One Louder Magazine… RESURRECTED!

One Louder Magazine… RESURRECTED

Introduction
Album of the Week
Honorable Mentions
Missed The Cut
Addendum
On The List
Looking Forward To
Fine Print
About One Louder Magazine

¡Hola, amigos!

It is Sunday morning, October 18th: all that’s on tap for today is writing to you on one monitor while watching football on the other. If you enjoy longer intros, stick around. If not, scroll on down to the music – I will be none the wiser!

In the last blog, I stated that I would be taking some time off. Well, it was no picnic, no lying around like a sloth on the couch – oh, how I wish, ha! Instead, my dad, sister, and I traveled across the country to visit my aunt and cousin in Wilmington, NC. The schedule is listed below with stories (and pictures!) to follow:

October:
9 – Seattle > Raleigh-Durham, NC (5-hour flight)
10 – Raleigh-Durham > Wilmington, NC (2-hour drive)
11 – Wilmington, NC (day off!)
12 – Wilmington, NC > Charleston, SC (4-hour drive)
13 – Charleston, SC (day off!)
14 – Charleston > Seattle (5-hour flight)
15 – Hospital (X-rays), Costco
16 – Doc Appt
17 – Dogs Appt
18 – Football (day off!)
19-23 – Work

October 9th – Seattle > Raleigh-Durham, NC

Everyone here has taken a flight; short, long, domestic, international, something. So yeah, while the flight was five hours long, the day was actually much longer ’cause you need to drive there, park, check in, go through TSA, boarding, etc… The flight left around ~4-ish, and we arrived at ~9-ish… or midnight in Raleigh-Durham, NC. The rental car places closed at 12:30, so we had no chance of getting a car then. No worries, as they open again at 4:30 am.

We grabbed our bags and headed to the taxis. 10-15 minutes later, we landed at the hotel. Checked into the hotel with my sister in one room and my ‘ol man and I in another. I already wasn’t tired since I don’t really go to bed until around ~11-ish typically (and it was “only” a little after 9 there with the time change). I also rely on edible drinks to help with sleep. Didn’t bring anything since it’s illegal there and didn’t want to chance it. As you can imagine, I was in bed staring at the ceiling. Making things worse, my dad started asking me questions about work, hahaha! I’m like, “How am I supposed to sleep NOW with work on my mind?!”

I wasn’t even remotely tired, so I just submitted to the situation, and eventually got dressed at 4:30 am (1:30 our time). The hotel-airport bus started running at 4:30, so I climbed aboard. There was one couple and me on that first bus. He dropped them off at Delta and – bless his heart – dropped me off directly at the rental car company! No drop-off at the terminal where I’d normally have to board another bus to the rental car places; he took me straight there. I tipped him well and thanked him immensely: that was too amazing, I was grateful!

I had a wide variety of cars to choose from – they simply told me to choose one and drive to the gate. So I went with the most stunning, rad, sexy AF, bad-ass car I could find – a Chrysler minivan, of course, hahaha! A few hours later, we hit the road for Wilmington.

October 10th – Raleigh-Durham > Wilmington

I wasn’t the only one running on fumes. I may have gotten the least amount of sleep, but my dad and sis weren’t far behind. After a couple of hours in the sexy beast of a car, we finally landed in Wilmington. We knew that my Aunt Marilyn wouldn’t be ready for us for a little while, so we stopped off for some brunch at a popular greazy spoon called Goody Goody House. It would be the first place that I had grits… well, first place in the South, that is.

The check-in time for the house wasn’t until 4, so we still had some time to kill. After fillin’ the bellies, we drove over to my Aunt Marilyn’s house to spend some time with her. My cousin Brian (and his wife Marty) also headed over. Now, I’ve seen Marilyn off and on throughout the years, but haven’t seen Brian in, what… 30-something years?! Anyway, we hung out for a couple of hours shootin’ the shit and whatnot.

Note – this would be the first time (on this trip) that my Aunt told me that I’m her favorite nephew. She never said that my sister was her favorite niece 🤫 🤣

Due to the travel and lack of sleep, we headed to Wrightsville Beach (10 mins away) and checked in. No one napped or anything, but it was nice to just “settle down” in a place that we would be for a day. A couple of hours later (around 6-7 pm), we went to meet for dinner. Well, apparently Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach are pretty happenin’ because we had to go to 4-5 different restaurants. Anywhere from 45-60 minute waits elsewhere. At dinner, my Aunt Mar said, “You’re my favorite nephew” (again). I was sitting across and kitty-corner to the table from her and pretended that I didn’t hear her and asked her to say it again. She pretended, too, and said it louder so everyone would hear it again, hahaha! Mar had said it to me every time we got together, and I told her that she was my favorite aunt… which is true. She told me how much that meant to her. Oh, how I love her!

After dinner, we headed our separate ways after making plans for the next day.

October 11th – Wilmington, NC (day off!)

Huzzah, a day off, a reprieve (of sorts). I knew that we would be getting together with Mar and Brian later, so it wasn’t truly a “day off”… but it wasn’t a travel day, either. My sister and dad headed out to check out the local scene. Apparently, the show ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ was filmed there, so my sister wanted to visit all the spots. I haven’t watched the series yet, but perhaps someday. I, on the other hand, stayed back because I still felt like I was running on fumes from the lack of sleep from two nights prior. Later on, we all headed to Mar’s place for dinner and a hang-out session. [And also to hear my Aunt Mar tell me that I’m her favorite nephew, haha!]

Side note story: Prior to the trip, I reached out to one of my super-good buddies from HS. He and a girl we went to HS with still communicate regularly, but I haven’t seen/talked to Amanda since HS. However, I knew that she lived in the area and asked if he could reach out to her to see if she would want to connect. While it had been decades since we last saw each other, the HS we attended was super-small: roughly ~200 kids, grades 4-12. Our class of ~30 students was the largest graduating class in the school’s nearly 100-year history. So everyone knew everyone and everything about them. Time has passed, but it was a fairly tight-knit group.

He said he’d look into it, then radio silence for the next couple of weeks. I assumed at that point that she was not interested… which, no harm, no foul. I get it. It’s been a long, long time. I asked him to have her connect with me if she was interested so that she wouldn’t “feel obligated” to meet up.

I finally heard from him in the late afternoon on the 11th: “Holy shit: here is Amanda’s number. Hopefully I didn’t blow it. I hope you guys connect!”

Unfortunately, it was far too late to connect since we were headed out the next morning (after a final meet-up with Mar/Bri). I first heard Primus in high school, and it was Amanda who introduced me to them. She had their first releases – both ‘Suck On This’ (live, 1989) and ‘Frizzle Fry’ (1990) – on record, and I was mesmerized. I also finally drew up the courage to ask her to prom, fully surprised that she said “yes”! Or perhaps just an “ok”, hahaha!

October 12th – Wilmington, NC > Charleston, SC

Travel day. But first… one last meet-up with my aunt and cousin. They suggested a restaurant that was in the direction we would be heading. The server swung by and offered a bowl of hush puppies to the table, the first time I’d have them. They were fine, but not my favorite… not like grits. I love me some grits and ordered them several times throughout the trip. As we wrapped up the meal and headed outside, my aunt said something to the effect of, “I hope this isn’t the last time we see each other…” 😭 😭 😭

Yes, it’s true. My aunt Mar is in her mid-’80s and not in the greatest of health, so it might’ve been a “goodbye” trip. I hope not, of course, but that cross-country trip is no joke.

We took some pictures, then headed south to Charleston, a four-hour drive. A quick shout-out to my sister who drove the entire time – thanks, Joie!

During the drive, I finally reached out to Amanda, and we shared a few texts. I said, “But hey, at least you won’t feel obligated 🤣,” and she replied with, “I was looking forward to it! Dang it!” Yeah, wasn’t meant to be, but perhaps next time.

We arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon, around 4-ish, if memory serves me correctly. We checked in, dropped off the bags, and my sis and I walked around a bit. The weather there… Oh my. Hot and humid 🥵 <– that emoji doesn’t do it justice. We were sweltering! Anyway, checked out a bunch of shops, stopped into a cafe for a small snack before heading out to dinner a little later.

Dinner that first night was at Church & Union Charleston, one of many foodie-type places in the area. I’m not so much a foodie myself, so I just ordered the Pesto Gnocchi, which was pretty bomb! We headed back to the hotel and got some sleep before another non-travel day!

October 13th – Charleston, SC (day off!)

Today was all about checking out the local scene. We started with a late breakfast at a local cafe before walking towards the French Quarter. Wow, what history! The first place we passed was a cemetery, circa 1680. Yes, 1680. Not a typo! And one of the gravestones showed a person who lived to be 104 years old… Unheard of at any time, but especially back then! As we continued, we passed by several more churches, cemeteries, art galleries, theatres, row houses, and more. The laws are fickle with new building in the area, so it was not fraught with a bunch of shiny new buildings. Ok, there was one shiny object – how about a Lamborghini?! Don’t come across those often, so I had to snap some pics.

We went to an art gallery before heading to the waterfront. It was really nice walking around, but the heat and humidity were taking a toll on us. There was a beautiful park on the waterfront, so we took to some benches for ~20 mins to regain our strength before moving onward. Next up was to visit the daily Charleston City Market (established in 1807). It went on for blocks and reminded me of Pike Place Market at home. For reference, Pike Place wouldn’t be a thing for a hundred more years, having been established in 1907.

After that, we headed back to King Street, which was one of the main streets with all of the stores and such. One of the stores I went to is called Uashmama. The wife is into crafting and loves to upcycle, junk journal, decoupage, and scrapbook, amongst others. Uashmama makes, “Washable paper products for your home, your daily carry, and the people you love — each one made by hand in Tuscany from our signature AGGO material.” I sent her a bunch of pics and told her I’d get her anything she liked. She was amazed at the products, but she declined: “Don’t waste your money.”

Another spot was the Preservation Society of Charleston… on the corner of King St. and Queen St., of course! I am soooooo not into dressing up – I wear shorts year-round – and ties are so not my thing, either, but I was amazed at the bowties I saw there. They were made from the feathers of a variety of birds (and other animals), put together by a fly fisherman. I hope you check out the photos. They were stunning ties, and the photos don’t do them justice.

One last place was this cool Polish pottery place called Tableau. The pottery is made in a super-small town in Poland, where each potter would create two pieces per day. Very intricate and beautiful.

It was the final night before heading back home, so we decided to hit Ma’am Saab, a Pakistani restaurant around the corner from the hotel. My god, it was amazing. Plus… they carried 10 mg hemp-derived THC drinks. Hey, why not?! I had a Mountain Doom and Red Cream, both delicious. Unfortunately, I did get the fuzzy feels from the drinks.

Back to the room for one last night before the long flight home…

October 14th – Charleston > Seattle

Our flight wasn’t until late afternoon, so we had a half day to do any last sightseeing. Started with breakfast at Miller’s All Day. Of course I had more grits. This was the nth time I had them on the trip. Then we had a sobering trip to the International African American Museum. As you already know, America’s history towards African Americans was (and still very much IS) awful, but one section just made my heart sink. It’s the story about George Stinney, Jr. I won’t reiterate here, but please see pics if interested. They had the actual electrocution chair there, but no pics/vids of it were allowed. But it is etched into my brain. Just horrible.

Off to the airport and an uneventful five hours stuck in an aluminum tube travelling 500 mph at 35,000 feet. My ‘ol man has a fear of flying, but he did a fantastic job… I think my sister said it best: “Flying is unnatural.” I mean, I’m not exactly a fan, either, but it is the safest form of transportation… but thinking about that whole “aluminum tube” flying above the clouds still wows me. I mean, geez, the Wright Brothers were only a little over a hundred years ago… and it didn’t get off to the most electric start 😬

Drove to the Mukilteo Ferry where I caught an Uber home (it was pretty late when we arrived). The dogs, of course, went absolutely bonkers berserk to see me. The wife was happy, too, but certainly not like the dogs were 🤣

Addendum: I forgot to add this. In Charleston, my sister and I went to a cool cafe/bar/restaurant off a side street called Bar167. Both times, she ordered a “caviar cone”… it’s like a mini ice cream cone topped with caviar. It was beautiful and interesting. Check out the pic that she took!

