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Q's Compilations
Vol #168 – June to
July 2026
01) Spiritual Cramp - Go Back Home: I saw Bay Area punks Spiritual Cramp open for White Reaper back in 2024 and loved their debut album, but apparently didn’t use a song from that at the time. Their follow-up, Rude, was released in October 2025, so an old release for these mixes, but I just picked it up and vinyl so I’ve been listening to it more. Just a fun band, a fun record, lots of San Francisco shout outs.
02) Mrs Magician - Dead Alive: San Diego garage rockers Mrs Magician just released their first record in 10 years and they have been sorely missed. Spiritual Hangover was released on the 15th of May and has all their signature chops, big choruses, shiny guitars and a hint of surf. I doubt anyone has been listening to these as far back as 2012 at this point, but their absolute classic tune, There Is No God, was on Q#84.
03) Perennial - What's New On the Beat Scene: I checked out this band because they headlining a show at Union Pool which featured a band I like, Oceanator, as the openers in September (Perennial’s new album, Modernism, comes out on the 17th), the two singles so far are short, punchy affairs, and I needed a sub-2-minute track to squeeze onto the mix.
04) Angine de Poitrine – Fabienk: If you haven’t seen anything about Angine de Poitrine by now, I’m not sure how you’ve managed to avoid Khn and Klek’s polkadot costumes at the very least. Their KEXP performance has had millions of views on youtube, and tickets to see them play live are impossible to get. Aesthetic aside, it’s pleasing to see their microtonal math-rock find a mass audience, it’s fun when people like weird stuff! I have both of their records and love them. Hop on the bandwagon if you want, weird stuff deserves to be in the mainsteam.
05) The Pretty Flowers - To Be So Cool: I can’t remember how I came across this band but their third album, Never Felt Bitter, was released on the 27th of March and is a very fun, harmony-filled powerpop record. Shock horror they found their way onto Q-comp, huh?
06) The Mountain Goats - Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds: John Darnielle and co releases their 8,000th record, Days, on the 7th of August, I believe it was originally going to be a grunge-themed follow up to Goths, and then morphed a little bit. I’ll sadly miss their NYC shows at Carnegie hall but have a good excuse as I should be in the Scotland seeing Del Amitri.
07) Blondshell - Heart Has to Work So Hard: Blondshell’s third album, Violins, will be released on the 25th of September, and another show I’ll miss (but have another good excuse!). This track sounds like it could have been on previous album If you Asked for a Picture, but given that was one of my favourite albums of 2025, that’s all good with me.
08) Julia Jacklin - Get Away From Me (I think I'll Love You Soon): Another record coming out on the 25th of September, The Gem is Julia’s first record on 4ad and I’m always happy to see artists I like land there.
09) Shredded Sun – Skyscraper: Chicago trio Shredded Sun have been putting out since 2015 and are about to release new album Never Odd or Even on the 14th August, this would have been a great “college radio” track in the 80s.
10) Wild Pink - Round of Applause At the End of the World: Few acts have had such a leap in quality like Wild Pink did when they released Dulling the Horns in 2024. Judging by this song alone, new album Still Coming Down looks like building on that momentum, I’m sure that signing to Fire Talk in 2024 was a bit of a catalyst for the improvement
11) Spearmint – 1986: Apparently I’ve only used Spearmint one time, on Q#139, September 2021. The band just released new album Chase Me, and I’m waiting for my vinyl to arrive before I listen to it properly, but this track has all their trademarks. I didn’t mention it back on Q#139 but despite being a British band, I’d never heard of them before until Emily introduced them to me.
12) Wishy – Lovesick: I checked out Wishy because they’re the opening band on the Beach Bunny/The Beths co-headline tour we’re traveling to Portland, Oregan to see in the middle of August. This is a single from their upcoming record, Nature’s Pill and it’s been an earworm since I first heard it.
13) Chorus Truly - Your Name: I think I must have heard this on the Rosy Overdrive blog, it sounds very much like their vibe, which obviously overlaps with my vibe a lot. The guitars have that perfect marriage of shimmer and jangle.
14) Uni Boys - You're So (Phisticated): I heard this OhMyRockness and it’s about as sun-drenched powerpop as you can get, their self-titled record was released on the 27th of March via Curation Records.
15) Softjaw - Pleased With Me: This was definitely a discovery via Rosy Overdrive, and while I tip my hat to RO, the band tip many hats to many bands on this self-titled release. The powerpop vibes are strong on this mix.
16) Natasha Sandworms - Bird of My Life: You would be forgiven that Natasha Sandworms is a solo act, so much so that they have an EP called The Band, Not the Person. Fronted by Natasha Sandborn, this track appears on a 3-way split EP with Christina’s Trip (who featured on Q#156, and how I came to hear about this EP) and Mox, the EP is called Lucky Three and features two tracks from each artist. This song just kept getting stuck in my head while I was trying to decide which song from the release to pick.
17) Suki Waterhouse - Tiny Raisin: Suki Waterhouse is one of those artists that Spotify kept playing after it finished playing something we put on, and eventually some of those things stick! Her record Memoir of a Sparklemuffin from 2024 started getting into rotation, that record was also released on Sub Pop which will always get me interested. New album Loveland has definitely gone in a more pop direction but this song does kinda bang.
18) Spacemoth - Do We Exist?: Q-comp stans will surely remember Pipe and Pistol from Q#143, which was on debut album No Past No Future. Four years later she’s back with new album Inward Eye, and it’s another otherworldly release. This track opens the exist and just gets into a tight groove that never really lets go.
19) Future Islands - Find Love: At the time of writing, I’ve taken a single day holiday this year, and that was to pop down to Baltimore for a long weekend, somewhere neither Emily or I had been before and was easy to get to. We got into town in time to get a ticket to see Baltimore’s own Future Islands, who I hadn’t seen since 2017 (and opener Dan Deacon, who I hadn’t seen since 2012).
20) Badvril – Golden: San Francisco duo Babvril are about to release their fourth album, Lethal, on the 16th of October via Share It Music. This isn’t going to change the world, but I love the production on this track and there’s something about the simple drum groove that locks me in.
21) Carpenter Brut - She Rules the Ruins: I went to see Health, Carpenter Brut and Desire at Brooklyn Paramount in April. I like what I’d heard of Carpenter Brut so went to the show mostly for them (I know and like Desire so that was a bonus, but didn’t really know Health, their set was fine but I felt like the vocals were a weak point), I didn’t really expect the live show to hit so hard but they were great. As the name might suggest, they are heavily influenced, almost to the point of being a tribute band, by John Carpenter’s music, just with a bit more oomph.
22) John Carpenter - Lord of the Underground: Speaking of the man himself, his new record, Cathedral is out on the 7th of August, and is a little more guitar/riff based record and I’m here for it.
23) Les Big Byrd - Hokvnid: I heard this track from Bill Pearis’ column on Brooklyn Vegan and knew I wanted to use it, but I couldn’t quite figure out where to put it, but I’m quite happy to end the mix with a complete wigout track. Ruin Everything is the Swedish band’s fifth record and is a great and has a bit of everything from the psych cannon.
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
