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Q's Compilations
Vol #167 – April to
May 2026
Greetings! It took almost half the year but the weather started picking up, which was greatly needed because in general I’ve been pretty burned out and jaded. I took my first day off for the year at the end of May and had a nice weekend in Baltimore! As usual, most of this mix consists of entirely new songs.
01) Station Model Violence - Learn to Hate: I heard this self-titled debut back when it had just been released in February but by then all the vinyl pressings had sold out, thankfully I was able to get a new pressing in Month. This Aussie band will get some Joy Division comparisons, and the post-punk influences are fairly overt, but this might just by my favourite record of 2026 so far.
02) Sunday Mourners - Careers in Acting: LA quartet Sunday Mourners released their debut album, A-Rhythm-Absolute in January on Curation Records (who released the last Silver Synthetic record). There’s some Modern Lovers and Television influence throughout the record but despite sounding like a forgotten gem from the past, it feels fresh at the same time.
03) Helicopter Leaves - It Really Never Did: Sabrina Nickels is the second Helicopter Leaves record, and I’ve been listening to it fairly frequently since it was released at the end of March. There was something familiar that was bugging me until I realised that this is Anthony Vaccaro who plays in Beach Bunny! The record is unashamedly sugar-filled power pop, which is why it’s so good.
04) Hurry - Zoned Out: Speaking of power-pop, one of my favourite bands in the last decade is Philly’s Hurry, who I first saw opening for Nada Surf in 2016. They’re about to release a new record, Zoned Out, in July via Lame-O records.
05) Constant Greetings - Company Line: Hailing from Rothesay, New Brunswick in Canada, I was very close to using a track from this record, Good Sports, the band’s third record, on my best-of 2025 mix, since the record came out at the tail end of the year (December 19th to be exact).
06) Snarls - No Lock, No Prayer: With Love was one of my favourite albums of 2024 (and 2020’s Burst was one of my favourites from that year). This track is from their upcoming EP In Heaven There’s Rainbows, which is coming out on the 26th of June via Take This to Heart.
07) Rue - To Me, You Are: I don’t know a lot about Rue other than I followed a link that Asian Glow posted on their Instagram stories to the Rue bandcamp page for this EP, called Unceasing Cycle… and was immediately hooked by this track with its guitar flurries and busy drums.
08) Asian Glow - Cans in Vain: Speaking of Asian Glow, I’m looking forward to seeing him play live at Market Hotel in June. His latest record, Arin Cot is taking a bit longer to release than he originally thought so he released an EP called IIIVIII to tie us over, this track closes out the EP.
09) Elder - Through Zero: This is the title track to Elder’s latest album, which just came out on the 29th of May and continues their blend of progressive metal and psychedelic rock that they’ve perfected since 2015’s Lore (though I also love their earlier stoner rock too!).
10) Memorials - Cut Glass Hammer: It’s not easy to describe this duo, they sound so much bigger than two people. This tune really builds to a beautiful crescendo and the drums have this almost krautrock like shuffle at times.
11) Fruit Bats - The Landfill: After 2025’s low-key Baby Man, Fruit Bats return with a full band record called The Landfill on Merge Records, coming out on the 12th of June. We’ll sadly miss their New York show in November as things stand. Eric Jonhson simply doesn’t write bad songs and this title-track closes out the album.
12) Charlotte Cornfield - Hurts Like Hell: Another artist on Merge, I haven’t had the chance to listen to this record, Hurts Like Hell, in full yet, but I keep coming back to this track which has become a real earworm. The album was released on the 27th of March and is their sixth full length album (though debut for Merge).
13) The Reds, Pinks & Purples - Build Love: It’s barely a Q-comp without a new song by The Reds, Pinks & Purples. This track comes from new release Acknowledge Kindness, which came out on Fire Records (home of Memorials from track 10). Glenn Donaldson took a little more time with this record and leaned into the slower, sadder songs from his songwriting repertoire.
14) Boogarins - O Que Eles Querem: I hadn’t really thought much of Brazilian psych band Boogarins all that much since I saw them a couple of times in 2014, but they just played a show in New York which was great, and I learned that they’d also released an EP this year, which this track closes out.
15) Doe St - Figured It Out: Hailing from Rye, Australia, I used a couple of Doe St songs back in 2023 from their Stepping Stones album. Three years later their back with a four-track EP called Same Day. A little rougher around the edges, if you didn’t know any better this could pass for the greatly missed Royal Headache.
16) Yuvees - Field Mouse: I can’t quite recall how I heard of this Brooklyn band, I think it was trawling the concert listings on Oh My Rockness. This isn’t a new record, Dead Keys was released in September 2024, but this track hits hard and once I heard it I couldn’t leave it off.
17) Weird Nightmare - Forever Elsewhere: I used Might See You There on the last mix, but now Hoopla has been released I felt the need to include this track. METZ might not be around anymore but Weird Nightmare scratch a nice itch.
18) Prism Shores - I Didn't Mean to Change Your Mind: Montreal’s Prism Shores just released new album Softest Attack via Meritorio Records, following up 2025’s Out From Underneath. The band have added a fifth member on synths/organ and additional guitars and it’s given the band a nice edge compared to the previous record.
19) The Lemon Twigs - I Just Can't Get Over Losing You: Perhaps no band replicates classic 70s power pop ala The Rubinoos like The Lemon Twigs do. Their latest album, Look For Your Mind! Was released by Captured Tracks on the 8th of May.
20) Rocketship - I Love You Like the Way That I Used To Do: We’re ending with a re-issue! Slumberland Records just re-issued Rocketship’s A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness for its 30th anniversary.
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
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