The Kansas City outfit Shiner returns after five years with its new album BELIEVEYOUME (Spartan Records). While it may not have been as long a break as its 19-year pause before 2001’s The Egg, it doesn’t seem to have slowed the band down at all. The band’s heavy-handed guitar work is felt on “The Mutiny,” assisted by its explosive rhythm section that screams power all around. No fucks are given, and the melody of the vocal harmonies is literally the cherry on top of it all! If it’s magic the band is looking for, pfft, it hasn’t lost any of it. Shiner’s dark “Asleep In the Truck” almost seems foreboding, musically speaking that is. Guitars and vocals move in a dark direction for the first minute before finding their meaty meeting place with the rhythm and reverting back. It’s a clever juxtaposition of melody and shadowy spaces. “The Alligator” has an odd rhythm that the band effortlessly makes work, conjoined with soaring harmonies that again blend and eventually find its collective space where everything falls into place. It’s quite maddening and genius at the same time. Even when the band puts together explosive guitar pop songs like “Endless Summer,” you can hear the brilliance within the composition. You can’t ever assume the band is going to move in a certain direction as the guitars crunch every space around it with its bass and drums offering spaces enough for them to breathe. Some might think Shiner is a thing of the past but they’ve created a blissfully wonderous recording with BELIEVEYOUME.

BRIGHT EYES – KIDS TABLE EP

We sometimes question if there’s still room in music for artists who’ve shed youthful skins. What a ridiculous question! Who TF asks that? Now, if an artist continues on a path of exploration and growth, who is anyone to judge another, regardless of what someone may or may not release? While there are those that have stood the test of time, on the flipside, others have faded and ridden out with the passing breeze.

As the band settles into its third decade, writing and recording new music, Bright Eyes‘ core foundation of Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst, and Nate Walcott hasn’t slowed down. While there was a 9-year absence after The People’s Key, there were other projects released, stepping in to record with other groups, and even releasing solo material that ran concurrently. In 2020, the band returned with a fervor, dropping Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was to a pretty quiet universe for the obvious reasons. This year, Bright Eyes released the 8-song Kids Table (Dead Oceans), clocking in at just under a half hour.

The band found its muse early on through its own pain, which was translated seamlessly into music, and Bright Eyes was able to pierce through adulthood with a clearer outlook. Yes, the band still does what it does best with guitars, ethereal keys, and fully realized rhythms on “Carins (When Your Heart Belongs To Everyone),” mixing in samples of children’s voices throughout. It’s a catchy little number where we have a mature storytelling Oberst. There’s a richness to the song that, for some reason, I just can’t get enough of. Bright Eyes does something different here, though, with “1st World Blues,” where Oberst doesn’t fully embody a clear-headed Tim Armstrong, but the band’s Ska-induced sound here is undeniable as horns blare all around. Couple that with his lyricism surrounding New York scenery, and it feels like 1995 all over again, trekking through the Lower East Side and then finding your way to the A train uptown. Yeah, I’m with throwing monkey wrenches all over the place. I’m here for the chaos.

But hot damn(!), the band covers Lucinda Williams’ “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet)” and completely shifts gears with the guitar-oriented track. His voice wavers, like days of old, and his voice is fitting as he does Lucinda’s song justice. Guitars just float in the wind here and it becomes magical. On “Dyslexic Palindrome” the band invites Hurray For the Riff Raff’s Alyndra Segarra as they “examine the dark complacency of living in today’s capitalistic culture.” They sing, they harmonize, as the band creates a beautifully utopic scenery juxtaposed against the lyricism. Piano keys tink, percussion creeps all around, and guitars take a backseat. Beautifully pieced together, the band is still taking chances.

Seems there’s nothing complacent about Bright Eyes in 2025, and Kids Table easily expresses. It’s obvious, we need more Bright Eyes that are willing to do and say what needs to be done and said.

SWOLL – AVOID ATTACH

Straight to it, on his third album recording under the moniker of the DMV’s Swoll, Matt Dowling – if anything – doesn’t fuck around. You might know of Dowling from other related projects he’s been a part of, like The Effects, Paperhaus, or Deleted Scenes, but Swoll? He’s fully in command. Dowling walks that slippery slope, that greased tightrope between post-punk and electronic dance. Yes, Swoll may not be the first to ever combine the two, but it’s worth a modicum of your attention at the least.

Avoid Attach (BLIGHT. Records) is on the attack from the start, as “The Wind At Night” drops that beat that doesn’t stick to a 4/4 rhythm pattern with a growling bassline and odd guitar notes plucked away. The synths smother the track, but you barely notice as your mind falls into place, relishing its melody. Dowling’s voice is another instrument tossed within the mix to set it off. His lyrics aren’t very audible but no matter, it does help set the mood, which is fucking entrancing. Honestly, you’ll play this song over and over again before you make your way farther into the album. Swoll is intentional in everything it seems to do, sometimes playing minimalist effort but always engaging the listener. “Do You Know What’s Changed” offers a different look, playing more on the electronic side of the spectrum, as synth notes swallow up spaces whole, as the bassline tenderly drags the melody across its landscape; part 80s pop, and part punk-infused..  

Swoll does/can do interesting things with its rhythm(s), and “Any Other Way” stands out. While the timing may seem odd, it isn’t. It’s the instrument placement that might make it appear that way, but the melody here delivers with the ferocity of gummies and gumdrops. It’s the sugary explosion you’d never expect. If there ever was a WTF moment for Swoll, this just might be it. “Dream,” on the other hand, seems like it’s going to run off the road at just about any point. While the instruments follow their own pattern, the percussion beneath seems on the brink of colliding with an oncoming ghost train. It’s not art for art’s sake, but it finally blends in with the guitars and Dowling’s hazy vocals.

Dowling and the cast of musicians he’s assembled for Avoid Attach – drummer Erik Sleight, guitarist/synth player Benjamin Schurr, and drummer Dan Angel – create an alluring release that doesn’t hold tightly to any one genre, which is fine. The songs here fluidly careen and blend into one another, while at other times they don’t, but never detract from knowing this is a Swoll release. Well fucking done.

GRANDBROTHERS – ELSWHERE

For some reason, I can’t remember the first time I heard the music created by Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel. They both entered the musical fray in March of 2015 as Grandbrothers, releasing Dilation. It could be a Johnny-come-lately event on my end, but there are moments when you need to revisit older material. It doesn’t matter; as soon as you realize the duo has returned, the anticipation is understandable. And at this very moment, nothing has changed, and everything is possible here.

The German outfit has returned with Elsewhere (_and_others) and yes, continues to create wide open landscapes with its music. Both Sarp (piano) and Vogel (production, electronic) are far from limited by their instruments, and listening to “Where Else” as Sarp’s fingers release a cascading melody and Vogel’s percussion & rhythm precariously teeter on the edge, but we all understand it’s never going to fall apart. The music rises and falls, blissfully spreading its wings and soaring across the horizon. While we hear those piano keys, it’s the smoldering bassline that leads the way across “Liminal,” as well as those looped tones that are wickedly enticing. But this is the appeal of Grandbrothers; for each song, it follows the same pattern, it’s repetitive but NEVER repetitious. There’s beauty throughout the landscape, which sometimes becomes difficult to describe in songs created by the duo. While songs share the same energy while remaining unique, descriptions are difficult to make at times. Like me, you’ll want to be swallowed whole by each and every track.

Now, while I’ve said that, “Cypress” starts off a bit differently. There’s a glitch in the matrix as it wanders, increasing in volume, but then Sarp’s piano chords strike, wrapped in Vogel’s drum pattern and bassline. It all washes across, with the delicateness of origami made of tissue paper, drifting. We have to understand the complexities of the Sarp and Vogel compositions, which are all instrumental by the way. They’re filled with emotion and can soothe the savage soul. But I find myself enamored with “run.run.run.run.run” which keeps a steady pace with seemingly sparse piano work, but you just might find yourself running in place because the rhythm seems to have that effect.  Even when it softens, that’s the moment to reflect before keeping up the pace again. Insanity!

The Grandbrothers continually and consistently strike gold with each subsequent release, as they just accomplished with Elsewhere. To find that gold, Sarp and Vogel never have to look far; it’s already inside them.