BLUE HERON – Emulations

Since their formation in 2018, US desert rock/heavy stoner band Blue Heron have been utterly committed to sharing massive riffs. Although parts of their 2024 full length ‘Everything Fades’ were a little more accessible from a vocal perspective, on a musical level, the album retained the kind of heaviness fans had come to expect, cementing the band’s reputation as one of the underground scene’s best and most intense acts.

Continuing a run of yearly new releases since 2022, ‘Emulations’ is a stop gap affair, combining four newly recorded tracks with a blistering live session, but it shouldn’t be considered a “filler” in any way.

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SIDE PROJECT SKIP – The Friday Night Detour EP

Helmed by multi-instrumentalist Chris Dicksheid, Side Project Skip’s debut EP ‘Fast Falls & Hard Landings’ – released in 2021 – found the sometime Mediocre Friends musician sidelining the sounds of late 80s college rock and exploring retro sounds of another kind. The recordings presented stripped back semi-acoustic material that had a very DIY feel, but at their best – as heard on the very strong ‘Sunsets On Rooftops’ – a love for bands like Toad The Wet Sprocket was evident, creating an intimate listen that shone a light on Chris’s songwriting in a pleasing way.

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THE PLANET SMASHERS – On The Dancefloor

It seems inconceivable that ‘On The Dancefloor’ is The Planet Smashers’ tenth album, much in the same way that it seems inconceivable that it comes twenty years after fan favourite ‘Unstoppable’, and three decades after the death of Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell. Time is a funny thing.

They might not have had the commercial success as Real Big Fish or Less Than Jake (at least in the UK, where hard touring has made those bands a big draw since the late 90s), but years of grafting have made The Planet Smashers an integral part of the transatlantic ska world. There have been times when it’s been hard to work out why. Despite being great musicians, they’ve not always shown signs of being particularly great songwriters, with so much of their earlier work being reliant on one line hooks, delivered ad nauseum to the point of absolute annoyance.

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THE CAROLYN – Pyramid Scheme Of Grief

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.

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