Chicago-based roots-rock outfit Trickshooter Social Club have returned with their new EP, "Porchlight Pie", a raw, whiskey-soaked collection of songs that grapples with the messy, beautiful experiment of modern America. Led by frontman Steve Simoncic and guitarist Larry Liss, the band crafts a grit-flecked style of garage rock with a conscience, steering their music through a sonic landscape defined by low-slung guitars, country fiddles,...

Lessons in Crime’s new single, "Reply ASAP," bounces along with the kind of infectious energy you’d want for a summer road trip, but it’s a smokescreen for a uniquely modern state of inertia. It feels less like a rock song and more like one of those old pneumatic message tubes from a 1940s department store—all zip and kinetic energy on the outside, but inside,...