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. 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.
PINK MOUNTAINTOPS - "NERVOUS BREAKDOWN" (BLACK FLAG COVER)
Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean's project Pink Mountaintops has shared a cover of Black Flag's hardcore classic "Nervous Breakdown," which opens his upcoming album Peacock Pools. He slows the song down, really makes it own, and emphasizes the underlying knack for melody that's hidden behind the breakneck-speed rage of the original.
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PARQUET COURTS - "PLANT LIFE" REMIXES
As a teaser for their 2022 album Sympathy for Life, Parquet Courts released a vinyl-only single of "Plant Life" with remixes by Yu Su and Peak Wifi (aka PC's Austin Brown)), and an extended version of the song. Those have now been shared to streaming services. Fans of Happy Mondays, take note, these will twist your melon.
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MARGARET GLASPY - "HEART SHAPE"
Margaret Glaspy shared new single "Love is Real" in February, and now she's unveiled its b-side, "Heart Shape." "The making of this song lifted me out of my COVID funk," Margaret says. "Not being able to make music with my friends hit me hard during quarantine and made me realize why it is so special. I took the opportunity as a sign to get out of my comfort zone - every musician played on this song remotely and for me it was a new way to make art. It reminded me that music is basically magic. It can miraculously transcend location, space, and time.”
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JAMES KRIVCHENIA (BIG THIEF) - "THE SCIENCE OF IMAGINARY SOLUTIONS"
Big Thief's James Krivchenia has shared another track from his upcoming solo album Blood Karaoke that throws every style imaginable into a sonic blender. Disorienting and cool.
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PATRICK WATSON - "HEIGHT OF THE FEELING"
Montreal artist Patrick Watson will release his seventh album Better in the Shade on April 22 via Secret City Records. The first single is the ethereal "Height of the Feeling" which features Ariel Engle from La Force and Watson says “is about using intimacy as a compass when you feel out of your skin.”
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DAMIEN JURADO - "ROGER"
Damien Jurado has shared a new digital single, the string-laden and rather gorgeous "Roger" that has a bit of a Nick Drake vibe.
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BLOODS - "I LIKE YOU" FT. LAURA JANE GRACE
Australia's Bloods have a new album, Together, Baby! on the way, due out September 23 via Share it Music, and from it they've shared "I Like You," which features Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! Bloods' MC says, "I knew I wanted it to be a duet and our friend and label owner Cayle decided to be bold and dream big and asked Laura Jane Grace if she’d be interested in being involved. Laura is an ICON, so it goes without saying we lost our minds when she got back to us and said she liked the song and wanted to sing on it. Laura’s voice is so immediate and perfect, it has taken the song to a whole new level. It’s a total honour and dream to have Laura involved."
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DEVIL MASTER - "THE VIGOUR OF EVIL"
Blackened punks Devil Master, who have upcoming shows with My Chemical Romance, have shared the second single off their upcoming album Ecstasies of Never Ending Night, and it's as raw, rippin', and evil as you expect from this band.
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MISTER GOBLIN - "MILITARY DISCOUNT"
Mister Goblin has shared another song off his upcoming album Bunny, and this one finds him in discordant post-punk/post-hardcore territory, channelling stuff like the Minutemen or Shudder To Think.
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BREAD PILOT - "EYE LISTENING"
The latest single from Seattle-via-Connecticut band Bread Pilot's new album, New To You, due out in May via Double Double Whammy, is "Eye Listening." Singer/guitarist Taylor Hayden calls says it's "a love song written quickly in summer of 2013. Chet Baughman came in and played saxophone that brought a lifting sadness to it. The end makes me feel like I’m being lightly taken by the wind. The lyrics kind of skirt around the topic of the song, but as it progresses the lyrics begin to feel a little more clear and vulnerable, and by the end he just says what's on his mind: 'Say you want me.'"
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PAUL WALL & TERMANOLOGY - "NO ASTERISK" (prod. STATIK SELEKTAH)
Paul Wall and Termanology's new collaborative album Start 2 Finish arrives next week (April 8 via Perfect Time Music Group), and here's a new Statik Selektah-produced single from it. Statik provides psychedelic, post-boom bap production, and Paul Wall and Termanology's bars are just as hypnotic as the beat.
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ZACH BRYAN - "HIGHWAY BOYS"
Oklahoma country singer Zach Bryan has been on the rise for a few years, and now his first official studio album American Heartbreak is set to arrive May 20 via Belting Bronco/Warner. Its latest single is "Highway Boys," a dusty, dirt-covered song that should appeal to fans of traditional and modern country alike. He's also got several upcoming tour dates, including Stagecoach, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and multiple stops of Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival tour (NY/NJ shows included).
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THE FORMS - "LATCH" (DISCLOSURE COVER)
NYC band The Forms have released an indie rock cover of Disclosure's 2010s dance-pop classic "Latch," and they totally reinvent the song without losing the charm of the original.
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ARTHUR BROWN - "LONG LONG ROAD"
The legendary Arthur Brown will release a new album, Long Long Road, on June 24 via Prophecy Productions, and he's just released the title track, an acoustic ballad that finds him "asking humankind to look back along the history of our planet and to notice, how dangerous and yet at the same time full of promise human life is."
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SADIE - "NOWHERE"
Brooklyn-based producer and songwriter Anna Schwab is releasing her debut EP as sadie, Nowhere, on June 21. The latest single from it is the title track, a bouncy, hyperpop-influenced song. "'Nowhere' is sort of about listlessness, and about the slippery quality of emotions—it’s about feeling a sense of purpose and joie de vivre for a moment, and losing it the minute you feel it," Schwab says. "I usually find the minute I name, or recognize, a feeling—it’s gone. And then the memory of the feeling, and the desire to feel it again, makes its absence more acute. I wrote the song in early spring. I find the world takes on a sort of manic happiness and electric hum at the first signs of spring, and it’s always the time of year when I feel the most low. 'April is the cruelest month,' as TS Eliot says. So I wanted to juxtapose those feelings with bubblegum melodies and the sort of ice-cream truck inspired synths you hear in the background, to help capture that sense of dissonance."
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KATY J PEARSON - "TALK OVER TOWN"
UK singer-songwriter Katy J Pearson will release new album Sound of the Morning on July 8 via Heavenly Recordings. The new single from the album is "Talk Over Town," a widescreen pop number that really soars in the chorus.
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ANN WILSON (HEART) - "A MOMENT IN HEAVEN"
Heart's Ann Wilson is releasing new solo album Fierce Bliss on April 29. Ann says crunchy new single “A Moment in Heaven" tells the story "of a one-hit-wonder in the star-maker machinery of Hollywood: the sublime cruelty of transient fame.”
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EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - "I WANT A LOVE LIKE THIS"
Quirky UK alt-pop band Everything Everything are gearing up to release new album Raw Data Feel on May 20. "I Want A Love Like This" started "as a challenge Alex set Jon to demo a '4-chord banger' that he could put through a particular rhythmic processor on his home-made modular synthesiser," say the band. "It’s another very instinctive and impulsive composition, talking about a new relationship and a feel of optimism and possibility.”
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YANN TIERSEN - "11 5 18 2 5 18" & "16 15 21 12 12. 2 15 10 5 18"
Producer and composer Yann Tiersen will release new album 11 5 18 2 5 18 on June 10 via Mute. The album came out of experimentation in the studio ahead of a performance at Superbooth, Berlin’s modular and synthesizer festival. Check out two forward-thinking, numerological tracks now.
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BEACH BUNNY - "FIRE ESCAPE
Beach Bunny announced their sophomore album, Emotional Creature, due out July 22 via Mom+Pop, and shared the very catchy new single "Fire Escape."
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OLIVER MARSON - "MANIPULATOR"
If you have a soft spot for gothy mid'80s alt-rock, the kind you might hear in a John Hughes film and spiked with melodrama, Oliver Marson's new single "Manipulator" would sound good between Simple Minds and Flesh for Lulu.
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DEAD CASSETTES - "HEX"
Atlanta duo Dead Cassettes (Bradlea-Roi and Rodney) make music that's clearly influenced by post-punk but also doesn't really fit neatly in any genre. New single "Hex" delivers a great bassline, minimal guitarwork and appealing shouty vocals.
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HATER - "FAR FROM A MIND"
The latest single from Sincere, the new album from Sweden's Hater, is "Far From a Mind," which is accompanied by a disquieting performance video directed by Jacob Nilsson.
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GOLDEN BOOTS - "LOOKOUT!"
Tucson duo Golden Boots (Ryen Eggleston and Dimitri Manos) make appealing, low-fi indie rock that's been baked in the Southwest sun. Their new album Liquid Ranch is out in April and this is the twangy new single that's overflowing with ramshackle charm.
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VERITY SUSMAN (ELECTRELANE) & MATTHEW SIMMS (WIRE) - "ITS IN OUR HANDS" AND "TAKE THE TOYS FROM THE BOYS"
Electrelane are currently working on their first new music in 15 years, but while we wait for news on that, vocalist-keyboardist Verity Susman has two new songs with Matthew Sims (Wire, It Hugs Back). They're from their soundtrack to Women Against the Bomb, Sonia Gonzalez' upcoming documentary about the women of the Greenham Common Peace Camp in the 1980s.
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KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - "MAGENTA MOUNTAIN"
This is the second single from King Gizzard's new album Omnium Gatherum and is in the danceable pop style of the band's Butterfly 3000 and has been in their live setlists for a while.
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MARISSA NADLER - "COLD WIND BLOWIN" (DAVID LYNCH COVER) & THE HUNT - "I CAN'T STAND IT" (ZOLA JESUS COVER)
NYC-based indie label Sacred Bones turns 15 this year, and as part of their celebration, they're releasing Todo Muere SBXV, a compilation featuring Sacred Bones artists covering other the songs of other Sacred Bones' artists, past and present.
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MY IDEA - "BREATHE YOU"
My Idea, the duo of Palberta's Lily Konigsberg and Water From Your Eyes' Nate Amos, release their debut album, Cry Mfer, on April 22 via Hardly Art, and the latest single is the vocoder-heavy "Breathe You." "'Breathe You' was never really intended to be on the album," Nate says. "I made the hook/beat in the middle of a night when I was unable to sleep and sent it to Lily as a sort of 'check out how ridiculous this is' joke; she recorded the verses and sent it back within a day. This was during a really difficult time for both of us and we were processing our emotions in very different ways - I buried my sadness inside of humor and Lily wore hers on her sleeve. After it was finished we both forgot about it for months, eventually adding it to the album at the request of a few trusted friends. In spite of the absurdity of the song at a basic level it ended up being as honest and accurate as anything we've made, and it took us months to realize that. Usually I hand off my vocal parts to Lily, but this is one of a few moments where my demo vocals remain in the final cut. We are both really really proud of this song. It is not particularly easy for either of us to listen to but we hope that you (!) like it and find some consolation in it (whatever you may be dealing with at this time)."
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TV PRIEST - "BURY ME IN MY SHOES"
London's TV Priest have announced new album My Other People which will be out June 17 via Sub Pop. “My Other People is a more 'open' set of songs, both musically and in our themes," says frontman Charlie Drinkwater. This is the full-throated new single.
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ANGEL OLSEN - "ALL THE GOOD TIMES"
Angel Olsen announced a new album, Big Time (pre-order on pink vinyl), and shared the gorgeous first single, which you can read more about here.
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WARPAINT - "STEVIE"
Warpaint's first album in six years, Radiate Like This, is due out May 6 via Virgin, and they've shared another new single from it, the dreamy "Stevie," and an immersive video made for Oculus. "'Stevie' is a love song, pure and true," the band says. "Sincere as it comes with a little bit of Freak. A cosmic celebration of the thing we all look for in life. And our contribution to one of the most beloved song genres." Emily Kokal adds, "Thinking of visuals for ‘Stevie’ we weren't seeing a story or a performance, but a kind of ‘Tunnel Of Love’ image kept coming to my head, more like waves of serotonin, what love feels like. Right around that time Chris showed us what he was working on and it was like, 'Woah, this is way more ‘Tunnel Of Love’ than we could’ve imagined!'"
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MARCI (TOPS’ MARTA CIKOJEVIC) - "ENTERTAINMENT"
TOPS keyboardist Marta Cikojevic is working on her solo debut as Marci, which will be released later this year via Arbutus Records. As a first taste, she's just released "Entertainment," an instantly appealing sophistipop morsel that was co-written and produced with TOPS guitarist David Carriere and features backing vocals from the band's Jane Penny.
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THE DEAD TONGUES - "GARDEN SONG"
The Dead Tongues, the project of Asheville musician Ryan Gustafson, will release its fifth album Dust this Friday (4/1) via Sylvan Esso’s Psychic Hotline label, and here's one last single: a melancholic Americana ballad with harmonies from Josh Moore and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig (Mountain Man) called "Garden Song." Read more about it here.
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KOYO - "STRAIGHT NORTH"
Long Island emo torch-carriers Koyo have shared their second single since signing to Pure Noise, and you can read more about it here.
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THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS - "A BRIEF ARTICLE REGARDING TIME LOOPS"
Atlanta metalcore/mathcore band The Callous Daoboys are back with their first new song in three years, and you can read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive.