I get bugged with releases I can't play straight through anymore, especially now when most things seem to be built around streaming services, social media, and artificial PR campaigns. But every so often, something new arrives with enough personality and punch that really makes me think again. These ten or so releases — LPs, EPs, 45s — were the ones that truly did it for me this year. It's the big sound of 2025. Artwork by Paris Rodd Ozzie Hair - Uninsured Best known for slinging the axe in...

Joe Glass has been steadily shaping a musical world of his own, one that runs parallel to, but distinctly apart from his work in the live version of Sharp Pins. He's spent the last few years writing, scrapping, re-recording, and rediscovering what excites him about rock 'n' roll, landing on a sound that's louder, faster, and more personal than anything he's released before. His new record, Snakewards , is full of brilliantly disheveled pop gems and ragged rock 'n' roll that feels both nervy...

The phrase the "LA sound" has meant a lot of things over the past six decades. Some people associate it with all sorts of things, but to me it will always be the sound of The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Jan & Dean, The Byrds, Love, and Kim Fowley. After a few decades of sedated trends, Los Angeles hasn't felt more alive and diversified than it does right now (see the sights of Uni Boys, Dorothy Fuzz, Billy Tibbals, Alley Girl, Quad Super Six, Tim Presley, etc.). And somehow, a red-headed young...