Indie
Local Natives on Obsessing Over At the Drive-In
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher This Must Be the Gig is joined by Local Natives. As two of the founding members of the Southern California band, Taylor Rice and Ryan Hahn first came together when they were just high schoolers. Not long later, Local Natives’ debut record Gorilla Manor solidified their radiant credentials. Over a decade later, the five-piece have now released four studio albums and spread their sunshine and wonder at festivals and sold-out shows around the world. Most recently, the band put out the four-track Sour Lemon EP, collaborated with Sharon Van Etten, and put together an incredible live-streamed concert for eager fans. In this week’s episode, host Lior Phillips sp...
Smut Announce Power Fantasy EP, Share “Fan Age”: Stream
Rising rockers Smut have announced the new Power Fantasy EP. In anticipation of the November 20th release date, the band has shared the new single “Fan Age”. Smut is a quartet made up of Bell Cenower, Andrew Min, Sam Ruschman, and vocalist Tay Roebuck. They got their start in Cincinnati but are now based out of Chicago, and they first gained buzz with the 2017 shoegaze EP End of Sam-Soon. The new three-track Power Fantasy finds Smut branching out into a slightly poppier sound, taking influences from hip-hop and trip-hop along the way. According to a statement, the title track deals with the euphoria and disappointment of trying to change the world by yourself, while “Perfect Dark” is inspired by the beloved Nintendo 64 first-person shooter. As for the lead single, “Fan ...
Feist Covers Cat Stevens’ “Trouble” for Justin Vernon’s For Wisconsin GOTV Campaign: Watch
Leslie Feist has returned with a new live cover of Cat Stevens’ “Trouble”. The performance supports Justin Vernon’s For Wisconsin GOTV initiative. Feist takes a lot of time between projects and has never seemed entirely comfortable in the spotlight. But America’s election is alarming even to reclusive Canadians, and her choice of “Trouble” almost speaks for itself. The track first appeared on Cat Stevens’ third album Mona Bona Jakone (1970), after Stevens had recovered from tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. Lyrics like, “Trouble/ Oh trouble move away/ I have seen your face/ And it’s too much for me today,” speak to that feeling when the slings and arrows of life become overwhelming. It’s a natural fit for the ongoing hell-year of 2020. Feist’s celestial voice is welcom...
IMPALA Publishes 12-Point Diversity and Inclusion Charter for Indie Members
“Not discriminating isn’t enough. We must be anti-discriminatory and consciously inclusive,” reads a statement issued Wednesday morning. Following today’s big reveal, guidance and training for members, surveys to gauge diversity and other measures will be put in place, all of which is intended to promote inclusion and diversity across the European independent sector. Those commitments include the mapping and sharing of examples of best practices across Europe; the appointment of a diversity advocate for the lobby body’s board and each of its committees; and the launch of a new program of European and national awards to cast the spotlight on those in the music space working on diversity and inclusion. IMPALA’s charter was prepared by a diversity task force, with veteran British artist...
Nilüfer Yanya Announces New EP Feeling Lucky?, Drops “Crash”: Stream
Nilüfer Yanya has announced the Feeling Lucky? EP. It drops December 11th, and the British artist is celebrating with the new single “Crash”. This is the follow-up to Miss Universe, her debut album and one of our favorite records of 2019. Unsurprisingly for a young songwriter whose first full-length effort blew up, Yanya has been thinking about luck — both consciously and subconsciously. As she noted in a statement, it wasn’t until she’d been working on the EP for a while that she realized the connecting theme. She said, “One of the songs had the theme of luck in it as a concept but then I realized they all do. That got me thinking about luck in general; good and bad. Things out of our control and things in control of us, how often we put acts and happenings down to the fortune o...
Arlo Parks Announces Debut Album Collapsed in Sunbeams, Shares “Green Eyes”: Stream
20-year-old British singer Arlo Parks has announced her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. It arrives January 29th, 2021, and to herald its release, she’s shared the new single “Green Eyes”, featuring vocals from Clairo. Parks has developed a reputation as your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter, with co-signs from Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers, and Florence Welsh. Her breathy voice and sensitive lyrics create an atmosphere of vulnerability. To listen to her songs is to be transported to a specific place and time: listening to a friend’s problems over Taco Bell, or trying to get a depressed person out of their bedroom. That immediacy is why her first album-length statement has developed such a buzz. In a statement, Parks explained the goals for Collapsed in Sunbeams,...
CARM (of yMusic) Shares New Song “Land” Featuring Justin Vernon: Stream
After a decade of guesting on high-profile albums, founding member of yMusic CARM (CJ Camerieri) will drop his star-studded solo debut CARM next year. His latest single is “Land”, which reunites him with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. yMusic is a contemporary classical ensemble, and over the last few years they’ve become one of the most in-demand backing bands in the world. Led by trumpeter Camerieri and violinist Rob Moose, they’ve appeared on recent Bruce Hornsby efforts Non-Secure Connection and Absolute Zero, Paul Simon’s In the Blue Light, and Ben Folds’ So There, to name a few. Camerieri has also won two Grammy awards as a member of Bon Iver, and he comes highly recommended by that group’s lead singer. As Vernon said in a statement, “CJ and I have worked together ...
Fiona Apple Performs Music From Fetch the Bolt Cutters Live for the First Time: watch
Fiona Apple performed music from her brilliant new album Fetch the Bolt Cutters live for the first time during a virtual appearance at the New Yorker Festival this weekend. As Pitchfork points out, Apple played three songs “I Want You to Love Me”, “Shameika”, and “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” with the accompaniment of a full band. She also spoke to The New Yorker writer Emily Nussbaum about the making of the album and a variety of other topics. Watch it all below. Since the release of Fetch the Bolt Cutters earlier this year, Apple contributed a song to the Apple TV+ series Central Park and narrated a short film about how to document unlawful ICE arrests. She’s also committed to donating her royalties from “Shameika” and “Heavy Balloon” to the Harlem Children’s Zone, which helps support the hig...
BENEE Launches Olive Label, Signs Muroki: Exclusive
“I was listening to the track every day at one point,” she says, praising his “smooth and soulful” vocals. “Muroki’s such a sweet and genuine guy, just the sort of artist I’d like to work with.” BENEE introduced Elton John to Muroki when she met the Rocket Man on his Beat 1 radio show, and she’s currently touring with the teen in NZ. Leading Olive is label manager Trieste Douglas, formerly A&R for Universal Music New Zealand, and Poppy Tohill, from BENEE’s management team at CRS, Billboard can exclusively reveal. “The Olive team is already packed with some hardworking badass women,” comments BENEE (real name Stella Bennett), “and I feel this is an important time for us in the music business to come together and make some really cool shit happen.” She’s only 20 years of age, but BENEE i...
Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Details New Memoir Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner, best known for her indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, has shared details about her new memoir Crying in H Mart. The book arrives April 20th, 2021 through Knopf Publishing. Based on a 2018 New Yorker article of the same name, Crying in H Mart details how the death of Zauner’s mother forced her to wrestle with her Korean-American identity. In one particularly wrenching moment, which inspired the piece’s title, she recounts coming apart in the Asian supermarket chain H Mart. She writes about, “Sobbing near the dry goods, asking myself, ‘Am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left in my life to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?’” Ultimately, Zauner leaned on writing as a way to process her grief, which manifested in two stellar stu...
How Mushroom Group’s Michael Gudinski Pivoted and Built New Channels During the Pandemic
Michael Gudinski always has something extra up his sleeve. When the 360-degree company became a fashionable term, Gudinski had his own spin. Mushroom Group, his independent music empire, was a “365” company, reflecting the number of days it operated in a regular year. Launched in 1973, Mushroom Group today spans more than two-dozen companies and brands from Frontier Touring, one of the world’s leading independent promoters, to The Harbour Agency, labels I Oh You, Liberation and Bloodlines, Mushroom Music Publishing, neighboring rights operation Good Neighbour, and the new addition, Reclusive Records. The pandemic has caused income to dry up for so many entertainment companies, particularly those exposed to concerts and touring. Mushroom Group is built on a bedrock of live music. Gudi...
Sylvan Esso Break Down Their New Album Free Love Track by Track: Stream
Our Track by Track feature provides musicians the chance to guide fans through each track on their latest album. Today, Sylvan Esso gives us some much needed Free Love. Sylvan Esso have today shared their third studio album, Free Love. Stream the 10-track effort below via Apple Music or Spotify One of the fall’s most anticipated releases, Free Love follows Sylvan Esso’s 2017 record What Now. Self-produced in the band’s own studio in the woods of North Carolina, the LP is billed as their “first true ‘band’ record.” It finds vocalist Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn working hand and hand on all elements of the songwriting and recording, instead of one focusing on melody and the other on beats. Sylvan Esso describe the album as “about being increasingly terrified of the world aroun...
