Sebadoh was formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., The Folk Implosion), with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989, and Bob Fay taking Gaffney’s spot in 1994. By 1994, the band had released five albums and more or less changed the pockmarked face of indie rock. Their albums were mostly home recordings, decried for their lack of sharp production, but embraced by fans of Barlow’s intimate songwriting style, which owed as much to Joni Mitchell as Bob Mould. In 1996 “Harmacy”, their breakout sixth album, arrived, finding Sebadoh as conflicted as ever: torn between screaming punk and gentle crooning, replete with highly personal songs guaranteed to bring down even the most super-charged midnight ravers.
Released in the wake of The Folk Implosion’s Top 40 hit “Natural One,” “Harmacy” became Sebadoh’s first charting album in the U.S., and yielded the hit “Ocean.” Interview said, “Harmacy” is nothing short of a masterpiece.” The New Yorker called it a collection of “perfectly crafted, honest (read: ambiguous and emotionally twisted), impassioned songs about love and hate.” Harmacy” was hailed as one of the best albums of 1996 by Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and NME.
Poet laureate of the neo mod vanguard Kai Slater and the Sharp Pins returns with a 6 track mini LP.
“An Elephant Eye” A Frozen Girl; and an Umbrella Man walk into an Icebox. All have been shoveled out of a Jungle-den and are covered in Mud Fleas. The Umbrella Man has been Dolt-ing around on the Machinery for Years. . .knowing it Hasn’t-Really-Rained since he threw his last Bacchanal. He thinks he owns birds; he just listens to them really. The Frozen Girl keeps away from him but moves Incredibly slow given the Circumstances. . .she’s been trying to tie her shoes for 700 years.
The Buoyant Eye-ball, defying all Man Physics, Miraculously Phases himself All the way to the outside of the Icebox; Barreling through the Crisp air. He then comes to a Grinding halt before a Ginormous Totem pole of Speckled flesh, Grey and exceptionally thick, Wrinkling like telephone Wire. He quickly realizes that’s where the rest of his Body went. The only thing that’s missing is his Trunk. But he’s learned to communicate Decently Well without it. . .Using Semiotic chains of Eyelid-signifiers. . .An Eyeball shaped hole has been Burnt into the Icebox but the Frozen Girl won’t know for another 53 years and by then Big-Pants won’t even be in. The Umbrella Man doesn’t particularly so much as Notice and think its smells a lot like Burnt toast. He says he’s off to the Cemetery.
What do Them Three have in common anyway? Well they all Dig Pins; they also all Exist because of Him. And, Starting today, are Perpetually Entrapped in 10 millimeters divisions of Black resin upon a Circular Plain. I want to hear them cry and shout, You might say, because we are all Up-standers. But all crying and shouting Ourselves into the Icebox. . .Your Ears will Eat anything.
If the last time you engaged with Matt Berninger’s songwriting was through the most recent National albums, “Get Sunk’s” backstory and overarching mood will sound familiar. In 2020, the frontman struggled with a long period of writer’s block and depression that informed 2023’s “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” and its surprise companion, “Laugh Track.” But while Berninger’s second solo album, the follow-up to his gorgeously refined 2020 debut “Serpentine Prison”, emerged from a similar headspace, the sinking here happens deeper in his subconscious, words slipping out of the blurry space of memory, sleepiness, or a complete breakdown. Working with producer Sean O’Brien and a cast of musicians including Booker T Jones, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and Julia Laws (Ronboy), he keeps himself right on the edge.
“In 2023, after 10 years of living in Los Angeles, Matt Berninger (along with his wife and teenage daughter) moved to Connecticut. This change of scene suited him; he began to spend his days outside, painting, reading, smoking weed and listening to music, much of it his own. He wrote lyrics all over old baseballs, and arranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does.
Throughout his work with The National, Berninger is known for his contemplative narratives in which characters peer over the cliff’s edge. He has always been forthcoming about his own mental and emotional pitfalls. “Our hearts are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,” he explains. “I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.” In 2020 he went through “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust. I just got sick of of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’ ” For him, identity is amorphous and ever-evolving, and stretches beyond individuality. This is the driving force of his second solo album “Get Sunk”.
Under water, everything moves in slow motion and Berninger saw his creative voice slipping away. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. “Get Sunk” is the inhale, bringing blurry memories to the surface.”
