So many artists, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we'd call "indie," and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. In these concertless times, that includes daily livestreams and live concert videos we love. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here's a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
HOMESCHOOL - "SMARTEST MAN" (ft. ARLISSA) (BARTEES STRANGE REMIX)
Homeschool (aka Tom D’Agustino of Active Bird Community) has a new EP arriving this Friday (4/23), and after already releasing "Smartest Man" (ft. Samia), he's now released a different version of that song, this time with guest vocals by Arlissa and Bartees Strange, the latter of whom also remixed and re-arranged the track. "I wanted to take this song into a different space," Bartees told Paste. "The message of the song hit me a little darker than the song intended, so I sort of decided to take it that way. Also—knowing Arlissa would be singing alongside me, I wanted to make something that jumped a little bit."
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SUFJAN STEVENS - "REVELATION II"
Sufjan Stevens' five-volume ambient album, Convocations, is due out May 6, and the latest track he's shared "Relevation II," is from the third volume. It's dark and sinister, with looping wordless vocalizations.
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JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD - "GARBAGE MAN" & "MOUNTAINS"
When we last heard from TN duo JEFF the Brotherhood, they had entirely reinvented themselves on proggy 2018 album Magick Songs. Here are two songs from a new 7" that finds them back in more rocking mode, though "Garbage Man" (not a Cramps cover from what we can tell) and "Mountains" are among the more low-fi, noisy recordings they've ever released. Both are loaded with whooshing white noise, alongside the big riffs and bashing drums you expect.
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CHVRCHES - "HE SAID SHE SAID"
CHVRCHES released their third album, Love is Dead, in 2018, and now they're back with a new single, sleek, bubbly pop track "He Said She Said." The song "is my way of reckoning with things I’ve accepted that I know I shouldn’t have," frontwoman Lauren Mayberry says. "Things I pretended weren’t damaging to me. It was the first song we wrote when we started back up, and the opening line ('He said, You bore me to death') was the first lyric that came out. All the verse lines are tongue-in-cheek or paraphrased versions of things that have actually been said to me by men in my life. Being a woman is fucking exhausting and it felt better to scream it into a pop song than scream it into the void. After the past year, I think we can all relate to feeling like we're losing our minds."
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CATEGORY 514 (mem GAZM) - "PUNK MOTHERFUCKER"
Seb and Joshua of Montreal hardcore band Gazm started another band, Category 514, and this one's a little different. "Initially we wanted to do a pure '90s death/doom revival record but we realized that that pool of bands is too saturated right now," Seb told No Echo. "As history has shown again and again, it's OK to be 3 years late to a metal trend if you claim it's a hardcore band and talk shit on the mic [laughs]." Seb adds, "Musically speaking, the whole idea was kind of like, what if every kind of heavy evil music from the mid-'90s was put together. Imagine Bulldoze and Carcass with a touch of Evil Pimp thrown into a blender to make some real potent dumb idiot juice." You can definitely hear that coming through in new song "Punk Motherfucker" off their upcoming demo, No Love For Fakes, which drops this Friday (4/23).
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JADE BIRD - "BLACK STAR" (RADIOHEAD COVER)
Jade Bird performed this twangy cover of Radiohead, which she's played live before, from RCA Studio A in Nashville, where she recorded her new EP.
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HOLLY MACVE - "EYE OF THE STORM"
Ireland-born folk singer Holly Macve follows her promising 2017 debut album Golden Eagle with her sophomore LP, Not The Girl, on May 14. Latest single "Eye of the Storm" is a melancholic ballad that Holly says was inspired by Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
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FRESH - "MY REDEMPTION ARC"
UK punks Fresh will release their new EP The Summer I Got Good At Guitar on April 30 via Specialist Subject, and it features the great recent single "Girl Clout" as well as the new "My Redemption Arc." This one's a little more soaring and climactic than the previous single, and singer Kathryn Woods says it's "a reflection on how your problems are still your problems, no matter where you are in the world and how far away from home you may be." It features Phoebe and Sophie from Kathryn's other band cheerbleederz on guest vocals.
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VILLAGERS - "THE FIRST DAY"
Villagers describes his new track, which features horn-filled orchestration, as "a paean to human connection."
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THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - "MOBILE"
The Mountain Goats' new album Dark in Here was made at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL and it features famed session players Spooner Oldham (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt) on electric piano and Will McFarlane (Bonnie Raitt, Tammy Wynette) on lead guitar. "Mobile" is the first single.
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DEATH GOALS - "SHRIKE"
UK chaotic hardcore/screamo/metalcore/etc duo Death Goals' debut album comes out in June, and you can read more about this killer new song from it here.
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JORJA SMITH - "GONE"
UK soul/R&B singer Jorja Smith has announced a new eight-song project and shared this new song. Read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.