I heard the thunder rumbling as I started the walk to the Far Out Lounge for the second day of Austin Psych Fest. I got about three blocks when the rain started. My phone’s weather app said it was just an isolated storm that would soon pass. I put on the raincoat I’d packed and continued walking…
…into a full-on thunderstorm complete with flash flooding and rain hitting so hard that at one point I thought it was hail. I later learned there were funnel clouds in the area at the time. I sloshed my way back to the Air BNB place I was sleeping in for the weekend, wrung out my socks, and waited out the storm for at least another hour before making the trip in the now sunny, jungle-humid afternoon.
APF had been delayed for those two hours due to a couple lightning strikes. As a result, the first four bands of the day – Commercial Breaks, Strange Lot, The Dead Canyon Family Reunion, and Grocery Bag – ended up with canceled sets. Annabelle Chairlegs barely managed to squeeze in their set when the festival finally opened.
So, first on the bill for me was Ty Segall. I hadn’t seen him since the (unknown to everyone at the time) final Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2021. As one photographer in front of me said before the set, “You never know what you’re going to get with Ty.” That’s true. You could get a lot of shredding, acoustic ballads, or even electro-infused dance rock. For APF 2026, Segall and his band brought the rock.
Ty Segall and crew bringing another kind of thunder.
It was a fun set from him, and a ripper of a way to start my festival day. He included at least two new tracks which sound great. The set had a heavy 1970s garage rock sound to it, and I’m surprised mosh pits didn’t erupt throughout it.
Segall’s set was followed by a double-bill of psychedelia. Up first were world travelers Al Qasar who had everyone dancing and grooving with their neat mix of Dutch, Brazilian, Arabic, Jamaican, and several other nations’ sounds. They even ended with a wild reworking of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.”
Al Qasar taking everyone on a trip.
Then, Melody’sEcho Chamber performed to a big crowd who fully embraced their mind-bending sound and light show. I saw a lot of, ahem, blissed-out people during their set having a great time.
Is it a jellyfish? A butterfly? A jellyfly? A butterfish? That edible kicking in?
Many of us zipped over to the smaller stage to catch New Candys’ set. The Italian trio (No longer a quartet?) roared for the whole performance, knocking out heavy riffs, shoegaze fuzz, and slapping beats. “Damn, those guys are really good,” said a guy behind me once they’d finished. He was right.
New Candys with a delicious set.
The day ended with our hosts, The Black Angels, performing their Passover album in its entirety as well as other tracks (including at least one new song). The crowd was packed for them. One group in front of me had some weird fire dance circle going with a couple lighters being waved near the ground. The Black Angels are currently touring to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Passover, so don’t miss them. It’s a good opportunity to hear a lot of deep cuts.
Don’t pass over a Black Angels show! See what I did there?
Up next: Latin psychobilly surf rock, psychedelic cumbia, and a lot of soul!
I hadn’t been to Austin Psych Fest in several years. Mind you, I’d been to Levitation festivals multiple times, and on two continents, but I hadn’t been to APF since the Reverberation Appreciation Society brought it back after “APF” had been changed to “Levitation” and moved to the fall. APF returned to the Far Out Lounge in Austin a few years ago for the RAS’ spring festival, and this was the first chance I had to make the trip.
Austin’s own J’cuuzi were the first band on the bill and the first I wanted to see. They set a high bar to meet for everyone to follow, complete with dancers, t-shirt tosses, a somewhat famous spinning chair, a Capri Sun costume, bubble guns, and so much dance-punk / art-punk / glam-punk / drag-punk / I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-is-happening-punk that you could barely take all of it in during their set and left you feeling a bit post-orgasmic and somewhat baffled afterwards.
L-R: Durs, Gorge Bones, Trey Razeldazl. Oddly enough, this was one of the calmer moments of J’cuuzi’s set.
Next up were another local group, Almost Heaven. The electro-duo were celebrating the release of their first EP, Raw Cranium, and immediately commanded the stage upon the first note. The whole set was bumping, with solid, wicked beats from Jaelyn Valero and vocals from Stefan Barazza that reminded me of everything from The Cramps to Roxy Music.
Almost Heaven getting us pretty close to there, really.
