We’re not floating in space, ladies and gentlemen, but the feeling of I’m an Island’s Bored Days, Old Years is somewhat similar. It’s a tender affair, with elegant psych-tinged guitar flourishes taking center stage and a lush production lifting the whole thing into orbit. Each song is an exploration that takes a few moments to get where it’s going but leaves no doubt that the journey here is just as enjoyable as the destination.  

Bored Days, Old Years is set for a vinyl release on June 27, but until then you can stream the whole album via Bandcamp.

"Dead Eyes," the first single from Adia Victoria’s upcoming LP Beyond the Bloodhounds is a snarling, vicious rejoinder from someone who’s finally over it. Angry but jaded, modern but traditional, the track is a slight departure from the doom blues of her debut EP, but it still treads on some of the same ground. The tempo here is considerably more upbeat, but that doesn’t mean the tone has followed suit. That isn’t a complaint—Adia has a voice all of her own, and we’re psyched to hear the rest of the album.

Steam "Dead Eyes" below and keep your eyes alive and alert for the May 13 release of Beyond the Bloodhounds. –Austin Phy

Picture the opening car ride in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but let’s imagine things go a little differently. What if Hunter and the good doctor had smoked those two bags of grass, dropped those five sheets of acid right there, and left a couple dozen empty cans of beer on the side of the road? Things might have started to look a lot more like Heavy Metal, and the music playing in their desert-heat delirium would quite possibly be All Them Witches. They award-winning band  just released a video for "Open Passageways" from last year’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, and it’s a doozy. Between the twitchy, raw animations and the disintegrating portal-jumper of a main character, it’s a far-out match for a solid track. –Austin Phy

Remember not all too long ago when we spent some time doting on the quality of yk records releases? Maybe we should have also made mention of their trained eye for top-notch artists, because their next release from Tower Defense is a continuation of a years-long hot streak. Recorded with Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes*, "History" is our first look at their Stay Inside EP, due out March 25. With its sparse fuzz guitar and belted-out vocals bolstered by a pedal to the metal rhythm section, "History" is somewhere along the lines of Devo with a short circuit.

Hit the stream below and be sure to pick up your copy of Stay Inside on translucent emerald green vinyl. –Austin Phy

*Though I’ve never had a chance to meet Jeremy in person, I’ve followed his work for some time. His recordings have been some of the most seminal pieces in shaping the current musical landscape in Nashville. Some of the earlier Battle Tapes recordings were among the first I heard when first becoming interested in the local scene, and I’m willing to bet you’d have a hard time finding a musician around town who he hasn’t somehow affected. Jeremy’s wife and longtime supporter Candice has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, and a Gofundme page has been set up by the community to aid the Fergusons in a difficult time. I encourage you to take a look at it and do what you can to send a little love their way.

When you see a band with a name like Zoloft, you may not know exactly what you’re getting, but you have a pretty good idea what it won’t be. "Exuberant" and "gleeful," for example, aren’t among the first words that come to mind. And while the downtempo ballads on Above may not surprise you with their content, their quality very well might catch you off guard. Levi Miller, the man behind Zoloft, has hit the nail on the head when it comes to matching the feeling of his project’s namesake drug—hallucinatory, distant, kind of like your consciousness is sitting a few inches behind your eyeballs and not quite able to connect. If you’re feeling down, a little bit of non-prescription dream pop may be just what you need. –Austin Phy

We’re going on four years since Poly released their one and only EP. With its pink and blue bouncy-lettered cover that bled right through to the neon pink vinyl and the sounds within, it was not only strikingly well-composed and just the right kind of twee, but it was outright precious. For a while, it looked like that might be all we’d get to hear of Poly’s style of jazzy trad-pop. But woe to those of you who take pride in your collection of obscure one-off 45’s, and bountiful joy to the rest of us; Poly has announced a proper full-length. Plenty has changed in four years but, aside from adding some instruments to the repertoire of their three-piece lineup, Poly’s sound has remained sturdy as a rock—a cuddly rock, one that giggles when you squeeze it.

