Kevin Bronson on June 12th, 2026

0

No fewer than eight just-released albums are repped in this week’s jumbo playlist, Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 391).

We could point you to Sister Gemini, The Army The Navy, Landroid and Buckets, but you might like Pluralone, Westerner and Sean Gunner Lee, too. So sample. And while you’re at it, check out tracks from Ggwendolyn, The Linda Lindas, Mimi Pretend, The Moth & The Flame, BED, Starcrawler, Ty Segall, Chris Hess, Maddy Davis, Atta Boy, Dylan Chambers, Moon Darling and lots more. It’s good to explore, y’know.

Find previous Buzz Bands LA playlists, with liner notes, here.

Anita Mills contributed to this roundup.

■ BED, “From Above” — Bed (or bēd, depending on where you look) is the Palmdale/Lancaster four-piece of Ebed “bed” Moreno Leon, Kenneth Bonifacio, Joseph Nixon and Alberto Lopez. Their music bridges the shoegaze and post-hardcore worlds in the best possible way, soaring and roaring and visceral. They released their self-titled debut in 2022 (“From Above” is a new, remastered track), and now it’s been re-released on vinyl. Shoegaze purists need only to listen to “Spaceboy” and “Bullet,” the first two tracks on their recent “Into the Vastness” EP, to know that these guys mean business.

■ The Linda Lindas, “Burning Out” — A year and a half since releasing their sophomore, young quartet the Linda Lindas (Mila de la Garza, Lucia de la Garza, Eloise Wong and Bela Salazar) have signed to Reprise/Warner Records and released a new single. “‘Burning Out’ felt so simultaneously new and nostalgic for us, and I think that was super fitting for me especially, because I had just graduated high school and I was feeling very surrounded by change,” Lucia de la Garza says. “We went on a week-long writing retreat in Palm Springs less than a month after graduation, and that’s where we wrote this song about feeling like the world is passing you by. Knowing that my friends would all be going to college in the fall, it made sense my head was in a very nostalgic place.”

■ Ggwendolyn, “Superstar Syndrome” — As “notes to self” go, the buoyant new single from Giana Shabestari — dba ggwendolyn after moving on from her solo guise WENS in 2022 — is powerful stuff. “‘Superstar Syndrome’ is the title track from my forthcoming debut album,” the songwriter says of the follow-up to the irrepressible “Jock My Style.” “I wrote the song after the record was done and it felt like the final piece to the puzzle I never knew was missing. A declaration of sorts: No matter what I decide, whether I quit or persevere, I will always have this vision for my life.” Here’s the video. The album “Superstar Syndrome” will be out July 31.

■ The Moth & the Flame, “Fingers Crossed” — We haven’t heard much from the Moth & the Flame since their 2019 album “Ruthless.” So file these under things to know: This month they released the new single “Lose Control,” penned for the film “Wardriver.” In January they released the single “La La,” along with this excellent video animated by David Nessl. Late last year they released the single “Fingers Crossed,” announcing it as the first single from a new album. And this week the video for “Fingers Crossed,” directed by Rebecca Thomas, nabbed Best Music Video honors at the Tribeca Film Festival. Watch it here and consider yourself caught up on TMTF.

■ Sister Gemini, “Elvira” — Besides being frontrunner for album title of the year, “Screaming Crying Laughing Sighing” (out today) finds Sister Gemini carving out big soft spot in the hearts of fans of ’90s artists (i.e., Juliana Hatfield, Madder Rose, Veruca Salt) whose diaristic indie-rock moved the dial. Prepare to let Remy Jean Gassmann make you swoon, smile, sob and, yes, sigh.

■ Sean Gunner Lee, “Billie Rude” — Koreatown-based singer-songwriter-producer Sean Gunner Lee makes lush rock that touches the dream-pop, post-rock and shoegaze universes. His album “Billie Rude, I Loved You” came out last month via Michael Seyer’s Seyerland imprint, and the track “Billie Rude” finds Lee at his most grandiose. Live July 19 at Oblivion.

■ The Army, The Navy, “Stars Stay Awake” — Friendly reminder that “Fake Brave Life,” the third album from The Army, The Navy (the Bay area-bred duo of Maia Ciambriello and Sasha Goldberg), is out today. See also: “Down Debbie/Reservoir” and “Walls.”

■ Pluralone, “Feels Like I’ve Done Wrong” — Today brought the release of “A Drop in the Ocean,” the fourth album from Josh Klinghoffer’s solo project Pluralone. It’s a fascinating record filled with relatable self-interrogation, including the singles “Peer Into Your Dreams” and “Ranting and Raving.” Opening track “Feels Like I’ve Done Wrong” sets the tone. Says Klinghoffer: “This song is yet another in a long series that’s trying to help me get to the bottom of something.”

■ Landroid, “Say My Name” — “Say My Name” is one of the highlights of “Constellation,” the sophomore full-length out today from desert-dwelling duo Landroid (Cooper Gillespie and Greg Gordon). Along with tracks such as “Autonomous” and “Hank the Dragon,” the album is a fever dream of post-punk, electronica and experimental pop.

■ Westerner, “Kinky” — Friendly reminder that today brought the release of “Villain Era,” the third full-length from Westerner. A concept album, it shifts, sometimes abruptly, between noirish space-pop and psych-disco.

■ Buckets, “Jacknife” — And a loud reminder that “Horse to Water,” the hard-hitting sophomore album from L.A. quartet Buckets, is out today. A dynamic mix of punk and grunge/gaze with a sprinkling of twang, the album connects as it swings from soft to loud and back again, carrying along frontman Tanner Houghton’s raw emotions.

■ Atta Boy, “Full Cloud” — Atta Boy drops “Full Cloud,” following “Oh Mamma,” from their upcoming album “Silt,” arriving June 26. “Full Cloud” is an alt-rock track with a cool and steady guitar, paired with a lively chorus. Live July 10 at the Troubadour.

■ Roe Kapara, “Crying On Vacation” — Roe Kapara postures larger than life vocals in his stand-alone single, “Crying On Vacation,” following “My Love.” Kapara says: “I wanted it to feel like the sort of indie rock I was obsessed with when I was a kid, combined with some sort of ABBA twist.”

■ Maddy Davis, “Unemotional” — Maddy Davis goes big, emotionally, on the new single “Unemotional,” a bittersweet summertime jam that invites a thorough examination of the lyrics. It’s the follow-up to the equally cathartic “Afraid.”

■ Clyde The Band, “S.O.L” — Sean Temple formed Clyde The Band in 2019, recruiting Jessamine Finney and Natalie Bogert. “S.O.L.” is an indie-rock track featuring violin, viola and cello performed by Connor Vance. Temple says: “I channeled all those feelings of hopeless insecurity into the lyrics of “S.O.L.” The song is supposed to represent the realization that some things just aren’t meant to be.”

■ Starcrawler, “On 2 U” — Starcrawler is back with their characteristic snarl: “On 2 U” is the band’s first single since 2024. Live July 16 at the Constellation Room.

■ Ty Segall, “Black Paint” — Ty Segall introduces his new album “Chrome” (out Aug. 28) with the surging rocker “Black Paint.”

■ Julez and the Rollerz, “Phaser” — “More or less, ‘Phaser’ is about the weird feeling of being an artist and accidentally turning your entire existence into a performance,” Jules Batterman says of the new Julez and the Rollerz single. It’s the follow-up to “I Need Love” and the latest single from the quartet’s new album, “Dirty Little Rock ‘N’ Roller,” out June 28. Live June 28 at Zebulon.

■ Ethan Buckner, “Ephemera” — Singer-songwriter and activist Ethan Buckner makes poignant folk-pop bedrocked by candor and resolve. His debut album “Treading Water” came out in 2024, but early the next year he suffered a debilitating back injury while on a trip to India. Confined him to his Venice apartment for months, he began penning the songs for the follow-up: The new single “Ephemera” is the title track of his sophomore LP.

■ Maddie Zahm, “Everything All The Time” — Alt-pop artist Maddie Zahm’s sophomore album “Everything All The Time” drops Sept. 25 via MNRK Nashville. The title track is an emotive piano ballad. Watch the comforting music video here. Live Nov. 21 at Pacific Electric.

■ Chris Hess, “On My Way” — SWIMM frontman Chris Hess continues to roll out croontastic pop songs. Like previously released “Carry a Song With You” and “Salma Hayek,” “On My Way” was made with producer Kosta Galanopoulos. There’s an album somewhere in the distance.

■ Mimi Pretend, “Good Company” — “Good Company” is the first original since 2024 from dream-pop artist Mimi Pretend. The song, co-written with Jake Supple, is the first single from an album she has in the works. Stay tuned to local channels.

■ Matt Ellis, “Watching You” — High Desert-based Australian folk-rocker Matt Ellis plugs in for his new single, a ripped-from-today’s-headlines meditation that will appear on his forthcoming seventh LP. “At a moment when global attention remains fixed on an increasingly fractured USA,” Ellis says, “‘Watching You’ asks a timely and uncomfortable question: In an age of constant observation, who’s watching who?”

■ Sparkbyrd, “Calling of the Wind” — Lauren White, who was the L.A. half of the duo Sparkbyrd when the project first released music two years ago, has decamped to New York state. But the music the L.A. native and Chelsea Davis (ex-bandmates in the 2000s band Rocket) make still finds a sweet spot. Behold “Calling of the Wind.”

■ Dylan Chambers, “I’m Already There” — Arlington-reared soul-pop artist Dylan Chambers drops the stand-alone single “I’m Already There,” a throw-back, high-octane dance track, sure to get you groovin’. Chambers says: “The song became a sort of personal mantra for me, wrapped in an uplifting, soulful groove inspired by the timeless energy of the records I grew up loving.”

■ Moon Darling, “Welcome Back” — Moon Darling are the Northwest-bred psych-pop outfit led by Michael Julian and Eliza Karpel. They introduce “Hearts to Blame” (out Sept. 25), their sophomore album and first in six years, with “Welcome Back, which seems beamed (though not quite directly) from the 1970s.

■ Alan Vuong, “For Certain?!” — Alan Vuong blends R&B, indie-rock, psych and synth-pop into alluring “neon noir” songs with appeal for fans of artists such as Frank Ocean. His EP “Heaven Sent Me” comes out June 26, and he says the new single “For Certain?!” “is all about uncertainty and the challenges of committing to something or someone. The back and forth of emotions in a relationship and not knowing what’s for sure, not knowing if it’s going to last, not knowing what the future expectations might hold.”

■ Luke Armstrong, “Boys Don’t Cry” — “Boys Don’t Cry” is the title track from Beirut-reared, L.A.-based pop artist Luke Armstrong’s forthcoming EP, out Aug. 21. The EP deals with the songwriter’s experience growing up queer in a conservative Christian household in Lebanon, and the emotions he felt coming to L.A. while conflict rages in his homeland.

■ Cherry Bomb, “Sorry You’re Not Sorry” — Mandy Lee (of MisterWives) returns with another single from her disco-pop solo project Cherry Bomb. “Sorry You’re Not Sorry,” like her previous releases made with producer/co-writer Jason Suwito, finds Lee trying to shake loose some demons — see the video for the song, featuring the troupe Haus of Cherry.

■ Games We Play, “The Smash” — Games We Play (the solo vehicle for pop-punk artist Emmyn Callerio) will release their sophomore album, “I Wish I Never Quit,” on Sept. 18. Here’s the video for Live “The Smash.”June 20 at the Belasco Theater.

■ CyberScream, “Forget That It Hurts” — Dane White, the former drummer of Combichrist, has gone solo performing under the moniker CyberScream. “Forget That It Hurts” is a fun pop-metal single.

■ Kit Major, “Messin’ With Me” — Friendly reminder that Kit Major’s new EP “Miss Ego” has dropped via Futureless. Major says of “Messin’ With Me,” following the title-track: “”Messin’ With Me” is an accidentally optimistic garage rock jam. I wanted it to feel like the music I love listening to.” Watch the music video, directed Kit’s sister Emma Lev here. Live June 27 at the Echo.

■ Natalie Del Carmen, “Gone for Good” — Our playlist-ending cover song of the week comes via Valley songstress Natalie Del Carmen, who this week delivered a twangy version of the Shins’ “Gone for Good.” “I was born two years before this song came out in 2003, but it carries through generations like the best songs do,” says Del Carmen, whose sophomore album “Pastures” came out in January. “If it comes on in the car, nobody’s skipping, and Millennials and Gen Z’ers become the same person for a moment. That’s law.”