It can be easy to take the music of Lindsey Rae Radice, also known as PYNKIE, on face value. Just glancing at the SoundCloud page for half a second can give you a lighthearted and sweet impression of this New Jersey indie pop artist. There are cutesy emoticons and descriptors, smiley old photographs and an album cover that features a picture of a baby with a guitar drawn into his/her hands. It’s after your first listen of the album neoteny do you get a clearer idea of the kind of depth she is offering and the importance of this aesthetic. The warm guitar tones and soft drumming create lullaby-like atmospheres, quaint tunes like “Dog in the Sun” are full of sun-gleaming vocals and genuine affection in the lyrics. But there are turns when Radice points this bright outlook inward and lets the radiance fade. Her music is full of bewilderment, anxiously trying to maintain childlike exuberance as the grown-up world continues to push “maturity” through you. It leads to moments like the outro to “~Ghost~”, where the gorgeous acoustic arrangements become ghostly, alien sounds that, after so many upbeat songs, assume an uncomfortable aura. Stream PYNKIE’s album below and catch her performing at Baby’s All Right on August 13. -Tucker Pennington

The crux of horror-punk’s ability to be taken seriously is that it takes menacing imagery that may have lost its potency and makes it sound horrifying and threatening – without altering the B-movie inspiration. Darkwing seems to have learned this important lesson on their latest single “Ignorant Ghost”, an anxious and ethereal grunge anthem. Vocals slathered in echo drone on about a relationship souring as pummeling drums implode. Leather jackets and smoking weed in bed are more in tune with stoner rock ideals, but the imagery of ghosting–ditching a relationship without a response and transforming into a literal specter–is amusing at first and haunting after repeated listens. The distressed energy of the songs is stretched ad infinitum during the instrumental bridge, where the guitar and bass interplay between Sharif Mekawy and Richard Rodgers feels like industrial machinery reaching its breaking point. Darkwing’s take on relationship death could have quickly become a joke song with a title like “Ignorant Ghost”, but it’s the atmosphere and sounds the band crafts surrounding these motifs that make it a unique blend of horror punk and grunge angst. You can stream the single below and catch the band playing at Alphaville on July 28. -Tucker Pennington