Indie Rock
Rex Orange County’s Alex O’Connor Charged with Sexual Assault in the UK
Alex O’Connor, the singer known professionally as Rex Orange County, has reportedly been charged with six counts of sexual assault stemming from a string of incidents that allegedly occurred in June of this year. According to the Sun, O’Connor, 24, appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on unconditional bail ahead of a trial scheduled to begin on January 3rd, 2023. Prosecutors accused O’Connor of assaulting a woman multiple times between June 1st and June 2nd. Advertisement Related Video In a statement to Consequence, a representative for the singer said: “[O’Connor] is shocked by the allegations which he denies and looks forward to clearing his name in court. He is unable to make any further comment because of the ongoi...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Unveil New Album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava: Stream
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are releasing three albums this month, and the first one, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, is out now. Listen to the project below. King Gizzard wrote Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava in the studio, assigning every song on the seven-track album a specific beats-per-minute value and a mode of the major scale. “We’d walk into the studio, set everything up, get a rough tempo going and just jam,” band leader Stu Mackenzie said in a statement. “No preconceived ideas at all, no concepts, no songs. We’d jam for maybe 45 minutes, and then all swap instruments and start again.” Even the album’s lyrics were a group effort, with the band utilizing a collaborative Google Doc for the writing process. Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, M...
Oliver Sim Confirms There Will Be “More Music from The xx”: Exclusive
The xx haven’t released a new album since 2017’s I See You, as bandmates Romy, Jamie xx, and Oliver Sim have explored solo projects. But that doesn’t mean The xx are finished. In a new interview with Consequence Podcast Network’s Kyle Meredith With… Sim confirms that there will be “more music from The xx” in the future. “The xx will always be my home and will always be my priority,” Sim says. “And normally I wouldn’t speak for Romy and Jamie, but I know they feel the same. I think all of us doing our solo projects just makes me excited. It’s like, how is this gonna change the band? What have we all learned independently? And nothing is recorded at the moment, but there is more music from The xx, definitely.” Those independent projects include Jamie xx’s remix album with...
Japanese Breakfast Shares Delicate Cover of Brandi Carlile’s “The Story”: Stream
Japanese Breakfast has today shared a cover of Brandi Carlile’s 2007 single “The Story” as part of The North Face’s 2022 “It’s More Than a Jacket” campaign. While Carlile’s voice is quite different from Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner’s, the latter’s version of the song is still faithful to the original’s emphatic emotion. Instead of the pummeling electric guitars that mark the climax in Carlile’s version, Zauner enlists a string section to back her acoustic guitar, giving the song a milder feel. “It was a joy to take on the iconic ballad, ‘The Story,’” Michelle Zauner said in a statement. “I think the song captures the depths of human tenacity and the spirit of the journey so well. We wanted to keep our rendition sparse and acoustic. A beautiful string arrangement written by Craig He...
Oso Oso Share Sweeping New Single “De Facto”: Stream
Oso Oso, the emo-pop project of Jade Lilitri, has returned today with a new single called “De Facto.” Lilitri wrote and performed nearly every instrument on “De Facto” with the exception of drums, handled by Jordan Krimston. The song is right in line with Oso Oso’s usual schtick of sweeping, bittersweet melodies, but thankfully, that schtick has yet to get old. The introduction layers blasts of rapid hi-hat hits with Lilitri’s filtered, atmospheric vocals, before the song explodes into a chorus tailor-made for a friendly mosh pit. The latter half of “De Facto” culminates into a rousing breakdown before dropping the volume again for its bridge: “I had this dream/ I fell into/ The TV screen,” Lilitri sings, his vocals distorted once more like he’s relaying this vision to you from a playgroun...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Share Breathless, Nine-Minute Single “Iron Lung”: Stream
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released the new single “Iron Lung” from Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, their first of three albums coming in October. The nine-minute psych-rock jam comes with an equally trippy animated music video by SPOD. “Iron Lung” initially follows a measured, jazzy beat that expands with flutes, saxophone, and crunchy guitar riffs to an explosive peak. In a statement, guitarist Stu Mackenzie called the track “the ultimate collab,” sharing, “We wrote the lyrics as a group and created the music out of improvisation. Spontaneous creation. The best kind.” The accompanying music video mirrors the song’s lyrics, specifically the “different kind of cuttlefish.” More importantly, it portrays the titular breathing apparatus’ description of “Frog breat...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Complete Comeback with Triumphant New York City Show: Review, Photos and Setlist
“We’re the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and we’re back!” So screamed Karen O at the start of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ hometown comeback concert at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday, October 1st. There was unrestrained joy in her declaration, something the sold-out audience returned tenfold in screams of their own, both sides of the exchange clearly thrilled to have the New York band back on stage. It started the night’s energy at a triumphant 10, and it never lowered over the course of an 18-song setlist. Last month, I dug into my most-played records of the last 15 years, noting that YYYs’ It’s Blitz! struck me because “you could feel every bit of joy being pumped into” the songs. I’m happy to say that nine years after their last LP, that fact still holds. No matter that their new record, Cool It ...
The 1975 Jam Out New Singles “Happiness” and “I’m in Love with You” on Jools Holland: Watch
The 1975 performed “Happiness” and “I’m in Love with You” from their upcoming fifth album Being Funny in a Foreign Language as the musical guests on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland. The quartet was flanked by an expanded lineup that included saxophone and percussion, but Matty Healy commanded the stage for the opener, “Happiness,” with the frontman’s typical shades-and-suit outfit and demeanor once again perfectly straddling the line between dapper and loose. The funky number featured a guitar solo from Adam Hann and intermittent sax breaks, but it reached jammy greatness as Healy took to the keys and opened the floor to the full band’s groove. The group then switched it up for the upbeat ballad “I’m in Love with You,” with a relatively straightforward delivery that added to the song’s inh...
LCD Soundsystem Share “New Body Rhumba,” First New Song in Five Years: Stream
LCD Soundsystem are back with their first new song in five years. James Murphy and company have today shared “New Body Rhumba,” their contribution to the soundtrack for Noah Baumbach’s upcoming film White Noise. The black comedy-horror stars Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig as a married couple whose idyllic life is thwarted by disaster. White Noise comes out in select theaters starting November 25th before it hits Netflix December 30th. “New Body Rhumba” is LCD’s first new music since their 2017 album American Dream, which arrived a whopping seven years after its predecessor This Is Happening. So, while we’d love if this meant there’s a new LCD album on the way, we’re just happy enough to get a one-off single from the indie veterans. Listen to “New Body Rhumba” below. Though LCD...
Pixies Unveil New Album Doggerel: Stream
Something to make you feel old today: It’s been 30 years since Pixies broke up the first time, and thanks to Doggerel, their new album that’s out today, the band have now released as many records since their reunion as they did during their original heyday. Needless to say, Pixies have grown up, and, as a press release explains, Doggerel shows that. “This time around we have grown,” guitarist Joey Santiago said. “We no longer have under two-minute songs. We have little breaks, more conventional arrangements but still our twists in there.” “We’re trying to do things that are very big and bold and orchestrated,” frontman Black Francis added. “The punky stuff, I really like playing it but you just cannot artificially create that shit. There’s another way to do this, there’s other things ...
The Anxiety and Ambition of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Cool It Down
It goes without saying that the world has changed since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs unleashed their feral debut album, Fever to Tell, in 2003. Written in the wake of of 9/11, it was a 37-minute adrenaline rush of post-punk you can dance to. The record cemented them as an integral part of the wave of guitar-heavy New York bands, such as The Strokes and Interpol, that rose to prominence at the start of the century. Even now, they’re still considered a New York band, despite the city, its music, the band themselves, and the world around them continuing to change. The band went on hiatus shortly after releasing their third album Mosquito in 2013, though Karen O focused on releasing her solo work and contributing to film soundtracks, and became a mother for the first time. Meanwhile, Nick Zinner lent h...
Lady Lamb Answers the Consequestionnaire: 15 Years of Staying True to Herself and Loving Sufjan Stevens
It’s Consequence’s 15th anniversary, and all month long we are featuring a series of retrospective features and essays encompassing our publication’s history — as well as the entertainment landscape at large. We’re also giving some of our past CoSigned artists a chance to look back at the last 15 years with our Consequestionnaire; today’s respondent is Lady Lamb. As a part of our Consequence: 15 Years of Sound celebration, we’ve made it a point to check in with stand-out artists that have received our endorsement from the last decade and a half. We sent out our Consequestionnaire to numerous Artists of the Month and CoSigns to get their perspectives on the past 15 years, as well as hear about how their career has changed over this time period. Today, we circle back with March 2011 CoS...
