New Music
ANOHNI Reveals Blazing Protest Song “R.N.C. 2020”: Stream
At a time when nothing — whether it be art, action, or even speaking truth to power — feels like it can loosen the Trump administration’s white nationalist, anti-science stranglehold on America, ANOHNI has returned with something that at the very least articulates our sense of overwhelming dread. The experimental pop artist has released a new song called “R.N.C. 2020” that was written in response to last week’s spectacle of death and democratic destruction at the Republican National Convention. Compared to her exotic yet high-fidelity 2016 album Hopelessness, “R.N.C. 2020” has the production of a ragged no-wave song from the ’80s. The track sees ANOHNI muttering solemnly over a proto-punk loop that starts off crusty and tattered, but gradually becomes clearer and more present in the mix as...
Devandra Banhart Honors the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah Anniversary With Cover
Celebrating the 45th anniversary of The Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah, Devendra Banhart recorded his own rendition of “Franklin’s Tower.” Released as an Amazon Original track, the song was produced by Noah Georgeson and recorded remotely with his current touring band, which includes guitarist Nicole Lawrence, Jeremy Harris on synths and Gregory Rogove on drums and percussion, all tracking from different studios around Los Angeles and Stinson Beach, Calif. Banhart spoke of why he chose to cover “Franklin’s Tower” in a statement: “More than everI find myselfFighting dreadWith the dead… We chose “Franklin’s Tower” for its opening line, one of my favorite opening lines of all time:“In another time’s forgotten spaceYour eyes looked through your mother’s face” This is the gift of the Dead, The...
The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy Shares New Song “Slint, Spiderland”: Stream
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has shared the new solo song “Slint, Spiderland”. The Decemberists have been in hibernation since 2018, when the band released I’ll Be Your Girl and the Traveling On EP. Currently, Meloy is writing his fifth book, having published four children’s titles since 2011. But in April, as the reality of quarantine settled in, he had a bizarre experience that caused him to set the prose aside. As Meloy told NPR, he watched a documentary about the making of the Slint album Spiderland, when the normalcy of what he was doing suddenly struck him as bizarre. He said, “I don’t know that it particularly spoke to the current moment in any way other than it felt completely disconnected from it. Thing is about the lockdown and the quarantin...
Touché Amoré Share New Song “I’ll Be Your Host” Ahead of Upcoming Album: Stream
Touché Amoré have shared the latest single, “I’ll Be Your Host”, from their upcoming new album Lament (out October 9th). “I’ll Be Your Host” is another emotional tour de force from the screamo veterans. It follows the pattern of excellence laid out by previous singles, “Deflector” and “Limelight” — tracks that placed Lament firmly among our most anticipated fall metal albums. The track is multidimensionally meta, concerning singer Jeremy Bolm’s meditations on how his lyrics and songs affect listeners. The title, “I’ll Be Your Host”, becomes quite literal, with Bolm grasping how fans might “find catharsis in their own loss while he is still processing and dealing with his grief,” according to the press release. Likewise, he explores how that dynamic affects himself in turn. “‘I’ll Be Y...
The Struts Announce New Album Strange Days, Drop Single with Robbie Williams: Stream
British glam rockers The Struts have announced their third studio album. It’s called Strange Days and it’s due out October 16th via Interscope. While there’s only a few weeks to go until that release date, The Struts have decided to share the record’s title track featuring Robbie Williams now so that fans can bask in the unique timeliness of the tender anthem. Remarkably, Strange Days was created during the coronavirus quarantine. As such, several of the full-length’s 10 songs touch upon what it’s like riding the emotional rollercoaster that is this year. And while “Strange Days” is a bittersweet epic about finding solace in gratitude, the other tracks tread on different themes with different collaborators, including Albert Hammond Jr., Tom Morello, and Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def L...
FINNEAS Shares New Song “What They’ll Say About Us”: Stream
FINNEAS has returned with a new song and his first major solo release of the year, “What They”ll Say About Us”. Even after wining five Grammys, the 23-year-old ghostwriter is still best known as the brother of Billie Eilish. But although he continues to be a producer in demand, recently FINNEAS has put more work into his solo career. Just last month, his 2019 Blood Harmony EP got a second life with a digital reissue that included a new version of “Let’s Fall in Love for the Night (1964)”. “What They’ll Say About Us” is his first all-new single of 2020, as well as a heartfelt reaction to a world in chaos. The track is a searching piano ballad, written in reaction to Black Lives Matter protests and the saga of Broadway actor Nick Cordero, who died in July of complications caused by...
Bring Me the Horizon Unveil New Song “Obey” Featuring Yungblud: Stream
Bring Me the Horizon have unleashed a new song, “Obey”, featuring frontman Oli Sykes trading verses with UK singer Yungblud. The track is the latest single from BMTH’s forthcoming series of Posthuman EPs. The new song once again demonstrates Bring Me the Horizon’s recent propensity for melding various genres, although there is a return to the heaviness of the band’s earlier work. Sykes offers up some metal screams over thick riffs, with electronic and industrial elements throughout. A music video for the track depicts Sykes facing off with Yungblood as they each control a throwback giant robot in their own likenesses. The clip ends with an unexpected twist that we won’t give away. According to a press release, “‘Obey’ is a soaring ode about how, as a society, oppression has been so normali...
Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker Announces Two Solo Albums, Shares “anything”: Stream
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief has revealed two new solo albums, songs and instrumentals. Both projects are due out October 23rd, and Lenker has provided a preview with the new single “anything”. This wasn’t part of the plan. Lenker had hoped to be on tour with Big Thief most of this year, capitalizing on the success of their twin 2019 releases U.F.O.F. and Two Hands. But when the pandemic scuttled that trek, the notoriously prolific songwriter retreated to a one-room cabin in the mountains of western Massachusetts. With the help of engineer Philip Weinrobe, she embarked on an all-analog (AAA) recording process. They began each day with an improvised acoustic jam, and they ended each session with the same. These off-the-cuff explorations landed on the instrument...
Finneas Honors Those Who’ve Lost Someone to COVID-19 With ‘What They’ll Say About Us’
As the global pandemic continues around the world with lives lost every day, Finneas has released “What They’ll Say About Us,” a song that aims to offer comfort to those who have lost someone due to COVID-19. Finneas said in a statement about “What They’ll Say About You”: “I wrote this song in June after spending the day at a protest in Downtown LA, filled with hope with the prospect that millions of people were coming together from all over the world to fight against institutionalized racism and inequality. During that time, I’d also been following Amanda Kloots as she documented her husband Nick Cordero’s time in the ICU while in a coma after being admitted for COVID-19. Imagining her sitting by his side, waiting, hopeful for him to wake up, it got me thinking about all the millions of p...
Hot Chip Revive the Velvet Underground’s ‘Candy Says’
Hot Chip has given The Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says,” off their 1969 album, Boston Tea Party (Live), the electronic treatment. Despite adding more tech to the sound, they stay fairly faithful to the original, which was a song the UK band used to play in their younger years. “Candy Says” is the lead track to announce Hot Chip’s latest compilation, Late Night Tales, dropping Oct. 2. Fever Ray, Nils Frahm and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith have contributed mixes to the record. “We’ve put together a mix of music which ties all of these ideas together and represents some of our favourite [sic] music new and old, some of it directly influential on Hot Chip and some of it music we have discovered and loved, been surprised by and connected to,” band co-founder Alexis Taylor said in a statement. “The...
Eels Share New Song “Who You Say You Are”: Stream
Last month, Eels returned with their surprise single “Baby Let’s Make It Real”. It turns out the project’s first track since 2018’s The Deconstruction is actually the A-side to a new 7-inch single. Today, the Mark Oliver Everett-led outfit has unveiled the B-side, “Who You Say You Are”. Like “Baby Let’s Make It Real”, “Who You Say You Are” is a mellow love song. Where the A-side finds E ready to make the jump, however, the B-side finds him a mite bit unsure about his paramour. Over a few wallowing guitar notes, he sings, “Are you who I think you are/ Someone I’ll know for long/ Or someone who doesn’t deserve/ A song.” “Here’s a way to forget your troubles for two minutes and 55 seconds,” E said of “Who You Say You Are”. “Listen to this song and think about my problems instead. You’re welco...
Pure X Announce New Album Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019, Share Willie Nelson Cover: Stream
This past May saw Pure X return with their first album in six years. It turns out fans won’t have to wait nearly as long for a follow-up release, as the Austin natives have just announced a new rarities compilation: Rare Ecstasy 2009-2019 is due out October 16th through Fire Talk. The forthcoming project collects 12 “recordings and rarities” from throughout the indie rock group’s decade-long career. Per a press release, these songs “embody the Pure X sound” and offer up “a raw emotive portrait” of the band’s evolution over the years. As a teaser of this Pure X collector’s item, their cover of Willie Nelson’s 1965 song “One Day at a Time” has been revealed. Mirroring the outfit’s past efforts, this rendition conjures up a wall-of-sound atmosphere, as though it were recorded in some smoky ca...
