FFO: The Fiery Furnaces, Animal Collective, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, Alex G, progressive rock-skewed artpop

Holy Red Wagon is a world to get lost in. Across nine elastic tracks, meticulously channeled freak-folk influence twists its way into Bruiser and Bicycle’s progressive rock-skewed artpop. Replete with rich imagery and burning affirmations for life, the Albany, NY group’s exploratory writing takes the form of grandiose song structures, call-and-response passages, and confrontations with the unfamiliar.

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FFO: Land of Talk, Wye Oak, PUP, Rilo Kiley, Soccer Mommy, Hop Along, Great Grandpa, Built to Spill, Waxahatchee

The solidified Ratboys lineup stretched and expanded their vision in the studio, adding unexpected elements and instruments like rototoms, talkboxes, and fiddles. The result is Ratboys’ most sonically diverse record, shifting wildly from track to track. After more than ten years and four studio albums, The Window finally captures Ratboys as they were always meant to be heard—expansive while still intimate, audacious while still tender—the sound of four friends operating as a single, cohesive unit.

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FFO: Sweet Trip, Candy Claws, Have A Nice Life, Cornelius, Radiohead, Weatherday, My Bloody Valentine, The Microphones

Across the album’s ten songs, Parannoul plunges yet deeper into his diverse pool of influences, coming back to the surface with a record that captures and extends the magic of its predecessor. Unexpected flashes of orchestral ambient and glitched-out electronica meld seamlessly with Parannoul’s signature passages of noisy, distortion-laden shoegaze, offering a real time glimpse into the maturation of one of indie rock’s most exciting artists.

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FFO: Pup, Joyce Manor, Hotline TNT, Ovlov

The song’s eerie and nightmarish sense of imagery is intentionally left to be uncertain as the band subtly pushes their narrative scope. "At this point in our career, I realized the songs could be about anything," says guitarist and vocalist, Vincent Ford. Even still, the gentle and melodic sensibility that has made Gulfer a cult favorite still shines brighter than ever.

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A decade in the making, "Three EPs" is all of the band's recorded material collected on one record, including the Kinsella era as well as the band's split songs with Pacemaker.

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FFO: Hiatus Kaiyote, toe, Mid-Air Thief, tricot, American Football, CHON, Yvette Young, exploratory dreamworld math-rock infused with jazz, electronic, and classical

World, a commemoration of their 10th anniversary as a band, expands on their signature elements, the combination of which Pitchfork describes “as close to jazz as rock: virtuosity not as a means of showing off, but approaching the sublime.” World also features a host of international and local collaborators, tapping the varied talents of Seiji Kameda (Tokyo Jihen) Shashaa Tirupati, ?te, YILE LIN, Hom ShenHao, and the Kaohsiung City Wind Orchestra.

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FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr

In 2013, Blue Smiley officially formed in Brian Nowell and John Slavin’s rodent-infested North Philadelphia apartment. With Nowell primarily composing from the hammock he used as a bed, Blue Smiley created three short recordings within a year, featuring drummers ...

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FFO: Alvvays, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Snail Mail, snappy invigorating pop-rock

The ten songs that comprise All Around You also comprise a space to sit with the complex feelings inspired by this intense world we inhabit. Rather than succumb to doom, Subsonic Eye relish the opportunity to meditate on these uncomfortable emotions to find their way to the ultimate realization that beauty is all around us.

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FFO: The Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World, Braid, Colossal, Mock Orange

Del Paxton’s mix of nostalgic references aims to serve as their primary tool for exploring the contemporary, resulting in a post mortem of the American Empire.

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FFO: Touché Amoré, Loma Prieta, This Will Destroy You, Russian Circles, Comadre, Frameworks

Motivated by a recent mention in Brooklyn Vegan and the idea of giving new life to a mostly forgotten project, defunct Las Vegas group Caravels decided in early 2023 that their emotional, gripping debut LP Lacuna was worthy of a re-mix and re-master. Since 2013, the album has organically built up a cult classic status and has been considered a lost gem amongst close followers of the ever-evolving hardcore scene. The heart pounding rhythm section, sharp-cornered guitar riffs, and vocalist Mike Roeslein's brutally gorgeous scream-vocals still sound completely exhilarating ten years later.

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Clocking in at eight-and-a-half minutes, “Black Earth, WI” is their most expansive and adventurous track to date. It opens with a country-tinged sound, and as the instrumentation swells, so does Julia Steiner’s voice: “Singin’ hey now // What was that sound // Lighting a match // Just to freak you out // Then on the other side // I saw fifty yellow lines // Pushing up against the window // And with One almighty lightning strike // The Great Lake rose up behind // Said, ‘Baby, you best turn around.’”

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FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr

In 2013, Blue Smiley officially formed in Brian Nowell and John Slavin’s rodent-infested North Philadelphia apartment. With Nowell primarily composing from the hammock he used as a bed, Blue Smiley created three short recordings within a year, featuring drummers ...

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FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr

In 2013, Blue Smiley officially formed in Brian Nowell and John Slavin’s rodent-infested North Philadelphia apartment. With Nowell primarily composing from the hammock he used as a bed, Blue Smiley created three short recordings within a year, featuring drummers ...

listen → more info →

FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr

In 2013, Blue Smiley officially formed in Brian Nowell and John Slavin’s rodent-infested North Philadelphia apartment. With Nowell primarily composing from the hammock he used as a bed, Blue Smiley created three short recordings within a year, featuring drummers ...

listen → more info →

FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr

In 2013, Blue Smiley officially formed in Brian Nowell and John Slavin’s rodent-infested North Philadelphia apartment. With Nowell primarily composing from the hammock he used as a bed, Blue Smiley created three short recordings within a year, featuring drummers ...

listen → more info →

Our year in review: 18 tracks from 18 different artists spanning twitchy drum n bass, math rock, post rock, screamo, overdriven pop-shoegaze, progressive rock-skewed artpop, and everything in between. Available on CD, cassette, and digitally.

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