Smells Like Alt Rock

Thanksgiving has always been one of our favorite holidays. A day to pause, reflect on who and what we’re grateful for, and share a meal with friends and family—without the pressure of gift‑giving. Today, we’ll be enjoying time with family, watching our kids soak up cousin‑time, and cheering on the Green Bay Packers as they take on the Lions. This year, we also want to share some musical gratitude —starting with you. Moving from Facebook posts to the Smells Like Alt Rock blog has been a big shift, and we’re thrilled to see 10–20 readers checking in daily. Thank you for reading, listening, and coming back for more. Fuel A huge thank you to Fuel and their crew. Your shows this year have been phenomenal—we should know, since we made it to nine of them (including three on the Creed Cruise). We appreciate you hitting the Midwest hard, making it easy for us to catch shows in Bowler, WI and Alpine Valley. You always go the extra mile: greeting fans after the set, interacting with the crowd mi...

We're approaching the end of a another month, and according to AAA a bunch of us will be on the road for the Thanksgiving holiday with something like 75 million Americans expecting to be traveling by car. So I'm getting this top songs of the  November list out to you without delay, hoping you will be able rock out on your travels.  As always a big think you to all of the bands for another month of great music. The November list hit 62 songs before I started cutting them back. You can find all of them on the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist. Here are our top songs of November 2025 : Top 15 Mammoth - Same Old Song Senses - You and I Smash Into Pieces - Villian Lansdowne - Burn It Down Dayseeker - Crawl in My Coffin Armor for Sleep - Sky Full of Blackholes Strumbellas - Hanging Out in My Head Sly Withers - Make My Mind Up  New Found Glory - Treat Yourself Action/Adventure w/ Armor for Sleep - Background Citizen Soldier - Dead Butterflies Adelita's Way - We Are Unbroke...

Alright, I'll be calling it this morning. A ton of good music dropped in November, and I'd like to get the top songs of the month out to you today for your Thanksgiving travels. The November List is currently at like 60 songs and I'm still listening this week's new drops.  So I'm going to punt on the new songs from this week and use them to start a December list. And I'll post the cutdown November later.   Let's start with this week's new music: Glitterer - Stainless Steal   L0L0 - Me With No Shirt On The Loveless - The Cure The Fray - The Song I'd Rather Not Sing Shinedown - Searchlight Voila - No Way To Live Aerosmith / Yungblud - Wild Woman Blanket - True Blue Stone - Sweet Heroine Cliffords - Marsh Good Kid - Rift

There's a lot of great punk, emo, rock, and alternative Christmas songs or covers on our Alt Rock Christmas playlist. But there were some songs that we couldn't find in Spotify's massive catalog, so if you are looking for some additional festive music that rocks - add these 5 videos on YouTube to your Christmas music rotation. Enjoy! Aaron Scott of Fuel (formerly of One Way North) - Hallelujah  Shane Greenhall of Those Damn Crows - O Holy Night Yungblud - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Ed Kowalczyck of Live - Silent Night Collective Soul - Blue Christmas

The November playlist is currently three and half hours long after adding more new tunes yesterday. Before we breakdown what's been newly added to the November list and the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist, let's recap how this works: Each month, we create a new playlist. Each week, songs are added to the monthly playlist and the Alt Rock 2020-2025 playlist. At the end of each month, the monthly playlist is cut back to a top 10 or 15, with 5 or honorable mentions. At the end of each quarter, a quarterly best of playlist is put together. At the end of the year, we'll share our favorite songs of the year. We're getting close to this now. Here's what's been added to the list this week: Lakeview - Sorry Fallen Within, Saliva, Bobby Amaru, Judge & Jury - Worlds Apart Citizen Soldier - It Ends With Me Taylor Acorn - Masquerade Dayseeker - Meet the Reaper Mumford & Sons w/ Hozier - Rubberband Man Ben Quad - All Your Luck Chokecherry - Porcelain Warrior The Format ...

With their 2025 The Magic Word Tour selling out entirely — and a homecoming stop in Milwaukee tomorrow at the Vivarium — it feels like the perfect time to put the spotlight on the LA‑based duo Voilà. Gus Ross, originally from London, and Luke Eisner, originally from Greendale, WI, landed on the Smells Like Alt Rock radar about this time last year when they dropped Ballerina featuring The Word Alive. It shot straight to the number one spot on our November 24 playlist. The track’s gentle music‑box melody layered with heavy guitar is slick and original. Clever wordplay is a hallmark of a Voilà song, and Ballerina is no exception: “I’m sorry what’s your excuse, you’re dancing around the subject, tiptoe around the bad news, somehow I think you love it, ballerina dressed in black…” Like several of their other music videos, Ballerina arrived with a classic black‑and‑white visual — a style that’s quickly becoming a Voilà staple. Their single After(h)ours also grabbed our attention for i...

I first stumbled across Armor for Sleep back in 2007 on the Transformers soundtrack with their track End of the World . That was my gateway into their sound — moody, melodic, and unmistakably alt‑rock. Fast forward 17 years: in fall 2024, their single What a Beautiful World landed on Spotify’s All New Rock playlist. Ben Jorgensen’s distinct vocals and the band’s signature atmosphere stopped me in my tracks. I knew I recognized it, but couldn’t place where. A couple of listens later, I was sure — this had to be one of the bands from the Transformers soundtrack. A quick check of the CD confirmed it: Armor for Sleep, back again.  What a Beautiful World made our Something Like Alt Rock Best of October 2024 playlist.  And now, in 2025, they’ve dropped a full album: There Is No Memory . Somehow it slipped past my “Upcoming Releases” on Spotify, so waking up to find it waiting in my Release Radar felt like a gift. I skipped the playlist entirely and dove straight into the record...

Alright another week, another round of new music dropping - lots of good stuff this week. November is shaping up to be a difficult month to cutback to just the stop songs.  Apparently this week, I'm sucker for Hollywood references. Check out the music videos for this week's entries below or check out the full list of November list: Armor for Sleep - A Sky Full of Black Holes Jimmy Eat World - Failure Finger Eleven - Cold Concrete Adelita's Way - We Are Unbroken Dayseeker - Crawl Back To My Coffin Earshot - I'm OK Big Wreck - Short Bangs The Strumbellas - Hanging Out in My Head Kings of Leon - To Space Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers - Wonderful New Found Glory - Treat Yourself Health - You Died Ben Quad - Very Big in Sheboygan  Goldfinger - Chasing Amy Bearing - Comfort Company Maggie Lindemann - Let Me Burn Taylor Acorn - People Pleaser 

2025 isn’t over yet, and some of the bands we’ve been following through their singles still have albums left to drop. Here’s a quick look at what’s left to come in November: Citizen Soldier – Family Heirlooms (Nov 12) A good chunk of this album is already available to stream—we’ve been listening to “Inner Critic” and “Sit in Your Shadows.” Soulful, powerful vocals meet introspective lyrics that tackle tough mental health topics in a way that feels more approachable through music. We’re looking forward to hearing what else Citizen Soldier has to say when the full album drops. Finger Eleven – Last Night On Earth (Nov 12) Best known for hits like “Paralyzer” and “One Thing” (both fixtures on the Alt Rock Rewind playlist), Finger Eleven has released three singles from their upcoming album. We especially enjoyed the title track—it’s a slow jam that echoes the vibe of “One Thing.” The chorus, “Nothing’s right when all you say is nothing’s wrong,” hits hard and will resonate with anyone w...

Another week - more time spent scouring playlists like "All New Rock", "Release Radar", "The New Alt" and "All New Punk" and other corners of Spotify to find songs to add to the Alt Rock: 2020-2025 list.   If you've been following you know how this works.  All of the songs found get added to the big list and to the monthly list. The monthly November 2025 will get cut down around Thanksgiving weekend to a top 10-15 list with ~5 or so honorable mentions. You can find the November list in its current state here to listen along.  Here are this week's additions: As December Falls - Flametide: Smash Into Pieces - Villain: Voila - Tic Tac Toe Florecent + The Machine - Music by Men Said the Sky w/ Knox - Dance in the Rain Yellowcard - Skinscraped Action/Adventure w/ Armor for Sleep - Background Culture Wars - Bittersweet CKY - Can't Stop Running Mac Glocky - Queen of Diamonds Florence + The Machine - You Can Have It All Inhaler - Hole In the ...

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 ...