Flavor Wave’s single, “The Optimist,” arrived less like a declaration and more like someone tentatively drawing back a dusty curtain on a grey afternoon. From West Chester, PA, these five lifelong friends – Kyle Loedel (vocals, lyrics), Matthew Stretch (lead guitar), Patrick Blair (rhythm guitar), Noah Montgomery (bass), and Joshua Speaker (performer/drums) – typically tread alternative rock paths nodding to influences like The Strokes....

Midnite Radio just dropped their soaring new single "Fear No Stars", offering a luminous glimpse into the euphoric ecosystem of their debut EP, "Auntie". The group a geographic collision of friends between Tennessee and Los Angeles composed of Lee Coram, Beak Wing, Ken Christianson, Miles Martin, and Jon Shearer excels at a peculiar sort of theatrical world-building. You press play, and suddenly the gravity...