Dead Best return on August 14th with God: Out of Order, their third and most fully realized album yet. Sharper, louder, and more melodic than ever, the record captures the absurdity, anxiety, and emotional whiplash of modern life through songs that are equally noisy and undeniably catchy. God: Out of Order finds Dead Best at their most fully realized — turning chaos into hooks, frustration into humor, and confusion into something worth shouting along to.

PRE-ORDER GOD: Out of Order 

Dead Best has a strong sense of what’s happening in the world — or at least how it feels to live through it. Their songs bounce between panic, laughter, denial, acceptance, grief, affection, awe, and disgust, always landing exactly where they should (we checked). Dead Best write and — gasp — actually record songs that channel all of that chaos into creatively catchy, equally noisy tunes. The songs stick with you, and the vocals notably do not sound like they were recorded inside a sealed coffin.

Is there a better way to navigate life’s endless mess than with close friends of more than forty years and a stack of good songs? Regardless of your answer, you’re wrong.

On record, Dead Best is largely the work of longtime music-makers Brian Sokel (Franklin, AM/FM, The Tazmanians) and Adam Goren (Atom and His Package, Armalite, Fracture, Pleasant Greene). Live, however, the songs are performed by what feels like two different bands playing the same set at the same time.

One side is made up of four musicians over 50, including former Franklin drummer — now practicing physician — Greg Giuliano on one set of drums, and Mike Parsell (AM/FM, Frail) plugging in pedals and playing guitar.

The other side is the conscripted younger generation, averaging about 21 years old. Ever McCarthy plays bass, Leo Sanchez plays guitar better than Brian, Mike, and Adam combined, Sam Goren handles the second set of drums, and Ruby Goren yelps and sings.

The older band members have the advantage of wisdom, experience, and decades of passive aggression — enough to ensure the younger crew carries most of the heavy gear. The younger musicians, meanwhile, have the advantage of being able to actually play the songs correctly.

Practices are loud. And when the amps finally go quiet, each sub-band retreats to separate corners to make jokes the other group probably wouldn’t appreciate anyway.

PRE-ORDER GOD: Out of Order 

Back in the throes of the first Trump presidency, Lee Bains hunkered down in Georgia and Alabama, pouring every spare bit of time and energy into researching, writing, and recording an album called Old-Time Folks. The album sought wisdom and inspiration from past Southerners' struggles for justice, equality, and democracy when people were up against hard times and crushing forces, just as people were as 2020 approached.

Songwriter Kerry Alexander has fronted Bad Bad Hats with Chris Hoge for more than a decade, and the duo have known Elana Carroll (aka Party Nails) even longer. While on tour together in 2018, Carroll joined Bad Bad Hats on stage for an encore performance, and an idea for a new band was sparked. Elana on lead vocals, Kerry on guitar, Chris on drums. Songs inspired by early 2000s rock. Then one night, after watching the film Josie & the Pussycats together, Megasound was officially born.

Four years after the release of their third LP, Limp Wrist, Paisley Fields (he / they) returns with a bold new album that embraces their rebellious spirit through a new sound and style. The lead single, "parTy girl", sees Paisley dipping a toe into the pop world while asking where the line lies between having a good time and pushing the party too far. Swirling synths, arpeggiators and programmed beats melt into guitars and piano over thumping bass and drums.  "I've always been influenced by pop music and grew up listening to grunge," explains Paisley. "I love country music, but this record called me to explore a new sound. I see it as an evolution, not a departure.

Storey Littleton’s debut solo album, “At a Diner”, is silkworm silk: a soft, luminous surface wrapped around surprising tensile strength—a cashmere sheath hiding a scalpel. Her sound is tender and light, even angelic at times, but there’s a steadiness beneath it that holds the songs in place. Quiet openings, subtle but unusual arrangements (including a recurring, liquid and smoky clarinet), and melodies that settle in without fanfare make the album feel warm and inviting, even as something sharper moves underneath.

Julia Blair grew up in rural Wisconsin and came to music by way of the classical world (her first band was a string quartet) and then through the vibrant DIY scenes of Wisconsin and beyond while playing in DUSK and formerly Tenement. All of My Important Things is her sophomore album and first release on Don Giovanni.