Wednesday and MJ Lenderman have announced a reissue of their 2021 collaborative EP Guttering via Julia’s War Recordings. The six-track project be available on vinyl for the first time on June 20. Its cover of Greg Sage’s ‘Sacrifice (For Love)’ was later included on Wednesday’s 2022 covers LP Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’Em Up.
“Life is filled with a lot of events that don’t seem as initially important as they turn out to be,” Julia’s War label head Douglas Dulagrian said in a press release. “Sometimes, I’ll look back at a chance encounter or passing interaction years later and realize, ‘Wow, that event was the catalyst for all this change.’ Every journey begins with one step, sure, but I don’t think we ever really realize how much of a journey that little step will cause. It’s funny to think how much Guttering changed my life. It’s a blessing that, for the past ten years, all my favorite bands have just been my friends, and even more of a blessing that, in the past four or five, they’re willing to work with me. I’m proud that this record was the first Julia’s War release four or five years ago. Crazy to think about that. And these days, all these years later, records like Guttering and many more have allowed the thing to grow into what it is today: a label of all my favorite bands, and it’s still just all my f*cking friends. Each release is this little chapter in the book of it all. And that little guy on the cover is the first page.”
Before going into the studio, 
If the best word to describe the sound of Halo on the Inside is “nocturnal,” that’s because the process behind it was quite literally that, too. Haley Fohr, the Chicago-based artist who records as 
The world of 
After releasing their sun-kissed, soulful debut Evil Joy in 2021, 
Great Grandpa’s music sounds so splendid, the lyrics so fantastically poetic, it’s easy to undermine their intimacy. “It’s closer when I see you, damn,” goes the hook on ‘Emma’, a highlight on their latest album Patience, Moonbeam, and they return to that damn for a cathartic explosion on the single ‘Doom’. The band’s first album in six years yearns and plays around for a sense of euphoria, and even if it sometimes falls short – of the feeling, not reeling you in – their synergy achieves a kind of unburdening that feels like a gift. “All dark things in time define their meaning,” Al Menne sings on ‘Kid’, making Pat and Carrie Goodwyn’s mournful lyrics sound tenderly affirming. “And fold sharp ends/ Into their mouths.”
Hannah Cohen released her third album, Welcome Home, the year after she and her longtime partner and collaborator Sam Owens (
Rather than expanding or polishing up her sound, Lucy Dacus’ Blake Mills-produced fourth LP charts an ongoing evolution by refining the subtleties and zoning into the minutiae of her songwriting, whose reflections of love, fame, and trust now concern some of the very people helping to bring it to life. Save for ‘Limerence’, the album’s advance singles have mostly been bouncy and mid-tempo, but there’s an enticing tug-of-war between those songs and the deep cuts that pull back. Forever is about traveling long distances and trying to transcend them, about tasting forever in the throes of change, taking the gamble on love when you’re caught between fantasy and truth. It doesn’t always sound as big as the concepts Dacus invokes – God, Fate, Chance – but it’s in the stillest moments that you know exactly what she means, leaving you in a chokehold. 
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
On their sophomore LP, Gaman, Star 99 are still making punchy, exhilarating songs while pushing beyond – though not necessarily past – the twee sensibilities of their 2023 debut Bitch Unlimited, making way not just for the confrontational nature but the poetic nuances of their songwriting. As Saoirse Alesandro and Thomas Romero trade vocals, revealing the core emotions that bind their songs – insecurity, resentment, isolation, often fueled by the fire of generational trauma – you get less of a sense that these are separate people bringing songs than just two friends, in a band, facing similar strifes – and getting through them. Which is, definitionally, the art of gaman. 
Diving into Weatherday’s latest outing, Hornet Disaster – which stretches over an hour and 16 minutes – is a daunting task, but the Swedish experimentalist sounds more exacting, determined, and addictive than ever. Six years after Sputnik’s debut LP under the moniker, Come In, and just a few after an 
45 Pounds is as trashy as it is taut, as harsh as it is relentlessly hooky. It’s a combination that brings to mind contemporary purveyors of controlled chaos such as Gilla Band and Model/Actriz, though what’s remarkable about the New York-based experimental outfit’s corrosive, improvisational blend of punk, hardcore, and electronic music is how fully realized – and funky – it sounds on their debut full-length. Zack Borzone’s vocal chops manage to stand out amidst the discombobulating interplay between Jack Tobias’ radiant synths and Sam Pickard’s frenzied percussion, which peaks on the penultimate track ‘Blackout’. It sprints forward while keeping you on your toes.
