Buddy Leezle & Vinny Vindetta recently shared a collection of unreleased material, La Casa Azul. Sitting back in the beat, a relaxed, cool and calculated aggression pushes ahead in a smooth, striding manner. Produced by the combination of Sadhugold, Ralphie Reese, Professor 950, and Vindetta, the tag team of talent provides us a new soundtrack for late-night contemplations.

Produced by Keith Abrams (of Pine Barons/Tremellow), the self-titled debut album from Stoops has arrived. Refreshing, melodic rock reinforced with infectious harmonies, the recordings ride a steady wave of upbeat energy with an endearing lyrical edge. A loose, gradually-building, anthemic quality resounds as these songs wedge themselves in your mind. You can find the band opening for The Nude Party on Monday, October 1 at Johnny Brenda’s.

The Retinas‘s forthcoming EP Yellow Rocket is set to take off tomorrow, and the power trio will be heading out this weekend on its fall tour in support. As a precursor, the group posted a new video for its title-track. Calming vocals radiate as footage of old-school space vessels, moon imagery, and a bit of kung fu fighting are integrated with seductive images of ladies and wonders of nature, creating a strange yet compelling sequence, produced by Big Mouth Philly. That floating-passenger approach shifts gears as the afterburners kick in, increasing the tempo and the rapid-fire rpms of the clips. It’s a wild race to the finish line!

Psych-folk collective On the Water recently shared a new 7”, titled Failing Upwards. Elegance and tenacity unite as the layers of instrumentation and vocal harmonies come together. That grand/guttural marriage grabs one’s attention, sweeping you into a mystical, ethereal world. You can catch the band’s record release show at The Mothership on Friday, September 14, supported by Northern Liberties, STARWOOD,  and Brooklyn’s Van Goose. (Photo by LJ Brubaker)

MC5 founder Wayne Kramer is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, and is currently on tour for this momentous occasion, backed by Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Billy Gould (Faith No More), and Marcus Durant (Zen Guerrilla). Next Saturday, September 15, they’ll be making a stop in Philly at our beloved Union Transfer, where Kramer and the gang will also be sharing the stage with fellow Motor City garage rockers The Detroit Cobras and local punk duo Pinkwash. To enter for a chance to win a pair of tix, just send an email to thedelimagazinephiladelphia@gmail.com with the subject line "MC50". Please also include your cell number in the body of the message (in case of an emergency). Good luck!

Monday Night Raw, the debut EP from Long Hots, organically brews a basement boogie. Infused with a healthy dose fuzz, the songs rhythmically thump and expand, providing a refreshing, reassuring, garage-rock vibe that is both familiar and ferocious. On Friday, September 14, the all-female power trio will be concluding a run of southern tour dates with a performance at Philadelphia Record Exchange, supported by The Writhing Squares. So make sure to grab a sixer & welcome them home!

Indie-pop darling Katie Bennett keeps fans spellbound with Free Cake For Every Creature‘s newest LP The Bluest Star. Just as its namesake would suggest, Bennett’s follow-up to 2016’s Talking Quietly of Anything with You is evocative, luminous, and unshakably searing.

With the lo-fi warmth of "Riding into the Sunset in a Busted Car," her fourth LP’s opening track is a raw confession about being young and the desire to belong. Amplified by urgent chords and earnest vocals, The Bluest Star unfolds with a rare fearlessness, making each lyric feel like a testimony to the ups and downs of self-discovery and growing up. Lines like "not everyone’s got a sleeve where they can wear their heart" and "use your pen to find the pieces in the dark" make "Riding into the Sunset in a Busted Car" more of a map than a story, giving listeners a refreshingly frank perspective on how to emotionally cope with the uncertainty of being alive.

The steady swell and backbeat of "Around You" feels like a melodic successor to the frank poetics of Rilo Kiley’s "Science vs. Romance" and the gritty sincerity of Colleen Green’s earliest cuts. A testament to friendship and adolescent adventures, the album’s second offering is nostalgic in a rare and fervent way. Whether the relationship that inspired this song was platonic or romantic, its formative impact on Bennett is obvious from beginning to end. Deeply personal yet universal, “Around You” is an evocative homage to intimacy and the transformative journey of coming of age, while "Whole World Girl" is a self-reflective love song that focuses more on the aftermath of romance rather than its beginning, a narrative choice that makes an already evocative narrative even more arresting. Similarly, "Took a Walk" is a bare-bones yet atmospheric ballad about the past and self-definition, in the wake of a splintered relationship. Here, her lyricism is pragmatic, heart-wrenching, and undeniably relatable.

From its inception, "Sideline Skyline" is unrushed and deliberate, which forces Bennett’s audience to listen closer, to savor each second. When she professes, "I’m nobody’s mother & I don’t have to hold it all together," the track becomes an anthem of defiance and autonomy. "Sunday Afternoon" is succinct yet moving due to Bennett’s apt use of subtle repetition and instrumentation, and "In Your Car" unfolds in a similar fashion, and steadily blooms into a brief yet cinematic song. Equally vivid, the recording is a ready-made favorite for fans of Cat Power circa Moon Pix or Julien Baker’s Sprained Ankle. “In Your Car” is an immersive testament to how even the most ordinary moments can shape a person.

"Tom or Mike or Pat or" and "Hometown Hero" both feel like pages torn from the diary of a teenage realist, while “Christina’s World” and “Goodbye, Unsilently” are tranquil folk melodies in their own rite. Each note amplifies each lyric, making both tracks equally gripping meditations on self-worth and identity – two themes that permeate throughout the album’s end.

Much like its beginning, the record’s conclusion feels deeply personal and honest, which makes the raspy snare of “Be Home Soon” and the stripped-down melody of “Night Music” memorable, even after the album is over. Arresting at every second, The Bluest Star is a brave and impassioned portrait of desire and the power of vulnerability. – Dianca London

Krust Toons: "No, Really" by Tedd Hazard – please feel free to drop him a line at teddandthehazards@gmail.com if you dig or have any funny ideas. You can also check out more of his illustrations and animation shorts HERE.

Back in October, The Mary Veils’s Slacker Paint was our Record of the Month – chock full of fuzz-inflected, garage grit and a loose, contagious, surf-psych approach that hums along at a comfortable clip, until it’s time to turn up the heat. One sinks into the humid slacker saturation, absorbing the perpetual buzz. However, just when things appear to normalize, it shifts into overdrive. Nothing appears quite as it seems, because once one commits, the marker is moved. That threshold, between laying into it or letting those frenzied riff-charged explosions take the reins, embraces the calm and the storm. Tonight, at Boot & Saddle, The Mary Veils will be opening for the slick, space-navigating ,psych-pop of former Deli Philly’s Featured Artist(s) Poll Winner, Nematode, and the mysterious undercurrent that lies in the breezy, melodic adventures of Long Spells. – Michael Colavita

More places to hang this Labor Day weekend…

Boot & Saddle (1131 S. Broad St.) FRI Long Spells, Nematode, The Mary Veils, SAT Madalean Gauze

Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) FRI/SAT/SUN YallaPunk Festival & Conference

Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) SAT Matthew Law, DJ AMH, SUN FLOTE, iunnowho, Josh Hey, Small Professor

Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill St.) FRI CKY

The Fillmore Philadelphia (1100 Canal St.) SUN Dirty South Joe

The Foundry (1000 Frankford Ave.) SAT DJ Diamond Kuts

World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) FRI (Upstairs) The Wonder Junkies, SUN Prince + Questlove: Under The Cherry Moon (Video Premiere/DJ Set)

The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) SAT Moonwalker (Album Release), Twentythreenineteen

MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut St.) FRI The Elysiums, Magnificent Birds of Prey, The Stone Eye

Ortlieb’s Lounge (847 N. 3^rd St.) FRI Bryant Eugene Vazquez, Broke Body, Smellco, SAT Honeytiger, Secret Nudist Friends/Stop Not Playin’ DJ’s

Bourbon & Branch (705 N. 2^nd St.) FRI Oldermost, SAT Vilebred, The Parameters, The Tisburys

Silk City (435 Spring Garden St.) FRI Rich Medina, SAT DJ Deejay, SUN Brendan Bring ‘Em

Fergie’s (1214 Sansom St.) SAT Tyler Fantini, SUN Rusty Cadillac 

Voltage Lounge (421 N. 7^th St.) FRI DJ Mighty Mike Sag, Elijvh Vrms

Morgan’s Pier (221 N. Columbus Blvd.) FRI DJ Beatstreet

Frankie Bradley’s (1320 Chancellor St.) FRI Craig Dash, SAT Ed Christof, SUN Honeygasm

Century (1350 S. 29^th St.) FRI Eterue, Cage Flight, Aphid Daughters, SAT The Spirit World, Deluxedo, Jaxy & the Three 57s

The Grape Room (105 Grape St) FRI Fuzz King, Cosmic Lottery, Rabbit Heart, SAT Erin Incoherent, SomaRai

Ardmore Music Hall (23 E. Lancaster Ave.) FRI Splintered Sunlight, Under The Oak

The Pharmacy (1300 S. 18^th St.) FRI Gringo Motel, Breaklite, SAT Midfield (EP Release), 4th QTR

Made In America (Ben Franklin Parkway) SAT Meek Mill, Armani White, Orion Sun, Louis Futon, SUN Petal, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Zahsosaa

Millennium Development Goals/Under Blood Red MOON-LITE – or MDGUBRML – is the project of Derek Liedel (ex-Katana Girl). From the jump, Liedel introduces joyful moments of fever-dream meltdowns, fitted within the album’s well-executed synthesis of lo-fi folk and house music. History of Chemicals sounds like a Spotify shuffle that gets occasionally interrupted by absurdist departures into transcendental noise, starkly contrasting the bliss of familiarity with the existential challenge of the unknown. In a small amount of time, the EP offers plenty of cheerful headspaces and a good bit of indie pop splendor that’s also playfully disassociative. Take it for a spin. – Josh Kelly

A tormenting surge of psych-punk is welded together on Ow My Mynd, the latest EP from Mack Enemy. A degree of instrumental menace surrounds and streams ahead as the primal vocals rain down. Unrelenting intensity blends within a trippy, celestial component, creating a bridge to a new place of discovery. The immediate jolt of each song spins off into the mystery of the unknown. Who knows what will present itself next along the path.

“Body” is featured on Egg, the new EP from Roya. The track emerges out of whispering vocals and guitar strums as a lo-fi buzz fills out the room. The momentum/strength builds as the line “so just try to pretend like you don’t know my body” is emphasized and repeated, becoming a mantra of sorts. Whether the song is a monologue directed at an individual, who isn’t listening, or represents a separation or conflict between one’s thoughts and physical being, there’s a magnitude in its simplicity.