Indie Rock
The Killers Reveal New Album Imploding the Mirage: Stream
After a brief pandemic-related delay, veteran rockers The Killers have released their new album. Stream Imploding the Mirage below via Apple Music and Spotify. The band’s sixth full-length overall and follow-up to 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful was recorded in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Park City, Utah. Production was handled by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Julian Casablancas) and Foxygen’s own Jonathan Rado. Frontman Brandon Flowers spoke about the group’s sessions in Utah, telling NME, “That’s where I fell in love with music for the first time; so it’s interesting to be there again and hear some of that music with the geography matching the sensation.” Editors’ Picks In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Flowers drew parallels between the recording of Imploding ...
The Killers’ Imploding the Mirage Goes All in on a Better Tomorrow: Review
The Lowdown: The Killers have always sounded like a band born to run. Living in the desert of Las Vegas will have that effect. For 16 years, Brandon Flowers and company have been running away down highway skylines, on the backs of hurricanes with Springsteen-like abandon. However, until now, they’ve always seemed to be running from what plagues them — fears, depressions, and the oppressive trappings of Small Town America — instead of toward what inspires them. Despite Flowers’ advice on Wonderful Wonderful single “Run for Cover”, The Killers have always seemed to have one eye looking back over their shoulder as they blow across an expansive wilderness, seeking some sort of escape from it all through romantic, heartland lyricism and rock and roll bombast. 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful caught T...
Ben Gibbard Fulfills Destiny, Dedicates Postal Service Song to the Postal Service: Watch
After Republican fundraiser Louis DeJoy took over as Postmaster General on June 16th, 2020, he enacted a series of cost-cutting measures that could potentially interfere with the election. The issue of whether we should fund mail services has become politicized, and it’s no surprise that Ben Gibbard has come down on the side of “pro-mail.” The frontman for Death Cab for Cutie once wrote music under the moniker The Postal Service. Now, 17 years after the indie classic Give Up, Gibbard has fulfilled his destiny, and played “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service in an attempt to save the Postal Service. Gibbard shared the performance in a video titled “#TeamJoeSings”, which is also the name of an initiative he’s launching for the Democratic National Convention. The two-song set is an...
Bright Eyes’ Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was Dances Through Grief and Love: Review
The Lowdown: It’s been nearly 10 years since Bright Eyes released an album, and somehow everything and nothing has changed. Gone, this time for good — as Conor Oberst once declared — is the “rootsy Americana bullshit” that colored career-defining records like I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. Sonically, the reunited trio’s newest work has one foot in the stylized hyper-production of their last album, The People’s Key, and another in the Gothic, orchestral sweep of Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Sure, some of the old emblems remain: the cryptic overture, the half-sentimental, half-ominous soundbites, Oberst’s brooding and beautiful lyrical histrionics. And yet, the album isn’t an outright gloomy one. In the past decade, the members of Bright Eyes have grown up....
Dirty Projectors Announce Super João EP, Share “Holy Mackerel”: Stream
Dirty Projectors are currently two installments into a planned five-EP series they’re releasing over the course of the year. Each four-song collection features a different band member taking lead: For March’s Windows Open, it was Maia Friedman, while Felicia Douglass stepped forward for June’s Flight Tower. Now, Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth has announced his own contribution, the Super João EP, and shared the lead single, “Holy Mackerel”. Arriving September 4th, Super João has the sort of smooth samba sounds you’d expect from an effort named after bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto, who passed away last year. Longstreth co-wrote the lyrics with Little Wings’ Kyle Field before recording direct to tape with Kyle Thomas of King Tuff, who happens to be his neighbor in Los Angeles....
Sonic Youth, Mudhoney Members Share Previously Unreleased Cover of The Stooges: Stream
Back in 1997, director Todd Haynes convinced a bunch of indie rock and punk pillars to join forces and soundtrack Velvet Goldmine, his 1998 homage to the glam-rock era. That supergroup was named Wylde Ratttz, and it consisted of The Stooges’ Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm, The Stooges and Minutemen‘s Mike Watt, Sean Lennon, Don Fleming, and Jim Dunbar. Years later, it looks like one of the songs they recorded, a cover of The Stooges’ track “Fun House”, has just been finally unearthed for the first time, reports Spin. Wylde Ratttz uploaded their “Fun House” cover to Bandcamp to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House. Their rendition features Asheton, Moore, Watt, Shelley, Arm, and saxophonist Sabir Mateen draw...
