Fortuna 500 - Two For Flinching (2026) Hi-Res

Walking to the bakery this weekend, I hit play on Fortuna 500’s Two For Flinching, and song by song the smile under my headphones just kept growing. Once back home, I dropped a needle on a record, settling into my standard weekend ritual; there’s an unmatched magic to a Saturday morning filled with fresh crusty breads, hot coffee, a thick newspaper, and spinning vinyl. Yet, even as I spent some hours rotating between 60s mod and my latest LP hauls, I found myself itching to put Fortuna 500 right back on.

The Somerville, Massachusetts-based five-piece brands their sound as “garage country,” but that barely scratches the surface of their debut full-length. Across 12 unpolished tracks in 50 unruly minutes, Two For Flinching is an ambitious DIY adventure capturing a young band having too much fun to play it safe. They take an idiosyncratic route through various genres, fiery lyrics, easygoing noise and enough sudden turns—it’s largely sun-drenched and beer-soaked vigor, but at times also slower and darker—to keep you permanently off balance.

Fingers crossed they press this to wax in the near future, because my turntable is practically begging for it.

Two For Flinching—produced by Chaimes Parker—is out digitally (self-released), with also some home-burned CD-Rs in circulation. Featuring Cole Triedman (lead vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica), Harley Spring (guitar), Ryan DiLello (guitar), David Levine (bass), and Julian Snyder (drums).