à La Carte Records Signs D.C. Deathrock/Post-Punk Outfit Cryptid Summer

à La Carte Records is proud to welcome Cryptid Summer to the label roster. The Washington, D.C.–based four-piece have carved a distinct space within the city’s underground, pairing the jagged energy of deathrock and post-punk with the melodic precision of classic alternative. Their forthcoming album, Where the Earth Has Teeth, arrives in early 2026, preceded by the first single “Disappointing,” out December 5th.

Formed out of D.C.’s tight-knit DIY circuit, Cryptid Summer’s members had long orbited one another in various local projects before coalescing around a shared obsession with the elegance and unease of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Joy Division. What began as a one-off Cure tribute set at Slash Run in early 2020 has since evolved into a band fluent in both the theatricality of goth and the emotional bite of grunge. The group—Lizz Mazer (vocals), Carni Klirs (guitar), Zach Wall (bass), and Eileen O’Grady (drums)—turn those influences inward, crafting songs that balance melancholy with momentum and atmosphere with clarity.

With Where the Earth Has Teeth, Cryptid Summer sharpen their sound into something unmistakably their own: haunted yet immediate, literate yet visceral. It’s an album that lingers between decades—too tuneful to be pure goth, too jagged to be pop—and cements the band as one of D.C.’s most vital new voices in dark alternative music.