October 15th – Home (Lake Stevens)

No rest for the wicked. I knew I had a doc appt the following day, and I had to get X-rays before then, so this was it, the only day I could go. This was followed by a trip to Costco to gas up and get a few items.

October 16th – Home (Lake Stevens)

The hits keep coming! I had surgery on my right shoulder approximately nine years ago, but have been in pain in the same place now for the past six months or so. I was thinking/hoping that it would go away on its own, but no such luck. Well, the pain is real. The doc showed me the X-ray (see pic, if interested).

I made circles in three places. Well, “circles” is a liberal use of the word, ha! The biggest circle shows some cloudy-like material in between the ball-and-socket joint. That should not be there. It should be much clearer, similar to how it looks as you go towards the edge of the shoulder. Now, the clear area isn’t “empty” – that’s where tissue (such as muscles, tendons, and fat) should lie, resulting in a clear X-ray image. The cloudiness informs the doc that I have arthritis there <sigh>…

The two smaller circles are where I have bone spurs. He told me that I have four options:
(1) Do nothing / take aspirin
(2) Physical Therapy
(3) Steroid Injection, and
(4) Shoulder replacement 😳

After asking what he would do if this were his shoulder, he said that he would lean towards number three. He added that numbers 1/2 were like driving a car with no/low oil. You can still drive it around the block, and you’ll be fine-ish, but head out on the highway and take it for longer drives, you’re gonna be screwed.

So off I go for a steroid injection… If I were to still do a shoulder replacement, I couldn’t for three months after the injection wears off. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have done it ’til next year, anyways. Anyway, good news to return home to. Pics of what the shoulder replacement looks like attached, as well.

*Addendum: The injection is scheduled for Monday, November 23rd.

My oldest niece was cheering at Granite Falls HS, only 15-20 mins away, and I simply could not make it. I was just gassed from all of this travelling… with more to go. She was so sweet and understanding. I hope she cheers at GFHS again.

October 17th – Home (Lake Stevens)

The doggos have a standing monthly appointment. Tucker gets an injection of Librella (for pain), and Katie gets her anal glands expressed. Both get nail trims, as well. I was invited to a show, but declined.

October 18th – Home (Lake Stevens – day off!)

Hey, that’s today. Right now! This was literally the ONE day I didn’t travel (other than last Sunday in Wilmington and Tuesday in Charleston – but even then, I didn’t stay in; today was the only day I spent indoors since last who knows when…). Just stayed home and worked on the blog while watching football. Bliss.

October 19th-23rd – Back to reality

Booooooooo, back to the day gig 👎🏼 👎🏼 👎🏼 …and there is no other “me” at work, so whatever piles up is all there for me, gagiggity. And it’s not just five days of back-and-forth, plus work, but I’m also going to a gig on Tuesday night – Slift at Neumos. Great band, saw ’em last year, too! But you know, I need a “real” break after my vacation, some time to do… absolutely nothing!

———————————————————————————————

Alright, moving right along…

By this point, everyone should have received their voter pamphlets… and if you live somewhere with mail-in ballots, then those, as well.

The midterm elections are just right around the corner – Tuesday, November 3rd – so be sure to review the pamphlet and vote how you see fit.

I’m not here to tell you who or what to vote for.

If you like how things are currently going, you know how to vote. If you’re dismayed with the way things are, you also know how to vote. Regardless, my point is this:

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 VOTE ! ! ! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

———————————————————————————————

Week Seven – Sunday, October 25th at 5:20 PM (Pacific)
Seattle Seahawks (3-3) vs Kansas City Chiefs (5-0)

The Seahawks are favored by -2.5 points, and the over/under total is 42.5 points.

Seahawks 30
Chiefs 17

Take Seattle -2.5 and the over 42.5

“How on Earth could you possibly pick a 3-3 team to beat one of only three undefeated teams?” you may inquire… and a team that dropped three of their last four?!?!

Fully legitimate question, no doubt! There are a few reasons, though.

First, I am the eternal optimist – I think they will always win regardless of who they face. Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours.

Second, teams coming off of a BYE week (like the Chiefs are) typically give me pause, but you know what? The ‘Hawks didn’t play on Sunday, either. They played last Thursday, so while they may not have had as much time to prepare as the Chiefs have, they’re not coming in hot a week later, either.

Additionally, while QB Patrick Mahomes is a 3x Super Bowl-winning multi-Pro Bowler, he is (1) standing behind an O-line that is decimated with injuries, and (2) the same is true of the WR corps (three of whom are on IR, and their top wideout is a question mark to play). To me, this means that they’ll hand the rock off to absolute stud (and former Super Bowl-winning MVP Seahawk) RB Kenneth “K9” Walker III. ‘Hawks HC Macdonald coached this guy last year and is a defense-minded coach. They will load the box and dare Mahomes to throw. He can’t hit TE Travis Swift-Kelce all day, so I think the D shows up yet again.

The Chiefs may be an undefeated 5-0, but look at the record of the teams they played (Broncos, Colts, Dolphins, Raiders, Chargers). It’s a combined 9-20 record. One of those teams – the Raiders, who are 3-3 – beat the 0-5 Dolphins, 0-6 Chargers, and 2-4 Saints: a combined 2-15.

On the other side of the coin, the Seahawks. They have what looks like a Super Bowl hangover at 3-3, but let’s take a closer look. Those three losses total 8 points. All games could’ve/should’ve been won:

Week 3 at Washington Commanders: 33-31
***We literally beat the Commanders in every possible stat line (by far). Unfortunately, this includes the 3-0 turnover margin (one fumble and two INTS, one returned for a TD).

Week 5 vs San Francisco 49ers: 32-29
***JSN inexplicably dropped a pass that was right in his hands that would’ve taken the ‘Hawks from the 50-yard line to San Francisco’s 25-yard line, easily in range of PK Jason Myers to tie it up (or score the go-ahead TD). As far as team stats go, this was a very tight one; it could’ve gone either way, but our four turnovers to their three was the difference (plus the aforementioned drop).

Week 6 at Denver Broncos: 17-14 (OT)
***The Seahawks were driving the ball, but QB Sam Darnold threw an INT to Broncos’ CB Ja’Quan McMillan to seal their fate. Like the Commanders matchup, the team stats were very lopsided (in the Seahawks’ favor), but you won’t win many games when the turnover margin is 3-0.

Just a follow-up to what I said above, but perhaps a little more in-depth. This is from Seahawks sports journalist Brady Henderson regarding the team’s offensive woes (and costly turnovers):

“The Seahawks’ run game has been underwhelming and their pass protection has been problematic, but no issue is holding first-year coordinator Brian Fleury’s unit back like turnovers. It has committed 12 of them, third most of any offense so far. While Sam Darnold’s struggles go beyond his interceptions, he has thrown seven picks in four games since returning from a glute injury. Seattle has also lost five fumbles. How costly have those giveaways been? Ten of the [12!] Seahawks’ turnovers have come in their three losses, which were by a combined eight points. The opponents in those losses scored 44 points off those takeaways.”

I still very much have faith in HC Mike Macdonald, QB Sam Darnold, and the rest of the guys… well, the RB crew needs a lot of help, still, but even then. Win the turnover battle, and you’ll likely come out on top.

BOLD PREDICTION: JSN eclipses 200 receiving yards for the first time in his young NFL career.

The following is kinda sorta a nothingburger, but I love the Angry Doug Baldwin stat! Man, was he fun to watch!

“The Chiefs took the last meeting between these former AFC West rivals, a 24-10 win in 2022. Their last visit to Seattle, however, saw the Seahawks come out on top in a 38-31 thriller in 2018, when Russell Wilson outdueled Patrick Mahomes and Doug Baldwin caught his final NFL touchdown pass.” – Everett Ellis

Go ‘Hawks!

***Addendum: It looks like RB Zach Charbonnet was a FULL participant in practice this week, returning from a torn ACL he suffered last season. He is eligible to play this Sunday against the Chiefs, but he must be activated by Thursday’s deadline 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

———————————————————————————————

Just a super-quick review of that Slift show I saw at Neumos.

For starters, the band received not one, but TWO, AOTW awards from me:
Slift – Ilion – January 19th, 2024
Slift – Fantasia – June 5th, 2026

They’re a French trio – brothers Jean (guitar, vocals, synthesizers) and Rémi (bass, vocals) Fossat – along with their High School friend Canek Flores behind the kit. Their music can be described as a potpourri of stoner rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, space rock, acid rock, and garage rock. Throw that shit into a blender, and out comes SLIFT!

I loved ’em last time they were in town (The Crocodile, October 13th, 2024) and again at their triumphant return on Tuesday (Neumos, October 20th, 2026). It was one of the better crowds I’ve seen, as well. People were just eating this shit up. It’s been a minute since I’ve seen a solid mosh pit… and tons of crowd surfing, too!

One of the best/coolest things about it was that (1) we got in free (woo-hoo!), plus (2) we had premium seating. Here’s how. The son of the utility player in my band runs sound all over town (FOH and/or monitors, depending). We’ve sailed previously, so we had already met. He just asked for our names, and he added them to the list. We just walked up to the window, showed our IDs, and waltzed in!

If you’re familiar with the layout of Neumos, you know there’s the stage, the floor, and an upstairs (stage right/house left). You may have also seen the upstairs catwalk that’s on the other side of the room. That is off-limits to basically everyone… unless you know someone <wink wink nudge nudge>! He walked down the spiral staircase, rounded us up, and we followed him back up.

Scott had been up there previously, but it was my first time! There were some stools to sit on, with a “shelf” to put our belongings and lean forward/rest our arms. Man, I don’t know if I can watch a show at Neumos any other way now… but hey, at least I have a contact for that!

As the show wrapped up and we were saying our goodbyes, Aedon and I were discussing working in the “music industry” and I told him that prior to Mackie, I worked concert security so I could be paid to watch shows, haha! Then it was a deer-in-the-headlights moment because he said, “What was the best show you saw?” Ooph, that was three decades ago, haha! I mumbled out a gig (to be mentioned at a later date), but then I really put on the thinking cap while driving home and had a shit ton more that came to mind. Anyway, that is my homework. Think of awesome shows that I “worked” back in the day and get back to you…

Joining me on the festivities were the aforementioned utility player (Scott), my long-time good friend Dan, and, of course, Scott’s son Aedon on monitors. What a show! Special hats off to the drummer whose playing was mind-melting.

———————————————————————————————

Ok, so get this – we traveled from Friday, October 9th, not returning until late on Wednesday, October 14th. I had plenty of time to listen to new releases: waiting in the airport, the flights, the drives, at night in the room, whenever… and I listened to exactly NONE! Yup, I took a break from music. It was kind of nice, but I’ll tell ya – when I finally did listen to music again, it was… magical. It just made me appreciate it and made me aware of just how much it means to me.

As you might imagine, I could not even listen to nearly everything on my list. I started with bands that I’m following, albums I wanted to listen to, and “popular” artists, then worked my way down. I’m sure I missed a lot of great stuff, but hopefully I’ll get to them later. Don’t be surprised that the Honorable Mentions list weighs much heavier than Missed the Cut… simply due to the listening order.

I am shocked – SHOCKED I tell ya! – that there was only one AOTW. There were plenty of bad-ass releases, but only one of them rose to the top of the heap… and it might be AOTY, as well. Yes, it’s just that good 👀 🔥 🔥 🔥

Are you a casual fan who stumbled across this site? If so, be sure to SUBSCRIBE, as these are delivered every Thursday at 9 PM PT. With a subscription, you’ll be sure to never miss an issue!

😁 BE THE REASON SOMEONE SMILES 😁

Be sure to let me know what you agree / disagree with, etc… always fun to hear your opinions, too. Happy listening… and see you next week!

Cheers,

Troy
oneloudermagazine@gmail.com

———————————————————————————————

Album(s) of the Week** – October 9th to October 22nd, 2026:

2,860,281 – Greta Van Fleet – Palace For The People

“This band used to be compared to Led Zeppelin, and you know what…? They abso-fucking-lutely did… on their first two releases! Dude sounds like Plant, the band sounds like the band… and they’re great live, too! With that out of the way, while they definitely have the Zep sound, I also think they’ve really branched out on their own with these last couple of releases. Love love love these guys!! Wise beyond their age.”

^^^That’s what I said about 2023’s ‘Starcatcher’. I agree with that sentiment, yet this release sounds like a step above. I’ve been trying to capture what it sounds like to me in words, but it’s indescribable. I listened on headphones, and the production is <chef’s kiss>. I simply cannot overstate how beyond solid the production is… And the band? They have never played or sounded better. This album is full-on top to bottom, not a flaw to be heard. They wear Zep on their sleeves, but they’ve got their own thing going on, too. Good on you, lads, now try topping THIS album, ha!

Note: This is a candidate for AOTY, no question.

Also of note: Ok, fine, there was one flaw (to me). The vocals during the chorus of ‘Play Your Games’ bugged the absolute crap out of me. [The lead single, of course <face palm>]. Other than that, it’s an infinity/10 for me, Bob.

From Universal Music: ““This record is a recollection of the past few years and a love story for the world.” Guitarist Jake Kiszka shares. In order to bottle this spirit, they hit the studio in a remote cabin in Tennessee’s wilderness in the spring of 2026, where Mike empowered them to rise on their own terms. “He’s a musical genius,” smiles bass/keyboardist Sam Kiszka. “He knows when not to overdo it, and when to overdo it.” Mike Elizondo concurs, “Making the new record with Greta Van Fleet has been a thrill ride! The band continues to push for new sounds and new ways to present their music. I am grateful to have been a part of their next chapter. We’ve all pushed ourselves into new territories. I think the fans will be blown away by what the band has accomplished on this new album. Of course, it wouldn’t be Greta Van Fleet without a few surprises.” Frontman Josh Kiszka reveals, “We wanted to make a record that personifies adventure, passion, brutality, beauty, sex, and imagination, so that’s what we did. We played the ‘Palace of the People’ in London, and our music is a Palace for the People. When you’ve seen so much of the world, you realize there’s so much more of the world you have not seen. We’re starseekers. We’re simply taking the human experience and translating it into music.”

This rush of modern energy courses through the lead single “Play Your Games.” Loosely strummed acoustic guitar gives way to the breezy crunch of bright power chords. Jake’s fluid fretwork snakes around the towering vocal of his twin brother Josh, “Play your games, dance in the flames, and feel alright.” “The flagship of this song is irreverence,” Jake elaborates. “It’s this beautiful nature of seizing a moment.” “Tear It Down” tempers a bold riff with pensive lyricism. On the verses, Josh confesses, “I’m searching for answers in the shifting clouds. What do we do when it gets too loud?” The chorus explodes to life and presents an answer: “Build it up, then you tear it down.” “It’s a distant relative to our earlier work,” remarks drummer Daniel Wagner. “We’re taking those ideas, pushing the boundary a little bit, and doing things that we haven’t done.” Another marvel, “Saw You Stand” layers gentle piano over a compassionate reflection: “I hope that you’ll always know, life with you made me whole.” “The intimacy of the song explores a vulnerability in our instrumentation and Josh’s voice that hasn’t previously been showcased in our music,” Daniel adds. Elsewhere, “Heart and the Beat” rides a thick bass groove into the jet stream of a fret-burning lead. Then, there’s “Lost in the Golden,” where eastern-style guitar becomes absorbed in the stardust of sweeping strings. With a wave goodbye, the frontman welcomes oblivion with open arms: “I live for the golden.” Sparse percussion trembles beneath strings on the impactful finale “Born Into This.” Josh realizes, “Born to live or born to die…We were born into this, and return to the sky.”

“For Greta Van Fleet, the everlasting prerogative is to take the instruments that we wield for expression and push them further than our previous generations did, building upon their foundations,” Jake explains. “I look towards my guitar heroes, and I’m at the point in my life where my notion is, ‘What have they not done? What has never been done? What can I bring to the table?’” Palace for the People is the answer. The album is both a new arena for Greta Van Fleet and for rock ‘n’ roll. There is a power living in the human voice far greater than we will ever truly comprehend,” concludes Josh, ”words are everything when you sing them, and singing them is our story. We’ve a greater story to tell now than ever before.””

Honorable Mentions (in order by “popularity”*):

7,776,879 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Magic Boy: Live at Berkeley, First Show

Hendrix is one of my top-5 all-time favorite artists. His playing, his phrasing, his tone… the dude is undeniable. I can’t say enough good about this man and his music. Makes me smile every time I hear him play. Yeah, Jimi was pulling off all this incredible shit in the late ’60s / early ’70s. Amazing! Fun fact: my parents got to see Hendrix live… at Woodstock, no less! I will never tire of hearing his playing. RIP Hendrix :-(

From amazon: “Magic Boy presents Jimi Hendrix’s legendary first show at the Berkeley Community Theater in May 1970.

Hendrix fans first became aware of his Berkeley performance when two early posthumous releases featured a stunning “Hear My Train A Comin’” [1971’s Rainbow Bridge] and his electrifying rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” [1972’s Hendrix: In The West]. The shambolic 1971 film Jimi Plays Berkeley stoked the fires further by way of its inclusion of extracts of “Purple Haze” and “Star Banner”.

Magic Boy includes those two classics and finally assembles the performance in its running order for the first time. The album provides fans with the opportunity to hear new songs “Ezy Ryder” and “Freedom” in development before they had been completed in the studio by the guitarist, “Message To Love” and “Machine Gun” from his recent Band Of Gypsys album, and high-intensity renditions of Experience favorites such as “Fire” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” – all newly remixed by Eddie Kramer from the original multi-track tapes.”

1,256,084 – Max Richter – While The Flood Rages

I got turned onto Max Richter last year. He’s a composer who typically releases all-instrumental, ambient, soundscape-y albums (which are f’n amazing!), but he’s also released soundtracks, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons… *recomposed*, and more. I listened while working on this newsletter, and it… It could’ve kept going. It was great! Check out anything released by Max Richter. He’s a talented composer who can release numerous albums across various genres.

From Max’s website: “Oscar-nominated composer Max Richter’s new album While The Flood Rages will be released on 16th October via Decca Records.

Drawn from Richter’s latest collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor, MaddAddam, the album is reworked into a standalone listening experience inspired by Margaret Atwood’s trilogy.

Across 15 tracks split into three acts, Richter blends orchestral writing, electronics, processed field recordings, choir, and piano to create an immersive sonic journey.

Themes of ecological collapse, technological acceleration, and resilience run throughout, with recurring piano motifs providing moments of reflection amid dense, cinematic soundscapes.

Highlights include the ocean-inspired opener “Wave After Wave,” the electronic textures of “Eerie Music,” the intimate title track “While The Flood Rages”, and the luminous closing single “Now We Can Sing,” which ends the album on a note of hope and collective endurance.”

522,301 – EELS – Cookie Happened

EELS got their start in 1991, with singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett (“E”) as the only constant member. They’ve been hit-or-miss for me throughout the years, but I found this to be a particularly fun, lively, great alt-rock album with great songwriting. As an added bonus, I love (and agree with) the message behind the album (see ahead).

From Townsend Music: “Reflecting on the 16th studio album, frontman E says: “All of this will be forgotten. Every joy, accomplishment, and hardship will one day become so irrelevant it will be as if none of it occurred.

But as the great philosopher of our times, Cookie Monster once said: “Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened.” This will all be forgotten. But isn’t it still a beautiful thing that it happened?””

221,106 – Graveyard – Fever

Been listening to / loving this band since their self-titled debut released back in 2007, nearly two decades ago! Like previous releases, this is another great album in a series of great releases. It’s simply solid meat ‘n potatoes rock ‘n roll with hints of blues, psychedelia, etc. Will jam this again, for sure! Killer live band, too!

From Nuclear Blast Records: “One of the most distinctive and revered forces in modern rock music: Sweden’s very own GRAVEYARD are back. On October 9th, 2026, the group from Gothenburg will release their highly anticipated seventh studio album, “Fever”. Arriving three years after the gloomier “Six”, GRAVEYARD are turning up the heat by delivering a sonic experience drenched in distortion and way heavier.

Mixed by Pelle Gunnerfeldt, who is widely renowned for capturing the ferocious energy of bands such as The Hives, Refused, and recently Viagra Boys, amidst its sheer drive, GRAVEYARD retained the undeniable, blues-soaked soul that originally defined their breakthrough album, “Hisingen Blues”. Brace for impact, GRAVEYARD came back from the grave, and they caught a “Fever”.”

200,956 – Cameron Winter – Live at Carnegie Hall

Cameron is the lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboard player, and principal songwriter of indie rock band Geese. This, his solo performance of just voice and piano at Carnegie Hall, was an enjoyable journey through his debut album, plus three. I never listened to his debut, but may have to…

From amazon: “Cameron Winter’s Live at Carnegie Hall documents the Geese frontman’s historic Dec 2025 performance. Alone at the piano, he reshapes songs from his acclaimed debut Heavy Metal and debuts three previously unreleased compositions.

There is an undeniable sense of occasion running through the performance, capturing the momentous feeling of witnessing an artist stepping into the spotlight in real time. The release preserves one unforgettable night while cementing Winter’s emergence as one of the defining voices of his generation, with the sense that this is only the beginning.”

174,015 – The Pineapple Thief – Far and Wide

The Pineapple Thief is an excellent prog-rock band somewhat reminiscent of Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson, and this release just confirmed my love for these guys! I’d go a step further and say that the band sounds just a little bit like Muse at times, too, probably due to drummer Gavin Harrison. Two thumbs way up!

From their bandcamp page: “On their sixteenth studio album, Far And Wide, The Pineapple Thief feel more like a rock band than ever. Still progressive. Still masters of spine-tingling atmosphere. Still attuned to the strange, troubled world around us. And now, a decade and seven albums on from the arrival of Gavin Harrison on drums, they capture the chemistry, road miles, and bigger stages of the last few years.

You can hear that real-time heat in these songs. From the moody tones of opener New World Order, this music punches hard, all teeth and commanding shadows, without sacrificing the subtle twists and lightness’s that come to them so naturally. Rock songs of real class and nuance, in other words.

Far And Wide is about shared ground. An abstract collection of feelings about the state of the world, tapping into human experiences in ways that perhaps only music can.”

168,877 – Twin Temple – Doomed Lovers

I have said the following about previous releases: “Definitely interesting, but not one worth hearing again. The band is husband-wife duo: Zachary James (guitar) and Alexandra James (vocals). Musically, it consists of 1950s/’60s rock (à la Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly), and the vocals are doo-wop, yet lyrically associated with Satanism, sex, love, individualism, feminism, and LGBTQ rights. They call it “Satanic doo-wop”. Should be right up my alley – and again, I appreciate the uniqueness of it all – but frankly just don’t care much for the tunes.”

F that, I am IN! Nothing’s changed… except me. It is quite likely an album I won’t reach for again, but this time ’round, I enjoyed listening to it. I love the whole throwback sound! Perhaps I need to go back and listen to those earlier releases again… bet I like ’em this time.

From the band: “DOOMED LOVERS is Twin Temple’s third album, and their most ambitious work to date. The album expands on their love of classic American music, craftsmanship, and traditional recording techniques, and elevates the production, bringing in GRAMMY Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings and a 37-piece orchestra, completed at iconic Sunset Sound Studio 3. This is their most personal work yet; reflecting a deeper emotional range that encompasses timeless themes of love & romance, nihilism, grief, tragedy, betrayal, jealousy, and mortality, all through their signature dark lens.”

126,887 – Caspian – Caspian

Fantastic all-instrumental, ambient, soundscape-y tunes that are quite similar to Mono and Explosions in the Sky. In other words, post-rock! If you dig those bands, you’ll dig this band, too! Been listening to them for a long time now. They’re a great band to see live, as well!

