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.
Somehow, we limped through the first half of the year. That’s… something, right? The masses (read: everyone but me) snagged their shiny new Switch 2s, while the government torched millions of tax dollars on a birthday parade that drew a crowd the size of a Costco parking lot at 3 pm on a Tuesday. Glenn Danzig may have outed himself as a N@zi, and Sabrina Carpenter’s cartoonishly horny persona continues to rattle America’s last remaining pearl-clutchers.
We also lost both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, two architects of modern music, gone in the same breath. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners became a cultural phenomenon. On what should’ve been just another scorched summer day, over 13 million people hit the streets to protest the Spray-Tanned Dictator In-Chief, and on his birthday, no less. It’s been a sampler platter of the divine and the deranged, and I’m still kinda… bored?
Now, if you’re like me, it’s getting harder to drum up much hope for the back half of the year. The Doomsday Clock is pecking on the passenger window while we’re in the Taco Bell drive-thru. The car’s on fire, your nachos have mystery hair, and your Baja Blast is flat as Iowa. But maybe, just maybe, we can still cling to something. Sure, we’ve got a few more superhero movies for the incels to brawl over, and Fox News continues to cannibalize itself in real-time. More importantly, we still get to celebrate Pride, Juneteenth, and Mental Health Awareness Month! Oh yeah – I get to talk about what I’ve been listening to this month!
Welcome to The Showcase for June 2025!
Geranium Drive – Lose Your Future
Lose Your Future channels the DNA of Primal Scream, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and a touch of Pink Floyd, yet still lands as something entirely its own. Every single element hits every single sweet spot for me: towering guitars, lush harmonies, and shoegaze textures wrapped around punchy power-pop hooks. It’s that rare mix of familiar and fresh, easily making this one of my favorite records of the year.
Pulp – More
I know, I know. I constantly toss out snarky one-liners about being anti-nostalgia in The Showcase, only to follow them up with glowing praise for artists who peaked when I was a teenager. But here’s the thing: aging doesn’t have to mean stagnation. It could mean using your talent and experience to push music forward.
Case in point, Jarvis Cocker and company nailed it with More. Over 25 years since their heyday, Pulp return with the same bratty swagger and glam-soaked Britpop edge. This time, it’s laced with a sharp, self-aware reflection on growing old, growing up, and everything in between. It’s still cheeky and catchy, but it hits on a deeper level. I might be getting older, too, but this record still rips.
MSPAINT – No Separation
Given the state of the world, the last thing you’d think I’d want is someone screaming in my face about how bleak everything is. Don’t get me wrong, MSPAINT does plenty of that, but No Separation offers more. Beneath the raw vocals, the music slips between early 2000s Modest Mouse, jagged modern post-punk, and subtle brushes of industrial grit. The production alone makes it worth a spin even if the vocals aren’t your thing!
Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship
Is “cave metal” a real genre? No? Well, it should be, and Ossuary would be its festering crown jewel. Abhorrent Worship sounds like it was dragged from a 10,000-year-old sinkhole filled with rotting flesh and shattered bones. You’ll swear your speakers are rotting, too! This thing oozes filth: slimy, grotesque riffs, bass lines thick enough to suffocate, and not a single melody in sight. But this isn’t aimless noise. Beneath the grime and decay, there’s real structure, especially in the bass work. It slithers and stomps through the murk like some prehistoric predator. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to bleach my ears and take another shower.
Gruesome – Slient Echoes
Doesn’t it seem like all the new rock bands are really just appropriating what’s been done for decades at this point? So, acts like Ghost and Sleep Token are popular in the mainstream, what do we have on the metal side? We have Gruesome! While it’s blatantly obvious these guys worship the band Death (I guess probably actual death by default?), Silent Echoes manages to branch out a little. There’s plenty of Death throughout, especially in the Human era, but I hear a really interesting subtext of prog buried in there somewhere. If you’re not a fan of Death yourself, you’re probably not gonna be into this. But if you DO, Gruesome makes for a stellar tribute act making its own noise.
Lifeguard – Ripped and Torn
There’s no shortage of young, DIY, art-rock in the Chicago music scene. I mean, I could easily dedicate each installment of The Showcase solely to Chicago acts if I really wanted to. But there’s something so indescribably genuine about Lifeguard that makes them feel like they’ve been around for decades. The melodic moments in Ripped and Torn are raw and immediate like 1960s garage rock, yet the static and noise somehow adds an extra layer of swing not often heard on the post-punk side of things. The best thing about the band? I’ve probably got shoes older than the guys in Lifeguard, so they have many years to grow and evolve into even higher levels of greatness.
Rad Cannabis – PURPLECAT
I know absolutely nothing about Rad Cannabis. No socials, no backstory. Just a name that popped up thanks to an algorithm while I was deep into the new Death In Vegas record. PURPLECAT is a wild electronic ride with swirling samples, warped synths, and distorted vocals that blur the line between head trip and party starter. It’s not exactly dance music, but it’s still a romp! Imagine Kraftwerk on Red Bull… and, well, rad cannabis. Whatever this is, I’m into it.
Death In Vegas – Death Mask
Although Death Mask sounds nothing like the band’s first 3 albums, swapping out guitar and bass for synths and samples doesn’t take away any of Death Mask’s vigor. In fact, this just might be their most personal record to date! Check out my full review here.
Sly and The Family Stone – There’s A Riot Going On
While I’ve always respected Sly Stone’s massive impact on music from the ’60s onward, I’ve never exactly been a Sly and the Family Stone diehard. Sure, I’ve got a few of the pre-1970s albums, and yes, I love the hits spinning on oldies stations. But full albums unconcerned with mainstream appeal? That was a blind spot. When news broke of Sly’s passing, it felt like the right time to dig deeper. So I went for the earliest record I hadn’t explored and wanted to share my pick on The Showcase this month.
If early Sly was all sunshine, unity, and flower-power optimism, There’s a Riot Goin’ On is the acid flashback no one wants to talk about. It’s a sleazy, disillusioned underbelly of a psychedelic dream. It’s dark, it’s murky, it’s funky as hell, and it stares down the ’70s with a cracked mirror and bloodshot eyes. Honestly? It hits even harder today than it did in 1971.
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
What’s left to say about Pet Sounds that hasn’t already been said? Once a commercial flop, this now-iconic album feels like a sun-soaked stroll along warm sand and endless blue skies. But beneath its shimmering pop surface lies a raw, vulnerable core. It’s a haunting exploration of insecurity, doubt, and the painful struggle to leave behind youthful innocence for the unforgiving truths of adulthood. For further reading, please check out my tribute to Brian Wilson here.
Cymande – Cymande
As pretentious and cringe as it might sound (Hey, you’re still reading this edition of The Showcase), one of my favorite ways of unwinding is to plug in my bass and play along to a particular record. Any chill record will do, but I also return to a few favorites when I need it most. The self-titled 1972 album from Cymande is one of them. Their music is a combination of soul, funk, calypso, and Afrobeat that the coined as “Nyah-Rock.” I recently tracked down Cymande on vinyl, and maaaaan, is it good on that format.
