LEO Weekly has Spotify playlists for each Listen Local column featuring selected tracks from each reviewed release. Search Spotify for LEO Weekly and have a listen!
Drift City
Spectral Heart Mosaics – EP
driftcityband.com
Drift City is one of the few bands that, once you hear them, you really can’t believe they aren’t being marketed on a worldwide scale by a major label. The band is too talented, the songs are too well-written, and the sound is too big for this to be just a local band.
Drift City’s latest, the four-song Spectral Heart Mosaics EP, sees the band further refining their sound into something even more intriguing and original while still maintaining the incredible musicianship and songwriting abilities of their past releases. Psychedelic meets shoegaze, dream pop, alt-rock, blues, Americana, and smooth jazz to create an absolutely stunning, ever-expanding soundscape that is beautiful, peaceful, romantic, and sexy. In the past, I’ve used comparisons to 80s David Bowie, Roxy Music, Radiohead, Sparklehorse, and even My Morning Jacket. While that is still somewhat true to an extent, Drift City has really carved out their own unique sound with Spectral Heart Mosaics.
Main songwriter and core member Jason Rivers once again enlists a veritable all-star backup of Louisville musicians to bring these tracks to life, including Dave Givan (Jim James, Ray LaMontagne), Billy Lease (Cabin, The Glasspack), Woody Woodmansee (Hawks, The Low Glow), and Justin North, among several other notable musicians. Obviously, the results are amazing.
As always, the distinctive warble of Rivers’ croon takes the spotlight. And given that we are dealing with incredible performances by some of Louisville’s top musicians here, that’s really saying something. His vocals are rich and intense while simultaneously warm and inviting. Comparisons to Bryan Ferry and David Bowie are certainly warranted.
If Drift City wasn’t already on your radar, they most definitely need to be.
Griffin Fletcher
“Holy Rolla” – single
linktr.ee/griffinfletcher
I’m not gonna lie, it’s nice to hear Griffin Fletcher get back to his rock roots again. After his incredible debut solo album, Forever To Go, in which Fletcher melds R&B, folk, smooth jazz, indie rock, adult alternative, and pop together over eight acoustic guitar-based songs, “Holla Rolla” is a straight-up rocker that, in some aspects, brings to mind Fletcher’s previous band, Young Romantics, while simultaneously being quite different from any of his previous tunes.
Combining hip-hop-ish verses with an early 2000s emo vibe on the chorus, “Holy Rolla” is an explosive tune that serves to showcase Fletcher’s versatility and range as a vocalist. In it, Fletcher effortlessly flows from rap to soulful to powerful rock style vocals without ever forsaking the melody or sounding out of place or forced. I feel comfortable in saying that Fletcher is one of the best vocalists in the state and is certainly an undiscovered treasure trove of talent.
And as with all of Fletcher’s songs, the lyrics are deeply introspective and vulnerable, this time dealing with lost love and loneliness on a level I think all of us can relate to.
And you need to check out the rather entertaining music video for the song, directed by Jared Kunish. In it, Fletcher dons his best Hunter S. Thompson outfit and ends up jamming with Uncle Sam, a creepy rabbit, and some guy who looks like a cross between the Pringle’s guy and Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly. Kind of a fever dream brought to life.
Daniel Gilliam/NouLou Chamber Players
Piano Trio No. 2 “Payne Hollow”/winterloops – album
fictivemusic.com
In 1952, Harlan and Anna Hubbard settled on a tract of land on the shores of the Ohio River in Kentucky that they would name Payne Hollow. It would become their life’s work: building a home by hand and living off the land. Both Harlan and Anna played chamber music, and Harlan was a trained painter who worked prolifically with materials at his disposal.
With “Piano Trio No. 2,” Louisville-based composer Daniel Gilliam has created a four-part musical portrait of the Hubbards life in Payne Hollow, with each piece representing one of the four seasons. Recorded live in April 2025 by the NouLou Chamber Players, consisting of violin, violoncello, and piano, each part perfectly captures the feeling of the season it represents. Beginning with “Winter,” the piece encompasses the cold bleakness of the snow-blanketed area to the feeling of cozying up to a warm fireplace. “Spring” brings about a feeling of new life blooming all around and the beautiful comfort within it. “Summer” leaves the listener with a sense of the hardships the Hubbards must have faced in their daily lives during the hot summer months. And “Autumn” brings about a sense of calm and peace in which the listener can practically feel the cool autumn breeze and hear the fallen leaves crunch underneath their feet. All four parts overall bring a sense of comfort, love, peace, and serenity to the listener.
Rounding out the album is the piece “Winterloops,” an electronic soundscape built entirely on sounds from the live recording. Through looping, phasing, compressing and stretching phrases, notes, and gestures, “Winterloops” creates a hypnotic, minimalist world for the listener to explore.
Prayer Line
Hell is Overflowing – album
prayerline.bandcamp.com
They say all good things must come to an end. And after eight years, two albums, an EP, a split EP, nine singles, and at least three different drummers, that time has come for Louisville horror metal band Prayer Line. The band, which is basically an all-star lineup featuring Phil Olympia (Virgin Birth, Never Nervous Records) on vocals and guitar, Jake Hellman (Strong Style) on vocals and bass, Jake Miller (Virgin Birth) on guitar, and Dave Chale (Deadbird Studios) on drums, dropped their final album, Hell Is Overflowing, along with a music video for the track “Castle Freak” (that LEO Weekly premiered) late last year.
What you get is seven tracks of severed-tongue-in-cheek, campy and traditional horror-worshipping metal that straddles the line between thrash, punk, hardcore, and NWOBHM. Take Motorhead, Municipal Waste, Raven, Misfits, and Kill ‘Em All-era Metallica and throw them together, and that’ll get you close to Prayer Line’s sound. These are solid, hard-hitting, riff-driven songs that pack a punch and most definitely do not take any shit from anyone.
Drummer Dave Chale also recorded and mixed the album at his own Deadbird Studios, which boasts a long and impressive list of local and national bands who have recorded there (Jack Harlow, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Wax Fang, Low Cut Connie, and many others). Chale’s production gives the perfect mix of smooth, rich, full sound while maintaining a rough, raw edginess to it. Not too much of anything, just that perfect balance these songs needed.
Prayer Line will play their last show ever at Plunder Over Louisville on June 27th at Mag Bar. Check out the band’s and Never Nervous Records socials for more info.
This article appears in March 27-April 9, 2026.
