Track #5: 8/14/2026
Strap in y'all, it's time for the fifth installment of this thing I still can't come up with a better name for. The playlist this month is a doozy.
There's gonna be a new section in the newsletter from now on as I'm excited to announce that I've joined up with the local shoegaze outfit Hattricks. Now that I'm in more than one band I feel like I can finally call myself a musician.
Missed Connections:
Albums that came out earlier in the year, but I didn't hear 'em in time to put them on a playlist.
Weedrat - Amerikan Liberation [Hardcore Punk]
I've been eagerly awaiting new music from this high-energy Diné punk band for a few years, but when they finally released the new album in June, it snuck right past me. As expected, it rules.
Brown Horse - Total Dive [Alt-Country]
I learned about this band from some Instagram ads they were running to promote an upcoming show in Charlotte. Apparently they're also opening a few shows for Drive-By Truckers in September. There's good bit of DBT worn their sleeves here, maybe some Jayhawks, as well as some touches of the Jason Molina extended universe - something the Norwich-based band will be celebrating next week in London before starting their US tour.
Prison - Big Rigs on the BQE [Garage Rock/Psych]
Okay, you got me. This one actually did come out in July. I just didn't want to put it on the playlist. Big Rigs on the BQE is an album that consists of two ~20 minute long garage rock psych jams and the only available bits on bandcamp are "single edits" which feature ~25% of each song. The cut-in and fade-out of each just didn't line up right with the flow of the playlist, so this is where it lives. "Why is this album cool?" you ask. Did you miss the part about ~20 minute long garage rock jams? Prison counts Endless Boogie's Paul Major as a member and if that means something to you then you'll know generally what to expect.
July 2026 Monthly Report Playlist:
Stream the July 2026 Monthly Report playlist on Buy Music Club while you read along and don't forget to check out my previous monthly reports if you've missed 'em.
There's a surprising amount of slide guitar on this playlist. And it's a long playlist. Let's get into it!
Overton - S/T [Dark Punk]
Overton is a trio featuring three Triangle scene veterans, Shayne Miel (guitar, vocals), Nathan Buchanan (drums), and Dante Bruno (Bass). Shayne's earlier band, The Future Kings of Nowhere, was a formative group for me during my college radio days so it's an absolute treat to hear his songwriting wit in peak form once again. The band's self-titled EP is a dark, fun, and fuzzed up stoner rock-fried punk burner that will leave you coming back for more.
Overton | Overton
5 track album
Monarch - MA3 [Psych Rock]
The last I heard from Monarch was in 2019 when they released Beyond the Blue Sky on my favorite Danish psych rock label, El Paraiso. Their first two full-length records were very much in that Southern California psych rock sound - sun-kissed riffs and guitarmony solos perfect for driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway. MA3 maintains their sunny psych rock disposition, but one could be forgiven for thinking this album was made by a different band given the group's dive into a funkier, synth-forward approach that feels more Perth than San Diego. AKA if you're a fan of both Earthless and Tame Impala, you'll have a new favorite record right here. As an added bonus, Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless) has a guest solo on the last track of the record.
Opus Kink - The Sweet Goodbye [Art Punk]
Jazzy art-punkers from Brighton for fans of The Last Dinner Party and Fontaines D.C.. The band has already acquired a decent bit of acclaim so I wouldn't be surprised if they blow up a bit over the next couple years.
Misery Twin - S/T [Stonergaze?]
I always enjoy a record that's really hard to pin down. I feel like Misery Twin answers the question of "what might it sound like if Cigarettes After Sex came out of the North Carolina swamps and wasn't afraid to go hard?" The band's enigmatic debut lives somewhere in the realm of shoegaze and stoner rock, decorated with country and folk flourishes.
Tiger Bear Wolf - Tiger Bear Wolf (2026) [Post-Hardcore]
Seventeen years in the making, Greensboro's Tiger Bear Wolf's third self-titled record is Piedmont post-hardcore gem. Mathy, riffy, psychedelic and more - it's just a really goddamn good rock'n'roll record.
Little Gold - Public Dog [Indie Rock]
Little Gold is the Athens, GA-based project of Christian DeRoek, one of the founding members of Woods and current guitarist in Ryan Davis' Roadhouse Band. Public Dog has a charming kinda southern rock Dinosaur Jr. thing going on.
I really wanted to include "Early Internet" as the playlist pick because the guitar solo is pure fire, but "Public Dog" has some sick slide guitar - thus kicking off the slide guitar portion of our playlist programming.
Wailin Storms - The Arsonist [Southern Gothic Rock]
North Carolina's southern gothic doom rockers return with a baptism of dark punk riffage that exists in a sonic realm somewhere between Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden and The Seer-era Swans. Dark & heavy, y'all.
REZN - Cycles in the Infinite Dream [Psych Rock]
"Oh hey, it's Chicago saxodelic doom rockers REZN, that slide guitar section of the playlist didn't last long- wait is that lapsteel?" Yes it fucking is.
Majority of Cycles... is what I've come to love and expect from REZN, heavy riffs and psychedelic doomscapes polished with saxophone solos. They've used some lapsteel on records previously, but hot damn "Escher" is a stand-out.
Margo Price - Days of Unrest [Country]
Days of Unrest has been dubbed a "protest mixtape," which sees one of the best modern country singers put a coat of countrified mariachi paint on classics by Woodie Guthrie, Blaze Foley, and Bob Dylan. A classy way to say "Fuck ICE." OG country was progressive as hell so it's refreshing to see this modern wave of artists like Price, Simpson/Blue Skies, Childers, etc. making country cool again, pushing back against the mindless bootlicking pop shit that's been polluting country radio for years.
Fabrizio - RECOVERY [Country/Folk]
My Instagram Reels feed is a weird amalgamation of sketch & stand-up comedy, metal, cooking videos, really weird shit (like Long Furby - I don't know how I ended up on Long Furby Reels, but now the weird pocket of my feed is even weirder), and folk/Americana videos, the later of which exposed me to Fabrizio. Maybe that one song also showed up in your feed, too? He has nearly 600K followers so I wouldn't be surprised. Anyways, the new EP is lovely.
RECOVERY | Fabrizio
5 track album
Tulsa Drone - Byrd Park [Post-Rock/Experimental]
I see the slide guitar & lapsteel on this playlist and raise y'all some bass-hammered dulcimer. Tulsa Drone sounds the way a band named Tulsa Drone should sound. I won't be taking any further questions.
jesus is the path to heaven - power ! [Experimental Americana]
It's not often I hear a record that leaves me stunned and speechless. This is another album that's really hard to pin down. Lyrically it's one of the most metal-af records I've ever heard. power ! interrogates the violent language of evangelical Christianity with a hypnotic, genre-defying Appalachian drone. Imagine a horror movie where the overwhelmingly friendly cult welcomes in outsiders before slitting their throats. Yeah, it sounds like that. power ! also feels like one of those uniquely North Carolina records, wrestling with the religious, historical, and political tensions that exist within the spiritual identity of this state.
Wild Gods - The Glorious Abysmal [Experimental Folk]
If you haven't had your fill of drone folk, then you're in luck because we're capping off this playlist with a Scottish variety. The roots of The Glorious Abysmal are anchored in Celtic ceremony and folk traditions while the branches of the album reach out towards the cosmic unknown. It's sonic thesis capturing past, present, and future.
Shows of Note (for those in central NC)
8/15 - Scrumfest - (@ Compass Rose Brewing)
8/27 - Weight Shift w/ Scrape & Beyond the Portal - (@ The Pinhook)
9/4 - REZN - (@ Stanczyks)
9/20 - W.I.T.C.H. (We Intend to Cause Havoc) - (@ Stanczyks)
9/21 - EYEHATEGOD, Whores, No/Mas - (@ Chapel of Bones)
9/24 -Blank Tapes Anniversary Show w/ General Purpose, Misery Twin, & Alla Prima (@ Rubies on Five Points)
9/30 - MAKE, Insomniac, Evil Eye - (@ Local 506)
10/1 - Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band (@ Motorco)
10/3 - Hammer No More The Fingers (@ Fuzzy needle)
10/31 - Sleepy Fest (@ Rubies & The Pinhook)
11/13 - Willi Carlisle (@ Stanczyks)
12/18 - Slow Teeth w/ Grey Young (@ Stancyzks)
Doomsday Profit
This is our final planned show for the year before we hunker down and finish writing record #3. The set will be different from the show we played in July and we've got a new song to debut!
8/28 - The Pinhook - Durham (w/ Lie Heavy, Iguanahead, & Smoke) [tix]
Hattricks
8/19 - The Pour House - Raleigh (REDDHEDD: A Live Music Experience feat. Hattricks, JAINUS, and DJS - Raleigh @ The Pour House) [tix]
Global Garage on WHUP FM
Listen live to Global Garage on WHUP every Sunday from 1pm-3pm EST or stream episode archives for two weeks on the WHUP website.
Let's Make A Mixtape Podcast
Sorry y'all, season 3 is going on the backburner for a bit longer.
Bite Back!
Thanks for making it this far. I'd love feedback if you have any, please let me know what you think! What would you like to see more of? Less of? What albums did you love so far this year that I've totally missed? What albums are you looking forward to? What shows are you looking forward to?
Until next month. Keep those ears open, keep those minds open, and keep those borders open.
-Ryan
