Holly Humberstone Plots Cruel World North American Tour, Heads to Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Governors Ball

Posted on by nyocum

Holly Humberstone is stepping back into the spotlight — and into the surreal, shadowy world of her new era. The British singer-songwriter has confirmed a summer run of North American dates in support of her forthcoming sophomore album Cruel World, due April 10 via Interscope Records.

Dubbed the Cruel World North American Tour, the trek kicks off June 3 at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club before winding through major cities including Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club), Chicago (The Vic Theatre), Minneapolis (Varsity Theater), and San Francisco (The Fillmore). Along the way, Humberstone will also hit some of the continent’s biggest stages, with high-profile festival appearances scheduled at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Governors Ball, and All Things Go Toronto. Artist pre-sale begins February 10, with general tickets going on sale February 13.

The tour arrives as Humberstone prepares to release Cruel World, a record that leans into the tension between pain and pleasure, chaos and acceptance. Where her 2023 debut Paint My Bedroom Black was marked by turbulence and yearning, the new album finds the 26-year-old in a more grounded, reflective space — even as she constructs a gothic, fairytale-tinged universe populated by childhood relics, memory, and monsters.

Visually and thematically, Cruel World is deeply personal. Humberstone has described sifting through artifacts from the “Haunted House” she grew up in — from ballet shoes to Alice in Wonderland books — reframing the ghosts of her past into something playful and magical with the help of her sister Eleri and creative director Silken. Musically, the album was shaped through disciplined daily studio sessions with collaborator Rob Milton and explores love in its many forms: romantic, platonic, and feminine.

Recent singles like “Die Happy” and “To Love Somebody” hint at the album’s gothic romanticism, drawing inspiration from Dracula, the Brothers Grimm, and Victorian theatre while grappling with devotion, danger, and the destabilizing power of love. Humberstone recently brought “To Love Somebody” to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, further signaling the scale of this next chapter.

Since her breakthrough EP Falling Asleep at the Wheel, Humberstone has built a cinematic, emotionally unguarded body of work that has taken her from the haunted rooms of Grantham to Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, and Wembley Stadium — where she opened for Taylor Swift. With Cruel World and a sweeping North American tour on the horizon, she’s poised to make her most ambitious statement yet.

Public on-sale is available here on the aforementioned February 13 date. Pre-save Cruel World here.

HOLLY HUMBERSTONE LIVE

April 10 – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
April 17 – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
June 3 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
June 4 – Montreal, QC – Beanfield Theatre
June 6  – Toronto, ON – All Things Go Toronto
June 7 – Queens, NY – Governors Ball Music Festival
June 9 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of The Living Arts
June 10 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
June 12 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
June 13 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
June 15 – Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall
June 16 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
June 19 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
June 21 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
June 22 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex – The Grand
June 24 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
June 25 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore Ballroom
June 26 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
June 28 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore

Joey Valence & Brae Keep the Party Going With (afterparty)

Posted on by nyocum

Joey Valence & Brae aren’t ready to call it a night — and with HYPERYOUTH (afterparty), they’re making sure no one else is either. The boundary-pushing duo announced that an expanded version of their acclaimed third album, HYPERYOUTH, will arrive February 27 via RCA Records, adding six new tracks to a record already hailed as one of 2025’s standout rap releases.

True to form, the “afterparty” edition promises more of what has made JVB such a singular force: sample-hungry maximalism, boisterous bars, neon-flecked nostalgia, and dance-floor-ready production that straddles rap, rock, EDM, and late-2000s pop. The new songs — including “friends,” “push the pipe,” and “how does it feel to be young” — are billed as quintessentially Joey Valence & Brae, further deepening the album’s themes while amplifying its chaotic, joyfully unhinged energy.

The release lands as the pair prepare to kick off their Monster Energy Outbreak U.S. tour on February 12 in Fort Lauderdale. The 18-date run will hit major markets including Atlanta, Nashville, Washington D.C., Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with a rotating cast of special guests along the way. From there, JVB will head overseas for a sprawling HYPERYOUTH World Tour, making stops across Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and much of Europe — including festival appearances at Primavera Sound and Best Kept Secret.

Written, produced, mixed, and mastered entirely by the duo in Joey’s State College, Pennsylvania bedroom, HYPERYOUTH has already earned critical praise for its blend of adolescent abandon and adult tension. As CONSEQUENCE put it, the album uses “the framework of late 2000s and early 2010s pop and EDM to assemble a rough sketch of adolescence” — all while daring listeners to stop being too cool to have fun.

With HYPERYOUTH (afterparty), Joey Valence & Brae are making that invitation even harder to refuse.

Pre-save afterparty here and grab a ticket to the tour here.

HYPERYOUTH (afterparty) TRACKLIST

friends
push the pipe
how does it feel to be young
bustamove
i like this
changes
HYPERYOUTH
BUST DOWN with TiaCorine
GIVE IT TO ME
IS THIS LOVE
SEE U DANCE with Rebecca Black
PARTY’S OVER
WASSUP with JPEGMAFIA
LIVE RIGHT
BILLIE JEAN
HAVE TO CRY
THE PARTY SONG
MYSELF
GO HARD
DISCO TOMORROW

HYPERYOUTH WORLD TOUR DATES

Feb 12 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live*
Feb 13 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live*
Feb 14 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham*
Feb 16 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel* ★
Feb 17 – Atlanta, GA – Heaven at The Masquerade* ★
Feb 19 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl* ★
Feb 20 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground* ★ SOLD OUT
Feb 21 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club* ★ SOLD OUT
Feb 23 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club* ★ SOLD OUT
Feb 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel* ⬟
Feb 26 – Chicago, IL – Metro* ▲
Feb 27 – Chicago, IL – Metro* ▲ SOLD OUT
Feb 28 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall* o SOLD OUT
Mar 3 – Albuquerque, NM – El Rey Theatre* o
March 5 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren* o
Mar 6 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether* x
Mar 7 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether* o
Mar 10 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park* o
Mar 12 – Mexico City, Mexico – Foro Puebla 186
April 9 – Auckland, New Zealand – Powerstation
April 11 – Melbourne, Australia – Forum Theatre SOLD OUT
April 12– Melbourne, Australia – Forum Theatre
April 14 – Brisbane City, Australia – The Tivoli
April 15 – Brisbane City, Australia – The Tivoli SOLD OUT
April 18 – Sydney, Australia – Enmore Theatre
April 22 – Perth, Australia – Metro City
May 6 – Belfast, Ireland– Limelight ✚​
May 7 – Dublin, Ireland – 3Olympia Theatre ✚
May 9 – Liverpool, UK – O2 Academy Liverpool ✚
May 10 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom ✚
May 12 – London, UK – Roundhouse ✚
May 13 – Paris, France – Bataclan ✚
May 15 – Antwerp, Belgium – Trix ✚
May 16 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg ✚ SOLD OUT
May 17 – Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall
May 19 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso SOLD OUT
May 20 – Hamburg, Germany – Docks
May 22 – Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
May 23 – Stockholm, Sweden – Fållan
May 24 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
May 26 – Berlin, Germany – Huxley’s Neue Welt
May 27 – Warsaw, Poland – Klub Stodola
May 29 – Budapest, Hungary – Dürer Kert Main Hall
May 30 – Vienna, Austria – Flex
May 31 – Munich, Germany – Muffathalle
Jun 2 – Zurich, Switzerland – Komplex 457
Jun 3 – Milan, Italy – Magazzini Generali
Jun 6-7 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound^
Jun 10 – Prague, Czech Republic – Rock for People Festival^
Jun 12 – Porto, Portugal – Nos Primavera Sound Festival^
Jun 14 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands – Best Kept Secret^

*Denotes Monster Energy Outbreak Tour Dates
^Denotes Festival Dates

Support legend:

★ Joshua Raw
⬟ Big Daddy Marc
▲ chase usa
o detahjae
 x Sha Crow
 ✚ WHATMORE

Hysteria Finds Space Between Tender Honesty and Explosive Energy with “Angela”

Posted on by sumeriannoel
Members of hysteria in an empty room. The vocalist is squatting as the rest of the band stands behind.
Photo: Fiona Kane

The LA-based quartet Hysteria lives between soft vulnerability and explosive catharsis. With a name referencing women historically being punished for feeling too much, they blend all corners of emo, incorporating both the heavy and the light. Hysteria recognizes the necessity of emotion and turns it to resistance and power. Their influences include Texas Is The Reason, Sunny Day Real Estate, and more, blending a Y2k aura with a modern edge.

Last year, the group made their debut with “Reason To Pray.” The single introduced fans to their urgent sound and confessional lyricism. Now, Hysteria has unleashed their newest single, “Angela.”

Produced by Photographic Memory (Wisp, Jane Remover), “Angela” lives as an emotionally compelling piece. Twinkly guitars frame the song while Dakota Cosgrove’s vocals slice through the center, building to a bursting chorus. The track is composed of tender honesty and raw energy, filling space with haunting ups and downs.

“Every moment is both an ascension and a decline, leaving you face down on the ground,” Cosgrove explains. “Angela is the year of your life you want to erase, a desperate cry to be loved, that sick desire to be broken and put back together. Angela is the girl who you let destroy you.”

Grace VanderWaal Returns With Intimate New Single “Prettier”

Posted on by nyocum

Grace VanderWaal is back with “Prettier,” a quietly devastating new single that interrogates admiration, intimacy, and the cost of being desired without being understood. Following last fall’s reflective “High,” the track finds VanderWaal leaning further into emotional precision, pairing restrained vocals with lyrics that cut deep.

Co-written with Julia Michaels, Grant Boutin, and Mark Schick, “Prettier” unfolds through vivid, unsettling imagery — crowded rooms, hollow praise, and a body treated like something fragile and ornamental. VanderWaal sings with calm resolve as the song circles its central question: “Do you feel prettier when you hold me?” It’s less accusation than realization, capturing the moment when affection reveals its imbalance.

“My new single ‘Prettier’ is written about being seen but not heard in a relationship, and wanting something more,” VanderWaal said in a statement.

The release continues VanderWaal’s evolution following CHILDSTAR, her critically praised album that confronted the realities of growing up in the public eye. Where that record reckoned with the past, “Prettier” lives squarely in the present — sharper, more self-aware, and unafraid to name the quiet loneliness that comes with being admired as an object rather than understood as a person.

An official lyric video accompanies the song, underscoring its emotional directness and minimalism. With “Prettier,” VanderWaal further defines a new chapter rooted in clarity, autonomy, and emotional honesty.

Mandy, Indiana Team With billy woods on Ferocious New Single “Sicko!”

Posted on by nyocum

Mandy, Indiana have dropped “Sicko!,” a blistering new single featuring billy woods and the final preview of their forthcoming album URGH, out Friday via Sacred Bones (pre-order here). Built on a cold, relentless techno pulse, the track fuses the Manchester band’s punishing post-punk assault with woods’ unmistakable, incisive delivery, pushing both artists into darker, more confrontational territory.

The accompanying video leans into fragmentation and overload. Conceived as a multi-director collaboration, seven filmmakers each contributed a 30-second visual responding to the theme of “sickness,” released as both an interactive carousel and a full-length video (carousel below – full-length video here). The band says the format reflects how music is increasingly consumed online, turning the act of scrolling into a way of experiencing the entire song.

“We wanted to create something with an artist we love,” the band said of collaborating with woods. “He’s such a unique voice in hip hop — his words are so expressive, and this track adds a different dimension to the record.”

“Sicko!” arrives amid mounting anticipation for URGH, which expands on the feral intensity of Mandy, Indiana’s 2023 debut i’ve seen a way. Co-produced and co-mixed by guitarist Scott Fair and Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, the album was written during an intense residency outside Leeds and recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester, shaped by personal trauma and physical recovery. Vocalist Valentine Caulfield’s lyrics — delivered largely in French — confront sexual assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain, transforming private anguish into a visceral call to endurance. Their previous single, “Cursive,” made our list of “Top Ten Songs of January”.

Following the album’s release, Mandy, Indiana will tour across Europe this spring, with dates in London, Paris, Berlin, and beyond.

Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates

Wed. March 25 –  London, UK @ Heaven *
Fri. March 27 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *
Sat. March 28  – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2 *
Sun. March 29 – Liverpool, UK @ Rough Trade Liverpool
Wed. April 8 – Dunkirk, FR @ Les 4 Ecluses
Thu. April 9 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain
Sun. April 12 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn
Tue. April 14 – Copenhagen, DK @ Huset
Wed. April 15 – Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
Thu. April 16 – Hamburg, DE @ MS Stubnitz
Fri. April 17 – Tilburg, NL @ Roadburn
Sat. April 18 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique

* = with The Null Club

American Football Announce Expansive 2026 World Tour

Posted on by nyocum

American Football are heading back out on the road. The Midwest emo touchstones have announced a 2026 world tour, marking their first full run of shows since wrapping up the extensive 25th-anniversary celebrations for their landmark 1999 debut, American Football (LP1). The four-month trek kicks off this May and stretches across the United States, Europe, the U.K., and Canada, with additional dates expected to follow.

Beyond the shows themselves, the band are tying the tour to a broader cause. Partnering with PLUS1, American Football will donate $1/£1/€1 from every ticket sold to Safe Passage International and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, organizations that support migrants, refugees, and deportees amid ongoing ICE-related violence and intimidation across the U.S.

The tour finds Mike Kinsella and company in a reflective but forward-looking moment. After reuniting in 2014 and releasing two more self-titled albums in 2016 and 2019, American Football have steadily expanded their sound beyond the twinkling melancholy that made LP1 a generational touchstone, folding in post-rock, post-punk, and experimental textures — and collaborating with artists like Hayley Williams, Rachel Goswell, and Ethel Cain along the way.

Artist presales begin Wednesday, February 4th, with general tickets on sale Friday, February 6th at 10 a.m. local time here. As the band looks toward 2026, the tour signals not just a return to the stage, but the next phase for a group whose once-modest legacy has continued to grow, decades after a handful of basement shows and a house on a quiet Midwestern street changed indie rock forever.

2026 Tour Dates

05/15 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall *
05/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
05/18 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall *
05/19 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater *
05/20 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *
05/22 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom *
05/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern *
05/24 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park *
06/19 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz !
06/20 – Stuttgart, Germany @ Im Wizeman !
06/21 – Cologne, Germany @ Die Kantine !
06/23 – Brussels, Belgium @ La Madeleine !
06/24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso !
06/26 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy !
06/27 – London, UK @ O2 Kentish Forum !
07/08 – Boston, MA @ Royale #
07/09 – New York, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount #
07/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer #
07/11 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
07/14 – Richmond, VA @ The National #
07/15 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel #
07/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse #
08/07 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues ^
08/08 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall ^”
08/09 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre ^
08/10 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall ^
08/12 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works ^
08/13 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Centre ^
08/14 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed ^
08/15 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom ^
08/16 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue ^

* Mei Semones: 5/15 – 5/24
! Marconi Union: 6/19 – 6/27
# IAN SWEET: 7/8 – 7/16
^ Afternoon Bike Ride: 8/7 – 8/16

Rico Nasty By Nature

Posted on by nyocum
Photo: Chris Yellen

Before she adopted the moniker Rico Nasty, Maria Kelly was a teenager creating off-the-wall sounds, merging genres and spitting peerless rhymes in Washington, D.C. metro area basements.

Long before Nasty released her breakout hit, 2018’s riotous “Smak a Bitch,” or coined the genre “sugar trap,” her family would brag about her bizarre ability to memorize songs and poems after just one listen. “I didn’t need no paper, no nothing,” she recalls. “Growing up, I realized that’s not a normal thing. I’d hear a song and I could remember the melody and the key.”

Though Rico grew up in Palmer Park on the outskirts of Prince George’s County, Maryland, she was sent an hour away to school in Baltimore starting in fifth grade in the hopes she would attain a better education. Instead, she eventually got expelled for smoking weed.

“I lived on campus, and it was sad for me because I didn’t fit in there,” Nasty says of the school, which did not offer choir or other music-related courses. Luckily, her dorm counselor unlocked her penchant for writing after she found out Rico grew up listening to early 2000s R&B bellwethers such as Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott and India.Arie.

Photo: Devin Desouza

“She got me into writing poetry,” Nasty says. “She got me a little diary and I wrote about how I miss my family. It was always some gut-wrenching, painful art.” From there came her first song, a “lo-fi Cali swag lean” track that sounds nothing like what she makes now. Dubbed “Tumblr Famous” after Nasty’s then-love for the proto blogging platform, the track was made on GarageBand on a day she and her classmates decided to skip school to get high on the last day before winter break. She even remembers wearing her uniform in the woods and falling in the mud at one point.

“We got to the house and we made that song and everybody was like, ‘OK, what’s your rap name?’ I didn’t have a rap name – I was just going by my real name,” she says. Rico Nasty was born shortly thereafter, and she began work on her first mixtape. “It was a snowball effect,” she says.

Her influences in those days ranged from Rihanna (the first CD she spent her own money on was Loud) to Joan Jett. “I had the Shrek soundtrack,” she says. “I wanted to play ‘All Star.’ I wanted to play ‘Bad Reputation.’” Tyler, the Creator made an even deeper impact, to the point that Nasty admits she was “bsessed. It was bad. It was the first time I ever stanned someone.” In fact, if you followed the artist on SoundCloud before Rico Nasty blew up, her original handle was NailBog696, which renders the name of Tyler’s second album, Goblin, backwards.

Nasty’s newly released third album, Lethal, her first for new label Fueled by Ramen, shows off a more mature side to her music thanks to following herself instead of the crowd. “This album represents that it’s OK to stand alone,” she says. “It’s an ode to people who are too nice and then reclaiming their power. In everyone’s younger days, we’re constantly looking for approval. Am I doing this right? No one’s doing it right – not even the people we think are doing it right. So, just relieve that pressure off of yourself and worry about the shit you think is cool.”

Rico Nasty’s LETHAL and the extended LETHAL-ER are available now on Atlantic.

Read this story and more in the below issue of Hit Parader:

The Cost of Momentum: Nova Twins Reflect on the Years That Changed Everything

Posted on by nyocum
Photo: Finn Frew

After months on the road, Amy Love and Georgia South felt the light inside them flickering. Performing as Nova Twins since they were teenagers, their trajectory went from a crawl to a sprint when their electrifying 2020 debut Who Are The Girls? pushed them into the spotlight, and its pace only accelerated when the 2022 follow-up Supernova landed. Having written that second album during the pandemic, they had gotten used to prolonged stillness, but they began experiencing life at a foreign, breakneck new pace when they began touring it. 

“We loved every moment, but we weren’t experienced in touring that extensively,” says vocalist and guitarist Amy. “The end result was we ended up feeling rather a bit hollow. You’re away from home, you don’t have any center. You can’t see your friends and family as much as you want to. You’re going from being in the van for eight hours at a time, and suddenly you’re doing a gig. You’re reserving your energy for this moment, for this an hour-long adrenaline rush and then suddenly you just stop. That does something to your mental health.” 

It’s a tumultuous experience for any touring band, but Nova Twins had shouldered a greater weight than most. “We always felt like we had to fight to exist, to be a rock band and two women of color doing it,” Amy continues. “We always felt we were on the outside looking in. We had to be strong, we had to be tough.” They were fighting to be seen, fighting racialized preconceptions of their band – particularly that they made hip-hop or R&B rather than rock – and then they fought for others. They platformed marginalized artists through Voices For The Unheard initiative, helped create an Alternative Music category at the MOBOs, even funding a scholarship at London music school ICMP. 

Photo: Finn Frew

Whereas on Supernova, they became larger-than-life versions of themselves spreading an infectious confidence and joy, their new album Parasites & Butterflies sees them lay their armor down and breathe. Absconding to the lush surroundings of Vermont to work with producer Rich Costey, the British pair let the darkness pool forth, cathartically unpacking anxiety, fear and impostor syndrome in their most vulnerable moment captured to tape yet. “We wouldn’t have been vulnerable if it we felt like we weren’t ready to be,” says bassist Georgia. “It was also quite freeing to be able to talk about things that we needed to talk about. It’s always difficult being vulnerable but sharing the songs with people and hearing what they take from it is also very healing.”

Nova Twins had to tend to themselves first, but perhaps, within the personal, there lays buried new weapons for the revolution. Of course, they’re recalibrating, but they’re acknowledging that it is okay, vital even, to not constantly maintain an illusion of unshakable strength. “Everyone’s riding this rollercoaster of emotion,” says Georgia. “Nobody’s going to feel happy all the time. When we do feel down, I think we just allow ourselves to feel it, knowing that there’s only going to be happiness at the end of it soon.”

In this precarious political moment, it’s hardly a sin to feel shaken and vulnerable. “We want to make sure we’re being honest, that it’s okay to not feel that strong,” adds Amy. Now in a position of improved mental health (“I’ve done seven months of journalling!” remarks Georgia,”) they’re in fighting form again. Bursting forth at the peak of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, they’re now confronting an even more frightening world. During their recent appearance at the prestigious Glastonbury Festival in their home country, they gave a powerful speech expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine and Sudan, as well as the trans community. 

“The people you’re supposed to rely on to bring hope and reason [aren’t doing it], so other public figures are having to raise their voice even louder,” notes Amy. “It’s a fucked up time, and we don’t have the answers, and we’re not going to pretend that we do. But when we’re on stage, we try and just use our platform just to spread love and unity and to remind people that we are stronger together when we are raising our voices.”

Read this story and more in the below issue of Hit Parader:

Hit Parader #1: Yungblud Edition

Hit Parader #1: Yungblud Edition

October 2025 — $12.99

YUNGBLUD is bringing the rock star back to rock. At just 27, the British firebrand stunned 45,000 fans and the world at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show with a jaw-dropping, emotional cover of “Changes.” Critics and legends alike are calling it one of the greatest live performances of the past 25 years. In a genre starved…

In This Issue…

Rico Nasty By Nature

Rico Nasty By Nature

Too Hardcore for Pop, Too Pop for Hardcore: A Conversation With Scowl

Too Hardcore for Pop, Too Pop for Hardcore: A Conversation With Scowl

Controlled Chaos: The Rise of Die Spitz

Controlled Chaos: The Rise of Die Spitz

The Cost of Momentum: Nova Twins Reflect on the Years That Changed Everything

The Cost of Momentum: Nova Twins Reflect on the Years That Changed Everything

Controlled Chaos: The Rise of Die Spitz

Posted on by nyocum
Photo: Anatheme

In late July 2024, before Sleater-Kinney tore through music from their album Little Rope on an outdoor stage in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the first band on that humid summer night, Die Spitz, was just as mesmerizing. As they’ve been doing ever since forming in early 2022, the Austin-reared quartet plowed through a set of sludgy hard rock and punk-ish metal that radiated heat and ferocity.

Reflecting back months later, vocalist/guitarist Ellie Livingston, guitarist/vocalist Ava Schrobilgen, bassist Kate Halter, and drummer Chloe De St. Aubin remember the gig well – after all, Halter was on mushrooms for the first time (“it was like Guitar Hero numbers were coming from my fretboard,” she laughs). If you were concerned Die Spitz doesn’t take its music and career very seriously, just ask Jack White, whose Third Man Records will release the group’s debut album later this year.

Photo: Anatheme

It has been a long time in the making. Livingston became friends with Schrobilgen nearly 20 years ago (they bonded in ballet class in Austin) and got close with Halter in middle school. The trio assembled a band inspired by Nirvana, Pixies, and Fiona Apple, and realized only after booking a show at local venue Hole in the Wall that they also needed a drummer. Through an early supporter, they met De St. Aubin, who was already familiar with (and liked) the band after seeing online footage. 

“I thought they were so cool,” she says. “I always wanted to play music with them, but I was [a] nerdy percussion kid. I played marimba and timpani and [no] rock instruments.” Once she joined, De St. Aubin steered the band’s sound and helped bring focus. “We were playing these slow-ass, more country[-leaning] songs, but having the energy of a punk band,” Livingston says. Adds De St. Aubin, “I was getting confused. I wanted to play faster, so I was like, maybe we should try going above 80 BPM.”

These tweaks paid off, as Third Man signed Die Spitz before the group even had demos to showcase. “They saw us at a live show, and they liked our live sound, and even said, ‘I don’t think your recorded music right now is a good representation of the experience you give of a live show. And we agree with that wholeheartedly,” Halter says and laughs. “Them seeing that was a very green flag, because we knew that we were on the same page with how we wanted to get our music out there.”

Die Spitz has been compared to everything from Bikini Kill- and L7-style riot grrrl to ’90s hard rock, but resists being pigeonholed into gender or genre. “If you hear this album all the way through and you say that we’re a purely punk band afterwards, then you might need to get your ears checked,” says Schrobilgen. “I also really hope that after hearing our album, people will stop caring that we’re all girls,” De St. Aubin seconds. “No one’s going around being like, Nirvana, boy band, blah blah blah. That never happens. I don’t think people get why that’s frustrating.”

Die Spitz recorded the new album with producer Will Yip (Code Orange, La Dispute). In addition to introducing the group to picklebacks (shots of Jameson chased by pickle juice), Yip was an excellent creative partner, getting to know them as musicians and people so he could tailor his advice and direction. 

“He would watch how we played, so he knew what he could and couldn’t ask of me,” says De St. Aubin. Adds Livingston,  “He would give opinions as a producer, but then also would listen to you and treat you as a respected musician. Sometimes I feel like I have this vision of recording as some guy is going to tell me that I’m stupid for thinking some way. But Will is very open to everything and wanted it to sound as much like us as he possibly could.”

As for what the new record sounds like, “it has a lot of the same punky, metal-y overtones that our older music has, and like our live shows have, but there are songs that are softer, slower, and more intimate that make the album an experience,” Livingston says. “That’s way cooler than putting out an album where every song sounds the same. It’s not going to intrigue or move someone in the same way.”

Something To Consume is out now on Third Man Records.

Read this story and more in the below issue of Hit Parader:

Too Hardcore for Pop, Too Pop for Hardcore: A Conversation With Scowl

Posted on by nyocum

When Scowl released Are We All Angels back in April 2025, the Santa Cruz band proved that they were ready to expand well beyond the conventional hardcore scene.

As a group that walked the line of what could be considered “hardcore” ever since their 2019 inception and was (often unjustly) scrutinized by the historically picky genre’s fanbase, Scowl’s sophomore album was a catchy alternative masterpiece that opened themselves up to a much wider audience than even their acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP.

In many ways, the progression makes total sense. Vocalist Kat Moss quickly blossomed into one of rock’s biggest rising stars over the last few years, and Scowl has shown its ability to blend heavy riffs with pop-leaning melodies time and time again. The quartet has seemed destined for greatness beyond any subgenre labels the same way that Turnstile has broken into the mainstream.

Now it’s Scowl’s opportunity to show the world that they’re ready for the mainstream limelight by hitting major multi-genre festivals around the world (as well as hardcore and rock festivals like Sound & Fury and Aftershock) ahead of their fall headlining tour with Sunami.

Hit Parader caught up with Moss and drummer Cole Gilbert to chat about the success of the new album, the evolution of hardcore, and more.

Photo: Jacki Vitetta

Hit Parader: What made you want to go such a different direction on Are We All Angels?
Kat Moss: It’s one of those things that I think all of us mutually agreed on for a long time. We didn’t want to create something that was average — not to say that we think we’re above average or something, but more of a perspective of doing something that feels different to us both internally and sonically. We wanted to create a space for people who are seeking something that’s a little bit more unorthodox when it comes to the hardcore world and punk music.

HP: How has it felt to see the hardcore scene expand and explore new sounds over the last handful of years thanks largely to bands like Scowl?
Cole Gilbert: It’s awesome. I feel very proud of the people getting out there with their music, but I’m even more proud that it’s so much more accepted now. Just 10 years ago, you had bands like Title Fight and Ceremony exploring new sounds, and people were posting online that they were smashing their CDs when Hyperview and The L-Shaped Man came out. People were like “How could you? You’re not playing a circle pit part anymore! You’re not playing a blast beat anymore! What’s going on?” That was silly to me at the time, and I think it’s something that’s always been there, but it’s just more socially acceptable within our world now to experiment. The whole point of making music is expressing your creativity, and the whole point of hardcore is to not follow the rules, so it’s like “What are we doing here?”

