Wolfmanhattan Project
Wolfmanhattan Project
(Los Angeles, USA /// In The Red Records)
Who knows what possessed Mick Collins, Kid Congo Powers and Bob Bert to hook up for the Wolfmanhattan Project? But good thing they did, because here we have giddy garage contraption which combines Collins’ sci-fi obsessions, Powers’ hallucinogenic visions and Bert’s power-house pound—along with a hefty helping of fuzzy r ‘n r mayhem. This first full-length follows the “Smells Like You” single from 2015 (included here at track seven) in fine, trippy, weirder-than-you-were-expecting style.
The three principals are all legendary in a crusty, underground way. Mick Colllins spliced electric blues to garage stomp in the Gories, then rifled through Motown, Detroit House and Bubblegum in the ever-entertaining Dirtbombs. Kid Congo Powers played a role in two of American punk’s defining outfits, first the Gun Club and then the Cramps; more recently he’s backed Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds and recorded a string of wonderfully warped, tripped out garage albums with the Pink Monkey Birds.Bob Bert was Sonic Youth’s first drummer (before Steve Shelley), and he’s also played with the Chrome Cranks, Pussy Galore and Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus. (Lunch turns up for a cameo in “Jar in the Staircase.”) That’s a lot of rock and roll history right there, but none of it weighs on their hard-knocking, rough-housing, just-out-of-true grooves. They play hard, with joy and eccentric intelligence right here, right now.
– Jennifer Kelly
Soft Palms
SOFT PALMS
( Los Angeles , USA // Everloving Records )
Soft Palms is the immersive dream-pop project of Julia Kugel and Scott Montoya, a Long Beach-based duo crafting expansive, hypnotic soundscapes from the comfort of their home studio, Centre of Mental Arts (COMA). Blending lo-fi warmth with textural sophistication, Soft Palms feels like a lucid dream set to analog tape, equal parts meditative, cinematic, and deeply human.
The pair, both seasoned creatives and longtime collaborators, record, produce, and mix everything themselves, operating far outside the confines of traditional studio systems. Kugel (of The Coathangers, Julia, Julia) brings her ethereal vocal layers and lyrical intimacy, while Montoya (formerly of The Growlers) shapes the sonic architecture with a meticulous, vintage-informed approach to engineering and instrumentation.Their 2020 self-titled debut, released via Everloving Records, introduced Soft Palms as a genre-fluid exploration of ambient pop, psych, and shoegaze, garnering underground acclaim for its lush arrangements and DIY production style. Follow-up singles “Wash Your Hands” and “Each Wave That Breaks” (2022) continued that trajectory, thoughtful, textural, and sonically transportive.
In 2026, Soft Palms return with their most expansive work yet: IN ECHO (Everloving Records). Written and recorded at COMA, the album builds on their signature atmosphere while diving deeper into layered introspection, sonic vulnerability, and cosmic repetition. It’s not just a record, it’s a mood, a place, and a reflection of the world turning inward. Soft Palms is less a band and more a state of mind, where sound becomes sanctuary, and each note feels like it was meant just for you.
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Mikal Cronin
Mikal Cronin
(San Francisco, USA // Merge Records)
« Playing garage-accented pop that reveals more than a passing influence of indie rock from the 1980s and ’90s, Mikal Cronin was raised in Laguna Beach, California, where as a teenager he developed a passion for both surfing and rock & roll. While attending Laguna Beach High School, he fell in with a handful of like-minded music fans and formed a band that played local parties. Cronin left California for a few years to attend Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, but returned to continue his education at the California Institute of the Arts. While attending CIA, he joined the surf-influenced garage band Charlie & the Moonhearts as bassist; they became simply the Moonhearts after the departure of drummer Charlie Moothart, and in 2010 the band released a self-titled album through Tic Tac Totally Records. Cronin also began collaborating regularly with Ty Segall, releasing a collaborative album, Reverse Shark Attack, in 2009 and playing in Segall’s road band.
We had the chance to discover many of his good records since 2010, and the last one was released on the label Famous class .
His first solo album began as therapy after finally completing college and making his way into the real world; full of noisy pop and garage influences, the self-titled LP (featuring guest appearances by Segall, Moothart, and John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees) was issued by Trouble in Mind Records in September 2011. While still playing with Segall, he released a second solo album, MCII, for Merge in the spring of 2013. He embarked on a solo tour after that, taking time during 2014 to write and record his third album. Adding some new instruments to the fold, including the traditional Greek instrument the tzouras, and making a concerted effort to make his sound « bigger, » the album was split into halves, with one side straight-ahead pop songs and the other a thematically linked set of songs meant to tell Cronin‘s coming of age story. The record, titled MCIII, was released by Merge in the spring of 2015. After touring, Cronin devoted most of his muical time to playing with Ty Segall‘s live band and appearing on three of his friend’s albums, 2016’s Emotional Mugger, 2017’s Ty Segall, and 2018’s Freedom’s Goblin. When he turned back to his on music, he spent a month in a cabin located in Idyllwild, California battling writer’s block and detialing recent heartbreak. Whne he was chased out of the hills by wildfire, he headed to the studio with Jason Quever of Papercuts to start recording. Backed by Segall‘s Freedom band and inspired by the Beatles’ White Album, Seeker was Cronin‘s first album that bore no traces of garage rock or power pop, instead delving deeply into classic rock sounds. It was issued by Merge in October of 2019. »
In 2019, he is finally back ! On October 25, Mikal Cronin released Seeker on Merge Records, his fourth and finest full-length to date. Recorded live with a crew of close friends and engineer Jason Quever at Palmetto Studios in Los Angeles, it finds Cronin pushing his often devastating power pop into darker territory.
“Fire—specifically its cycle of purging and reseeding the landscape—is a central theme to the record. Death and rebirth,” says Mikal. “I was looking for something: answers, direction, peace. I am the seeker.”
King Khan & The Shrines
King Khan & The Shrines
(Montreal – Berlin, CA – DE /// Voodoo Rhythm, Hazelwood, Vicious Circle Records)
In 1999 King Khan, Aquarius and founder of the greatest cult phenomenon since the parting of the Milky Way, assembles the 8-piece band called The Shrines. Together they begin spreading their hypersexual gospel around the world, stunning Krauts and becoming notorious for being one of the most entertaining groups since the days of Ike & Tina. Dressed in their ceremonial duds, King Khan and the Shrines, are more than just a psychedelic soul revue, imagine Roky Erickson backed by the Sun Ra Arkestra or Wilson Pickett leading The Velvet Underground, wearing a golden cape that wraps around the world, a Bollywood James Brown reading his self-made tarot cards (WHO DOES THAT!?).
As the love child of Anubis and Kali, King Khan & The Shrines have pillaged countless stages around the world and are known to frequently drive audiences into a sweaty orgy. If musical salvation is what you need, if your soul is searching for true absolution, look no further….
Let King Khan & The Shrines come into your mind, body and soul to heal your every hurt. King Khan & The Shrines’ first album Three Hairs & You’re Mine was produced by Liam Watson, recorded in the legendary Toe Rag Studios in London and released on Voodoo Rhythm in 2002. A second full-length, Mr. Supernatural, followed in 2004.
Their greatest hits, aptly titled “The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines”‘ came out in 2008 on Vice Records and for the first time their music was widely available in the U.S. Since then King Khan & The Shrines have played at several notable festivals including ATP, Coachella, Sasquatch, Pitchfork and South By Southwest.
Furthermore King Khan was invited by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson to perform at the Sydney Opera House as a part of the Vivid festival in 2010. In 2013 King Khan & The Shrines joined North American cult indie label Merge Records who released the groups 4th album called Idle No More.
The single „Darkness“, which, as King Khan says, is about the “ugly beasts that must be tamed inside of us all” and also his “attempt to do something as real as Nina Simone”, was premiered by none less than the New York Times.
If true or not, one thing is for sure : “King Khan is that fiery arrow shot into the night sky which no one knows how high or far it will travel, however we do know that as that fiery arrow streaks across the heavens, along the way its flames will light up dark places.” -John B. Smith founder of Memphis activist group The Invaders.