Liv.e

27 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.

UNREAL CITY – “WAR BEHIND BARS”

Pittsburgh hardcore maniacs Unreal City will release Cruelty of Heaven, the long-awaited followup to their 2007 debut Ephemeral Subsistence, on August 21 via Closed Casket Activities. In the time since that album, vocalist Joseph Sanderson has been busy fronting Eternal Sleep, who are also a great band, but it’s great to hear him once again barking over the Slayer-ish riffs of Robert Orr (who used to be Integrity), as he does on Cruelty of Heaven‘s killer lead single “War Behind Bars.”

ALL PIGS MUST DIE – “DEEP SLEEP” (POISON IDEA COVER)

During the sessions for 2017’s Hostage Animal, Boston metallic hardcore supergroup All Pigs Must Die (members of Converge, The Hope Conspiracy, American Nightmare, Trap Them, etc) recorded a crisp, brutal cover of Poison Idea’s “Deep Sleep” from 1990’s Feel the Darkness (one of the albums with drummer Steve “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford, who sadly passed away earlier this year) and released it as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Hostage Animal. Now they’ve finally given it a digital release too.

JON HASSELL – “UNKNOWN WISH”

Trumpeter and experimental musician Jon Hassell will release new album Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two) on July 24 and here’s an appetizer into his latest trip to the “fourth world.” “Unknown Wish” is one of the LP’s tracks he sent to friend and collaborator Brian Eno to listen to, and Eno wrote back “What an amazing piece! In less than three minutes it put me into a new and different place. This seems like a whole new direction for you. It really is one of the most mysterious, seductive and enchanting things you’ve ever done. Never heard anything at all like it.”

LIV.E – “I BEEN LIVIN”

LA-via-Dallas artist (and Earl Sweatshirt collaborator) Liv.e will release her new album Couldn’t Wait To Tell You… on July 31 via In Real Life, and its new single “I Been Livin” is an excellent offering of warped, dusty, psychedelic neo-soul.

DENAI MOORE – MODERN DREAD + “FAKE SORRY” video

British-Jamaican artist Denai Moore is fresh off releasing her new album Modern Dread and a video for its song “Fake Sorry.” If you like the art pop of Bjork and Kelela or the pounding beats of SBTRKT (who Denai has collaborated with), this is worth checking out.

BENNY THE BUTCHER – “DEAL OR NO DEAL”

Benny the Butcher has been on a roll this year with killer guest verses, and now he’s back with his own new single. Daringer’s beat on “Deal Or No Deal” is ever so slightly glossier than you might expect from Benny, but his rhymes are as gritty as ever and this song suggests Benny is only getting better.

DANIEL BLUMBERG (EX-YUCK) – “BOUND,” “SILENCE BREAKER,” and “ON&ON&ON&ON”

Former Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg will release new solo album On&On on July 31 via Mute and has just shared three songs from the record. “Bound” is the poppiest of the three, with a spare, spacious and organic sound, while “Silence Breaker” and “On&On&On&On” are more ambient compositions.

TEENAGE HALLOWEEN – “STATIONARY”

Asbury Park punks Teenage Halloween will release their debut self-titled LP on September 18 via Don Giovanni and along with the announcement comes new single “Stationary,” a gravelly but melodic punk anthem that’s somewhere in the ballpark of Restorations and The Lawrence Arms. Via press release: “Predominantly a queer-identifying band, the songs reflect that experience holistically with lyrics that grapple with vulnerability, community, extreme existentialism, mental illness, and gender euphoria.”

IDLE HANDS – “IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER” & “PUPPY LOVE”

Portland metal-friendly goth rockers Idle Hands have put out a new single featuring two songs that they wrote in late 2017, started recording in early 2018, and then abandoned for two years until finally finishing them earlier this year. Both are as driving and catchy and morose as you’d hope for from this band, and there’s no lack of delightfully flashy riffage either. Read more here.

BENT SEA – “SYCOPHANT LEGIONS”

Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren has released a new song by his grind project Bent Sea, and this one features Feastem vocalist Petri Eskelinen and Nasum bassist Jesper Liveröd. It’s a scorcher.

DIRTY GHOSTS – “STRANGE WEATHER”

Allyson Baker, who has collaborated with !!!, Aesop Rock, Dwarves and others, has been making music for most of this decade as Dirty Ghosts. They just released this new dark, danceable single that features contributions from Raven Mahon (Grass Widow) and Kelley Stoltz.

UNI – “DEBRIS”

Uni, the darkly glam trio featuring Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger), are back with this new single and video that leans heavy on goth textures and imagery. “‘Debris’ is about a post apocalyptic cult, embracing the manifesto of “Mutate or Die”, and using the metaphor of the end of the world for the end of a relationship,” says Kemp Muhl. “Right after we filmed it there were pandemics and riots, so it felt eerily premonitory of the despair and destruction of western civilization getting it’s comeuppance, but also about the phoenix of a better future rising from the ashes.”

GRAHAM REYNOLDS – “THE LODGER”

Graham Reynolds, of The Golden Arm Trio, has composed a new score for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film The Lodger. It’s part of Fire Records’ re-imagined scores series and you can listen to the main theme, which is playfully sinister and modern.

