Welcome to the January 2026 playlist! We’ve got some selections from the nascent year thus far in here, as well as some 2025 stragglers and a substantial selection of older material, too (if you’re wondering why there are so many records from 1998 on here, stay tuned in the coming weeks).
Joe Glass has three songs on this playlist. Trembling Blue Stars and Cub have two.
Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify (missing three songs), Tidal (missing four). Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.
“Man Who Lost His Diamond”, Joe Glass
From Snakewards (2026, Hallogallo)
The Rockford-originating, Chicago-based musician Joe Glass has been playing bass guitar in the live version of Kai Slater’s acclaimed mod revival/power pop project Sharp Pins as of late, but he’s a singer-songwriter in his own right as well. His second solo album, Snakewards, is perhaps the result of playing in what is by all accounts a very tight live trio in Sharp Pins; Glass has landed himself directly in the world of brisk, mid-fi, early Guided by Voices-evoking power pop that Slater (who put out the album on his Hallogallo label) has also been pursuing. We’re quite lucky Glass seems to have the knack for it, too–perfect jangle-power pop like “Man Who Lost His Diamond” doesn’t grow on trees. Read more about Snakewards here.
“Babe Pig in the City”, Langkamer
From No (2026, Breakfast)
Langkamer are a good band. I wrote about their 2024 album Langzamer when it came out and was struck by its deep melancholy; their latest album, No, is, on the whole, a more upbeat offering from the Bristol band. “Babe Pig in the City” is a reminder that Langkamer know good guitar pop, and here it’s delivered in a slightly fuzzy garage-pop sheen. Vocalist Josh Jarman is able to hide under the distortion a little more here than on Langzamer, but his performance isn’t any less striking; his emotional, oddly passionate murmuring about pigs and cities and slaughters and frying pans is classic Langkamer, if there is such a thing by now.
“When I’m with My Brother”, Elvis 2
From Thank You Very Much (2026, Legless/Under the Gun)
You can find some fun stuff going through year-end lists in the dead of early January. I think this was on Add to Wantlist’s? Anyway, we’re got Elvis 2 here, which is apparently an artist from Australia who goes by the name of Mitch Casino. Thank You Very Much (yes, yes) is dirt-fi, in-the-red rock and roll music, with plenty of hooks in the best songs, like “When I’m with My Brother”. That weird little 8-bit synth hook thing is really catchy, and it fits with the whole radioactive Presley vibe (see the album’s cover art) when combined with the murky rest of the song.
“Alright”, Jo Passed
From Away (2026, Youth Riot)
It took Jo Hirabayashi, the leader of Jo Passed, eight years to follow up the project’s debut album, Their Prime. Nonetheless, after moving from Vancouver to Monreal and recruiting a new group of backing musicians, Hirabayashi sounds more driven and intense than ever on Away, a gorgeous, tangible pop album in the realms of post-punk, psychedelia, and 70s studio-heavy rock. My favorite song on Away is in the second half: “Alright” is a fully-committed, kaleidoscopic power pop curveball like nothing else on the album. Jo Passed really throw everything they can spare into “Alright”, but Away is as strong as it is on the whole because they give just as much to everything else on the album. Read more about Away here.
“Self-Pity 6.0.1”, Vehicle Flips
From The Premise Unraveled (1998, Magic Marker)
“Self-Pity 6.0.1” has got to be one of the best songs about ClipArt that I’ve ever heard. I’ve written about Frank Boscoe’s bands The Ekphrastics and Wimp Factor 14 on this blog before, but this is the first time I’ve touched on The Vehicle Flips, who were between those two previously-mentioned acts. The Premise Unraveled is midway between lo-fi, twee-ish 90s indie rock and folk rockier Mountains Goats-ish storytelling; “Self-Pity 6.0.1”, as brief and minimal as it is, really steals the show (“I am ClipArt / I live in the public domain / Paste me into your sorry-looking document / Without credit, without shame”).
“Letter Never Sent”, Trembling Blue Stars
From Lips That Taste of Tears (1998, Shinkansen/Elefant/Clover/Noise Asia)
Is the 70-minute sophomore Trembling Blue Stars album the place to start in the discography of indie pop legend Robert Wratten (also of The Field Mice)? I’m guessing most fans would say no, but I listened to Lips That Taste of Tears and really enjoyed it! As you may be able to guess from the album title, this is a heady, messy, too-romantic breakup album, and the large expanse makes room for jangly, guitar-led indie pop and 80s synthy/sophisti-art-pop twisters. “Letter Never Sent” is a perfect pop song, as beautiful musically as it is ugly and desperate thematically. I’ll be thinking about that final verse from the spurned for a long time now, I think.
“Long Time Missing”, Tommy Keene
From Isolation Party (1998, Matador)
As much as I love his 1980s albums and his Keene Brothers project with Bob Pollard, Tommy Keene’s two 90s albums are blind spots for me. Like many cult power pop acts, he returned to the indie world after a “failed” major-label stint, but Isolation Party hardly carries itself that way. The 90s alt-rock-scape was littered with bands emulating the half-mast pop brilliance of Paul Westerberg, but Keene stood alone in shooting for the full-fledged early power pop from which Westerberg himself drew inspiration. Like, holy shit, “Long Time Missing” would be a wrecking ball of all-in power pop at any point in time, but I can’t imagine how this must’ve hit in 1998.
“Ticket to Spain”, Cub
From Come Out Come Out (1995, Mint)
Come Out Come Out (reissued by Mint Records last month) was Vancouver indie pop trio Cub’s second album, in which founding members Lisa Marr and Robynn Iwata, joined by new drummer Lisa G, pick up the irresistible twee-pop thread they began with their classic debut album, 1993’s Betti-Cola (it’s probably a more polished and “professional”-sounding album than Betti-Cola, not that it matters much one way or the other). Cub aren’t a “punk band” and wouldn’t be called “power pop” by that genre’s gatekeepers, but opening track “Ticket to Spain” is great, loud, “rocking” pop music no matter what we call it. Read more about Come Out Come Out here.
“Thorns in My Heart”, GUV
From Warmer Than Gold (2026, Run for Cover)
After taking some time off from making new music, Ben Cook has shortened his power pop solo project’s longtime moniker from “Young Guv” to simply “GUV”, and, with Warmer Than Gold, he has indeed pretty cleanly broken his own mold. Inspired by Cook’s return to London (where he spent part of his childhood, splitting time with Toronto), he and producer James Matthew Seven worked remotely and then together making a busy, overwhelming pop album featuring alt-dance, walls of sound, and just enough of Cook’s guitar pop past. The surging, euphoric power pop of “Thorns in My Heart” represents one extreme of Warmer Than Gold’s sound, but even this highlight doesn’t do justice to the album’s full range. Read more about Warmer Than Gold here.
“50 Takes”, Fuzzy Feelings
From Under the Pit (2026)
“Fuzzy Feelings” is a fairly apt band name for the latest project of Joseph Weber, a London-based musician who previously played in the early-2010s Brooklyn fuzz-pop group Gross Relations. After putting out an EP under the name Joey Relations in 2024, Weber began rolling out this latest band with a string of singles late last year leading up to Under the Pit, a twelve-song, twenty-one-minute exercise in lo-fi power pop that is indeed of both the “fuzzy” and “feelings” variety. One of the best moments on the whole album is “50 Takes”, a two-minute song that starts with a keyboard hook so great that Weber waits until the song is halfway over to even start singing. Read more about Under the Pit here.
“You Are My American Dream”, Dish Pit Violet
From Dish Pit Violet (2026)
Dish Pit Violet is a new indie pop project from Saint Paul, Minnesota’s Violent Fink, and her self-titled debut album is a bright and vibrant pop album borne from a tumultuous time in her life–coming out as transgender, the subsequent estrangement from her immediate family, leaving a “toxic” band she co-founded and played in for several years. Fink’s first statement of her new life is defiantly committed to “dance rock grooves” and “cutie-pie sentiments” (as she puts it); these are appropriate descriptors for Dish Pit Violet’s synth- and horn-laden, danceable indie pop, which reminds me of the pop-forward side of Elephant 6 (of Montreal, of course, being the biggest one) and the queer pop of Pelvis Wrestley. Read more about Dish Pit Violet here.
“Film Noir”, Celebrity Telethon
From Celebrity Telethon (2025)
Released on New Year’s Eve 2025, Celebrity Telethon finds Jack Habegger’s Celebrity Telethon dropping their bandleader’s name from the project, and the Portland, Oregon alt-country/cowpunk group swaps out their typical fare for seedy, sleazy West Coast punk-garage-rock. “Jack Habegger’s Celebrity Telethon”-era throwbacks are here and there, too, including probably my favorite song on the album, a mid-tempo slacker-pop song called “Film Noir” that finds Habegger embracing his inner Craig Finn. Read more about Celebrity Telethon here.
“Putty (In Your Hands)”, The Detroit Cobras
From Mink, Rat or Rabbit (1998, Sympathy for the Record Industry)
Mink, Rat or Rabbit was the first album from the crate-digging Motor City garage rock group The Detroit Cobras; this is one of those albums that cemented Detroit as the garage rock capital of the world—or, at least, helped carry that already well-earned reputation into the 21st century. The group take an early R&B/rock-n-roll-forged sledgehammer to a bunch of selections from 60s girl groups, early soul, and Motown; their fierce version of “Putty (In Your Hands)”, originally by The Shirelles, is one highlight of many.
“Peeking Shows His Ignorance”, Gaze
From Mitsumeru (1998, K)
Gaze have been known to me as one of the many Pacific Northwest bands that twee legend Rose Melberg played in (she was the drummer), but the Vancouver group were actually co-led by Miko Hoffman and Megan Mallet, neither of whom have been in any other bands that I know of. Mitsumeru, the first album of two that the band put out before breaking up, is a K Records indie pop classic, soft but with one foot in the power pop/punk-ish side of twee, too. “Peeking Shows His Ignorance” is a really fascinating look into how homophobia and queerness were discussed in certain circles at the time; if Gaze were able to be so pointed and articulate about it in 1998, I dunno what the hell everyone else’s excuses were.
“Point and Shoot”, Greg Freeman
From Burnover (2025, Transgressive)
I made it a point to listen to the top five vote-getter albums in the 2025 Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll that I hadn’t listened to in full before, and Greg Freeman’s Burnover was pretty easily my favorite of the group. Perhaps that’s not so surprising given how in-line the Vermont singer-songwriter’s Neil Young/Jason Molina-influenced strain of alt-country indie rock is with what’s appeared on this blog (including via Freeman associates like Lily Seabird, Florry, and Dari Bay). A lot of people use those specific influences as a way of masking sloppy playing/writing, but Freeman’s doing a polished, tight, post-Songs: Ohia kind of country rock here. Opening track “Point and Shoot” is an impeccable pop song made deftly with material in which Freeman’s already proved to be an expert.
“New Pose”, Joe Glass
From Snakewards (2026, Hallogallo)
A second Joe Glass song, because there’s a ton of hits on it! Snakewards is an early contender for power pop record of the year, with the Sharp Pins/Hallogallo associate doing his best to get “mod revival” up there with various pizzas and sausages in terms of Chicago cultural signifiers. “New Pose” might be the best one except for all of the other ones that are just as good–I’m not sure there’s a single moment on the album as exciting as when this rave-up takes off, though. Read more about Snakewards here.
“Exploding Head”, R.E. Seraphin
From Tiny Shapes (2020, Mt.St.Mtn./Paisley Shirt/Take a Turn)
The twin 2020 releases of Tiny Shapes and A Room Forever represent the first half of California power pop artist R.E. Seraphin’s catalog thus far, and they’re now together on one vinyl record for the first time ever thanks to Seraphin’s own label, Take a Turn. Both records deal in the college rock-guitar pop sound that Seraphin has continued to hone over the past half-decade; coming not long after the dissolution of Seraphin’s Texas-originating, garage rock-leaning group Talkies, Tiny Shapes is a transitional debut that nonetheless hits the ground running. “Exploding Head” might be a bit more “rock and roll” than where R.E. Seraphin is at these days, but it’s not like it’s less catchy. Read more about Tiny Shapes / A Room Forever here.
“Backtracking”, The Crowd Scene
From Turn Left at Greenland (1998, EggBert/Harvey)
The Crowd Scene make a very specific kind of guitar pop music that comes from power pop and “college rock”; largely mid-tempo, acoustic and slightly folky, 60s-inspired but not in a recreation way. Less “cool” alternative history figures come to mind, like Robyn Hitchcock, World Party, John Wesley Harding, and 10,000 Maniacs. Natalie Merchant in particular seems worth mentioning when it comes to “Backtracking”, the languid mid-record highlight that’s probably my favorite song on their 1998 debut album, Turn Left at Greenland.
“Goodbye Delaware”, Awful Din
From ANTI BODY (2026, We’re Trying)
Brooklyn quartet Awful Din formed back in 2014, but they only put out their debut album in 2022, and I myself only heard about them thanks to their 2024 EP Sunday Gentlemen. Somewhere between post-Lemonheads earnest jangle-power pop, John K. Samson storytelling, Taking Meds-style indie rock/punk, and big PUP choruses, Awful Din’s sophomore album ANTI BODY is a whirlwind, especially with three golden pop rock songs in “GFTO My Basement”, “Goodbye Delaware”, and “I Will Break You” opening the record up. “Goodbye Delaware” gets the nod on this playlist, not entirely because of the interpolation of “Don’t Let’s Start”, “Kickstart My Heart”, and “Our House” (among other choices), but it doesn’t hurt. Read more about ANTI BODY here.
“Pocket Games”, Cadallaca
From Introducing… (1998, K)
I’m not sure how I’d never heard of Cadallaca before last month (at least I think I hadn’t); they were a short-lived (one LP) trio led by Corin Tucker and featuring the underrated Sarah Dougher on Farfisa organ and backing vocals. With the stripped-down setup (the third member, known only as “sts”, is the drummer) and the heavy Farfisa usage, this should land squarely in Nuggets/60s garage rock territory, but you also have Corin Tucker sounding exactly like Corin Tucker, so it’s also like an alternate-universe Sleater-Kinney album. “Pocket Games” is my favorite one, I think; it’s a Tucker ballad with Dougher doing cheery but not overly distracting organ highlights to it.
“End of the World”, Peaer
From Doppelgänger (2026, Danger Collective)
Although upstate New York math-y indie rock trio Peaer spent the first half of this decade in relative silence after releasing some great material in the late 2010s, they continued to work on a third proper Peaer album, which finally arrived at the beginning of 2026 as Doppelgänger. For a band who hadn’t been afraid to get pretty noisy in the past, Doppelgänger represents a clear shift into more “refined”, “restrained”, “reserved” and other such “re”-word-territory. “End of the World” opens the album with Peaer’s clearest foray yet into “guitar pop”: it’s damn-near toe-tapping! Read more about Doppelgänger here.
“You Destroy Me”, OUT.
From Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Songs (1996, Noise Pollution)
OUT. came out of the mid-90s Louisville indie rock scene, wielding a ferocious early punk rock/hardcore punk-indebted fury more in line with Midwestern garage-y groups like New Bomb Turks and Laughing Hyenas than their hometown’s more math rock/post-hardcore/post-rock. Noise Pollution, their original label, has marked the thirtieth anniversary of the group’s sole album with its first-ever vinyl release. Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Songs remains an incredible document, perhaps the purest distillation of Kentucky punk rock and roll ever put to tape: the opening three or four songs are a sprint (including “You Destroy Me”, which kicks off the record), a clusterfuck of Bad Brains and 70s punk and Motörhead that’s virtually indistinguishable from something that’d come out on Goner or Feel It Records today. Read more about Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Songs here.
“Infinite Casualties”, Subtle Body
From Subtle Body (2026, Strange Mono)
A new quintet from Philadelphia made up by a bunch of “punk, hardcore, and grind” veterans, Subtle Body are the latest group to throw their hats in the realms of muddy, spooky, lo-fi post-punk and synthpunk. Their self-titled debut cassette is a twenty-three-minute descent into the gothic side of basement punk; the bass swims in a murky sea of haunting vocals, freaked-out drums, and plenty of synths in most of Subtle Body’s rockers, including the highlight “Infinite Casualties”. Read more about Subtle Body here.
“Along the Moors”, Sandpit
From On Second Thought (1998, Fellaheen)
Sandpit were a trio from Melbourne who lasted for one album, in which they explored a stone-faced and gray version of “90s-slacker-indie”. On Second Thought has a noisy, fuzzy, post-Sonic Youth kind of sound, and there’s also a really nice diamond-in-the-rough melodic quality to these songs that feels more like Eric’s Trip or even mid-period Sebadoh. “Along the Moors”, which opens the album, also reminds me of the Guv’ner song that I put on one of these playlists four years ago (four years ago? Jesus Christ!); I really enjoy the dour melodic side of 90s indie rock, clearly.
“Chaos Herder, Pt. 2”, Place Position
From Went Silent (2026, Sweet Cheetah/Poptek/Bunker Park/Blind Rage)
Dayton trio Place Position had been pretty quiet since their first album back in 2014, but the dozen-year wait for LP2 has finally ended with Went Silent. Those still paying attention are rewarded with ten slow-moving but still frequently fiery post-hardcore/post-punk songs well-versed in the intricacies of the history of Dischord Records and its flagship bands. Those who enjoy that “flag-planting anthem” side of post-hardcore punk rock will be drawn in immediately with “Chaos Herder Pt. 2”, a stalwart, unflappable post-punk opening statement. Read more about Went Silent here.
“Say You’re Mine”, The Prize
From In the Red (2025, Goner/Anti Fade)
An Australian power pop band that lists its influences as “Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Pretenders, Blondie, Rolling Stones, Faces, Flamin’ Groovies, Tom Petty, Dwight Twilley, Phil Seymour, The Toms, The Nerves and The Motors”, huh? I had a hunch that Melbourne’s The Prize would be up my alley, and indeed, their long-awaited debut album In the Red hits all the high notes one would want from such a group. The garage-y rock and roll power pop hits are strewn throughout this eleven-song, thirty-six minute exercise; “Say You’re Mine” is as good as any of them, though it’s hardly the only Romero/Sheer Mag-esque behemoth on the LP.
“Bubble Up”, Hello Whirled
From The Other Need (2026, Sherilyn Fender)
Another year has begun with an album from the ever-prolific lo-fi rocker Hello Whirled near the starting gate. The Other Need is a fairly holistic overview of the Hello Whirled experience, a marriage of the basement-arena-prog of the less popular albums from bandleader Fern Spizuco’s north star of Robert Pollard with tortured angst and noisy, lo-fi clattering. The Other Need has some “pop” moments, certainly; bookmark “Bubble Up”, with its steady-building structure and exuberant power pop chorus, for your personal “Hello Whirled greatest hits” playlist. Read more about The Other Need here.
“Sacrifice”, Sweet Reaper
From Still Nothing (2026, Alien Snatch/Naked Time)
There’s nothing wrong with starting off 2026 with some incredibly catchy, poppy garage rock. Sweet Reaper may be from the West Coast (Ventura, specifically), but the clean, sugar-rush, power-pop-garage-rock sound of Still Nothing reminds me more of what goes on over in Texas, with names like A Giant Dog, Flesh Lights, and Radioactivity (whose Jeff Burke mastered this record, which I didn’t know when I came up with the comparison initially) coming to mind. We’re all mortal, and, for Sweet Reaper, that means there’s no time to waste in between churning out garage-punk pop hits like “Sacrifice”. Read more about Still Nothing here.
“Honeymoon”, Bon Voyage
From Bon Voyage (1998, BEC)
Bon Voyage are a duo comprised of Starflyer 59 mastermind Jason Martin and his wife Julie on lead vocals. Their self-titled debut album is more blatantly “pop music” than anything I’ve heard by the shoegaze/art rock-tending Starflyer 59; it’s full-on fuzzy indie-power-pop verging on “twee”. It’s very nineties, yes—the Martins bravely conduct a series of experiments marrying Belly/Breeders noise to the tenderness of The Sundays and that Sixpence None the Richer song (and sometimes Rentals-like synth hooks are there, too). “Honeymoon” is sugary sweet; even if you’re not the type to go in for an entire album of this stuff, it’s a solid way to spend three minutes.
“Suitcase and Atoms”, Elliott
From U.S. Songs (1998, Revelation)
U.S. Songs was the Louisville emo group Elliott’s first LP, and while their hometown was known (to me, at least) for a post-rock/experimental bent to their underground music, that’s not really what we get here. Their emo is light on its feet, with a punk rock/proto-orgcore sound in line with California groups like Jawbreaker, Samiam, and Knapsack. There’s no math rock here (although, like a lot of math-y emo albums, the drums are great), and the heaviest they get is scattered chunky power chord riffs and vocals. “Suitcase and Atoms” is probably my favorite; it’s a classic emo-punk ramp-up, blast-off kind of thing.
“Vacation”, Cub
From Come Out Come Out (1995, Mint)
The 30th anniversary edition of Come Out Come Out features three covers; a live version of Beat Happening’s “Cast a Shadow” (featuring “Italian harmonica man”), which they originally recorded for their debut album, is a new addition, but Cub’s versions of Yoko Ono’s “I’m Your Angel” and The Go-Go’s’ “Vacation” were from the first version of the record. They all work as “Cub songs”, but it’s probably not incredibly surprising that the “cuddlecore”/twee-pop group is especially qualified to take on the new wave-power pop classic “Vacation” and make it into their own. Read more about Come Out Come Out here.
“Cocaine Bear”, Wormy
From Shark River (2026, Rose Garden)
Brooklyn musician Noah Rauchwerk has been quite active over the past decade, whether he’s been playing alongside his brother in the folk duo The Lords of Liechtenstein, drumming for Samia (among other acts) on tour, or guesting on the most recent Little Hag album. He’s nonetheless found time for his indie folk solo project Wormy in recent years, releasing an album called I’m Sweating All the Time in 2022 and following it up with Shark River this January. Shark River toes a fine line very well, balancing Rauchwerk’s delicate, intimate obvious influences (Bright Eyes, mid-period Mountain Goats) with the polish he’s pursued in some of his sideman work. “Cocaine Bear” is effectively a minimal-electric version of the best Slaughter Beach, Dog songs, simple, quiet, and incredibly memorable. Read more about Shark River here.
“Touché”, Eleven Plus Two = Twelve Plus One
From Antenna (2026, The Forever Exploding Dynamo)
The intriguingly-named Eleven Plus Two = Twelve Plus One (the two sides of the equation are anagrams, who knew?) are a new band from Columbus made up of three longtime central Ohio indie rock musicians. The trio’s first album, Antenna, appeared on Bandcamp last October, but guitarist/vocalist Keith Novicki has given it a wider release this month via his new record label, The Forever Exploding Dynamo. Antenna, a thirty-five-minute LP made up of only five songs, is “indie rock” for those of us who enjoy music that veers between the accessible and the challenging. “Touché”, right in the middle of the album, is a nice, dirty garage punk song in the midst of Sonic Youth-style eleven-minute art rock sprawlers and ambient pieces. Read more about Antenna here.
“Dig for Now”, The Fragiles
From Sing the Heat of the Sun (2026, Living Lost)
Philadelphia musician David Settle ruled the realms of lo-fi indie rock in 2020 and 2021, putting out a slew of albums via his aliases The Fragiles, Big Heet, and Psychic Flowers. After a few years off, it’s nice to start off 2026 with the first album from The Fragiles in five years. While Big Heet deals in noisy post-punk and Psychic Flowers in shit-fi fuzz pop, The Fragiles has always been where Settle explores dreamier, almost psychedelic indie-gaze, and Sing the Heat of the Sun offers a strong collection of such material. There are a handful of instant-classic guitar pop songs on here, including the bouncy, scuzzy lo-fi pop of highlight “Dig for Now”. Read more about Sing the Heat of the Sun here.
“Made for Each Other”, Trembling Blue Stars
From Lips That Taste of Tears (1998, Shinkansen/Elefant/Clover/Noise Asia)
Like “Letter Never Sent” earlier on this playlist, “Made for Each Other” is a massive pop song that’s also a massive break-up song; unlike “Letter Never Sent”, “Made for Each Other” takes a minute to move from a quiet, electronic-tinged beginning to a full-on symphonic chamber pop chorus. It’s absolutely worth sticking around until Trembling Blue Stars deliver the refrain and then sticking around again until they repeat it, the great fanfare triggered by the admission that gives the song its title (“Made for each other, but not made to last”).
“Tied Tight”, Joe Glass
From Snakewards (2026, Hallogallo)
A third Joe Glass song? Surely there can’t be three different massive power pop hit singles on one album from the Chicago mod revivalist, right? Well, there are (and then some); just queue up “Tied Tight”, Snakewards’ penultimate song, if you don’t believe me. This one is Glass at his most Guided by Voices-like; that opening chugging guitar riff is built for fractured arena rock, and Glass’ floating, passionate vocal melodies (particularly his delivery of “In my head / I’m better off dead”) feel right out of Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia. Read more about Snakewards here.
“Threesome (Asking for a Friend)”, Sotto Voce
From The Sound of Trying (2026, Makeout Artist)
The Sound of Trying is my first exposure to Brooklyn project Sotto Voce, and it’s a curious-sounding one; it’s almost like it’s trying to be an explosive, 90s-style indie rock album, a sensitive, sensual singer-songwriter album, and a sprawling, folk-y slowcore album all at once. I’m weirdly drawn to the last song on The Sound of Trying–it’s a long one, called “Threesome (Asking for a Friend)” (sure, sure), and it’s a confusing but endearing mixture of coffeeshop folk, noodly, (but still largely acoustic) math-y guitars, and melodies that appear and disappear as bandleader Ryan Gabos shifts around tempos and times and whatnot. Beyond the fact that it sounds quite good, I like “Threesome (Asking for a Friend)” because, I think, I can’t quite figure it out. Read more about The Sound of Trying here.
“Slackers & Go Getters”, Euphoria Again & Dogwood Tales
From Destination Heaven (2026, Born Losers)
Dogwood Tales are a rock-solid country rock group from Harrisonburg, Virginia, while Euphoria Again is the solo project of Johnny Klein, who I mostly know for being in the shoegaze revival group Knifeplay. The two acts made a collaborative record called Destination Heaven that dropped at the beginning of this year, and it’s a pretty unimpeachable collection of alt-country rock. “Slackers & Go Getters”, the penultimate track, includes vamping where the lead singer (by process of elimination, I think it’s Dogwood Tales’ Kyle Grim) introduces the rest of the band (including “Johnny Football”, who I imagine is Klein, on guitar). It’d be an odd choice to put on this playlist because of that, but “Slackers & Go Getters” is just such a fun, jammy track that I have no qualms about adding it here.
“The Decline of Country and Western Civilization”, Lambchop
From Damaged (2006, Merge)
It’s been twenty years since the decline of country and western civilization; time really does fly, doesn’t it? Maybe you recognize that title as the name of two different Lambchop rarities compilations, but it’s also the last track on the long-running Nashville weirdo alt-country institution’s 2006 album Damaged. It’s beautiful and inscrutable in the way the best Lambchop songs are; it starts with Kurt Wagner proclaiming “Well, I hate Nathan Bedford Forrest / He’s the featured artist in the devil’s chorus,” (no lies there) and finds the time to diss “Pitchfork I-rock saviors” (again, the time flies…) and inject some real pathos into “Damn, they’re looking ugly to me”. Lambchop! Check ‘em out.
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