Kevin Bronson on February 28th, 2025

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This week’s playlist, Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 327), celebrates new albums/EPs released by Cheekface, Big Black Delta, Miya Folick, See Night, Archer Oh, Your Grandparents, BANKS, Tunnel and Double Wish. Plus, we have new singles from Greer, Oddnesse, Soft Swells, WARFIELD, Mirror Figure, Tender Misfit, Child Seat, Datamaps, Amanda Bjorn and more. And be sure to check out the Nico Vega entry (and the linked video).

Keep up with all our playlists here.

Anita Mills contributed to today’s roundup.

■ Cheekface, “Living Lo-Fi” — Speak-singing phenoms Cheekface this week released their new album, “Middle Spoon.” In six years, the trio of Greg Katz, Amanda Tannen and Mark “Echo” Edwards have gone from chatterbox rock curiosities to DIY breakouts (not to mention L.A. Times entertainment section cover darlings), earning the winking moniker “America’s local band” with five albums full of humor and wit whose rapier lyrics read like the margin notes to modern life. They are exceptionally good at not taking themselves too seriously. “Living Lo-Fi” is the lead track on “Middle Spoon,” an album that, among other things, talks about what a mirage the buzz term “personal growth” is. We could point you to the singles we’ve featured (i.e., “Growth Sux”), but we recommend just pressing play, possibly with the lyrics nearby. Cheekface plays the Regent Theater on May 29.

■ Miya Folick, “Hate Me” — Miya Folick describes her third full-length, “Erotica Veronica” (out today) as a psychosexual journey “about being queer within a heteronormative relationship structure and within a heteronormative society, but it’s also just about desire and eroticism in general. I don’t think we give each other enough room to explore freely and figure out our own right paths.” There’s considerable heft in the confessionals that she often makes sound like flights of fancy. Live May 21 at the Lodge Room.

■ Archer Oh, “Leave Me Alone” — Inland Empire rockers Archer Oh today dropped their debut album, “The Internal Theater,” a collection of catchy, catch-me-if-you-can surf-rock. The disillusionment screed “Leave Me Alone” is exemplary, articulating, says singer-guitarist Arturo “Archie” Medrano, “an exhaustion that is somehow simultaneously the most tired you have ever been and also a weariness that is all too painfully familiar.” Live May 31 at the Fox Theater Pomona.

■ Big Black Delta, “Wouldja” — Today brought the release of “Adonai,” the fifth album from Jonathan Bates’ solo project Big Black Delta. Adorned with the sonics of ’80s underground artists, “Adonai” finds Bates going deep into a wormhole of self-examination. Alternately viciously cathartic and wildly experimental, it hits hard.

■ Tender Misfit, “Tell Your Girlfriend” — Ariel Beesley aired her relationship laundry in the catchiest possible way on Tender Misfit’s “Do You Hate Me?” EP, released in November. There’s more where that came from; “Tell Your Girlfriend,” co-written with and produced by Dave Katz, is her latest single.

■ Soft Swells, “The Life We Made” — Tim Williams brought his project Soft Swells out of mothballs last summer, and he returned this week with “The Life We Made,” a new single on which he’s backed by bassist/producer Tom Beaujour and drummer Chris Berry. Soft Swells remain a font of buoyant, reflective guitar pop. For fans of Nada Surf, Teenage Fanclub, “Summerteeth”-era Wilco.

■ Mirror Figure, “Waste My Love” — Mirror Figure is the solo project of Ray Libby, who played in Bad Suns for a decade before departing in 2022. The project’s first EP, “Initial Thought,” came out in 2023, and for the follow-up Libby linked up with producer Sam Stewart, whose many credits include playing with Chappell Roan, Blondshell, Lo Moon and Nightmare and the Cat, along with his solo music). With Sterling Laws (Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, The War on Drugs) on drums, Mirror Figure’s five-song sophomore EP “Don’t Let It Last Forever” is on the way, and “Waste My Love” is the third single.

■ Oddnesse, “Unicorn” — Rebeca Arango says she has not one but two Oddnesse albums in the works, good news for those who’ve followed her for a while. The immersive “Unicorn” is Oddnesse’s first release in almost a year.

■ Your Grandparents, “White Flags” — Your Grandparents, the L.A. trio of Cole Thompson, DaCosta and Jean Carter, have announced the May 16 arrival of their new album, “The Dial.” They released the title track a month ago, and now comes the single “White Flags,” all silky and dreamy with serpentine rap verses. “‘White Flags’ is best described as a promise to oneself not to give up,” the trio says. “The song draws inspiration from everyday struggles we all may face in society like mental health, relationships and being part of marginalized communities. As creatives living in such times we believe in the importance of creating art that reflects the social, political, and emotional mindsets of the people while also reflecting more personal aspects of ourselves.”

■ BANKS, “Meddle in the Mold” — Friendly reminder that Jillian Banks’ fifth album as BANKS, “Off With Her Head,” is out today, and besides the outsized single “I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend,” there are little gems like the orchestral, ornate “Meddle in the Mold.” Live June 7 at the Wiltern.

■ The Walters, “Broken Hearts and Memories” — As a follow-up to “Life On The Line,” “Broken Hearts and Memories” is a melancholic track from indie-rockers the Walters, off their debut album “Good Company,” out March 26. Luke Olsen’s vocals softly sway to reverb instrumentals, and would fit nicely on the “Garden State” soundtrack. The band says: “It’s a song about the universal feeling we all have of getting older and wondering if our best days are behind us.”

■ See Night, “Sober & High” — Friendly reminder that “Just Another Life,” the new album from Linda Sao, aka See Night, is out today, for all your resplendent dream-pop needs. Live March 16 at Genghis Cohen.

■ Greer, “Franken”— Greer follows-up “Had Enough” with “Franken,” off their debut album “Big Smile”, produced by Rob Schnapf and out March 21 via Epitaph. Josiah’s strong vocals are reminiscent of Muse and Keane, and lead the epic instrumentals in “Franken.” The band  explains that “Franken” is short for: “‘Frankensteining’ your broken heart back together with the pieces of others around you [which] may taint what it once was and turn a loss into a tragic and disgusting image for yourself, making it harder to move on or grow.”

■ Tunnel, “Ampersand” — Grunge/shoegaze/noise-pop artist Tunnel is the solo vehicle of distortion-loving classically trained violinist Natasha Janfaza. Today brought the release of Tunnel’s debut EP, “Ampersand,” which features Joe Lally of Fugazi on the title track and Brendan Canty of Fugazi on all three tracks. Live March 19 at Genghis Cohen.

■ WARFIELD, “Jet Plane” — Justin Warfield (She Wants Revenge) introduced the solo project WARFIELD earlier this year with the frenetic track “All the Fun (Kiss, Kiss, Kiss).” The equal urgent “Jet Plane” is the follow-up, and the second single from WARFIELD’s first EP, “Deathrock Devotionals Vol. 1.” (Check out the video.) There will be an L.A. release show on March 29, details TBA.

■ Nico Vega, “Wasted on the Young” — “Wasted on the Young” appeared on “Make It Out Alive,” the EP released in November by resurgent rockers Nico Vega. We revisit it here to call attention to filmmaker Mark Pellington’s powerful new video. Pellington (whose visual resumé includes Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” video) to create the riveting video for the band’s “Wasted On The Young,” out today. It’s titled “A Visual Essay on Aging,” and Pellington says: “What we tried to create in this piece is a visual essay, exploring mortality, age, and the relationship between youth and the inevitable. A performance-driven video featuring blistering sonics and Aja [lead singer Volkman], an incredible visceral performance surrounding portraiture, memories, and perspectives from lived lives. Real people experience their lives, their memories with glitches, and AI rendering of possibilities. Technology overwhelms us and can create images, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before … we were all young and hopefully we’ll all get old. It’s different for everyone and the video explorers and beautiful deep rich photography. The human soul, the human face the vulnerability of time and youth is wasted on the young.”

■ Sparks, “JanSport Backpack” — Legendary brother duo Sparks return with a new album, “MAD!,” on May 23. The titular “JanSport Backpack” in their new single is symbolic of a lost love — who knew such a ubiquitous accessory could be so sad?

■ Mia-Loren, “Bluffin”—  Mia-Loren (aka Mia-Loren Roublow) is an avant-garde rocker from North Hollywood. Her eclectic single, “Bluffin’,” is a dreamy, bass-driven song with clever phone call monologues that evoke feelings of nostalgia for the ’90s dating game “Dream Phone.”

■ Famous Friend, “Bunny Ears”— “Bunny Ears” is the  follow-up to “Carmen San Diego,” by Famous Friend (Zachariah Carlson) off his upcoming four-track EP “Blue,” out April 2. The synth plucks against a driving bass, and echoey guitar. The track is a “duet” with nature, the track’s breezy melodies melt into unflinching contemplations on life and death.

■ Child Seat, “Hyperphantasia” — Electro alchemists Madeleine Mathews and Josiah Mazzaschi released their second Child Seat album, “Dancing at the Disco,” last June. They are back, kaleidoscopic as ever, with “Hyperphantasia,” which is a real thing if the search engine isn’t lying to us.

■ Datamaps, “Just a Song” — Veteran indie-rocker Paul Larson (Strictly Ballroom, The Minor Canon, et al) helms Datamaps, joined by Steve Krolikowski, Brent Stranathan and Ben Eisen. “Just a Song” is just their third single.

■ Haleigh Bowers, “Marilyn’s Ghost” — Singer-songwriter Haleigh Bowers released her debut album in 2022, and the rocker “Marilyn’s Ghost” is the first taste of the Anna Schulze-produced follow-up, “Method Actress.”

■ Lindsey Rose Black, “The Butcher” — The follow-up to “Wrong Side” and “Whisk Miss,” “The Butcher” is a slow-burning, sweetly tart reckoning of being on the passive end of a lopsided relationship.

■ Scott Goldbaum, “Killer Crowd” — “Killer Crowd,” the follow-up to last month’s single “Emergence,” is the latest from Scott Goldbaum’s forthcoming EP, “Electrophysiology.”

■ Amanda Bjorn, “Until We Become the Earth” — You might recognize Amanda Bjorn from her duo project a few years back, Bjorn and the Sun. Now solo, the made an album last summer with producer Aaron Stern. Due in May, it’s titled “That Kind of Woman,” a collection of bluesy, atmospheric folk that touches on her life changes: “balancing motherhood with artistry, finding and losing myself within relationships, postpartum mental health and the transformation that happens from living abroad and returning home.” The first single, “Until We Become the Earth” was written a year ago at a workshop with Adrianne Lenker.

■ Double Wish, “Seatbelt (Deeper Ecstasy)” — Friendly reminder that left-field pop/indie-rock duo Double Wish (Adam Sabolick and Philippe Andre) today released their new EP, “Deeper Ecstasy.” It’s a journey.

■ Lady Vengeance, “Clone Wars”— Cas Knight, Christian Savage, Colette Bassett, Kate Ahn and Oliver Mangulabnan form Lady Vengeance, a collegiate punk rock band that is fresh to the scene. Their debut single “Clone Wars,” off of Cherry Pop Records, is much more than just punk rock, the high-energy drums follow a groovy bass line, while the crunchy guitar and fierce vocals take charge.

■ The Charities, “Fatal Attraction” — The Charities are a five-piece from San Luis Obispo mining and sound and influences of Souldies artists such as Thee Sineeers and The Altons (with whom they perform on March 8 at the Belasco). The band got together with producer Anthony Masino at Riverside’s Penrose Recordings to make “Fatal Attraction,” the A-side of a 45rpm (b/w “It’s Not Our Time”), out April 4.

■ Roger Weeks, “New England”— As a follow-up to “Traveler,” Roger Weeks shares “New England,” along with the news of the debut album, “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?,” will be out May 2 via If This Then Records. Weeks says: “I often wonder what life would be like if I never left home and moved to LA to pursue music. It’s funny – I’ve decorated my house and studio with furniture from the New England lake house I grew up in. It’s almost like I’m trying to make my own personal New England within this city that couldn’t be farther away. This indie folk pop ballad is about missing home and the person you were.”

■ Anna St. Louis, “Everything” (Demo) — We bring this week’s playlist in for a gentle language with the latest from folk singer Anna St. Louis. Almost two years since her splendid sophomore album “In the Air,” St. Louis next month will release the EP “Home Recordings,” the songs on which are labeled “(Demo)” although they sound better than advertised. Live March 29 at Zebulon.