Matt Berninger new solo album, “Get Sunk”. Working with producer Sean O’Brien, the National frontman enlisted the help of of friends and musicians including Booker T Jones, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Julia Laws (Ronboy), Kyle Resnick (The National), Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Mike Brewer (Nancy), Walter Martin (Walkmen), Paul Maroon (Walkmen) and Harrison Whitford. The results are more dynamic and less carefully gracious than his solo debut “Serpentine Prison“, which makes it a sea worth diving into, even if you know, more or less, exactly what you’re gonna get. You can stare at one thing forever – it’s nothing till you feel it rush through your bones
The Lemonheads and The Bevis Frond announce a limited-edition 12”, featuring three classic tracks — ‘Roky’, ‘The Great Big No’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’ — on white vinyl, due for release 16th October: https://fire-records.lnk.to/lemonheadsbevisrokyFA
Today, you can listen to The Bevis Frond’s cover of The Lemonheads’ classic ‘My Drug Buddy’.
TRACKLIST:
A1: The Lemonheads – Roky feat. Nick Saloman
B1: The Bevis Frond – The Great Big No (The Lemonheads Cover)
B2: The Bevis Frond – My Drug Buddy (The Lemonheads Cover)
‘Roky’ is Evan Dando’s homage to the late, great outsider genius Roky Erickson of garage-psych legends 13th Floor Elevators, and features a searing guitar break from the song’s co-writer, Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond. The Bevis Frond also join The Lemonheads in support of the latter’s much-praised 2025 album ‘Love Chant’, from which ‘Roky’ originally comes.
If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’, in early 1966, in all likelihood he’d still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work.”
To complete this unique package, The Bevis Frond cover two Lemonheads songs, ‘The Great Big No’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’ — both sounding like the kind of UK-based, left-field power pop that inspired Kurt Cobain in the formative days of grunge. Indeed, they could have slipped out on the original Rough Trade or 53rd & 3rd labels at any time.
Fact fans looking for Roky-styled curveball ley line between events, might note that The Lemonheads covered The Bevis Frond’s ‘Old Man Blank’ on 2019’s ‘Varshons II’, the same year that Roky sadly passed.
The Lemonheads also announce 2027 US tour dates presenting ‘Love Chant’,
It’s been over a year since Nashville-bred band All Them Witches announced the recording of their highly anticipated new album and today, we see the release of their first new single in over three years, ‘Red Rocking Chair’. The bluegrass staple is here reimagined as a ballad, sung gently over sparse instrumentation, before exploding into a momentous bass-heavy chorus which has left no barricade unshaken and no tears uncried since they’ve started adding it to their live setlist in 2025.
Opener “Red Rocking Chair“– a reworking of a bluegrass standard made famous by Doc Watson –begins like Mark Langean at his most haunted, before pulling itself up to its full height via the doomiest of riffs, then retreats again, warped violin wrapping around gently pulsing guitar.
Hopefully, it retains some of our core stoner doom fans. I wrote the riff and the wiggly verse part with the intention that Parks would actually sing those ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics over them. He didn’t know it at first, but he wasn’t going to be allowed to say, ‘No’.– Ben McLeod
I’ve actually been listening to ‘Red Rocking Chair’ since I was a kid. Usually, it’s done in a traditional bluegrass style. Ben had the riff, and it made me start singing those lyrics. We used to play bluegrass at after-show parties, in stairwells, and on the streets sometimes. So ‘Red Rocking Chair’ ties into our old time-y rough touring days.– Charles Michael Parks, Jr
In the States, the lyrics of ‘Red Rocking Chair’ were often used in the intro of their similarly heavy stoner song ‘Swallowed by the Sea’, from their second album, “Lightning at the Door“.
It also marks their first official release with drummer Christian Powers (also of Fortune Child, and their first under the BMG label.
All Them Witches have unleashed their seventh album, “House of Mirrors”, and guitarist Ben McLeod and singer-bassist Charles Michael Parks, Jr. are giving “Heavy Consequence” an inside look at the LP with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown.
Fans had always asked about it, and I thought it should finally be its own song.– Ben McLeod
“Culling Line” unfolds with a sense of enormous dread, drifting from an eerie vocal introduction that sounds like an import from 1920s Appalachia to the kind of solo David Gilmour might dream up if he were impersonating Carlos Santana.
Along with the album release, All Them Witches have released a visualizer for the new single “Hold Up, Say What.”
The song release pairs with a kaleidoscopic music video (filmed by Dylan Handley), featuring live shots from their 2025 European tour at the Bataclan, Paris, and O2 Forum Kentish Town, London.
The band have always looked to traditional folk songs and imagery for inspiration, like ‘Blacksnake Blues’ and their ‘Coyote Woman’ trilogy, with the mournful love song RRC now joining their discography.
