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5. At Dark The Frog’s Come Out

Something of a fixture on this page, New Yorkers Frog at the brotherly duo of Daniel and Steve Bateman. Although active since 2012, the band have hit a new level of productivity in the last couple of years, with their upcoming eighth album, Frog For Sale, being their third record in just fourteen months. With the record now just a week away and a rare European show at London’s Oslo long sold out, the band shared the second taster from the album, Dark Out.

As with the album’s first single Je Ne Said Pas, Dark Out finds Frog bringing piano to the fore, as the rhythmic chords complement the bouncy, rattling drum rhythms and Daniel stretches his voice to the upper ends of his repertoire. Lyrically, the track is classically Frog, as we get snippets of life in a variety of stages, initially there’s a sense of the open hearted qualities of teenage adoration, “they always say you don’t call the night after you meet him at all, but you know that if you don’t talk, you’re never gonna see him at at school”. However, as the song progresses, things take a typically dark turn as Daniel sings, “depression cuts through in the late afternoon, thank you darlings that’s our set, and yes we will be back here soon”, afternoon sounding more like a life stage than a time of day. There’s also plenty of imagery left open to interpretation, with The Kinks-like send off, “thank you for the day”, giving way to a parting piece of advice that sounds more than a little sinister, “go slow when you walk out, it’s dark out”. While citing the influence of Paul McCartney and Buddy Holly, what we’ve heard of Frog For Sale so far seems to suggest more than anything, Frog are now referencing themselves, a band more confident than ever in who they are and the place they’ve so rightfully earned in the upper echelons of DIY creatives.

Frog For Sale is out April 17th via Audio Antihero / Tapewormies. For more information on Frog visit https://frog.band/.

4. Hiding Places Are No Time Wasters

A band based in Brooklyn, Hiding Places’ debut album was certainly not rushed. They first emerged back in 2019 with the intriguing Songs In The Style Of William Blake, and have been drip-feeding EPs and singles out into the world ever since, most recently on 2024’s Lesson. Now signed to the ever-reliable Keeled Scales imprint, they’re ready to stretch their wings, with their recently shared debut album, The Secret To Good Living, the release of which they marked with a new single, Dead Dove (Your Love Was Never A Waste Of Time).

Dead Dove is a song that sets out to explore the challenge of, “opening oneself up to vulnerability”, and how that’s something worth striving for, “even if one may fall short”. Musically, Hiding Places seem to offer something of a departure from much of the Keeled Scales roster, with guitar-twang replaced by something more guttural and earthy, seeming to borrow equally from the Chicago post-rock tradition and the current wave of Carolina noise-makers emerging in parallel with Wednesday’s meteoric rise. The track enters on a particularly crunchy riff, adjoined by a jaw rattling snare hit and splashy cymbal flourishes, and stays in that delightfully abrasive mode for much of the opening half of the song. Then just as you find yourself needing to catch your breath from the audio assault, Hiding Places wrench on the hand brake, pulling the track back into a sludgy breakdown, as the lyrics, minimal throughout, become a mantra, “your love was never a waste of time”. The line is sung over and over with shifting levels of intensity and security, as if trying to find some sense of closure and clarity through ruminating on the same sentence. What really seems to make Hiding Places stand out from the crowd of similarly noisy angst wringers is their intentionality; every feedback squall, drum battered into submission, and meaningful word choice has a purpose to serve the greater sense of shared connectivity. Where Hiding Places are conncerned the secret is most certainly out.

The Secret To Good Living is out now via Keeled Scales. For more information on Hiding Places visit https://hidingplaces.band/

3. Cass McCombs Addresses The Elephant In The Room

Now something of a veteran of the alternative music scene, Cass McCombs has been making music for the best part of thirty years, with by my count thirteen albums and counting to his name. While some artists seem to settle into a certain level of comfort at this point in their career, Cass shows no signs of doing so. Following his acclaimed 2025 offering, Interior Live Oak, Cass’ upcoming tour seems to take in most of the globe, and with Hand Habits set to share the stage on many of those dates, the pair will release a tour-exclusive split 7″ to celebrate. Ahead of the dates, this week saw Cass share his contribution to the record, Seeing The Elephants.

Cass McCombs has always been a songwriter with a twinkle in his eye, a serious songwriter who often leaves his listeners wondering just how seriously they should take him, whether he was suggesting opting out of democracy on Don’t Vote or contemplating just how bad society as we know it ending entirely would be on New Earth. Here, to a bounding garage-punk soundtrack, he seems to be singing, largely at least, about Elephants in all their, “majestephance“. In a weird way, by singing about his love for everyone’s favourite gigantic pachyderms, Cass seems more straight talking than ever. Perhaps he is pleading for us all to see the beauty in nature, to skip “your kicks on Route 66” and go at more of a seismic plod, or perhaps he just really likes elephants? Either way, Cass sounds like he’s having a blast, and sometimes for say two minutes and fifty-five seconds, who doesn’t want to pogo around singing about Elephants?

Interior Live Oak is out now via Domino Recording Co. For more information on Cass McCombs visit https://cassmccombs.com/

2. Victoria Aren’t Ready For The S.C.R.A.P Heap

Lifting your name from a song by The Kinks is always a good start towards me liking your music, and Sydney’s Victoria are certainly no exception. The band are led by acclaimed photographer Max Doyle, whose previous musical existence came under the Songs moniker, alongside a Who’s Who of Australian musicians, including people who’ve played with the likes of Youth Group and The Vines. Having released their debut album in 2023, Victoria are gearing up towards releasing new material via Scenic Drive Records, and this week shared a new single, S.C.R.A.P.

The song looks to play on the varieties of meaning evident in the word scrap, the person up for the fight, the collage of memories cut-out and stuck in a book, and the broken and unwanted ending upon a heap, with the closing refrain, “I’ll be scrap forever“. As with much of Max Doyle’s output, the track seems to dig back into the sound of his youth, listening to Flying Nun’s distinctly Kiwi take on indie-pop, spun through the lens of a life spent spanning multiple continents, with nods to everyone from Guided By Voices to The Loft. The track is a masterclass in drifting tempo changes. Initially, it seems to float fairly gently, as the guitars chime like the sun breaking through a leaden sky, then it’ll suddenly click into focus via a subtle tempo shift. Particularly dreamy is the s-c-r-a-p spelling section, where Max’s voice takes on a clipped, breathless quality sure to appeal to fans of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. They might think they’re bin worthy, but on this evidence, there’s plenty to be gained from keeping Victoria around for a good few years yet.

Paris Flowers will be out soon via Scenic Drive Records. For more information on Victoria visit https://victoriatheband.bandcamp.com/.

1. You’ve Got A Friend In Truthpaste

First things first, do you like the band name Truthpaste? If I’m honest, it puts me in mind of The Simpsons episode when Homer & Co need a name for their Barbershop Quartet, “we need a name that’s witty at first…but seems less funny each time you hear it”. Now that’s out of the way, onto everything I do like about Truthpaste, and it’s thankfully a much longer list! The band formed in Manchester back in 2022, before relocating to London, and becoming firmly embedded into the capital’s music scene, with a couple of excellent single releases to their name. The band are set to take a step up with their debut EP, I Don’t Know Either, out later this month as a co-release between Memorials Of Distinction and Dirty Hit, and this week they shared their latest single, Friendship Is The Truth.

Friendship Is The Truth is a song that took a while to come together, with lead-vocalist Esmé Lark recalling how her bandmates played her the song once, and she would, “find myself singing it and trying to figure out what it was“. Thankfully, they did finally piece it together, and the track has become a celebration of the blossoming friendship of the band members. The sense of change and evolution is a constant throughout the track, the way people clash and resolve their differences, from the frustrated, anguished, “you make me scream”, to the pleading, “I hope this doesn’t mean you won’t say hello, ’cause you and I have plenty more to go”. If the lyrics are boomeranging between emotions, the tussling to-and-fro is matched in the music, from the Tapir! like indie-folk of the intro through to the layered vocals and rich piano chords that accompany the repeated chorus refrain, “friendship is the truth be told, and I don’t know, I don’t know either”. Particularly arresting is the saxophone-laden pre-outro, where things take a turn towards a freeform collapse, reminiscent of Black Country, New Road or Squid, before resolving and throwing back to the initial clash, “takin’ the time to know you, I shoulda given it away, thought it was necessary, you make me scream”. Friendship isn’t all it takes to make great music, but it’s a building block that might just set Truthpaste on course for something rather magical.

I Don’t Know Either is out April 28th via Memorials Of Distinction / Dirty Hit. For more information on Truthpaste visit https://linktr.ee/truthpasteband.

Header photo is Truthpaste by Billy Emery