Here we are in the “dead zone” of 2025; that one week between Christmas and New Year’s that, quite frankly, should be a national holiday. I hope you’re getting some rest and relaxation and recharging for 2026. I like to take this time to button up any projects that have been lingering and reflect a little bit on the previous year.

Before I get into that reflection, let me start with a hearty THANK YOU. If you’re reading this, I can’t begin to express my gratitude. I’ve been running yk Records for 16 years as a labor of love and it continuously blows my mind that people are following along and enjoying the fruits of that labor. Don’t get me wrong, I know the music is good – I just know there are a lot of choices out there. In a world where small indie record labels have a lot to contend with, I sincerely thank you for tuning in. 

I’m going to include a list of all of our releases from 2025 with a little blurb for each below. If you’d like to listen along, check out this YK 2025 Sampler.* I’m hosting it on Ampwall because

1) it was easy to make (untrue of Bandcamp playlists)!
2) it puts you on a platform that encourages supporting the artist (untrue of any streaming platform).
3) Okay fine, it’s also on Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube. Convenience wins

Along with the playlist, you can also just jump into the deep end with a playlist of everything from 2025. That’s on Ampwall, Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube as well. Dive in. Enjoy.

*Note that the Spotify playlists do not include everything because we do not put everything on Spotify! 

** Did you notice Dave Paulson on that sampler and think – “hey, that record came out in 2018!” That’s true! But it only came out on vinyl this year​​​​​​​. So it gets included. 😉 

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Once again, THANK YOU to everyone who purchased, favorited, streamed or paid any morsel of attention to the label in 2025. It truly means a lot to everyone involved and there’s plenty more on the horizon.

WPLN is Nashville’s Public Radio station and NPR affiliate. They’re responsible for birthing one of our finest music stations (WNXP), bringing the city important national news stories and covering local stories – specifically with their ongoing series This Is Nashville.

YK Records and Tower Defense were invited to appear on the show for a segment discussing alternative holiday music traditions. Specifically, the YK Records Holiday Sampler 2024. We had a pleasant chat with host Blake Farmer about how the sampler originally came together and some trivia about the specific tracks.

Big thanks to producer Mary Mancini for having us on and for helping to spread the word about the sampler.

New episode of our companion podcast YK WORLD just dropped. This one is an enjoyable chat with Trash Man himself, aka Alex Mojaverian aka @mojobeats.

Despite what the title may insinuate, it’s not an overly dark or gloomy conversation. Trash Man’s music tends to be a bombastic burst of memorable pop-rock that contemplates the existential crisis we all face – limited time on Earth. The songs are catchy and fun but the subject matter doesn’t shy away from those hard questions.

That’s basically what this podcast episode is! We had a blast talking about aliens, ghosts, witches, asteroids and also the crushing requirements of capitalism on artistic endeavors. It takes a balance!

The episode is a good time and you can find it over on the YK WORLD site, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast and everywhere else. Enjoy!

For the past few years I’ve been invited to participate in the Nashville Scene Year in Music issue. The 2025 issue is out today and features an insightful Hayley Williams cover story, a rundown of venue events in Nashville from the entire year, a Top 10 Local Releases list and the Annual Music Survey results.

It’s that last survey bit that I get to participate in. The questions are broad, giving the respondents lots of room to answer however they want but the instructions that come with the survey are to please be brief. There are a lot of people participating in the survey and they can’t be giving paragraphs of responses to everyone involved.

Turns out, I am not great at brevity (see above). So, I end up being (understandably) edited down. It’s the right decision but I would like there to be a record of my full responses. So, that’s what this is!

I’ve always struggled that my responses are not 100% laser focused on YK releases but I find the Nashville music scene to be extremely rewarding, so I don’t want my responses to come off as some advertisement. Obviously I’m proud of the YK releases but there’s also more to partake in.

Below you’ll find my full responses to the survey. Enjoy!

(more…)

It’s December! That means it’s time for holiday music and the YK Holiday Sampler! Released in 2024, this compilation features 20 tracks of original and classic holiday music from across the YK Records roster.

You can stream the release anywhere – Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, et al – but if you purchase it on Bandcamp, Ampwall or the YK Shop all proceeds will be donated to CASA Nashville; a non-profit that benefits foster children.

There’s a whole mini-site for the release over here where you can stream the release, watch the related videos and check out the credits for each track. Everything you need all in one spot.

Speaking of videos.. here’s three from the release!

If you feel so inclined, share the compilation with others and spread the love.

Happy Holidays!

What started as a Cyber Monday sale has now expanded into a full blown Holiday Sale. From now until the end of the year we are giving $5 off select vinyl and $2 off select CDs and cassettes.

You can pick up the latest vinyl from Chris Crofton, Jessica Breanne, Dave Paulson, The Privates, Annie Williams and Zook! I’ve even got forget cassettes O CURSA in there for just $10.

You can snag CDs or cassettes from Jessica Breanne, Alex Caress and Matt & The Watt Gives.. and the first EP from Trash Man.

These items are on sale now in the YK Shop. I’ll ship items ASAP and will even include a little bonus item with each order. Tis the season!

It is with the utmost excitement that I can officially share the following news:

The Features & Glossary will co-headline Eastside Bowl in Nashville, TN on January 30th & January 31st, 2026.

Edit: January 31st sold out in under 12 hours. So we added a second date.

Here’s the official press release…

Good Signal presents a fundraiser for local Nashville stations WNXP, WPLN and WXNA with co-headlining performances from Glossary and The Features, set to take place at Eastside Bowl on January 31st and January 31, 2026. Both beloved bands have not performed publicly since 2017, leaving fans to wonder if they’d ever see them live again. Wonder no more! This is a rare opportunity to see them both take the stage for one special evening with full-length sets. 

Proceeds from the event will be donated to three of Nashville’s most in-need radio stations. WNXP and WPLN are NPR stations that had their funding revoked by the federal government. Community station WXNA is entirely listener-supported. All three provide a great deal of enrichment to the Nashville community and this is a chance to give back.

Donations will be accepted at the event along with giveaways and raffles to help raise additional funds. 

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This event is part of a new endeavor between myself and Caroline Bowman-Schneider; a name that will undoubtedly be familiar to you if you are at all familiar with the Nashville music scene. Caroline co-founded Cold Lunch Recordings, was a founder of Spew Fest, books Vinyl Tap, makes the magic happen for Record Store Day, co-hosts the Devalued podcast, creates poster and album art on the regular and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are working together as Good Signal.

YK isn’t going anywhere, this is just another layer of goodness to enjoy. Go follow us @goodsignal.online.

By my best measure, I first encountered Zook some time in 2018 with the release of “What’s It To You?” – a single from the then forthcoming debut album, Garden Variety. The Zook of 2018 is certainly not the Zook of 2025 but that evolution of sound is a big part of what makes Evaporating – the third full-length and first with YK – so enamoring.

To hear Zach Tittel tell it (that’s Zook), he was encountering some creative hurdles when starting in on the record.  “I realized my desire to organize my thoughts was often what prevented me from making things,” he says. So, he did the exact opposite and stopped trying to organize everything. He let in the scraps and fragments of ideas and gave them a home, as scattered as they might be.

He joined Writer’s at the Water, an anti-writer’s round gathering at Nashville’s infamous Springwater Supper Club put together by John Allingham of The Cherry Blossoms. The sessions encouraged a brand new way of thinking that wasn’t about showcasing a finished thought but rather about sharing an exploration. “I’d come up with something new every week and started writing down or recording the ideas that stuck around. It was low stakes in a way that made it feel like I was starting over,” Tittel recalled. These fragments were collaged and rearranged with the intent of simply following the idea, rather than forcing it into order.

