The Goods • Summer's Almost Gone • 2026

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Oakland, California power pop outfit The Goods return July 22 with “Summer's Almost Gone,” the first single from their upcoming LP Goodbye Summertime, due September 16 on Dandy Boy Records. Less than a year after releasing their debut full-length Don't Spoil the Fun, songwriter Rob Good pushes the project into new territory, folding Beatles-esque psychedelia, jangling folk rock, sunny indie pop, and the melodic punch of classic power pop into something far bigger than what came before. For fans of The Lemon Twigs, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, Young Guv, and The Apples In Stereo, “Summer's Almost Gone” is the first glimpse of an album written during a period of dramatic personal change and creative obsession.

Celestial Skies • Today's Malaise • 2026

Celestial Skies · Today's Malaise

Charlie Ivan Band • 'Of Nothing’ • 2026

 

At its core, Of Nothing is an album concerned with beauty found inside bleakness. Throughout the record, Ivan returns to recurring themes of longing, love, desperation and the strange futility that shadows everyday existence. It also represents a continuation of a lifelong relationship with songwriting. Ivan credits his mother, who is a songwriter herself, with introducing him to guitar and piano, and the music of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Sinéad O'Connor, Radiohead and Nick Cave, at an early age.

Nanaco Sato • “A Bullet Hole In My Ear” • 2026

The recording sessions were almost entirely spontaneous. I brought a collection of poems I had written, chose one according to how I felt that day, handed it to the musicians, and we began playing. There was no fixed plan. We simply trusted the moment.

When I showed them A Bullet Hole In My Ear, I said, “Let's do this one next.” Someone would start playing a phrase, and the rest of us would instinctively follow, as though we were pushing a boat out into an open current and letting it find its own direction.

Looking back, I think we captured both the emotional depth and the landscape of that poem with remarkable beauty and power. Even though we had never played together before, it felt like a real band from the very first moment we met. There was an immediate sense of trust, freedom, and shared imagination. Those days at Maison Rouge remain some of the most inspiring recording sessions of my life.”

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SORRY MONKS • Grass Is Greener • 2026

Recorded between March & June 2026, Grass Is Greener is a collection of 12 songs that evoke the golden age of guitar-pop without veering into pastiche. Stop Look & Listen captures the poignancy of Summer turning into Autumn, wrapped in a tune you might swear you heard once on the Ed Sullivan show. Bird of Paradise is Mamas and Papas meets Between The Buttons era Stones. Careful attention was paid to the running order to ensure a cohesive listen from start to finish and the mixes hold up well in both stereo and mono.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #188 • Max Subar

Chicago singer-songwriter Max Subar joins If It Be Your Will to discuss his stunning debut album, Anything Could Be, released on Merge Records. We explore the quiet power of solitude, trusting instinct over perfection, and how a frozen lakeside retreat became the foundation for an intimate, expansive record. Max reflects on collaboration, vulnerability, and embracing uncertainty, revealing how the album became both a personal transformation and the beginning of an exciting new chapter in his career. 

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Anything Could Be was recorded across ten days of solitude, but featured additional sessions with his brother Sam Subar on drums, Case Oats bandmates Spencer Tweedy (additional drums),Jason Ashworth (upright bass), and Scott Daniel (violin), as well as frequent collaborators Chet Zenor (electric guitar), Kelly Hannemann (piano), and Sarah Weddle (vibraphone, organ, and electric piano). thelineofbestfit

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #187 • Jaco Jaco

Jaco Jaco's music exists in that rare space where groove and introspection become inseparable. Formerly of the Oklahoma indie-rock band Sports, Jacob Theriot has steadily carved out a solo identity rooted in warm bass lines, psychedelic textures, and songs that wrestle with uncertainty without ever losing their sense of joy. On the heels of his new album, On the Levee, Jacob joins If It Be Your Will to talk about leaving behind the only band he'd ever known, rebuilding his life in Philadelphia, finding confidence as a vocalist, and why the meaning of his songs often reveals itself only after they're written. It's a conversation about creative reinvention, trusting instinct over certainty, and discovering that the best records aren't built on answers—they're built on curiosity.

