FLAKE, the immersive shoegaze project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Blake Loggans, is set to release his debut EP, LAND OF THE USA on October 23 via Santa Anna Records. Backed by his live band, FLAKE delivers a lush, reverb-drenched sound that blends hypnotic guitar textures, ethereal vocals, and a haunting sense of atmosphere — a sonic landscape equally suited for late-night drives and dimly lit venues.
Fresh off last week’s announcement of his new partnership with Virgin Music Group, Australian country mainstay Morgan Evans is celebrating his roots with his new single “Beer Back Home.” Listen HERE.
Recorded in Nashville and co-produced by Morgan Evans and Todd Clark, “Beer Back Home” is an upbeat and nostalgic soundtrack, built for a Saturday night.
“I had to get out of this town. I needed something real. Old mates, familiar places, and salt water,” Evans shares. “I reconnected with where I came from, who I was, who I want to be. This record is a journey, and it all started with a beer back home.”
“Beer Back Home” is Evans’ first single in over two years – a period of reflection spent in his hometown of Newcastle, Australia, which saw Morgan tapping into a deep vein of creativity. Ultimately, that centering period in Australia brought him back to Nashville with a renewed passion for crafting songs that resonate on a global scale. That full journey and reflective energy will be captured on his upcoming sophomore album, Steel Town, out March 20, 2026. Pre-add / pre-save HERE.
legendary German artist Paul Kalkbrenner returns with his first new album in seven years. THE ESSENCE is out now via Sony Music / B1.
THE ESSENCE is an album that serves as an archive of personal states of being. Created over several years, partly in the studio, partly in a Berlin apartment somewhere between mid-century modern and ’70s luxury, with real tungsten bulbs, vintage televisions, palm trees, and a mix of stone, wood, and fur. THE ESSENCE is Paul Kalkbrenner’s first album since 2018’s Parts of Life and also the most stripped-down, organic, and personal work of his career.
“Many of the songs were made during a time when I wasn’t planning to release an album at all,” says Kalkbrenner. “I had actually finished with album making, but then I realized how nice it is to have something that connects everything again.” A connection that doesn’t rely on a concept but on an attitude. Because THE ESSENCE avoids grand gestures and instead is full of musical precision, sounds with patina, and melodies from old drafts that were never released until now. “Some of the stuff on here, I wouldn’t even come up with today because it’s so unfiltered. But that’s exactly what makes it strong.”
Portland rock band Guitar, is excited to share their new album, We’re Headed To The Lake, available everywhere now, via beloved tastemaker label Julia’s War Recordings. Across twelve songs, bandleader Saia Kuli explores where we’re headed with a positive outlook, memorable riffage, and deep hooks. Cassette tapes and CDs of today’s release can be found on juliaswar.com and in record stores worldwide.
“‘We’re Headed to the Lake’ is about “making shit happen” in the spiritual sense,” Kuli explains. “In spite of all of the album’s stream-of-consciousness detours, the common thread holding it together is drunk pep talks in the bathroom mirror, miraculously saving the vibe of an adventure gone awry by telling a great joke, being DIY to a fault, and punching above your weight. I think the album almost had to be this affirming or I would’ve given up and left a lot of these songs half-stuck in the ether.”
GUITAR UNVEIL NEW ALBUM,
VIA JULIA’S WAR RECORDINGS
Beatrix returns to haunt her own past on the new single and video “Ghosts of Tennessee.” Now based in Los Angeles, Arielle Kasnetz, who performs under the moniker Beatrix, is creating music that feels the truest to herself. For most of her life, she trained in classical music and graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville as a classical voice major. But the stories she told weren’t hers, the words and the feelings somebody else’s who had lived a long time ago. Now writing and releasing her own music, she returns to Tennessee like an apparition, to haunt someone who knew the former her.
“Ghosts of Tennessee” is built upon a staccato of Morse code, a direct translation of the song’s lyrics. Beatrix’s delicate, double-tracked vocals are met with eerily beautiful strings, as she revisits a long-gone relationship, letting its ghost become achingly present. Using pedal steel as the voice of the ghost, the song creates an off-kilter, yearning atmosphere that combines indie rock, folk and chamber-pop; something that takes you somewhere between the past and the future, that isn’t the present
The Antlers – the much beloved band and recording project of singer-songwriter-guitarist- producer Peter Silberman – have released their eagerly awaited new album, Blight. The follow-up to 2021’s rustic, folk-tinged Green to Gold, Blight asks many questions without offering easy answers. Over the course of nine new songs, the Antlers’ founder and primary songwriter Silberman reckons with our passively destructive tendencies – absentminded pollution, unwitting wastefulness, and the inadvertent devastation of the natural world.
Despite its heavy themes, Blight is far from a punishing listen. With its adventurous arrangements and persistent momentum, it plays more like an iridescent odyssey. The album features the title track, punctuated by a stuttering pulse, with lyrics that respond to modern society’s compulsion to consume – likening it to ravenous moths. It finds its place in an album that asks us to examine the ways we interact with the natural world and reckon with the reciprocity of this relationship. A lyric video is streaming now on YouTube.
“‘Blight’ is a song addressing consumption through two lenses,” says Silberman. “The first zooms in on my inner tension around convenience, and the bargaining done to justify the environmental cost. I tell myself, ‘I do the best that I can.’ The second zooms out on an insect infestation devouring everything in its path. Maybe these insatiable swarms are simply doing the best they can, too.”
Toronto-based indie folk band Great Lake Swimmers share their much anticipated ninth studio album Caught Light out now. Alongside the full project, the group shares soothing live footage of “For You To Come Around” from Odd Fellows Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario. The band will embark on a lengthy tour beginning October 15 through Canada and the U.S. with support from Elliott BROOD, Rita Visser, Justin Wells and Abe Partridge on select dates with several dates sold out or with few tickets remaining. See all dates below and find tickets and more information via greatlakeswimmers.com/shows.
Frontman and founder Tony Dekker shares, “‘For You To Come Around’ is about being stuck at the station, in a state between being and becoming. It’s about the baggage we carry and the emotional lifting it requires for us to endure, and ultimately, it is about loneliness and longing, and the inability to truly know someone. It might be ‘Waiting For Godot,’ if that were a 1970s country-folk inspired story song.”
The wait is over for Standing Still, the highly anticipated new album from indie rock group Breakup Shoes. Featuring recent singles “Malaise”, “Copacetic” and “Brainwash”, Standing Still has captured the attention of VICE, The Needle Drop, Under The Radar, Earmilk, and more with its dreamy introspection. Stream Standing Still now here, and purchase the album at breakupshoes.com.
“The album chronicles the story of my last few years, centered around feeling dissatisfaction in the status quo,” explains guitarist/vocalist Nick Zawisa. “It grapples with feeling unhappy and complacent, stuck dreaming of uprooting my life, which I ultimately did.”
Zawisa continues: “Standing Still was produced by Charlie Brand (of Miniature Tigers) who we found a great sonic match in, and was hugely influential to us. Alongside the help of new band members, he helped craft an album that expands the horizons of the Breakup Shoes sound while keeping the confessional lyricism front and center.”
Southern rockers Jet Black Roses have announced their self-titled debut album, Jet Black Roses, out this October 24. After sharing stages with Styx, Sammy Hagar, and Collective Soul, the album bottles the band’s live electricity into a front to back ride of rock n roll with a country soul.
Pre-save Jet Black Roses here. Catch the band perform on Today In Nashville here.
The record leans unapologetically into guitar heavy arrangements, from distortion driven to twangy and at times, swirling with psychedelic flair. Blending the grit of classic rock with the heart of southern storytelling, layered harmonies and bluesy flourishes, Jet Black Roses have crafted a distinct sound while working with veteran producer and engineer Greg Archilla (Neil Young, Matchbox Twenty).
“Every band only gets one first record, and this one is ours. Jet Black Roses has been years in the making—written in back rooms, burned into us on long nights, and carried like a weight we couldn’t put down. These songs are not just chapters, they’re scars and prayers, love letters and battle cries. They belong to the roads we’ve traveled and the people who walked them with us. On October 24th, we’re not just releasing music—we’re throwing open the doors and letting the world hear the sound of who we are.” – Jet Black Roses
ryan john clary, one of Boston’s newest indie-rock solo acts, has enchanted audiences with his soft and earnest approach to songwriting. His vocals, reminiscent of legendary acoustic musician Elliott Smith, have an endearing, blunt quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries.
From an early age, clary obsessed over music. He began playing the drums at the age of four and learned guitar at 13. From grade school to college, the multi-instrumentalist performed in a rap group in his area, drawing inspiration from artists like Eminem and Dr. Dre, who showed him the expressive power of rhythm and lyricism—also playing drums in a rock band, taking inspiration from the likes of RHCP, Guns N’ Roses, and more. Both projects feature lifelong childhood friends and collaborators.
From there, he began blending all of his musical influences (pop, rock, hip hop, etc.), starting to produce his own tracks at the age of 23. In 2013, the acoustic singer-songwriter hit “rock bottom.” His life dipped into a dark period. After years of drug abuse and dropping out of college, he was hit by a drunk driver, which really grew his fear of the world and need for self-medication. Agoraphobic and substance reliant. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that he began his recovery, and he did this through music by starting a band with his best friends. clary spent the next couple of years relearning how to make music without drugs and overcoming his agoraphobia by getting out to perform shows.
clary kept the project alive through member changes until the pandemic forced its dissolution in 2020. Exhausted but undeterred, he returned to his first love, the drums, and spent the next three years session drumming for New England artists. In August 2023, he picked up an acoustic guitar and felt a strong pull to return to his own songwriting. He had now officially gone solo and committed to releasing at least one single per month in 2024. This prolific period culminated in his debut album LIFE, LOVE & YOU in October of 2024, followed by his sophomore release bandit in May of 2025.
- Email: neill@outloudculture.com
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