New Music Releases
Chika Unveils New EP Once Upon A Time: Stream
Alabama rapper Chika has released a new EP called Once Upon A Time. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The 24-year-old is nominated for Best New Artist at this Sunday’s Grammys, so this new joint serves as a celebration of how far she’s come in just a few years. The six-song effort follows her well-liked 2020 EP Industry Games, and the handful of singles she released last year. Only one of those — the lustful “FWB” that she originally dropped back in December — appears on Once Upon A Time, while the others are all fresh cuts. As its storybook title and castle-adorned cover art imply, Once Upon A Time has a fairytale concept weaved through it. The first song, which features BJ The Chicago Kid, is literally called “FAIRY TALES”, and there are two other tracks cal...
Kenny Mason Announces Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut Project, Shares “Pup”: Stream
Kenny Mason turned Atlanta hip-hop on its ears with last year’s debut album, Angelic Hoodrat. The genre-mashing artist is now set to keep his momentum going with a new project dubbed Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut, which features the new single “Pup”. Due out April 16th, Supercut consists of 12 new tracks and a quartet of features. Denzel Curry, a frequent collaborator who has emerged as something of a mentor to Mason even though he’s only a year older, appears on “A+”, while Freddie Gibbs drops in on “Much Money”. Alongside those heavy-hitters, Mason welcomes a pair of fellow risers, with Dallas’ Angel White featuring on “Titan” and bi-lingual New Jersey singer-songwriter contributing to “Breathe”. The new collection was first teased last month with “Partments”, a low-key track that further pe...
IDLES Cover Sharon Van Etten’s “Peace Signs”: Stream
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of her 2010 album Epic, Sharon Van Etten is reissuing it as a double LP featuring a front-to-back covers album. Dubbed Epic Ten, our first sample of the reimagined tracks came from Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine’s take on “A Crime”. Today, the second single has arrived, as SVE has shared IDLES’ cover of “Peace Signs”. The British outfit keeps things as close to the original as their post-punk sensibilities will allow them, with all the familiar progressions still in place. In IDLES’ hands, however, they’re riddled with anxieties and the searing tension of shredding guitars. Certainly the screaming repetition of “Peace signs” hits different coming from Joe Talbot’s growl rather than Sharon Van Etten’s voice. Take a listen to the cov...
Danny Elfman Shares New Song “Kick Me”: Stream
Danny Elfman is keeping his promise to release a new song every month this year. Following January’s “Sorry” and last month’s “Love in the Time of COVID”, the beloved composer has returned with another new tune called “Kick Me”. After releasing his first solo song in 36 years last fall, the 67-year-old got the bug and pledged to unleash a brand new recording on the 11th day of each month. His previous two songs met at the crossroads of progressive metal and Broadway pageantry, but “Kick Me” is his shortest, heaviest, and most straightforward yet. Featuring frenetic drumming and punk-ish guitars, it sounds like a cross between System of a Down, Primus, and one of his Tim Burton scores. Meanwhile, its lyrics see Elfman playing the part of a tone-deaf celebrity, unloading narcissistic pleas f...
Claudio Sanchez Announces New The Prize Fighter Inferno Album, Shares Origins of “Sweet Talker”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins tasks artists with providing some behind-the-process insights into their latest single. Today, Claudio Sanchez returns to his The Prize Fighter Inferno moniker for “Sweet Talker”. With work on Coheed and Cambria’s next record on hold during COVID-19, frontman Claudio Sanchez turned towards a project that had been largely dormant for nearly 15 years: The Prize Fighter Inferno. Writing new solo material became an outlet for dark times, as the trauma of the pandemic was compounded by Sanchez’s grandfather falling ill and his wife being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. Out of that isolation comes The City Introvert, the first Prize Fighter Inferno full-length since the moniker’s 2006 debut, My Brother’s Blood Machine. Out April 23rd via Evil Ink Records...
Mike Patton Sings Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme Song for Shredder’s Revenge Video Game: Stream
What’s cooler than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song? Mike Patton singing that theme song in the trailer for the new video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. That’s right, the lead singer of such bands as Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Dead Cross, and Fantômas lends his vocals to the infectious song that so many of us still have in our heads since it first debuted in 1987 as part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show. Oddly enough, the original theme was co-written and co-recorded by Chuck Lorre, who would go on to famously produce such TV shows as Two and a Half Man, The Big Bang Theory, and others. Patton, whose six octave ranged once earned him the title of greatest singer of all time, offers a rocking take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles&nb...
Jorja Smith Releases New Single “Addicted”: Stream
Jorja Smith is back with an irresistible new track called “Addicted”. The song comes with a music video filmed entirely in isolation, which you can watch ahead. Following last year’s “Come Over” with Popcaan, “By Any Means” of Roc Nation’s Reprise compilation, and The Eddy contribution “Kiss Me in the Morning”, “Addicted” marks Smith’s first single of 2021. Musing in the atmosphere of a hazy beat punctuated with live guitars, the song is as alluring as a siren. Which is fitting, since the lyrics call for a lover to recognize how good they have it and “be addicted to me.” In a press statement explaining the track, Smith noted it’s about “focusing on wanting the full attention of someone who’s not giving enough (or any) when they should be.” “Addicted” comes with a self-directed video (...
The Breeders and Tkay Maidza Share Covers from 4AD’s 40th Anniversary Compilation: Stream
UK independent record label 4AD turned 40 years old in 2020. In belated celebration, the label has announced a new covers compilation called Bills & Aches & Blues, out on streaming services April 2nd. As a preview, the first five songs from the release are streaming below. Today’s cache of tracks include The Breeders covering His Name is Alive’s “Dirt Eaters”, Tkay Maidza’s version of Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?”, and U.S. Girls’s rendition of The Dirty Party’s “Junkyard”. You’ll also hear Aldous Harding covering Deerhunter and Maria Somerville playing an Air Miami song. Other artists featured on the compilation include Big Thief, Bradford Cox, tUnE-yArDs, Future Islands, Helado Negro, SOHN, and many more. Check out the full tracklist below. The first 12 months o...
TEKE::TEKE Unleash New Song “Yoru Ni”: Stream
Montreal’s TEKE::TEKE have unleashed the new song “Yoru Ni” from their upcoming debut album Shirushi. The surf-psych seven-piece originally formed as a tribute band to Japanese guitar icon Takeshi Terauchi. But from that singular purpose, TEKE::TEKE have developed an expansively off-kilter identity, layering on the beauty of Japanese folk and the ferocity of UK punk into the perfect soundtrack for dropping acid at the beach. “Yoru Ni” means “At night,” and as guitarist Serge Nakauchi-Pelletier said in a statement, the song had a spookily nocturnal inspiration. He explained, “‘Yoru Ni’ (which translates from Japanese to ‘At night’) was literally written in the middle of the night. I woke up suddenly and had this melody in my head, as if it had come to me from another world. It really felt l...
CHIKA Covers Billie Eilish’s “my future”, Reimagines “U SHOULD”: Stream
All this week, the Spotify Singles series is highlighting the nominees for the 2021 Best New Artist Grammy. But the contribution from CHIKA comes as a double celebration, as today happens to be the Alabama MC’s 24th birthday. As a gift for your ears, she’s delivered a new rendition of her single “U SHOULD” as well as a cover of Billie Eiilish’s “my future”. Plenty of artists have put their own spin on Eilish’s single from last summer, including Artist of the Month Arlo Parks and Miley Cyrus. CHIKA takes it into a new realm, however, taking ownership of the luscious, jazzy ode to self worth with a whole new verse of her own. “Ain’t no stopping shooting stars/ They got their own mind, and that’s the gold mine,” she raps. “The whole grind is nuts, so hold mine/ I promise you I’m set for go ti...
Matt Berry Announces Psych Rock Album The Blue Elephant, Shares “Aboard”: Stream
When he’s not playing a Staten Island-based vampire in What We Do in the Shadows, the English actor Matt Berry makes freaky psych-rock music. He’s released upwards of ten albums over the last 25 years, and now he’s announcing that his latest will be titled The Blue Elephant. The full album is out in May, but today he’s giving fans a taste with a new song called “Aboard”. Like his previous six records, most of which have arrived in the last ten years, The Blue Elephant will be released via the legendary London label Acid Jazz. The imprint is famous for putting out music that’s super out-there, and Berry’s ear for tantalizing psychedelia fits snugly into their renowned catalog. His 2020 record Phantom Birds was a detour into classic folk, but a press release promises that...
Unearthed Song “Slapback” Is Believed to Be Unreleased Dio-Era Black Sabbath Track: Stream
A purportedly unreleased Ronnie James Dio-era Black Sabbath song titled “Slapback” has been uploaded to YouTube. The track was sourced from what appears to be a cassette recording of Black Sabbath’s 1979 “Bel Air” rehearsals for their seminal 1980 album Heaven and Hell. It was uploaded by the estate of longtime Sabbath keyboardist, the late Geoff Nicholls. Nicholls’ stepson and executor of his estate Gary Rees offered some background on the unearthed recording in the video description: “This latest upload from the Geoff Nicholls estate I believe is called ‘Slapback’ from the scrawling on the cassette and the chorus. This is from the same cassette as the ‘Heaven & Hell’ upload on this channel. It doesn’t sound like a typical SABBATH song, if it is them, but it does sound like Ronnie Jam...
