Formed in 2018, Meltway quickly set themselves apart with their unique blend of shoegaze, indie rock, and dreamy atmospheres.

If you told me I could only bring one album to a desert island, no hesitation—it’s Spirit of Eden. Not because it’s comforting. Not because it’s familiar.

They’re continents apart. Mumbai. Vennesla. Two rooms, two climates, no shared time zone, no shared breath. Just a signal dragging riffs through lag and latency, pressed flat and grainy through inboxes and cables that probably weren’t built to carry this kind of weight.

There’s a very specific kind of ghost that haunts post-’90s alt rock—bands caught between the death of the major label gold rush and the digital Wild West that followed. Year of the Rabbit is one of those bands, not a bridge but a brick thrown across the chasm.

Rancocas Valley’s Battle of the Bands wasn’t just a school concert—it was a full-blown eruption of talent, heart, and raw energy. Nine acts brought the crowd to its feet with everything from acoustic duets to improvised chaos, from tearjerkers to mosh-ready riffs.

Bob Log III doesn’t play shows. He commits musical arson. One man, one guitar, one boot, one helmet, and a phone receiver duct-taped to his face like a CB radio from hell, barking transmissions from the last real dive bar in the universe.

It sounds like a dare. Like a prank pulled on Epic Records’ A&R department in 1994—“Let’s sign these D.C. freaks who sound like Queen on dissociatives and see what happens.”

There’s a kind of confidence you can’t fake. The kind that doesn’t beg to be liked, doesn’t audition for your playlist.

There were never any flowers for Failure. But with Fantastic Planet, they made the kind of record that haunts the air long after the transmission ends.