Donegal singer songwriter Kevin Laughlin is set to introduce himself with his debut single, Play It Cool, released on March 5th.
Drawing inspiration from the timeless songwriting of artists such as James Taylor and Paul Brady, Play It Cool blends warm, melodic songwriting with sincere and reflective lyricism.
As a debut release, the track offers an authentic first glimpse into Laughlin’s songwriting voice — thoughtful, relatable, and grounded in real-life experience.
The song explores the universal feeling of believing you have life all figured out, only to realise that certainty is often an illusion. At its core, Play It Cool embraces a simple but powerful message: sometimes the best thing you can do is steady yourself, trust the journey, and keep moving forward.
About the song Laughlin says “This song came at a time where I really thought I had my life all planned out but quickly came to realise I had not. So I wrote Play It Cool about just accepting that not everything will always go as planned in life or love. Sometimes you’ve got to just roll with the punches and play it cool.”
Produced by Ryan Sheridan, the single pairs polished production with emotional honesty, allowing Laughlin’s vocal delivery and storytelling to take centre stage. The collaboration brings a refined sound to a debut that feels both intimate and assured.
To celebrate the release, Laughlin will headline Bennigan’s in Derry on May 16th — his first major hometown-style headline show following the single’s arrival. The performance marks an important milestone in what is shaping up to be a breakout year, giving audiences the chance to hear Play It Cool live alongside new original material.
Tickets here – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kevin-laughlin-live-in-bennigans-with-special-guests-auris-tickets-1981743735861
Los Angeles-based indie singer-songwriter and producer Nymphlord announces her debut album, Shedding Velvet (May 15, Lauren Records) alongside the release of new single, “Garden.”
Metal/hip-hop fusion band UnityTX has unleashed “STFU”, the latest single from their forthcoming sophomore album Somewhere, In Between…. “STFU”, which follows previous releases “Body Roc” and “Enjoy Tha Show”, is the most aggressive release yet, giving listeners a taste of the band’s fury and frustration. Stream the “STFU” now at https://lnk.to/UnityTX_Music.
Pre-save/pre-order Somewhere, In Between…, out March 13th, 2026 via Pure Noise Records at https://purenoiserecs.lnk.to/UnityTX.
On the latest single, frontman Jay Webster (aka SHAOLIN G): “‘STFU’ is a song that evokes a sense of insignificance in the face of the vastness of the world.
Once the haze of success dissipates, you realize how precarious mental stability feels amidst growing pains, increased exposure, and the constant barrage of online opinions about you. Ultimately, my goal is to avoid the noise, but I’m surrounded by constant challenges that test my limits. It often seems easier to cut ties than to immerse myself in a system that will always find fault in every approach.”
Loe Shimmy is taking over the game with his smooth and seductive late night anthems. As he begins the road to his new project, Pretty Girlz Run The World, the Broward County artist shares “No Mileage,” a new narcotic ballad and his first new single of 2026. Swimming through liquid keys and sighing saxophones, Shimmy plays the role of a lothario, turning his charm up to 100 as he lists the ways he will make her dreams come true. Artfully filmed with grainy precision, the video takes Shimmy to L.A., where he romances a baddie on the Hills overlooking Downtown.
On March 22nd, Loe Shimmy performs a hometown show in Ft. Lauderdale, hosting Loe Shimmy and Friends at the city’s War Memorial Auditorium. Shimmy plans to bring special guests including BossMan Dlow, Sexyy Red, Hunxho, Rob49, YTB Fatt, and, perhaps, some surprise guests. Tickets for Loe Shimmy & Friends are available now HERE
Chicago-based alternative punk rock band Rise Against released a new music video for their standout track “Damage Is Done” off their latest album Ricochet, streaming now via Loma Vista.
“Damage is done is about how hurt is not something that can be reversed, so we can either grow from it or let it unravel us,” shares frontman Tim McIlrath.
This live performance is the second video put out as part of The A.R.T. Project (All Rise Together), a fan-driven creative initiative celebrating community, collaboration, and expression. Late last year, Rise Against invited dozens of dedicated fans to help shape a new visual world for Ricochet by creating original posters to serve as the backdrop in these new music videos. As the band performed standout tracks off the album, fans were featured alongside them and their artwork that was inspired by the record’s lyrics, themes, and emotional urgency.
At its core, The A.R.T. Project is about bringing people together through music and creativity during divided times. Built on Rise Against’s long-held belief that music is a collective experience, the initiative invites fans into the band’s creative process to celebrate the community that has grown alongside them for over 25 years.
“Blueprint” is the new single and video from Simone White.
STREAM “BLUEPRINT” HERE
For her latest act, White conjures a curious baroque-pop composition that is as engaging as it is enigmatic.
Reminiscent of complex, non-linear outings of Laurie Andersen, Agnes Obel, or Aldous Harding “Blueprint” finds White’s gossamer vocal enveloped by dancing string arrangements by neoclassical minimalist composer Brent Arnold.
A song that asks as many questions as it ever gives answers, “Blueprint” deconstructs urban settings familiar to all of us and unravels their existential mechanics, line by line.
“Tell Me When The World Stops Ending” sees GUNSHIP unleash their most ferocious track yet, written for John Carpenter’s upcoming visceral, zombie-slaying action epic video game Toxic Commando. Produced by GUNSHIP and mixed by Grammy-nominated Carl Bown (Sleep Token), GUNSHIP push their signature sound into searing metal and industrial territory, anchored by the brooding Carpenter-esque synth textures they’re best known for. This song is GUNSHIP cranked to 11 and ideal for full-throttle decimation of the zombie hordes.
GUNSHIP wrote “Tell Me When The World Stops Ending,” exclusively for legendary filmmaker John Carpenter’s upcoming video game Toxic Commando. Developed by Saber Interactive, the studio behind hit titles Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and World War Z, and published by Focus Entertainment, the game is a blood-soaked zombie shooter at a cinematic scale. The partnership is a natural evolution: GUNSHIP’s creative bond with horror icon and synth maestro John Carpenter stretches back to his appearances on the fan-favourite anthems “Tech Noir” and “Tech Noir 2. To quote GUNSHIP “When John Carpenter calls… you answer!”. The band are thrilled to answer the call once again.
“We grew up utterly obsessed with John’s films and his iconic soundtrack work. His artistry has been a constant source of inspiration and continues to shape the music we create as GUNSHIP. Having been fortunate enough to collaborate with him on two of our own tracks, saying yes when we were invited to contribute to his
video game was an instant “HELL YEAH!””
Glassio’s third album, The Imposter, is a luminous meditation on identity, doubt, and the quiet act of returning to oneself. Written after a transatlantic move from New York to London and in the wake of newfound sobriety, the record unfolds as a self-portrait in motion — a dream-pop opus about shedding illusion and rediscovering purpose in creation.
Across its 13 tracks, Glassio (Sam R.) weaves together elements of shoegaze, early-2000s electronica, and psychedelic folk, creating a sonic world where memory and melody drift in tandem. The album moves like a lucid dream — opening in disorientation (“Join the Club,” “Give Me Back My Future”), spiraling through moments of self-doubt and longing (“I’m So Far Away,” “Downtown Hero”), and ultimately arriving in grace and acceptance with the closing track, “Take a Look at the Flowers” — a radiant collaboration with avant-pop artist Madge.
“That song became my way of ending the loop,” Sam explains. “After all the searching, it’s just about stopping for a second — seeing what’s still blooming around you. It’s the record’s exhale.”
At its core, The Imposter asks a question that has haunted artists for generations: If you were denied the right to create, would you still know who you are? This inquiry surfaces most directly on “Hit or Bliss,” a spoken reflection that reframes the classic Rilkean test of creation as survival. The album doesn’t offer easy answers — instead, it finds beauty in uncertainty, empathy in imperfection, and purpose in the impulse to keep making.
