Indie Rock
IDLES’ Ultra Mono Offers Rallying Cries for a Burning World: Review
The Lowdown: In a year that’s seen the world burn physically, politically, and epidemiologically, getting into a debate about whether or not a rock band is phony feels as nostalgic as it does futile. However, this is an IDLES review, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do (at least for a minute). After the twin triumphs of 2017’s Brutalism and 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance vaulted the Bristol five-piece into the upper echelon of the British music world, the backlash arrived with bite that seemed to go beyond the music. Pick any IDLES profile from this album cycle, and you’ll inevitably see references to the recent charges and epithets leveled by fellow artists like Sleaford Mods (“their take on [political music] is cliched, patronising, insulting and mediocre”) and Fat White Family ...
Declan McKenna on Activism: “I’m a Pretty Hard-Lined Environmentalist”
Kyle Meredith With… Declan McKenna Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Declan McKenna speaks with Kyle Meredith about his sophomore album, Zeros. The album uses a wide concept of space as a way of looking at our own problems and behaviors here on Earth through an astronaut character named Daniel. McKenna explains how he arrived at the concept, wanting to write a song for the ways the world could end, and how we’ve become trapped by the very world we created. The London singer-songwriter goes on to discuss the importance of questioning societal norms, environmentalism, the accompanying visuals that go along with the record, and hopes for theatrics in the eventual live show. Kyle Meredi...
Dawes Share the Origins of New Single “Didn’t Fix Me”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins gives artists the challenge of digging into the various influences behind their latest tracks. Today, Dawes reveal the things that “Didn’t Fix Me”. Now more than ever, we’re all on our own journeys to try and feel just a little bit better. Of course, the double-edged sword of it all is no matter how good a place we find ourselves in, this year has made it ever more clear that such harmony is frail. But as anyone with any experience giving or receiving mental health advice will tell you, that’s normal. Feeling 100% all the time is an unfeasible expectation — and that’s okay. If you ever need a reminder of that, Dawes have delivered what could be the perfect musical hug with their new song “Didn’t Fix Me”. Taken from the band’s forthcoming Good Luck with Whateve...
Sunflower Bean Share New Single “Moment in the Sun”: Stream
Sunflower Bean are back with their first new music in 2020. The former Artists of the Month have shared a new track called “Moment in the Sun”, along with a wondrous accompanying music video. Sonically, “Moment in the Sun” is quite a departure from the glammy ’70s rock of their Twentytwo in Blue sophomore record or last year’s King of the Dudes EP. It’s firmly in the indie pop sphere, modern synth intersplicing jangly ’80s pop guitar lines on the chorus. “All that other noise is just a waste of time/ You’re the only music on my mind,” sings Julia Cumming on the hook. “I don’t need money, I don’t need to be cool/ I’d trade it for a moment in the sun with you.” It’s that focus on spending time with loved ones that makes 202 the perfect time for Sunflower Bea to share “Moment in the Sun”...
Angel Olsen and Composer Emile Mosseri Share Cover of “Mr. Lonely”: Stream
Back in July, Focus Features shared the trailer for writer/director Miranda July’s new film, Kajillionaire. The preview promised some quirky cons — and a new cover of the Bobby Vinton classic “Mr. Lonely” from Angel Olsen and composer Emile Mosseri. Today, a standalone stream of the pair’s rendition has been revealed. It’s a soft and haunting version, sounding like it could have come from Olsen’s Whole New Mess sessions. Add in the distant organ, and there are definitely some David Lynch vibes. In a press statement, Olsen recalled receiving the first text message from July asking her to work on the song with Mosseri. “So I met with them both, and we talked about cadence and we talked about life and we talked about the film,” Olsen said. “And Miranda directed me to sing the cover in the way...
Faye Webster Shares New Song “Better Distractions”: Stream
Faye Webster has returned with a new song called “Better Distractions”. Additionally, our former Artist of the Month has announced her first full-band livestream performance of 2020. “Better Distractions” follows the excellent one-off single “In A Good Way” from April, and marks the second offering since her 2019 LP Atlanta Millionaires Club. As with its predecessor, today’s track continues to push Webster’s sound in a gorgeously singular direction. It finds harmony between smooth R&B and minimalist indie rock, with the added bonus of a weepy slide guitar lead and a meandering jam in the vein of Kurt Vile or Courtney Barnett. In a statement, Webster revealed that the song flowed out of her with very little intention or purpose. “It’s a kind of free association, just thoughts running st...
The Mountain Goats Reveal New Single “Get Famous”: Stream
Next month, The Mountain Goats will drop their second album of the year, Getting Into Knives. A first preview came via “As Many Candles As Possible”, which featured contributions from Al Green’s own organist Charles Hodges. The indie outfit is now sharing another single in “Get Famous”. While most wish for popularity and success, The Mountain Goats are making us seriously reconsider these lofty dreams. The new song encourages listeners to follow their ambitions, but paints fame as something not at all worth coveting. Or as a press release succinctly puts it, frontman John Darnielle sings the title “as if it were a curse.” “Cold, grey world/ All these obedient sheep/ They act like they know, but they’re all sound asleep/ You arrive on the scene like a message from God/ Listen to the people ...
Phoebe Bridgers Performs Three Punisher Songs on CBS This Morning: Watch
Phoebe Bridgers has kept up her prolific streak into September. After taking part in a Daniel Johnston livestream tribute, playing a Tiny Desk (Home) concert in a miniature Oval Office, and covering Radiohead in a church, Bridgers stopped by CBS This Morning over the weekend for a Saturday Sessions performance. Bridgers delivered a trio of tracks off her latest full-length, Punisher, one of our favorite albums of the year thus far. Dressed in her now familiar skeleton suit, she sang “Garden Song”, “I Know the End”, and one of 2020’s best songs, “Kyoto”. Watch all three performances below. Earlier this summer, Bridgers contributed to a voters’ rights compilation alongside R.E.M., Hayley Williams, Angel Olsen, and others; teamed with Courtney Barnett to cover Gillian Welch’s “Everything...
Angel Olsen Covers George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” from Quarantine: Watch
The pressure to be productive while in quarantine continues to be very real, but Angel Olsen has made it look fairly effortless. In addition to rolling out a stellar new album, Whole New Mess, she’s spent the last few months sharing cover after cover. In March, she took on Roxy Music’s “More Than This”, followed by the Tori Amos original “Winter” in April. For her latest reworking, Olsen has tackled “Beware of Darkness” by George Harrison. Originally appearing on The Beatles guitarist’s All Things Must Pass album, the 1970 track was described by Olsen as “pretty great.” Her rendition, uploaded directly to IGTV late Thursday night, is similarly impressive in its vulnerability and starkness. “I’m just messing around like a tired sad shit,” Olsen wrote of her version, which was filmed in...
Finn Wolfhard’s Band The Aubreys Share New Song “Smoke Bomb”: Stream
Shortly after the breakup of their band Calpurnia late last year, singer-guitarist Finn Wolfhard and drummer Malcolm Craig decided to team back up to form The Aubreys, a new indie rock band that’s more influenced by Jay Reatard than The Strokes. Today, the duo is back with a brand new song under that moniker called “Smoke Bomb”, and it comes with an excellent on-brand music video, too. This is the second track we’ve heard from The Aubreys so far following “Getting Better (otherwise)”, their debut single. It doubled as a contribution to the soundtrack for thriller The Turning, too. Whereas that track was meant to be an angst-filled burst of fuzz, though, “Smoke Bomb” is full guitar-pop bliss, complete with scruffy feedback tones. In the music video for “Smoke Bomb”, Wolfhard and Craig photo...
Django Django Return with New Song “Spirals”: Stream
Although the pandemic continues to keep us apart, and political tactics seek to divide us, we’re all inherently connected as one human race. That’s the message British art-rock outfit Django Django want to remind us of on “Spirals”, their first single in almost two years. The track follows the group’s pair of 2018 releases, Winter’s Beach EP and full-length album Marble Skies, and picks up musically where those projects left off. With frontman Vincent Neff leading the way with a spell-like cadence, “Spirals” chugs along with propulsive energy until its guitars and drums lock into a looping groove. Its accompanying video, directed by Maxim Kelly, continues this spinning theme. Imagining Neff as something of a hybrid human and double helix, the clip “uses the image of DNA to muse on how...
The National’s Matt Berninger Reveals New Solo Song “One More Second”: Stream
We’re less than a month out from hearing Matt Berninger’s debut solo album, Serpentine Prison. In anticipation, The National frontman is giving fans another preview of the record with a new song called “One More Second”. Unlike recent single “Distant Axis”, which featured a momentous swell, today’s offering has more in common with the album’s mellow title track from back in May. “One More Second” is a mostly acoustic cut with the pacing of a country shuffle. Berninger’s fibrous guitar strums are elevated by crisp percussive taps, and eventually the song does take off into a pretty anthemic swing that orbits around a tickling keyboard solo. Lyrically, the tune is an entry in the timeless canon of “give me one more chance” love songs. In fact, according to a statement in the track’s YouTube ...
