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. 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.
LUMP - "GAMMA RAY"
Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay's (Tunng) second collaborative album as LUMP, Animal, comes out this Friday via Partisan/Chrysalis, and here's one more single ahead of the release. It's a murky slow-burner, and here's what Laura says about it: "The lyrics are all just nonsense writing, but I always had in my mind a story I’d heard about my Dad’s cousin dying. He died very young, he committed suicide sadly, obviously long before I was born. He was incredibly good looking and everyone loved him, and when they tolled the bell at his funeral two of my Dad’s sisters fainted. They were so overcome."
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SEMANTICS - "SLEEP AT NIGHT"
Brisbane's Semantics signed to SideOneDummy and they'll release a new album on the label in 2022. Their first single for the label is "Sleep At Night," a catchy indie-punk song with some anthemic heartland rock in the mix.
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MINI TREES - "CARRYING ON"
Los Angeles-based songwriter Lexi Vega signed to Run For Cover back in April, and now she's announced her debut LP, Always in Motion, due out September 17. She's also shared new single "Carrying On," about which she says, "I wrote 'Carrying On' in the middle of 2020 when I was out in the desert escaping the city and reflecting on the unsettling new way of life we all had to adopt during the pandemic. Despite how in some ways life had begun to feel mundane again, there was a constant underlying fear that everything could unravel at any moment. In a sarcastic tone, the song questions my ability to hold it all together. We tried to capture this sentiment with the music video, displaying a character who is being led through the motions of day-to-day life, but beginning to recognize that something isn’t quite right."
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MEHENET (mem THOU) - "THE MYSTERY OF NATIONS"
Mehenet hail from the same New Orleans music scene as Thou (and they share members), but while Thou make grungy sludge metal, Mehenet make caustic, tornadic black metal, as you can hear on their new song "The Mystery of Nations." It's the first taste of their new album Ng’ambu, due September 10 via Gilead Media.
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BOMBA ESTEREO - "CONEXION TOTAL" (ft. YEMI ALADE)
Colombian cumbia/art pop band Bomba Estéreo have shared another song off their upcoming album Deja, and this one features Nigerian Afropop singer Yemi Alade. It's an appealing fusion of both artists' styles.
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MEATBODIES - "THE HERO"
Chad Ubovich's band Meatbodies will release new album, 333, on September 3 and here's another single from it. "The Hero" is a mellow psych jam with an odd video directed by Wand's Cory Hanson. "The video and song are an exercise in sarcasm," says Hanson. "Further it's maybe a jaded/cynical expression in regards to the good-evil duality narrative fed to us by people - idealizing machines of war, fetishizing trauma. It's also just pretty colors and wrestling heel antics.”
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THE OPHELIAS - "SACRIFICIAL LAMB"
The latest single from Cincinnati quartet The Ophelias' new album Crocus is "Sacrificial Lamb," an orchestrated track with a bit of an emo feel. Vocalist and guitarist Spencer Peppet says, "Originally, I didn’t want 'Sacrificial Lamb' to be on the album, but Andrea and Mic pushed me to keep it. Andrea’s layered violins transformed the song beyond what I had imagined, and it quickly became a group favorite. That kind of collaboration on Ophelias’ songs is what makes them what they are. This song is a reflection on a night from my freshman year of college, walking home from a party and feeling overwhelmed by a rush of emotions: self-loathing, frustration at the person I wanted love and attention from, longing to be the cool, unaffected girl I wanted to be (and thought I could be if I tried hard enough). I got on the subway and cried, enjoying that no one on the train looked twice."
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BLISS FIELDS - "PEAL"
Toronto shoegazers Bliss Fields (fka Iris) have shared another song off their upcoming self-titled EP, and it's a dreamy, pillowy track with a metallic edge.
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INGROWN - "HARD TIME"
Boise, Idaho metallic hardcore trio Ingrown have shared the second taste of their upcoming debut LP Gun (due 8/20 via Alternatives Label) and it's a mean, lean, 95-second bone-crusher.
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IAN SWEET - "YELLOW" (COLDPLAY COVER)
Ian Sweet recreates the video for Coldplay's 2000 single "Yellow" in this cover. "I’ve seen Coldplay live six times,” Jilian Medford says. "Parachutes was the first CD I ever rented from the library and it changed my life. I owe a lot of who I am and the way I write and perform music to Coldplay. I wanted to cover 'Yellow' because it is my go-to karaoke song, love song, breakup song, feel-good song...it’s everything."
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THE BUG - "PRESSURE" (ft. FLOWDAN)
Electronic vet The Bug has shared another taste of upcoming LP Fire, and this one finds him teaming up with grime MC (and frequent collaborator) Flowdawn for a dark, dubby song.
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SATANIC PLANET - "STRANGERS"
Satanic Planet -- Justin Pearson (The Locust, Retox, etc), Justin's Dead Cross bandmate Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer), Justin's Planet B bandmate Luke Henshaw, and Satanic Temple founder Lucein Greaves -- have made a new video for "Strangers" off their self-titled debut LP. It was shot and cut by Dennis Bersales, and it matches the creepy vibe of the music.
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DRY CLEANING - "BUG EGGS" & "TONY SPEAKS!"
Dry Cleaning have followed up this year's excellent debut album, New Long Leg (get it on vinyl), with a new double-A-side single. The moody, hazy "Bug Eggs" and the bass-heavy "Tony Speaks!" were both recorded at Wales' Rockfield studios during the 2020 New Long Leg sessions.
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LIARS - "FROM WHAT THE NEVER WAS"
Liars have shared the third and final pre-release single from their new album The Apple Drop that's out next week via Mute. "From What the Never Was" is methodical and moody, with a careful, descending chord progression and ratatat drum pattern over which Angus Andrew spits out some whispery dread.
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SAINT ETIENNE - "POND HOUSE"
Saint Etienne will release their 10th album, I’ve Been Trying To Tell You, on September 10 via Heavenly Records. (Bob Stanley told us it would be coming sooner than later and he was not kidding.) It's an unusual album for the trio, made remotely during lockdown and marking the first record they haven't made together in a studio. Working this time with film and TV composer Gus Bousfield. this the first sample-based album they've made since 1993's So Tough, and is their most tranquil, contemplative record since 2000's The Sound of Water. Get a sense of this album's very specific vibe with "Pond House" that comes with a striking video made by Alasdair McLellan.
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ADA LEA - "DAMN"
Ada Lea announced a new album, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, and shared its first track, "damn," which we wrote more about here.
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BLACK MARBLE - "SOMEWHERE"
Chris Stewart is back with his fourth Black Marble album, titled Fast Idol, and due out October 22 via Sacred Bones. "On my previous album [2019's Bigger than Life] I was more specific about the themes I was talking about," Stewart says. "Fast Idol goes back to the songwriting on my early records, where the themes were guided by intuition and instinct – often, their meanings only become clear to me after they're written." "Somewhere" is the first single and comes with a great video.
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MILD HIGH CLUB - "ME MYSELF AND DOLLAR HELL"
Alex Brettin is back with Going Going Gone, his third album as Mild High Club which will be out September 17 via Stones Throw. Brettin says this is his most overtly political album to date, and first single "Me Myself and Dollar Hell" touches on "paranoia, individualism, kleptocracy, gun violence, faith, and climate change." It's also a super smooth jam that orbits the Steely Dan universe.
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PORRIDGE RADIO - "NEW SLANG" (SHINS COVER)
Porridge Radio have covered The Shins' life-changing single "New Slang." It's the b-side to the UK band's new entry in the Sub Pop Singles Club, with the a-side being a cover of Wolf Parade's “You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son.” Dana Margolin keeps some of the original's wistful eeriness, but makes it a uniquely Porridge Radio song.
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FILM SCHOOL - "ISLA" & "SUPERPERFECTION"
West Coast shoegaze vets Film School are back with We Weren’t Here, their first album in three years, that will be out September 24 via Sonic Ritual. Here are two tracks from it.
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WARMYEAR (SONYA OF THE BIG SLEEP) - “ELIZA”
Sonya Balchandani of veteran NYC band The Big Sleep will release her solo debut as Warmyear, titled I Wear the Memory, that will be out September 1. Here's the first single.
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BOY SCOUTS - "THAT'S LIFE HONEY"
Oakland, CA-based songwriter and musician Taylor Vic has announced a new album as Boy Scouts, Wayfinder, due out October 1 via ANTI-. The first single is "That's Life Honey," which Vick says "is about trying to make light of a shitty situation. Having a circumstance that sucks, like wanting to go to therapy but you can't afford it, and fantasizing about a world where you could get a chip implanted or have some surgery that rewires your brain and resolves you from whatever problems you have. This song is mostly my attempt at writing a tragicomedy, combined with true experiences of figuring out how to open up to people.”
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NECROFIER - "THE BLACK FLAME BURNS"
Houston punk-infused black metallers Necrofier (members of Venomous Maximus, Oceans of Slumber, etc) have announced their debut LP for Season of Mist, and you can read more about lead single "The Black Flame Burns" here.
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SNOW ELLET - "WINE ON THE CARPET"
Chicago's self-proclaimed "indie rock for the pop punk kids, pop punk for the indie rock kids" project Snow Ellet stirred up buzz earlier this year for their catchy, lo-fi debut EP Suburban Indie Rock Star, and now the EP is getting an extended reissue. It'll include this new song, which you can read more about here.
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CHROME WAVES - "SOMETIMES"
Heavy shoegazers Chrome Waves have announced their third album, and you can read more about lead single "Sometimes" here.
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GEORGIA MAQ - "SOMEONE STRANGER" (ft. ALICE IVY)
Camp Cope's Georgia Maq went in a lo-fi bedroom synthpop direction on her 2019 solo album Pleaser, and now she has gone pop pop with her new song "Someone Stranger," a collaboration with producer Alice Ivy. Read more about it here.
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RIVERS OF NIHIL - "CLEAN"
Rivers of Nihil have announced a new album The Work, and shared this dose of atmospheric death metal from it. Read more here.
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GROUPER - "UNCLEAN MIND"
Grouper announced a new album, Shade, and lead single "Unclean mind" is in the folky acoustic guitar-based style of 2008's classic Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. Read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.