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.
THE ARMED - "AN ITERATION"
The Armed's highly anticipated new LP ULTRAPOP arrives 4/16 via Sargent House, and here's the third and final single, "AN ITERATION." It's another great example of the band's chaotic, genre-less, "anti-punk" sound, and it comes with a video featuring a voiceover by David Hayter, the voice behind Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series.
The Armed's Dan Greene says, "The story of Metal Gear Solid 2--which seemed like convoluted, impenetrable nonsense when we were kids--has turned out to be disturbingly prescient of society in 2021. I would argue that this video game raised more interesting artistic and philosophical questions than a lot of 'higher art,' and much earlier too. We are beyond honored to see David Hayter take on the role of Dan Greene within The Armed Cinematic Universe."
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POND - "PINK LUNETTES"
Pond are back with new single "Pink Lunettes" which is by far the danciest thing they've ever released, like something out of Miami Vice in 1987. “I think we managed to jitter along the neon tightrope between totally unhinged, strobing spontaneity and focused forward momentum,” says frontman Nick Allbook.
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CHAI - "Nobody Knows We Are Fun"
Anybody who has seen CHAI live or even just listened to their music knows they are fun. In this case, the Japanese band are taking inspiration from the film Booksmart and describe it as "“a mix of screaming our annoyances — why don’t you guys notice us! — while trying to be cute and sexy.” The video is also fun. New album WINK is out May 21 via Sub Pop.
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81355 - "CAPSTONE"
Indianapolis alternative hip hop group 81355 (pronounced "bless") is the trio of Sirius Blvck, Oreo Jones, and David Adamson aka Sedcairn Archives, and they'll release their debut album This Time I'll Be of Use on May 28 via Justin Vernon and Aaron & Bryce Dessner's 37d03d label. Lead single "Capstone" finds them putting an off-kilter spin on Future/Weeknd-style atmospheric R&B.
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DEAD HISTORY - "SLEEP SAFE"
Dead History is a Minneapolis emo/post-hardcore band with members who have played in Gratitude, Justin Courtney Pierre's band, Picturesque, Align, Reach, Floodplain, Story of the Sea, BNLX, The Book of Dead Names, Sunday Flood, Attention, and more, and according to Stereogum, the band actually originally formed and recorded music back in 2000, but they abandoned the project and are only just now releasing an album, which is self-titled and due June 11 via Landland Colportage. The first single is the roaring, anthemic "Sleep Safe," and if you dig the '90s emo/post-hardcore scene that these musicians came from, you'll dig this.
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SON LUX - "VACANCY" (FT. KIAH VICTORIA)
Son Lux's new album Tomorrows III, the final part of a three-part series, is due out April 16 via City Slang, and the latest single is "Vacancy," which features Kiah Victoria. Her vocals soar over the spacey, distorted track.
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NAOMI COWAN - "ENERGY"
Naomi Cowan has been one of the brightest new voices in reggae for the past few years, and today she released her first new single of 2021, "Energy." With modern, hip hop-inspired production from IzyBeats, it's a lively, futuristic song that leaves us wanting more.
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STEVEN WILSON - "PERSONAL SHOPPER" (NILE RODGERS REMIX)
Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson released new album The Future Bites earlier this year and he's handed over single "Personal Shopper" to the great Nile Rodgers for a remix. "You can probably tell from 'Personal Shopper' that I grew up hearing a lot of disco music played in the Wilson house, including the classic Chic masterpieces, so it’s an absolute thrill to have Nile stamp his legendary signature sound on the track."
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PINC LOUDS - "TAMARINDO"
There hasn't been much live music in the last year thanks to the pandemic but in NYC's Tompkins Square Park, acoustic punks Pinc Louds have performed more Wednesdays than not, recalling Violent Femmes and Moldy Peaches and often accompanied by subway train puppets and giant rats. An album's due this summer and infectious new single "Tamarindo" is out next week, but you can watch the video now.
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HALF WAIF - "TAKE AWAY THE ACHE"
"This is a song about the paradoxes of loving," Nandi Rose says of her new single as Half Waif. "How we ask the impossible of each other, how we promise what we can’t give. But I don’t mean this cynically - I actually find it quite remarkable. It’s kind of an incredible feat of imagination and will, the way we help each other transform our darkest moments into something bearable, like a game of make-believe. 'It’s not an ache,' you might say, 'it’s an ember.' And so together we stay warm by the fire of what we’ve created, lit by a sweet lie that makes it all okay for a while. To love is to believe in a kind of magic."
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JESUSLESFILLES - “TROISIÈME SEMAINE”
Gnarly Montreal garage rockers Jesuslesfilles will release L’heure idéale, their fourth album, on June 18 via Duprince records. The first single "Troisième semaine" snarls with a little post-punk spaghetti western attitude and comes with a cool stop-motion animated video made by Philippe Beauséjour.
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MOUNTAIN MOVERS - "WAY BACK TO THE WORLD"
New Haven band Mountain Movers are back with new album World What World which will be out June 18 via Trouble in Mind. "In 2018, I wrote five separate songs called 'Way Back To The World' (some with lyrics/ some instrumental) about how the effort to get away from the world needed to be matched by an effort to return to it," says guitarist and songwriter Dan Greene of the album's first single. "The first verse talks about how temporary life is, while the second talks about how deceptive space and time can be. This song— like others on our new record—seem to have a direct connection to the pandemic, but all of the lyrics were written before the pandemic started."
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JAYWOOD - "SOME DAYS"
Winnipeg, Manitoba's Jeremy Haywood-Smith records as JayWood and will release the Some Days EP on April 23 via Royal Mountain (Canada) and Captured Tracks (US). The songs apparently started as "sad jangle-pop" but then evolved into more Unknown Mortal Orchestra type grooves. Check out the title track.
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GONG GONG GONG 工工工 - “SOME KIND OF DEMON 某一種惡魔 (YU SU MIDNIGHT EXPRESS DUB)"
Bejiing duo Gong Gong Gong made their debut album Phantom Rhythm live to reel-to-reel with just guitar and bass and vocals. For a completely different experience, they've handed the album over to other musicians to remix, including Yu Su (Vancouver/Kaifeng), Zaliva-D, Simon Frank, Howie Lee (Beijing), Mong Tong, Scattered Purgatory (Taipei), Knopha (Xiamen), Wu Zhuoling (Chengdu), Angel Wei (Copenhagen), and P.E. (Brooklyn). The Yu Su remix of "Some Kind of Demon" turns the track into groovy psychedelic trance disco.
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PEACE FLAG ENSEMBLE - "HUMAN PYRAMID"
Canadian experimental jazz collective Peace Flag Ensemble will release their debut album, Noteland, on June 18 via We Are Busy Bodies, and cite influences like Keith Jarrett and Mark Hollis. “Peace Flag Ensemble is the sum of its parts. Everyone leaned into their own intuition and inspiration. I think that kept us from limiting possibilities," says the group's Michael Scott Dawson. “Sometimes that means a saxophone is reduced to just the crackle of a spit valve, sometimes it’s blurred into pastoral ambiance, and sometimes… well, sometimes it’s just a saxophone.” Check out first single "Human Pyramid."
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L'RAIN - "TWO FACE"
Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek has announced her second album as L'Rain, Fatigue, due out June 25 via Mexican Summer. Along with the announcement, she shared the jazzy avant-pop of "Two Face."
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TENUE - "TERRITORIOS"
Spanish band Tenue have followed their 2018 LP Anábasis with a 30-minute, one-track album "Territorios," which finds the band trekking through screamo, post-metal, crust punk, and more. It's a towering, intense piece of music, and it all flows together perfectly. It's out now via The Plague of Man Records, Zegema Beach, Crust Or Die, Pifia, LongLegsLongArms, and Alerta Antifascista.
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DINOSAUR JR - "GARDEN"
Dinosaur Jr have shared a second single, "Garden," from their upcoming album Sweep It Into Space. It's a first for the band -- a Lou song as an album single -- and is a real heart-full anthem, born out of the confusion that was 2020.
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SPENCER KRUG (WOLF PARADE) - "FADING GRAFFITI"
Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug has announced new solo album Fading Graffiti which will be out April 16 via his own helpfully named label, Pronounced Kroog. His first album released under his own name, it takes songs that originated as piano ballads on Krug's Patreon in 2019 and recontextualizes them as indie rock. Stream the title track.
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BOBBY GILLESPIE & JEHNNY BETH - "REMEMBER WE WERE LOVERS"
Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Savages' Jehnny Beth are releasing a collaborative album, Utopian Ashes, which will be out July 2 via Third Man. It's a concept album about "the loss, miscommunication and emotional inarticulacy that a married couple experience as they realize that their relationship is breaking down."
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SOHN - "SONG TO THE SIREN" (TIM BUCKLEY COVER
From 4AD's 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues, SOHN does a double cover, taking on This Mortal Coil's iconic, Liz Fraser-powered version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and doing so in a very reverential manner.
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BECKY & THE BIRDS - "THE WOLVES (ACT I AND II)" (BON IVER COVER)
From 4AD's 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues, Becky and the Birds perform a lovely, ethereal rendition of Bon Iver's "The Wolves (Act I and II)."
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EX:RE - "MISERY IS A BUTTERFLY" (BLONDE REDHEAD COVER)
From 4AD's 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues, Ex:Re put a chilled out spin on Blonde Redhead's "Misery is a Butterfly."
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BIG THIEF - "OFF YOU" (THE BREEDERS COVER)
From 4AD's 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues, Big Thief deliver a delicate take of The Breeders' Title TK song "Off You" that is just fantastic.
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JOHANNA SAMUELS - "ALL IS FINE"
Following the twangy first single High Tide for One," Los Angeles singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels has announced her debut LP, Excelsior!, due out MAy 14 via Mama Bird Recording Co. Now she's sharing "All is Fine," about which she says, "I wrote this in one sitting at 3am. It’s about a common human conflict I was exploring during the writing of this record. I felt a bit heartbroken by people not wanting to hear each other out. It sometimes felt that, if there’s any snag in the smoothness of dynamic in a relationship, I was finding it more and more common that people had no interest in truly understanding both experiences. We’ve grown accustomed to a binary. Right or wrong. Convenient for me or inconvenient. In or out. You’re somewhat powerless after someone creates a wall of protection around their inner structures that harshly. Romantic relationships, friendships, politically, communally… I noticed it everywhere. There’s only so much one can do to get through to an uninterested party. All has to be fine and you have to move on."
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ROLLIN' COFFIN (VISION OF DISORDER) - "RUNAWAY"
Vision of Disorder frontman Tim Williams has started a new grunge band, Rollin' Coffin, and their first single is "Runaway." Read more about it here.
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SWIM CAMP - "STUPID THING"
Philly slowcore musician Swim Camp (aka Tom Morris) is releasing a new 7" on Know Hope Records in May, and you can read more about the A-side "Stupid Thing" here.
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NICOLE DOLLANGANGER - "WHISPERING GLADES"
Nicole Dollanganger features on 100 gecs' 2020 remix album, but other than that we hadn't heard from her since her 2018 album Heart Shaped Bed. She's now shared a new single, "Whispering Glades," which is cutting but understated, with chamber pop flourishes.
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GIVEAWAY - "MIDNIGHT COMA"
While Bay Area emo band Giveaway were in the process of recording their new EP Midnight Coma, vocalist Sam Zavala tragically passed away from a car accident. What he left behind was an offering of atmospheric, anthemic emo that deserves to be heard, and the band will be giving the EP a release on April 23. You can read more about the new title track and its video here.
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END ON END - PROMO '21
LA hardcore band End On End have a new EP on the way, but first they've released this promo with two new songs and a Step Forward cover. You can read more about it here.
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WESTIDE GUNN - "JULIA LANG" & "TV BOY"
Westside Gunn is releasing Sincerely Adolf #HWH8 -- which will be the final tape of his Hitler Wears Hermes series -- this year, and he's just put out two songs from it. You can read more about them here.
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SQUIRREL FLOWER - "HURT A FLY"
Squirrel Flower shared the first single off her upcoming sophomore album for Polyvinyl, Planet (i).
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.