Warm Human (aka Meredith Johnston) has released the second single, ‘My Moods!!’, from her forthcoming album, Hamartia, which is due out on October 11 via Sooper Records. The single is accompanied by the Meredith Johnston and Dana Shihadah directed video below. [via The Deli]

Wallice has announced her highly anticipated debut album The Jester (Dirty Hit) out November 15. The LA native has come out swinging, with a double single singles ‘Heaven Has To Happen’ & ‘The Opener.’ ‘Heaven Has to Happen,’ is a confession about suffering from imposter syndrome even while you’re living your dream. “How many more jokes can I make before the wool gets pulled out from over my eyes?” Wallice sings just before a brief, mid-song outburst of distorted bass. [via Ghettoblaster Mag]

Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay (aka Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) have released a new album, Imaginal Disk, via Mom + Pop. Now they have shared its fourth single, ‘That’s My Floor,’ via a trippy music video. Amanda Kramer directed the video, which continues the narrative from the other videos for the album. Watch it below. The band collectively had this to say about the song in a press release: “This song is about how we imagine a party must be like. We’ve never been to one.” [via Under The Radar]

Back in May, Amyl And The Sniffers shared a pair of singles called ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ and ‘Facts.’ Now, they’ve announced a new album called Cartoon Darkness, the follow-up to 2021’s Comfort To Me. Out in October, it’ll include ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ as well as the latest single ‘Chewing Gum.’ Amyl And The Sniffers recorded Cartoon Darkness with producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) at Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los Angeles earlier this year. ‘Chewing Gum’ has a great, mid-tempo guitar groove, though the band’s punk roots come through in vocalist Amy Taylor’s delivery. “Life is short, life is fun, and I’m young and so dumb/ I’m stuck on you just like a chewing gum,” she snarls. She explains: “The adversity of life is desire never fulfilled. Doing the dishes cleaning, but never the one eating the meal, so close but it’s never enough, and trying to celebrate the ignorance of youth despite it being robbed away, so choosing ignorance, choosing to be dumb and choosing love, despite everything, choosing bad decisions for love, for life, because it is short, or is it long? Surrendering to joy, surrendering to being a vision, in your own power, because making decisions based on emotion rather than logic is liberating, and despite the external inferno, you walk away unscathed, through flames, burnt but only superficially, unstopped, unaffected, unhuman. Life is work, life is not free, we can never work enough because the end goal doesn’t exist, so all we can do is choose to be wrong.” [via Stereogum]

Du Blonde has announced the release of her fourth LP Sniff More Gritty, alongside a new single ‘TV Star’ and an upcoming UK tour. The artist’s fourth LP Sniff More Gritty sees Du Blonde take the role of producer and engineer while enlisting an eclectic list of collaborators, with features from Skunk Anansie’s Skin, Against Me!‘s Laura Jane Grace, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and The Futureheads’ Ross Millard. Alongside the announcement, Du Blonde has released a new single ‘TV Star’ — a grunge-pop exploration of the toxicity of succumbing to fame, and how people can change with mass attention. “Congratulations, you’re a TV star,” they begin in a monotone drawl over the strum of an acoustic guitar. “Hit the bigtime, bought a brand new car / Was it worth it, do you know who you are? “It’s the story of who somebody was before and after fame, and the sadness of losing the good person they used to be,” Du Blonde says of the raucous track. The accompanying music video stars actor and musician Pete Chekvala, and cuts between new footage and 10-year-old clips of Du Blonde and Chekvala to “depict the purity and innocence of the early years,” the artist explains. “Although I’m acting in the early clips, I can see even now how much softer I was and how much I still believed in the magic of people,” they say of the video that was a decade in the making. “I feel like a lot of the new album swings between characters and mindsets and being able to play with the more unhinged sides of my personality both lyrically and aesthetically has been really freeing and fun.” Sniff More Gritty will see Du Blonde take aim at past loves and record industry execs through a soundscape of glam-rock, punk and pop. [via NME]

Glasser, the elevated electronic project from Cameron Mesirow, has announced the expanded version of her third album crux. crux deluxe includes seven previously unheard tracks and is released by One Little Independent Records on September 27. Glasser uses entrancing and dreamy experimental pop to explore themes of personal identity, emotional vulnerability, and the human experience. crux deluxe collects exclusive material written alongside the sessions for crux as well as complete pieces that had been gestating prior to the album’s release. It also features a slower, early version of her single ‘Drift’, which highlights a darker side to the composition. Of ‘Drift Slow’, she says; “I made like 40 versions of that song. And I still can’t listen to it. It’s been my obsession for the last, I don’t even know how long. That lyric is just something that came out of me like “What a good life / Except for all those times / When you want to die” It was kind of meant to be a joke but sounds quite serious in the context of the entire record. But also, like, jokes are serious sometimes too. It’s good to joke about serious things, for me at least. I made so many versions. And I really wanted the final version to have sort of a dance vibe to it because dancing about death is better than weeping. They’re both good, but I wanted to dance about that.”

Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega fight to the near-death over a shared lover in the singer’s gory new music video for ‘Taste,’ the opening track on her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet, out now. After a warning advising viewers that the following contains “explicit content and depicts graphic violence,” the music video sees the two former Disney Channel stars alternate strangling, axing and shooting each other. The video is inspired by Death Becomes Her, a 1992 film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. With the lyrics, “Oh, I leave quite an impression / Five feet to be exact / You’re wonderin’ why half his clothes went missin’ / My body’s where they’re at / Now I’m gone, but you’re still layin’ / Next to me, one degree of separation,” Carpenter, 25, sings about finding out her ex (played by Halloween actor Rohan Campbell) is back together with his former partner (Ortega). “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you / If you want forever, I bet you do / Just know you’ll taste me too,” she sings. Just before the video ends, Ortega is seen kissing her boyfriend, who, mid-kiss, turns into Carpenter. When Ortega opens her eyes and sees Carpenter, she grabs a chainsaw and pierces the singer in the abdomen. However, after Carpenter’s bloodied body falls into the pool, she turns back into Ortega’s boyfriend. The final scene shows the two bonding at the boyfriend’s funeral as they walk away hilariously comparing notes on him. “I don’t know how you put with [him],” Ortega questions recalling that he was “very insecure.” Carpenter adds: “Very clingy, lots of trauma.” [via The Independent]

Nemahsis has announced her highly anticipated debut LP, previewed by the new single ‘coloured concrete.’ Verbathim will be released independently on September 13. It follows the 2022 EP eleven achers as well as the career-shifting debacle the singer-songwriter born Nemah Hasan faced last October when she was dropped by her record label over her pro-Palestine activism. ‘coloured concrete’ arrives alongside a music video directed by Hasan’s frequent collaborators Norman Wong and Amy Gardner. With a steady pulse that crescendoes in the chorus as the artist sings hooky vocables and lyrics reflecting on dreaming of a certain unattainable lifestyle growing up, it’s a prime example of Nemahsis’s poised, thought-provoking and effortlessly catchy alt-pop approach. [via Exclaim!]

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Of the song, Magdalena Bay declare: “artificial intelligence won’t approximate humanity until it learns how to hate itself”

‘Tunnel Vision’ follows previous album offerings ‘Image,’ and ‘Death & Romance,’ Both ‘Image’ and ‘Death & Romance’ provided a glimpse into the universe Magdalena Bay has created to accompany this album, which follows the story of True—played by the band’s Mica Tenenbaum—as she learns what it means to be human after receiving a consciousness upgrade in the form of an “imaginal disk” inserted into her forehead.

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The Los Angeles electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay’s sophomore album Imaginal Disk arrives in August, and a new single ‘Image’ is out now. In typical Magdalena Bay fashion, ‘Image’ feels both futuristic and nostalgic. It begins as a mellower, vaporwave-meets-pop diva jam, until a delightfully blown-out bass crashes into the final chorus. Its psychedelic music video features the members of Magdalena Bay in a waiting room, where singer Mica Tenenbaum is about to get an “imaginal disk” upgrade installed in her forehead: “Ooh, so hot/ Meet your brand new image,” she sings as she dances with a couple of “disk sales entities.” It’s real kooky and fun, and you can check it out below. [via Stereogum]

