Kevin Bronson on February 6th, 2026

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Here’s Buzz Bands LA’s Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 373), featuring new music from Young the Giant, Silversun Pickups, The Milk Carton Kids, Big Harp, Communicant, Kristiane, Wait. Think. Fast., Salem Darling, Club Oro, Hysteria, Thebandfriday, The Undercover Dream Lovers, Sumeau, 2070, Beaming and more.

Past playlists, with liner notes, here..

Anita Mills contributed to this roundup.

■ Silversun Pickups, “Au Revoir Reservoir” — Preceded by the singles “The Wreckage,” “Long Gone” and “New Wave,” Silversun Pickups’ seventh full-length, “Tenterhooks,” arrived today (about four months short of the 20-year anniversary of their debut, “Carnavas”). Produced by Butch Vig, “Tenterhooks” does a delicate dance between the noisy guitars of the L.A. quartet’s past and the ethereal electro-rockers they have become. There’s an old SSPU song title that describes “Tenterhooks” perfectly: Well thought out twinkles. Live: Tonight at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever (sold out, but streaming on VEEPS) and Feb. 19 at the Observatory.

■ Kristiane, “Half Full” — Friendly reminder that this week brought the arrival of “Not Anything, Just Everything,” the new eight-song EP from Kristiane (Kristiane Alphson). It leads with “Good & Ready,” which made The Buzz Bands LA 101 (our favorite singles of 2025), and contains other highlights such as “Smoke & Mirrors” and “Beacon.” RIYL: Phoebe Bridgers, Blondshell. Live Feb. 21 at the Echo.

■ Young the Giant, “Different Kind of Love” — The new single “A Different Kind of Love” introduces O.C.-bred quintet Young the Giant’s sixth full-length, “Victory Garden” (out May 1). Produced by Brendan O’Brien, “A Different Kind of Love,” says the band’s Eric Cannata, “is about radical empathy, and ode to optimism and finding hope in our cynical world.” Here is director George Gallardo Kattah’s video for “Different Kind of Love.”

■ Wait. Think. Fast., “Soft Song in a Hard Time” — “Gather your people hope / Gather your courage / Gather your hope,” Jacqueline Santillan urges in the deceptively titled new single “Soft Song in a Hard Time,” the latest release from her long-running musical project with husband Matthew Beighley, Wait. Think. Fast. Smoldering with Beighley’s gritty guitar, it’s a commentary on these times and a rallying cry.

■ The Milk Carton Kids, “A Friend Like You” — Folk virtuosos the Milk Carton Kids (Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale) will release a new album, “Lost Cause Lover Fool,” on April 24. It’ll be their eighth LP, and as “A Friend Like You” evidences, the duo’s magical harmonies remain their calling card.

■ Big Harp, “I Got an Itch” — It’s been over a decade since Big Harp — the husband-wife duo of Chris Senseney and Stefanie Drootin, who met a generation ago in Omaha’s robust music scene — released an album. That drought ends March 27 when the duo release their fourth LP, “Run to Blue,” via Saddle Creek Records. Their penchant for weight folk songs shines on the new single “I Got an Itch,” about which Senseney says: “One of our goals was to be as plainspoken as possible on this record, with any kind of lyrical tricks or wordplay in service to communication, not in the way of it. While [‘I Got an Itch’] has a lot of details that are specific to us, I think the sentiment works for anybody who has ever felt constricted by responsibility or nostalgic for a remembered freedom, real or imagined.”

■ Communicant, “Too Much Heaven” — Dylan Gardner is the singer-songwriter-producer behind Communicant, which released their debut album “Harbor Song” in the summer of 2024. Communicant returns this week with a another gem that harks to pop’s Wall of Sound days, “Too Much Heaven.”

■ Sumeau, “Back to One” — Sumeau, the psych-pop collective headed by Christopher Sousa and Kat Primeau, return with their first new music since releasing “Pass Through” in the summer of ’24. “Back to One,” co-written with George Chammas and Dan Macken, is a sparkling declaration of love, mellow to its final twinkling note.

■ Makeout Reef, “Poison Tree” — Makeout Reef (Josh-Jakob Castillo, Kyle Hauk, Adrian Romero and Liam Reece) is a dreamy alt-rock band that has been putting in the work for a decade. Bassist Kyle Hauk says of their new stand-alone single: “‘Poison Tree’ explores themes of isolation, depression, and codependency that grow within a person.” Live March 7 at the Observatory.

■ Chalk Teeth, “Stuck” — L.A. trio Chalk Teeth combine the talents of Karolina Wallace, Adam Wallace and Jason Miller. Their debut single “Stuck” sounds like it just crawled out of the underground, where somebody was performing last rites for creature comforts. That’s a compliment — haunting vocals, insistent beats and sleek synths form their take on darkwave, dancey yet mesmerizing.

■ Club Oro, “Bad Vibes Forever” — Club Oro, the left-field pop collective founded by siblings Cassandra and Connor Cronin, return with another prickly romp, “Bad Vibes Forever.” It’s the latest selection from their forthcoming debut LP, “Fatherless Behavior.”

■ The Undercover Dream Lovers, “Lies Lies Lies” — “Lies Lies Lies” is the newest single from the Undercover Dream Lovers (Matt Koenig), following “Prom Queen,” from his upcoming album “Atomic House,” dropping March 20. Koenig says: “I wanted this album to capture what it was like growing up in the ‘90s, this gap in time between two more defined eras,” Chaos reigns in the music video here.

■ Beaming, “Say Goodbye” — The sanguine single “Say Goodbye” is an excellent way to say hello to the duo Beaming, which combines the talents of Derek Ted (a producer who’s worked with the likes of Runnner and Field Medic, as well as a solo artist) and Braden Lawrence (of Philadelphia’s the Districts). Their debut LP, “Horseshoe,” comes out April 17. Live May 9 at Scribble, opening for Field Medic.

■ Salem Darling, “Ban PDA” — By the time she was 14, Salem Meade, who releases music under the name Salem Darling, was earning props for her guitar playing. Having just turned 20 and attending USC, she’s building a catalog of pop-rockers, including the breakup jam “Ban PDA.”

■ 2070, “Cauldron” — Today brings the release of “Big Blue,” the new album from L.A. quartet 2070, whose DIY aesthetic spans several genres of alternative music and, owing to an (excessive?) affection for reverb, make all their songs feel like secret missives from the underground. See also: “Transducer” and “Windowpane.” Live Feb. 20 at Scribble, supported by Dissolve, SPA and more.

■ Hysteria, “Angela” — Hysteria is the new band fronted by Dakota Cosgrove, formerly guitarist for the band Wisp. After debuting last year with the single “Reason to Pray,” the quartet is back with “Angela,” a ripper with the soft/loud dynamic favored in ’90s alternative rock and pugilistic guitars and drums that lend weight to the song’s emo core. Live Feb. 26 at El Cid, opening for Tommy Fleece.

■ Thebandfriday, “Wake Up” — Thebandfriday’s “Wake Up,” which Agoura Hills duo Finn Morris and Adin Eshaghpour made with producer-songwriter Griffin Chaney, sounds like the love child of MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and the 2004 Arcade Fire song of the same name. Good vibes either way from the the twosome, who released their “Homecoming” EP and the single “Pink Lemonade” last year.

■ Dua Saleh, “Flood” — Dua Saleh, an experimental Sudanese-American R&B artist, collaborated with Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) on the new single “Flood,” off the forthcoming album “Of Earth & Wires,” due for release May 15 via Ghostly International. Saleh says: “The flood became an allegory for staying afloat rather than drowning in grief, shaped in part by memories of experiencing climate-related flooding while living in Cardiff, Wales.”

■ Elle Belle, “Hit Little Daggers” — After releasing an album’s worth of singles in 2025 (12, but who’s counting), pop eccentric Christopher Pappas returned this week with a new Elle Belle single, “Hot Little Daggers.” “This is a love song that favors tension over release,” Pappas says. “Got some layered vocals that are intimate but not fragile, trusting that the listener will lean in.” Live the first Sunday of every month at the Fable in Eagle Rock.

■ Interesting Hobbies Club, “20,000 Leagues Out of My League” — Pasadena garage rockers Interesting Hobbies Club (songwriter Julian Caspole, with Alex Pritchett, Chis Wells and Max Young” return with the sad-sack jam “20,000 Leagues Out of My League,” a love song about not deserving love. The band’s third album, “Argonaut,” comes out March 13.

■ Los Frankies, “Gunna Wanna” — “Gunna Wanna” is the newest single from Los Frankies (FFO The Hives), following “Dog City,” off their debut album “D.E.D. City,” dropping March 6. Watch the music video here.

■ Damaged Bug, “End of the War” — “It’s abstract and poppy, fried and sugary,” John Dwyer (of OSEES) says of the first single since 2020 from his side project Damaged Bug. “It exactly how I feel at the moment, fried and skewed.” “End of the War” is the first single and lead track of the new Damaged Bug album, “ZUZAX,” out March 20.

■ About You, “Master Plan” — Today also brought the release of “The Lighthouse, The Storm,” the debut album from L.A.-via-Dallas rockers About You. “Master Plan” is among the album cuts that underpin About You’s energetic, emotional appeal. See also: “Sunny” and “What If I Could.”

■ Light Widening, “Imaginary Friend” — Light Widening is the “ginger-folk” musical project of Orange County artist Owen Nelson, featuring brother Braden Nelson. “Imaginary Friend” is a playful folk track for fans of Elvis Perkins. It appears on Light Widening’s forthcoming album “Apocalypse of the Small Self,” out April 10 via Anxiety Blanket Records. Owen says of the track recorded at Colin Knight’s Paradise Records: “‘Imaginary Friend’ is a whirlwind of melodic acoustic guitar and piano on a bed of accordions.”

■ Grethel Bonilla, “No Sight No View” — Intimate, jazzy and soulful, “No Sight No View” is the second single from L.A. native Grethel Bonilla.

■ Bee Appleseed, “When We Work Together (Going on Strike)” — Vagabond troubadour Bee Appleseed is back with a protest song — or maybe it’s a campfire sing-along for staying warm at street protests. Either way, the prolific songwriter’s “When We Work Together (Going on Strike)” will appear on his album “21st Century Prayer,” from which he has released a dozen singles so far.

■ Ben Kaplan, “Four Walls” — The strings-garnished piano ballad “Four Walls” offers an emotive affirmation from singer-songwriter Ben Kaplan.

■ Curt Barlage, “Watch Me” — Time for our playlist-ending cover: Curt Barlage released his debut solo album “Sans Yesterday” in September, and now he returns with the atmospheric, softly shoegaze jam “Watch Me,” a Slowdive song that appeared as a bonus track on the reissue of the band’s 1995 album “Pygmalion.”