January 2026 – Page 3 – 7th Level Music

Ora Cogan releases “Honey” to announce her newest album.

Ora Cogan announces her new album and Sacred Bones debut, Hard Hearted Woman, out March 13th, and releases the lead single/video, “Honey.” Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. With Hard Hearted Woman, she mixes haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, building a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital. Shaken by the tenor of modern life, Cogan pulled in a circle of kindred musicians and made a record shaped by someone who has looked into the abyss and decided, again and again, to choose curiosity.

The album opens with today’s single, “Honey,” a slow-blooming burn built on warm strings and loose, driving percussion. Cogan’s voice is steady, smoky, and consoling, addressing the “hard hearted woman” who anchors the record. “Honey” radiates resilience without ever losing its tenderness as Cogan sings: “Just a hard-hearted woman // Gunmetal smile // Guarding your heart // Guarding your style.” Watch the Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez-directed video featuring Cogan bewitching friends, lovers, and foes, into a whirlwind of dance and chaotic joy. Ruiz-Hernandez comments, “The idea was to enter into an existence of absurdity where everyone is simultaneously isolated in their own loneliness and drowning in collective longing and lust.”

Watch the Video for Ora Cogan’s “Honey”

Raised on an island in the Salish Sea, Cogan had a bohemian upbringing in a home steeped in music, art, and philosophical debate — her father a photojournalist, her mother a musician and studio co-owner — shaping her early immersion in traditional folk and outsider music. Cogan left home to apprentice as a silversmith at the age of 15, soon taking on a kaleidoscopic array of jobs while touring through Europe and the US, fully immersing herself in underground music of all varieties.

She was anchored in Vancouver’s noise and experimental scene, and taught herself to play fiddle, toured in a drone-folk duo, and collaborated with a multitude of artists, never settling into one sound or scene. A canoe journey with friends from the Heiltsuk Nation led her to walking away from music for a while, dedicating years to environmental justice followed by human rights focused photojournalism.

After her father’s death, Cogan moved to Twin Peaks-like Nanaimo, B.C., drawn to its remote landscapes and eclectic music community. She started building a studio and collaborating with local musicians including Finn Smith, Nancy Pittet, Kristopher Bowering (Orville Peck), who now form her band. Following 2023’s Formless, she spent a winter crafting new songs that became Hard Hearted Woman.

Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations with friends on art and politics, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape to visit her godmother. Alongside her band and guests from both the country and experimental worlds, she recorded with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., as well as in her studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result is a record that glows like something pulled from smoke and seawater — intimate, shimmering, and carved with wit as much as grief. It’s a swirling, jewel-toned ode to all the angels and the demons.

A work of devotion to mystery, to community, and to the strange power of making art in a fractured world, Hard Hearted Woman is a record about hardness and resilience; it’s the shell we grow so our most human, breakable selves can survive. Hard Hearted Woman is for anyone trying to stay open, even when the world makes that feel impossible.

Stream “Honey”

Pre-Order Hard Hearted Woman

Ora Cogan Tour Dates:
Fri. March 13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl (Album Release Show)
Thu. March 19 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
Fri. March 20 – Oxford, UK @ The Nest
Sat. March 21 – Manchester, UK @ Yes Pink Room
Sun. March 22 – Newcastle, UK @ The Lubber Fiend
Tue. March 24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
Wed. March 25 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
Fri. March 27 – Galway, IE @ Roisin Dubh
Sat. March 28 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Sun. March 29 – Cork, IE @ Wavelength at Cyprus Avenue
Wed. April 1 – Sheffield, UK @ Sidney & Matilda
Thu. April 2 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade
Fri. April 3 – London, UK @ Dingwalls

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Katzin releases wild new single – “Nantucket.”

The summer after he graduated from high school, Battle broke ground on his first album as Katzin. He had just spent most of the summer in Europe, and came back to the United States inspired to explore what it means to be an American at this particular moment in history. What stories cling to people born and raised in this infinitely complex, haunted country, and what responsibilities do we have to them? Buckaroo swirls around these heated questions like smoke from a campfire at dusk.
Together with collaborator and producer Max Morgen, Battle drove from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree to start recording songs he’d written the previous spring. “It was a really anxious time. We were both heading off to college, getting ready to leave our homes and move to new states,” he says. “We packed up Max’s Subaru Impreza and set up a DIY recording studio in a cabin. It was really hot, and we were stuck inside. By isolating ourselves, we were able to capture this raw creative energy. It feels like we made a love letter to our childhoods.”
“Nantucket” captures the continent traversing ambition of the album, as Battle explains:
“’Nantucket’ is about a comedown, sobering up, perhaps washing up on a familiar shore. Several coastlines are implied in the lyrics, both east and west. It’s also about Meghan Trainor because she’s obviously the only girl who’s really from Nantucket. It’s all about that bass, no treble.”

In February, Mexican Summer-signee Katzin will release his debut LP Buckaroo. The project of the New York based songwriter Zion Battle, Katzin’s debut draws upon symbols of the mythologized American West – cowboys, horses, vast deserts, rolling plains, ancient rock formations – to trace that leap from adolescence to adulthood in all its unsteady shine.

Surging with rolling drums, filigreed synthesizers, and guitars that flip from a whisper to a thunder roll on a dime, Buckaroo renders the beauty of North America through a deceptively nonchalant electroacoustic collage. “One of our main goals was to make the album sound like the desert,” says Battle. “We talked about that a lot: How do we make the soundscape reflect the landscape?” Throughout the record, Battle blends the surreal wit of Pavement with the expansive gravitas of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, all while drawing from the warm, homespun atmospherics of early Orchid Tapes releases. These songs arc like contrails across the biggest sky you’ve ever seen.

Katzin has so far shared two singles from the record “Anna” and “Wild Horses,” and today he is sharing a third, a track called “Nantucket” that is premiering with FLOOD.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “NANTUCKET”

“Nantucket” captures the continent traversing ambition of the album, as Battle explains:

“’Nantucket’ is about a comedown, sobering up, perhaps washing up on a familiar shore. Several coastlines are implied in the lyrics, both east and west. It’s also about Meghan Trainor because she’s obviously the only girl who’s really from Nantucket. It’s all about that bass, no treble.”

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Modern Woman announces debut album due May 01, 2026 with its first single – “Dashboard Mary.”

Modern Woman — the London art-rock band fronted by primary songwriter Sophie Harris — announce their debut album, Johnny’s Dreamworld, out May 1st via their new label One Little Independent Records, and release the lead single/video, “Dashboard Mary.” Johnny’s Dreamworld represents the culmination of Modern Woman’s journey from Harris’ early, intimate songwriting project into a full-bodied band capable of folding post-punk, avant-garde, and folk traditions into a live force of dynamic originality. At its heart, the record explores the strange poetry buried within the ordinary. Harris’ lyrics, steeped in literary detail and filmic atmosphere, draw from a fascination with the dark underbelly of the everyday and the contradictions of womanhood.

Harris explains, “A vital theme I’ve always wanted in Modern Woman is the idea of conflicting things, of the tender/harsh, loud/quiet and scrappy/polished. The style of everybody’s playing, drawing from a melting pot of influences, coming together to form something new.” This interplay defines the album’s sound, delicate one moment, raw and untamed the next. Layers of violin and saxophone stretch across a foundation of propulsive drums and bass, creating something equally methodical and volatile. Harris’ lyrics remain rooted in the female experience; “I find it interesting to explore the rawer side of femininity that is often hidden; girlhood relationships and the complexities of female fixation and obsession.”

Modern Woman’s sound emerged from years of creative refinement. The band coalesced when Harris met violinist and composer David Denyer, who brought a background in experimental composition and textural sound work. Joined by Juan Brint-Gutiérrez on bass and saxophone and Adam Blackhurst on drums, the group forged a style that values the contrasting harsh edges of folk lyricism and noise that collides with melody. Working with producer Joel Burton (Naima Bock, Katy J Pearson, Vanishing Twin), they found a live immediacy that channels the raw intensity of their performances into a sound that is both rich and unpredictable.

Johnny’s Dreamworld is a tender but confrontational collage of shifting tones and perspectives, of dream logic, fantasy, and lived experiences, as on today’s single, “Dashboard Mary.” Guided by Harris’ voice—expressive, incantatory, and shaped by a long-standing admiration for vocalists like Björk, Sinéad O’Connor and Cat Power—the track captures the comedown following a feeling of escape, a gradually unfolding narrative that builds towards a rapturous climax. “This is a song that I wanted to write like a film. I wanted to confront the feeling of the ‘morning after’ and the decisions made during that time of exhilaration the night before,” Harris comments.

Stream “Dashboard Mary”

Since their formation in London, Modern Woman have built a reputation for performances that blur the boundary between poetry and noise, commanding stages at End of the Road, Latitude, The Great Escape, and Green Man. Harris, a literature graduate, writes with a novelist’s precision and a performer’s urgency, while Denyer, Brint-Gutiérrez and Blackhurst bring the intensity of modern composition, jazz and punk backgrounds to the table. This year they signed to One Little Independent Records, the home of Björk, Crass, Laura Misch, Penelope Trappes, and more.

Johnny’s Dreamworld cements Modern Woman as one of the UK’s most distinctive new voices, a band intelligently and purposefully exploring the relationship between beauty and brutality.

Pre-Order Johnny’s Dreamworld

Modern Woman Tour Dates*:
Mon. Jan. 19 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Wien
Tue. Jan. 20 – Graz, AT @ Dom Im Berg
Wed. Jan. 21- Linz, AT @ Posthof
Thu. Jan. 22 – Munich, DE @ Technikum
Sat. Jan. 24 – Prague, CZ @ Cargo Gallery
Sun. Jan. 25 – Berlin, DE @ Columbia Theater
Mon. Jan. 26 – Hamburg, Knust, DE @ Molotow
Tue. Jan. 27 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Tollhuisten
Wed. Jan. 28 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Club
Thu. Jan. 29 – Paris, FR @ Le Cabaret Sauvage
Sun. Feb. 1 – Glasgow, UK @ The Art School
Mon. Feb. 2 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall
Tue. Feb. 3 – Bristol, UK @ Electric Bristol
Wed. Feb. 4 – London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

* all dates supporting Ezra Furman

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Fille – Only Skies Stay Eternal Remixes EP

Fille released her EP, Only Skies Stay Eternal, in June of 2025. It caught quite a few ears because, just three months later, she released the Only Skies Stay Eternal Remixes EP with mixes by four different collaborators.

The first is Rico Casazza‘s remix of “Reach the Nucleus” (and a shorter radio edit of it closes the EP). It’s a lush track with Fille’s breathy vocals mixed well with thudding bas and bright synths that burst like sunlight through clouds. Alienata‘s take on “Portals” is a bit spooky and might open a portal to a creepy (yet sexy) dimension if you play it loud enough.

Sestrica remixes “Time Is a Circle” with sizzling electric cymbals and just enough distortion to make the slick dance track a little trippy. Clouser takes “Thistles” and makes it into a somewhat goth track that sounds like a rare B-side you heard once in a club and have been searching for decades to find.

It’s a slick EP from start to finish. You’ll love it for your next workout or dance playlists.

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[Thanks to Dina at Eclectica!]

Bronco Forte roll a nat-20 for their new single – “Lightning Scar.”

Los Angeles quartet Bronco Forte share a beautifully crafted D&D themed video for the lead single from their forthcoming full length debut LP Lightning Scars today. The video is produced by Zograscope Studios and features actor John Ennis (Better Call Saul, Mr. Show) in a very creative production design. An early preview launched via Metal Injection HERE. The “Lightning Scar” video is now also available to watch & share on YouTube HERE.

The single is available on all DSPs HERE.

After so many iterations of heavy, desert-inspired doom rock over past decades, it seems the essence of purely driving riffs, earworm harmonies and strong songwriting that defined a genre has been forsaken. Bronco Forte are a return to the stark blast that made bands like Kyuss, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden legends.

After years of creative toil and preparation, Los Angeles quartet Bronco Forte is stepping into the spotlight as a fully-formed heavy rock phenomenon, with roots in the classic heavy music of the 1970s, seasoned with a deeply modern sensibility and sonic approach. The songs on their debut full-length album, Lightning Scars, chronicle the uncertain lives of ordinary people in the cities and wildernesses of California and beyond, as the characters they depict strive to maintain their integrity in the face of a rapidly-changing world.

The band’s lyrics balance literary style and kitchen-sink realism. Their riffs are deep and dirty, conjuring up the kinds of swinging grooves that cause involuntary head-nodding. The song structures are clever without being cluttered, and the band’s judicious use of vocal harmonies brings a powerful pop sweetness that cuts like a ray of light through the deep swampy stomp of their songs. It all adds up to a fresh yet familiar take on hard rock for a new era, as they draw inspiration and energy from their musical ancestors while casting aside the weary genre cliches of the past.

On Lightning Scars, guitarist and vocalist Chris Klepac’s focused songwriting and poignant lyrics meld seamlessly with guitarist Sako Injaian’s (All Hail the Yeti) energetic riffs to create a sonic tapestry that is somehow as catchy as it is heavy. Together, bassist Jen Glomboski (White Forest) and drummer Geoff Summers (Batillus, A Storm of Light) lay down a rhythmic foundation that is as solid and unwavering as the endless expanses of concrete and asphalt that blanket the band’s home of southern California.

Lightning Scars was tracked and mixed by engineer Kevin McCombs (Linkin Park, Story of the Year) at legendary North Hollywood studio The Steakhouse – the same studio where Queens of the Stone Age recorded Era Vulgaris. From there, the band took the audio to heavy rock mastering wizard Nick Townsend (Alice in Chains, Frankie and the Witch Fingers), who cut the resulting album to lacquer on his own personal lathe. Album art from Kevin “fetusK” Bernier (Prosthetic Records, Intronaut) completes the package.

Lightning Scars will be available on LP, CD and download on April 3rd, 2026. Pre-orders are available HERE.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Rare Killing Joke tracks to get first-ever vinyl release February 27, 2026.

A journey into the raw and visceral origins: from the demo sessions mixed by Steve Albini to the night of the very first secret show on December 20th, 1988. In the heart of Chicago, Geordie and Martin Atkins turned frustration and distance into pure creative energy, recording the now-legendary “Black Cassette” demos at Albini’s house. Distorted, menacing bass lines, unruly oscillators, and Albini running endlessly up and down the stairs between the basement drum room and the pantry control room defined a sound that was brutally direct and uncompromising. The first interactions with the Yamaha drum machine foreshadowed elements that would later shape parts of the album. Those sessions sparked essential ideas, while the future studio — purchased from Steve and moved to Wabash Ave — would soon become the core of Invisible Records and Killing Joke’s operations.

On the other side, a truly rare document: excerpts from Martin Atkins’s very first show with the band, at Burberries in Birmingham on December 20th, 1988. In a small, mirror-lined club filled with tension, adrenaline, and inevitable collisions with the walls, Extremities, The Fanatic, Intravenous, and The Beautiful Dead were performed publicly for the first time. It was the night when everything ignited: the blast beat still in its embryonic stage, the controlled fury Geordie demanded — “can you go a bit more Moonie on it?” — and above all Jaz’s theatrical yet strikingly genuine laughter. Not just joy, but a declaration: a giant “f*ck off” to the doubters and a prelude of what was about to come. A raw, essential, indispensable testimony: the birth of an era.

The release will have the following variants:
– Classic Black;
– White – for independent record stores only;
– Red – Invisible Records Exclusive;
– Overdrive Store Splatter Exclusive – limited to 350 copies worldwide.

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[Thanks to Dan at Discipline PR.]

Mosswood Meltdown 2026 announces its full lineup.

Mosswood Meltdown, “the Bay Area’s coolest music festival” (SF Gate), returns to Oakland’s Mosswood Park July 18th & 19th, 2026. Following last week’s announcement of a pre-party on July 17th featuring Pavement, Wednesday, and Vivian Girls, the festival reveals its official lineup today, with tickets on sale now. Saturday is headlined by the “Godfather of Punk” Iggy Pop, following fierce Japanese quartet Otoboke Beaver, Santa Cruz’s hardcore heroes Scowl, skate-punks The Spits, garage rock Detroiters The Dirtbombs, always-unpredictable Tokyo troublemakers The Fadeaways, and LA-based power trio Primitive Ring. Legendary feminist punk pioneers Bikini Kill will cap off an epic Sunday, which also features The Return of Jackie & Judy aka Fred Armisen, Corin Tucker & Carrie Brownstein playing tunes by The Ramones, Philly’s seasoned punks The Dead Milkmen, the electrifying Frankie and The Witch Fingers, cult favorites Frightwig, and Miami rockers Las Nubes. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Mosswood Meltdown without the terrifically transgressive John Waters, who will be the wonderfully wicked host.

Get your tickets now, before prices rise! And stay tuned to more news from Mosswood Meltdown — additional artists and afterparties will be announced in the coming months.

Friday, July 17th (Pre-Party)
Pavement
Wednesday
Vivian Girls

Saturday, July 18th
Iggy Pop
Otoboke Beaver
Scowl
The Spits
The Dirtbombs
The Fadeaways
Primitive Ring

Sunday, July 19th
Bikini Kill
The Return of Jackie and Judy
The Dead Milkmen
Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Frightwig
Las Nubes

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

General Admission
Tier 1
Weekend Pass – $179
Day 1 Ticket – $129
Day 2 Ticket – $89

VIP Admission
(VIP comes with festival ins and outs privileges, access to VIP viewing areas, & VIP Swag bag)
Tier 1
Weekend Pass – $299
Day 1 Ticket – $199
Day 2 Ticket – $159

Pre-Party Ticket Prices
GA – $99
VIP – $165

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[Thanks to Chad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Mandy, Indiana’s new single is in “Cursive.”

Mandy, Indiana — “one of the decade’s best new bands” (Bandcamp) — present “Cursive,” the latest single from their new album, URGH, out February 6th via Sacred Bones.

On URGH, Mandy, Indiana is a force of uncanny nature, grafting together a record that is as much a call to action as a parlay into oblivion and transcendence. It finds the band expanding their far-reaching sound with each member — vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall — actively taking part in the songwriting process.

Following the “noisy, harrowing” (The Needle Drop) lead single, “Magazine,” today’s “Cursive” is a bristling techno track that recoils and unfurls, garnering drama from the juxtaposition of quiet moments and explosive commotion. The song’s accompanying video was directed by Stephen Agnew.

Catling comments: “‘Cursive’ is probably our most collaborative track to-date. Whilst Scott and Valentine often offer the initial impetus behind most of our songs, ‘Cursive’ was built up from a number of Alex’s rhythmic sketches and my bass sequence. Valentine added her vocals later and Scott worked to sculpt these elements together. It was exciting having everyone bring their own ideas to the table from the off, throwing them together and seeing what could come out of it — a bit of a step into the unknown for us as a band.”

