Torquay’s Burn It Down Festival has dropped a massive third wave of artists for 2026, and with it, the day splits, confirming what many already suspected: this year is going to be the festival’s most explosive edition yet.

Glasgow’s Dead Pony are charging into a new era — louder, bolder, and more unapologetically themselves than ever. The band have announced their new EP Eat My Dust! will land on 15th May 2026 via ADA, marking their first major release since their acclaimed 2024 debut album Ignore This, which earned them a Scottish Album of the Year nomination and a run of independent chart success.

Bath’s indie‑americana favourites Young Martyrs are stepping confidently into a new chapter with their latest single, ‘Sugar On My Tongue’, out May 8th. It’s the second taste of their forthcoming third album Might Just Be Enough, due this summer — and it’s a track that shows a band sharpening their emotional and sonic edges in all the right ways.

Few bands in modern music have carved out a universe as unmistakably their own as They Might Be Giants. For over four decades, John Flansburgh and John Linnell have treated pop not as a genre but as a playground — a place where accordion riffs, horn blasts, surreal humour, and razor‑sharp songwriting can coexist without ever cancelling each other out. Their new album, The World Is to Dig, arrives as a reminder that the duo’s creative engine is still running at full tilt.

It’s a proper gorgeous spring evening, so my date and I take the scenic route to the venue via Plymouth Hoe. There, sprawled on the grass around the lighthouse and the world’s weirdest Beatles monument, are several dozen knots of healthy, sun-kissed young people, tossing frisbees, skulling cans, grilling sausages, perfuming the balmy April air with vapes and merry laughter.

Two decades into their career, The Veils continue to operate in a space entirely their own — a place where intensity, vulnerability and cinematic drama collide. Their new single “Aurora” arrives as another reminder that Finn Andrews and company remain one of the most emotionally fearless bands working today.

Editors have never been a band to sit still, and their new single Call It In arrives as proof that evolution remains their defining instinct. It’s their first new music since 2022’s EBM, emerging from sessions squeezed between Tom Smith’s debut solo album and the band’s ongoing live commitments, a reminder that even two decades in, they’re still finding new corners of their sound to explore.

Ten years into their career, DMA’S are hitting the reset button — loudly, proudly, and with the kind of swagger that only comes from a band who know exactly who they are. The Australian trio have announced that their new self‑titled album DMA’S will land on August 7, marking a defining moment in their evolution and a bold statement of intent.

The setting is the beautiful Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire which is celebrating 25 years of live music. Taking to the stage on 28th July is Richard Ashcroft with a new album Lovin’ You out now. I’m sure we can expect many of the hits, like Bitter Sweet Symphony and The Drugs Don’t Work.

Some artists ease their way into the spotlight. Late Transmissions starring Eve Quartermain arrive with a cinematic flourish, a raised eyebrow, and a full orchestra in tow. Their new single I’m Done With London — released ahead of their debut album The Heart Wants What It Wants — is a gloriously theatrical kiss‑off to the capital, delivered with the kind of widescreen drama that feels ripped from a lost Bond theme.

Martin Carr has never been an artist who sits still. From shaping the widescreen indie of The Boo Radleys to the glitch‑friendly experiments of Bravecaptain, he’s always been a restless creator. Now, the Cardiff‑based songwriter, guitarist, filmmaker, and all‑around sonic architect is stepping into a new era with What Future — a solo album that refuses to behave like anything else in his catalogue.

Tarragon’s new album Home at Cofa’s lands on 1st May 2026, and it feels like the moment everything clicks into place. Built from fragments captured in bedrooms, shaped in late‑night studio sessions, and coloured by the streets of Coventry, the record marks a leap forward — expansive, emotional, and unmistakably his. As he explains in the interview, the songs weren’t planned so much as unearthed, each one sparked by lived experience and stitched together into a world that feels both intimate and cinematic.

What makes this era so compelling is the contrast: a postman by day, yet crafting music alongside players from Bon Iver, The 1975, Big Red Machine and more. These collaborators don’t overshadow him — they amplify the vision. And at the centre of it all is Coventry itself, a city he describes with loyalty and nuance, its people and contradictions leaving fingerprints on every track.

The conversation that follows captures an artist stepping fully into his identity — curious, instinctive, and unafraid to let his songs evolve slowly until they reveal their truth.

Abrasive Trees have never been a band to play it safe, but their new single “Tao To Earth” marks a striking evolution, a deeper dive into the spiritual, the surreal, and the emotionally unguarded. Released via Italian doom specialists Argonauta Records, the track finds the experimental‑rock collective pushing further into the psychedelic edges of their sound while sharpening the emotional clarity at its core.

TK Maxx presents Live At Powderham has announced four Devon charities as official partners for its huge four‑night run at Powderham Castle this summer, pairing some of the world’s biggest artists with organisations making a real difference across the county.

Erotic Secrets of Pompeii have always thrived in the strange borderlands, the places where humour curdles into menace, where the grotesque becomes unexpectedly beautiful, where the modern world feels like a fever dream you’re only half‑convinced you’ve woken up from. Their new single “Crowstepper” (out 14th May via Republic of Music and Wipe Out Music) drags you deeper into it.

A powerful night of live music is set for London this summer, as Public Service Broadcasting and Big Special come together for a one‑off benefit concert in memory of James Borrer, the much‑loved SO Recordings team member who passed away from cancer in January 2026. The show takes place at Indigo at The O2 on 13 July 2026, with tickets on sale from 10am on 24 April HERE.

Well, it’s nearly time to dust off your Stetson, pull on your cowboy boots, and make your way to The Long Road Festival at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire, returning in style from 27–30 August.

There are gig nights that run like clockwork, and then there are the ones that start with a plot twist. My trip to see COSM in Plymouth fell firmly into the latter. After playing their new single Black Holes on our Sonic Nomads podcast, I’d mentioned it to Emily from the band, who kindly put me on the guest list for their Plymouth date. Or so I thought.

There’s a special kind of delirium that only music lovers understand — the kind that comes from stumbling home after a gig, ears still ringing, adrenaline still fizzing, knowing full well you’ve got to be up again in a few hours for something equally chaotic.

That was me. Home from Plymouth just after 1am, still wired from watching COSM tear the place apart. Into bed by 1:15. Asleep by… not then. Not for a while. My brain was still replaying riffs at 2am. And yet, at 6:09am — one minute before my alarm — I woke up victorious, as if I’d somehow beaten the system.

Clothes from the night before, bottle of water, keys, out the door. Newton Abbot was calling.

For more than two decades, Rick McMurray has been the rhythmic engine behind Ash — the heartbeat that powered everything from teenage pop‑punk euphoria to widescreen alt‑rock ambition. But in the rare quiet moments between the band’s relentless touring and the twin releases of Race The Night and Ad Astra, something darker began tugging at him. A voice. A riff. A weight.