From Wax Bodega: “For more than 20 years, every CASPIAN album has been driven by a desire to stretch boundaries – a relentless ambition that’s resulted in one of post-rock’s most revered catalogs and established the Massachusetts quintet as an enduring, global force in the genre’s modern era. On CASPIAN, the band’s first album in six years and debut for Wax Bodega, the more unexpected way forward was to stop searching for what they hadn’t yet done and instead trust what had defined them from the beginning.

The six-song, 39-minute effort draws freely from the musical vocabulary the band have spent their career writing: evocative melodic themes, dense textures, swelling crescendos and crushing heaviness that rolls in like a slow-moving storm on the horizon. But they still find new possibilities within those familiar contours, allowing patient development and repetition to carry as much weight as surprise. The nine-minute “Remain” turns a recurring melody into a sweeping study in tension and release, while “No One Left to Tell” layers subtle shifts around a hypnotic tremolo figure and “A Great Fire” sends serpentine guitars crashing into buzzsaw riffs. Even the graceful 3/4-time closer “Waltz for the End,” completed in a half-hour burst of inspiration, reflects the quiet confidence of five musicians comfortable enough in their skin to resist tearing everything down for the sake of reinvention, even as the circumstances surrounding them change dramatically.”

80,122 – The Temperance Movement – New Promise Land Incorporated

This band has received great reviews and rightfully so! They sound like a mix of Gaslight Anthem, Rival Sons, Black Country Communion, and other similar-sounding blues rock/roots rock-type bands. Really nice stuff here! Welcome back after a lengthy 8-year gap!

From Rough Trade Records: “The Temperance Movement paved the way for a huge rock revival storming the scene in the modern era. The impact the band has had on today’s rock devotees and aficionados was immensely apparent with the announcement of their 2025 tour: sold-out shows, venue upgrades, and ovations before the band had even played a single note. And all this after half a decade away from the stage.

In the wake of this triumphant tour, the band received a stream of festival offers and entered the studio with renowned producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Laura Marling), cultivating an album of all-new material: New Promise Land Incorporated.

New Promise Land Incorporated deftly marks the new era for the band, rejoicing the reconnection of five musical soulmates and bringing what fans crave the most to record: an explosion of raw soul and a live-to-record energy so palpable that it feels as though you’re right in the studio.

The record is a celebration of the power that this British outfit bring to the stage: be it masterfully creating a rock’n’roll rush so electric that you feel it pulsing through to the tips of your hairs (as in the psychedelic-tinged “Shadows”) or writing with poignant beauty that brings pin-drop serenity to the most chaotic of minds (see the tender charm of “Mongrels” and the lyrically stunning “Saving Grace”).”

57,785 – Caitlyn Smith – Peace In My Mind

Really nice folksy singer-songwriter album. Leans in on the country side of things occasionally, but doesn’t venture into the territory for too long. Nice songwriting, incredibly beautiful voice.

From Caitlyn: “Peace in My Mind marks Caitlyn Smith’s return to independent music, a collection of songs about finding your way back to yourself through the beautiful, messy, ever-changing seasons of life.”

56,935 – Toundra – Siete

Toundra is another kick-ass all-instrumental post-rock / post-metal band. If you dig Mogwai, Pelican, Russian Circles, Explosions in the Sky, etc., then do yourself a favor and check out Toundra from Spain! Nice stuff!

From No Solo Indie: “Toundra’s seventh studio album marks a new chapter for the Spanish instrumental post-rock band: their first release under a fully independent, self-managed approach, and the first with their new lineup.

The record retains the band’s signature long, monolithic instrumental passages and muscular guitar-driven sound, while bringing analog synthesizers and electronic textures further into the foreground.

With Jorge García contributing guitar and synthesizers, Siete expands Toundra’s atmospheric palette without abandoning the dynamic intensity that defines their music. The album artwork is by artist Mercedes Bellido.”

56,290 – The American Dollar – Quieto Enfoque Sacude

I dig this all-instrumental ambient soundscape-y bedtime music. If you’re into electronic soundtrack-sounding material (and/or sleep), check this album out. Not for everyone and not for all the time, but perfect when it’s needed…

40,874 – Ola Englund – The Neverending Story

The lead guitarist of The Haunted, Feared, and several others (plus the ex-guitarist of Six Feet Under) goes solo again, and… it fucking rips! All-instrumental shred (for sure), but it also has “quiet” moments in between. It’s a really nice album that should please a wide range of listeners! Dude’s got chops for miles… and then some.

From Ola Englund: ““The Neverending Story” is the third solo album from Ola Englund — a cinematic instrumental metal journey inspired by classic fantasy, retro gaming, 80s adventure movies, and modern heavy riffing.

Featuring guest appearances, massive production, and Ola’s most ambitious songwriting to date.”

All music by Ola Englund
Mixed & Mastered by Jocke Skog
Artwork by Sylvain Lucchina

Guitars by Ola Englund
Bass Guitar by Johan Niemann
Drums by Jon Skäre / Delta Empire

Guest solo on “World Rift” by Jeff Loomis

32,657 – Matt Pond PA – Permanent Change (Part 1)

Most of Matt’s stuff is excellent (like this), and some of it leaves me shaking my head wondering why. This is singer-songwriter stuff, and it sounded great – very relaxing, soothing music.

From Matt Pond: “Permanent Change Part 1 is out everywhere today!

The songs come from being right in the middle of things: slipping in streams, hiking in the woods, breaking the rules because sometimes it’s the right thing to do, and noticing the beauty in all of it. They come from the last moments of a season that somehow feels like it will never end.

The album is also the cumulative effort of some amazing people —

Chris Hansen takes my strange basement demos and turns them into actual songs, somehow knowing what to add and what to leave alone. He’s my best friend and greatest collaborator. If we got some horses and started robbing banks, we’d be set.

No one believes in me like Anya Marina. She finds magic in my music and my insanity that no one else seems to see. Her harmonies, ideas, and inspiration run through all of these songs.

Hilary James is a brilliant orchestrator of both music and human beings. She keeps the faith alive with her spirit and makes playing live feel like something bigger than it should. Partly because she always has a bag full of candy.

A few days after I first met John Courage, I broke my leg. Since then, I think we’ve connected by the fact that we’ve seen each other at our worst and best. He’s a brilliant guitar player who knows how to bring the soul out when the soul needs to be seen.

Pete Hanlon was an album-saving surprise. I only knew him peripherally as an amazing engineer, but when he got involved with the record, he brought an instinct for the spaces between things—the unwritten language that helped the songs become what they were supposed to be.

Kyle Kelly-Yahner, Lee Falco, Dan Ford, and Pete Caigin played the drums. They found the groove, tied everything together, and repeatedly blew my mind.

Brandon Morrison was brilliant on bass, Matthew Cullen did an amazing job engineering Onteora Lake. The same goes for Pete Caigin and Joe Colwell at Utopia. And Dan Coutant mastered the record—I trust his ears completely.

Julie Ruiz made the beautiful, understated artwork, as an inverted tribute to Last Light, which she also designed.

My name is on all of this music, but it has always been a collaboration. I’m lucky to have made it with these people. Yes!”

30,240 – Jess Williamson – A Mile South Of Heaven

Well that’s disappointing. Not the album, no. The album’s great! Jess has released seven albums and two EPs, yet my introduction to her was her last release: 2023’s ‘Time Ain’t Accidental’. Really fantastic folksy meets alt-country meets Americana singer-songwriter album! It ventures into country territory occasionally, but not too much that it gets “annoying”. This is fantastic, what a voice, what great tunes!

From her bandcamp page: “Jess Williamson has built one of the most distinctive voices in American music — crystalline, acrobatic, and unmistakably her own. The Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has spent the better part of a decade carving out her own lane at the intersection of indie folk, alt-country, and a deeply personal confessional tradition. Now, on her seventh studio album, she steps into new creative territory.

Produced by Shooter Jennings, the album finds Williamson’s artistry meeting its ideal counterpart. Jennings brings a deep-roots sensibility and studio instinct honed across decades, and together they’ve crafted twelve songs that honor the grit and sweep of classic country while remaining unmistakably contemporary.

Williamson’s voice remains the central instrument: front and center, emotionally unguarded, carrying the kind of weight that demands a room go quiet. But with Jennings at the helm, the sonic canvas is richer and more expansive than anything in her catalog to date — full of texture, warmth, and that ineffable Nashville-meets-Laurel-Canyon atmosphere that lives somewhere between Linda Ronstadt and Waylon Jennings.”

20,029 – Cory Branan – You’ll Live

Nice folksy alt-country meets Americana singer-songwriter album. At times he sounds a little like Tom Petty meets Bob Dylan. Nice tunes!

From Blue Elan Records: “Cory Branan has never been interested in fitting into a genre. For him, the only constant has been the song itself — where it wants to go, what it needs, and how honestly its story can be told. His latest, You’ll Live, leans into that instinct.

“This is an orphanage,” says the Memphis native, nodding to a record whose 10 songs were collected over nearly 20 years, each one initially tossed into the archives for not quite fitting whatever album he was making at the time. Taken together, they form a proudly unruly mosaic: fragments of different eras, different impulses, and different versions of the same songwriter. Instead of a singular tale, You’ll Live unwinds like ten self-contained stories that sit side-by-side, recorded quickly in Nashville and pulled together by a musical lifer that Rolling Stone calls “a country boy with a punk-rock heart.”

If there’s a unifying thread to You’ll Live, it’s not sonic as much as philosophical. Branan’s best releases have always circled around the same question: once the veneer wears off and reality reveals itself, what do you do with what’s left? His answer: keep searching for something true in the fragments. Those fragments are the true stars of You’ll Live, and they paint the picture of a journeyman who knows that songs don’t need to belong anywhere except to themselves.”

11,281 – Firebreather – Blood That I Spill Turns To Fire

I was not into 2022’s ‘Dwell in the Fog’, but this follow-up is an absolute f’n ripper of an album! Huge, muscular, beefy AF riffage, pounding drums… sounds like they got their shit together – perhaps the return of their old drummer? – or something else, but, man, I was completely (and pleasantly) surprised! This trio plays a nice blend of heavy AF psychedelic/stoner metal with a taste of sludge metal for good measure. Throw them horns in the air, ya metalheads!

From Heavy Psych Sounds Records: “”With the writing and recording of ”Blood That I Spill Turns To Fire”, the aim was to keep it raw, heavy, and groovy. Expanding our musical trajectory. Adding a lil more melody to vocals as well.

We recorded with Joona in Studio Underjord, and we told him right away that we want to keep it raw and dirty.

For this record, we brought in Tommy Hanning on drums; he was in FIREBREATHER at the time of the recording of our first album, so we knew he was capable.

We were in between drummers when it was time to hit the studio for our fourth album, and he was kind enough to learn the songs from his home; he lives way up north in Sweden.

He flew down to jam with us for one weekend, and after that we hit the studio.

All in all we think we came out with a raw, heavy, and to us, moving record.

We hope it’ll move other people too.””

8,399 – Kanaan – Kanaan

I got turned on to these guys with 2021’s ‘Earthbound’ and have been a fan ever since. They’re an all-instrumental psychedelic / stoner / fuzz/ space rock trio from Norway, ja. This kinda stuff doesn’t always resonate with me, but when it does, there’s nothing in the world like it. This band does it for me… plus, check out that hella groovy album artwork!

From Jansen Records: “In 2026, Kanaan celebrates 10 years as a band with their tenth album, simply and aptly titled Kanaan. It felt only natural for this album to be self-titled, given that it is built upon a solid musical foundation the band has crafted over a decade. And that foundation rumbles powerfully. With Kanaan, we’re approaching earthquake territory.

With their grand and eclectic new album, Kanaan digs even deeper into the diverse genres that have defined their music. The melodic sections boast strong, catchy qualities; the psychedelic parts are wilder and more unhinged; and the retro, analog sounds feel vintage and unpolished. And when it comes to riffs, there are no weight loss drugs involved here—they’re heavier than ever.

Yet, even as the band continues to evolve, their distinct Kanaan sound remains intact. The band themselves describe the album as a celebration of everything they’ve achieved musically and artistically so far—but also everything they’ve experienced and accomplished as close friends playing together.

