Shoegaze – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Pale Blue Eyes – This House (2023)

The cover of Pale Blue Eyes‘ This House features a photo of the house and parents of lead singer / guitarist Matt Board. Everything in that photo is gone now. Well, the house might still be there, and Board’s memories of it are still intact, but it has new inhabitants now. The lawn is probably different. The decorations in it are different, and the people now living in it are building their own lives while Board, after losing both his parents within five years of each other, is still building his. The album is about loss, but also embracing the change that comes with loss.

The album begins with “More” (as in there is more after loss, if you allow it) as Lucy Board‘s synths and programmed beats immediately bring light and hope, and Aubrey Simpson‘s bass groove gets your feet tapping. As if that wasn’t catchy enough, “Simmering” is even peppier and encourages us to examine the “before and after” when you’re faced with a life-changing event.

After all, there’s “no turning back” after such a thing. You just want to “Hang Out” and let it drift by you “because I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Sometimes you have to be still…although this track is tailor-made to get you to dance. Put it on at the party you throw to alleviate your sadness. It’s perfect. Mrs. Board’s synths and programming on “Spaces” sounds like transmissions from outer space.

Simpson’s bass on “Heating’s On” sounds like something from a lost Go-Gos track. Mr. Board’s guitar goes all shoegaze on “Our History,” and it’s a gorgeous wash of sound crashing over you. “Million Times Over” slows things down just a bit, but the dance beats (and spooky synths) return with “Illuminated.” “Sister” is another shimmering shoegaze stunner. Looking for motorik? Don’t worry. Pale Blue Eyes have you covered with the snappy “Takes Me Over.”

The record ends with the lush “Underwater,” as if you plunged into a backyard pool at the end of a long day or late at night when the party is winding down and it’s just you and a couple close friends. You know things will be okay. You can embrace the shock, the cold, and you can embrace the support and the warmth. It’s all okay.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 albums of 2021 – 2025: #’s 15 – 11

We’ve reached the top 15 of albums I reviewed (not released) over the last five years. Read on to see who made the list!

#15: Maquina – Prata (2024)

That cover image pretty much sums up the sound of this wild post-punk / noise rock / dance rock album. It’s a stunning record, and I’m happy to report they’re close to releasing a new one.

#14: Lair – Ngélar (2024)

Indonesian psych-rock? Yes, please. Funky, groovy, weird, and playful. This is a delight from start to finish.

#13: Sextile – yes, please. (2025)

Possibly the best dance-punk album of 2025. This record slams non-stop and gets you moving whether you want to or not.

#12: Ki Oni – A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life (2023)

A beautiful album about grief, our continued, changed existence after death, and a salute to Ki Oni’s late grandmother all wrapped up in lush ambient music.

#11: No Joy – Bugland (2025)

A brilliant return for No Joy and their shoegaze rock. This album sprinted into the top ten of 2025 for me the first time I heard it.

Speaking of the top ten, come back tomorrow to see who’s in the top ten of the last five years!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Lauren Lakis – Deadlights

There’s a strange thing that happens when you go through a heavy grief process. Sure, you have all the agony, regret, emptiness, and at least brief moments of madness, but sometimes, after the dust settles a bit, you also have a moment when you realize you can, will, and must continue your journey. It’s an empowering, powerful flash of insight that can zip past you if you’re not careful. You have to grab it when it arrives. It might not return.

Lauren Lakis grabbed it while making her excellent new record Deadlights. She’d already lost friends and family to addictions as she grew up the kid of a single mom in Baltimore. She turned to music and film to make sense of it all, joined some bands, and went around the world. While singing in one of those bands, she went through a bad breakup and then learned her mother had been in a car accident that left her paralyzed.

That’s a lot to carry and channel, and she faces the challenge head-on with “There” opening the album with shoegaze guitars and her voice rising above the dissonance. “Heaven Felt Too High” roars with heavy bass grooves that would make Greg Edwards proud.

“I Fall Apart” has Lakis acknowledging the tough parts of grief, but also how she can keep moving (“I won’t let you down. I won’t turn back and around.”). The bass on “The Other Side” hits as hard as anything Kris Novoselic ever dreamed up and probably starts a mosh pit whenever Lakis plays this song live. She makes some Zen allusions on “It’s So Amazing” in which she sings about being in the here and now.

The title track buzzes like your head after you’ve endured a heavy loss. It’s quiet and yet deafening. “No One’s Around Now” reminds me of advice one of my best friends gave me a couple days before my late wife’s funeral: “You’re going to be surrounded by people who love you…and then they’re all going to go home.” It’s true. Eventually, no one is around to help. You have to do it yourself. Lakis knows this and accepts the challenge. What else can you do?

