Montana’s Minot shared new tracks on Bandcamp at regular intervals throughout 2025. Eventually compiled as the ‘And You’re Not’ album, the self proclaimed “lo-fi garage punk muffins” served up something that often sounded like buried treasure from the US garage rock scene thirty five years previously. This, of course, was a good thing.
The name Clone might not seem instantly familiar, but this Brooklyn-based post punk act comes with an interesting DNA. Frontman LG Galleon has previously released works with Dead Leaf Echo, Gregg Giufree (not to be confused with Angel legend Gregg Giuffria!) has links with Pilot To Gunner, and the Clone live act includes some extra power courtesy of Namesake’s Paul Liziragga and Alex Cox of The Veldt (the shoegaze legends who finally saw their shelved 1989 debut recording receive enthusiastic press upon its official release in 2024). This musical gathering also attracted the attention of producer Martin Bisi, whose CV includes albums by Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Swans, and…Herbie Hancock.
In the year leading up to this album’s release, guitarist Gary Arce kept himself more than busy. With the other members of Yawning Man, he released a third album of improvised material with Yawning Balch, two albums of fantastic material under the name SoftSun with Superlynx’s Pia Isaaksen, and also worked with Big Scenic Nowhere, a doomy stoner band which also featured Yawning Man’s Bill Stinson and Fu Manchu/Yawning Balch guitarist Bob Balch.
Regardless of his many activities, for most, it’ll be his associations with desert rock band Yawning Man that spring to mind first, despite their output being rather sporadic. The band’s eighth studio record ‘Pavement Ends’ finds Arce in great musical form, and following 2023’s ‘Long Walk of The Navajo’ takes a welcome step back towards shorter and more accessible arrangements.
In June 2025, French punks Flippeur released ‘Pacman’, a frenetic single that took punk’s energy, added a bunch of bending synth sounds and a relentless jangle to create a really punchy track that hit its audience so hard that, even for those non-French speakers, it couldn’t fail to impress. In and out in just seventy nine seconds, it barely gave the listener time to over-think what they’d just heard, and that feeling of pure, unrestrained energy went a long way to suggesting Flippeur would be worth keeping an ear for in future.
With influences ranging from indie, alt-country and psychedelia, Boston rock band Tiberius (not to be confused with the Scottish metal band of the same name) have labelled their sound “Farm Emo”. The fusion of styles colours most of their debut album ‘Troubadour’ in such a way that their music feels inherently “90s”, yet at the same time, the record’s finest tracks feel so much grander than mere throwbacks to that plaid dominated era.