I listen to a lot of music. No, really. If I’m not catching up on what my dudes recommend with The Indie Inspection and Ska Punk & Other Junk, or doing homework for the Crushed Monocle Podcast, I’ve got my ear to the ground for what’s next. There’s so much music out there that it’s hard to keep a cohesive list. While the podcast is a great way to discuss a few records each month, I feel I’m undercutting some of the other records that got repeated spins. What’s the remedy? This column! This is The Showcase.
As spring fades into summer and 2025 inches closer to its halfway mark, one thing’s crystal clear: I’m wiped out. May felt like a fever dream with work chaos, family health scares, and the kind of existential dread coming from a year that never quite hit “start.” And yeah, maybe that’s just modern life now. But setting all that aside, I’ve got one question: Just what is going on with music this year? More specifically, what will be the song of the summer?
I’m not out here obsessing over Billboard charts or TikTok trends. But usually by mid-year, you can feel something bubbling up. A vibe, a sound or at least a cultural direction. However, I can’t hear anything like that right now.
Is hip-hop still running the show? Did someone sneak thrash metal back in the door? Is pop music still riding 2024’s high of serotonin and hormones? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. The underground feels scattered, the mainstream’s coasting, and 2025 hasn’t picked a mood yet. It’s like we’re all standing around the Bluetooth speakers, waiting for someone to take control of the Aux Cord and play something that actually means something.
Beneath all the noise and confusion in the mainstream, indie music is still crushing it. While no one artist or sound is screaming for attention, but it’s there, quietly mutating and evolving. Genre lines are blurring. Lo-fi weirdness is thriving. Artists who’ve never played a venue bigger than a basement are releasing albums that feel like spiritual awakenings.
From Bandcamp gems to DIY projects that sound like they were mixed in a moss-covered attic, indie’s doing what it’s always done best. It’s staying weird, staying honest, and refusing to play the industry’s game. Maybe the song of the summer isn’t on the radio but buried somewhere in a dusty zip file or a surprise EP drop. You just have to care enough to dig.
Aaaaaaaand that’s why I’m here! Queue up that sweet SEO headline:
Welcome to The Showcase for May 2025!
Misfire – Product of the Environment
Welcome to the obligatory thrash selection for The Showcase! On the surface, Product of the Environment celebrates all the elements I love: an uncompromising local Chicago band, relentless thrash, raw vocals, and crushing riffs that you wanna scream SLAAAAYERRRR. Beneath the surface, Misfire is less concerned with reinventing the genre and more focused on ensuring its enduring momentum.
The album opens with a surprisingly poignant cinematic intro before erupting into a relentless onslaught of high-intensity thrash. It’s an end-to-end success that highlights the ferocity of Chicago’s independent metal scene. Be sure to listen for a standout guest appearance by the legendary Rob Dukes, adding further weight to an already formidable record.
Artificial Go – Musical Chairs
Plenty of bands are cashing in on the current obsession with ’80s and ’90s nostalgia. Some keep busy polishing up yacht rock while others mimic 120 Minutes-era alt for the TikTok crowd. Artificial Go heads in a different direction by dragging the off-kilter spirit of no-wave back into the spotlight. Musical Chairs is weird, wired, and wildly catchy with every single offbeat hook. Drawing clear inspiration from ’80s alt-rock, this band doesn’t just revisit the past, they’re electrifying it. They are tailor-made for The Showcase.
Romantic Dividends – Giallo
Romantic Dividends is the brainchild of two Los Angeles-based producers, Allen Blickle and Josh Wiener. Their debut album, Giallo, draws its name and overt inspiration from 20th-century European film scores. But what really comes through is a rich, undeniable undercurrent of R&B and soul. From sly, espionage-style guitar lines to laid-back fusion percussion, every instrument oozes mood and texture. The real standout for me is the bass work. It’s so smooth and expressive, it practically begs you to grab a Fender Jazz Bass strung with flatwounds and jam along. Honestly, I think I’m in love.
Ghost Bath – Rose Thorn Necklace
No matter the subgenre, metal almost always carries an undercurrent of tragedy, whether it’s rooted in death, destruction, or vengeance. Rose Thorn Necklace embraces all of that with aplomb. What sets Ghost Bath apart from their black metal peers is the deeply emotional lens through which they filter their sound.
Tracks like “Dandelion Tea” deliver the expected blend of harsh vocals and grim atmospherics. The album as a whole resonates on a more profound level, especially in its dual embrace of the heartbreaking and beautiful. Few recent metal releases come close to capturing the ethereal sadness and aching vulnerability found in “Thinly Sliced Heart Muscle,” a track that haunts you long after it ends.
Witchrot – Soul Cellar
Like every installment of The Showcase, there just has to be something gothic. This month’s descent into the abyss comes courtesy of Witchrot. Soul Cellar is a grimy fusion of doom, sludge, and stoner metal, soaked in ritualistic goth and steeped in sinister atmosphere. You can hear it playing out like a ’70s grindhouse film.
Paranoia runs thick, Satanic overtones swirl, and the fuzz-drenched riffs hit like a cursed sermon. The goth vibes of Witchrot truly come alive in the vocals: theatrical, unpredictable, and genuinely chilling. This isn’t your typical doom-and-gloom fare. It’s darker, weirder, and far more alive… or dead?
Glowing Brain – Memory Distortion
Glowing Brain’s sophomore album, Memory Distortion, lands somewhere between the sci-fi chaos of Voivod and the raw fury of early Motörhead. Packed with enough sneering attitude to please punks, the album also delivers enough bone-crushing intensity to keep metalheads satisfied. The warm, murky production and reckless, full-throttle performance give the record a gritty charm that feels right at home on a label like Ghost Is Clear. Glowing Brain isn’t here to make noise and break the rules. They’re here to make noise and break your scrawny neck.
Pana Please – In A Wild Crocodile
Every now and then, you stumble across a band that makes you stop dead in your scrolling tracks and ask, “Who are these people, and why is this so good?” Enter Pana Please and their album In A Wild Crocodile. I had zero context going into these songs, and honestly, that made the whole experience even better. Genre-wise? Who knows. It’s a delicious mess of electronica, shoegaze haze, trip-hop grooves, and post-punk weirdness that somehow works. One minute, it’s brooding and sludgy, the next it’s bouncing like it just discovered caffeine. In A Wild Crocodile doesn’t really play by the rules: it just vibes – hard. And I’m all about it.
Mid Death Calm – Mid Death Calm
You either love fuzzy guitars, fuzzy bass, fuzzy drums, and fuzzy vocals, or you hate them. That’s really the full extent of my recommendation for Mid Death Calm – the band and the EP. I know that doesn’t make for an interesting read, but it’s really that cut and dry. It’s The Showcase: Make of that what you will.
Push Puppets – Tethered Together
Somewhere between the crisp charm of Fountains of Wayne and the heart-on-sleeve grit of Summerteeth-era Wilco sits Chicago’s Push Puppets. Sure, you could slap the “power pop” label on them and call it a day, but Tethered Together does way more heavy lifting than that mere genre suggests. Beneath the earworm hooks and candy-coated harmonies lies a layered and surprisingly sophisticated sound. Lush with strings, synths, and nuance, the slick production flourishes never once sands down its alt-rock edge. It’s glossy, but not shallow. Smart, but never smug. And yeah, it sticks with you as a satisfying listen.
Nature Was Here – The Space Between
Late one night earlier this month, I need something dreamy and ethereal to help me chill and (fingers crossed) finally get some sleep. That’s when I stumbled onto The Space Between by Nature Was Here. Not only did it scratch the itch, but it also sent me spiraling down a rabbit hole to figure out who or what the band actually is. Spoiler: They aren’t really a band. Think of it more like a collective orbiting around charity work, community resources, and environmental awareness.
Sounds wholesome? Yeah, but I also kind of made it sound like a cult. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But even if it were, it’s the kind that hands out blankets and tells you to recycle. Point is: Their mission feels genuine and their music is beautiful. In a world where skepticism has become a reflex, it’s refreshing to find musical acts who just want to make things a little better. That or I’m just human pollution.
Mildly Allergic – Everyone Tells One Good Lie
The Showcase actively avoids nostalgia, but hear me out. Back when I was a kid, Sunday nights were sacred. After the parents crashed, my brother and I would park ourselves in front of the TV and let 120 Minutes on MTV rewire our brains. Bands like Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr., and Tripping Daisy felt like a secret handshake from the gods of alt-rock. That same spark hit me the moment I heard Everyone Tells One Good Lie by Mildly Allergic.
This band has all the off-kilter charm, fuzzed-out edges, and emotional bite of mid-’90s indie rock without feeling like a museum piece. No gimmicks, no genre cosplay, just raw, honest-to-goodness indie rock that hits you right in the nostalgia feels while still sounding fresh. What more could you ask for?