Modest Mouse's first independent record in 30 years, Death Cab back on Anti- after two decades on a major, Of Montreal's 20th album, and Converge dropping their second LP of 2026.
Plus the Space episode finally answers what Britpop was missing, Gang of Four's Entertainment! gets the punk-funk politics treatment, and Yes turn 24 studio albums into something that still surprises.
This Week on Dig Me Out
Space, Spiders, and the Glorious Problem of a Band Too Weird for Britpop
J Dziak and Tim Minneci, June 9, 2026
What happens when a Liverpool band dodges the Oasis/Blur template with a collage of lounge, trip-hop, and off-kilter pop? They get one huge single (”Female of the Species”), one cult-classic album, and a place in the “what if” file forever. This week we dig into the moment Britpop almost made room for the weird kids.
Gang of Four’s Entertainment!: Punk, Funk, and the Politics of Rhythm
J Dziak, Chip Midnight, and Tim Minneci, June 2, 2026
From Thatcher-era anxiety to 2000s indie dancefloors, Entertainment! is the record that taught two generations of guitarists they could play funk if they did it angry enough. The poll winner gets the deep dive.
Kashmir’s No Balance Palace: The Forgotten Album with Bowie and Lou Reed
J Dziak and Tim Minneci, May 26, 2026
A Danish art-rock record that went to number one in its home country, featured David Bowie and Lou Reed as guests, and somehow never escaped Europe. Patron Jason Pan picked it for exactly that reason.
👋 Know a lost or forgotten album that deserves the spotlight? Suggest it for a future episode.
Coming Up Next
Black Roses (Various Artists) Soundtrack
The 1988 cult horror film about a glam-metal band that turns out to be literal demons. Soundtrack contributors include King Kobra (whose Ready to Strike just hit the Hopper, picked by jdziak), Lizzy Borden, and Bang Tango. 80s metal at its peak commercial absurdity, before grunge sent everyone running.
Give it a spin before Tuesday and come ready with what works and what doesn’t.
Want to hand-pick an album for a future episode and join us on the show to dig into it? Join the Board of Directors at dmounion.com.
New Releases
Modest Mouse – An Eraser and a Maze
Close your eyes and you’re back in 2004, summer somewhere, “Float On” coming out of every passing car. Modest Mouse were the band who broke through after a decade of grinding through indie obscurity, and Isaac Brock’s voice became the texture of the mid-2000s. An Eraser and a Maze is their eighth studio album, out June 5 on Brock’s own Glacial Pace, their first independent release in 30 years and first record since drummer Jeremiah Green’s passing in 2022.
What works: The Au Review gave it four out of five and called it “a meandering self-reflective tribute to life.” RANGE goes further: “the band’s strongest in years, eclipsing both The Golden Casketand the often-overlooked Strangers to Ourselves.”
What doesn’t: Fiona Shepherd at The List (per the Wikipedia summary) scored it 3 out of 5 and called it a record that “captures the eclecticism of their career in under 50 minutes,” which doubles as praise and as a warning: 15 tracks across that many moods can feel like a tour rather than a destination.
Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower
You remember “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” at every wedding, every breakup mixtape, every late-2000s indie playlist that lived in someone’s iPod. Ben Gibbard spent the 2000s articulating sadness for an entire generation, and Death Cab quietly became one of the most reliably good American bands of the last 25 years. I Built You a Tower is their 11th album, out June 5 on Anti-, their first independent release in 20 years after two decades on Atlantic, produced by John Congleton in three weeks and written through the dissolution of Gibbard’s second marriage.
What works: The Fire Note lands on the leanness: “Some of Ben Gibbard’s sharpest writing in years arrives on a record that feels lean, focused, and emotionally exposed.” The speed of the sessions shows up in the spark.
What doesn’t: Kerrang scored it 3/5 and gave the contradiction at the heart of the record: “It’s Death Cab at their brooding, beautiful best. While not every track hits that hard, this is still a worthy addition to the band’s catalogue of poignant, sorrowful songs.” Translation: if you wanted the Gibbard who wrote “The Sound of Settling,” you’ll find pieces of him. If you wanted a whole new band, that isn’t the record.
Of Montreal – aethermead
Picture Kevin Barnes at the Hissing Fauna peak in 2007, the freakiest art-pop band on the Elephant 6 roster, building entire records out of dance beats, glam-rock theatrics, and Barnes’ chronic emotional oversharing. aethermead is the 20th of Montreal album, out June 5 on Polyvinyl, written after Barnes’ breakup and move to Brooklyn, where he walks his dog every morning through the Nethermead meadow in Prospect Park. The title comes from that walk.
What works: Beats Per Minute gave it 76% and frames it as “a sort of a musical recap of what he has done in the 30 years,” with Barnes “picking and choosing musical elements with such an ease that often escapes other artists.”
What doesn’t: Psychedelic Scene Magazine names the cost of admission: the record “seems to reflect a lost relationship in an unhealthy way and focuses on the negative qualities Barnes showed to his lover while blaming her for leaving.” Barnes has always written from the wound. If that’s a feature for you, this is more of it. If it’s a bug, it’s a big bug.
👋 If you want to hand-pick an album for a future episode and join us on the podcast to dig into it, that’s exactly what the Board of Directors is for. Join at dmounion.com.
Converge – Hum of Hurt
Remember the first time you heard Jane Doe in 2001 and realized hardcore could be that emotional and that punishing at the same time. Converge spent 30 years being the band that other hardcore bands measured themselves against. Hum of Hurt is their 11th album (or 12th if you count the Chelsea Wolfe collaboration), out June 5 on Deathwish/Epitaph, and remarkably, their SECOND album of 2026 after February’s Love Is Not Enough. The sessions split into two records: one leaning metal, one leaning emotional hardcore. This is the second one.
What works: Wonderbox Metal calls it “essential listening” and lands on this: “Well, if it’s not enough for Converge to release one great album in a year, they’ve now gone and released another that’s arguably even better.” New Noise Magazine adds that it’s “one of the band’s most emotionally exposed records.”
What doesn’t: The reviewer at YouTube/A Reaction calls it “the blander of the two records the band has just released” and notes that while it’s still solid Converge, it doesn’t carry the same nuance as Love Is Not Enough. Two records in four months is a lot to absorb. If you’ve only got room for one, the consensus is Love Is Not Enough.
Yes – Aurora
If you have a parent or older sibling who ever sat you down and made you listen to Close to the Edge in 1972, you know exactly what Yes are. Steve Howe’s guitar lattice, Jon Anderson’s choir-boy register, Rick Wakeman’s cape-wearing keyboard wizardry, and the most ambitious prog band ever to fit a 20-minute song onto one side of vinyl. Aurora is their 24th studio album, out June 12 on InsideOut/Sony, produced by Steve Howe, with the current lineup of Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood, and Jay Schellen.
What works: The Prog Report calls it “the strongest album of the Jon Davison era so far,” with “a rhythm section that feels genuinely locked in, Geoff Downes’ keyboards pushed much further forward in the mix, and the increasingly rich vocal blend developing between Jon Davison, Steve Howe, and Billy Sherwood.”
What doesn’t: Something Else! is positive overall but warns that Aurora is “leaner in concept” rather than reaching for the sprawling mysticism of the 1970s catalog. If you came for Close to the Edge Part 2, this is not that record. Both reviewers agree: judge it on its own terms or skip it.
Piebald – Tales for the Rages
If you were on a Vagrant Records tour bus in 2002 or wore out your We Are the Only Friends We Have CD in college, you remember Piebald. The Andover, Massachusetts emo/indie band who specialized in anthemic sing-alongs with an offbeat sense of humor, then went quiet after 2007. Tales for the Rages is their first new album in 19 years, out June 12 on Iodine Recordings, written and recorded between 2019 and 2025 after their 2016 reunion, produced in part by Jay Maas (Title Fight, Citizen) and mastered by Jack Shirley (Joyce Manor).
What works: The Concert Chronicles frames the comeback as “a continuation rather than a throwback. The same voice, just with more time behind it. It sounds like a band that understands exactly what made them work, without feeling the need to prove it again.”
What doesn’t: The Concert Chronicles acknowledges the risk plainly: “No reset. No reinvention. Just a band picking back up where they left off.” If you wanted Piebald to evolve into something they’ve never been before, they didn’t. If you wanted 13 more tracks that sound like Piebald, they delivered.
Also Out This Week
Rachel Bolan – Gargoyle of the Garden State: The Skid Row bassist’s punk-rock solo debut on earMusic, produced by Nick Raskulinecz with guest spots from Corey Taylor, Danko Jones, and Nuno Bettencourt. Chaoszine called it “one of the most personal works of Bolan’s career.”
The Dwarves – Jenkem: 17th album from the Chicago-via-SF punk provocateurs, 13 short violent bursts that The Concert Chroniclessays “strips things back to speed and impact, short songs, aggressive pacing, and no real interest in overcomplicating anything.”
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs – Mission of Mercy: Tom Petty’s longtime guitarist’s fourth Dirty Knobs album, classic Heartbreakers-adjacent rock that fans of his guitar tone have been chasing ever since Petty’s death in 2017.
Thomas Bangalter – Mirage: Ballet For 16 Dancers: The Daft Punk co-founder’s second post-helmet contemporary classical work, scored for a Stéphanie Aubin choreography after 2023’s Mythologies. Confirms his “I’m a French composer now” pivot is permanent.
Jon Spencer – Songs of Personal Loss and Protest: First Jon Spencer record under his own name in a decade. Title tells you exactly what you’re getting.
Fresh in the Hopper
The queue has been busy. Here are the picks worth bookmarking.
Tsar, Tsar (2000), submitted by whitsbrain. He calls it “an all but forgotten work of guitar pop mastery,” ranking it near the top of the power pop genre. His pitch: “Why did it take me this long to give it the recognition it deserves? Quite possibly one of my largest musical oversights.”
Queens of the Stone Age, Rated R (2000), submitted by Jake Miller. The pitch is the perfect Dig Me Out frame: “For meatheads like me who only discovered QOTSA on Songs for the Deaf, Rated Ris the one where they really made the leap.” The record where the band became a band, not a Josh Homme post-Kyuss project.
Fields of the Nephilim, Dawnrazor (1987), submitted by Chip. He bought the cassette at 16 in a Florida record store after spotting them as a Black Sabbath tour opener. The spaghetti-western instrumental opener scared him. Carl McCoy on the cover, no face visible except the yellow eyes.
Got a lost or forgotten album that deserves the spotlight? Drop it in the Hopper.