Pictoria Vark and Maneka with Buddusky

Pictoria Vark is the project of Iowa City-based songwriter and bassist Victoria Park. Growing up in northern New Jersey and cutting her teeth on the NYC music scene, Park’s first solo extended play surveyed the innumerable niceties of interpersonal relationships through ruminative, personal songwriting and bass-forward indie rock performance, a practice she has continued on her debut full-length record, The Parts I Dread. Beyond her outputs as an individual artist, she’s also served as a touring bassist for Squirrel Flower, having opened for the likes of Soccer Mommy, Julien Baker, and more. Her debut LP, The Parts I Dread, is out now on Get Better Records.

Devin McKnight makes music to be understood. With Maneka, his wildly adventurous songwriting project, the Brooklyn-based indie rock artist has consistently and thoughtfully explored the fringes of identity. As a Black man, he writes songs that resiliently navigate the anxiety of being a minority in largely white spaces, offering solidarity to outsiders everywhere and firm defiance against a regressive status quo. On Dark Matters, the masterful second Maneka album out March 11, 2022 via Skeletal Lightning, McKnight is at his most clear-eyed and searching. Across 10 tracks, McKnight asks uncomfortable questions about himself and America’s dark past all while scraping the edges of what guitar music can be. Kinetic, unpredictable, and totally resonant, this LP is a triumphant window into McKnight’s vision.

Over a decade into their life as a band, Buddusky captures the sounds and feelings of living in rural Maine with their raw punk hysterics, introverted song-smithery, and earnest lyricism.