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.
BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD - "TRACK X (THE GUEST)"
UK art rock up and comers Black Country, New Road have released an alternate, acoustic version of "Track X" from their very well-received debut album For the first time. This version almost sounds more like Bright Eyes or Okkervil River than BC,NR's usual material, and it turns out they're great at this kind of thing too.
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NOAH BRITTON - "WINGS" (ft. PHIL ELVERUM)
Noah Britton of the punk band The Best Thing Ever, the projects ACLU and Request Freebird, and the comedy group Asperger's Are Us (made up entirely of comedians on the autism spectrum) is releasing a new EP, I Love You, on June 18 via Gentle Reminder Records. New single "Wings" features Phil Elverum (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) and it's a somber acoustic song that's not too far removed from Phil's own material.
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LAMBCHOP - "THE LAST BENEDICT"
"At the breakfast buffet table in a hotel during the Pickathon Festival, I was 'lucky' enough to get the last Eggs Benedict of the service," Lambchop's Kurt Wagner says of the origins of this song. "One sad egg. Later, I caught the final scene in Giant, the one after the brawl in the diner where a battered but bemused Rock Hudson looks across the table at his grandson and says something akin to 'the last Benedict.' Much later, I was sitting on my back porch and wrote this song." Lambchop's new album, Showtunes, is out this week.
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SNAPPED ANKLES - "THE EVIDENCE"
UK band Snapped Ankles release their third album, Forest Of Your Problems, on 2 July and they've just shared the second single from the album. "We were delivered an email demanding to know if there is evidence of our existence, so we collected all our content into one song," say the band. "The Evidence" is a woody, new wave/post-punk banger that owes a little to The Fall.
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SPLIT SINGLE - '95%"
Jason Narducy will soon be busy on tour as part of Bob Mould's band but before that he's got his own new album -- Split Single's Amplificado -- in June that features R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Superchunk's Jon Wurster. They've just released the politically charged second single from the album. “As a liberal person, I can get tripped up by my tendency towards empathy,” says Narducy. “Part of me wants to believe that politicians are earnest in their efforts to help all Americans even when I know they are not. So it can backfire when I get hesitant and confused but overall I think it's positive because I never fully trust ANY of them. I'm 95 percent committed and 95 percent suspicious. I'm also not good at math.”
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GRUFF RHYS - "MAUSOLEUM OF MY FORMER SELF"
Gruff Rhys' terrific new solo album, Seeking New Gods, is out this Friday and here's one last preview before the whole thing is out. "Mausoleum of My Former Self," which opens the album, is about "human aging – people become different people but they’re still an avatar for who they used to be.”
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LUCID EXPRESS - "HOLLOWERS" (FT. ADAM HONINGFORD)
Hong Kong shoegazers Lucid Express will release their self-titled debut album on July 16 via Kanine. While the band can get loud, new single "Hollowers" is on the ethereal side...at least till they stomp on the pedals. It also features Adam Honingford of The Bilinda Butchers.
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ROSE CITY BAND - "RAMBLIN' WITH THE DAY"
"I did a lot of looking back during 2020," say Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo) of his new song as Rose City Band. "This song came together after a mushroom trip where I laid in bed and listened to The Basement Tapes and Johnny Cash. It took me back to a place when I was younger and would ramble around the woods and fields with one of my oldest and dearest friends, taking psychedelics and generally having our young minds blown. I realized how direct the line is from those formative experiences to who I am now, and this song is an attempt to pay honor to that, and to that enduring friendship." Rose City Band's new album, Earth Trip, is out June 25.
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THE HIRS COLLECTIVE - "AFFECTION & CARE."
The HIRS Collective have an upcoming 109-song album called The Third 100 Songs arriving 6/25 via Get Better Records, which compiles a bunch of old songs and also includes new ones. Here's the second new song to be released from it, "Affection & Care.," which finds HIRS starting out in apocalyptic sludge metal territory before speeding things up to a grindier pace. Like the last single, it rips.
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SPITBOY - "WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?" (REMASTERED)
'90s-era Bay Area feminist punks Spitboy's full discography comp Body Of Work (1990-1995) arrives 6/25 via Don Giovvani, and here's another newly-remastered song from it. Spitboy left a big impact in real time and they remain influential today, and when you listen to a song like this one, it's not hard to hear why.
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SMINO - "RICE & GRAVY"
St. Louis rapper Smino returns with a new track that finds him dishing out melodic sing-rapping over thick, rubbery, bass-heavy production.
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LIP TALK - "MORE"
Sarah K. Pedinotti released her debut full-length as Lip Talk, D A Y S, in 2019, and now she's back with a psychedelic new single, "More." "It’s about trying to hold onto things, while the world rapidly and relentlessly changes," Sarah says. "It’s about life under consumer capitalism."
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DEAD HOUR NOISE / DEEPER GRAVES SPLIT
Two Michigan-based chaotic, metallic hardcore bands, Dead Hour Noise and Deeper Graves, have teamed up for a split that's out now on Tomb Tree Tapes. Definitely some classic Converge/Dillinger Escape Plan vibes in there, and both of these bands know exactly how to do it.
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INHUMAN CONDITION - "KILLING PACE"
Inhuman Condition is the new band of recent/former Massacre members Jeramie Kling and Taylor Nordberg and legendary Massacre member Terry Butler (also of Death, Obituary, and Six Feet Under), and they do a hell of a lot of justice to the early '90s death metal sound that Terry's bands helped pioneer. Here's another ripper off their upcoming debut album Rat°God. (The song also has an "age-restricted" video that can only be watched on YouTube.)
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FAYE WEBSTER - "I KNOW I'M FUNNY HAHA"
"'I Know I’m Funny haha' went from being a thought, to a lyric, to a song title, to an album title," Faye Webster says about the title track of her new album. "These are the thoughts that go through my head when writing a song—things that people might easily overlook and don’t think are worthy or pretty enough to be sung. I think that’s what people relate to it the most, and I think it’s an aspect of songwriting that you don’t get to hear often. This song feels all over the place but at the same time, it tells a story so simple and understandable. Me not getting my security deposit back from my landlord, my partner’s family forgetting who I am because they were drunk, wanting to be in a rock band with Booth... It almost sounds like a mad lib at first sight, but it just works."
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HURRY - "A FAKE IDEA"
Hurry have shared another song off their upcoming album Fake Ideas (due 6/25 via Lame-O), and it's a very catchy dose of sunny, breezy power pop.
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2ND GRADE - "FAVORITE SONG"
2nd Grade (the project of Philly indie rock musician Pete Gill) has given his 2018 home-recorded album Wish You Were Here Tour a full-band, studio-recorded update, and he'll be releasing this more polished version along with the original "demo" album and one outtake. The first single is "Favorite Song," which was a melancholic singer/songwriter song in demo form, but is now a revved-up, power-poppy indie-punk song. Listen to both versions below. The album arrives June 25 via Double Double Whammy.
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FRANCIS LUNG - "THE LET DOWN"
The latest single from former WU LYF member Francis Lung's new album Miracle is a bright, piano-based track.
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SATANIC PLANET - "LITURGY"
Satanic Planet -- the supergroup of 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 shared another genuinely creepy song (and well-matched video) off their upcoming debut album.
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CURTIS HARDING - "HOPEFUL"
Curtis Harding is back with his first new music in three years. "Hopeful" is a protest anthem that, as the title suggest, is sprinkled with optimism. “I wrote [“Hopeful”] some time ago but in theory it goes far beyond a time and place,” Harding says.
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ART D'ECCO - "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT" (THE JAM COVER)
Art says their cover of The Jam classic "forms the perfect sonic prologue to my record, written by a master lyricist and poet."
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MDOU MOCTAR - "TALIAT"
Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar releases new album Afrique Victime on Friday via Matador and have shared one more track from it before the whole thing drops. “'Taliat' means woman,” Moctar says. “In our community, women are queens, they have a lot of power, that why I use the term taliat to talk about them. A woman in the Tuareg community has to be protected, but she also has to be treated as equal.”
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VUNDABAR - "APHASIA" & "RINGING BELL"
Boston indie band Vundabar are back with a new two-song single, "Aphasia" and "Ringing Bell." The A-side is a soaring, atmospheric indie rock song with guest vocals from the Saddle Creek-signed Indigo De Souza, while the B-side finds them in twitchy art rock territory. Read more here.
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NEWGROUNDS DEATH RUGBY - "THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU"
Charleston, SC indie/emo band Newgrounds Death Rugby are gearing up to put out a new LP, Pictures of Your Pets, on 6/24 via Sun Eater Records, and you can read more about this very promising lead single here.
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THE CREW (RANCID, PENNYWISE, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES) - "ONE VOICE"
The Crew is the new punk supergroup of vocalist Tim Armstrong (Rancid), vocalist and guitarist Fletcher Dragge (Pennywise), vocalist Mike Muir (Suicidal Tendencies), bassist Matt Freeman (Rancid), and drummer Byron McMackin (Pennywise), and here's their first song, which you can read more about here.
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ENGINE KID - "ANGEL DUST"
Greg Anderson's (Goatsnake, Sunn O))), etc) '90s band Engine Kid have a new box set called Everything Left Inside arriving on Record Store Day's June 12 drop via Greg's long-running label Southern Lord Records, and it includes this genuinely great, never-before-released song from 1994.
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OLD CITY - "CLASS ACT" (ft. WAR ON WOMEN'S SHAWNA POTTER)
Punk/rap project Old City teamed with War On Women's Shawna Potter for this new song, which you can read more about here.
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BLEACHERS - "STOP MAKING THIS HURT"
Bleachers announced a new album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, and shared an anthemic new single.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.