Hundreds of impressive applications came across our virtual desks this year, which made finding our Loser Winners no easy task. Our Looser Chooser (TM) scholarship committee spent hours reading through an exceptional bunch of applications and at the end of a very difficult decision-making process, the committee has come up with three ultramega-OK, life-affirming scholarship winners. Congratulations to the winners and a huge, heartfelt thanks to all who took the time to apply, you have inspired us beyond belief!

In no particular order, we are thrilled to present our Loser Scholarship winners:

Everett from Spokane’s music knocked our socks off! Everett plays in multiple bands and has played more than 200 shows across 25 states. That’s no small feat! Besides music, Everett is also a talented actor and involved in theater. As if that wasn’t enough, Everett also helped create 509 Activities, a club that promotes outdoor activity, and helped start Best Buddies at his high school. We loved how Everett has applied the DIY spirit to other aspects of life. You inspire us, Loser!

Lydia is a talented artist from Oregon City. She has not only participated in multiple art shows, but has also won numerous awards for her art. To say we were impressed by her portfolio is an understatement! We especially enjoyed the video she made walking us through some of her artwork and performances. Thank you for sharing your world with us. Congratulations Loser!

Pierce is an active member of the DIY community on Bainbridge Island. We related to Pierce’s strong passion for live music and respected how much work and effort he puts into fostering community. Pierce not only plays music but also books venues to play at, promotes on social media, and creates posters for the events. We appreciate your hard work and dedication to the DIIY scene, Loser!

SUNN O)))’s critically acclaimed eponymous new album is out today worldwide from Sub Pop. The six-track, 80-minute long-player, which features the singles “Glory Black,” “Butch’s Guns,” and “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?,” was co-produced & mixed by the band and Brad Wood (Hum, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair), and recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, January 2025. 

Tracklisting:
1. XXANN
2. Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?
3. Butch’s Guns
4 Mindrolling
5. Everett Moses
6. Glory Black

SUNN O))) is now available on CD/2xLP/Digitally from Sub Pop. 2xLP purchases in North America through megamart.subpop.com and in the UK/EU from Mega Mart Europe will receive the limited Loser Edition on opaque blue (North America) and oxblood (UK/EU) colored vinyl. The limited Loser Editions will also be available at your local record store (All vinyl colors and band merch available while supplies last!)
 
Framing the album visually are two paintings by the late American artist Mark Rothko - one on the front cover and one on the back cover, with the art reversed for UK & European pressings. The CD and LP package also includes expansive liner notes by author Robert Macfarlane, whose 2025 novel Is a River Alive? is among the many sources of inspiration for the album. And, illustrations by French artist Elodie Lesourd are featured on the inner LP sleeves and accompanying album merch.

Photo Credit: Charles Peterson

 
SUNN O)))’s international headline tour is currently underway with a show tonight, Friday, April 3rd in Dallas, TX at Trees, and currently ends Saturday, July 11th in Lisbon, Portugal at República Da Música. Tickets for these shows are on sale now.

North America, April 2026
Fri. Apr. 03 - Dallas, TX - Trees Lounge
Sat. Apr. 04 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
Sun. Apr. 05 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall
Mon. Apr. 06 -  New Orleans, LA - Civic Theatre &
Tue. Apr. 07  - Atlanta, GA - The Goat Farm
Thu. Apr. 09 -  Columbus, OH - The Bluestone
Fri. Apr. 10 - Washington, DC - The Lincoln Theatre
Sat.  Apr. 11 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
Sun. Apr. 12 - New York, NY - The Town Hall !
Mon. Apr. 13 - Montreal, QC - Le National @
Tue. Apr. 14 - Toronto, ON - 131 McCormack
Thu. Apr. 16 - Chicago, IL - Salt Shed *
Sat. Apr. 18 -  Iowa City, IA - Englert Theatre *
Sun. Apr. 19 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room *
Mon. Apr. 20 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre *
Wed. Apr. 22 - Boise, ID - Shrine Social Club *
Fri. Apr. 24 - Seattle, WA - Showbox (So Do) %
Sat. Apr. 25 - Portland, OR - Roseland #
 
* w/ Gentry Densley
& w/ MJ Guider
! w/ David Torn
@ w/ Mat Ball
% w/ Stebmo
# w/ Thrones

UK/EU, June/July 2026
Tue. Jun. 16 - Gothenburg, SE - Monument +
Wed. Jun 17- Stockholm, SE - Debaser +
Thur. Jun 18- Oslo, NO - Kulturkirken Jakob +
Fri. Jun 19 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega +
Sun. Jun 21- Groningen, DK - De Oosterpoort ^
Mon. Jun 22- Neunkirchen, DE - Gebläsehalle ^
Tue. Jun. 23 - Zurich, CH - Rote Fabrik ^
Wed. Jun. 24 - Antwerp, BE - Trix ^
Thu. Jun. 25 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso ^
Fri. Jun. 26 - Koln, DE - Essigfabrik ^
Sun. Jun. 28 - Bristol, UK - Prospect Building **
Mon. Jun.  29 - Brighton, UK - Corn Exchange **
Tue. Jun. 30 - Liverpool, UK - The Dome **
Wed. Jul. 01 - Leeds, UK -  Project House **
Thu. Jul. 02 - Birmingham, UK - O2 Institute **
Fri. Jul. 03 - London, UK - Troxy **
Mon. Jul. 06 - Berlin, DE - Silent Green Betonhalle
Tue. Jul. 07 - Berlin, DE - Silent Green Betonhalle
Fri. Jul. 10 - Porto, PT - Fundação de Serralves
Sat. Jul 11 - Lisbon, PT - República Da Música
 
^ w/ Stephen Moore & Natasha Grujovic
** w/ Black Mountain “Twin Oscillations”
+ w/ Maria W Horn

On May 1st, Weird Nightmare (the new project from METZ frontman, Alex Edkins) will release their stellar new long-player, Hoopla, on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop Worldwide and Dine Alone in Canada. The album was co-produced by Edkins and Spoon’s Jim Eno at Seth Manchester’s Machines With Magnets in Providence, RI. Hoopla was crafted with just the right amount of punk rock fuzz and crunch. The immediate, crisp, unfussy recording brings you right into the studio with Edkins and his band.
 
Today, Weird Nightmare has shared an official video for their introspective and anthemic new song “Where I Belong”. Directed by boy wonder, you can watch this video here. “Where I Belong”, follows the release of the standout singles, “Pay No Mind,” “Forever Elsewhere,” and “Might See You There.”
 
Weird Nightmare has expanded its world tour, announcing additional shows in North America, the UK, and the EU. The North American run begins on Saturday, April 18th in New York City at Indie Plaza for Record Store Day and runs through Sunday, June 28th in Medford, MA, at Deep Cuts. Their UK/EU run will begin on Friday, August 28th, in Malaga, ES, at the Canela Party Festival, with additional shows continuing through Sunday, September 13th, in Asten, NL, at the Misty Fields Festival. See below for a full run of shows.

 
North America
Sat. April 18 - New York City, NY - Indie Plaza
Fri. Apr. 24 -  San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
Sat. Apr. 25 - Los Angeles, CA - Gold Diggers ^
Sun. Apr. 26 - Oakland, CA - Thee Stork Club ^
Wed. Apr. 29 -  Seattle, WA - Baba Yaga
Fri. May 01 - Toronto, ON - Sonic Boom in-store
Sun. May 03 -  Brantford, ON -  zBTFD in-store
Tue. May 12 - Kingston, ON - Broom Factory
Wed. May 13 - Montreal, PQ - Bar le Ritz
Sat. May 16 -  Halifax, NS - Marquee Ballroom #  
Wed. May 27 - St. Paul - Turf Club
Thu. May 28 - Chicago, IL - Cobra Lounge
Fri. May 29 - Pontiac, MI - Pike Room
Sat. May 30 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
Wed. Jun. 17 -  London, ON - London Music Hall #
Thu. Jun. 18 - Hamilton, ON -  Bridgeworks #
Fri. Jun. 19 - Toronto, ON -  Masonic Temple #
Sat. Jun. 20 -  Ottawa, ON - The Bronson #
Wed. Jun. 24 - Richmond, VA - Richmond Music Hall
Thu. Jun. 25 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd
Fri. Jun. 26 - Philadelphia, PA  - Ortlieb’s
Sat. Jun. 27 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
Sun. Jun.  28 -  Medford, MA - Deep Cuts
 
