7th Level Music

OHYUNG puts you into a dream state with “Nevada.”

OHYUNG, the solo project of Brooklyn artist, DJ, and film composer Lia Ouyang Rusli, today shares “nevada,” the second single from her forthcoming album IOWA, arriving March 6. The track opens with a massive boom—”whether thunder or gunshots, the sound is an awakening of the spirit,” Rusli says. The field-recorded sample loops throughout the piece as a glacial melody pulses and swells beneath, intertwined with choral voices and wailing synths.

Of “nevada,” Rusli says the track evokes “open land and a holy reverence for space and openness. And in that space there may be a painful memory, but that memory is softened by time, letting beauty in.” The track is paired with a one-take visual that picks up where the video for lead single “all dolls go to heaven” left off. Among its early praise, Paste recognized that track as one of their “5 Songs You Need to Hear This Week,” describing it as music that “sweeps through the sea-level holy, uncouples from its textures, and climbs into the mouth of a liberated afterlife.” Together, these tracks signal OHYUNG’s anticipated return to ambient music—cinematic snapshots of their year in the Midwest.

WATCH: “NEVADA”

IOWA follows last year’s You Are Always On My Mind, praised by Pitchfork as “an extraordinary burst of pop,” and marks Rusli’s first ambient album since her 2022 breakout imagine naked!, which was named one of NPR Music’s Best Albums of the Year. An evocation of Rusli’s year living in Iowa City between 2023 and 2024, the album documents a time when she became embedded in the local DIY music scene and made between composing scores for the acclaimed films Happyend (dir. Neo Sora) and Sorry, Baby (dir. Eva Victor).

Rusli describes IOWA as “an ode to the vast beauty of the Midwest, fields of corn, rolling hills, harsh winters, tornado sirens, and the trans people that survive despite the threat of right-wing christofascism. IOWA is my love letter to Iowa City and the Midwest, my experimental trans Bruce Springsteen Nebraska.” The album is a stripped-down, self-produced album that foregrounds atmosphere and restraint. The record pares back earlier maximalism to reveal ghostly textures built from field recordings, manipulated devotional samples, and restrained synth pads, with moments of rupture interrupting otherwise serene compositions.

Following upcoming DJ sets in Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea, OHYUNG will celebrate the album’s release with a performance at Stone Circle Theatre in Ridgewood, New York, on March 6. Presented in partnership with Trans Music Archive, the event will feature an opening performance by YATTA, a DJ set from Bitepoint, and food by Jessie Yuchen, and will serve as a fundraiser for the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund. A physical vinyl edition of IOWA will also be released via Trans Music Archive, with all proceeds benefiting the fund.

Check out “nevada” above, and stay tuned for more music from IOWA ahead of its March 6 release.

Keep your mind open.

[Float over to the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]

New Colossus Festival announces its massive 2026 lineup.

Returning to New York City’s vibrant Lower East Side and expanding to six days, the New Colossus Festival begins on Tuesday, March 3, and runs through Sunday, March 8, 2026. This showcase festival and industry conference offers a unique opportunity to discover the next wave of emerging artists across multiple independent NYC venues, including Arlene’s Grocery, Baker Falls, Berlin Under A, The Francis Kite Club, Niagra, Nublu, Nublu Classic, Parkside Lounge, Pianos, Silver Lining Lounge & Sour Mouse

The New Colossus and DITTO Music will also once again present a series of panels and workshops called Colossal Conversations. Discussions on artist management, touring, production, sync licensing, festivals, publishing, and other relevant topics focused on the future of the global independent music scene.

Founded in 2019 by music industry veterans Mike Bell, Lio Kanine, and Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival has quickly become the first stop in the US for many emerging international artists. Past festival alumni include: A Place To Bury Strangers (US), Baby Queen (ZA), CHAII (NZ), Delivery (AU), Ducks ltd. (CA), GIFT (US), Hachiku (AU), Jaywood (CA), Kiwi Jr. (CA), La Securité, (CA) NOBRO (CA), Peel Dream Magazine (US), Penelope Isles (UK), Personal Trainer (NL), Pom Poko (NO), Pom Pom Squad (US), Robber Robber (US), Sid Simons (US), Slow Fiction (US), Sobs (SG), Starcleaner Reunion (US), The Orielles (UK), Thus Love (US), Water From Your Eyes (US), Ultra Q (US), Zoon (CA)

Named after Emma Lazarus’s 1883 sonnet featured on The Statue of Liberty, The New Colossus Festival is a multi-day, multi-venue showcase and conference that brings together emerging musical talent from around the world to New York City’s Lower East Side.

Badges Available on DICE: https://www.newcolossusfestival.com/badges

For more information and updates, visit newcolossusfestival.com

Full the full line up here: https://www.newcolossusfestival.com/artists2026

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Ora Cogan implores us to band together on “Division.”

“Division” Video Still – Directed by Ora Cogan, Micah Henry & Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez.

Ora Cogan releases “Division,” the second single/video from her forthcoming album and Sacred Bones debut, Hard Hearted Woman, out March 13th. Today’s single follows “Honey,” hailed for its “sweet Lauren Canyon haze” by Don’t Rock The Inbox and as a “cool, misty folk rock tune” by The Needle Drop. On “Division,” Cogan’s voice echoes across a stark, reverberant landscape. The song builds like a flare in the night, a plea against the numbing cruelty that’s come to feel routine these days: “Please don’t listen // Don’t give into the division // Feeding your lines // In some bitter mood again.” Cogan sounds like she’s summoning something, maybe a higher power, maybe the part of herself that knows how to sit with pain long enough to transform it.

“Division” arrives alongside an old world, horror-meets-fantasy video co-directed by Cogan, Micah Henry and Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez. Commenting on the video, Cogan says: “This video was filmed in Lilloet. There are three beings in this realm. The Human, The Oracle and The Demon. The Human is wrestling internally in a lonely world. They seek liberation from the torment inside. The Demon is the embodiment of the worst inclinations of the human. The oracle is the storyteller, urging the human to find understanding, to find a way through the internal battle.”

Watch the Video for Ora Cogan’s “Division”

Stream “Division”

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.

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 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.

Pre-Order Hard Hearted Woman

Watch the Video for “Honey”

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

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe?]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Hold onto your hats, U.K. Barren Womb are coming.

For the first time ever, Barren Womb are bringing their incendiary live show to the UK. In March/April, the duo will rip through 11 dates from Brighton to Dundee, presenting their unique brand of heavy noise rock. For over 15 years, the Nordic noise rock powerhouse has been a primordial force in the ever-evolving international heavy underground. Once described as “easy listening for the hard of hearing”, the duo of Timo Silvola (drums/vocals) and Tony Gonzalez (guitar/vocals) conjure an unholy racket that is as unorthodox as it is weirdly catchy. Stark minimalism, grinding repetition and quiet-to-loud dynamics are all essential parts of Barren Womb’s primitive approach to punk rock, creating a rowdy backdrop for howling laments about the shared dystopian fever dream more commonly known as modern life. “There are no tracks or trickery involved here”, explains Gonzalez. “What you get is pummelling, dynamic drums, heavy riffs through stacks of amps, on-the-fly loops and a tandem vocal attack that ranges from piercing screams to soothing melodies”.

With their energetic performances, the duo often leaves audiences wondering how such a wall-of-sound can be built by solely two people. A rather simple recipe at its core: an authentic human experience centered around connection and chemistry, and there really is no better place to take part in this experience than in small clubs like the ones set up for this tour. Talking about the expectations on the upcoming dates, Tony Gonzalez stresses: “Through hard work, determination and old school punk routine, Barren Womb has taken us to corners of the world beyond our wildest dreams, but so far the UK has eluded us. This is finally about to change and we could hardly be more excited for it. All the venues we’ll be visiting look amazing and the bands we’re going to share stages with sound incredible, so all systems are definitely go. We’ll bring the fire straight from the Norwegian underground, hope to see all you fine folks there!”

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Dan at Discipline PR.]

Review: Mandy, Indiana – URGH

At first listen to Mandy, Indiana‘s new album, URGH, you’re not sure what’s happening. The first track, “Sevastopol,” hits you with industrial synths, robot vocals, thudding drums, and warped orchestral sounds all in the same track.

