Best new indie rock songs, indie news, best bands, reviews
Author: Rick Sosa
Graduate of the University of Michigan. Music is the language that unites us and helps us understand one another as well as share the amazing gifts that music, sounds, nature, and human experiences provide us. In my free time away from the regular day time, I write and participant in Climate Change activism because I want my children and grandchildren to have a fighting chance for the disasters that lie ahead. Another reason we need music.
The Weather Station’s How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is an album that is thoughtful, insightful and stunning. Compared to previous albums by the folk-indie artist, this release is more simplistic in which instruments it focuses on, making the lyrics the main attraction.
Unlike All of It Was Mine or The Weather Station, the piano in this album replaces multi-instrumental songs that were previously included such as banjos, fingerpicking acoustic guitars, drums and synths.
Tamara Lindeman’s voice is quieter, more subdued— almost parallel to Linda Perhacs’ feathered voice in “Chimacum Rain.” Staying within folk tradition, Lindeman’s lyrics focus on expansive stories with nature and animal motifs.
“Taught” feels like a piano is slowly trickling in, with Lindeman’s angelic voice taking center stage. This track is dramatic and all-feeling. It’s one of those rare songs that is both deeply emotional and touching, completely enthralling you in its rarity.
“Endless Time” is vocally reminiscent of Fiona Apple and Florence and the Machine. Lyrics such as “Lemons and persimmons in the December rain” are sweet and thoughtful, although sung with deep pain.
“Ignorance” tries to find meaning as it reaches out for an answer. The piano almost thuds with quick sincerity and a flute-like instrument plays in the background. This track lyrically showcases a deep connection to nature and the wrestling of the categorization of animals by human bearers.
“Sway” exemplifies a variance in tone, as the lyrics “I move too” is followed by a higher pitch vocally as well as instrumentally. The song is upbeat, yet ethereal. It is reminiscent of Neko Case’s “Star Witness” in buildup and subtle sound, specifically in how certain vocals are carried out.
Lindeman’s intelligent lyrics and melancholic sound, particularly within this album, mark deeper mysteries not yet finished. Details from the environment are picked up and carried out to meet the listener’s ear. Taking with it, sorrows of earlier times, and earlier lovers.
Night Owls is the fourth album from North Atlantic Explorers, a DIY indie project/collective lead by Glenn D’Cruze.
The nine-track album is comprised of elaborately produced and decidedly more uptempo songs than on previous releases while retaining an undercurrent of sadness, beauty and atmospherics that permeates throughout.
The songs incoporate elements of classic pop, orchestral, 60’s psychedelica and “an understated mid 70’s Young Americans/Royal Scam-style groove.”
Night Owls intersperses grandiose choral harmonies, a horn section and mind-bending improvisational jams alongside moments of ambience – inspired by The Beach Boys’ classic 1968 album Pet Sounds, D’Cruze states.
The album contains songs about northern winter nights, deceptive lovers, out of body experiences, catastrophic weather events and vampires. The album title is a reflection of D’Cruze’s solitary and nocturnal nature and his affinity for the tranquility and mystery of the pre-dawn hours.
Unfortunately, the release of Night Owls is a bittersweet event.
Andrew Arida, who performed the incredible Rhodes, Wurlitzer and organ solos on “Dreams of Flying” sadly passed away shortly after the recording session.
Night Owls was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jonathan Anderson (Foxwarren; Javelin; Teen Daze) and dropped DIY on January 7th, 2022.
New indie rock music videos are dropping left and right in past weeks, so we’re doing our best to keep up with reviewing and posting the best indie music videos of 2022 – one volume of 5 each at a time. Please share, like or follow to tell us you dig this series so we are inspired.
Just for clarification: ‘best indie music videos’ refers more to our feeling about the song itself and not the video by itself. The use of ‘video’, and the YouTube embed, helps separate posts with just audio, and those with audio AND video.
In this case, brothers and sisters, the video can be animation, lyric, or a real ‘real’ music video (if that makes sense?).
We do not post YouTube video singles that include mash-ups of stock footage and public domain media.
(YouTube/Google has a pretty strong hold on the music videos marketplace. The only viable competition – Vemo – is now owned by guess who? Google. Does this space allow fair competition? Doesn’t look like it – does it? Every time Google stock-owners go to the bank they say “GOO_GOO_GA_GA” when they see how much money – on paper – they are making. Remember – money either enhances or corrupts.)
