Tag Archives: New Music

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

Posted on by
Reply

We’re only in February and I already know this new album by Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory will be high on my 2025 year-end list. The album, the first of Van Etten’s to be credited as a full band effort, is bookended by two five minute-plus songs (“Live Forever” and “I Want You Here”) that build slow and finish big. In between are a set songs that draw influences as wide as the post punk of early New Order/Joy Division (“Somethin’ Ain’t Right), to the pulsing neo-rock-disco of Masseduction era St. Vincent (“I Can’t Imagine”). And they pull these influences together in a way that makes it their own. Even with 10.5 months to go this year, this will no doubt be a top album on my 2025 Spotify Wrapped!

Imagery Machine • San Diego Indie Rock

Posted on by
Reply

There are so many talented bands in San Diego playing original music and Imagery Machine has been a favorite of mine for a long time now. While their lineup has changed since the first time I saw the band back at the Art on Adams Street Fair back in 2016 (only singer/songwriter/guitarist Jennie Shimkus and her husband, Tyler on drums, remain) they still play a captivating blend of indie rock combined with a host of other influences. They are now joined by Adam Schumann on lead guitar and Victoria Argimon on bass.

Here’s the track “Time Traveler” off of their excellent 2021 album, Reflections of Reality. This “indie-prog-rock” song starts softly and then builds gradually as new instruments and musical ideas are introduced. The song keeps evolving and growing in intensity until finally the guitars take over with big riffs supporting an electrifying, melodic guitar solo. The song then transitions back down into a dreamy haze until it eventually fades away.

Imagery Machine also released two singles in 2024, “My Energy” and “Zombies”. Give them a spin!

Imagery Machine: website •  instagram • facebook • spotify • youtube

English Teacher – This Could Be West Yorkshire

Posted on by
Reply

English Teacher, a 4-piece indie rock band from Leeds, England, was one of my favorite discoveries of 2024. (more on them on my 2024 Top-20 page). I remember discovering this band quite by chance as I was going down yet another YouTube rabbit hole. I found myself watching a few bands on Later… with Jools Holland when this performance of English Teacher’s latest single, “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab”, started playing. That was it; that day’s search for new sounds was over as I had found what I didn’t even know I was looking for…

Of course when the video ended I clicked on another link for English Teacher and was taken to a live in the studio version of “Mastermind Specialism” off of the same album. While the first song was full of energy and momentum, this next number was much more of a slow burn that builds intensity as it goes along. Both songs are fantastic and display English Teacher’s musical agility and singer Lily Fontaine’s wide ranging vocals and clever, evocative lyrics.

I won’t recreate the entire 90 minute English Teacher binge I then went on but I will share this imaginative video created for “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab”

Ekko Astral – pink balloons

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s Ekko Astral, a punk/indie band from Washington DC that has a lot to say if you’re ready to listen. Also, they seriously rock the fuck out!

Here’s “baethoven” off their 2024 debut album, pink balloons…

This band goes well with Amyl and the Sniffers and Mannequin Pussy, though if they ever shared a bill I’m not sure the audience would survive, or at the least have any hearing left!

Here’s the same song played live in Austin for a Stereogum showcase event. This simultaneously snarling, defiant, noisy and incredibly catchy song becomes a different animal when played on stage.

Porridge Radio – Clouds In the Sky Will Always Be There For Me

Posted on by
Reply

So what do you do when you’ve spent a couple of weeks reviewing and listening to all the records you’ve heard during the year to come up with a nice list, and then you publish that list – basically putting the year to bed – and then on the last fucking day of the year you discover a band that would have easily been a contender for the list? Seriously, someone please send me an answer.

I just discovered this band, Porridge Radio, about two hours ago and I like everything about their sound, the lyrics and the intensity of their performances. I’m just going to count Porridge Radio’s latest, Clouds In the Sky Will Always Be There For Me, as the first record as 2025 (even though it was released in October of 2024). Here’s another song from my first favorite album of 2025 “Sick of the Blues”