Three Labels Worth Paying Attention To

Not all great music comes from New York, L.A., London, etc. If you’re reading Analog Mountains, you probably know that, but it bears repeating. Smaller, local scenes across the nation are making vital music in basements, garages, and bedrooms that needs to be heard. Especially in the Southeast.

And in an age of AI-powered algorithms and made-up Spotify genres, it’s more and more of a challenge to find places where real humans platform the work of other real humans. 

That’s why Analog Mountains is highlighting three underground labels releasing vital music right here in our corner of the U.S. These are labels that make us perk up when we spy them on a record jacket, Bandcamp Friday sale, or signing announcement. 

There are, of course, dozens and dozens of other labels doing just that beyond what’s here. Don’t think of this as some ranking or comment on quality – it’s all in the name of discovery and appreciation. There’s a strong chance we’ll run more spotlights like these in the future. 

Alright – enough contextualizing. Here are three great labels releasing great music in 2026:

Gar Hole Records - (Fayetteville, AK)

One of the youngest labels on this list, Gar Hole got its start in the Fall of 2020, after Kurt DeLashmet and Nick Shoulders combined their shared musical expertise and fandom to provide a home for independent music in Fayetteville. 

There’s plenty of vocal twang and pedal steel in the Gar Hole catalog, but there’s also an unvarnished edge and punk-ish cover art that make these artists sound and feel distinct from their Americana contemporaries – think alt-country with an extra-sharp dash of “alt.” 

From the wise-cracking Jonny Fritz, to the soulful Lostines, to the rootsy stirrings of Sabine McCalla, Gar Hole is a treasure trove of strong personalities offering fresh takes on typical southern sounds. If you’re in the Fayetteville area this winter, you can catch the annual Garholeidays festival for a live sampling of the label’s finest. 

Let’s go ahead and cross fingers that up and coming Oklahoma folkie Ramsey Thornton makes an appearance. Just when you thought the creative well for a unique take on soft and sensitive folk music has run dry, out pops Thornton from the Gar Hole with a unique fingerpicking style informed by years playing the banjo and drums.

On “Rocking,” Thornton’s soft playing flutters at just the right moments, like a bird joyfully dipping to catch a fresh gust of wind on a bright blue morning, as he recollects and unpacks moments of quiet disconnection. While the playing is sublime, the succinct verse about the opposing tugs of kinship and division Thorton’s describes when he sees a Christian man protesting a local gig is a strong showcase for his storytelling chops as well. 

You can fish I Called It!, Thornton’s debut album, out of the Gar Hole on May 15. Tune your ears and calendars accordingly.

Strolling Bones Records - (Athens, GA)

Few southern towns hold the sort of quiet, monumental musical legacy as Athens – home of not only the dominant Georgia Bulldogs football team, but also alternative rock giants like R.E.M. and the B-52s, as well as fiercely beloved cult bands like Pylon, of Montreal, and Drive-By Truckers.

Strolling Bones is continuing the college town’s reputation as a musical hub in the Deep South. Here, the blues fusion of Garry Burnside (son to R.L., uncle to Cedric), the ambient-leaning folk of Ben Hackett, the slide-fried country rock of the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, and the spectral 60’s pop of Haunted Shed all coexist – deeply southern music with a slight bend for mysticism and mischief. 

Speaking of, do you sit around and wish more bands sounded like IRS-era R.E.M.? Oh man, does Strolling Bones have a treat for you.

In the late 80’s, a trio of Jacksonville punks called Beggar Weeds released exactly one EP and recorded a few tracks with the Michael Stipe before life, the advent of grunge, and other unseen powers of the picket fence forced the band to call it quits. 

It was, by our account, A Tragedy in the U.S.A. – which just so happens to be the name of the absolutely dynamite career retrospective (including cuts from the Stipe sessions!) that Strolling Bones released this past February.

A near 40-years collecting dust haven’t tarnished these songs one bit – the Weeds’ potent blend of speedy riffs and hollerin’ southernisms sounds like a key missing link between the Athens sound of old and the rangey alt country of Florry and dirt punk of Twisted Teens. 

In other words, it rips. Check out album highlight “Seer,” a shitkicker full of fevered religious imagery that could only come from punks reared in the Bible Belt. Also check out Paste’s deep dive on the band’s second coming – including wild stories about skinny dipping with David Berman and the Jacksonville junkyards that inspired their songs. 

Sophomore Lounge (Louisville, KY)

You’d do well to keep an eye on Sophomore Lounge, a DIY label first founded as a means to release and legitimize the music of a loose collective of Louisville musicians in 2007. (It moved operations to Jeffersonville, Indiana, last year, but it’s still rooted in Kentucky! Don’t come at me on a technicality.) 

Fast-forward 20 years, and not only has Sophomore Lounge released music by greats like Guerilla Toss, Arbor Labor Union, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, they also released last year’s New Threats From the Soul, a slab of critically-acclaimed existential country by none other than the label founder’s, Ryan Davis.

Listen – what other label has buttoned-up singer-songwriters like Will Lawrence and Grace Rogers, freaky post-punk like Broken Telepathy, bubbling synth experiments like GUB, and drunk alt-country like Styrofoam Winos? Only the glorious musical lawlessness that is Sophomore Lounge. 

While the best way to dive into the offerings of this unpredictable label might be to blindly choose an album based on the eclectic vibes of the cover art on Bandcamp, we want to highlight songwriter Shutaro Noguchi’s 2025 collaboration with Davis’ Roadhouse Band. 

Recorded just before Noguchi moved from back to Japan after a long stint in Louisville, On the Run is, true to its title, hard to pin down. Some songs veer into droning experimental territory, others are sun-speckled wistful pop, others pull jazz and City Pop influences into genre blends that I don’t quite have words for. 

At the center of it all is Noguchi, who whether singing in English, Japanese, or wordless coos, grounds even the rangiest compositions in an open-hearted expressiveness that’s universal in its appeal. Like the no-rules label that put it out, On the Run feels like a potent reminder that music recorded in the South is never beholden to set sonic blueprints or traditions. Next time you’re taking a long drive on a beautiful day, throw on “River Dagger” – it’s the kind of song that can cleanse your soul if it catches you in the right headspace.

By Reed Strength