BEX has dropped a brand new single, ‘Tiptoe’, sees the artist’s 2022 debut and features heavy bass plucks, annihilating drums, and witty vocals across a riotous music video. Describing herself as, “a punk-rocker who wants the music to speak again” BEX is a young artist looking to reshape the rock industry through a lens of hard-hitting riffs, feminist lyrics and cutting-edge videos. Amongst this BEX balances out all the things that “suck,” such as: sexism, racism, fast fashion, judgementalism and heartbreak with pleasantly uplifting things like: riffs, self-expression, expressive art, inclusion, equality, feminism and last (and certainly not least) respect. Speaking about the track she says: “Lyrically ‘Tiptoe’ is about males who take advantage of women, ‘just because we perform it doesn’t welcome you off stage’. The chorus reflects on men taking action and the consequences that come from it. Musically the track is just riffs, fat riffs. A simple punk structure with two alternative bass lines that compliment each other. ‘Tiptoe’ is simple but meaty. The song is filled with alot of rage and rebellion against female norms, standing up for myself/ourselves and other females who have been in vulnerable situations. The track is in favour of post modern feminism.” Recorded in the first lockdown, ‘Tiptoe,’ is a track produced by Sam Cramer, and with BEX’s bass tones all created by hand on a custom pedalboard. ‘Tiptoe’ arrives with a vivid official video co-directed by BEX herself and videographer/photographer Olivia Brissett. Matching the soaring and beckoning energy of the track, BEX says of it: “The video is a visual representation of my anger and rage in the song. Also representing female empowerment, and lastly… showing off my handmade outfits and masks.” Honourably gifted across the arts, BEX is not just a musician, as she admits, “I hand painted the artwork on a canvas,” about the single’s artwork. Continuing her love for curating BEX expands on some of the projects she’s working on: “I have been making a zine that I am going to get printed, it’s like a little lyric and expansion book, all handmade. I also self directed the music video and I am currently in the process of editing it! I love making things, I made all the outfits for the music video as well as the masks. Nearly everything is DIY, I love having the ability to portray my personality creatively.”

In 2019, the Australian musician Stella Donnelly released her debut full-length, Beware Of The Dogs. Now she’s back with her sophomore album, Flood, which was written while Donnelly moved between various cities in her home country during lockdown. “I had so many opportunities to write things in strange places,” she said. “I often had no choice about where I was. There’s no denying that not being able to access your family with border closures, it zooms in on those parts of your life you care about.” Now, she’s sharing the playful lead single ‘Lungs,’ which comes along with a video that Donnelly co-directed with Duncan Wright. “Very loosely based on the Banded Stilts of my album cover, the character I play in red is a wobbly adult, doing their best with their new set of legs and responsibilities, trying to make it look easy but very much on unsteady ground,” she said in a statement. “I wanted this video to celebrate the child, firm in their footholds, intimidatingly honest, not to be messed with, they are the strength and power of this video no matter how much I try to assert myself as the boss.” [via Stereogum]

Phoebe Green will release her debut album Lucky Me on August 19. The songwriter has something special, with a string of project illuminating the patient innocence of her lyricism. The pensive title cut is online now, the optimism of the title undercut by word-play that deals with Phoebe Green’s own insecurities. She comments: “‘Lucky Me’ explores the idea of disguising self-destructive behavioural patterns due to a feeling of guilt for living a seemingly easy life. I’m very lucky in so many ways that I almost feel ungrateful for still experiencing such difficulties with my mental state. I frantically search for a trivial, tangible cause of distress so that I don’t have to dig too deep or accept that I might just be a bit mentally fucked, then altogether silence myself when I imagine how others may be perceiving me and my actions. The song represents the common defence mechanism of invalidating and dismissing my emotions before anyone else can.” Phoebe Green continues: “I wanted ‘Lucky Me’ to be the title track of the album as this is very much a running theme throughout; analysing and dissecting my experiences and emotions as opposed to feeling them, as they feel easier to digest that way. The title almost feels sarcastic and snarky depending on which way you look at it, and as I use humour to cope a lot of the time it does seem fitting. But I am actually extremely lucky to still be here so there is some sincerity in there somewhere.” [via Clash]

Down to the name, Number One Popstar makes no attempt to hide what she’s about. A mix of winking satire and loving tribute, the pop project spearheaded by singer and comedian Kate Jean Hollowell is both a quintessential chart-topping indie pop idol and a witty, irreverent send up of the genre. Having been likened to the Andy Kaufman of pop music, Number One Popstar is the sorely needed injection of humor we didn’t know was needed. Looking for relief from all her worries and woes, Number One Popstar is back with her latest single, ‘Dance Away the Pain.’ Full of glossy ’80s synths, the track sees Hollowell use her quirky strain of pop as a form of escapism, delivering a dark yet catchy hook of “My depression makes me go insane/I just wanna dance away the pain.” Not quite as overt as an SNL skit or a Weird Al Yankovic track, Number On Popstar manages to strike the right balance between humor and finely crafted melodies without making the music a joke. The single arrives alongside an equally absurd visual directed by Hollowell herself. Clad in a neck brace, the music video shows Number One Popstar hitting up the early bird special at the local family restaurant (which fittingly also looks like it hasn’t been updated for decades) to stuff her elderly compatriots’ faces and naturally dance away the pain. “I feel like pop music, especially pop music videos, are filled with young cool people, but I want to make music that brings joy to everyone, at any age, specifically 70+,” Hollowell says of the visual, which features a cast made up of real life friends she met at a Zumba class. “My hope is that this song is a celebration of not just dancing, but acknowledging the pain you’re going through.” [via PAPER]

