Spring is here and it looks like Freddie Gibbs is ready to hop to it. He’s just released a new single called “Big Boss Rabbit” alongside a grainy music video, both of which see him boasting about his undeniable talents in the hip-hop scene. Stream it below. “Big Boss Rabbit” is the third single Gibbs has released since partnering with Warner Records, following “4 Thangz” with Big Sean and his ScHoolboy Q collaboration “Gang Signs”. Over quick trap drums, Gibbs uses the new song to rap nonstop about the fruits of his labor, the cash in his pocket, and the designer luggage he totes around. “I’m the best in the world,” he chuckles at one point. “It’s facts.” In the music video, directed by JMP, Gibbs waxes each line from “Big Boss Rabbit” while strolling around in style. He lounges on expensi...
Back in 2008, ANOHNI released a song titled “Another World” while fronting her former band Antony and the Johnsons. Now, the track has received a new string rearrangement for The National’s Bryce Dessner and Australian String Quartet’s new album, Impermanence/Disintegration, made in collaboration with the Sydney Dance Company. “Another World (String Arrangement)” closes Impermanence/Disintegration, and is the sole song on the project to feature vocals. ANOHNI’s haunting vocals and sobering lyrics hit even harder on the new version. “I need another place/ Will there be peace?” she sings. “I need another world/ This one’s nearly gone.” The new music video is an excerpt from the Sydney Dance Company’s hour-long dance work that premiered in Sydney in March 2020. Both the album’s music and acco...
Tuareg psych-rock artist Mdou Moctar is one of the best guitarists of this current era, and he’s back with more new music up his sleeve. Moctar has released the title track from his upcoming album Afrique Victime, due out May 21st via Matador, along with a black-and-white music video that splices live performance scenes together. Stream it below. This is the second single Mdou Moctar has shared from Afrique Victime, following “Tala Tannam”. This new seven-minute rallying cry sees him knead a pulsing groove and mesmerizing guitar riff into a foundation that stabilizes his mournful chants. “The wind born in Tunisia spread all over Arabia/ Africa is a victim of so many crimes,” he sings. “If we stay silent it will be the end of us/ Why is this happening?” It’s dizzying and powerful ...
Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade has announced his new album, Fading Graffiti. Due out on April 16th as the first release on his own Pronounced Kroog label, the LP marks Krug’s first album under his own name. He previously released several solo projects as Moonface and Sunset Rubdown. Spanning 10 songs, Fading Graffiti reimagines piano ballads originally posted on Krug’s Patreon page, which was used to help fund the creation of the album. Aided by a full band, the tracks were recontextualized as indie rock songs. “It’s kind of neat the way these songs transformed,” Krug told Stereogum in a new interview. “The piano versions were more fussy and intricate, because that’s how I end up writing on piano. I had an urge to simplify them a little bit, because I could hear some mellow soft-rock numbers ...
81355 (pronounced “Bless”) is an Indianapolis rap trio signed to 37d03d, the label co-founded by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner. Today, the group announced their debut album, This Time I’ll Be of Use, which is slated for release on May 28th. 81355 is comprised of Sirius Blvck, Oreo Jones, and David Adamson. According to a press release, This Time I’ll Be of Use finds the rappers “reflecting on Black struggle in the pandemic-ridden and democracy faltering landscape” while grappling with “hard-wired truths and imagines alternate realities with better futures while meshing mystical, somber and danceable elements throughout.” As a preview of the album, 81355 shared the opening track, “Capstone”. Over a spaced-out beat, the MCs demonstrate their lyrical...
POND are back. The Australian psych-rock weirdos have just released “Pink Lunettes”, their first new song in two years, along with a hazy, lo-fi music video. Stream it below. “Pink Lunettes” takes an unexpected twist compared to the band’s 2019 album Tasmania. Over relentless drumming and retro synth swells, POND do their best to get your blood pumping with hectic dance-punk that brings to mind LCD Soundsystem mixed with Suicide. It’s chaotic and manic, but it suits POND well, and they don’t lose their stride at any point across the track’s four-minute-long runtime. That feeling is all the more drawn out in the song’s music video, too. Directed by Jamie Terry, the clip peppers purple strobe lights around frontman Nick Allbrook as he sings along, karaoke-style, to the lyrics sprawled across...
London jazz band Sons of Kemet have announced their new album, Black to the Future, out May 14th on Impulse! Records. The project follows Your Queen Ii a Reptile, which was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize. This time around, the Shabaka Hutchings-led group brings in guests like Chicago singer Angel Bat Dawid, poets Moor Mother and Joshua Idehen, grime MC D Double E, and British rapper/spoken word artist Kojey Radical. “Black to the Future is a sonic poem for the invocation of power, remembrance and healing. It depicts a movement to redefine and reaffirm what it means to strive for black power,” Hutchings said in a statement. “The meaning is not universal and the cultural context of the listener will shape their understanding. Yet in the end, the overarching message remains the same: Fo...
Pop punk band Wavves have returned with “Sinking Feeling”, their first new song since 2017. Check it out via the accompanying music video below. “Sinking Feeling” marks the return of Wavves to Fat Possum Records and came together with the help of TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek after the band initially workshopped the song in a series of now-abandoned studio sessions. Although the single’s surf rock guitars evoke summertime, the lyrics address the all-encompassing darkness of depression. “It’s there on your face/ It sits in your mind,” sings frontman Nathan Williams. “It’s like this all the time.” In a statement, Williams elaborated on the meaning of the track. “‘Sinking Feeling’ is a song about a wave of depression that keeps coming back,” he said. “It’s that sinking feeling that drags ...
The Joy Formidable are back with “Into the Blue”, their first new material since 2018. Stream the new song via its accompanying music video below. On “Into the Blue”, lead singer Ritzy Bryan describes turning feelings of rejection into self love. “Don’t fear the move out of the past,” she sings. “Let time take your hand and guide you / It’s time to move / Into the Blue once again.” “‘Into The Blue’ is about surrendering to love and magic,” explained Bryan in a statement. “Having the courage to enjoy a new journey and the mystery and excitement of something unexpected. It’s about opening your eyes to beauty and love again. Making it to the other side. Whilst not conceived as a metaphor for the times we all live in now, it certainly turned out that way.” As for the music video, it depic...
In our Track by Track feature, artists take listeners through each song on their new album. Today, Xiu Xiu explore the duets on their latest effort, OH NO. Oh, yes! Experimental duo Xiu Xiu are back with their latest album, OH NO — and they’re not alone. Each track on the 15-song effort features a different guest artist, and you can stream the whole thing below. The band’s 12th full-length serves as the follow-up to 2019’s Girl with Basket of Fruit. It’s ironically fitting that the album largely came together in 2020, as the music Jamie Stewart was writing already had its origins in a well of isolation. Even before the profound loneliness of the pandemic, Stewart was finding himself cutting off a number of close personal relationships following “surprising acts of betrayal and disrespect.”...