Local Music Singles Roundup: July 2025
Local Music Reviews
Call me Sabrina Carpenter the way these singles got me on all fours. From fantasy-inspired sludge metal to delightfully danceable pop-rock, I can’t help but beg for more. So why don’t you please, please, please listen to these incredible new local tracks.
Antique Loft
Phono Loop/Orange
Self-Released
Street: 05.17.2025
Antique Loft = MGMT + Slowdive x Frank Iero
It’s not often while listening to music that I audibly say “woah,” but the new Antique Loft track “Phono Loop” made an exception. A slow burn from start to finish, the track goes from a quiet somber tone to a burning, destructive and distorted wave by the end. At about two minutes, there’s a filter drop that I imagine feels like putting on glasses after living nearsighted. The glitchy production took me aback and the grungy, shoegaze guitars really elevated the instrumental into something unique and beautiful, which almost reminds me of Mk.gee. Vocally, the soft and low performance took me to MGMT’s new album Loss of Life. Moving to the second track, almost every guitar player has used the phrase “Does it djent?” though not often on the topic of an acoustic track like “Orange.” It creates a fantastic dichotomy when paired with “Phono Loop” — a bit of a palate cleanser. The two-track release is a great snack to enjoy, both sweet and savory. —Jake Fabbri
Fireball Town
“Amygdala”
Fireball Town
Street: 04.25.2025
Fireball Town = Father John Misty + Frank Zappa
Avant-garde music rarely makes for easy listening, but with “Amygdala,” Fireball Town serves up neo-folk every bit as charming as it is strange and even creepy. This paradox manifests most starkly in the contrast between the singer’s pleasant, airy voice and the lyrics he lends it to. Over an acoustic guitar chucking through affable chord progressions, he treats the listener to such fare as “The urges to destroy and repent / Oh Amygdala help me flee and forget” and “I woke in a cold sweat / and a thousand hands crawled away.” Spooky shit. I suspect these lyrics may be referencing the Lovecraftian Fromsoftware game Bloodborne, which adds a cool layer to my interpretation of the song. By the end of the track, the crooning gives way to guttural throat singing (you read that right) and the instrumentation devolves into insanity, leaving you completely unsure what to think or how to feel. Psychedelia par excellence. —Joe Roberts
GRGL
“Horror-Bloated Ouroboros (An Overview)”
Self-Released
Street: 05.21.2025
GRGL = Saint Vitus + Melvins
Stereophonically minimal and compositionally cerebral in comparison to other doom metal contemporaries, GRGL’s “Horror-Bloated Ouroboros” offers a glimpse into the group’s genre-bending compositional motifs. Picture the crushing doom metal sound you know and love, minus a good amount of the genre-defining muddy fuzz, and add a shifting song structure that is as enticing as it is delightfully unpredictable. The latter differentiates this release from a great many of GRGL’s contemporaries. The semi-modern doom metal custom of turning the fuzz pedal up to 11 and ripping the nob off is ignored, and the stereo space usually occupied by errant feedback and grime is scrubbed clean, leaving room for clearly defined growling vocals and enhanced tonal fidelity showcased through the daydream-fantasy-sequence-inducing guitar solos present in the recording. All in all, I’d say “Horror-Bloated Ouroboros” is a very tasteful tonal homage to retro doom metal with a compositionally contemporary spin that makes it a must-listen for anyone infatuated with the genre. —CJ Hanck
mypetspider
mypetspider
Self-Released
Street: 05.05.2025
mypetspider = Knocked Loose – Cinder + whatever hot sick you found at the bottom of a Monster Energy
After racing against the clock to thoroughly provide a reasonably-critiqued review on time, it turned out that I was given the wrong single to review. Soooo… mypetspider’s self-titled track is aggressive basement screamo perfect for a galloping romp in the pit. At less than two minutes long, it could possibly be the teaser trailer for what the band provides. You have the brotherly tag team of Dominic and Emilio Perez taking pan shots with screeching disturbance. Then comes the stadium chant of the band’s name, like mypetspider was playing a fútbol grudge match against Real Salt Lake. That, hodgepodged together with the raunchy, garage rock production quality, it’s an iron-enriched aperitif laced with the volatile gateway drug to the genre all on its own. It’s maybe a bit surface-level for my taste, but hey, I’d rather give you my whole heart than my half ass. —Alton Barnhart
Pepper Rose
“Spring’s Sprung!”
Self-Released
Street: 04.15.2025
Pepper Rose = Best Coast + In The Valley Below
Warmer weather and feelings of love are finally here, marked in time by Pepper Rose’s newest upbeat pop-rock song that I adore. “Spring’s Sprung!” is about celebrating life and love persevering despite all outside efforts to diminish it, with metaphors like snow falling on freshly planted tulips over and over again, fruit ripening despite being bruised by hail and so forth. It’s about holding on because you know you’ve put down the roots for something truly beautiful to eventually blossom. It’s a beautiful, heartwarming track, painting an image in my head of a couple isolated together for months on end, waiting for winter to break so their love can flourish even more. It sounds nostalgic, like an opening song to a 2000s romantic teen movie. Pepper Rose’s vocals are smooth and sweet, enchanting over an instrumental that will get stuck in your head and heart. “Spring’s Sprung!” is an instant classic, one that will be on repeat all summer long. — Cherri Cheetah
Sad Cartoon
“Do you miss the way you used to see the world?”
Self-Released
Street: 05.16.2025
Sad Cartoon = Smashing Pumpkins + Modern Color
“Do you miss the way you used to see the world?” punches you in the stomach with its thick guitar tone and melodic breathy vocal performance. Though Sad Cartoon hails from Provo, I won’t hold it against them because this song has everything you’d want in a post-metal/shoegaze-y amalgamation. The song starts out with an almost lo-fi quality as if you’re hearing the television from another room. Quickly, the verse takes us on a journey that progressively gets more heavy, ending in some solid screaming. Along the way, the lyrics are haunting: “If I knew that’s the last it’d be us two, I’d have held longer onto you.” Considering the hardcore switch up at the end of the song, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what genre to call this. But I’d say it’s sort of like Smashing Pumpkins if Billy Corgan got absolutely no play. —Hazel Paul
Read more Local Music Singles Roundups:
Local Music Singles Roundup: June 2025
Local Music Singles Roundup: May 2025
