Indie Rock
Aimee Mann Discusses the Isolation of Obsessive Thinking and Anxiety
Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Stitcher | Google | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann talks about her struggles with anxiety and depression on the latest episode of the Going There with Dr. Mike podcast. Mann explains how her obsessive thoughts can be so powerful and overwhelming, that her depression is almost a response to keep the intensity of her thoughts in check — like a “lid” that keeps her anxiety in check. She also discusses how just as mental illness is devastating when we experience it ourselves, it is also crushing when someone close to us struggles with their own issues. ] Advertisement Related Video She takes on this difficult topic in her new song “Suicide ...
My Morning Jacket Return Rock to Forest Hills Stadium: Concert Review
In August of 2019, My Morning Jacket performed at Queen’s Forest Hills Stadium, part of a special four-show stretch after a nearly two-year hiatus. The gigs were also billed as their last for a potentially longer period (and that was even without the unexpected virus that shelved all live music for over a year). Thankfully, the threat of another break — or full-on retirement — was staved off by the shows themselves, inspiring the band to get back in the studio and continue on. Two years and one month later, MMJ returned to Forest Hills on Friday, September 10th for the first concert of a two-night stint. A new self-titled record — their first freshly recorded material in six years — is on the horizon; pandemic lockdowns are in the rearview (for now); and the Jacket’s brand of jammy, psyche...
Artists Reflect on 20 Years of The Strokes’ Is This It
The release of The Strokes’ landmark debut album, Is This It, was anything but smooth, but once it made its way into the hands of rock fans, its impact was profound. After a staggered international release of the album beginning in August 2001, Is This It was set to arrive in the United States on September 11th on vinyl and September 25th on the then-more-popular CD format. For the US release, the cover artwork was changed from a woman’s naked hip and rear end to the less-risque image of subatomic particle tracks. While the vinyl did come out on September 11th as planned, that day’s horrific terrorist attacks forced the New York band and its label to rethink the release of the CD. The scathing tune “New York City Cops” was dropped from the tracklist of the CD version in the wake of the her...
Song of the Week: MUNA and Phoebe Bridgers Keep it Easy and Breezy with “Silk Chiffon”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, MUNA and Phoebe Bridgers paint a pop portrait of September bliss. After over a year, MUNA has returned with a bright, addictive pop anthem. “Silk Chiffon” employs the help of beloved and perpetually-in-her-feelings Phoebe Bridgers, for whom the band will opening on tour this fall. Bridgers, for her part, arrives with perhaps the most Phoebe Bridgers line imaginable: “I’m high and I’m feeling anxious inside of a CVS.” (It’s called having a brand — look it up!) The members of MUNA have always embraced their identity as a “quee...
illuminati hotties Drops “Threatening Each Other re: Capitalism”: Stream
illuminati hotties has shared the latest single from her upcoming album, Let Me Do One More. It’s cleverly titled “Threatening Each Other re: Capitalism,” and you can hear it below. On the new track, the indie rock project from the mind of Sarah Tudzin shines a magnifying glass on modern consumerism over the slow roil of reverberating guitars and drums. “But if you’re not too embarrassed/ Of how I go out in public/ Do you think that we could make a deli run?” she asks before launching into the song’s philosophically-minded chorus. “The corner store is selling spit/ Bottled up for profit/ I can’t believe I’m buying in/ Isn’t that genius?” “‘Threatening Each Other re: Capitalism’ makes haste of a machine by which we’ve all been fooled as well as the people who have fooled themselves into thi...
Amyl & the Sniffers Unleash New Song “Hertz”: Stream
Amyl & the Sniffers are gearing up to release their new album Comfort to Me, and as a final preview the Aussie punks have shared their latest single, “Hertz.” A bruising ode to rental car fun, “Hertz” finds singer Amy Taylor chafing under her city routine. “I want to go to the country,” she snarls, “I want to get out of here.” Taylor pines for wide open spaces, and the gentleness of her lyrical vision has to war with the brutal guitar lick that gives the song its forward thrust. “‘Hertz’ is a daydream of wanting to go to the country/bush and see landscapes other than the city,” Taylor said in a statement. “It was written in 2019 but it very much sounds like a pandemic song, because it’s a daydream about being repulsed by confinement, and frustrated over being stuck in one pl...
MUNA Taps Phoebe Bridgers for New Song “Silk Chiffon”: Stream
Toward the end of last year, Phoebe Bridgers started her own record label called Saddest Factory Records, and this past spring signed the Los Angeles synthpop trio MUNA. Today, MUNA have shared their first single since joining the label, “Silk Chiffon,” featuring a verse from Bridgers herself. If “Silk Chiffon” is meant to reintroduce MUNA to old fans and new listeners alike, then it goes above and beyond in summarizing what makes the group so much fun. It’s an unabashedly pop number with airy guitars and a vocal melody that will get stuck in your head all week. According to Naomi McPherson, the band’s guitarist and producer, “Silk Chiffon” was written in hopes of being “a song for kids to have their first gay kiss to.” “Silk Chiffon” arrives with a vibrant music video in tow. Directed by ...
Dr. Dog Share New Song “Loneliness” from Homicide Survivors Benefit Compilation: Exclusive
As part of a new compilation benefiting the family members of homicide victims, Dr. Dog have shared a previously unreleased song called “Loneliness.” The track is featured on Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors. Ten years ago, Tucson, Arizona and the nation were shaken by a mass shooting that claimed the lives of six and injured 19 others — with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords amongst the latter. In response, Fort Lowell Records launched the Luz de Vida benefit project, with 100% of proceeds going to aid and comfort survivors through the Tucson Together Fund. Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of that tragedy, they’ve put together a second charity compilation. Due out November 5th to coincide with Tuscon’s All Soul’s Procession community ceremony, Luz da Vida I...
Lala Lala Shares New Single “Prove It”: Stream
Lillie West’s Lala Lala has shared a new track called “Prove It.” Serving the third single from the project’s forthcoming third full-length, I Want the Door to Open, the track is available to stream below. Sparse yet driving, “Prove It” is an appraisal of those who strive for nothing but the concept of more. As West herself says, it’s “a song about insatiable people and the idea of ‘good’ vs ‘bad.’ It’s about lack of control. Even though this song is accusatory, I relate to the person I’m talking to. I think sometimes when we criticize other people we’re also talking about ourselves.” Previous I Want the Door to Open singles include the Nnamdï Ogbonnaya-assisted “DIVER” and “Color of the Pool.” To further tease the LP, Lala Lala has shared a new informercial, “Open the Door: Find Your...
Strand of Oaks Honors John Prine on New Single “Somewhere in Chicago”: Stream
Strand of Oaks has unveiled his latest single “Somewhere in Chicago” via Galacticana Records. Stream it below. On the track, the artist — otherwise known as Timothy Showalter — daydreams of the Windy City over layered, echoing acoustic guitars while referencing none other than John Prine. “John’s on a walk somewhere in Chicago/ Losing our leaders who you gonna follow/ Might’ve been the movies, might’ve been the lightning/ Might’ve been something much more frightening,” he croons over reflective instrumentation on the refrain. In a statement, the folk rocker described the new song as, “My ode to the late John Prine and the midwestern ethos he so perfectly embodied. The song dreams of the great city of Chicago where John can forever and happily wander.” Advertisement Related Video “Somewhere...
Bachelor Release New Single “I See It Now”: Stream
Bachelor have unveiled their latest single, “I See It Now,” via Polyvinyl Record Co. Stream it below. “The room gets booked as it gets brighter/ The hand gets held a little tighter/ I see it now, I see it now/ My sister says she never liked ya/ My friends said that I shouldn’t trust ya/ I hear them now, I hear them now,” Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte sing over dirge-like instrumentation. Describing it as “a kind of lethargic muse on sexual regret and insecurity,” the duo revealed in a statement that the new track came together while they were filming the music video for “Doomin’ Sun” — the title track off their debut album of the same name, which dropped May 28th. Advertisement Related Video “We found ourselves with a day to kill at Ellen’s house in Poughkeepsie,” ...
Andy Shauf Shares New Single “Spanish on the Beach”: Stream
Andy Shauf has shared the new single “Spanish on the Beach,” and — big news for Shauficionados — it seemingly makes a reference to Judy, a recurring character from his excellent 2020 concept album The Neon Skyline. The stories of The Neon Skyline unfolded over one night, and while that record benefitted from such a limited scope, it meant that some of Shauf’s more expansive ideas landed on the cutting room floor. That was true of the B-sides he shared last summer, “Judy,” and “Jeremy’s Wedding,” and while it doesn’t sound like “Spanish on the Beach” was ever intended for Skyline, it does look at the Judyverse from a few thousand miles away. “Spanish on the Beach” takes place at an all-inclusive resort, as the narrator’s partner tries out a bit of Spanish. “I t...
