Newport Folk Festival 2018 - Saturday
Courtney Barnett at Newport Folk Fest 2018 (more by P Squared)

18 New Songs Out Today

So many artists, so little time. Each week we review five 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, show recaps, track premieres, and more all day. That includes a lot of tour announcements, a list of tonight’s NYC shows, and NY shows that just went on sale. We publish a monthly playlist of some of our favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place…

PRIVATE LIFE (mem THIS WILL DESTROY YOU) – SILENT PARTNER (ALBUM STREAM)

Private Life is the collaboration between This Will Destroy You guitarist Christopher Royal King and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Sam Chown (of fellow Austin band Shmu), and they’re releasing their debut album Silent Partner this Friday (8/17) via Dark Operative Digital (pre-order). The album combines apeshit drumming, psychedelic synths, blasts of metallic fury, crazy Battles-esque math rock, weird avant-garde noise stuff, and glistening dream pop. It’s all over the place, and it comes together in a way that really works. We’re premiering the full album stream:

COURTNEY BARNETT – “HOUSES”

Courtney Barnett has been on tour in support of her May release Tell Me How You Really Feel for much of the year, but she and her band stopped in Spotify’s NYC studios to record a session for the Spotify Singles series a few months ago. Along with a version of Tell Me track “Charity,” they also covered Elyse Weinberg’s “Houses.” Courtney’s version lacks the blistering guitar Neil Young brought to the 1968 original, but it is full of laid-back, singalong charm.

FATHER JOHN MISTY – “EVERYTHING IS FREE” & “GOD’S FAVORITE CUSTOMER” (SYNTHPOP VERSION)

Father John Misty has also taken part in the Spotify Singles series and is offering up two tracks: a slightly gothy synthpop take on “Mr. Tillman” from this year’s God’s Favorite Customer, and a lovely acoustic cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything is Free.”

MUDHONEY – “KILL YOURSELF LIVE”

Seattle rock vets Mudhoney’s new album, Digital Garbage, is out September 28 and finds the band addressing the screen-addicted world we live in. “Kill Yourself Live,” which is the song from which the album title derives, is an indictment of our need for “likes.” “You’ll never be more famous” snarls Mark Arm, who then offers suggestions like “add some bunny ears” for making the act even more popular, all set to an organ-fueled, Nuggets-like tune.

CONNAN MOCKASIN – “CON CONN WAS IMPATIENT”

Connan Mockasin’s new album, Jassbusters, will be out October 12 and is the musical accompaniment to his new film Bostyn ‘n Dobsyn. The film’s about a high school jazz teacher and the album is supposed to be the songs of the jazz band in the film. The record is his first with a full band and they just released the first single “Con Conn Was Impatient,” a silky smooth number that recalls, musically, Al Green (in a Connan Mockasin kind of way). Listen to that in this video that also features a clip from Bostyn ‘n Dobsyn:

JOYCE MANOR – “THINK I’M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU”

Joyce Manor have shared the second single from their Kurt Ballou-produced fifth album, Million Dollars To Kill Me (due 9/21 via Epitaph). “Think I’m Still In Love With You” is another of the band’s no-frills, under-three-minutes rippers and another example of their knack for combining driving punk with sugar-sweet indie pop. The Christopher Good-directed video follows frontman Barry Johnson through scenes that look straight out of a coming-of-age romantic comedy, and his bandmates make brief cameos too.

THE 1975 – “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”

Overly ambitious alt-pop band The 1975 are gearing up to release a new album this year (and they already revealed plans for an album in 2019 too), and the latest single is “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME.” This one’s full of tasteful auto-tune, and it’s nothing like any of the other recent singles (which are also all very different from each other). It’s anyone’s guess as to how this album will come out overall, and so far it’s been very interesting to watch the band roll it all out.

SOB X RBE – “VIBES”

Vallejo’s SOB x RBE are one of the most exciting new-ish rap groups around, thanks to both their standout track on Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther album and their own great 2018 album Gangin. They’ve already announced a followup/sequel to that album, Gangin II, which is “arriving soon.” The first single is “Vibes,” which instantly sounds as high-energy as the best moments of the first Gangin album. It’s keeping our hopes high for part 2.

JUSTUS PROFFIT & JAY SOM – “NOTHING’S CHANGED”

One of our favorite new(ish) artists of last year, Jay Som, is following her excellent 2017 release Everybody Works with a collaborative project with Los Angeles musician Justus Proffit. Nothing’s Changed comes out on September 28 via Polyvinyl, and they’ve shared its title track. The song is peppered with touches of laid-back melancholy reminiscent of Elliott Smith, and it closes with an unexpectedly jaunty horn passage that leaves a lasting impression.

PAUL MCCARTNEY – “FUH YOU”

“There you go – fuh you.” – Sir Paul McCartney. His new album’s out in September which you can read more about HERE.

DEATH VALLEY GIRLS – “DISASTER (IS WHAT WE’RE AFTER)”

The new Death Valley Girls single is very Stooges, so they got Iggy Pop to recreate an Andy Warhol short for its video — more on that HERE.

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE – “D.O.U.B.L.E.U.R.O.N.G.”

Atmospheric indie rockers Spirit of the Beehive are streaming a new single off their upcoming Hypnic Jerks, and we wrote more about it HERE.

PILE – “CUP”

Post-hardcore-ish indie rockers Pile (who are touring with the above-mentioned Spirit of the Beehive) are streaming “Cup” off their new Odds and Ends comp, and we wrote more about it HERE.

FUCKED UP – “NORMAL PEOPLE”

Fucked Up let loose a third song from their upcoming double album, and we wrote more about it HERE.

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT – “JUST LIE DOWN”

Recent Saddle Creek signing Black Belt Eagle Scout is streaming a second song from her debut album (which was released last year but pulled offline), and we wrote about it HERE.

CAT POWER – “WOMAN” (FT. LANA DEL REY)

Cat Power shared the Lana Del Rey collab from her anticipated new album Wanderer, which we wrote more about HERE.