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is there going to be a listening party for expansion?

Most likely yes! Update: The official word is now definitely. We're still finishing up the album, so we don't yet know what shape that'll take or exactly when it'll happen.

We'll definitely announce any/all release events in advance, so as long as you're following us somewhere you shouldn't miss it!

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This month's roundup is a little late due to the watg release, but here's some other bands by various garages!

You can find a link to the original google doc list here (not sure how often we'll update it, but hey, better than a static image).

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(streaming on all platforms; links are just spotify)

Shark Hunter / I'm Starting To Lose My Sense of Self

streaming now.

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Shark Hunter / I'm Starting To Lose My Sense of Self

streaming now.

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Shark Hunter and I'm Starting To Lose My Sense Of Self are going up on streaming next week as a double single! Pre-save now <3

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Fourth Strike Dec-Jan-Feb Roundup!

(It's Bandcamp Friday. 100% of today's proceeds go towards California wildfire relief)

Hey everyone! It's 2025 now, and while January was tied up with prepping and releasing we've been the garages, it's February now, which means: Roundup time!

Our first roundup of 2025 is absolutely FILLED with new music, podcast appearances, and disintegrating perceptions of the self, brought to you with love from Fourth Strike. Also, cool shirts.

Let's jump into it:

--

The Garages released another EXPANSION single! "I'm Starting to Lose My Sense of Self," by @rosieeeeeeeee is out now on Bandcamp.

It'll be up on Spotify as a double single with Shark Hunter soon, so keep your eyes peeled and your ears primed! And pre-order the album if you haven't yet :)

--

2. Two years ago, Skates wrote an indie horror game about women's rowing team. Now, in the wake of increasingly hostile sentiment and policy against trans folks, especially trans women (including a new American executive order ban on trans women in sports), they're giving 100% of game proceeds from this month to Athlete Ally and Callen-Lorde.

--

3. Resni released a whopping 62-track soundtrack for their game, Stardust Demon. Let me say that again: 62. Tracks.

--

4. @girltentacles and friends made a Christmas song! It came out on Christmas; we're just late to the party. Don't waste any more time not listening to it!

--

5. New @girlballz music! Demos, covers, and new originals, oh my!

Fae're also doing February Album Writing Month, where it's challenged to write 14 songs in 28 days. You can follow along with faer progress here:

--

6. Bertie's new band, Cardboard Chords, released two singles in the last three months, with another one set to drop on Valentine's Day. Pre-orders open now!

--

7. If you missed them last time around, Yuppie Supper ( @thwackamabob ) shirts are back! They'll stay up until sizes run out... or a new EP releases 👀

The band's also migrated to BlueSky--you can catch up with them here!

--

8. Sister Sickness released its new single "Break My Bones" on SoundCloud! Check it out here:

--

9. @clemkesh is doing a guest run on the podcast Quest Friends! as the singing voice of player character Sparky! Her first appearance is on Episode 46: "Swanshine!"

There're also extended versions of the songs released as separate cuts--you can find those over on the Quest Friends! website:

--

10. Louisa also wrote, co-sang, and produced a duet for this year's Secret Samol, a Friends at the Table annual fanart exchange:

--

10. @robnotes's part of a 48 hour charity stream for Children on the Edge! They're managing the stream today--at the top of the hour, actually-- and they'll be hosting the feed on Sunday, Feb 9th from 10am - 3pm GMT. Come say hi!

[strikefourth]

Fourth Strike Dec-Jan-Feb Roundup!

(It's Bandcamp Friday. 100% of today's proceeds go towards California wildfire relief)

Hey everyone! It's 2025 now, and while January was tied up with prepping and releasing we've been the garages, it's February now, which means: Roundup time!

Our first roundup of 2025 is absolutely FILLED with new music, podcast appearances, and disintegrating perceptions of the self, brought to you with love from Fourth Strike. Also, cool shirts.

Let's jump into it:

--

The Garages released another EXPANSION single! "I'm Starting to Lose My Sense of Self," by @rosieeeeeeeee is out now on Bandcamp.

It'll be up on Spotify as a double single with Shark Hunter soon, so keep your eyes peeled and your ears primed! And pre-order the album if you haven't yet :)

--

2. Two years ago, Skates wrote an indie horror game about women's rowing team. Now, in the wake of increasingly hostile sentiment and policy against trans folks, especially trans women (including a new American executive order ban on trans women in sports), they're giving 100% of game proceeds from this month to Athlete Ally and Callen-Lorde.

--

3. Resni released a whopping 62-track soundtrack for their game, Stardust Demon. Let me say that again: 62. Tracks.

--

4. @girltentacles and friends made a Christmas song! It came out on Christmas; we're just late to the party. Don't waste any more time not listening to it!

--

5. New @girlballz music! Demos, covers, and new originals, oh my!

Fae're also doing February Album Writing Month, where it's challenged to write 14 songs in 28 days. You can follow along with faer progress here:

--

6. Bertie's new band, Cardboard Chords, released two singles in the last three months, with another one set to drop on Valentine's Day. Pre-orders open now!

--

7. If you missed them last time around, Yuppie Supper ( @thwackamabob ) shirts are back! They'll stay up until sizes run out... or a new EP releases 👀

The band's also migrated to BlueSky--you can catch up with them here!

--

8. Sister Sickness released its new single "Break My Bones" on SoundCloud! Check it out here:

--

9. @clemkesh is doing a guest run on the podcast Quest Friends! as the singing voice of player character Sparky! Her first appearance is on Episode 46: "Swanshine!"

There're also extended versions of the songs released as separate cuts--you can find those over on the Quest Friends! website:

--

10. Louisa also wrote, co-sang, and produced a duet for this year's Secret Samol, a Friends at the Table annual fanart exchange:

--

10. @robnotes's part of a 48 hour charity stream for Children on the Edge! They're managing the stream today--at the top of the hour, actually-- and they'll be hosting the feed on Sunday, Feb 9th from 10am - 3pm GMT. Come say hi!

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New Single Out Now - "I'm Starting To Lose My Sense Of Self"

The Garages have a NEW SINGLE OUT TODAY from the upcoming album, EXPANSION. You can listen to the absolutely beautiful "I'm Starting To Lose My Sense Of Self" right now on our bandcamp. It will also be out on streaming very soon along with the last single from this album, Shark Hunter (as a double single just for maximum tonal whiplash). If you enjoyed "Spring", the opening track from our latest album, We've Been The Garages, this is from the same incredible songwriter, Juniper-Rose Drown, and it's really special. This album is years in the making and we cannot wait for you to experience the whole thing. Today is bandcamp friday and this time bandcamp will be donating its cut to musicares.org to help support those affected by the recent California wildfires, so please consider pre-ordering the album today!

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-'m --a-ti-g T- -ose M- Se--e o- ---f

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-'m --a-ti-g T- -ose M- Se--e o- ---f

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This month's roundup is a little late due to the watg release, but here's some other bands by various garages!

You can find a link to the original google doc list here (not sure how often we'll update it, but hey, better than a static image).

[strikefourth]

Yuppie Supper shirts! available! outside of gigs! if anyone wants them

[strikefourth]

This month's roundup is a little late due to the watg release, but here's some other bands by various garages!

You can find a link to the original google doc list here (not sure how often we'll update it, but hey, better than a static image).

[strikefourth]

I’ve been ruminating on this last garages album for a bit, and wondering why I haven’t been sad.

For anyone unaware: The Garages released the last album of the “we are the garages” series, titled We’ve Been The Garages, as our last album before the release of Expansion and the simmering shutdown of the band as we knew it.

