OK, adorable miscreants. It’s my closing column of the year, so that of course means that it’s TLU’s annual, unbelievably exciting and inarguably definitive Undie Awards honoring 2025’s standouts in local music. And this year, the flowers go to …
THE 2025 UNDIES
Best scene service: Chris Cortez
He spearheaded independent jazz venue Blue Bamboo first into prominence and then into a new, high-profile location this summer against steep odds. Then in October, the longtime Boo icon shocked when he stepped away to battle brain cancer. Thank you for everything you did, Chris. You will be missed.
Most hyperlocal release: 407 F.R.
Homegrown EDM artists Arina Krondeva and Propah Ganda handily win this one with an excellent EP that 1) is built on field recordings of downtown, 2) features a song named after famous Lake Eola goose Lucy and 3) proudly picks up the mantle of Orlando breaks. It doesn’t get any more Orlando than this.
Best music campaign: Swamp Xistas
Practically no local music groups are more dedicated to community service than Beth McKee’s Swamp Sistas. But this year, they outdid even themselves with Power Lines. As Swamp Xistas, this even more expanded corps of benevolence launched the yearlong singles release series to raise funds for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Their second single, “One Step Closer,” just dropped last Friday.
Best musical monument: Posthumous Richard Sherfey album
Former longtime Orlando musician CJ Mask proved himself both a devoted friend and an inspired music director when he took on the herculean task of turning demo fragments from dearly departed local Americana figure Richard Sherfey into a finished and deluxe album. Rendered with a gusto that matches Sherfey’s soulful croon and printed as a gatefold vinyl album, the recently released No Distance is both labor of love and extraordinary feat. CJ Mask made it happen.
Best scene gateway: OGRC’s Youth to the Front concerts
This year, the increasingly seminal Orlando Girls Rock Camp have upped their game with their Youth to the Front shows. As a matinee concert series open to all ages, these nurturing events are safe spaces that give Orlando’s youth early, almost unprecedented access to the real local music scene. No Kidz Bop shit here.
Best at-long-last debut: Chris LeBrane’s Campaign
Inauguration, the debut album by scene veteran Chris LeBrane, is remarkable both for its nearly decade-long gestation and its nostalgic perfection. Of all the throwbacks happening right now, nobody here is working the 1980s niche where R&B and new wave converge like LeBrane. Inauguration is a luscious synth-funk clinic that’s pure neon fantasy. Forget vaporwave, this is 1980s redux done in living, vivid color. I shook more ass to this than any other local release this year.
Best cover: The Ludes & Skinny McGee
There are cover versions and then there are reinventions. When The Ludes and Skinny McGee released their spaghetti Western take on Kraftwerk’s “The Model” this year, it was a revelation. Their reimagining of the song is so inspired that they’re owed some authorship daps just for the idea and execution alone.
Best cover act: New Eagles
Man, fuck “Free Bird.” Comprised of decorated veterans in the city’s indie-rock scene, this all-star group kicks out jams by bands like Guided by Voices, The Thermals, Archers of Loaf, Jawbreaker and The Replacements. It’s guilty pleasure done with connoisseur taste.
Best creative blitz: Cloud Crew’s WAM series
Since its spring launch, this international music charrette spearheaded by Orlando’s Paper Aviator has yielded four remarkable albums, each created in the breathless span of a weekend by a global rainbow collective of digital fusion artists. The whirlwind collaboration exercise is a wonder of hive creativity. What’s more, all proceeds come home to benefit crucial LGBTQ+ service organization Zebra Youth.
Best confluence: The San Francisco Renaissance & Alien Witch
These two notable young bands got so in sync during the making of their self-titled split album that they sound like a single psych-rock powerhouse delivering a magnum opus. The album isn’t just a high-water mark for both bands, it’s a new Orlando touchstone of psychedelia.
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This article appears in Dec. 24-30, 2025.
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