Kevin Bronson on July 9th, 2021

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A quartet of tasty new singles released this week, courtesy of Little Galaxies, Mating Ritual, Pageants and Together Pangea …

LITTLE GALAXIES, “Waking Sea”

“Waking Sea” is just the fourth single in the past three years from Venice Beach quartet Little Galaxies, who returned from a five-year layoff (the serious injuries singer-guitarist Jenna Fournier sustained in a car crash were much of the reason) in 2018 with the single “Out in Control.” The band is working on their first album since 2013, “One With the Waking Sea,” and this new jam offers more of the quartet’s interstellar rock, complete with a theremin solo. “It was inspired lyrically by my car accident and learning to find peace in the wreckage in the years to follow,” Fournier says. Let the theremin be your guide …

MATING RITUAL, “Nah”

Brothers Ryan Marshall Lawhon and Taylor Lawhon keep it interesting. Never entirely wedded to the infectious indie-pop at which they excel, they always have outliers on their albums, and boozy, biting “Nah” is one of them. The follow-up to “Old Disco” and “Feel Real,” it’s the latest (monthly) single from “Songs for the Morning Times and Evening Times,” their fifth album in the past five years, arriving Aug. 27. Says Ryan: “Irish drinking songs are to England as ‘Nah’ is to American capitalism. You can’t do much about it, but you can get drunk and complain with your friends. Sonically, it’s the lovechild of FIDLAR and Gorillaz, but with our flair for the sarcastic.” (Mating Ritual plays Nov. 11 at Zebulon.)

PAGEANTS, “Where Did the Time Go?”

The follow-up to the single “Just Tell Me,” “Where Did the Time Go” is the absolutely most buoyant four minutes on Pageants’ album “Sun and Settled Days,” out July 30, as the duo of Rebecca Coleman and Devin O’Brien salute their hometown. Beyond streaming it here, we recommend clicking to the video as well. “Rebecca and I were born and raised in Long Beach so this video is kind of our ode to the city,” O’Brien says. “It’s impossible to keep track of all of our shared moments but we felt like creating a sun soaked capsule–lost in lackadaisical bliss–to speak for lost time and days well spent.” Adds Coleman: “‘Where Did the Time Go’ recalls fleeting memories of the sense of aimlessness I was feeling in the years after touring as a teenager in the early ’00s. I felt stuck in a lot of ways. Influenced by the promise of an up-and-coming band and an ailing industry, I felt pressure to catapult my music career to the next level but found myself struggling to cope. It’s about feeling so close to something you want so badly, but it’s just out of reach. It’s about breaking free from the grip of past trauma and coming out on the other side with a fresh perspective.”

TOGETHER PANGEA, “One Way or Another”

Following up “Nothing to Hide,” “One Way or Another” is the latest deliciously crunchy bite of garage-rock from L.A. trio Together Pangea’s forthcoming album, “Dye,” out Oct. 22. To be enjoyed at full volume. Or live. (Speaking of which, they’ve added an album-release show on Oct. 23 at the Troubadour.)