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.
LICE (AESOP ROCK & HOMEBOY SANDMAN) - "CATFISH"
Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman's Lice project have just launched pre-orders for their first-ever vinyl pressings, and along with that comes new single "Catfish," a great example of this duo's left-of-the-dial rap.
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GEORGE FITZGERALD - "SETTING SUN"
UK electronic musician George FitzGerald has shared a new track off his upcoming third album Stellar Drifting, and it's a great example of his ability to mix bright, atmospheric melodies with club-ready rhythms.
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NICK HAKIM - "HAPPEN"
Nick Hakim announced a new album, < ahref="https://ffm.to/nhcometa">Cometa, due out October 21 via ATO Records, and shared a new single, "Happen," which features Alex G on piano and Abe Founds on drums.
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GOGOL BORDELLO - "TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU CAN CARRY" (ft. KAZKA)
Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello have shared a new single off their upcoming Walter Schreifels-produced album SOLIDARITINE, and it's a rousing anthem with a powerful message inspired by the war in Ukraine, and it finds Eugene Hutz singing with Oleksandra Zaritska of Ukrainian band KAZKA. The album's up for pre-order on yellow & blue splatter vinyl.
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THOUGHTCRIMES - "MIRROR GLUE"
Long Island chaotic hardcore band Thoughtcrimes (whose lineup includes former Dillinger Escape Plan member Billy Rymer on drums and guitar) have shared another track off their upcoming debut LP Altered Pasts, which comes out next week (8/26) via Pure Noise. You can also grab our deep purple galaxy vinyl variant of the album, limited to 150.
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THEE SACRED SOULS - "LADY LOVE"
California sould trio Thee Sacred Souls release their self-titled debut album on August 26 via Daptone, and new song "Lady Love" finds them right at home on the label's roster of classic-sounding acts like the late Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones.
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SINGLE MOTHERS - "NAUSEA"
Canadian punks Single Mothers have shared the sneering, swaggering "Nausea" off upcoming LP Everything You Need.
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PONY - "PEACH"
"I think 'Peach' is probably the most vulnerable song I have ever written," PONY, aka Toronto's Sam Bielanski, says of her new single. "After all, what’s more vulnerable than a peach? Some years ago, I found myself in a relationship with someone who initially treated me like I was so special. But little by little, the love seemed more and more conditional. With every bit, they tried to control what I wore, who I talked to, and what I did — I lost a part of myself. It took me years to realize I was completely gone and I mistook abuse and manipulation for love. 'Peach' is about realizing that someone who wants to have control over you is not someone who loves you."
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KENNY MASON - PUP PACK
Kevin Mason shows off his range with this new three-pack, which goes from the emo-rap of "Halloween" to the downtempo electronic rap of "Dip!" to the more trad-rap "Get An Idea."
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ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS - "STARS"
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness is on tour with Dashboard Confessional now, and he's shared his first new single of the year, and his first for Nettwerk. It features backup vocals from Ella Vos, and he co-produced iit with Tommy English and Jeremy Hatcher. "I do love the imagery in the chorus of stars falling through a rooftop," Andrew says. "I always see imagery like the kids book The Little Prince. The song is really about how loving someone can be both beautiful and painful. How the hardships and joy visited upon the person you love become your own. When you really love someone, you love them baggage and all. ‘The stars that fell for you left holes in my roof.’ ‘They fell for you and I’m falling too.’ The genesis of this song is mapped out in the first verse. A night of drinking, a misunderstanding in a bar, and everything that follows. Some of my best love songs find me in the morning after an argument. When the dust settles and you realize you’re still in love with all the messiness and good and thank god you’re loved the same."
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SLOAN - "SCRATCH THE SURFACE"
Sloan's 13th album, Steady, will be out in October and here's a second song from it. "Scratch the Surface" is another one from Patrick Pentland in his signature big riff style.
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GILLA BAND - "BACKWASH"
“The initial idea for the whole album was that it would loosely sound like a dream,” says Gilla Band's Dara Kiely. “We didn’t really stick to the brief but it lead us down different sonic avenues. ‘Backwash’ is one of the few tracks where the words represent a dream-like circumstance. The lyrics are from a stream of consciousness rant, weird imagery and all that. The track is about attraction - fancying someone and not knowing what to say exactly. It’s an indirect love song, knowing you like someone but can’t quite articulate it. Thinking that you have already expressed your feelings, but like waking up from a dream you’ve forgotten what you actually have said or felt.” Gilla Band's new album, Most Normal, is out October 7 via Rough Trade.
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RÖYKSOPP - "OH, LOVER" FT. SUSANNE SUNDFØR
Norwegian electronic vets Röyksopp release Profound Mysteries II this Friday and one of the highlights is this midtempo banger featuring vocals from Susanne Sundfør.
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JULIA, JULIA - "NO HARD FEELINGS"
"I have realized recently that the themes of 'missing' and 'waiting' come up quite often in my lyrics," The Coathangers' Julia Kugel says of her new Julia, Julia single. "I feel like I have spent my life waiting. Waiting to go, waiting to get there, waiting to play, then waiting to leave. Living in memory and hope and missing everything in between. 'No Hard Feelings' is a bittersweet recollection. It's about smiling at disappointment. The narrative for this video was the idea of going to different locations, and... waiting, and collecting memories. In the video, I take a memento from every place and carry it with me. Even though these mementos are quite useless- flowers, pieces of plastic, flakes of paint, etc- they are precious to me. This may be the most authentic I have every been in a video. There was no acting." It's from her debut solo album, Derealization.
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POSTER PAINTS - "CIRCUS MOVING ON"
Poster Paints, aka Carla J Easton and Frightened Rabbit's Simon Liddell, have shared another track from their forthcoming debut album. “Walking the fine line between regret and not caring about choices made," is how Carla describes this one. "One of those songs. You meet someone and it's doomed to fail but you stretch it out as far as it will go. Needing the darkness in order to shine. The criticism. Being drawn to people that aren't good for you and unable to leave or let go. The fleeting moments where everything seems fine and happy - the excitement and elation of something beginning and trying to hang and hold on to that feeling. Sonically - this is our orchestral blowout on the album." Their album is out October 14, 2022 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. / Olive Grove Records.
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RHETT MILLER - "GO THROUGH YOU"
“Every songwriter has a favorite skin they inhabit, a story they tell over and over again," Rhett Miller says of this new song. "For decades I’ve been writing from the perspective of a sad sack loser, a ‘broken guy.’ He isn’t who I am in real life, but for whatever reason when I sit down to write a song I often become him, picking at old wounds, bemoaning my perceived victimization. The funny thing is that he’s, well, funny. I wouldn’t want to be the sad clown in real life, but thanks to songs like ‘Go Through You,’ I don’t have to. For the production on ‘Go Through You,’ Sam Cohen created a sonic world adjacent to Jeff Lynne’s work with Traveling Wilburys. I’m in love with the sounds he came up with. It’s all the things – hooky, bouncy, bubbly, catchy… Try listening to this song without smiling. Good luck.” Rhett Miller's new album, The Misfit, is out September 16 via ATO Records.
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THE REDS, PINKS & PURPLES - SAW YOU AT THE RECORD SHOP TODAY”
Glenn Donaldson has been extremely prolific with his The Reds, Pinks & Purples project, cranking out albums, EPs and singles. Some of the recent non-album tracks are being collected onto one album, They Only Wanted Your Soul, that's out October 14 via Slumberland. "Saw You at the Record Shop Today," is one of the dark, wistful gems that hadn't seen the light of day yet.
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CULTS - “TRIALS - JOHNNY JEWEL REMIX”
"When I first heard 'Trials,' I was struck by the eerie delivery of the vocals & the macabre lyrics," says Johnny Jewel about his remix of Cults‘ “Trials.“ "As Madeline whispers 'I Met A Stranger In Your Skin With The Same Eyes,' the music echoes apparitions from the past. My remix is a slow burning waltz in 3/4 time. The rhythms glide like a ouija board indicator creeping through a candlelit seance. A soaring mellotron melody counters the descending chord progression to create a floating sensation as we reach through the black veil to the other side." Cults' new EP, Host B-Sides & Remixes, is out September 9 via Sinderlyn.
BRET MCKENZIE (FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS) - “IF YOU WANNA GO”
Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie will release his solo debut, Songs Without Jokes, on August 26 via Sub Pop. The album may be joke-free but the video for this very '70s new song has a few.
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THE SOFT PINK TRUTH (DREW DANIEL OF MATMOS) - "THE ANAL STAIRCASE" (COIL COVER)
Matmos' Drew Daniel will release mini album Was it Ever Real? this Friday and from it he's just shared his take on Coil's queer classic, "The Anal Staircase." Says Daniel: "I discovered Coil at age 16, buying their albums 'Scatology and Horse Rotorvator as a follow-up to loving Throbbing Gristle, but they were their own elegant proposition, and the idea of two gay men who are a couple and made music together looked to me like an ideal for living. Eventually, life took a turn and I wound up meeting them both in person and becoming, if not friends (I was too much of a fanboy to be relaxed enough around them for it to be a true friendship), then at least acquaintances. John would phone me up and we would talk, and we hung out in London and Barcelona when in the same orbit with each other. After John Balance's death, I began to play a cover of 'The Anal Staircase,' and had the chance to play it live in front of Sleazy before his own passing. We hugged and talked about John backstage, and Sleazy was moved by the cover and thanked me. In the wake of their deaths, the cover was something that I wanted to record properly and finally decided that the time was right only this year, after talking to Stephen Thrower about it (Thrower was the third member of Coil at the time the song was recorded, and is now a member of Cyclobe and Unica Zürn, and a friend of mine). For the video, I wanted to visually depict the feeling of an endless spiral that picks up the anal / intestinal / rectal but also architectural conceit of the original Coil artwork for the single, and asked Fletcher Pratt to animate something that would represent that formally, and to foreground the lyrics in a direct way. The bright white font is supposed to recall the kind of fonts used in pornographic 'hypnosis' videos, in which large texts bombard the viewer with mind-altering commandments. The cover and the video are dedicated to John Balance, Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson, and Stephen Thrower."
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SKULLCRUSHER - "THEY QUIET THE ROOM" & "QUIET THE ROOM"
Skullcrusher's debut LP Quiet the Room is out in October, and she's shared the title track, a piano piece that's the first song she wrote for the album, and an alternate version written on guitar, "They Quiet the Room." "The two together, 'They Quiet the Room' into 'Quiet the Room,' are like the passing of a day," she says. "Perhaps one spent as a child making up imaginary games outside before returning inside for dinner, crossing over some kind of barrier as dusk settles, to have dinner or sit at the piano alone."
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MAGNOLIA PARK - "I SHOULD'VE LISTENED TO MY FRIENDS"
If you're into the whole recent mainstream pop punk revival, then you've probably heard of Mangolia Park, who are one of the best bands bringing this sound back right now. This new anthem is a great example of that.
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YOUNG CULTURE - "GOOD KARMA"
For more early 2000s-style pop punk, here's the latest from the Equal Vision-signed Young Culture.
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FIELD MEDIC - "I THINK ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME"
Field Medic's new album grow your hair long if you're wanting to see something that you can change is out in October, and the latest single is "i think about you all the time," which Kevin Patrick Sullivan says is "a love song to alcohol & younger days. It's a sort of sequel to my song 'i will not mourn who i was that has gone away'. I was struggling in my sobriety with some difficult life situations & wished I had the option of pressing the off switch that binge drinking has afforded me in the past. I had just written a song called 'I hate being sober', which was a pretty negative way to frame the subject, so I set out to make a song that spoke of my longing in a way that sounded light & sweet. I wanted it to sound like a love song so it could speak to anyone who's missing anything, be it a person or in my case; a substance."
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TWAIN - "2 LOVERS"
Twain have shared a new track off Noon: the swaying, shambolic indie folk of "2 Lovers."
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ONDARA - "A PROPHET OF DOOM"
Folk singer Ondara brings his amazing voice to the percussive, propulsive "A Prophet of Doom," the latest taste of Spanish Villager No: 3.
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CAREER WOMAN - "UNFUN" (FT. SMALL CRUSH)
Following her July collaboration with Small Crush, "Sleep In," Career Woman has shared another collaborative track, "Unfun." "This is probably my favorite song I've ever written because it's the most honest and I got to record it with members of Small Crush, a band that I really admire as a musician," Melody Caudill says.
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CHARLEY CROCKETT - "THE MAN FROM WACO"
The prolific, vintage-loving country singer Charley Crockett has shared another taste of The Man From Waco, and this time it's the brooding Western title track.
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BETH ORTON - "FRIDAY NIGHT"
Here's another delectable appetizer from Beth Orton's new album, Weather Alive.
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CARLA DAL FORNO - "COME AROUND"
This is the dreamy, dubby title track to Carla dal Forno's forthcoming third album.
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TODD RUNDGREN - "ROCKET" FT ADRIAN BELEW
Todd Rundgren has been working on this collaborative album for a few years -- 'Space Force' was probably a funnier title when he started this -- and features Sparks, Neil Finn, The Roots, Rivers Cuomo and more. "Puzzle" features the great Adrian Belew.
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BILLY IDOL - "CAGE"
Billy Idol released the titular single from his just-announced The Cage EP, a power-poppy, punk-infused rock song called "Cage." The track was co-written by frequent collaborator and guitarist Steve Stevens, and comes with a fun music video directed by Steven Sebring. Read more about it here.
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ARMANI CAESAR - "HUNNIT DOLLA HICCUP" (ft. BENNY THE BUTCHER & STOVE GOD COOKS)
Armani Caesar has announced The Liz 2, due 9/2 via Griselda Records. The first single is "Hunnit Dolla Hiccup," which features her Griselda labelmate Benny the Butcher and fellow Upstate NY rapper Stove God Cooks. Read more about it here.
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GILLIAN CARTER - "THE PAIN OF BEING AWAKE"
Ontario screamo trio Gillian Carter have announced their first album in four years, Salvation Through Misery, and you can read more about the killer lead single here.
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OFF! - "F"
The Keith Morris-fronted hardcore punk supergroup OFF!'s new lineup finds Keith and original guitarist Dimitri Coats now joined by Trail of Dead bassist Autry Fulbright II and jazz drummer Justin Brown, and Keith also cited jazz legends like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock as influences on their upcoming album Free LSD. You can very much hear that jazz influence on new track "F." Read more about it here and pick up our exclusive translucent orange vinyl variant of the album.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive.