Active Listening: Night on Earth, the forthcoming album from Empath, is slated to arrive on April 2 via Get Better Records. The sounds of nature are quickly traded for the more immediate thump of bass as the album’s lead single, “Soft Shape,” comes into focus. Encircled by creepy dolls as synth eerily rings, there’s a creepy mesmerizing quality to the band's accompanying video. As though in a neon fog, a magnetizing, mysterious aesthetic unfolds, and as the instrumental ending suggests, it's part candy, part chaos. (Photo by Alysse Gafkjen)

Hamilton’s indie-surf rockers The Beach Bats have dropped a new single “How Long”. This laid back tune has the singer Tony Doni singing real low throughout the verse similar to Jim Morrison. The chorus is big and features some great backing vocals from Stephanie Pearl and Lauren Mikeala.  The surfy guitar licks of Chelsea White give the tune the classic Beach Bats character and keeps the surf vibes alive in this dark rocker tune. The Beach Bats play “The Bout” at the Hideout on March 1^st. – Kris Gies

Release(r) has released an Alex Zarek directed video for their latest single “The Haze” from their 2018 debut EP, “Retox”.

You can catch Release(r) at RocHaus in West Dundee on March 11th with SHIM and Madame Mayhem.

A Mild Circus, the debut EP from Philly trio Yarrow, is out now via Get Better Records. A fierce, menacing, post-punk blitz sears into your ears. Tracked and mixed at the Headroom with Kyle Pulley, Mark Watter, and Jackie Milestone, there’s a jarring rumbling that immediately grabs one’s focus. However, that power is refined and utilized creating impactful narratives with rippling societal implications.

Pancho Morris combines Waitsian lyrics with Lynchian visuals in the folky-funny new music video for “Strangetown USA.” Though the song itself doesn’t have huge lyrical variation, its music video is so completely packed with symbols and statements (and a huge cast) that one really must watch it several times to see all the sights. The video starts off with its star, a young man in an all-white outfit whispering in Russian into a red telephone perched inside a hanging bird cage. If that’s not an illusion to Trump and his Russian buddies, well. The star then walks through a factory full of depressing laborers, where everyone--including himself--is clothed in orange jumpsuits and manufacturing rubbish of some sort. We’re then in a slaughterhouse, where a laughing, blood-splattered man hacks away at a carcass. Ah, animal cruelty.

Speaking of the food industry. The star then marches his way toward a diner--first taking a stroll through some sex-kittens that may or may not be alluding to Trumpy’s sexual escapades in Russia and beyond--and up to the counter, where a disgruntled cook slaps a burger bun on a cell phone. Our star slams a shot and in our next scene he’s in a white suit, carelessly strutting by a protest to which he does not seem to give a fuck. We’ll let you watch the rest for yourselves, and tell us what you think! God bless the USA?

This video was shot with an insanely massive and talented crew of folks based in Oakland and was recorded at Zoolabs. Produced by James “Skyway Man” Wallace. Check out Pancho Morris’ work and stay tuned for more. -Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor