Up-and-coming indie quartet Nicotine Dolls take their name from an epithet the band's members coined to describe a particular breed of anti-social partygoer who would rather retreat to outdoor solitude for a quick drag than endure a crowd, so it's a bit ironic that the band is perhaps best known in the public eye for similarly shunning the limelight.
"Schedule I," much like its parent album, is an unadulterated expression of Norman Sann's sharp, consistently refreshing approach to the rap game. Even when tackling topics as well-documented in the genre sphere as attraction or popularity, Sann never falters in wielding language like a saber, with a keen command of wordplay refined to an acute edge.
Earlier this week, Vancouver-based Indie darlings Peach Pit dropped their new track "Magpie" in advance of its eagerly anticipated, similarly titled parent album. Magpie's October 25th release will be the band's most recent since 2022's From 2 to 3, with this titular single being their first musical offering since that album's "Vicky." "Magpie" sees Peach Pit - who have previously characterized their music as "chewed bubblegum pop" - coloring their trademark aesthetics with layers of rich harmonic fuzz. No pun intended.
"Clean," a dreamy indie delight courtesy of Brooklyn-based bedroom pop artisans Pon Far (Star Trek please save your knowing looks), is a paragon of its genre.
While the original "Love Insurrection" was in and of itself a trippy, funky feather in Primal Scream's cap, Black Science Orchestra's take is a welcome, nostalgic trip back to the sounds that brought both artists to the fore. More than that, it's also proof that regardless of disparities in time or genre, there's something irresistible at the core of Primal Scream's sound that is immediately and distinctly theirs from iteration to iteration.
"Claw Foot" ... is a tightly constructed and eminently catchy exemplar of Royel Otis' sterling approach to alt-pop/rock. The song's bass-heavy rhythmic figure and chimey guitars are immediately evocative of genre paragons like Joy Division and The Cure, while it's breakneck pace and chanted chorus keep things sounding fresh and the energy high.
"Like I Say (I runaway)" is the sort of song that one thinks they've might have heard a million times, when in fact they've never heard it at all, in the same way that genius feels obvious in hindsight.
... OB's exultations are put forward with an delicacy found in the most effervescent indie pop. The end result feels at once relaxed and celebratory: a perfect portmanteau of Afrobeat jubilation and Indie contemplation.
...Gabriel's effort is both topically and musically meditative, calling attention to the mechanical complexity and humanitarian pathos of the matter at hand without devolving into the paranoia that often accompanies artistic appraisals of the looming specter of the digital future.
Stung!, like most of the band's repertoire, is an trippy blend of a myriad of musical elements, but "Neon City" is classic, raw Pond. One can hear in it everything that makes the group and its various sister-acts great.
Robert Ellis Orrall,“Where Do We Go From Here”Fixation RecordsRelease Date: March 27, 2026 There is a specific kind of songwriter...
Propelled forward by a steady, demure drum groove and rounded out by silky-smooth bass licks and vibrant keys, the various elements of "Set Your Spirit Free" weave a light-as-air, jazz-style tapestry in which every individual thread feels like lead line unto itself, while remaining inherently laced to the others in service of the greater whole.











