Indie Rock
Plants and Animals Share Origins of New Song “Le Queens”: Stream
With our new music feature Origins, artists have the chance to pull back the curtains on the stories behind their latest single. Today, Plants and Animals discuss the je ne sais quoi or “Le Queens”. After four years away, Plants and Animals are set to return with their new full-length, The Jungle, on October 23rd. Early singles like “House on Fire” and “Sacrifice” portended a collection of catchy but chaotic sonic landscapes. The latest sample of the effort, “Le Queens”, offers a counterpoint to that aural bedlam — with a touch of Quebecois. A haze of distorted guitars and synthesizers, “Le Queens” is a much mellower tune than the previous Jungle singles. But there’s still a sense of disorder in the background, with percussive samples running ramshackle beneath the kaleidoscopic flow of th...
Wilco Announce Summerteeth Deluxe Reissue
Last year, Wilco celebrated the 20th anniversary of their seminal album Summerteeth. Now, the band has announced a new deluxe reissue bursting with additional demos, outtakes, and live recordings. The five-disc set includes the original album, remastered in 2020 by Bob Ludwig, as well as previously unreleased demos of tracks like “Tried and True”, “I’m Always in Love”, and “She’s a Jar”. There are also countless alternate versions and outtakes of “My Darling”, “Every Little Thing”, and “Viking Dan”, among others. As an additional bonus, the reissue features a 1999 concert recording from Colorado’s Boulder Theatre. For fans looking to splurge a bit more, the limited edition deluxe vinyl reissue boasts an extra LP containing audio from an in-store performance at Tower Records held just ...
Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan Releases more songs from 2005 EP: Stream
Earlier this year, Hop Along frontwoman Frances Quinlan issued her excellent debut under her own name, Likewise. The album quickly became one of our favorite of the year — though technically speaking it wasn’t her first solo release. She initially launched Hop Along as a solo project, dropping the freshman year LP back in 2005. Today, in celebration of that record’s 15th anniversary, Quinlan has released it to streaming services for the very first time, in addition to sharing a brand new EP of tracks from that era called more songs from 2005. The sessions that led to freshman year and (eventually) more songs from 2005 were as DIY as can be. Quinlan recorded in her parents basement in the Pennsylvania suburbs, with additional backing vocals and field sounds picked up everywhere from a house...
Julia Stone Reveals New Song “Unreal”, Produced by St. Vincent: Stream
St. Vincent (photo by Ben Kaye) and Julia Stone (photo by Brooke Ashley Barone) Julia Stone returned this past July with her first solo single in eight years, “Break”, produced by St. Vincent. It turns out there’s quite a lot more to come from this pair, as a “greater body of work” is eventually coming down the line, according a statement. As another preview of this larger collaborative project, Stone and St. Vincent are now sharing a new track called “Unreal”. Not unlike her previous offering, Stone again sidelines her folk roots here, leaning further into synthpop territory. It’s a new look for the veteran Australian songwriter, but one that works in much the same way acts such as Sylvan Esso have built electronic music using the foundation of folk stylings. According to Stone, this late...
The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy Shares New Song “Slint, Spiderland”: Stream
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has shared the new solo song “Slint, Spiderland”. The Decemberists have been in hibernation since 2018, when the band released I’ll Be Your Girl and the Traveling On EP. Currently, Meloy is writing his fifth book, having published four children’s titles since 2011. But in April, as the reality of quarantine settled in, he had a bizarre experience that caused him to set the prose aside. As Meloy told NPR, he watched a documentary about the making of the Slint album Spiderland, when the normalcy of what he was doing suddenly struck him as bizarre. He said, “I don’t know that it particularly spoke to the current moment in any way other than it felt completely disconnected from it. Thing is about the lockdown and the quarantin...
Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker Announces Two Solo Albums, Shares “anything”: Stream
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief has revealed two new solo albums, songs and instrumentals. Both projects are due out October 23rd, and Lenker has provided a preview with the new single “anything”. This wasn’t part of the plan. Lenker had hoped to be on tour with Big Thief most of this year, capitalizing on the success of their twin 2019 releases U.F.O.F. and Two Hands. But when the pandemic scuttled that trek, the notoriously prolific songwriter retreated to a one-room cabin in the mountains of western Massachusetts. With the help of engineer Philip Weinrobe, she embarked on an all-analog (AAA) recording process. They began each day with an improvised acoustic jam, and they ended each session with the same. These off-the-cuff explorations landed on the instrument...
Eels Share New Song “Who You Say You Are”: Stream
Last month, Eels returned with their surprise single “Baby Let’s Make It Real”. It turns out the project’s first track since 2018’s The Deconstruction is actually the A-side to a new 7-inch single. Today, the Mark Oliver Everett-led outfit has unveiled the B-side, “Who You Say You Are”. Like “Baby Let’s Make It Real”, “Who You Say You Are” is a mellow love song. Where the A-side finds E ready to make the jump, however, the B-side finds him a mite bit unsure about his paramour. Over a few wallowing guitar notes, he sings, “Are you who I think you are/ Someone I’ll know for long/ Or someone who doesn’t deserve/ A song.” “Here’s a way to forget your troubles for two minutes and 55 seconds,” E said of “Who You Say You Are”. “Listen to this song and think about my problems instead. You’re welco...
Pure X Announce New Album Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019, Share Willie Nelson Cover: Stream
This past May saw Pure X return with their first album in six years. It turns out fans won’t have to wait nearly as long for a follow-up release, as the Austin natives have just announced a new rarities compilation: Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019 is due out October 16th through Fire Talk. The forthcoming project collects 12 “recordings and rarities” from throughout the indie rock group’s decade-long career. Per a press release, these songs “embody the Pure X sound” and offer up “a raw emotive portrait” of the band’s evolution over the years. As a teaser of this Pure X collector’s item, their cover of Willie Nelson’s 1965 song “One Day at a Time” has been revealed. Mirroring the outfit’s past efforts, this rendition conjures up a wall-of-sound atmosphere, as though it were recorded in some smoky ca...
Arab Strap Return with “The Turning of Our Bones”, First New Song in 15 Years: Stream
It’s been 15 long years since Arab Strap dropped new material. That changes today with “The Turning of Our Bones”, their first release since the 2005 album The Last Romance. “WE’RE BACK FROM THE GRAVE AND READY TO RAVE,” the Scottish outfit announced on Instagram on Tuesday. And they weren’t kidding about the rave part. Arab Strap’s music, composed by primary members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, helped define the sadcore genre in the late ’90s and early 2000s. However, “The Turning of Our Bones” represents a striking evolution in their sound, as the two musicians now employ electronic drums, disco strings, and bongos that take on a more urgent tone. In a press release, Moffat said the song is an “incantation, a voodoo spell to raise the dead. Inspired by the Famadihana ritual o...
Anjimile Reveals Mournful New Song “In Your Eyes”: Stream
Boston-based trans musician Anjimile is just weeks away from dropping his debut album, Giver Taker. A collection of songs about self-discovery, including reflections on his own transition, the LP is being previewed today with “In Your Eyes”. Although it shares a name with that one Peter Gabriel hit, today’s single is neither a cover, nor about “the light, the heat.” Instead, it’s about the indie songwriter’s encounters with prejudice and the way his mere existence is questioned regularly. “Getting right in your eyes/ Spitting right in your eyes/ Does my body divide? Was my body denied?” he sings in a soft coo à la Sufjan Stevens, but with a noticeable heaviness in his heart. “This is another song about grappling with homophobia and ultimately recognizing that I am what I am,” Anjimile...
Angel Olsen’s Whole New Mess Redefines Familiar Specters: Review
The Lowdown: In October 2018, Angel Olsen and engineer Michael Harris stayed in the small town of Anacortes, Washington, for 10 days and recorded music in a legendarily haunted Catholic church converted into a studio. These were the sessions that ultimately unfurled into All Mirrors, Olsen’s darkly expansive masterpiece from just last year. Olsen returns now with Whole New Mess — a reimagining and reconfiguring of much of that same work, but through a far more restrained and personal lens. The Good: The tracks on this album are brilliantly haunting. The stripped-back production lets Olsen’s vocals shine through with breathtaking clarity on tracks like “Summer Song”, which feels like a siren song rising through the depths of a sea cave. The same effect surfaces on “Impasse (Workin’ for the ...
St. Vincent Teams with Yoshiki for New Version of “New York”: Stream
Yoshiki and St. Vincent, photo via Twitter/@YoshikiOfficial St. Vincent has teamed with X Japan’s Yoshiki for a reimagining of her modern classic “New York”. This version of the MASSEDUCTION cut essentially takes what was already there and puts a more archetypal classical spin on things. (The lyric “only motherf*cker” is also changed to “only other sucker.”) Yoshiki expands on the song’s original string arrangements, while adding some of his own gorgeous piano to replace Thomas Bartlett’s original work. St. Vincent compared the new “New York” to “the way time or distance transform longtime friends or relationships: the original is still recognizable, but subtly and significantly altered.” In his own statement, Yoshiki explained how the collaboration came about: “As an artist, I admire...