Within moments of their set ending, you heard this loud wall of sound coming from the other direction. That turned out to be shoegaze rockers Glare blasting us with multiple guitars and echoing vocals. It was a change in tone for the festival up to this point, and not a bad one at all. Sometimes you need a ton of reverb and fuzz to keep you going for the coming hours.
Glare blasting us with power.
Not long after that, we dove into psychedelic waters (It is a psych fest, after all.) with Holy Wave. I’ve been a fan for a while, so it was good to see them again after a few years. As usual, they put on a good set of psych-rock that ranged from dreamy to heavy. I bumped into The Black Angels’ Alex Maas later and he described their sound as “like opening a scroll.” Accurate.
Casting spells with Holy Wave.
I needed a break by this point, so it was off to Torchy’s Tacos across the street for some much-needed grilled chicken nachos. They were delicious, as was the Cubs working their way to a win over the Rangers at the time. I got back in time to see a big crowd had gathered for Diiv and their trippy set of shoegaze rock that mixed in weird short films of corporate presentations and public domain footage. It reminded me of Devo’s corporate anthem stuff.
Diiv putting on a board meeting.
The night ended with a fun set from The Flaming Lips. The crowd was happy to have them back and they seemed delighted to be there. Confetti and balloons rained down on us for several songs, with “Turn It On” and “The Golden Path” being big highlights for me, as well as their encore of “War Pigs.” Everyone was exhausted but elated by the end.
A typical day for Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips.
The festival is off to a fun, sweaty start. Up next, more local talent, a guy I haven’t seen live for many years, Italian shoegaze, a twentieth anniversary show, and more!
Located at 1377 East 53rd Street, Hyde Park Records is one of the best places to visit if you’re looking for jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and stuff that might be off your radar. The place is stacked with cool material.
That’s just the stuff behind the main counter. Not only is that a stunning collection of high-end rap, soul, funk, dub, and Afrobeat albms, but there are also buttons, action figures, hand drums, African art, and even Funko Pops for sale all in one shot.
Vintage gear? They have it. This place is like walking into the coolest thrift store you never expected to find, and yes, there are plenty of records.
Prince, The Miracles, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, Anita Baker, Ray Charles, “The Wiz” soundtrack, and more.
As seen above, they have plenty of CDs on hand as well. This whole rack was full of new releases from a wide variety of soul, rap, and jazz artists. The place is a buffet of cool albums, such as…
It also wouldn’t be a proper Chicago wrecka stow without some vintage house music available for you.
I walked out of there with three CDs – two funk and soul bangers and one weird French experimental library music compilation.
Be sure to seek this place out if you’re in this part of the city. It’s well worth it and you’re sure to find a lot of good stuff there.
I got to chat with Dry Cleaning’s drummer, Nick Buxton, a bit at Chicago’s Thalia Hall before their set. He told me they love playing in the U.S. and especially in Chicago. Guitarist Tom Dowse mentioned during their set that the Chicago show was the fastest one to sell out for their current U.S. tour. It was thus an enthusiastic crowd for them.
First up were post-punkers YHWH Nailgun. At least, I think they’re post-punkers. They’re difficult to describe and also fascinating to watch. Sparse guitar arrangements from Saguiv Rosenstock that sound like synthesizers, synthesizers from Jack Tobias that sound like bass, acoustic drums from Sam Pickard that sound electric, and vocals from Zack Borzone that sound like chants and sometimes beatboxing. Their set was frenetic, weird, and had everyone intrigued for the entire half-hour they played.
Tobias at far right making a bold choice to wear a Detroit Lions jacket in Bears territory.
Dry Cleaning came out to a loud welcome and got down to business with “Sliced by a Fingernail” and the whole band sounded great from the start. “Blood” was the first song they played from their newest album, Secret Love, and they ended up playing the entire record interspersed with some of their (by now) classics.
The eye of Florence Shaw gazes upon us.
“Gary Ashby” was the first of those other tracks, and I’m surprised that fans aren’t showing up in turtle costumes to Dry Cleaning shows by this point. The song is a fan-favorite and is about a lost turtle, after all. The place went nuts for “Scratchcard Lanyard.” “Don’t Press Me” was a solid cut from Secret Love that had everyone agreeing with Florence Shaw.
Lewis Maynard was practically throwing down metal riffs by this point, and Buxton’s drumming was top-notch for the whole set. My favorite part of the show was their stretched-out, psyched-out version of “Conversation” (all the way back to their first EP – Sweet Princess) that ended the main set. It was great to hear them trying a new spin on it.
They closed the show with the funky “Hit My Head All Day,” which had the whole crowd grooving. It’s easy to overlook how good this band is at times, as it’s easy (and fun) to get lost in the stories and mysteries of Shaw’s lyrics. Hearing them live gives you a new appreciation for them. Get your tickets before their next show sells out.
Keep your mind open.
Thanks to the kind gent who let me snap a photograph of this.
Back in 2021, we were just coming out of a catastrophe that shut down the entire world. Everyone was euphoric from being able to get outside and see each other again. We’d seen how gorgeous the Earth is when we all pause and stop screwing with it. Rivers cleared, smog abated, dolphins swam in Venetian canals. We were given a vivid reminder of how vivid the world is.
New Candys are from Venice. Those dolphins might have swam right by their apartment building for all I know. They saw the change in the city, and the world from the pandemic. The clear waters and skies, and all of what had happened and what we lost before, during, and (they saw it coming) after them sureley inspired Vyvyd.
The album starts off with a killer bass line from Alessandro Boschiero on the track “Twin Mime” (a song about suppressed rage and desires finding companionship in them). Fernando Nuti‘s vocals are layered with echo effects, making him sound both present and distant at the same time. “Zyko” is a play on “psycho” and has a bit of grunge guitar flavor from Andrea Volpato. The title “Factice” might be a play on “practice” or “fact is” or “fuck this.” I doubt it has to do with rubberized oil (a “factice” arises from mixing oils with sulphur), but I’m willing to believe it could be a reference to display perfume bottles (“factices”) that are filled with colored water. I’m leaning toward “fact is” or “fuck this” with Nuti’s lyrics of feeling trapped (“We look so sick, I’m gonna lose my mind…Need to get out of here, somewhere to go far from my mind.”) and the lack of accountability by so many (“Are you forgiving what went wrong? I keep forgetting what we want.”).
Volpato’s guitar on “Begin Again” is beautiful and haunting. “Evil Evil” is fuzzy, frantic, fierce garage-psych with blasting guitar work from Nuti and Volpato and a driving, almost relentless beat from Dario Lucchesi. “Vyvyan Rising” has a great sound and feel to it across the whole track and, I think, is about Nuti questioning his faith (“All that I wanna know, are you speaking the truth? When everything around is getting so bright but ends up not being pure white.”).
“Helluva Zoo” slows things down just a touch, adding acoustic guitars to their soundscape. “The Clockmaker” has Nuti musing on how time gets away from us and how precious it is (“I feel lost since I have no memory. We should spend the time ahead as one being.”). The use of a ticking clock sound in this track is a great touch, as loud as a cowbell beat at the right time. “Q&K” stands for “Queen & King” and is about two people trying to find some kind of equilibrium, an allegory for the entire world in 2020 (“Are we alone together?”). The closing track, “Snake Eat Snake,” is about the desire to retreat within, which can eventually lead to a never-ending, meaningless introspection if you’re not careful.
Vyvyd was made during a weird time for weird times (which have only kept coming). Hearing it in 2026 still feels relevant. New Candys are still evoking vivid sounds and memories, and are currently on tour (soon to be at the 2026 Austin Psych Fest, among many other shows).
Leeds quartet Yard Act announce a summer North American tour including stops throughout the West Coast, East Coast and Canada. This marks the band’s first North American run since 2024. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 24th at 10am local time and will be available here. Yard Act will also make several festival appearances across Europe in June and embark on an extensive UK and EU tour in the fall.
Since 2020, Yard Act – frontman and vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell – have become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. They’ve ticked off milestones ranging from a number two UK chart placement and Mercury Prize nomination for The Overload, to a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a string-laden reworking of album closer “100% Endurance,” to multiple UK and US television appearances and beyond. Billboard described their last album, 2024’s Where’s My Utopia?, as “an uplifting and sometimes frenetic mix of trip-hop, dub, bass-and-drum indie rock, electronica, strings and sax punctuated by Smith’s mellifluous speak-singing,” while Under The Radar hailed it’s “an album that overflows, both in excess and excellence.”
