CJ Simonson

2 weeks ago | merrygoroundmagazine.com | CJ Simonson |Ronnie Wood

There are a few non-music related things I love about Steel Wool, so let me count them out for you before I jump into discussing their great new EP: The art for this project, done by Los Angeles artist Cayla Blachman, is incredible; the packshots for both “Eyes Closed” and the excellent standout “Fading” are remarkable, and their debut self-titled EP has a similarly striking intensity.

2 weeks ago | merrygoroundmagazine.com | CJ Simonson

The “About” section of this website was written sometime back in 2018. I only know that because if you go back and look at it, it tells the broadly uneventful but important origin story of this publication and offhandedly mentions the launch being “three-years-and-change” in the past. So it’s startling to realize that A) we for sure should update that thing and B) that we’re now 10 fucking years past the quiet moment a bunch of Chapman University students launched an online pop culture website.

1 month ago | merrygoroundmagazine.com | CJ Simonson |Jack Probst

It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring LAKE’s undeniably shiny indie pop explosion BUCOLIC GONE and some fear’s cripplingly human slowcore self-titled debut! LAKE – BUCOLIC GONEGenre: Indie Rock, Sunshine Pop, Adult ContemporaryFavorite Tracks: “Blue Horizon,” “Wonderful Sunshine,” “Love is Deeper”When I was small, my grandma would build a nest for me every afternoon.

1 month ago | merrygoroundmagazine.com | CJ Simonson |Ronnie Wood

It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Dead Gowns’ utterly beautiful debut IT’S SUMMER, I LOVE YOU, AND I’M SURROUNDED BY SNOW and wakelee’s tightly wound emo EP DOGHOUSE! Dead Gowns – IT’S SUMMER, I LOVE YOU, AND I’M SURROUNDED BY SNOW Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Indie Rock Favorite Tracks: “How Can I,” “Wet Dog,” “In The Haze,” “Swimmer,” “See People” “I don’t think I can afford the time to not sit right down & write a poem about the heavy lidded white rose I hold in my hand” So goes...

2 months ago | merrygoroundmagazine.com | CJ Simonson |Ronnie Wood

You can rely on Delivery to deliver heaps of rowdy, roaring guitars. The Melbourne five-piece are quickly getting their name out there. Their lockdown-born 2022 debut record, FOREVER GIVING HANDSHAKES, a set of spindly, rumbling punk songs, marked Delivery’s beginning of becoming a true Australian phenomenon. They’ve since kept busy, playing tons of dates across Australia and Europe, and have scored themselves a deal with the label Heavenly Recordings. Everything is looking up for the band.