Smells Like Alt Rock

As 2025 starts to wind down, big concert announcements have getting dropped over the past week or so. Remember concert math, if you pay for the tickets in 2025, go to the show in 2026 - it's like a free show because you haven't spent any 2026 money. So let's take aa minute to check out the shows we can to "free" next year: Foo Fighters w/ Queens of Stone Age : 12 shows in 12 cities Sonic Temple 2026 - Columbus, OH - So many bands over 4 days, so many stages. Some of the highlights: Rise Against, My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, All Time Low, Coheed & Cambria, Staind, Shinedown, Halestorm, Stone Temple Pilots, Red Jumpsuite Apparatus, Hinder, Buckcherry, Rise Against, Breaking Benjamin, Bush, Yellowcard, Alter Bridge, Lit, New Found Glory, Sublime, Everclear, Simple Plan, Mayday Parade, Sevendust, Anberline and many, many more.   Florence + the Machine are coming to North America in 2026 Welcome to Rockville - Daytona Beach, FL - Another rock festival w...

Before the blog, there was Facebook. It started with public posts about songs I was listening to and enjoying. And today, Facebook had a memory for me - 1 year ago, I was sitting in an airport, waiting for a connection, when I decided to do a top 10 for month of October 2024.  That top 10 was ultimately a top 10 with 5 honorable mentions. And that first list heavily informed my listening habits and the new music played in our house. And we've continued to seek out new music each week, get out to concerts for the bands we've found, and share our favorites with you all.  So here's a look at the original list : Deer Fang - Low Tide Silverstein - Confession Anberlin - High Stakes Bilmuri - The End Taylor Acorn w/ Charlotte Sands - Final Nail Armor for Sleep - What a Beautiful World One OK Rock - Dystopia Linkin Park - Over Each Other Grayscale - Kept Me Alive Health w/ Filter - Free To Die Honorable Mentions: Scarlett - Goddess Liotta Seoul - When I'm Dead Myles Kennedy - S...

We missed adding this song on Friday morning but caught it later, Saturday morning, through a Facebook post. Not sure how it didn't land on our Release Radar, and frankly - we're shocked this song didn't land on the All New Rock playlist. We've enjoyed Lansdowne's other 2025 singles: Make It Lie Four Wheel Freedom And we're happy to add Burn It Down  to the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist alongside the other two songs. Currently working with the Odyssey Music Network out of Germany - these Boston rockers were new to us this year and we'll continue to watch / listen for more.  The chorus' hook is fantastic with evocative imagery "You built this house only to burn it down" - the 15 second bridge could be a little longer to showcase the instrumentals and guitar riffs alongside the powerful vocals. 

A ton of great new music dropped this week, and we are pretty pumped to be adding more songs to the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist . With bands like Mammoth, Senses, Taylor Acorn, and Coast Arcade dropping new albums recently and others like the Foo Fighters and Citizen Soldier dropping new singles, it was another big week for rock music.  So what did we add to the playlist this week? First some new tunes by some Alt Rock Rewind favorites: Foo Fighters - Asking for a Friend (which dropped with a tour announcement) Yellowcard - City of Angels Puddle of Mudd - Monsters (maybe we should add this to the Halloween list? Then some new tunes from new albums we are really pumped for: Mammoth - Same Old Song (from the The End album) Senses - You and I (from the On To Something EP) Taylor Acorn - Home Videos (from the Poster Child album) Citizen Soldier - Dead Butterflies (from the Family Heirlooms album) Coast Arcade - Cycles (from the Coast Arcade album) And here are the others that made the ...

With their second EP of the year dropping last night, today seemed like a good day to put the spotlight on Senses . Self-described as "emo-friendly, punk curious" - Senses has a fun sound that is reminiscent of early 2000's punk bands that got a lot of air time on the radio but Senses' sound is bolstered with Madison Taylor's powerful vocals, which a friend recently described as Pink-ish.  The band has had a busy 2025, not only dropping two EP's - but after dropping " I'm Still Breathing " - they headlined a tour across the US, making a stop at the X-Ray Arcade in Cudahy, WI - where Madison showed off her dairyland-pride dawning a pair of "WisCANsin" shorts. After the US headline tour, they headed to Australia - dropped some more singles - and then back to the US for a tour with Marianas Trench . And this fall Senses are across the pond for a short tour in the UK.  Hopefully many of you got to see them this year as Nick and Madison wer...

We started this journey (originally in FB posts) by listening to new music by artists we already knew back in 2024 when bands like Pearl Jam and Green Day dropped new albums. It became a bigger mission to listen to new music each week - often 50+ songs a week and then narrowing it down to our favorite each month. The result was at the end of 2024, we had a bunch of bands that were new to us that we were pretty excited to support.  So here's a countdown of the new-to-us artists for 2025 with links albums or EPs that absolutely worth a listen.  (Note that many of these bands are touring, some of them together, so go see them.) Find a sample of all the artists here: Alt Rock: Best of New-To-Us 2025 1. Mayday Parade - Sweet 2. As December Falls - Everything's On Fire But I'm Fine   3. Knox -  Going Going Gone 4. Nevertel - Start Again 5. Yungblud - Idols 6. Sawyer Hill - Heartbreak Hysteria 7. BRKN Love - The Program 8. Flash Forward - Renegade 9. Mammoth - The End 10....

Hey all, we know loving new bands can be hard. Studies show that folks stop looking for new music after about the age of 31. So here's some good news, lots of bands you already know dropped albums in 2025.  It's not quite a countdown, but here's a list of new albums dropped by our favorite alternative rock bands from the grunge era to the emo era. If you are looking for new tunes with a familiar vibe, here are some albums we recommend checking out if you haven't already.  By bands from those grunge / post-grunge days of alternative radio: Bush - I Beat Loneliness Garbage - Let All That We Image Be The Light Buckcherry - Roar Like Thunder The Verve Pipe - Reconciled Goo Goo Dolls - Summer Anthem Cowboy Mouth - Cover Yo Azz By bands from the emo / pop-punk era of alternative radio: Three Days Grace -  Alienation Yellowcard - Better Days Good Charlotte - Motel du Cap Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - X's for Eyes Simple Plan - The Kids in the Crowd (Music from the Documentary...

Another month, and another few hours of anguish to cut the list down. The October list peaked at 45 songs, and it's time to cut it down. As always a genuine big thanks to all the bands for another great month of new music. Lots of good stuff dropped in October. All of the songs will be added to the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist but only some remains on the October list - let's see which made the cut.   Here's a hint about the top spot: We'll start with our honorable mentions for the month: Nevertel - Good Intentions The Belair Lip Bombs - Back of My Hand Leap - Do or Die Shatter Me - Lindsey Stirling, Halestorm Versus Me - Echoes And the our favorites for the month: 1. "Lose Your Way & Find Yourself" - As It Is 2. "Promises" - Mayday Parade 3. "Ready Fuels" - Anberlin 4. "Better Love" - Bermuda Search Party 5. "Razor" - Daughtry 6. "Crimson & Clover" - I Prevail 7. "Holding On" - Thrice 8. ...

2025 isn't really done yet, but we'll start counting things down now so that you have time to add some CDs or vinyls to your Christmas list, or maybe if you are looking to rock out a concert this winter - you can check out one of these bands.  We're notoriously terrible at picking favorites, the list was growing, rather than shrinking as we put this list together. We listened to a ton of music this year, and that's a big part of why the list kept growing. We'd like to thank all of the bands for a year of fantastic music and fantastic concerts.  We decided to break things down into a few a different lists, including our top picks for albums and EPs that haven't dropped yet. We'll start with the upcoming albums for 2025:  Citizen Soldier -  Family Heirlooms Smash Into Pieces -  Armaheaven Mammoth -  The End Taylor Acorn -  Poster Child Senses -  Onto Something (EP) Aerosmith / Yungblud -  My Only Angel (EP) Lots of bands dropped extended plays ...

We wanted to take a moment to congratulate Sam Fender for winning the overall 2025 Mercury Prize for the album "People Watching" Sam ended up on our radar after listening to the single - People Watching - on the All New Rock playlist on Spotify in 2024. While "People Watching" doesn't rock quite as hard as a number of the singles and albums you'll find here on Smells Like Alt Rock, we like what he's doing and "People Watching" is an excellent album, a chill listen.  Enjoy the full album here: People Watching on Spotify.  We've also included a few singles on the Alt Rock: 2020-2025 playlist, and "Wild Long Lie" made our top songs of December 2024 .  And right now, we are enjoying his recent collaboration with Elton John: Talk to You .  Congrats Sam! People Watching Music Video:

