Sugar World

Sugar World features Katryn Macko and Ryan Stanley, who met while both were studying at Florida State University and working at Tallahassee’s Club Downunder. The duo relocated to San Diego after their group Naps (hailed by StereoGum as being among the “Best New Bands of 2015”) broke up in 2016, with only two EPs to their credit. Their debut Sugar World single, “Sad In Heaven,” was released last summer, followed by “We Fell In Love.” Two new singles have debuted so far this summer, a cover of Yo La Tengo’s “Shadows” and a cover of Chromatics’ “Kill For Love.” With a full album due this winter, their newest single is an original track, “Time to Kill,” which the band says “evokes the long mythologized era of indie pop’s roots. ‘Time to Kill’ combines the earnest wit of the Field Mice with the vibrant, tongue-in-cheek energy of the Pastels, all while touching upon modern political themes as we prepare for a crucial election.” Though the single was unavailable to preview at press time, a sample lyric was provided: “And we’ll allow you to vote but we’ll break all the machines, unless you take back all your jokes about guillotines.” (More on Sugar World coming in the October 1 Blurt column)

Swing Kids

Swing Kids were a 1990s hardcore/screamo band that drew inspiration from the jazz and swing era, featuring frontman Justin Pearson, who would release their recordings on his own Three One G record label. The same label carried his Swing Kids bandmate, the late Eric Allen, and his band Unbroken. After Allen’s suicide, and after Swing Kids performed their final show, Pearson later played with the Locust, Holy Molar, Some Girls, Crimson Curse, and All Leather, with the last featuring replacement Swing Kid Nathan Joyner (Hot Nerds, All Leather, Some Girls). In 2009, a couple of Swing Kids reunion shows were staged by Pearson, and in summer 2011 he and several other original members recruited Joyner and toured Europe as Blue Note, playing sets of Swing Kids music. A new Swing Kids Anthology LP is due October 23 from Three One G, featuring most of their available recordings. The album will be made available digitally, as well as in a limited edition of 500 “antifa colored” black-and-red splattered vinyl copies with a gatefold cover. All the tracks on Anthology have been remastered by Brent Asbury, with layout and design by Bran Moon.

Anya Marina

Anya Marina's grandmother was a jazz pianist, her grandfather was a sax player, and her dad played trumpet and piano. However, Marina at first aspired toward an acting career, appearing in Hollywood films such as Hope (1999) and 100 Girls (2000). After taking a DJ job in San Diego, she began working on the songs for her 2005 debut full length, Miss Halfway, later landing the title track on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy and winning Best Local Recording at the San Diego Music Awards. The SDMA nominations and wins kept stacking up as she began to rent her songs to more TV shows, including Castle, 13 Reasons Why, and Gossip Girl. Her hit single “Satellite Heart” was heard on the soundtrack to the motion picture Twilight: New Moon, and scenes from the film were used in one of her music videos. Touring has taken her on the road with Spoon, Joshua Radin, Chris Isaak, and Dandy Warhols, as well as with locals Jason Mraz, Greg Laswell, Steve Poltz, and Tristan Prettyman, and she was opening for comedian Nikki Glaser right up until the pandemic shut down most venues. Her album Queen of the Night drops September 25, preceded by a single, now streaming, for “Can’t Nobody Love You.”

Cerulean Veins

Cerulean Veins, a post-punk/coldwave music project founded in 2013 by Paper Plane Pilot songwriter Dustin Frelich, is musically akin to acts such as Joy Division, New Order, Ultravox, the Cure, and Interpol. After releasing a debut single “Black and White” in 2013, around a dozen more singles appeared before a full-length called Self-Entitled was finally issued in 2016, featuring a lineup with Frelich, his wife Amanda Ashley Toombs on keys, guitarist Paul Welch, and drummer Bob Patrowicz. Though mainly promoted as a digital release, a limited edition CD version of Self-Entitled (100 copies) was packaged in a re-sealable sleeve with one-sided front and back card printing and a disc to match. Cerulean Veins had been somewhat off the radar since a full-length called Ado dropped in 2017, but a new album appeared in January of this year, Blue. This past May, Frelich spent the month performing unplugged versions of songs from Blue live on Twitch. Now, a new album called Blue, Unplugged is available, featuring a collection of offline performances from the final week, remixed and remastered from high quality source audio.

We the Commas

With members ranging in age from 17 to 23, the three Comma siblings who make up alt-surf R&B rockers We the Commas released their debut single “Sherry” in June, followed by a single and video for “Custom Made.” They were hoping to continue hosting a series of weekly three-hour gigs at the Bunker House in Oceanside, but it appears that endeavor is closed off for now. However, the band is being championed by supporters such as The Head and The Heart, and they’re working with A-list production talent like Rex Kudo (Post Malone, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert) and Charlie Handsome (Khalid, The Weeknd, Drake). A debut EP is due soon, and their single “Pissed Off” drops September 17. The story behind “Pissed Off” originates from Lenny Comma’s college years. “I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. I changed my major four times and I felt aimless. I finally had enough, and had to get my anger out because I was tired of feeling like a failure and I felt like no one understood me… We all go through periods of life where times get hard and those hardships don’t make sense. But going through it makes you stronger, and you learn so much.”