'Many of the songs Xiu Xiu have chosen are songs of heartbreak, defiance, or despair. Richard Foster peels back the multiple layers of this collection of heavenly covers belted out as if at a karaoke bar in Hell' Covers Album of the week: Xiu Xiu’s Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1 buff.ly/2k64Hsg

The only problem with BlueSky is that no cunt's fucking on it. Which is a pain when you've got some amazing personal news to share. Suffice to say: our movie's incredible soundtrack album, from the one & only Barry Adamson, has just landed from Mute, the world's coolest record label. Beyond stoked.

JULIANNA BARWICK and MARY LATTIMORE “Tragic Magic” (InFiné) www.juliannabarwick.bandcamp.com Analogue improv fostering pastoral voyages, Lattimore’s harps and Barwick’s synthesized choirs unite floating auras swaying in dainty cages.

Mitski announces, Nothing's About to Happen to Me — out Feb 27th via @deadoceans.bsky.social — and releases its lead single, “Where’s My Phone?” Nothing’s About to Happen to Me finds Mitski immersing herself in a rich narrative whose main character is a reclusive woman in an unkempt house.

Ratboys Present New Single “The World, So Madly” New Album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair, Out February 6th via New West Records Thu. April 16 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line • Fri. April 17 - Madison, WI @ Atwood Music Hall • Sat. April 18 - Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre

A tender, deeply personal track that is written by bandmember Sadam’s cousin Eyadou Ag Leche of Tinariwen in memory of his late mother, “Adounia Tochal” is a quiet expression of love and gratitude, carried by the band’s warm, unhurried desert-blues pulse. From Essam, out this Friday via City Slang

Apr 13 - Madison, WI @highnoonmadison.bsky.social

London-based slowcore/post-rock quartet deathcrash have announced their highly new album Somersaults, due February 27th via untitled (recs). Alongside the announcement they’ve shared the title track, which opens the record with a nostalgic, optimistic tone

"Oh sweet kid, well this life belongs to you." Watch the official lyric video for 'Sweet Kid', out now. Suede.lnk.to/SweetKidVideo - SuedeHQ

The talented Avanti Piano Trio delighted the audience at the Hamel Music Center with a wonderful focus on under appreciated women composers.

Bob Weir, a founding member of countercultural icons the Grateful Dead known for his singular guitar playing, emotive singing and vibrant songwriting, has died at 78. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

guitar virtuoso Julian Lage has shared his new single, “Night Shade,” available everywhere today via Blue Note Records. An official live performance video is streaming now on YouTube. “Night Shade” is from Lage’s fifth full-length Blue Note release, Scenes From Above, arriving Friday, January 23rd.

DRY CLEANING “Secret Love” (@4ad.com) www.drycleaningband.com Crafted collapse with cat and mouse tactics shifting in hypnotic dissonance, Dry Cleaning’s inspired pariah perspective frames beautifully fringe opinions within arc-welded weirdness.

“‘Always The Same' needed a little more elbow room than the album would allow but it is cousin to the song cycle of Michelangelo Dying... Special to me because it features dear friend St. Vincent who occupies the space around me with composure & gravitas...” Cate LeBon plays MKE’s Vivarium 1/23/26!

Blackwater Holylight have established a mammoth presence in Los Angeles, after cutting their teeth in Portland, Oregon. On January 30, 2026, the celestial hard rockers will release Not Here Not Gone via Suicide Squeeze Records. Even in thunderous moments, like the psychedelic third single “Bodies,”

THE TWILIGHT SAD ANNOUNCE FIRST NEW ALBUM IN SEVEN YEARS IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE SCOTTISH POST-PUNK OUTFIT ALSO SHARE NEW SINGLE “DESIGNED TO LOSE”

Buck Meek of Big Thief Announces New Album, The Mirror, out February 27th via @4ad.com Listen to Lead Single, “Gasoline”

The Reds, Pinks & Purples – the acclaimed indie pop project spearheaded by prolific San Francisco-based singer-songwriter and musician Glenn Donaldson – have shared their gorgeously bittersweet new single, “New Leaf,” available everywhere now via Fire Records.

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe blew the roof off @majesticmadison.bsky.social with funk soul jams that uplifted and empowered. Perfect way to kick off 2026!

"Maduro is a brutal authoritarian dictator," I wisely intone, as the corrupt demented paedophile US President violating Constitutional Law while operating a gestapo and concentration camps illegally arrests a foreign leader on charges which read like they were written on a paper placemat in crayon.

wee-woo wee-woo paging dr. christmas 🎄🩺 on.soundcloud.com/R57rFImL6HMX...

Robert Fripp: Silent Night - originally released as a flexi-disc with Chicago based Praxis Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3 December, 1979 www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAE...

2025 wasn’t the stick in mud some people thought…

2025 if you could have gone to only one show that month what would that show have been? Jan Georgie Greep Feb SPACE (R Mitchell) March - The Bevis Frond April The Weather Stn May - Courting June - I’m with Her Jul- Kaki King Aug Editrix Sept - mum Oct - Beta Band Nov - The Beths Dec - Miguel Zenon

@soulcoughing.bsky.social lit up @thesylvee.bsky.social Last Saturday's Arctic blast was no match for these nineties icons with hip-hop bossa novas growing from sugar-free boogie. The squares were nowhere there.

@madisonsymphony.bsky.social’s The Hunt Quartet put on a beautiful program of Ravel and Schubert @artlitlab.bsky.social

more eaze announces new album sentence structure in the country Out on Mar. 20th, 2026 via @thrilljockey.bsky.social Listen to first "bad friend" featuring Wendy Eisenberg

No Off - the new single from multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performing member of The Smile Robert Stillman. From, '10,000 Rivers' out 9th January on Orindal/Kit Records Sculpture and film concept by Robert Stillman

Farewell to the great Joe Ely, a pioneer of progressive country with the Flatlanders who sowed the seeds of Americana by touring with such rockers as the Clash in the early 1980s. variety.com/2025/music/o...

@soulcoughing.bsky.social was in excellent form @thesylvee.bsky.social - an extremely tight unit lunging in funky hip-hop bop, sizzling indie-rock irony and crowd-pleasing teases.

Julian Lage has shared his latest single, “Talking Drum,” available everywhere today via @bluenoterecords.bsky.social. “Talking Drum” is from Lage’s fifth full-length Blue Note release, Scenes From Above, which arrives on Friday, January 23, 2026.

Colleen, aka multi-instrumentalist Cécile Schott, has announced her new album Libres antes del final, out March 20th, 2026. Along with the album's announcement, Schott has shared the clarion single "Antídoto," a sparkling whirlwind of synthesis.

Cast Unveil Anthemic New Single ‘Free Love’ Ahead of New Album ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ www.xsnoize.com/cast-unveil-...

JOE JACKSON SHARES FIRST SINGLE FROM UPCOMING NEW ROCK RECORD "WELCOME TO BURNING-BY-SEA" STREAMING NOW - LISTEN NEW ALBUM, HOPE AND FURY, ARRIVING APRIL 10, 2026 Joe plays Madison’s @orpheummadison.bsky.social May 22nd 2026

Azaman Amoutay by Imarhan is out now! youtu.be/Uwy5NGxWsgo?... A track where Tuareg melodies meet a contemporary pulse. Third single from Essam, out Jan 16, 2026, on City Slang

Shasta youtu.be/aS9Qu5AT7bw?... by Modern Nature

Blackwater Holylight have forged a heavy presence in the Los Angeles underground, following a move from Portland, Oregon. On January 30, 2026, the dreamy hard rock trio will share the full-length Not Here Not Gone via Suicide Squeeze Records.

Wingra Wind Quintet @chazenartuw.bsky.social

@miguelzenon.bsky.social and Luis Perdomo graced @artlitlab.bsky.social with bright melodies, fluid improvisation and delightful boleros for an incredible evening of Latin jazz.

MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER “Unclouded” (@dominorecordco.bsky.social) www.melodysechochamber.com Brightly painted elation from a clairvoyant clarion. Melody Prochet’s silky gloss gets tossed into finger-snapping jazz drumming, funk-truncated tentacles whose persuasive placement bounces

April 17th 2026 @ratboysband.bsky.social play Madison WI’s Atwood Music Hall What’s Right?: youtu.be/-6OiASeY-As?...

The Bevis Frond announce new album ‘Horroful Heights’, listen to the teaser video: youtu.be/yrnoOAd-PeU?...

She Died on Christmas Day: youtu.be/jvzpTMktrsI?... @thecoral.bsky.social

'Hourglass' is Antibalas through and through: no novelties, no gimmicks, all consummate professionalism. That is a comfort. Out now via @daptonerecords.bsky.social REVIEW: tinyurl.com/Antibalas25

La Pucelle fired up Woodstock’s The Colony with blazing Balkan frenzied flamenco and good ol’ rock and roll showmanship!

Have resisted Chicago’s big for me Salt Shed but @thebeths.bsky.social AND Squirrel Flower? Color me there!

@thebeths.bsky.social pulled out all the stops and put on a great show @ The Salt Shed - my first time at the Shed and third time seeing these power pop phenoms - jump rope gazers indeed!

Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81