Yard Act Tour Dates: (New Dates in Bold) Wed. June 3 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Thu. June 11 – Porto, PT @ Primavera Sound Porto Thu. June 11 – Hradec Králové, CZ @ Rock for People Sun. June 14 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Thu. July 2 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter Wed. Aug. 5 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern Thu. Aug. 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Sat. Aug. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Sun. Aug. 9 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall Mon. Aug. 10 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre Tue. Aug. 11 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl Thu. Aug. 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw Fri. Aug. 14 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat Sat. Aug. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Sun. Aug. 16 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair Thu. Oct. 1 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale Fri. Oct. 2 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique Sat. Oct. 3 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg Mon. Oct. 5 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria-Theater Wed. Oct. 7 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich Thu. Oct. 8 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Music Hall Fri. Oct. 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Kägelbanan Sat. Oct. 10 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA Mon. Oct. 12 – Warsaw, PL @ NIEBO Tue. Oct. 13 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory Wed. Oct. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Fri. Oct. 16 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks Sat. Oct. 17 – Milan, IT @ Magazzini Generali Sun. Oct. 18 – Toulouse, FR @ La Cabane Tue. Oct. 20 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo Wed. Oct. 21 – Madrid, ES @ Teatro Eslava Fri. Oct. 23 – Lisbon, PT @ Cineteatro Capitólio Fri. Nov. 6 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds Fri. Nov. 13 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse Thu. Nov. 26 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
Following the epic conclusion of the Netflix global phenomenon, Emmy-winning composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein (of the band S U R V I V E) return to the stage for the definitive live celebration of the entire saga. This 2026 tour offers a complete sonic retrospective, spanning all five seasons of Stranger Things. From the iconic 2016 opening theme to the climactic sounds of the recently released Season 5, Dixon and Stein bring their atmospheric scores to life. Having recently announced shows in Prague, Brussels, Berlin, Belfast, Birmingham, London, and Fiastra, the duo have now extended their run adding shows in Belgrade, Barcelona, Madrid, Sopot, Sofia, Bratislava, Athens, and Dublin.
To elevate the performance into a fully immersive experience, they have partnered with renowned visual artist MFO (Marcel Weber). The new show features a minimal yet striking design of light and sculpted fog. Light takes on a physical presence through dreamy glows and violent, haunted movements, blurring the line between concert and cinema to make the Stranger Things atmosphere a truly tangible experience.
Tour dates: 10 June – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique 15 June – Berlin, DE – Theater Des Westens 17 June – Belfast, UK – Waterfront Hall 19 June – Birmingham, UK – Symphony Hall 21 June – London, UK – Roundhouse 26 June – Fiastra (MC), IT – Fiastrapalooza Festival 3 September – Belgrade, RS – Drugstore 5 September – Barcelona, ES – Paral·lel 62 8 September – Madrid, ES – The Music Station Príncipe 12 September – Sopot, PL – Brasswood 14 September – Sofia, BU – National Palace of Culture 16 September – Bratislava, SK – Majestic Music Club 19 September – Athens, GR – Hellenic Cosmos 21 September – Dublin, IE – 3Olympia Theatre
In the annals of film and television, certain musical themes manage to transcend the moving image. From the iconic whistle introducing Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme to Tangerine Dream’s “Love On A Real Train,” memorable scores have the uncanny ability to sum up an epoch, an entire aesthetic. The prolific Texan musicians Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein are responsible for a body of work that’s synonymous with the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the supernatural everytown at the center of the Netflix hit Stranger Things. But as the small town becomes the unlikely site for a supernatural battle within the hit series, Dixon and Stein’s soundscapes, too, have expanded in lockstep. In the meantime, Stein and Dixon compose music for feature films, documentary series and large-scale installations and play in the band S U R V I V E. Working in the lineage of predecessors like John Carpenter and contemporary peers like Oneohtrix Point Never, Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein use a lifelong obsession with synthesizers and electronic music as a vehicle for larger-than-life visions.
While Dixon & Stein came to prominence composing music for a series that has become a cultural touchstone, Stranger Things, imagery and setting have always been central to the duo’s practice. In 2009, alongside Mark Donica and Adam Jones, they formed the live synthesizer band S U R V I V E.
