Canadian-based indie jammers Kiwi Jr have been at it since the release of their debut album “Football Money” back in 2019. While scratching the surface of some of their favorite areas in underground sound, the band has eagerly established themselves as a universally creative unit committed to the lo-fi language of rudimentary indie rock. With a new record set for release on August 14th on acclaimed Olympia-based label K Records, the band hasn’t given in to the past or its political perimeters that have, without a doubt, slowed the sonic system down as their epic expedition continues to move forward in the most angelic way possible.

While NYC had foundational female giants like Lydia Lunch and Patti Smith, Detroit had Cradle, and the UK had the Marine Girls. Something was beginning to take sonic shape in the Pacific Northwest toward the end of the 1970s, forever changing the creative climate not only of the genre but also its iconic impact on women everywhere trying to leave their melodic mark on the world. Rising from the anarchic ashes of Formica & The Bitches, members Jennifer Labianco (later replaced by Meg Hentges), Pat Baum, and sisters K.T. and Kim Kincaid eagerly established what would quickly become the Neo Boys, helping to define an entire generation. Nearly half a century after their cosmic conception, the group is experiencing a radical renaissance with the definitive release of their first single and EP “Crumbling Myths” on Mississippi Records.

Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter Alex Dupree has been releasing music for well over two decades, dating back to his early days in projects like Meryll and The Trapdoor Band. But it was his 2022 album “Thieves” that seemed to have made a melodic mark, and a sonic shift into a wonderful world of lyrical landscapes and metaphorical mountainsides. While maintaining this transcendental trajectory, Dupree has circled the sun twice over in an effort to establish himself in a world that is otherwise occupied by shallow systems that, at the end of the day, leave more questions than answers. Dupree may have unlocked that “eureka” moment with his latest effort, “Talking To The Dog”, which is set for release on the Oklahoma-based label Scissor Tail Records in mid-August.

Born and raised in the UK to a devoted Catholic family, singer-songwriter Elanor Moss found enlightenment in nearby York, where she was studying English literature and embracing open mic nights around town. Quickly developing her cathartic craft while simultaneously cutting her tonal teeth on the local circuit, the young musician eventually found the works of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, to name a few, and never looked back. After the release of her debut EP “Citrus” and the immediate follow-up “Cosmic”, it was time to work on her first LP. “The Knife, The Needle”, which is set for release on Merge Records on August 21st, is an intimate introduction to a captivating career that eagerly echoes the elemental energies of Judee Sill, Sibylle Baier, Bridget St John, and several other fundamental female voices in the fibers of folk music magic.

Czech Republic-based singer-songwriter, producer, promoter, and frontman behind all things Please the Trees for the last seventeen years, Václav Havelka has been developing his calculated craft for well over two decades. He simultaneously balanced the eager ecosystems of the music business as both a melody maker and manager, while hanging his hat on the harmonic hook of several outfits such as Sonic Herbalism, Havelka/Havels, Sun+Dead, and Future Landscapes/fyield. Whether working on his own material or booking bands at the Meetfactory in Prague, Havelka’s energy and merciless motivation as an artist is something to look up to, especially in this day and age. While continuing to ride the woven waves from the intimate impact of the veteran musician’s debut solo album “A Snake Crawling Up A Broken Ladder”, Havelka finds peace during his time in recovery from several spinal surgeries, while finding peace in the principles of trust and openness that can sometimes only be achieved through the suddenness of songwriting.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist and prolific guitarist Drew Gardner has been on the sonic scene for several decades since forming Mayfirst with longtime friend and creative collaborator Jesse Sheppard in high school in the late 1980s. Since then, the duo has eagerly established the beloved Elkhorn, which has proven to be a powerhouse of psychedelic probabilities from their 2016 self-titled effort to their most recent effort, “Other Worlds”. Also participating with Jeffrey Alexander and The Heavy Lidders, Gardner is always in search of the next sonic surge of spiritual energy, intense improv, and heavy harmonies. While focusing on his solo career over the last few years, most recently 2026’s “Wave Field” and “Rabbit Years”, which is set for release on the Seattle-based label Eiderdown Records in early August, the veteran musician has entered into this echoing ecosystem that only he knows the location of its tinder thermostat.

Born and raised in Milngavie, a small suburb of Glasgow in Scotland, and eventually relocating to the States, where he would soon find himself completely immersed both intimately and intellectually in the creative culture of NYC’s complex core of artists, writers, musicians, and visionaries, Steven Hall (Nirosta Steel) has been spiritually sharpening his words and tonal tools for over four decades. Halls worked alongside Allen Ginsberg and some of the revolutionary romantics of the past, but his close collaborations were with American cellist, composer, producer, singer, and musician Arthur Russell. A friendship that has transcended the years through the good times and the bad, the veteran multi-disciplinary artist has announced a melodic manifestation titled “My Skyscraper” that features a collection spanning four decades. His music is a meditation on life, death, romance, and the open-ended questions of existence. One of the last of his generation to reach out into the weird winds in search of atmospheric answers to the questions, his findings to be radically remarkable and complicated, to say the least.

Southern California-based singer-songwriter and keys player Mia Wilson has been carefully conjuring a coastal collection of spiritual sounds and tonal textures for her highly anticipated self-titled debut album that’s been in the works since the early days of the paralyzing pandemic. While eagerly exploring the DNA of her creative community’s iconic influences, such as the Laurel Canyon legends like Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Cass Elliot, and Neil Young, to name a few, as well as the fundamental females of the 90s like Jewel, Lisa Loeb, Sheryl Crow, and Sarah McLachlan, Wilson finds her voice in the melodic mist, and safely secures a place amongst her poetic peers.

For over thirty years, the “Cornhusker State”-based singer-songwriter, label owner, and veteran of his craft, Simon Joseph Joyner, named after Paul Simon, has been perfecting his prolific practice and melodic meditation like no other songwriter of his generation. While pushing the boundaries as a songsmith both personally and spiritually, Joyner has built a beautiful body of work that truly transcends space and time. From his humble days watching the local community build a scene out of thin air, which by the way has indices that usually hover between 25 and 45 for PM2.5 and Ozone, to his intimate influence reaching the eager ears of folks like Connor Oberst, and Kevin Morby, to name a few, Joyner’s dedication and discipline to his work are sincerely mind-boggling as his most recent double LP “Tough Love” tenderly touches the hearts, minds, and souls of his life long listeners, both, new, and old.

Australian-based folk singer-songwriter Leah Senior has been releasing romantic, revelatory music since her debut album, “Summer's On The Ground,” in 2015. By combining the elemental efforts of Cohen with the boundaries broken by the Beatles over half a century ago, in an artistic age that seems to echo and ricochet off the walls of our culture’s haunted hallways, Senior finds sonic solace in her work and shares her most recent effort, “Pt. Roadknight,” with the very tired yet motivated people of today.

TAKAAT (pronounced tuh-cot), meaning “noise” in the Tuareg language Tamashek, is the name of the Agadez, Niger-based transcendental trio consisting of members Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun, and Souleymane Ibrahim, famously known as the rhythm section of the beloved Mdou Moctar. While effortlessly expanding on the gravitational pull of guitar music from the Sahel, a vast, semi-arid transition zone in Africa that stretches between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudanian savanna of the south, Takaat invites the esoteric elements and textural tones of noise and ritualistic rhythm like a psychedelic prophet. Ahmoudou Madassane and Mikey Coltun take a brief moment from their tour to tell us everything we need to know about the band and its melodic mechanisms.