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.
DOWNHAUL - "DRIED"
Richmond indie/emo band Downhaul have followed "Standing Water" (which we named one of the best punk/etc songs of April) with the third taste of their anticipated new LP PROOF. "Dried" is a suspenseful, slow-burning track that builds to a cathartic climax.
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SUNROT / IDES SPLIT (ft. BLACK FLAG COVERS)
NJ sludge band Sunrot and NJ punk band Ides have released a new split, featuring a Black Flag cover and two originals by each band. Sunrot put a sludge metal spin on the early Keith Morris-era ripper "Fix Me," while Ides did a more revved-up punk rendition of the proto-sludge Slip It In classic "Black Coffee."
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THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - "THE SLOW PARTS ON DEATH METAL ALBUMS"
"This is probably the most autobiographical song on the record; the narrator is me, driving in from Claremont to Long Beach to see metal shows at Fender's during a stage of my life when I wasn't really sure who I was," John Darnielle says about the latest single off The Mountain Goats' new album, Dark In Here. "A time of being adrift, of being uncertain, a time with more fear of the unknown than hope for the future for me, I can see now. Anyway! That is what the song is about, and I know who I am now: I'm the singer from the Mountain Goats. Enjoy!"
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PARTING - "AFTER THE FACT"
Parting -- the new emo band with members of Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Annabel, Dowsing, and Hawk & Son -- have shared the second single off their upcoming debut 10" Unmake Me. Like "Jesse Eisenbird," "After The Fact" will take you right back to the era of mid/late '90s melodic emo, and Parting do so much justice to that sound. "This song is kind of about making sense of all of that, but also learning to love writing music again," Ben Hendricks (also of Annabel) told The Alternative.
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WOLF ALICE - "NO HARD FEELINGS"
Wolf Alice's latest single off their upcoming album Blue Weekend (pre-order on limited transparent green vinyl) is a heartfelt and tender ballad.
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BERWYN - "RUBBER BANDS"
UK rapper/singer BERWYN announced a new mixtape, TAPE 2 / FOMALHAUT, due June 18 via Columbia, and new single "RUBBER BANDS" is an appealing, inventive dose of atmospheric R&B.
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AKAI SOLO - "OCEAN HUE HOURS" (prod. NAVY BLUE)
AKAI SOLO and Navy Blue have shared another awesomely psychedelic rap song off their upcoming collaborative album True Sky.
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RUNNNER - "AWASH"
Runnner is the project of LA singer/songwriter Noah Weinman, and he just signed to Run For Cover, and his first release for the label will be Always Repeating, which features five re-recorded versions of songs from his 2017 debut Awash and all five tracks from last year's One of One EP. The re-recorded version of the title track is out now, and it sort of sounds like a more rustic, twangy version of early Bon Iver. The LP drops July 16 via RFC.
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JILL WHIT - "INTERNET COWBOY"
Salt Lake City singer/songwriter Jill Whit will release her debut album for Orindal, time is being, on May 28 via the label, and you can hear the blissful, drifting single "Internet Cowboy" now.
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LOVELORN - "REASON"
Lovelorn (ex-Creepoid) have shared the third single off their upcoming debut album Whats Yr Damage (due 6/16 via 6131), and it's a danceable dose of gothy '80s-style new wave.
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PRIYA RAGU - "FORGOT ABOUT"
"'Forgot About’ is about being in love with that ‘forever’ person, who has feelings for you, but it’s not quite love," Tamil-Swiss artist Priya Ragu says of her new single, "Forget About," a soulful ballad with an R&B groove. "It’s about being afraid of letting go, because you know that you'll never meet someone like this again in your lifetime – so you decide to carry them always in your heart."
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HOLIDAY GHOSTS - "TOTAL CRISIS"
"Total Crisis was written before the world descended into an actual total crisis," Holiday Ghost say. "It’s about deciding whether you can live with a personal problem, or whether it should be the catalyst for a big change." Holiday Ghosts release new album North Street Air on May 21.
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THE PLEASURE DOME - "PRETTY PICTURE"
Bristol, UK group The Pleasure Dome make hazy punk and have just released this new single about treating yourself well. "Self love is important," says singer Bobby Spender. "It's important for our mental health, our relationships and even to our dreams and ambitions. Sometimes you wonder if anyone will love you, first love yourself."
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UV-TV - "ALWAYS SOMETHING"
NYC trio UV-TV will release their third album Always Something at the end of the month and they've just released the very catchy title track about how life never stops throwing things at us.
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COUNTRY WESTERNS - "UNDELETABLE" (JAD FAIR / NORMAN BLAKE COVER)
Nashville trio Country Westerns will release a new EP on June 18 via Fat Possum, featuring their takes on songs by Dead Moon, Richard & Linda Thompson and Jad Fair & Norman Blake, plus a new original. They've just shared "Undeletable," the Jad Fair/Norman Blake cover. “I’ve always been a fan of both Half Japanese and Teenage Fanclub, I was lucky enough to find this record," the band's Joseph Plunket says. "I feel like it became an anthem for our band. It reminds me of AC/DC's 'It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll).' It’s a more positive song than I could ever write. I love it and I hope we did it justice.”
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MAX BLOOM (EX-YUCK) - "PALINDROMES"
Former Yuck singer Max Bloom will release solo album Pedestrian on June 18 and he's just shared this new single. "Pallidromes" should appeal to fans of Real Estate.
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SPELLLING - "BOYS AT SCHOOL"
Chrystia Cabral is releasing her third album as SPELLLING, The Turning Wheel, on June 25 via Sacred Bones. The latest single is "Boys At School," and Chrystia says she "steps back into my younger self, my teenage self to voice my angst, desires and disillusionments. I knew when I created the main motif on the piano that it was striking something really raw and both delicate and fierce. The notes just immediately transported me to the era of my youth, of this time when you are really beginning to confront the mirror of yourself to the outside world."
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HAZEL ENGLISH - "CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'" (THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS COVER)
"Ever since I was a kid, I have always really loved the song California Dreamin’ and the way it evokes such nostalgia and bittersweet feelings," Hazel English says of her desire to cover The Mamas & The Papas' 1965 classic. "For me growing up in Australia, I related to this idea of dreaming of a faraway idyllic place like California and it’s crazy to think that now all these years later, I consider it my home."
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XENIA RUBINOS - "CÓGELE SUAVE"
Xenia Rubinos calls her new single a "gibberish spaceship ride, high speed chase, birds and stars whirring around your head at the end of a cartoon fight." It follows a few other recent singles she's shared, most recently "Did My Best."
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WESLEY GONZALEZ & ROSE ELINOR DOUGALL - "GREATER EXPECTATIONS"
Onetime Let's Wrestle frontman Wesley Gonzalez and onetime Pipettes singer Rose Elinor Dougall have been friends and collaborators for years but here have teamed up for this official duet. "I believe it came from discussing the hypocrisy of flawed people on Instagram being public facing self help charlatans," says Gonzalez. "We wanted to write something that expresses something positive whilst also managing to be somewhat sneering towards social media's vacuous status seeking which can feel like looking into the window of a yuppy showroom." Dougall adds, “We were thinking about ideas surrounding the future or what a certain group of people feel that their futures were entitled to be, that perhaps there’s a need to face up to those potentialities not existing anymore."
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YAEJI - "PAC-TIVE"
Yaeji is back with new single "PAC-TIVE" featuring DiAN that uses the bank of sounds from the original 1980 PAC-MAN arcade game as the backbone of the song. “PAC-MAN is a game my parents and I can both remember playing in arcades growing up. It connects me to my previous generation and possibly to future generations too.”
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SLEATER-KINNEY - "WORRY WITH YOU"
Sleater-Kinney announced a new album and shared this lead single, which you can read more about here.
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RESYNATOR - "ONLY A BROKEN HEART" (ft. MATT BERNINGER & RONBOY)
Resynator is "a documentary film-in-progress that shares the unique journey of a daughter connecting with her late father through the resurrection of a synthesizer from the 1970s that he invented," and there have also been some cool covers coming out that use the newly resurrected synth. Here's one with The National's Matt Berninger and Ronboy, which you can read more about here.
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IZZY TRUE - "NEW FRUIT"
Chicago-based band Izzy True announced a new album, Our Beautiful Baby World, due out July 2 via Don Giovanni, and the first single is the lo-fi, fuzzy "New Fruit."
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QUILLOUGHBY (THE SIMPSONS) - "EVERYONE IS HORRID EXCEPT ME (AND POSSIBLY YOU)"
The highlight of the recent Smiths-inspired episode of The Simpsons was undoubtedly "Everyone Is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You)," the song by fictional band Quilloughby & The Snuffs that really nailed the tone and prose of late-'80s Smiths and early-'90s solo Morrissey records. The song, a duet featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as Quilloughby doing a not-bad Moz impersonation and Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson, was co-written by Flight of The Conchords' Bret McKenzie and we only got to hear part of it in the episode, but they've now released the full version of the song to streaming services.
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MASSAGE (EX TPOBPAH) - "HALF A FEELING"
Los Angeles band Massage were formed a few years back by singer-guitarist Andrew Romano and former Pains of Being Pure at Heart bassist Alex Naidus, who share a love of jangly indiepop and shoegaze. Having released their debut album, Oh Boy, in 2018, Massage will be back with Still Life on June 25th via Mt. St. Mtn.
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WILD PINK - "OHIO" (ft. SAMIA)
Wild Pink have announced a new EP and the first single features Samia. Read more about it here.
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MILITARIE GUN - "DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE"
Militarie Gun (members of Regional Justice Center, Drug Church, Modern Color) have announced two new EPs and shared this song, which you can read more about here.
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OKKERVIL RIVER - "IN A LIGHT"
Okkervil River's first new music since 2018 was recorded during the sessions that produced In The Rainbow Rain.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.