Zook consulted with his musical family – a constellation of disparate talents that includes Billy Campbell, Husam Suboh, Ryan Bigelow and Thomas Luminoso. Each contributed ideas and manipulations for these pieces to take form. The recording itself emerged from sessions at Tittel’s abode, Campbell’s Second Floor Recording and Luna Kupper’s Ivy Eat Home.

The resulting LP, Evaporating, fully embodies that spirit of exploration. These songs began as murmured melodies, half-thought lines and scattered scraps that bloomed into bursts of shimmering guitars, waves of driving percussion and vocals that float in from an ethereal realm. It’s an album that breathes in melancholy introspection and releases an outpouring of optimism.

Zook’s unstructured approach to creation manifested into an album that evokes the feeling of letting go. “Making music can momentarily satisfy the urge to transform,” Tittel says, and that sense of transformation hums beneath every track. What started as an attempt to resist stagnation became a quiet rebirth: the sound of someone rediscovering their own pulse.

It’s a far cry from the works I first heard in 2018 on Garden Variety. A refreshing reinvention and a bold evolution in songwriting across the board. What remains as a throughline is Tittel’s combination of breezy vibes, psychedelic explorations and willingness to embrace melancholy through pop songs. It’s a unique combination that Evaporating expresses beautifully.

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The album is available in the YK Shop, on Bandcamp, Ampwall, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and everywhere else you can imagine. Let yourself soak it in.

To celebrate the release, Zook will play in Nashville, TN tonight – Nov 7th, 2025 – at Soft Junk with Impediment and if i could ever realize.

We recently announced the addition of Zook to the YK Records roster and I’m overjoyed to add to that good news that his new full-length album will be here before you know it.

Evaporating is due out on Nov 7th and you can listen to the first track from it starting right now. “Absolute Misery” is streaming everywhere at this very moment. Don’t let that title fool you, it’s a joy to listen to.

Zook’s new record is his third full-length overall but, in many ways, is a reinvention of his approach and his sound. He’s always had a great penchant for blending styles but with Evaporating you will hear a uniquely special blend of pop, psychedelic, shoegaze, indie rock and a host of styles that fit in such a way that only Zook could create them.

November 7th is very soon! So, you won’t have to wait long to hear more from this record.

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Evaporating will be available on streaming, download and in limited edition physical formats!

• Canary Yellow Vinyl – we pressing 100 of these and they sound fantastic.
   
• Black Shell Cassette – our friends at Second Floor Recording Co made a short run of tapes that will go fast.

Get your hands on them here.

In July of 2024, Meadownoise released their album The Foam Alone. Except, what you heard online wasn’t truly the album. What was posted to Bandcamp, Ampwall and all streaming services was a collection of reactions, recreations or remarks about the album but not the songs themselves. In one case, it was some quiet time doing some laundry.

If you wanted to hear The Foam Alone, you needed to get your hands on a USB stick dangling gracefully inside of a medicine bottle. Maybe you’d get this from Matt Glassmeyer himself at a show. Maybe you’d get it from a friend of a friend. Or maybe you’d be daring enough to find it in public and put it in your computer, unprompted.

It was a grand experiment and one that worked. We distributed the album to friends and family. They redistributed to their friends and family. We heard appreciation and insights from those that were listening offline to the songs in a covert and concentrated way. Streaming numbers be damned, the album was making its way into the world.

We even managed to get a copy to the Nashville Scene and they described the experience wonderfully:

Two hallmarks of multi-instrumentalist, composer and expert improviser Matt Glassmeyer’s project Meadownoise are his tendency for ingenious and thoughtful experimentation and his appreciation for grooves of all kinds. Those are in effect in a big way on his latest record. The album is also a playful experiment in disrupting the way that streaming isolates listeners.

We’re happy to announce the end of that experiment. The songs from The Foam Alone are now available in their original form on all the various platforms. For those of you that heard the Reaction Version, this will reframe the experience entirely. For those that heard the USB versions, these will be familiar and convenient. For those that heard neither, you’re welcome to a new experience.

The versions on Ampwall and Bandcamp contain both the album versions and the reactions. It may be interesting to listen to them on shuffle.