Song of the Day: Alight with scorching post-punk guitars and searingly angry vocals, this track from new EP Disappearing Act, about tyrannical power-grabbing figures, is by Yorkshire’s answer to Idles, Shame, Fontaines D.C. and The Fall
Read moreSong of the Day: Dry Cleaning - Scratchcard Lanyard
It’s a stage she’s going through: Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw, from the video for Scratchcard Lanyard
Song of the Day: “Wristband themepark, scratchcard lanyard, do everything and feel nothing.” A brilliant piece of drily delivered indie by the south London band with lyrics that recall Neil Postman’s cultural critique Amusing Ourselves To Death
Read moreSong of the Day: Jordana – Reason
Jordana
Song of the Day: Thrumming bass, crisp drums, strings, piano and an intimate, close-mic vocal are some of the many aspects that make this an attractive indie pop record the solo artist from Kansas
Read moreSongs of the Day: Straw Man Army – The Silver Bridge, Option Despair and Age of Exile
Songs of the Day: A triple bill of fast and furiously brilliant postpunk by duo Owen Deutsch and Sean from the New York collective and label D4MT Labs Inc, covering subjects such as war and colonialism, taken from the LP Age of Exile
Read moreSong of the Day: Goat Girl – The Crack
It’s out there. Goat Girl’s video for The Crack
Song of the Day: Wonderfully dark and foreboding but also dancey and catchy, this environmentally conscious and woozily strange and otherworldly new single from the south London indie band comes from their forthcoming second album, On All Fours
Read moreSong of the Day – Arab Strap: The Turning of Our Bones
Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton
Song of the Day: This macabre but grimly amusing and detailed love story of entwinement of the undead comes with ominous melodies, disturbing narrative and a beguiling beat, and is the first single by the brilliant Falkirk duo Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton in 15 years
Read moreMartha Hill: Landslide
Martha HIll’s latest EP, Summer Up North
Song of the Day: This classy, catchy number by the artist from Scotland now based in Newcastle Upon Tyne comes from her second EP, Summer Up North, featuring her distinctive, husky voice and clever mix of electronica and guitar
Read moreHotel Lux: The Loneliness Of The Stage Performer / Tabloid Newspaper
The various perspectives of Hotel Lux’s 2020 EP Barstool Preaching
Song of the Day: Contrasting in apparent confidence, two powerfully acerbic, self-examining first-person perspectives by the postpunk-pop band from Portsmouth from their EP Barstool Preaching, out on Nice Swan Records
Read moreKiwi Jr. – Undecided Voters
From the video for Undecided Voters
Song of the Day: As voting continues in the US presidential elections, a wry and catchy new number by the indie band from Toronto, with echoes of The Strokes, dips into online manipulation of the ‘undecided’ or indeed ‘undercover’
Read moreAmy Rigby: The President Can't Read
Song of the Day: On US election day, in a song that came out last year, a pertinent reminder of what kind of sham incumbent is in the White House, and what problems must be addressed, by the veteran New York singer-songwriter
Read moreTune-Yards: Nowhere, Man
Cover of the Tune–Yards single
Song of the Day: Brilliant new single from California’s eclectically creative Merrill Garbus and and Nate Brenner is a heady mix of loops, percussion and screaming fuzz vocals, capturing anger felt by many under conditions of being ignored and pushed to the brink
Read moreDeadletter: Fit For Work
Deadletter: Fit for music
Song of the Day: A debut single from a new London-based band takes aim, with anarchic sax-infused postpunk and caustic delivery by vocalist Zac Woolley, at the cold-hearted policy of the Tory-led Department for Work and Pensions
Read moreThe God in Hackney: The Pub Machine / Proxima (Small Country Eclipse)
Manipulations … from the video for Proxima by The God in Hackney
Song of the Day: Eclectic, eccentric and ironic, British alt-rock with complex percussion, driving bass line, stirring horn section and powerful buildup is some of the latest ‘prehistoric future music’ from new album Small Country Eclipse
Read moreYard Act: Fixer Upper
The ever practical Yard Act
Song of the Day: For all the Saturday DIYers, a jaunty, cheeky cocksure and catchy number by the band from Leeds about a fictional, but familiar character, Graeme, who tells us about a second property he’s currently doing up
Read moreWidowspeak: The Good Ones
Widowspeak: Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas
Song of the Day: With a bass line to die for, and guitar riff and vocal that trips effortlessly around a beat, this number from Brooklyn pair Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas’s new album Plum, has a wry double edge and a dash of menace
Read moreLoma: Ocotillo
The cover of Loma’s new album, Don’t Shy Away
Song of the Day: Characteristically slow but wonderfully paced, with eerie, dreamlike deep brass and twittering woodwind, this evocatively clever number is an example why this Dripping Springs, Texas-based band are admired by Brian Eno
Read moreRobin Kester: Sweat and Fright / Remove and Delete
Song of the Day: A double set of titular pairs from the Netherlands singer-songwriter, whose style is a beautifully eerie and ethereal, silky voiced indie pop. Her EP This Is Not.A Democracy, out on AT EASE, is due for release in September
Read moreBright Eyes: Mariana Trench
From the cover art of Bright Eyes’ new album Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
Song of the Day: Delving deep into natural disasters, mass surveillance and the extreme relief of humanity’s tiny place in a much bigger planetary history, this single comes from the first new Bright Eyes album for a decade, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
Read moreBill Callahan: Pigeons
Bill Callahan
Song of the Day: With beautifully wry and drily performed lyrics, and taken from the forthcoming mischievously titled album Gold Record, this new song from the Smog artist is about a limo driver advising newlyweds, and cheekily namechecks two other songwriting greats
Read moreThis Is The Kit – This Is What You Did
This Is The Kit’s new single, taken from the forthcoming album Off Off On out on Rough Trade
Song of the Day: Wonderfully sprightly acoustic new single by the band fronted by British artist Kate Staples. The finger-picked banjo and clever lyrical structure captures a growing feeling of panic and directionless blame
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