Irish artist EFÉ has released a new single, ‘2000SEVEN’. The Dublin-based artist, whose real name is Anita Ikharo, co-directed the accompanying video with Wiktoria Weintritt, embracing a nostalgic ’90s aesthetic with Japanese film-inspired colour palettes. The video showcases EFÉ and her band performing in various eclectic rooms, centred around a cosy bedroom setting. EFÉ explains the origins of the track: “2000SEVEN Was kinda a rocky version one of my first songs ‘seven’ except this one feels new and could’ve came out in the early 00s hence the name change. It’s also the way me and my band play it live so it was only right we had a recorded version for people to hear. It was a song I wrote when I was like 19, and about how you get closer to someone especially when times kinda get hard and a bad experience can bring people together.” Discussing the video’s inspiration, EFÉ adds: “The 2000SEVEN video was heavily inspired by Cibo Matto’s live performance on a short lived cable programme in 1996. I loved just how cool it was and the live setting of a bedroom was so awesome and refreshing to me and kinda a recurring setting in my music videos. I also love the aesthetic of bedrooms and decorated rooms so it felt very fitting. Me and Wiktoria Weintritt directed it together and it was an insane experience that took very long to finish. But when we finally got the finished video, we were so happy and it’s definitely my favourite music video I’ve made!” [via Dork]

Mothica has unveiled her latest track ‘Mirage’, a preview of her upcoming visual album KISSING DEATH. Set for release on August 23 through her own imprint Heavy Heart Records in partnership with Rise Records, with each of its 12 tracks accompanied by interconnected music videos. Discussing the track, she says: “At one point, this record was taking a classic western inspired direction but I cut most of those songs. I love slide guitar, old church bells, and that spaghetti western influence you’d hear in a Tarantino movie. But being from Oklahoma, I always stayed away from country adjacent sounds because it’s all I ever heard on the radio. “I heard about this idea in therapy I wanted to write about. People imagine achieving their goals will bring them happiness, like this still image in their mind of ‘once I get this, i’ll be happy forever’. But emotions aren’t permanent, it could just be a mirage of water in the desert. So this is my spin on western imagery as a Mothica song. The fans heard a snippet and nicknamed it my yeehaw-thica song.” Elaborating on the album’s concept, Mothica explains: “I decided to make Death a love interest in a dark rom-com-style tale. Throughout the visuals, I’m seen in a therapist’s office explaining this complicated relationship as if describing a scorned lover. The music videos will be like ‘flashbacks’ of what I’m telling my therapist. On the first single ‘DOOMED,’ we go back in time to an angsty teenage version of me. This is my first brush with the Grim Reaper and I doodle pictures of him in my diary surrounded by hearts. Flash forward, I’m shown performing at a dive bar, clubbing, engulfed in self-destruction. He stalks me, and eventually even proposes marriage, and I leave him at the altar and run away. It ends with me and Death in couples therapy. I wanted the music to feel cinematic, like the soundtrack of a movie.” [via Dork]

Australian Eora/Sydney-based multi-disciplinary artist Annie Hamilton has dropped her latest single and accompanying music video, ‘Slut Era’—a defiant anthem that boldly confronts and challenges patriarchal conventions, embodying themes of empowerment and rebellion. Following her recent single ‘Talk’ and critically acclaimed 2022 debut solo album, the future is here but it kinda feels like the past, ‘Slut Era’ continues Hamilton’s exploration of the complexities and obstacles faced by women in the music industry and beyond. The track, described by Hamilton as an “industrial-feminine-rage-pop song,” deftly blends chaotic societal critiques with playful defiance, capturing the paradoxical nature of gendered expectations. “‘Slut Era’ is “an expression of the feeling of being bombarded with impossible patriarchal and societal standards,” she explains. The chorus encapsulates the absurdity of these expectations: “gotta be shareable! vulnerable! f*ckable! relatable! dinner-on-a-plateable! burn-her-at-the-stakeable! – we literally cannot win! The song serves as a commentary on the Madonna/whore complex, the inescapable pressures of social media, and the inherent biases that women and femme-identifying individuals face.” [via Under the Radar]

One of the most compelling groups on the scene since the early 2010s, Rubblebucket, the art-pop project of Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth, is sharing a psychedelic new single, sure to make your hips move. The duo release perhaps the funkiest song they’ve ever made, ‘Rattlesnake’, along with its music video. The band loosely adapted a poem lead singer Kalmia wrote called “Time For the Rattlesnake” from her zine poetry book “Year of The Banana”, capturing it in a funky-disco-smash song form. “A few years before I wrote the rattlesnake poem, my mom and I were on a 30-mile bike ride… Just off the path we spotted a massive rattlesnake lounging in the dappled forest sunlight. It was my first time ever seeing one and my instinct was to stop and get a good look. My mom’s instinct was to get the hell out of there, and we laughed later about this dynamic,” Traver remembers. “The beauty of it took my breath away. But I later ruminated about how even when I am faced with the most breathtaking of our planet’s offerings, it can still be very hard to be present, focused & relaxed because of the chronic anxiety from which I suffer.” Though the tune opens with the neurotic “I don’t want to analyze you but…”, it unveils itself as one character pushing another to self-examine; for Rubblebucket, therapy takes the form of a dance party.

Abbie Ozard has released her new single ‘monsters’. The track arrives ahead of her debut album everything still worries me, set to drop on July 25 via House Anxiety. She explains: “Me and Hugo wrote this after talking about our past relationships and how chaotic and crazy they can be when you’re younger, how you see a side of yourself that you didn’t know you had. It’s hilarious looking back, we put a super satirical twist on situations in the past that were actually quite dark.” Ozard began teasing her debut LP last year with singles ‘days like these’ and ‘i don’t know happiness without you’. She officially announced the album in April with ‘anything for you’, followed by Pixey collaboration ‘miss american dream’. [via Dork]

Luna Li has unveiled her latest single ‘Golden Hour’. It’s the newest offering from her forthcoming album When a Thought Grows Wings, set for release on August 23 via In Real Life/AWAL. The track showcases Li’s introspective songwriting, blending dreamy piano melodies with her mesmerising vocals and exploring themes of nostalgia and vulnerability, capturing the delicate experience of opening up to new love. Reflecting on the track, she shares, “I wanted this song to feel soft and sensual, while also peeking into a psychedelic world. Golden Hour tells the story of an afternoon I spent with someone a couple of years ago in a meadow sitting six feet apart, drenched in rain water and uncertainty, but having a wonderful time experiencing a slow descent into love.” The accompanying music video, directed by Issac Roberts, draws inspiration from the surrealist aesthetics of 1920s cinema, visually representing the yearning and nostalgia associated with romantic love. [via Dork]

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23-year-old, Maryland-raised and LA-based songwriter Jordana Nye returns with a new single, ‘We Get By.’ A rollicking golden folk epic sprinkled with shimmering yacht rock glitter, the standalone track ushers in a new Laurel Canyon era for Jordana, who in between tours with Local Natives, Remi Wolf, TV Girl & Wallows, has been working on material since 2023. The song, which was produced by Emmett Kai, Jordana says is about “true love.” Listen and watch the affirming and perfectly tongue-in-cheek Otium-directed video below. “‘We Get By’ is about true love,” says Jordana. “It’s about leaving any materialistic things behind and basking in the appreciation of the truest loving from a pure ground zero — whether that be with yourself or with someone else. We could leave everything we have and still be happy.”

Sugar, spice, and everything nice color the vibrant music video for ‘Right Now,’ the latest release from powerhouse girl group NewJeans. The record arrives as the precursor to their forthcoming single and mini album Supernatural, which finds the five-piece performing in Japanese. Directed by Youngeum Lee, the Takashi Murakami-collaborated video follows NewJeans as their animated counterparts mix up ingredients to create the perfect concoction to cure Hanni’s broken heart. At the start of the visual, the singer makes a brave first move and invites her crush over to watch a movie, but when she only gets a flower emoji back in response, it sends the group on a collective mission to decipher what the cluster of colors could possibly mean. “Your chance is here and now,” NewJeans warns on the song’s second verse, reminding their romantic prospects that time is of the essence. When Hanni’s crush double-texts to clarify that the flower text was an accident at the end of the video, the scene closes out with the appearance of the dreadful three-dots indicating that the other person is still typing. The cliffhanger ending sets up a world of possibility for Supernatural, out June 21. [via Rolling Stone]

MOTHICA has released a new music video. The new music video, for the track ‘Toxins,’ is taken from the Los Angeles-based alt-pop singer-songwriter’s upcoming new album, Kissing Death, which is scheduled to be released in August this year, via Heavy Heart Records/Rise Records. Speaking about the new song, the artist shares, “’Toxins’ is the first song that made the record, since I originally wrote it for a Halloween release in 2022. I loved the image of a spider singing to its freshly caught prey. It took on a new meaning with the grim reaper as this stalker or dark shadow that followed me around, even when I made strides to get better like going to therapy or getting sober. The analogue synths David Burris put in the chorus definitely inspired the sound of the record, taking influence from the darkwave genre.” [via Distorted Sound]

Brighton power duo ARXX unleash playful ‘Good Boy’ via Submarine Cat Records. This follows prior single, equally lighthearted ‘Crying In The Carwash’ and acts as a second sneak peak into a soon-to-be-announced larger project. Laden in harmonies, a hypnotic thumping beat and dripping in spicy, submissive tongue-in-cheek lyricisms, ARXX consider ‘Good Boy’ their “big gay anthem”. On the track, they say, “It’s a little bit saucy, it’s a little bit cheeky and it’s a lot of fun! It’s a song about feeling good and making other people feel good. It’s our favourite song we’ve made so far, we hope it makes you feel good.” Undeniably groovy, this suggestive tune is bound to get you on your feet. However, whilst raunchy in its auditory nature, the video takes a more literal and adorable stance on the phrase ‘Good Boy’, seeing almost a dozen dogs audition for their spot in the Good Boy Academy, featuring Hanni and Clara judging and dancing with the contenders.

Suki Waterhouse has returned with news of her second collection of mellow alt-pop following her 2022 debut I Can’t Let Go. The actress/musician will unleash Memoir of a Sparklemuffin on September 13 via Sub Pop after gaining traction on the festival circuit over the past two years. In the meantime, Waterhouse has shared the record’s first single in the form of ‘Supersad,’ a polished garage-rock anthem merging scuzzy guitars with the singer’s soaring and, well, at least a little bit sad vocals. “I tried to write a ’90s song you could hear playing at the mall in Clueless or as an opening track for Legally Blonde,” she shared upon the track’s release. The track also arrives with a music video that embraces those vibes equally well. [via FLOOD]

Self Esteem and Moonchild Sanelly have teamed up for a collaborative new single, ‘Big Man’. The song marks the first release from the former – aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor – since her BRIT and Mercury Prize-nominated 2021 album, Prioritise Pleasure, and “explores the nuances of modern masculinity and gender roles”. “I’m a big man/ Yeah, I’m a fucking big man/ What are you?” the pair sing over an electronic beat. Speaking about working with South African musician and dancer Sanelly, Taylor explained: “Me and Moon wrote a song from the perspective of a good boyfriend. The ones that are just chill and secure so they just leave you to it. The ones that don’t want a medal for doing the bins. The ones that see that you’re working your tits off so they go and get yet another thing you’ve ordered and missed the delivery of from the post office. The ones that don’t take your success as a direct threat to their existence. To me, this is real masculinity.” She continued: “We have both collaborated with Johan Karlberg on our records and I’m so grateful to him for introducing us, it was a joy to make this song together.” ‘Big Man’ arrives with an official music video, which Taylor described as “an inverse ‘I Want To Break Free’” by Queen – referring to the band’s iconic 1984 visuals. The clip sees the two artists undertake various household chores while donning oversized suits. [via NME]

To usher in the official start of summer, Pop-rulebreaker UPSAHL makes her long awaited return with a brand new single and accompanying music video titled ‘Summer so hot,’ out now via RCA Records UK. ‘Summer so hot’ kicks off a new era for UPSAHL as she demonstrates her sonically elevated new sound. Destined to be played on a speaker out by the pool in warm weather, the track is a sexy summer anthem showcasing UPSAHL’s breezy vocals, impressive breath work with packed lyrical verses and an electro-infused bassline keeping the beat. The music video, replete with fans, ice cubes, and popsicles, emphasizes the sweltering heat UPSAHL is doing her best to cool off from. Alternating between a poolside dance party (from which you can see the detritus of the previous night’s debauchery strewn across the lawn) and a sensual video shoot in the cool confines of the house, UPSAHL perfectly encapsulates what a typical summer hang looks like in the throes of soaring temps. On the track, UPSAHL shares: “I wrote ‘Summer so hot’ in the middle of winter in London. I was feeling nostalgic for that perfect summer day where all fucks fly out the window, you’re just being present with friends, and escaping to wherever the day takes you.”

Italian-born, London-based riser Sans Soucis has shared another preview of their forthcoming debut album Circumnavigating Georgia, which now has a confirmed release date of October 9. New track ‘If I Let A White Man Cut My Hair’ is a homage to the significance of nurturing Black communities, and a testament to how even small, everyday acts can serve to resist structural marginalisation. “I think when you build your personality around everything that society wants you to be, then you also agree to a lot of norms that don’t belong to you,” Sans Soucis – aka Giulia Grispino – has said of the laid-back, groove-infused single. “But to really own my narrative, I needed to move on because I didn’t want the society I live in to tell my story for me”. [via DIY]

