So many artists, so many songs, 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.
KEVIN MORBY - "A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS"
“In 'A Random Act Of Kindness’ I set out to write a song where each line could be interpreted in two completely different ways,” says Kevin Morby. “For example; when I sing the words ’out of trust…’ it could be heard as either I have lost my sense of trust in something or that I am committing an act with trust as my motive. It’s a song about the menacing nature of the sun rising during a dark time in one's life only to further illuminate their pain and suffering - and how during these periods it is often the selfless acts of strangers that keeps a person going. Sonically I am so proud and surprised by where we ended up with this one. Producer Sam Cohen and I had set out to make a sort of windows-down-mid-tempo-cruiser and somehow, with weeks of exploration, made a sonic rocket ship that shoots you out into outer space over the course of 4 minutes. Enjoy!” Kevin's new album, This Is A Photograph, is out May 13 via Dead Oceans.
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MISERY INDEX - "COMPLETE CONTROL"
Baltimore deathgrinders Misery Index have shared the title track off upcoming LP Complete Control and it's a scorcher.
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MINT GREEN - "WHAT I'M FEELING"
As mentioned, Mint Green's new album All Girls Go To Heaven comes out 6/3 via Pure Noise, and new single "What I'm Feeling" brings some U2-style grandeur to their indie rock sound.
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RLYR - "REAL AIR"
Chicago instrumental rock trio RLYR (members of Pelican, Locrian, and Bloodiest) have shared another track off their upcoming self-titled album (due 5/13) via Gilead Media), and it's a compelling, shapeshifting, seven-minute song that comes with a video directed by Cloakroom's Bobby Markos.
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ASTRONOID - "SLEEP WHISPER
Astronoid's previously announced new album Radiant Bloom arrives in June and new single "Sleep Whisper" finds their dream pop/metal fusion in fine form.
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FLEE LORD & MEPHUX - "FINAL FOUR" (ft. CONWAY THE MACHINE, ROC MARCIANO & TRAE THE TRUTH)
Flee Lord and producer Mephux's new project Pray For The Evil III arrives next week, featuring recent single "Out the Mud" and the newly-released "Final Four," a gritty posse cut with Conway the Machine, Roc Marciano, and Trae the Truth.
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CARTILAGE - "I SKIN YOU"
San Francisco goregrinders Cartilage are releasing a new LP, The Deader the Better, on May 13 via Creator-Destructor Records. It was produced by goregrind legend Matt Harvey (of Gruesome, Exhumed, Pounder, Expulsion, and more), and features contributions from Ross Sewage (Impaled, Exhumed), Leon del Muerte (Murder Construct, Terrorizer LA) and Tom Draper (Pounder, ex-Carcass). "I Skin You" is as gory and brutal as it sounds, and you can hear it at Decibel. Stream the previous single below.
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LUCÍA Y LOS ALFILERES - "PEQUEÑOS ESQUELETOS"
Mexico City punks Lucía y los Alfileres have dropped a new single, and it's a catchy, driving ripper that leaves a big impact.
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CHEERBLEEDERZ - "NAIL BITERS"
UK indie-punks Cheerbleederz have shared a new single off their upcoming album Even In Jest, which arrives this summer via Alcopop! Records, and it's a great fusion of punk energy and twee-ish harmonies.
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KATIE MALCO - "CREATURES" (ALTERNATE VERSION)
Katie Malco has released an alternate solo version of "Creatures," from her 2020 debut LP Failures. "’Creatures’ is about the thoughts that haunt you at night when you’re trying to sleep," she says. "It’s about being tired, facing adulthood, and leaving behind youth. And pretending to hold it together but at night all the ugliness is plastered across all the walls you stare at from your bed."
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TOMBS - "SOMBRE RUINS NOTHING REMAINS" (BKGD AUDIO REMIX)
Tombs has shared a new track off upcoming EP Ex Oblivion, and it's a remix of "Sombre Ruin" from 2020's Under Sullen Skies by BKGD (aka former Dälek member Alap Momin, aka Oktopus). The original is sort of an ambient post-metal song, and this remix turns it into industrial trap.
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LOWLIFE - "ENDLESS PUNISHMENT"
Bay Area hardcore band Lowlife wrote and recorded their Endless Punishment LP in 2003 but shelved it for nearly 20 years, and now it's coming out on May 27 via Twelve Gauge. The title track is out now, and it's a rager that sounds as fresh today as it would have two decades ago.
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49 WINCHESTER - "ALL I NEED"
Castlewood, VA alt-country band 49 Winchester's new album Fortune Favors the Bold comes out very soon (May 13) via New West, and here's another taste: the rustic, mid-tempo country rocker "All I Need."
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DREGG & CITY MORGUE - "CONTEXT"
Australian band DREGG and NYC duo City Morgue both, in their own ways, pull from the nu metal/rap rock era, so it's a good fit that they teamed up for this in-your-face new song.
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TEGAN AND SARA - "FUCKING UP WHAT MATTERS"
Tegan and Sara have signed to Mom+Pop and released their first new music of the year, "Fucking Up What Matters," co-produced with John Congleton. Tegan calls it "an ode to the moment in your life when you realize that you have most, if not all of the things you wanted and you start to think about what would happen if you just walked away from it all. It's the moment in the middle of the night when you start to daydream about something else, something you never imagined. It's the feeling you have when you think you might have hit a new low, and yet you've never felt so good. Sometimes it's admitting that you can't stop yourself from fucking up what matters, that you feel your strongest. And as my mom would say, it's often when we're fucking up what matters, that we're learning the most about ourselves."
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THE DREAM SYNDICATE – “DAMIAN”
“I wanted to write and record something that would have sounded good coming out of the Radio Shack speakers in my Gremlin,” says Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate's new song. “The sense of mystery and time was enhanced by Marcus Tenney’s era-perfect sax and trumpet work and then sweetened by a backing vocal arrangement Stephen McCarthy brought to the session.” "Damian" is from The Dream Syndicate's new album, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns And True Confessions, that's out June 10 via Fire Records.
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BELIEF (STELLA MOZGAWA & BOOM BIP) - "JUNG"
Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa and glitchy producer Boom Bip will release their debut as Belief on July 15 and here's a lovely new song from it. “Jung is a special song for Stella and I,” says Boom Bip, aka Bryan Hollon. “It was the most ‘organic’ (for lack of a better term) on the record. Its fluidity is inspiring for future Belief tracks. I started with a simple pumping pad, bird sounds and a piano riff. Stella took that and started layering live synth and hi-hat takes under and over it. I hear both of us equally in this. Lots of beauty, softness and emotion in this one."
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AJ LAMBERT - "STAFF OF THE FLAG"
AJ Lambert, the daughter of Nancy Sinatra who collaborated with Protomartyr's Greg Ahee on Bloodslide, will release new solo album Dirt Soda Out July 8. Her band on the album is Parker Kindred (Joan As Policewoman) and Rhys Hastings (Yves Tumor) on drums, Dave Harrington (Darkside) on guitar, and Kenny Gilmore (Julia Holter) on synths, and the record includes covers of Pavement and Codeine songs in addition to AJ originals. "Staff of the Flag" is the album's first single and was inspired by Blackwell's Corner, the stip of highway in California where James Dean died. "I found it interesting that so many people know that one person who died there, but so many others have met the same fate and go unrecognized except by the people who loved them," says AJ. "The song is about an imaginary woman who, after selling flowers to tourists on their way to the Dean site all day, takes the leftovers to the nearby site where her own loved one died.”
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SCOUT GILLETT - "COME ON LETS GO" (BROADCAST COVER)
Scout Gillett's new EP is out this week and includes a few covers, including her take on Broadcast's classic 2000 single "Come on Let's Go." "This track in particular really resonated with me since the pandemic was at a peak in NYC," says Scout. "It felt as if everyone had the opportunity then to be really genuine and sacred with who they spent their time with. ‘What's the point in wasting time on people that you’ll never know? Come on let's go.’”
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PINK BLOB (EX WEAVES) - "WAITING FOR YOUR CALL"
Morgan Waters and Spencer Cole, who both played in Toronto's Weaves, have formed new duo Pink Blob. "Waiting for Your Call" is their debut single which dives into fizzy hyperpop territory. “Pink Blob is all our favorite music put together in a blender," says Waters. "The goal is to combine the macho and the feminine, the heavy and the hooky, the weird and the conventional, and make it all very pink and very blobby."
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KATY J PEARSON - "GAME OF CARDS"
Here's a new single from Katy J Pearson's upcoming album Sound of the Morning that's out July 8 via Heavenly. "Game of Cards" is both twangy and poppy, recalling early '80s Fleetwood Mac (or Juice Newton). "I forgot about the song for a while, then rediscovered it and sent to Heavenly who liked the chorus but the verse wasn’t quite working," says Katy. "I wanted to give it a chance so took it with me to the Dan Carey sessions where we assembled fresh verses – he really helped me work out where the song should go. ‘Game of Cards’ is about finding someone you click with on a romantic level and how it really is a game of cards in that you don’t know what hand you’ll be dealt. It’s about the vulnerability of a blossoming relationship and not knowing where it’s headed."
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STEPHEN MALLINDER (CABARET VOLTAIRE) - "HUSH"
Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder will release new album Tick Tick Tick on July 15 via Dais. While the Cabs helped pioneer industrial music, "Hush" is appealing, if dark, technopop.
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IAMAMIWHOAMI - "CHANGES"
iamamiwhoami's new audiovisual album Be Here Soon is due out in June, and ionnalee has shared the second single, "Changes." "'Changes' revisits moments that sparked my musical curiosity as a kid, growing up in the desolate Nordic countryside, in an environment where practicing music was a luxury," she says. "Reviewing the moments and memories that made me the artist that I am today, through a time when music was an isolated escape."
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BLACKLIST - "FINAL RESISTANCE"
NYC darkwave band Blacklist are back in action and will release Afterworld, their first album since their 2009 debut, this fall via Profound Lore. Powered by a driving bassline and pounding drums, first single "Final Resistance" picks up where the band left off with widescreen scope and a call-to-arms chorus.
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MUNA - "KIND OF GIRL"
MUNA explore a country sound on their new single "Kind of Girl." "This song is the album’s country moment," Katie Gavin says, "and in some ways we feel it is the heart of the record. This song explores the power of language and the words we use to describe who we are and who we want to be. Even though it is a happy, hopeful song, I shed the most tears of the record in the vocal booth recording this chorus. I think there’s something very vulnerable about plainly expressing my desire to be kinder to myself and comfortable receiving love (and my desire to garden even though I kill everything I plant). The video for this song highlights another layer of meaning that we feel the song holds, which is that we as queer people are particularly vulnerable when we are sharing how we identify and how we would like to be perceived. We wanted to play with the gendered nature of this song because we all three have different relationships to girlhood (and Naomi is non-binary, so not a girl at all!). It was a gift to be able to king for this video in a way that felt earnest and comfortable and hot. The experience brought home the fact that it’s not enough for queer and trans people to be clear about who we are - we also need a community around us that hears us, believes us, honors us, and supports us. We’re very proud of what we made and grateful to everyone who was a part of it. We hope the bigots absolutely hate it."
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METRIC - "ALL COMES CRASHING"
Metric will release a new album, Formentera, on July 8. Details are scant, but they have shared the first single, "All Comes Crashing," a typically towering piece of anthemic synthpop, and its music video.
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ICEAGE - "ALL THE JUNK ON THE OUTSKIRTS"
Iceage are back with a new single, “All The Junk On The Outskirts,” which was recorded during the same sessions as their 2018 album Beyondless. "I consider this one of the better cuts off the Beyondless sessions, but it ended up being a misfit that wouldn't quite fit in with the other songs as we put together the tracklisting. Like a piece belonging to a different puzzle,” says frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt. “Much like it wasn’t welcome with the others on Beyondless, it's an anthem for those on the outside looking in."
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WILCO - "FALLING APART (RIGHT NOW)"
Wilco have announced Cruel Country, their 12th album, that is due May 27 via dBpm Records. It's a double and was recorded almost entirely live and finds them getting back to their country roots. "There have been elements of Country music in everything we’ve ever done. We’ve never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making country music," says Jeff Tweedy. "But now, having been around the block a few times, we’re finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we’re making Country.”
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ONI - "SECRETS" (ft. IGGY POP & RANDY BLYTHE)
Canadian progressive metalcore band ONI have just announced a new album, Loathing Light, and its new single "Secrets" features two very huge guests: Iggy Pop and Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe. Read more about it here.
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DROWNINGMAN - "IT WILL END IN COPS"
Back-in-action Vermont post-hardcore vets Drowningman released their first song in 16 years on New Year's Day, and now here's a second. Read more about it here.
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RANDY HOLDEN - "SWAMP STOMP"
Former Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden recorded a followup to his 1970 pioneering doom metal classic Population II in 2010 called Population III but shelved it, and now it's set to come out this July via RidingEasy Records. Read more about new single "Swamp Stomp" here.
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NENEH CHERRY & SIA - "MANCHILD"
Neneh Cherry has announced The Versions, a collaboration album of reworked versions of her songs, and the new single is the Sia version of "Manchild." Read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive.