Following a string of rather varied sounding digital singles – kicking off with ‘Spilled Milk’ in September 2024 – one man band Tooth Gore released his long awaited ‘For Losers…By Losers’ album in June 2025. It didn’t disappoint. Taking in elements of surf rock, noisy indie, melodic punk and a couple of other retro twists, the album showcased an artist will a brilliantly malleable talent.
In 2023, US punks The Carolyn released ‘Harmful History’, an EP that provided a solid, if brief, insight into the band’s musical interests. The material made their love of The Ataris and The Gaslight Anthem rather apparent, but in terms of musicianship, the material was very strong.
In many ways, their 2025 release ‘Pyramid Scheme of Grief’ offers fans more of the same, but at times, the arrangements are tighter and the material more concise. This gives The Carolyn a serious amount of extra punch when required, without losing any of their songwriting focus.
On a pair of earlier singles, US punkers Fire Sale demonstrated a perfect blend of power and melody. By channelling the skate punk aspects of early No Use For A Name and the melodic elements of The Ataris, their material shared an instantly classic sound which seemed tailor made for lovers of 90s punk. Their contributions to this split EP with the mighty Pulley – one of the 90s more underrated melodic punk acts – are very much in the same vein, but this only suggests that Fire Sale are the kind of band that genre fans can take to heart without fear of disappointment.
Back in June 2025, when sifting through a mountain of materials for our popular Singles Bar column, we found we had a huge amount of submissions featuring bands from Boston. It sort of seemed natural to make a feature of these on their own, since that part of the US seems to be thriving when it comes to underground acts. The feature was a massive success – far bigger than we could’ve hoped for – so it seemed only right to use that as a template again, when the time felt right and there was enough new material to make it viable. This second trip to the Boston ’burbs features a couple of familiar faces, but hopefully there’ll be music and bands here that are brand new to you too. As always, we hope you find something to enjoy!
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In June 2025, one man band Tooth Gore released their excellent ‘For Losers, By Losers’ album, an almost filler free collection that drew influence from melodic punk, surf rock, power pop and even post rock to create a riff driven collection that really captured the spirit of the DIY artist’s earlier singles.