I had a huge hand in this album. I wrote two songs for it—one old, one new—and helped on two others. I helped with tracklisting. I put a lot of emotion + energy + work into this, and now that it’s out, I’m left with this feeling of pride and joy.

But from reactions here on tumblr and by friends, it’s clear that feeling just pride is a singularity. A lot of people are grieving the terminal loss of the band and at large, the shocking, sudden loss of Blaseball, the game that started it all. People are left with a hole where it used to be, and it is making them rightfully very sad. I’ve gone through these same experiences with them, so I should be sad, right? Hell, I’m a part of the band that’s ending- I should be distraught. I should be grieving, it feels like.

But I’m not. I can’t find it within myself to be sad about this release, nor can I be sad about the loss of Blaseball, nor that I have to do other things now. This is because of two reasons, one of which is more important than the other:

I’ve always been terrible at handling grief in a healthy or normal way (unimportant)

I have a very different mindset about this particular ending.

For me, this album isn’t a death. This is a graduation.

I’ve known for a long time that Blaseball was finite. It was born of an era that existed only because it had to, and once that era was over, so was the game. TGB put it best when they shut it down- it was unsustainable now that the pandemic had been societally declared over. Blaseball was built in the absence of a thing that was now back, and no one could dedicate their full time to it anymore now that they weren’t locked in their houses indefinitely. When I heard the news, I had a flash of anger on how it ended, but it was quickly replaced by a resolute feeling of knowing this was going to happen eventually. It was always going to end, and it’s a shame that it did so in this way, but it had to. I wasn’t sad about it.

And with the death of Blaseball came the death of the thing that had been the Garages’ muse for so long. How long could a thing last without life support, especially when we, the people behind the band, were subject to the same situation of being needed somewhere else? The Garages’ end was going to follow Blaseball’s eventually, even if it took nearly two years to do so. I knew this and understood this deeply.

I also knew that the end of the band wasn’t going to suddenly kill the bonds I had made with my bandmates, people I have the honor to call friends, best friends and colleagues. None of us were suddenly going to drop dead (knock on wood, you bitches better survive), we were just going to stand there after the lights went out and say “now what?”. There was always going to be an end, but there was also always going to be an after.

A graduation is not a funeral. You can grieve the fact that it’s over, but really, you are meant to reflect on the wonderful (or horrible) things that have occurred in the time since you’ve started. Take all the good and the bad and the deeply complex and turn it into fuel for the new you’re about to step into. Understand just how far you’ve gotten since that initial point, and maybe see how far you can go.

I graduated high school in June 2022, about 10 months into my being a part of the band. They were among the first people I told I was going to college and that I had just thrown my cap. It rained that day, and the venue was outdoors, and I had food poisoning, but when I threw that cap, I wasn’t upset at any of that. I wasn’t upset that high school was over (for a plethora of reasons), nor was I sad that I was going into a new part of my life. I was actually thinking about my graduation cap itself, and how hard I had worked on it the night before, painstakingly painting it and making sure it was perfect. I was so happy that I had done the damn thing, and it had gotten a moment to glimmer in the air, even if a little smeared due to the rain. I walked out of there that day so proud of myself for making it through and making that cap.

And almost ironically, the words I had painted were “I’ll figure it out eventually”. I didn’t know entirely what I was going to do after high school besides go to college, or what I wanted to get a job in, I just knew that there was going to be something there. I knew that I would keep going. All I had to say was “now what?”, because this was an end, yes, but there was always going to be an after.

I don’t know what the band will become after we release the last of our stored works. We have some ideas. We don’t know what our legacy will look like in a year, or five, or ten, or fifty. We don’t know what’s coming for us, but we’ll figure it out eventually. There’s always an after, and we will make it ours.

And I’m not sad about that.

[strikefourth]

I’ve been ruminating on this last garages album for a bit, and wondering why I haven’t been sad.

For anyone unaware: The Garages released the last album of the “we are the garages” series, titled We’ve Been The Garages, as our last album before the release of Expansion and the simmering shutdown of the band as we knew it.

