The Lovely Sparrow – Multiple Lives (video premiere)

The Lovely Sparrows – Multiple Lives (video still)

The Lovely Sparrows are an American indie rock band formed in Austin, Texas in 2005 by singer-songwriter Shawn Jones. Initially releasing a self-issued 7″ single Take Your Hats Off You Godless Bastards, they quickly established themselves on the local scene with a rotating lineup of collaborators. In 2006, the band issued their debut EP, Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint, via Abandoned Love Records, and, their first full-length album, Bury the Cynics, arrived in 2008. In 2011, they issued a new EP, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and in 2016 revisited material on Hermetic Recordings: Songs 2004-2016. After a long hiatus, the band released the album Shake the Shadow in 2018, reflecting new creative directions after Jones’ personal and geographic changes. I still picture you runningtheir third album, will be out on limited vinyl from Abandoned Love Records, on January 16th, 2026 and today we have the honor of letting you listen to the preview of the new single from the album, Multiple Lives.

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Grand Drifter – Any Second Now (single)

Any Second Now marks a new chapter for Grand Drifter, the musical project of Italian songwriter Andrea Calvo. Active since 2016, Grand Drifter moves fluidly between solo work and band arrangements, shaping a distinctive pop language rooted in warmth, melodic sensitivity, and a quietly human approach to songwriting. Calvo’s music is an act of gentle resistance: a celebration of kindness, vulnerability, and emotional honesty in everyday life. Written slowly, in the spaces between lived moments, Any Second Now is a hopeful song about rediscovering love within the steady rhythm of ordinary days. Calvo played all the instruments himself, working closely with producer Dario Mecca Aleina on sounds and orchestral arrangements to create an intimate yet luminous atmosphere. The single is also the first glimpse of a new set of bright songs that will gradually lead toward Grand Drifter’s next album, due next year. The 1967-inspired cover artwork, created by Sergio Varbella, perfectly mirrors the song’s timeless and understated mood, completing a release that feels both personal and quietly radiant.

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Shopfires – We Could Fall Apart (single and video premiere)

Leicester musician Neil Hill launched Shopfires in late 2023 with Summer Bruises, a homespun jangly-pop gem that immediately caught the attention of Subjangle’s Darrin Lee and led to the release of Hill’s self-titled debut album in March 2024. A second full-length, Holding On to Let Go, followed just a few months later, confirming Shopfires as one of the most compelling new voices in intimate, guitar-driven indie pop. Working with little more than an acoustic guitar, warm keys, and a bedroom-DIY setup, Hill crafts shimmering, cascading melodies that echo Brighter, The Field Mice, Heavenly, and Television Personalities, yet retain a modern tenderness all his own. His songs glow with lo-fi clarity, introspective lyrics, and that unmistakable 80s-indie intelligence, familiar yet newly revived. As Shopfires continues to evolve, we’re thrilled to share the next chapter: We Could Fall Apart, the project’s brand-new single, streaming now in exclusive premiere on TRISTE© ahead of its official release on Wednesday.

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Sunlit – Beside (single and video premiere)

Sunlit

SUNLIT is the latest and most intimate incarnation of British songwriter and producer Joe Moore, a musician whose prolific output for Elefant Records since 2011 has traversed chamber pop, Italo disco, electronic pop, French 80s revivalism, and more. After over a decade of building worlds for other voices—The Yearning, Lia Pamina, Maddie Mae, Cristina Quesada, Julie Et Joe, The Perfect Kiss—Moore focused on a project in which he takes on everything himself, from composition to production to vocals. Launched just two years ago, SUNLIT revealed Moore at his most personal and unguarded. Where The Yearning leaned toward lush, ornate arrangements, SUNLIT moves with an austere elegance: dream-pop textures, shoegaze haze, folk-pop warmth, and crooner-like intimacy. Influences drift in from Cocteau Twins to Mazzy Star, from Lee Hazlewood to Beach House, but the emotional voltage is unmistakably Moore’s. In SUNLIT, Moore bares himself musically and emotionally more than ever before. His voice steps into the foreground, unadorned and honest, carrying songs that seem written for our inner worlds—for those private, infinite spaces we all drift through. SUNLIT is simplicity, radiance, and vulnerability woven into one: Joe Moore entering a new territory, and illuminating it from within. Today, TRISTE© presents the premiere of SUNLIT’s new single, Beside, ahead of its official release everywhere tomorrow. The track introduces the upcoming 2026 album with a striking sense of clarity and emotional radiance. Beside unfolds through reverberating tambourines, glistening arpeggios, and airy atmospheres that feel both weightless and profoundly human. What once was introspective in Joe Moore’s writing now shines outward—choruses that brighten the room, melodies that move like a slow-motion embrace. It’s a song of quiet liberation, capturing the fullness that emerges from emotional understanding and the tenderness of finally seeing oneself whole.

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iiis – Chair (single and video premiere)

Arms / Chairs

Oxford-based slow-core trio iiis (pronounced ‘eyes’) are Hannah Bruce (they/any) bass, Paul Allen (he/him) guitars/vocals, Helen Pearson (she/her) drums/vocals. Formed in 2024, in Oxford UK, iiis have set about creating music that takes its time, often finding immersion in melodies that develop slowly, with Harmonies that weave in and out of each other and sounds that fray at the edges. Their debut EP, Slow Riot, was released in October 2024. The song Slow Riot was included on a compilation to celebrate 20 years of the magazine Joyzine. They have played shows throughout the UK, with notable support slots for Adwaith, Lewsberg and Nap Eyes. With a heavy emphasis on DIY, this latest release was recorded and produced by the band, creating tension and atmosphere in slow, heavy, intricate washes that rise and fall. Arms, the first song from the double A side, was released in September 2025 and Chairs, the second song, is due for release on the 5th of December 2025.
Gliding gently yet decisively between shoegaze and slowcore atmospheres, their songs feel as if Galaxie 500 and Low had met in southeastern England for a jam session.
You can listen to Chairs, the second track from their new double A-side single, in its world-premiere debut here. Play loud for full effect!

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