Welcome to the third installment of First Spin! First Spin is our radio show where we play new releases from independent artists on and off Harmonic. First Spin airs on Harmonic every day at 12pm ET, with new episodes premiering on Fridays.
Tune in here: https://app.harmonic.fm/
Although there’s something to be romanticized about the ephemeral nature of radio, we wanted to leave a more lasting record of the releases we add each week. Starting today, each episode will include an accompanying blog post with the complete playlist for the week.
First Spin tracklist for July 31, 2026:
“It’s All Ratfucked” by Sleep In.
“Power” by Emily Wolfe
“Winner” by Esther Kohl
“Robot Dogs” by The Stress of Her Regard
“Blood Spilled” by Blonde Redhead
“Billion Dollar Art” by Dude Cervantes
“Breathing Again” by Brody Price
“Heavy Metal (UN-unplugged)” by Madi Diaz feat. Lucy Dacus
“Belt Loop” by Tiny Habits
“Vampires” by Install
“Moon” by Flowtr
“Blood Tide” by Kuya Beast
“Alabama” by Gabriel Aleman
We kick things off with the most rock-heavy segment of First Spin yet (admittedly, it’s a low bar three episodes in). First up is “It’s All Ratfucked” by NJ math-rockers Sleep In. As an NJ-native myself, it doesn’t take much for me to throw my support behind bands from our much-maligned state. But Sleep In. don’t need home state love for me to get on board with their new single. “It’s All Ratfucked” has the right balance of angst, musicianship, and the energy of a house show (with much better sound quality).
The rock programming continues with Emily Wolfe (who puts on a killer live show if you’ve been lucky enough to catch her opening slots for Yungblud, Brian Fallon, and Frank Turner this summer), Esther Kohl, The Stress of Her Regard, Blonde Redhead, and Dude Cervantes (no relation, unfortunately).
Things move in a rootsier direction with Brody Price’s “Breathing Again”. Rootsier may be too strong of a word though, as Brody Price’s music combines alt-country pedal steel with grungy low-end heavy overdriven guitars and a vocal timbre that only subtly reveals his Texas home base. We follow this up with back-to-back Berklee alumni Madi Diaz and Tiny Habits (keep an eye out for our upcoming Berklee spotlight show),
Our show closes out with some electronic, ambient, and, eventually, instrumental tracks to lower your blood pressure at the end of the work week. Install is a new discovery for us, blending an upbeat electronic arrangement with soothing vocals that are distantly reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. We go full instrumental (and maybe slightly lofi) with “moon” by Flowtr and second-week inclusion “Blood Tide” by Kuya Beast. Finally, we wrap things up with “Alabama” by Gabriel Aleman. Solo guitar surrounded by layers of granular delay, reverb, synth-y pads, and even bird sounds ease us out of this episode.
Thank you for listening! Please support these independent artists wherever you purchase music. If you’re an artist that wants to be featured in First Spin, add your release to Harmonic and send us a note. We’re always on the lookout for something new!