“For a time, I lost my sense of self,” Sam admits. “I’d been performing roles — for people, for the industry, for an idea of who I thought I was supposed to be. This album was me stripping all that away and finding the real voice underneath.”
From the pulsing nostalgia of “Heartstrings” to the spectral shimmer of “Al Pacino” and the introspective haze of “I’m So Far Away,” each track feels like a page from an artist’s internal dialogue — by turns playful, melancholic, and transcendent. Even the most outward-facing songs hum with inner reckoning.
While Glassio’s earlier work drew comparisons to the escapist bliss of acts like Hot Chip and M83, The Imposter inhabits a more vulnerable register — one where self-awareness replaces spectacle, and the line between persona and person begins to blur, meshing strands of New Wave, Shoegaze, Electronica and Dream-Pop all in one.
It’s a record born from confrontation: with addiction, with artistic doubt, with the quiet fear of being forgotten. But in the end, The Imposter offers a different kind of faith — the faith that what’s real can’t be performed.
“A maker makes,” Sam says. “That’s what they are. I had to stop running from that.”
By the time “Take a Look at the Flowers” featuring Madge closes the record, the tension has softened. What began as a battle with identity ends in a gentle realization: the self was never lost — it was waiting beneath the noise all along.
Wasteland, an art novel by Jason Haaf and Scooter LaForge, is a place you can sink into or try to leave. It is a time when you fell into lust and became glued; it can be a trap or an escape. Combining painting, prose, poetry and collage, authors Haaf and LaForge explore queer intimacy, anger and angst. From relationships to repetitions, Wasteland is an open invitation into a collaborative psyche. Wasteland is out today via Doable Guys.
JASON HAAF ARTIST STATEMENT
“Earlier this year I was working at the Strand bookstore and my book, Harsh Cravings, was stacked on the LGBTQ table. It was a Sunday and there was one copy left. By the time I left for the night, I noticed that it was gone. I posted a story on Instagram that we ran out of copies but we’d restock soon. I received a message from Scooter LaForge and he said he bought the last one.
I was flattered that Scooter, a fixture in the art and fashion world, thought to even purchase it. He told me that he was enjoying it and related to much of the material. A few days and messages later, I got a bit of gumption and asked if he’d want to work together. He was open to the idea and we agreed to talk more. I’ve collaborated with artists in the past and I told him that this time, I’m looking for something different. Something more involved. I told him that I don’t want my work to just sit on top of another’s. I want it to go inside. I want a melding, a third eye, a true collaboration where lines are blurred. I questioned if the intensity of that idea would turn him off, but it didn’t, and we made a plan to meet.
There was no preconceived notion of Wasteland, that title, made famous by T.S. Eliot did not yet exist for our project. We began with watercolor paper, ink, and a bamboo pen. I rifled through old journal entries dating back to 2021 and I found passages that still resonated with me. When I transcribed them onto the watercolor paper, I channeled the emotions I felt at the time those words were written. When I handed off the pages to Scooter, the aim was to discover a response. Nothing planned, nothing predetermined. And when he returned the pages, surrounded by his art, it didn’t change the meaning of my words, instead, it added a light and an energy to them, another pulse. Sometimes, I would give a response back, adding paint and pastels to his creation. And sometimes, I would write more words, over his art. This was the kind of collaboration I was looking for.
Months later, I began sorting about 80 art pieces together. What I found is that Wasteland became a place, a being, a location. While indefinitely Queer in nature, it is a place we all go to. What is it to want to get out of our surroundings? What is it to create something new? What is this urge to say, this isn’t enough and I want more? How do we get there? And what if we stayed? In order to create, we need the guidance and the relatability of others. It is where we can unapologetically go inside of our own heads and ultimately travel to someplace new with the help of another.”
SCOOTER LAFORGE ARTIST STATEMENT
“This collaboration started with a jolt of instinct. I was roaming the Strand, hungry for something real—maybe a queer love story, maybe just a voice that felt alive. Then I saw the cover of Jason’s book. It hit me. I opened it, read a few lines, and felt that electric pull you only get when something speaks straight to you. The raw, diary-like honesty hooked me fast.
When I finished the book, I messaged Jason just to say how deeply it landed. I didn’t know who he was, didn’t know his reputation—none of that mattered. I was responding to the object, the words, the feeling in my chest.
He wrote back and asked if I’d paint from his writing. The question felt so right that I said yes instantly. We met in a café, and from the first conversation, something charged passed between us—creative, emotional, hard to name.
The work poured out of me. No forcing, no second-guessing. Just pure response. It felt like opening a vein in the best way.
This project is unlike anything I’ve ever done, and I’m proud of what came out of us. The book feels alive, touched by a real kind of magic—the kind that only shows up when two people meet at exactly the right moment and say yes.”
ORDER WASTELAND HERE
Dreamrock trio KEELEY release new video “Big Brown Eyes” featuring guest vocals by Miki Berenyi (Lush, Piroshka, Miki Berenyi Trio).
Recently released to widespread acclaim, KEELEY’s third album ‘Girl On The Edge Of The World’ (Definitive Gaze) has been lauded for the diversity of moods and textures within its twelve songs, highlighting what Dublin-born singer and guitarist Keeley Moss calls “the sonic swirl”. The album’s emotional centrepiece is undoubtedly “Big Brown Eyes” with its dark pulsing beat, its lament to the impending murder of young teenage German backpacker Inga Maria Hauser, and a beautiful cascading vocal contribution from former Lush singer Miki Berenyi. Miki recently joined the band onstage to perform the song at their London show at LVLS in Hackney Wick.
The accompanying video aims to imagine the sensations and impressions that Inga might have experienced as she journeyed through Great Britain in the Spring of 1988. Filmed and directed by Glasgow-based filmmaker Laura Meek using vintage VHS techniques, the clip’s soft tones and impressionistic flow capture the hopes and dreams of youthful adventure.
Moss and her bandmates – bassist Lukey Foxtrot and drummer Andrew Paresi – continue their tour of the UK in support of the new album on the following dates.
Wed Feb 25 BRIGHTON The Rossi Bar (Headline show)
Thu Feb 26 HULL New Adelphi (Headline show)
Fri Feb 27 HUDDERSFIELD Amped (Headline show)
Sat Feb 28 GLASGOW Hug & Pint (Headline show)
Sun Mar 01 NEWCASTLE Cluny 2 (Headline show)
Sat Mar 21 NORWICH Waterfront (Supporting The Smyths)
Sat Apr 18 FOLKESTONE The Quarterhouse (Supporting The Smyths)
Thu Apr 30 TODMORDEN The Golden Lion (Headline show)
Fri May 01 WOLVERHAMPTON The Giffard Arms (Co-headline with TV Pins)
Sat May 2 LYME REGIS Marine Theatre (supporting The Smyths)
Fri May 8 NUNEATON Queen’s Theatre (supporting The Smyths)
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KEELEY – NEW ALBUM – ‘GIRL ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD’
OUT NOW, VIA DEFINITIVE GAZE
ORDER HERE
Cheekface takes on the architecture of cruelty in their new single, “Hostile Street.” As uncomfortably tender as always, the Los Angeles trio return with an anthem that explores the struggle of being a caring person in a world designed against it.
Vocalist/guitarist Greg Katz, bassist/vocalist Amanda Tannen, and drummer Mark “Echo” Edwards are known for their deadpan delivery and here, they reference the real-world concept of hostile street furniture – those bus benches with spikes and awkward arm rests that make it impossible to lay down – to express their concerns about our current social climate.
Irish composer and producer BK Pepper returns with Common Ground, a powerful new single released March 6th, alongside the announcement of his highly anticipated second album, Pagan, arriving April 24th via London-based label Bigo & Twigetti.
Following the critical acclaim of his 2020 debut album Territories, Pepper expands both his sonic and thematic reach on Pagan, an ambitious and cinematic work recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, The Glasshouse Ensemble and renowned violinist Viktor Orri Árnason.
The first glimpse into Pagan, Common Ground is an expansive and deeply human piece that pairs the scale of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra with intimate layered vocals and hushed brass textures. It unfolds gradually, mirroring the slow and deliberate nature of genuine understanding.
Ó hEaráin (pronounced “O Aran”), the solo project of Donegal-born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Herron, returns with his new single “On My Mind,” released February 27th. Blending folk songwriting with hints of traditional Irish and Americana influences the song explores love, memory, and acceptance from the perspective of someone approaching the end of life.
To mark the release, Ó hEaráin will perform an intimate live show on Sunday, March 1st at McLoone’s Bar, with further live dates planned in the coming months.
Opening with a simple yet captivating acoustic guitar melody, On My Mind gradually unfolds through emotive slide guitar and understated, spacious arrangements. While rooted in themes of death and parting, the song carries an uplifting and spiritual tone — an ode to a life well lived, and to the belief that love continues beyond goodbye.
“On My Mind is a love song written from the perspective of someone approaching the end of life,” Herron explains. “Despite the somber theme, I think the music and melodies create an uplifting and reflective feel, anchored in the belief that we will see them again.”
Herron performs both acoustic and slide guitar on the track and is joined by longtime friend Gráinne Gavigan on vocals, alongside a group of some of the island’s most respected session musicians contributing double bass (Nick Scott), cello (Laura McFadden), and drums (Eamon Ferris. The result is a sparse but deeply affecting arrangement that allows the song’s emotional core to shine.
Known for his work as a session musician with artists including Little Hours, Stephanie Rainey, and Clare Sands, and as a former member of Cork indie band Rowan, Herron’s Ó hEaráin project continues to embrace a more intimate, folk-rooted sound — one that values honesty, restraint, and emotional clarity.
Southern Rockers Hillbilly Vegas are sharing their new single & video for ”I Hope You Know”. The track is the 1st single from the Oklahoma based band’s upcoming album “A La Mode”, which is slated for release in May via Quarto Valley Records.
“I Hope You Know” is a song about the chaos of a relationship that’s deteriorated to the point of no return. The song is driven by guitars with a southern style, rocking blues groove – with just the right touch of grit that the band is known for.
The band’s Steve Harris says “I Hope You Know’comes from a very personal experience in my life, but it’s a moment a lot of people recognize. It can be a romantic relationship, a friendship, family, or even a professional relationship. In my case, it was a professional relationship and a lifelong friendship that slowly deteriorated due to substance abuse. It’s realizing the person you trusted isn’t in control anymore, and that you can’t fix it for them. Sometimes the only thing left to do is let go and hope it gives them the motivation to fix themselves.”
An acclaimed and sought after bass player hailing from Nashville, TN, Jon von Boehm presents his magnum opus, Reflections. A culmination of everything Jon has worked on in the past — Reflections is an extremely personal album that thrives off of cinematic storytelling and the desire to build community through music. A masterclass in modern fusion — intricate bass work, layered compositions, and technical execution converge in Reflections.
https://jonvonboehm.bandcamp.com/album/reflections
Modern Holiday today announce their arrival on debut single “Shuttered Life”, which captures the quiet disorientation of life in New York City circa summer 2020. Built around gentle guitar textures, floating melodies, and a restrained, atmospheric arrangement, the song reflects on empty streets, closed storefronts, and the sudden disappearance of everyday routines. Through understated details and reflective pacing, singer/guitarist Jameson Edwards documents how friends and communities adapted to a city brought to a standstill.
As the song unfolds through glassy guitar lines and off-kilter vocals, “Shuttered Life” turns inward, revealing a more personal truth beneath its observations. In its closing moments, frontman Edwards acknowledges that the emotional distance of lockdown mirrored his own lifelong introversion, reframing the shutdown as strangely familiar territory. The result is a quietly powerful song that balances collective memory with personal reflection—both a time capsule of isolation and an intimate portrait of finding meaning in solitude.
https://modernholiday.bandcamp.com/album/shuttered-life-single
- Email: neill@outloudculture.com
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