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SoCal

Soak in the sonoroous soft rock soul of Sub Singles Club’s single, Friends Again

Posted on 2 July 2023

With choral indie guitar tones that croon as soulfully as the ethereal vocal lines which reach out from the reverb with a vice-like grip, the standout single, Friends Again, from Sub Singles Club’s debut EP, Desperately Seeking Closure, is a melancholic triumph.

The SoCal fourpiece was established in 2020 during the pandemic; the project gave them a sense of peace and sanity in uncertain times; clearly, that is exactly what their audience abstracts from their music too. Friends Again may be a bitter-sweet affair, but if you’re already on that wavelength, the sincerity in the soft indie rock score will devour you in its resonance.

Now signed to K4K Records, Sub Singles Club is planning on hitting the road in 2023 and touring with their discography, which will undoubtedly be a hit with fans of Courtney Barnett, Mitski and Angel Olsen.

Stream Friends Again on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Insomniacs unite around Layla Bina’s grunged-up feat of indie rock, Hypomania (I’m Awake)

Posted on 5 May 2023

For her latest single, Hypomania (I’m Awake), the up-and-coming one-woman powerhouse, Layla Bina grunged up indie rock to send a few postcards to the 90s Seattle sound and Riot Grrrl era while raucously bringing in the future of aural insomniac angst.

The SoCal-born and raised Iranian-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist doesn’t let her classical vocal training get in the way of delivering rip-roaring vindicating vocal lines that would make her a better match for Kurt Cobain than Courtney. There are plenty of Nirvana nuances to chew on in the catchy chord progressions that will leave you rolling with the punches of her insightful lyricism.

Just as Kathleen Hanna brought feminist theory out of the academic sphere and into the public domain as she created the third wave of feminism, Layla uses her UCLA psychology education to spill insight onto the airwaves and spark conversations around mental health that get pushed under the rug in mainstream discourses. If any alt-rock act deserves to be iconic, it is Layla Bina, who is currently tucked away in the studio recording her debut album with the Grammy Award-winning producer, Josh Monroy.

Stream Hypomania (I’m Awake) from May 5th on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast