Indie Rock
Shamir Announces New Self-Titled Album, Premieres “I Wonder”: Stream
Despite the pandemic, Shamir is gearing up to release his second album of 2020. Following March’s Cataclysm, the indie artist is readying a self-titled record for October 2nd. According to a statement, Shamir finds the Philly-based musician swapping his R&B and pop palette for something with a little more grit. Shamir specifically looked “toward the post-hardcore ’90s for further inspiration — from Olympia, Washington cult heroes Unwound to bands of the Kill Rock Stars orbit.” The shift in musical direction may be a bit surprising to fans. But for Shamir, it’s a natural evolution and one that places him at his most centered. “I felt like it didn’t need a name [for the album], cuz it’s the record that’s most me,” Shamir says of the LP, which he also considers his most accessib...
Song of the Week: beabadoobee’s “Care” Reminds Us That It’s Actually Summer
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. Let’s play some catchup. 2020 began with all the musical anticipation of a new year and fresh decade. Then, when COVID-19 initially struck the States, music became an afterthought as we watched major albums delayed and highly anticipated tours postponed into oblivion. Then music became a lifeline as we huddled indoors and waited for the world to end. We listened to “quarantine albums,” found comfort in online fireside or bathtub sessions, and began marking Instagram shows on our calendars as if they were actual concerts. Then, the George Floyd murder shook the world, and we needed music to cry to, to scream to, and, most importantl...
Protomartyr Serve Up New Album Ultimate Success Today: Stream
After a brief pandemic-related delay, post-punk greats Protomartyr are back with their fifth studio album, Ultimate Success Today. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. For a high-definition listening experience, you can sign up for a 60-day free trial of TIDAL HiFi. The Domino-released collection follows 2017’s Relatives in Descent and was co-produced by Protomartyr themselves alongside David Tolomei (Dirty Projectors, Beach House). Sessions took place at Dreamland Recording Studios, situated in a 19th century church in upstate New York, and featured guest contributors in legendary jazz alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc and vocalist Nandi Rose, aka Half Waif. Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute) and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm also joined the band in the studio. In a sta...
Yo La Tengo Release Instrumental EP We Have Amnesia Sometimes: Stream
At the start of the week, Yo La Tengo popped up on Bandcamp with an instrumental track called “James and Ira demonstrate mysticism and some confusion holds”. A new jam appeared each following day, and it’s all culminated today with the reveal of a full five-song EP called We Have Amnesia Sometimes. Stream it below. The collection stems from a series of sessions that saw the trio “playing formlessly” in late April and early May. Yo La Tengo had escaped to their Hoboken, New Jersey rehearsal space to “push away the outside world” while safely social distancing. As Ira Kaplan explains in a press release, “In late April, with the outside world weighing on everybody, we determined that the three of us could assemble in Hoboken without disobeying the rules laid out by Governor Murphy, and resume...
Illuminati Hotties Unveil New Mixtape Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For: Stream
Illuminati Hotties have unveiled the new mixtape Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For. Stream it below with Apple Music and Spotify. With humor, compassion, and thrashing guitars, Illuminati Hotties have become synonymous with Los Angeles’ “tenderpunk” movement. Free I.H. is the follow-up to 2018’s Kiss Yr Frenemies, and was written during a messy breakup with indie label Tiny Engines. The label engaged in some, uh, questionable accounting practices, and like so much kick-ass punk music, Free I.H. comes from a place of getting royally (or royalty) fucked. Bandleader Sarah Tudzin wrote the mixtape in February, before COVID-19 had become a global nightmare. In an interview with Stereogum, she spoke of composing songs about a messed-up world, and th...
John Vanderslice Shares New Song “Lure Mice Condemn Erase”: Stream
John Vanderslice has been a crucial part of indie rock for the past few decades now, but it looks like now he’s more infatuated with electronic artists than anything else. At least that’s what appears to be the case with “Lure Mice Condemn Erase”, a new single he’s released today. After years of helping define the sounds of artists like Death Cab For Cutie and Sleater-Kinney, Vanderslice has been challenging himself to create electronic music on his computer while quarantined, reports BrooklynVegan. The process has been rather fruitful. In addition to this new song, Vanderslice is planning on releasing an EP called Eeeeeeeep. It marks his first time recording entirely on a computer. Apparently, that experience came with a big learning curve. “What blew me away was how terrible my first sta...
Whitney Cover David Byrne, Brian Eno, John Denver, and More on New Album Candid
Chicago indie rockers Whitney have announced a new covers album. Titled Candid, it’s due out August 14th through Secretly Canadian. Spanning 10 tracks, the album sees 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 previously shared rendition of the John Denver classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” featuring Waxahatchee and their take on “Rain” by SWV. In a statement about their choice in covers, drummer and singer Julien Ehrlich explains, “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 forward.” Editors&#...
IDLES Offer Up “A Hymn” of Shame and Love: Stream
Ultra Mono is the third album from post-punk group IDLES, due out this fall through Partisan Records. The effort, which comes two years after Joy As An Act of Resistance, is being previewed today with “A Hymn”. While previous singles “Mr. Motivator” and “Grounds” the Bristol natives ferocious and snarling as always, their newest offering opts for an entirely different mood. “A Hymn” rolls out slowly and steadily, almost in a drone-like fashion. “I want to be loved, everybody does/ I find shame in the crack-like corpse un-cadaver reign… I find shame gripped tight like your withering fame,” sings frontman Joe Talbot, with an equally monotone cadence. The fixed churn of it all echoes the backstory for “A Hymn”, which according to a tweet from the band ” rejoices in the sinister flesh-eating v...
beabadoobee Announces Debut Album Fake It Flowers, Shares “Care”: Stream
Filipino-British indie rock wunderkind beabadoobee has announced her debut album, Fake It Flowers. As a first look at the highly anticipated project, she’s sharing a new single called “Care”. According to a statement, Fake It Flowers is due out sometime later this year through Dirty Hit Records, the English indie label home of The 1975, Wolf Alice, and former Artist of the Month Rina Sawayama. The full-length follows last year’s Space Cadet, an EP that contained the Pavement-referencing single “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus”. The forthcoming album’s lead single “Care” picks up where that project left off, but is also a welcomed continued evolution of her lo-fi bedroom style, which has drawn comparisons to The Moldy Peaches. Her vulnerability here is noticeably more raw, as the 20-year-...
Fender Launches New Player Offset Electric Guitar Models
Fender has announced new additions to its Player line of entry-level electric guitars. The Offset models are designed especially for aspiring guitarists playing “styles that thrive on nonconformity.” The Offset collection features some of Fender’s most bold and eccentric body styles, featuring the Mustang, Mustang 90, Mustang Bass PJ, and Duo-Sonic. Fender fans will recognize these shapes from the guitar company’s stable of iconic designs, but the Offset series brings a new level of accessibility. With their budget price point and smaller, lightweight bodies, the guitars are targeted toward beginner-to-intermediate level guitarists and female players, according to a Fender representative. “Each model delivers the signature Fender sound that has dominated the guitar scene for more than 70 y...
Yo La Tengo Drop Five-Minute New Song on Bandcamp: Stream
Lo and behold, Yo La Tengo have joined Bandcamp. Or at least one that’s being managed by their label Matador Records. To celebrate, the veteran indie outfit have dropped a five-minute new track that’s titled — breathe in, breathe out — “James and Ira demonstrate mysticism and some confusion holds (Monday)”. Why this spirited jam? What’s the story here? Allow Ira Kaplan to explain: “In late April, with the outside world weighing on everybody, we determined that the three of us could assemble in Hoboken without disobeying the rules laid out by Governor Murphy, and resumed . . . ‘practicing’ hardly describes it, because we’ve done no practicing per se, and anyway what would be practicing for . . . playing. James set up one microphone in the middle of the room in case we stumbled on something ...
Sufjan Stevens Unveils New Song “My Rajneesh”: Stream
Last week, Sufjan Stevens shared a magnificent 12-minute epic called “America”. Now he’s back with the B-side, and it’s a gorgeous song about a strange moment in American history: “My Rajneesh”. The Rajneesh movement was a cult in the 1970s and ’80s led by the Indian mystic Baghwan Shree Rajneesh. He founded a controversial sect of Hinduism that emphasized materialism and fornication. After getting run out of India, Rajneesh established a utopian community in the American state of Oregon. Thousands of followers flocked to the compound, and the Rajneesh community took over entire Oregon towns, which they then renamed after their charismatic leader. They also patrolled their territory with Uzis, which did not sit well with the Oregonian government. As tension escalated, Rajneesh cultists gre...
