A release date for Bright Eyes’ new comeback album still hasn’t been set, but that has stopped Conor Oberst and co. from teasing their fans with new music. Following “Persona Non Grata” and “Forced Convalescence”, the reunited outfit is now sharing “One and Done”, and single that once again features cameos from members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Queens of the Stone Age. Similar to last month’s “Forced Convalescence”, today’s offering sees RHCP’s Flea on bass and additional percussion courtesy of QOTSA drummer Jon Theodore. Also like the preceding single, Oberst can be heard ruminating on the current state of the world — specifically the bleakness of its collapse and final days. “This whole town looks empty but we knew it wouldn’t last/ Behind b...
One half of the jazz-funk project Knower, Genevieve Artadi dropped her solo debut, genevieve lalala, back in 2015. Five years later, she’s announced her sophomore album under her own name, the serendipitously named Dizzy Strange Summer. Due out July 17th via Brainfeeder, the 16-track LP is being previewed today with the lead single, “Living Like I Know I’m Gonna Die”. Though not what’s become known as a “quarantine album,” Dizzy Strange Summer does reflect the world’s current state in both its title and themes. The collection’s 16 songs were written while Artadi was experiencing a personal upheaval, not unlike many of us are going through now. “I was pretty lost,” she said in a press release. “But enjoying feeling lost.” Helping the psychedelic jazz artist find her way on the LP were ...
Electronic artist Jayda G has announced a new EP, Both of Us / Are U Down. It will be available as a 12-inch and digitally on July 3rd via Ninja Tunes, and as a preview, Jayda has released the music video for the lead single and title track, “Both of Us”. Born in the small town of Grand Forks, British Columbia, Jayda Guy began her DJ career in 2013 after moving to Vancouver to get her masters in Resource and Environmental Management. In 2019, she released her debut album, Significant Changes, an effort that set her on a path to stardom and opened doors on the international festival circuit. Featuring the title tracks and a pair of remixes, the Both of Us / Are U Down EP is her first new release since Significant Changes. Apparently, Jayda G hadn’t been considering another project...
Joyce Manor have announced a new rarities album called Songs from Northern Torrance. It’s due out digitally this coming Friday, May 29th, with a vinyl release to follow on September 19th. Named after the band’s hometown of Torrance, a city about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, the album collects early material from the band when it was just starting out as an acoustic duo. Dating back to 2008-2010, the recordings previously only existed in a live setting, or on rare demo CDs. Among the included tracks are “DFHP?”, which originally came out on a split release with Summer Vacation, and “Who Gave You a Baby”, a song that later appeared on a Hard Times charity compilation. The entirety of Joyce Manor’s self-released Constant Headache EP also appears on the final tracklist. Editors’ P...
The latest episode of Killing Eve contained a cryptic cover of Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” by previously unknown band Jack Leopards and the Dolphin Club. Via Pitchfork, a trail of clues suggest that the song actually comes from Swift and Jack Antonoff, while Swift’s brother Austin may be the vocalist. T-Swift left the first breadcrumb herself, when she tweeted about being “VERY STOKED” for the cover by Jack Leopards and the Dolphin Club. Jack Antonoff, a co-writer of the original version of “Look What You Made Me Do”, is listed in the credits as a producer, along with a certain Nils Sjöberg. Swifties will recall Sjöberg as the pseudonym Taylor used for her co-writing role on Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This Is What You Came For.” But what about Austin? There are tw...
Chicago band Whitney has released a new cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” featuring the searing guest vocals of Waxahatchee. As if that weren’t enough, Whitney has also served up a version of the R&B classic “Rain” by SWV. While these two covers come from very different sonic backgrounds, together they help demonstrate the range of Whitney’s rock and country-soul sound. Drummer/vocalist Julien Ehrlich brings “Take Me Home, Country Roads” up an octave, allowing his relaxed tenor to float above those iconic southern riffs. For Waxahatchee, aka Katie Crutchfield, this kind of melody is her bread and butter. Her voice obliterates his when they join together for the chorus. But this happens when one half of the duet has a bigger natural instrument than the other, and the ...
Electronic composer Nicolas Jaar isn’t letting 2020 get him down. Already this year he’s released his latest album, Cenizas; dropped an effort under his Against All Logic moniker, 2017-2019; and shared a bunch of unreleased A.A.L. music during a livestream mix. Now, Jaar has announced another new LP, Telas, and debuted not only the first song, “Telahora”, but an additional non-album track called “All One”. Jaar detailed Telas, which means “Veils,” both on his website and during a takeover of Palestine-based internet radio station Radio Al Hara. Due out July 17th on Other People/Mama Records, the album is, at its core, an hour-long piece of music broken into four parts: “Telahora”, “Telencima”, “Telahumo”, and “Telallás”. Joining Jaar in the music making are cellist...
JPEGMAFIA is always a ball of energy, but 2020 appears to be the year where he lets off creative steam at every opportunity that arises. Today, the experimental rapper has released his fifth (!) new single of the year, “CUTIE PIE!”, alongside a low-res music video. Since dropping his album All My Heroes Are Cornballs last fall, JPEGMAFIA has shared a string of exclamatory tracks that read like flyer announcements thanks to names like “BALD!”, “BODYGUARD!”, and “Covered in Money!”. Clearly, this new single “CUTIE PIE!” continues the trend. “CUTIE PIE!” opens with a lo-fi percussion beat that sounds like it’s being recorded to an iPhone and a slinky bass beat. Combined, the rhythm section is a throwback to ’90s hip-hop — and JPEGMAFIA keeps that mood going by spitting nonstop verses in a mon...
This year may not be going according to plan, but Sonic Youth fans can find solace in the fact that the band has been beefing up its archives on Bandcamp. Since March, they’ve shared 12 live shows, their out-of-print 1987 EP Master-Dik, and some live albums. Today, Sonic Youth added another rare live album to the profile: Hold That Tiger — a “semi-official bootleg LP” that was recorded in 1987 and released in 1991. Here’s what the band has to say about it: Originally released as a semi-official bootleg LP in 1991 by friend and music writer, Byron Coley, on his Goofin’ imprint (we would eventually hijack the Goofin’ moniker for our own band-run label a few years later). The recording was nearly 60-minutes in length, so to prevent manufacturing a cost-prohibitive double lp, th...
For the third Friday running, BROCKHAMPTON have shared a cache of new music. This week, it’s a chilled-out trio of tracks in “I.F.L.”, “baby bull”, and “downside”. A handful of BROCKHAMPTON members are in quarantine together, and as they’ve done the last two weeks, they hosted a password-protected livestream called Technical Difficulties. Via the fans at /r/BROCKHAMPTON, the boy band is being cagey about what Technical Difficulties actually is — album, loosies, or something else entirely. However, they did suggest that it’s happening without label RCA’s approval, which might explain why none of the premieres have made it to Apple Music or Spotify, and also why the four previous releases — “M.O.B.” and “twisted”, as well as “N.S.T.” and “things can’t stay the same” — have already ...
The mighty Los Angeles hardcore band Trash Talk are back with a new EP called Squalor, their first collection of new music in four years. The five-track EP was produced by Kenny Beats, whose best known for his work with hip-hop artists like Denzel Curry, slowthai, and Rico Nasty. Squalor marks the first time Kenny Beats worked with a band on a complete project, and both the band and the producer learned a lot from one another. Trash Talk credits Beats for bringing several new ideas to the table, including song-to-song interludes and the distorted sampling of Lee Spielman’s vocals. Meanwhile, Beats says Trash Talk “taught me more than almost any other project I’ve worked on.” “Working with Kenny was the first time we’ve had real input in the studio. We stepped outside our typical ...
BTS member Suga has dropped off a new mixtape under his Agust D moniker. Dubbed D-2, it’s streaming in full below alongside a new music video for “Daechwita”. For Suga, real-name Min Yoon-Gi, this marks his second overall following a self-titled solo tape in 2016. D-2 is comprised of a total of 10 songs, including titles like “Moonlight”, “Strange”, “Burn It”, and an interlude called “Set me free”. To celebrate the release, the K-pop megastar is sharing a visual for “Daechwita”, which is also the name for a kind of Korean military music. Directed by Yong Seok Choi (Lumpens), a sword-wielding Agust D and his group of friends conspire to take down a corrupt king. Editors’ Picks “The theme ‘Daechwita’ was already on my mind when I first started working on this track, so I samp...