It has been a year of change, and for many, uncertainty.
In 2025, we experienced the death of the pope, a new president, one of the longest government shutdowns in U.S. history, an explosion in AI developments and a sweep of immigration raids.
Entertainment was the perfect way to quiet the hailstorm of headlines this year.
We got the fifth and final season of Stranger Things after a three-year wait. Taylor Swift dropped a new album this year, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which sold over four million copies. The close-almost-creepy relationship dynamic between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on the Wicked press junket kept us distracted and wondering what was going on there.
This was also a creative year for High Desert musicians.
From only a handful to nearly half a million streams, multiple local bands and artists released new music to streaming platforms in 2025.
Psychedelic rock band Los Kombi rounded the talent with their Us at the Bus mini music festival, which had a lineup stuffed with local talent. Local American Idol winner Chayce Beckham got hitched this year, and the song he proposed with is now one of his most-streamed.
A slew of other locals dropped new music this year, achieving legitimacy in the music industry.
Sundae Best
Sundae Best says 2025 has been a great year. They released two singles this summer, “Sinclair” and “The Bottom,” as well as a 10-track album, “Assorted Flavors,” in early November, which are all available on all major streaming platforms.
“Assorted Flavors” begins with a slow, instrumental introduction that gently introduces the listener to the rest of the indie album. Another tender track, “Tunnel of Love,” is one of the strongest on the record. It’s wistful and romantic yet raw with an audible nose sniffle, reminding the listener of the band’s early beginnings and hometown sound.
Happy-go-lucky single “Sinclair” provokes high school nostalgia. It is now the band’s most-streamed song on Spotify with 3,757 plays.
All five members of Sundae Best, Michael Ryczek, Julian Jackson, Aidan Alcala, Matthew Jackson and Andrew Gooch, were born and raised in the High Desert. They’ve been an active band since March 2024.
A Bottle of Something Unique
A Bottle of Something Unique released a self-titled EP this year, marking a first for the local indie rock band.
On the album, the Victorville band debuts a messy vocal pitch and out-of-tune licks that make as much sense as a fever dream. It sounds tastefully lackadaisical like Pavement or Dinosaur Jr. Like those more distinguished alt-rock bands, the local group, founded in 2022, hopes to also make it out of their hometown one day. For now, they exclusively gig around the desert, making the most at stops like the Victor Valley College quad and Apple Valley backyard shows.
“The music scene here has really been growing in recent years, and we’ve had lots of fun being part of it,” the band told the Daily Press.
The band’s latest EP is available on most streaming platforms.
Car Failure
Car Failure released a seven-song EP in late June. They say it’s doing extremely well so far, and that their audience has grown over 10 times what it was before the EP release. Further, you’ll find Car Failure comfortably seated in a heated recliner atop most show lineups in the High Desert, making an opulent name for themselves beyond streaming.
The sixth track on the fast-paced rock EP titled “IDK” is the band’s most-streamed song on Spotify with nearly 11,000 listens. Modest for now, but a huge accomplishment for a band formed only two years ago.
Spoken word shenanigans and reverb existentialism are standout features of the newest release, which debuts both dancey and melancholy moods on songs like “Skipping Class” and “Your Song.”
Vocalist and guitarist Zach Wilberding says he and the bass player have lived in the High Desert their whole lives. They met the Car Failure drummer when he moved to the area from Northern California circa 2016. The band formed in late 2023.
Marty Calderon
Marty Calderon released four eclectic songs this year that live more like primos under the same roof than immediate family.
Calderon’s two newest releases parallel the heavy keyboard sounds of canon Chicano artists, while “Slowride” takes a funkier, Eric Burdon turn, and “Hazlo Para Mi (Cumbia de Jade)” is a quintessential 4/4 drum beat cumbia track.
Calderon graduated from Hesperia High School in 2004. He played in local bands Manantial de fuego, twenty dollar prophets and Los Kombi before finding his own sound inspired by the romantic, Chicano sounds of The Silvertone and Thee Sinseers.
Calderon formed his current band in 2020 with musicians exclusively from the High Desert.
Los Kombi
Los Kombi is a High Desert staple, finding and creating their own culture in an area vulnerable to artistic deprivation.
The local band hosted a mini festival at their school bus-turned-rehearsal room this year with live music from nine local bands and “a great turnout.”
Los Kombi also released a single in October and has another planned to drop before the new year. The melodic track, titled “2:13,” sounds like what taking a sleeping pill feels like at first: soft and echoey. That’s just the appetizer. By the final course, the band delivers a hypnotic, heartbroken and heavy confession with the help of an electric Neil Young guitar solo. “2:13” personifies the full spectrum of the Los Kombi discography.
Ryan Bodine
Newberry Springs local Ryan Bodine released four singles this year as a rising country artist, including his most-streamed song “Ghost Town Roads,” which launched earlier this year.
The single highlights growing up near Calico Ghost Town as a boy in a classic, pop country way. In a past interview with the Daily Press, Bodine said it’s an “amazing feeling” seeing fans belt out the lyrics to “Ghost Town Roads” on his Back Home tour.
Bodine’s other hot single, “Barstow to HB,” got him discovered by Nashville producer Kurt Ryle on Facebook only half a year after he went public with his music. Since then, the small-town boy has had music reach the top of the country music charts in Europe and received a nomination for the Grand Ole Opry Awards.
Chayce Beckham
Chayce Beckham is one of the High Desert’s brightest stars. The American Idol season 19 winner dropped a four-song Ep and three additional singles this year, including the song he proposed to his now-wife Ashley Britt with.
The romantic proposal song, “Holdin’ You, Lovin’ You,” already has over 485,000 streams on Spotify in the month it’s been out.
“Ocean Blue” is another song not to miss that debuted this year. The base violin anchors the single to more traditional-sounding country ballads. Pay attention to the lyrics and you’ll find yourself reaching for the bottle, remembering the one that got away or couldn’t be.
McKenna is a reporter for the Daily Press. She can be reached at [email protected].
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