In This Installment:
Beach House – “Sunset” from Once Twice Melody (Feb. 18th) PUP – “Robot Writes a Love Song” from The Unraveling of Pup, The Band (April 1st) MJ Lenderman – “The Hangover Game” from Boat Songs (April 29th) Baby Strange – “Under The Surface” from Land of Nothing (April 20th) Hater – “Something New” from Sincere (May 5th)
It’s no secret to our readers/followers that we have been big Beach House supporters from the get-go (more than 15 years by now – wow) after listening to the duo’s 2006 self-title debut album, featuring still-amazing tracks like the mega-loved “Master of None” to “Saltwater”, and others like the spooky “Tokyo Witch”, over and over again.
Now we are fortunate to have a track and video from the duo’s upcoming new release Once Twice Melody set to drop February 18th via Sub Pop Records.
Victoria Legrand‘s soothy, mysterious vocals and Alex Scally‘s dreamy, moody instrumentations on “Sunset” and many other tracks have never run dry or become ho-hum over the years.
Being overly analytical in cases like this can be a big fault: so, at the end of the day, all we can say about Beach House is they’re on our forever favorite indie duos of all time list.
Toronto punk quartet PUP are set to drop their foruth album, The Unraveling of Pup, The Band on April 1st via Little Dipper/Rise Records.
The video/audio track “Robot Writes A Love Song” shifts from melodic guitar-rock into an anthemic synth and drum machine-driven groove.
The band’s statement hints at something different coming up: “[It is] not just the next PUP record, but the most PUP record.”
PUP members recorded and mixed the tracks last summer at Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis’ (Interpol, Kurt Vile, The National) Connecticut mansion.
New instruments like piano, synths and horns are used for the first time on a PUP album and includes contributions remotely from the following artists: Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties), Kathryn McCauhey (NOBRO), Mel St-Pierre (Casper Skulls) and Erik Paulson (Remo Drive).
Asheville, North Carolina ndie rocker and former Wednesday band member Jake Lenderman, who records as MJ Lenderman, returns with a new track about Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. The song, “Hangover Game,” is off of his forthcoming album Boat Songs.
With combating guitars and a remarkable cresecendo, the track unravels a story that Michael Jordan’s infamous 1997 illness was not food poisoning, but instead a ‘bad hangover.’
Lenderman turns the song into a silly two minutes of poetic alt-country bliss. Boat Songs drops official April 29th via Dear Life Records.
Scottish rockers Baby Strange released their new video single “Under The Surface”.
The video is wonderfully creative and memorable – an accomplishment these days, especially on what we assume was a limited budget. Overall it’s a clever artistic concept that doesn’t need to be flashy or elaborate to be effective. Of course it helps that the song itself is a kick-ass rocker.
Another single, “Midnight,” released on New Years Eve – was the first teaser from the band’s upcoming second album, Land of Nothing, due April 20th via Icons Creating Evil Art.
It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release”
Vocalist and guitarist Johnny Madden explains: “’Under The Surface’ is a song about feeling trapped and wanting to find a way out of whatever is holding you back. It’s about paranoia, dark thoughts and the need to get over them. It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release and when we finished it in the studio I felt a weight was lifted from my shoulders.”
Frontview Magazine : “There is an underlying rawness to the energy sewn deep into the fabric of Glasgow that Baby Strange have harnessed with an unrelenting force.”
Swedish band Hater has dropped the first single, “Something” from their new album Sincere.
It’s the indie quartet’s follow-up to 2018’s Siesta, “Something” is a hypnotizing mix of shoegaze guitars, Caroline Landahl‘s wonderfully diverse vocals and soft, offset drum beats.
This newest peek-view at the upcoming release of Sincere on May 6th via Fire Records.
This week’s quick hits features new singles and videos from Destroyer, String Machine; Destroyer; Partner Look; Spoon; Young Prisms. Coming up: the latest Singles Club; January’s best album drops and fest updates.
Destroyer gets gritty on “Tintoretto, It’s For You”
It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from regarded alt rock songwriter and musician Destroyer, aka Daniel Bejar.
His sizzling new single, “Tintoretto, It’s for You,” is an intoxicating mix of orchestration and synthesizers and crazy drumming.
Destroyer’s new album, Labrinthitis, drops in March.
String Machine reveals anthemic new single
Know Hope Records’ artist String Machine drop the video single, “Touring In January”, ahead of the release of the album Hallelujah Hell Yeah on February 25.
The track is full-blown, anthemic indie baroque pop that is reminiscient of bands like Arcade Fire.
Partner Look drops new jangly single
Melbourne rock band Partner Look will release their new album By the Book on February 4 via Trouble in Mind Records.
You wouldn’t be far-off if you think “Right Here” sounds like a Go-Betweens cover, but this track is an original recording. However, there is clearly a Go-Betweens influence.
Spoon goes western on new video
Spoon is best sticking to the studio – definitely not making westerns of any sort.
But “Wild” is satisfactory as a track – still, a staple Spoon song; nothing really noteworthy. The band’s latest release, Lucifer on the Sofa drops in February.
SF’s Young Prisms drop first new single in a decade
You couldn’t have blamed anyone over the past number of years for thinking that San Francisco shoegazers Young Prisms had disbanded.
But a soaring and sizzling new melodic single, “Honeydew” is providing for an exciting return by the band. It’s the debut single from the band’s first album in a decade.
Another giant of the music industry has passed on.
Woodstock organizer/promoter Michael Lang succumbed to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma just hours ago.
According to Rolling Stone, Michael Pagnotta, a longtime family friend, Lang passed away Saturday evening at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. He was 77.
Lang was only 24 years old when he conceived and spearheaded the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969.
But only days before the sold-out, much talked-about (at least in the northeastern U.S.) music festival was set to begin, a potential catastrophy of untold proportions was about to explode on the entire affair.
The permit for the original site in Woodstock was revoked by the town after outraged citizens complained. The intrepid Lang would not cancel the fest and instead him and his crew scouted out and found Max Yasger’s farm in Bethel, New York. It it had not been for the loving grace and open arms of Mr. Yasger, the festival may have never taken place.
The new Netflix film Don’t Look Up may be getting more love for its music than the star-studded flick itself.
The film’s score was composed by the immensely-talented composer Nicholas Britell.
Britell’s other film score credits include Succession and If Beale Street Could Talk.
His style is distinctly orchestral, mixing together lush, sweeping string movements which are evident on the standout film track, “Second Nature,” in which indie star Bon Iver layers bright sounds and a breath of magic with an inspiring choir of background vocals.
Over the past few years, Bon Iver has really expanded his musical boundaries. His work with Taylor Swift has revealed a more introspective, even gloomy, side to Justin Vernon that fans haven’t seen in such fashion for a while.
The track includes contributions from yMusic’s CJ Camerieri (French horn and trumpet) and Rob Moose (strings), as well as vocals from Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner (vocals).
The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Ariana Grande, and Timothee Chalamet, among others.
A bunch of new video singles have been dropping left and right. These are five more we think you’ll dig:
Parquet Courts – New York, New York Low – Duluth, Minnesota Dean Wareham – Los Angeles, California Sand & Stones – Stockholm, Sweden Pip Blom – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Last week Parquet Courts announced a new album, Sympathy for Life, and shared its first video single, “Walking at a Downtown Pace.” The frantic video features New York City street life and was directed by photographer Daniel Arnold.
Sympathy for Life is due to drop on October 22 via Rough Trade. It is the followup to the band’s well-received 2018 album Wide Awake!.
This week indie veterans Low dropped a third single, “More,” from the band’s upcoming September release Hey What.
Accompanied by a music video directed by Julie Casper Roth, the strange video is described in the press release as: “metaphorically explores the Sisyphean task of dismantling structural oppression, through gender biases.”
The upcoming release will be the band’s thirteenth album and the third time they’ve worked with producer B.J. Burton .
“The new album finds the group focusing on their craft, staying out of the fray, and holding fast their faith to find new ways to express the discord and delight of being alive, to turn the duality of existence into hymns we can share,” according to the press release.
“These 10 pieces—each built around their own instantaneous, undeniable hook—are turbocharged by the vivid textures that surround them. The ineffable, familiar harmonies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker break through the chaos like a life raft. Layers of distorted sound accrete with each new verse—building, breaking, colossal then restrained, a solemn vow only whispered. There will be time to unravel and attribute meaning to the music and art of these times, but the creative moment looks FORWARD, with teeth.”
Indie rock trail-blazer Dean Wareham (Luna, Galaxie 500) will drop a new solo album – I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. We have the first single, “The Past is Our Plaything.”
“‘The Past Is Our Plaything’ was recorded at a studio on Stinson Beach, just north of San Francisco, in November 2020,” Wareham said. ” The song sorta grew out of observations by Julian Barnes in my favorite book last year—the Man In the Red Coat—about a collection of dandies, drug addicts, artists and writers in belle epoque France and England.”
Wareham’s last solo album was released in 2014. Since he’s worked on the soundtrack for Mistress America with his wife, Britta Phillips, and reunited and toured with Luna.
“The hard thing is just to start,” Wareham says of the gap between solo albums. “When I sat down and did it, the songs came pretty quickly.”
