Indie Rock
Sylvan Esso Shares Video for New Single “Frequency”, Directed by Moses Sumney: Watch
On September 25th, electropop duo Sylvan Esso will let loose their third studio album, Free Love. The follow-up to 2017’s What Now is being teased today with a new single dubbed “Frequency”, as well as its video directed by friend and fellow musician Moses Sumney. Here, Amelia Meath’s vocals roll gingerly over the track’s glitchy blips and beeps, rising and falling like a frequency wave. She sings about being irresistibly drawn to someone’s energy field, to the point that she’d like to be a part of it, too. This abstract idea is visualized pretty literally in Sumney’s corresponding clip. In it, a soaked Meath is seen dancing alone outside on a suburban lawn. Slowly but surely, though, more and more people — a delivery person, golfer, neighbor, etc. — are pulled into her orbit and join her ...
Djo (aka Joe Keery) Unveils New Song “Keep Your Head Up”: Stream
Joe Keery introduced us to his Djo musical moniker last year with his debut album, Twenty Twenty. Today, the Stranger Things actor returns with a new single encouraging you to “Keep Your Head Up”. A funky psych-pop tune that nods to George Clinton, the track aligns Djo with fellow experimental contemporaries like Jacob Collier. A heavy beat with a fat synth drone loop under a cacophony of dancing piano notes, swinging horns, and dazzling electronics in an intoxicating if heady mix. “Got to love yourself/ Go ahead touch yourself,” Keery sings on the opening verse. “Take that time alone before your heart belongs to someone else.” Take a listen via the “Keep Your Head Up” visualizer below. Editors’ Picks Keery will join The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne today (Wednesday, September 9...
beabadoobee Stays Present on New Single “Worth It”: Stream
Fake It Flowers is the forthcoming debut album from rising indie rocker beabadoobee, due out next month via Dirty Hit. One of the most anticipated of 2020, it’s been teased thus far with the brooding “Sorry” and Song of the Week “Care”. As a third preview, she’s now sharing a track titled “Worth It”. Additionally, beabadoobee has announced 2021 tour dates in the UK. On this new crunchy, grunge-inspired offering, the Filipino-British artist attempts to shake off the ghosts of a past relationship that have been distracting her from fully living in the present. The single reminds us of both the importance of letting our old traumas heal and the value in the here and now. In a statement, the musician also known as Bea Kristi says the track is “simply about teenage infidelity and the mistakes o...
Anna McClellan Announces New Album I saw first light, Shares Two Singles: Stream
Indie pop songwriter Anna McClellan has announced a new album titled I saw first light, set to arrive November 20th. To accompanying today’s news, the Omaha musician has shared two new singles, “Desperate” and “Pace of the Universe”. The record is McClellan’s third full-length to date and second for Father/Daughter Records following her 2018 album Yes and No. Early on in her career, the Nebraska-born singer-songwriter was cosigned by Frankie Cosmos, which gave her profile a boost and placed her in a league of comparable contemporaries. Like Cosmos and others such as Florist and Dear Nora, McClellan makes soft, relatively lo-fi twee pop with intimate subject matter and clever lyrics. Unlike those other acts, though, McClellan’s songs have a woozy and whimsical swing to them that’s distinctl...
The Cranberries on the 25th Anniversary of No Need to Argue
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher This Must Be the Gig is joined by Fergal Lawler and Noel Hogan of The Cranberries. Formed in Limerick, Ireland in 1989, the two were joined by Hogan’s brother Mike on bass and later vocalist Dolores O’Riordan. Over the course of eight albums and 20 years, the group wrote some of the most memorable sing-along anthems of the ’90s, from “Linger” to “Dreams” to “Zombie” to “Salvation”, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Tragically, the group’s most recent record, 2019’s In the End, turned out to be their last as O’Riordan sadly passed away prior to its completion. But now, Fergal and the Hogan brothers are honoring their late friend and continuing the strength of their l...
Phoebe Bridgers Covers Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” in a Church: Watch
In addition to releasing one of the year’s best albums so far, Phoebe Bridgers has spent the summer months covering a number of iconic artists. In June, she shared her official recording of John Prine’s “Summer’s End”, which she then followed up with a rendition of Gillian Welch’s “Everything is Free”, done in collaboration with Courtney Barnett. Now, Bridgers has taken on an alt-rock classic in “Fake Plastic Trees”. The indie folk artist’s Radiohead cover came as part of the BBC Radio 1 program Phil Taggart’s Chillest Show. And chill it certainly was. Bridgers recorded her delicate version of The Bends original inside of a church with help from rising R&B star Arlo Parks, who provided icy piano accompaniment. Bridgers previously covered “Fake Plastic Trees” live in concert in 2017, as...
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...
