Community Picks is a weekly series where artists submit a release to be voted on by members of the Nina community. Once a week, the release with the most votes will receive editorial coverage. This week’s winner is yellowbell.mix by devils cross country, a charming, odds-and-ends mixtape from an Ohio indie band making bedroom guitar music that feels relevant to 2025. We sent over some questions to the band, read the interview and listen to yellowbell.mix below.

Where are you from?

Cincinnati, OH.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?

Slacker rock, indie smashed up with a digital hammer.

Tell us about your release on Nina.

B-side mixtape. Stitched together a handful of Voice Memos, field recordings, random beats and drafts made over the course of the past year or so during the recording of our Candlepin Records release Possession is Ninetenths. It's inspired by the aggressive genrelessness of Philadelphia rock music right now (tons of artists off of Julia's War), but also from the electronic-acoustic experimentation that's been happening in Nashville's underground scene for a minute (Melaina Kol, Total Wife, etc.) along with early-mid 2010s bedroom pop in general. It's not really mixed, pretty muddy, kinda sad—a record of a period of time that feels more honest than an album, like hearing our band's subconscious flicked through like a feed.

What kind of tools do you use to make music?

Squier Jaguar plus Córdoba Nylon String, shitty Blue Snowball USB mic, and SM58. Audacity plus Ableton Live 11 Lite for recording, FL Studio 21 for mixing.

Who are six independent artists you think people should check out?

Guitar, Crate, 40winks, Make Yourself at Home, Good Flying Birds, pity xerox.