Thank God it's Friday! Stayed up after the Lakeview  show (which was awesome!) to watch new music drop at midnight. Listened to my Release Radar on the way to work and was surprised at how few songs made the All New Rock, All New Punk and All New Alt playlists. Sometimes, it takes me through the weekend to build the list for the week, but here's what was added to October today (as a reminder, the October list will be cut back to 10-15 song by the end of the month - probably next weekend): Deer Fang - Tasting Blood Yellowcard - Barely Alive Thrice - The Dark Glow The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Purple Halo Armor for Sleep - The Outer Ring Lindsey Stirling , Halestrom - Shatter Me Ryan Perdz - Temporary All Time Low (w/ Jojo ) - Sugar (BTW - their Everyones Talking album is excellent!) Sam Fender (w/ Elton John ) - Talk to You Porch Light - Upside Maggie Lindemann - Split  BRKN Love  - Crooked Tongue

What a great year for music 2025 has been! Lots of bands dropping new music, and we've loved listening each month trying to find something new from bands we didn't know and listening to new tunes from bands we were already familiar with.  I started by writing out the albums and EP's on paper to make a list I thought we could cut down easily. (Ha! That's not how that is going.)  And I didn't plan to share the full list of albums considered. But as we were talking, it felt like sharing the list was the right thing to do - maybe one of the albums that doesn't make our best of 2025 list, would have made your list, right?  And we love what the bands are doing, and we love that you're on this musical journey with us, so why not share our full list of albums and EP's considered? You'll find it below. (Links should open the albums in Spotify) (We'll keep working to cut it down over the next few weeks, stay tuned.) Those Damn Crow - God Shaped Hole Mayday...

Given that we are headed out to see Lakeview when they play the High Noon Saloon this week, it seemed like a good time to give the duo a quick spotlight. The band first ended up on our radar when they opened at KATTFEST 2025 in Oklahoma this year, playing before our favorite band, Fuel  and sharing the stage with other bands you'll find on the Alt Rock Rewind here, like Candlebox , Staind , and Bush .   About the same time as Fuel announced KATTFEST as part of their 2025, Lakeview dropped "Wrong Side of the Track" which turned up on our Release Radar on Spotify. "Wrong Side of the Track" has a serious hook that's repeated enough to make the country rock song stick and you'll find yourself coming back to it because the lyrics are incredibly relatable. The country rock vibe of Wrong Side of the Track has left me comparing it to songs like "Nothing Could Come Between Us" by Theory of a Deadman or "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback as...

2025 has been a year filled with solid albums and EP's dropping, and we'll get into some of our favorites in a few weeks. But before that, let's take a look at some of the upcoming albums we're pumped about.  There's still a lot of good albums dropping here in October and into November, so if you are getting a jump on your holiday shopping or maybe you are just looking for some pre-saves to add to your library - consider starting with these (videos of our favorite singles from each are below): (And of course we'll keep you posted when more new music is dropping!) All Time Low - Everyone's Talking : (10/17) - The Weather Senses - Onto Something EP : (10/24) - Tiptoeing Mammoth - The End : (10/24) - The End Taylor Acorn - Poster Child (10/24) - Hangman Smash Into Pieces -  Armaheaven  (10/31) - Maze of Fools Aerosmith w/ Yungblud - One More Time EP (11/21) - My Only Angel

This week's list will start with some "Armor for Sleep" a band I first encountered on the Transformers soundtrack. Must have been a particularly good week for new music drops - this week saw 18 songs added to the October list - that as a reminder - will be cut back at the end of the month to a list ~15 songs with ~5 honorable mentions. Excited to have two bands with Wisconsin roots on this week's list with both Voila and Versus Me featuring this week. Also adding three of these bands to the Concert Calendar : with Porch Light playing the High Noon Saloon , Versus Me playing the Majestic , and Joyce Manor playing the Sylvee . As always, you can find the videos for each song below, and you can find the October list on Spotify .  Enjoy! Armor for Sleep - In Another Dream Yellowcard w/ Avril Lavigne - You Broke Me Too Voila - Lifeblood The Rasmus w/ Theory of a Deadman - Creatures of Chaos Alter Bridge - What Lies Within Thrice - Holding On Mayday Parade - I Must Obey...

It wouldn't be right to go through October without recognizing Halloween in some fashion. So we've pulled together a special Alt Rock playlist with spooky band names, song titles, or lyrics with references to ghosts and gravestones and such.  Here's the list:  Alt Rock Halloween on Spotify : Yungblud - Zombie Yungblud - Ghosts All Time Low - Monsters The Automatic - Monster V Shaped Mind - Monsters The Cranberries - Zombie Rob Zombie - Dragula Taylor Acorn - Final Nail Deer Fang - Low Tide Dorothy - The Devil I Know Nothing More - We're All Gonna Die Evanescence - Afterlife Darth Marley / Rev Theory - Monster In My Skin Reece Mastin - UFO Royale Lynn - WTCH Tantric / Chris Poland - Moonlight Feels Right mgk - Vampire Diaries  L0L0 - The Devil Wears Converse Ra - Devil Mind Florence + the Machine - Everybody Scream Loveless - Phantom of You No Doubt - Spiderwebs Evanescence - My Immortal Dave Matthews Band - Halloween The Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock REM - Daysleep...

We hadn't done this before on the old Facebook posts, but periodically we'll post a band spotlight here to introduce you to a band and their music. To pay homage to Temple of the Dog, we'll call the series "Say Hello 2".  Tonight we'll start with Welsh rockers, Those Damn Crows .  They landed on my radar with the single, "Glass Heart" which dropped ahead of the 2025 album, God Shaped Hole.   God Shaped Hole topped the UK album charts at #1. By the time the album dropped, I had added all of the singles from it to my Spotify playlists. If you're looking soulful, powerful vocals with thoughtful lyrics, and an ability go hard and slow it down - this album has it all. At some point, I'll do a favorite albums of the year for 2025, and this one is likely to take the #1 spot - I purchased it on vinyl, CD, and digital.  The album is so good, that while I was on the Creed Cruise, I spent a morning listening to my pre-saved copy twice before returning t...

 Still getting some backdated content up. August 2025 was a great month for new music.  The best of list for August 2025 starts with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus who claimed the top spot two months in a row.  Click here to checkout the August 2025 Best Of playlist on Spotify.  Best Songs of August 2025: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - X's for Eyes Senses - Tiptoeing Harm & Ease - Storm the Gates Sawyer Hill - Masochistic Lover Nevertel - Somethings Citizen Soldier - Sit in Your Shadows Comastatic - Sunburn in the Summer Lakeview - Name in a Song The Haunt - Own Me Cowboy Mouth - The Real Me Ra - Devil Mind Voila - FMK! As December Falls - Everything's On Fire But I'm Fine Mayday Parade - Under My Sweater Flash Forward - Stone Cold Sober Honorable Mention: Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Work Here Anymore Taylor Acorn - Hangman Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream Western Education - Millennial Youth  Savage Hands - Trust Issues The Goo Goo Dolls - Misery

Doing a little backdating as we shift from Facebook posts to entries here on Smells Like Alt Rock.  Let's revisit the September 2025 Playlist which starts with the band Thrice.    September 2025's Best Of List: Thrice - Albatross Halestorm - Like a Woman Can Deer Fang - So Surreal All Time Low - Butterflies Three Days Grace - Never Ordinary The Beaches - Can I Call You In The Morning? Biffy Clyro - True Believer Voila (featuring WesGhost) - Paperroute Lansdowne - Four Wheel Freedom The Rasmus (featuring the Funeral Portrait) - Weirdo Aerosmith / Yungblud - My Only Angel Bad Wolves / Stand Atlantic - Hanging Onto Thunder Taylor Acorn - Crashing Out Acceptance (featuring Matty Mullins) - Permanent Bad Omens - Impose Honorable Mentions: Armor for Sleep - Breath Again Petey USA - Anything In Between Coheed and Cambria - Key Entity Extraction VII Yuko the Trivial Nevertel - Icon Daughtry - Divided

In case you weren't with us before - here's the deal - we listen to a bunch of new songs each week - narrow it down to some we add to monthly list, then at the end of the month, we usually have like 50 songs that we narrow down to 15 or so songs.  By our count, it's the second week of new music for October 2025, Click Read More to see what all we found this week. We'll start things with "Promises" by Mayday Parade, followed by new music from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Sawyer Hill, I Prevail, Starset, Nevertel, and Acceptance w/ The Maine. Checkout the  October List  on Spotify.  Mayday Parade - Promises The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Perfection Sawyer Hill - Eye for Eye I Prevail - Crimson & Clover Starset - AD Astra Nevertel - Ever After Acceptance (featuring The Maine) - The Letter New Found Glory - Laugh It Off