I was travelling again (I tend to travel a fair bit) and this I found myself walking for a few hours through Hämeenlinna, Finland. It’s a pretty little town with a cute castle, well worth the visit. And then a week later, I stumbled upon Mirror Hands, a post-punk band from that very place. It sounds how I imagined post-punk to sound like in Finland, where the sun set before 5pm in October: dark, slightly monotonous and very black-and-white. I like it, with extra points for the Finnish accents. Well worth the listen.

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I visited Singapore twice and found it a more interesting city than expected. I didn’t explore its music scene though which is a shame as I might have stumbled upon Thee Miniskirts, a duo from the city state who make jangly lo-fi indiepop that reminds me of The Bartlebees (any song really, but this Tell Me All About It in particular). Now that happens to be one of my favourite bands ever so guess how much I enjoy Thee Miniskirts? Right, a whole lot.

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Take Fred from Britain and Karoline from Denmark, put them in Paris, give them a bunch of instruments and you’ll end up with a very varied album (from goth pop to country-lite), released under the name The Tambourines. Then make me listen to that album and the one song I pick out is the playful folksy indiepop song Head Cold, Feet Warm. That bit is quite predictable I guess – I never claimed I wasn’t – but the song is so, so cute. Like, really.

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Lucy Bedroque is the alter ego of American rapper, singer and producer Jeremiah Jabulani Mark. I read somewhere that they “pull from microgenres like digikore and hexd to create their blown-out, bright anthems” and while I don’t even know what half of these words mean, it somehow feels fitting. I mentally place it next to Fakemink and Fimiguerrero, both of whom I had written down before. Sketchy, experimental hip hop that isn’t miles off from laptop twee, with on this Speed Demon in particular the nervous energy of egg punk. That’s how I like my hip hop.

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I spent many years in the South West of England, one county away from Cornwall, which is where Holiday Ghosts hail from. It is a place often linked with magic (King Arthur and all that) and it seems fitting for the folksy (dare I say gothic-y?) indiepop the band makes. “Yesterday I looked for the darkest patch in the river / It asked me, ‘What would you do for gold?’” That’s from Shoot for Peace, which was one of my favourite songs from 2024, the year it came out on the Coat of Arms album. I still love it in 2026.

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Absolutely Yours is from Minnesota. I never visited the state, but I gathered it has cold winters, which may explain the warm sound the band produces. A sound that otherwise reminds me of Great Britain in the late 1980s: jangly C86 indiepop of the fuller kind. A bit like Lush, I guess, or Shop Assistants if they tried to make shoegaze? I like it a lot, especially this Are You Running From Me? from their latest album Desire Path (the third full one, if I count correctly) on Sunday Records, which feels a natural home for their music.

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Does the language in which a song is sung matter? As someone who tends to focus on the vocals, I am tempted to say ‘yes’ and so most French pop sounds… mostly French to me. The first reference that comes to mind when I listen to Feutre (a three-piece from Bordeaux who just released their second album; there is a Watoo Watoo link for who remembers them) is fellow French band Autour de Lucie: the same kind of dreamy synth-driven (indie)pop with prominent vocals. But does it matter if Feutre just makes really nice music? No, of course not.

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Ever since I read somewhere that Soft Science, a five-piece from Sacramento, California, only releases songs and albums with one-word titles I cannot stop focusing on that. It makes track lists on Bandcamp look beautifully minimal. So there is that. There is also the music that goes back more than 15 years, to an album with multi-word song titles and before that bands such as California Oranges and Holiday Flyer and now reached a new album (Sand on Shelflife) with very grown-up American indiepop, that reminds me most of Velocity Girl. Yay! Fun! Exciting! 

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Often, keeping these posts to 100 words or less is a challenge. Sometimes though it isn’t. Twerp is a four-piece punk band from Athens. That’s Athens, Ohio, not Greece or Georgia. They sound like the Ramones and according to this song that is also their ambition, though with a female singer they also sound a lot like Helen Love. And I love that. It’s as simple as that.

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Language of Flowers is back! I was a big fan of the Belfast band (singer Tara Simpson’s fragile voice remains one of my favourites in indiepop) around the time of their 2004 debut album, when I even interviewed them for my small webzine. I moved on in life and apparently so did the band as they didn’t record anything new. Until now, when a new album has been recorded, with this Shimmer pre-released as a single. The music hasn’t changed much (if anything, they sound even more like Lush) so I am really looking forward to that full album.

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In her various bands, Amelia Fletcher has regularly sung about sexual harassment, often rather subtly. Back in 1995, Helen Love of the eponymous Welsh band was less subtle: “We’re gonna find him soon and beat him up”. Which is only fair given that he “stuck those bruises all over you”. More than three decades on, the song hasn’t become any less relevant and the fact that it is also a great song in the Ramones-y indie punk tradition Helen Love is known for feels almost unimportant to mention.

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Sidesleepers are a duo from Wollongong, Australia who just released a debut album Like an almost scalding cup. It contains nine pleasant, jangly indiepop songs (Up Around the Bend is my favourite, but not by a big margin). Another site mentioned The Pastels as a reference and I agree, though this is a little more polished. I’d describe it as “indiepop for people of my parents’ generation”, except that I am now my parents’ generation and this is my kind of music. I am not complaining.

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Combine 1960s American garage (the Girls in the Garage series, in particular) with early 1980s British post-punk (say, Girls at Our Best) and you’ll end up somewhere in Chicago. That is where Miniskirt is from, a four piece who appear only one quarter female but have this great female (or feminist) punk energy that makes those influences (and also Miniskirt) so good. On a recent EP Dive Bar Darlings, where each song plays tribute to a local venue, this Be Nice (“on the way back home”) may be about an unfortunate side of going clubbing in Chicago. Or anywhere, really.

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There is a Pains of Being Pure At Heart link in Always You through shared band members. There is also a Pet Shop Boys link, as their music, this Against The World in particular, really reminds me of the music of the British synth pop duo. Do I mind? Let me say that The Pet Shop Boys were among the first bands I fell in love with, when ten-year-old me explained to my mum how It’s A Sin gave me a special feeling in my belly. I still like them a lot. And I really like Always You too.

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In a recent interview Velocity Girl said that members of The Linda Lindas came up to them and told them “their father had played Velocity Girl for them when they were little kids”. That alone is a reason to love The Linda Lindas. There is of course their awesome name too. And, not unimportant, the music. Catchy pop punk with a lot of young energy – the band members are between 16 and 21 and they’ve been playing for years – and multilingual lyrics that appears to have given them a lot of praise (including some prominent TV appearances). They deserve it.

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I’ve been in Germany for the past few days and as it happens my favourite new band this week is German too: The Naggs are four women and one man from Düsseldorf who make the most addictive indie garage punk. Think of early 1980s girl-fronted indiepop groups like Girls At Our Best! (the lo-fi production sounds 1980s too) or Avilda to provide a more recent reference. Their whole debut album The Naggs Generation (which includes many covers of classic garage songs) is great, but here on Stuck for Good everything really falls into place. Super, super toll.

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I seriously reduced my record collection in the course of several mostly international moves, but I never got rid of The Arrogants’ Your Simple Beauty. The reason was simple: this one song, Lovesick, which for a time wasn’t available on the streaming platforms (it is now). Less than 100 seconds of perfect indiepop that has a unique but recognisable take on a failed relationship: “I’m not sad and I don’t want you back / I just miss the feeling of being in love”. Or, as they say on Bandcamp about themselves: “It was a great time while it lasted”. It was.

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I had never written about the same band twice on this blog, until now. Because this is The Cat’s Miaow. With a song from their upcoming debut album (on Slumberland and Lost and Lonesome). Debut album, yes, for in 34 years of being a band they only ever released a million singles and as many singles compilations. There are few bands whose music hit me deeper in the feels than the Melbourne band with its quiet so-intimate-it’s-almost-scary indiepop. When You Smiled And Turned Away is among their best songs, though in fairness, many of their songs are among their best.

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Full Sun’s Buggin’ reminded me so much of Shonen Knife (the lyrics seem to contain many long vowels) that I had to check whether the band is Japanese. They are not. Full Sun is a four piece from Bloomington, Indiana who operate on a fairly slow release cycle: three albums in twelve years. Through which they rush quickly, as they make fairly straightforward (and rather enjoyable) punk. Which occasionally, such as on this song, skirts closely to the edges of indiepop. And I happen to like that kind of punk best.

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I was a massive fan of The Thermals around the time of their 2003 debut album, which contains some of the most intense indie punk I know. They never got that good again, but follow-up albums were pretty decent still. And now The Thermals are back! Or is back, maybe, as the new album is recorded by Hutch Harris on his own. It still sounds unmistakably Thermals, whose music has, over the years, grown closer to where The Mountain Goats are now. Just listen to this On A Wind So High which still has some of that early Thermals energy.

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