All Them Witches is Ben McLeod on lead guitar, Charles Michael Parks, Jr. on bass/vocals, Christian Powers on drums and Allan Van Cleave on keys and violin.
“House of Mirrors” Track by Track:
“Red Rocking Chair”
Parks: “‘I’ve actually been listening to ‘Red Rocking Chair’ since I was a kid. Usually, it’s done in a traditional bluegrass style. Ben had the riff, and it made me start singing those lyrics. We used to play bluegrass at after-show parties, in stairwells, and on the streets sometimes. So, ‘Red Rocking Chair’ ties into our old time-y rough touring days.”
Ben: “Hopefully, it retains some of our core stoner doom fans. I wrote the riff and the wiggly verse part with the intention that Parks would actually sing those ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics over them. He didn’t know it at first, but he wasn’t going to be allowed to say, ‘No’ [Laughs]. Live, we play our song ‘Swallowed By The Sea’ every now and then, and Parks would sub out the ‘Red Rocking Chair’ lyrics at shows. Fans had always asked about it, and I thought it should finally be its own song.”
“Culling Line”
Parks: “You’re casting off things that don’t serve you or slow you down. In the simplest terms, a ‘Culling’ is a thinning of the herd. I wrote it on my bass guitar at home. I always joke that bass is the least interesting instrument to sit around and play alone. This was one of those earworm riffs that worked though.”
Ben: “After Parks wrote the music and lyrics, we came up with the chord changes during the solo section as a band. We didn’t have an ending for it, but I was learning the main riff by playing it constantly. I kept repeating it over and over, and everyone agreed it should be the ending. We were definitely going for Black Sabbath.”
“Aethernet”
Parks: “Allan wrote the chord structures for this one. It’s the most straightforward bluesy song on the record. It might be the most fun tune as well.”
“Hold Up, Say What”
Ben: “There’s a beautiful juxtaposition between the fast verses and this beautiful dropout bridge. We try to take advantage of any opportunity for Allan to put violin on a song. I also think it’s one of our best production pieces as a band.”
Parks: “I’d been messing around with the riff for a long time. The words were stream-of-consciousness. They’re like different characters in my mind. It’s a conversational song where you get two or three voices arguing back and forth.”
“Go-Getter”
Parks: “We had a demo of it. A day or two before I was supposed to go to Nashville to record, ‘Go-Getter’ still didn’t have any words. It was going to be an instrumental, but I sat there for thirty minutes, wrote some words, and the demo ended up being my favorite from the whole session. We didn’t do a lot to ‘Go-Getter’ in the studio. I re-recorded vocals. Ben maybe re-recorded some guitar. Other than that, it’s pretty much the demo. It’s a strange and sad non-heavy song.”
Ben: “The demo originally started out as a guitar piece I’d written. We were spitting out tons of ideas when everybody came to Florida for a writing session. I asked the other guys what they thought of it, and the general consensus was they liked it. We tracked a quick demo—which we used most of. Eddie mixed it. The only thing Parks re-did were the vocals. It’s beautiful and very sensitive. It’s definitely the softest track on the record. I think Parks is really proud of the lyrics too.”
“Starting Line”
Parks: “We’ve had the song forever, but we could never make it work. For some reason, it just worked this time. ‘Starting Line’ and ‘Culling Line’ are sister songs even though they don’t have the same musical makeup. ‘Culling Line’ is about leaving things that don’t serve you; ‘Starting Line’ is about finding the balance of self-preservation and vanity.”
Ben: “It turned out great, thanks to Eddie. We crushed the recording, but it was totally different before Eddie came into the process. Parks and I had tracked the first and third verse alone—just us. We were both aiming into the same microphone. Parks is singing into the same mic, and it’s also picking up our acoustic guitars.”
“Turn the Light On”
Parks: “That one is cool. I hope we play it live this tour. It’s one of those fever dream moments, because it showed up all at once for me. When this happens, you’ve got to figure out what the track means to you. Whoever the main character is in the song leaves home with an idea of what’s out there, but quickly learns it’s not that way.”
Ben: “All of us loved ‘Turn the Light On’ when Parks sent it. It’s like a catchy pop song, and it turns into this ultimate sludge doom tune by the time it’s over. As soon as you think you’re going down a path in any one of these songs, we change it up. That’s a common musical theme for us.”
“Angel on the Wayside”
Parks: “Ben had the riff forever. We’d been trying to work on it for a while, but we couldn’t seem to get it together. It was a good choice for this album. It’s a little more upbeat with an old Hendrix vibe. It’s a Ben song.”
Ben:“‘Angel on the Wayside’ is us doing our sixties-Hendrix-revival-thing. There’s a fuzz riff. It’s really basic with everyone in the same room and tons of bleed. We were just letting it rip.”
“Welterweight”
Parks: “I wrote ‘Welterweight’ and ‘Saturn Song’ around the same time. When I’m home, I mainly play acoustic guitar. It’s easier for songwriting, but translating it to bass later is weird. You spend a lot of time getting these rhythms with finger-picking, and you end up cutting them out when you bring in other musicians. I’ve heard the word ‘Welterweight’ my whole life. My grandfather was a Welterweight boxing champion in Alabama. This title has been ringing in my head for a long time, and it found its way to a song.”
Ben: “It’s our ballad, and it’s an awesome well-written song from Parks. Eddie was trying to get Allan to do a piano intro, but Allan was playing too well because he’s classically trained. Eddie was like, ‘No, just play’ [Laughs]!”
“Saturn Song”
Parks: “A lot of these songs are about leaving home, facing expectations, and carving your own way into this world as messed up and strange as it is. Your wealth of knowledge grows, and dealing with the burden of this knowledge is really intense. The album is essentially about dealing with fictious roles that are placed onto you by the world, things you’re born into that aren’t necessarily who you are as an individual, meeting and breaking expectations, and following your own moral compass.”
Ben: “It turned out to be one of my favorites. It’s such a groove. The guitar is sparse on the verses. There’s tons of room, and it gets interesting in the end. I wanted it to sound like something you’d hear on Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.”
A release date for their latest album is yet to be announced.
Dirty Honey specialise in something that can sound deceptively simple: four people plugging in, turning up and playing rock songs with swagger.
Their influences are wonderfully transparent – Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, the Rolling Sones and the Allman Brothers all feature prominently in their musical DNA. The result is blues-based hard rock with big riffs, a gritty vocal and the loose, slightly dangerous feel of a band that would rather capture a great take than polish it into oblivion.
Guitarist John Notto has even described AC/DC and the Stones as examples of the rock tradition he most values. Start with their self-titled debut, particularly ‘When I’m Gone’. If you miss the days when rock music sounded like it was made by people having an extremely good time in a room together, Dirty Honey make a persuasive case for the form still being alive.
It’s rare these days to hear a live album that hasn’t been doctored into oblivion, but Dirty Honey proudly bucks that trend on “Mayhem and Revelry” with a raucous 16-song set that lives up to its name. Culled from the North American and European legs of their Can’t Find the Brakes tour, “Mayhem” captures the California quartet’s infectious blues-rock boogie, with Marc Labelle’s elastic vocals and John Notto’s razor-sharp guitar solos front and centre.
Notto proudly informed UCR that the band did no overdub sessions for the album, but it would be a disservice to describe “Mayhem and Revelry” as “warts and all.” That would imply flubs instead of the tasteful improvisation and ad-libbing on display here — evidence of Dirty Honey’s road-worn chemistry and seemingly inevitable path to world domination.
Few modern rock bands have arrived with the swagger of Dirty Honey. The Los Angeles four-piece broke through in 2019 with “When I’m Gone”, a blues-soaked slice of hard rock that made history as the first song by an unsigned artist to reach the top of America’s Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Fronted by the charismatic Marc LaBelle, they built on that momentum with their self-titled debut album “Dirty Honey” (2021) and its acclaimed follow-up “Can’t Find the Brakes” (2023), which landed at number two on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart. A reworked “When I’m Gone” later reached a whole new audience in the 2025 blockbuster A Minecraft Movie.
On stage is where Dirty Honey truly come alive. They’ve built a reputation as one of modern rock’s must-see live acts, sharing bills with the likes of Guns N’ Roses, The Black Crowes, Kiss and Rival Sons, headlining their own sold-out tours, and tearing up UK stages including a storming set at Download Festival. With riffs that nod to the classic rock greats and an energy all their own, they’re keeping proper rock ‘n’ roll alive and kicking.
If the words ‘classic rock; make you think less of three-minute singles and more of elaborate arrangements, instrumental virtuosity and songs that occasionally seem to require their own map, Crown Lands are worth investigating.
The Canadian progressive rock duo Crown Lands have steadily emerged as one of the genre’s most ambitious modern voices, and in 2026 they return with their most demanding and fully realized work to date “Apocalypse”. On this album, the band have collaborated with famed producers Nick Raskulinecz and David Bottrill (both known for their work with Rush), whose contrasting approaches informed the albums creation.
Conceptually, “Apocalypse” is designed as a complete, album sides narrative experience, crafted with the classic album format in mind and unfolding as a cohesive story set in the same universe as their 2023 album “Fearless”. At the heart of the record lies the 19-minute title track, a sprawling epic that anchors the record both musically and narratively.
Ultimately, “Apocalypse” is about change, the end of one thing and the uncertain beginning of another. That theme resonates not only within the album’s sci-fi narrative, but in Crown Lands’ own evolution, capturing a band fully in command of its vision and ready to push beyond every boundary it has previously set.
The Canadian duo specialise in expansive progressive rock built around drums, guitar, bass and keyboards, with Rush an obvious reference point – particularly in their ability to make two musicians sound considerably larger than two musicians have any right to sound. But there are also echoes of Pink Floyd and other progressive and psychedelic acts in their more atmospheric material.
Their albums reward a little patience, making them a particularly good modern gateway for anyone who loves 2112, Hemispheres or Animals. Start with “Fearless”, then allow yourself to get lost.
The funeral bell is tolling, the ravens have left the tower – the long-awaited fourth album from London’s lords of the riff Green Lung is finally upon us. “Necropolitan” is also a grand celebration of the occult lore and heavy music scene of the band’s birthplace, the city of London.
Tom Templar of Green Lung thedarker version of 1970s rock, The London band combine the heavy riffs and occult atmosphere of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple with British folk-horror imagery, creating something that feels both deliberately retro and surprisingly distinctive. Their music is packed with the ingredients that made early heavy rock so intoxicating: enormous guitar riffs, organ-like textures, dramatic vocals and the sense that something vaguely supernatural is happening just beyond the edge of the song.
Their recent album “Necropolitan” digs even further into British history and folklore, while their broader sound draws explicitly on 1970s hard rock. If Sabbath’s Master of Reality is your idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon, but you’ve already heard it approximately 400 times, Green Lung could be your next stop.
Matt Berninger, the singular voice at the centre of The National, releases his new EP “Type It Up”. The collection brings together three new original songs alongside two previously released covers, and a bonus acoustic live recording.
This release follows Berninger’s critically lauded second solo album, “Get Sunk”, released last year via Book/Concord Records. Both the album and supporting live shows have garnered widespread praise from fans and critics alike. In addition to tracks from “Get Sunk” and his solo debut, “Serpentine Prison”, Berninger’s live sets have featured a compelling selection of covers that also include Nirvana’s“All Apologies” and Radiohead’s “Kid A.”
“Type It Up’s” tracklist moves through tones both personal and expansive — from the unforgettable EP opener “Martini Me Fatso” that was released earlier this summer to the title track’s searching quality, before arriving at the stillness of “Ask For Water.” The EP also features Berninger’s rendition of New Order’s iconic “Blue Monday,” previously released as an Amazon Music Original track, and a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Who Loves the Sun” with Rosanne Cash, as featured on the Australian television show Sunny Nights.
“These songs came out of the momentum and energy of the “Get Sunk” tour,” Berninger shares. “I was changing lyrics and forms night after night, and we were getting real time feedback from audiences and social media comments. On the song ‘Type It Up’ (originally titled ‘Black Letter Font’), people were mishearing the lyric, ‘That would look good in a black letter font’ as ‘I would look good in a black leather thong,’ so I decided to swap the chorus. I’m more of a black linen suit guy.”
London quartet Veronica Falls‘ self-titled 2011 debut album introduced a band with a deceptively simple proposition: take the sweetness, immediacy and melodic rush of classic pop and indie pop, then let something darker seep through the cracks. Now, fifteen years on, Veronica Falls returns — in deluxe form with an album’s worth of bonus tracks — as a reminder of just how potent that original formula was: beautiful, bruised, and instantly memorable.
The anniversary reissue includes a bonus disc gathering nine recordings from the same period. Side C brings together five cover versions, the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb”, Slumber Party’s “SoonerOr Later”, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band’s “Eighteen Is Over the Hill”, Eurythmics’ “Thorn in My Side” and The Verlaines’ “Joed Out”.while Side D collects four B-sides from the band’s early singles, rounding out a collection that reflects both the breadth of their influences and the distinctive sensibility that ran through their work. Out December 4th on Slumberland and November 27th via Bella Union
Veronica Falls‘ Legendary Debut Album Gets Expanded Reissue
