I listen to a lot of music. No, really. If I’m not catching up on what my fellow writers are putting down or doing homework for the Crushed Monocle Podcast (remember that?) I’ve always got my ear to the ground. 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, August 2026.
The Sheila Divine – The Middle Ages
Aaron Perrino has been doing the Sheila Divine thing for a long time. I’ve been listening to the Sheila Divine thing for a long time. As much as I hate superficial tropes like “I grew up listening to this,” it’s nice when a band matures along with the fans. Which means I like that The Middle Ages is about the same things that fester in the back of my mind. Be it political unrest, mortality, heartbreak, or financial woes, Perrino makes music indescribable youthful abandon that it just makes me want to punch harder and scream louder. We’ve all been through it, and this record knows those aches.
White Beast – DIE HARD
It sounds a little metal and a little hardcore, but somehow White Beast is kinda neither. With pain-induced vocals, unbridled aggression, and bass guitar that’s gnarly as a rabid dog, Die Hard checks all the boxes of what I love about noise rock. The best thing about this EP is that it doesn’t mess around. These dudes get to the point, beat your head in, and leave before you have a chance to get bored. I kinda wish more albums had that approach!
Lockstep – I Know What I Saw
I Know What I Saw is a masterclass in restraint-as-weapon, and it’s the band’s debut record! This Nashville trio builds patient, claustrophobic tension across eight tracks before unleashing massive walls of shoegaze with thick slabs of post-metal and sludge. The music is dense, immersive, and fully realized. Sure, shoegaze can be heavy without losing the dreaminess, but what if you’re dreaming about a knife fight?
Freedust – Voyager
Early in the ’00s, electronic music grew up a bit and started infusing live instrumentation in the mix, putting a stronger emphasis on technical mastery rather than hedonistic dance. Air and Groove Armada come to mind. I feel like Freedust, the project of Italian producer Daniele Carmosino, has picked up where those acts left off. Voyager is an audio adventure through funk, soul, disco, and jazz. For me, the hallmark of a good groove record is when you want to plug in your bass and play along, so this album absolutely delivers!
There Were Wires – Vessel
It’s wild to think that There Were Wires haven’t released an album in 2 decades. Vessel provides an incredible balance of caustic post-hardcore fury and noise rock edge with real moments of reflection built in. I mean, they’d have to feel the time that’s passed, right? A record clearly shaped by loss, grief, and friendship, but it still hits with the same urgency that made the group such a force the first time around. This is a comeback done right.
The Thousand Yard Stairs – The Thousand Yard Stairs
As a member of Who Hit John, Superdrag, and briefly Guided By Voices, Sam Powers is a prolific dude in indie power pop circles. If that wasn’t enough, he recorded a solo EP two decades ago and never released it. Why? Who knows. But apparently enough friends hassled him enough to finally unleash it on the world. The result is a stew of The Replacements, Big Star, the Beatles, and, of course, the bands he was actually in. It’s good old-fashioned, salt-of-the-earth stuff only a journeyman like Powers could release. That’s the good kind of predictability!
Julez and the Rollerz – Dirty Little Rock ‘N’ Roller
I love me some rock n’ roll of the glam variety. I’m not talking about hair metal or spandex cheese. I’m talking about that bizarre sweet spot in the ’70s with T. Rex and The Sweet, when bubble gum pop discovered nudie magazines and turned sugary hooks into sleazy innuendos. And that’s exactly what Julez and the Rollerz do on this debut record. Everything about this release is just tongue-in-cheek fun without obnoxious satire. I want it all.
Ringfinger – “Three Stones”
Would it be an edition of The Showcase without something goth? Of course not! Although Three Stones is a mere two-song single, Ringfinger gives more than enough atmospheric darkwave to satisfy your spooky desires. The B-side is a remarkable cover of R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion,” and I just now realized how well that song works as a pseudo-gothic anthem.
Gravecrawler – Nidus
If you can’t read the band’s logo, and the album art is bleak and/or depressing, you’ve probably stumbled across some sort of Swedish death metal. That’s really the best way to describe Nidus from Gravecrawler. This heavy metal nightmare makes you want to run to church after hearing it. I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff, and it wouldn’t be The Showcase without it.
Evil Island – Terraform the Afterlife
Ooh, look at that! This nonstop, riff-packed face-kicker proves that sometimes a supergroup can be the real deal. Or at least a lot of fun. With guests like Guy Picciotto and Alexis Krauss, and Johnny Whitney’s signature frantic scream driving it all, this record from members of The Blood Brothers, OFF!, and Glassjaw is chaotic, funny, angry, and never repeats itself. While most supergroups are gimmicks, anything that sounds like My Chemical Romance possessed by Pazuzu gets a pass from me.
Thanks for checking out The Showcase for July 2026! Check out previous installments of The Showcase here!