“Love Like a Dog” is a contender the saddest song on the album. The guitar tones let you know it’s going to be rough sailing for a bit, but there is sun on the horizon. “I Want You Here” probably takes the “saddest song” title, and the drone-like bass and melted guitar chords emphasize the loneliness in the lyrics. Ending with “With That Body,” the album drifts away on almost a dream-psych note. The guitars wind around you like a desert wind and the synth bass and drums nearly pull you into a trance.

Deadlights hypnotizes throughout its length. Its a solid record and one that you’ll revisit a lot during late night drives and gray days.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Daniel at RidingEasy Records.]

Austin Psych Fest 2026 – Day Two recap

I heard the thunder rumbling as I started the walk to the Far Out Lounge for the second day of Austin Psych Fest. I got about three blocks when the rain started. My phone’s weather app said it was just an isolated storm that would soon pass. I put on the raincoat I’d packed and continued walking…

…into a full-on thunderstorm complete with flash flooding and rain hitting so hard that at one point I thought it was hail. I later learned there were funnel clouds in the area at the time. I sloshed my way back to the Air BNB place I was sleeping in for the weekend, wrung out my socks, and waited out the storm for at least another hour before making the trip in the now sunny, jungle-humid afternoon.

APF had been delayed for those two hours due to a couple lightning strikes. As a result, the first four bands of the day – Commercial Breaks, Strange Lot, The Dead Canyon Family Reunion, and Grocery Bag – ended up with canceled sets. Annabelle Chairlegs barely managed to squeeze in their set when the festival finally opened.

So, first on the bill for me was Ty Segall. I hadn’t seen him since the (unknown to everyone at the time) final Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2021. As one photographer in front of me said before the set, “You never know what you’re going to get with Ty.” That’s true. You could get a lot of shredding, acoustic ballads, or even electro-infused dance rock. For APF 2026, Segall and his band brought the rock.

Ty Segall and crew bringing another kind of thunder.

It was a fun set from him, and a ripper of a way to start my festival day. He included at least two new tracks which sound great. The set had a heavy 1970s garage rock sound to it, and I’m surprised mosh pits didn’t erupt throughout it.

Segall’s set was followed by a double-bill of psychedelia. Up first were world travelers Al Qasar who had everyone dancing and grooving with their neat mix of Dutch, Brazilian, Arabic, Jamaican, and several other nations’ sounds. They even ended with a wild reworking of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.”

Then, Melody’s Echo Chamber performed to a big crowd who fully embraced their mind-bending sound and light show. I saw a lot of, ahem, blissed-out people during their set having a great time.

Is it a jellyfish? A butterfly? A jellyfly? A butterfish? That edible kicking in?

Many of us zipped over to the smaller stage to catch New Candys’ set. The Italian trio (No longer a quartet?) roared for the whole performance, knocking out heavy riffs, shoegaze fuzz, and slapping beats. “Damn, those guys are really good,” said a guy behind me once they’d finished. He was right.

The day ended with our hosts, The Black Angels, performing their Passover album in its entirety as well as other tracks (including at least one new song). The crowd was packed for them. One group in front of me had some weird fire dance circle going with a couple lighters being waved near the ground. The Black Angels are currently touring to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Passover, so don’t miss them. It’s a good opportunity to hear a lot of deep cuts.

Don’t pass over a Black Angels show! See what I did there?

Up next: Latin psychobilly surf rock, psychedelic cumbia, and a lot of soul!

Keep your mind open.

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Austin Psych Fest 2026 – Day One recap

I hadn’t been to Austin Psych Fest in several years. Mind you, I’d been to Levitation festivals multiple times, and on two continents, but I hadn’t been to APF since the Reverberation Appreciation Society brought it back after “APF” had been changed to “Levitation” and moved to the fall. APF returned to the Far Out Lounge in Austin a few years ago for the RAS’ spring festival, and this was the first chance I had to make the trip.

Austin’s own J’cuuzi were the first band on the bill and the first I wanted to see. They set a high bar to meet for everyone to follow, complete with dancers, t-shirt tosses, a somewhat famous spinning chair, a Capri Sun costume, bubble guns, and so much dance-punk / art-punk / glam-punk / drag-punk / I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-is-happening-punk that you could barely take all of it in during their set and left you feeling a bit post-orgasmic and somewhat baffled afterwards.

L-R: Durs, Gorge Bones, Trey Razeldazl. Oddly enough, this was one of the calmer moments of J’cuuzi’s set.

