New music review with singles from Ain't and SPLIT DOGS
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from Ain't Grazer and SPLIT DOGS Rock 'N' Roll Business
Artist: Ain't
Track: Grazer
South London outfit Ain’t return with their first new music of 2026. The propulsive new track Grazer comes on the heels of an enviable last year for the five-piece. Highlights include a spot in the latest NME 100 list, showcase performances at The Great Escape’s First Fifty for NOTION, Dork 100 (alongside Lime Garden), and The Line Of Best Fit’s Five Day Forecast.
Grazer also follows a run of five singles which have seen the band deliver on all the promise of their early word-of-mouth live reputation, earning widespread support that includes a digital cover with Dork, and props from the likes of Stereogum, Consequence, Under The Radar, NME, CLASH, DIY, The Line Of Best Fit, Paste, and So Young. These singles, alongside Grazer, will now form a six track EP titled How They Faked The Moon Landing. The one-stop introductory release will be landing on 12” vinyl on 22 May via Fear Of Missing Out Records, as one of Dinked's Early Doors First Editions.
Recorded with Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Sorry), the sub-3-minute new single epitomises everything that has brought Ain’t to this point. It’s full of warm, slurring guitar lines, hooky vocal harmonies, subtly intricate drumming, fluid bass, and contemplative lyrics. In keeping with their earlier material there are knowing nods to idiosyncratic guitar music and 90s slacker indie with hints of shoegaze, Midwest rock, and lo-fi, atmospheric dream pop.
Speaking on the single, Hanna Baker Darch (vocals) shares: "I've always thought it cowardly when people assume popular culture is unprofound; the mere fact we are animals making art is inherently mystical. Grazer kind of vents this opinion, using Hellraiser as an example. It's been downplayed as another pulpy, ridiculous slasher franchise - and it is, but it's also got these insane parallels to concepts in Deleuze's and Guattari's philosophy: Frank Cotton is literally a body without organs, and he is also a desiring machine. It feels increasingly necessary to stress the importance of creativity - not just high-brow works - when artistic expression is increasingly under threat from AI."
Ain't Live Dates
March
28 - Bristol, Ritual Union
May
14 - Brighton, The Great Escape
26 - Manchester, Yes Basement*
27 - London, The Social*
29 - Bristol, The Louisiana*
July
11 - Cheltenham, 2000trees
October
3 - Portsmouth, Night Currents
* - headline performance
* * *
Artist: SPLIT DOGS
Track: Rock 'N' Roll Business
Bristol punk rock ‘n' rollers SPLIT DOGS return with the first taste of their new album Nice ‘N’ Rough, due for release 25 September via Venn Records. Titled Rock ‘N’ Roll Business, the new single sees SPLIT DOGS hardly pausing for breath as they roar through two-minutes-forty seconds of prime heads down, no nonsense high voltage strut.
Their heroic approach to touring and relentless gigging in the EU and UK over the last two years (including a massive tour with Gogol Bordello in 2025 and gigs with Bad Nerves and Teen Mortgage) has seen the band turn heads and win hearts wherever they go. 2026 sees the band heading out on their own headline tour this month, before multiple festival appearances, a headline German tour in July, a string of in store performances in September and an EU tour with Canadian rockers Danko Jones in October.
“Rock ‘N’ Roll Business imagines the music industry as a classic British gangster film,” states singer Harry Martinez. “Dirty deeds, big egos and people you wouldn’t trust with your last ciggie. It’s tongue-in-cheek but it’s also our big middle finger to the whole thing as it’s mostly true. Half the time it’s run like a shady deal in a British gangster film, so that’s exactly how we made the video. The day before the shoot we realised we needed a proper classic motor,” continues Harry.
“A mate of ours who gets tattooed by Mil linked us up with Pip and his amazing black Chevrolet Chevelle. We asked him if he wanted to be in the video, told him the vibe and he just said, 'I’m your man, you want me in black leather?' The garage we used is another mate of ours. He let us use his garage in exchange for a tattoo.”
SPLIT DOG Live Dates
HEADLINE TOUR
March
26 Glasgow Hug & Pint
27 UK Leeds Hyde Park Book Club
April
1 UK Nottingham The Bodega
2 UK Brighton Green Door Store
3 UK London Underworld
17 UK Bristol St Nicholas Market
FESTIVAL TOUR
April
5 UK Manchester Punk Festival
25 UK Edinburgh Scotland Calling
May
21 UK Burton Upon Trent Bearded Theory Festival
June
18 SP Bilbao Azkena Rock
26 PL Zelebsko Ultra Chaos Pinik
July
8 UK Cheltenham 2000 Trees
10 B Gierle Sjock Fest
17 NL Lichetnworde Zwarte Cross
GERMAN HEADLINE
July
18 Selters Seepgo
19 Augsburg Ballonfabrik
20 Tubingen Blauer Salon
22 Colgne Sonic Ballroom
24 Hnxe Ruhrpott Rodeo
25 Trebur Trebur Open Air
26 Munich X bar
27 Bamberg Live Club
28 Dresden Ostpol
29 Erfurt MuseumsKeller
30 Hamburg Welt TurboJugend
31 Goldenstadt Afreiht un Buten
FESTIVALS
August
7 UK Blackpool Rebellion Fest
13 Slov Tolmin Punk Rock Holiday
16 UK Winchester Boomtown Festival
21 DK Vordingborg Gutter Island
22 UK Devon Beautiful Days
INSTORE PERFORMANCES
September
25 Leeds Crash Records
26 Glasgow Blitzkrieg
27 Liverpool Rough Trade
28 Coventry Just Dropped in
29 Bristol Rough Trade
30 Nottingham Rough Trade
October
1 Rough Trade East
TOUR W/ DANKO JONES
October
12 GER Potsdam Waschhaus
13 GER Nurnberg Löwensaal
14 AT Wien Flex
15 HU Budapest A38
16 ROM Bucharest Quantic
17 Bulg Sofia Pirotska 5 Event Center
19 ROM Cluj Form Space
21 Cro Zagreb Vintage Industrial Bar
22 Slov Ljubljana Kino Siska
23 AT Salzburg Rockhouse
24 CH Rubingen Muhle Hunzinken
25 CH Zurich Dynamo
27 GER Oberhausen Turbinenhalle 2
28 BEL Ghent Handelsbeurs
29 GER Frankfurt Batschkapp
30 NL Haarlem Patronaat
31 NL Tilburg Next Stage
November
1 NL Leuwaarden Neusoorn
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