Chat Pile – Sifting (single)

Fresh off the heels of their latest collab album with postrock artist Hayden Pedigo, Oklahoma hardcore/noise band Chat Pile return to their typical fast paced and abrasive style with two new singles. Starting off with the absolute head thrasher Masks, you can really feel the influence of their new record label Sub Pop, which they themselves cited as influencing the song. “It’s a true dream to put out a single on Sub Pop, and our new song Masks hopefully honors the spirit of the mythical, sometimes mystical, city of Seattle,” said Chat Pile in a recent press statement. This influence is apparent with the aggression and style of other iconic Sub Pop bands such as Mudhoney and The Melvins. Still though, they maintain the band’s complex rhythms and Raygun’s own unique vocal style to give this era its own spin.

Continuing along with the Seattle tributes, the band paired the Masks release with a deep cut cover of Nirvana‘s Sifting. If you thought that song couldn’t get dirtier and sludgier, you’re in for a treat. The perfectly sloppy guitar solos pairs with these muddy backing riffs and vocals that are just low quality enough make for such a grimy and fun listening experience. The six minute run time feels like a breeze, considering the level of quality we’re working with, and it makes me more than excited to listen to whatever they have planned for the future.

–Tarik Krob

My New Band Believe – Numerology (single)

altFresh from the elegantly titled My New Band Believe is their second ever single, Numerology. Helmed by Cameron Picton of black midi fame, My New Band Believe offers on Numerology a blend of very poppy indie rock with elements of samba and disco that feels triumphantly hectic. The lyrics evoke a night on the town with your buddies as you get increasingly…inebriated, and the finale of the song is admittedly comical, but still feels like a ripe conclusion for the preceding spectacle. The song clocks in at 4:18, yet its manic energy makes it feel half that length. As a consequence, I usually listen to this song at least twice in a row. After the conclusion of black midi, frontman Geordie Greep has received the brunt of the attention from the public, especially following the release of his album The New Sound, in 2024. However, I imagine Picton will have his own stint in the windmill-scene spotlight as Numerology feels undoubtedly like Picton’s Holy, Holy moment.My New Band Believe releases their debut album on April 10th, be there or be square!

–Jack Manley

Lana Del Rey – White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter (single)

To say this new Lana Del Rey track was surprising would be an understatement. Not only is it shocking that she actually released it, instead of just relentlessly teasing it on social media like she’s been doing with her upcoming Stove album for half a year now, but the song itself is a very different direction for the singer. It’s dark and sinister. It builds tension in the verses and dissolves it with an almost “Disney princess” cadence of soft whispers in the chorus. The atmosphere is at times heavy, and at times light, but an underlying eeriness keeps the listener on their toes. The song is composed of haunting synths and magical entrancing string instruments like violins, violas and cellos. Sweet guitars, piano, percussives, brass, and even a harp bleed into the delicate mix. These instruments build the orchestral nature of the track, giving it an almost ethereal and uncanny quality.
Instead of leaning country like Lana promised with the upcoming Stove album, she seems to be more interested in exploring ominous soundscapes with this track, opting for a southern gothic route with her own spin. However, the singer’s tendencies to romanticize the mundane are still very much present, with her basking in the traditional, stay-at-home-wife lifestyle that she has come to greatly appreciate. White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter paints this picture of Lana cooking for her husband while she awaits his return from hunting wild animals in the spooky woods near their home. Mentions of words like “voodoo” and “magical” evoke a mystical feeling into her daily affairs, and the expression “whoopsy-daisy” and the “yoo-hoo” ad-libs make the song feel all the more whimsical.
Lana Del Rey’s new single offers a glimpse into a darker side of her music which was prevalent in the earlier days of her discography. Her Born to Die album and her Lizzy Grant persona both offer a preview of this gloomy sound, as highlighted by many fans in online spaces. But despite similarities to her earlier works, White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter demonstrates an entirely new soundscape and tonal shift for Lana, which is exciting to experience as we await the release of the upcoming album.

–Clara Carrion

Ratboys – Singin’ to an Empty Chair

Chicago has always consistently been putting out incredible music: Wilco, John Prine, Mavis Staples. Today, there is something brewing in the second city, that has come to boil over. Leading this charge is indie-rockers, Ratboys. The Notre Dame Alumni, and Chicago natives, celebrated their sweet sixteen as a band by releasing their sixth studio album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair.

