New Song Releases
Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) and Richie Kotzen Form New Outfit, Unveil “Taking My Chances”: Stream
Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and veteran rocker Richie Kotzen have joined forces for the new blues-rock project Smith/Kotzen. In announcing the new outfit, the pair have unveiled their debut single, “Taking My Chances”. Longtime friends and colleagues, Smith and Kotzen are a formidable guitar pairing and prove as much on the new song. This ain’t Maiden, but rather a love letter to the electric blues. Smith and Kotzen share a mutual love of the genre that can be traced back through the years, like the time Smith played and sang a cover of Cream’s iconic “Crossroads” at one of Kotzen’s birthday parties. A natural chemistry can be heard on “Taking My Chances”. “I think Richie and I complement each other really well,” Smith said in a press release. “He’s a virtuoso guitarist, but he...
Australia’s Skegss Dissect the Origins of New Song “Wake Up”: Stream
In our new music feature Origins, artists dissect the influences that led to their latest single. Today, Skegss gently ask us to “Wake Up”. We all have that little voice in our head giving us advice or warnings, but it’s not always easy to listen to it. That’s because it’s usually not alone; the opinion of the world around us is always cross-talking, trying to drown out our own thoughts. On their new single “Wake Up”, Australian trio Skegss gently remind us that it’s okay to block out the chatter and heed your own conscience. Sounding like War Elephant-era Deer Tick with a surfy, garage rock edge, “Wake Up” rests on heavy piano notes and a strumming guitar. It comes together as a gentle reassurance, over which vocalist Ben Reed sings, “Been sifting out the dirt in the ground/ I’ve be...
Troye Sivan Taps Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for “Easy” Remix: Stream
Kacey Musgraves (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), Troye Sivan (photo by Tim Ashton), and Mark Ronson Troye Sivan has called upon Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson for a new remix of his summer single “Easy”. The track originally appeared on the In a Dream EP. Sivan teased the collaboration last month, saying he “maybeeeeeee” had worked with “two of my fave artists of all time.” The lush reimagining has arrived, now a few beats per minute slower and with new, gorgeous instrumentation courtesy of super-producer Ronson. “Easy” comes with an epic music video that shows off Sivan’s new mullet. It features long car rides with Musgraves driving and Sivan riding shotgun, and you can check it out below. Editors’ Picks Musgraves and Sivan first worked together on “Glittery” from The Kacey Musgraves Chr...
Every Time I Die Share New Songs “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”: Stream
Every Time I Die have returned with the double single, “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures”. They’ve also announced a livestream event for December 19th. The songs mark the first new music from the Buffalo, New York hardcore act since 2016. In the interim, the band’s lost none of their mathematic prowess and virtuosic precision. If the rest of Every Time I Die’s forthcoming ninth studio album lives up to these tracks, fans are in for another excellent slice of passionate metal. As the titles “A Colossal Wreck” and “Desperate Pleasures” imply, there’s more than a little of 2020 that’s seeped into the new material. Vocalist Keith Buckley stated in a press release that the songs are “two sides of the same reactionary coin.” “While ‘A Colossal Wreck’ looks around at the current state o...
Julia Jacklin Drops Cracked Christmas Song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”: Stream
Julia Jacklin is marking the holidays with the cracked new Christmas song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”. 2020 has been long and tumultuous, and for the residents of six continents it might be easy to forget that Australia began the year on fire. But down in Oz, where the holiday season overlaps with the dead of summer, it’s impossible to forget the bushfires that caused over $100 billion in damage alongside unfathomable ecological harm. Jacklin’s latest single imagines how a certain infant of legend might have fared in the Land Down Under. “She lost the baby,” Jacklin begins, “The house nearly burned down/ Baby Jesus is nobody’s baby now.” But her ambitions are larger — and more humorous — than just reliving a nationwide trauma. After all, ’tis the season for awkward family dinners and...
Tim Heidecker Announces Office Hours Live Album, Shares Fred Armisen Collaboration “Brick by Brick”: Stream
Less than three months after dropping Fear of Death, comedian-musician extraordinaire Tim Heidecker has announced his next release. Titled Office Hours Live presents Slaps, Bops & Bangers, it features songs from his podcast of the same name. Launched back in 2016, the Office Hours Live podcast sees Heidecker conducting phone and video calls with fans and special commentators. He hosts the program with Vic Berger and Doug “DJ Douggpound” Lussenhop, but other celebrities such as Heidecker’s Moonbase co-stars Fred Armisen and John C. Reilly have been known to periodically drop in. (Mac DeMarco and Bon Iver even made cameos during an eight-hour fundraiser recording of the podcast back in March.) A natural extension of the podcast, the forthcoming compilation album finds Heidecker...
Katy Kirby Curls Up in a “Cool Dry Place” on New Song: Stream
Up-and-coming indie rocker Katy Kirby is trying to decode the best way to go through life as a young adult. The most useful tool to do so is self-reflection, and she’s got plenty of it on her latest single, “Cool Dry Place”, which you can stream below. The song comes from Kirby’s upcoming debut album, Cool Dry Place, due out February 19th via Keeled Scales/Secretly. What starts off as a stripped-down, whisper-sung melody builds into a sweeping folk-rock ballad on “Cool Dark Place”. Kirby sings about her restlessness in a relationship with comforting vocal tones, but come the end, she inverts that subtle shiftiness with a gut-busting, deconstructed guitar solo that recalls Big Thief and early (Sandy) Alex G. In a statement, Kirby elaborated on the ways in which “Cool Dry Place” is a mu...
North Kingsley (Shavo Odadjian) Unleash “False Idols” Featuring Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA: Stream
North Kingsley, the side-project of System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, have released a new three-song EP, Vol. 2, their second of 2020. The group has also shared a music video for politically charged lead single “False Idols”, which features RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The track epitomizes North Kingsley’s groove-laden take on alternative hip-hop and the strong political views that seem to accompany Odadjian’s projects. North Kingsley vocalist/lyricist Ray Hawthorne takes centerstage on the song, with the video featuring the band’s members wearing masks of Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton. “We, as individuals, empower and idolize people who care for their own interests above ours,” vocalist/lyricist Hawthorne said in the press release. “We need to recognize that. We need to ...
John Carpenter Shares Chilling New Song “The Dead Walk”: Stream
In February, John Carpenter will drop Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, his first non-soundtrack album in almost five years. After teasing the release with “Weeping Ghost” just a few days before Halloween, the Master of Horror is back now with “The Dead Walk”. As with his previous Lost Themes II from 2016, Carpenter here is working alongside son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies. Together, the three here conjure a moment straight out of a classic Italian giallo — think specifically of a zombie chase scene that takes place inside of an old Gothic church. Icy piano feels tingly to the touch, while dissonant synths hint at the evil lurking behind the confessional. Around the 1:36 mark, synthesized industrial guitar riffs drop into the mix, adding an extra layer of crunch and...
Flatbush Zombies’ Erick the Architect Announces Debut Solo Project, Shares “Let It Go”: Stream
Erick the Architect, co-founder and primary producer for Flatbush Zombies, has announced his debut solo EP Future Proof. It’s out January 22nd, and he’s offering a preview with the new single “Let It Go” featuring Loyle Carner and FARR. Over the last few years, Erick Elliot has gone from one of the primary drivers of the Flatbush Zombies’ distinctive sound to a sought-after producer in his own right. He recently produced on James Blake’s Before EP, and according to a statement he is currently collaborating on different projects with Blake and Joey Bada$$. Now this beloved co-worker is set to strike out on his own with Future Proof . The five-track effort was produced by Linden Jay and features contributions from Col3trane, Sophie Faith, and Pip Millett. In addition to produ...
Kamaiyah Announces New Project No Explanations, Shares “Still I Rise”: Stream
Kamaiyah rang in 2020 with a project called Got It Made. Now, she’s looking to close out the year the same way: the Oakland rapper has announced a new effort, No Explanations, due out later this month. Spanning 11 tracks, No Explanations is actually Kamaiyah’s third (!) collection of the year following the aforementioned Got It Made and September’s Oakland Nights, a collaborative mixtape with fellow Bay Area talent Capolow. As the project makes readily apparent, Kamaiyah isn’t answering to anyone, nor is she letting anything — even the nightmare that is the pandemic — hold back her prolificness. The Oakland MC makes this message crystal clear on “Still I Rise” featuring Jackboy, the lead single off No Explanations. In a statement, Kamaiyah said that the track “is about how we’re all f...
Heem Announces New Project, Shares “The Realest” featuring Benny the Butcher: Stream
Benny the Butcher is best known as one of the leaders of the prolific Griselda crew alongside Conway the Machine and Westside Gunn. However, the Buffalo rapper is also the head honcho of a different collective called the Black Soprano Family, which consists of a number of underground MCs including the rookie Heem. Back in April, Benny signed a deal to make BSF an imprint of eOne, and over the summer he released their debut project, Benny the Butcher & DJ Drama Present: The Respected Sopranos, which featured numerous amazing verses from Heem that hinted at his potential star power. Today, Heem has announced his first solo project, Long Story Short, and he’s giving listeners a fitting preview by sharing a song called “The Realest” that features The Butcher himself. Over an instrumental t...
