Indie Rock
Seraphina Simone Channels Her Inner St. Vincent on New Song “Hollywood $$$”: Stream
Seraphina Simone began writing original songs as a way to transform her childhood musical upbringing into a canvas for the inevitably life-changing experiences of adulthood. While the rising indie pop artist doesn’t have a stack of albums under her belt just yet, she does have an impressive range of influences she draws from, including Bat for Lashes, Human League, Blondie, and Lorde. On her newest single, though, Simone channels her inner St. Vincent to create the dark alt-pop hit that is “Hollywood $$$”. This is the second song Simone has released so far, following her debut single “Cherry <8”. While that track earned her digital hype via tastemaker playlists, it’s “Hollywood $$$” that sounds like a verifiable breakout hit. Perhaps its because Simone makes a sharpe critique of the ver...
Perfume Genius Performs “Whole Life” on Colbert: Watch
On Thursday, Perfume Genius delivered a #PlayAtHome performance of “Whole Life” on The Late Show. Despite not actually broadcasting from a proper TV studio, the artist born Michael Hadreas still held viewers captive, thanks to some dramatic lighting and his magnetic body language. The whole thing was shot in a dimly lit room in Los Angeles with longtime collaborator Alan Wyffels. Hadreas can be seen performing in front of a projection screen rolling footage of collapsing water towers. Between that imagery, the song itself, and Hadreas’ body and shadow dancing in tandem with one another against the screen, it all felt somewhat poetic. You could almost say that the emotive potency of Perfume Genius is so powerful it transcends quarantine borders. Watch it for yourself below, and then revisit...
Briston Maroney Teases Debut Album with New Single “Deep Sea Diver”: Stream
After releasing a string of EPs, including this year’s Miracle, Nashville songwriter Briston Maroney is ready to drop his full-length debut album. The effort is slated for arrival sometime in 2021 ,and as a preview, he’s sharing a new single called “Deep Sea Diver”. A freewheeling and folksy number, it finds Maroney struggling to pull himself out of a major rut. “Sick and tired of this old routine,” he laments early on, adding, “I’m a deep sea diver, I’m in too deep.” Maroney goes on to ponder his own “selfish pride” and “fear of rejection”, and whether they are keeping him from being an authentic and honest person. He also considers taking drugs to escape the present, but only momentarily. (Maroney might just be a genius for rhyming “Bowling Green”, “ketamine”, and “next week” all in one ...
The Killers Reveal New Album Imploding the Mirage: Stream
After a brief pandemic-related delay, veteran rockers The Killers have released their new album. Stream Imploding the Mirage below via Apple Music and Spotify. The band’s sixth full-length overall and follow-up to 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful was recorded in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Park City, Utah. Production was handled by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Julian Casablancas) and Foxygen’s own Jonathan Rado. Frontman Brandon Flowers spoke about the group’s sessions in Utah, telling NME, “That’s where I fell in love with music for the first time; so it’s interesting to be there again and hear some of that music with the geography matching the sensation.” Editors’ Picks In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Flowers drew parallels between the recording of Imploding ...
The Killers’ Imploding the Mirage Goes All in on a Better Tomorrow: Review
The Lowdown: The Killers have always sounded like a band born to run. Living in the desert of Las Vegas will have that effect. For 16 years, Brandon Flowers and company have been running away down highway skylines, on the backs of hurricanes with Springsteen-like abandon. However, until now, they’ve always seemed to be running from what plagues them — fears, depressions, and the oppressive trappings of Small Town America — instead of toward what inspires them. Despite Flowers’ advice on Wonderful Wonderful single “Run for Cover”, The Killers have always seemed to have one eye looking back over their shoulder as they blow across an expansive wilderness, seeking some sort of escape from it all through romantic, heartland lyricism and rock and roll bombast. 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful caught T...
Ben Gibbard Fulfills Destiny, Dedicates Postal Service Song to the Postal Service: Watch
After Republican fundraiser Louis DeJoy took over as Postmaster General on June 16th, 2020, he enacted a series of cost-cutting measures that could potentially interfere with the election. The issue of whether we should fund mail services has become politicized, and it’s no surprise that Ben Gibbard has come down on the side of “pro-mail.” The frontman for Death Cab for Cutie once wrote music under the moniker The Postal Service. Now, 17 years after the indie classic Give Up, Gibbard has fulfilled his destiny, and played “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service in an attempt to save the Postal Service. Gibbard shared the performance in a video titled “#TeamJoeSings”, which is also the name of an initiative he’s launching for the Democratic National Convention. The two-song set is an...
Bright Eyes’ Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was Dances Through Grief and Love: Review
The Lowdown: It’s been nearly 10 years since Bright Eyes released an album, and somehow everything and nothing has changed. Gone, this time for good — as Conor Oberst once declared — is the “rootsy Americana bullshit” that colored career-defining records like I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. Sonically, the reunited trio’s newest work has one foot in the stylized hyper-production of their last album, The People’s Key, and another in the Gothic, orchestral sweep of Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Sure, some of the old emblems remain: the cryptic overture, the half-sentimental, half-ominous soundbites, Oberst’s brooding and beautiful lyrical histrionics. And yet, the album isn’t an outright gloomy one. In the past decade, the members of Bright Eyes have grown up....
Dirty Projectors Announce Super João EP, Share “Holy Mackerel”: Stream
Dirty Projectors are currently two installments into a planned five-EP series they’re releasing over the course of the year. Each four-song collection features a different band member taking lead: For March’s Windows Open, it was Maia Friedman, while Felicia Douglass stepped forward for June’s Flight Tower. Now, Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth has announced his own contribution, the Super João EP, and shared the lead single, “Holy Mackerel”. Arriving September 4th, Super João has the sort of smooth samba sounds you’d expect from an effort named after bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto, who passed away last year. Longstreth co-wrote the lyrics with Little Wings’ Kyle Field before recording direct to tape with Kyle Thomas of King Tuff, who happens to be his neighbor in Los Angeles....
Sonic Youth, Mudhoney Members Share Previously Unreleased Cover of The Stooges: Stream
Back in 1997, director Todd Haynes convinced a bunch of indie rock and punk pillars to join forces and soundtrack Velvet Goldmine, his 1998 homage to the glam-rock era. That supergroup was named Wylde Ratttz, and it consisted of The Stooges’ Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm, The Stooges and Minutemen‘s Mike Watt, Sean Lennon, Don Fleming, and Jim Dunbar. Years later, it looks like one of the songs they recorded, a cover of The Stooges’ track “Fun House”, has just been finally unearthed for the first time, reports Spin. Wylde Ratttz uploaded their “Fun House” cover to Bandcamp to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House. Their rendition features Asheton, Moore, Watt, Shelley, Arm, and saxophonist Sabir Mateen draw...
The Cribs Announce New Album Night Network, Share “Running Into You”: Stream
The Cribs have announced their new album, Night Network. It’s set for arrival November 13th, 2020 through Sonic Blew/[PIAS]. The forthcoming record serves as their eighth overall and follow-up to 2017’s 24-7 Rock Star Shit. More importantly, it marks the return of a British band that almost called it quits after an exhausting business matter involving their management. According to a statement, immediately following the release of their previous record, The Cribs parted way with their UK representation. This led to what they described as a “legal morass” that left them unable to record or release new music for 18 months. For a group that’s steadily put out records for the last 15 years, such a hold-up was disruptive to say the least. “At one point we were actually so disillusioned with wha...
Whitney Unveil New Covers Album Candid: Stream
Midwestern indie rockers Whitney have returned with a new covers album called Candid. Stream it in its entirety below via Apple Music or Spotify. Out via Secretly Canadian, the 10-track collection finds Whitney tackling originals by David Byrne and Brian Eno (“Strange Overtones”), Kelela (“Bank Head”), and Damien Jurado (“A.M. A.M.”). The album also includes the group’s rendition SWV’s “Rain” and a collaboration with Waxahatchee on the John Denver classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. In a statement about their choice in covers, drummer and singer Julien Ehrlich explained, “This could’ve been as simple as saying we really love these songs and we love our bandmates and making a covers record just felt right, but it truly became an exploration into how we can evolve as a band going for...
The Killers Premiere New Single “Dying Breed”: Stream
The Killers are just about one week away from the release of highly anticipated album Imploding the Mirage. In anticipation, they’ve shared a new single called “Dying Breed”. According to an interview with Rolling Stone, the track is a collaboration with producer Flood, who’d previously worked on The Killers’ Sam’s Town. As frontman Brandon Flowers explained, Flood helped to give the song “an industrial vibe.” He added, “What I love about Flood is he doesn’t have a problem x-ing something out if he doesn’t like it. What he did with it was a lot more stark than what we would have done, but it kept the spirit of the song. It has a heart to it that really grabs you.” Editors’ Picks Stream The Killers’ “Dying Breed” below, which follows early singles “My Own Soul’s Warning...
