In October, American Football released their long-awaited second album, and today, they’ve shared a new video for “I’ve Been So Lost For So Long.” The song itself is so earnest and melancholy it’s practically anti-comedic, but the video is a Funny or Die skit, and… it works.
Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers, but the joke is: What if there were a “goth” gene that skipped…
“Blood Under My Belt,” the infectious first single from the Drums’ recently announced album “Abysmal Thoughts,“ has a new video. It features the band’s Jonny Pierce and some actors looking like a ’90s sportswear catalog and/or one of those staged high school sports portraits. There’s guitars, geodes, boxing gear, a BMX bike, and a bunch more stuff, which director CYCY Sanders arranges in a series of…
Lo-fi, indie pop artist (Sandy) Alex G has released a new track off of his upcoming album Rocket. “Proud” features a variety of strummed guitars accompanied by a warm, boom-chuck drum kit and a simple bass line. Highlights include the sweet, occasional background piano solo, the instrumentation peaking near the end with additional synth-y textures. It comes with a charming lyric video, depicting scenes with friends hanging out in a slightly grungy-looking apartment, and footage of the slushy streets of New York City. Watch it below.
In other news, the artist has changed his name from his previous moniker, Alex G. A press release states: “Going forward, Alex G will be known as (Sandy) Alex G. We are unable to provide further comment at this time, but would appreciate you using the new titling for all future mentions.”
The Philadelphia DIY musician, who found major success through his releases…
Beth Ditto, former leader of the band Gossip, is prepping her first solo full-length. “Fire,” its first single and opening track, comes to us today via BBC Radio 1. According to a listing in the New Zealand iTunes store, Ditto’s album is titled Fake Sugar and due out on June 16.
The radio edit of “Fire” clocks in at just two minutes (on iTunes, the album version is three minutes long), but it…
In 1983, 17-year-old Harlem singer Jackie Stoudemire released a compelling 12” that few people heard. Fitting to its undeniable groove, the song was called simply “Dancing,” and it arrived via the obscure late disco/proto hip-hop label Tap Records. Naturally, the professional crate-diggers over at the Numero Group unearthed and shone a light on the uptown NYC label nearly a decade ago now, which is perhaps how “Dancing” reached indie-pop observationalist Jens Lekman. Tucked within Lekman’s “postcards” experiment, in which he wrote and released a new song every week throughout 2015, was a loose number where he essentially plays over “Dancing.” It was a promising nugget, but still felt a little out of place. He doesn’t fully integrate himself into the…
Alex G (aka the Philadelphia musician born Alex Giannascoli) has said that Lucinda Williams is one of his favorite songwriters. His affinity for her simple, honest songs shines through in his art: Even though he traffics in harsh noise and vintage rock, his best work is often understated. He channels that sparseness in his new single, “Bobby,” a loping piece of mud-caked Americana—his most explicitly…
Sampha has released a short film called Process to compliment his February album of the same name. Directed by Kahlil Joseph–the mastermind behind Beyoncé‘s Lemonade, The Arcade Fire’s The Reflektor Tapes, and music videos for FKA twigs and Flying Lotus–the 38-minute, time-warping short combines footage of Sampha performing with other surreal narrative material to create a tribute to Sampha’s late mother (In other words, it…
For all its menace and foggy atmosphere, much of the music the producer Matthew Barnes has released as Forest Swords thus far is pretty good for putting on in the background of whatever you’re doing and zoning out: repetitive, hip-hoppy drums, dubby basslines, samples that contribute to the patchwork texture of a given track rather than grabbing you by the throat.
“Arms Out” a new track released today, signals that maybe that won’t be the case for Barnes anymore. Built on chopped-up vocals and…
From their masterpiece, Souvlaki, to what was supposed to be their last album, Pygmalion, ’90s shoegaze icons Slowdive have continually worked to distill their textured sound to its barest core. Twenty-two years after their last record, with a self-titled reunion album on the way, Slowdive seem determined to keep stripping back and evolving past the sound that once defined them.
While their comeback single, “Star Roving,” riffed on the band’s roots, “Sugar for the Pill” is something entirely different—a disarming heartbreak ballad led by singer Neil…
Despite their presence in the Brooklyn scene for some time now, Cende—who feature members of Brooklyn mainstays Porches and LVL UP—have released very little music to their name. At the beginning of 2016, the band dropped an incredible 7″ EP with Steakhouse Records, the loose label behind the now-defunct Bushwick venue David Blaine’s The Steakhouse, and have since performed alongside bands like Priests offshoot Gauche and Palm.
Today, they’ve thankfully released…