The members have grown up, but their musical curiosity, creativity, and drive to create remain stronger than ever. Their willingness to truly immerse themselves in the music in the studio—day and night, to play, jam, compose, and live inside it—is still there. They describe their time in Halden’s Athletic Sound as a kind of black hole where only the band, engineer Dag Erik Johansen, and the music existed.

As if life wasn’t busy enough for Kanaan’s members, with frequent touring and annual album releases, they find time for countless side projects. The trio comes together in the expanded orchestra Full Earth, where they play music written by drummer Ingvald André Vassbø. Vassbø also plays in the experimental psych/free jazz project Sex Magick Wizards and has recently had a stint with legends Motorpsycho. Bassist Eskild Myrvoll lays down fierce bass lines in the hardcore band Daufødt and, until recently, in the black metal band Blodkvalt. Guitarist Ask Vatn Strøm has long played cheerful, groove-heavy jazz-infused indie with ¡BangBang Watergun! and groovy blues in Soft City. In the dream pop band Cloud Cuckoo, he serves as the lead guitarist. Together, these side projects form an incredibly eclectic mix that not only showcases the musicians’ versatility but also hints at the well of inspiration behind Kanaan’s sound.”

This album was recorded at Athletic Sound, Halden, between the 1st and 7th of September 2025 by Dag Erik Johansen. Additional overdubs were recorded by the band in RCS studios. All music composed by Kanaan.

Kanaan are:
Ask Vatn Strøm – electric and acoustic guitars
Eskild Mørtl Myrvoll – bass, synthesizers, Mellotron, additional guitars, no-input mixer
Ingvald Vassbø – drums, percussion

The album was mixed by Dag Erik Johansen and mastered by George Tanderø. Cover design by Bianca Brandner.

8,229 – Ali Handal – Slow Burn

Rootsy blues rock. I dig. Good tunes, great voice… I will continue to keep my eyes peeled for future releases. This release also includes covers – or rather, wild interpretations! – of Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ and The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’.

From Ali Handal: “Slow Burn is Ali Handal’s fifth studio album – 11 tracks packed with guitar-driven rock, blues, funk, big grooves, and plenty of attitude. From hard-hitting originals to Ali’s own takes on a couple of classics, Slow Burn puts the guitar front and center while moving between raw rock & roll, soulful moments, and funky grooves.”

7,901 – Shy, Low – Purity Spiral

Because this album was released via the Pelagic Records label, I *thought* I might like it… and like it I did! If you dig post-rock and post-metal, this album straddles the two beautifully. What a great find this band!

From Pelagic Records: “From Richmond, Virginia, Shy, Low have a reputation as one of the most compelling voices within the modern instrumental underground. Their music speaks to fans of post-rock’s emotional grandeur and post-metal’s crushing intensity alike, while simultaneously appealing to listeners drawn to experimental, atmospheric, and cinematic forms of heavy music. The band’s ability to merge these seemingly disparate qualities has resulted in a body of work that is immediately recognizable and continually evolving.

With ‘Purity Spiral‘, Shy, Low continue their trajectory of artistic expansion and their fascination with movement, tension, and transformation, embracing a sound that is meticulously crafted and noticeably heavier, with devastating results. Building vast emotional landscapes through dynamic contrasts, layered textures, and patient, cinematic evolution, Shy, Low use immersive repetition and tectonic weight to build tension through evolving patterns. While often associated with post-rock and post-metal, their music reaches beyond the familiar boundaries of either genre, drawing equally from cinematic atmosphere, crushing heaviness, ambient minimalism, and the emotional sweep of modern instrumental composition.

Luminous melodies, driving heaviness, layered textures, and carefully controlled tension allows ‘Purity Spiral’ to move effortlessly between fragile moments of introspection and towering passages of intensity. Whether constructing intricate layers of harmony or driving songs toward explosive climaxes, there is a deep understanding of pacing, atmosphere, and the power of restraint. Momentum is at the heart of this album; through intricate rhythmic detail and explosive bursts of energy, drums become the anchor and catalyst, supporting the band’s expansive arrangements while pushing them toward moments of cathartic release.

What distinguishes Shy, Low is their ability to balance enormity with restraint. Their music unfolds patiently, allowing tension to accumulate through layers of texture, melody, and dynamics. Moments of delicate clarity often coexist with overwhelming weight, creating a sense of organic motion. At the core of the band’s sound lies an acute understanding of contrast. From shimmering, expansive passages to towering walls of distortion, the rhythm section provides both propulsion and atmosphere, becoming integral narrative voices that shape the emotion.

There is a disciplined sense of purpose in their writing, an understanding that every note serves a larger arc. Shy, Low thrives in the space between introspection and catharsis, where subtle details become as impactful as the heaviest climaxes, and listeners are taken on a journey that is as visceral as it is profound.”

FOR FANS OF:
Caspian * Russian Circles * If These Trees Could Talk * Pelican * Toundra

7,682 – RAM – Against

Fuck yes! Old-school mutha fuckin’ metal! At times it sounded very Judas Priest-ish, but “thrashier”, if that makes sense. Just bad-ass riffing, soloing, and solid vox, as well! Looking forward to future releases from this band!

From Metal Blade Records: “Swedish heavy metal titans RAM will release their new full-length, titled Against, on October 9th through Metal Blade Records.

It has been nearly seven years since The Throne Within, an album defined by its spiritual and metaphysical themes. With Against, RAM takes a more grounded approach, focusing on the experience of being pushed beyond reasonable limits and refusing to comply. The album captures that moment of resistance: “that fire of defiance, which ultimately defines its title and message,” as the band collectively states.

For the production, RAM reunited with their longtime collaborator Johan Reiven, who had previously worked with the band on Lightbringer (2009). Without their own studio – having sold Black Path Studios – the band recorded at Studio Recordia in Varberg, Sweden. “At first, I wasn’t really comfortable not being in my own domain,” admits singer Oscar Carlquist. “But Johan is a far better sound tech than me, and he did a wonderful job. We recorded the solos in a cool new way, as we set up two amps, one wet with a lot of effects and one dry with no effects. They were both mic’d up separately, and they played into the enormous recording room in Recordia that is 150 square meters, where we placed two room mics (left and right).” The approach resulted in a rich, organic sound that enhanced the album’s overall character.

Musically, both guitarists continue to favor bridge pickups, maintaining a sharp and aggressive tone. The equipment used on Against reflects a classic approach, contributing to a sound that feels both timeless and direct. Sonically, Against was conceived as a return to classic recording philosophies. Drawing inspiration from the early works of Dio, MSG, and Sweet, the goal was to create an honest and unpolished sound. What you hear is what you get! In a music landscape increasingly divided into countless subgenres, the band positions itself deliberately outside of categorization. The title Against itself reinforces the band’s longstanding identity as nonconformists, viewing heavy metal as a form of sonic rebellion.”

“We do not give a fuck about all these new strange subgenres popping up. We try to play heavy metal in its purest form. We try to hang on to the center of that energy, and we are completely uninterested in 99% of the metal scene,” asserts Carlquist.

As a precursor to the release, RAM delivers the record’s lead single, “Ghost Emperor,” and an accompanying video.

Carlquist comments, “This is the opener of the album, a straightforward classic heavy metal song and pure RAM. Lyrically, it deals with how our power structures exist to conceal the true rulers, the ones we will never see or know, pulling the strings behind the curtain and controlling us all.”

“After all these years, RAM still perfectly embodies what real metal must be; passionate, Luciferian, antagonistic, and musically overpowering. Oscar’s vocals are some of the best in the genre; fearless and full of intent. A heavy metal soundtrack for the twilight of the world.” – Erik Danielsson, Watain

“Just when you thought it was safe to be dead, RAM resurrects you only to kill you again. I have loved this band since the very start, and Against contains some of their strongest material to date, in terms of both lyrics and music. This is thinking man’s metal of the highest order!” – Christian Lindell, Portrait

“There’s only one band in Sweden making classic heavy metal without it sounding like a pastiche or tribute act to the old days. Oscar is Sweden’s best and most charismatic singer and frontman. Why isn’t this one of the leading bands in the genre? Probably because they are completely uncompromising and refuse to bend the knee or kiss the asses required to reach the biggest stages. Against is every bit as good as everything else they’ve done. Elite!” – Sebastian Ramstedt, Necrophobic/Nifelheim

“After seven years, RAM are finally back with another anthem-fueled album. While remaining true to their roots, they are opening their sound and manage to show a few new angles to their classic heavy metal. Can’t wait to bang my head to ‘Night Blade’ at a show of one of the best live bands of our times!” – S. Castevet, Vulture

“Pure heavy metal, raw and unfiltered. Just my cup of tea!” – Niklas Stålvind, Wolf

6,748 – Ian Hawgood – all these places, together

Super-minimal, ambient, soundscape-y drone. Really nice, beautiful, mellow stuff! Thanks for turning me on to him, Justin!

From his bandcamp page: “Originally from the UK and now based on the south coast near Brighton, Ian Hawgood has spent much of his adult life moving between different places, including Japan, Puglia, and Warsaw. Across a prolific body of work released through labels including Morr Music, 12k, Moteer, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, Past Inside the Present, Experimedia, and Home Normal, Ian has developed a deeply personal approach to Ambient and Experimental music, shaped by a fascination with quieter sounds, memory, and the idea of home. His relationship with sound began at an early age, influenced in part by childhood experiences battling with his hearing and a growing preference for subtle environmental sounds. He progressed to developing his own ideas through instruments, tape, field recording, and years of experimentation. Alongside his work as a composer and musician, Ian is also a mastering engineer and the founder of the Home Normal and Folk Reels labels.

His Whitelabrecs debut ‘all these places, together’ began as a more solitary recording project built around live synthesiser and Mellotron takes, guitar, tape loops, and analogue processing. Recorded and reworked through multiple generations of tape, the resulting material carries the fluctuations, pitch drift, warble, and degradation that have long been central to Hawgood’s approach. The imperfections of the tape sound became part of the character of the recordings, allowing the music to retain a sense of movement and human presence.

As the album began to take shape, however, its focus shifted towards connection. Inspired partly by the community spirit felt at an Ambient Label Hub-hosted festival called Still Point, where he performed, Ian invited friends from different periods of his life and from across the world to share field recordings. These ranged from spontaneous recordings made on mobile phones to carefully captured material by experienced field recordists using high-quality equipment; each contribution was deliberately treated on an equal footing. Rather than functioning simply as documentary recordings, the sounds were woven directly into the tape loops, guitars and synthesised textures, creating a shared sonic environment in which different places and moments could coexist.

At its heart, the album grew from Hawgood’s long-standing interest in what it means to call somewhere home. The very meaning behind his own label, Home Normal. For Ian, home is not necessarily a geographical location, but something accumulated through people, relationships, memories, and sounds. The title, ‘all these places, together’ reflects this idea directly: it is a collection of environments, friendships, and experiences, all brought into the same space. Places as far-flung as South America, Iran, Europe, and the US, all sharing a unified space.

What began as a personal recording project gradually became something more communal. The original music may have culminated into a long-awaited Ian Hawgood here on Whitelabrecs, but through the contributions of all these people from different chapters of his life, the finished record became a collective portrait of connection across distance and time. ‘all these places, together’ is ultimately a record about the places we inhabit, the people we carry with us, and the ways sound can bring seemingly separate lives into the same room.”

Composed, performed, edited and produced by Ian Hawgood
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork by Nkl
Art and design by Andrew Heath

‘all these places, together’ was composed around field recordings shared by friends, gathered across many places around the world.

Field recordings contributed by:

Adrian Newton, Alex Gold, Alison Whitney, Alita Aoki, Andrew Heath, Brad Deschamps, Christian Roth, Cyril Secq, Daniël Jolan, Davi Liu, David Cordero, David, Emily & Molly Newman, Ed Cookson, Federica Deiana, Federico Durand, Grant Gard, James Osland, Jason van Wyk, Marcus Braeburn, Mike Lazarev, Pakchee, Paul & Eva Treby, Phil Tomsett, Porya Hatami, Rhucle, Sam & Llorin Liu, Sarah, Olly, Orla & Bonnie, Stefano Guzzetti, Stijn Hüwels, Tasmin Summers, Tim Diagram, Wil Bolton, Zach Frizzell

With thanks to all the friends who made this collection possible, and to Harry for his constant support.