jacoja.co

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #185 • Knife in the Water

Some records don't age—they deepen. Nearly thirty years after Knife in the Water quietly reshaped the edges of alt-country and slowcore, Aaron Blount joins ifitbeyourwill to revisit the landscapes that first inspired the band and the memories that still echo through its songs. It's a conversation about Austin before it changed, music that refuses easy categories, and the strange privilege of watching old songs find new lives in new listeners.

https://www.knifeinthewater.net/

Max Subar • Anything Could Be • 2026

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On July 17, 2026, Chicago singer-songwriter Max Subar joins the Merge Records roster with his debut full-length album "Anything Could Be." Laid down on a mobile recording rig in a house on the shore of a frozen lake in Wisconsin, Max emerged after ten days of solitude with a record of neither fallow nor verdant earth, but, staggeringly, one that occupies the threshold between the two, a space that accommodates the potential for stagnation and growth: their hopes, their worries, the time it takes to arrive at an unknown destination, and the courage to accept what’s there, waiting to be realized.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #184 • Mallory Hawk

Some debut albums arrive with the urgency of a first statement. Chinook feels different—it carries the weight of years spent listening, collaborating, and quietly becoming. On this episode, Mallory Hawk reflects on a childhood soundtracked by records and military helicopters, the winding road through New York's DIY underground, and the moment she stopped writing for everyone else and trusted her own instincts. It's a thoughtful conversation about memory, resilience, and the beautiful uncertainty that fuels great songs.

https://www.malloryhawk.art/

To produce Chinook, Hawk tapped like-mindedly omnivorous musician Sam Acchione (Alex G, Jessica Lea Mayfield), whom she’d befriended during her tenure in Customer. The two often spent hours trading liner notes minutiae, resulting in a collaboration that weaves songwriting idiosyncrasies with two lifetimes of radio scholarship. Hawk joined Acchione in Philadelphia to track at storied Headroom Studios (Hop Along, Algernon Cadwallader). There, she contributed tons of layers to Chinook—bass, drum machine, organ, rhythm and lead guitars—while Acchione encouraged unexpected overdubs like flugelhorn and djembe. 

Wendy Eisenberg • 2026

Wendy Eisenberg has spent the past decade as a fixture of independent music and an artist of inspired multiplicity. As a singer-songwriter, improviser, and virtuoso guitarist, the coordinates of their artistry are ever-shifting, from art-rock to jazz to blistering free improv and eloquent folk. On catalog highlights including 2020’s 'Auto' and the 2024 free-jazz sprawler 'Viewfinder', they’ve made a signature of ambition. After spending the past five years experimenting in different bands, genres, and creative challenges, and following a period of self-confrontation that they liken to a personal exorcism, Eisenberg has arrived at a milestone. The poetic and formally daring folk songs of 'Wendy Eisenberg' comprise their most certain vision yet.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #182 • Andrew Sa

This week on ifitbeyourwill, Andrew Sa joins the podcast to talk about American Rough, his striking debut on Bloodshot Records. We trace a path from childhood karaoke nights and family musical roots to country music, identity, belonging, and the voices that shaped him along the way. It's a conversation about finding your place in a tradition while making room for something entirely your own.

https://www.andrewsamusic.com/

https://andrewsa.lnk.to/americanrough

Good Time Mystery Vision • Glimpse • 2026

Glimpse is caked in instrumental extravagance. The guitars are boisterous and riffy, with each track capstoned by a good ol’ fashioned face-melter of a solo that sweeps you up, spits you out, and leaves you drifting in its wake, craving more. The lyrics dance with Syd Barrett-style whimsy, carried by vocal harmonies that sparkle with the road-worn charm of The Grateful Dead. Underneath it all, an Allman Brothers-esque texture of keys glues the arrangements together, while a relentless rhythm section keeps you moving and swaying, grounding your body in the grass beneath your toes even as your mind floats far above. ST

Anna McClellan • “Twirl” • 2026

On her latest output, Space, you big cloud, Anna McClellan documents a stretch of time where many musical parts clicked into place. Booking the session on a whim, traveling between Fort Worth, TX, where she was working, to New York City, where she currently lives, the songs came out fast, recorded in three dizzying days with unapologetic urgency at Atlanta, GA’s Mirror Mirror Recording (Sword II, Arbor Labor Union) with producer and engineer, Graham Tavel. You can hear it in the bright and unguarded guitar, a band that free-flows, not overworked or cleaned up. There’s no sense of strain or overhandling in these songs, just a quiet insistence that suggests they already knew what they were supposed to be. F/D

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #181 • Magic Castles

On this episode of ifitbeyourwill Podcast Jason Edmonds of Magic Castles joins us for a conversation that begins in a basement record collection filled with psychedelic treasures and winds its way to Realized, the band's latest album. Along the way, we talk about the enduring pull of 60s psych, building a musical universe outside the spotlight, recording in Minnesota, and why Magic Castles continue to make music that feels less like a collection of songs and more like a place to disappear into. A thoughtful, cosmic conversation with one of modern psych's most quietly compelling voices.

At a time when the world is in a shambles, we need music like this to sustain us, to help us escape from cold reality, at least for a short time. The band is well named, for they spin magical notes in every tune. The record opens with the majestic ‘Hey Alright’, which includes baroque elements, whether from programming or actual strings. Then the guitars and drums crash in like a rogue wave, amping up the energy. Vocals arrive around the 2 minute mark, joining the psyched out party. This is music for stretching out and enjoying the moment, maybe with a cat or two in tow. ‘Abandoned Mansions’ is lovely, a dappled slice of psych pop with sweet harmonies. ‘Samata’ is a personal favourite, with a strong melody and slightly hazy vocal lines. Just stellar! ‘Mary Anne’ is one of the singles, and it will draw you in and worm its way into your ears! Echoes and dust

Amy Millan & Martha Wainwright • Calling All Angels • 2026

 

“When I moved to Montreal as a young student with my first guitar, being in the orbit of the loft parties and folk houses is where I first heard Martha and her distinct, powerful and now iconic voice,” says Amy. “Grateful to call her a dear friend, I always wanted to find a way for us to sing together. This Canadian gem of a song by the great Jane Siberry (originally sung with k.d lang) was the perfect beginning for us to get this gentle chance to convene with angels.” EyoQBlfpYeJ

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #180 • Charlotte Cornfield

For Canadians who came of age somewhere along the Montréal–Toronto corridor, Charlotte Cornfield’s music carries a particular resonance. On this episode of ifitbeyourwill, the Toronto songwriter reflects on the cities that shaped her, the Plateau music scene that made a life in music feel possible, and the long road from jazz drums at Concordia to releasing Hurts Like Hell on the legendary Merge Records.

What unfolds is a conversation about creative practice, parenthood, community, and the strange act of looking back at your younger self with equal parts tenderness and humour. Charlotte discusses recording the album live off the floor with a hand-picked band, collaborating with artists she deeply admires, and finding new freedom in songwriting by letting go of the need to always be the narrator of her own stories.

Part music conversation, part Canadian cultural geography, this is a thoughtful look at how places, people, and time shape the songs we carry with us long after they've been written.

charlottecornfield.com

The title track leans into that looseness. Mid-tempo, nothing pushed, guitars sitting just above a whisper. Then the vocal climbs, not dramatically, just enough to tighten everything around it. It changes the weight of the song without changing the volume. The harmonies follow, brushing up against the lead rather than stacking neatly behind it, like they’re part of the same thought instead of decoration. montreal rocks

Darren Hayman • January Songs • 2011

My name is Darren Hayman. During January 2011 I wrote and recorded and released a video for every day of the month. I also kept a video diary and made a video for each song. Collaborators included The Wave Pictures, Allo Darlin, Terry Edwards and many more.

There are plans to make a deluxe physical release at some point too. 

GVTH DVDDY • Who Knows How It Ends ? • 2026

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Jaco Jaco • Wager • 2026

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I bet the world and kept the wager

Don’t like to see you so sad

No column in the hall of fame

I only played the game

I wonder if we’ll find each other

Through those wings with eyes

Trapped in a phosphor almond glow

Where grass don’t grow

Its okay if what is right for me is wrong for you

Did it ever occur to you to try out something new?