David Byrne, Neko Case, Drain, Shame, more

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.

DAVID BYRNE – “THE AVANT GARDE”

“Some people will hear this and say, ‘David is calling bullshit on his friends’ but it’s more nuanced than that,” says of this song that takes a critical eye to avant garde art. “Anyone who knows me knows that I go to plenty of shows that might be classified as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is hugely inspiring to me, as it often changes the way I think and influences what I do (without me simply appropriating the ideas, I hope). That said, trying something unproven and radically new is risky. Sometimes, as with anything risky, it doesn’t quite hit the bullseye. There’s no guarantee that it will achieve what it aims to do, but when it does, the emotional and intellectual rewards are worth it. That is the risk one takes while making something new and unconventional. So yes, there are times when it doesn’t mean shit, but often there are times when something wholly original comes into being and it’s all worth it. I love that the Ghost Train folks and Kid Harpoon took what could have been a fairly conventional song I’d written (musically at least), and steered it into something that to me sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Dirty Projectors.” Who Is The Sky? is out September 5.

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NEKO CASE – “WINCHESTER MANSION OF SOUND”

Neko Case has shared the second single from her upcoming album Neon Grey Midnight Green. “Winchester Mansion of Sound” owes more than a little to ’60s girl group pop.

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BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND – “WHAT’S GOING ON” AND “SAVE THE CHILDREN” (MARVIN GAYE COVERS)

Beverly Glenn-Copeland, who has a new album on the way next year, has shared covers of two Marvin Gaye classics. “Marvin Gaye was my teacher,” says Beverly. “Though I didn’t get the chance to meet him in this life, his untimely death broke my heart. I still listen and learn from his wisdom. Marvin’s music is prophetic and his message of unity through love still rings true today. I’m honored to be covering these two deeply meaningful songs that captured the zeitgeist of a nation at a pivotal time in our shared history. Listen to his introspective lyrics. Dance to his soulful grooves. Get yourself alive in the hands of a master and heed his call.”

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DRAIN – “WHO’S HAVING FUN?”

Drain’s Sammy Ciaramitaro showed off a knack for clean, melodic vocals with the Descendents cover on their last LP, and now he brings that to an original song with “Who’s Having Fun?,” the third single from Drain’s upcoming Is Your Friend. It’s the catchiest original Drain song yet, and only has a little bit of screaming, plus lots of shreddy guitar solos. It’s definitely different for Drain, but it’s a fun song and it suits them well. We’ve also got an exclusive “patina rust splash” vinyl variant of the new Drain album up for pre-order.

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SKULLCRUSHER – “MARCH”

“‘March’ is like a confession,” Skullcrusher says of the latest single off her new album And Your Song is Like a Circle. “It felt like surrendering myself to the things I’ve lost, the things I don’t understand, the confrontation of life & responsibility. While I reflect on things, familiar situations take different forms. I make a friend cry as I play them my song, I make them cry because I said something hurtful. There is beauty and terror in the unknown.”

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FLESHWATER – “LAST ESCAPE”

Shoegazy post-hardcore band Fleshwater have shared the second taste of 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky, and this one finds Marisa Shirar really belting it in a way that she rarely has before. It’s maybe the most emo Fleshwater song yet, and it’s a good one.

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JONNY FRITZ – “DEBBIE DOWNERS”

Jonny Fritz (formerly Jonny Corndawg) has announced Debbie Downers, a new album he’s releasing four versions of, with part one due out on October 24 via Gar Hole. The first version is a country version, as you can hear on the title track and first single.

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AGRICULTURE – “THE WEIGHT”

Genre-pushing black metal band Agriculture have shared the second single from their anticipated sophomore album The Spiritual Sound, and it’s an intense, hard-to-musically-pin-down song that co-vocalist Leah Levinson says is intended to reflect both the harassment that the queer community faces and the love that exists within that community. “I wanted to write about transness but didn’t want to rely on political aphorisms and indulgent images of suffering,” she says. “I wanted to paint a holistic portrait of queer life.”

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MIYA FOLICK – “ELTON JOHN”

Miya Folick has followed her recent album Erotica Veronica with an emotional new single, “Elton John.” “After my dad died, I spent the following weeks at my parents’ house, getting used to the idea of calling it ‘mom’s house’ and helping her plan the funeral,” she says. “The first time I came back up to LA, I drove aimlessly through the city, listening to music and crying. I felt the presence of my dad as a young man, living in Los Angeles just like me, loving music just like me. We were different in many ways, but my dad and I could always connect through music. When I had a show at the Troubadour, my dad was excited because he’d been going there since he was a teenager. He liked talking about how he saw Elton John play there in 1970. What an iconic moment. What a part of music history. That’s where the title and the idea of this song comes from. ‘Elton John’ is a song about grief and Los Angeles, and how the people we love are so richly present after we lose them.”

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VIOLENT WAY – “I’LL ASK YOU” & “THEY SAID”

Buffalo Oi! band Violent Way (whose members also play alongside Terror’s Scott Vogel in Bad Blood) have a new album on the way, and they just dropped two new songs from it. In classic Oi! fashion, they’re as gritty as they are extremely catchy.

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WICCA PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAL – “MAGIC MOMENT” & “SETTLER’S BEND”

Everybody’s going country lately, and these two new songs from Wicca Phase’s upcoming album Mossy Oak Shadow are the emo-rap pioneer and former Tigers Jaw member’s most overtly country songs yet.

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SPITE HOUSE – “10 DAYS”

Montreal melodic hardcore Spite House have shared the second taste of their upcoming sophomore album (and Pure Noise debut) Desertion. It’s a cathartic, impassioned song, and vocalist/guitarist Max Lajoie says, “’10 Days’ about the time I spent by my mom’s side in the hospital after we learned she had cancer. She was gone 10 days after her diagnosis. The song captures what I felt for leaving her behind years earlier, for all the things I couldn’t do, for not being able to stop time.”

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POLIÇA – “SHE KNOWS ME”

POLIÇA’s Channy Leaneagh says “She Knows Me” came “out of the early Pachyderm sessions, but for about a year we paused working on the record—trying to figure out what we were even doing with ourselves—and during that time I started playing it on acoustic guitar. And eventually, it became this song. A long time ago, a music journalist in Minneapolis predicted we’d eventually add guitar to our music. So… here it is. Probably our last record, and it includes nylon strings, strummed by me.” New album Dreams Go is out October 17

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ASHER WHITE – “COBALT ROOM: GOOD WORK / SILVER SAAB”

NYC-based artist Asher White will release new album 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living on September 12 and here’s the latest single which may appeal to fans of The Flaming Lips or Neutral Milk Hotel. “It’s the sequential sum of what I was listening to and reading at the time,” says White. “I was interested in pulling every idea to its extreme. Because it’s just me recording, I can pursue the most whimsical, outrageous aspects of the music. What would be the funniest or most cartoonish place to take this? And how can I make that rewarding still?”

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KING PRINCESS – “GIRLS”

King Princess’ new album Girl Violence is out next month, and the latest single is “Girls,” a maximalist waltz with raspy vocals.

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POINT BREAK 2 – “HALL OF JUSTICE”

Point Break 2, the latest project from Brooklyn indie/DIY vet Ted McGrath (These Are Powers, The Flag), will release their self-titled debut EP on September 5. “We love ‘Hall Of Justice’ because it’s a literal recording of the moment Point Break 2 went from a high-quality fun fuckaround to crystallizing into an actual band,” says Ted. “It was written, recorded (almost entirely live), and mixed in the span of one very productive weekend. And it highlights all of the band’s inherent, nascent strengths, while also offering some tantalizing feints at things to come. We’re all very excited.”

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THE BELAIR LIP BOMBS – “HEY YOU”

Aussie band The Belair Lip Bombs have announced new album, Again, which will be out August 31 vai Third Man. “Having a synth loop driving a whole song is something that we’ve never done before,” singer Maisie Everett says of “Hey You,” to which Daniel Devlin adds, “We kind of leaned into that and pushed to make the scope of the song bigger than some of the other songs in the album.”

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SHAME – “SPARTAK”

“I guess this disdain towards cliques comes from how shit I was made to feel by the cool kids growing up,” says Shame’s Charlie Steen of their new single. “ I was a chubby teenager who liked the wrong type of music and wore the wrong type of clothes. It’s just another time I’d like to say fuck you to those people, and to anyone who makes someone feel shitty for not fitting in.” New album Cutthroat is out September 5.

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CONSTANT SMILES – “TIME MEASURED IN MOONFLOWERS” FT CASSANDRA JENKINS

Constant Smiles’ first single from new album Moonflowers gets some vocal assist from Cassandra Jenkins.

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RADIOHEAD – “THERE, THERE (LIVE FROM BUENOS AIRES, MARCH 2009)”

Radiohead surprise released a Hail to the Thief live album, and shared a video of one of its tracks, a rendition of “There, There” recorded in Buenos Aires in March of 2009.

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BLACK EYES – “PESTILENCE”

DC post-hardcore/art punk vets Black Eyes have announced their first album in 21 years, Hostile Design, and lead single “Pestilence” is out now. Read more about it here.

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ELIZA MCLAMB – “EVERY YEAR”

Eliza McLamb gave us another preview of her new album Good Story with “Every Year,” which you can read more about here.

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CHRISSIE HYNDE – “ALWAYS ON MY MIND” FT. RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde announced a new duets album as Chrissie Hynde & Pals and shared the first single, a rendition of the classic “Always On My Mind” featuring Rufus Wainwright. Read more about it here.

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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive