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.
HOT MULLIGAN - "DRINK MILK AND RUN"
Michigan emo band Hot Mulligan have shared a new single, "Drink Milk and Run," and its Michael Herrick-directed video may have a sense of humor, but the song is about a serious topic. "'Drink Milk and Run' is about how America doesn’t care for the poor," says vocalist Nathan “Tades” Sanville. “The wealth gap is getting bigger, it’s impossible to own a home, and it seems like the rich are too busy busting unions and pretending to be astronauts to give a shit." Musically, they inject some early 2000s dance-punk into their shouty emo-pop, and it works really well.
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MOOR MOTHER - "RAP JASM" (ft. AKAI SOLO & JUSTMADNICE)
Moor Mother has shared a second single off her upcoming album Jazz Codes, and this one's more of a straight-up rap song compared to lead single "WOODY SHAW," and it features AKAI SOLO and justmadnice.
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RHYS LANGSTON - "PROGRESSIVE HOUSE, CONSERVATIVE LIGATURE" (ft. FATBOI SHARIF)
LA rapper Rhys Langston announced a new album, Grapefruit Radio, and the first single is "Progressive House, Conservative Ligature," a dizzying outsider-rap song produced by Opal-Kenobi and featuring Fatboi Sharif.
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BLACK MIDI - "EAT MEN EAT"
black midi's new song adds saucy flamenco to their mathy brand of indie rock, while Maxim Kelly's video offers up a vivid black and white interpretation of the song. New album Hellfire is out July 15 via Rough Trade.
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DRUGDEALER - "MADISON"
“Madison was the first song I wrote in the period after Raw Honey," Drugdealer's Michael Collins says of his new single. "I hadn’t been feeling very confident about my voice for a while, when a chance encounter with an older artist, Annette Peacock, happened. She helped change my perspective, and style. She told me I wasn’t singing in my correct range, to modulate it up. She was right and it shifted my perspective on singing. 'Madison' is the first time I felt like I was hearing what I really sounded like, after years of defaulting more towards numerous collaborators who I knew had their voices. It was pretty surreal and I’m really thankful for her advice.”
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END IT - "NEW WAGE SLAVERY" (ft. JUSTICE TRIPP)
Baltimore hardcore band End It have shared the second single off upcoming EP Unpleasant Living (due 7/8 via Flatspot), and it's a pissed-off banger that guitarist Ray Lee says this about: "The growing struggle between the ruling class and common people / citizens that becomes more apparent every day as we get fucked by those in power in this country and in the world in general. Fuck them all, steal their shit." This one also features fellow Baltimore hardcore great Justice Tripp (of Angel Du$t and Trapped Under Ice), and like the previous single, it comes with a truly amazing video.
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ELCAMINO - "MONEY IN THE MATTRESS" (ft. 38 SPESH, prod. HARRY FRAUD)
Buffalo rapper ElCamino is releasing his new project ElCamino 3 on June 24 via Anti Gun Violence Co, and it'll feature this new Harry Fraud-produced song with 38 Spesh.
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BEABADOOBEE - "10:36"
"'10:36' was written after Fake It Flowers and just before Our Extended Play," beabadoobee says, "and I had envisioned it to be on that EP, but I was just sitting on that riff for ages and then I properly made a demo during lockdown. It was called ‘10:36’ because that was the time I finished writing it. It's basically about how I have this weird dependency on human contact to sleep." It's the latest single off her new album, Beatopia, due out next month via Dirty Hit.
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MEAT WAVE - "RIDICULOUS CAR"
Meat Wave have dropped a new sneering dose of noise-punk, and here's what they say about it: "There is a special place in hell for bros who zoom down the expressway weaving through traffic like they’re playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' The reckless endangerment that we are all subjected to because some douchebag installed a spoiler makes my blood boil. Plus, your car looks stupid. When it comes to one’s vices and vanity and ignorance, maybe we’re not too dissimilar from these fucking bros (in other destructive ways). I digress. Ultimately, it’s a ripper."
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BRET MCKENZIE (FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS) - "DAVE'S PLACE"
Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie has shared a second track, "Dave's Place," from his upcoming solo debut, Songs Without Jokes. “Like most of my songs I wrote this one night at home in Wellington while strumming away on my guitar," Bret says. "I then worked with producer Mickey Petralia in L.A. to develop the initial idea. What started off as a three chord country song, came out the other side an eighties Blade Runner, Dire Straits-esque jam. The song is called 'Dave’s Place' after the late Dave Bianco. Dave was an amazing audio engineer I worked with on various occasions in L.A., but he sadly passed away not long before I started making this record. Dave had a studio in the North Hollywood he referred to as 'Dave’s place’. After he passed I finally worked there and this is the track that came out of that session. I sometimes think Dave is watching over this one."
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ONEIDA - "BEAT ME TO THE PUNCH"
“We've been in the woods for a long time, doing very challenging, fucked up and psychotic things and sharing them with the world and expecting people to keep up,” says Oneida drummer Kid Millions. “We honestly did not try to make something more straight ahead but it came out that way.” "Beat Me to the Punch" is straight-ahead and awesome -- at least till the insane guitar solo turns everything to shredded wheat. New album Success is out in August.
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RÖYKSOPP - "SORRY" & "UNITY"
Norwegian dance duo Röyksopp have announced Profound Mysteries II which they say "is a direct continuation" of this year's Profound Mysteries. They add: "Reoccurring themes such as love & loss, despair & reconciliation, is wrapped up in an esoteric nod to those artists and genres that shaped us in our formative years.” You can listen to “Sorry” featuring Jamie Irrepressible, and today, hot on its heels, comes “Unity” featuring Karen Harding.
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TWEN - "FEELING IN LOVE (FROM THE WAIST DOWN)"
Nashville duo Twen will release new album One Stop Shop on July 22. Jane Fitzsimmons and Ian Jones cut a pleasing brand of danceable indie rock on new this new single.
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BLEACHERS - "STOP MAKING THIS HURT" (A.G. COOK REMIX)
PC Music head remixed Bleachers' Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night single "Stop Making This Hurt," giving it a glitchy makeover.
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SHALOM - "BAD TO THE BONE" / "AGNES" (GLASS ANIMALS COVER)
Saddle Creek's latest signee is Shalom, who was born in Maryland, raised in South Africa, and now living in Brooklyn. Her first release for the label is two songs made with producer Ryan Hemsworth, a dose of minimal electronic indie pop called "Bad to the Bone" and a Glass Animals cover.
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BLOODLET - "STEALING FIRE"
Reunited metallic hardcore vets Bloodlet, who are opening part of Darkest Hour's Deliver Us 15th anniversary tour, have dropped a new song that finds them sounding as punishing and lively as ever. Listen at Decibel.
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VIRGIN MOTHER - DIALECT EP
Virgin Mother (aka Seb Alvarez of meth.) is in the process of releasing four EPs, each a different style and each with different collaborators. This one finds Virgin Mother in noise territory.
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MURDER BY DEATH - "EVERYTHING MUST REST"
Murder by Death's new album Spell/Bound comes out July 29 via self-release, and here's the climactic new single "Everything Must Rest."
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SENSES FAIL - "END OF THE WORLD / A GAME OF CHESS" (ft. SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY'S CONNIE SGARBOSSA)
Emo-pop vets Senses Fail's new album Hell Is In Your Head comes out July 15 via Pure Noise, and today the collaboration with SeeYouSpaceCowboy vocalist Connie Sgarbossa has been released. The song stays true to the dark-yet-poppy sounds that Senses Fail have been churning out since the early/mid 2000s, and Connie (who's also in the video) adds in piercing screams.
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LIFE - "THE DRUG"
“The Drug is a love song," says LIFE frontman Mick Green. "I wrote the lyrics in the cold mountains of Italy before taking them into the room with the band. 'The Drug I needed has always been here, the drug I needed has always been near' is, for me, realising that loved ones and those that love you, no matter where you are, can always be present. I'd never really believed this before and whilst this purity is at the lyrical heart of the song musically the band decided to inject flecks of dance, pop, harmonics, and dirty pulses to give the song drive, repetition and jerk-ability.” LIFE's new album, North East Coastal Town, is out August 19 via The Liquid Label.
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SAM PREKOP – “SATURDAY SUNDAY”
The Sea & Cake's Sam Prekop has an album with John McEntire on the way, but he's also just released this lengthy synth composition. "This piece, 'Saturday Sunday,' is presented as a studio journal of sorts, written over the span of two weeks or so, it’s a faithful document, an impression, a contour of my daily practice during this time," says Sam. "Consciously leaving the ambition for the piece absolutely open ended, with intention to follow the work as it evolved. In a sense a protracted improvisation on a micro and macro level, of split seconds and entire days and nights. Hoping to be surprised, perhaps confronted with all of the accumulated choices that add up to making the music. To finish the piece, with hopes to hear it differently than the day before, as if never before, to call it complete."
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HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR – “DISSOCIATION”
“‘Dissociation’ is a song that speaks to the fatigue I have felt brought on by the both the distortion of self and simultaneous fracturing of a coherent, shared, real-time experience of life that technology and specifically, the insidious personal interjection of social media into our lives has produced," says H&LA founder Andy Butler of this very pretty song. "Sung by the delicately emotive voice of Elin Ey, the detachment and increasingly programmed self doubt and mistrust of what we see and read has created a collective need to ‘dissociate’ on some level. As I chime in the chorus, “I am here, I am here, reel me in, reel me in”, the possibility of human intervention seems possible and incredibly comforting.” New album In Amber is out this week via Skint.
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RETIREMENT PARTY - "QUICK TO CHANGE," "BASIC MATH" & "THE THINGS WE DO (TO FEEL ALRIGHT)"
Retirement Party are retiring, but first here's three final songs from the band that find their indie-emo sound in fine form.
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TIM KINSELLA & JENNY PULSE - "BLINDFOLD"
Tim Kinsella (of Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Owls, etc) and Jenny Pulse, who used to be called Good Fuck but now go by their own names, have announced the Gimme Altamont EP, due July 29 via self-release, which comes ahead of their upcoming album Giddy Skelter. The EP's first single is "Blindfold," and in true Tim Kinsella fashion, it's a dose of off-kilter pop that feels intentionally antagonizing.
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TOMBS - "COMMIT SUICIDE" (GG ALLIN COVER)
Tombs' upcoming Ex Oblivion EP has a couple covers, including this caustic rendition of GG Allin's "Commit Suicide."
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MARLON WILLIAMS - "THINKING OF NINA"
New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams is releasing his third solo album, My Boy, on September 9 via Dead Oceans, and he's shared "Thinking of Nina" from it. "This is a song about the dangers of wearing different faces in different places, of waging wars on multiple fronts; of having so many selves as to not be a self at all," Marlon says. "Also at play is the dark phenomenon of White Knight Syndrome; the desire to simplify, infantilise, protect and ultimately commodify an object of desire. The video, imagined and concocted by the exciting duo who make up Sports Team and myself draws on the silliest stylings of the '80s New Wave a la Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ and Duran Duran’s ‘A View To A Kill.'"
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THE BERRIES - "PRIME"
The Berries (aka Matt Berry of Big Bite) has announced his third album, High Flying Man, due August 19 via Run For Cover, and he has shared the slacker rock vibes of "Prime."
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WATKINS FAMILY HOUR - "HYPNOTIZED"
Watkins Family Hour have shared the first taste of their third studio album, Vol. II. "While on tour for our previous record, we heard this Tune-Yards song on the radio and then proceeded to listen to it just about every day after that while driving to the next town,” Sara and Sean Watkins say. “Their version is so beautifully intricate and wild. We knew it would be a challenge, but it became apparent we needed to learn the dang thing ourselves and record it."
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COOL SOUNDS - "Hello, Alright, You Got That?"
Melbourne, Australia’s Cool Sounds will release their debut album, Like That, on October 7 via Chapter Music. Bouncy first single "Hello, Alright, You Got That?" comes with a clever video by director James Morris. Says bandleader Dainis Lacey: “My dad was a fan of that brief period in the early 80s where British punks embraced disco. His uni soccer team sang Ian Dury’s Sex & Drugs & Rock'n'Roll after a win. I searched for a parallel in my own timeline and arrived at 2010-ish indie dance, which holds an equal amount of nostalgia but still stings with the aftertaste of being able to remember too many details from ‘indie club nights’. I think 'Hello, Alright' borrows from both of these memories.”
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PET SHIMMERS – “EDGELORD”
Bristol, UK band make "make extremely online music for extremely online people" but are releasing a physical 7" via Upset the Rhythm but this song, the b-side, is about very online stuff.
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WOMBO - "SNAKEY"
Wombo have shared another very catchy song from their upcoming album Fairy Rust. The band say "Snakey" is about "paranoia and delusion. Someone thinking everyone can see them losing their mind, when really everything is deceptively calm on the outside."
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SANTIGOLD - "AIN'T READY"
Santigold has announced a new album, Spirituals, which will be out September 9 via her own Little Jerk Records. The album features many guests, including Illangelo, Dre Skull, and SBTRKT who are on new single "Ain't Ready."
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FRESH PEPPER - "SEAHORSE TRANQUILIZER"
Fresh Pepper are the gastronomically inclined Canadian duo of singer-songwriter and visual artist Andre Ethier (The Deadly Snakes) and in-demand saxophonist Joseph Shabason. Inspired in part by their experiences working in restaurants, their self-titled debut -- with song titles including "Prep Cook in the Weed," "New Ways to Chop Onions" and "Congee Around Me" -- is out this week via Telephone Explosion. This track features Destroyer's Dan Bejar who delivers such Bejar-esque lines as "guitars floating down the river, they just want to be free."
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SIGH - "MAYONAKA NO KAII"
Japanese avant-garde metal vets Sigh have announced a new album, Shiki, and you can read more about lead single "Mayonaka No Kaii" here.
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KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH - "IS IT ME OR IS IT YOU?"
Experimental artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has announced her new album, Let’s Turn It Into Sound, and you can read more about lead single "Is It Me Or Is It You?" here.
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JON HOPKINS & ANNA - "DEEP IN THE GLOWING HEART (NIGHT VERSION)"
Here's an alternate version of Jon Hopkins' Music For Psychedelic Therapy track, made with ANNA. “I first came across ANNA’s music through her track 'Hidden Beauties', which I found myself playing in DJ sets all the time and always goes down so well," says Jon. "I then asked her to remix 'Singularity' and the results were so amazing I was super keen to work with her again but in a more collaborative way, rather than just handing over stems. We went back and forth a lot and it flowed really well. I love how this one turned out, it’s such a meeting of our two styles.”
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ANTIGAMA - "HOLY HAND"
Polish grind vets Antigama have announced their first album in seven years, Whiteout, and you can read more about new single "Holy Hand" here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive.