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 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 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 moreCLT DRP: I Don't Want To Go To The Gym
Remix cover of CLT DRP’s album Without The Eyes
Song of the Day: Blisteringly angry bass and energetic apathy wrapped in quasi-satirical feminine punk-pop? It’s all here in this track by the electro-punk trio based in Brighton from their debut album Without The Eyes, out on Small Pond Recordings
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 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 moreWorking Men's Club: Valleys
Working Men’s Club
Song of the Day: Following Mariana Trench by Bright Eyes, another kind of geological metaphor in the form of old-school northern electro-pop by the young band from West Yorkshire, inspired by the venue Hebdon Bridge Trades Club
Read moreBilly Nomates – No
Song of the Day: Unstoppable bassline, fierce, driving energy, and uncompromising lyrics delivered in a talk/sing style by the British artist Tor Maries, this brilliant single has the punchy air of Sleaford Mods and also Róisín Murphy
Read moreCult Figures – Lights Out
Cult Figures’ latest EP
Song of the Day: A life-affirming, survival-craving postpunk belter from the latest EP of veteran band who, as contemporaries of the likes of Subway Sect and Wire, first released singles in 1979 and 1980
Read moreSilverbacks – Muted Gold
Silverbacks
Song of the Day: Crisp, staccato, spiky guitar, taut rhythms, wry, humorous lyrics and an energetic, playful delivery typify this and other songs from the Dublin indie five-piece’s forthcoming album, Fad, out in July
Read moreFontaines D.C. – A Hero's Death
Fontaines D.C. with actor Aiden Gillen playing the chatshow host in the video for A Hero’s Death
Song of the Day: New single from the acclaimed postpunk Dublin band is described as a positive “list of rules for the self'“, but like the wonderful video starring actor Aiden Gillen as TV chatshow host, its riffs mimic an underlying sense of dread, perhaps parodying the life of a band on the up
Read moreNumber – Face Down In Ecstasy
The cover of Number’s album, Binary
Song of the Day: Restlessly itchy and catchy, inspired by postpunk’s A Certain Ratio, Talking Heads, plus P funk and scratchy dub, this single is from a new band featuring Ali Friend and Rich Thair, co-founders and rhythm section of Red Snapper
Read moreTalk Show – Stress
The cover of the EP These People, by Talk Show
Song of the Day: Powerful, punchy new indie postpunk track from the band based in south-east London, with a definite northern English twang, and a sound reminiscent of Echo and the Bunnymen, Teenage Fanclub and New Order
Read moreJacknife Lee – I'm Getting Tired (featuring Beth Ditto and Earl St. Clair)
From the video for I’m Getting Tired
Song of the Day: This thunderous combination of drums, screaming horns and call-and-answer vocals by the Irish producer and guests is a catch-all protest against ongoing global farce and lies, from Covid-19 to climate change, Trump to Johnson to Brexit
Read moreThe Nightingales – The Top Shelf
Cover of the new Nightingales album, out in May
Song of the Day: A belter of a new song from Birmingham’s truly great independent postpunk band. Fronted by founder singer and lyricist Robert Lloyd, ironic twists of fate come with fabulous riffs, pace and rhythm changes and cross-tangled narratives
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