Mean Mistreater’s debut single, “Bleeding The Night,” inspires a specific type of heavy metal feeling. I immediately sensed it when I caught the Austin, Texas, quintet performing a high-octane set of Trad Belt-contending heavy metal sweetened with a sprinkle of midnight malevolence. “This song title explains it all,” Janiece Gonzalez, Mean Mistreater’s singer, writes in […]
Wings Of Desire – “Made Of Love” & “Be Here Now”
The UK indie rock duo Wings Of Desire made an impression with the series of EPs that they released in 2021. The band found a sound that was both revved-up and blissed-out, combining shoegaze textures with Springsteenian bombast. The band quietly followed those EPs with a couple of singles, 2022’s “Choose A Life” and this […]
Doja Cat Announces New Album Scarlet, Previews “Demons” With Retro Horror Trailer Starring Christina Ricci
Last month, Doja Cat went on social media and pointedly refused to tell her fans that she loves them: “I don’t though cuz I don’t even know yall.” It’s time that someone said something about parasocial stan armies, and Doja is exactly the kind of pop star who doesn’t mind doing stuff like that. The […]
Yours Truly Turns 10
Ariana Grande’s debut album starts with a whoosh of strings, twirling like the spell that magicked Cinderella into her ballgown. The next track, “Baby I,” begins with the LucasArts THX intro, just before brass hits lock into place like spotlights. They’re less hooks than overtures, the first few notes before the curtain rises on the […]
Slowdive – “alife”
We’ve already weighed in on Slowdive’s magnificent new album everything is alive, which drops this Friday, but they might as well keep that hype train rolling with one more advance single. Today it’s “alife,” a lush and uptempo track that helped the band to really get into album mode. Neil Halstead offers some context: “alife” […]
Beirut – “So Many Plans”
Beirut, aka the worldly indie band started by Zach Condon, has announced his first new album in more than four years. (Not counting 2021’s Artifacts, a double-album collection of unreleased tracks, EPs, and B-sides.) Out November 10 on Condon’s own Pompeii Records, Hadsel is written, recorded, and performed by Condon, and named for the Northern […]
Hovvdy – “To Me It Was” (Samia Cover)
Back in June, Samia announced a single release series Honey Reimagined featuring artists (Maya Hawke, Hovvdy, Ruston Kelly, and Blondshell, to name a few) covering songs from Honey, which originally came out in January of this year. We’ve already heard Hawke’s cover of “Honey” and Blondshell’s take on “Charm You,” and now we get to […]
Amanda Palmer & The Righteous Babes – “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintaince” (Sinéad O’Connor Cover)
Last month, the great Sinéad O’Connor died at the way-too-young age of 56. I’m sure a lot of people have been binging O’Connor’s music hard since her passing, and I am definitely one of those people. Since Sinéad’s loss, the song that’s been hitting me hardest is “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance,” a gut-twisting […]
Teenage Halloween – “Getting Bitter”
This fall, just 11 days before actual Halloween, the New Jersey pop-punkers Teenage Halloween will release their sophomore album Till You Return. We’ve already posted the early singles “Supertrans” and “Takeaway,” and now Teenage Halloween have shared another track. Teenage Halloween bassist Tricia Marshall wrote the new song “Getting Bitter” about struggles with a family […]
Oneohtrix Point Never – “A Barely Lit Path”
Last week, the extremely busy synth wizard Daniel Lopatin, otherwise known as Oneohtrix Point Never, announced the impending release of his new album Again. It’s his follow-up to 2020’s Magic Oneohtrix Point Never. Lopatin was already a big deal before that album. Since then, he’s produced for the Weeknd and Soccer Mommy, done musical-director duties […]