Ryan Dillon

New Bedford may not yet carry the musical pedigree of cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, or Seattle—hell, maybe not even Grand Rapids, Michigan—but this hardworking coastal city, with its rich maritime and whaling history, could very well become the Long Beach/San Pedro of the Northeast. With an expanding community of artists, an increasingly creative identity, and relatively affordable housing compared to other East Coast cities, New Bedford is a place worth watching. Don’t overlook it.

After introducing themselves as an amorphous four-piece more concerned about maintaining their innate chemistry and grooving with the ebbs and flows of the creative process than figuring out how to game algorithms and forcing virality, Westside Cowboy is a rare breed of young band in contemporary music. Now that the world is more familiar with their ability to leap from surf-rock style anthems to atmospheric balladry, as seen on their debut EP, 2025’s This Better Be Something Great, the quartet of Jimmy Bradbury (vocals, guitar), Reuben Haycocks (vocals, guitar), Aoife Anson O’Connell (vocals, bass) and Paddy Murphy (drums) look to cement what was started only a little over a year ago.

Although it sometimes drifts into immersive, atmospheric folk-rock, Ella Williams’ output under her Squirrel Flower moniker has never explored liminal spaces. Even as the listener drifts through heartfelt poetry and spacious instrumentation, Williams’ songs have always been written with a destination in mind, letting whoever stumbles across her discography map their own route between landmarks. That being said, the music of Squirrel Flower never comes off as vague. Even the most sentimental, slow-burning moments in her albums carry a potent urgency that makes every nuance of these performances intentional and incredibly moving. This next album, though Williams’ first in three years, proves to be some of her most daring and vulnerable work to date, as the years of toiling at her individuality become picturesque portraits of an analyzed life.

The art of sampling has evolved through generations of rappers and technological innovations. Watching the art form grow into something larger than Hip-hop has been a tremendous treat, solidifying the producers and DJs who started it as geniuses of their time. While it is exhilarating to see sampling grow and evolve, nothing compares to a heart-pounding, sweat-inducing, funky drum pattern. For this week’s Golden Age Thursday, we return to the basis of sampling with a trip to 1974 to visit an underappreciated yet captivating soul band that became ingrained in Hip-hop through some of the genre’s most beloved faces.

On August 19, 2016, the elusive and impactful artist known as Frank Ocean emerged after several years out of the public eye with a new album, although not in the conventional sense. Endless, the visual album that was seemingly the follow-up to Ocean’s award-winning 2012 studio debut channel ORANGE, was not released like your typical album in any capacity. You can hear the songs exclusively in a 40-minute video of Ocean building a staircase, with no official digital release outside this format, and it remains that way nearly a decade later, outside of the sought-after vinyl and CD pressings. While

Boy, oh boy! We over here at the Old Caustic Factory are working under blinking red lights at a spine-snapping pace to attempt to keep up with all these releases. It has been yet another productive week here, as our trusty machines chug along under the watchful eyes of our team, as we enter yet another busy week of new music to sift through. Selecting which songs to present to you proved to be more difficult than ever this week, but that sweat-inducing search for the best of the best is what we live for. This week, we have incredible LPs from future and established legends, ranging from meditative folk to explosive jazz, while we also explore singles from anticipated releases.

If you were to go back to the adolescent days of hardcore music and explain to the kids volunteering at Gilman Street or the ones forming bands in D.C. how their niche scene would become a global phenomenon, you would most likely be greeted with mixed expressions. Some in disbelief, but most would feel anger. Then again, none of these kids could’ve predicted a band like Beartooth. Led by fearless poet and expert vocal acrobat Caleb Shomo, the melodic hardcore outfit has reached the top of the charts and toured around the world with an abrasive yet welcoming sound that lands somewhere between heavy catharsis and jovial aggression.

Mystique has become a commodity in contemporary music. These pseudo-intellectuals, hidden behind vague social media posts and complicated album rollouts, seem more concerned with the aesthetic around their music than the songs themselves, resulting in a slew of impressive-looking albums with little substance. Psychedelic West Coast four-piece Allah-Las, made up of former record store employees who combined forces in 2008, toy with mystique without falling into its modern trappings. The quartet of Matt Correia, Spencer Dunham, Miles Michaud, and Pedrum Siadatian doesn’t hide behind masks or try to be mysterious. Still, they do draw inspiration from these concepts on their sixth studio album, Sirenas.

Back in 2007, just a year after the passing of the Hip-hop innovator and sample technician J. Dilla, the great Busta Rhymes unleashed a mixtape titled DILLAGENCE. Entirely produced by Dilla, who had worked closely with the acrobatic vocalist before his death, the mixtape showcased the innate chemistry between the producer and emcee. Unfortunately, with Dilla’s passing and Busta’s creative directions shifting upon the release of DILLAGENCE, it seemed like the mixtape was the final chapter of one of the most rewarding partnerships in Hip-hop history, until August 25, 2026 came around.

For this week’s Golden Age Thursday, we’re changing the structure to spotlight an artist who changed how the world perceived production. Rather than witnessing a classic sample become a Hip-hop staple before our very eyes, we celebrate an album that turned 20 just earlier this year, and the man behind it all.