June 13, 2026

Phish and The 74% Rule: The Shape Phish Comes Back To

Kevin Spence listened to a lot of Phish concerts and came up with the fact that jams tend to peak around 74% mark, which not surprising as such, but there is a big difference that makes the Vermont quartet rather special:

Phish jams peak three-quarters of the way through. So do the same songs played straight, and so do most rock songs. The structure is familiar. What's not is how they get there.

Theatre: Incarnate

photo: Cian Mac Coille

Irish quintet Theatre go for a widescreen sound on their debut EP Incarnate, which fits lyrics wherein the emotions run high. They put folk, post-punk and shoegaze in a blender and topped it off with the crystal clear lead vocals of Maeve O’Shea. Whether she tackles bittersweet childhood memories (You Are), religion (Messiah) or turns the meaning of a 16th Century joyous hymn (Gaudete) into something dark and foreboding thanks to Dara Gooney's inspired guitar licks, it is never straightforward. They are fully aware that straying from sign-posted roads is far more interesting than playing it safe.

This is a band that is not feeling around where they want to go. They have hit the ground running, fully formed, with a bunch songs that earned them a place on the rock club circuit pretty damn fast. All they need now is more material for a full-length and their label to shell out the money for a physical release.

June 12, 2026

In Loom: Great Start b/w Yellow Red & Blue

Dutch musicians Gijs Kerkhoven (Showdog) and Sander van Munster (No Ninja Am I) have found the time to enter the studio again for another double A-side single. Great Start goes through hills and valleys, with a fuzzy shoegaze guitar making way for dreamy post-rock interludes and eerie bits of dialog that sound like they were captured from a vintage transistor radio. Yellow Red & Blue starts out as a radio-friendly pop song, before making a sharp left into leftfield psychedelica.

It is a 101 for barebones shoegaze, using only a bass, a guitar and a bunch of choice effect pedals to create a sound that bigger bands are hoping for when they want to go back to basics.

The Guzzlers: The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean

Irish punk folk duo The Guzzlers keep it up with releasing good-natured drinking songs. The Drunken Tales of Gerry MacLean is basically a story how it came to pass that downing pints became such a huge part of their lifes and not feeling bad about that at all - not even when they ended up in a fight and the police came knocking on their door.

June 11, 2026

Taxi Girls: "Secret Handshake" video

Montreal based garage rockers Taxi Girls have made a video for their Secret Handshake single about a Summer fling: "All that's left is a bit of muscle memory and bittersweet thoughts of what could have been, knowing full that it was not supposed to last."

» taxigirls.bandcamp.com

HCTF review of Secret Handshake