*INTERESTING* NEW MUSIC RELEASES: FRIDAY JUNE 20 2025
I hope everyone is recovering from a nice Juneteenth celebration yesterday
Despite it being a Federal Holiday, Juneteenth is not recognized as a State Holiday in North Carolina. There’s a witty quip in me somewhere that involves the inanity of States’ Rights as an argument to deny state employees a day off to celebrate not just the ending of slavery in America, but also Black culture more generally. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait and settle for the shitty mac and cheese on July 4th instead.
Anyway, here’s our evergreen reminder that each week we will be adding all the releases highlighted on these pages to Spotify playlists - divided up by each month. Smash the little ⨁ sign next to the shuffle icon of each playlist if you want to save it to your library (recommended). We’re in the month of June now, so a new playlist link for June 2025 is included below.
January 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 01
February 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 02
March 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 03
April 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 04
May 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 05
June 2025 Spotify Playlist - 2025 - 06
Beginning this week, we’re also going to two new things that we hope will be overall improvements:
Since some folks who read these weekly rundowns do not use Spotify, each hyperlinked artist/release on the lists below will take you to that release’s “Songlink.” - which is a link aggregator to all the places online where you can find this record (i.e., spotify, apple music, bandcamp and more). Hopefully this will be more inclusive despite us being spotify stans here at TSA.
We’re also adding some “file under” tags to each release to help folks scan for genres that fit with what you normally listen to (or that will help you branch out). Please note that whatever genre we claim a record fits into should be the ultimate decision henceforth. There will be zero room for discussion and/or nuance here (and if you’re not fluent in sarcasm, you’re probably going to be in the dark quite a bit reading these pages). Also, we’re probably going to consult musicmap just to be safe.
We’ll see how these new features go.
In the meantime, let’s get into some select new releases from FRIDAY, JUNE 20th, 2025, and let us know if we missed anything worth hearing!
::THE KNOWNS::
Hotline TNT ::RASPBERRY:: The opening cut from these NYC noise rockers sounds like a B-side from the 1992 Eugenius record OOMALAMA (iykyk) and then continues to rifle through 32 more minutes of noisy, 90s, guitar-forward alt-rock and shoegaze tipping their hat to the aformentioned Eugenius, early Teenage Fanclub, and even some Superdrag and My Bloody Valentine. The record was recorded in Wisconsin and then sent to Asheville NC for Alex Farrar to do his magic mixing the final product at Drop of Sun Studios. This is easily going to get multiple spins.
File Under: 90s alt-rock, noisy/shoegaze; FFO: Teenage Fanclub and Eugenius
James McMurtry ::THE BLACK DOG AND THE WANDERING BOY:: Hell, the dude’s dad created two of the best literary characters of all time in Lonesome Dove (Gus+Call), and he’s a chip off the old block, except musically. James McMurtry is probably your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter.
File Under: Singer-Songwriter, Texas Country
Kelsey Waldon ::EVERY GHOST:: In 2019, Waldon became the first signee to John Prine’s Oh Boy records in 15 years. Since then she and her band, the Muleskinners, have represented their home state of Kentucky all across the US, with their brand of outlaw country. Waldon has even earned the distinction of Kentucky Colonel - which recognizes goodwill ambassadors of Kentucky’s culture and traditions. Her name is not often mentioned among fellow KY songwriters Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers, but I am here to argue that it should be.
File Under: Outlaw Country/Singer-Songwriter/Kentucky As Fuck; FFO: Stu Simpson/Timmy Childers
Lukas Nelson ::AMERICAN ROMANCE:: Look - he’s Willie Nelson’s son…but he’s also a damn good songwriter in his own right (oh, and he has a signature model Gibson Les Paul Jr., and I snagged one of the 200 ever made). This is a solid country/Americana effort. At times he sounds like his old man. Other times he sounds like his own man. There are rockers and bangers, as well as lilting acoustic numbers with ample steel guitar and fiddle. Good stuff.
File Under: Americana/Country
S.G. Goodman ::PLANTING BY THE SIGNS:: Speaking of Kentucky, Goodman, who hails from the Western KY bottomlands carved out by the Ohio River millennia ago, writes songs that sound as old and wise. Since hitting the scene at the worst possible time (with OLD TIME FEELING released in the heart of the COVID pandemic in 2020), she leveled up with 2022s TEETH MARKS. Among her many fans, fellow Kentuckian Tyler Childers is one and even covered her song “Space and Time.” Goodman’s latest is another level-up and might be her best record to date. I am BUMMED that I will miss her when she comes through NC with locals Fust opening (though I’ll be in Italy, so it’s not *all* bad).
File Under: Singer-Songwriter/Americana/Southern Gothic
::THE NEWS::
Alex Amen ::THE ZORTHAN TAPES [EP]: At 18, Alex Amen moved from Texas to California, dropped out of film school after one semester, and joined a hippy commune (The Dittman Family Commune). While there, he started a short-lived band (American Slang), and bolted for an island in the Puget Sound shortly thereafter. Over the next three isolated years, he took up mycology, mountaineering, poetry, and wooden boat building, but he felt the pull to make music, which landed him in LA. The songs on this record sound like something a now 26 year-old who spent the past eight years in a hippy commune and on an isolated island of the Washington State coast might produce. The songs are quiet, folky, but also incorporate some Laurel Canyon sound at times. It’s not a new wheel by any means, but this one will move your vehicle if you like this sort of thing.
File Under: Folk Rock/Singer-Songwriter/Americana/Laurel Canyon Sound
The Bones of JR Jones ::RADIO WAVES:: What sticks out more than anything on this record is how crisp it sounds. Jonathon Linaberry has had years to craft his sound, having come of age in NYC playing in punk bands, his singer-songwriter project The Bones of JR Jones was born out of a deep dive into Alan Lomax field recordings. This outfit mixes the simplistic instrumentation of your garden variety Americana/singer-songwriter record, but also includes songs hevy on retro synths that would not be out of place alongside the softer songs on early Arcade Fire records. Over the years, Linaberry’s songs have landed in television shows like True Detective, Suits, and Daredevil, and his has graced the stage at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and shared bills with the Wallflowers and G. Love.