South Bay based singer-songwriter Billy Azurdia is releasing “Solamente En Mis Sueños,” on July 7, 2026. The genre bending single will be the 3rd and final release before his upcoming full length album. A danceable and ambitious departure from the straight forward tenderness of “Contigo,” “Solamente En Mis Sueños” showcases Azurdia’s confident versatility, blending city pop, folk and shoegaze.
Azurdia delivers a distinct 3-act anthem that begins on a sparkling dance floor, followed by a chromatic build that releases into a massive, distorted crescendo. The lyric and emotional component describe a chance meeting, that while beautiful, leaves one with a heart full of longing and bittersweetness. The finale explodes with fuzzy guitars, and dreamy synths, as Azurdia belts “Dejame aquí, puedo verte sonreir” (“Leave me here, I can see you smile”).
Billy Azurdia has been writing, producing and releasing music from his solo projects and as a contributing member of multiple Los Angeles projects, including Mind Monogram and Jane Astronaut, since 2011. His most recent work is an arrival as an indie folk writer, blending earthy grit and shimmering whimsy.
“Solamente En Mis Sueños was an opportunity for me to explore unconventional structure, danceable rhythms and blending it with the singer-songwriter styled indie folk that I’ve been producing these days. I’ve had the desire to explore city pop for a long time and I love songs that don’t ever return to a previous section, like (The Beatles) Day In The Life. I ended up with something I’m really excited about.”
“Solamente En Mis Sueños” will be on streaming platforms July 7th 2026.
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.”
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
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.”
“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
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.
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.”
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
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 BetterPhysical 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
According to Wooden Overcoat‘s frontman, Brant Hajek, “Recording this EP almost ruined my life, and I hope it sounds like it.”
Hajek wrote, played, recorded, mixed, and edited Hello Sunbeam by himself, wanting “…to make something that sounds old but fresh…something that sounds warm and dense, but somehow also airy.” Mission accomplished, sir, as the EP is psychedelic, dreamy, and fuzzy.
Opening with “Home,” you immediately get the sense of sunbeams waking you in the morning and moonbeams illuminating your late night party that same day. It’s delightfully hooky. “Finally Arrived,” a song about the frailty of human connection, is lush and almost misty. It’s like catching a jasmine smell on the wind and you don’t know its origin, but you want to find it so you can hang out there for hours.
“Heaven Right Now” continues to explore how frail we are and uses reverb-soaked guitars and vocals to show how many of us are always on the edge of the ledge and ready to fall and shatter…yet it’s still hopeful and captivating. It’s no secret that Hajek wrote the album during a dark period of his life. His mother was diagnosed with cancer, he was going through a breakup, and the world was both literally and figuratively on fire (even his band’s name is a nickname for a coffin).
The vocal harmonies on the closing track, “I Knew You Would,” blend well with the psych-surf guitar and soft beats. I’m willing to bet it’s about Hajek’s relationship turning sour and an outcome he saw coming and knew he couldn’t avoid. The guitar solo on it is a standout.
The title of the EP comes from a mantra that Hajek would say when he felt things crushing in on him. It was to remind him that the sun was still there and, as Gandhi once put it, “In the midst of darkness, light persists.” Hello Sunbeam acknowledges the dark, but also embraces the light.
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.”
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
