Happy New Year everyone thanks to everyone for their support in 2023 !

Also many thanks to the artists below who fought off the urge to produce godforsaken bilge wibbling on about Santa, chestnuts, eggnog and all other twee middle class shite that goes into the average ‘we don’t usually do Xmas songs but…” nonsense that we get at this time of year

Thank the leaping lord Harry it’s done for another year and my ears can stop bleeding from the aural assault !!!

Chicago’s Maria Surfinbird manages to imbue the coolest track from the coolest Pansy Division act with her inimitable sense of cool vocal disinterest and languid buzzsaw guitar. If that seems like a lot of ‘cool’, well, she deserves it!

A weird but car crash-alluring mix of jangly Guided by Voices fuzz, the lowest of lo-fi Tascam-effected retro production, and The Go Team! spurious makes this Big In Brazil album by Green Sahara (the solo recording project of Avery Chandler) one of the most original sound slacker-rock had to offer in 2023.

I have stumbled upon a delightful piece of music that has been on repeat on my playlist lately. It is a testament to the fact that Swedish bands have a knack for creating dreamy and upbeat indie pop, and this particular single is no exception. The happy and catchy melody of the song is so infectious that it is hard not to get hooked on it…read full review at Start-track.

Victims of the New Math crush every bit of Television Personalities style cult jangly indie-pop and Brother of Monday / Guided By Voices fuzz-laden weirdness into a lo-fi sound that screams of perfect modernity!

Since 2012, Oakland, California’s Royal Oakie label can be relied upon to ‘have another great year.’ This Still Intact single from Jeff Moller’s September release of the album Sigh Baby is indicative of the sort of brilliance that is available on the label’s Royal Oakie: Greatest Hits of 2023 digital album, which is available on a ‘name your price basis’  here.

Similarly “I Might Try” is also being released as part of the above compilation.  It was originally released earlier in 2023 on “Sitting Pretty” by Half Stack.

This Apple of Your Eye track from Alga’s In Fours EP may well appeal to those who enjoy the Super 8, The Candy Strypers mix of lo-fi, and The Beatles-esque jangle

Something seems so perfectly in harmony with the new Chaoticpop Records label of Indonesia joining forces with the jangly indie/guitar-pop legend that is (and has been since the latest 1990’s) Den Baron.

This Sunshine single from the Den Baron-Sings Shalalalala EP is available on one of the label’s perfect home-made CDrs. Grab one while you can, as this label’s physical format releases are the sort of pearls that will get sold on Discogs for eleventy squillion in a few years time!

Glenn Donaldson’s beautifully spectral jangle-pop feels like it has been a constant companion for avid jangle-pop fans over the past 2-3 years, and this perfect We Can’t All Be Heroes title track from his final release of 2023 simultaneously feels like a goodbye for the year and a big promise of so much more to come in 2024.

Those of you who enjoy the psyche-laced, jangly ambient sounds of acts such as Middleneck and Mr. Floyd Larry may well have found a new darling in the instrumental glory of US Random Calculator. This beautiful opener from the ‘Tracks’ EP release via the always original WWNBB Collective label is indicative of their simple sense of stunning.

Many “artists” perform songs they didn’t write, wearing clothes someone told them to wear, and with a lack of distinguishing value from any passing trend. Owen Hamlin is a musical artist in the true sense of the word. Writing lyrics, composing melodies, expressing improvisational guitar leads, singing in true voice, producing, mixing, and engineering recordings, and staying true to the ideas that come…this Hey There Jennifer track is from his Saint Augustine album that is out on January 1, 2024…adapted from the promo submission.

This limited 7” lathe cut single (cut by Russ Wilkins – of The Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Lord Rochester, The Mindreaders, etc) includes the last two tracks that The Pastel Waves recorded at Medway’s legendary Ranscombe Studios, prior to it’s relocation…the Spinout Nuggets label have completely sold out of all 50 singles, this is still well worth picking up digitally…adapted from the Bandcamp release bio.

“Fade To Gray” is a follow-up to No Berlin’s debut EP, “Ten Eggs, No Less,” and marks a continued exploration of the band’s introspective sound. The single is set to be released on December 12th, 2023 on all major streaming platforms, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in the beautifully dissonant world of No Berlin. As they continue to carve their own path in the indie music scene, “Fade To Gray” stands as a testament to the band’s commitment to authenticity and musical finesse…from the promo submission.

Guided By Voices laconic fuzz meets the slacker indie cool of the Carseat Headrest vibe in this debut Younger single by No Big. Unfortunately, there are no Bandcamp, Spotify, or Submithub biographies to expand my knowledge of them, but with the brilliance of this single they are plainly intent on letting their music do their talking!

Taking the whole 2nd Grade languid power-pop vibe and gently pushing it towards the melodic, jangly indie rock of the Young Guv aesthetic, Oakland, California’s LKFFCT always proffer energy within their effervescent sound as heard in the pure sunshine of this N​.​J. Rain single out of Pizza Bagel Records.

When We Fell is the 2nd single from Nashville duo Matched. All sumptuous female Harriet Wheeler style vocals married to a Hatchie washed out dream-pop this single feels so easily beautiful.

Breezy, melodic, smooth, jangly, electro-pop are all words/terms that could be applied to this superb My Wonder single by Portland’s Alejandra O’Leary.

Loose rock for floating planets, lo-fi underground rock for alternate universes. Like Guided By Voices floating around in space. Listen to it in the car, on a bike, or while flying! Written & recorded in 1 day!…from their promo submission (this Planet Loose track taken from The Island Dwelling Birds Band Deluxe Harvesting Drive album released on Gazer Tapes 15 Dec 2023.

“This song means a lot to me,” explains Not Exotic mainman Chad Ray Turner. “This refrain came to me while I was at a real low point; getting beat up by a lot of self-doubt and self-loathing and feeling like you’re losing. ‘Just – Keep – Swinging’ became like a mantra for me and this song came out so naturally as an expression of that whole process. To co-write it with my brother (Jason Ford Turner) and record it live with my ‘Lawrence Kansas Dreamteam Band’ of friends just completes a perfect circle for me.”

Backed up by and produced with members of punk stalwarts The Get Up Kids and indie-rock royalty Spoon, Not Exotic’s debut record arrives like a mission statement for heartfelt belief in gritty rock n’ roll. It offers up 8 songs with just the right mix of scuffed-at-the-edges energy and classic rock songwriting, the emotive bones of the songs fleshed out with muscular guitar work and textured, atmospheric productions…from the promo submission

New Yorks Sound Furies and this truly magnetic Times Tide track from their Times Edit album (released on Calamari Archive) breathes the most precious of languid indie-pop melodies through the sort of gloriously vacant twee that is so becoming within the Watoo Watoo aesthetic. Twee for twee connoisseurs.

Ray?Oh…Needa!! is a Shibuya-based rock band that consists of Tsuyoshi Oe (Vo), Masahito Shibata (Gt), Hell Ichikawa (Ba), Minakawa (Dr), and Ham Taniguchi (Gt).

The band has supported many artists from overseas such as: Angelo Moore of Fishbone, Spanish garage band Capsula, Korean blues band Lowdown30, and Basque alternative rock bands Willis Drummond and Olatz Salvador, among others.

In Japan, they have performed alongside Hyakujyu, Darth Raider, Tatsuya Nakamura of Blankey Jet City, and so on. In 2022, their first two EPs AGOG and BRIO were released. Their music style covers a wide range of genres including alternative rock, punk, dub, industrial rock, and electronica.

You’ll find that Ray?Oh…Needa!!’s strength lies in their unique 70s-esque rawness to their sound, and their ability to fully express it onstage…from their promo submission

The most perfect anti anthem I could possibly imagine courtesy of this joint release by anti-folk punk rockers The Ugly Cowboys and Shipwreck Kelly.