 
UK/EU
Fri. Aug. 28 - Malaga, ES - Canela Party Festival
Sat. Aug. 29 - Brighton, UK - Alphabet
Tue. Sep. 01 - Leeds, UK - The Attic
Wed. Sep. 02  - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint
Thu. Sep. 03 - Birmingham, UK -  Hare & Hounds
Fri. Sep. 4th - Southampton, UK - Heartbreakers
Sat. Sep. 5 - London, UK -  The Lexington
Sun. Sep. 6 -  Rotterdam, NL - Rotown
Tue. Sep. 8 - Berlin, DE - Urban Spree
Wed. Sep. 9 - Cologne, DE - Bumann & Sohn
Thu. Sep. 10 - Paris, FR -  Point Ephemere
Sat. Sep. 12 - Lille, FR- Aeronef
Sun. Sep. 13 Asten, NL - Misty Fields Festival
 
^ with Mrs. Magician
# with Wintersleep

 
LP preorders in the US through Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive the limited Loser Edition on Emerald Green-Blue vinyl; preorders through Mega Mart Europe will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange (UK/EU). The Canadian exclusive will be available on Orange/Blue/White Solar Flare from Dine Alone. The limited Loser Editions will also be available at your local record store (All limited vinyl colors available while stock lasts!).

 
What people have said about Weird Nightmare:
“Inspired by the simplicity and ‘big bar chords’ of The Undertones and Protex, [‘Might See You There’] evokes a rose-tinted sense of teenage nostalgia.” - DIY
 
“Weird Nightmare is all about hooks and melody. Still delivered with levels in the red, but these are ultracatchy powerpop songs first and foremost, and really good ones at that.” - Brooklyn Vegan
 
“The debut Weird Nightmare album from METZ guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins is a hook-filled set of blown-out power-pop with distorted guitars, punchy rhythms and bright pop melodies.” - KEXP
 
“Alex Edkins finally lets those melodies loose, resulting in an irresistibly euphoric blast of feedback spattered garage-pop that is just what the doctor ordered to chase away any lingering post-lockdown blues.’” - The Quietus

Weird Nightmare
Hoopla
 
Tracklisting:
1. Headful of Rain
2. Might See You There
3. Baby Don’t
4. Forever Elsewhere
5. Never in Style
6. Pay No Mind
7. If You Should Turn Away
8. Little Strange
9. Bright City Lights (ft. Julianna Riolino)
10. Where I Belong

The exhilarating French heavy psychedelic rock band SLIFT is returning with Fantasia, their new album, available Friday, June 6th, 2026 worldwide from Sub Pop. The longplayer was produced by the band at Daft Studios in Brussels, Belgium, mixed by Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg at Vrtkl Audio in Stockholm, Sweden. Fantasia features the highlights “The Day of Execution,” the title track, and today’s offering, the soaring “A Storm of Wings”
 
Fantasia is now available for preorder on CD/2xLP/Digitally worldwide from Sub Pop. 2xLP preorders in North America through megamart.subpop.com and in the UK/EU from Mega Mart Europe will receive the limited Loser Edition on Mustard Yellow (North America) and Sparkle Starlight (UK/EU) colored vinyl. The limited Loser Editions will also be available at your local record store while supplies last.
 
SLIFT’s previously announced European tour schedule for the Spring and Summer of 2026 resumes Thursday, April 16th in Bourges, FR at Printemps du Bourges, and runs through Saturday, August 15th in Carhaix, FR at Motocultor Festival. New headlining dates for North America and Europe for 2026 will be announced soon.
 

