Indie Rock
The War on Drugs Announce New Live Album LIVE DRUGS
The War on Drugs have announced a new live album. Titled LIVE DRUGS, it’s due out November 20th through frontman Adam Granduciel’s own Super High Quality Records. According to a statement, the 10-track effort was “culled from over 40 hard drives” of concert recordings. There are selections from across the indie rock band’s impressive catalog — including the 2008 debut Wagonwheel Blues, 2014’s Lost in the Dream, and A Deeper Understanding from 2017 — but many are captured like never before. For example, their live rendition of “Under the Pressure” features 20,000 audience members singing along to the extended guitar melody. Another inclusion, “Eyes to the Wind”, has “grown wholly independent” of the final album version. Editors’ Picks “As a band leader, I always want to know...
Bon Iver Pays Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg with New Song “Your Honor”: Watch
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (photo by Ben Kaye) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (photo via WikiCommons) Ever the political advocator, Justin Vernon recently launched For Wisconsin, a get-out-the-vote initiative in his home state. As part of the registration drive, the Bon Iver frontman is hosting “A Visit with Vernon”, in which fans nominate a friend who is undecided about voting to have a conversation with Vernon. Video of the first visit has been revealed, and it includes the debut a new Bon Iver song dedicated to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Entitled “Your Honor”, the song came about shortly after RBG’s passing two weeks ago. Though Vernon said writing new music is something “I never do anymore,” he was compelled to recognize the late Supreme Court Justice’s legacy. “Times getting sho...
Sego Break Down Their New EP Life of Pam Track by Track: Stream
With our Track by Track feature, musicians lead fans by the ear through each song on their latest effort. Today, Sego introduce us to their Life of Pam EP. Sego have shared a new EP called Life with Pam in a unique fashion: as a single uncut 17-minute music video. Watch the visual to hear the whole thing below. The former Artist of the Month chose to release Life with Pam as a continuous block of music as opposed to broken into tracks to capture the “seamless, deliberate” structure of their live shows. The songs contained within this 17 minute track intentionally sit on adjacent lines to each other thematically, sonically, and in energy,” explained frontman Spencer Petersen. “Obviously, I hope people find connection with the individual parts, but like our shows, the collective sum cre...
Shamir’s Self-Titled Album Shows Them Coming into Their Own: Review
The Lowdown: In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Shamir referred to their new album as “definitely a COVID record.” The Philadelphia-based nonbinary artist, born Shamir Bailey, has cited influences all over the map for the album recorded entirely in quarantine, from Gwen Stefani and Miranda Lambert to Unsolved Mysteries and My Friend Dahmer, and you can hear it in the music. Despite being only 25, Shamir has already released a prolific number of albums and EPs, all of them experimenting boldly with indie rock, electronics, R&B, and pop styles branching back through several decades. Their self-titled album is a sure-handed invention that finds their myriad influences colliding and coalescing more smoothly than ever before and ultimately crystallizing into something new. [e...
Woods Share New Rarities Collection Reflections Vol. 1 (Bumble Bee Crown King): Stream
Indie folk outfit Woods have returned with a new rarities collection called Reflections Vol. 1 (Bumble Bee Crown King). The full album is available to purchase for Bandcamp Friday, and you can stream a few of its tracks below. The project follows Woods’ 11th studio effort, Strange To Explain, from this past May. In normal, pre-coronavirus times, they’d be touring the world in support of it, but they decided to roll with the punches and unlock some unreleased material from the vault. In a statement, Woods summarized all the goodies that can be found on Reflections, which they consider “a lost record”: “With no touring this year, and possibly next, we decided to take a deep dive into our archives and put together the first volume of our much discussed archival series, Reflections. Featuring ...
Hamilton Leithauser Teams with Lucy Dacus for New Version of “Isabella”: Stream
Back in March, Hamilton Leithauser introduced us to his new album, The Loves of Your Life, with the lead single “Isabella”. Now, half a year later, the former Walkmen frontman has delivered a new version of the track, this time featuring Lucy Dacus. Originally, “Isabella” was built of a plucky piano and swaying pedal steel, giving it a breezy country-pop feel. This new take started as a simple guitar groove Leithauser was toying with in his home studio, The Struggle Hut. Realizing it fit “Isabella”, he decided to record “a whole new version” of the single. “I guess this amounts to the kind of evolving a new song goes through after a few months on tour… but without the tour,” he said in a press release. A female vocalist also appears on the album version of the song, but for this remake, Le...
Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Details New Memoir Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner, best known for her indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, has shared details about her new memoir Crying in H Mart. The book arrives April 20th, 2021 through Knopf Publishing. Based on a 2018 New Yorker article of the same name, Crying in H Mart details how the death of Zauner’s mother forced her to wrestle with her Korean-American identity. In one particularly wrenching moment, which inspired the piece’s title, she recounts coming apart in the Asian supermarket chain H Mart. She writes about, “Sobbing near the dry goods, asking myself, ‘Am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left in my life to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?’” Ultimately, Zauner leaned on writing as a way to process her grief, which manifested in two stellar stu...
HAIM Perform “Gasoline” Outside of LA’s The Forum on Kimmel: Watch
As our understanding of how to handle the pandemic gets better, so too do musical guests’ late night TV spots. On Tuesday night, HAIM made a virtual pitstop at Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but instead of Zooming in from home, they filmed their performance of “Gasoline” from an actual music venue. Well, from outside of an actual music venue. The trio of Este Haim, Danielle Haim, and Alana Haim (along with a pianist) set up in the empty parking lot of Los Angeles’ The Forum. Sure, it wasn’t like they filmed in a hot air balloon, but it was nice to see them out in the world for the rendition of the Women in Music Pt. III track. As the single-shot camera work panned around the sisters and the sun set behind them, HAIM put the matured sound of their latest album on full display in what was a surprisingl...
Matt Berninger Finds Stripped-Down Solace on Debut LP Serpentine Prison: Review
The Lowdown: As the founding singer of Ohio alt rock troupe The National, Matt Berninger has already proven himself to be a captivating vocalist and — alongside wife Carin Besser — an insightful lyricist. For instance, we praised last year’s I Am Easy to Find for its “conversational” approach regarding “the intricacies of modern romance.” Thus, his monotone yet elegantly arid voice and observational storybook songwriting rarely fail to charm and connect with us, especially when they’re placed on top of such vibrantly picturesque and subtly exploratory arrangements. For the most part, that holds true on his first solo record, Serpentine Prison. Produced by Booker T. Jones — a revered artist in his own right who’s also collaborated with Otis Redding, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Elton John, a...
Tame Impala Reschedule North American Tour Dates for 2021
Earlier this year, Tame Impala were forced to postpone their North American summer tour due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, those concerts have been rescheduled for 2021. The new itinerary officially kicks off in late July and extends through mid-October. Kevin Parker & co. are slated to bring The Slow Rush to cities such as Mexico City, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Vancouver, and Austin, as well as Toronto, Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Miami. Tame Impala are also confirmed to play two festivals: Outside Lands in San Francisco and Sin City’s Life is Beautiful. Find the full schedule below. According to a statement, “all tickets for the original shows will be honored at the rescheduled dates. If you are unable to attend, you can begin the refund process at your point of pu...
Bright Eyes Perform Cross-Continental Tiny Desk (Home) Concert: Watch
Artists have been taking some understandable liberties with the conceit of NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) concert series. Recent performances saw Billie Eilish in front of a cut-out cardboard set of the NPR offices, Phoebe Bridgers behind a miniature Resolute Desk, and BTS inside a Seoul record shop. Bright Eyes might have them all beat, however, as their Tiny Desk (Home) show featured probably the biggest desk of all: a Neve 8068 recording console. The band’s Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis were at the latter’s ARC Studios in Omaha, Nebraska, where the massive mixing station resides. Their bandmate, Nate Walcott joined virtually from Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles along with backup singer Becky “Lavender Diamond” Stark and their daughter. Despite being far apart and even farther from Bob Boi...
Deerhoof Release New Surprise Covers Album Love-Lore: Stream
Deerhoof have surprise-released a massive new covers album called Love-Lore. Stream it below. Today’s release finds the indie outfit tackling 43 (!) different songs from a wide variety of artists, including The Beach Boys, Parliament, The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Ennio Morricone, The B-52s, and Sun Ra. Across its 35-minute running time, Love-Lore also boasts unique spins on John Williams, Laurie Anderson, Silver Apples, The Police, and Dionne Warwick. The entire collection was captured in a live-studio setting, and was produced and mixed by the band members themselves. If you’re looking to add Love-Lore to your own personal digital collection, free downloads are available on their Bandcamp page, as well as deerhoof.net and the Joyful Noise Recordings website. As of now, the...