Next up were another local group, Almost Heaven. The electro-duo were celebrating the release of their first EP, Raw Cranium, and immediately commanded the stage upon the first note. The whole set was bumping, with solid, wicked beats from Jaelyn Valero and vocals from Stefan Barazza that reminded me of everything from The Cramps to Roxy Music.

Almost Heaven getting us pretty close to there, really.

Within moments of their set ending, you heard this loud wall of sound coming from the other direction. That turned out to be shoegaze rockers Glare blasting us with multiple guitars and echoing vocals. It was a change in tone for the festival up to this point, and not a bad one at all. Sometimes you need a ton of reverb and fuzz to keep you going for the coming hours.

Not long after that, we dove into psychedelic waters (It is a psych fest, after all.) with Holy Wave. I’ve been a fan for a while, so it was good to see them again after a few years. As usual, they put on a good set of psych-rock that ranged from dreamy to heavy. I bumped into The Black Angels’ Alex Maas later and he described their sound as “like opening a scroll.” Accurate.

I needed a break by this point, so it was off to Torchy’s Tacos across the street for some much-needed grilled chicken nachos. They were delicious, as was the Cubs working their way to a win over the Rangers at the time. I got back in time to see a big crowd had gathered for Diiv and their trippy set of shoegaze rock that mixed in weird short films of corporate presentations and public domain footage. It reminded me of Devo’s corporate anthem stuff.

The night ended with a fun set from The Flaming Lips. The crowd was happy to have them back and they seemed delighted to be there. Confetti and balloons rained down on us for several songs, with “Turn It On” and “The Golden Path” being big highlights for me, as well as their encore of “War Pigs.” Everyone was exhausted but elated by the end.

A typical day for Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips.

The festival is off to a fun, sweaty start. Up next, more local talent, a guy I haven’t seen live for many years, Italian shoegaze, a twentieth anniversary show, and more!

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: New Candys – Vyvyd (2021)

Back in 2021, we were just coming out of a catastrophe that shut down the entire world. Everyone was euphoric from being able to get outside and see each other again. We’d seen how gorgeous the Earth is when we all pause and stop screwing with it. Rivers cleared, smog abated, dolphins swam in Venetian canals. We were given a vivid reminder of how vivid the world is.

New Candys are from Venice. Those dolphins might have swam right by their apartment building for all I know. They saw the change in the city, and the world from the pandemic. The clear waters and skies, and all of what had happened and what we lost before, during, and (they saw it coming) after them sureley inspired Vyvyd.

The album starts off with a killer bass line from Alessandro Boschiero on the track “Twin Mime” (a song about suppressed rage and desires finding companionship in them). Fernando Nuti‘s vocals are layered with echo effects, making him sound both present and distant at the same time. “Zyko” is a play on “psycho” and has a bit of grunge guitar flavor from Andrea Volpato. The title “Factice” might be a play on “practice” or “fact is” or “fuck this.” I doubt it has to do with rubberized oil (a “factice” arises from mixing oils with sulphur), but I’m willing to believe it could be a reference to display perfume bottles (“factices”) that are filled with colored water. I’m leaning toward “fact is” or “fuck this” with Nuti’s lyrics of feeling trapped (“We look so sick, I’m gonna lose my mind…Need to get out of here, somewhere to go far from my mind.”) and the lack of accountability by so many (“Are you forgiving what went wrong? I keep forgetting what we want.”).

Volpato’s guitar on “Begin Again” is beautiful and haunting. “Evil Evil” is fuzzy, frantic, fierce garage-psych with blasting guitar work from Nuti and Volpato and a driving, almost relentless beat from Dario Lucchesi. “Vyvyan Rising” has a great sound and feel to it across the whole track and, I think, is about Nuti questioning his faith (“All that I wanna know, are you speaking the truth? When everything around is getting so bright but ends up not being pure white.”).

“Helluva Zoo” slows things down just a touch, adding acoustic guitars to their soundscape. “The Clockmaker” has Nuti musing on how time gets away from us and how precious it is (“I feel lost since I have no memory. We should spend the time ahead as one being.”). The use of a ticking clock sound in this track is a great touch, as loud as a cowbell beat at the right time. “Q&K” stands for “Queen & King” and is about two people trying to find some kind of equilibrium, an allegory for the entire world in 2020 (“Are we alone together?”). The closing track, “Snake Eat Snake,” is about the desire to retreat within, which can eventually lead to a never-ending, meaningless introspection if you’re not careful.

Vyvyd was made during a weird time for weird times (which have only kept coming). Hearing it in 2026 still feels relevant. New Candys are still evoking vivid sounds and memories, and are currently on tour (soon to be at the 2026 Austin Psych Fest, among many other shows).

Keep your mind open.

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Lowsunday’s new single “This Is Not Heaven” descends with a roar.

Legacy postpunk-shoegaze outfit Lowsunday unveils ‘This Is Not Heaven’, the first taste of their forthcoming ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – Black EP’, forthcoming via Projekt Records, the video for which was produced by Jer Herring.

This is the second of two ‘duality’ releases, presenting the band’s first new material since 1999, following their ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP’. Showcased by ‘Love Language’, ‘Soft Capture’ and the latest single ‘Nevver’, the ‘White EP’ ranked second among Post-Punk.com’s Best EPs of 2025.

Formed in the mid-1990s in Pittsburgh, Lowsunday (initially known as Low Sunday Ghost Machine) emerged as a “retro-futurist” pioneer, blending darkwave and shoegaze long before the genres saw their modern revival. Their legacy was cemented with their debut album ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine’ and the 1999 masterpiece ‘Elesgiem’, both of which were re-released via Projekt Records over the past 18 months (for their 30th and 25th anniversaries, respectively).

The band dissolved, leaving behind a cult reputation for mercurial sounds and blistering guitar work that set the stage for subsequent generations of alternative artists. Following a nearly 25-year period of inactivity, the band resurfaced as a duo in 2025—consisting of original members Shane Sahene (vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums) and Bobby Spell (bass, guitar, drums).

“‘This is Not Heaven’ was the last song we recorded for the Black EP. We really enjoyed injecting the heavy synths on the chorus, the asymmetrical guitar leads and the driving bass line beneath an intricate and melodic rhythm guitar,” says Shane Sahene.

“We felt this song captured everything we are about in that it hits the refrains with a shoegaze atmosphere, more electronic choruses and lyrical transparency, much less vague than many of our songs… it touches on many aspects of our sound.”

Bobby Spell adds, “This was another really enjoyable song to write. The guitar textures and melody lines create a dark song with uplifting sections. The mood shifts in the choruses giving a feeling of brightness or a way out of melancholy”.

Crafting a sound defined by atmosphere, precision, and heartfelt shadow and depths since 1994, Lowsunday is now asserting their presence with a new force. While the ‘White EP’ explored light and texture, the ‘Black EP’ is ultimately the 2026 series’ darker counterpart and definitive statement.

Plunged into shadow and intensity with layered guitars, tight rhythms, and austere synths amplifying themes of isolation, reverie and introspection, the ‘Black EP’ distills Lowsunday’s vision into a sharper, more potent form — a bold declaration of their enduring artistic power.

‘This Is Not Heaven’ is available from digital platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – Black EP’ will be released on May 15th digitally. The ‘White EP’ is available now via Bandcamp and the Projekt Recordswebsite – the vinyl edition of both EPs are limited to 200 copies. The two anniversary reissue albums, as well as the limited edition 7″ of ‘Static / Besides’, can also be found on these platforms.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Review: Strange Fruit – Drips EP

Hailing from Jakarta, Indonesia Strange Fruit have been playing synth / motorik / krautrock / electro music for over a decade and have now released a wonderfully trippy new record – Drips.

Beginning with the bouncy, blissful “Pouvoir Moteur,” Dino Kristianto‘s repetitive, robotic beats instantly get your head and feet bouncing and the synth work by Baldi Calvianca and Irza Aryadiaz and Nabil Favian‘s bass line locks in the groove. John Tampubolon‘s guitar chords drift in and out of the track like a groovy ghost.

“Iridescent” is like a haunting goth synth track you once heard in a car ride one night and have been searching for ever since. The lyrics allude to how light and color can cause euphoric bliss under the right circumstances…and so can the entire track.

Calvianca’s vocals on “Monopolar” sound like transmissions from orbit, and the rest of the track is something you’d want while doing a space walk to gather ore samples on an asteroid, or while drifting in a boat on an Indonesian river, or while making out at an afterparty…with an android.

The title track closes the EP and appropriately has Tampubolon’s guitar sounding like its melting like a slow-burning candle As if these four tracks weren’t cool enough, the EP includes the Jonathan Kusuma “Hypnodubmix” of “Iridescent” and four different versions of “Monopolar”: remixes by Tom Furse and Hardway Bros and then two live dub mixes (one with and one without vocals) by Hardway Bros. The Furse mix is especially good and makes the track even more psychedelic.

