Indie Rock
Michael Kiwanuka Returns with New Single “Beautiful Life”: Stream
Michael Kiwanuka is back with “Beautiful Life,” his first new music in two years. Stream the track below. Serving as the title music for the new Netflix documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis, “Beautiful Life” was recorded in London with producer St Francis Hotel. Kiwanuka’s rich voice is enough to shake listeners out of their doldrums as he belts lyrics like, “I was caught in a nightmare/ Now we’re breathing the same air/ I live my life in a daydream/ All the colors are so clean.” “In this song I wanted to focus on the feeling that there’s a real strength in the human spirit when you try to look for beauty even in difficult situations,” explained the Mercury Prize winner in a statement. “Of course, in some situations that becomes more and more difficult. But I just wanted to ponder ...
Shamir Unveils His “Gay Agenda” on New Industrial Single: Stream
Leave it to Shamir to flip a fear-mongering term into a positive slice of art-pop. On his new single, “Gay Agenda” the Philadelphia-based musician leans into distortion for an anthem about taking pride in who you are and the way you live your life. Stream it below. Recorded with producer Hollow Comet of Strange Ranger, “Gay Agenda” sees Shamir embracing a new-to-him sound that’s more expansive and brooding than anything else he’s released prior. He leans into industrial synths, clanging drum machines, and sobering guitar for the track while letting his unmistakable voice scale to new heights. Truth be told, it feels more like an Arca deep cut than anything off his self-titled record, which was one of the best albums of 2020 — yet it still sounds totally like Shamir. In a press release, Sha...
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby Share New Song “Virginia Beach”: Stream
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby have joined forces for a new collaborative single called “Virginia Beach.” Stream it alongside a lyric video below. Unsurprisingly, “Virginia Beach” combines the best of both artists and will win over longtime fans and recent listeners alike. After opening with a finger-picked guitar part, it makes way for Leithauser and Morby trading verses and some blustery, stripped-down percussion. With equal parts acoustic guitar charm and dusty country flair, “Virginia Beach” is the type of song you could imagine both soundtracking a feel-good movie about discovering yourself on a road trip and playing over the speakers at a local dive bar. In a press release, Hamilton explained he wanted to create a modern take on a “dark country song” that utilized a dance groove...
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby Share New Song “Virginia Beach”: Stream
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby have joined forces for a new collaborative single called “Virginia Beach.” Stream it alongside a lyric video below. Unsurprisingly, “Virginia Beach” combines the best of both artists and will win over longtime fans and recent listeners alike. After opening with a finger-picked guitar part, it makes way for Leithauser and Morby trading verses and some blustery, stripped-down percussion. With equal parts acoustic guitar charm and dusty country flair, “Virginia Beach” is the type of song you could imagine both soundtracking a feel-good movie about discovering yourself on a road trip and playing over the speakers at a local dive bar. In a press release, Hamilton explained he wanted to create a modern take on a “dark country song” that utilized a dance groove...
Jeff Tweedy Shares “C’mon America” and “UR-60 Unsent” for Sub Pop Singles Club: Stream
Jeff Tweedy has shared a pair of solo tracks for Sub Pop Singles Club. “C’mon America” and “UR-60 Unsent” make up the latest 7-inch released from the subscription-only series. “C’mon America,” the A-side, is described in a press release as from an “unreleased group of songs with mostly sci-fi lyrics,” while “UR-60 Unsent,” the B-side, is billed as “a pitiful tale of an unsent lovesick mixtape, taken from a separate batch of unreleased songs with mostly pitiful lyrics.” On the twangy and sarcastic “C’mon America,” Tweedy asks, “what you gonna do now that the world is turned against you”? In contrast, “UR-60 Unsent” is a melancholy ballad full of heartsick lyrics about rejection. Stream both tracks below. Advertisement Related Video Also included in today’s drop is TV Priest’s “All Thing,” t...
Bon Iver Share Previously Unreleased Versions of “Beth/Rest” and “Babys”: Stream
Bon Iver will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their self-titled sophomore album with a deluxe reissue of the Grammy-winning LP. The bonus material is pulled from Justin Vernon and Sean Carey’s 2011 4AD/Jagjaguwar Sessions at AIR Studios, and the band has today shared two of those tracks: “Beth/Rest” and “Babys.” The AIR Studios sessions saw the Bon Iver members stripping back the layered sounds of Bon Iver, Bon Iver and restructuring them for piano. Thus, that glorious ’80s melodrama of the album version of “Beth/Rest” becomes a more grounded and cooler drama. Meanwhile, “Babys,” a cut from Bon Iver’s 2009 Blood Bank EP, is already based on keys; here, however, Vernon and Carey slow the tempo down a tick, allowing the song’s emotionality to settle in. Take a listen to both trac...
Andrew Bird Joins Forces with Iron & Wine in Yosemite to Perform “Manifest” and “Fixed Positions”: Watch
Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine have collaborated for the first time for a new video series set in Yosemite National Park. In the first episode of Lucky Brand and La Blogothèque’s new Play the Parks series, the two alternative singer-songwriters teamed up to perform an intimate, acoustic rendition of Bird’s My Finest Work Yet highlight “Manifest” as well as his yet-to-be-released track “Fixed Positions.” Barefoot, the pair wander through the park before arriving at the edge of Tenaya Lake and wading right in as they perform “Manifest.” Then, Bird follows up by delivering his brand new song from atop a giant rock formation with a stunning view. Advertisement Related Video “When your position remains fixed, my dear,” he croons on “Fixed Positions” while playing the acoustic guitar. “Results ...
Built to Spill Announce 2021-2022 West Coast Tour Dates
Built to Spill are ready to hit the road. Today, the indie rock band headed by Doug Martsch announced their first slate of tour dates for 2022 — with a little bit of 2021 as well. The veteran alt rockers will actually kick off the West Coast jaunt ahead of the turn of the year with four shows in Washington and Oregon. Following that quartet of December dates, the tour picks back up on January 26th and 27th with two back-to-back performances at The Crocodile in Seattle. From there, the trio will make stops up and down the Pacific Coast — often with dual dates in multiple cities — including Portland, Sacramento, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Openers along the way include Team Dresch, Prism Bitch, Dinosaur Jr., Oh, Rose, and Itchy Kitty. Advertisement Related Video Tic...
Oberhofer Shares “SUNSHiiNE” Featuring Shamir and The Strokes’ Nick Valensi: Stream
After a nearly six-year hiatus, Brad Oberhofer is back and releasing music. His new album Smothered is due out November 12th, and he’s now shared the latest single, “SUNSHiiNE,” featuring Shamir and The Strokes’ Nick Valensi. Here, the sunshine is more metaphorical than literal. “I was walking in the rain today,” Oberhofer begins, “I wasn’t feeling great/ Pulled out my phone and saw a message from you/ It was a smiley face.” Throughout, the synths sparkle like the rainbow after a storm, as Oberhofer sings to the light of his life: “When I met you/ My heart skipped a beat/ When I’m with you/ I feel so complete/ My sunshine.” Nick Valensi adds a fuzzy guitar solo that slowly searches its way upwards, and Shamir adds a distorted spoken-word section about how “life is the g...
Jenn Wasner’s Flock of Dimes Drops New Song “Through Me”: Stream
Jenn Wasner’s Flock of Dimes has unveiled its new single “Through You,” exclusively for Adult Swim Singles. On the vamping ballad, the singer-songwriter layers her vocals to create transfixing harmonies over the pluck of a steady bass and guitar. “It is hard/ To get sunny/ It is wrong/ To go back,” she croons ahead of the bluesy guitar solo. “‘Through Me’ is about losing sight of yourself in an attempt to find someone else,” Warner said in a statement, “twisting your perception of reality until you’re not sure how to find your way back to what is real.” Stream “Through Me” after the jump. Advertisement Related Video The new song arrives just six months after the Wye Oak member’s sophomore solo album as Flock of Dimes, Head of Roses, which the singer released back in April. Containing singl...
Big Thief Confirm 20 Song Double Album Coming in 2022
For their fifth album, Big Thief are going even bigger. In a new interview with Mojo, the indie rock quartet said that their upcoming studio set is 20 songs long and will be presented as a double-disc album. That’s a lot of music, especially since the band just released two interesting albums in 2019. The majority of the songwriting took place in July 2020, during a blistering two-week quarantine in the Vermont woods. “We accumulated so many songs that we loved, maybe about 50,” vocalist Adrianne Lenker said. “20 could be whittled down to 12, but not 50.” According to guitarist Buck Meek, they were guided by “focusing on different chunks of songs… that were stylistically, or thematically, connected. Like, we could just play country music for two weeks and not think abou...
The Districts Announce New Album Great American Painting, Share Single: Stream
Nearly a year and a half after releasing their last full-length, The Districts are back with another new album in tow. The Philadelphia indie rockers just announced their next record is called Great American Painting and it’s set to come on February 4th via Fat Possum. The band also shared the lead single “I Want to Feel It All,” and announced a massive 2021-2022 tour. Recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, Great American Painting is the fifth full-length by The Districts and follows their 2020 album You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere. The LP spans nine tracks in total, including this lead single, and was produced by indie rock icon Joe Chiccarelli (Spoon, The Strokes, Broken Social Scene). As our first preview of what to expect, “I Want to Feel It All” is about as equal ...