Papercuts’ Jason Quever produced and played on the album, which also features Phillips on bass, vocals, and keys, and Roger Brogan on drums.
In terms of the album’s title, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A., and what he would say if he actually met the mayor of Los Angeles, where Wareham and Phillips have been based since 2013, Wareham responds: “It’s gonna happen. But the answer is right there too—I have nothing to say.”
The under-the-radar Swedish duo, Sand & Stones, has released a new video track of which the band says: “This is a contemporary song about the opportunity to reconnect with new aspects of yourself and bring awareness to what truly matters. In these changing times, things rise to the surface and by reconnecting to our true nature we will easily adjust to the new lifestyle we seek. You can find all answers within, in love, let´s live.”
The song is a seductive mix of dream pop and Americana guitar picking. Very unique and interesting. Most importantly, it works very nicely; a video track that sticks with you.
The video itself is nothing particularly exciting but it does fit with the audio.
Amsterdam‘s four-piece outfit Pip Blom has dropped a new video single, “You Don’t Want This,” head of an album release in October titled Welcome Break.
Director Sara Elzinga said: “When I first heard ‘You Don’t Want This,’ I recognized the feeling of self-consciousness; knowing that people have a certain way of looking at you, that does not necessarily comply with the image you have of yourself. The concept of a Matryoshka doll then stuck in my head, having these multiple versions of yourself that are hidden at first. The set reminds us of a dollhouse, of someone who is so comfortable in their own scenery, they forget to look at the world outside of the room. Though rather than making a music video about anxiety, I wanted the video to be about self-acceptance. Smiling back at yourself, instead of constantly criticizing which is something people tend to do.”
Pip Blom, the name of the band’s frontwoman, is backed by her brother, Tender Blom. Of 20 bedroom songs recorded by Pip, 16 of those were ripped as demos.
Premiered by BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac as Hottest Record In The World, “Seventeen Going Under ” is the new indie single by North Shields crooner Sam Fender.
The track is the title track of his forthcoming new album established for release on October 8th 2021.
Musically as well as thematically, Seventeen Going Under picks up where “Hypersonic Missiles” ended. Equipped with social critique and eager political observations, the brand-new track deals with the discomforts of growing up in a small town, family, and friends.
Fender’s pointed lyrics prompt a vivid image of the events he encountered while growing up in the north of England (such as “See I spent my teens enraged/ Spiralling in silence/ And arm myself with a grin”), all the while making the song relatable to anyone that has been or is 17; a difficult age.
Buoyed by upbeat drums, soaring guitars and Fender’s massive vocal abilities, “Seventeen Going Under” vows to be an instantaneous classic.
In short, the album is a coming-of-age story, and a celebration of life overcoming those adverse teenage years.
The brand-new song follows on from Fender’s number 1 UK cd Hypersonic Missiles, released in October 2019, as well as the standalone singles All Is On My Side and Hold On. Driven by the success of the 2019 debut record, the Brit Award victor has been occupied playing sold-out live shows on both sides of the Atlantic until the pandemic halted touring.
Fender returned to his home town and began working on album number two with long-time friend and producer Bramwell Bronte who had likewise produced Hypersonic Missiles.
Seventeen Going Under artwork & tracklisting
Seventeen Going Under
Getting Started
Aye
Get You Down
Long Way Off
Spit Of You
Last To Make It Home
The Leveller
Mantra
Paradigm
The Dying Light
Sam Fender’s new album Seventeen Going Under will be released on October 8th
So far, this year has been an amazing one for new music. Across the spectrum. Below is a Soundcloud list of my top alternative rock song choices for May 2021.
A regular listener asked what the difference is between indie rock and alternative rock.
In my mind, alternative rock, or alt. rock, is straight-up rock with more of an edge, post-grunge (for the most part). Alternative rock is definitely not heavy metal nor monster metal (or whatever you call that unlistenable stuff). Indie rock is a bit softer – but not necessarily – and can represent multitudes of hybridization incorporating various genres and sub-genres (what makes it amazing). Indie artists and bands also consider, perhaps still today, as either DIY, on a small label, or ascended so high they eventually took the big money from the corporates. (They don’t need to be slain for it. The music, in the end, always matters the most.)
The best definitions for both indie rock and alternative rock, and most other genres, that I’ve come across are found on AllMusic and Wikipedia.
NOTE:
The Top 10 Alternative Rock Songs below for May 2021 represent only the tracks that I actually heard. It is by no means absolute or scientific. It’s just personal choices I’m sharing here. No doubt I’m missing some dope tracks that are supposed to be in the playlist. That’s just unavoidable. There is not the time nor resources to curate a playlist that represented THE top 10 alternative rock songs for May.
