Indie Rock
Jeff Tweedy Proposes Industry-Wide Donation to Black Lives Matter Organizations
As protests against police brutality following George Floyd’s death continue, Jeff Tweedy has penned an essay calling for the music industry at large to donate to Black Lives Matter. The Wilco frontman shared his thoughts in a lengthy Instagram post today, writing, “Thousands of us committing to a reparations initiative could change our business and the world we live in.” It’s not an exaggeration to say the modern music industry was built almost entirely on Black art. Tweedy begins his essay by acknowledging so and explaining how no single artist could “come close to paying the debt we owe to the Black originators of our modern music.” As such, he calls for an “industry-wide plan” hat allows songwriters and musicians to direct a percentage of their “writer’s share” revenue to organizations...
Top 25 Albums of 2020 (So Far)
Welcome to our Mid-Year Report. All week long we’ll be sharing the music, movies, and television that have helped us survive a strange and confusing six months. We start today with our Top 25 Albums of 2020 (So Far). It’d be fatuous to pretend that the first six months of 2020 have been like any other. All of us are facing difficult realities: the pain of injustice, the loss of a loved one, or even just the despair of looking out the window and not knowing what tomorrow will bring or when it will come. For the purposes of this list, then, maybe it’s equally foolish to think music impacted us the same way it always does. Then again, perhaps that’s what makes music so integral to our lives: that no matter what the world or our individual lives look like, music has the magical knack of provid...
Cat Power Pays Tribute to Cassius’ Philippe Zdar with Cover of “Toop Toop”: Stream
Cat Power (photo by Inez & Vinoodh) and Cassius’ Philippe Zdar (photo via Dyane de Serigny) Today marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of Cassius’ Philippe Zdar. To honor the late French producer, his friend and collaborator Cat Power has shared a cover of Cassius’ 2006 hit “Toop Toop”. Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) and Zdar worked together numerous times over the years, with the former appearing on a handful of tracks on Cassius’ 2016 LP Ibifornia. Zdar even worked pro-bono on Cat Power’s classic 2012 album Sun. Their close relationship led Marshall to pay homage to Zdar at his funeral, where she teamed with -M- (French rocker Matthieu Chedid) for a performance of “Toop Toop”. Zdar’s widow, Dyane de Serigny, recalled in a press release how she joined the duo at Cas...
TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe Rallies the “People” on New Protest Song: Stream
In honor of Juneteenth, aka Freedom Day, Tunde Adebimpe has released a new protest song. Simply dubbed “People”, this offering sees the TV on the Radio frontman instructing his listeners to confront and condemn white supremacy wherever it rears its ugly head. “If you see it’s a Nazi, say it’s a Nazi, and get that Nazi out,” declares Adebimpe on the track. “People” was self-produced by the indie rocker with assistance from friend and TV on the Radio drummer Roofeo. It’s available to stream and/or purchase below via Bandcamp, and all proceeds will benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center, Movement for Black Lives, and the ACLU. For the rest of Juneteenth, Bandcamp, too, will be donating its share of profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Earlier this month, Adebimpe performed TV on the Radi...
Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Arcade Fire to Play on Preservation Hall Jazz Band Livestream
Dave Grohl (photo by Philip Cosores), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (photo by Paul R. Giunta), and Paul McCartney (photo by Joshua Mellin) Summer music festivals may be canceling left and right due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but that won’t stop Newport Folk Festival staple the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from playing loud and proud anyway. On Saturday night, the famed group will perform a livestream from their respective homes alongside some special guests, including Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, and Arcade Fire. The livestream, dubbed “Round Midnight Preserves”, will take place on June 20th from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. ET. In addition to the Foo Fighters frontman, The Beatles bassist, and Arcade Fire, Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews, Beck, Irma Thomas, My Morning J...
Phil Elverum Announces The First Microphones Album in 17 Years, Microphones in 2020
Phil Elverum has reactivated The Microphones for the project’s first album in 17 years, Microphones in 2020. The effort — comprising a single, 40-minute-long song — is due out August 7th via the musician’s own P.W. Elverum & Sun. The Microphones’ last release was 2003’s Mount Eerie, a name which Elverum began performing under not long after. In a press release, Elverum said that regardless of the name, his work has always been about “exploring autobiographically in sound and words with occasional loose participation from friends.” Last year, he delivered a rare performance as The Microphones for “no big reason.” However, the attention and interest garnered by that show at the small “What the Heck?” event in Anacortes, Washington inspired him to “step back into ...
Bully Announce New Album Sugaregg, Share Chumbawamba-Inspired “Where to Start”: Stream
Last month, Bully released quarantine-style covers of Nirvana and Orville Peck, as well as teased that a forthcoming album was on the way. Today, the CoSigned rock outfit has formally announced their new record: Sugaregg is due out August 21st through Sub Pop. The new LP is Bully’s third overall and follow-up to Losing from 2017. It was mixed with studio veteran John Congleton (St. Vincent, Cloud Nothings) and represents a shift in approach for leader Alicia Bognanno. “There was a change that needed to happen and it happened on this record,” she told Rolling Stone. “Derailing my ego and insecurities allowed me to give these songs the attention they deserved.” Compared to its predecessor, Sugaregg features “more songs about erratic, dysfunctional love in an upbeat way, like, ‘I’m going down...
Built to Spill Reveal New Daniel Johnston Tribute Album: Stream
Daniel Johnston (photo by Amy Price) and Built to Spill (photo by David Brendan Hall) Built to Spill have released their new covers album dedicated to Daniel Johnston. Stream Built to Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston in full below via Bandcamp. Out via Ernest Jenning Record Co., their tribute to the lo-fi songwriting legend spans 11 tracks. All the recordings — which include takes on “Tell Me Now”, “Life in Vain”, and “Impossible Love” — were taken from rehearsal sessions Built to Spill held in 2017 while serving as the backing band on Johnston’s final tour. “It was pretty special for us,” Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch told Rolling Stone. “Basically we wanted to get good documentation of what our rehearsals were like. It was a lot heavier than what I thought it would be.” Ac...
Shamir Basks in Independence on New Song “On My Own”: Stream
Earlier this year, Shamir dropped a mini-album called Cataclysm. Now, he’s back with a poppy new song called “On My Own”. The track is the lead single from an upcoming album that will supposedly be his most accessible since his 2015 debut, Ratchet. After emerging as a glitzy disco and dance-pop artist on XL Recordings, Shamir became disillusioned with mainstream stardom and retreated to making lo-fi, insular indie rock for many years. “On My Own” isn’t a return to the glossy club music of Ratchet, but it is the most outwardly catchy and upbeat song he’s released in a long time. Over peppy drums, a sprightly bassline, and guitar riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Cherry Glazerr LP, the Philly-based songwriter sings defiantly about regaining independence after a breakup. Conven...
Car Seat Headrest on Alternate Personas and Class Divide
Kyle Meredith With… Car Seat Headrest Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Car Seat Headrest mastermind Will Toledo calls in to Kyle Meredith to talk about Making A Door Less Open. Together, they discuss the need to find a style and sound, working with existing samples to create something new, and customizing the vinyl, CD, and streaming editions to be their own unique listening experience. Toledo also discusses the invention of an alternate persona named Trait, how theatrics in rock music has become a lost art form, and the ways new single “Hollywood” speaks to class divide and being an outsider. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a...
Hinds Give a Track by Track Breakdown of New Album The Prettiest Curse: Stream
With Track by Track, we give artists the chance to take their fans through their latest album one song at a time. Today, Hinds reveal how they cast The Prettiest Curse. After a delay precipitated by the ongoing pandemic, Hinds have today released their new album, The Prettiest Curse. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. While the band’s sophomore album, I Don’t Run, and its predecessor, 2016’s Leave Me Alone, were steeped in lo-fi indie, the Madrid quartet take a turn towards a cleaner garage pop sound with their third full-length. Producer Jennifer Decilveo (The Wombats, Bat for Lashes, Joseph) helped Hinds find balance between their raw live energy and crisp melodies for the tightest LP from the band yet. In a note posted to Twitter on Thursday (June 4th), Hinds ac...
New Music Friday: 4 Albums to Stream
Sonic Boom (photo by Ian Witchell), Hinds (photo by Andrea Savall), and Muzz’s Paul Banks (photo by Ben Kaye) Every Friday, Consequence of Sound rounds up some of the week’s noteworthy new album releases into one nifty streaming post. Today, June 5th, brings fresh records from folks like Sonic Boom, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Paul Banks’ indie supergroup Muzz, and Hinds. Sonic Boom – All Things Being Equal <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1023694" data-attachment-id="1023694" data-permalink="https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/04/stream-sonic-boom-the-way-that-you-live-song-video/sonic-boom-the-way-you-live-new-song-stream/" data-orig-file="https://consequenceofsound.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/sonic-boom-the-way-you-live-new-so...
