It Was A Mild Winter, Until It Wasn't (January 2026, Connecticut Music)

 

January 2026 began in Connecticut feeling like winter wasn't going to be so cold and snow-filled this year.  Yes, we had some cold days and we even had some snow.  But overall this winter had felt mild with unseasonably warm temperatures.   Of course, all of that changed around the 25th.  During that Sunday, we got seventeen inches of snow here, though of course it varied throughout the state.  

Before we go into January 2026 officially, I feel as if we have to step back into December 2025 for a moment, when Fake Four Inc. released an EP from Allie Burnet & The Proven Winners titled "Preform Selections From Christine Hayward and Fire Island Ak".   These four songs begin with "Nowhere Better" which has as strong of a piano sound to it as it does a cello.  Somewhere between 10,000 Maniacs and Tongue Depressor, this is not a sound I thought I'd ever hear but I am glad that I have.  

Singing about coming in on the Greyhound from Baltimore on "The Bus'd" makes me think of Ben Folds, the way the vocals blend with the piano keys, but the cello also joins this also in a winding way I'm not sure Ben Folds has ever used.   "Spring" comes on with these big Phil Collins type drums, then as the cello comes back with the keys it reminds me a bit of Elliott Smith.   This is such a delightful winter time cover though because it's about living in the winter season but realizing you're feeling like spring time.

These four songs are covers of the two artists mentioned in the title and though they might be cover songs they hold a sense of importance because a) I don't think a lot of people know of these two artists, so it could open up a whole lot of new musical words in that way and b) the way that Allie Burnet & the Proven Winners have covered these songs is fairly different from how they sound originally so in that idea of taking these songs and kind of making them their own it's almost as if you are getting four new songs.  

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    As someone who has listened to a lot of chiptune and 8bit music, I was excited for the release of "The Hugur Files" by DonutShoes on January 1st 2026.   The sound feels closer to electronic than the video game sound, but it still works really well and you can defiitely hear both influences.   With beats and rhythms, songs like "Miscalculation" and "Breach" have more of a sci-fi sound which comes with that X-Files territory.  

Mostly instrumental, the beat drop seems to be speaking for itself here.  Sometimes the sound can be distorted like glitch notes coming through.  This makes me think of Transformers, but also there is something almost industrial about this as well- a little bit of Nine Inch Nails.   Yet, somehow, through all of this as well, there is just such a pace to these songs that will make you want to certainly get up and dance because they are energized more than a thousand Red Bulls.  

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The Regal Drug takes you on an instrumental odyssey with "Chrysalism" (released January 1st 2026 as well).  Between the guitars and what sound like trumpets accompanying them, there hangs this vast, open wasteland of sound.  It just feels like you're sitting at the end of eternity and staring on and on infinitely.   Relaxing and soothing, this can have you feeling like you're on the verge of falling asleep before more soft sounds come in to break up that idea.   It's that post rock but just feeling desolate which makes the first part of this album.

"Part II" comes scorching through, like we're about to set this whole land ablaze.   The way certain sounds hit can make it feel as if we're just drifting through space.  Notes can hit and make it feel like we're in some sort of space trouble, but it also can feel like we'll survive if we just stay the course.   Explosions In The Sky vibes here, as the notes just pick up and lead the direction for us.   Static shifts in and it feels like there is a guitar takeover now, though we still remain in space.   I do enjoy as well how this can feel like we're drifting out to sea (or into space) and the trumpet comes in to play us out.

You'll have to hear parts three and four for yourself, but the way that The Regal Drug can take you on an instrumental adventure while making you calm but also keeping you on the edge of your seat is the type of sound we need to hear more of in the world.  

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One of my favorite local artists (and not just because I'm also from Meriden) released a new album called "More Forgettable Works (2015-2020)" (out January 8th 2026) and it is exactly the type of thing I'd love to randomly find on cassette at a thrift shop or record store and start listening to randomly.  If I didn't know who cityofmeriden was prior to this, I'd think of them as being this sort of experimental rock band, like Flaming Lips but with more experiments.   

While some of these songs like "blood rush" are shorter and can feel like clips, then you go into a song called "old" and it's got that longer, wild sound I expected.  So you'll go back and forth between feeling like a song isn't long enough and feeling like the length is just right.  But there are also the sounds.  The beats.   The singing being manipulated.  The electronics within the rock.  Even just the way this opens with "smoked cigarettes" which feels like acoustic guitar + vocals though there is a crowd talking behind it.

You're really going to want to sit down with this one and take your time because it can feel like a lot, and that's okay.  It's heavy in the way that sometimes it can get loud but also just heavy in the weight it carries.  It's not something you should just put on as background noise, but rather it should be your main focus because it's going to grab you and pull you in, like a great three hour film that feels like it flashes by in the blink of an eye.  

