The Bellwether

The midwest, particularly the part of the midwest Eric D. Johnson hails from, is a largely flat expanse. Zipping through it on the highway, you’ll see cities and towns rise up in the distance, but blink and you’ll miss other man-made rejoinders to horizontal living dotting the landscape, hill after hill, built from the refuse of the past: landfills. Some of these hills make for great sledding spots, parks, and trails. Others turn organic waste into compost. The Landfill, Fruit Bats’ June 12, 2026 album from Merge Records, is something else entirely: a mountain dominating the landscape of Johnson’s heart.

Over the course of his now 25-year career under the moniker, most of Eric D. Johnson’s output as Fruit Bats has been the product of patience and fine-tuning. His songs, to borrow a phrase, are slow growers, given life on albums that encompass long stretches of time and memory.

All of these songs — most of the songs on The Landfill, in fact — mark themselves immediately as some of the best in Eric D. Johnson’s ever-expanding songbook, seekers and anthems alike. It’s the most daunting peak he’s scaled yet, musically or lyrically: a swashbuckling set of full-band jammers couldn’t be more honest and open-hearted about his hopes and anxieties, his dreams and failures, what’s passed and what will come to pass, were it just him, his guitar, and the listener.

Matthew Logan Vasquez – Best-known as the co-founder and frontman for shapeshifting heartland indie rockers Delta Spirit, Matthew Logan Vasquez’s fiery delivery and thought- provoking lyrics draw from a huge and versatile well of influences, including Gordon Gano, Kurt Cobain, Neil Young, and Thom Yorke . Asa solo artist, he juggles elements of indie rock, electronic pop, R&B, and soulfulAmericana, flirting with despondency, but ultimately succumbing to beatitude. Vasquez’s latest release SANA SANA 2026 is pushing his sound into a broader spectrum and depth, trading in his rasp for more of a croon.