I had a huge hand in this album. I wrote two songs for it—one old, one new—and helped on two others. I helped with tracklisting. I put a lot of emotion + energy + work into this, and now that it’s out, I’m left with this feeling of pride and joy.

But from reactions here on tumblr and by friends, it’s clear that feeling just pride is a singularity. A lot of people are grieving the terminal loss of the band and at large, the shocking, sudden loss of Blaseball, the game that started it all. People are left with a hole where it used to be, and it is making them rightfully very sad. I’ve gone through these same experiences with them, so I should be sad, right? Hell, I’m a part of the band that’s ending- I should be distraught. I should be grieving, it feels like.

But I’m not. I can’t find it within myself to be sad about this release, nor can I be sad about the loss of Blaseball, nor that I have to do other things now. This is because of two reasons, one of which is more important than the other:

I’ve always been terrible at handling grief in a healthy or normal way (unimportant)

I have a very different mindset about this particular ending.

For me, this album isn’t a death. This is a graduation.

I’ve known for a long time that Blaseball was finite. It was born of an era that existed only because it had to, and once that era was over, so was the game. TGB put it best when they shut it down- it was unsustainable now that the pandemic had been societally declared over. Blaseball was built in the absence of a thing that was now back, and no one could dedicate their full time to it anymore now that they weren’t locked in their houses indefinitely. When I heard the news, I had a flash of anger on how it ended, but it was quickly replaced by a resolute feeling of knowing this was going to happen eventually. It was always going to end, and it’s a shame that it did so in this way, but it had to. I wasn’t sad about it.

And with the death of Blaseball came the death of the thing that had been the Garages’ muse for so long. How long could a thing last without life support, especially when we, the people behind the band, were subject to the same situation of being needed somewhere else? The Garages’ end was going to follow Blaseball’s eventually, even if it took nearly two years to do so. I knew this and understood this deeply.

I also knew that the end of the band wasn’t going to suddenly kill the bonds I had made with my bandmates, people I have the honor to call friends, best friends and colleagues. None of us were suddenly going to drop dead (knock on wood, you bitches better survive), we were just going to stand there after the lights went out and say “now what?”. There was always going to be an end, but there was also always going to be an after.

A graduation is not a funeral. You can grieve the fact that it’s over, but really, you are meant to reflect on the wonderful (or horrible) things that have occurred in the time since you’ve started. Take all the good and the bad and the deeply complex and turn it into fuel for the new you’re about to step into. Understand just how far you’ve gotten since that initial point, and maybe see how far you can go.

I graduated high school in June 2022, about 10 months into my being a part of the band. They were among the first people I told I was going to college and that I had just thrown my cap. It rained that day, and the venue was outdoors, and I had food poisoning, but when I threw that cap, I wasn’t upset at any of that. I wasn’t upset that high school was over (for a plethora of reasons), nor was I sad that I was going into a new part of my life. I was actually thinking about my graduation cap itself, and how hard I had worked on it the night before, painstakingly painting it and making sure it was perfect. I was so happy that I had done the damn thing, and it had gotten a moment to glimmer in the air, even if a little smeared due to the rain. I walked out of there that day so proud of myself for making it through and making that cap.

And almost ironically, the words I had painted were “I’ll figure it out eventually”. I didn’t know entirely what I was going to do after high school besides go to college, or what I wanted to get a job in, I just knew that there was going to be something there. I knew that I would keep going. All I had to say was “now what?”, because this was an end, yes, but there was always going to be an after.

I don’t know what the band will become after we release the last of our stored works. We have some ideas. We don’t know what our legacy will look like in a year, or five, or ten, or fifty. We don’t know what’s coming for us, but we’ll figure it out eventually. There’s always an after, and we will make it ours.

And I’m not sad about that.

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we've been the garages is out now on bandcamp! with a special surprise for anyone who purchases the album :)