🥤 SIPSMAN COMMUNIQUE: July 2026

If you’re in New Orleans tomorrow, come to Sipsman’s @ Bar Pomona cos it’ll be fun, even the Times-Picayune thinks so. Here’s the menu. Chef Eliza’s making some Montréal-style smoked meat sandwiches and some other snacks. I’ll make the drinks and sell you some Sipsman releases too, if you’re interested (psst Clifford’s Golden Caravan turns one on Saturday).

As of recent:

VORHEX ANGEL
After giving physical a monthlong headstart, DRAIN is now released across all digital platforms except Spotify. Listeners need no longer to be bound to their turntable or CD player to experience the sprawling experimental double album’s seven tracks of larger than life guitar solos, spaced-out drone excursions, and moments of potent intensity!! In their review, Outside Noise mentioned Talk Talk as a reference point which I wish I thought of sooner. As you’re listening, check out Vorhex Angel’s conversation with Primitive Ring on Talkhouse. The group’s tour with cosmic pedal steel player Luke Schneider stops in Connecticut tonight before wrapping up in Boston tomorrow, do not miss!

JACOB UNGERLEIDER
Congratulations is out in the world thanks to Jenn Wasner’s new label 2 Heads, and thank god about it. A beautiful and bittersweet set of 12 songs that will crack your heart and your humor, that will blur the boundary between a smile and a frown, that will introduce you to a new bedroom pop auteur who wears a heart on his sleeve that might look a lot like yours. Francesca Blanchard directs and stars in her perfect music video for album closer “To Be Proven Wrong,” a song that features vocoder, slide guitar, and a whole key shift down vs up. Next level shit. LPs and CDs shipping out now.

RADIATOR HOSPITAL
On his sixth LP under the name, Sam Cook-Parrott isn’t playing with nostalgia; he’s actively avoiding it. Distorting Time is a brand new collection of Radiator Hospital songs—his first release on Lame-O Records—recorded to 4-track cassette in Sam’s home, with a few additional flourishes captured at Jeff Zeigler’s Uniform Recording studio in Philadelphia. It’s scuzzy and sweet. Check out Exhibit A “Wall Between Us” and let Austin Town Hall articulate it perfectly: “There are some voices you hear, and you can immediately place them no matter where your mind goes, and Sam Cook-Parrot has always gifted us that distinctive sound.” Sam is taking this out on the road in a big way this fall, don’t miss these songs live.

HOLLOW HAND
“I Turned My Back On The World” is a tender look back at family and childhood summers spent in South West England. It arrives with a music video directed by Hollow Hand’s own Max Kinghorn-Mills. Listen to New Commute: “With a subtle Wilco-shaped looseness and the fuller ensemble approach that defines Wish Road South, arriving September 4, the Brighton songwriter makes expansion seem like a natural next step.” Hollow Hand will arrive stateside for appearances at Americanafest, with a thorough tour through the UK in October.

LILY SEABIRD
After Lightspheres on Their Way was announced last month, lead single “Election Day” wound up as the Song of the Week at Stereogum and Paste, with the latter accurately clocking it as “an Americana headbanger.” New single “Portal to the Past” was released last week, a seven-minute stunner that sounds like Crazy Horse recording at Electrical Audio. LPs and CDs will be in stores and at the merch table during her September UK tour, which ends with Seabird and her band opening the Woods Stage at End of the Road on its final day. Digital to follow just ahead of southeast dates with Black Country, New Road. In between, she’ll make a few appearances at Americanafest.

THOMAS DOLLBAUM
Dollbaum’s currently heading home after a two-week run out west supporting Lucero, but he’ll return to the road in September for a newly-announced full band headline tour which includes stops at The Hideout in Chicago, Americanafest (“is there a pattern forming here?”) and Brooklyn’s Union Pool. If you haven’t had the chance to tackle it yet, this quiet moment’s the time to read Matt Mitchell’s thoughtful 2500+ word feature on Dollbaum in Paste. Check Brooklyn Vegan for all the dates, who recently named Birds of Paradise one of 2026’s best so far while writing “his songs are deceptively unfussy and the scenes he sets are incredibly vivid.” Tickets are on sale now.

LAMBCHOP
Punching the Clown is out August 21 via Merge / City Slang and it’s a masterclass in songcraft, as you may have gathered after hearing the Pitchfork Selected previous singles “Weakened” and “Stella.” Night one of Lambchop’s three-date residency at Crooner’s Supper Club saw Wagner and company performing songs from Punching the Clown to a sold out crowd. Tickets for the remaining dates of the residency, as well as shows in Chicago, NYC, and Europe, are on sale now.

A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR THE ENO
This year, for the first time, The Festival for the Eno—deemed 2025’s Best Music Festival in the Triangle by Indy Week readers—is heading off the river and into downtown Durham! This September 12, celebrate sixty years of the Eno River Association at the historic Carolina Theatre with Fletcher Hall performances from Jake Xerxes Fussell (who just announced a new record), a special collaboration from ​​Pura Fé & Cary Morin, and Tre. Charles. The evening will also include guest speakers, two poetry & sound collaborations, a culture & history exhibit, and more surprises.