So many artists, so many songs, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
ORTHODOX – “THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NAIL”
Tennessee metalcore band get slow and sludgy on new single “The Other Side of the Nail.”
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DIAMANDA GALÁS – “A SOUL THAT’S BEEN ABUSED” (RONNIE EARL COVER)
Diamanda Galás announced a new live album, Diamanda Galás In Concert, due out on June 14 via Intravenal Sound Operations, and shared her haunting take on Ronnie Earl’s “A Soul That’s Been Abused.” She says:
I had a gentleman caller off and on for ten years.
Quite often I had to put him on the shelf because he was quite dramatic.
But I loved him because usually he could take my sense of humor and colorful language by laughing at me. There was one day when I insulted him badly; and he informed me immediately that he could kill me where I stood. After the drama, we went to sleep.The next morning I went looking for my scissors and couldn’t find them.
I looked for my knives and could find not even one.
Finally I thought, “He hid them while I was sleeping!” I lifted the mattress and there was a petty arsenal of kitchen knives, scissors, my stun gun, my 38 special, and maybe even a toenail clipper!I laughed so hard that day! And we had a great dinner that night.
A Soul That’s Been Abused was always his song.
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KHARMA – “STILL SEEING RED”
Chicago hardcore band Kharma unleash another rager from A World Of Our Own, arriving 4/12 via Flatspot.
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WRETCHED BLESSING (IMMORTAL BIRD, YAUTJA) – “SPURIOUS OVATION”
Wretched Blessing is the new duo of Kayhan Vaziri (Yautja, Coliseum) on guitar/vocals and Rae Amitay (of Immortal Bird, Thrawsunblat) on drums/vocals. Their self-titled debut EP comes out on April 26, and you can hear the band’s various extreme metal/punk vibes coming through on lead single “Spurious Ovation.”
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GULLY BOYS – “BAD DAY”
Gully Boys deliver a catchy, angsty grunge-punk anthem with “Bad Day.”
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MERCE LEMON – “WILL YOU DO ME A KINDNESS”
Pittsburgh-based singer-songwriter Merce Lemon has shared her first new music of 2024, “Will You Do Me a Kindness.” She calls it “a collage of moments, lines, and feelings I had gathered over the months. The title comes from a quote I heard in the youtube video of the crass Winnebago man and the rest kind of spilled out from there. It is a song close to my heart, the inescapable loneliness we feel as humans, the little things we notice when we are alone, the fear yet desire to give ourselves wholly to another.”
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CAMILA CABELLO – “I LUV IT” (ft. PLAYBOI CARTI)
Camila Cabello has been teasing her return for a while, and now she’s finally got a new single, “I Luv It”. It was made with executive producer El Guincho and co-producer Jasper Harris, and features Playboi Carti, and the titular hook is pure ear candy.
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ANASTASIA COOPE – “WOKE UP AND NO FEET”
Darning Woman, Anastasia Coope’s debut albu, is out in May on Jagjaguwar, and the latest single is off-kilter psychedelic folk track “Woke Up and No Feet.”
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MORTAL WOUND – “FOUND DEAD IN A BUSH”
LA death metallers Mortal Wound have announced their debut LP The Anus of the World, due May 24 via Dark Descent, and lead single “Found Dead In A Bush” is a crisp, OG-style death metal rager. The band is also gearing up for a tour with Vio-lence (performing Eternal Nightmare), Exhorder, and Deceased.
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ELLIS – “IT’LL BE ALRIGHT”
Ellis’ new album no place that feels like me is out next month, and she’s given us another early taste with “it’ll be alright.” “When I was writing “it’ll be alright” I was thinking about all the parts of myself i have killed to appease other people,” she says. “I think I’ve learned that maybe some of those parts are better off dead, but other parts I will grieve the loss of forever. I dwell on the way I am perceived through someone else’s eyes (which can be a blessing or a curse depending on who’s eyes I’m looking through), and it can be very scary and disorienting when I’m forced to hold a mirror up and realise I don’t recognise myself in it. I’ve struggled with being overly critical of all of my past selves for the decisions that I’ve made, but I am slowly learning to look back at all of those selves with compassion and acknowledge the girl who was just trying her best.”
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CELL ROT – “SHADOW PEOPLE & “COSIMC VERTIGO”
Noisy Oakland hardcore maniacs Cell Rot drop two new songs via Convulse Records.
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HOVVDY – “MAKE YA PROUD”
“This is one of a few songs on the record I wrote for my grandpa Pete, my father’s father,” Hovvdy’s Charlie Martin says of the latest single off their new self-titled double album. “He passed away last summer and was in many ways the backbone of that side of my family. I wrote ‘Make Ya Proud’ during that time in Mississippi, between trips to the coast to visit him in the hospital. It’s really hard to describe; but the songs are a celebration of him and how he inspired me.”
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BBYMUTHA – “LINES”
Atlanta-via-Chattanooga rapper bbymutha shares another taste of sleep paralysis with the experimental electro-rap of “lines.”
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BORED AT MY GRANDMAS HOUSE – “HOW DO YOU SEE THE WORLD?”
Show & Tell, the debut album from Leeds-based musician Bored at My Grandmas House, is out in June, and the latest single is “How Do You See the World?,” which she says is “a song I wrote about humanity’s greed, ignorance and lack of accountability surrounding the state of the world we live in. It’s about how we as humans still prioritise material goods, wealth and power rather than sustainability within society – even when all the facts, stats and evidence highlighting our negative impact and its dangers are handed to us on a plate. It’s me questioning how big we really are in the grand scope of life and predicting mother nature’s rightful comeback.”
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SNARLS – “BABY BANGS”
Snarls have announced a new Chris Walla-produced album, With Love, due May 3 via Take This To Heart. Along with the announcement comes the third single, a soaring grunge-pop anthem called “Baby Bangs.”
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KNEECAP – “FINE ART”
Belfast rappers Kneecap, who just played Brooklyn, have shared the title track to their upcoming debut album, Fine Art. The song was inspired by “the mental reaction of the media to our mural unveiling of a police jeep on fire.” Says the group’s Mo Chara: “The mural ended up on the BBC with Steven Nolan who’s like the Piers Morgan of the North of Ireland. They had a massive debate about the painting, and he says, ‘The band Kneecap claim the mural is just a piece of fine art.’ So we sampled it into a dance tune and dropped it in where it kicks. That’s where the title comes from – when we were getting stick about the mural that’s the term we used. Because that’s the best description isn’t it? If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. It’s still fine art.”
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ED HARCOURT – “EL MAGNIFICO”
UK singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt releases his new album El Magnifico this Friday and as one last teaser, he’s shared the titled track. “I think as a songwriter you do get to a point where you’re aware of your past and what you’ve done,” Ed says. “It’s knowing what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, but also knowing how to better yourself by doing things you haven’t done before.”
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ARAB STRAP – “STRAWBERRY MOON”
“Lyrically, it’s maybe the most personal song on the album,” says Aidan Moffat of “Strawberry Moon” off Arab Strap’s upcoming album, “About a period when I wasn’t doing very well, both mentally and physically. I was walking with a cane and in pain most of the time, and drowning my sorrows too, trapped at home and watching the phases of the moon through a window. The moon always seems to pop up in my lyrics, and the song’s a sort of secular hymn in praise of her constant change. She’s always a comfort, always hopeful, and always makes me smile.”
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STILL CORNERS – “TODAY IS THE DAY”
Today is the day you can hear a fourth song off Still Corners’ upcoming album Dream Talk.
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FU MANCHU – “HANDS OF THE ZODIAC”
Fu Manchu announced their first new album in six years, The Return of Tomorrow, and shared the first single, which you can read more about here, and pre-order on blue & magenta A-side/B-side vinyl, limited to 300 copies.
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BULLION – “AFFECTION”
Bullion, aka London electronic producer and songwriter Nathan Jenkins, will release Affection on April 26 and he’s just released the album’s slinky, appealing title track.
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BERNARD BUTLER (EX-SUEDE) – “CAMBER SANDS”
Former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler has stayed busy over the last two decades as a producer and collaborator (David McAlmont, The Libertines, Ben Watt, Jessie Buckley, more) but hasn’t released a solo album since 1999’s Friends and Lovers. That is about to change, as he’s announce Good Grief, his third album under his own name, will be out May 31. Here’s the album’s opening song.
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GASTR DEL SOL – “THE SEASONS REVERSE (LIVE)”
Chicago experimental indie rock duo Gastr del Sol (David Grubbs and Jim O’Rourke) have announced their first album since the ’90s, We Have Dozens of Titles, which will be out May 24 via Drag City. Don’t get too excited — the album is an “assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live performances” including this one from the duo’s final show.
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POND – “(I’M) STUNG”
Aussie psych band Pond have announced their 10th album, Stung!, which will be out June 21 via Spinning Top Records. Inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk and Prince’s Sign ‘O’ the Times, the band say this is more of a loose, free-wheeling affair than previous records. Here’s the title track.
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EKKO ASTRAL – “DEVORAH”
DC post-punks Ekko Astral have announced their debut album for Topshelf, pink balloons, along with new single “devorah.” Read more here.
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FOREIGN HANDS – “GOD UNDER FINGERNAILS”
Delaware/Pennsylvania metalcore band Foreign Hands have announced their new Will Putney-produced album What’s Left Unsaid, along with this new single. Read more here.
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HIATUS KAIYOTE – “MAKE FRIENDS”
Hiatus Kaiyote have announced a new album, Love Heart Cheat Code, along with new single “Make Friends.” Read more here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive.