Seattle-based Soft Boiled scuzzes up classic power pop melodies with their own grungy, garage-inflected spin: like their namesake, “hard on the outside, soft on the inside,” as lead vocalist and guitarist Aniela Sobel puts it. The band first came together when Sobel and fellow lead vocalist/guitarist Roger Hutchins started sending each other songs and practicing together in 2020. Bassist Evan Captain and drummer Eric Sobel joined not long after, and Soft Boiled was born. Their debut EP, Slice of Life, explores the most complicated and uncomfortable of emotions, from longing projections to resentment and ennui. Still, it thrums along with an unusual sweetness, as the band’s candid lyrics and lively melodies engulf us in thrillingly honest feeling. Soft Boiled is back in the studio, writing and recording their upcoming release. In the meantime, they have a new track out on Making New Enemies’ compilation, Group Picture Vol. 15, called “Double Chin”. Slice of Life is out on Den Tapes now._________________________________________________________________SWANDERER is a new art-pop ensemble from multi-instrumentalist Casey Rosebridge, featuring members of Mt Fog and Catch Rabbit. Channeling his mercurial tenure in Seattle bands ranging from churning piano punk to dancey folktronica, Swanderer charts a new course for the Catch Rabbit singer. Here, Rosebridge’s intimate and understated vocals are backed by a quietly intent kaleidoscope of whispering synthesizers and cursive guitar lines, with a compositional ingenuity and subtle emotional intensity evoking the likes of Grizzly Bear, Broadcast and Wilco._________________________________________________________________Couch Queen: drone gaze from Seattle, WA