New Music Releases
Sunflower Bean Share New Single “Baby Don’t Cry,” Announce US Tour Dates
Following their 2018 breakthrough album Twentytwo in Blue, Sunflower Bean are gearing up for a comeback. Today, the New York City trio — and former Artist of the Month — have returned with “Baby Don’t Cry.” Additionally, Sunflower Bean have unveiled a handful of tour dates beginning in December and going into 2022. “Baby Don’t Cry” aims to uplift, though Sunflower Bean deliver their sentiments with the knowledge that it can be hard to fight back tears: “TV makes me so mad/ NPR is always telling me something bad,” vocalist Julia Cumming sings over a sauntering instrumental that melds the band’s grungy roots with a ’60s girl group flair. “So many things in our lives are disposable,” the band writes in a statement. “Content and news is consumed and discarded leaving us unfulfilled. ‘Baby Don’...
Michael Kiwanuka Returns with New Single “Beautiful Life”: Stream
Michael Kiwanuka is back with “Beautiful Life,” his first new music in two years. Stream the track below. Serving as the title music for the new Netflix documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis, “Beautiful Life” was recorded in London with producer St Francis Hotel. Kiwanuka’s rich voice is enough to shake listeners out of their doldrums as he belts lyrics like, “I was caught in a nightmare/ Now we’re breathing the same air/ I live my life in a daydream/ All the colors are so clean.” “In this song I wanted to focus on the feeling that there’s a real strength in the human spirit when you try to look for beauty even in difficult situations,” explained the Mercury Prize winner in a statement. “Of course, in some situations that becomes more and more difficult. But I just wanted to ponder ...
Shamir Unveils His “Gay Agenda” on New Industrial Single: Stream
Leave it to Shamir to flip a fear-mongering term into a positive slice of art-pop. On his new single, “Gay Agenda” the Philadelphia-based musician leans into distortion for an anthem about taking pride in who you are and the way you live your life. Stream it below. Recorded with producer Hollow Comet of Strange Ranger, “Gay Agenda” sees Shamir embracing a new-to-him sound that’s more expansive and brooding than anything else he’s released prior. He leans into industrial synths, clanging drum machines, and sobering guitar for the track while letting his unmistakable voice scale to new heights. Truth be told, it feels more like an Arca deep cut than anything off his self-titled record, which was one of the best albums of 2020 — yet it still sounds totally like Shamir. In a press release, Sha...
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby Share New Song “Virginia Beach”: Stream
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby have joined forces for a new collaborative single called “Virginia Beach.” Stream it alongside a lyric video below. Unsurprisingly, “Virginia Beach” combines the best of both artists and will win over longtime fans and recent listeners alike. After opening with a finger-picked guitar part, it makes way for Leithauser and Morby trading verses and some blustery, stripped-down percussion. With equal parts acoustic guitar charm and dusty country flair, “Virginia Beach” is the type of song you could imagine both soundtracking a feel-good movie about discovering yourself on a road trip and playing over the speakers at a local dive bar. In a press release, Hamilton explained he wanted to create a modern take on a “dark country song” that utilized a dance groove...
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby Share New Song “Virginia Beach”: Stream
Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby have joined forces for a new collaborative single called “Virginia Beach.” Stream it alongside a lyric video below. Unsurprisingly, “Virginia Beach” combines the best of both artists and will win over longtime fans and recent listeners alike. After opening with a finger-picked guitar part, it makes way for Leithauser and Morby trading verses and some blustery, stripped-down percussion. With equal parts acoustic guitar charm and dusty country flair, “Virginia Beach” is the type of song you could imagine both soundtracking a feel-good movie about discovering yourself on a road trip and playing over the speakers at a local dive bar. In a press release, Hamilton explained he wanted to create a modern take on a “dark country song” that utilized a dance groove...
Jeff Tweedy Shares “C’mon America” and “UR-60 Unsent” for Sub Pop Singles Club: Stream
Jeff Tweedy has shared a pair of solo tracks for Sub Pop Singles Club. “C’mon America” and “UR-60 Unsent” make up the latest 7-inch released from the subscription-only series. “C’mon America,” the A-side, is described in a press release as from an “unreleased group of songs with mostly sci-fi lyrics,” while “UR-60 Unsent,” the B-side, is billed as “a pitiful tale of an unsent lovesick mixtape, taken from a separate batch of unreleased songs with mostly pitiful lyrics.” On the twangy and sarcastic “C’mon America,” Tweedy asks, “what you gonna do now that the world is turned against you”? In contrast, “UR-60 Unsent” is a melancholy ballad full of heartsick lyrics about rejection. Stream both tracks below. Advertisement Related Video Also included in today’s drop is TV Priest’s “All Thing,” t...
Bon Iver Share Previously Unreleased Versions of “Beth/Rest” and “Babys”: Stream
Bon Iver will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their self-titled sophomore album with a deluxe reissue of the Grammy-winning LP. The bonus material is pulled from Justin Vernon and Sean Carey’s 2011 4AD/Jagjaguwar Sessions at AIR Studios, and the band has today shared two of those tracks: “Beth/Rest” and “Babys.” The AIR Studios sessions saw the Bon Iver members stripping back the layered sounds of Bon Iver, Bon Iver and restructuring them for piano. Thus, that glorious ’80s melodrama of the album version of “Beth/Rest” becomes a more grounded and cooler drama. Meanwhile, “Babys,” a cut from Bon Iver’s 2009 Blood Bank EP, is already based on keys; here, however, Vernon and Carey slow the tempo down a tick, allowing the song’s emotionality to settle in. Take a listen to both trac...
James Blake Reunites with slowthai for “Funeral” Remix: Stream
James Blake has recruited slowthai for a remix of “Funeral,” a track from Blake’s newly released fifth studio album, Friends That Break Your Heart. In this new version, Blake’s second verse is substituted with a restrained feature from the UK rapper. “I never been one for horror movies,” slowthai spits. “I fall asleep under your tongue, I hope you choose me/ The shadow silhouetting the sun, I’m glued to your feet/ I live in the shadows of, mmm, under the loose leaves.” Otherwise, the remix remains largely unchanged from the original. To accompany the reworked track, Blake shared a black-and-white music video capturing the somber tone of “Funeral.” Watch the full clip below ahead of the duo’s debut performance of the song on the episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airing on Mo...
Tank and the Bangas Tap Big Freedia for New Single “Big”: Stream
Tank and the Bangas have returned with their newest single “Big” featuring fellow NOLA native Big Freedia. Stream the song below. “Big ass, big mouth, big bands, big house/ Everything I do is big/ Chillin’ at Big Freedia house/ All I drop is big sh-t/ Toilet bowls need cleaning out/ I pull up in that black thing/ I do a set, I roll out,” raps frontwoman Tarriona “Tank” Ball over Big Freedia’s wailing descant. Meanwhile, the track’s accompanying music video is a colorful science experiment gone wild, in which a lab coat-adorned Big Freedia convinces Tank to drink up a potion she’s concocted. Naturally, dancing, twerking, and all kinds of wild revelry ensue. Advertisement Related Video Says drummer Joshua Johnson of the collab: “This song boasts big energy from two talented New Orleans artis...
Mick Jenkins Announces New Album Elephant in the Room, Shares “Contacts”: Stream
Chicago MC Mick Jenkins has shared a fresh single called “Contacts,” which serves as the lead track from his newly announced album, Elephant in the Room. Due out October 29th via Cinematic Music Group, the new LP follows last year’s The Circus EP. The 12-track effort features appearances from serpentwithfeet, Ben Hixon, Tiffany Lance, and Green SLlime, plus production from Saba, Kiran Kai, Thelonious Martin, Tee-Watt, Renzell, and more. According to a press release, Jenkins had completed 60% of the record prior to the pandemic shutdown in March 2020. The extra time gave him time to focus on his personal life, particularly his relationship with his wife. “I haven’t been home for more than three months at a time in seven years,” Jenkins said in a press statement. “It was just a lot...
Nandi Bushell and Tom Morello’s Son Roman Team Up for Climate-Action Song “The Children Will Rise Up”: Stream
Young music sensation Nandi Bushell is using her platform to get the word out on the impacts of climate change. The 11-year-old multi-instrumentalist has teamed up with Tom Morello’s 10-year-old guitar-playing son Roman for the new song “The Children Will Rise Up,” with Jack Black, activist Greta Thunberg, and Roman’s dad making cameos in the music video. Nandi recently returned to her UK home after a whirlwind trip to the United States that saw her play drums alongside Foo Fighters during their concert in Los Angeles. On that same trip, she jammed with Tom and Roman Morello, revealing that they had collaborated on a new song. Now, that new song is here, with Nandi and Roman both displaying their incredible musical skills. The pair of youngsters co-wrote “The Children Will Rise Up” with th...
Rapping Rock: Dwayne Johnson Spits Bars on New Tech N9ne Song “Face Off”: Stream
Can you hear what The Rock is rapping? Dwayne Johnson spits bars on “Face Off,” the new song from prolific Kansas City MC Tech N9ne. The track appears on ASIN9NE, Tech N9ne’s 23rd studio set which dropped today, October 8th. The song is a swirling fight anthem, with a hook by Krizz Kaliko that recalls The Rock’s wrestling days: “Rumble/ They gon’ take your face off/ They gon’ rumble/ They gon’ take your face off.” Compared to Tech N9ne’s machine gun flow, Johnson brought a more stately pace to his guest verse. “Black and Samoan in my veins,” he raps, “My culture bangin’ with Strange/ I change the game so what’s my motherfuckin’ name? (Rock!).” The track ends with a Johnson outro, as he thanks “brother Tech N9ne,” as well as his tequila sponsor Teremana, and brags, “One take,...
