When you spend your formative high school and college years in the Nineties, you develop a love affair for alternative rock. You could even say alt rock peaked during that decade and never really returned to form, so I’m always on the hunt for gems that stoke those fires. That’s what this week’s Mood is all about. 

Released this coming Friday on Anxiety Blanket, Garrett La Bonte’s debut LP, Don’t Let This Define Me, is a cathartic and deeply personal collection of 9 amazing songs that remind me of bands like The Glands and Pinback. Sample the title track below for a taste of what you can expect from the full-length later this week. LA quartet Fime set out to “make a sweet love song.” The result: the Melina Duterte-produced anthem “Born 2 Love,” which is about as catchy a slice of dream pop lusciousness as you can get. You can check out the video here. Los Angeles post-punk outfit Provoker made our list back in June with “Spell Strike,” and are back for a second time with “Bugs & Humans,” the second single off their recently released LP Body Jumper. The band are on the road all throughout September, so check out their tour dates and catch them when they come to your town.

Jelani Aryeh released his debut album, I’ve Got Some Living To Do, at the end of July, and is currently planning for some solo and festival performances in October. Says the artist of this new sonic territory he’s currently exploring: “It’s always been a dream to make a guitar driven record. I think it stems from meeting my ex-girlfriend and her putting me onto bands like Cage The Elephant, The 1975, and Milky Chance. I fell into a rabbit hole of indie rock, psych rock, noise rock, glam, and folk. That’s just what I like listening to now. Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, Wilco, Radiohead, Love, The Beatles. It just consumes me.” And last but certainly not least, we’ve included a track from LA’s Gold Star (aka Marlon Rabenreither). An artist who Phoebe Bridgers puts it in the same side of her brain “as Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young and Jackson Browne,” Rabenreither is set to drop his fifth release, Headlights USA, on September 3.

Want to add a little more California to your life? Jump over to Spotify and smash the follow button on our “Stay Golden” playlist. Every week we add new tracks by established and up-and-coming musicians from the Golden State. Enjoy!