Kevin Bronson on March 7th, 2025

0

It’s a Bandcamp Friday, and accordingly there are a bunch of Bandcamp links in the liner notes below.

So get your ears around our jumbo-sized playlist, Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 328), features tunes from new albums released by SASAMI, Chrissy, Charlie Hickey, Agender, TOKiMONSTA and Benmont Tench. Plus, enjoy new singles from Runnner, Illuminati Hotties, Kelcey Ayer, Steady Holiday, Kills Birds Tropa Magica, The Dumes, Liam Finn, Foliage, Jangus Kangus, Bishop Briggs and many more. (Did we mention jumbo? Two hours, 34 tracks.)

Anita Wills and S.Lo contributed to today’s roundup.

■ SASAMI, “I’ll Be Gone” — After four unassailable killer singles, Sasami Ashworth today released “Blood on the Silver Screen,” her third full-length and unabashedly a pop album, albeit one with teeth. “Pop music is like fuel,” Sasami says. “It’s just invigorating.” She had us at “Honeycrash,” to be honest, but there’s so much more. Live April 19 at the Lodge Room.

■ Charlie Hickey, “Kansas City” — Charlie Hickey’s sophomore album, “Could’ve Been Anyone” (out today) is a trove of aha moments, clever wordsmithery and deft musicality. Produced by Jonathan Rado, it features contributions from, among others, Marshall Vore, the Phoebe Bridgers collaborator who produced Hickey’s 2022 debut, “Nervous at Night.”

■ Sedona, “She’s So Pretty” (feat. Claud) — Chatsworth native Rachel Stewart’s music vehicle Sedona takes wing on the new single “She’s So Pretty,” a collaboration with Claud. Sedona has announced that her debut album “Getting Into Heaven” will be out May 23. Live tonight at the Silverlake Lounge and on May 8 at the Moroccan Lounge, opening for Girlpuppy.

■ Illuminati Hotties, “777” — The latest ripper from Sarah Tudzin, aka Illuminati Hotties, is a collaboration with Melinda Duterte, aka Jay Som.

■ Runnner, “Spackle” — Noah Weinman is donating all of March’s proceeds for his new Runnner single, “Spackle” (video here), to the Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network, benefiting victims of the wildfires. So hustle over the Bandcamp and download it — especially if you, like us, are infatuated with the new direction Weinman is taking Runnner … which we imagine might be his “Bends” era. Like January’s single “Coinstar,” “Spackle” is spacious and anthemic, feeling almost too short at 5 1/2 minutes.

■ The Dumes, “You’re a Letdown” — The Dumes, the L.A./Portland rock outfit fronted by former pro snowboarder Elodie Tomlinson, have released their first new music since 2023’s EP “… In This Economy?” And they are still taking no prisoners. Two minutes of menace, “You’re a Letdown” finds the band working with Rob Schnapf for a single that signals their blastoff to SXSW.

■ Dutch Interior, “Beekeeping” — Indie-folk group Dutch Interior follow up “Fourth Street,” with “Beekeeping,” the closing track on their debut album “Moneyball,” out March 21 via Fat Possum. “Beekeeping” is in no rush. The minimalist song moves slowly to Jack Nugent’s rich vocals, creating a dreamy and intoxicating sound. The track ends abruptly with no explanation, just like a dream would. Dutch Interior plays March 22 at the Echo.

■ Steady Holiday, “Seasonal Optimism” — Two years since the release of her fourth album, “Newfound Oxygen,” Steady Holiday mastermind Dre Babinski returns with “Seasonal Optimism.” Steady Holiday indie-pop has been handy with optimism over the years, and it turns out Babinski is handy in other ways.

■ Kelcey Ayer, “Different Planets” — Kelcey Ayer (ex-Local Natives) returns with his second solo single, “Different Planets,” an astral tune that features backing vocals from Jordana and acoustic guitar intricacies from Alejandro Aranda. It also marks his debut as a music video editor. And there’s a backstory: “I wrote ‘Different Planets’ on a baby blue ukulele that was gifted to my newborn son,” Ayer says. “I’d never written anything on a ukulele before or even owned one, so if it weren’t for him, this song would certainly not exist. It started as a challenge to myself to write something on an instrument I’d never used before, then something I’d play to soothe him. Eventually it became a song about teaching my son his first life-lessons.”

■ Chrissy, “Arm Candy” — “Heaven Is In You,” out last week, is the debut album from L.A.-based New York native Chrissy (Christine Brennan), offering a warm embrace of confessional indie-pop. Live March 16 at Pasadena’s Healing Force of the Universe.

■ Tropa Magica, “Limerencia” — “Limerencia” (vibe with the video) is the follow-up to “Xochi” and the second single from Tropa Magica’s fourth album, “Para Bailar Y Tripiar.” Brothers David and Rene Pacheco will release the album on April 27 and celebrate with a show at the Paramount on May 1.

■ Agender, “Action Reaction” — Friendly reminder that post-punk insurgents Agender (Romy Hoffman, along with Cristy Michel, Christy Greenwood and Sara Rivas) today released their third album, “Berserk.” There’s a song herein that aptly describes Agender’s bellicose synth-punk: “Dissonant Disco.” In Hoffman’s hands, the quartet’s pugilistic songs are beautiful beasts. Behold the video for “Action Reaction” and catch the band live on March 28 at Zebulon.

■ Darker Lighter, “Nice to Meet You” — The follow-up to “Someday Soon,” “Nice to Meet You” is the latest single from Salar Rajabnik’s solo project Darker Lighter. The project’s self-titled album is out May 2.

■ Kills Birds, “Trace” — Kills Birds (Nina Ljeti, Jacob Loeb, Fielder Thomas and Griffin Kisner) are thundering their ways toward the April 11 release of their new EP, “Crave.” “Trace” is the rock-’em, sock-’em new single, produced by Aron Kobayashi Ritch, and a whole bunch of cute domesticated animals are memorialized in the video. Live May 24 at the Echo.

■ L. A. Witch, “The Lines”  — As a follow-up to “777,”  L.A. Witch brings us “The Lines,” off their new LP “DOGGOD,” out April 4 via Suicide Squeeze Records. This time around, the focus is put on the expression of the lyrics, rather than the instrumentals. The music video features American Sign Language interpreter and dancer, Lark Detweiler. Director Sydney Mills says: “The ASL featured in the video is a unique expression of the emotions in Sade Sanchez’s lyrics, personally interpreted and translated by Detweiler. The song ‘The Lines’ features repeating lyrics, but Detweiler wanted to explore the many ways ASL can represent ‘lines’ — tracing the shape of a person, drawing a boundary between two people, or even shooting an arrow toward the stars — each reflecting how humans redefine and interact with lines in unique ways. By interpreting language into movement, we can express something deep about the struggles of being alive, stuck with a body beyond our control with feeling that can’t always been expressed with words alone. Some of us have to sing. Some play music. Some dance. Some sign.”

■ Liam Finn, “Unleash Your Animal” — If the Beatles forged ahead in their Yellow Submarine through the ’90s into a live action color performance under the direction of one of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards to free associate, that may approximate Liam Finn’s new single, “Unleash Your Animal,” off his upcoming album, “Hyperverse.” The New Zealand-raised, L.A.-based singing-songwriting-multi-instrumental wunderkind shaped his third full-length with live input from fans worldwide tuning into his live Twitch jamming sessions from Auckland (including his father Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios) to his L.A. home studio. “I wanted to see what would happen if I let people watch what would normally be incredibly solitary and intimate,” he says, with results feeling like he had the instantaneous feedback of “faceless, ageless, genderless producers.” “Hyperverse” will have a limited vinyl release on Record Store Day, April 12, followed by a wide release in June.

■ SoftSun, “Unholy Waters” — Speaking of trippy, SoftSun are the Mojave Desert trio of Gary Arce, Pia Isaksen and Dan Joeright. File their debut album “Daylight in the Dark” under Things We Missed in 2024 But Are Glad We Found Now. Their cinematic soundscapes yo-yo between weighty and weightless, making for sun-baked beauty whether there’s a “tongue dragging across the desert floor” or rapture over the “soft coloured sky.”

■ Ryan Lerman, “Missing Girl” — Multi-talented Ryan Lerman has performed with and/or written for the likes of Lizzy McAlpine, John Legend, Vulpeck, Ben Folds and Tallest Man on Earth, among others, as well as being the mastermind behind the online series “Scary Pockets” and the podcast Dead Wax. On July 25, Lerman will release a solo album, “Self Defense,” the songs on which are drawn from his heartrending experiences the past four years.

■ TOKiMONSTA, “Enjoy Your Life” — “Enjoy Your Life” (as in this video) is the release-day directive from TOKiMONSTA, who today issued her first album in five years, “Eternal Reverie.” Live at the El Rey Theatre on May 30 and May 31.

■ Elle Belle, “Mozart Was Buried in a Pauper’s Grave” — Christopher Pappas says this about “Mozart Was Buried in a Pauper’s Grave,” the latest monthly single from Elle Belle: “There’s no easy way to explain this song without sounding like a self-righteous a-hole, so apologies in advance. Or maybe you’ll relate? Do you ever feel like you’re at the party at the end of the world, putting coasters under drinks? Do you think ‘separating the art from the artist’ is a morally bankrupt ethos that led to a trash TV star becoming president? If so, my apologies — you’re stuck talking to me at the party. What do you wanna talk about? Want to hear about the DnD campaign I’m running?”

■ Foliage, “One Side Waits While the Other Fakes” — San Bernardino’s Manuel Joseph Walker makes multifarious indie-pop under the name Foliage, and five albums and more than a decade in, Foliage’s music still finds ways to surprise. The rhythmically kinetic (and almost anxiety-ridden) “One Side Waits While the Other Fakes” “captures that moment when you realize you’re playing a game you were never meant to win,” Walker says. “It’s about watching the pieces move around you, knowing the odds are stacked, but still going all in.” Live June 26 at the Echo, opening for BOYO.

■ Jangus Kangus, “Double Lives” — Jangus Kangus are an indie-rock outfit led by Jasmine Sankaran who released their first LP in 2019 and are riffing (both in words and guitar licks) into the future with the April 11 release of a new record, “Fortune Cookie.” Sankaran, along with bandmates Steph Anderson, Antonio White, Dan Perdomo and Ryan Kellis, worked with producer Mike Post on the album, which punctuates Sankaran’s chatterbox (in a good way) lyricism with kinetic guitar/bass/drums. “Double Lives” is their latest single. Catch them live on March 25 at the Echo, opening for Rum Jungle.

■ Odd Army, “Halfway Friends” — Fidel Nuñez, Alec Luttrell, Cameron Kao, and Mitchell Wright form Odd Army, an alt-psych band originally from the Bay Area. Their new single, “Halfway Friends,” is reminiscent of ’90s rock , and would fit right in on a mixtape between Oasis and the Verve.

■ Yungatita, “Home Appliance”- Notable indie-rockers Yungatita follow up their 2024 debut album “Shoelace & a Knot”  with “Home Appliance,” off their next TBA album.  The genius of Yungatita shines in the surprise genre change during the last 30 seconds of “Home Appliance.” With no warning, the harmless grunge pop track violently changes to extreme fast paced screaming punk as vocalist Valentina Zapata sings the chorus all over again in this style.

■ Matt Francis, “Boyfriend” — New Jersey native Matt Francis checks in with some heartfelt blue-collar rock on his new, self-produced EP, “Forever, Guaranteed.”

■ Bishop Briggs, “Woman Is King” — Bishop Briggs’ third album, “Tell My Therapist I’m Fine” (released last October), gets the deluxe reissue treatment, and the banger “Woman Is King” kicks the album off.

■ Rose Betts, “There Is No Ship” — Speaking of L.A.-based Londoners, “There Is No Ship” is the title of the sophomore album from Rose Betts. The title references “The Lord of the Rings”: “There’s a line that the elven character Arwen says when she’s made the decision to stay behind, renounce her immortality, and live a human life so that she can be with the man she loves,” Betts says. “It’s a simple line: ‘There is no ship that can bear me hence.’ The way I chose to interpret the line for this project is that there are some things that you cannot be taken away from. There are some things about yourself that you can never change. Where you grew up, the bones of the city that formed you, your country, and your heritage. For me, the power of these things has come into sharp focus since moving away from them. England will always be my homeland, my heart will always belong there.”

■ Juanita & Juan, “Aftertaste” — Juanita & Juan are an avant-garde rock duo, and the product of 50-year friendship between punk rock pioneers Alice Bag and Kid Congo Powers. “Aftertaste” is a low fi love song off their debut album, “Jungle Cruise,” out April 4 via In The Red Records. Watch the seriously silly music video here.

■ Shunkan, “Usual Suspects” — As a follow-up to “Hellbound,” Shunkan (Marina Sakimoto) returns with “Usual Suspects,” a guitar-driven track with pop-punk vocals off  “Kamikaze Girl,”  due May 6 via Rite Field Records. Sakimoto says: “I wanted to write about the process of trying to better your life while still acknowledging that you’re in the thick of it.”

■ Walter the Producer, “Tell Me Again” — The follow-up to “Little Lies,” “Tell Me Again” is the latest from Walter the Producer (aka Reid Hosp), the free-spirited Boston native who on this single questions whether a past relationship was even real.

■ Gold Child, “Magic Then” — Emily Fehler is Gold Child, an alt-country pop singer whose new single “Magic Then” is a guitar-driven track with a catchy chorus, off her forthcoming EP (release details to come). Fehler says the song is about “looking back at where love started, but also recognizing that, while love takes a different shape after some time, the magic never really faded. The song is nostalgic, but it’s not just about the past. It’s about holding onto the spark, even as love evolves beyond the honeymoon phase.”

■ Rah Rah Rabbit, “Liquor Store Chicken” — Now for a bit of country-fied (actually, country-fried) fun, in the last of new single “Liquor Store Chicken.” The video leads the way as a woman walks into a liquor store to buy a lotto ticket, and ends up entranced by the fried chicken they have for sale. Crispy. Live March 27 at the Sassafras Saloon.

■ Escape Artist Lovers, “Broken Low” — The duo of Kirk Hellie and Rain Phoenix, dba Escape Artist Lovers, dial it back for an extraterrestrial-sounding balld, “Broken Low,” their second single since last year’s EP, “Heavy With Stars.”

■ Benmont Tench, “The Melancholy Season” — We’ll bring this playlist in for a soft landing with the title track of the new album (out today) from songwriter and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. Here’s the video. He’s playing Largo on March 12 and 19.