Multi-artist talker recently dropped her debut album, I’m Telling You The Truth. Along with the album’s arrival, she has shared a video fot ‘Return to Sender.’ Directed by Sylvie Krakow and choreographed by Nadine Olmo. talker’s Celeste Tauchar on the video: “I worked on the Return to Sender video with my good friend Sylvie who also directed the ‘TWENTYSOMETHING’ video. We already have a relationship where we really push each other to go for crazy concepts in our work, and I love working with her so much because she doesn’t think any idea is too much. She’s always going to find a way to make it work, and I’m the same way. Sylvie instantly saw the funeral idea when she heard this song, and together we unpacked the idea of having a funeral for my relationships and my emotions. We paid homage to the album’s intro track, which encapsulates putting to rest all of the experiences and negative moments in my past that I unpack in the record. We brought in Nadine Olmo to choreograph the dance, which of course was amazing. She’s worked with Olivia Rodrigo, Blink-182, PVRIS Tinashe, just so so many amazing artists and it was both intimidating and a huge honor to work with her, and that she wanted to be part of it.” Celeste tapped into her dance background, but it’s been a long time since she used her body in a way to physically tap into emotions. “It brought me to a whole different plane with expressing the song and getting back into the headspace, because I wasn’t just singing the lyrics and thinking about them. The song was seeping out of every part of my body and I really felt drained the next day, physically and emotionally. But I’m so happy with how it turned out, and I think it’s the most fitting way to paint the full picture for this song and really tell the whole story. And since it’s coming out the same day as my album, I wanted it to be as honest and raw as possible.” [via Northern Transmissions]

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‘Death & Romance’ is written and produced by Magdalena Bay and mixed by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Beach House, MGMT). The track opens with an instant, sugary-sweet hit by way of a danceable piano melody, building into a luminous soundscape of disco, psychedelia and bubblegum pop, laden with Mica’s serene vocals. It feels vibrant and immersive, offering a stirring glimpse of what’s to come from Magdalena Bay.

Magdalena Bay on ‘Death & Romance’: “Imagine rain pouring, streetlights glowing. You sit at home and wait for your alien boyfriend to pick you up in his UFO… but this time, he’s not coming.”

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Atlanta-based four-piece Mamalarky have shared a third track and accompanying video taken from their forthcoming new album, Pocket Fantasy which is set for release on September 30 through Fire Talk Records. Following the album’s debut single and ode to friendship ‘Mythical Bonds’, and the more introspective, meandering track ‘It Hurts,’ the band up the ante with latest track ‘Shining Armor.’ Accompanied by a video animated by Alex Futtersak, who is known for several striking visuals he has created for Cautious Clay and Crumb, the track is the kind only Mamalarky could have created. It delivers a tightly-wound blend of jazz-inflected, woozy, intricate math-rock and indie-pop – somehow at once both angular and heady – seeing the band strike a chord somewhere between both their most jubilant and abrasive. Guitarist/vocalist Live Bennett comments: “This one goes out to conveniently anonymous YouTube haters. ‘Shining Armor’ is an invitation for anyone who has shit to say about how I play guitar to go ahead and reveal themselves and play a little song for us! When I wrote this I was getting a bunch of comments about my gender and appearance and how that corresponds with how I play guitar. The only response was to covert that anger into something that’s genuinely so fun to play. Alex Futtersak (@chippy_zone) took this idea and crafted a whole world around it, where our music is essentially breaking a curse over these angry knights in armor. I actually sent him some DIY motion capture from my room so some of the moves are true to form.”

Last year, the Los Angeles electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay released their much-acclaimed debut album Mercurial World. Next month, they’ll release a deluxe edition of that album that’ll feature a bunch of unreleased tracks. Magdalena Bay have shared the squelchy stop-start pop song ‘Unconditional.’ In a press release, the band describes ‘Unconditional’ as the “weird little cousin” of their Mercurial World single ‘Secrets (Your Fire),’ and they say that the ‘Unconditional’ video is their “dream birthday party.” [via Stereogum]

Ghost Car, the London-based international punk quartet, announced their debut album Truly Trash following their signing to One Little Independent Records. The riotous, quick-witted collection of 11 garage-rock bangers will be released on October 28. The album provides Ghost Car with a platform to rage against political injustices, as their unified harmonies attack patriarchal inequality, homophobia, racism and toxic relationships. Truly Trash is a call to reclaim autonomy and to revolt against the powers that uphold an archaic nationalist system. Of biting new single ‘Selfish, Spoiled’ they told us that “we’d definitely found our groove writing together collectively, this one’s about that person in the creative industry (I’m sure everyone knows someone) who is so overly privileged getting pay outs from their mega rich parents, while other artists from working class backgrounds have to work so much harder for any type of ‘exposure’ while doing their day job. 16% of people in creative jobs come from working class backgrounds according to PEC”. Ghost Car worked closely in the making of the satirical video with art director Claudia Torán who tells us; “The story behind the video is that dinner guests played by the band represent ‘the system’ itself, (politicians, bourgeoisie, etc. portrayed in an exaggerated, ironic, sarcastic way) whilst ‘enjoying’ what appears to be a lavish dinner party. With fake attitudes and ungrateful behaviour. They don’t want to face any problems or injustices. Only interested in their egos. It’s later revealed that the dinner party, like ‘the system’, is rotten. Nothing is what it appears to be. Everything is now chaotic and the characters destroy everything, transforming into crazed guests, challenging the camera, trying to get the message through “will you ever open your eyes?” They continue; “This feels particularly relevant in the current climate, in recent times what feels like a nationalistic fervour has been unleashed. An oppressive media imposes its own narrative, and doesn’t reflect a country where millions of people are not able to eat and heat their homes.” The video also sees them teaming up again with videographer Simon Eaves and artist Maria De La O Garrido who created the extravagant props and set design.

Anna B Savage is sharing her new single ‘The Ghost’, which is out now via City Slang Records and was produced by Mercury Prize winning producer Mike Lindsay (Lump, Tunng). Speaking about new single ‘The Ghost’, Savage said “Exhausted from years of being haunted by an ex-partner, this song is a plea to let go, or be let go of. Exploring the particular cruelty of the human brain, that love can be felt so deeply, hurt so essentially and so much, and still feel so present many years later.” The video for ‘The Ghost’ was directed by Savage with creative direction from Sophie Hurley-Walker. It was shot by Katie Silvester & Sophie Hurley-Walker over multiple days on location in North Yorkshire and was then edited by Louis Hemming-Lowe. On the visuals, Savage offered “We wanted to explore a narrative where uncomfortable meets beautiful, and everything is alternately comforting and immediately strange and uncanny, like the tendrils of old love, once so joyous turned sour and frightening.”

It’s been five years since we’ve gotten a new Alvvays album, but we won’t have to wait much longer now. Next month, the great Toronto indie-pop crew will follow their 2017 LP Antisocialites with their new long-player Blue Rev. Thus far, Alvvays have shared two early singles, ‘Pharmacist’ and ‘Easy On Your Own?’. Now, they’ve broken us off with two more tracks at the same time. ‘Very Online Guy,’ the first of the new Alvvays songs, is a chilly, rigid synth-rocker with its vocals artfully blurred. The sound matches the subject matter, since ‘Very Online Guy’ is a song about the whole culture of reply guys. (If you don’t know what a reply guy is, you might be one! Don’t be one!) The song has an extremely pixelated music video, and Alvvays members Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley co-directed it with Colby Richardson. “We directed a mosaic-mode vid for ‘V.O.G.’ with our videoguru friend Colby,” say the band. “This was easily the funnest thing we’ve ever shot. Enjoy our clunky low-bit collage of aliased key clacking and step-dance scramble on your CRTs.” [via Stereogum]

Singer songwriter Bellah has once again delivered with her brand new track ‘Garden.’ The mesmerising track was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Jonah Christian and serves as the lead single of her new EP Adultsville. Opening up on the project on social media, the performer told fans, “Adultsville is place I’ve found myself in without remembering how I got here or what to do now that I am here.” Watch the enchanting visuals Ray Fiasco-directed visuals above. [via GRM Daily]

Not just an affectionate pet name to call someone but also an acronym for ‘Break Up Band’, Tāmaki Makaurau’s BUB tackle the hurly-burly world of relationships head-on in their fuzz-pop anthem ‘Dreams’, out now with news of a nationwide single release tour. The project of Priya Sami (The Sami Sisters, Trip Pony, Dateline) with bandmates Daniel Barrett, Alex Freer (the mastermind behind A.C. Freazy) and Jana Te Nahu-Owen, BUB’s super catchy song is more than a little bittersweet, as Sami opens up about yearning for a soulmate but feeling a mite unlovable, coming to the conclusion “let’s blame society.” Bleakly relatable yet wryly fun and upbeat, the single’s spiralling new wave melodies operate on the earworm level of their 2021 debut tune ‘King Of Wands’, rammed home in director Liv McClymont’s video starring the group fishing for love off the sunny coastline of Maraetai — but do their fresh catches measure up? [via Under The Radar]

Five-time GRAMMY Award-winning legend and the best-selling female artist in country music history Shania Twain has unveiled her first new single since 2017, ‘Waking Up Dreaming’. The single serves as her first release with her new label partner Republic Nashville, a division of Republic Records. Shania also released a video for the single, which was directed by Isaac Rentz.

Izzy and the Black Trees bring raw punk energy with their noisy psych guitar riffs, strong beat, and feisty melodies: we hear the likes of Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and PJ Harvey channeled through the lyrics and delivery of this passionate political anthem. “‘Kick Out the Damned’ is a simple message for those who long overstayed their unwanted welcome, for those who unrightfully claim what’s theirs, particularly authoritarian leaders whose golden statues will tumble and fall eventually,” says Izabela “Izzy” Rekowska. It calls for a shift change in society; an uprising of the suppressed, oppressed, and depressed. Mariusz Dojs animated the gorgeously-nightmarish Tim Burton-esque stop-motion video, whereupon we witness the toppling of historic statues in a frenetic run-for-your-life chase. Izzy and The Black Trees blast through the spiritual veil with an infectious, fuzz-ridden punk soundtrack. [via Post Punk]

Art-Pop trio, Stealing Sheep, have just released a mesmerizing video for ‘Never Gonna Live Up’ alongside new UK tour dates for November. Mixing electronic pop, disco, Italo, 80’s synths and ethereal vocals, the single is featured on their latest LP Wow Machine, an esoteric collection of ‘computer based’ compositions inspired by female electronic pioneers. The tracks include a ghost member, the legendary electronic trailblazer Delia Derbyshire, as her sci-fi samples weave their way through the audio landscapes of the LP. Most of us will know Delia Derbyshire from the Dr Who theme tune. Stealing Sheep’s album is threaded together with concepts such as ‘invisible women’ and ‘humans vs machines.’ Emily said, “It’s about the overwhelming feeling of wanting to give up and the anger and frustration that arises as you keep striving but never get anywhere, wading through the mud pushing against the machine”. Their new video depicts floating human heads lost in the ether, malfunctioning, glitching out and losing their humanity. “Synthetic everything’ surrounds us, face filters, virtual realities, perfected avatars…we’re living in the deep fake. How is this affecting our mental state? How does it control our next move? How will our mortal imperfections ever live up to that of the machines?” said Bex. Although the depiction is dystopian, the overriding feeling is of empowerment and that nothing can replace the idiosyncrasies of humanity. True beauty lies in imperfection. “We released this LP with a femme ran label called Both Sides Records, it felt like the perfect pairing for this music. The label manifesto for rebalancing gender in the music industry rang true to the messages we’re writing about,” said Bex. [via God Is in the TV]

PRIESTESS, the alt-pop artist hailing from London, releases her bewitching new single ‘Holy Flesh’. An evocative music video lands also, co-directed by fellow artist and friend Ana Lemos in the vast isolated British coastal setting of Fairlight Glen. ‘Holy Flesh’ is the first track to be released from PRIESTESS’ debut EP set for release before the year closes out. ‘Holy Flesh’ draws us in from the outset, with haunting piano melodies and the artist’s rich alluring vocal. The atmosphere builds with woozy electronics and finally explodes with an epic instrumental to striking effect, reminiscent of something akin to Nine Inch Nails. Kate said about the single “’Holy Flesh’ is about the sanctity within the feminine and the rage felt when violence in words and actions are inflicted against a person, when at the core they are a sacred being. It was written at a time when I felt ‘weak’ and undermined for showing emotion. For centuries, women have been made to feel like this and I wanted to write a song about that silent anger, which can often be left without anywhere to be released or placed within society. For the video concept. I wanted to create something similar to a Gothic Folk Horror short, using witchcraft and murder as the main themes.”

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“The Deluxe is a mishmosh of sorts, an amalgamation of new songs that didn’t originally fit the flow of Mercurial World, of reimagined versions of existing album tracks by us and some talented remixers, plus some special secrets,” Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin said upon announcing the deluxe edition. “When we started working on the Deluxe, we wanted it to flow like the original album did. These secrets tie the record together in a cool way, we can’t wait for everyone to hear it.” [via Stereogum]

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