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.
FUTURE ISLANDS - "FOR SURE" (DAN DEACON REMIX)
Future Islands tapped their Baltimore buddy Dan Deacon for this new remix of "For Sure" from the band's 2020 album As Long as You Are. “Like most people, the last year has made me realize how important my friends are to me, and how much I miss being with them," says Dan. "When the guys released 'For Sure,' it really brought me back to memories of when we lived together and I could hear them practicing in the basement. I kept listening to it over and over and wanted to hear it 'more,' if that makes sense. I wanted to hear the individual parts, and I wanted to hang out with them and interact with them. When I got the stems I didn't really have a plan for the remix other than I wanted to hear Sam's voice with piano and strings, and it just started growing from there in an organic way. It was a comforting project that brought me close to people I love and missed very much. One of my favorite things about being a musician are the friendships and bonds that are made through it. It's hard to imagine my life, let alone my music, without having met these bozos.”
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JANE WEAVER - "HEARTLOW"
Jane Weaver is incorporating a little more pop into her psych-folk sound on new album Flock (due 3/5), though new single "Heartlow" has that same Komische vibe as 2017 album Modern Kosmology. “Heartlow is my attempt at an uplifting tragi-pop parade for the trials of modern times disguised as a homage to a lost generation of misfit girl groop records. Written in hibernation in an out of season French coastal town surrounded by ancient stone circles and arthurian forests.”
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JESSE FUTERMAN - "LUCKEY" (ft. BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND)
Montreal producer Jesse Futerman has a new single, "Luckey," on which he marries gorgeously kinetic electronics and stirring strings to the soaring voice of the legendary Beverly Glenn-Copeland. It also comes backed by a Peaking Lights remix of the track.
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SPEED STICK (mem POLVO, BAT FANGS, LOVE LANGUAGE, etc) - "PROTECT YOUR MAGIC"
Carrboro, NC indie rock collective Speed Stick includes members of Polvo, Bat Fangs, Flesh Wounds, The Love Language, and more (and their upcoming debut album also features members of Superchunk, The Breeders, and more), and here's their latest single, fueled by the eccentric guitar riffs of Polvo's Ash Bowie.
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CLAUD - "CUFF YOUR JEANS"
Claud, the first signee to Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory label, releases their debut album, Super Monster, in February, and the latest single is "Cuff Your Jeans," which Claud says "is a song about yearning. I wrote it after having a fever dream about trying to get on a train to see my friend but missing it over and over and over because there was always some obstacle in my way. The dream left me in a cold sweat and extremely frustrated. All elements of this song are a much needed form of rebellion against my redundant lifestyle, and my pitched down vocals in the verses - which appear in a few more places throughout Super Monster - are a way to further a more courageous and outspoken persona."
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EL MICHELS AFFAIR - "MURKIT GEM"
El Michels Affair are releasing a new album, Yeti Season, on March 26 via their own Big Crown Records, and lead single "Murkit Gem" is a very fine dose of vintage-style psych-soul, with vocals by Piya Malik, formerly of 79.5.
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GIA MARGARET - "SOLID HEART"
Chicago-based singer-songwriter Gia Margaret released an ambient album, Mia Gargaret, last year, and she's now followed it with her first new single of 2021, a studio version of a song she's been known to perform live. "I just felt like sharing a song," she writes. "I’ve been missing the spontaneity of releasing music on a whim, I suppose. During these slow winter months and after such a slow (and rough) year for everyone– I thought it would give me (and maybe you) something nice to start 2021 with. It is my offering. It also feels like a misfit (production wise) in a body of newer songs and especially with the direction I’m moving into. That’s not to say there might not be another version on a record at some point. I just decided this deserves it’s own celebration."
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GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT - "FADE"
Irish heavy post-rock vets God Is An Astronaut have unleashed the second taste of their upcoming 10th album Ghost Tapes #10, and it's as intense and hypnotic as you'd hope from this band. The Chariot Of Black Moth-produced video is just as dizzying.
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VISIONIST - "THE FOLD" FT HALEY FOHR
Louis Carnell is back with his new album as Visionist, A Call to Arms which is out March 5 and is his first release for Mute Records. “With every project I want to test myself, so with this ethos, I expand the landscape of sound I have created over the years," he says. "On A Call To Arms I have furthered my musical direction in terms of collaboration in order to bring new layers of sonics, dynamics, energies and ideas.” First single is "The Fold" which features Circuit Des Yeux's Haley Fohr. “The song is about protection, usually a positive action - but not always," Visionist says. "I see the action of folding as a form of safe-keeping or the first step to ruin. A fold can also be a protection in numbers or what could be considered a lack of individuality. Every Birdcage should have a door that is controlled inside and out, it is not enough to be admired if you cannot admire yourself.”
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STILL CORNERS - "WHITE SANDS"
UK duo Still Corners will release new album The Last Exit next week and they've just shared one last single before letting the whole thing fly free. "White Sands" typifies their dusty lone highway sound (they live in America these days), beautiful and mysterious.
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BUKE AND GASE / SO PERCUSSION - "HOLD IT IN"
Here's another track from Buke and Gase's collaborative album with So Percussion which is out at the end of January. Powered by soothing xylophone, "Hold it In" builds to hypnotic krautrock pop.
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GUY BLAKESLEE - "FACES"
The Entrance Band's Guy Blakeslee will release new album Postcards from the Edge on February 5 and new single "Faces" is an arty, anthemic ballad inspired by a stint in the City of Lights. “‘Faces’ was written in Paris during a rainy spell as the Autumn was turning to Winter,” says Blakeslee. “Everyday, I would stalk the crowded streets in a bubble of isolation, not speaking the language or knowing a soul, stopping into a cathedral on my way to an empty apartment at the top of six long flights of stairs. From there I would write, or stare through the skylight while listening to the eerie silence and the Notre Dame bells ringing over the slow moving Seine. Years later it was recorded in New Orleans, where I found myself in another self-imposed isolation state.”
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GHLOW - "HOLD ON"
Swedish-Russian duo GHLOW -- Emille de Blanche and onetime Scang member Nikolay Evdokimov -- make industrial-tinged rock right out of the last-'90s / early-'00s and are set to release their debut album, Slash and Burn, in April via PNKSLM. "Hold On" is a slow-simmering blast.
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MAJOR MURPHY - "ACCESS"
Michigan's Major Murphy will release their second album, Access, on April 2 via Winspear. The title track and first single is a nice bit of slow-building widescreen indie rock.
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NIGHT SHIFT - "POWER CUT"
Glasgow's Night Shift will release their second album, "Zöe", on February 26 via Trouble in Mind. New single "Power Cut" is appealingly drony indie rock, somewhere between Yo La Tengo and The Raincoats.
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SHORTLY - "I WANT MY BOOK BACK"
Detroit-based singer-songwriter Alex Maniak, who releases music on Triple Crown as Shortly, shared this twangy, anthemic new single. "After a challenging year," she says, "to say the least, I wrote a song about humiliation."
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IAN SWEET - "DRINK THE LAKE"
Jilian Medford will release Show Me How You Disappear, her third album as IAN SWEET, on March 5 via Polyvinyl. New single "Drink the Lake" ""taps into my own twisted logic to try and break away from obsessive thought patterns...it turned into a pop anthem of seemingly silly ways to try and forget someone, like saying their name backwards, but I feel these devices contributed to my healing."
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MUSH - "SEVEN TRUMPETS"
Mush wear their influences on their sleeves with this new single from upcoming Lines Redacted, falling somewhere between Pavement and scratchy post-punk.
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FRUIT BATS - "THE HOLY ROSE"
Here's the first single from Fruit Bats' forthcoming ninth album.
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JIMBO MATHUS & ANDREW BIRD - "SWEET OBLIVION"
Andrew Bird has reconnected with his onetime Squirrel Nut Zippers bandmate Jimbo Mathus for their first album working together in 20 years.
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MOGWAI - "RITCHIE SACRAMENTO"
Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite notes that this song title comes from the way a friend of theirs used to mispronounce "Ryuichi Sakamoto," while the lyrics were inspired by "a story Bob Nastanovich shared about his friend and [Silver Jews] bandmate David Berman who proclaimed 'Rise Crystal Spear' as he threw a shovel at a sports car." Mogwai say the song is dedicated to "all the musician friends we’ve lost over the years." Mogwai's new album is out in February.
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PAINTED SHRINES (WOODS, SKYGREEN LEOPARDS) - "GONE"
Painted Shrines is the duo of Jeremy Earl (Woods) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards who will release their debut album, Heaven and Holy, on March 5 via Woodsist. Here's the first single.
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NOFX - "LINEWLEUM"
NOFX announced their 14th album, and the first single is "Linewleum," which reworks their classic "Linoleum" with help from Avenged Sevenfold. Read more about it here.
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SHIP THIEVES (HOT WATER MUSIC) - "NOTHING NOW" / RECONCILER (ex-LESS THAN JAKE) - "PUSH TO BREAK"
Ship Thieves is another band led by Hot Water Music co-frontman Chris Wollard (who's currently on hiatus from HWM) that also features Addison Burns (Quit, The Enablers), and they're about to release a split 7" with Reconciler, a band featuring their old pal Derron Nuhfer who played sax in Less Than Jake in the '90s and bass/vocals in Gunmoll in the 2000s. You can stream the whole split now and read a lengthy, entertaining interview between Chris, Addy, and Derron here.
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CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON - "DOES NOT HEAL" (SAMIA COVER)
The Baby Remimagined, a reimagining by her friends and contemporaries of Samia's 2020 debut LP, The Baby, is due out Friday (1/15) via Grand Jury, and the latest single is Christian Lee Hutson's folky, contemplative take on "Does Not Heal."
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SOM (CASPIAN, JUNIUS, CONSTANTS) - "AWAKE // SEDATE"
Post-metal band SOM (members of Caspian, Junius, and Constants) have a new EP on the way, and you can read more about the shoegazy lead single here.
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CITIZEN - "I WANT TO KILL YOU"
Midwest post-hardcore/punk/emo band Citizen announced their fourth album, and you can read more about the dance-punk-inspired lead single here.
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THIRDFACE - "VILLAINS!"
Nashville hardcore band Thirdface (whose drummer Shibby Poole is also in the Relapse-signed metal band Yautja) signed to Exploding In Sound for their upcoming debut LP, and you can read more about this new song here.
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KARIMA WALKER - "HORIZON, HARBOR RESONANCE"
Tucson, Arizona musician Karima Walker has a new album on the way, and here's the droney second single, following the Grouper-esque ambient pop of lead single "Reconstellated." Read more here.
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LNZNDRF - "BRACE YOURSELF"
LNZNDRF -- the band of The National's Scott and Bryan Devendorf and National/Beirut/Sufjan/etc collaborator Benjamin Lanz, which now also officially includes Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear) of their live lineup -- announced their second album, and you can read more about lead single "Brace Yourself" here.
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SWAMPBEAST - "1000 YEARS OF PESTILENCE"
LA blackened death metallers Swampbeast will release their debut full-length Seven Evils Spawned of Seven Heads on 2/12 via Translation Loss, and you can hear the new single and read more at Invisible Oranges.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.