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Post-Punk Icons Inca Babies Share “Superior Spectre” From Reinvented Back Catalogue Album ‘Reincarnation’

Eric Alper
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Post-Punk Icons Inca Babies Share “Superior Spectre” From Reinvented Back Catalogue Album ‘Reincarnation’

Manchester post-punk outfit Inca Babies have shared “Superior Spectre,” a single from their recently released album ‘Reincarnation,’ a project that sees the band re-record and re-envision select tracks from across their back catalogue. A live favourite and a cornerstone of the band’s goth credentials, “Superior Spectre” was originally included in their 1984 John Peel Session and later appeared on their 2014 ‘Scatter’ EP. The accompanying video was largely filmed in Rome by photographer Jandi Moreno and directed by Harry Stafford, with live footage drawn from a recent Manchester gig at Big Hands.

‘Reincarnation’ was recorded and mixed over two years at 6Db Studios in Salford by renowned producer Simon “Ding” Archer (The Fall, PJ Harvey) and Harry Stafford, with Ding contributing sonic and dub flourishes throughout. Mastering was handled by Marco Butcher at Boombox Studio in North Carolina. Stafford is clear about the motivation behind the project: “Looking through our back catalogue, it occurred to me that there were tracks that should again be made available in some manner and others that would benefit from reinvention. This whole project was to be an innovative re-imagining of old tunes, re-invented for contemporary consideration. All of them re-awakened and Re-inca-rnated.” In the lead-up to the album, the band shared two singles in A/B-side format, “Candy Mountain” and “Two Rails To Nowhere,” the latter featuring an expanded version with guitarist Vincent O’Brien alongside the original 1988 uptempo version featuring Inspiral Carpets’ Clint Boon.

Formed in 1983 in Manchester’s now-legendary Hulme deck-access flats, Inca Babies were a vibrant part of Britain’s early post-punk and death-rock scene, amassing a following through intensive touring, six singles, four albums, and four BBC John Peel Sessions between 1984 and 1988, all charting on the UK Indie Charts. After reforming in 2007, the band has released four more albums and toured three continents, continuing to explore goth, punk, death-rock, and jazz-blues with a current lineup that includes guitarist Jim Adama, bassist Dave Carmichael, and drummer Rob Haynes (The Membranes, Goldblade). Their journey since reformation was documented in the 2024 film ‘The Making of Ghost Mechanic Nine.’

Post-Punk Duo Lowsunday Return With First New Material In 25 Years On ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP’

Eric Alper
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Post-Punk Duo Lowsunday Return With First New Material In 25 Years On ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP’

Lowsunday have returned with ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP,’ their first record of all-new material since 1999, out now via Projekt Records on digital platforms and as a limited vinyl pressing of 200 copies. The Pittsburgh duo of Shane Sahene (vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums) and Bobby Spell (bass, guitar, drums) have been blurring the lines between post-punk, shoegaze, dreampop, and darkwave since 1994, and this five-track EP serves as both a reflection on that three-decade legacy and a genuine resurgence. Delving into emotional isolation with a counterbalance of escapism, dreamlike sounds, drones, feedback, and carefully placed melodic hooks, the EP pushes atmospheres to the limits of noise at its most expansive and into a dream-pop air of deeper melancholia at its most delicate.

The ‘White EP’ is the first of a two-EP series via Projekt, and arrives on the heels of the extended 30th anniversary remaster of their debut album ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine,’ a two-CD release pairing the original nine tracks with a second disc of seven unreleased tracks, remixes, and reinterpretations. Projekt also released the 25th anniversary remaster of their sophomore album ‘Elesgiem’ in 2024. Alongside the EP announcement, the band has shared a new video for “Love Language,” offering a visual entry point into the record’s layered, arsenic-laced sonic world.

Sahene and Spell distill years of exploration into classic post-punk rhythms, guitar-driven atmospheres, synth textures, and stripped-down drum beats, using those elements to express simple, fundamental emotion with bittersweet and emotive vocals at the centre. The ‘White EP’ demonstrates a confident connection to the band’s history while expanding naturally into darker, more expansive territory, making Lowsunday’s return one of the more quietly essential releases in the post-punk and shoegaze underground this year.

Pop-Rock Newcomer Holly Nicholson Unleashes Angsty New Single “i forget we’re friends”

Eric Alper
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Pop-Rock Newcomer Holly Nicholson Unleashes Angsty New Single “i forget we’re friends”

Holly Nicholson has released “i forget we’re friends,” her most anticipated single to date and a track that has already proven itself a fan favourite across sell-out shows and a UK tour. Channeling the ache of forbidden love through tormented vocals, blistering synths, powerful guitars, and relentless bass, the song pulls from the friends-to-lovers trope with a rawness that feels both deeply personal and immediately universal. Holly describes its creation with striking clarity: “It came out of me in a single, unbroken, thirty-minute rush. I slipped into an uninhibited state where the feelings and lyrics poured out, messy, intense waves of unrequited love and emotional chaos. This song is about falling for someone who feels so right but is, in every practical sense, so wrong. You’re star-crossed lovers who will never make it to the starting line, held back by how much there is to lose.”

Raised on bright eighties melodies and shaped by the bold honesty of today’s unflinching pop storytellers, Holly has built a growing fanbase on the strength of her fearless emotional edge and heartfelt songwriting. She describes her sound as “pop music with a little bit of edge,” a phrase that carries a double meaning: sonically, it’s the guitar tones and rock-leaning attitude she grew up loving, and lyrically, it’s the honesty she leads with. “I was raised on 80s music and that influence blends with today’s artists, like Olivia Rodrigo, who inspire me to be bolder and more vulnerable,” she explains. “The sound of this track feels like a step toward what I want to claim as my own. Something with more grit, more truth, and more emotional bite.”

“i forget we’re friends” arrives as Holly lays the groundwork for her sophomore EP, and it signals something bigger than a single release. The track’s crashing intensity and undeniable emotional pull mark the opening chapter of a bolder creative vision from one of the UK’s most exciting emerging voices, an artist unafraid to confront the messiness of love and turn it into something that hits hard.

Sony Music Nashville Singer-Songwriter Ian Harrison Pours Raw Emotion Into New Single “Games”

Eric Alper
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Sony Music Nashville Singer-Songwriter Ian Harrison Pours Raw Emotion Into New Single “Games”

Ian Harrison has released “Games,” his latest single and one of his most emotionally direct tracks to date. Written alongside Dan Agee and Carson Wallace, the song tackles the toxic reality of modern situationships, loving someone who takes advantage of your feelings without offering real commitment or accountability in return. Harrison is candid about the inspiration: “‘Games’ is a song about loving someone who abuses the feelings you have for them. I think we’ve all been in relationships where someone has taken advantage of the things you would do for them and as much as you want to say no, it’s not always easy to let go of that rope.”

The Delaware, Ohio native now based in Nashville signed to Sony Music Nashville after years of grinding through co-writes and dive bar gigs while working construction and bartending to pay the bills. Inspired by Maroon 5, Noah Kahan, Billy Joel, The Lumineers, Bruce Springsteen, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Harrison developed a sound that blends Americana, rock, alt-pop, and indie with lyrics brimming with candor and self-awareness. His recent releases “Cheap Shots” and “If You Ever Loved Me” have been building momentum, and “Games” pushes that forward with a track designed to hit both emotionally and viscerally. “I hope they feel the emotion and intention, but I also hope they can scream it at the top of their lungs in the car because it feels so big,” Harrison says. “I hope it gives people a couple minutes to feel heard and not like they are alone in their experiences.”

Harrison has joined the lineup for Extra Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona, adding another chapter to what is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for one of Nashville’s most compelling new voices.

Metalcore Outfit Capsize Drop Brooding New Single “Under A Hollow Sky” Ahead Of First Physical Release Since 2016

Eric Alper
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Metalcore Outfit Capsize Drop Brooding New Single “Under A Hollow Sky” Ahead Of First Physical Release Since 2016

Capsize have released “Under A Hollow Sky,” their second new track since signing to Roux & Ruin Records, following late 2025’s “The Fracture” and building toward their first physical release since ‘A Reintroduction: The Essence Of All That Surrounds Me’ arrived via Equal Vision Records in 2016. Co-produced by Cody Stewart (Falling In Reverse, nothing, nowhere), the track adds another piece to a picture the band is deliberately revealing slowly. Singer Daniel Wand frames it plainly: “With the release of this new single, we’re opening another window into what we’ve been building without revealing the full picture just yet. Cody Stewart helped bring the production to the finish line on this one, and we’re excited about where things are quietly headed.”

Power Metal Pioneers Iron Savior Transform Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” Ahead Of Album ‘Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy’

Eric Alper
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Power Metal Pioneers Iron Savior Transform Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” Ahead Of Album ‘Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy’

Hamburg power metal pioneers Iron Savior have released “Relax,” a crushing metal reinterpretation of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s legendary 1984 hit, and the latest single from their upcoming album ‘Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy,’ due March 27 via PERCEPTION, a division of Reigning Phoenix Music. Following their previous metal makeovers of Irene Cara’s “Fame” and Alphaville’s “Forever Young,” the band once again proves their ability to transform iconic pop songs into uncompromising power metal anthems without losing the spirit of the original. Frontman Piet Sielck is direct about his connection to the source material: “Relax is one of my all time favorite non-metal songs. It’s been on my mind for a very long time to do this and I really think this version serves the original well. We did a good job in transferring the vibe and the energy of the original into the Iron Savior cosmos.”

‘Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy’ transforms some of the most iconic pop hits of the eighties into full-throttle power metal epics, drawing on A-ha’s “Take On Me,” Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds,” Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora’s “When The Rain Begins To Fall,” and Michael Sembello’s “Maniac,” among others. The project has been two decades in the making. “After the huge success of the 2002 ‘Condition Red’ bonus track ‘Crazy’ by Seal, we have been asked by fans and media almost constantly to do a complete cover tracks album,” Sielck explains. “So, two decades later here we are. ‘Awesome Anthems’ continues the transformation from pop-to-metal in Iron Savior style. We are absolutely proud of the outcome. I guarantee a lot of smiles.”

With soaring vocals, massive guitars, and their unmistakable melodic precision, Iron Savior inject each track with the fire that has defined their sound since the late nineties, reforging pop classics into something heavier, brighter, and unmistakably their own.

Gothic Rock Legends The 69 Eyes Release “I Survive” Featuring Billy Idol’s Steve Stevens

Eric Alper
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Gothic Rock Legends The 69 Eyes Release “I Survive” Featuring Billy Idol’s Steve Stevens

The 69 Eyes have released “I Survive,” a brand new single featuring Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, and the first release under their newly inked deal with BLKIIBLK, the heavy metal imprint of Frontiers Label Group. Formed in Helsinki in 1989 and still operating with the same lineup nearly four decades later, the Helsinki Vampires have built one of the most enduring legacies in gothic rock, releasing thirteen albums and achieving gold and platinum status in their native Finland while touring the world without notable interruption for twenty years.

The band occupies a singular space in rock, one foot in glam and one in goth, keeping the Johnny Thunders flame burning with leather jackets, midnight sunglasses, and low-slung guitars at a time when true believers in that aesthetic are increasingly rare. Their biggest hit, “Lost Boys” from 2005, was immortalized in a music video directed by MTV Jackass star and skater Bam Margera and remains a fixture on Halloween rock playlists to this day. “I Survive” carries that same sleazy, atmospheric charge, now amplified by Stevens’ unmistakable guitar work.

With a classic rock lineup of vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, bass, and drums, The 69 Eyes have always relied on the magic that happens when those elements lock in on stage. That chemistry, combined with a cult following that has grown across generations, makes “I Survive” feel less like a comeback and more like a band that simply never stopped.

Coleman Jennings Releases Dave Cobb-Produced Debut EP ‘Ride On’ Via Big Loud Texas

Eric Alper
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Coleman Jennings Releases Dave Cobb-Produced Debut EP ‘Ride On’ Via Big Loud Texas

Coleman Jennings has released his debut label EP ‘Ride On’ via Big Loud Texas/Mercury Records, a five-track introduction to one of country music’s most authentically distinctive new voices. Produced by Grammy-winning veteran Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson) and recorded in part in a stream of creative consciousness at Cobb’s studio in Savannah, Georgia, the EP showcases Jennings’ hypnotic vibrato and his fearless range across Western, folk, honky tonk, outlaw, Americana, old-time, and bluegrass. All five songs are solo-penned by Jennings, joining already released tracks “Head Spinning” and the seventies-style harmony-rich “Jamie” with three new additions.

Jennings is clear about his approach: “I just love what I love. I don’t care about genre and I have no guardrails on what I do. My favorite artists are open to writing things that challenge, stuff that makes people think, and my dream is to take that all the way.” A student of music who cites Townes Van Zandt, The Eagles, Blaze Foley, John Hartford, and Lynyrd Skynyrd as inspirations, Jennings carries the DNA of the great American troubadour tradition while moving it forward on his own terms.

