installation, presented at domestic and international exhibitions and projects alike. His ensemble and solo music runs alongside soundtracks for stage productions and film.

Hasunuma has also developed a significant international art practice, with exhibitions at Pioneer Works in New York and Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo, where he received the 69th Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists. His credits include composing and conducting for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic opening ceremony.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hasunuma’s debut on an independent U.S. label in 2006. To commemorate the milestone, he will perform “Shuta Hasunuma Double Philharmonic Orchestra” a 41-member large ensemble that brings his Philharmonic with a newly formed string orchestra, at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on August 6.

Stream “A U R A” now and catch Shuta Hasunuma live this summer.

June 18 – Dublab Radio (DJ)

June 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Healing Force of The Universe (solo)

August 6 – Tokyo, Japan @ Suntory Hall (w/ Double Philharmonic Orchestra)

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]

Lara Somogyi takes us on a “sojurn” with her new single.

Lara Somogyi announces her second album, a [time] patterned, out August 28th via Mercury KX, and shares the lead single/video, “sojourn.” A work rooted in contemporary classical yet reaching far beyond it, a [time] patterned is an intensely human document that reframes time not as a linear experience but as an emotional landscape.

Watch the Video for “sojourn”

A Juno nominee and artist who pushes the boundaries of her instrument, Somogyi approaches the harp as a vehicle for exploration rather than tradition. Having classical roots from the Royal Academy of Music and awarded an honorary Associate (ARAM) for her innovations in her field, she transverses sonic worlds. Her work spans film, television and collaborative composition, including collaborations with Bonobo, Ólafur Arnalds, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Bat For Lashes, and credits on Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated Da 5 Bloods, Hans Zimmer’s Blue Planet II featuring Radiohead, and Ari Aster’s Eddington for A24.

Where her debut album established a distinct voice through the harp alone, a [time] patterned begins there but moves outward. Written with producer Cyrus Reynolds, the album was shaped through tape loops, delay and repetition to explore how patterns emerge, dissolve and reform. The process became both technical and deeply personal after the loss of her father, an attempt to examine how time is felt rather than measured: joy is rhythmic, grief has structure, and healing forms patterns.

The first single to be revealed from the album, “sojourn” offers the perfect entry point to the record’s world. Written for harp, strings and electronics, it opens with an extended pedal technique blurring tonality and allowing texture to lead. A melodic thread gradually emerges as the track unfolds, while granular processing fractures and reconfigures time around it, creating a sense of motion that feels fluid and alive. Beneath it, strings provide a subtle architecture, grounding the piece as it shifts from introspection toward something more open and expansive.

Reflecting on the single, Somogyi says, “sojourn opens in the in-between; in that first step forward, tracing a quiet shift toward something open and free,” Somogyi says. “It’s not a beginning, even though it was the first piece I wrote for the record. To me, it feels like an opening to the next chapter.”

Across eleven compositions, a [time] patterned unfolds as a series of sonic environments, described by Somogyi as “rooms” the listener can move through. Field recordings, including birdsong from her birthplace of Kauai, sit alongside string arrangements and textural experimentation, featuring artists Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens) and Clarice Jensen (Max Richter). Influenced in part by architectural theory and the idea of pattern as structure, each piece becomes less a narrative than a form: joy, grief, and growth expressed as evolving systems of sound.

a [time] patterned is a work of curiosity and openness, an exploration of how experience leaves its imprint, and how music can hold and reshape it. The harp remains central, but continually reimagined: stretched through pedals, prepared with objects, and layered into shifting, immersive forms. With this latest release, Somogyi expands her work into new territory, creating a record that is as much about feeling as it is about form, and one that invites the listener to inhabit time on their own terms.

Lara Somogyi will play three headline shows this August and September in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn.

Pre-order a [time] patterned

Lara Somogyi Live:
Sat. Aug. 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Live at Glass Hill
Wed. Sept. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
Fri. Sept. 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust

Keep your mind open.

[It’s time to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Bad Stuff’s new single, “Invisible Man,” is actually good stuff.

Photo credit: Rachel Lemoine & Mia Yannimaras

Bad Stuff share “Invisible Man” (https://youtu.be/4c3g8la29Dc), the second single from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, Bad Stuff, arriving June 5 via Relapse Records. Featuring members of True Widow (Dan Phillips and Nicole Estill) with Dallas art rock luminaries Jackie Dunn Smith, Gabriel Spatz, and Laura Hartman Pearl, the band channels hypnotic post-punk, blown out garage rock, and slow-burning heaviness.

“The song that would later become ‘Invisible Man’ was one of the first songs I wrote specifically for Bad Stuff,” explains Phillips. “I made a drum machine demo on my ADAT machine and sent it to Gabe with a gibberish vocal track so he could hear the melody and phrasing I had in mind, but when I got it back, he had sung over a part I had not intended to have vocals on. I started to tell him ‘eyo, don’t sing on this part,’ but immediately changed my mind because it was actually way cool. Now I can’t imagine the song without that part. One-take Gabe needs no editing.”

Spatz adds: “Yeah, I’m glad that part stayed in the song. Some of my favorite lines are in there; lines that kind of expand the meaning of the song for me. I remember singing it into my phone in the bathroom and on the roof of my building and having to retake it over and over again because I kept getting interrupted by the sound of horns and barking dogs.”

Bad Stuff first introduced themselves with the debut single “Summer Girls,” a simmering track anchored by hypnotic circular rhythms, low end drone, and Phillips’ unmistakable guitar work.

The band began as two separate projects: Latent Print, an instrumental outfit featuring Phillips and Estill, and Concord Kill, Dunn Smith’s synth and drum machine driven project. “So these songs from our two bands are sitting there, one set that I wrote for Latent Print and another set that Jackie wrote on a four-track recorder, and one day we decided that maybe we’d try to put it all together and see if it worked,” recalls Phillips. “And it did. When we were doing the sequence for the record, that “switching the dial“ thing became apparent– there’s not just one sound or one style. It really makes the pacing of the record work and sort of showcases each of the songs.”

Bad Stuff is available now for pre-order/pre-saves (https://orcd.co/badstuff) on vinyl, CD, and digitally.

Keep your mind open.

[Not subscribing is bad stuff indeed.]

[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]