Donegal singer songwriter Kevin Laughlin is about to introduce himself along with his debut single, Play It Cool, launched on March fifth.
Drawing inspiration from the timeless songwriting of artists equivalent to James Taylor and Paul Brady, Play It Cool blends heat, melodic songwriting with honest and reflective lyricism.
As a debut launch, the observe gives an genuine first glimpse into Laughlin’s songwriting voice — considerate, relatable, and grounded in real-life expertise.
The tune explores the common feeling of believing you will have life all discovered, solely to understand that certainty is commonly an phantasm. At its core, Play It Cool embraces a easy however highly effective message: generally the perfect factor you are able to do is regular your self, belief the journey, and preserve shifting ahead.
Concerning the tune Laughlin says “This tune got here at a time the place I actually thought I had my life all deliberate out however shortly got here to understand I had not. So I wrote Play It Cool about simply accepting that not all the pieces will all the time go as deliberate in life or love. Generally you’ve acquired to only roll with the punches and play it cool.”
Produced by Ryan Sheridan, the one pairs polished manufacturing with emotional honesty, permitting Laughlin’s vocal supply and storytelling to take centre stage. The collaboration brings a refined sound to a debut that feels each intimate and guaranteed.
To rejoice the discharge, Laughlin will headline Bennigan’s in Derry on Could sixteenth — his first main hometown-style headline present following the one’s arrival. The efficiency marks an vital milestone in what’s shaping as much as be a breakout 12 months, giving audiences the prospect to listen to Play It Cool stay alongside new authentic materials.
Tickets right here – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kevin-laughlin-live-in-bennigans-with-special-guests-auris-tickets-1981743735861
Los Angeles-based indie singer-songwriter and producer Nymphlord publicizes her debut album, Shedding Velvet (Could 15, Lauren Information) alongside the discharge of latest single, “Backyard.”
Steel/hip-hop fusion band UnityTX has unleashed “STFU”, the most recent single from their forthcoming sophomore album Someplace, In Between…. “STFU”, which follows earlier releases “Physique Roc” and “Get pleasure from Tha Present”, is probably the most aggressive launch but, giving listeners a style of the band’s fury and frustration. Stream the “STFU” now at https://lnk.to/UnityTX_Music.
Pre-save/pre-order Someplace, In Between…, out March thirteenth, 2026 by way of Pure Noise Information at https://purenoiserecs.lnk.to/UnityTX.
On the most recent single, frontman Jay Webster (aka SHAOLIN G): “‘STFU’ is a tune that evokes a way of insignificance within the face of the vastness of the world.
As soon as the haze of success dissipates, you notice how precarious psychological stability feels amidst rising pains, elevated publicity, and the fixed barrage of on-line opinions about you. In the end, my purpose is to keep away from the noise, however I’m surrounded by fixed challenges that take a look at my limits. It usually appears simpler to chop ties than to immerse myself in a system that may all the time discover fault in each strategy.”
Loe Shimmy is taking up the sport along with his easy and seductive late evening anthems. As he begins the street to his new challenge, Fairly Girlz Run The World, the Broward County artist shares “No Mileage,” a brand new narcotic ballad and his first new single of 2026. Swimming by means of liquid keys and sighing saxophones, Shimmy performs the position of a lothario, turning his attraction as much as 100 as he lists the methods he’ll make her goals come true. Artfully filmed with grainy precision, the video takes Shimmy to L.A., the place he romances a baddie on the Hills overlooking Downtown.
On March twenty second, Loe Shimmy performs a hometown present in Ft. Lauderdale, internet hosting Loe Shimmy and Pals on the metropolis’s Conflict Memorial Auditorium. Shimmy plans to carry particular friends together with BossMan Dlow, Sexyy Crimson, Hunxho, Rob49, YTB Fatt, and, maybe, some shock friends. Tickets for Loe Shimmy & Pals can be found now HERE
Chicago-based various punk rock band Rise In opposition to launched a brand new music video for his or her standout observe “Injury Is Carried out” off their newest album Ricochet, streaming now by way of Loma Vista.
“Injury is completed is about how damage just isn’t one thing that may be reversed, so we will both develop from it or let it unravel us,” shares frontman Tim McIlrath.
