Summer Indie Music 2026

 Hey, summer's half over but that's how long it took me to tenaciously wade through a sea of indie weepers to compile these modestly upbeat treasures. Years past, I've often tried to generate a hit machine of under-the-radar, catchy bangers, but this time the best I could achieve was a "vibe." I can't jog to this compilation, but driving the car or cleaning the house to it feels like I found a fun radio station at the edge of the dial. I hope you enjoy it too.

In case you've ever wondered about my criteria for choosing songs, the parameters go in this order:

1. Is the beat slow or mid-tempo? This will not make the cut.

2. Are the lyrics sad or angry? We deserve a break from these emotions.

3. Is it mainstream? Let's leave the payola pop stars to the Coachella headliner stage.

There. You'd be amazed how difficult it is to meet these criteria in a world that's literally addicted to feeling sorry for itself, trapped in black hole of it's own navel. Playlist below, followed by Spotify and YouTube videos.

Are you ready to be brave and smile and possibly dance?

SUMMER INDIE MUSIC 2026

1. Collect 200 - Everything Will Be Alright

2. Kraak & Smaak ft. Kosta G - Nothing Is Forever

3. Automatic - mq9

4. Nation of Language - Inept Apollo

5. Twen - Tumbleweed

6. Spacemoth - Internet fantasy

7. Packaging - Always Calling

8. Ryli - Break

9. Royel Otis - Who's Your Boyfriend

10. Gelli Haha - Dynamite

11. RIO KOSTA - One With You

12. Hannah Lew - Distance of the Moon

13. Weird Nightmare - Might See You There

14. Getdown Services - The Bins

15. ISTA - Waves

16. Automatic - Is It Now?

17. Babe Rainbow - Polymuscalsaccharide

18. BEL - Parachute

19. Packaging - In Your Pocket

20. Kraak & Smaak ft. IVAR - Herbs & Wine

21. Kevin Morby - Javelin

22. GUM - Outrider

My Favorite Movies of 2025

On the eve of the Actor Awards (nee SAG-AFTRA), it’s time to rank the best movies I saw this year. Often my taste differs from the voting boards  Try my choices in order and perhaps you’ll agree with me, but every film on this list, in my opinion, deserves to be seen.

1. Sinners

2. 40 Acres

3. Sentimental Value

4. Phoenician Scheme

5. Companion

6. Twinless

7. Mickey 17

8. Black Bag

9. Nouvelle Vague/Good Fortune

10. Hamnet

11. Ugly Stepsister 

12. Weapons

13. Frankenstein

14. Fantastic 4

15. One Battle After Another 

16. Together

17. Caught Stealing

18. Song Sung Blue

19. Good Boy

20. Relay

21. Deep Cover

22. She Rides Shotgun

23. The Friend

24. Roof Man/Sketch

25. The Surfer

26. Gladiator 2/Nobody 2

27. M.I.: Dead Reckoning 

28. Bugonia

29. Tron: Ares

30. The Secret Agent

32. Rental Family

33. Sovereign/The Long Walk

34. Marty Supreme 

35. Toxic Avenger

36. Thunderbolts 

37. Life of Chuck

38. Predator: Badlands

39. Final Destination: Bloodlines

40. Blue Moon

41. Jay Kelly

42. Train Dreams

43. Peter Hujar’s Day

44. The Materialists

Films I haven’t seen yet: Eddington. Man Finds Tape. No other choice.. It Was Only An Accident. The Mastermind. Testament of Ann Lee.

Summer Indie Music 2025

 Twelve years running and, still, all I care about is keeping it happy and fast. I listen to thousands of indie music tracks and most of them are slow and sad. And people eat what they're force-fed. Not me. Maybe it's my naturally high serotonin level (sorry), but I continue to champion the hopeful underdog, the resilient muscle of the heart, the belief in a potential utopia. Will you accept this journey into the beauty and dissonance of hope?

Spotify and YouTube playlists below.

Summer Indie 2025

1. The Wombats - Can't Say No

2. Sharon Van Etten - Indio (the site of my former fave music festival--now a pop wasteland)

3. Art d'Ecco - Tree of Life

4. Mamalarkey - #1 best of All Time

5. Ty Segall - Shoplifter

6. Deep Sea Diver - What Do I Know?

7. Panda Bear - Praise

8. Hannah Cohen - Summer Sweat

9. Tunde Adebimpe (from TV on the Radio) - Magnetic

10. The Laughing Chimes - A Promise to Keep

11. Clutter - Kraut

12. Rialto - No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive

13. Stereolab - Transmuted Matter

14. OK Go - Love

15. Doves - Cold Dreaming

16. The Convenience - Western Pepsi Cola Town

17. The Waterboys - Andy (A Guy Like You)

18. Sports Team - Condensation

19. Horsegirl - Well I Know You're Shy

20. Mocky - Music Will Explain

21. Ten Tonnes - Heaven Sent

22. Dream Pixel - Moreish Idols

23. Goose - Feel It Now

24. Mandrake Handshake - Hypersonic Super-Asterid

For YouTube, I've tried to avoid videos whenever possible, since their mostly uninspired. Let's try to focus on the good music instead of the reason they killed MTV (and Coachella).

My Favorite Movies of 2024

 This was a banner year for horror films, and I think they deserve as much credence and relevance as "serious" films. It was especially encouraging to see The Substance earn a place at awards ceremonies. Too bad Demi didn't take home the Oscar. I loved Mikey Madison's performance in Anora, but I also think winning gold too early can be a curse for young actors. Still, every nominee for best actress turned in a mesmerizing performance. Also a shout-out to June Squibb, who wasn't nominated for Thelma, but rocked her role as the titular character at age 94. This is my list of non-horror films, please see my previous post for a ranking of those.

I had the amazing fortune to visit Riga, Latvia this past year at exactly the same time the animated film Straume (Flow) was playing in theaters there. I saw it and figured this gorgeous, moving piece of art would never see the light of American day. Lo and behold, it took home the Oscar and Golden Globe, beating Wild Robot, which was incredible in its own right.

 As a rule, my rankings are based upon whether I would watch the film again, and higher for those I'd see multiple times over ensuing years. I found the Brutalist, for instance, bleak and overlong, with joyless awkward sex scenes, clumsily edited, and misleading in its content--since Laszlo Toth never existed, and Brutalism is the architecture of fascism. Therefore, it didn't make my list despite its incredible cinematography and soundtrack.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES of 2024

1. Flow

2. A Complete Unknown

3. Furiosa

4. Anora

5. Love Lies Bleeding

6. Thelma

7. Wild Robot

8. A Real Pain

9. Last Showgirl

10. My Old Ass

11. Iron Claw

12. Conclave

13. Rebel Ridge

14. Sing Sing

15. Emilia Perez

16. Deadpool & Wolverine

Films I haven't seen yet, so list may change: Last Stop Yuma County, The Order, Piece By Piece, Better Man, Kneecap, Saturday Night, Super Man, The Abandon, I'm Still Here

Best Horror Films of 2024

For those of you who don't know, I self-published my first horror novel in both ebook and paperback on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. It's a YA cosmic horror novel called Many Arms Unfold Us, and my pseudonym is Diavolo Ray. Please follow me on tiktok, instagram, bluesky, and Goodreads. You can buy my book here: https://www.amazon.com/Many-Arms-Enfold-Diavolo-Ray/dp/B0DDHDMLPK

This was a banner year for quality scary movies. Here's my ranking:

1. Late Night With The Devil

2. The Substance

3. Longlegs

4. The First Omen

5. Alien: Romulus

6. Heretic

7. Arcadian

8. Abigail

9. Blink Twice

10. Cuckoo

11. Nosferatu

12. A Quiet Place: Day One

13. Speak No Evil

14. Strange Darling

15. Immaculate

16. Presence

Summer Indie Music 2024

Tough putting this together. Maybe it'll get you through the winter months. I can't help gravitating toward retro sounds in new music, whether it's psych, new wave, glam, funk, disco, yacht, or classic rock. The most important think is it's happier and more danceable than the weepy crap most indie artists seem obsessed with. It's been a twenty-year navel gaze and so many boxes of tissue. They say the best art comes in times of suffering. Maybe the newly-elected chaos regime will wake artists up from their trauma porn and make them commit to bringing joy back into the world. Like Kamala's campaign. Sometimes you gotta be the only light.

1. Ginger Root - All Night

2. Mannequin Pussy - Nothing Like

3. Yard Act - Dream Job

4. Sheer Mag - All Lined Up

5. Modern English - I Know Your Soul

6. Allie X - John and Jonathan

7. Chromeo - BTS

8. Omni, Izzy Glaudini - Plastic Pyramid

9. Lime Garden - Floor

10. STRFKR - Armatron

11. St. Vincent - Big Time Nothing

12. Corridor - Jump Cut

13. Peel - In the Sedentary

14. Camera Obscura - Pop Goes Pop

15. Dehd - Don't Look Down

16. Psymon Spine - So Far Away

17. Paul Weller - Jumble Queen

18. Kim Deal - Crystal Breath

19. GIFT - Wish Me Away

20. BODEGA - City Is Taken

21. Kasabian - Coming Back To Me Good

My Favorite Movies Of 2023

Damn fine year for movies again. There seemed to be fewer forgettable one word titles. Maybe execs are finally learning that literally nobody will remember what a movie like "Vengeance" from 2022 was about, let alone that it was a great dark comedy. One thing I could do without is how many trailers feature a breathy slowed-down version of a retro hit used for dramatic effect. I hate it every time.

Anyway, I was so enthralled by the pink zeitgeist surrounding Greta Gerwig's amazing film at theaters all summer. It was fun, colorful, moving, profound, and a total Trojan Horse for feminism. I hope it has a ripple effect on our culture for years to come, but I see it's already being snubbed at award shows. Poor Things was also a feast for the eyes, and just as empowering in it's own shocking way. I couldn't decide which I loved more, so I gave a tie for first place, which I've never done before.

My criteria for ranking, and maybe I'm a weirdo, is: would I watch the movie again? Some of the films on this list I've already watched three times.

P.S.: I obviously have a soft spot for horror, fantasy, and sci-fi movies. 

BEST FILMS

1. Barbie/Poor Things (tie)

2. American Fiction

3. Killers of the Flower Moon

4. Dream Scenario

5. Past Lives

6. Anatomy of a Fall

7. No Hard Feelings

8. Wonka

9. Talk To Me

10. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

11. Moonage Daydream

12. Oppenheimer/Zone of Interest (tie)

13. Rustin

14. May December/Eileen

15. The Flash 

16. Godzilla Minus One

17. Jules

18. When Evil Lurks

19. The Holdovers/Dear God, It's Me, Margaret

20. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

21. How To Blow Up A Pipeline

22. John Wick 4

23. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

24. Cocaine Bear

25. Knock At The Cabin

26. No One Will Save You

27. Evil Dead Rise

28. Guardians of the Galaxy 3

29. Saltburn

30. You Hurt My Feelings

Movies I haven't seen yet: Eight Mountains, Little Richard: I Am Everything