The Texas native has been building his live presence alongside the release, recently supporting Dwight Yoakam on a run of dates through February and into March, and hosting an ongoing residency at Austin’s Sagebrush every second and fourth Monday of the month.

John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Lukas Nelson, Sierra Ferrell And More Unite On Playing For Change’s “Riders On The Storm”

Eric Alper
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John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Lukas Nelson, Sierra Ferrell And More Unite On Playing For Change’s “Riders On The Storm”

Playing For Change has released a new Song Around The World version of The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm,” honoring the band’s 60th anniversary with a global collaboration featuring original members John Densmore and Robby Krieger alongside the legendary vocals of Jim Morrison and a tribute to Ray Manzarek. Joined by over 20 musicians and dancers from eight countries, the performance reimagines one of rock’s most haunting anthems through the lens of unity and musical connection, opening with the Lakota Drum Group grounding the song in ancestral rhythm before expanding into something genuinely moving.

The collaboration brings together magnetic performances from Lukas and Micah Nelson, Sierra Ferrell, and Rami Jaffee of the Foo Fighters, among many others. “Riders on the Storm” carries particular weight as a starting point. Released in June 1971 on ‘L.A. Woman,’ it was the last song recorded by all four original Doors members and the final single released before Jim Morrison died in Paris just weeks later. Their longtime producer Paul Rothchild famously walked out of the sessions, refusing to produce the album after calling the track “cocktail music.” The band co-produced ‘L.A. Woman’ with engineer Bruce Botnick, resulting in a rawer, bluesier sound that has only deepened the song’s legacy over six decades.

The release also marks a full-circle moment for Playing For Change Foundation, as the collaboration will help support their first music program established in America, developed in partnership with Indigenous-led non-profit First Peoples Fund. The program uplifts Indigenous communities and ensures that the rhythms, stories, and voices that open this performance continue to inspire well beyond it.

Electro-Punk Innovator Debbie Sings Releases New EP ‘Oh My’ And Hyperactive Single “Sucker Punch”

Eric Alper
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Electro-Punk Innovator Debbie Sings Releases New EP ‘Oh My’ And Hyperactive Single “Sucker Punch”

Debbie Sings, the Berlin-via-Copenhagen singer and producer, has released her new EP ‘Oh My’ via BIG OIL Recordings, alongside its second single “Sucker Punch.” A largely self-written, self-produced, and self-recorded project created while moving between Copenhagen and Berlin, the eight-track EP was built primarily from bedrooms, borrowed studios, buses, and coffee shops, with Debbie relying on Logic, Nexus by reFX, distorted drums, and heavily processed vocals to create something raw, immediate, and deliberately imperfect. The exception is “Sucker Punch,” co-produced with her friend The Bird, which dials up the intensity with distorted synths, punchy club drums, and Debbie’s rawest vocal delivery to date. Her own description of the song lands with characteristic directness: “Sucker Punch is a song about being sick of bullshit. It is about feeling like kicking some ass and eating everything on the menu.”

‘Oh My’ follows Debbie’s February 2025 debut album ‘Debbie’s Songs,’ which earned the number one spot on Soundvenue’s Danish Albums of the Year list and introduced her as a genre-hopping force in the Scandinavian underground. Where that record ranged freely across electronic, punk, country, and pop, ‘Oh My’ sharpens the focus into something more uniform, more electronic, more punk, and more unapologetically club-oriented. Inspired by early-2010s electroclash and artists like Peaches and Uffie, the EP leans into escapism, humour, and restless energy. Debbie frames it plainly: “Oh My is a reflection of a lot of internal and external chaos channelled into eight tracks. It’s electro-pop-punk music for the dance floor or the floor of your bedroom, made for getting lost, letting go, and carrying on.” Listeners and critics alike are already responding with the kind of enthusiasm that greeted first single “Sunny Skies,” which earned editorial support from NME, CLASH, and The Line of Best Fit.

An alumna of Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Debbie joins a lineage of forward-thinking artists including Clarissa Connelly, ML Buch, Smerz, and Astrid Sonne. High-profile admirer Oklou has already taken notice, and Debbie’s chaotic, high-energy live show has reached eye-watering heights, most notably performing to a packed crowd at Roskilde Festival. With ‘Oh My,’ she positions herself as one of contemporary pop’s most boundary-less DIY forces, making music for fast bikes through the city, late-night clubs, and moments of invincibility that feel slightly delusional but deeply human.

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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