"Let’s Have an Adventure" is due out on March 26 courtesy of yk records, purveyors of some of the highest-quality physical releases around. Preorders are up now and, yes, you absolutely do want a confetti-colored vinyl to add to your collection. –Austin Phy

Somnonaut, based on a cursory internet search and the couple Latin words lodged in the "this would make for some perfect last-ditch party convo fodder" center of my brain, translates to something along the lines of "sleep sailor." And that’s just about what you get with OJR‘s latest single—a drowsy slow-burner with voices fading in and out, like those intractably weird thoughts you have in the moments before drifting off to sleep. Fortunately for the weak-stomached among us, the seas are calm on this track thanks to a steady, unchanging loop holding all the madness together. Somnonaut does away with the heavy country leanings of OJR’s Nashville Demos from last year, but whether that’s a sign of things to come or just an artist having a little fun getting his jollies off remains to be seen. Either way, we’re excited to float along toward whatever comes next. -Austin Phy

The folks over at The Henry Millers are hard at work on a new EP, and they were kind enough to let us at the Deli Nashville give you the first taste! "It’s Cold," the first single from the forthcoming release, is a sentimental little number that sounds something like How the Grinch Stole Christmas by way of MGMT. The center-stage metallic drums and wily synth bloops give the track an industrial grit amid the cheery overtones, somewhat like a shuttered factory transformed by a snowy day into a playground wonderland. The song is plenty upbeat and catchy while having, as the title might suggest, an edge that’s chilly to the touch. 

It’s cold outside, no doubt, so why not stay indoors and stream the newest from The Henry Millers instead? –Austin Phy

The wait for ELEL debut album Geode has been a long one. In the couple years since the dissolution of Heypenny, the previous project helmed by ELEL mastermind Ben Elkins, we haven’t seen much beyond a couple singles and the odd show here and there. But what we have seen is good. And it got well-deserved hype. It’s clear that his time spent making catchy but complex, sweet but not saccharine booty-shakers with Heypenny not only sharpened up his songwriting skills, but also taught him discipline. The quality and excitement behind ELEL’s drip-fed music, matched by the goodwill Elkins built up with Heypenny, is what makes their strategy of taking big but slow steps impressive rather than frustrating.

Such is the case with the release of their “Kiss Kiss” video. Sure, it’s an incredibly well-shot video with a catchy tune to match. But for Elkins, that’s old news. These guys go the extra mile by not only lining up the video release with the mushiest holiday of them all, but offering up a download of the track (plus remix!) in the form of free-to-print Valentine’s Day cards. Get all warm and fuzzy with the video below and keep your eyes out for more from ELEL—though if these guys keep it up, you shouldn’t have to search too hard. –Austin Phy

With a guy like Asher Horton, you get the sense that creating music is a compulsion and much as a choice. If you feel like you’ve heard that name recently, maybe it’s because you followed our strong recommendation to check out Sun Seeker, Horton’s newest project and Third Man’s most recent gem. Otherwise, you may be familiar with his longtime sunshine pop outfit with Ben Parks, Fox Fun. The two haven’t gotten around to putting together a full-length release and only play sporadically, but Mystery Bones gives us some indication what Horton has been doing in the meantime and—surprise, surprise—what he’s been doing is writing one catchy, beach-friendly pop number after another.

This collection of solo recordings has been available on CD and Bandcamp for a little while, but it’s just now getting a proper tape release courtesy of OSR Tapes. Check it out below and get your copy of some sweet analog media on its way to your analog house and your tender little analog ears. –Austin Phy.

Wasted Time, the new EP by Goth Babe, is a fast-paced fuzz bomb brimming with the kind of youthful urgency that you can only feel when you have all the time in the world and you’re afraid of blowing it. The Bandcamp page mentions that these songs were written by leading man Griffin Washburn in his dorm room at local band incubator MTSU, and it shows in all the best ways. You can hear that Washburn is all about that Nashville garage sound but not yet entrenched in it, and that gives the five crunchy nuggets on this EP a fresh perspective while still keeping a tight focus.

Stream the EP below and check out Goth Babe at the 5 Spot this Friday, February 12. –Austin Phy

Philadelphia-to-Nashville expat Ron Gallo might not even be done unpacking all the boxes in his apartment, but he’s got a chest full of musical treasures that he’s more than ready to start showing off. For his first act as a Tennessean, he’s released a video for “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me,” a wooly-as-a-mammoth, jittery-as-a-jumping-bean little number off his forthcoming long player Heavy Meta. Ron stays cool and detached over it all with a rambly, hiccup-prone cadence not unlike Grinderman-era Nick Cave after a liter of cognac, and he’s got the literate, coarse lyrics to match.

Watch the video right here, and stop by The Basement tomorrow night (02.05) to catch Ron with Diane Coffee. Give him a warm Tennessee welcome for us, would ya? –Austin Phy