URGH, like all Mandy, Indiana (who actually hail from Manchester in the UK) records, is multi-layered (like the album’s cover) with its instrumentation and subjects, but the overall theme seems to be rage. Mandy, Indiana are, like most of us, just pissed off right now and not afraid to call people out on their bullshit. The album’s title could be spoken as a tired sigh, a guttural growl, a response to a gut punch, or a grunt of hard effort.

“Magazine” tackles one of their favorite subjects – the objectification of women and the impossible standards women are expected to meet. “try saying” mixes video game bloops with wild processed drum sounds from Alex Macdougall and looped French vocals from Valentine Caulfield.

“Dodecahedron,” believe it or not, reminds me of early, heavier Art of Noise tracks. “A Brighter Tomorrow” could be a rallying call or a warning, depending on which side of history you’re choosing. I lean more toward it being a warning of sorts since Scott Fair‘s guitars sound like alarms blaring in the distance. “Life Hex” is a rager and feels like the bubbling anger under the surface of so many of us.

“ist halt so” combines big drums hits with guitars that sound like a belt sander on its last bits of battery charge while Caulfield commands your attention with her snarled vocal delivery. “Sicko” throbs with thick synths and electro-bass and includes guest bars from Billy Woods. “Cursive” is a bumping and bubbling techno track with beats that blend industrial pulse with tribal dance rhythms.

URGH ends with “I’ll Ask Her,” a wicked takedown of toxic masculinity, women’s beauty standards, and dudes who are such pricks that they don’t even realize their own friends are calling them out on it. Caulfield has made it no secret that she was dealing with the aftermath of a sexual assault (and other health issues, along with Macdougall having his own health problems) while writing this album. She and the rest of her bandmates pull no punches on the song or anywhere else on the record.

It’s an urgent record, a powerful record, a cathartic record, an inspiring record. It’s a record we need right now to get us out of the housefire, get our friends, family, and neighbors, out of theirs, and then find the bastards who lit the matches.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Scattered Purgatory – Post Purgatory

I’m not sure how to accurately describe Scattered Purgatory‘s new album, Post Purgatory, but I’m also not sure it’s possible. The Taipei duo blend multiple genres well: Trip-hop, industrial, motorik, synthwave, a bit of goth. The cover looks like an upside-down photo of a flooded underpass with a city (Taipei?) in the background. The world was turned upside-down for the band during the pandemic, and they emerged from it, like all of us, a bit puzzled by how time and space worked and what was certain. Human relationships and airy expanses craved during isolation now felt kind of weird. Time felt like “it can heal or it can destroy,” as they mention in the notes for the album.

“Atata Naraka” has wild tenor saxophone (courtesy of Minyen Hsieh) that blasts like its being played in that flooded underpass while you cruise over the floodwaters in a sleek Miami Vice-era boat. The thick bass and fuzzy guitar chords of “Wunai” sound like the set-up to a seduction sequence in a vampire thriller.

“Ephemeral Mind” is a good name for a good track that describes how most of the world felt during and after the pandemic. Our minds, preoccupied with distractions before the pandemic, and calmness of mind, became ephemeral to our doom-scrolling. Emerging from our cocoons made some of us realize we need to put the phone down, while others rushed to fill the silence of the world and our heads with even more distractions. The 1980s goth guitar chords on it are damn cool.

“Thundering Dream” is heavy with low bass and synth stabs that sound like they’re played by robots underwater. dotzio‘s guest vocals on “Moonquake” create a gorgeous trip-hop / chillwave track that you’ll probably put on romantic playlists all year. “Above the Clouds” has heavy metal guitar chords combined with soft vocal sounds and tripped-out synths to make something unpredictable…as is the short “KL20,” which is like Blade Runner background music.

“Ocean City, Mirage Tower” would also fit into a science fiction film as the lead character slurps noodles in a tiny place off a neon-lit alley waiting for robot bounty hunters to show up and ruin everything. It floats along like lotus petal along the rain-filled underpass, drifting from synthwave to dark funk to cinematic piano paranoia.

