OK, I know these are the first playlists of 2026, but I think I have a pretty good excuse for procrastinating this time, huh? Huh?
The good news is, great music has continued to emerge from Minnesota and beyond even as our state has become a war zone, and an actual war has been launched overseas. Music—it's good!
In additional good news, I've finally ditched Spotify. The playlists themselves are now on Tidal. As always, each individual song is linked to the artist's Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or YouTube.
Local Picks
Full playlist here
Goodbye, Creeping Charlie. Hello, Agnes Uncaged. Julia Eubanks sings from behind a scrim of fuzz, as in the style in our neo-shoegaze age, but the distortion and melodies are sonically youthful in a DGC sort of way. Onetime go-to alt-rock producer John Agnello working on the band’s new album, Cyanotype, might have something to do with that.
Not really a “protest song” so much as “everything you ever wanted to say to your dumbass MAGA family member song.” Exhausted from the same pointless family arguments, sarcastically snarling “Every expert in every field/All got together to lie to you,” Adam Durry imagines a moment when the duped finally open their eyes. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Favourite Girl, “Confetti”
It has not been a particularly celebratory year so far, I know. But with its snappy beat and mariachi-style trumpet, the latest from Katy Vernon’s pop group refuses to wait for special occasions. When your actions don’t get the response you deserve, “Throw your own confetti,” Vernon advises, and I concur. You contributed to mutual aid? You blew a whistle at an ICE thug? You took a shower and got dressed? Celebrate!
Field Hospitals, “Everyfire”
Last year, these guitar pop formalists placed in Picked to Click and released their excellent debut, Ethel Green. The chiming guitars on this follow-up sound no less confident as they convey a message from our “days of occupation,” and you might just get a little lift out of it. That’s what chiming guitars are for, after all. They're at Cloudland tonight, by the way.
Sometimes a vocalist and a producer gel so well together that there’s not much more than that to say. It’s usually a matter of trust, and anyone who grooved to Sophia Eris and Makr’s 2022 EP debut as a duo has heard the feel that these two collaborators have for each other. On this housey track, they’re abetted by Naeem and Ben Ivascu, and Eris is so willing to share the spotlight that her vocals don’t show up until about a minute in.
Modern Wildlife, “The Whole Boot”
Is this punky, foot-forward jam a BDSM command or a satire of submitting to authority? Either way, what’ll hook ya is that busy little bassline providing a twisted spine as the guitar artfully drops in and out, regardless of your taste for leather. The band's new album, A Glamorous Facade, is out today, and that Cloudland show I mentioned earlier? That's their release party.
Parent Patrol, “if you seek ice”
While responsible protestors have tried to make “ICE Out” the slogan of the Minnesota resistance, “Fuck ICE” has consistently won the day, and this breakneck playground chant-along will help you realize why. Of all the local protest numbers I’ve heard, from the truly stirring to the merely well-meaning, this track is the one that most treats the thugs with all the dignity they deserve. Who is Parent Patrol? Who was Parent Patrol? Maybe we’re all Parent Patrol?
Sooner or later, every forward-thinking musician from the Upper Midwest gets drawn into Justin Vernon’s orbit. Dua Saleh’s first brush with Bon Iver came on the 2000 Andrew Broder track “Bloodrush”; now Vernon has produced two tracks on Saleh’s upcoming album, Of Earth and Wires, due in May, and he sings on both too. Both "Glow" and "Flood" sound great, but I especially dig the way Saleh’s falsetto gets a workout on the hypnotic latter, about a brush with global warning in Cardiff.
True Green, “Italian Lightning”
Our first taste of Dan Hornsby’s upcoming album, Hail Disaster, jangles along with hooky ease, and the lyrics (“I’m a hotel by the airport/You’re a timeshare by the sea”) wouldn’t be out of place in an extended version of “You’re the Top.”
Believe me, I’m not complaining, but doesn’t it seem like every time you turn around there’s a new Vial track? The band has a new album out today called Hellhound; this was the first single, dropped unpropitiously on the same day an ICE goon killed Renee Good. (Doesn’t that seem like ages ago? Less than two months have passed.) The swarming guitars here buzz like mosquitos and sting twice as hard.
Non-Local Picks
Full playlist here
Courtney Barnett, “Site Unseen”
Well now, don’t Barnett sound right at home harmonizing with Katie Crutchfield? Then again, who wouldn’t? Barnett’s first album in three years, Creature of Habit, is due later this month; this single is as straightforward and punchy as its title pun is mild.