Leading up to the formation of the quartet, Dixon and Stein experimented with field recordings, venturing down tunnels and ascending water towers around Austin, Texas, hauling battery-powered modular setups and field recording equipment out to the sorts of places the Stranger Things kids might explore on their bicycles. As opposed to the laptop-based performances common in live electronic music at the time, S U R V I V E hauled a studio’s worth of synthesizers and amplifiers into dive bars for legendary live performances, achieving the ability to fill the room with crushing sound. Whether they knew it or not, with S U R V I V E, Dixon and Stein laid the groundwork for their future as one of the pre-eminent scoring teams of our time. Rather than speaking in musical terms, they’d describe their instrumental synth music with visual cues—a helicopter soaring over a waterfall, a high-speed chase down darkened Los Angeles alleys.
When The Duffer Brothers found the band and tapped Dixon and Stein for work on Stranger Things, the duo rolled their sleeves up, taking on a workload typically handled by a fleet of composers and assistants. As the show gradually transformed from ’80s sci-fi period piece to an expansive supernatural epic, Stein and Dixon rose to the occasion. While their music for early seasons focused on the timeless sound of ’80s analog synthesizers, they’d soon harness melodies and atmospherics befitting Eleven and Mike’s interdimensional struggle. Music is a main character in Stranger Things, with Dixon and Stein’s soundtrack weaving in and out of triumphant, period-appropriate songs like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” That song topped the charts after its pivotal use in season four. Similarly, the duo’s tireless work on Stranger Things catapulted them from underground synth heroes to key composers for modern film and television. Stein and Dixon won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for their work on the show, in addition to nominations for multiple Grammys and ASCAP awards.
For recent seasons of Stranger Things, the duo has worked at a daunting pace, crafting the equivalent of a feature film score every two weeks. Somehow, they’ve also found time to work on multiple feature films in recent years. For Joaquin del Paso’s 2021 independent psychological thriller The Hole In The Fence, Stein and Dixon paid homage to Tomita’s epic synthesizer compositions as well as the pioneering electronic experiments of Oscar Sala. Their score received a Hollywood Music In Media Awards nomination for Best Independent Score, while the film itself premiered at Venice Film Festival and took home best film honors at the Cairo Film Festival. Over the pandemic, Dixon and Stein managed to collaborate remotely with musicians and multiple choirs, even integrating the mysterious and singular sounds of a Bulgarian Women’s Choir into their Meow Wolf score. The duo also composed the score for the 2021 horror-tinged thriller Retaliators, adding to a burgeoning catalog that has placed Stein and Dixon’s soundscapes behind VR-views of the cosmos (Spheres), scenes from ’90s Silicon Valley (Valley Of The Boom), and the journey of an 11-year-old transgender girl (Butterfly), to name just a few.
After this prolific run, Dixon and Stein are simultaneously going back to their roots and embracing new challenges. Currently working out of their respective, hardware-heavy studios in Los Angeles and Austin, they’ll soon reunite with their band, S U R V I V E, for a new album and worldwide touring. At heart, Stein and Dixon are avid students of electronic music history who constantly explore new methods of composition and scoring. While they have a clear facility for soundtracking the supernatural and otherworldly, Stein and Dixon have an equal interest in scoring quieter, decidedly human drama. It’s been a wild decade for Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, who have gone from DIY tinkerers in Austin to introducing a whole new generation to synthesizers via the alchemical combination of sound and moving image. The images have been in their mind all along. Now we just get to watch them.
I’ve long been a fan of DJ John Digweed. His mixing skills are top-notch and he’s one of my biggest influences when I break out my dusty decks. You can imagine my delight when I discovered this Live in Brooklyn Output five-disc collection for sale at a Gilbert, Arizona wrecka stow for twenty bucks. It’s almost a complete eight-hour set by him.
Digweed wastes no time in getting the place moving on the first disc with thumpers like Slow Hearts‘ “Dione” (the “Alexander Aurel She Wasted the Olymp” remix) sounding like something he beamed in from a club in the year 2150. Rampa‘s “Necessity” is a good example of Digweed’s looping skills. His transition from Last of Me‘s “Circle of Life” to the “Jericho Dub” remix of King Roc‘s “The Beginning” is so subtle that you almost don’t notice it. Kevin Yost‘s “Dancer Dancer” might induce a trance.
Tripmastaz‘s “Blossomz” starts off disc two with bass designed to get your hips and shoulders shaking. You can hear the crowd cheering as he quiets Rampa‘s “The Touch” and almost turns it into a motorik track. Lopezhouse‘s “Crosses & Angels” (the “Guy J” dub featuring Angela) smoothly rolls into the “Drifter” remix of “Let Your Body Control the Beat” by ZK Bucket. Isaac Tichauer‘s “Higher Level” (the “Bicep” remix) is another lesson in beat-looping. The Justin Martin remix of Claptone‘s “The Music Got Me” ups the bass and the team-up of Adam Port (who remixes the tune) and Stereo MCs on “Changes” will possibly have you tripping by this point.
The dub version of Collective Machine and Philipp Straub‘s “Revolution of House” is an early banger on disc three and slides right into Mia Lucci‘s sexy “Audrey Hepburn.” The Nick Curly remix of “It’s Time” by Gorge goes from house to haunted house and back again. The hand percussion on Inaky Garcia and Luisen‘s “Chimisi” is a neat addition to the beats in the set. Saints & Sinners‘ “Pushin’ Too Hard” (remixed by Guy Mantzur) is a perfect “chill house” track that’s ideal for the second act of this mammoth set by Digweed. He gives you time to adjust your posture, hydrate, find another spot on the floor, or just slow down your groove for a couple moments. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
You’ll need that breather for the start of disc four and Darren Emerson‘s “Osaka rework” of “Fanfare” by Mr. Emerson, Mr. Digweed, and Muir. The hot synths and electronic hi-hat sizzle across the floor-filling beats on it. We reach a weird euphoria just a couple tracks later on the “Love Over Entropy Repatterning” (whatever that is) of Fabio Montana‘s “Ortygia.” “Chirality” by DJ Tennis is another thumping bumper of a track that practically crawls into the pajamas of Mantzur’s “Blooming Fields.”
Disc five starts with the nearly ten-minute-long “2 Miles Away” by Rodriguez Jr. I’m sure the audience at Brooklyn’s Output club were somewhere between raved-out bliss and desperately wanting and needing some eggs and hash browns by now, so Digweed gives them a late night / early morning dream track with “Jetlag” by Tiefschwarz and Ruede Hagelstein. The rolling synth-bass of André Galluzzi‘s “Bold” is great and will wake you right up if you’re dragging from dancing all night. The crowd is still cheering, whistling, and jumping during Citizenn‘s “Confide.” They give him a loud send-off as he closes with Ian O’Donovan‘s “Seeker.”
It’s a stunning recording, and a clinic on how to put together a mammoth set.
Under the alias Rare DM, Erin Hoagg crafts dark pop music steeped in allure. Today, the New York City-based synthesist, songwriter, and visual sorcerer announces her full-length Attention, out May 29, 2026. She has also shared the single “Compliment,” premiering on METAL Magazine with an exclusive interview and photo spread. It explores the confusing validation of being flirted with while in a relationship, vocals shifting between abruptness and delicacy over a choppy dance beat. Accompanied by an otherworldly video directed by Lisa Saeboe and edited by Hoagg, this is a mesmerizing introduction to Attention’s sexy, enveloping world.
On the single, Rare DM shares:“’Compliment’ started with writing lyrics with my Juno 60, using twisting bouncy arpeggiators and chopping up my original vocals into rhythmic stabs.
“It is inspired by when you are in a relationship, and someone who you had eyes for (before meeting your s/o) suddenly pays attention to you. I was sent a suggestive message from someone, and wasn’t single anymore. As the lyrics share: ‘don’t you worry about it for a second, I can take a compliment’ because hey, I don’t want them to feel embarrassed or bad, they didn’t know that I met someone! This all being said… I can’t control if they are thinking of me. ‘You can’t have it… but you can imagine it'”
On the video, director Lisa Saeboe expands: “I wanted “Compliment” to feel like a surrealist journey through the unconscious, utilizing mirrors, repetition, and portals to create a simulacra of modern day loneliness and desire.
“Compliment'” is also a love letter to artists that have helped shape my own visual language. We start the video with a reference to the Rokeby Venus by Diego Velásquez, the dreamy beach landscape inspired by experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, followed by Caravaggio’s Narcissus gazing into the pool, and of course the multiple echoes or Rare DM ascending the stairs à la Eadweard Muybridge. I’ve always thought of Rare DM as Man Ray’s ideal muse, whose work also helped establish the tone for the video.”
Following their packed-out first EU and UK headline tour last month, Dead Pioneers, the Indigenous fronted band from Denver, are now preparing to unleash their third album, Wagon Burner, set for release June 26th via Hassle Records. Succeeding the album’s first statement with initial single “Nazi Teeth,” a powerful attack on the upsurge of the far right and white supremacists, Dead Pioneers are back with a second single, “No Kings,” that delivers an equally powerful punch to right wing politics.
“Last summer there were protests all over the United States called ‘No Kings’, in opposition of the current administration, the policies they’ve been implementing, and the rights they’ve been taking away from citizens,” explains frontman Gregg Deal. “While the issues are obvious, it’s important that we all say it out loud. It’s important that we show up and make our opinions known, that we won’t allow our inherent rights to be trampled upon for the benefit of the Epstein Class. Not unlike ‘Nazi Teeth’, ‘No Kings’ is meant to bring the points home,” he continues. “ICE, rights being taken away, mass shootings, greed over life, demonizing immigrants, black, brown and queer people, widened economic gaps by the Epstein class, and the sincere frustration Americans feel over this. While this is happening, we realize that the right-wing politics coming out of the United States is emboldening conservative right-wing politics all over the world. We are against dictators, authoritarian regimes, Nazis, fascism or any other power structure, political, social or otherwise that seek to take away the rights, freedoms or lives of human beings trying to live their life. To that, we keep it simple: NO KINGS.”
Dead Pioneers is rooted in a 2020 piece called The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy, a deeply personal work that dealt with Deal’s upbringing. Following an embryonic performance of the piece, Deal secured a grant to expand it to include music created especially for the work. “The idea was to mix spoken word with punk music,” explains Deal, who hooked up with drummer Shane Zweygardt and guitarist Joshua Rivers during lockdown and began kicking the concept around.
A miraculous, natural chemistry made this supposed one-off project an actual band almost as soon as they cut what became their 2023 eponymous debut album (“We approached it like I approach my visual art: execute quickly, first thought is best thought,” Deal says), but they didn’t necessarily take it seriously until, unexpectedly, the outside world did. “I was like, we’ve made this record – what should I do with it? Put it online?” Deal remembers. The response was vigorously positive and soon came demands to commit this noise to vinyl. A first thousand-copy pressing sold out in minutes. “So, then we pressed another thousand,” he adds, still marvelling at it all. “And then they were gone, too.”
What followed was “a series of strange accidents” that led to the group signing to Hassle, befriending Jello Biafra and touring with kindred spirits like Pennywise, Propaghandi, even Pearl Jam. “Punk-rock had made everything seem so accessible when I was a kid,” says Deal. “Like, simply having the balls to get up on stage and stage dive and then be carried off by people that become your best friends once they get your feet back on the ground.” Now, punk-rock was reaching out its hands to Dead Pioneers and pulling them onto larger and larger stages. The group returned that favour by simply getting better and better: their second album, 2025’s PO$T AMERICAN, was sharper, angrier, funnier than the debut, a riot riveted with punch-a-Nazi thrills.
And now, Wagon Burner, their fearsome third album. Described by Deal as “more collaborative”, it’s a heavier, harder but also more accessible set, vicious hooks scattered among the punk-rock melee and guest appearances by kindred spirits Cheap Perfume (on the righteous “Nazi Teeth”), The Interrupters (on the shout-a-long anthem “Never Alone”) and, bringing it back to the group’s beginnings, Sleaford Mods (on the searing slow-burn of “The Worst Among Us”). The world might be darkening by the day, but Dead Pioneers are rising to that miserable occasion, casting their empowering light into the gloom.
Follow Dead Pioneers here. Pre-order ‘Wagon Burner’ coming out June 26 via Hassle Records here.
