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, 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…
YOUNG KNIVES – “SHEEP TICK”
UK band Young Knives are back and have now announced Barbarians, their fifth album (and first in seven years), which will be out September 4. This record looks to be very different from their previous four — more confrontational, more intense, weirder. That pretty evident on heavy new single “Sheep Tick” which comes with a fairly weird music video. “Music videos are awful and we wanted to lean into that,” says frontman Henry Dartnall who founded the group with his brother, House of Lords. “The idea behind this one was to make a video that you couldn’t have pitched. We just started shooting without knowing what it was, our goal to make it as baffling and entertaining as possible. Weirdly, the great thing is that some of the video started to make sense with the song after we had finished it: House’s goblin character is the voice inside that tells you how worthless you are, and you have to make peace with him. Most of it doesn’t make any sense though.”
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TOPS – “DIRECT SUNLIGHT”
“I went to this outdoor pool with Olympic style diving boards one summer day in Berlin, and when I tried to jump off the middle one, I think it was about 5 metres high, I really surprised myself when I realised that I’m terrified of heights,” says TOPS singer Jane Penny in regards to the band’s bubbly, synthy new single. “My whole body entered this panicked state, the phobia kicked in right away, and I had to do the walk of shame down the ladder and back to the pool. I wanted to capture that duality, the way that even the sunniest days can have this underlying darkness to them, and how it’s not just the physical reaction to fear that casts the shadows, but more how the ever looming possibilities of loss or discontent are revealed. I wrote this song to remind myself that it’s up to me to choose the perspective that I take.” TOPS’ new album, I Feel Alive, is out next week.
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THE DREAM SYNDICATE – “THE LONGING”
Psych greats The Dream Syndicate release their new improvisational new album, The Universe Inside, on April 10 and here’s a second section the flowing record. “The Longing” is heavy on groove, stretching out over a skipping beat and liquid guitar lines. “A friend of mine once said, ‘You ought to write a song about longing,’” says frontman Steve Wynn. “This was a few years back but it stuck with me and when I was listening to minutes 20 through 28 of the improvisation that became The Universe Inside I knew that the suggestion had finally found its proper home. This section of music – that followed in real time the part that became “The Regulator” – felt so mournful and lost and adrift and confused, much like longing itself. You think you know where it’s at? The longing is stronger than that. Our resident visual interpreter David Dalglish picked up on that feeling for a video that connected hauntingly to that feeling of distance and memory. And now? Suddenly it all feels very much of the moment. A chasm, sleepless for day and days, rootless, unsettled and alone. All that’s left is the longing.”
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NAAEM (FKA SPANK ROCK) – “YOU AND I” (SILVER APPLES COVER)
Naeem, the artist formerly known as Spank Rock, has signed to Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s 37d03d and has released this cover of electronic/psych pioneers Silver Apples’ “You and I.” “It sounds like a James Brown song to me,” says Naeem, “but if he sang it, he’d sing it as a slow song, and then I imagined myself crooning it. It’s an important song for people to hear right now, especially in terms of the ideas of self-care and the attention economy. The song’s about how we don’t have time for the little things, which feels really heavy and makes so much sense right now.”
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BIZOU – “CRASHING SKY”
LA band Bizou, which includes former touring members of Wax Idols and Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt, will release their new EP, Stillifeburning, on April 10. “Crashing Sky,” taken from the record, has a bit of that Wax Idols synthy goth rock going on.
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ZACHERY ALLAN STARKEY – “FORCE” FT BERNARD SUMNER
Zachery Allan Starkey releases his new album Fear City in April which features a number of collaborations with New Order’s Bernard Sumner. “Force” has Bernard contributing keyboards and production. “When Zachery Allan Starkey first played me his album in its original inception, I was originally just going to put together a list of recommendations and constructive feedback,” says Bernard. “I think I got a bit carried away on ‘Force’ as it was easier to illustrate what I meant by playing, rather than to write it down. I wanted to help Zachery by acting as a mirror for his music.”
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POZI – “WHITEWASHING”
UK bass/drums/violin postpunk trio POZI will release the 176 EP on May 8 via Prah Recordings. They’ve just shared the start, ominous first single, “Whitewashing,” which drummer/vocalist Toby Burroughs talks about: “We wanted to start fully utilising [violinist] Rosa’s voice as, adjacent to the other vocals, it really adds another layer to our music. Much of the jamming sessions were spent working around a way to weave this into the sound we’d already created. As we’re all singers and writers, if someone has something that they want to say in a song, it’s great for us to be able to share the lead vocal around.”
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PEARL JAM – “QUICK ESCAPE”
Pearl Jam’s new album Gigaton comes out this week, and here’s one more single from it: a stadium rocker that takes aim at Trump.
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SHABAZZ PALACES – “CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE”
Psychedelic rap greats Shabazz Palaces have shared another song off their upcoming The Don Of Diamond Dreams, and it’s as delightfully strange as you’d hope.
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LINGUA IGNOTA – “O RUTHLESS GREAT DIVINE DIRECTOR”
Fresh off releasing a harsh noise rework of “Imagine,” Lingua Ignota is back with an original, much less abrasive song, “O Ruthless Great Divine Director.” It’s her own weird version of a piano ballad, and it features contributions from former Liturgy drummer Greg Fox.
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JOAN SHELLEY – “BLUE SKIES” & “BETWEEN ROCK & SKY”
Joan Shelley remains one of the most arresting modern-day folk singers, and she released these two songs for — her words — “the great shut-in of 2020.” As Joan’s music usually is, both are gorgeous, instantly-timeless-sounding songs.
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CONWAY THE MACHINE & THE ALCHEMIST – “SHOOT SIDEWAYS” (ft. SCHOOLBOY Q)
Griselda’s Conway the Machine and veteran producer The Alchemist are releasing the collaborative LULU EP on March 30 via EMPIRE, and it includes this song featuring a hook by Schoolboy Q. As you’d probably expect, the beat is hazy and psychedelic but Conway’s raps are as gritty as they come.
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TOM MISCH & YUSSEF DAYES – “KYIV” (ft. ROCCO PALLADINO)
Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes have shared another song off their upcoming collab LP and it’s another jazzy, genre-defying jam.
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ELLIS – “SATURN RETURN”
Canadian songwriter Linnea Siggelkow has shared another track off her debut LP as Ellis, Born Again, due out April 3 via Fat Possum. “Saturn Return” is a slice of dream pop with floaty vocals, and about it, Linnea says, “‘Saturn Return’ is an astrological term for the time in your life where Saturn literally returns to the same place in it’s orbit that it was the moment you were born. The first one happens in your late twenties, and it’s a time of radical transformation. I am in mine now and have been feeling it big time! I wrote this record while reflecting on all the ways my life is changing, reconciling things from the past and making space to move forward.”
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KUNZITE (mem RATATAT, WHITE FLIGHT) – “NOVAS”
Kunzite is the new collaborative project from Ratatat’s Mike Stroud and White Flight’s Agustin White (aka Justin Roelofs of The Anniversary who previously collaborated with Mike Stroud as ABUELA), and their debut single is “Novas,” a disco-y psych-pop song that’s immediately recognizable as something Mike Stroud took part in.
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DROPKICK MURPHYS – “MICK JONES MICKED MY PUDDING” / “JAMES CONNOLLY”
Dropkick Murphys are back with a new digital two-song single, including one original and a take on the Black 47 song “James Connolly.”
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KONRADSEN – “THE YEAR IS OVER”
Oslo-based duo Jenny Marie Sabel and Eirik Vildgren released their debut album as Konradsen last year, and they have a new EP, Rodeo No. 5, due out May 1 via Cascine. The first single from that is the languid, soulful “The Year is Over,” and about it, they say, “this song in particular is about leaving home, about that small gap in your life when everything is new and you feel invincible.”
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ULCERATE – “DISSOLVED ORDERS”
New Zealand atmospheric metal genre-defiers have shared another gargantuan-sounding song off the anticipated Stare Into Death and Be Still (due 4/24 via Debemur Morti Productions).
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CIRITH UNGOL – “BEFORE TOMORROW”
Heavy metal/hard rock legends Cirith Ungol have shared a second single off their first album in 29 years, and it’s another dose of badassery that fits in nicely with the band’s classic material but sounds fresh today too.
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JK FLESH vs ECHOLOGIST – ECHOLOGY VOL 1
JK Flesh (Justin K Broadrick of Godflesh, Jesu, etc) and Echologist (Brendon Moeller) have teamed up for this collaborative EP of brooding, industrial, 3 AM goth club jams.
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ESOCTRILIHUM – “EXH-ENÎ SÖPH (1ST PASSAGE: EXILED FROM SANITY)”
French black/death metal one-man-band Esoctrilihum will release his new album Eternity Of Shaog on May 22 via I, Voidhanger Records, and the first taste is this epic eight-minute suite.
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RUN THE JEWELS – “OOH LA LA”
Run The Jewels have now released two songs off RTJ4, and you can read about the latest one here.
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SOFT PLASTICS (FROG EYES) – “ROPE OFF THE TIGERS”
Frog Eyes is no more, but Carey Mercer, Mel Campbell, and Shyla Seller are now Soft Plastics and you can read more about their debut single here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrHXmNRdt1o
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FAKE NAMES (mem REFUSED, DAG NASTY, BAD RELIGION, etc) – “BRICK”
Fake Names — the new band fronted by Refused vocalist Dennis Lyxzén that also features Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, One Last Wish) and Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) — have announced an album for Epitaph and released their first song. Read more here.
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DEERHOOF – “FUTURE TEENAGE CAVE ARTISTS” & “THE LOVED ONE”
There’s a dreamy, jazzy, twilight vibe to the two songs they’ve shared off new album Future Teenage Cave Artists — “The Loved One” and the title track — that feel very soothing right about now.
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DEEPER – “THE KNIFE”
Chicago band Deeper release their new album, Auto-Pain, this Friday and they’ve just shared one last appetizer before we can hear the whole thing. “The Knife” is a jagged post-punk ripper, moody and measured, that comes with a genuinely excellent, equally tense music video set in an auto garage.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.
