In Waiting, Pillow Queens' debut album, is the result of four years of brotherly love in a sisterly unit from Ireland’s most urgent, yearning, queer indie-rock band. Crafted from their lives, and honed in a studio in rural Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, this is a record by queens in waiting and kings in the making. 

This is an album about the in-between; the transitionary period of an adulthood that never seems to arrive. It’s an album about the purgatorial aspect of late-stage capitalism, where the systems conspire to burden and punish; job insecurity, housing crises, income inequality, and social inequity. It’s an album about family; chosen, given, received and earned. 

It’s an album about spirituality; from the engrained confines of religion, to the expanding borders of spirituality, and the iconography and ritual that populates the emotional interior of anyone who grows up in Ireland. It’s about resilience of the politics of the self and belief in the power of art. The wounded deer leaps highest. Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Release: September 25, 2020, Independent
Words: Positive Feedback

The inspiration - or, rather, frustration - for Wax Chattels' cathartic sophomore album, Clot, came from the doomy, gloomy corners of Auckland’s underbelly, and the theme of confrontation is central. The band's capacity for self-awareness is what makes Wax Chattels one of New Zealand’s most treasured independent exports.


After a knock-out entrée with 2018’s self-titled LP, the anticipation surrounding Clot has been immense. Much like Wax Chattels, the writing process for Clot took the best part of a year. While some songs were written on the road, the bulk of the album was workshopped throughout 2019 across bedrooms and storage containers. Wax Chattels maintained the use of only the barest of ingredients — bass guitar, keyboard, and a two-piece drum kit — but the group spent more time experimenting with and finding new sounds. They wanted to maintain the same live element as in their debut, but, this time, heavier — for which they enlisted the help of mixing engineer, and fellow noise-maker, Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Destruction Unit, The Men). A marked step-up, this new record keeps the visceral energy of the debut, only this time they dig deeper into cathartic noise.

It is universally agreed that Wax Chattels are a must-see live act; their hypnotically sinister debut captured this perfectly. Released in 2018 and supported by relentless touring, the album’s success at home and abroad led to the well-deserved nomination of Best Alternative Artist at the 2018 New Zealand Music Awards, as well as the band’s inclusion in the coveted shortlist of finalists for the Taite Music Prize and Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award.

Release: September 25, 2020, Captured Tracks/Flying Nun
Words: Deathproof PR

A. Swayze & The Ghosts have released their wildly anticipated debut album Paid Salvation - a refreshingly real breath of fresh air, one that restores your faith in the incendiary, uplifting and subversive power of punk rock. 

On the blistering record - recorded in Northcote with producer Dean Tuza (These New South Whales, Stella Donnelly) - Andrew Swayze pulls no punches, using the group’s urgent and tightly wound music as a backdrop against which he can purge himself of the myriad frustrations he has with the world around him. Taking aim at social media (Connect to Consume), ecocide (Beaches), tall poppy syndrome (Rich), mob-rule and herd mentality (Marigold), it seems little escapes his ire, even God and the Bible get a good lashing. It’s safe to say we’re not in standard garage punk territory. 

On first listen, it would be easy to take the album on face value, enjoying it purely for its many musical pleasures: energetic guitar interplay, pummeling rhythms, basslines that groove and an infectious shout-along melodic sensibility that runs throughout. But that’s the real power of Paid Salvation. While it’s a hell of a lot of fun, it’s also deadly serious. 

“It really shits me off when bands have this pedestal and they have the ability to influence so much around them and they waste it by singing about stupid shit. If you’re given this audience, I think you have to have something to say. And I definitely intend on abusing that right.”  Swayze says

“I want people to go, ‘I love that song it makes me dance but I also appreciate the honesty'. I want the melodies and the instrumentals to be accessible for people from all sorts of backgrounds, but I also want everyone to fucking listen to what I’m saying as well. And I especially want young men to hear songs like ‘Suddenly’ and ‘It’s Not Alright’ and think about what they’re saying rather than just listening to them and going, ‘Yeah I’m all jacked up on this rock song!’" he laughs. With AS&TG, the music is the sugar that makes the medicine easier to swallow. 

Release: September 18th, 2020, Ivy League Records
​Words: Mushroom Music Group

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