Fall & Summer Singles Roundup: Sadboys, Drainers, Emos and Ravers

by Ben Rosielle

Anita Velveeta - “Show and Tell” & “Bloodsports”

It brings me a great deal of hometown pride to announce that Minneapolis punk rocker, DJ and producer Anita Velveeta is (hopefully) coming out with a new album this year; the two singles she’s released off of it are exemplary pieces of structurally and sonically inventive punk just as ready for the moshpit as they are for your Last.fm charts. “Show and Tell” is a very brave answer to the question of “what if underscores was really into Machine Girl and also jersey club,” but it incorporates this eclecticism in a way that feels cohesive rather than gimmicky. “Bloodsports” is a total thrasher, mixing chugging, metallic riffs with choruses of cybernetic screams and growls. On the lyrical front, Anita Velveeta grapples with frustrations around the consequences of her local celebrity and the growing threat of violence towards the Twin Cities’s transgender community. These songs are incisive and exhilarating, both timeless and timely: exactly what punk should aspire to be.

Bladee & Yung Lean - Evil World

Pretty much all you can ask for from a Bladee, Yung Lean and Whitearmor joint in 2025. Whitearmor’s beats bubble and buzz like he was brewing them up in some magical wizard studio. Lean and Bladee are as lethargic and Swedish-sounding as ever, but their monotone, autotuned bars slot in nicely with Whitearmor’s production. Choice lines include “Tony Soprano with my bathrobe by the pool deck” and “I'm in love with green, I should've been a Celtic.”

The Hellp - “Country Roads” & “Doppler”

It’s been less than a year since the release of their sophomore album LL, and The Hellp are already hot on the trail of the next new thing. Which, in this case, is glossy, urbane indie dance music that smooths out the style they’ve been developing since their inception, forming a sleek blend of breakbeats and subtle, jangling synth patterns. Even if their songwriting has lost a bit of the vitality of their first two albums, their production is ever looking forward: the fizzing bassline at the end of “Country Roads” is one of the more intoxicating things I’ve heard this year.

Jane Remover - Dreamflasher & “Dirt Road Anthem”

There’s nothing new about “Dreamflasher” itself other than a music video and a goofy new intro on the SoundCloud version. Taken straight from Jane’s now-deleted mixtape Indie Rock, the B-side of the single, “Audiostalker”, has some jazzed-up production and a brand-new Lucy Bedroque feature. While “Dreamflasher” has really grown on me in the six-and-a-half months since the release of Revengeseekerz, I presently find “Audiostalker” a little too disorienting for my taste. On the other hand, their recent upload of “Fadeoutz” demo “Dirt Road Anthem” (named after a Jason Aldean song) is a raw, potent dose of abstracted digicore. While “Dirt Road Anthem” sounds basically nothing like “Fadeoutz”, it is a welcome addition to the “Flash in the Plan” extended universe, lifting the main guitar riff to serve as the backdrop for Jane’s wailing, autotuned lamentations. I’m obsessed with the depravity with which they moan out the off-beat line “Take off your clothes,” their delivery as silly as it is full of moxie.

Joyce Manor - “All My Friends Are So Depressed” & “Well, Whatever It Was”

2025 has been my Joyce Manor year: I went from agnostic at best to a rabid devotee praying at the idol of Joyce Manor, willing to proselytize about the endless merits of songs like “The Jerk” or “Beach Community” to any poor soul polite enough to listen. They wrote the rare kind of pop songs that never lose their sheen no matter how many times you listen, songs you can turn around in your head for hours, marvelling at their sheer economy and wit. I speak in the past tense for unfortunately, 2025 has not been Joyce Manor’s year: the two singles they’ve released in anticipation for their new album are complete ass. Like shit from a butt kind of ass. Like 4 Non Blondes kind of ass. Ok, maybe that last one was a little too harsh. “All My Friends Are So Depressed” is flaccid, inoffensive indie rock reminiscent of a pleasantly forgettable The Smiths B-side. “Well, Whatever It Was”, on the other hand, is anodyne, lobotomized power pop so infuriatingly generic that I couldn’t even stomach listening to it past the thirty-second mark. And to think that this band made Never Hungover Again.

The Crying Nudes & Panda Bear - “greaser (panda bear version)”

The original “greaser” was one of The Crying Nudes’ more compelling songs, with Danish (because of course) vocalist Fine Glindvad’s mellow delivery perfectly complementing the track’s uncanny timestretched guitar strumming and lossy programmed drums. While Panda Bear’s singing doesn’t have quite the same dreamy quality as Glindvad’s, his vocals inflects the track with an atmosphere reminiscent of the 60s psychedelic pop he’s been drawing on his entire career, a pleasant contrast to the quintessentially 2025 cloud rock beat. The added production flourishes—offbeat unidentifiable percussion, playful risers, bouncy organ hits—are what really tie the whole thing together, pushing the song just past the realm of minimalist, hazy dream pop and into something a little bit fresher.