Indie Rock
alt-J Share New Single “Get Better”: Stream
alt-J are back with “Get Better,” the second single from their forthcoming album The Dream. The plaintive song is essentially a two-hander, with dummer Thom Sonny Green sitting this one out. Instead, Joe Newman strums out gentle acoustic notes while Gus Unger-Hamilton joins in with harmonies and subtle piano. As Newman describes it, the track “is the union of two songs.” One was a little improvisation he sang to his partner, Darcy Wallace, back in 2018: “Get better, my Darcy/ I know you can.” The second was a chord progression written during lockdown while Newman thought of the thousands of bereaved around the world. “I felt nervous heat when writing ‘Get Better,” Newman said in a press statement. “The context of the Coronavirus pandemic lent my words a chilling weight and gave me a new se...
Ought Break Up, Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy Form New Band Cola
Ought, the Montreal post-punk quartet that formed nine years ago, have announced their breakup. They leave behind a nine-year legacy that includes three Eps and three studio albums, the most recent of which was 2018’s Room Inside the World. The band — Tim Darcy, Matt May, Ben Stidworthy, and Tim Keen — issued a joint statement confirming the split: “We are no longer active as a band. When we started Ought in 2012 we had no greater aspirations than to play and write music together, and the fact that we were able to tour the world to such an extent and share so many rooms with so many of you has meant the world to us. We send lots of gratitude and love to all those we met and worked with along the way.” Fans ought not be totally devastated, however, as two of the band’s members have simultan...
Cat Power Announces US Tour, Drops Cover of Dead Man’s Bones’ “Pa Pa Power”: Stream
Cat Power announced today that she’s heading out on tour early next year. Additionally, she’s shared her new rendition of “Pa Pa Power” by Dead Man’s Bones from her upcoming album, Covers. The singer-songwriter reimagines the 2009 track by Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields into a haunting, melancholy dirge, replacing the children’s choir and plinking synths of the original with her own backing vocals and dreamy electric guitar. “Burn the streets, burn the cars/ Power/ Broken glass, but what about/ Our broken hearts/ Please make me better/ Please make me powerful,” she sings into dual mics in the accompanying music video, tweaking the song’s lyrics ever so slightly in the process. Advertisement Related Video The track serves as the second taste for the musician’s upcoming album Covers, which wi...
Dinosaur Jr. Share Live Album Emptiness at The Sinclair: Stream
Though they’ve become known as one of the most influential indie rock acts of the 1990s, Dinosaur Jr. have shown little interest in slowing down anytime soon. Today, the Massachusetts trio have released Emptiness at The Sinclair, a new live album that only further illustrates Dinosaur Jr.’s infallible legacy. Additionally, the band have announced their rescheduled North American tour dates for 2022. Recorded at Boston’s Sinclair, Emptiness at The Sinclair includes live renditions of Dinosaur Jr. tracks that span their entire career. It includes fan-favorite cuts from the band’s early days like “Just Like Heaven” and “Freak Scene,” as well as a handful of highlights from their new album, Sweep It into Space. “It was odd going back to Harvard Square for the Sinclair show, lots of ...
The War on Drugs Tighten and Lighten Up on I Don’t Live Here Anymore
The War on Drugs makes big songs, meant for arena-scale rock reveries. In 2022, they’ll embark on a headlining tour at the biggest venues they’ve ever played (including Madison Square Garden), stepping onto stages that match the scope of their music. Yet the latest album from the six-piece led by Adam Granduciel, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, marks a turn towards directness and concision. Don’t worry! If you like The War on Drugs’ previous work, chances are you’ll like I Don’t Live Here Anymore, out Friday, October 29th. The band’s fifth LP and their first since 2017’s Grammy-winning A Deeper Understanding still showcases the group’s texture-rich, somehow-original revisions of the most-winning aspects of mid-’80s commercial rock. Each of the 10 tracks runs over four minutes, most hovering in ...
Japanese Breakfast Covers Weezer on Surprise Live at Electric Lady EP: Stream
Japanese Breakfast has released a surprise EP, Live at Electric Lady. Stream it below. Recorded as part of Spotify’s ongoing series at New York City’s famed Electric Lady Studios, the eight-track project includes live versions of singles “Be Sweet” and “Savage Good Boy” off Michelle Zauner’s latest LP, Jubilee, with accompaniment by the Quartet 121 string section. “Recording at Electric Lady was truly the perfect experience,” Zauner said in a statement about crafting the EP. “The longer I’ve worked as a recording artist, the more I’ve realized it’s the simple, stripped down songs that are the hardest to get right. Having the opportunity to revisit the core catalog of my songwriting in a room with so much history, surrounded by engineers and gear of the highest caliber, it was just a dream ...
Beach Bunny Unveil New Single “Oxygen”: Stream
Beach Bunny have released a new single, “Oxygen,” ahead of their upcoming North American tour. The blissful standalone track finds frontwoman Lili Trifilio gushing over a newfound love that has her seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. “They don’t wanna see you the way I do/ But looks better through my worldview,” she croons on the ebullient chorus over raucously churning guitars. “Suddenly everything is easy/ I’ve never felt something so deeply/ Cause with you, with you, I breathe again/ Baby you’re my oxygen.” “‘Oxygen’ is a song about the perils of navigating romantic feelings, the joy that comes with allowing love to happen, and the act of letting go of the anxiety and our inner voices that make us feel undeserving of love,” said Tifilio in a statement. “I wanted it to have a ...
The Mountain Goats’ Divorce Anthem “No Children” Becomes TikTok Sensation
Nearly two decades after it was first released, The Mountain Goats’ divorce anthem “No Children” has given the prolific indie rock veterans a whole new audience after recently going viral on TikTok. Much of the fascination surrounding the song centers around its dark lyrics, offering new fans an unlikely entryway into the group’s formidable discography, which boasts an impressive 20 albums in total. As Vox reports, “No Children” first gained a modest following at the top of 2021 and once again this summer. In early October, however, The Mountain Goats truly became TikTok famous after @jamesryanb shared a reaction video to the 2002 song’s lyrics. “This song is way too depressing,” he opined. “It sounds like a middle aged man crying over a girl he met in high school. Like get over it du...
SASAMI Announces New Album Squeeze, Shares “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat”: Stream
SASAMI has announced her new album, Squeeze, due out February 25th via Domino. As a preview, she has also shared a pair of lead singles: “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat.” Spanning 11 tracks, Squeeze is partially inspired by the Japanese yōkai folk spirit called Nure-onna (translation: wet woman), a vampiric deity that has the head of a woman and the body of a snake. The album’s eclectic sound varies between nu metal, country pop, folk rock, and classical music while drawing inspiration from artists ranging from System of a Down to Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac to Bach and Mahler. Intended to help listeners process their “anger, frustration, desperation, and more violent, aggressive emotions,” Squeeze was constructed as an opera or orchestral work containing different “movements” that m...
Midlake Announce New Album For the Sake of Bethel Woods, Share “Meanwhile…”: Stream
After nearly a decade away, Midlake are gearing up to release their fifth studio album, which is the band’s first since 2013. It’s called For the Sake of Bethel Woods and arrives March 18th, 2022 via ATO Records in the States and Bella Union in the UK. As a preview, the Texas folk rockers have shared “Meanwhile…,” the record’s first single. For the Sake of Bethel Woods marks Midlake’s first time working with an outside producer, having teamed up with studio vet John Congleton, whose recent credits include St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, and Explosions in the Sky. The album is billed as a “warming expression of resolve and renewal,” signaling Midlake’s turning of a new leaf while staying true to their origins. “At age 16 my father and his friend hitchhiked from Ridgewood, NJ to the...
Matty Healy Makes Surprise Appearance at Phoebe Bridgers’ Los Angeles Show: Watch
Back before, y’know, all this happened, Phoebe Bridgers was slated to open for The 1975 on their tour in support of 2020’s Notes on a Conditional Form. On Friday night, however, the two acts finally got to team up in person. The band’s frontman Matty Healy made a surprise appearance opening up for Bridgers’ gig at Los Angeles’ Greek Theater, and the pair performed NOACF highlight “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” live for the very first time. Just a few hours before the show, Bridgers offered some sage advice on Twitter: “Come early tonight. Trust me.” And the surprise was well worth it. In addition to their duet, Healy debuted two new songs — one of which is titled “New York” — as well as a self-described “emo” rendition of the band’s Tumblr-era anthem, “Sex.” Chec...
Helado Negro Shares New Album Far In: Stream
Helado Negro has released his seventh album Far In. Containing the singles “Gemini and Leo,” “Outside the Outside,” and “La Naranja,” the LP marks the musician’s first full-length studio set since signing to 4AD and follows his 2019 breakout album This is How You Smile. “When you’re trying to escape something, it’s always far in,” the singer-songwriter otherwise known as Roberto Carlos Lange explained of the album’s title in a profile for Pitchfork. “Whatever problems I have, all that shit gets packed away in invisible luggage. I’ve been thinking about how to express those themes in multiple ways — not in a melancholy or sad way, but dancing it out a little bit.” To round out the sound of Far In, Lange collaborated with the likes of Kacy Hill (opener “Wake Up Tomorrow”), Buscabulla (“...