HALF WAIF – “MURPHY BED” (MIRAH COVER)

Following the release of her new album The Caretaker back in March, Half Waif is contributing a cover to the 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of Mirah’s You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This. She transforms “Murphy Bed” with layers of synths, and says, “It was a huge honor to record a cover for the legendary Mirah in celebration of this 20th anniversary reissue. I chose ‘Murphy Bed’ because I could immediately hear the chorus being reimagined as a more choral-focused arrangement. There’s also something obviously sensual about this song lyrically, so I wanted to play that up with the slow backbeat and just have some fun with it. I’m really grateful to Mirah for her fearless songwriting, and I loved getting to interpret that with my own arrangement.”

EMMA SWIFT – “QUEEN JANE APPROXIMATELY” (BOB DYLAN COVER)

Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift, who some may know from her collaborations with Robyn Hitchcock, is releasing Blonde on the Tracks, a tribute to Bob Dylan, on August 14. “I’ve never been a prolific writer, but this period was especially wordless. Sad, listless and desperate, I began singing Bob Dylan songs as a way to have something to wake up for. Interpreting other people’s emotions is how I learned to sing and I’ve always enjoyed hearing Dylan’s songs from a female perspective. You can learn a lot about melody and feeling by the way a singer chooses to interpret someone else’s song. You can learn alot about words by singing someone else’s. I’m very influenced by singers like Sandy Denny, Joan Baez, Billie Holiday, Sinead O’Connor. There’s an art to interpretation, and for me, these women are the masters. I’m as indebted to them on this record as I am to Bob Dylan.” She’s just shared her very lovely take on Highway 61 Revisited track “Queen Jane Approximately.”

KATIE DEY – “HAPPINESS”

Australian musician Katie Dey is releasing a new album, mydata, on July 24 via Run for Cover, and the latest single is “Happiness,” which channels sounds both orchestral and glitchy. “This is a song about wanting love and wanting love for others and struggling with all that comes with that,” Dey says. “Or trying to understand what it is I even mean when I say I ‘want love’… who am I to want love? Nobody. Just some transgendered lady with a piano. A story as old as time.”

2 CHAINZ – “DEVIL JUST TRYING TO BE SEEN” (ft. SKOOLY)

2 Chainz and frequent collaborator Skooly are back with a new song that finds them in raw, dark, in-your-face territory.

EMMY THE GREAT – “DANDELIONS/LIMINAL”

Emmy the Great is back with her first LP since 2016’s Second Love. April / 月音 is due out on October 9 via Bella Union, and it was inspired by returning to the city of her birth, Hong Kong, and falling in love with it again. “I’ll never know why the city called me back, but I know what it gave me,” Emmy says. “In return, I want to give it this album. That Mid-Autumn, nobody could have predicted what was to come, neither the atomisation that began with the anti-Extradition Law protests in June 2019, nor the struggle for democracy that continues now, through the Covid-19 pandemic.” The first single is the whimsical “Dandelions/Liminal.”

ANJIMILE – “MAKER”

Boston-based songwriter and musician Anjimile has signed to Father/Daughter Records for their debut LP, Giver Taker, due out on September 18. The first single incorporates folk and chamber pop, and about it, Anjimile says, “This song relates to me coming to terms with my transgender identity, ruminating on the lack of acceptance from my parents, and kind of relating my transness to the father/son/holy ghost trinity.”

STANDING ON THE CORNER – “G-E-T-O-U-T!! THE GHETTO”

Genre-defying NYC ensemble Standing on the Corner are back with a new multi-part single that you can read more about here.

SVALBARD – “OPEN WOUND”

UK post-hardcore greats Svalbard announced a new album, When I Die, Will I Get Better?, and the powerful lead single “Open Wound” finds the band in more atmospheric territory than usual. Read more here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B7wLmw9b7U&feature=emb_title

SPYLACOPA – “BABY BITCH” (WEEN COVER)

Candiria offshoot Spylacopa released a cover of Ween’s “Baby Bitch” to benefit The Innocence Project. Read more about it here.

BEACH SLANG – covers of ELLIOTT SMITH, SEBADOH, THE SMITHS, J MASCIS, SUFJAN, BRIGHT EYES, more

On Beach Slang Ruins Everyone He Loves, James Alex does stripped-down, lo-fi solo covers of a pretty amazing selection of songs.

GUIDED BY VOICES – “HAIRCUT SPHINX”

Guided by Voices have announced Mirrored Aztec which will be out August 21 via Rockathon Records. It is the band’s 30th studio album which is a massive milestone, while still begging the question “I thought there were more?” Regardless, first single “Haircut Sphinx” is another from Bob Pollard’s deep well of catchy, anthemic rockers.

MATT BERRY – “SOMETHING IN MY EYE”

Matt Berry, who you might know as Laszlo on FX’s What We Do in the Shadows (and from The IT Crowd, Toast of London, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, and many other funny shows), is also a very talented musician and songwriter, and has just announced his new album, Phantom Birds, which will be out September 18.

WYE OAK – “AEIOU”

A couple years back, North Carolina duo Wye Oak played a show with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus here in NYC. They’re now releasing a new EP, No Horizon, that features the BYC and will be out July 31 via Merge. Here’s the first single.

MATMOS – “NO CONCEPT”

Matmos’ new album features 99 contributors, all playing at 99 beats per minute. Not all at the same time, though. Guests include Yo La Tengo, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mouse on Mars, clipping, Max Tundra, JG Thirlwell, Colin Self, Giant Swan, Marisa Anderson, Matthew Herbert, Kate Soper, Jennifer Walshe, David Grubbs (Squirrel Bait, Gastr del Sol), members of Pig Destroyer, Sutekh Hexen and Locrian, and more.

For even more new songs, browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.