Watch the Video for Mandy, Indiana’s “Cursive”

Co-produced and co-mixed by Fair and Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, much of URGH was written during an intense residency at an eerie studio house in the outskirts of Leeds and recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester. The process was shaped by adversity with both Caulfield and Macdougall undergoing multiple rounds of surgeries in the same time frame as the album was being written and recorded. The harrowing experience and the exhaustion of their respective recoveries bleed into the surreality of Caufield’s writing, blurring the line between inner turmoil and external chaos.

URGH is deeply personal, yet also reflects the violent, fractured state of the wider world as Caulfield’s lyrics grapple with sexual assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain. While most of the lyrics are in her native French, the emotional clarity cuts through regardless of language. Caulfield still uses her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between equal parts playful and eviscerating.

Following their acclaimed 2023 debut, i’ve seen a way, URGH sees Mandy, Indiana interpolating their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, forging a template for a brighter future before it fades to black.

Mandy, Indiana will tour across Europe next year with shows in London, Paris, Berlin and more. All dates are listed below.

Pre-Order URGH

Watch the Visualizer for “Magazine”

Stream “Cursive”

Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates
Sat. Jan. 31 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz *
Wed. March 25 – London, UK @ Heaven
Fri. March 27 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Sat. March 28 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
Wed. April 8 – Dunkirk, FR @ Les 4 Ecluses
Thu. April 9 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain
Sun. April 12 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn
Tue. April 14 – Copenhagen, DK @ Huset
Wed. April 15 – Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
Thu. April 16 – Hamburg, DE @ MS Stubnitz
Fri. April 17 – Tilburg, NL @ Roadburn
Sat. April 18 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique

* = supporting Machine Girl

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rayon’s “Running” away with their new single.

Portland alt-rock / post-punk outfit Rayon present their latest single ‘Running’, a propulsive exploration of the anxiety that comes with watching loved ones struggle with cycles of addiction that they can’t shake – and the sound of a tape echo that’s about to stop working. Intentionally preserving the noise of pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding to heighten the song’s frantic pace, its sound can be considered a study in tension and tape, the video conveying a sense of lo-fi capers involving a Citroen Wagon.

Found on the flip side of the single ‘Shopping / Running’ (also available on 7″ vinyl via Little Cloud Records), ‘Running’ is perhaps even more stunning than the whacky A-side ‘Shopping’, a tongue-in-cheek ode to consumerism and travel, written by someone who happens to travel and consume a bit.

Founded by long-time North Portland resident and Detroit-area native Eric Sabatino, Rayon now also involves members of other notable Portland bands – Sun Atoms, Yuvees, Pastilla and Martha Stax – namely Anna Sabatino, Riley McLaughlin, Eric Rubalcava and Derek Longoria-Gomez.

‘Running’ is based on a relentless bass and drum groove that lived in Sabatino’s head for months before finally taking shape in the studio. To capture the song’s unsettled emotional landscape, the band leaned into the mechanical unpredictability of a dying Dynacord tape echo. By funneling guitars and vocals through the aging machine, they achieved a haunting, warped soundscape where the pitch and speed constantly bend and shift. Feeling as though it is physically straining under its own weight, this song mirrors the very themes of instability it describes.

“‘Running’ was built around a bass and drum groove I was kicking around in my head for months. The guitars and vocals are the sound of a tape echo called “dynacord” that’s barely working, bending and moving the speed and pitch of everything we run through it. Those parts wouldn’t have come out like that if I wasn’t trying to write a guitar part while plugged into that machine.” says Eric Sabatino.

The video for ‘Running’ offers a gritty, nostalgic look at the band’s world, captured entirely on a vintage Handycam, following the band in their meticulously restored Citroen wagon. Embracing the track’s jerky energy, their journey concludes with a grainy, evocative sequence of freeway signs leading into Seattle—a slow-burn outro that grounds the video’s high-energy antics in a sense of place and movement.

“The video was shot on an old handycam camcorder we found in the back of a closet. The battery miraculously held a charge. It came with a tape of someone’s school play, which we taped over (sorry to whoever’s family that was). It features the Citroen wagon from the ‘Shopping’ video. I worked on that car for months. So glad it didn’t break down during these two long video shoots,” says Eric Sabatino.

“We drove around all day picking everyone up at their home, work, local bar, favorite little shop, and went to band practice. We filmed the antics and capers along the way. Sometimes we let friends and strangers hold the camera and film us. I transferred and edited it over 2 late nights, trying to capture as much pause, rewind, and fast-forward noise as I could, timing the cuts to capture the jerky energy of the song. I love the outro and the slow noisy shots of the freeway signs leading to Seattle.”

In contrast, the video for ‘Shopping’ – filmed with their awesomely nostalgic Super 8 video – was born of near-burnout and a revitalizing trip south of the border, showcasing antics in several grocery stores there before eventually being kicked out.

Sabatino broke tradition with this release, deciding to mix the album together with famed recording engineer Larry Crane (Cat Power, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, The Go-Betweens, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie) at Jackpot Recording and Timothy Stollenwerk (Yo La Tengo, Grouper, Morphine) at Stereophonic Mastering.

Rayon spent last winter honing these and other songs through a series of live shows, including an epic trip to Guadalajara, which served as creative fodder for the band’s latest inspiration and re-invigoration. Recording on rainy weekends in a garage studio packed with old reel-to-reel tape machines, partially-functional tube amps, and leaky British motorcycles, these songs were recorded onto 16 tracks of 1/2” tape, while running the tracks through a slightly-wonky sounding tape echo.

Before forming Rayon, Eric Sabatino spent years playing with bands in Southern Michigan and Portland, sometimes with as many as six projects on the go at the same time. Self-described as “a guy who grew up on 80’s/90’s post punk and grunge trying to reconcile their love of R&B, Soul and 60’s British Pop”, Sabatino is now fully focused on this one project, built on the experience of years of writing, collaborating, studio work and touring with some of the Pacific Northwest’s hardest working bands.

The ‘Shopping / Running’ single is out now, available both digitally and as a limited pressing of 150 blue transparent 7″ record and 150 black 7″ vinyl. It can be ordered in all formats via Bandcamp, with this snazzy vinyl also available via Little Cloud Records. This is the first in an exciting new series of similar records in the works for Rayon.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Gran Moreno release third single from upcoming album due January 16, 2026.

Austin duo Gran Moreno share the final single, “Aztlan” from their forthcoming debut studio album El Sol today on all platforms. The song launched earlier via New Noise Magazine HERE. Hear and share “Aztlan” + 3 previous singles on all DSPs HERE.

The duo play a special hometown album release party in Austin on January 18th at The 13th Floor. Tickets are available HERE.

Gran Moreno emerges as one of the most captivating voices in the new wave of psychedelic rock. With a sound rooted in analog warmth and expansive textures, the Austin-based band crafts songs that feel like sonic mirages — equal parts groove, grit, and atmosphere. Their music lives at the intersection of distortion and introspection, where hypnotic riffs, heavy rhythms, and emotionally charged melodies build immersive landscapes that demand to be felt as much as heard.

At the core of Gran Moreno is a deep commitment to storytelling through sound. Their upcoming album is a conceptual two-part release: Side A: El Sol and Side B: La Luna. Each side represents a different emotional plane — El Sol radiates urgency, energy, and clarity, while La Luna leans into shadow, mystery, and reflection. The first release, El Sol, captures the band at full intensity, delivering a vivid, unfiltered introduction to their evolving identity.

On stage, Gran Moreno transforms their sound into a full-body experience. Their live shows blend sonic power with visual depth, pulling audiences into a shared trance that feels both personal and communal. As they continue to shape their universe with bold creativity and a fierce independent spirit, Gran Moreno isn’t just making music — they’re building a world of their own.

El Sol will be available on LP and download on January 16th, 2026. Pre-orders are available HERE.

GRAN MORENO – LIVE 2026

01/18 Austin, TX – The 13th Floor – album release party

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]