ifitbeyourwill Podcast #176 • Sungaze

Cincinnati's Sungaze make the kind of shoegaze where the haze finally lifts. On this episode, married duo Ivory Snow and Ian Hilvert trace the unlikely arc from death-metal speed runs to restraint—the notes you don't play—and the slow build toward a sound with intent. They talk Slowdive and Tame Impala, a homemade guitar gifted for a 26th birthday, and the quiet domestic alchemy of writing as a couple. Their new record, I Am No Longer Afraid of Heights, lands May 22nd, ahead of a June tour through New York and Boston.

https://www.sungazemusic.com/

Slow Leaves • The Ruins of Things Unfinished • 2026

I’m tired of dreaming

I’m tired of believing

I’m tired of this feeling, I’m not good enough

I’m tired of sleeping

I’m tired of retreating

I’m tired of keeping appearances up

I’m tired of acting and overreacting

I’m tired of asking a little too much

I’m tired of thinking

It’s everyone else, it’s everyone else

I’m tired

I’m tired of faking

My heart always breaking

My heart’s always breaking, it’s adding up

I’m tired of guessing

There’s always a lesson

There’s always a lesson

I’m tired

I’m tired of believing in giving up

Charlotte Cornfield • Hurts Like Hell • 2026

charlottecornfield.com

Hurts Like Hell, Charlotte Cornfield’s 2026 Merge Records debut, is Cornfield’s sixth album. It is the first she’s recorded since the birth of her daughter in 2023, an inflection point for her as a person and an artist. The album’s recurrent themes of personal growth and renewal, of love’s perseverance through difficulty and shame and awkwardness, are rooted there.

General Chaos • Can't Please 'Em All • 2026

Montreal’s General Chaos are sixteen years old, and they’re about to release one of the most dialed-in punk records to come out of the city in years. Their second full-length album, Can’t Please ’Em All, arrives May 8 on Stomp Records, and it doesn’t sound like a stepping stone. It sounds like a band that already knows what it’s doing. The kind of band you catch after midnight off Saint-Laurent, ears ringing, snow melting into grey slush at your feet, neon buzzing overhead. Across thirteen tracks, General Chaos lock into a style that balances speed, weight, and melody without overplaying any of it. You hear it right away. Rancid’s punch, Descendents’ discipline, Social Distortion’s structure, early Green Day’s snap, and the sharper political edge of Propagandhi. The guitars stay tight and efficient. The bass sits forward and drives. The drums are steady and controlled. Songs move quick when they need to, then settle into something heavier when it counts. Lead singles “Busted” and “The Idiots Have Taken Over” map that range, while focus track “Zipco” cuts through with a rawer, street-level narrative. “He drank and drank and drank until he was passed out on the floor,” Blondy sings, sketching out a character that feels pulled straight from real life, not dressed up for effect. 

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #175 • After Ours

Blending dream-pop haze, indie folk intimacy, and jazz-inflected songwriting, After Ours creates music that feels suspended between memory and late-night confession. On Imaginary Friend, Kayla Janowitz folds soft textures, diaristic lyrics, and understated hooks into songs that linger long after they end. In this conversation, she reflects on learning jazz standards with her brother, navigating perfectionism in studio, and the emotional residue that shapes her writing. What emerges is a thoughtful discussion about nostalgia, identity, and the strange beauty of becoming someone new while still carrying older versions of yourself forward. A great listen for all aspiring musicians.

 

https://www.instagram.com/afteroursxx/

Darren Hayman & The Long Parliament • The Violence (Expanded Edition) • 2026

On June 12th, Darren Hayman (Hefner / New Starts / The French) launches a series of re-issues and releases with ‘The Violence’ (Expanded Edition), a highly ambitious and beautifully layered Folk album about the 17th-century English Civil Wars and the East Anglian Witch Trials. Tragically still relevant in how society vilifies marginalised people, the original 2012 release was praised by The Quietus, Stewart Lee (The Sunday Times), The Line of Best Fit, Q Magazine, Mojo, NME, The Skinny, Drowned in Sound, Uncut, KLOF Mag, the BBC, and many more outlets.  As part of a wider effort to fill the gaps in his missing catalogue, this expanded album is accompanied by its companion EP, ‘The Four Queens,’ also made available again digitally for the first time in years.

zzzahara • I Can Be Yours feat. Winter • 2026

Plenty of people come to Los Angeles looking to make their California dreams a reality. But zzzahara has always been here, turning reality into a dream. Born and raised in Highland Park, where they still reside, zzzahara (the solo moniker of Eyedress/Simps/U.S. Velvet guitarist Zahara Jaime).

CHINESE AMERICAN BEAR • Dim Sum & Then Some • 2026

 

The sounds on the LP are more musically dense and exploratory, marking an evolution for the duo. The band finds themselves delving much further into experimental territory, while also incorporating more traditional pop elements than they ever have. There's a mix of sonics on this album, featuring warbly guitars, hints of psychedelia, pop, disco, and strings, while also incorporating synth driven, electronic, sounds, as well as droney, hypnotic elements. The LP is a true reflection of the Chinese American Bear ethos: open, curious, and lighthearted. 

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #174 • Michael Feuerstack

A wide-ranging conversation with Michael Feuerstack that traces the arc from Snail House bedroom recordings to a decades-long solo practice shaped by collaboration and quiet persistence. He reflects on how songs emerge—sometimes as fragments, sometimes as loops you can’t shake—and what it means to stay open enough to follow them. Moving through Montréal’s indie community and his own shifting identity as an artist, the episode lands on a simple throughline: make the work, finish it, and put it into the world.

https://michaelfeuerstack.com/

“a national treasure.” – Globe & Mail

“heaving and gorgeous…anguishing and contemplative.” – Stereogum

“one of this country’s most talented songwriters.” – Exclaim!

“simultaneously heartfelt and apathetic, sacred and profane.” – CBC Music

“slow, gentle songs of love and truth and unforgettable regrets.” – NOW Toronto

“Beautiful and patient, this record is the result of years Mike spent practicing his craft and being forced to question if the struggle is worth it. It’s written for love of art and life, a back porch whisper that could float in the wind.” – Hero Hill

Freschard and Stanley Brinks • Hotel Berlin / Pole Fitness • 2026

fikarecordings.com

Touch Girl Apple Blossom • Graceful • 2026

Maisy Owen • Dark on a Sunny Day • 2026

“There’s more to her than crystalline acoustic picking, her darkly poetic songs stand out from the throng. The sparse, melancholic purity of “On My Way Down” and “Letters” and the surging folk-rock of the title track are a testament to her versatility.” – UNCUT

knitting • Here Comes • 2026

“While their debut leaned into a hazy, grungy cohesion, this record expands their sound — introducing more experimentation with texture, synths, and structure while keeping that introspective core intact.” — EXCLAIM

“Souvenir sees knitting expand on the slacker rock sound established on Some Kind of Heaven with more depth, having drawn inspiration from the diversity of Montreal's DIY scene.”

— THE LINE OF BEST FIT

“We named knitting a Band To Watch back in 2024, coinciding with the release of their excellent debut full-length Some Kind Of Heaven. Today the Montreal indie rockers have announced its follow-up Souvenir, which they're teasing with the brooding, lightly grungy lead single ‘I Want To Remember Everything.’”

— STEREOGUM 

 

Nina Winder-Lind • “This is Our Life” • 2026

 

Brighton-based, Swedish songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nina Winder-Lind, best known as a member of the electrifying “Hagstone rock” band The New Eves, releases a new solo single and video, “This is Our Life,” today via Transgressive. Blending folk-pop warmth with an upbeat, driving pulse, the song showcases Winder-Lind’s magnetic vocal vibrato and instinct for melody. It balances intimacy with exuberance, capturing a sense of joy and immediacy that runs through much of her work.

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #173 • Should

Marc Ostermeier and Tanya Maus of the cult shoegaze duo Should stop by for their first ever podcast interview to celebrate the deluxe reissue of Feed Like Fishes, out now via Numero Group.

From basement 8-tracks in early 90s Austin to a new generation of fans discovering their music on Instagram — Should's story is one worth hearing. Marc breaks down his obsessive approach to crafting atmospheric sound, Tanya reflects on finding her voice in unexpected places, and both drop a tantalizing hint about new music.

Thirty years later, Should still sounds like nothing else.

Available on Bandcamp. Go give it a listen. 

http://www.words-on-music.com/should/

Magic Castles • Hey Alright • 2026

 

Magic Castles are back with new album ‘Realized’, a set of lush psych-rock reveries from Minneapolis songwriter Jason Edmonds, blending late-60s folk-rock warmth with shoegaze shimmer. Newly signed to Fuzz Club, ‘Realized’ takes Magic Castles’ music to a newfound level of clarity, whilst still retaining that same, long-harboured analogue warmth only made possible through an array of vintage amps, guitars and transistor organs. Released April 24th 2026, ‘Realized’ consists of nine dreamlike, melody-led trips that unfold in waves. Equal parts hazy nostalgia and widescreen modern psychedelia, centring dreamy, heavily-layered arrangements and floating vocal harmonies.

After Ours • Congratulations • 2025

 

https://www.instagram.com/afteroursxx/

Lowertown • Worst Friend • 2026

“a band on the cusp of greatness.” - NME

“One cannot help but get goosebumps” - The Line Of Best Fit

“Luscious lo-fi indie bops” - DIY

“we are predicting big things for the pair” -The Forty-Five

“The latest in a generation of artists determined not to be defined by genre” 

- Notion

The songwriting partnership of Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg, the last few years saw the prolific pair teetering on the brink. From constant touring and a separation from their label to creative frustrations and an unhealthy attachment to one another, their artistic partnership and, more importantly, their friendship were on shaky ground—especially since these experiences were coloured by the disorienting intensity of their late teens and early 20s. It became clear that the two had to revisit their roots.

lowertown.band

Gently Tender (mem. Palma Violets) • "Wild In The Uplands” • 2026

 

South London six-piece Gently Tender today shared their new single "Wild In The Uplands," the second single from their forthcoming EP This Was Once Fields, due out May 22nd via TODO Records. "Wild in the Uplands" captures the unruly spirit of the freedom of being in nature and the thrill of exploring in wild places. The band explains: "'Wild in the Uplands is a song about escape from city to country. It’s about not having respect for fences and private land, roaming free and getting into mischief. Out of all the illegal activities a person can partake in, trespassing is one of the most exhilarating!" "Wild In The Uplands" follows lead single "A Mound A Field," which garnered support from DIY Magazine, CLASH, Dork, and more.

https://www.gentlytender.co.uk/

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #172 • Common Holly

More than a decade into Common Holly, Brigitte Naggar still writes the way she did as a teenager — quietly, in her bedroom, not quite ready to let anyone hear. On this episode, Chris sits down with the Montreal songwriter to talk about Anything Glass (June 2025) and its companion EP They Will Draw Halos Around Our Heads (February), two records that feel like siblings.

Brigitte talks about going back to the piano for the first time since she was a kid, letting poems turn into songs without forcing them, and her long run with producer Devon Bate (Jean-Michel Blais, Jeremy Dutcher) — a collaborator so unshowy you stay with him for ten years because he just gets it. She's warm on Montreal too: friendships that go back fifteen years, monthly jams with Ada Lea and Cedric Noel, and the quiet reset Common Holly and the rest of the city's scene went through after the pandemic.

Also: why the slow songs landed hardest this time, a Left of the Dial date in Rotterdam, and some loose hints at what comes next — maybe an all-vocal record, maybe something built around cello. Nothing rushed. Whatever feels right.

 

https://commonholly.com/

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https://ffm.to/commonholly