Dedicated to Helge Tømmervåg.

5,754 – John Diva & The Rockets Of Love – Your Favorite Drug

Cheesy ’80s butt rock… and I loved it! Done well. Great music, vocals, etc… this was enjoyable!

From Frontiers Records: “John Diva & The Rockets of Love make a triumphant return with their explosive new album “Your Favorite Drug”, set for release via Frontiers Records. Bursting with attitude, swagger, and unapologetic energy, the band delivers a full-throttle hard rock experience that feels both timeless and electrifyingly fresh.

Packed with massive hooks, soaring choruses, and razor-sharp riffs, “Your Favorite Drug” showcases the band at the peak of their songwriting power. Standout tracks like “Bigger Than America” and “The Devil’s Got My Back” emerge as true anthems, destined to ignite stages and thrill every hard rock fan with their infectious energy and sing-along choruses.

Produced by Hannes Braun, the album captures a polished yet gritty sound that perfectly amplifies the band’s larger-than-life personality. This is more than a comeback — it’s a statement. John Diva & The Rockets of Love are back, louder, bolder, and more addictive than ever.

One of the best hard rock releases of the year!”

5,602 – Humulus – Smuggler’s Cave

So this psych-stoner rock band released their debut album a decade and a half ago, yet this is my introduction to them… Ok, then… better late than never. Tasty riffs and excursions to the outer limits if you feel like climbing aboard the mothership. Be prepared for takeoff.

From their bandcamp page: “Smuggler’s Cave marks HUMULUS’ fifth LP and their second outing with vocalist/guitarist Thomas Mascheroni. Following 2023’s Flowers Of Death, the band spent two years traversing Europe’s stages, and it was in the cracks between tours that the improvisations for this record took root. True to form, the band returned to the rehearsal room for marathon sessions, capturing hours of raw interplay, isolating the sparks and forging new songs from the embers.

On this album, those riffs hit harder and land with greater certainty than before, yet HUMULUS’s sonic hallmark remains intact: a deft pivot from rhythmic, classic stoner crunch into more psychedelic and introspective depths. As always, lyrics arrived after the music, with the title track serving as a thread for the rest of the record, leading the listener through mysterious settings, tales of wizards, cemetery dreams, damned souls and the shade of dark forests. A record that’s heavy, haunted, and more than ever unapologetically HUMULUS.”

5,325 – Robot God – Curse Of The Driven

Bad-fucking-ass Australian psych/space/stoner (mostly) instrumental rock trio… Killer shit here, don’t miss out!

From their bandcamp page: “Recorded at The Grove Studios in September 2025, this release sees the band pushing deeper into crushing stoner grooves, hypnotic psychedelic textures, and towering, fuzz-drenched dynamics.”

5,009 – Steak – Steak

Been diggin’ this band for some time now, and this release just (re)confirmed it for me! It has a stoner rock feel to it, but with a lot of good bluesy groove to it, too. Additionally, the album continued to get better and better as it played on… all hail the almighty riff!

From their bandcamp page: “Emerging from the shadows of London’s underground heavy rock scene, Steak have spent more than a decade carving out a reputation as one of the UK’s most distinctive progressive stoner rock bands. Since forming in 2012, they’ve built a loyal international following through relentless touring, acclaimed releases, and an ever-evolving sound that fuses desert rock, psychedelia, and progressive heaviness.

Following early releases and their debut album Slab City (Napalm Records), Steak joined Ripple Music for 2017’s No God To Save, taking them across Europe and North America alongside John Garcia (Kyuss), Monster Magnet, Greenleaf, and The Atomic Bitchwax, as well as an appearance at SXSW.

Their third album, Acute Mania (2022), also released on Ripple Music, marked another creative leap, expanding their trademark desert rock foundations into darker, more progressive territory while further defining a sound that is unmistakably their own.

In recent years, the band have continued to build momentum with appearances at Freak Valley Festival, Resurrection Fest, and multiple editions of Desertfest, alongside UK and European tours with Elder, Slomosa, and All Them Witches. From London’s iconic Roundhouse to some of Europe’s biggest heavy music festivals, Steak have continued to bring their explosive live show to ever-growing audiences.

With their first album written and recorded as a five-piece, Steak continue their upward trajectory with their most ambitious and expansive work to date. Combining crushing riffs, cinematic atmosphere, and the band’s unmistakable melodic edge, the record marks another bold evolution for a band entering its most exciting chapter yet.”

2,061 – Nepal Death – Dhyana Mortis

My hippie friends who are still stuck in the ’60s/’70s psychedelia era may enjoy this psychedelic/acid/space rock album. Of course I just might be one of the hippie friends that I’m referring to, haha! Take a metaphysical journey to outer space with these groovy grooves, man, far out… The album artwork is pretty hot, too!

From Nepal Death: “Dhyana Mortis is NOT yet another catchy heavy rock album! This is psychedelic death meditation. Think four twelve-minute pieces of transcendentally trippy, hauntingly beautiful, slow droning music of liturgical worship.

The album features Indian tanpura, heavy bass drones, Tibetan bells, bone flutes, singing bowls, layers of heavy guitars, and magical chants. All pieces are tuned differently to resonate and speak to various chakras of the body. Get ready to enter the cosmos of ethereal spaces you have never visited before. Inside and outside of yourself.”

From their bandcamp page: “Imagine a wannabe cult leader, a psychedelic witch queen from Guldheden and a bunch of fake hippies dressed like they stepped out of the 1972 Ellos mail-order catalogue. Put them in a battered green VW bus travelling the Hippie Trail towards Kathmandu. Nepal Death is a Swedish psychedelic rock collective mixing heavy 70s psych, driving kraut grooves and raw ritual energy. Namaste!”

1,836 – Old Man’s Will – At Last

This album was released via the Small Stone Recordings label, so I thought I might like it… and like it I did! They’ve released two albums prior – ‘Old Man’s Will’ (2013) and ‘Hard Times – Troubled Man’ (2015) – so it’s been a hot minute since their last release. It’s a Swedish 4-piece that just plays slow, tasty, groovy, heavy blues-infused hard rock. Think Black Crowes-ish. Noice!

From Earsplit PR: “Swedish hard rock outfit OLD MAN’S WILL will release their At Last full-length October 9th via Small Stone Recordings.

Hailing from Umeå, OLD MAN’S WILL is known for their blues-infused sound and energetic live performances. The band channels the spirit of 1970s hard rock and blues rock acts like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Humble Pie, with a retro twist. Their music is described as brash, bluesy, and riff-driven, with a mix of classic rock grooves and modern zest.

Indeed, real rock ‘n’ roll requires a little bit of mystique, a little bit of swagger, and a little bit of trouble for good measure. OLD MAN’S WILL possesses all three of those ingredients in spades. Leaving home for college back in 2011 first seemed a good reason to quit music and focus on school, but instead it became the opposite for close friends Klas Holmgren (guitars), Gustav Kejving (drums), and Tommy Nilsson (bass), laying the foundation for OLD MAN’S WILL.

With the addition of the unmistakable vocals of Benny Åbergs, the band was formed and went straight from the studio to touring Europe through something possibly best described as a Spinal Tap-like extravaganza. Fortunately, the situation straightened a bit down the line, and with mounting enthusiasm after having signed record deals in both Europe and later the US, things suddenly felt like they were “going to eleven” for some time.

There was a regrettable turn of events, however, beginning with the delayed release of their second album, which resulted in cancelled tours and lost momentum. Meanwhile, life got in the way, followed by the pandemic, and suddenly reality hit the band in the face in that typical way only musicians may experience.

After struggling with finding a new path forward, new members Simon Lundin (drums) and Michael Åberg (bass) arrived with the ambition to hit the studio to record that third album. The new sound of OLD MAN’S WILL – more back to basics – had slowly been evolving, and the spark was finally lit again following a set of memorable live performances, including opening for Graveyard.

While still leaning on a heavily guitar-riff-driven basis, the love for creating strong melodies and songs echoes even more evidently in what has become OLD MAN’S WILL signature sound, now embodied in the long-awaited third album, At Last.

At Last was recorded at Studio Spiff, Mullberget, Skellefteå, and Ultraljud Studios, engineered by Anthon Johansson, amplified by Sven Dahlquist, mixed by Frans Hägglund at Riddarborgen Studios, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg at The Vilhelm Room, all in Stockholm, Sweden.

Enthusiasts of guitar-driven classic rock like Rival Sons, The Black Crowes, La Chinga, Winds Of Neptune, The Cold Stares, and the like, pay heed.”

Missed the Cut (in order by “popularity”*):

3,232,231 – Kid Rock – Halfway 2 Jesus

Heavens to Betsy. I listened to Kid Rock’s latest release, a Christian-themed country-pop disaster, so that you don’t have to… ooph. And at an hour and 11 minutes, it was no joke. For the love of God, stay away. Stay far, far away.

From Kid Rock: “Kid Rock’s Halfway to Jesus marks a new chapter for the Detroit rocker, presenting his first full-length Christian-music album and the culmination of a deeply personal spiritual journey. The 17-song album explores faith, redemption, and the search for a stronger relationship with God while retaining Kid Rock’s broad musical approach. The record features collaborations with longtime friend Eminem on “7 Sins” and country artists Gary LeVox and Jimmie Allen on the title track.”

2,465,499 – Pet Shop Boys – A Man From The Future (2 CDs)

PSB are dance-y synth-pop legends… but this is a far departure from their usual sound. Rather, it’s like a spoken-word audio documentary about Alan Turing over a bed of synths and strings. It’s pretty interesting and unique, but won’t be anything I reach for again. The second album is an all-instrumental version of the first one; I did not listen to it.

From Townsend Music: “A man from the future is an audio/musical biography of computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing written by Pet Shop Boys with Turing biographer Professor Andrew Hodges.

Originally performed as part of the BBC Proms in July 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall, with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Singers and narration from actor Juliet Stevenson. It has been revised and rearranged in this new production by Pet Shop Boys and Sven Helbig.

The album features the Manchester Camerata Octet, the Manchester Grammar School Choir and narration from Juliet Stevenson. String and vocal arrangements are by Sven Helbig.”

1,441,609 – Sheryl Crow – Pick You Up

If you’re already a fan of singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, then you’ll probably dig this album. For some reason I’m simply not a fan of her music… she’s *very rarely* done it for me, and this release did not change my mind. Pass. But I do like the positive, uplifting lyrics (see ahead).

From amazon: “Each of these songs is a commentary on being human and wanting connection. There is a lot of chaos all around us, and I definitely find myself feeling alone. My wish is that whoever hears these songs feels the hope I feel when I sing them!

I hope these songs feel like a soothing moisturizer on our chapped hearts. We are all going through so much in our humanity right now that being awake can feel like trudging through a burning desert. But we are never alone. And there is beauty everywhere. We just have to keep our eyes open.

I find I go to songwriting these days to make sense of what is going on inside and all around me. So much chaos but a ton of hope and love to share.

These songs were all born of the experience of living in this moment. There is so much chaos and information coming at us that it can feel overwhelming and paralyzing. My hope is that when you hear these songs, you feel that this is only a moment and that life is a beautiful gift worth sharing.”

906,943 – OMB Peezy – SAVE YOURSELF

Oh how things change. I dug last year’s ‘Drifting Away’ and ‘Diary Of A Crashout’, saying: “I dismissed this rap/hip-hop album before even listening to it… come to find out, I kinda dug it! It’s likely that I won’t reach for it again, but I liked what I heard and will keep my eyes peeled for future releases.” Unfortunately, this release is a major T-Ball whiff. Great production – and I like the idea behind the album (read ahead) – but the beats / raps ain’t giving me all the feels.