Time is weird. Scattered Purgatory figured this out years ago and made an album that has a title symbolizing multiple things: Emerging from the weird time of the pandemic (which felt like purgatory for many), becoming new versions of themselves (Post “Scattered” Purgatory), no longer dwelling on the past, mistakes, and regrets (essentially what purgatory is).

Time constantly happens, and yet it doesn’t. No is one really sure what the hell it is. It heals all wounds and also withers away everything. Now is the only part of it that exists. I’m writing this in my present and in your past. You’re reading it in my future and your present. All of those things are now, like this record.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t leave the subscription box in purgatory.]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Eve Maret helps you process grief on “Break the Chain.”

Eve Maret (sounds like “muh-ray”) is a Nashville-based experimental artist and composer who employs a wide array of electronic media and techniques in her various disciplines, exploring the possibilities of personal and communal healing through creative action. She has been praised by the likes of WIRE Magazine, Chicago Tribune, DJ Mag, Bandcamp, and more.

Drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century orchestral and choral works, the Fluxus movement, Kosmische Musik and funk, Eve makes use of digital and modular synthesizers, a vocoder, clarinet, electric bass, guitar, and field recordings to create works that range from lush cinematic compositions to space disco. Eve’s music practice is a conversation with her numerous curiosities, manifested in the form of video art, drawing, dance, ritual, and cymatics.

Today, Maret announces her latest release Diamond Cutter. The twelve tracks are out April 17th, 2026. Diamond Cutter is an exploration of the space where strength meets vulnerability. The title comes from an ancient Buddhist text of the same name.

“A diamond represents the invisible potential within everything. Diamonds are perfectly clear, while also being the hardest substance in the universe,” Eve describes. “With this body of work, I endeavored to create music that was both strong and honest. I set aside any genre-specific limitations to allow the pure expression to come through directly. Each song is a commitment to using my authentic voice, to embodying my highest potential by singing the truth.”

Eve is also sharing the fearless, synth-soaked new single “Break the Chain,”out today. It’s a track about processing grief — feeling it, and letting it pass through. Check out the new track via YouTube and pre-order the album here.

“I made the beat when my cat Shrimpy didn’t have much time left. He sat on my lap, purring while I worked. I made it for him, and it was the last time he would be a witness to my creativity while he was alive. I think that every loss I’ve experienced gives me space to process all the previous losses, big and small, personal and collective,” Eve says. “When another being’s presence reveals to you the love you have within, that experience is never lost. I am forever changed by the love I’ve felt, and I can break the chain of suffering by giving myself love and appreciating everything around me, knowing that love is the only thing that never goes away.”

Eve’s music has been featured on Echoes Radio and Iggy Pop’s BBC radio show Iggy Confidential. “Synthesizer Hearts,” off of Eve’s 2020 release, Stars Aligned, appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music’s B-List in December 2020 and premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC Radio show “Music From The Near Future.” In 2021, Eve contributed to Moebius Strips, an audio installation and companion album honoring the work of electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius. Other contributors include Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak), Sarah Davachi, Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Phew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Michael Rother (Harmonia, NEU!) and Yuri Suzuki.

In 2022 and 2023, Eve and her collaborators Dream Chambers and Belly Full Of Stars composed a live-score for FW Murnau’s 1922 film, Nosferatu, which they performed in theatres across the United States. Collaborating is an important aspect of Eve’s creative path, and she has an on-going dance music project called GLAZIER with her partner Scott Glazier, as well as a synth-rock duo, Eardrummer, with longtime friend Adrienne Franke.

Eve has performed across the United States and internationally, alongside artists such as William Tyler, Guerilla Toss, MATMOS, JEFF the Brotherhood, and Lydia Lunch.

In addition to her personal creative practices, Eve is committed to providing avenues for others to create and uplift one another. In 2018, She, Jess Chambers, Deli Paloma-Sisk, and Arlene Sparacia founded Hyasynth House, an electronic music collective and education center for female and LGBTQIA+ artists. Together they facilitated workshops, performances, and community-wide conversations in an effort to support and empower marginalized groups. The founders went their separate ways in 2019, but Eve continues to lead electronic music workshops and to organize live music events in Nashville and beyond, including her work co-producing Nashville Drone, a 6-hour music experience featuring 13 regional artists across genres, in an effort to create an immersive space for the community to connect and recharge.

