The Soundflowers, the new musical project of Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson and her partner Gabriel Glenn, have today released their self-titled debut EP. Stream the five-track effort below via Apple Music and Spotify. Jackson and Glenn first connected on the Sunset Strip after the former caught a performance of the latter’s band, TrashDögs. The pair began sharing music and writing together, finding themselves a natural artistic fit. With Jackson encouraged to share her own music for the first time, they entered the studio with producer Mike Malchicoff (King Princess) and GRAMMY-winning mixer Rob Kinelski (Billie Eilish). The results are something far away from Jackson’s pop lineage, with The Soundflowers focusing instead on acoustic and indie folk sounds with hints of “bluegrass...
Plants and Animals have announced their first album in four years. Entitled The Jungle, it’s set for an October 23rd release through Secret City Records. The forthcoming effort is the Canadian outfit’s fifth overall following Waltzed in from the Rumbling from 2016. Its eight tracks were self-produced and recorded at Mixart, the band’s own studio in Montreal. According to a statement, Plants and Animals’ shortest yet boldest LP recounts “personal experiences made in a volatile world” — a sentiment especially resonant today given the global pandemic. “It’s about the things we inherit not necessarily being the things we want.” Editors’ Picks The indie rockers teased the project with “Sacrifice” earlier this month. Now, they’re sharing preview with “House on Fire”. A driving nu...
Rejoice! Astronautalis has returned with his first new solo single in four years, and his first new track since his 2018 collaboration with POS in Four Fists. It’s called “The Way I Am” and the Florida-Minneapolis bard has paired the melancholy jam with a hilarious new music video featuring a deepfake of Tiger King. Produced and mixed by Subp Yao, “The Way I Am” finds Astronautalis doing a little soul searching over balmy beats that sound like the aural equivalent of a meditative stroll. “I’m drunk on whiskey maybe,” he sings, “Passed in the back of the van/ You seen it all now, ain’t i crazy?/ Can you still love me the way i am?” “I was kind of a mess of a man when I met the woman who would later become my wife,” Astronautalis says of the song. “Thankfully, she saw through all my bullshit...
Anderson .Paak is marking Juneteenth with a new single addressing racism and police brutality. It’s dubbed “Lockdown” and comes with a corresponding music video helmed by famed director Dave Meyers (Billie Eilish, JAY-Z, Ariana Grande). Also known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth celebrates June 19th, 1865, the day the Emancipation Proclamation finally went into full effect throughout all of the Confederate States of America. Legalized slavery may be a thing of the past, but as we’ve seen in just the last few weeks, racism and white supremacy are still very much a(n ugly) fabric of US society, and this is what .Paak focuses on in his latest track. “Sicker than the COVID, how they did him on the ground?/ Speakin’ of the COVID, is it still goin’ around?” says .Paak, referencing the murder of Georg...
Last month, Bully released quarantine-style covers of Nirvana and Orville Peck, as well as teased that a forthcoming album was on the way. Today, the CoSigned rock outfit has formally announced their new record: Sugaregg is due out August 21st through Sub Pop. The new LP is Bully’s third overall and follow-up to Losing from 2017. It was mixed with studio veteran John Congleton (St. Vincent, Cloud Nothings) and represents a shift in approach for leader Alicia Bognanno. “There was a change that needed to happen and it happened on this record,” she told Rolling Stone. “Derailing my ego and insecurities allowed me to give these songs the attention they deserved.” Compared to its predecessor, Sugaregg features “more songs about erratic, dysfunctional love in an upbeat way, like, ‘I’m going down...
Tekashi 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj have unveiled a new collaborative single called “Trollz”. Stream the new release below. A portion of the proceeds from the song, as well as its corresponding merchandise, will benefit The Bail Project. “The fund provides free bail assistance to low-income individuals who can’t afford to pay bail while awaiting their trial,” Minaj explained on social media. “We want to protect and support the thousands of brave people working on the front lines of social justice, using their voices to demand AN END to the targeting and killing of Black Americans by the police.” For Tekashi, today’s offering marks his second comeback single since being released early from prison due to the coronavirus; revisit last month’s “GOOBA” here. The rapper had originally been sentenced...
Back in March, former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe shared a demo of a new song titled “No Time For Love Like Now”. Made in collaboration with Big Red Machine — aka The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon — the studio version of the song has now been released, complete with a stylish music video. This time around, Stipe is fully immersed in Dessner and Vernon’s soundscapes, giving his vocals a more ethereal quality. There’s depth to the sound now, which isn’t too surprising given that Stipe was literally singing over their recording in the OG demo. While Aaron produced the track, his brother and National bandmate, Bryce Dessner, actually orchestrated it. As for Vernon’s part, he supplied electric guitar, clearly channeling his inner Peter Buck. In an interview w...
In recognition of National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 5th, Pearl Jam unearthed the uncensored version of their 1992 video for “Jeremy”. To date, “Jeremy” remains one of Pearl Jam’s most chilling and affecting songs, based on the real-life suicide of high school student Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his classmates in January 1991. The accompanying video depicts the incident in graphic detail, though the edited version zoomed in on Jeremy’s face so that his gun could not be seen. The uncensored version includes the haunting final scene with Jeremy putting a gun in his mouth. “The increase in gun violence since the debut of ‘Jeremy’ is staggering,” Pearl Jam wrote in an accompanying social media post. “We have released the uncensored version of the video which w...
This past week has been rife in police protests, rampant looting, burning buildings, and a blatant lack of equality following the death of George Floyd. During all of this, President Donald Trump has been, to quote Taylor Swift, “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.” So it was only a matter of time until politically driven punk group Pussy Riot stepped in to write “1312”, a new song about ending police brutality. “1312” sees the Russian group collaborating with Argentinean artists Parcas, Dillom, and Muerejoven as a form of solidarity — similarly to their Vic Mensa track “Hangerz” — to honor “the bravery and strength shown in front of abusive police forces” at Chilean protests. Musically, “1312” is a hybrid of blown-out grunge beats, throat-scratching screams, punk rock br...
Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington (Debi Del Grande), and Denzel Curry (Cat Miller) Protests are sweeping the nation from coast to coast following the murder of George Floyd, who died while in Minneapolis police custody last week. To express their own rage over police brutality, and the systemic racism in America that allows it, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and Denzel Curry have joined forces on a new single called “PIG FEET”. Producer Martin and saxophonist Washington deliver arrangements of frenetic, and sometimes clashing, jazz to mirror the present-day chaos of this country. Curry, meanwhile, recounts a tale too often told by young blacks. “Helicopters over my balcony/ If the police can’t harass, they wanna smoke every ounce of me,” the Florida-bred MC says. “You tell me life’s a ...
The Flaming Lips have returned with their first new song of 2020, “Flowers of Neptune 6”. It’s a psychedelic slow burn, and features backing vocals from Ms. “Slow Burn” herself, Kacey Musgraves. Over mellow acoustic guitars, frontman Wayne Coyne spins a tale of “Doing acid and watching the light-bugs glow.” But The Flaming Lips are never content to just rock on about getting high, and “Flowers of Neptune 6” quickly melts into the more introspective mode of a man searching his past. “John’s still a greaser and Tommy’s gone off to war/ James got busted and doesn’t give a fuck any more,” he sings. In a statement, Coyne explained how the track came together. “”Flowers Of Neptune 6″ track started off as a very evocative series of melodies that Steven Drozd had woven together. The first time he ...