South East risers HotWax have shared new song ‘Rip It Up’. New EP A Thousand Times is out now, containing songs about – as they put it – “guilt, love, climate change, womanhood, contraception, anxiety, and endings.” Taken from the EP, ‘Rip It Out’ is an absolute scorcher. Reminiscent of everyone from early Hole to fabled UK group Yuck, there’s a real sense of power behind those chords – scuzzy grunge influences with clear pop appeal, the lyrics are peppered with darkness. “‘Rip It Out’ is the darkest song I have ever written,” explains lead singer Tallulah; “The lyrics came to me so fast, at a time I was feeling psychotic due to the contraceptive implant. I wanted to create a dramatic, theatrical, melancholic sounding piece, which Lola put together perfectly. I hope it resonates with women who have gone through a similar thing and raises awareness about how contraception needs to be updated.” [via Clash]

Cole Bleu has shared her new single, ‘IS IT COOL 2 BE FRIENDS?’. The track follows on from the ex-The Let Go member’s recent drops ‘HEARTBREAKERS’, an anti-romance anthem released on Valentine’s Day, and ‘Homewrecker’, and is taken from her new EP CRUSHED!, due June 16 via Chess Club. “This song is about being in an overly romanticized high school relationship,” Cole explains. “It was supposed to be over from the beginning because it was never real in the first place. I always struggled with relationships at that time because I wanted everything to be the “be all and end all”, and it turns out a lot of guys don’t think like that.” [via Dork]

dayaway (the dreamy indie-pop project of Amber Renee and Graham Marsh of CLAVVS) announce the forthcoming release of a brand new EP, blue summer moon, out August 30 via Turn To Wind. Alongside announcing their forthcoming EP, dayaway also shares a new single entitled ‘i wish,’ alongside an accompanying music video. As Amber wrote of the track and its video: “‘i wish’ is about being down bad for someone you can’t have. It’s super playful, but it’s also an angry fist-shake to the sky kind of song. You’re mad at yourself and you’re mad at the person you’ve fallen for and you’re mad at the circumstances. Most of the time, you can’t control who you love or when, so this song tackles the frustration of that experience. We made the video with that energy in mind. It’s part playful, part totally annoyed. We shot all around Queens, from Flushing Meadows Park to Jacob Riis Beach.”

Seattle supergroup Who Is She?, aka Robin Edwards (Lisa Prank), Bree Mckenna (Tacocat), and Julia Shapiro (Chastity Belt, have welcomed a new member into their ranks: Tacocat’s Emily Nokes. Who Is She? have also announced a new album, Goddess Energy, coming August 25. The follow-up to 2017’s Seattle Gossip was produced by Jenn Champion and features the now-infamous Le Tigre revamp ‘My My Orca Card,’ which the group released in February. For those in need of a reminder, back in January Who Is She? were doing a three-game stint as the house band for new NHL franchise the Seattle Kraken when they performed their Seattle-specific update on ‘My My Metrocard.’ The tweaked lyrics included a shot at Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, whose company bought the naming rights to the Kraken’s arena and named it Climate Pledge Arena. According to the band, this got them disinvited from the remainder of their house band gig, though the team claimed the reason for the band’s firing was “unprofessional behavior.” Anyway, now the band is sharing their album’s lead single, ‘Thursday,’ which you can check out below. [via Stereogum]

Kylie Minogue has released new track ‘Padam Padam’, the lead single from her forthcoming new album Tension — listen to it below. Last week, the Australian pop star announced that the follow-up to 2020’s Disco would be arriving September 22, describing it as a “blend of personal reflection, club abandon and melancholic high”. First single ‘Padam Padam’ is produced by Lostboy (Griff, Anne-Marie, Tiesto) and features a thumping earworm refrain. “When your heart goes / Padam Padam / I hear it and I know / Padam Padam / I know you wanna take me home,” she sings atop an electronic bassline. Listen to ‘Padam Padam’ and watch the music video, filmed in LA and directed by Sophie Muller, below. [via NME]

Ama Lou‘s new release is the leading track from her forthcoming debut album. The single is accompanied by a video which was directed by Lou, alongside her sister Mahalia. The video sees Lou living a solitary, aristocratic life by the sea: getting vegetables delivered, walking her Dalmatian, and painting miniatures at her country house. ‘Caught Me Running’ is Lou’s first single in two years, which follows two EPs – 2021’s AT LEAST WE HAVE THIS, and 2019’s Ama, who?. [via The Line of Best Fit]

Brittain Ashford has released her truly extraordinary new album Trotter via Misra Records. She has also shared a hilariously glitzy/noir music video for lead single ‘Could’ve Done You Better’ to mark the occasion. Doubling as a brilliantly choreographed boxing ring grudge match, the video is teeming with excellent cameos — including Ever Mainard from the Y’all Gay? podcast.

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Zolita has delivered the sapphic romantic comedy of our dreams, and it comes in the form of a trilogy of music videos. The latest of these videos, ‘I Fcking Love You,’ is out now, and it certifiably rules. “The Trilogy,” as she simply calls it, started with ‘Somebody I Fcked Once,’ a pop-punk infused single set in the halls of high school where cheerleader Zolita fell in love with a bad girl named Gia (played by Tatchi Ringsby, who was originally one of Zolita’s sister’s friends IRL). Next, we saw ‘Single in September,’ where the girls graduated and broke up. Now, it all comes full circle. In the new video, it’s five years later, and Zolita is a big pop star doing her usual photoshoots when she sees a familiar face. One of the photographers is her ex, the one that got away, Gia! After years of will-they-won’t-they, we finally get the satisfying reunion we’ve been dying for. Zolita talked to us about the new song and The Trilogy of videos. “‘Somebody I F*cked Once,’ that was the first video, and I had always wanted to do a high school video that kind of played on the classic rom-com tropes that I grew up with, but make it gay,” she says. “And when I put that up, and that obviously went crazy, it went viral, and everybody was really connecting to it. I realized that I wanted to expand upon the story,” she continues. “Especially because I feel like there’s such a lack of girl-on-girl storylines with happy endings.” So she decided to write and direct her own. “I think it kind of serves two purposes,” she says. “It both presents a familiar narrative structure to people that may not be as accepting, so hopefully can change people’s hearts and minds, but also it’s really healing for queer people to see the classic storylines that they grew up with, but in a queer way.” Zolita says that as soon as she saw the chemistry that she and Ringsby had on screen, she knew she wanted them back for more.“We just had such an insane, natural chemistry together,” she says. “And then obviously the second one even more so because we had been hanging out so much and had been able to build off of the excitement of the first one. They’re just such an incredible collaborator and such an amazing, truly my favorite person that I’ve ever worked with on a video.” The singer says that indulging in a lesbian rom-com, especially one with a happy ending, was one of the best parts about writing these songs and filming the videos. “I feel like right now, especially just in the world, people want things that feel good and that are positive. And I think I just didn’t grow up seeing a lot of happy endings for queer women. You even see with the Killing Eve ending how, just again, playing into the classic trope of ‘kill your gays.’ So I wanted to do the opposite and wanted to give people a sense of hope,” she says. It was also healing for her personally, as she had recently had a falling out with her first love, the person The Trilogy is loosely based on. [via Out]

Following the release of her emotionally charged singles ‘High Water’ and ‘Art of Survival’, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs shares the powerful music video for ‘Art of Survival’. Co-written by Benji Madden as an ode to her late sister Kate, the track was written from “a place of choosing to keep fighting to live fully”. Regarding the ‘Art of Survival’ visual directed by Tim Mattia, Bishop adds, “I feel so grateful to be sharing the ‘Art of Survival’ music video with all of you. My hope behind this song was to bring this positive energy into my current headspace. Perhaps the more I sing this song and the more I read these lyrics I will find that power within myself to continue living life in a way that my sister would be proud of me. Thank you for being here.”

Australian band Body Type share the latest cut from their forthcoming album, ‘The Charm’, an assertive call to stand one’s ground. Their debut album Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising ushers in a new era for the band, and will be out May 20 on Poison City Records (Camp Cope, Cable Ties). ‘The Charm’ sees the band snatch back the reins for themselves. Vocalist Sophie McComish shares, “This track is about how women are held to higher standards than men in the music biz. It’s harder for us to get away with being a bit shit or making mistakes. Some guy once told us the ‘charm’ was gonna wear off if we didn’t get better at our instruments, that we had to do our 10,000 hours before we were worthy of the hype. This is our response.” The new track, which follows previous singles ‘Sex & Rage’ and ‘Buoyancy’, brings into focus the fearless autonomy and joyful rebellion that Body Type have come to embrace – empowered by their own strength and independence. ‘The Charm’ is all snarl, bite, and facetious wit in the face of condescension. Advice and authority dubbed as “birth control for rock and roll”, Body Type take that unsolicited advice and shove it down the bin. Contraception stands no chance with over-processed guitars and gruff refrains in control, juxtaposed against retro sweetheart-style backing vocals. The video, filmed on Dharawal country, is a cheeky and rambunctious statement directed by long time collaborator Madeleine Purdy. The clip shows the band stuck in the mud, literally and figuratively. They’re fighting through expectations that see them bogged down in the industry. Purdy says the video inspiration comes from a corner of the internet about Car Stuck Girls, where rev-heads like watching women getting stuck in the mud. “The fantasy sticks in the head of the viewer, once the cameras cut the women get out of the mud easily, have a shower, pocket their cash and go about enjoying themselves. I think this video works perfectly for what ‘The Charm’ is about.”

Ama Lou has accompanied the release of her latest track, ‘Same Old Ways’, with a clean set of visuals. Taken from her 2021 EP At Least We Have This, ‘Same Old Ways’ is an upbeat offering from north London’s Ama Lou who flexes her versatility by both singing and rapping over Maestro The Baker’s production. Ama’s creativity is evident in the visuals too – which she also directs – where we see her joining a private school filled with good vibes. [via GRM Daily]

Breakout alt-pop star Madeline The Person has returned with her empowering and honest new single, ‘MEAN!’. The song’s raw, relatable message is reflected in the Tess Lafia-directed video, which showcases the young artist’s inspiring outlook on otherness. ‘MEAN!’ serves as the introduction to Madeline’s much-anticipated upcoming EP, Chapter 3: The Burning. The video finds Madeline dressed as a clown at a party. Outcast by the cool kids, the singer-songwriter ultimately connects with another like-minded soul — also rocking clown makeup. “One single event, or even a couple of words, can literally impact your whole life and crush your self-esteem,” Madeline says of the song and video, which she made “in the hopes of letting others know they’re not alone in the sinking feeling that rushes over you when you hear hurtful words. The cool part about it all is that you will find people that love every part of you.” [via Prelude Press]

Ava Max is back, and teasing the follow up to her debut album, Heaven And Hell. After popping up in late 2021 with the dark and rebellious banger, ‘The Motto,’ a collab with Tiësto, Ava is back out on her own and thinks ‘Maybe You’re The Problem.’ In the lead single for her second album, Ava takes on the old adage that “it’s not you, it’s me,” and turns it on its head. Swapping out her short/long blonde hair for some fiery red locks, Ava finds herself agreeing with a former partner’s ex-girlfriends opinions on this breakup anthem. “Everyone always says ‘it’s not you it’s me’ but sometimes the problem really isn’t me, it’s you!!” Ava said of the song. “’Maybe You’re The Problem’ was so much fun to create. This new music I’ve been working on is the most personal music I have ever made. I can’t wait to share it with you very soon.” In the Joseph Kahn-directed clip, Ava sunbathes in the snow, gets inserted into a video game, and reflects on a relationship she couldn’t be happier to be out of. [via UPROXX]

Teenage Joans have returned with their first release for the year, a belting new single titled ‘Terrible’. Landing this week as the first song to follow the Adelaide duo’s debut EP, Taste Of Me, the track builds on that record’s jaunty punk-pop flair and self-deprecative themes, with more bite in the guitars and a slightly more optimistic spin put on the narrative. In a bridge that starts off gently and builds into a flurry of screams and distorted riffing, the duo chant: “It’s terrible, but it’ll do / I’m terrible but I’m not you.” ‘Terrible’ comes alongside an eye-catching video by Lemonade City, with direction via Tom Parolin and Kamryn Henschke. It starts with Teenage Joans being drawn to a VHS copy of an old horror film, A Terrible Tragedy, which the band themselves appear to star in. They soon find that the tape is cursed, and are chased down their street by a horde of possessed townsfolk. After finding refuge in a house, they’re compelled to venture down into its basement, where satanic clones of singer/guitarist Cahli Blakers and drummer Tahlia Borg use their instruments to brutally murder their innocent counterparts. [via NME]

Damn The Witch Siren has released the lead single ‘Vulture Culture’ from their new album Gold Magic (out July 29 on their own label, Baddest Bitch Records). The song precedes the release of the feature film Poser, produced and directed by Loose Films (the movie is getting a national theatrical release on June 3, distributed by Oscilloscope Labs). Bobbi Kitten and Z Wolf co-star in the film as themselves, and it features several of the band’s songs as well as some original score by Z Wolf. ‘Vulture Culture’ and its accompanying self-directed music video are a searing look at social media and celebrity culture, and how something that should have helped us through the pandemic had the unfortunate side effect of making many of us feel even more isolated. As the wildfires burned and the Capitol was sieged, it was hard not to feel like we’ve all locked ourselves into a virtual prison and thrown away the key.

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