New Music
Gum Country Serve Up New Song “Tennis (I Feel Ok)”: Stream
Next month brings the release of Somewhere, the debut album from new band Gum Country. Comprised of The Courtneys guitarist Courtney Garvin and multi-instrumentalist Connor Mayer, the indie rock duo is previewing the record today with a single called “Tennis (I Feel Ok)”. Contrary to that little parenthetical, Gum Country get rather thrilled when it comes to hitting the tennis courts. “Kinda goofy, but in all honesty my relationship with tennis is so meaningful to me on a spiritual level,” Garvin explained in a statement. “It’s my meditation practice. The game makes you present, you’re repeating movements, and finding a rhythm.” Garvin’s ode to the sport aptly has a rhythmic chillness to it, its chunky lo-fi chords chugging about steadily à la early Yuck. Though the band’s self-descri...
Kamasi Washington Scored the Michelle Obama Documentary Becoming
Multi-instrumentalist and jazz composer Kamasi Washington has written the score for the new Michelle Obama documentary Becoming. The Netflix film drops today, while the score will be released on May 15th. Based on the former First Lady’s memoir of the same name, Becoming picks up where the 2018 book left off, following Obama on a 34-city promotional tour while revisiting some of the memoir’s most striking moments. It was directed by Nadia Hallgren, who knew she wanted to work with Kamasi Washington before she put the book down. She said in a statement, “Mrs. Obama loves music, and when I read the line in her book ‘And heaven, as I envisioned it, had to be a place full of jazz,’ I knew immediately Kamasi was the artist that could interpret her experience musically.” In a press rel...
Neurosis’ Steve Von Till Announces New Solo Album and Poetry Book, Shares Single “Dreams of Trees”: Stream
Neurosis singer Steve Von Till has announced a new solo album, No Wilderness Deep Enough, as well as book of poetry and lyrics, Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems and Collected Lyrics. Both arrive August 7th. Von Till also offered up the album track “Dreams of Trees”. Like much of Von Till’s solo work, the track is rooted in softer aesthetics and electronic instrumentation rather than the atmospheric sludge metal of Neurosis. Here, he explores ambient soundscapes, giving emphasis to the words and poeticism of his lyrics. The spiritual tug and introspection of his prior solo outings remains intact. “It’s about personal longings and loss, and the loves and insecurities we all feel combined with meditations on humanity as a whole,” Von Till said in a press release. “I’m exploring the great disconn...
Grateful Dead Announce 50th Anniversary Reissue of Workingman’s Dead
Mark those calendars, Deadheads. This summer, the Grateful Dead will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Workingman’s Dead with a special reissue featuring a bonus live album. Pre-orders are now ongoing Due out July 10th, the reissue will be available as a CD and on vinyl, with the latter format limited to just 10,000 picture discs. Both come with a newly remastered version of the original album, but the CD edition boasts a little something extra. Fans who purchase the CD reissue will also receive a live album capturing the iconic rock group’s February 21st, 1971 concert at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Altogether there are 24 recordings on this collection, the setlist pulled from Workingman’s Dead as well as its follow-up, American Beauty. One of those tracks is a live...
Fiona Apple’s When the Pawn… to Receive First-Ever Vinyl Release
Fiona Apple’s excellent sophomore album, When the Pawn…, will be released on vinyl for the first time ever. VinylMePlease has partnered with the legendary artist to create an exclusive pressing, a 180-gram LP on black vinyl with a new cover picked by Apple herself. “While Tidal introduced us to Apple, the awkward and sullen girl, When the Pawn… had her shooting back with a fiery vengeance at a time when Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette were making anger feminine and more mainstream than their punk predecessors,” the VinylMePlease description reads. “On the record, Apple sings with a gnarly gruffness. She begins most songs with a deceptive sweetness, building to an angsty climax, wielding her voice as a weapon against ex-boyfriends and bullies.” When the Pawn… was arguably Apple’s best album...
Weezer Dedicate New Song “Hero” to Frontline Workers: Stream
Due to the ongoing pandemic, Weezer have been forced to postpone their new metal-inspired album, Van Weezer. A new release date hasn’t been given yet, but Rivers Cuomo & co. are making it up to their patient fans by sharing a fresh single titled “Hero”. Although Weezer are suckers for a darn good cover, today’s offering is not plucked from Mariah Carey’s catalog. “Hero” instead finds them amplifying their KISS and Metallica fandom for a cut rife with sharp, shredding guitars and a blaring, arena-ready chorus. The new song comes paired with an official music video shot during quarantine. It features footage of the band while on lockdown — Cuomo is sporting an interesting mustache these days — but more importantly pays tribute to the real heroes: frontline workers. “This one is for ...
Things Get Hairy on JPEGMAFIA’s “BALD! REMIX” Featuring Denzel Curry: Stream
In February, JPEGMAFIA released a new jam for everyone with a “fucked up hairline,” “BALD!”. While Denzel Curry has a full head of hair, he also takes great pleasure in rapping about anything at all, and the two off-kilter MCs have unleashed a “BALD! REMIX” that takes on the haters and promises there’ll be hell toupee. After Peggy’s initial exuberant verse, the remix shaves down the beat to bare percussion. Curry starts off with a relentless, driving flow, before switching it up to a jazzier delivery. The accompanying music video was filmed on a cellphone outside of a convenience store, as the two artists take turns filming each other. It’s a delightfully lo-fi experience, as simple and full of joy as a couple of kids rapping on the corner. Check out “BALD! REMIX” below. In addition to “BA...
Cold War Kids Enlist The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz on ‘1 x 1′
Cold War Kids have released a new track, “1 x 1,” that sheds light on a community that many have been falling under the radar. “This song was inspired by the stories of child migrants separated from their families at the border,” singer Nathan Willett said in a statement. “Now that we are all quarantined, it has taken on an extra meaning…One by one each of us are staying apart to help the whole of us.” The acoustic guitar-led track saw the band co-write the song’s lyrics with One Republic’s Brent Kutzle and features Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers on vocals. Cold War Kids shared some of the lyrics on Twitter to convey more of their message. Since (almost) everyone is staying at their own homes, the video shows Willett standing by himself at the mic with projections of Schultz an others on ...
Jehnny Beth Shares New Song “Heroine”: Stream
Jehnny Beth’s debut solo album, To Love Is to Live, sounds like it will be a heavy affair. Early singles have all been various levels of intense, from the sensual pulse of “Flower”, to the ominous stalk of “Innocence”, to the thunderous spasms of “I’m the Man”. However, the album’s latest preview, “Heroine”, brings a more melodic air to the affair. To be fair, the Savages singer hasn’t taken her foot off the post-punk pedal for this one — not at all. But with warped jazz horns and undulating baking vocals swirling together over propellant drums, there’s a more hypnotic thrust here. It’s coupled with lyrics that, as Beth explained in a press release, owe a lot to the galvanizing of her collaborators: “When I think of this song, I think of Romy from the xx strangling my neck with her hands i...
Lil Tjay Drops “Ice Cold” Verses About Quarantining on New Song: Stream
New York rapper Lil Tjay has returned with his first new solo single of the year. It’s called “Ice Cold” and it’s arrived with a new music video in tow, too. Update: Lil Tjay has announced the impending release of a new mixtape, State of Emergency, due out on May 8th. Lil Tjay has helped re-popularize Auto-Tune in hip-hop with tracks like his Polo G collaboration “First Place” or his 2019 album True 2 Myself, and he doesn’t step away from the effect here either. As it turns out, he dropped “Ice Cold” as birthday gift to himself to celebrate turning 19 years old earlier this week. “Ice Cold” is an of-the-moment single that’s as mellow as it is catchy. Over a straightforward beat, Lil Tjay sing-raps about losing his mind during the coronavirus pandemic and how exhausting it is experiencing t...
Josh Radnor and Ben Lee Cover Viral Song “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole”: Watch
Musicians have been getting creative in all sorts of ways while stuck at home during quarantine. Out of all their viral videos, though, the best one has come from a musically inclined toddler named Jolee Dunn who performed a very, very original song called “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole”. Now, Ben Lee and Josh Radnor have shared their own cover version. Over the weekend, Dunn released her blitzed childhood banger by way of her mother’s Twitter account. “Quite honestly, it slaps,” Lisa Rieffel-Dunn said when sharing the video. In the clip, her daughter can be seen jumping up and down, guitar in hand, while she sings her one-hit wonder track: “I wonder what’s inside your butthole/ Maybe there is astronauts/ Maybe there is aliens/ All inside your butthole/ What’s inside your butth...
Dirty Projectors Announce EP Series, Share New Song “Lose Your Love”: Stream
Felicia Douglass and Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors, photo by Jason Frank Rothenberg Dirty Projectors have announced a new EP called Flight Tower that’s due out June 26th via Domino. As it turns out, it’s the second installment in a five-EP series that the band will roll out over the course of 2020. To celebrate the reveal, they’ve released a new single called “Lose Your Love” and an accompanying music video. For the series, each EP will feature a different band member on lead vocals. Windows Open, which came out in March, saw Maia Friedman leading the way. The upcoming Flight Tower follows keyboardist-percussionist Felicia Douglass through four new songs. The next two installments will see Kristin Slipp and frontman Dave Longstreth each taking the reigns individually, with the fifth ...