From OMB Peezy: “Save Yourself is a deeply personal album reflecting OMB Peezy’s experiences as a rapper and father. Drawing on lessons learned through love, loss, and adversity, Peezy explores resilience, personal growth, and the importance of putting himself first. Over hard-hitting, piano-driven production—primarily from producer Will-A-Fool—he blends forceful rap delivery with melodic, soulful vocals, and emotionally candid storytelling. The album represents a new chapter for Peezy, one focused on self-examination, redemption, and redefining how others perceive him.”

634,186 – The Avalanches – No Bad Memories

The Avalanches are an Australian electronic group. Prior to listening, I had read that the band included a ton of samples from yesteryear (including cartoons, games, and additional pop culture), thinking/hoping that I’d feel all nostalgic, but the release was quite underwhelming. The album even includes heavyweight guests on it, including Rivers Cuomo, Mike Patton, Carly Simon, Haley Joel Osment, Karen O, and a boatload more. Still nothing. Even more shocking (to me) is that the album was released to huge fanfare from fans and critics alike… we’re talking AOTY kind of love. Me? No thanks…

216,333 – Rick Wakeman – Return To The Red Planet

The pianist / keyboardist of prog-rock stalwarts, Yes, releases his umpteenth solo album. The dude has been around forever and can play anything he wants to, but I found the release to be too… “boring”? There were some tasty prog-rock moments throughout, but as a whole? Eh…

104,979 – Richard Thompson – Hippies, Thugs and Heroes

I totally respect dude’s storied history and his folksy singer-songwriter songs are good for what they are, but they don’t do much for me. If you’re already a fan, then this will probably be right up your alley and vice versa. But, hey, writing, recording, and releasing an album at 77 years young? F yeah, I LOVE that!!!

104,485 – Todd Snider – My Second Rodeo

Todd Snider – not related to Twister Sister singer Dee Snider – has been hit-or-miss for me throughout the years, but this one’s a bit of a miss. He kinda has this alt-country / Americana / folksy / bluesy thing going on. He was very popular amongst fans and musicians, but I’ve rarely enjoyed his releases. That said, I do like the story behind the album (read ahead); I just wish I liked the album itself as much. This is a posthumous release, RIP Todd Snider :-(

From amazon: “This album is a glimpse into the creative outpouring from Todd in September and October of 2025. He returned to the Purple Building in East Nashville to perfect what he called “the sound of country music 10 years from now”. This meant taking his favorite country music tropes, dismantling and reassembling them over stretched-out, swampy grooves with New Orleans-style horns. He was so sure of this sound, feel, and his studio band’s pliability that he insisted on recording his vocal and guitar first, with no accompaniment or click track.

Todd wanted the band to record after him, so they would HAVE to follow his lead wherever it went. In his mind, he was attempting to write and record a double album. His excitement over the recordings and the push to capture that much material meant that by mid-October, Todd had recorded his vocal, guitar, and the band’s rhythm section for at least an album’s worth of material, with plans to continue recording. Sadly, Todd passed away before the remaining overdubs and additional songs could be completed.

Fortunately, all the notes, directions, and encouragement he left behind in the form of emails, voice memos, and demos provided an extensive roadmap for his band. Following that roadmap as closely as possible, his band was able to complete Todd’s last work, My Second Rodeo, Part 1.”

77,515 – Bruce Cockburn – The Blood Of Others

I have been listening to singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn for years and have almost always loved his releases, but was a bit underwhelmed with this all-covers album. Perhaps I prefer his own solo compositions?

The songs covered include: ‘Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down’ (Reverend Robert Wilkins), ‘As Time Goes By’ (Herman Hupfeld / popularized by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca), ‘Buddy Bolden’s Blues’ (Buddy Bolden / Jelly Roll Morton), ‘You Belong To Me’ (Jo Stafford), ‘That’s All Right’ (Arthur Crudup / popularized by Elvis Presley), ‘Four Strong Winds’ (Ian & Sylvia), ‘God Bless The Child’ (Billie Holiday & Arthur Herzog Jr.), ‘Louis Collins’ (Mississippi John Hurt), ‘Yellow Dog Blues’ (W.C. Handy), ‘Fare Thee Well’ (Traditional / Fred Neil), ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ (Sammy Fain & Irving Kahal / 1938 standard), ‘Laplegged Drunk Again’ (Lonnie Johnson), ‘One For My Baby’ (Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen / popularized by Frank Sinatra), ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (Jacques Prévert & Joseph Kosma / the original French version of “Autumn Leaves”), and ‘Peace In The Valley’ (Thomas A. Dorsey / popularized by Elvis Presley and Red Foley).

From amazon: “These songs have been accumulating in my life since the 1960s, long before I ever began writing my own. Many remained with me as warm-up pieces, familiar companions I would return to before a performance, or simply as a welcome respite from singing my own words.

Every so often, another would find its way into the collection. I’d be idly playing the guitar, stumble across a progression that reminded me of a song – “You Belong to Me,” for instance – and realize I needed to go back and truly learn it.

Some of these selections are deeply sentimental favorites, while others fascinated me as musical journeys across the guitar’s fingerboard. Together, they form more than a collection of songs; they are milestones, each connected to a particular time, place, or memory, tracing the subtle contours of a life lived through music.” – Bruce Cockburn

68,342 – Kyle Gordon – Kyle Gordon Is Everywhere

Kyle Gordon is a comedic musician. This is his third release, yet my introduction to him. I love the idea behind the album (read ahead), and there were some funny moments – and Daniel Radcliffe in-between song intros ruled! – but as a whole…? Eh…

From Shore Fire Media: “Comedian and musician Kyle Gordon returns with his third album, Kyle Gordon Is Everywhere, a collection of sharply observed musical parodies spanning nearly a dozen genres and eras of pop culture. From indie-sleaze pop and early-2000s post-grunge to Disney Channel-era teen pop and late-’90s minivan rock, Gordon inhabits a variety of musical personas with striking authenticity.

Featuring narration by Daniel Radcliffe, the album combines nostalgic humor and meticulous musical pastiche with genuinely catchy songwriting, creating a cohesive comedy record that works both as a complete listening experience and as a collection of individual pop songs.”

43,240 – Wolfbrigade – Howl From The Underground

These guys are exactly what they state they are: “Swedish d-beat mixed with death metal” and “crust punk”. Totally not working for me. The good news is that it was only ~30 mins long…

13,725 – Witchthroat Serpent – Demons Left To Roam

Great band name and album title, rad artwork, and I have massive love for the genres [doom, psych, stoner, fuzz], but the album itself is very meh-ish. The riffs sound all too familiar (within its own album even). Pass.

7,599 – Heavy Temple – Live From The Inner Sanctum

Heavy Temple is a band that I absolutely love: “Ah yeah, man… heavy-duty psychedelic doom metal collides with fuzzy desert stoner rock on this tasty slab ‘o rock ‘n roll! Riffs and solos for miles and miles, this is great!”

…but this live recording leaves A LOT to be desired. It’s awful. Listen to earlier releases instead.

From the Obelisk: “An authentic, raw document of Heavy Temple’s live experience, deliberately left unpolished and free of electronic cleanup, capturing the Philadelphia trio’s stage-driven heavy psychedelic/stoner-doom sound as it is actually performed.”

1,836 – Pegzilla – Disobedience

This is what I said about their debut release, 2022’s ‘Giver’ EP: “Laughably bad doom / stoner metal EP. Only four tracks clocking in at 14:13, but it was a tough one to get through. What a stinker!”

Now they return with their debut full-length, and… eh. Perhaps it’s better than the EP, but not by much. The best thing about it in my mind is the rad album cover, which is a photo of two children playing with a Ouija board. Ha!

From their bandcamp page: “If Sabbath got hexed by a riot grrrl and dragged through the desert at midnight, you would get PEGZILLA. The heavy rock three-piece out of Los Angeles, California, features Olivia Saperstein on vocals and guitars, Juan Barsse on bass, and Ryan Swain on drums. With hints of doom metal, psych, and even punk rock, it’s hard to fit this rowdy trio into a tidy box. Instead, label them one thing: LOUD.

The raucous trio has just inked a worldwide deal with Californian powerhouse Ripple Music for the impending release of their debut full-length Disobedience, due out this fall. With a new single set to drop in the summer, PEGZILLA is gearing up to prove that raw rock fury isn’t dead, as shown by their latest singles Virginia Werewolf and Bootlicker!”

Addendum (in order by “popularity”*) – Albums that were released earlier in the year (or previous years) that I missed, but are worth mentioning, anyhow:

Ha! None!

On the List (in order by “popularity”*) – Albums that I didn’t get to (yet) for one reason or another. Will (hopefully) get to them at a later date:

Only listing ones that made me take notice, not everything…

2,664,081 – Paul Simon – The Quiet Celebration Concert [Live] (2 CDs)

Recorded live at McCaw Hall in Seattle, WA!

From amazon: “Paul Simon brings his critically acclaimed and GRAMMY®-nominated Seven Psalms to life in this first-ever live performance of the complete piece for his Quiet Celebration, an intimate evening spanning his vast career and celebrating new arrangements of timeless classics, deep cuts, and new musical discoveries.

Inspired to perform again, Simon began work rehearsing and figuring out how he could bring Seven Psalms to the stage. His transformation of the movements for live performance gave way to all-new renditions of some of his most cherished songs and a deep desire to bring these contemplative and intricate pieces to audiences.

A Quiet Celebration toured the US in small venues, selected for their acoustic prowess and intimate setting, allowing audiences to engage with the music like never before. Recorded live at McCaw Hall in Seattle, join Paul for this unforgettable concert.”

346,667 – Eivør – Tungl

From amazon: “If Eivør’s last album, Enn, marked the beginning of a darker, more atmospheric phase, her forthcoming release, Tungl – the Faroese word for ‘moon’ – and her first for the powerhouse German metal label Nuclear Blast, sees her reach further into elemental realms than ever before.

Immersive, unmoored, and steeped in a sense of time-stretched drama where familiar marker points give way as an inner compass emerges over its 10 searching tracks, it’s an album also in tune with a very contemporary need for navigation, self-belief, and rejuvenation in the most uncertain of times.

As Eivør herself says: “Tungl explores the ever-changing cycles of life – its songs move between moments of tenderness and heartache, love and loss, and the emotional tides that shape us. Like the moon that inspired its title, Tungl serves as a gentle guide through life’s darker passages, illuminating the beauty, resilience, and transformation found along the way.””

143,706 – Pigeons Playing Ping Pong – Live In Florida, Man (3 CDs)

From Relix: “Live In Florida, Man captures Baltimore jam-funk outfit Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at full throttle across three Florida performances in March 2026: Jacksonville’s Intuition Ale Works (March 5), Tuffy’s in Sanford (March 6), and Jannus Live in St. Petersburg (March 7). This 18-track live collection combines original fan favorites and extended instrumental excursions with adventurous reinterpretations of The Police’s “Walking on the Moon,” The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” and Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” Fueled by psychedelic funk, danceable grooves, improvisational energy, and the electricity of the live crowds, the album showcases the band’s playful, high-energy approach to both its own material and classic songs.”

140,362 – Tropical Fuck Storm – Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2 [Live]

From amazon: “Tropical Fuck Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’.

Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.

Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name,” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.

The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.

Tropical Fuk Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.”

26,478 – Wilko Johnson – Wilko Johnson: Live At Koko (Camden Town, London, March 2013) (2 CDs / DVD)

From amazon: “On the evening of 10 March 2013, Koko in London’s Camden Town opened its doors to 1,500 music fans who knew they were about to witness an extraordinary event. The venue – known as the Music Machine in the punk days and the Camden Palace in the ’80s, has down the years seen many legends play its stage. But tonight the honor was reserved for a man with a special place in the hearts of lovers of raw, honest, exhilarating rock’n’roll music: Wilko Johnson.

The electricity around the show had acquired extra voltage due to a sad and poignant fact: just a few weeks before, the former Dr Feelgood guitarist and songwriter had announced he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had only months left to live. The Koko gig – the second of two – was thus promoted as the very last show of a short ‘Farewell’ tour, the final chance for fans to see Wilko perform live on stage. As it turned out, against the odds, the guitarist mercifully remained fit and healthy enough to gig sporadically throughout the rest of 2013, bringing pleasure to fans everywhere from his hometown of Southend, Essex to the Fuji Rock festival in Japan.

But on this crisp winter’s evening in Camden Town, no one was to know that – and even if they did, they would be glad to learn that Wilko’s party wasn’t quite over yet. Wilko came onstage to a deafening roar and a standing ovation. The next hour and 20 minutes rushed by, with Wilko, glaring, grinning, and manically bowling across the stage in customary style, as Norman Watt-Roy pulled funkily at his bass strings and Dylan Howe kept the rhythm tight (”he’s the best drummer I’ve ever worked with,” says Wilko – and he’s worked with more than a few very good ones). The Feelgoods hits got the biggest cheer, and then a tear came to the collective eye when Johnson left the stage to an emotional rendering of Chuck Berry’s Bye Bye Johnny, waving as he said goodbye – a profoundly moving experience, it must be said, whose atmosphere Live At Koko perfectly captures.

Review:
Johnson is indeed an icon in the UK, and Dr. Feelgood are beloved. For anyone looking for a primer on the band, Julien Temple’s excellent Oil City Confidential documentary about the rise and fall of the band, and the recent live solo concert film Wilko Johnson: Live at Koko, and of course the band’s incendiary 1975 debut album Down by the Jetty, are each an excellent place to start.” – Jeff Slate (Esquire)

14,148 – Erja Lyytinen – 50th Birthday Live 2026 (2 CDs / DVD)

From her website: “Finland´s own “Queen of the Slide Guitar” is celebrating her 50th Birthday with a lavish live album package consisting of a double CD, a double vinyl and a full-length DVD, that was recorded at the prestigious House of Culture, known as “Kultsa” in Helsinki, Finland on 21st of March 2026. The venue, House of Culture, has a long tradition as a live music locale, where renowned artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Slayer have performed. Erja’s amazing band back her through this 90-minute-long concert full of old gems from her career. The release features songs from albums such as “Voracious Love”, “Another World” and the latest studio album “Smell the Roses”.

This is a heavy blues rock show with international stars. Erja brought her favorite artists to perform alongside her on the show. Swedish banjo punk/blues group Baskery featured on the song “Torn,” with Erja accompanying their vocals with her guitar. Legendary bassist Sami Yaffa (Joan Jett, Hanoi Rocks, New York Dolls) joined Erja and her band on the track “One Thing I Won´t Change,” and you can certainly feel their energy while they rock out to this tune that was rearranged for the event from the album “Forbidden Fruit” (2012) to celebrate life and Erja´s musical skills today.

The evening starts with an introduction from Erja´s twin boys inviting the group on stage, and after that the first band song “Ball and Chain” kicks in hard. We also hear “Smell the Roses” and “Going to Hell” from the latest studio album, before the set list continues with songs from older gems such as the rocking “Bird”, Erja’s beautiful slide solo take on “Lullaby”, the lushy “Cherry Overdrive” and “Nasty Weather” from Erja´s “Dreamland Blues” album. The latter was recorded in Mississippi in 2006 with Kinney and David Kimbrough and has now been played and renewed exactly twenty years later. On the song “Another World”, Erja makes a vocal breakdown, where a thousand people in the audience join her to sing along and savor this great moment together. The live recording also includes “Stoney Creek” and “The Ring” as an encore song that wrap up the joyous evening at House of Culture on Erja´s Birthday.

Additionally, the live album contains a concert from the “Smell the Roses” studio album release tour in October 2025. Recorded in Tempo, Mikkeli, Finland, this recording has all the album songs, like “Dragonfly”, the heavy “Abyss”, the heart-wrenching ballad “Empty Hours”, the huge southern-rock vibey “Wings to Fly,” and in addition Erja´s favorite live tracks “You Talk Dirty” and a 13-minute-long rendition of “Wedding Day”. The latter was originally recorded on the album “Another World” together with slide maestro Sonny Landreth.

Erja Lyytinen – 50th Birthday Live 2026 album is a great package showing that this firecracker lady continues to enjoy playing live and isn´t anywhere near ready to stop making music and developing herself as a musician, songwriter and entertainer. This live album is a must for all Erja fans who enjoy unique hard rock and blues music played with an attitude. And it will leave you with a smile on your face!

To mark the album’s release, a new live video of “Ball & Chain” is also available today. The video offers a taste of the album’s raw energy and highlights Lyytinen’s commanding stage presence and guitar work.”

2,121 – Yann Novak – Discontinuity

From his bandcamp page: “Discontinuity was conceived as a response to the deteriorating conditions in the U.S. I examined on my previous album Continuity. Media capture, heightened surveillance, and the consolidation of control over our information have reshaped our world, and I wanted to see what resistance might look like by gathering a polity of remixers.

Where Continuity traced how systems designed for transparency instead function as tools for manipulation, Discontinuity responds by presenting the remix as an analog for personal resistance: the individual act of reclaiming control through deliberate obfuscation.

In a landscape like this, resistance can take many forms: privacy tools that create gaps in data collection, platform exodus that breaks the continuity of surveillance, adversarial noise that degrades the accuracy of aggregated information. These are active interventions, deliberate remixes of the data streams these systems extract from us. When we deploy these techniques, we reconfigure what can be known about us, transforming the legible into a semi-legible facsimile of the original.

Discontinuity mirrors this process. The three tracks from Continuity exist as coherent statements, complete pictures built from discrete elements. To create the raw material for the artists to work with, I dismantled each track into its original stems, undoing my compositional process and offering them as individual components. The artists—Lawrence English, Timothy Fairless, mHz, Geneva Skeen, Jonathan Snipes, Ian Wellman, and myself—each worked from the deconstructed elements of one of the tracks, reconfiguring them with discontinuity in mind.

What results are seven new works that retain something of the originals while being obfuscated through each artist’s unique manipulation. The degree and character of each remix reveal as much about the artist’s process as it does about my initial intent. Each artist’s approach offers a new dimension, and each remix embodies refusal itself: a different tactic for becoming illegible within a system increasingly designed to monitor and predict behavior.”

If this album models different forms of resistance to surveillance, consider it an invitation to enact your own. Decrypt the album cover to learn how:
[github.com/yannnovak/discontinuity ].

1,116 – Sonus Umbra – Liminality

From Burning Shed: “Sonus Umbra founder and bassist Luis Nasser was diagnosed with a brain tumour that took two surgeries to remove. Somewhere in the ICU, wracked in pain and facing what he calls his quantum execution, he was asked a question: ‘Death or life?’

Luis chose life. Then came the hallucinations, and with them the music that makes up Liminality.”

444 – Texas Headhunters – Rise and Shine

From Blue Elan Records: “If Texas guitar playing had a definitive DNA strand, it would look a lot like the collective resume of Ian Moore, Johnny Moeller, and Jesse Dayton. For the past three decades, these virtuosic titans have operated on the cutting edge of roots music, each carving out a distinct, fiercely loyal empire. Moore brought soaring, soulful psychedelia back to the blues; Moeller infused the Austin scene with an uncompromising, razor-sharp funk and string-bending ferocity; and Dayton injected punk-rock adrenaline into the heart of classic outlaw country.

Together as Texas Headhunters, they aren’t trying to sell you a mythologized, pristine version of the Lone Star State. They’re giving you the unfiltered grease, the high volume and the sweat of that legendary Austin nightclub Antone’s, where all three made their bones. They play with the kind of dangerous, competitive fire that only old friends who have nothing left to prove can cook up.

Their self-titled debut was already being called a modern classic when the band went back into the studio and knocked out Rise and Shine, a tight, tuneful, and tumultuous 10-song set recorded in five days with no smoke and mirrors. The guitar playing is off the chain, but their singing is stronger, and their songwriting has grown remarkably. The material is smart and sophisticated, but there’s a tough naturalness to it that cuts right through.

In an era where roots music has become painfully manicured and defanged for mass consumption, Moore, Moeller, and Dayton just plug in and blast through the screen. This is a rowdy, back-alley situation that feels less like a carefully rehearsed musical performance and more like a beautifully lawless throwdown you’d stumble into at two in the morning.”

91 – Margarita – Abysses Of Melancholia

Doom metal, psychedelic rock, stoner rock. From their bandcamp page: “Margarita’s debut album follows a slow descent shaped by memory, anger, and loss. Throughout the record, the trio explores aching bodies, fractured identities, and a past that never really goes away.

For this album, the band added synth layers and electronic percussion to their usual guitar, bass, and drums setup, bringing more depth and a strong sense of melancholy to the songs.

From “Blood Incantation”, where pain becomes a means of expression, to the hazy and melancholic “Melting Days”, the album explores loss on both personal and universal levels. Figures appear and fade: a lonely man, a disappearing self, memories of those who are no longer there. Themes of abandonment and refusal run through the record. “Not a Mother” rejects imposed roles and inherited expectations, questioning identities shaped by absence and anger. “Abyssal Pain” turns violence and resentment into a kind of epiphany, where destruction becomes a form of control. The album closes with “Better Off Alone?”, settling into a quieter form of solitude and the weight of unspoken wounds.”

82 – The High Spirits – The High Spirits

Garage rock. From amazon: “’60s teen mayhem that poured the foundation of Twin Cities Punk! All their coveted singles plus 10 additional cuts from the vaults that make their debut here! A keystone of Twin City music culture, driving the garage scene, and now you can witness their mind-bending journey into psych! Includes lost takes on cuts from The Who, Sam Cooke, Beau Brummels, and more! Influential? Not just to Minny rockers; hell, three of them were among the earliest to hold the purple reigns! Includes extensive liner notes.”

Looking forward to (in order by “popularity”*) – These albums will be released this week and should be in next week’s AOTW blog:

9,428,955 – The Doors – Unbound And Dangerous (CD / Blu-ray)

8,811,874 – John Legend – Muse

1,764,614 – Michael Kiwanuka – FUDGE

1,405,442 – Polyphia – Be Not Afraid

1,323,147 – De La Soul – Stakes Is High [30th Anniversary Edition – 1996]

1,301,008 – Brothers Osborne – Watertown (2 CDs)

186,785 – The Snuts – Joy In Short Moments

119,591 – Joanne Shaw Taylor – The Trouble With Love

66,547 – Josh Rouse – Museums and Women

57,766 – Tony Iommi – From The Dark

48,753 – The Flower Kings – Hope

32,456 – Big Ass Truck Inland Empire – Found On Road Dead EP

3,367 – Bernie Taupin – The Sea Has No Mercy

1,743 – Snake Mountain Revival – The Divide

612 – Goat Major – Death Comes Twice

19 – Ensemble Tikoro – Tortoise

0 – Madam Orange – Parallax

0 – Various Artists – Sweet Inspiration: Guilty Reggae Pleasures

…and several others. Some that I am looking forward to and others not so much.

———————————————————————————————

Small print that’s normal size print:

*These albums are listed in order by “popularity”. Wait, what? How? By no means is it a measured calculation. They’re listed in order by number of ‘followers’ on Spotify. While it is listed by Spotify ‘followers’, the order would (most likely) be similar if looking at the number of ‘likes and/or followers’ on each band’s social media pages. Speaking of “popularity”, there is a bolded red number. This number (more or less) represents the number of Spotify ‘followers’ at the time of review.

**Album of the Week. No promises, but I will do my best to NOT include Greatest Hits, Best Of, Live releases, re-releases, etc. Even if these “new” releases include a ton of bonus goodies, multiple unreleased tracks, demo versions, etc, I’ll still (try to) hold off.

All albums are listened to IN FULL unless stated otherwise.

Some artists are quite controversial. My goal is to review the album on its own merits, not based on the history, beliefs (political or otherwise), police records, and/or anything else that could be considered “unsavory” of the artist(s).

(Almost) all albums are hyperlinked. I link in order by Bandcamp first, YouTube next, then Spotify last. This is so you can check out (AND PURCHASE) the album, if interested. I do and hope you do, as well!

Do you have any friends or family who might be interested in this weekly blog? If so, send ’em this way!

Until next week…

Cheers,

Troy