American Pancake Likes Charm School’s Caustic Amalgamations
American Pancake thinks Charm School is abrasive… and that’s a good thing! “Like a caustic amalgam of Butthole Surfers, The Jim Carroll Band, One Day as a Lion, Tomahawk, [and] Tropical F*ck Storm, it is quite apparent that Charm School (great name given their sound) is willing to be off putting to some to get their artistic / political approach across […]
New Music From Inara George
Best known for her work in folk-pop and indie pop, Inara George is a musical shape-shifter whose voice has been celebrated for its clarity, nuance, and emotional precision. As a solo artist, she’s released acclaimed albums such as All Rise and Dearest Everybody; she is one half of The Bird and the Bee with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin; and she’s a member of The Living […]
AllMusic Says Highway To Heavenly Might Be The Band’s Best Yet
AllMusic asks, “How often does a beloved group re-form after decades apart and the results are pleasantly nostalgic at best, calling up memories of good songs without actually delivering any of them? Fear not, devoted fans of indie pop legends Heavenly, their return after a long break has resulted in not only an album that captures all […]
Metal Injection Shares The New Collaborative Track By Melvins and Napalm Death
Metal Injection is on board with the new collaboration between Melvins and Napalm Death, “Rip The God.” The site says it “highlights the experimental edge of the collaboration. Speaking about the song, Shane Embury, bassist and vocalist for Napalm Death, explained: ‘The opening [Buzz Osborne] riff begins with that classic timing – a hiccup right at the end of the […]
No Depression Likes American Seams
“Even from the opening fiddle bars,” writes No Depression, “American Seams, the fifth studio album from Rose’s Pawn Shop, speaks directly to the moment. The band proves their prowess at drawing from all aspects of American music to create something timeless and enduring. After twenty years of pounding the boards, it’s not surprising that Rose’s Pawn Shop […]
New Music From Souled American
Founded in Chicago in late 1986, Souled American played alternative country before that term existed, slowcore before that term existed, and ambient Americana (a term that never existed). Between 1988 and 1995, the band released six records. Their style evolved from alt-country precursor to an ambient Americana that one critic termed “trance roots.” Though they received little attention at the […]
The Big Takeover Hails Highway To Heavenly For Being “Quietly Revolutionary”
The Big Takeover contends that “With Highway To Heavenly, Heavenly do something quietly radical: they return not as a legacy act smoothing out its edges, but as a band whose politics, emotions, and melodies feel as urgent as they did in the 1990s; if not more so. Nearly three decades after Operation Heavenly, the group reaffirm their role as […]
Jeffrey Runnings’ Piqued Is “Timeless,” Says Musoscribe
Musoscribe has some words on Piqued, the posthumous album from For Against frontman Jeffrey Runnings. “Though the label is bandied about with reckless abandon, Lo-fi is an actual aesthetic. For Against’s Jeffrey Runnings trafficked in the style/idiom for his solo work. Though Runnings had been working for years, Piqued is the product of his final sessions, completed shortly before his 2024 death from […]
Norman Records Loves Woo’s New Reissue
Norman Records highlighted Woo‘s Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong, at radio now from Independent Project Records, as its Reissue of the Week for January 12. They write, “It’s been said before that one of the reasons Woo’s music is so hushed and intimate was because they recorded through the night in a small flat mindful […]
MusicOMH Says Heavenly Is More Vital Than Ever
MusicOMH says that “there’s an argument to be had that Heavenly are one of the most influential bands of our time,” as the band helped pioneer the entire twee ethos decades before their song “P.U.N.K. Girl” went viral on TikTok. Now the band is back with Highway To Heavenly, and the site writes that it’s “a triumphant return […]
Rose’s Pawn Shop’s Paul Givant Talks To Chip Midnight
The Big Takeover‘s Chip Midnight recently spoke with Paul Givant, the leader of Rose’s Pawn Shop, about Fishbone and all of the metal bands he was into in highschool. There’s also a lot of talk about the band’s new album, American Seams, which is at radio now. Of the album’s title track, Givant says, “Of the collection, I thought it […]
Tidal Exposes Black Nile
In a recent edition of Tidal’s Playlisters’ A-listers feature, Brad Farberman says that “The jazz track ‘Exposure’ has it all — funky ideas, traditional thoughts, even a nod to dub music. And they do it all subtly. Black Nile is fronted by brothers Aaron and Lawrence Shaw, on sax and bass respectively — they’ve low-ended for John Legend and given André […]
New Music From Melvins and Napalm Death
Melvins and Napalm Death are sharing “Rip The God,” the latest in a chaotic alchemy conjured on their joint album, Savage Imperial Death March, due April 10, 2026 via Ipecac Recordings. The album shares its name with the bands’ Savage Imperial Death March tours from 2016 and 2025, but marks their first full-length studio collaboration under the moniker. The album […]
Crank It Says Heavenly’s New Album Is “Pure Bliss”
“There’s more than just nostalgia” to Heavenly’s return, Highway To Heavenly, according to Crank It. “Start to finish,” the site says, “Highway to Heaven envisions or perhaps wishes to revisit a golden age of pop rock where the sun never leaves the overhead sky, and the drive to nowhere ceases to end. In today’s state and climate, this can […]
Twangville Appreciates Rose’s Pawn Shop; See Them Live This Spring
As Twangville writes, “There’s a specific kind of American band that always sounds like it’s been driving all night, even when it’s standing perfectly still. The rhythm section has road dust in its pockets. The harmonies feel like the front porch light got left on. The songs smile at you, but they’re squinting, like they’ve seen how […]
Charm School, Writes Girl At The Rock Shows, Is “Powerful”
Girl At The Rock Shows finds Charm School to be “powerful.” The site writes that, on new offering “Schadenfreude Ploy,” the title track of their new EP, “there’s something haunting, almost daunting about the darkness of the vocals and the juxtaposition of the dissonance that comes with the guitar and the power of everything else really forms this […]
Heavenly Survives The Golden Age
“For a band that haven’t released an album in three decades,” Surviving The Golden Age writes, “Highway To Heavenly is a remarkable return that finds the twee pop outfit sounding refreshed and inspired.” The site has a full review of Heavenly‘s newest album, which is at radio now from the band’s own Skep Wax label. Read it here. Highway To […]
Rosy Overdrive Compliments Charm School’s Hammer Wielding
According to Rosy Overdrive, “Charm School wield the hammer and scalpel as deftly as ever throughout Schadenfreude Ploy,” their new EP. The record finds the band “at their 90s underground rock-evoking best” and also finds them pushing new boundaries, as on the “adventurous” track “Prime Mover Unmoved.” Read more here. At radio now, Schadenfreude Ploy made its debut on the […]
Woo’s Clive Ives Goes Track-by-Track With Ransom Note
Ransom Note explains, “Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong marks the first time the outside world could lean in and eavesdrop on what [Woo was] dreaming up — irreducibly British and fully formed, carrying traces of pastoral folk, post-punk, dub, jazz and ambient without quite belonging to any of them. The NME and Melody Maker reached for the Durutti Column and Penguin […]
New Music From Black Nile
For Black Nile, jazz isn’t a musical genre as much as it is a language. A Black American form of communication that bridges music, visual art, and performance. An improvisational mindset that fits into nearly any genre derived from the Black experience. Brothers Aaron and Lawrence Shaw see a very different Los Angeles. Hollywood has stolen the beautiful […]
