Indie Rock
Madi Diaz Shares New Song “New Person, Old Place”: Stream
Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz has shared a new song, “New Person, Old Place”, and an accompanying video directed $ECK. Watch it below. Over a sparse acoustic guitar-driven arrangement, Diaz describes the process of moving on from a breakup. “You used to be able to dictate each feeling inside my head / Drag me through every trauma over and over again,” she sings. “Cause if I was crazy then I’d still be yours I’d always come back / You used to be able to, now you don’t do that.” In a press statement, Diaz elaborated on the process, saying “This was a moment I realized I wanted to start to learn how to do it not better, not worse, but just different… and then something shifted. Something in my heart finally knocked loose and I was breathing deeper. It’s hard as hell, breaking patterns ...
Low Cut Connie Announce Covers Album Tough Cookies: The Best of The Quarantine Broadcasts
Philadelphia rockers Low Cut Connie have announced a new compilation, Tough Cookies: The Best of The Quarantine Broadcasts, collecting cover songs recorded during the band’s twice-weekly live streams. It will be out on May 19th digitally and on vinyl. As frontman Adam Weiner explained in a press statement, the 23-track LP pulls from his Tough Cookies live stream project with guitarist Will Donnelly, which celebrates its one-year anniversary this month. It contains just a fraction of the more than 500 covers they have performed during the broadcasts. “Two weeks into quarantine, we ‘went live’ in my spare bedroom in South Philly to cheer up our fans. There was no script, no plan, just a couple schmucks trying every form of entertainment to try to lift people’s spirits,” Weiner said. “Now a y...
Warpaint Cover “Paralysed” for Gang of Four Tribute Album: Stream
As previously announced, Gang of Four co-founder Andy Gill was working on a retrospective of the band’s album Entertainment! before he tragically passed away last year. To carry on his work, Gill’s widow Catherine Mayer organized an impressive tribute album in his honor featuring cover songs by a wide range of artists. Today, she’s sharing one of her favorite cuts: “Paralysed” as played by Warpaint. For their contribution to The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, Warpaint use their trademark take on atmospheric pop to give “Paralysed” a haunting vocal performance, speckled guitar work, and one slinky bass line. Warpaint’s bassist, Jenny Lee, produced the track, which may explain why it has a similar feel to her solo album right on!. In a press release, L...
Alice Phoebe Lou Releases New Album Glow: Stream
Alice Phoebe Lou is back with her new album, Glow. Stream it via Apple Music and Spotify below. Glow is Lou’s third studio album and follows 2019’s Paper Castles. The 12-track effort includes the previously released singles, “Dusk” and “Dirty Mouth”. It finds the Berlin-based singer-songwriter embracing newfound vulnerability through her lyrics. In a statement, our former Artist of the Month detailed how falling in love and then having her heart broken during 2020 inspired the record, writing, “I used to feel quite self-conscious about writing love songs, but now I like the idea that your music can be a friend to someone, and make them feel as though they’re being related to. This album simply poured out of my heart and my subconscious, and there was no stopping the lovestruck nature ...
Alex Lahey Shreds on Cover of Faith Hill’s “This Kiss”: Stream
Australian indie rocker Alex Lahey has shared her own take on Faith Hill’s classic 1998 hit, “This Kiss”. Stream the cover below via Amazon Music. For her version of the country pop ballad, Lahey slightly speeds up the tempo and replaces the acoustic guitar with an electric. The cover transforms “This Kiss” into a straightforward rock tune and it absolutely shreds. “For years, I’ve had this big idea of doing an indie rock cover of Faith Hill’s ‘This Kiss,’ Lahey shared in a statement. “Two key changes, that iconic chorus, a million vocal harmonies — what more could you want? It was such a treat pulling this together with my mates Oscar and Jess as we navigated the depths of Melbourne’s lockdown last year and I’m so stoked that Amazon Music are putting it out perfectly timed with ...
Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett Finally Release Score for Spike Jonze’s Her: Stream
Eight years after Spike Jonze’s Oscar-nominated movie Her hit theaters, Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett have finally released the accompanying original film score in its entirety. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. A realistic sci-fi love story starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, Her is undoubtedly one of the best films of the past decade, and a huge part of that is due to its original score. Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett used all sorts of gentle piano and stripped-down instrumentation to capture the sounds of falling in love, getting lost in technology, and feeling the vast difference between loneliness and belonging. It’s a gorgeous collection of songs and one that’s long overdue to be available as a standalone art form. For whatever reason, the score was nev...
10 Years Ago, The Strokes Triumphed Through Adversity to Create Angles
Throughout the 2000s, New York quintet The Strokes were considered the kings of post-punk revival. Drawing from artists like The Doors, Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Bob Marley, and most notably, The Velvet Underground, their charming indie/garage rock raucousness was virtually everywhere for several years. Of course, it all started when they inspired their own set of peers and protégées — including LCD Soundsystem, The Killers, and Kings of Leon — while skyrocketing into critical and commercial favor with 2001’s debut LP, Is This It, which topped our list of “The Top 100 Albums of the Decade” in November 2009. Although 2003’s Room on Fire and 2005’s First Impressions of Earth weren’t as widely celebrated by the press — due mainly to a perceived lack of newness and a penchant for safe...
Sorry Unveil Two New Songs “Cigarette Packet” and “Separate”: Stream
Last year, the British indie-rock band Sorry released their well-received debut album 925. Now, the genre-blending group have returned with two new loosies titled “Cigarette Packet” and “Separate”. As the Domino Records-signed band demonstrated on the myriad singles they released prior to 925, Sorry can’t be pinned to one sound or temperament. Their music is an eclectic mix of indie-rock, experimental pop, trip-hop, and even jazz, and all of those elements are often being housed under the roof of a single song. On these new singles, which were co-produced by James Dring (Gorillaz, Nilüfer Yanya), who also worked the boards on 925, the band continue to evolve in all directions. “Cigarette Packet” is a sleek and brisk synth-pop tune with a blinking synth line, a crisp drum machine, and ...
Future Islands Cover Tina Turner’s Hit “We Don’t Need Another Hero”: Stream
Future Islands have shared a new cover of Tina Turner’s classic 1985 hit “We Don’t Need Another Hero”. Stream it below. The track was recorded as part of Future Island’s new live session on SiriusXMU. While the majority of the set saw the band stripping down material from their new album As Long as You Are for an intimate radio performance, it was the cover song that stole the show — in part because their ’80s-inspired sound was born from classics like this Golden Globes-nominated single from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. As is to be expected, Future Islands glam up the Turner classic with a lot of bouncy ’80s synthpop. Leader singer Samuel T. Herring takes a smoother approach to his vocals, giving each word proper enunciation and gusto without ever overdoing it. Meanwhile, there’s some spar...
Spoon Share Tom Petty Covers “Breakdown” and “A Face in the Crowd”: Stream
Spoon’s Britt Daniel (photo by Heather Kaplan) and Tom Petty (photo by Philip Cosores) Spoon have shared covers of the late Tom Petty’s “Breakdown” and “A Face in the Crowd”. Stream both songs below. The Texas indie rockers recorded both tracks live at the Catacomb in Austin, with “Breakdown” originally being broadcast as part of Tom Petty’s 70th Birthday Bash, a virtual tribute concert that took place last fall. Back in 2017, Spoon lead singer Britt Daniel explained to Stereogum why “A Face In The Crowd” is his favorite Tom Petty song. “Divine Fits (Daniel’s other band) played ‘You Got Lucky’ at just about every gig we had. What an insane single. It’s got an intense lyric and the most powerful, creepy guitar riff and somehow Dan was able to tap into that attitude every time. It was ...
The Horrors Release New EP Lout: Stream
After four long years with no new music, The Horrors have just released their highly anticipated new EP, Lout. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. Lout is the first record The Horrors have put out since their 2017 studio album V. On the new EP, the indie punk rockers embrace a darker, industrial metal sound with ominous hooks (“Lout”), gritty bass (“Org”), and some unrelenting drumming (“Whiplash”). It’s a welcome sound that they sport well, and allegedly it came pretty naturally to the band. “There’s something about it which feels like a return to a heavier sound but really it’s a million miles away from anything we’ve done,” said keyboardist Tom Furse in a statement. “Keeping the sound aggressive and the beats heavy was a central tenet, everything seemed to fall around that.” “I...
IDLES Cover Sharon Van Etten’s “Peace Signs”: Stream
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of her 2010 album Epic, Sharon Van Etten is reissuing it as a double LP featuring a front-to-back covers album. Dubbed Epic Ten, our first sample of the reimagined tracks came from Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine’s take on “A Crime”. Today, the second single has arrived, as SVE has shared IDLES’ cover of “Peace Signs”. The British outfit keeps things as close to the original as their post-punk sensibilities will allow them, with all the familiar progressions still in place. In IDLES’ hands, however, they’re riddled with anxieties and the searing tension of shredding guitars. Certainly the screaming repetition of “Peace signs” hits different coming from Joe Talbot’s growl rather than Sharon Van Etten’s voice. Take a listen to the cov...
