Drew Citron
Drew Citron

26 New Songs Out Today

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 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.

OLD 97’S – “BOTTLE ROCKET BABY”

Alt-country greats Old 97’s release their 12th album next week and here’s one last early taste. “Bottle Rocket Baby” kicks up a fair amount of dust while looking back at the band’s 30 year history.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM – “LEGAL GHOST”

“This is the first song I ever wrote that I thought was actually a decent song,” says Gareth Liddiard of simmering “Legal Ghost” which is the a-side of his band’s new single. “Everything before it was kinda a big tantrum, but this song had a touch of class. When I was putting together the Bong Odyssey [demos] record a few years ago, I heard it again and thought this was something that could work really well with TFS, although the original was really cool, it still sounded more like a sketch of a song, and wasn’t quite fully realized, so I took the song to TFS and we fleshed it out a bit.” The “Legal Ghost” 7″ will be out September 11 via Joyful Noise.

HIGH CONTRAST – “TIME IS HARDCORE” (FEAT. KAE TEMPEST & ANITA BLAY)

Welsh drum n’ bass maestro High Contrast is back with this appealing new single featuring Kae Tempest and singer Anita Blay. Tempest’s rapid-fire flow is impressive as usual, and sounds great over High Contrast’s skittering beats. You might have trouble keeping up but that’s where this lyric video comes in.

DREW CITRON (BEVERLY / PUBLIC PRACTICE) – “SUMMERTIME”

Drew Citron, of Beverly and Public Practice, has announced her debut solo album, Free Now, which will be out October 9 via Park the Van. The record features appearances from Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian), Tim Wheeler (Ash), her Beverly/Public Practice bandmate Scott Rosenthal, producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile) and Danny Taylor. The first single is the very dreamy “Summertime” that comes with a very stylish video that pays tribute to Abel Ferrara’s classic gangster drama King of New York.

KNOT – “HORSE TROTTING, THE FEET NOT TOUCHING THE GROUND”

All three members of Krill reunited, and were joined by guitarist Joe DeManuelle-Hall, to form Knot, and their self-titled debut is due out later this month via Exploding in Sound. New single “Horse Trotting, The Feet Not Touching the Ground,” which sounds like classic, crunchy indie rock, is about when the band saw the sculpture of the same name in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

CROSS RECORD – “TRUE LOVE WILL FIND YOU IN THE END” (DANIEL JOHNSTON COVER)

Cross Record, aka Emily Cross (also of Loma), has recorded a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End” as a thank-you to a “kind patron.” It’s ghostly and ethereal and brings a new magic to the classic.

EMMY THE GREAT – “MARY”

Emmy the Great will release new album April /月音 on October 9 via Bella Union. She made it in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at studio The Creamery in 2018 and then took a year off for maternity leave. “Mary is named for a Hong Kong fortune teller I met in Kowloon, who gave me the wrong fortune when I mixed up my Cantonese words,” Emmy ways of the album’s first single. “It was written in 2017, when I wandered Hong Kong’s neon-lit streets looking to explore my relationship with the city of my birth, unaware that this was the last moment of calm before the city changed beyond recognition with the protests that began in the summer of 2019. Maybe that’s why the song is about a fortune teller who can’t tell the future. The song was later recorded in Brooklyn, with Jo Lampert, my friend and an astonishing singer who played the lead in David Byrne’s Joan of Arc, as ‘Mary’.”

LIA ICES – “HYMN”

Singer-songwriter Lia Ices is back with her first new music in six years. “‘Hymn’ touches on my relationship with the muse’, or spirituality, or love — how I receive inspiration and give it back via the magic and mystery of the creative process, exposing both my introverted and extroverted self to the listener— which both exist as highly charged opposites in my art and personality,” Lia says. “My good friend and director, Conor Hagen shot the accompanying video over the course of 9 months on super 8 film, while my band and I played shows up and down California and the pacific northwest last year. Playing music with others and for others is a ritual, there is an alchemy between band members, between audience and performer, between filmmaker and subject that is so powerful and humanly enriching and I am so grateful to have captured those moments. I realize now more than ever, that the magic of performance with the gift of music is my life source. And with the future of live shows being so unknown, this song and video are a bittersweet celebration of it all and a kind of intention setting of what I’ll be ready to return to.”

GREGOR – “THE ROCK”

Australian indie pop singer Gregor will release new album, Destiny, on November 13 via Chapter Music. The first single is the album’s opening track, “The Rock (and the Stars),” a pretty dose of astral pop. ” I was searching for the simplest metaphors for self-reflection I could find, that still satisfied my desire for natural imagery and expressed the strong feelings I have that everything is connected,” Gregor says. “More specifically, this song is about taking a moment to consider the change that has occurred in your life since the last time you took such a moment, and recognising this gesture itself as the thread that connects you to yourself, irrespective of time and circumstance.”

MARIE DAVIDSON & L’ŒIL NU – “RENEGADE BREAKDOWN”

French trio Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu, which includes Marie and Pierre Guerineau of group Essaie Pas, will release new album “Renegade Breakdown” on September 25 via Ninja Tune. “We wanted to make songs, like the music we’ve been enjoying altogether for more than a decade,” says Marie. If the funky title track is any indication, that means sleek ’80s music.

BULLY – “PRISM”

We’re just one week away from the release of grunge revivalist Bully’s anticipated new album SUGAREGG (due 8/21 via Sub Pop), and here’s another single. It’s more of a slow-burner, and it’s got an explosive chorus.

THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION – “HOUNDS OF HELL” (ft. NADIA REID)

Long-running New Zealand band will release their first album in five years, Friend Ship, on October 16 via Memphis Industries, and new single “Hounds of Hell” is a dose of breezy, lightly psychedelic indie folk that finds the band duetting with fellow New Zealander Nadia Reid (who also released a great album this year). It follows recent single “Tranquility,” which features Tiny Ruins’ Hollie Fullbrook.

PEACHES – “FLIP THIS”

Peaches is back with a high-octane new single, “Flip This.” “This song is about me waking myself up and getting active,” she says.

WAYFARER – “THE IRON HORSE (GALLOWS FRONTIER, ACT II)”

Denver black metallers Wayfarer are following 2018’s very good World’s Blood with A Romance With Violence on October 16 via Profound Lore. The album was recorded by Pete DeBoer (Blood Incantation, Dreadnought) and mixed by Colin Marston (of Krallice, Gorguts, etc), and the first single is the triumphantly heavy “The Iron Horse (Gallows Frontier, Act II).”

MÖRK GRYNING – “FÄLTHERREN”

Swedish black metal vets Mörk Gryning have announced their first album in 15 years, Hinsides Vrede, due October 23 via Season of Mist. First single “Fältherren” is out now, and it’s a total whiplash, but melodic too.

RUN RIVER NORTH – “CEMETERY”

Run River North follow recent single “Pretty Lies” with “Cemetery,” a nice offering of subdued indie folk that fans of anything from Rilo Kiley to Phoebe Bridgers might dig.

SA-ROC – “DELIVERANCE”

Sa-Roc releases her new album The Sharecropper’s Daughter on October 2 via Rhymesayers, and new single “Deliverance” finds her dishing out tastefully motormouthed raps over psychedelic production.

GET DEAD – “DISRUPTION”

Bay Area punks Get Dead are releasing their new album Dancing with the Curse on October 9 via Fat Wreck Chords, and new single “Disruption” is dubby punk rock that fans of The Clash and Rancid might wanna check out.

BUDDY – “AIN’T SWEET” (ft. MATT OX)

Compton rapper Buddy has released a string of solid singles this year, and here’s another one. It’s melodic and lively and Buddy is in fine form on it.

BLUE HAWAII – “I FELT LOVE”

Raphaelle Standell-Preston recently released a new album with Braids, Shadow Offering, and now she’s working on more new music as Blue Hawaii, her duo with Alex “Agor” Kerby. They’ve announced a new mixtape, Under 1 House, due out September 25 via Arbutus Records, and the first single is “I Felt Love,” which they say “describes the difficulty of trying to communicate over the phone with a lover, in an airport drowned out by the loud background noise. It has a special context in the post-corona world, where we have had the opportunity to tune out distractions, dig deeper, and discover what is important to us. The arrangement features a relentless electro baseline with dubby breaks driving forward a soothing piano/synth progression.”

BARTEES STRANGE – “BOOMER”

Genre-defying artist Bartees Strange’s anticipated debut album Live Forever comes out 10/2 via Will Yip’s Memory Music label, and new single “Boomer” successfully blends art rock, hip hop, and emo. Read more about it here.

THE JAPANESE HOUSE – “DIONNE” (ft. BON IVER’s JUSTIN VERNON)

Dirty Hit artist The Japanese House dropped a new EP today, including this song featuring Justin Vernon. Read more here.

DROPDEAD – “FLESH AND BLOOD”

Providence hardcore/powerviolence vets Dropdead will release their first album in 22 years next month, and you can read more about this ripper of a new single here.

RESERVING DIRTNAPS – “BLOOD ON THE WALLS” (ft. QUEENSWAY’s PATRIC GARDNER)

Memphis hardcore up and comers Reserving Dirtnaps are prepping their first EP for Andrew Kline’s (Strife, World Be Free, Berthold City) WAR Records and it includes this collaboration with Queensway vocalist Patric Gardner. Read more here.

FUTURE ISLANDS – “THRILL”

It’s the new single from Future Islands’ upcoming sixth album, Long as You Are.

KEATON HENSON – “PRAYER”

British singer and songwriter Keaton Henson announced his first album since 2016, Monument, and shared fragile new single “Prayer,” which we wrote more about here.

Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive and check out today’s round up of Bandcamp releases.