The Cribs Announce New Album Night Network, Share “Running Into You”: Stream
The Cribs have announced their new album, Night Network. It’s set for arrival November 13th, 2020 through Sonic Blew/[PIAS]. The forthcoming record serves as their eighth overall and follow-up to 2017’s 24-7 Rock Star Shit. More importantly, it marks the return of a British band that almost called it quits after an exhausting business matter involving their management. According to a statement, immediately following the release of their previous record, The Cribs parted way with their UK representation. This led to what they described as a “legal morass” that left them unable to record or release new music for 18 months. For a group that’s steadily put out records for the last 15 years, such a hold-up was disruptive to say the least. “At one point we were actually so disillusioned with wha...
Whitney Unveil New Covers Album Candid: Stream
Midwestern indie rockers Whitney have returned with a new covers album called Candid. Stream it in its entirety below via Apple Music or Spotify. Out via Secretly Canadian, the 10-track collection finds Whitney tackling originals by David Byrne and Brian Eno (“Strange Overtones”), Kelela (“Bank Head”), and Damien Jurado (“A.M. A.M.”). The album also includes the group’s rendition SWV’s “Rain” and a collaboration with Waxahatchee on the John Denver classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. In a statement about their choice in covers, drummer and singer Julien Ehrlich explained, “This could’ve been as simple as saying we really love these songs and we love our bandmates and making a covers record just felt right, but it truly became an exploration into how we can evolve as a band going for...
The Killers Premiere New Single “Dying Breed”: Stream
The Killers are just about one week away from the release of highly anticipated album Imploding the Mirage. In anticipation, they’ve shared a new single called “Dying Breed”. According to an interview with Rolling Stone, the track is a collaboration with producer Flood, who’d previously worked on The Killers’ Sam’s Town. As frontman Brandon Flowers explained, Flood helped to give the song “an industrial vibe.” He added, “What I love about Flood is he doesn’t have a problem x-ing something out if he doesn’t like it. What he did with it was a lot more stark than what we would have done, but it kept the spirit of the song. It has a heart to it that really grabs you.” Editors’ Picks Stream The Killers’ “Dying Breed” below, which follows early singles “My Own Soul’s Warning...
Bruce Springsteens Calls Lana Del Rey “One of the Best Songwriters in the Country”
Bruce Springsteen (photo by Ben Kaye) and Lana Del Rey (photo by David Brendan Hall) Bruce Springsteen has had Lana Del Rey all over his playlists for years now, but his fandom has just reached new heights. In a recent broadcast on SiriusXM, The Boss called the Norman Fucking Rockwell! mastermind “one of the best songwriters in the country.” Springsteen’s comments came during the latest episode of his ongoing From His Home to Yours SiriusXM series, as Stereogum points out. During the radio show, he played Del Rey’s own 2012 song “American”, which notably name-drops Springsteen. “Springsteen is the king, don’t you think/ I was like, hell yeah that guy can sing,” the track’s lyrics read. “She’s, uh, name checking some guy from New Jersey in there. I’m not sure who,” The Boss joked ...
Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold Debuts New Song “Featherweight” During Livestream: Watch
Some of the biggest names in indie rock got together virtually on Friday night to perform at Vote Ready, a Concert for Voter Registration, which was exactly what it sounded like. Arguably the most exciting set came from Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, because he debuted a new song called “Featherweight” that’s four minutes of pure bliss. Pecknold started off the livestream by thanking viewers for registering to vote before introducing drummer Joshua Jaeger (Angel Olsen) and Holy Hive singer Paul Spring. At the midpoint of their three-song set came the new song, “Featherweight”. A dark and skeptical folk number, it almost sounds like a stripped-down Fleet Foxes covering A Moon Shaped Pool. The new track was sandwiched between a pair of covers. First came a spirited, uptempo cover of Arthu...
Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen Debuts New Song, Plays “Saint Nothing” on Livestream: Watch
On Friday night, everyone from Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold to The War on Drugs participated in the Vote Ready, a Concert for Voter Registration livestream. While most of the sets were filled with comforting covers and stripped-down renditions of classics, a few artists used the opportunity to debut new material, including Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles singer-guitarist Daniel Rossen. Rossen played two tracks in total, opening with the nameless new song. The six-minute-long number saw the virtuoso churning out gorgeous, acoustic, classical guitar melodies that change pace and mood throughout. Afterwards, he immediately turned to the piano to play his 2012 ballad “Saint Nothing”. Watch the full set below. Last year, Rossen published an essay on his website explaining his slow retreat ...
