DINERS, ALIEN BOY, PS-AX
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) Phoenix's Diners make casually celebratory power-pop music. It's a melancholic feel-good—mid-tempo muted bass grooves, twee-folk sensibilities, beach party riffing, and the occasional Thin Lizzy-inspired mini solo. Diners' songs are fascinated with the minutiae of phone calls and mixtapes and nice breezes, but somehow sidestep the insincere innocence and frustrating privilege that occupies much of the music that can be described as twee. They create well-crafted pop songs that aren't terribly weighed down by the burden of self-importance. What Diners does best is offer a humbler narration on quaint simplicity—a dream of a pre-jaded existence that's worth escaping to. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON

JOSH ROUSE, WALTER MARTIN
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) It's a long way from
Oshkosh, Nebraska, to Valencia, Spain, but that sleepy Mediterranean town is where Josh Rouse and his family now call home. It's also where Rouse recorded many of the songs for his latest album, The Embers of Time. The other songs were recorded in Rouse's former home in Nashville, where he first began a career that has now spanned nearly two decades, 11 albums, and a considerable amount of critical praise. The Embers of Time was recorded following a nearly ruinous anxiety crisis, but even though the album is one of the most confessional Rouse has ever recorded, it's also one of his catchiest. Layers of guitar, piano, vibes, and harmonica hearken back to the days of carefree country-rock, with echoes of the Band and Neil Young (who Rouse pays tribute to on the Laurel Canyon-countrified "New Young"). SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY