So many artists, so many songs, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
NO JOY – “BARKING AT THE SUN”
“This song is driving through empty corn fields with the windows down on the first warm days of spring,” says No Joy’s Jasamine White-Gluz. “During the last solar eclipse, I drove my car to the fields and watched the sun disappear and reappear, feeling like it was both the beginning and the end of the world. This was the first song Angel & I worked on after Bugland. The song grew out of a very old demo where I played around with Drop C guitar tunings. With this opening guitar riff, I collaged bits and pieces of other demos together to make a patchwork of a song. Angel then took that into her world and made it more technicolor.” No Joy’s new Fire-Toolz-produced EP is out August 21.
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ACTRESS – “OVERCHORD”
Actress announced a new album, Radical Frame, due out September 18 via Ninja Tune. It includes last month’s “Live By You” (ft. CASISDEAD), and he’s shared a second single, foreboding yet ethereal “Overchord.”
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DRY CLEANING – “SLICED BY A FINGERNAIL,” “GRASS,” “I HAVE THE KEY”
Dry Cleaning have released a deluxe edition of new album Secret Love which features three previously unreleased songs.
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PETEY USA – “SAVE FOR THE HORSES”
Petey USA’s recent run of singles continues with a new synth pop track, “Save for the Horses.”
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BLACK MARBLE – “ANYTHING”
“‘Anything’ is basically a bedroom pop version of ‘Satisfaction’ but it trades the carnal undertones for more of a domestic pastiche,” says Black Marble’s Chris Stewart. With lyrics about leaving the bedroom window open, casual druggy friends popping by at all hours and other relationship annoyances, the center of the struggle is less about finding temporary satisfaction but that today’s glut of options and opportunities gives every relationship an expiration date, every encounter an easy off ramp and every minor annoyance a reason to move on. The sentiment is the same from those old days, lack of fulfillment, but it’s due to modern circumstances. It feels like we have every option at our fingertips but we’re somehow losing the ability to connect.” New album Life in Small Spaces is out August 21.
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CEREMONY – “DARK SUMMER”
Ceremony’s first album in 7 years, Tell Me Your Dream, is out next month, and they’ve given us another preview with “Dark Summer.” “In Rock ‘n Roll music, feedback occurs when a guitar is purposely moved too close to an amplifier – like a dark summer – when dread finds you amid brilliant sunshine, it feels disorienting, confusing, and chaotic,” Ross Farrar says. “What you’re left with is malaise, doldrums of sorts that are both beautiful and terrifying.”
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SOFT CELL – “IN HEAVEN (WHEN I DANCE WITH YOU)”
“‘In Heaven (When I Dance With You)’ is a celebration of the early Eighties joyful disco scene,” says Marc Almond. “A coming together of the sentiments of the time. I wanted it to be that moment when you run to the dancefloor.” New album Danceteria is out September 25
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PORCELAIN – “APOCALYPSE”
Austin band Porcelain announced their second album, Today’s Minor Victories, due out October 23 via TODO Records. They’ve shared “Apocalypse,” a chugging post-hardcore track, and they say, “This is a song about the loss of innocence. Growing up, the future looked so bright and promising, like we could all make something of this world for the better. But then we witness tragedy after tragedy unfold in front of our childlike eyes, and the world that we looked forward to growing up in now looks like it’s unattainable, collapsing in slow motion. Realizing that the world is full of insecure men searching for power, greed, resources, and the unquenchable thirst of violent imperialism. The future we were promised as children never came to be, and now we’re all but subjected to the systemic violence that our country was founded on.”
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VELOCITY GIRL – “I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN”
Here’s another early rarity that’s on Velocity Girl comp 1989 – 1992.
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PERENNIAL – “MODERNISM”
New England mod dance punks Perennial will release their new album Modernism in September, and about new single “Modernism,” Chad Jewitt says, “The idea with ‘Modernism’ was to have this sharp opening statement of purpose, but to also deconstruct the ‘fast garage rock’ template. We’re a band that wishes we wrote ‘Kick Out The Jams’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ in equal measure, so wherever there aren’t loud guitars there’s drum machine and mellotron and electric piano. A real technicolor punk thing”
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KIWI JR. “PHOTOS OF THE REENACTMENT”
“The story of this song is about someone moving to a small town with her daughter to produce a podcast about an unsolved murder that happened there years before,” says Kiwi Jr’s Jeremy Gaudet. “But it’s hard for the kid to be there and digging through the past of this small town can get heavy. It’s sort of an idea for a movie I had. Being young and stuck in a small town can feel like you’re so far away from anything that matters and the song reflects that. Photos of the Reenactment is like a copy of a copy of a copy; an imitation of an imitation etc.” The band’s new album Blowin’ Up is out August 14 via K.
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WILLI CARLISLE – “THE MASON JAR AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD”
Folk artist Willie Carlisle announced a new double album, The Universal Bubba, due out November 6 via Signature Sounds. He’s shared the album opener, “The Mason Jar at the Center of the World,” which was inspired by a Wallace Stevens poem. “Smash three or four folk songs against a poem and add some hard traveling, you get a song,” Carlisle says. “Stuff’s intertextual like that.”
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SWEEPING PROMISES – “ACCENT”
Sweeping Promises call this new single “a cacophony of routine, the plight of a lowly drone who dreams of breaking out of an instinct-born & increasingly restrictive flight path. It’s got a flapping, insectoid rhythm, which is misery to play. We call it ‘cicadence.’ It’s a succession of bee-sting realizations from an individual dangerously at risk of becoming feral, independent, an outsider.” You Say I Romanticize is out August 14.
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SWAPMEET – “BONNY”
Australian band Swapmeet release their debut album Mount Zero this Friday, and ahead of its release they’ve shared a final advance single, noisy indie rock track “Bonny.”
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SLOW FICTION – “TURNING DOWN FLOWERS”
NYC’s Slow Fiction, who will be joining Swervedriver on tour next month, have shared another song from their upcoming debut album.
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MICHELLE BRANCH & THE NEW RADICALS – “THE GAME OF LOVE”
Michelle Branch and The New Radicals reimagined their 2002 track “The Game of Love” for Branch’s new EP of reworked songs, Everywhere and Back Again, due out November 6 via BMG. “‘The Game of Love’ has been such a special song in my life made possible by one of my personal musical heroes, Gregg Alexander from New Radicals,” Branch says. “Many people don’t realize that Gregg wrote ‘The Game of Love’ and being able to sing this together with him is really a full circle moment and captures the original spirit of the demo.”
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MAN/WOMAN/CHAINSAW – “SOMETHING ELSE TO GIVE”
“‘Something Else to Give’ is a song on love and disappointment,” says Man/Woman/Chainsaw’s Vera Leppänen. “It talks about exerting yourself for someone who doesn’t reciprocate the effort. We wrote it kind of in a flash – the process felt very organic and intuitive; it immediately felt like the obvious closer for the album.” The band’s debut album is out August 7.
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RODRIGO Y GABRIELA – “OURHOME”
It’s the title track to Rodrigo y Gabriela’s upcoming album.
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ARAB STRAP – “GLAMOUR MAGICK”
Arab Strap’s new video is body horror worthy of The Substance or Cronenberg.
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MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO – “I KNEW YOU WERE WAITING (FOR ME)” FT. CYNTHIA ERIVO
Meshell Ndegeocello announced a cover album of duets and shared the first single, which you can read more about here.
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NETHERWILDS – “SIEGE PROOF HOVEL”
It’s the new “peasant metal” band from former Tokyo Police Club frontman Dave Monks.
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INDEX – “FRACTURED”
Index, the new LA/Philly experimental hardcore duo featuring former Control Top members Alan Creedon and Alex Lichtenauer, have announced their debut album and this is the ferocious new single.
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FIONA APPLE – “HORNS OF A BULL”
New Apple TV series Lucky is out today, theme song by Fiona Apple included. Read more about it here.
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BECK – “IN THE NIGHT”
Beck announced his first new album in 7 years, Ride Lonesome, and gave us a preview with “In The Night,” which you can read more about here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive