F*ck You, Tammy! release their new single ‘Sycamore Trees’. This track features layered guitars and ethereal vocals, creating a haunting ambiance that draws listeners in. The melody intertwines with powerful riffs, adding to the gripping emotional weight of the song. Devery on the track, “Our live arrangement developed over years of playing shows, and had grown into something so beautiful that it made me have to make this record. “You take me for a walk/ under the sycamore trees” is, to me, about being led into a space of potentially terrifying or sublime transformation, much like the experience of entering world of a Lynch film: I wanted the song to be that invitation, and it’s the portal to the world of the rest of the record. I envisioned the expansiveness of a Bond theme with the menace of Portishead – and instead of being in the hermetic space of the Red Room, I wanted you to follow her into the dark woods, and there she encounters the saxophone solo- the ghostly presence that is waiting for her. The layered guitars and meticulously controlled feedback with the synths evoke the dark woods – the grand piano, the stars overhead and far, far away. The original is beautiful and feels like someone telling a sad and terrible story – ours is that story unfolding in real time.” ‘Sycamore Trees’ video – director’s statement by ioulex: “Listening to ‘Sycamore Trees’ transports you to a mysterious unsettling place, you lose your points of reference and only have the voice to guide you further into the unknown. We love Devery’s reading of Jimmy Scott’s vocals, the way gender roles are rebuilt and intertwined. We start in a dark hallway, and suddenly hear “I got idea man”: the monitor switches on and this voice from another place pulls you down the rabbit hole. Our initial point of reference was Lee Friedlander’s 1960’s photographs of television screens in motel rooms – there’s a Lynchian quality to this series in the way they anonymously transmit pop iconography, there is a darkness and omnipresence in these images. Hearing the track for the first time we immediately thought of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter – a menacing, meditative unraveling into the abyss, drowning in the ominous starry night sky, floating through the seaweed and being weighed further and further down into the void. Lastly, we referenced Julee Cruise’s Floating Into the Night cover art; she is a revered voice in the Lynchian universe that we wanted to include in homage.”

BEEFCAKE have announced they have signed with Marathon Artists and shared the video to their debut single ‘Angel Food’. The stunning visual offers a first snapshot into BEEFCAKE’s world. The enigmatic and unique duo – Dora and Nuch – emerged from London earlier this year and quickly caught the attention of Marathon who signed them over the summer.

LA-based songwriter Sedona has been cranking out vintage-feeling synth-pop singles for six years now, with only an EP to speak of outside of these loose tracks. And although she’s yet to announce details surrounding her debut album Getting Into Heaven planned for next year, we’re getting another new single from her that matches the euphoric title’s energy. ‘7 Minutes in Heaven’ refers to the long-popular party game, and its bubbly instrumentation mirrors the palpable sense of excitement that comes with anticipating a kiss. “This celebration of romantic fantasy is inspired by the commanding melodies and tongue-in-cheek storytelling of Madonna’s ‘Physical Attraction,’” Sedona shares of the tune, which feels rooted in that single’s 1983 release year. “The fierce, unapologetic nature of her songs encourage women to fully step into their own power in a world and industry otherwise dominated by men. I can only hope my music does an ounce of the same.” With equal amounts of nostalgia to the single itself, the video for ‘7 Minutes in Heaven’ takes the form of bygone infomercials touting 1-800 numbers and credit card iconography. [via Flood]

Jesse Jo Stark returns with new single ‘I’m Yours’. It’s been a rollercoaster summer for the LA alt talent, with her fan-favourite single ‘billie don’t be so mad’ becoming an instant smash. Continuing to move forwards, Jesse is blending her kitsch style with some broader aspects, relishing different layers of pop culture. Take new single ‘I’m Yours’. Out now, it seems to pull together different aspects of Los Angeles mythology, from trash aesthetic through to the sense of vintage Hollywood glamour. It’s a track of duality with Jesse Jo Stark exploring her core binary – the old school femme fatale, and her hopeless romantic side. Out now, the video features the return of Skeleton Man, a character who previously appeared in the clip for her hit single ‘Fire Of Love’. [via Clash]

Lady Gaga has shared a music video for ‘Disease.’ In the Tanu Muino–directed visual, two Gagas are pitted against each other in the presence of a mysterious, gimp-suited figure—eventually revealed to be a Gaga herself. Watch the video below. To go with the new video, Lady Gaga wrote on social media: “I think a lot about the relationship I have with my own inner demons. It’s never been easy for me to face how I get seduced by chaos and turmoil. It makes me feel claustrophobic. Disease is about facing that fear, facing myself and my inner darkness, and realizing that sometimes I can’t win or escape the parts of myself that scare me. That I can try and run from them but they are still part of me and I can run and run but eventually I’ll meet that part of myself again, even if only for a moment. Dancing, morphing, running, purging. Again and again, back with myself. This integration is ultimately beautiful to me because it’s mine and I’ve learned to handle it. I am the conductor of my own symphony. I am every actor in the plays that are my art and my life. No matter how scary the question, the answers are inside of me. Essential, inextricable parts of what makes me me. I save myself by keeping going. I am the whole me, I am strong, and I am up for the challenge. Happy Halloween.” [via Pitchfork]

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Portland’s Jessica Boudreaux — known as the creative force behind indie-punk band Summer Cannibals (Tiny Engines, Kill Rock Stars) — has released her brand new I Think My Heart Loves to Break EP. She also shared the final single from the collection, ‘Loves to Break.’ Backed by rolling bass and infectious electronic elements, the noir-pop track details the cycle of being drawn to someone despite persistent heartbreak. The punk energy that defined Summer Cannibals still resonates in a form of direct intent, as she contemplates surrender, asking: “Wonder if I drop it all, I’ll stop hitting the same old fucking walls.” But in place of the massive distorted guitars, the song’s intensity comes from a careful and considered orchestration of sounds flowing over a steady beat and allowing Boudreaux’s signature vocals to shine.

Last month, Stella Donnelly announced her sophomore album Flood. So far we’ve heard lead single ‘Lungs,’ and today she’s back with the title track. “This song feels like a sad little adventure,” Donnelly said in a statement. “I wrote it in the dark depths of a Melbourne winter lockdown where it had been raining for consecutive weeks. Everyone around me was falling into their own version of depression at different times. It felt like a flood of trauma yet at the same time, we were given an opportunity of time to work through stuff that weʼd been distracting ourselves with for so long prior to the pandemic.” ‘Flood’ also comes with a video directed by Donnelly, Nick McKk, and Grace Goodwin. “This clip is pure ridiculous play, like going to your grandparents’ house where you and your cousins would get up to the most elaborate film projects,” Donnelly said. “We always ran around the house making home movies that tried to re-enact other films and much like this clip here, they always ended in some sort of minor catastrophe. With this video for ʻFloodʼ we have made a very feeble attempt at recreating the legendary OK GO video clip for ʻHere it Goes Againʼ and we failed gloriously.” [via Stereogum]

With her debut album Doomed set for release on September 21, Jesse Jo Stark is sharing new single ‘Modern Love’. “’modern love’ is a song that came in a moment, out in the world watching a new kind of love happen all around me,” she explains. “Something in my guts told me we’ve crept away from the pure love I have always wanted. People making friends as accessories. climbing people like ladders. It made me feel like a stranger in my own body.” [via DIY]

First Aid Kit have returned with their first piece of original music since 2019. The Swedish sister duo share their single ‘Angel,’ along with an accompanying music video. Lyrically, ‘Angel’ seems to document a relationship on the brink of collapse, as First Aid Kit square up their narrator’s anxieties with their love interest’s hostility: “What has that fear ever done for me but hold me back?/ What has jealousy and hate ever done for you but remind you of what you think you lack?” Klara Söderberg sings in the first verse over a fingerpicked guitar. Then, in the bombastic chorus, the sisters stand their ground by listing their demands: “Give me love and give me compassion/ Self-forgiveness and give me some passion/ I love you even though you can’t love me,” they sing in their trademark harmony. Watch the Mats Udd-directed music video for ‘Angel’ above. [via Consequence]

With the first single. ‘Anything But Time’, from their new EP, Beach Baby, Baby, Nick & June float in a glittering fog of trilling synthesizers, gentle beat and drum pulses and vibrating organ sounds. Embedded in dark reverb guitars, the bitter-sweet paired voices of Suzie-Lou Kraft and Nick Wolf lead the way through euphorically orchestrated restraint and meditative ramifications of thought. Where parallels were once drawn to artists like Bon Iver, Damien Rice, and Angus & Julia Stone, now also Beach House, Mazzy Star, and Lana Del Rey, peer through the reverb-veil. “The song was written really fast, very stream-of-consciousness, really really fast. It’s a brief song, with simple sounds, in fact just an old Casio keyboard and a drum machine, with lots of ideas in it. We don’t do too much talking about the lyrics so people can interpret them in their own way. Besides, sometimes even we don’t know one hundred percent what they mean.“ The band shot the accompanying video in an old hotel in Berlin, a late 19th-century tenement house that was once home to silent movie star Asta Nielsen. “We have watched many classics of film history and all time favorites in Pandemic – maybe that’s why the overall concept of the EP has a cinematic touch. With these impressions absorbed, we quickly had a firm idea of what the video should look like. The Hotel Funk in Berlin, as an already stunning location, was adapted even more to our wishes by Lillie Ceben, who was responsible for the set design, and Jeanette Friedrich then captured them and shortened them to two minutes thirty – which was really hard with such beautiful material. I believe that with Maja Bons as the actress, we have found the one person who can make this video fun from head to toe.“

Crawlers have shared a new video for ‘Fuck Me (I Didn’t Know How To Say)’. The recently-dropped track follows the band’s absolute mega-hit ‘Come Over (Again)’. Speaking about the song, Crawler’s Holly says: “‘Fuck Me (I Didn’t Know How To Say)’ is a song that’s very personal to us as a band. The song covers two ideas behind sex. First the trauma and disgust after sexual assault, and then the idea of how at the time of writing it I haven’t felt loved and only used for my body and for sex rather than the love I really wanted at the time.” [via Dork]

Alt-pop iconoclast Layke has released her new single and music video, ‘XOXO,’ the latest offering from her forthcoming EP, Frequency, out July 29. Co-written with multi-platinum Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter, and artist Adrian Gurvitz (Andra Day, The Bodyguard Soundtrack, Stevie Wonder) and Transviolet’s Sarah McTaggart, the dance-club bop celebrates Layke’s journey of finding her voice within the LGBTQIA+ community and is a love letter to those who have embraced and supported her along the way. ‘XOXO’ is accompanied by a neon-clad music video that welcomes viewers into Layke’s vivid, candy-coated world featuring a diverse group of dancers meant to mirror the dazzling celebration of acceptance associated with Pride month. “It’s really an ode to the LGBTQIA+ community. This song makes you wanna move, makes you wanna dance,” Layke shares about the track. “It paints a vivid picture with lyrics like ‘prisms dripping light,’ ‘shining neon bright,’ and ‘we make the sun come out at night.’ It’s a true reflection of how enigmatic and beautiful each part of the community is.” Speaking about the music video, she adds, “It opens with a fierce choreo moment to welcome you into a vivid pastel neon rainbow candy coated world of all things fun. You’ll see familiar faces from my previous video, ‘No One Can Stop Us,’ who each represent a different aspect of the amazingly diverse queer community. We wanted to really highlight the brightness and love of Pride month and encourage everyone to keep that energy and Pride going 24/7 365. This is my dance love letter to the queer community!”

JUNO Award winning indie-rock juggernauts MONOWHALES return with another powerhouse release ‘StuckintheMiddle’. The Toronto based band, made up of vocalist Sally Shaar, guitarist Zach Zanardo and drummer Jordan Circosta, let rip a tiddle wave of catharsis on this explosive track exploring lead singer Sally’s complex relationship with self-identity. Through the unrelenting guitars and thumping drums, Sally screams out her spite, angst, and rage in hopes of growing self-aware enough to set herself free. In a statement about the single, Sally explained “Every day is a constant struggle, pushed and pulled around by my past, present and future. The deep seeded trauma from my upbringing can be so easily triggered it becomes unwelcomed habitual mannerisms, which I despise. Apparent and invisible expectations, instilled within me since the day I was born, are placed on every action I take. Do I choose to be a sweet, good girl, or an unapologetic rebel? It’s suffocating. ‘StuckintheMiddle’ is the caged-up embodiment of this unsteady confusion. At a certain point all this pressure starts to feel like a shaken-up bottle poised to explode. Singing the chorus, I feel like I am standing in the middle of a room screaming “What the fuck do you want from me?”. Accompanying the release is the new music video. The gruelling shoot sees Sally desperately fight against her restrains, set to the sterile setting of a classic 50s kitchen depicting what is expected of a woman in her position. “Those real (and heavy) chains were hooked to my arms for the entire shoot with folks on constantly pulling at them to get my real reaction of what it felt like to be pulled and dragged around. By the end the video, everything around me starts to crumble but I remain helpless no matter where I try to go. I had to pull up the deepest darkest places in my head to show this and by the end of this shoot I was physically and emotionally drained.”

Bay Area trio Rainbow Girls are currently on tour with revered singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco with upcoming California shows in Solana Beach and Los Angeles. In celebration of the appearances, they have released a new single, ‘Compassion to the Nth Degree,’ and an accompanying music video. The track is off a forthcoming full-length album of which few additional details have been revealed. Of the song, the group shares, “If you don’t like protest songs, you’ll love this. In a last-ditch effort to wrench up compassion for those we don’t see eye-to-eye with, we turn to love. This song names a kind of love previously undefined: love for the bigot, love for the thief, love for the destroyer. Infinite compassion. Only light can illuminate the darkness, so this is a sweet little love song for all the sh**heads out there.” Of making the music video, they add, “We made this video in our living room. We moved all our furniture outside, spent days taping aluminum foil to big pieces of plywood and hanging tinsel curtains. We bought gaudy cakes and donuts and covered them in glitter. We commissioned a custom eggplant emoji piñata from a woman in Oregon because we wanted a metaphor so blatant that even Party City couldn’t help us. We hired our dear friend Sam Chase to take a risk, take a test, and make this video with us (he also has a cameo in the video as our Donut Sommelier). We wanted to create a liminal zone lacking substance. A sugar-coated wonderland reflecting the vapid distractions and bulging vanity we were seeing all over social media, despite the very alarming reality of the world falling apart in every conceivable way. The thing is, we set out to make something airbrushed and fluffy and stupid in order to ridicule an internet culture that can be all of those things, and in doing so had the most fun ever filming a video. We got to makeout with glitter lollipops and roll around in cotton candy clouds- what’s not to love?????” [via Grateful Web]

A brilliant songwriting mind with a smooth, provocative voice, jena keating is turning heads with her new song, ‘Nobody Can Have Me’. The London-based Irish artist is an exciting creative who loves to explore genres which she chooses to align with, unafraid to break the mold. While her music could be considered alternative R&B, it also holds space for so many other musical genres such as jazz, rap, and pop. Her creative talents put her in a unique space that puts her a cut above. ‘Nobody Can Have Me’ is a personal song for jena, who describes the song by saying that it “encapsulates the painful detachment from a love not capable of lasting that long but did. It stores a solid truth that nobody ever will ‘have’ wholefully me, but it comes from a source deeply burrowed in fear. It is misfortune, longing, resentments. It holds the process of healing while also grasping the sound of no more.” [via Wordplay Mag]

Jessie Reyez is done putting up with a ‘Fraud’ in her first new solo music since the release of her debut album Before Love Came to Kill Us. Reyez makes her directorial debut in the single’s accompanying video alongside co-director Emma Higgins. The vivid clip features Reyez and a group of women who paint the walls red with blood while dealing with a couple of devilish men. They soon find themselves in a lush setting, where flowers bloom, making their own kind of Garden of Eden, free from the evil. “‘Oh, you’re such a fucking fraud,” she sings, calling out the betrayal. “Your lies they go on and on and on.” She laments the lack of loyalty and the pain of loving somebody who doesn’t love you back. [via Rolling Stone]

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