Enjoy and please like and share if you dig. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
From IRC’s submission box: The enchanting, sultry – perhaps even seductive – new indie rock single “North Carolina” from New Jersey band Blue Vervain.
As this new track eludes to, The Saddle Brook indie-‘mood’/bedroom pop band has been gaining some love from indie music fans in recent years and even opened for Young The Giant.
The single is the title track from their sophomore album dropped earlier this year. Blue Vervain is named after a flower that is often used as an alternative remedy for anxiety and depression.
Blue Vervain was founded by lead vocalist and songwriter Jon Khan in the summer of 2018 as a solo project that eventually grew into the current five-piece band that includes Nikki Marroccoli – Keyboards/Synths; Chris Selman – Guitar; Ori Yekutiel – Drums.
On Monday, the wildly-popular indie band Yuck announced they are no longer a band. The announcement was delivered via Twitter.
“I feel its only right to tell you that we will no longer be touring or making new music together,” the Tweet says. “We’ve released 3 albums together and I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved, but we all felt it was important to know when to draw the line. It wasn’t an easy thing to come to terms with.”
The breakup came on the 10th anniversary of the release of the band’s 2011 breakthrough self-titled debut album. That amazing album will go down in indie history as one of the best indie debuts ever.
Unfortunately, frontman Daniel Blumberg departed the band in 2013 for other pursuits. The rest of the band continued and grinded it out, releasing the impressive follow-up Glow & Behold that same year and one final album, Stranger Things, in 2016.
“I want to thank everyone for their overwhelming support over the years, everyone who came to shows, bought our record, bought our merch, Fat Possum for believing in us and signing a band they had never met or seen live, and our booking agents, press and management for working so hard for us.
When they first hit the scene – so to speak – a decade ago, the U.K. indie band Yuck blew up as few newcomers do.
But they had a special something about their sound, lyrics, and presence that resonated with indie enthusiasts. We were early fans like many and luckily got to see the band live.
Fast-forward 10 years later, during the age of the pandemic and political upheaval, and x-number of albums purchased; sold-out shows; non-stop touring; interviews and followers, Yuck has no longer exists.
Yuckily, for all of us, we still have the tapes.
Yuck is one of the few bands from the ‘post-indie’ era that helped keep the genre fresh and in the spotlight. We wish them all the best and looking forward to the band members’ new projects.
The five-track EP, Hot Glass, is an ode to New England rock and roll in a number of ways and also a story about hard times and societal ills, such as the opioid epidemic that continues to ravage communities across the otherwise “idyllic” New England landscape.
He reminisces about his youth growing up in the capital city of Manchester, New Hampshire (or Hamp-sha).
“It is not a relatively large city,” he adds, “but it does have its own vibe. Over the course of the years, many of my friends have fallen victim to opiates, drugs, and alcohol addiction. We have lost a lot of people from that epidemic and it is still going in today.”
Whitney says this album has been 70 years in the making. “I’ve been playing guitar for about 20 years and this is my first recorded project.”
“It was after the divorce that I committed myself to the studio for a year to see what I could make of it. I saved my blue-collar dollars and spent my Sunday’s at a small studio in Manchester. This is the music that came from those sessions.”
“When I learned the guitar my Dad at the time was living in an isolated log cabin in central New Hampshire,” Whitney says. “I spent four years [ages 18 to 24 years] living with him there without TV and only guitars to play… [m]y Dad never did too much. He drank, there w[ere] a lot of tragic family stories. What else can I say?; blues is something you live.”
He adds that last year, in a six-month stretch of time, he lost his father, his father-in-law, and his own marriage.
Whitney picked out talented area musicians to play drums, sax, and vocals. The album title, Whitney says, “comes from when the tubes in an amp heat up; once the glass is hot, the notes really shine.”
What is nice, however, is the music on the E.P. is much brighter – for the most part – than all of that and one can imagine what a cathartic experience it must has been recording the album.
The standout tracks are the 70s-rock vibe of “Loaded Gun”; the melodic love ballad, “Empty” Pockets” and the equally smooth and cozy instrumentation, lyrics, and vocals of “Rewind,” the 70’s singer/songwriter and sweet alt.country rock jam of the Allman Brothers “Blue Sky” come together in perhaps the top track on the album, and that’s to say a lot considering the other accomplished songs on the album all of which he also produced himself.
Altogether – a solid piece of work and perfect for curling on the bed or lounging in the backyard as the dog days of summer come upon us in our surreal and troubled world.
