Leicester, UK based Neil Hill and his Shopfires project emerged in December 2023 with the single Summer Bruises which drew the attention of Subjangle boss Darrin Lee, the doyen of all things jangly, who offered the outlier Hill the opportunity to release an album. Buoyed by the success of his eponymous debut album, which was released on Subjangle in March 2024, and maybe even beginning to wonder whether the gloriously self-effacing Bandcamp tagline of ‘DIY pop recorded directly into a cheap laptop’ is entirely appropriate, Shopfires returned in July with Holding On To Let Go, again on Subjangle. As Lee himself says, in essence the second album is essentially more of the same, a fact worthy of celebration in the case of this emerging artist. Shopfires truly excel when it moves within the various ambits of beautiful jangly guitar pop in the vein of Brighter, Field Mice, Heavenly or Television Personalities. Often described as cascading, shimmering, rippling, chiming, fluttering, etc., Neil has somehow managed to achieve an accessible sound of harmonious complexity from a single acoustic guitar with the most basic of set ups. Embellished by warm keys and introspective lyrics, Neil has been able to capture an intelligent 80s pop aesthetic in a new and yet familiar way. As if this wasn’t enough, a few days ago Hill released Where We Belong, the first single taken from a forthcoming EP of songs which didn’t make it onto the last album.
It will be fascinating to see where Neil takes Shopfires next. 

With his 2021 self-titled debut, Andy Pastalaniec’s Chime School became one of the defining acts of the seemingly never-ending, prolific and multifaceted Bay Area pop scene. His sophomore LP, The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel, is set for release on August 23 on Slumberland Records. Recorded by Pastalaniec himself, in his home studio on the foggy southern edge of San Francisco, Paisley Hotel sets a moodier tone; slowed and patiently unfolding in moments that highlight an evolution in songcraft, production and arrangement–while still bouncing along with the jangling drive Chime School fans have come to adore. As its title implies, 30-plus years of UK indie pop’s deeper cuts are voraciously mined and refined on the 11-song release that fans of East Village, later Teenage Fanclub, and maybe even Northern Picture Library’s Alaska will devour. The songs on the album are also very much rooted in the Bay Area of 2024, boasting both lyrical gestures to gentrification’s destruction, beloved shuttered bars and theaters, as well as a songwriting collaboration with SF native Mike Ramos, of Tony Jay/Flowertown fame, on the album’s penultimate song.

Joanna Gemma Auguri was born in Poland and moved to Paris when she was five years old and Poland was under martial law. Her family had decided to escape and their journey ended in the German town of Göttingen. At the age of sixteen she left home and moved to Hannover and Hamburg. and then to Berlin where she attended acting school. Instead of becoming an actress though, she lost her heart to music and started writing songs. In 2008 Joanna Gemma Auguri was invited to play a strange event in London. It was called “The Saddest Music in the World”. The event was a contest. A large number of artists played one song each. After the end the performances the audience had to vote, which of the songs was the saddest. Joanna liked the concept so much, that she took the event to Berlin, where she promoted it on a regular basis in the “Rote Salon” a beautiful venue in Berlins infamous theatre “Volksbühne”. Besides, she played in bands, toured al lot and worked as program director for the legendary “Bar 25” a buzzing techno hangout and creative universe for the Berlin scene. With the start of the pandemic Joanna decided, that it was time to focus on her own music. With an accordion, a zither and her unique voice she recorded 11, her first album. She self-produced everything and started her own label “Lavender Music”. The album came out in 2021. Her second album HIRAETH was released on June 28th, 2024 on Duchess Box Records from Berlin. The Welsh word describes a blend of homesickness, nostalgia and longing. One of the songs of the album features British actress and musician Keely Forsyth.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby is a Chicago-based five-piece emerged in early 2023. They soon scored a breakout hit with Impressively Average that shot to the Top 10 at Triple A radio. On their debut LP The Future Is Our Way Out, which will be out tomorrow on ATO- Records, Brigitte Calls Me Baby share a body of work that spans genres and eras, merging the lavish romanticism of mid-century pop with the frenetic energy and spiky intensity of early-millennium indie-rock. Upon moving to Chicago in 2016, Leavins immersed himself in the local scene and soon linked up with the musicians who would join him in co-founding Brigitte Calls Me Baby. As the band built up their catalog, Leavins was tapped to take part in recreating a series of Elvis Presley songs for Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis, a turn of events that found him crossing paths with nine-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton). Partly recorded live at the legendary RCA Studio A in Nashville with Cobb, the debut album also features a selection of songs self-produced by Wes Leavins and his bandmates: guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer Jeremy Benshish. The album arrives as a potent evolution of Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s debut EP This House Is Made Of Corners—a fall 2023 release that earned acclaim from the likes of NPR and NME.