Sharp Pins is the lo-fi noise pop project of Chicago musician Kai Slater, also of post-punk band Lifeguard. Drawing on touchstones from the Beatles to Guided by Voices, Slater’s songwriting most recently took shape on 2025 album Balloon Balloon Balloon.
“The soundtrack to my 18th summer riding a Chinese Taotao 50cc scooter around Taqueria Moran and four tracking my Sta-Prest-Dreams. I thought it would be cool to record a bunch of songs that never really got recorded in a semi-more-thought-out-way. Recorded on a Tascam Porta One in the old concrete Stulogulo with an imaginary band of Men in Green Striped Trousers. The original Sharp Pins garagepopspew sound in all of its crustiness and yelping…I think I dubbed like 50 of these. Now my teenage dream is yours.”..
Sharp Pins is the super solid lo-fi pop project of talented Chicago musician Kai Slater of Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe. This was a covers album, but man this is still great. The original Mod Mayday ’79 is great, and I’m so glad I found out about it through this, and Kai’s renditions complete the Mod revival aesthetic by making them sound like they actually came straight out of the 60s.
This album is amazing from beginning to end. RIYL: Kinks, early Who, The Wave Pictures, Guided by Voices
Indie-folk songstress, Isabel Rumble, crafts intimate, earth-rooted songs that speak directly to the heart. Hailing from a walnut farm in the southern valleys of NSW, Australia, her music draws on the folk-music-rich community that nurtured her childhood. She weaves warm acoustic textures, poetic storytelling, and a “voice like honey” (ABC Country) to create listening spaces that captivate and heal.
October 2025 saw the release of Isabel’s second full-length album, “Hold Everything Lightly“, followed by a nationwide Australian tour. The album has had extensive national and international radio play, online features, and been warmly received across the country in intimate candlelit listening rooms and iconic full-band venues alike.
Her Folk Alliance Australia–nominated debut album “Bird Be Brave” (2023) and 2024 EP “Water Wings” led to tours across Australia, Europe, and the UK, and major festivals including Port Fairy Folk Festival. The music has taken her to unique spaces from house concerts in India to mountaintop venues in the Austrian Alps.
In 2026 Isabel is touring “Hold Everything Lightly” to the UK, Ireland and Europe alongside Australian dates and festival appearances.
U2 have a new song “Street of Dreams” produced by Jacknife Lee and previews U2’s next as-yet-untitled album.
Lee boasts co-producing credits on 2004’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”, U2’s stand-alone 2007 song “The Saints Are Coming” with Green Day and 2017’s “Songs of Experience”. He later served as musical director on frontman Bono’s “Stories of Surrender” theater tour in 2022-23.
The two EPs arrived around religious holidays, first on Ash Wednesday with February’s Days of Ash and then on Easter with April’s Easter Lily. U2’s last recent all-new album was “Songs of Experience“, followed by 2023’s “Songs of Surrender”, which reimagined older material.
The video shoot, atop a school bus with graffiti by Mexican artist Chavis Mármol, was only drummer Larry Mullen’s second major appearance since neck surgery forced him to miss their 2023-2024 Las Vegas residency, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. “I ignored my symptoms over a few years and just pushed through,” Mullen said. “Turns out, I’m not invincible – and when you don’t listen to your body, the consequences are inevitable.”
Mullen was also on stage in May 2025 when U2 was honored at the Ivor Novello Awards in London. He’d been temporarily replaced by Bram van den Berg in Las Vegas.
“Street of Dreams” is U2’s first new single since 2023’s non-album “Atomic City,” although they’ve issued a pair of EPs in the meantime. U2 have also released a short clip from the video back in May after shooting wrapped in Mexico City, along with a sample lyric.
Nation of Language is sharing a striking new cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love album track “Tougher Than the Rest.” The song will also be available on a limited-edition 7” single (of 1000 copies). Nation of Language’s Ian Richard Devaney offers this on the track: “Like any good New Jersey resident I grew up listening to Springsteen, but this song somehow slipped by me during that formative era. I was really only exposed to it within the last few years, and it’s followed me around since then.
I can remember finishing a particularly emotional show somewhere deep in last year’s tour, and our sound engineer Skinny started playing it as our exit music. It caught me so hard that I stayed there, just offstage, and listened to the rest of the song blasting, mixed with the sounds of all of the people milling about the venue.
When we ultimately endeavored that we might try doing our own version of the song we luckily had a Yamaha CS-80 at our disposal, the same synth model which featured pretty heavily across the Tunnel of Love sessions back in ’87. Knowing we were working with some of the same textures as the original made it a little less daunting to cover Bruce.”
Gurriers (@gurriersband) have shared their explosive new dance-punk single “Party Lines,” the second track from their sophomore album “Nobody’s Coming To Save You“, releasing September 25th via Play It Again Sam.
Produced by Mark Bowen (IDLES) and Loren Humphrey, the track uses high-energy guitar arrangements to critique political hypocrisy regarding global conflict. Coming off a massive support show with Kneecap, the band is set for a busy summer of festivals before hitting the road for an extensive UK and European headline tour this autumn, with stops at London’s Electric Brixton and Dublin’s Vicar Street.
When Dublin’s Gurriers released 2024 debut album “Come And See”, they underlined their status as a visceral, unignorable new voice in the thriving Irish punk scene. Since then, they have carved out a steadily escalating reputation for bone-rattling, mosh-ready live shows. “Come And See” pushed their lyrical chops and curious, socially-exploratory outlook to the fore too, platforming songs about digital angst and IRL terror in the modern world.
The quintet’s superb second album might be called “Nobody’s Coming To Save You“, then, but it could easily be subtitled ‘harder, better, faster, stronger’. Recorded at Donegal’s Attica Studios and Holy Mountain Studios in London with producers Mark Bowen of Idles and Loren Humphrey (Geese, Cameron Winter), alongside engineer Chris Fullard (Idles, Sunn O))) and world-renowned mixer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, Swans), the crack team that readily assembled for LP2 speaks volumes of its quality from the off. This is Gurriers taking all the musical chemistry and smart, interrogational worldview that made them great in the first place, and souping it up to the next level.
From the rattling tension of the title track’s opening moments that then give way to a cacophonous, cathartic climax, “Nobody’s Coming To Save You” takes this spirit of the sweaty basement venue and turns it stadium-sized. It’s not just loud, but dynamic. ‘Shades’ takes shards of industrial, angular guitar and sends them into a gnarly hardcore chorus, while ‘Drones’ is a true pressure-cranking slow build with a drop destined to decimate every mosh pit they travel through. On ‘Pins’, they explore a looser, more melodic swagger that comes on like a grunge/ trip-hop hybrid, whereas ‘Party Lines’ is pure insatiable dance-punk hedonism. If the band’s MO was to find a way to make the record “slap you in the face”, then consider yourself smacked.
With “Nobody’s Coming To Save You”, Gurriers have sent their ambitions sky-high and come out swinging.
Jagger recently launched the Rolling Stones’s 25th album declaring, “The thing about this record is, the Stones are a rock band that also has the capacity to do ballads, country music or dance music. So we don’t get stuck in one kind of style.” The same could be said of numerous bands, but what the singer was probably driving at was that the Stones have always been able to do all this while sounding utterly like themselves. Nobody else has been able to assemble their quintessentially just-shaky Jenga tower of sound, which often sounds like it could fall to pieces at any moment but somehow never does.
They have certainly also made their share of albums that sounded like they’d been phoned in from the cricket, but “Foreign Tongues” continues the creative renaissance that began with 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds“, which at the time was their first album of original songs in 18 years. Once again, producer and occasional musician Andrew Watt captures the rejuvenated band’s joy of playing in a room together – and, as guitarist Keith Richards put it recently, kicks their asses when needed. Perhaps drummer Charlie Watts’ death five years ago has sharpened the founding pair’s awareness that their band may not last much longer, so they may as well go down blazing and have fun while they do so.
“Rough and Twisted” is certainly a mightily raucous opening stomp, which references their early love of Chicago blues (“All I drank was Muddy Waters”). Similarly, almost 60 years after Jagger claimed to have been “baaawwnn in a crossfire hurricane” in “Jumping Jack Flash“, the singer leans into blues mythology again (“I was standing there when the lightning struck”) for “In the Stars”, a song which both acknowledges his good fortune and yells against the dying of the light: “Do you wanna dance until the roof caves in? / Yeah, and the guitars scream and the choir still sings.”
“Jealous Lover” shifts the mood for a slinky disco number in the mould of “Miss You” or “EmotionalRescue”, but “Foreign Tongues” isn’t nostalgic or a retread. It’s a thoroughly modern-sounding, occasionally political record that has the band confronting the world around them and their remaining time within it. Decades after “Street Fighting Man” and “Gimme Shelter” captured turmoil in the late 1960s, several songs speak truth to power, especially in the US.
‘Jealous Lover’. It’s the latest fantastic example of the Stones’ effortless ability to switch between styles, as they glide from the pop-rock dynamism of ‘In The Stars’ to this soulful groove featuring a captivating falsetto lead vocal by Mick Jagger.
Eloquent guitar detail by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood is further enhanced by the redoubtable rhythm section of Darryl Jones on bass and Steve Jordan on drums and percussion, as well as the Stones’ longtime friend Steve Winwood on Rhodes and organ. ‘Jealous Lover’ continues the band’s lifelong love affair with R&B, as Mick delivers a “hands off” message to an over-inquisitive partner with such whip-smart lyrics as “You pray like a mantis, you’re emerald green”
“Lady Liberty don’t look so good when there’s a tear in her gown,” Jagger sings in “Ringing Hollow“, a sublime honky tonk ballad. In “Covered in You”, he wakes up “sick and tired of all these autocrats / You know, they seem to be breeding like a swarm of dirty rats with their missiles on parade”, while the punkier “Mr Charm” rails against “mad mogul Mr Musk” and those whose sole goal is making money.
Not that the notoriously financially savvy Mr Jagger is short of a few pennies to rub together himself, obviously, but in fairness, at (gulp) 82, the man sounds more energised and enthused than he has in years. He relishes lines such as the terrific “Divine Intervention’s” “dystopian values are too hot to handle” and “when they try to arrest you, I’ll come to your rescue”, then dusts off his harmonica skills for a sprightly romp through Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good“.
The band’s 1960s contemporary Steve Winwood is an inspired choice on organ and there are star-studded cameo appearances from Paul McCartney, the Cure’s Robert Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and, bizarrely, Bruno Mars on cowbell. As per “Hackney Diamonds”, Watts drums from beyond the grave, this time on the fatalistic driving rocker “Hit Me in the Head”, recorded in 2021, and accordingly another song about going out with a bang.
The playful racket is offset by beautifully tender moments. Jagger cues up Ronnie Wood for a gut-wrenching guitar solo in “Back in Your Life” “and “human riff” Richards allows a glimpse behind his wildman image with a truly touching, vulnerable vocal in “Some of Us (“are on our knees”)“.
“Foreign Tongues” doesn’t match the holy run of albums that began with 1968’s “Beggars Banquet“, or later triumph “Some Girls“, but at their ages it’s remarkable – and paired with “Hackney Diamonds”, this is comfortably their best material in decades.
“Wasted On Youth”, the debut album from London sister and brother duo The Molotovs, is a bold mix of new wave, punk, indie and garage-rock showcasing the band’s raw energy and sharp songwriting. Having played over 500 gigs, The Molotovs have already shared stages with the likes of Blondie, Iggy Pop and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols. Teenage siblings Matt and Issey Cartlidge possess the energy and songwriting of The Jam, the charisma of The Libertines — and enough anthems to kickstart a new generation. The sheer velocity of their instrumentation, combined with the biting vocal delivery, creates a sonic landscape that keeps listeners gripped from the first chord. This record is a definitive statement of intent from a band that lives and breathes the stage.”
For ones so young – singer-guitarist Matt Molotov is 17, his bass-playing sister Issey Carts 19 – London’s The Molotovs certainly know (and love) their new-wave stuff. Their rep as frontrunners of a new mod revival is justified – Molotov’s pinched and snarling delivery smacks of teenage Paul Weller, albeit in a world when he’d got into hard rock Americana “Come On Now” or The Futureheads “MoreMore More” rather than Parisian café soul.
Roots, Rock, Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon is a stunning, previously unreleased live album from Bob Marley, recorded over several nights during the Wailers’ residency at London’s prestigious Hammersmith Odeon in June 1976, during their “Rastaman Vibration” tour.
Booking the venue was an audacious move, but Bob had newfound stardom from the U.K. chart success of “No Woman, No Cry,” and an ecstatic crowd packed the place. Highlights include a transcendent title song, a rarely-performed “Bend Down Low,” an extended version of “Crazy Baldhead,” and a 30-minute encore that incorporates a 12-minute “Get Up, Stand Up.” New liner notes by Marley associate Don Letts bring an eyewitness account to the experience, now available on black vinyl.
‘Do we get stupider as we grow up?’ In his wildly popular Broadway show “American Utopia”, DavidByrne reflects on human connections, life and how on earth we work through it. He joins the dots with his music and it all starts making sense. Spike Lee here transforms the production into immersive, dynamic cinema that radiates with astounding performances, inventive contemporary dance and political urgency. American Utopia flows like an iridescent dream vision. Work by James Baldwin, Janelle Monáe and Kurt Schwitters is highlighted among exhilarating renditions of Byrne’s solo work, as well as Talking Heads classics.
According to the multi-hyphenate, we love looking at humans more than anything else. Anti-fascist and anti-racist, Byrne illuminates our responsibility to care for one another as he and his co-performers burn down the house.
Spike Lee documents the former Talking Heads frontman’s brilliant and timely 2019 broadway show based on his album tour of the same name. Spike Lee here transforms the production into immersive, dynamic cinema that radiates with astounding performances, inventive contemporary dance and political urgency. American Utopia flows like an iridescent dream vision.
Experience it like never before in stunning 4K. In UK & Irish cinemas for one night only 5 August.
On “Sirenas”, Los Angeles quartet Allah-Las explore psychic vistas of atmospheric instrumental storytelling. The band’s sixth album coalesces around a more spontaneous soundscape shaped by freeform experimentation, intuitive vibrations, and open-ended moments of inner and outer worlding. Channeling a fluid sweep of influences, from The Durutti Column, I.A.O., and Popol Vuh’s scores for Werner Herzog to Jacques Cousteau’s expansion of The Silent World beneath the ocean’s surface, “Sirenas” mediates on subconscious grooves loosely imagined and deeply felt, and opens up previously unimagined pathways in the process
“Pt. Conception” out now, full record “Sirenas” out 28th August Mexican Summer in partnership with Calico Discos
releases August 28th, 2026
All songs written by Matthew Correia, Spencer Dunham, Miles Michaud, and Pedrum Siadatian
The Fat Angel Sings 