In the technical sense, every previous album by the radiant and heavy French trio SLIFT has been a fantasia—a composite of genres and forms that allowed the band to improvise, to jam on themes until they seemed to spiral together into space. Their acclaimed third album, 2024’s Ilion, was a sci-fi story built with 10- to 13-minute exploratory escapades, often starting with doom metal or stoner rock before spinning freely into glorious instrumental oblivion. But, in a bit of intentional irony, SLIFT’s fourth album is actually called Fantasia. It’s their leanest and most direct record to date; taken together, its eight songs clock in at less than 50 minutes. It is also their most riveting album yet, a pointed saga about overcoming international upheaval delivered by a band bearing down, not wasting a single second in the process.
 
They wanted to write and render songs that recognized the turmoil of these days and to sing of a more hopeful vision, of a time when a reckoning arrives. SLIFT didn’t want to lose the message by playing too much. To wit, the longest song on Fantasia is the opening title track, a nine-minute preamble in which Jean Fossat screams of his desires for the world: rising above our pain, burying our dread, and finding, individually and collectively, “a fire for your soul.” The songs that follow aren’t lacking the complexity or intensity that have made SLIFT a rising, radical star in heavy music; it’s simply that they’ve found new ways to weave the complexities of their past inside every piece, like a tapestry that reveals a new layer every time you look. In doing so, they offer an affirming and urgent message: Together, we can still change the times in which we live.
 
Though only Jean and bassist Rémi Fossat are related, SLIFT is essentially a band of brothers. They’ve been friends with drummer Canek Flores since high school, and 2026 marks a decade together in this trio. They rehearse with religious regularity in a basement in the countryside near Toulouse, inside the jam room where they’ve long indulged their propensity for longform wonder. But they built the songs of Fantasia differently. Jean started many of the songs by himself, then quickly brought them to basement rehearsals with a clear and concise idea of how he imagined them taking shape. At first, SLIFT struggled to keep the songs tight, old habits making them wonder if this song or that one shouldn’t break the double-digit threshold. By the time they crossed France’s northern border into Belgium to record in the enormous live room at Daft Studios, though, the songs were lean, agile, and punchy. They made most of them in a single take.
 
As Jean Fossat wrote the core of Fantasia, he thought a lot about Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian author whose fiction deftly wove elements of magic and surreality into places and plots that almost felt real. He wanted to accomplish the same thing, to add supernatural touches to his contemplations of politics so that the listener might see reality differently, might question what they were missing about this plane. SLIFT even borrowed the song title “Orbis Tertius” from a 1940 Borges short story that uses the idea of subjective idealism—that is, believing the world only exists as far as our minds go—to ask questions of memory, history, possibility, and, ultimately, control. Fantasia, then, is an imagined town plagued by a sense of unknowing and xenophobia, of trying to eliminate anything that disrupts the accepted order.
 
The town first comes into focus on “Corrupted Sky,” where lurid keyboards and a relentless rhythm section illustrate a city of power-hungry wastrels. Jean’s guitar solo feels like an exhilarating chase sequence in a video game, as he tries to dodge doom while arriving in Fantasia. They treat the newcomer like poison incarnate during the prog gem “The Village,” while he predicts their downfall during “A Storm of Wings.” In a mighty, fists-up anthem that suggests Clutch getting wild, SLIFT alludes to John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov to portend the arrival of some great liberating force, some redemptive truth.
 
That slowly starts to emerge during the record’s back half, as memory returns to the masses, as people start to remember that they are more than the oppressive uniformity of their society. “Waiting Man”—a psychedelic ballad that suggests Pink Floyd wandering into the Master of Reality sessions—is the breaking point. The narrator realizes that the world he’s committed to is a lie. “I waited for love, waited my time,” Jean Fossat sings, his voice more vulnerable than it’s ever been. “Waited the seasons of my life.” He knows he must find his own way out of this mess and into something better, so long as it’s not too late.
 
It is dreadfully easy these days to feel powerless. We have instant access to a world of news, and so much of it is so very heavy. SLIFT reckons directly with the modern onslaught of cruelty and absurdity on Fantasia, whether that’s not caring about our home planet or one another. But these eight songs are about trusting in some hidden power for fighting back, for believing in a world where something we cannot yet articulate or define offers not just a way to disrupt the status quo but perhaps to destroy it completely. SLIFT is loud, heavy, and aggressive inside these anthems. They’re preparing for a battle they think we can still win.