This stay efficiency is the second video put out as a part of The A.R.T. Undertaking (All Rise Collectively), a fan-driven artistic initiative celebrating group, collaboration, and expression. Late final 12 months, Rise In opposition to invited dozens of devoted followers to assist form a brand new visible world for Ricochet by creating authentic posters to function the backdrop in these new music movies. Because the band carried out standout tracks off the album, followers had been featured alongside them and their art work that was impressed by the report’s lyrics, themes, and emotional urgency.
At its core, The A.R.T. Undertaking is about bringing individuals collectively by means of music and creativity throughout divided occasions. Constructed on Rise In opposition to’s long-held perception that music is a collective expertise, the initiative invitations followers into the band’s artistic course of to rejoice the group that has grown alongside them for over 25 years.
“Blueprint” is the brand new single and video from Simone White.
STREAM “BLUEPRINT” HERE
For her newest act, White conjures a curious baroque-pop composition that’s as participating as it’s enigmatic.
Harking back to advanced, non-linear outings of Laurie Andersen, Agnes Obel, or Aldous Harding “Blueprint” finds White’s gossamer vocal enveloped by dancing string preparations by neoclassical minimalist composer Brent Arnold.
A tune that asks as many questions because it ever offers solutions, “Blueprint” deconstructs city settings acquainted to all of us and unravels their existential mechanics, line by line.
“Inform Me When The World Stops Ending” sees GUNSHIP unleash their most ferocious observe but, written for John Carpenter’s upcoming visceral, zombie-slaying motion epic online game Poisonous Commando. Produced by GUNSHIP and blended by Grammy-nominated Carl Bown (Sleep Token), GUNSHIP push their signature sound into searing steel and industrial territory, anchored by the brooding Carpenter-esque synth textures they’re greatest recognized for. This tune is GUNSHIP cranked to 11 and ideally suited for full-throttle decimation of the zombie hordes.
GUNSHIP wrote “Inform Me When The World Stops Ending,” solely for legendary filmmaker John Carpenter’s upcoming online game Poisonous Commando. Developed by Saber Interactive, the studio behind hit titles Warhammer 40,000: House Marine 2 and World Conflict Z, and printed by Focus Leisure, the sport is a blood-soaked zombie shooter at a cinematic scale. The partnership is a pure evolution: GUNSHIP’s artistic bond with horror icon and synth maestro John Carpenter stretches again to his appearances on the fan-favourite anthems “Tech Noir” and “Tech Noir 2. To cite GUNSHIP “When John Carpenter calls… you reply!”. The band are thrilled to reply the decision as soon as once more.
“We grew up completely obsessive about John’s movies and his iconic soundtrack work. His artistry has been a relentless supply of inspiration and continues to form the music we create as GUNSHIP. Having been lucky sufficient to collaborate with him on two of our personal tracks, saying sure after we had been invited to contribute to his
online game was an immediate “HELL YEAH!””
Glassio’s third album, The Imposter, is a luminous meditation on id, doubt, and the quiet act of returning to oneself. Written after a transatlantic transfer from New York to London and within the wake of newfound sobriety, the report unfolds as a self-portrait in movement — a dream-pop opus about shedding phantasm and rediscovering function in creation.
Throughout its 13 tracks, Glassio (Sam R.) weaves collectively components of shoegaze, early-2000s electronica, and psychedelic folks, making a sonic world the place reminiscence and melody drift in tandem. The album strikes like a lucid dream — opening in disorientation (“Be part of the Membership,” “Give Me Again My Future”), spiraling by means of moments of self-doubt and longing (“I’m So Far Away,” “Downtown Hero”), and finally arriving in grace and acceptance with the closing observe, “Take a Take a look at the Flowers” — a radiant collaboration with avant-pop artist Madge.
“That tune turned my means of ending the loop,” Sam explains. “After all of the looking out, it’s nearly stopping for a second — seeing what’s nonetheless blooming round you. It’s the report’s exhale.”
At its core, The Imposter asks a query that has haunted artists for generations: In the event you had been denied the suitable to create, would you continue to know who you’re? This inquiry surfaces most instantly on “Hit or Bliss,” a spoken reflection that reframes the basic Rilkean take a look at of creation as survival. The album doesn’t provide straightforward solutions — as an alternative, it finds magnificence in uncertainty, empathy in imperfection, and function within the impulse to maintain making.
“For a time, I misplaced my sense of self,” Sam admits. “I’d been performing roles — for individuals, for the trade, for an concept of who I assumed I used to be alleged to be. This album was me stripping all that away and discovering the true voice beneath.”
From the pulsing nostalgia of “Heartstrings” to the spectral shimmer of “Al Pacino” and the introspective haze of “I’m So Far Away,” every observe seems like a web page from an artist’s inside dialogue — by turns playful, melancholic, and transcendent. Even probably the most outward-facing songs hum with interior reckoning.
Whereas Glassio’s earlier work drew comparisons to the escapist bliss of acts like Scorching Chip and M83, The Imposter inhabits a extra susceptible register — one the place self-awareness replaces spectacle, and the road between persona and individual begins to blur, meshing strands of New Wave, Shoegaze, Electronica and Dream-Pop multi function.
It’s a report born from confrontation: with dependancy, with creative doubt, with the quiet concern of being forgotten. However in the long run, The Imposter gives a special sort of religion — the religion that what’s actual can’t be carried out.
“A maker makes,” Sam says. “That’s what they’re. I needed to cease working from that.”
By the point “Take a Take a look at the Flowers” that includes Madge closes the report, the stress has softened. What started as a battle with id ends in a mild realization: the self was by no means misplaced — it was ready beneath the noise all alongside.
Wasteland, an artwork novel by Jason Haaf and Scooter LaForge, is a spot you possibly can sink into or attempt to go away. It’s a time whenever you fell into lust and have become glued; it may be a entice or an escape. Combining portray, prose, poetry and collage, authors Haaf and LaForge discover queer intimacy, anger and angst. From relationships to repetitions, Wasteland is an open invitation right into a collaborative psyche. Wasteland is out right now by way of Doable Guys.
JASON HAAF ARTIST STATEMENT
“Earlier this 12 months I used to be working on the Strand bookstore and my e book, Harsh Cravings, was stacked on the LGBTQ desk. It was a Sunday and there was one copy left. By the point I left for the evening, I observed that it was gone. I posted a narrative on Instagram that we ran out of copies however we’d restock quickly. I acquired a message from Scooter LaForge and he stated he purchased the final one.
I used to be flattered that Scooter, a fixture within the artwork and style world, thought to even buy it. He informed me that he was having fun with it and associated to a lot of the fabric. Just a few days and messages later, I acquired a little bit of gumption and requested if he’d wish to work collectively. He was open to the thought and we agreed to speak extra. I’ve collaborated with artists up to now and I informed him that this time, I’m searching for one thing completely different. One thing extra concerned. I informed him that I don’t need my work to only sit on high of one other’s. I would like it to go inside. I need a melding, a 3rd eye, a real collaboration the place traces are blurred. I questioned if the depth of that concept would flip him off, however it didn’t, and we made a plan to fulfill.
There was no preconceived notion of Wasteland, that title, made well-known by T.S. Eliot didn’t but exist for our challenge. We started with watercolor paper, ink, and a bamboo pen. I rifled by means of previous journal entries courting again to 2021 and I discovered passages that also resonated with me. Once I transcribed them onto the watercolor paper, I channeled the feelings I felt on the time these phrases had been written. Once I handed off the pages to Scooter, the purpose was to find a response. Nothing deliberate, nothing predetermined. And when he returned the pages, surrounded by his artwork, it didn’t change the which means of my phrases, as an alternative, it added a light-weight and an vitality to them, one other pulse. Generally, I might give a response again, including paint and pastels to his creation. And generally, I might write extra phrases, over his artwork. This was the sort of collaboration I used to be searching for.
Months later, I started sorting about 80 artwork items collectively. What I discovered is that Wasteland turned a spot, a being, a location. Whereas indefinitely Queer in nature, it’s a place all of us go to. What’s it to wish to get out of our environment? What’s it to create one thing new? What is that this urge to say, this isn’t sufficient and I would like extra? How can we get there? And what if we stayed? As a way to create, we’d like the steerage and the relatability of others. It’s the place we will unapologetically go within our personal heads and finally journey to someplace new with the assistance of one other.”
SCOOTER LAFORGE ARTIST STATEMENT
“This collaboration began with a jolt of intuition. I used to be roaming the Strand, hungry for one thing actual—perhaps a queer love story, perhaps only a voice that felt alive. Then I noticed the duvet of Jason’s e book. It hit me. I opened it, learn a couple of traces, and felt that electrical pull you solely get when one thing speaks straight to you. The uncooked, diary-like honesty hooked me quick.
Once I completed the e book, I messaged Jason simply to say how deeply it landed. I didn’t know who he was, didn’t know his fame—none of that mattered. I used to be responding to the item, the phrases, the sensation in my chest.
He wrote again and requested if I’d paint from his writing. The query felt so proper that I stated sure immediately. We met in a café, and from the primary dialog, one thing charged handed between us—artistic, emotional, laborious to call.
The work poured out of me. No forcing, no second-guessing. Simply pure response. It felt like opening a vein in the easiest way.
This challenge is not like something I’ve ever achieved, and I’m pleased with what got here out of us. The e book feels alive, touched by an actual sort of magic—the type that solely reveals up when two individuals meet at precisely the suitable second and say sure.”
ORDER WASTELAND HERE
Dreamrock trio KEELEY launch new video “Large Brown Eyes” that includes visitor vocals by Miki Berenyi (Lush, Piroshka, Miki Berenyi Trio).
Lately launched to widespread acclaim, KEELEY’s third album ‘Lady On The Edge Of The World’ (Definitive Gaze) has been lauded for the variety of moods and textures inside its twelve songs, highlighting what Dublin-born singer and guitarist Keeley Moss calls “the sonic swirl”. The album’s emotional centrepiece is undoubtedly “Large Brown Eyes” with its darkish pulsing beat, its lament to the upcoming homicide of younger teenage German backpacker Inga Maria Hauser, and a phenomenal cascading vocal contribution from former Lush singer Miki Berenyi. Miki not too long ago joined the band onstage to carry out the tune at their London present at LVLS in Hackney Wick.
The accompanying video goals to think about the sensations and impressions that Inga might need skilled as she journeyed by means of Nice Britain within the Spring of 1988. Filmed and directed by Glasgow-based filmmaker Laura Meek utilizing classic VHS methods, the clip’s mushy tones and impressionistic movement seize the hopes and goals of youthful journey.
Moss and her bandmates – bassist Lukey Foxtrot and drummer Andrew Paresi – proceed their tour of the UK in help of the brand new album on the next dates.
Wed Feb 25 BRIGHTON The Rossi Bar (Headline present)
Thu Feb 26 HULL New Adelphi (Headline present)
Fri Feb 27 HUDDERSFIELD Amped (Headline present)
Sat Feb 28 GLASGOW Hug & Pint (Headline present)
Solar Mar 01 NEWCASTLE Cluny 2 (Headline present)
Sat Mar 21 NORWICH Waterfront (Supporting The Smyths)
Sat Apr 18 FOLKESTONE The Quarterhouse (Supporting The Smyths)
Thu Apr 30 TODMORDEN The Golden Lion (Headline present)
Fri Could 01 WOLVERHAMPTON The Giffard Arms (Co-headline with TV Pins)
Sat Could 2 LYME REGIS Marine Theatre (supporting The Smyths)
Fri Could 8 NUNEATON Queen’s Theatre (supporting The Smyths)
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KEELEY – NEW ALBUM – ‘GIRL ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD’
OUT NOW, VIA DEFINITIVE GAZE
ORDER HERE
Cheekface takes on the structure of cruelty of their new single, “Hostile Avenue.” As uncomfortably tender as all the time, the Los Angeles trio return with an anthem that explores the wrestle of being a caring individual in a world designed in opposition to it.
Vocalist/guitarist Greg Katz, bassist/vocalist Amanda Tannen, and drummer Mark “Echo” Edwards are recognized for his or her deadpan supply and right here, they reference the real-world idea of hostile avenue furnishings – these bus benches with spikes and awkward arm rests that make it not possible to put down – to specific their considerations about our present social local weather.
Irish composer and producer BK Pepper returns with Frequent Floor, a robust new single launched March sixth, alongside the announcement of his extremely anticipated second album, Pagan, arriving April twenty fourth by way of London-based label Bigo & Twigetti.
Following the crucial acclaim of his 2020 debut album Territories, Pepper expands each his sonic and thematic attain on Pagan, an bold and cinematic work recorded with the Czech Nationwide Symphony Orchestra, The Glasshouse Ensemble and famend violinist Viktor Orri Árnason.
The primary glimpse into Pagan, Frequent Floor is an expansive and deeply human piece that pairs the dimensions of the Czech Nationwide Symphony Orchestra with intimate layered vocals and hushed brass textures. It unfolds step by step, mirroring the sluggish and deliberate nature of real understanding.
Ó hEaráin (pronounced “O Aran”), the solo challenge of Donegal-born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Herron, returns along with his new single “On My Thoughts,” launched February twenty seventh. Mixing folks songwriting with hints of conventional Irish and Americana influences the tune explores love, reminiscence, and acceptance from the attitude of somebody approaching the top of life.
To mark the discharge, Ó hEaráin will carry out an intimate stay present on Sunday, March 1st at McLoone’s Bar, with additional stay dates deliberate within the coming months.
Opening with a easy but charming acoustic guitar melody, On My Thoughts step by step unfolds by means of emotive slide guitar and understated, spacious preparations. Whereas rooted in themes of demise and parting, the tune carries an uplifting and religious tone — an ode to a life effectively lived, and to the assumption that love continues past goodbye.
“On My Thoughts is a love tune written from the attitude of somebody approaching the top of life,” Herron explains. “Regardless of the somber theme, I feel the music and melodies create an uplifting and reflective really feel, anchored within the perception that we are going to see them once more.”
Herron performs each acoustic and slide guitar on the observe and is joined by longtime good friend Gráinne Gavigan on vocals, alongside a bunch of a number of the island’s most revered session musicians contributing double bass (Nick Scott), cello (Laura McFadden), and drums (Eamon Ferris. The result’s a sparse however deeply affecting association that enables the tune’s emotional core to shine.
Identified for his work as a session musician with artists together with Little Hours, Stephanie Rainey, and Clare Sands, and as a former member of Cork indie band Rowan, Herron’s Ó hEaráin challenge continues to embrace a extra intimate, folk-rooted sound — one which values honesty, restraint, and emotional readability.
Southern Rockers Hillbilly Vegas are sharing their new single & video for ”I Hope You Know”. The observe is the 1st single from the Oklahoma based mostly band’s upcoming album “A La Mode”, which is slated for launch in Could by way of Quarto Valley Information.
“I Hope You Know” is a tune in regards to the chaos of a relationship that’s deteriorated to the purpose of no return. The tune is pushed by guitars with a southern type, rocking blues groove – with simply the suitable contact of grit that the band is understood for.
The band’s Steve Harris says “I Hope You Know’comes from a really private expertise in my life, however it’s a second lots of people acknowledge. It may be a romantic relationship, a friendship, household, or perhaps a skilled relationship. In my case, it was knowledgeable relationship and a lifelong friendship that slowly deteriorated resulting from substance abuse. It’s realizing the individual you trusted isn’t in management anymore, and that you may’t repair it for them. Generally the one factor left to do is let go and hope it offers them the motivation to repair themselves.”
An acclaimed and wanted bass participant hailing from Nashville, TN, Jon von Boehm presents his magnum opus, Reflections. A end result of all the pieces Jon has labored on up to now — Reflections is an especially private album that thrives off of cinematic storytelling and the need to construct group by means of music. A masterclass in trendy fusion — intricate bass work, layered compositions, and technical execution converge in Reflections.
https://jonvonboehm.bandcamp.com/album/reflections
Trendy Vacation right now announce their arrival on debut single “Shuttered Life”, which captures the quiet disorientation of life in New York Metropolis circa summer season 2020. Constructed round mild guitar textures, floating melodies, and a restrained, atmospheric association, the tune displays on empty streets, closed storefronts, and the sudden disappearance of on a regular basis routines. By understated particulars and reflective pacing, singer/guitarist Jameson Edwards paperwork how mates and communities tailored to a metropolis dropped at a standstill.
Because the tune unfolds by means of glassy guitar traces and off-kilter vocals, “Shuttered Life” turns inward, revealing a extra private fact beneath its observations. In its closing moments, frontman Edwards acknowledges that the emotional distance of lockdown mirrored his personal lifelong introversion, reframing the shutdown as unusually acquainted territory. The result’s a quietly highly effective tune that balances collective reminiscence with private reflection—each a time capsule of isolation and an intimate portrait of discovering which means in solitude.
https://modernholiday.bandcamp.com/album/shuttered-life-single
- E mail: neill@outloudculture.com