KM: The least surprising thing to do is something polarizing in a subculture that is built on polarization.

Photo: Jacki Vitetta

HP: What’s it like to play some of these massive pop festivals recently in addition to the more traditional rock and hardcore fests?
KM: It’s really fun to be the band where when other artists or the crowd at a big festival see us, they’re like “What the fuck is this?” Then we walk into a hardcore festival and everyone’s like “Oh yeah, you guys again.” It’s fun to have that experience, and I like that we don’t sit comfortably anywhere. The festivals themselves are really fun for us because we all have such varied music tastes to begin with, so it really feeds the soul to be around all of these bands and artists from all over the place.

CG: We’re too hardcore for the poppy festivals, but we’re too poppy for the hardcore festivals, so we’re the odd ones out everywhere we go.

KM: I get a kick out of us being the weirdos, but it also feels like a “weird flex” moment internally. I’m an adult and I have green hair, so it’s like “We get it. You’re weird, bro,” but there’s also this feeling that it’s very hardcore or punk to just claim our weirdness and own it anywhere we go. 

HP: Aside from the festivals, you’ve also done some major touring over the last few years, from opening stadium shows to headlining tours. Has anything unexpected changed as the stages have gotten bigger?
KM: Well, it’s gratifying and rewarding for sure, but it’s also like “Damn, my back hurts now!” We’re grateful and it’s fucking awesome, but it also wears on your body to play longer sets and be on the road all the time. We’re getting served the punk pie right now in that we flew close to the sun and now we’re feeling the heat. It gets pretty exhausting, but it’s like when you go to the gym and feel the sweat. It can be hard and dirty, but I’m really grateful on a personal level because I think we’re all growing up in a really beautiful and interesting way with each other through it all. 

CG: A lot of it has been moving so fast that it’s hard to even recognize some of the things that we’ve done as a band, so we’ve just been doing our best to mind our P’s and Q’s the whole time. It still feels like we’re that same band from five years ago, even through all of this. We’re still working as hard as ever, and I don’t think we’ve even begun to reach the point where we can look back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. We can see how far we’ve come, but we’re still climbing.

HP: What else would you like to see for Scowl in the future?
KM: It’s funny, because we’re all thinking about that for the first time now. We’re all in our late 20s and early 30s, and finding balance in life is a lot harder and a very different definition than when the band started. Ideally, it’d be nice to just put out more and better music. I just want to keep writing music that feels good and gratifying and like it speaks to all of us on a really deep level. That and playing shows that have insane energy is all I ask. I don’t give a fucking shit if we’re making that much money or if we’re a big band. I just want to play really fun shows and feel like we’re making really good music for ourselves and for the people who care. Stripping it all down has been so good for me, because I was really obsessed with wanting to do this and this and this and this for a long time. Now, it’s not hard to make me happy. I don’t want to make it complicated. I just want to have fun and feel good.

CG: We’ve come way farther than I ever thought we would, so everything else is just a cherry on top. I want to take it as far as it can go. If it gets bigger? Cool. If we’re right here and it stays here? Cool. 

KM: I’ll go bag groceries again if I need to, but I still want to go on tour for two weeks at a time. I’ll do whatever I need to do, but I just want to be happy and have fun and for everyone to be healthy and taking care of really baseline shit. I experienced some grief this year, and it made me really think about life on a much larger scale. I realized that I don’t need a lot from this. I just want to be happy, safe, healthy and experience love through this whole thing. Maybe I sound like a hippie, but it’s really not any more complicated than that.

Read this story and more in the below issue of Hit Parader:

Hit Parader #1: Yungblud Edition

Hit Parader #1: Yungblud Edition

October 2025 — $12.99

YUNGBLUD is bringing the rock star back to rock. At just 27, the British firebrand stunned 45,000 fans and the world at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show with a jaw-dropping, emotional cover of “Changes.” Critics and legends alike are calling it one of the greatest live performances of the past 25 years. In a genre starved…

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