I picked up vinyl by three great bands playing BFF in October: Snowing, Penfold, and Empire Empire (I Was a Lonely Estate!). Long live CYLS.

2023’s ‘Secret Measure’ was one of my top albums of that year. It’s looking like their latest will be ranked similarly. The twins sound lusher than ever without sacrificing their signature sparseness. The musical equivalent of a deep exhale with your feet in wet sand on a brisk morning.

I wake up, I post bangers. You wake up, the splendor of your legacy radiant, evident to all who behold it, shimmering in the new dawn, present to its moment. we are not the same

Jim still performs in town both solo and with a band, putting a smile on everyone’s face with effortless charm. Legendary indeed!

Happy day 🩷🩵🤍 @homeiswhereforever.bsky.social @katiedey.bsky.social @anjimile.bsky.social @futureteens.bsky.social @leftatlondon.com and so many more

One of the best collabs in my collection. Via @joyfulnoiserecs.bsky.social in 2018, @nojoy.bsky.social & Kember are firing on all cylinders here, sculpting an intoxicating sound completely its own playing to both artists’ strengths. I wish it was an LP, but sometimes scarcity amplifies power.

Caught it at a film fest last year. I was grinning ear to ear the entire runtime. It’s STUPID how good it is.

‘Vol. II: Splendour & Obedience’ by Decius (out now via @theleaflabel.com) conjures up a specific memory for me. I was a teenager at a Fischerspooner show (yes I’m old now) and there was one guy there dancing with such aggression and precision, dressed like Crispín Glover in ‘Back to the Future.’

I love this record and now I love Spectral Nights.

Hey @polyvinyl.bsky.social is it too late to reunite The Ivory Coast for Best Friends Forever Fest? Maybe 2026 then? I love this album so much.

I’m always scouring Bandcamp for new local Minneapolis releases. Here’s one that caught my ear this week: feels like a track off it belongs on the ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’ soundtrack, which I spun so hard back in the day. Killer out-of-time (double pun intended) jangle pop.

My buddy @daniel-wipert.bsky.social started an Instagram channel sharing rad songs from new and old underrated artists. His taste is 🤌 so give him a follow! Link: rb.gy/opqxaky

‘Subminiature’ by @hourdayweek.bsky.social (via @dearliferecs.bsky.social) is a stark delight of neo-classical compositions both outwardly moving and inwardly subtle. Woodwinds glide along clean electric guitars and charmingly skittering percussion. A bold, inviting collection of live recordings.

Ahhhh she is so cool

Thx Mol and The Alternative for turning me on to more great non-binary music. Love the line “it’s a reminder to carve out space for joy, for expression, for survival—daily—to love in these moments of unknowing and to embrace what we have.” 🖤💛💜

‘Be the Light On’ by @reallygreatband.bsky.social (out now via Disposable America) is a power pop powder keg of a record with riffs blazing & sweetness in spades. Buzzing distortion & infectious hooks at a ramshackle pace, this sophomore effort retains the energy of their debut while still maturing.

An absolute banger. Same songwriter as “Crying in the Club,” “Genie in a Bottle,” “Breakeven,” and “Physical!” Steve Kipner get on Bluesky!

Oooooh great record! Happy Valentine’s Day to me 💝 a happily married person who remembers brooding loneliness soundtracked by Benton Falls a little well

‘Enter Now Brightness’ by Nadia Reid (out now via @chrysalisrecs.bsky.social) is the kind of soulful, hopeful, & thoughtful neo-folk LP that hits hard at times like this. The world in tatters, this is the best possible counterprogramming to the bluster on TV & in Washington. The ultimate balm.

13 Songs (1989) - In On The Kill Taker (1993) Discreet Music (1975) - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) Daydream Nation (1988) - Experimental Jet Set, Trash, & No Star (1994) Rounds (2003) - Pink (2012)

It’s winter and infrastructures are collapsing, so you better believe the high school friend group chat is once again relitigating Kid A vs. OK Computer vs. In Rainbows (yes somehow there are multiple people I call lifelong friends who believe IN RAINBOWS is their best record)

‘honey from a winter stone’ by Ambrose Akinmusire (out now via @nonesuch.com) is an engrossing, expansive LP from the one-of-kind trumpeter. Billowing dark nightclub vignettes collide with urgent but effortless spoken word & cascading pianos & strings. Jazz with nerve, improvisations with verve.

This is me but I forgot to inform my editors who I am on Bluesky. Anyway, great record!

We lost an all-timer this week. I haven’t had the words, so here is a playlist instead:

‘An Unbearable Weight’ by @arlengunclub.bsky.social is one of those emo EPs where the songs are so gnarly & relistenable that it’s like the band used their scrappy powers to compress the energy & catharsis of an entire LP into 15 concentrated minutes of heart pummeling. So yeah, it’s sick.

‘Lucid Dreams’ by Chihei Hatakeyama (out now via @firstterrace.bsky.social) is another deep ambient banger from a long-reliable artist. An incredible balance of blissed out and plaintive, inviting and aspirational. With gorgeous, ethereal vocal features from Nailah Hunter & Cucina Povera to boot!

An inspiration. Sad to see it go but nothing but love to musicheads following their hearts. 💕

Maybe my favorite music read of 2025 so far. Reading about someone listening to ‘Amplified Heart’ and ‘Crumble’ for the first time is almost as good as hearing these records for the first time all over again yourself. Now to dive back and read the others in the series…

‘Sol y Sombra’—the 4th LP by @rosecityband.bsky.social (out now via @thrilljockey.bsky.social)—is a lush & sunny collection of Americana perfect for a desert road trip in an unwashed pickup. Pedal steel swirls, dusty snare gallops, & piano/organ flutters make for a relaxing January facing West.

With each spin I become a little more certain that ‘Cooler Returns’ by Kiwi Jr. is still the best @subpop.bsky.social release of the decade so far.

‘The Bad Fire’ by @mogwai.scot (out now via @tempresltd.bsky.social) is the legendary post rock band’s best effort in over a decade. I remember interviewing Stuart in college for campus radio & the warmth he emanated. I feel that in synths & spades on this new LP, which the world needs right now.

‘into a pretty room’ by lots of hands (out now via @firetalkrecs.bsky.social) straddles the line between familiar art folk of the 00s and something more avant, more unnerving about their brand of intentionally dusty, warped bedroom pop. It’s lived in but also alien, rustic but also from the future.

Sophie Jamieson’s new LP ‘I still want to share’ (out via @bellaunion.bsky.social) is lyrically sly, melodically moving, & delicately soaring. A tremendous sophomore effort from an artist who sounds like they’ve spent a century recording string sections in abandoned castles. And that voice! Chills.

New release day! Ethel Cain (Dirge Pop), Lambrini Girls (Post Punk), Aren’t We Amphibians (Emo), Brigid Mae Power (Avant Folk), Tha God Fahim (Hip Hop), Ismatic Guru (Egg Punk), Stick to Your Guns (Post-Hardcore), Moonchild Sannelly (Dance Pop), Skinner (No Wave), Zzzahara (Dream Pop)

Now Playing: ‘Nobody Can Take What Everybody Owns’ by Waxwing on Second Nature Recordings (2002). I could listen to Rocky’s voice all day. I’ll stop holding my breath for a reunion, but I’d love to hear these songs live solo, maybe in 2027 for a 25th anniversary tour? 🙏

Hey @sheaserrano.bsky.social I was going thru the books in my classroom library and had to do an edit I hope you understand

‘Bugs Forever’ by @gum-shoes.bsky.social is a charming collection of bedroom pop tunes that range from quiet & slight to bombastic & anthemic, recalling the best from Elephant 6 or K Recs. Hooks for daze & an adorable concept album about the end of the world. A great way to kick off 2025 releases.

New playlist — enjoy!

Another favorite piece from ‘24 is this classic interview feature with America’s local band @cheekface.bsky.social in @undertheradar.bsky.social about their latest (and imho best so far) collection of semi-Dadaist ear worms. “This is private property” is now something my kids talk-sing frequently 😀

Next up, I adored this interview by @cohaug.bsky.social with the artist behind my favorite album of the year. Songs that spoke to me as a non-binary nerd feeling the constant slow crush of capitalism in a way no other record has—even allegorically—and Haug really dives into it with Rosie. Lovely.

Time to highlight some of my favorite music-related reads of the year, starting with @acloserlisten.bsky.social’s interview with @blackknoll.bsky.social, who has quietly become one of the primary shapers of modern minimalism and ambient soundscaping.

Incredible band. Two incredible LPs on @laurenrecords.bsky.social & these two new tracks are…wait for it…yup, incredible. What a send-off.

‘The Bed I Made’ by The Softies (via @father-daughter.bsky.social) is the quiet but mighty return of a softcore duo that wriggled into my heart as a college radio DJ who devoured all K Recs. Delicate yet formidable, a new batch of their earnest & sparse compositions was a pleasant 2024 surprise.

One of my absolute favorite records of 2024 is ‘Hey, I Loathe You’ by Hey, Ily (via @lonelyghostrecords.bsky.social), which accomplishes the magic trick of not combining genres so much as stealthily moving in and out of them, often multiple times in a single song. Hyper, cathartic, transcendent. 💛

I finally got around to year-end list frequenter @ekkoastral.bsky.social’s album ‘Pink Balloons’ in my listening pile today. The @topshelfrecords.com roster rarely if ever disappoints, and this gem’s no exception. Raucous but considered, this is fuzz pop/punk/garage that sounds like no other.

We're happy to present "Post-Trash's Staff Picks: The Best of 2024" as voted by the site’s wonderful contributors (including their individual lists). post-trash.com/news/2024/12...

‘Flowers for Analog’ by @marcwithac.bsky.social is a lovely bedroom pop record with heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics that also deftly thread the needle between earnest & sardonic. Approachable but roughshod, the punchy melodies are buoyed by alternately spare & left-of-center sonics. A pure delight!

‘Sleep Deprivation’ by @theblackdog.bsky.social didn’t cure my insomnia (would have been ironic if it did), but it did help level out my anxiety this morning as I woke up early and lie in bed, dreading the start of the day. Floating in desolate space via the group’s “brutal ambient” did the trick.

My favorite record of 2013, ‘GIVING’ by Collections of Colonies of Bees (via @polyvinyl.bsky.social) finally left my car’s 6-disc changer after approx. 25 plays, perhaps even more than I spun it in its year of release. Hopeful, delirious post-rock w/ the thickest guitars you could ever ask for.

‘Nightbound Eyes Are Blind to the Day’ by Whitelands (out via @soniccathedral.bsky.social) is shoegaze that blisters frequencies and densities without ever sacrificing melody or lushness. It absolutely rips from beginning to end, making going back to track 1 to do it all over again a no-brainer.