There’s something completely endearing about listening to a band that wears their influences brightly on their sleeve. Assuming you also enjoy those influences, it creates an instant common ground. The Explorer’s Club channels The Beach Boys every bit as much as Bully channels Grunge. They do it with their own twist and expertise but, regardless, the root influence is still there.

Such is the case with The Pills Lost Tape, a presumably older recording that they’ve just recently decided to surface. The general style is psych rock but they’re clearly pulling from the same bag of tricks Tame Impala draws from. It’s not derivative or overdone but it seems safe to call them fans of Kevin Parker’s infamous band. 

There’s only three days left until official Christmas so the shelf life on this song is slim. Listen to Joseph Bradshaw and Nikki Lane duet on this delightful diddy about fucking up around the holidays.

Many artists toil and rack their brains trying to write the perfect song but not Waterfall Wash; they openly admit “Do You Know When It’s Christmas” was “written in 25 minutes.” And you know what? Not half bad for a song written in under a half hour! 

As the year winds down now is the perfect time to remind you of a few facts about *repeat repeat:

• They put on a scorching live show.
• They released the second full-length record, Floral Canyon, on Dangerbird Records in 2017 and it’s excellent. Do Listen.
• They are a funny bunch.

That last point is best exemplified by their antics of their podcast but there’s a quality dose of humor in the bands latest release, a quasi-Christmas song entitled “Baby It’s 2018.” It’s a short and silly treat here at the end of the year.

2018 is really gearing up to be a great year of new releases. Here’s some more evidence of that factual statement: Rales just released the first track off their forthcoming album, Air Lift. We’ll have to wait until January 12th of next year to hear the whole thing but if “Windsor Pl” is any indication of what’s in store, it’s going to be a good one.

Woodsplitter, the genre hopping side project of All Them Witches Ben McLeod, has another new instrumental album to indulge in. Like the previously released Journey Into Krautrock and Egyptian Overlord before that, McLeod picks a flavor and dives in deep, embracing the tropes of a particular style but always with his own enjoyable twist. May All Your Post Rock Dreams Come True is, obviously, his version of quiet-to-loud arrangements the likes of Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic and Mogwai (of which there is even a cover). The songs build with tension until releasing into some overtly epic onslaught of sound, best listened to at the highest of volumes.

It’s refreshing for a project to give itself such particular boundaries and still find such successful execution.

Start your weekend off right with the blazing new track “Eye Sinks” from one of Murfreesboro’s finest psych rock bands, Mouth Reader. I can only hope this means a full-length lies in wait for us in 2018.

Great to see Tristen keeping with her holiday tradition of releasing a new song in December. This years offering, “Crying on Christmas Day”, is a somber number but well suited for a time of year where we reflect. This pushes melancholy to its limits, in the most pleasingly moving of ways.

All purchases of the track go to Doctors Without Borders, so you can do some good this Christmas with very little effort.