Cain Culto, Jarina De Marco, “Chismosa”
Culto is a gay former pastor who, ICYMI (I certainly MI), is responsible for a 2025 anti-ICE song, “¡BASTA YA!,” that meets our horrific moment with all the frustration and joy it requires. As its title suggests, the more-lighthearted “Chismosa” deals with gossip, over an irresistible dayglo pop-reggaeton beat. Didn't realize he was opening for Sudan Archives' recent Fine Line show, which I already regretted missing, and now I'm kicking myself with both feet.
The Scythe feat. Denzel Curry, Bktherula, & Lazer Dim 700, "Lit Effect"
I don’t entirely understand what “The Scythe” is. As far as I can tell, it involves Denzel Curry and a rotating cast of MCs. I'd call it a rap supergroup, but those don’t have such a great track record. Strictly 4 the Scythe sounds great on first listen, with this cut headed to the front of the line thanks to the ever-welcome Bktherula and a great chorus: "Y'all n****s don't got no money, can tell by the way that you beef on the internet."
Girl Scout, “Operator”
Emma Janson has a crush on a telephone operator. What’s funny about that isn’t just that she hasn’t ever seen the operator. It’s that telephone operators ceased to be a thing long before Janson was born. But hey, what’s a little creative anachronism if it ensures an irresistible bit of Swedish guitar pop, right?
Kim Gordon, “Not Today”
Gordon’s still working with rap-adjacent producer Justin Raisen, but with its straightforward 4/4 and controlled cacophony, this track from her upcoming album Play Me (due next Friday), recalls her old band than anything on her two previous solo records. She also accesses a smidgen of vulnerability to leaven her forbidding cool.
Mandy, Indiana (feat. billy woods), “Sicko!”
Mandy, Indiana is an international group of synthy noise-rockers that has developed just as much as you’d hope a hot new band would between a 2023 debut and their latest, Urgh! Bassy yet tuneful, the beatwork here is perfect for midlife rap MVP woods, who obliquely tackles the sickness industry in the U.S. with lines like “Harm reduction is hiding the body so they can keep hope alive” and a kicker that puns “big pharma” and “buy the farm.” There’s even an Eraserhead reference (theirs, not his).
I know your ears glaze over when I get giddy about pop-country gals, but with Cloud 9, Moroney has now released three consecutive albums that put your sullen, flannel-Americana boy of choice to shame. And she's only getting better: I swear she's been listening to Sabrina Carpenter and taking notes. On this perky good-for-the-gander two-stepper, Moroney lets her little black dress hit some other hunk's floor, advises the fuckboy addressee to try crying in the shower, and rhymes the title with "head again." Anyway, I’m not gonna push my luck—I won’t try to sell you on Ella Langley till next time.
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, “Deface the Currency”
Thinking The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis was a one off, I was thrilled to learn that these rock instrumentalists (Fugazi’s rhythm section + guitarist Anthony Pirog) and jazz saxophonist Lewis had enough fun to go for a second round. And if anything, they sound more comfortable together on the new Deface the Currency than they did last time. Just dig their interactions on this title cut.
Robyn works at her own pace. We waited eight years between Body Talk and the dancey but a mite hook-deficient Honey, and it’s been another eight years since. I treasure bad sex puns, and I truly missed the DGAF DIY dancehall queen who resurfaces here. I also love that this was a direct response to Andre 3000 saying no one wants to hear a colonoscopy rap: “I have to do this, I have to write a rap about IVF." Also, “fuck a app” for real.
Bruce Springsteen, “Streets of Minneapolis”
Well, yeah. It would be wonderful if a younger, more culturally centered artist sought to define our current situation. But I’m not gonna begrudge a worthy nod from a rock institution. Sometimes a monument is just what a moment needs.
Worst New Song
Noah Kahan, “The Great Divide”
Sensitive dorm rockers are in ascendance once again, and Kahan is hardly the worst of the lot, not with Benson Boone and Alex Warren tracks buried across your TikTok feed like landmines of normie excess. His heartbreak lyrics feel lived-in, for what that's worth, and his melodic moods are timeless—this could have soundtracked a WB scene a quarter-century ago, and it will still sound apt however music is transmitted into our brains in 2075. Yep, there are always gonna be guys like Kahan, sad and wordy and tuneful. But that doesn’t mean I have to like them, especially when they're possessive enough to worry about what your new man will do to "your soul."
Wanna get a local song considered for the playlist? To make things easy on both of us, email keith@racketmn.com with MONDAY PLAYLIST in the subject header. (Don’t, as in do NOT, DM or text: If I’m in a good mood, I’ll just ask you to send an email; if I’m in a bad mood I’ll just ignore it.)
