Indie Rock
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 (“...
U.S. Girls Collaborate with Classical Pianist Glenn Gould on “Good Kinda High”: Stream
U.S. Girls have unveiled their new single, “Good Kinda High,” and it features the unlikeliest of collaborators: classical pianist Glenn Gould. “This is that good kinda high/ That kind you cannot buy/ There are some things that you cannot buy/ This is that good kind of high/ That kind you cannot buy/ Only some things that you cannot buy,” intones Meg Remy — the brainchild of U.S. Girls — repeatedly over a piano line by the late classical artist, who passed away nearly 40 years ago in 1982. The track is included on the compilation album Uninvited Guests, on which producer Billy Wild melds samples of the late Gould’s work with the music of modern artists like U.S. Girls. (The album is out today via Primary Wave Music and Sony Masterworks.) Advertisement Related Video “This started seven years...
Parquet Courts Share New Album Sympathy for Life: Stream
Parquet Courts return today with their new album, Sympathy for Life. The post punk torchbearers’ follow-up to 2018’s Wide Awake! is out via Rough Trade, and marks the band’s seventh LP to date. Spanning 11 tracks, Sympathy for Life originated from a series of live jam sessions, inspired by the likes of Primal Scream, Pink Floyd, and bygone live music clubs in their New York City home base. The record was produced alongside Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish, whose credits between them include David Byrne and PJ Harvey, just to name a few. “Historically, some amazing rock records have been made from mingling in dance music culture — from Talking Heads to Screamadelica,” co-frontman Austin Brown explained in a statement. “Our goal was to bring that into our own music. ...
Alex Lahey Shares Free-Spirited New Single “Spike the Punch”: Stream
Alex Lahey returns today with “Spike the Punch,” her first proper solo single of 2021. Self-produced alongside John Castle and mixed by Grammy winner Carlos de la Garza, the power-pop tune arrives with a stunning accompanying music video. Like taking a gulp of jungle juice in the wee morning hours at a house party, “Spike the Punch” feels like an inhibition-free sugar rush. Its lyrics reckon with the euphoria of ditching your morals, while the threat of real consequences always linger in the shadows: “I got my ass kicked, it was fantastic /Kept going back like a hopeless romantic,” Lahey sings in the track’s opening lines before an explosive chorus. “‘Spike the Punch’ is a song about the fun that comes with self-sabotage and reckless abandon,” Lahey wrote in a statement. “It’s big, it’s lo...
Beirut Announce Compilation Album Artifacts, Share “Fisher Island Sound”: Stream
Beirut are back — kind of. Today, Zach Condon’s beloved baroque-pop project has announced Artifacts, a forthcoming double album that compiles material from the band’s entire history. Ahead of its release on January 28th via Condon’s own Pompeii Records, he’s previewing the compilation with a never-before-released Beirut track called “Fisher Island Sound.” Condon began pouring over old Beirut material in an effort to assemble a proper EP, but Artifacts seemed like the best route to take in order to document his evolution since he began making music at 14. On the double album, you’ll hear a few familiar Beirut standards like “Elephant Gun,” though this is largely a deep dive into Condon’s unreleased work. “When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself di...
Real Estate Cover Television’s “Days”: Stream
Real Estate are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their breakout album, Days, with a cover of the song that inspired it: Television’s striking 1978 track “Days.” With this cover, Real Estate are rattling the unbroken chain connecting melodic indie rock of the past and present. It’s a fittingly faithful cover, and would slot in nicely amongst the tuneful guitars of Days. In a statement, bassist Alex Bleeker explained how Television’s song, their own album, and the new cover are related. He wrote, “The shrewd, completist bootlegger will always remember 6/30/2011 as the day that we debuted the album Days live in its entirety at 285 Kent in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Back then Domino Park, across the street, was still a dilapidated sugar warehouse, and our unreleased sophomore al...
Shovels & Rope Announce New Album Manticore, Share “Domino”: Stream
Shovels & Rope, the folk-rock duo from Charleston, South Carolina, are back. They just announced a new album called Manticore that’s coming out February 18th via Dualtone Music. To celebrate the news, they’re sharing the lead single “Domino,” which you can stream below, as well as news of a US and European tour. Manticore is Shovels & Rope’s seventh album of their career, following this year’s covers collection Busted Jukebox Vol. 3 and 2019’s original full-length By Blood. The new LP spans 10 tracks in total, including “Domino.” Bandmates Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst originally wrote Manticore as an acoustic album, but the pandemic offered them the time to reimagine their initial arrangements and flesh out the music a bit more. In a press release, Manticore is descr...