This is the kind of EP that makes you want to track down everything else a band has to offer.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Review: L’Ira Del Baccano – The Praise of Folly

You know you’re in for an interesting experience with an album when looking at the cover makes you think, “Wait…Am I high?”

L’Ira Del Baccano‘s The Praise of Folly combines prog, stoner, desert, doom, psych, and whatever the hell is going on with the chicken woman, wasp-man, and nightmarish elephant-praying mantis hybrid playing instruments on the cover.

Part one of the title track instantly reminded me of Rush if they leaned heavier into their harder material. It’s a nearly thirteen-minute journey into cosmic realms that defy any kind of description. The guitars alternately soar and roar at the right times, and the drums are like guiding spirits through a strange land. It crawls / oozes into doom metal by the end and then shifts into desert rock for part two of the title track.

The weird synths of “Stigma”, and the chugging horror film guitars, remind me of Goblin tracks from the early 1980s. About halfway through the song, it becomes a grooving, rocking psych-rock track with tight drumming and a slick bass line.

The closing track, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” hits hard and wild at first and then turns into something you might hear ahead of Galactus’ approach to your planet.

L’Ira Del Baccano have said that they didn’t tweak The Praise of Folly much. They wanted it to draw in the listener and be as much like a live performance as possible. A good amount of it is improvised, which is damn impressive when you hear it. The album is an immersive experience that leaves you feeling like the album cover looks – weird, expanded, and spacey.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Angie and NRV Promotion.]

Las Cruxes’ new single is “El Último.”

Yayo Trujillo’s Las Cruxes is muscular. The fluid Omaha project doubles as a solo outlet and collective, united by an electric undercurrent. This quality beams bright on Trujillo’s third full-length, Las Cruxes, out April 24 via Conor Oberst’s Million Starslabel. Today, he shares the second single, “El último.” It is anchored by fuzzy propulsion, culminating in a distorted solo. This is timeless rock and roll, tailored to top-down desert drives. Check out the premiere on New Noise Magazine.

On the track, Las Cruxes’ Yayo Trujillo shares: “El Ultimo-(pasajero). ‘Tu luz Enciende, despierta mi alma’ are the opening lines to this song. It’s when love is way too fast and heavy (for my own good). It’s that feeling of meeting someone and realizing you were wrong about everything, then you wake up and remember it shouldn’t be that easy.”

As a native of Los Angeles, music guides Yayo Trujillo. “It all started hanging out with my older brother, who used to play traditional boleros to serenade his girlfriend,” he recalls. “I was lucky enough to tag along.” With a notable following in Mexico and Latin America, his Las Cruxes project has evolved in moves between Mexico City, San Francisco, and Omaha. He also spent years in Pastilla, a Latin rock institution on Aztlan Records and BMG.

As a Nebraska-based artist, it seems inevitable that Trujillo would encounter hometown hero Conor Oberst. After gigging at his bar, Pageturners Lounge, he signed a deal with Million Stars — the label now issuing Las Cruxes’ self-titled third full-length. The album embraces straightforwardness, favoring live performances captured on classic consoles with vintage microphones. The sessions were led by Bright Eyes affiliates Taylor Hollingsworth (Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band) and Adam Roberts at ARC Studios. It bears traces of new wave, shoegaze, and lofi experimentation.

Across 12 cuts, Spanish vocals crest over fuzzy melodies and pounding grooves. “The writing process was the same as everything else — very ‘let’s do this,’” Trujillo reflects. “No thought to it — just very natural, free flowing.” Opener “El último” unfolds with a driving bassline that escalates in a raucous chorus. “No creo que pueda olvidarte / No creo / No creo,” Trujillo repeats atop rickety fretwork. On “Déjà vu,” searing riffs interrupt brooding verses. Closer “By Frank” is the only English language piece, propelled by shakers and woozy organs. “I know it’s a lie they’ll never really tell you / I know it’s lust / I’ll never really tell you,” he proclaims in the refrain. Las Cruxes weaves macabre insistence with themes of mental collapse and romance.

Las Cruxes doubles as a solo practice and fluid collective, both on record and live. “I write everything, but I do it thinking about who is in the band at that moment — who’s wearing the Las Cruxes suit that week,” Trujillo muses. This time around, he tracked the majority of the instruments himself, though a handful of peers were invited to contribute. In addition to a cast of Omaha locals, Californian Ellie English (L.A. Witch) appears on drums. Jeffrey Davies (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and Jorge Vilchis (La Gusana Ciega) were tapped for guitar. The record channels simplicity at its finest.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]