Summarizing the week in music: Henry Rollins turned 65; see live videos from Tropical Fuck Storm and IRK; two new singles from the latest project by Stimmerman; release announcements from mclusky and Damaged Bug (John Dwyer of Osees); and a haunting single from Kathryn Mohr’s upcoming album, Carve.

First playlist of 2026: January’s playlist features tracks by Zu, Mandy, Indiana; Kim Gordon, sunn O))), Blackwater Holylight, Maria BC, Pullman, dälek, Mitski, trauma ray, Ora Cogan, and many more.

Summarizing the week in music: Check out tracks by kranky artist Isabel Pine; an NTS video session by They Are Gutting a Body of Water; a preview track featured on the upcoming split LP from OOIOO and Lightning Bolt, and info on the new Alan Vega reissues.

Zu, Italian purveyors of metallically-tinged jazz and the unsettlingly avant, have issued Ferrum Sidereum: an 80-minute masterclass in “metallic hard bop, feral calculus, and dark electronics.”

Here are my picks for favorite albums of 2025. Happy New Year.

I was fortunate enough to procure a copy of Hüsker Dü’s beautifully curated and remastered box set of live recordings, 1985: The Miracle Year, which was recently issued by Numero Group.

Fanboy’isms ahead…

Forty years ago, Black Flag released a four-track instrumental EP called The Process Of Weeding Out, an ambitious jazz-punk offering that further tested the constraints of hardcore and signaled that an end was close. I had thoughts, time, and a laptop.

Celebrating twenty years, Relapse Records is reissuing two Boris albums, Pink and dronevil, as deluxe and expanded editions. Way Their Crept, the first album from Grouper (Liz Harris), is also blowing out its twentieth candle and being reissued later this year by kranky.

Just sharing some thoughts on two new live recordings from BEAK> and Osees.

August’s playlist includes singles from Osees, Agriculture, Rafiq Bhatia, Sunflowers, Nuclear Dudes, Ritual Mass, pôt-pot, Snōōper, Automatic, Slow Crush, and more.

Agriculture’s upcoming album, The Spiritual Sound, was recently announced via the harrowing single “Bodhidharma.” Water Damage’s Instruments LP, along with their upcoming single-track live album, Live At Le Guess Who?, caught my attention.

A few words about albums by loscil, Coffin Prick, Grails, and Kilynn Lunsford.