Kevin Bronson on January 26th, 2024

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Holy helpings of recorded repast:

I changed out the batteries in my cranial algorithm and powered it up to select a whopping 32 songs for Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 275). That’s almost 2 hours of tunes to sample, linger over or skip to the chorus of. Silly me, trying to avoid work, I’ve appended some “liner notes” below the embedded player to tell you a little bit about the songs, artists and live dates.

So, what we have here are:

— Songs from new albums released by Livingmore, Cheekface, Glass Beach, Black Polish, Ty Segall, Lizzy and the Palm and more;
— Tunes from forthcoming albums or EPs by Lawrence Rothman, Low Hum, Rosie Tucker, Chicano Batman, Brainstory, Cuffed Up, Empress Of, Coco, Billy Tibbals, Thee Sinseers and more;
— Debut releases from GEMZ and Catpack;
— New singles from Tropa Magica, Zealyn, Jade Bird, the Anti Groupies, Sedona and more;
— A cool cover song from TR/ST.
— And donuts.

Hope you enjoy.

■ Glass Beach, “Guitar Song” — There’s some serious mad scientist stuff on “Plastic Death,” the second album from the L.A. quartet of J. McLendon, William White, Layne Smith and Jonas Newhouse. From among the album’s outbursts mashing emo, prog-pop, hardcore, jazz and who-knows-what-else, we have chosen “Guitar Song” to feature here. But if you need more small samples before diving into the whole thing, check out “Coelacanth” and “The CIA.” Mind blown.

■ Lawrence Rothman, “Poster Child” — St. Louis native Lawrence’s Rothman’s fourth album, “The Plow That Broke the Plains,” out out April 26. It follows the artist’s 2021 full-length “Good Morning, America,” which featured contributions from the likes of Amanda Shires. Rothman’s powerful new new single “Poster Child” is a co-write with Shires’ husband, Jason Isbell, and was inspired by an incident that happened back in the day the songwriter-producer was fronting the glam-rock band Living Things. “‘Poster Child’ is about a 2005 attack that happened to me outside a Dallas club,” Rothman says. “I was dressed in makeup and style of clothes that I guess some random audience members did not like. I was jumped and shot at after the gig. It had a profound effect on my identity and who and what I would take a bullet for. From that point forward, I found myself wanting to lift up others who struggle with gender identity.”

■ Cheekface, “Life in a Bag” — The L.A. trio of Greg Katz, Amanda Tanner and Mark “Echo” Edwards kicked off this week with a surprise: the release of their fourth full-length, “It’s Sorted.” Full of subversive humor and riffs of both kinds, “It’s Sorted” is so dizzying you don’t know if you’re on a merry-go-round or circling the drain. See them on May 29 at the Teragram Ballroom.

■ Rosie Tucker, “All My Exes Live in Vortexes” — Lyrically and musically, Rosie Tucker are simply multitudes. Her fourth album is titled “UTOPIA NOW!,” and it will be out March 22. No L.A. live date has been announced yet.

■ Low Hum, “Meet Me in the Sky” — The first single in a year and a half from Collin Desha’s Low Hum does not disappoint. Co-written with Andres Villalobos (James Supercave), it’s the first taste of the third Low Hum full-length, “Terra Incognita,” release date TBA. Live Feb. 15 at the Echo.

■ Chicano Batman, “Fly” — The stalwart L.A. psych-soul group have announced that their fifth album, “Notebook Fantasy,” will be out March 29. Chicano Batman headline the Kia Forum on June 29; tickets on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

■ Brainstory, “Hanging On” (feat. Claire Cottrill) — “Sounds Good” is the title of the third album from the pride of Rialto (brothers Kevin and Tony Martin, along with Eric Hagstrom). It’s out April 19, and we highly recommend Brainstory’s album-release show on April 18 at the Lodge Room. That’s Claire Cottrill (Clairo) guesting on the introductory single.

■ Tropa Magica, “Avión” — Speaking of muy bueno, brothers David and Rene Pacheco are back with a new single, just in time for a West Coast tour next month that brings them (along with Los Blenders) to the El Rey Theatre on Feb. 17.

■ Cuffed Up, “Finer Things” — Another pulse-quickener from the L.A. trio, who announced this week that their debut album, “All You Got,” will be out April 5.

■ Livingmore, “Don’t Go Anywhere” — One of the many highlights on the band’s fourth album, “The Gardenm” out this week. Live on Feb. 2 at the Echo.

■ Coco, “Moodrings” — Pop-soul experimentalists Coco (Maia Friedman of Dirty Projectors, Oliver Hill of Pavo Pavo and Dan Molad of Lucius) will release their album, “2,” on March 1. Catch them live May 4 at the Moroccan Lounge.

■ Catpack, “What I’ve Found” — Catpack is the new project consisting of the Los Angeles trio Amber Navran (of Moonchild), Jacob Mann and Phil Beaudreau. “What I’ve Found,” the project’s first single (arriving via Tru Throughts), is a purring, playful synth jam that, the band says, “is a middle finger to the people who can’t love you as you shine brighter and brighter and a love letter to the new, beautiful you.”

■ TR/ST, “Being Boring” — TR/ST (who will play at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena in May) dropped a surprise EP on Friday. The Pet Shop Boys cover “Being Boring” is a collaboration with Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears.

■ GEMZ, “Younger” — New Southern California duo GEMZ is Jen Wood (whom you might recognize from the Postal Service’s “Nothing Better” and “Such Great Heights,” her solo albums or the ’90s group Tattle Tale) and Sebastopol-based electronic musician Ted Chen. “Younger” is their dreamy debut single.

■ Militarie Gun, “My Friends Are Having a Hard Time” — Why, yes, that’s Militarie Gun on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard, and in the small type on the Coachella poster. The quartet is reshaping some of the songs on last year’s album “Life Under the Gun” for release on a new EP, out this week. This version of “My Friends Are Having a Hard Time features Manchester Orchestra.

■ Black Polish, “Birthright” — L.A.-via-Maryland indie-rocker Jayden Nicole Binnix’s debut album, “Forest (Monsters in the Trees),” arrived this week full of rewards visceral and cerebral.

■ HEALTH, “Children of Sorrow” — Hell, just watch the video, which introduces the L.A. trio’s animé dance team. HEALTH’S tour in support of their new album “Rat Wars” hits the Belasco on April 4.

■ Ty Segall, “I Hear” — Deep cut from Ty Segall’s new album “Three Bells,” which came out this week. Live Feb. 23 at the Wiltern.

■ Billy Tibbals, “Burn Out!” — Better to burn out than to rust, right? The ’70s-channeling rocker introduces his new EP, “Nightlight Stories” (produced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and out April 26), with this old-school rager, the follow-up to to last year’s “Stay Teenage” EP. Tibbals will be opening for the Black Crowes on April 12 at the Greek Theatre, but you can catch him this Saturday at Permanent Records Roadhouse.

■ The Anti-Groupies, “Read the Room” — All-female rock quartet the Anti-Groupies (Cassidy Freeman, Isabella Broersma, Sydney Foster and Kyla Foster) have released but four singles, all with the requisite punk attitude and energy. They’re gigging at NAMM this weekend.

■ Empress Of, “What’s Love” (feat. MUNA) — Songwriter Lorely Rodriguez introduces the new album “For Your Consideration” (out March 22) with this Valley Girl-produced bauble. Live June 7 at the Roxy.

■ Ships Have Sailed, “Find My Way” — More pretty, heartfelt folk-pop from Will Carpenter.

■ Sedona, “No Man’s Land” — Singer-songwriter Rachel Stewart worked with Miro Mackie (The Neighbourhood, St. Vincent, Wallows) and Daniel Chae (of Run River North) on her latest single.

■ Lizzy and the Palm, “Be a Lady” — The self-titled debut album from Southern California-reared Elisabeth de la Palme Mulroy (daughter of American musical theatre composer father and French choreographer mother) arrived this week. Made with Adam Castilla (the Colourist), it’s got moving piano ballads, jazzy flights of fancy and myriad endearing idiosyncrasies … like, how about a mouth trumpet solo or two?

■ Thee Sinseers, “Can’t Do That to Her” — Local champions of the “souldies” scene, the group will release their first LP, “Sinseerly Yours,” on March 22. Fill up the dancefloor on Feb. 10 when Thee Sinseers perform at the Long Beach Arena as part of the stacked lineup at Catch You on the Rebound.

■ Eyedress, “A Room Up in the Sky” (feat. The Marías) — Released in mid-December when we were busy with holiday and year-end things, this Eyedress single is the second of two collaborations with the Marías. Featuring it here as a heads-up that Eyedress kicks off a tour March 8 at the Glass House.

■ Bedbug, “Halo on the Interstate” — Helmed by the now L.A.-based Dylan Gamez Citron, Bedbug originated in Boston as a solo project and graduate to a full band with their first studio album (and fourth overall), “Pack Your Bags the Sun Is Growing” (out March 15).

■ Zealyn, “Blood of Hollywood” — Angie Miller’s first Zealyn single since the 2022 EP “I Think I’m Struggling With Getting Older” is an engaging and shape-shifting beast that, she says, is “about the disillusionment and struggles I felt when I left my hometown for the allure of Hollywood, hoping for success and a career,” only be confronted with “the harsh realities of the industry.” Oh, and the title? It’s the name of a craft cocktail at Harvard & Stone.

■ Jade Bird, “Burn the Hard Drive” (feat. Mura Masa) — The L.A.-based Englishwoman releases her first single (watch the video) in a year, exorcising some breakup demons in a collaboration with Mura Masa.

■ Ted Russell Kamp, “California Son” — Roots-music warrior Ted Russell Kamp releases the title track to his new album, which is out March 22. The single came with a nice video, all shot in one day.

■ Bonzie, “Citrus” — Chicago-bred Nina Ferraro kicks off the new year in a swirl of strings and synths. She’s opening for Tanlines on Feb. 1 at the Lodge Room.

■ Sofia Wolfson, “Donuts (Everyone Reminds Me of You)” — L.A. native Sofia Wolfson, currently ensconced in New York, returns with her first single since last fall. We love donuts.