What is The Thing? It’s a New York band, sure, but it’s also an ethos. A return to rock & roll’s roots — to garage bands toiling between the family minivans, to groups like the Beatles and their unique alchemy, to tape machines and live band recordings instead of slick studios and myriad songwriters. “We've kind of adapted the ethos of: with restriction comes creativity — old becomes new. And throughout every part of the process that remains true,” says guitarist/vocalist Jack Bradley. Never is that more apparent than on their self-titled third record, out August 6th on their own label. A rough and tumble suite of 12 songs that nods to everyone from The Kinks to The White Stripes, The Thing sounds like old New York revivicated and remixed. “It showcases all of us, all of our different personalities,” says bassist/vocalist Zane Acord. “In The Thing, we’re a collective band. We hang our hats on being a true band — where we all have the spotlight. I think that gives us a different edge.” That album follows 2023’s debut, Here’s the Thing, and The Things Is, which dropped the following year. The four members of Thing came from intersecting backgrounds, lending to their rock-and-roll-as-melting-pot vibe. Acord grew up with a drummer dad who hipped him to bands like Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk Railroad; he met guitarist/vocals Michael Carter — an avid Beatles fan — in middle school. The duo went on to collect Bradley in high school, an aspiring producer with a studio in his basement and a yen for psych rock. Jazz drummer Lucas Ebeling linked up with the band when everyone found their way to New York in 2022. They’ve since played more than 300 shows across the world. The band’s self-titled work, then, is a culmination of all those influences — and all that hustle. “We threw all of our different various influences throughout — all the decades of rock and roll and adjacent genres — and ended up with something of our own,” Bradley says. “Our contribution to the genre. Our style. Our… thing.” LONG LIVE THE THING

U.S. Grave, from Phoenix, Arizona, is a five-piece band that evokes a “classic post punk and darkwave spirit with a brooding, melodic finesse.” For fans of the Cure, the Smiths and the Replacements.