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 ...
Pandemic be damned! BTS continue their world domination today with new single “Dynamite” and its music video. The English-language offering finds the beloved K-pop purveyors hitting the disco dance floor and channeling their inner Saturday Night Fever. A much welcomed reprieve from these strange times, the track is filled with joy and appreciation for all the little things that life has to offer. In the corresponding clip, directed by Yong Seok Choi (Lumpens), BTS deliver choreography consisting of “simpler movements [that are] tastefully connected, allowing each member to sing and express themselves to their hearts’ extent.” The seven-piece boyband can be seen singing in front of a “Disco” storefront, as well as a beautiful pink lemonade sunset. Check out the explosive “Dynamite” below. E...
This past January saw Dan Deacon drop his first album in four years, Mystic Familiar. The Baltimore-based musician is back now with his second project of 2020: his original score for HBO’s Well Groomed. Well Groomed is a documentary about the colorful and wonderfully absurd subculture of competitive dog grooming. The film premiered on HBO in late 2019, but today marks the official release of Deacon’s accompanying soundtrack. Much like the doc, the music is playful and fun in nature. Its 14 arrangements also find the electronic music producer Deacon expanding his sound palette by dabbling with more earthy and organic instrumentation. Previous collaborators like pianist M.C. Schmidt of Matmos, vibraphonist Rich O’Meara, and guitarist Steve Strohmeier assisted Deacon in creating the soni...
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....
Blood Orange collaborator and alternative R&B artist Ian Isiah will release his upcoming record, Auntie, on August 31st via Juliet Records. For those who can’t wait a few weeks to hear what the project sounds like, he’s shared the latest single, “Princess Pouty”. Musically, “Princess Pouty” is a vibrant electro-funk number that sounds like Prince in his most sparkly outfit. Part of that tone comes courtesy of Chromeo, the nu-disco duo who produced the track (while juggling their own pandemic-era projects, mind you). It’s flashy, it’s retro, and it’s perfectly self-aware in its high-key indulgence. When sharing the track, Isiah revealed he’s proud of his vocal work here, and rightfully so. As it turns out, the single is a little bit of an I-told-you-so to the grown-ups from his youth wh...
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...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are back to doing what they do best: releasing staggering amounts of music. The latest offering is “Some of Us”, and it comes with a nightmare-inducing music video. You’d think the Aussie rockers had been watching Lovecraft Country judging from the lyrics. Stu Mackenzie sings of “Ancient tombs like sand-filled wombs,” to reflect upon the passage of “untold aeons.” Guitars match Mackenzie note-for-note, sounding for all the world like a demon chorus engaged in a psych-rock sing-a-long. According to a statement on social media, “Some of Us” was written earlier this year. The band said, “This Cookie penned, Stu sung song came together early this year as the world was slowly descending into madness, but before it was truly on fire. Can’t wait to show y’a...
Elvis Costello has announced his 31st (!) studio album, Hey Clockface. The follow-up to 2018’s Look Now arrives October 30th, and Costello is heralding the news with his latest single, “We Are All Cowards Now”. Hey Clockface is a trans-Atlantic undertaking, with recording taking place in Helsinki, Paris, and New York, three cities which became integral plot points in the album’s story. At Helsinki’s Suomenlinnan Studios, Costello wrote and recorded the first three singles, “We Are All Cowards Now” and early previews “Hetty O’Hara Confidential” and “No Flag”. Immediately afterward, the veteran songwriter visited France for a weekend session at Les Studios Saint Germain. He played with a new ensemble dubbed Le Quintette Saint Germain, led by his old pal and longtime Attraction member St...
“Levitating” remix featuring Missy Elliott, Dua Lipa, The Blessed Madonna, and Madonna Already one of our favorite albums of the year, Future Nostalgia had us up off the quarantine couch and bopping around in our pjs. But Dua Lipa isn’t quite done partying to that record — she’s actually just getting started. Later this month, the pop star will release a new remix album, Club Future Nostalgia, that will bring the original LP further into nightlife rotation. To tease this forthcoming project, Lipa is sharing a rework of “Levitating”, and it features some folks who pretty much grew up on the dance floor: Madonna, Missy Elliott, and The Blessed Madonna, the house/techno producer formerly known as The Black Madonna. Given this star-studded assemblage, it’s no wonder the new ve...