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On January 10th 2026, Quentin's fourteenth birthday, one of the single best musicians I know, Frank Critelli, released a new song called "The Way of the World".  If you've been paying attention to the news at all or just looking outside, you'll know that we're in some trouble.   One of the first lines you'll hear in this song is about how people don't read books or really understand "repeated history" and I just think that's so important because if you really want to go down a certain rabbithole you can very easily compare the actions of a certain dictator now to one who existed in the past. 

There are lines like "In the second quarter of the 21st Century / where the robots are healthier than you and me / and we still go to work, mow the lawn, clean and cook / while AI writes all of our poetry" which is a lot to be discussed, but then lyrics can be more direct such as: "they say your freedom and survival make your neighbor your rival".  Maybe the way we stand up in unity is simply by forming that sense of community.

I don't want to dive too deep into all of the politics in the world right now, but I know that there is a restaurant across the street from me that I love.  And I know that I would protest the government trying to come into my son's school.  So if we all just have that way where we stand together with our neighbors, then that ultimately leads to all of us standing together as a country, right?  Maybe I'm just wishful thinking, but put this song by Frank Critelli in your playlist because it's certainly a message more people need to hear right now.  

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Connecticut is full of bands who have that pop punk sound without being fully pop punk and among the best of them is Mildly Allergic.  Parts Time Spent Driving, parts alternative, they have an EP called "bee-sides" which was released on January 14th 2026.   I'm very much one of the people who used to go to record stores and buy cassingles and CD singles because the first song was the radio hit and the second song was "Yellow Ledbetter".  

If this happens to be your introduction to Mildly Allergic, then good.   These don't feel like "b-sides" in the sense that they were left off an album for their quality but rather they are literally "bee-sides" which makes them feel more important because without bees we'd all die.  The fast, screamy style of "to say the least" is something I will never grow tired of and you should put this one on and play it loud for all to hear.  

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    On January 15th 2026, J. Edmond released "Dear Therapist b/w Living The Dream" which is actually available as a cassette.  If you want to hear these songs, do check them out now, but I'm going to eventually (hopefully in February) see J. Edmond live, purchase a cassette and have a full on cassette review up for you!

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    If you ever feel like you don't have enough fiddle in your life (and I often do) Jeff Butler has just released "Fiddle Demo 2026" (out January 22nd 2026) and it is full of that fiddle.   The first song is instrumental, but then "Bowling Green" becomes an instant sing along.  No matter your musical tastes, these songs just feel like they could so easily get stuck in your head and just make you have a higher appreciation for the sound.  

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    On January 23rd 2026 Farewood released the album "In Sunlight Appears The Wraith" and this is more of just a note about the release as that album will have a full review on the site eventually.   (I will update this with corresponding link when it does)

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    January 23rd 2026 also saw the release of the new single "Many Horrible Things" by Johnny Mainstream.  Johnny Mainstream reminds me of the line between punk rock and energetic indie rock.  Like the later years of Unwritten Law or just that time when bands like 22 Jacks were out there opening for Lit.   There is just a distinct sound that mostly leans towards punk rock, but of course has added layers to it; it feels more complex.   

What's funny is that as someone who had a lot of their life (and relationships) shaped by listening to bands like New Found Glory and Saves the Day in the early 2000's, this song feels like it's for me (and people who experienced this as well, or in the future will experience it) as there are lyrics such as "many terrible songs I wrote when I was in love".   

I don't just feel like people will look back at songs they wrote and be like "Oh, I wrote that when I was in love with Jenny but I don't love Jenny any more so now I kind of hate that song"- which in and of itself is a funny concept because imagine that one big radio hit you have being about your ex- but I think it's also just self reflective for people who listen to music with their feelings out on their sleeve, wondering how we could've been so vulnerable back then.  

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We'll finish up January 2026 with Sarah Dunn, who released a new single "Gunpowder" on the 30th.   Sort of folk, sort of country, a bit of rock with the drumming like a marching band going off to war.  One of the biggest lyrics you'll want to take out of this entire song is the line that says "I wrote your name in gunpowder and now I'm moving on".

While people might not be able to understand this, I do.   At some point in time I started making lists (I still do) where I'd kind of write out what I had to do for the week or something similar, and I'd literally put pen to scrap paper and then when I was done I'd just completely rip up the paper- like more than it needed to be ripped up- and that gave me this sense of closure, like it was done and I could keep going.

I adapted this idea to other things in my life, things which I felt might have been haunting me to some extent.  I'd just write these little stories on paper, then fold them up and begin tearing up the tiny pieces of paper.   This was my way for getting over these things which I couldn't seem to otherwise move past.   So I think this song is just about having that means on going on with your life and I enjoy that even if you don't set gun powder on fire yourself, you find it relates with whatever your personal coping mechanism might be.  

    This is it for January 2026, but I really enjoyed doing this so look for something similar to return for February!