features - PAGE 6

Jordan Maye ft. Rebecca Soul – “The Puppeteer” (Song Premiere)

Jordan Maye
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to share the new single from Jordan Maye that takes classic rock and symphonic elements, and builds on a modern indie singer-songwriter foundation layered with Maye’s powerful vocals. “The Puppeteer” features guest vocals from Rebecca Soul, and showcases a sound similar to Foxy Shazam paired with the classic rock leanings of The Rolling Stones.

If you’re enjoying the new single, please consider streaming Jordan Maye’s music here.

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EVRO – “Ninth Gate” (Video Premiere)

EVRO
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone an early look at the latest single and video from the electronic pop and post-punk project known as EVRO, called “Ninth Gate.” The single comes from EVRO’s debut self-produced LP, EVRO1, and the artist shared this about the new video:

It’s a triumphant yet melancholic exploration of ego dissolution, where transcendence meets introspection. Directed by Nic Seago, the video depicts a liminal time loop at the threshold of transformation, merging internet-age with an indie aesthetic to mirror the song’s cyclical and transcendent nature. I feel like this track is me having positive energy without being corny, I read the entire Red Book by Carl Jung and I was doing a lot of shadow work when I wrote it, I sort of realized that who I though I was, was a collection of memories told  by a specific perspective that wasn’t accurate to reality, and a lot of the things that I felt weren’t even truth in actuality, it was all made up. That was very liberating so that’s why I sing, Things that I used to feel, none of it was true.

If you’re enjoying the new music video, please consider streaming EVRO1 here.

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Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 Preview

CD, Record Store
Adam Grundy

Record Store Day Black Friday is this Friday and this year’s celebration of indie record stores occurs on November 28th, 2025. With a fresh slate of new vinyl reissues, exciting exclusives, and in some cases, the first pressings of many key titles, the observance comes with a lot of excitement on the biggest shopping day of the year. The full list of RSD Black Friday releases can be found here, but be sure to check in with your local indie record store to see what they will be carrying this Friday. In this preview, I’ll be diving into some of the most sought after releases and offer some tips for newcomers to secure these titles.

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Interview: Run The Riot

Run The Riot
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to connect with a high-energy rock band, called Run The Riot, that has a slick punk sound paired with a little bit of a metal edge to their approach to songwriting. In this interview I asked the band members about their core influences, how they formed and wanted to play music together, and a dream concert lineup that they’d jump at the chance of making happen. Run The Riot is Nick Rubright (Guitar), Bradley Klein (Bass, backing vocals), Billy Waas (Drums), Vlad Odiiak (Guitar, backing vocals, production), and Joe Voccia (Lead vocals), and they’re ready for their moment. If you’re enjoying the interview, you can check out all the streaming and related links to the band here.

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The Brokedowns – “Let’s Tip The Landlord” (Video Premiere)

The Brokedowns
Adam Grundy

Today I’m so excited to bring everyone the latest music video from Chicago punk band, The Brokedowns, called “Let’s Tip The Landlord.” On this great-sounding single, The Brokedowns channel their love for big hooks paired with slick musicianship. The band shared:

Forty-five years after the Dead Kennedys rudely sneered, ‘Let’s lynch the landlord,’ The Brokedowns offer a softer, less pointed, rejoinder—one of reverence over rebellion: Let us pray for the landlord / Let us venerate the landlord / But above all—Let’s tip the landlord. Picking up where Crypto Dave left off in “In Praise of the Pedestal,” we now find him drawn into the mysterious wolf cult first hinted at in the previous episode. Does Dave have what it takes to withstand the trials of passive income? Is he the chosen one as prophesized in the alpha scrolls? Or is he another beta grifter, doomed to an eternity of cuck Lycan worship?

If you’re enjoying the music video, please consider supporting The Brokedowns here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 35: “World Spins Madly On” by The Weepies

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Woke up, and wished that I was dead.

It’s 3am on the morning of November 6, 2025, and I’m still at work. One of the less desirable things about being a local journalism professional is that, on election nights, you’re up until all the precincts in your area report out their numbers and you can start projecting winners for things like county board seats or township administrators. At this point in my career, I’ve pulled the election night graveyard shift four or five times, and I typically don’t mind it much. I usually just put on a movie around 10:30pm and wait until the numbers start rolling in and I can write up my report so that the results are there in our subscribers’ email inboxes the next morning. In this particular case, though, the election night shift is the stuff of nightmares, because it involves writing the following words as my lede:

“Former president Donald Trump looked likely to win the presidency as of 3am Wednesday morning, defeating Democratic challenger (and current vice president) Kamala Harris.”

I haven’t been shellshocked a whole lot of times in my adult life, but I was truly at a loss for words watching the results come in on election night last year. With every passing hour, I could feel my heart sink a few more inches, until I finally punched in that sentence at 3:00 in the morning, turned off my computer, and tried to get some sleep. There was no movie that night, nothing pleasant or fun to kill the time as I waited for the moment when I’d have enough information to write up my local election report. Instead, I spent the better part of five hours obsessively refreshing my election maps, social media feeds, and Chorus.fm forums, looking for some sign that the growing feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach was an overreaction.

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2025 Holiday Gift Guide

Gift
Jason Tate

Each year I put together a small gift guide post full of things that I think make great gifts and are a lot of fun to give or receive for the holidays. Everything on the list is something I’ve used, enjoyed, and recommend. I have recommendations posts for software, headphones, and miscellaneous stuff around the house, so the things on this list will be more focused on stuff not included in those posts and geared toward things I’ve come across in the past year or so and think would make good gifts.

I used my Amazon affiliate link when the product showed up there, which gives our website a slight percentage back if you make a purchase and helps fund our continued existence.

If you’d like to get me a gift, becoming a supporting member or gifting another user a supporting membership for a year would mean the world to me. And, if you’re looking for something in just about any price range with a Chorus.fm or AbsolutePunk.net logo on it, check our merch shop.

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Dirty O’Keefe – Heavy Water (Track-By-Track)

Dirty O'Keefe
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone an exclusive track-by-track by punk band Dirty O’Keefe, for their new EP called Heavy Water. Dirty O’Keeffe was formed in 2020 by Lagwagon’s Dave Raun. Raun collared Stone Sour’s Christian Martucci, Faith No More’s Billy Gould and Steve Shepard from Cali punk crew Trash n Privilege. Looking both to blow away the cobwebs of the pandemic but also bring attention to the hard-working crews impacted by lockdown, the four released “Brick or Bucket” in 2020. If it was COVID that brought the quartet together, it was the friendships that reunited them five years later for debut EP, Heavy Water. The 4-track collection is a gritty & resonating punk rock collection, with a metallic edge and a splash of influence from each member’s full-time group. If you’re enjoying the feature, please consider streaming the EP here.

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Kewl Haze – “Used To Have It All” (Song Premiere)

Kewl Haze
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone an early listen to the new single from Philadelphia psych rock band, Kewl Haze, called “Used To Have It All.” The two-piece band is Dan Scott Forreal and Derek Sheehan, and this artist is somewhere in the same realm as other bands like Tame Impala and Beck. Sheehan shared about the direction of the music Kewl Haze took on their debut LP, Suburban Sherpa:

’Used to Have it All’ was one of the early songs we wrote for the album. We started demoing this song at my home studio in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia back in 2021 after Forreal and I moved him back across country from LA. The song came together pretty quickly. I started strumming the chords for the verse and chorus, we put a drum beat to it and added bass, synth and lead guitar for the verse/chorus. We pretty much finished the instrumental demo that night. Forreal later laid down a vocal take at his home studio and I loved the direction. The lyrics were about a recent break-up/post break-up bender. The narrative of the song is hilariously devastating and self-deprecating while also poking fun at modern dating culture. We went to Retro City Studios in Germantown and recorded drums and I wrote lyrics and tracked vocals for the bridge. With that, the song was wrapped. We then brought the song for final mixing to Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire Eater) and re-amped guitars and added some additional synth and percussion at his studio Silent Partner Studios in Germantown. Matt’s good friend and co-owner of Silent Partner, Quentin Stoltzfus (Light Heat, Mazarin) mastered the track. We are super excited to officially share our first single with the world. Enjoy!

If you’re enjoying the new single, please consider pre-ordering their new record here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 34: “Brother” by Brett Eldredge

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Brother, I think it’s time we talk; why do guys like us spend most our lives playing it tough?

I just kept replaying it.

On the morning of Saturday, November 23, 2024, as I ran circles around my neighborhood in the rain, I found myself double-tapping my AirPods every three and a half minutes to restart the song. I wanted – no, I needed – to hear it again. It was the one thing keeping me from spiraling out of control. For that run, and that day, and that weekend, this particular song was my force of gravity. If I just kept playing it, then I could keep the things I held dear from floating off into the ether.

I am not the type of person to replay songs ad nauseum. Even the songs I love most have rarely had me reaching for the replay button more than two or three times in a row. So why was it that, on that November morning, the only thing that felt appropriate was listening to a mostly-forgotten album track from country-soul singer Brett Eldredge 10 times in a row?

That morning, I’d woken up to the kind of text messages you never want to see on your phone screen. “I know you won’t see this until the morning but please give me a call whenever you can.” My sister-in-law had sent that text at 2:08 in the morning. Another message, from a mutual friend of my brother’s, said “PLEASE know I’m thinking about you and the family. I’m here for whatever you guys need.”

I have never popped out of bed faster.

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Interview: Teppei Teranishi of Thrice

Thrice
Adam Grundy

A couple of days ago, I was able to schedule an in-person interview with Teppei Teranishi of Thrice in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss the band’s excellent new record called Horizons/West. In this interview, I asked Teppei about the writing process of a few key songs on the new LP, the vinyl reissue plans of key albums like The Alchemy Index, and much more. Thrice are currently wrapping up their fall tour, and tickets are on sale here.

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