Rock Music for the Wild Hearts - July 2025
An exhilarating roundup of new alt rock, indie, garage, psych, grunge, desert rock, and blues rock releases - all freshly added to our Rock Music for the Wild Hearts Spotify playlist, updated monthly.
Featuring The Damn Truth, FireBug, Original Pairs, MOUNDRAG, late night drive home, Mustard Service, Joe Lapinski, Sam Osbourne Bryant, Spin Class, Flair, The Dirty Nil, and Oswald Slain
Rock Music for the Wild Hearts ♥️ Alternative / Indie / Hard Rock / Garage
The Damn Truth - Addicted
A booming drum pattern from Dave Traina sets the scene before PY Letellier's bass thuds into focus, locking with Shemer's fiery guitar riffs that coil around the vocal line.
Lee-La Baum delivers the verses with half‑spoken grit that morphs into a soaring declaration as the chorus hits; an insistent hook that lodges itself fast. Mid-song, Shemer's solo unfurls like a flare, lifting the track into full tilt.
Taken from their self-titled album released on March 14 and produced by Bob Rock, this is The Damn Truth at their most unrestrained anthem‑rock form.
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FireBug - Time Marches On
A moody keyboard motif drifts in, giving way to Juliette Tworsey’s vocals - haunting, yearning, and sharp as desert wind, riding Jules Shapiro's textured guitar lines that pulse with cinematic sweep.
The rhythm section locks into a hypnotic, groove‑driven backbone that grounds the song's expansive atmosphere. Midway through, ambient layers swell and recede, painting the relentless pull of time as both inevitable and fragile, a motif echoed in the visual treatment of blooming and fading flowers.
Produced by Jordan Lawlor (Beck, M83, Deftones), it's a desert-noir anthem that balances electronics and rootsy guitars with hypnotic intent. Gorgeous.
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Original Pairs - Star Guitar
Built on a steady four-on-the-floor groove, Star Guitar moves with the swagger of garage rock and the sparkle of psych-pop. Frontini's baritone anchors the verses while Loewen’s analog synth lines - reportedly an improvised take - spiral into the mix with raw charm.
The guitar tone is bright and drenched in reverb, playing off Kraar's melodic bass work and Logan’s tight, expressive drumming. It’s rough around the edges in the best way; live, loose, and locked in.
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MOUNDRAG - The Caveman
Photo credit: Jean-Adrien Morandeau
Built on overdriven organ riffs and thunderous drums, The Caveman stomps through like a lost '70s hard rock relic dragged into the now. Camille's vocals swing between theatrical howls and frantic urgency, while Colin's Hammond-style keys drive the track with zero reliance on guitars.
It's all rhythm, tone, and fury; like Deep Purple fed through a psych-prog blender. The live energy bleeds through the recording, capturing the same chaos they unleashed at Motocultor Festival.
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late night drive home - day 2
Photo Credit: Jaydog
A shimmering indie rock anthem with jangly guitars and crisp percussion, Day 2 rides a late-night groove full of restless energy and bittersweet melodies. Andre Portillo's vocals carry a candid vulnerability, tracing moments of awakening in a digital age shaped by online dating and fleeting connections.
The song is part of their debut album As I Watch My Life Online, released in June, a concept record exploring life and identity through the lens of the internet. It’s a dancefloor-ready cut that balances emotional weight with a bright, catchy pulse.
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Mustard Service - 2AM
Photo Credit: Evan Garcia
Mustard Service's Spanish‑language single 2AM arrives as their late-night serenade from the upcoming album Vice City Magic, due July 18, 2025. The song unfolds with shimmering guitar arpeggios and soft keyboard textures, anchored by warm organ swells and laid-back percussion that feels quietly cinematic.
Marco Rivero Ochoa’s vocals drift in with romantic melancholy; understated, smooth, and gently aching, over subtle Latin-tinged rhythms that add just the right amount of sway.
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Joe Lapinski - Hurt A Bird
Photo Credit: Zach Bury
Taken from Canadian indie artist's latest album, New Day Hurt A Bird is a tightly wound New Wave‑rock anthem built on crisp synth stabs and angular bass.
Lapinski’s vocal delivery crackles with righteous anger - a direct response to anti-trans and non-binary prejudice, backed by a punchy, stripped-down arrangement co-produced with Dave Clark. The song clocks in under three minutes, driving its message with the urgency of punk energy wrapped in indie polish. Despite its brevity, it leaves a sharp emotional echo.
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Sam Osbourne Bryant - Cry
Built on droning, distorted guitars and understated percussion, Cry simmers with restlessness. Bryant's vocals stay low and steady, almost detached, as he delivers lines like I can’t shake this feeling of being wasted with a numb sort of honesty.
The song leans into a grey, overcast atmosphere; somewhere between Britpop's melancholy and grunge's disillusionment, without overplaying emotion. It lands like a late-night spiral set to tape.
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Spin Class - Cake
Photo Credit: Sam Stent
This blistering two-minute-and-twenty-one-second banger hits with desert-rock crunch and grunge bite, propelled by proggy riff changes and a poppy edge that slams in tight hooks.
Vocalist Louis Slater embodies intrusive thoughts as they become the song's anti-hero, his delivery urgent and sharp. The single leans into their live‑recorded aesthetic; each abrupt transition, each guitar stab, designed to hit like a mental jolt.
Recorded live at Stage 2 Studios in Bath, the track feels immediate and visceral, just like their headline shows in Bristol.
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Flair - City Lights
Flair's latest single walks the tightrope between tension and release, weaving shoegaze dreaminess into the backbone of a wiry, alt-rock structure.
Swirling reverb, crisp rhythms, and melancholic hooks carry the weight of a city that never quite lets you sleep. The vocals simmer with intimacy, teetering on obsession as lines like Breathing slowly in my ear / But you don’t know me hang heavy in the mix.
There’s no nostalgia here; just the sound of a band forging their own path through the twilight, where Glasgow grit meets widescreen indie shimmer.
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The Dirty Nil - Fail in Time
Photo Credit: Drew Thomson
Razor-edged riffs punch forward over a rhythm section that never loosens its grip, while Luke Bentham delivers triumphant verses that crash into a chorus admitting happiness has an expiry date.
Mid-song, bassist Ross Miller and drummer Kyle Fisher kick the song into a hardcore breakdown; a studio dare from engineer Vince Solivari that lands like a boot to the ribs. The production stays monochrome and unforgiving, mirroring the song’s theme of joy fading to static.
Fail in Time is the fourth preview from The Lash, out July 25, 2025, on Dine Alone Records, and it shows the band doubling down on a lean, punk-meets-hard-rock chassis.
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Oswald Slain - Firing Line
Firing Line arrives as the slickest single yet from Bristol's Oswald Slain and the upcoming debut album BUCKY, due October 24, 2025. Its fuzzed guitar riffs lean into blues-tinged alt-rock, while lush backing harmonies and steady percussion paint a vintage-meets-modern sonic palette.
Fitzgerald's lyrics, originally inspired by the band's love of Weezer and Pixies, capture the 'ride-or-die' moments of love and loyalty, similar in spirit to a heartfelt confession backed by a live, garage-born energy.
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Spotify Playlist
Want to submit your music for review or for a spot on the next edition of our rock playlist?
Send us your song to <info+rock.submissions@musicngear.com>
About Eugenia Roditis
Eugenia's passion for music was ignited from an early age as she grew up in a family of musicians. She loves attending concerts and festivals, while constantly seeking fresh and exciting new artists across diverse genres. Eugenia joined the MusicnGear team in 2012.
Contact Eugenia Roditis at eugenia.roditis@kinkl.com
In this blog section we host new music releases, artist features and handpicked playlists by the Musicngear staff.
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