Keep your mind open.

[Break the habit of not subscribing today.]

[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

Katzin releases “Cowboy” ahead of his new album due on Friday the 13th.

This Friday, Katzin will release his debut LP Buckaroo on Mexican Summer. The project of the New York based songwriter Zion Battle, who is just 20 years old, Katzin broke ground on his first album the summer after he graduated from high school.

Raised on skillful storytellers like Bruce Springsteen and Tracy Chapman, Battle started weaving narratives from his first year of adulthood into a collection of new music. Channelling the expansive gravitas of Springsteen’s Nebraska, while drawing from the warm, homespun atmospherics of early Orchid Tapes releases, the record incorporates symbols of the mythologized American West – cowboys, horses, vast deserts, rolling plains, ancient rock formations – to trace Battle’s leap out of adolescence in all its unsteady shine.

Katzin has so far shared three singles from the record “Anna,” “Wild Horses,” and “Nantucket,” and today he’s sharing a final single from the record, a track called “Cowboy.”

When Battle began work on Buckaroo, with collaborator and producer Max Morgen, 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. As with several other tracks on the record, “Cowboy” is a song that spills out into questions of identity and belonging in a nation that might still be too young to know what it wants to be.

The track was born in Max Morgen’s kitchen during an especially fruitful songwriting session. “We had about six or seven tunes for the album already, and we wanted a standout, shiny, loud song,” says Zion Battle, aka Katzin. “So we sat down and wrote ‘Cowboy’ together. It felt like we were really in lockstep. It just came out so seamlessly. The kick drum on that song is actually the sound of my boots banging on the wooden deck in his backyard.” A standout on Buckaroo, “Cowboy” thunders with the quiet/loud dynamics of peak indie rock like Pavement and Pixies, arcing into its crescendo with the confidence and velocity of a Mustang hurtling down the interstate.

To mark the release of the record Katzin has announced a hometown release show at Nightclub 101 that will take place on March 11th.

Keep your mind open.

[Ride on over to the subscription box, hombre.]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Dead Pioneers are ready to spill “Nazi Teeth” on their new single.

Dead Pioneers, the Indigenous fronted band from Denver, thump back into action this week with one of their most enraged, powerful and important pieces of work yet. As the upsurge of the far right and white supremacists continues to rise and come out of hiding, Dead Pioneers are ready to fight back with new single ‘Nazi Teeth’, the first track to be lifted from their forthcoming third album, further details to follow…

“While unfortunate that it needs to be done, we’ll never shy away from calling out the elephant in the room,” states frontman Gregg Deal. “Although we didn’t expect this elephant to be the revival of fascists on Amerikkkan soil. Maybe we should have. Frustrated and angry, ready and willing to fight, it’s not lost on us that the need to write a song like this or say these words out loud is grim, ironic, and disconcerting. Nevertheless, here we are, and we’re here to do it.”

The single features a fiery vocal collaboration from Stephanie Byrne of Colorado feminist punk band Cheap Perfume, reconnecting with their fantastic 2016 song ‘It’s Okay To Punch Nazis’. Stephanie’s voice breaks through the song, doubling down on confronting white supremacists throughout the world.

“We are witnessing in real time the violent and horrifying overextension of this administration, while many of our brothers and sisters have been suffering at the hands of white supremacy and colonialism for generations,” says Stephanie. “Nazi teeth is a call to action to hold the line with your friends, family, and community. Keeping Nazis down keeps us all free.”

“The United States of Amerikkka is in disarray, and ‘Nazi Teeth’ is not just our answer to what we’re seeing and experiencing in the streets of the so-called land of the free, but a call to action, fighting the continuing manifestation of forces our grandparents and great grandparents fought some 81-plus years ago,” continues Gregg. “It should be obvious, but for some people it seems this needs spelling out: Fuck Nazis, Fuck Fascism, Fuck ICE, Fuck Pedos, and Fuck Trump and his administration. If violence is the only language they speak, it’s okay to punch Nazi teeth.”

Dead Pioneers have never been afraid to use their art as a vehicle to express their beliefs and anger at the current political landscape in America. Over two albums – their self-titled debut in 2023 and PO$T AMERICAN from last year, the band have concocted a unique blend of spoken word and hypnotic post-punk, mixed with the fury and anger of real punk rock.

Order ‘Nazi Teeth’ here. Dead Pioneers are confirmed to play their first EU and UK headline tour, starting later this month. Order your tickets here.

Dead Pioneers emerged as a dynamic extension of vocalist Gregg Deal’s performance art, seamlessly blending music with critical cultural commentary. Rooted in the same themes of identity and resistance that define his visual work, the band’s sound acts as a powerful platform for addressing the complexities of Indigenous experience. Deal harnesses the raw energy of post-punk and alternative influences to challenge prevailing narratives, using lyrics that provoke thought and evoke emotion. Just as his performance art confronts the legacies of colonization and systemic marginalization, Dead Pioneers – completed by Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan on guitars, bassist Lee Tesche (Algiers) and drummer Shane Zweygardt – engages audiences in a visceral dialogue about survival, resilience, and reclamation of voice. This musical endeavor not only amplifies his artistic vision but also creates a space for collective expression and solidarity, inviting listeners to reflect on the intersections of culture, history, and identity in a contemporary context. Through Dead Pioneers, Deal continues to assert that art, in all its forms, can be a powerful vehicle for activism and change.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Dan from Discipline PR.]

The Darts unleash an “Apocalypse” with their new single.

Seattle’s The Darts return with “Apocalypse,” the second advance single from their upcoming LP Halloween Love Songs, arriving March 3. Where “Midnight Creep” danced in B-movie shadows, “Apocalypse” blows the door off the darker half of the album, leaning into caveman rhythms, volcanic fuzz, and the kind of apocalyptic joy that makes destruction sound like deliverance. It marks the moment the record shifts from spooky fun into full-throttle, after-midnight fire.

The song was born in Angers, France, when singer/organ conjurer Nicole Laurenne wandered through the massive medieval Apocalypse Tapestry, a wall of woven chaos, angels, beasts, storms, the whole cosmic meltdown. “The lightning bolt struck me,” she says. “The song practically wrote itself in the van as we left the castle.” Instead of doom, Nicole leaned into the strange liberation of burning it all down: freedom from suffering, freedom from crowns, freedom from being told what comes next. She wrote the line “no future, no kings” as a mantra of release — and a year later, as if the song had cracked something open, “No Kings” erupted as a protest chant across the U.S. All while the track existed only as a demo on her laptop.

Musically, “Apocalypse” hits like a ritual. A pounding, Neanderthal beat through the verses, wide-open chant on the chorus, and those snaking organ lines that nod straight to The Seeds, The Standells, and other 60s greats who knew how to make the end of the world sound like a block-party with broken amps. Rebecca Davidson’s guitar tone drags the song into modern grit with thick, grimy Mudhoney fuzz, a little L7 bite, and flashes of Bikini Kill’s unbottled anger. It’s garage rock with a cracked halo, stomped through the dirt and set on fire.

Long before the album was finished, the band slipped “Apocalypse” into their live sets, and the audience reaction was immediate. People were yelling for it after shows, asking where they could buy it, treating it like a lost classic. When the studio version was finally tracked, Gretsch Guitars tapped the instrumental for a major ad, with Lindsay Scarey and Rebecca featured front and center. A quiet demo had somehow become one of the band’s most in-demand songs before it ever saw daylight.

Recorded at Station House Studio in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning producer Mark Rains, “Apocalypse” is the bridge into Halloween Love Songs’ after-midnight terrain: heavier, darker, louder, and built to shake rooms. It’s the sound of a band deep into its evolution with Nicole, Becca, Lindsay, and returning drummer Rikki Watson, pushing garage rock to its breaking point and finding something feral and euphoric on the other side. No future, no kings — just volume.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Chad at No Rules PR.]