This is not only a continuation of their breakout success from 2023’s, The Window, but an expansive journey into their own sound and personality. This album feels as though every note has a meaning behind it and every strum is a continuation of a bed time story you don’t want to end. Ratboy’s has a comforting sound, one that puts the listener in their world with lyrics reading, “the bugs are writing books with their eyes.” This sense of joy and poetry bleeds from songs, while reflections of todays wild world in The World, So Madly brings it back down to earth. The slide guitar sings by itself, and the bouncy yet fuzzy guitars within the band blend together like peanut butter and jelly.

Ratboys throw in hits throughout their album like its nothing, and put forth my favorite album of 2026 so far. They will be touring the record this spring with support from Florry, villagerrr, and fellow Chicagoans Free Range.
FFO: MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Wednesday, The Beths

–Logan Melia

xaviersobased – Xavier

Periodically, it seems that the Music Discourse Eye of Sauron happens to latch its all-consuming gaze onto a particular artist who has established a particular brand of sound until it has become so virulently synonymous with their name that it cannot help but seep through these fiber-optic spaces into the minds of those cultural sleuths so invested in the all-important web of contemporality. Xavier happens to be one such example, the culmination of multiple years of underground consistency and empire building surrounding Xav’s uniquely futuristic, atmospheric, and outright unpredictable approach to production. He proves himself to be at once an absurdist paragon, a staple of the modern cloud rap scene (as well as the extended Surf Gang universe), even forming his very own imprint 1c in the lead-up to this album. Thus, through following an approach that is entirely unpredictable yet expected, Xav has captured the spotlight into a…decidedly mixed reaction.

The seasoned listener will notice differences. There is a greater sleekness in each beat’s construction. There are feature placements that would have once seemed impossible with Zaytoven and Rio da Yung OG, as well as this being Xav’s first big-boy big label treatment, giving cause for a greater critical stir even with this being his first studio album in four years. It seems Xav took this opportunity to give people more of what they had flocked to him for in the first place: a cinematic, woozy, and disorienting experimental rap album. iPhone 16 features a discordant symphony’s instrumentation that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Steve Reich composition. Production standouts include Tony Hawk, as well as 100,000, both ranking among Xav’s most explosive compositions yet. However, the real star of the show is the digital streaming exclusive, Party At My Place, featuring Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs and Skrillex, creating a characteristically mind-bending and bombastic blend of the three’s respective styles. All in all, those who were already fans of Xavier’s output found more to enjoy, whereas those who weren’t (for the most part) gave a collective shrug and continued about their days. Give it five years, though…

–Evan Raefield

Converge – Love is Not Enough

Metalcore legends Converge return with another intense record after five years. This band does not miss, they wind up each shot and take the fattest fucking swing at it and send it flying at wee Anthony Fantano’s slippery baldass head. It’s a great record, neither their best nor worst, but Converge excels at consistency. 30 years of this metalcore business and they’re still accelerating ahead, splitting noise and peeling catharsis off the razor’s edge. Vocalist Jacob Bannon describes the album and its creation as “unrelenting and super raw the entire time, and that’s by design, because that’s how we feel. That’s what’s resonating in our collective spirit right now.” It’s a surprisingly political album, with lyrics from Bannon lying much more grounded in reality than his previous work, themes ranging from human powerlessness to the opiate industry. The band describes Love is Not Enough as less approximating an album, instead existing as the culminating “artist’s statement,” of the full band. Don’t let the title fool you, this is a record that advocates for love. Each song is a lonely cry of agony, desperate for more love to lay exposed and shared in the world, combating the darker chaos and panic around us. “Love is essential, but it’s not everything.”

–Pauly

The post KRUI Staff Picks: Best Releases of February 2026 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Oklahoma City industrial metal band Chat Pile caught up with us in the back alley of Gabe’s in Iowa City ahead of their exuberantly chaotic, sludgy set upstairs. The four members talked about their life on the road as a touring band, described their love of horror films, and bashed some of the many unsavory aspects of capitalism. Along with this, they pushed back against the idea of nihilism. 

Surrounding his performance for the Englert’s new concert series Track Zero, alternative jazz musician Sen Morimoto phoned in from his studio in Chicago. From there he went over his personal origins, his vast array of musical influences, and the unfair practices of streaming services like Spotify. He also brought up his excitement about coming to Iowa City back on November 11^th. 

You can check out the channel here, where you can watch all our videos from there. Like and subscribe and all that other cliche self-promotion. Stay tuned for more content to come in the coming months. This marks just the beginning. 

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