Kevin Bronson on November 7th, 2025

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Here’s Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 363), featuring new music from Silversun Pickups, Mariachi El Bronx, Sweet Nobody, Jordana, The Black Watch, Allie X, Deb Never, Grace Inspace, WARD, Robert DeLong, Mykel, Dakota Dry, Ruby Sparks, Hotel Mira, Cherry Blonde, Cherry Heaven, Becca Hannah and more.

Also notable (and not on Spotify): Laura Burhenn today released the new Mynabirds album “It’s Okay to Go Back If You Keep Moving Forward,” a mix of new originals and remade songs from her catalog. Here’s the lead track, “Different This Time”:

Thank you for listening. Find more of our annotated playlists here.

Note: Anita Mills contributed to this roundup.

■ Silversun Pickups, “The Wreckage” — Long-running L.A. rockers Silversun Pickups have announced that their seventh full-length, “Tenterhooks,” will be out Feb. 6. That date is just a few months short of the 20-year anniversary of their debut album, “Carnavas.” “To me,” frontman Brian Aubert says of the new record (which like SSPU’s previous two was produced by Butch Vig), “it’s an impatient, apprehensive, and more aggressive album. We started recording when the world was changing again. You invariably wonder, ‘What are we headed towards?’ Even if you’re not necessarily writing about it, it bleeds into how you’re feeling and approaching life. We stripped things down and went louder and rawer.” Submitted as evidence: “The Wreckage.” [Edit, Nov. 18: The video for “The Wreckage.”] Live Feb. 19 at the Observatory.

■ Allie X, “7th Floor” — Canadian ex-pat Allie X (Alexandra Hughes) has released her new album “Happiness Is Going to Get You,” and it’s pretty much everything ineluctable about the dark synth-pop on 2024’s “Girl With No Face,” only different. “Seemingly out of the ether, I channeled something reflective, melancholic and accepting, she says. “The ever present darkness in my music is still there but this time it feels challenged by an undeniable and stubborn ray of light.” Bastian Langebaek produced; the late Bram Inscore is credited as a co-writer/producer on album opener “Is Anybody Out There?”; and “7th Floor” is as pleasantly dancey as the visuals are strange.

■ The Black Watch, “There Are Solutions to Each & Every Problem” — We’re thinking the new single from the Black Watch is songwriter John Andrew Fredrick’s way of saying “Keep calm and carry on.” “There Are Solutions to Each & Every Problem” introduces TBW’s 26th (not a typo) full-length album, “Varied Superstitions,” out Feb. 10.

■ Deb Never, “I’ve Been Sleeping” — Solo artist Deb Never continues to release innovative and original singles, with “I’ve Been Sleeping,” produced by Jim-E Stack (Dijon, Lorde, Bon Iver), arriving in advance of her appearance at the Camp Flog Gnaw festival. Deb soaks up the street lights in the music video here.

■ WARD, “Sometimes” — Christopher Ward had bid adieu to his rock project WARD, and to Los Angeles. In advance of moving to Italy, WARD issued a two-song parting gift, “Sometimes” and “Getting What You Need,” their first releases since 2022. He recorded the video for the appropriately contemplative “Sometimes” in Glendale on the eve of his departure. “We want to sincerely thank our fans and supporters over the last eight years,” Ward write. Hat tip.

■ Jordana, “Blouse” — Today brought the release of Jordana’s new EP, “Jordanaland,” a sonic geography dominated by Jordana Nye’s affecting melodies and airy choruses. Live March 5 at the Constellation Room. “Jordanaland is definitely an escape from Americaland, the 25-eyar-old says of the seven-song release. “It’s an oasis from the chaos, where tampons are free, everything is easy, and Luther Vandross is vice president. It looks a lot like L.A. in the videos … for some reason. Weird. But it’s wherever you want it to be, just close your eyes.”

■ Mariachi El Bronx, “Forgive or Forget” — Mariachi El Bronx, the charro-suited alter ego of punk band the Bronx, are releasing their first album in 12 years. “Mariachi El Bronx IV” arrives Feb. 13 via ATO Records, and the fast-paced “Forgive or Forget” is quite a starting point. Live Dec. 6 at La Santa in Santa Ana.

■ Grace Inspace, “Emergency Contact” — “‘Emergency Contact’ is the story of a lifelong people-pleaser reaching her breaking point,” Grace Garner says of her new Grace Inspace single. “It’s a moment of self-realization — when anger, long suppressed, finally spills over and becomes the spark for change.” Dripping with loathing in the spoken verses, the song introduces the songwriter’s new EP, “Heavy Hair,” out Feb. 27.

■ Cherry Blonde, “Temporary Love” — Cherry Blonde is the solo project of Ari Eisenberg, former frontman for the Central Coast-bred polyglot psych band the Honeyboys, whose debut album “Picnic” is out today. From earnest indie-rockers to audaciously crooned missives of love, “Picnic” is a basket of melodic goodies for the genre uninhibited. (See also: The video for “I Wanted to Love You.”) Live Nov. 21 at a house show at the Woodbridge Loft in DTLA.

■ 123Death, “Three Lives Left” — The follow-up to September’s “Parachute Pants,” “Three Lives” is the latest from indie-rock trio 123Death (Spencer Berger, Jeff Hartline and Mike Mancillas).

■ Robert DeLong, “Fool Me Once (Folk Edition)” — Robert DeLong, folkie. Strange to type that about an artist known for his formidable talents in electronic music, but “Fool Me Once (Folk Edition)” is a nice curveball, a twangy remake of a song that appeared on this year’s deluxe edition of his album “Playlist of Doom.” “Fool Me Once was written on a banjo in my kitchen, recorded on a voice note, and then promptly forgotten,” DeLong says. “As I was putting songs together for ‘Playlist of Doom,’ I remembered the tune and made a full-production version, which ended up on the deluxe record. I wanted to do a version of it live, and without thinking one day I picked up my banjo, and then I remembered that’s where it all started. The banjo had accidentally been tuned a half-step too high, which actually suited my voice, and prompted me to record this folk version with my good friend, JD Carrerra, on pedal steel.”

■ Dakota Dry, “New Moon” — Singer-songwriter Dakota Dry will release her debut album, “The Edge of Our Never Ending Universe,” on Nov. 20. “New Moon” is the second single released this year from the LP — and a tune she laughingly calls “the token happy song on the album.” With “Why Can’t you Free Me,” it displays Dry’s fondness for lush, dramatic folk-pop accented by tasteful string arrangements. Live Nov. 20 at LAX near DTLA.

■ About You, “Sunny” — About You is a music project led by Max Poscente inspired by stories submitted by friends. “Sunny,” produced by Jeff Saenz, is an art-rock track from About You’s debut album “The Lighthouse, The Storm” out Feb. 6. Poscente says: “The song became my reason to live — a reminder that light always exists somewhere, even if you have to look harder to find it.”

■ Delfina Cortes, “Backseat” — Brazilian born alt-rock singer-songwriter Delfina Cortes releases, “Backseat,” a haunting rock song with soulful vocals and epic guitar, produced by Vitor Siqueira.

■ Hotel Mira, “Don’t Break My Heart” — Hotel Mira is an L.A.-via-Vancouver quartet who in March released their latest full-length, the hard-charging “Pity Party.” They apparently had adrenaline left over — they’ve now followed up with an EP, “Pity Party,” featuring the single “Don’t Break My Heart” and four more. Live Nov. 11 at Zebulon.

■ Monster Rally & TV Girl, “Incredibly Blind” (feat. X-Cetra) — Monster Rally (Ted Feighan) teams up with TV Girl for a slice of endearingly treacly pop, “Incredibly Blind.” It will appear on Monster Rally’s album “Echoes of the Emerald Sands,” his first that is not entirely instrumental. The likes of Jordana, Toledo, Mei Semones, Sessa, Miles Michaud (Allah-Las) and Munya will appear on the record. “TV Girl was one of the first artists I had ever done a collaboration with,” Feighan says. “Going way back to us playing shows in Echo Park to a handful of people over 12 years ago, all the way to a sold-out show with over 5,000 people when I toured with them last year.”

■ Sweet Nobody, “Driving Off to Nowhere” — After teasing with singles such as “Forget Me” and “I Don’t Know When I’ll See You Again,” Long Beach foursome Sweet Nobody today released their new album “Driving Off to Nowhere.”

■ Ruby Sparks, “Here With You” — Friendly reminder that Jake Sternberg’s debut album as Ruby Sparks, “Iris” (produced by Collin Desha of Low Hum), arrived this week, full of bright indie-pop wearing its lovestruck emotions on its sleeve. See also singles such as: “Nowhere Man” and “Love’s All We Have.”

■ Mykel, “Hometown Runaway” — Friendly reminder that indie-pop solo artist Mykel’s debut EP, “Hometown Runaway,” is available now. Mykel says of the title track: “It’s an anthem for sitting in the nuance of who you are — pieces of you you can’t change, pieces you can. I will always love my hometown and I will always love L.A. I don’t have to have it all figured out and two things can be true at once. A song for anyone who had the balls to leave everything they knew, and the bittersweet feelings that go along with that.”

■ Interesting Hobbies Club, “She Took the Kids” — Pasadena’s Interesting Hobbies Club (Jules Caspole, Max Young, Alex Prichett and Chris Wells) released their sophomore album, “Spring Cleaning,” back in 2002. The indie-rock quartet is back, with “She Took the Kids” the second of two singles released in 2025.

■ Cherry Heaven, “Cherry Heaven” — Timothy Steingraeber and Cole Williams have been releasing music under the imprimatur Cherry Heaven for nearly a decade. Their left-field pop encompasses washed-out psych, hazy shoegaze and experimental synth, and “Almost an Oracle” (released in October) is their sixth full-length (counting a soundtrack album.” They lead the new album with a self-titled song, representative of their left-field aesthetic.

■ Becca Hannah, “Empathy” — Becca Hannah is a singer-songwriter, and a 2025 NPR Tiny Desk finalist. Her debut album “Tonight In My Dreams,” dropping Jan. 23, features the soulful track “Empathy.” Hannah says of the track: “One hot, sticky, summer afternoon, I found myself in an anxious, cloudy spiral, picked up my guitar and started aimlessly strumming.”

■ Wake the Wild, “Satisfaction” — “Satisfaction is the latest dancefloor-filler from L.A. electro-funk trio Wake the Wild (Zach Sorgen, Forrest Mitchell and Chase Jackson).

■ Elle Belle, “Golden” — Like clockwork, singer-songwriter Christopher Pappas has released a new Elle Belle single the first week of every month in 2025. The latest, “Golden,” is less off-kilter than some of Elle Belle’s releases; “I Saw Jesus Christ (Drinking White Wine)” and “Boom Bam I’m Your Man” come to mind. “Golden,” Pappas says, “is a love song. Nothing more complicated than that. People told me when you find true love it ‘feels different,’ but I didn’t believe them. Whoops. It feels different.” Live the first Sunday of every month at the Fable.

■ Ana Luna, “Fairy Tales” — “Fairy Tales” is a soul-stirring piano track by singer-songwriter Ana Luna off her debut album “Tainted Silhouettes,” out now. Watch the short film for “Fairy Tales”/album trailer in which Luna discovers her doppelgänger in a haunted mansion.

■ The Lentils, “From the Fields That All Tropes Fear” — The Lentils are the (mostly) lo-fi recording project of Luke Csehak, whose songs on the new album “Takin’ It Easy the Hard Way” (out today) are short on polish but long on charm.

■ Storefront Church, “Lucretia, My Reflection” — Our playlist-ending cover song of the week comes via Storefront Church (who released the album Ink & Oil in August), who take on Sisters of Mercy’s 1987 song “Lucretia, My Reflection.”