Mysie has released a new video for ‘gin + juice’. It’s a cut from her new EP joyride, out now via Fraser T. Smith‘s label 70Hz, about the first time she met her ex-partner; “that exciting feeling I got before we were together,” she explains. “What I realise between every project is that I’m learning as I go,” she adds, of the EP as a whole. “I forget that’s what life is about, and I’ve learned so much from Joyride. It served as therapy to me.” [via Dork]

Rapidly rising Australian punk rock stars Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are thrilled to release their debut EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band via Domestic La La. To celebrate they’ve dropped a video for ‘Girl Sports,’ their blistering new single which was written in honor of the male dentist who said that bassist Jaida Stephenson should stick to “girl sports” after knocking her teeth out skating. Featuring nods to three classic teen films, the ‘Girl Sports’ video is everything you’d come to expect from the four-piece; in your face and won’t back down, but they’ll still have some fun along the way. On the video, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers say, “We had so much fun filming the ‘Girl Sports’ video. While the song encapsulates a lot of frustration and anger, we wanted to create a visual element that brought a more light-hearted feel to a song that touches on some pretty frustrating experiences a lot of women and non-males would relate to. We wanted to create a fun take on the idea of ‘girl sports’ by drawing inspiration from sport scenes in Clueless, St Trinian’s and Twilight (we hope we did the iconic pitching moment justice). We wanted the video to be fun as possible because everything we wanted to say, we had already screamed in ‘Girl Sports.’ The video is basically a big middle finger, you can’t touch us moment, to all the men that had and continue to look down on us.”

Los Angeles trio Lost Cat share their second single, ‘Bitch Fight,’ the latest track off their upcoming self-titled debut album, Lost Cat, due May 27 via Lolipop Records. As the rollicking fuzzed-out punk rock track proclaims, “If you don’t like it, you can go to hell!” Speaking on their newest single, band member Kiki wrote: “‘Bitch Fight’ was quietly written in my parent’s garage while they were sleeping…Originally, the lyrics were fist fight but when I brought the song to practice, Lucy thought she heard Bitch Fight and that’s where the name was coined. The song still needed a few more words, so the remainder of the song was again quietly written but this time at Angie’s dad’s house as he slept.”

Los Angeles hard rock outfit Starcrawler have released an official video for their single ‘Roadkill,’ directed by Gilbert Trejo (son of actor Danny Trejo) and featuring a cameo appearance by none other than Steve-O of Jackass infamy. In the video, the band is chased through the streets of LA by a raging pink jalopy with a grudge, driven by Steve-O. Interspersed with a very cool, stylized performance shoot, ‘Roadkill’ is perhaps the best example to date of Starcrawler’s super-swanky drip being fused with hard rock and punk. In talking about the track, vocalist Arrow DeWilde said, “‘Roadkill’ is about anyone that tries to dig their heels in the ground and stand in your way. We’ve all had people try to tear us down, and sometimes you just have to run right through them.” [via Metal Injection]

Award-winning French pop trio Hyphen Hyphen unveil a new single and accompanying music video, ‘Don’t Wait For Me’. ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ was co-written with six-time Grammy winner Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and mixed by Charlie Holmes (Ed Sheeran).“In the midst of chaos, we’ve chosen the light! Here is our new song ‘Don’t Wait For Me.’ We had so much fun writing it with Mr. Glen Ballard, hope you’ll feel the energy. Don’t wait anymore!” says the band. “It was a great privilege to be invited into the creative circle with Hyphen Hyphen,” says Ballard. “Their exuberance and talent was a great inspiration. This band has joy and energy at their core…I’m forever a Hyphenate!”

The singer Carlota Flâneur broke onto the music scene a little less than two years ago with a her tender and colorful pop sound. Her first album uncertainty, will finally be released on September 16. On it, Carlota Flâneur explores all the forms, manners, angles and colors of pop within ten songs that stick in the memory and introduce the world into a fantastastical universe. Now, Carlota releases ‘lungs,’ the first single that the Barcelona artist is sharing from this first LP. It is a fresh and catchy song that hints at the next steps for the young singer. In the video clip for ‘lungs,’ Carlota Flâneur speaks to herself in different worlds full of color, snow and stars, creating a narrative between the apparently real and fictional spaces through a telephone as a common thread.