If It's Too Loud...

STL GLD have been consistently great for eleven years now, and this year is no exception with Good Music for Bad Kids. The Boston hip hop group have always had a diverse and unique sound, but this latest album expands on their sound even further. Somehow, they go even further into both their punk and pop sides while still releasing a fully hip hop album. One thing you simply can't deny about Good Music for Bad Kids is how dark the album is. Even "80's Babies," possibly the biggest party banger on the album, has a very dark tone to it. Plus, the album features a ton of guest spots from Boston artists as diverse as ToriTori, Naomi Westwater, Oompa, Cakeswagg, Emi McSwain, and more. A lot of us have been angry this year, and STL GLD are here to help us channel that anger into a party in a way I haven't seen since the glory days of Public Enemy.  Songs of note: "80's Babies," "The Get Up Kids," "Dances with Wolves," and "Or Maybe...

Hailing from Mexico, Sunset Images have a new noise rock single out. "El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Inicio (Tommy)" is both surprisingly accessible and out there as far as noise rock is concerned. It's a driving song that maintains a steady pace, and while the song is chaotic, it's controlled chaos. You spend the majority of the song waiting for it to erupt fully, and when it never does, you start to relax and enjoy the song for what it is. And then it bursts out into more of a cacophony than you were prepared for. "El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Inicio (Tommy)" reminds me of Sonic Youth's darker, earlier days merged with their more slick later years. You can listen to "El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Inicio (Tommy)" below. Oscilador is due out January 23 on Dedstrange, and is available for pre-order here . For more on Sunset Images, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram .

Photo by Clark Hodgin For their latest single, The Nude Party are mixing up the alt-country genre. "Honey for the Barflies" has all of the twang and honkey tonk sound you'd expect from an alt-country song. It's a rollicking and fun song, made even more so by the keyboards that sound more like something from The Cars or Elvis Costello & The Attractions than your favorite country musicians. I personally expect a song called "Honey for the Barflies" to be a lot of fun, and The Nude Party deliver than in excess. This is a dancing song, and it's basically impossible to sit or stand still while this one is playing. Patton McGee says of his band's latest single: "A bartender friend of mine was describing the older gentlemen who come into the bar day after day looking to talk to her. She had become exasperated by the constant attention and blurted out 'I just feel like honey for barflies.  I thought that was a clever little phrase and started br...

Lady Pills, the musical project of Boston's Ella Boissonnault, hits this delightful spot between indie rock and pop. Her latest album, Renowned in the Roaring Twenties , is an upbeat album filled with eleven of the catchiest songs of 2025. The songs cover a wide range of sounds, from the pop of "BN2B" to the alt-rock of "Didn't You" to the New Wave of "Out Into the Open" to the dance banger of "Sink the Ship." Lady Pills takes all of these musical styles and blends them into one cohesive sound. All of the songs on Renowned in the Roaring Twenties sound unique but also like they belong together. Plus, you get some of our favorite guest stars with Will Dailey and Sadie Dupuis on songs. This is an album that brought me some true joy this year at times when I needed music to be fun. Songs of note: "BN2B," "Didn't You," "Right Track," and "Sink the Ship"

Back in 2021, as we slowly exited the pandemic doldrums, we were gifted an album of Nick Cave covers by The Flaming Lips with then-14-year-old Lips fan Nell Smith. That album, Where the Viaduct Looms , was a favorite of mine that year and I waited somewhat impatiently for a proper album from the young woman at the center of it all. We got that album this year in Anxious , a record that, in so many ways, cannot and will never be separated by the way it came into existence. In so many ways, Anxious is an album that grapples with modern teenage life in a way a 44-year-old man will never fully understand, but is so musically mature that it is truly shocking that someone in their middle teen years put it together so well. With that maturity, however, comes some true sadness, as it was the release of this album that made me aware that she passed away in a car accident in late 2024 . This album was mostly complete at the time, so it's very much a last will and testament of an artist ...

Spaghetty Town Records are one of the premier rock and roll labels around these days, so you know when they have a new release it's going to be great. Their latest is from The Stripp. The Australian band's latest single, "If You Want Me," is straightforward rock and roll without any excesses. It's garage rock laced with punk and power pop, which is a perfect mixture around these parts. This is driving rock music that's sneakily catchy, and all around great.  You can watch the video for "If You Want Me" below. Life Imitates Art is due out January 23 on Spaghetty Town Records, Ghost Highway Recordings, and Beluga Records. For more on The Stripp, check out the band on Instagram and Facebook .

Photo by Brian Karlsson I first discovered They Are Gutting a Body of Water earlier this year at Something in the Way, and was blown away by the Philadelphia band's unique blend of shoegaze. They also released the excellent album LOTTO  back in October, which has been in heavy rotation here. I always prefer to see bands play their own shows, so when it was announced that TAGABOW were playing Arts at the Armory, I knew I had to check it out. TAGABOW have one of the more unique stage set ups. Instead of setting up on the venue's high stage at the front of the room, they were on a small stage in the center of the floor, just inches off the ground. It created a much more intimate setting than a normal concert, with a good portion of the audience being mere feet, if not inches, from the performers.  Shoegaze can be a very repetitive genre, but not the way TAGABOW does it. Instead of the standard loud/quiet/loud format, they do more of a beautiful/heavy/interesting/weird breakdown. ...

Model/Actriz started out in Boston and have since relocated to Brooklyn. We'll try not to hold that against them, especially when they're releasing albums like Pirouette. The album is a collection of nine songs that are equally beautiful and punishing. It's probably best described as post-punk meets noise rock, but that is just a surface description. The songs on Pirouette  are shockingly dance friendly. I was lucky enough to attend two of their live shows this year, and songs like "Cinderella" and "Diva" are perfect for an audience to dance and/or mosh to. You know how a lot of people refer to moshing as dancing? At a Model/Actriz show, that's actually what's happening. I truly can't think of any other band that makes music this intense that you can fully dance to. If you haven't listened to Pirouette yet, give yourself plenty of room and crank this fully. Songs of note: "Vespers," "Cinderella," "Audience," ...

Back before Kathleen Edwards took some time away from music to run a coffee shop, she had a song called "Empty Threat," with a chorus that threatened a move to America. Her well-received return to music in 2022 was cathartic in its own way, but Billionaire is the alt-country favorite following through on that threat with great results. Billionaire tells a much different story than what she's given us in the past. "Say Goodbye, Tell No One" feels like a confession, "Need a Ride" a way to grapple with one's new home and all the contradictions that come along with it, and "FLA" alongside the title track an admittance that she's come a long way from the Canadian hockey-loving singer-songwriter we all fell in love with 20-odd years ago. This is not damning it with faint praise; Billionaire is perhaps her best record since Asking for Flowers and I say that as someone who believes she hasn't even come close to offering a bad ef...

Photo by Dee Dee Kohl Horace Pinker are a Chicago punk band that had Chris Bauermeister of Jawbreaker as a member from 1998-2001, and almost included comedian Kyle Kinane before he moved to L.A. to pursue comedy. They just released their first full length album since 2011, and have a new single out. "Three Against Me" is a great straight up punk rock song with some inflections of 90's midwestern emo. It's a killer song, and it's undeniably catchy. This is the kind of song that will make you wonder how you've never heard of Horace Pinker before, and have you dying to hear their new album as much as their long term diehard fans are. The band says of their new album: “Horace Pinker returns with  Now and the Future , our first full-length since 2011. Driven by punchy rhythms, sharp melodies, and our signature energy, the record reflects how we continue to evolve while staying true to our punk roots.” You can watch the video for "Three Against Me" below. ...

It's December, so that means it's time for Sara Noelle's annual holiday single. As always, the 2025 edition is stellar with an original song, "I Am Falling Snow," and a cover of "Winter Wonderland." The original sees Noelle drifting off in a somewhat new direction. The song is more of an ambient track with vocals. The softness of the song seems to mimic the feeling of a snowstorm. It feels like how everything seems to slow down and grow more quiet as the snow is falling, particularly at night. It's a gorgeous and lush track that's more winter than holiday. Noelle's version of "Winter Wonderland" is an ambient meets jazz version of the Christmas classic. It's very restrained and lovely, with some jazz style horn joining Noelle's vocals. Not many artists can take a traditional holiday song and experiment this much with it while still keeping the soul of the classic versions intact. You can listen to "I Am Falling Snow...

I first discovered Folk Bitch Trio back in summer 2024 with their single "God's a Different Sword." The Naarm/Melbourne trio blew me away with their sound that's equally modern folk-pop and traditional folk, and I was dying to hear more from them. The true magic of Folk Bitch Trio are the harmonies between Grace Sinclair, Jeanie Pilkington, and Heide Peverelle. The three take turns on lead vocals, and every song on Now Would Be a Good Time  has a magical, mesmerizing quality. Each single blew me away more and more as they were released, and the album has been on heavy repeat once it was released in July. (And even heavier repeat since the CD has been in my car stereo since August.) Folk Bitch Trio are an artist that is on the cusp of breaking out huge, and a string of festival dates this summer (they're already announced for Green River Festival in June) could very well put them over the edge.  Songs of note: "God's a Different Sword," "Hotel TV...

Aesop Rock has been in the game for close to three decades now, and still remains at the top of the more underground / independent scene. I honestly don't know why he's not everyone's favorite rapper, but (especially in the last few years) he's become one of mine, and Black Hole Superette , one of two albums he released this year, is Aesop Rock at his best. Aesop Rock's more recent albums have been thematically aligned in scope, even when they somewhat veer from the topic. Black Hole Superette definitely gives off the sort of vaporwave vibes that play well in some circles, but I'm personally more impressed by his continued ability to put together ideas in such a complicated delivery at one moment before jumping in with a song about forever-multiplying snails in the next. The unexpectedness is as enjoyable as the journey, and I went back to this album so much over the year that it was impossible for me not to consider it a favorite. Songs of note:...

"All queer, all female" band WENCH! have teamed up with party punk Jodie Langford on a new single. "You've Got Male" is a blistering take-down is about "... misogynistic mole-rats who hold women at an unattainably high standard due to their perception of femininity being affected by unrealistic media imagery." As angry and fiery as the song is, it's also fun. It's like they combined Bikini Kill and Le Tigre into one kick ass band. "You've Got Male" mocks their deserved targets, and would leave many of them crying if they were self-aware enough. It also ends up being one of the most punk rock tracks of the year, released as 2025 is winding down. Jodie Langford says of the new single: “ it’s not often I want to collaborate, so to get the opportunity to spend time in the studio with WENCH!, a band whose message & ethos I strongly agree with, was a real treat! I’ve gotten used to working with a producer of late, so it was eye-open...