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.
Hey, it’s November! Here in the United States, Thanksgiving is the big holiday this month. However, it doesn’t feel right to celebrate anything involving ungodly amounts of food when over 42 million people in the country rely on government assistance that could once again be held hostage at any given moment. Hell, we probably shouldn’t be celebrating because of the historical context, but here we are.
According to Halmark-ification of the holiday, I do have a lot to be thankful for.
I have my health, family, and friends. The world is a terrible place, and it would be worse without them in my life. If music is one of your ways to escape, then I’m also thankful that Bearded Gentlemen Music has given me a platform to share my thoughts and recommendations. Not just here with The Showcase, but every article.
I’m thankful for the friends I’ve made at this publication over the years. Jon, Kendon, Adam, Judi, Oscar, Kelsey, Matt, Mac, Gabbo, Dane, and Isaac, to name a few. All of these folks are irreplaceable, and I’m grateful for them putting up with me for so long. Also, I’m thankful for the readers, even the ones who send me death threats on decade-old articles. Okay, this is getting too gushy and corny.
Let’s get on with The Showcase for November 2025!
Total Sham – REDLINE
This five-track demolition derby doesn’t just flirt with garage punk and noise. It marries them and burns down the reception hall. Each track careens like it’s trying to outrun its own feedback. Somehow, the band slips in these deranged hooks and noise rock tangents that make the whole thing perversely addictive.
Rigorous Institution – Tormentor
This album is mean, miserable, and never lets up. Every song oozes dread and defiance in a twisted knot of thrash brutality! I mean, it’s not really thrash in the textbook form. It’s a brand of anarcho-punk written during the end of the world and played through blown-out speakers. Unhinged, ugly, and completely intoxicating, it’s punk in its most psychotic, glorious form.
Sorry – Cosplay
Trapped in a fever dream where beauty and dread keep switching, Sorry take their dense, shadowy sound and stretch it to the breaking point with a weirdly haunted vibe. Cosplay features industrial throb, indie haze, and cinematic unease. Driven by ghostly vocals that refuse to sit still, the music is unsettling, hypnotic, and strangely gorgeous.
keiyaA – hooke’s law
Hey! It’s the first Chicago artist in the Showcase this month! With all hometown repping aside, keiyaA is one of the R&B scene’s best-kept secrets. As a former jazz saxophonist, she knows her way around the groove. However, that doesn’t mean hooke’s law is a free-for-all of notes and phrases. Instead, her usual jazz influences take a backseat to thick soul vibes. Everything keiyaA does is poised, yet effortless. I can’t wait for the moment when the rest of the R&B world starts taking notice.
Streets of Separation – Faux Fur
Oh, how I love a healthy dose of death rock – especially when it’s covered in filth and punk venom. Faux Fur is raw, reckless, and gloriously unrefined. It bleeds frustration, noise, and urgency in equal measure. Each track teeters between breakneck bursts and grimy dirges, while never losing momentum or nerve. In a world where punk can feel too polished and polite, this band reminds us how thrilling the genre sounds when the wheels come off.
Anita Velveeta – Liquid Gold
Sometimes it isn’t easy to review a record like Liquid Gold because there really isn’t a narrative. Not just for the album but each track! The whole thing is unhinged chaos where any given scene is an opportunity for another plot twist. There are elements of hardcore, industrial, and electronica, but it’s really just a big pot of soup. And the album cover is a parody of Whipped Cream. What’s not to love? Anita Velveeta is your brain on noise. Any questions?
Havana Syndrome – Kill Your Brain
Picture, if you will, the MC5 devouring DEVO and throwing them up on a turntable. Okay, that’s gross. Don’t picture that. Just listen to Kill Your Brain.
Soul Blind – Red Sky Mourning
Grunge meets shoegaze. Grungegaze? I dunno, I’m sure there’s a better label for what Soul Blind does. The music is heavy, melodic, with just enough Alice In Chains nostalgia, but never lazy. Red Sky Mourning proves that bands don’t need to reinvent the grunge or shoegaze genres. They just need to play better than everyone else, and right now, this group does.
God Alone – The Beep Test
This Irish quintet offer up genre-jumping spazziness into something laser-focused yet still gloriously unhinged. The Beep Test kicks things off with punk grit and math-rock precision, but as soon as you think that’s what kind of record this is gonna be, you’re wrong. The album spirals into frantic, jazz-inflected mayhem that somehow feels dense, messy, brilliant. If you’ve ever wanted your anger to sound like a jazz band being electrocuted mid-set, this one’s for you.
Mavis Staples – Sad And Beautiful World
You rarely find legacy artists in The Showcase unless it’s at the end of the article as a brief side quest. However, I feel like most publications are sleeping on Sad And Beautiful World by the legendary Mavis Staples. (Look at that, another Chicago artist!). At 86 years old and with 7 decades of performing under her belt, Staples doesn’t even need an introduction. But even without that history or legacy, Sad And Beautiful World would be an incredible record of soul, gospel, blues, and Americana. There isn’t a single second of this record that doesn’t feel like a warm hug from your Granny. God, we need this, don’t we?