NEW Singles & Videos + Release Announcements + Brand New Signings
ARTHUR AHBEZ announces new LP & shares 'Reckless' |Crack open a coldy
Arthur Ahbez returns with a combustible new single ‘Reckless’. It’s Arthur’s debut release from his upcoming third album, Arthur Ahbez & The Flaming Ahbez. Bolstered by gritty vocals and raucous electric guitar, Arthur hits a new chord in his ability to parry his softer acoustic side with a Dr Jekyll-like moment, making a crook eye face in his lyrics about the absurdity of teenage alcoholism and Hollywood factory farm shootings. Don’t delay, grab a six pack of beer and chug to the rock and roll destitute Arthur Ahbez today!
GEORDIE GREEP (black midi) announces debut solo album |Prepare yourself for new single 'Holy, Holy'
Geordie Greep (guitarist and vocalist in black midi) today announces his debut solo album The New Sound and shares its first single ‘Holy, Holy’ plus video directed by Ethan and Tom. Following three astonishing albums with black midi, most recently 2023’s Hellfire, and almost non-stop worldwide tours for near-on five years, Geordie Greep has somehow found time to record his first solo album The New Sound, an album that has allowed him scope to explore creative ideas like never before. It boasts a brand of high quality, all-embracing alternative pop fun not heard in a very long time.
THE HARD QUARTET announce album & share new song|Check out joyful tune 'Rio's Song'
The Hard Quartet have announced their eponymous debut album, out October 4th on Matador Records. To celebrate they have released new single and video, ‘Rio’s Song’.
“The “Rio’s Song” video is The Hard Quartet’s homage to street rock in the hot afternoon & clowning around with lifer friends in downtown New York City. Director Jared Sherbert shot it guerrilla style on St Mark’s Place and in The International Bar on July 15 2024. It features local NYC artists, musicians, activists, skaters and icons who are dear to the band” – The Hard Quartet
KATIE GAVIN (of Muna) shares new song from upcoming album| Give 'Casual Drug Use' a spin
On her debut solo album What A Relief, to be released on Saddest Factory Records, Katie Gavin proves herself as one of her generation’s most deft songwriters, able to articulate discomfiting feelings with grace and pragmatism. What A Relief scrutinises our collective need for intimacy and romance without judgment or harshness. Today she releases ‘Casual Drug Use,’ the earliest written and one of the most infectious tracks on What A Relief. Written after a breakup in 2016, ‘Casual Drug Use’ is as anthemic as it is vulnerable, and recalls classic heartland rock and road songs like The Chicks’ ‘The Long Way Around.’
YAEJI drops hot new club single| Turn it up for 'booboo'
Yaeji is back with a hot new club single titled ‘booboo’ – the first new music from the NYC-via-Seoul artist, producer, singer-songwriter, and DJ in a year. After a brief period of retreat from the club, while she recorded and released her 2023 critically-acclaimed debut With A Hammer, Yaeji is back firmly behind the decks with this floor filler.
CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON borrows Katy Kirby for new song| Check out 'Beauty School'
Acclaimed California musician Christian Lee Hutson has released ‘Beauty School,’ the second track to be taken from his highly anticipated upcoming album Paradise Pop. 10 out on September 27th via ANTI Records.
‘Beauty School’ perfectly soundtracks the fleeting moments of summer, with Katy Kirby’s backing vocals elevating the song’s disarming pop-punk poolside folk rock. Of the track, Christian says, “Beauty school is a love song to myself and to you. To all the people we’ve been and to all the people we will be.”
RAT BOY share breezy ska love song | sway along to 'She's the One'
Essex rabble-rousers RAT BOY have been blasting out their anarchic punk, ska and hip-hop amalgamation ahead of October 4th release of their third album ‘SUBURBIA CALLING’. Accompanied by their strongest visuals to date, ‘BAD MAN’, ‘ONE IN A MILLION’ and the title track have been heralded with support including two track premieres from Ska Punk Daily airplay from Chris Hawkins at 6 Music, plus further coverage from Clash, New Noise, Rock Sound, Soundsphere and The Line of Best Fit, but now RAT BOY introduce a markedly different sound with their new single ‘SHE’S THE ONE’
RUTHVEN announces debut album Rough & Ready | Check out the very smooth 'I Can't Go There'
Ruthven announces full details of his long-awaited debut album. The South London singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer releases Rough & Ready on 25 October 2024 via Paul Institute / XL Recordings. To mark the announcement, Ruthven today reveals the album’s first single, ‘I Can’t Go There’. On his debut album, Rough & Ready, Ruthven introduces listeners to his intimate world. Across 12 tracks, he leans into classic songwriting while maintaining lush instrumentation to create a portal that traverses decades. “It’s jazz-influenced, but it also takes from so many genres,” he says, “even Yacht Rock artists like Michael McDonald and Steely Dan, deeply influenced me.” The result is an album that blends all the sharp angles of early Prince b-sides like “17 Days” with the smokiness of Voodoo-era D’Angelo’s “Africa”.
MAGNOLIA PARK drop heavy new track recorded in a cave | Check out 'The Void'
Fresh off a month-long co-headlining tour across the US, Orlando band Magnolia Park mark a new era with their electrifying banger ‘The Void’ out today. Homing in on a sound that channels the intensity of nu metal, hip-hop and hard rock, the new track’s somber lyrical content outlines the constant battle of fighting falling into “the void” of depression and cycle of isolation. Fueled by a love of the supernatural and macabre, guitarists Tristan Torres and Freddie Criales took an acoustic guitar to the Devils Den: a cold, dark, haunted cave found in Williston, Florida. Under the influence of the menacing energy felt in its depths, together they wrote the demo that would become ‘The Void’.
REMO DRIVE announce Mercy Deluxe with reimagined songs | Listen to 'Please, Please Be Smart' from WILT
Split between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Albany, NY, Remo Drive – the longstanding project of brothers Erik and Stephen Paulson – announce the extension of their latest record Mercy due for release on October 18th via Epitaph. Mercy Deluxe introduces four new covers that reinvent songs from their fourth album released in February of this year. Tapping a collection of old friends, collaborators and tour mates united by a shared love of music, each arrangement highlights different shades of innovation with a quiet reverence for the original track.
New Albums & EPs Out Now
FONTAINES D.C. hotly anticipated new album ROMANCE is out now| Pick it up today
Fontaines D.C. have released their hotly-anticipated fourth album, ROMANCE via XL Recordings. Also released today release ‘In The Modern World’, the fourth song to be revealed from the record. Lead singer Grian Chatten wrote the album’s central track during an “inexplicable” 10-day stint alone in Los Angeles in early 2023 as he decompressed from touring. It is, he says, probably his favourite track. It is Fontaines D.C. at their most cinematic, built around the image of a fictional throuple together amid armageddon, embracing a fantastical world fuelled by denial and romance.
MALICE K's new album AVANTI is out today via JAGJAGUWAR | Have a listen to 'Raining'
Malice K has today released his new album AVANTI via Jagjaguwar, alongside the video for new single ‘Raining’. Dork magazine recently described AVANTI as ‘raw, visceral and impossible to ignore’. The record wades through a disarray of chaos and loss with a sharp-toothed fervour. At points it’s howling and unhinged, a grungy layer atop a lush foundation of melodic capital-s Songwriting akin to the golden-age pop of the ‘70s, but in other moments it dissolves into a gentle, wistful haunting. Malice K’s songs are blunt, uncomplicated and unflinching as he probes the interiority of memories, of mistakes – saturated with an innate intensity that sucks you into his gnarled and visceral world, so barbed it could draw blood.
ROE KAPARA channels early rock legends on new EP | Check out indie rock anthem 'Hate Myself'
“My favourite part is always the writing,” says Roe Kapara on crafting his sophomore EP, Big Cigars and Satin Shorts, out today via Epitaph Records. Big Cigars and Satin Shorts premiered yesterday via FLOOD and is now available on all platforms. The EP came together over the past year, decisively vulnerable with an earned confidence exuding from the EP’s five tracks as Kapara gives voice to the disillusionment of a generation coming of age, channeling all the absurdity, despair, and judgmental blows into hard-hitting alternative anthems sonically reminiscent of early aughts mainstays like Cage The Elephant and Weezer.
Reissue of the Week
MARK LANEGAN Bubblegum XX 20th Anniversary out now | Pick it up from your local record store
Beggars Arkive in conjunction with the Estate of Mark Lanegan, are honoured to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum. Released today, Bubblegum XX – a set of releases that include a remastered double LP edition of the original album and a 4XLP/3XCD/Digital release containing 40 remastered tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased. The demos and unreleased tracks are beautiful to hear. Mark’s voice is front and center, and as Josh Homme notes in the book, “Mark’s early solo works are undeniably powerful. They’re sombre, fragile, breath-taking, beautiful and they’re more real than everyone else’s.” Of the thirteen tracks, seven of them are outtakes from the Bubblegum sessions. ‘Union Tombstone’ was a song that Mark wanted Beck to contribute to, and when it was sent to him, he was working on his own album, so it was set aside. Better late than never, Beck added backing vocals and harmonica to the track this year.
COCTEAU TWINS & BUDD LP repress out now | Pick up a copy on vinyl from your local record store
Available from today, The Moon and the Melodies by Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd is being reissued on vinyl for the first time almost forty years after it was initially released – remastered, from the original tapes, by Robin Guthrie himself. Alongside its brand-new vinyl edition, the remastered record is also available to purchase on CD and is now up on streaming platforms. The Moon and the Melodies is a singular record within the Cocteau Twins’ catalogue – unusually ethereal, even by their standards, and largely instrumental, guided by the free-form improvisations of Harold Budd, an ambient pioneer who had drifted into their orbit as if by divine intervention.
THE PRODIGY vinyl repress of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (20th Anniversary)| Pick it up today
The Prodigy have issued vinyl repress of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (20th Anniversary).
PINK RHYTHM 80s Love Affair LP out now | Pick it up from your record shop
Pink Rhythm was one of John Rocca’s mid-80’s solo side projects and a somewhat evolution of his pioneering early-80s band, Freeez. An 80s Love Affair LP contains six classic Pink Rhythm tracks, four of which have not been available on vinyl since the original single releases in 1985. The tracks were originally produced and recorded at Miraval Studios in the South of France, made famous by George Michael with ‘Careless Whisper’. The tracks were mixed by Rocca in Rooster Studios, London and have now been remastered in 2024 by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road. The LP will be released on August 23rd via Beggars Arkive on pink and vinyl.
Tours, Events and Festivals
RHYTHM AND ALPS 2024: New Years at its Peak! | Check out the lineup & get your tickets
Kicking off 2025 right, the iconic Rhythm and Alps is back for its 14th year, bringing you the ultimate New Year’s festival experience in the heart of the South Island. It’s set to be the biggest event yet. Get ready for the most epic two-day celebration of music, vibes, and unforgettable moments against the stunning backdrop of Cardrona Valley.
Gates will open on December 30 for two jam-packed days of epic talent. 10,000 attendees are expected, with more than 6,000 campers set to experience the magic.
The 2024 festival boasts one of its most impressive lineups yet, featuring some of the biggest names in music right now!
GET YOUR FESTIVAL TICKETS
GOING GLOBAL 2024 attracts BANDCAMP, SECRETLY GROUP & more | Get yourself along & get amongst it
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) and the NZ Music Commission are thrilled to announce more of the lineup for the 2024 edition of the prestigious annual extravaganza, the GOING GLOBAL MUSIC SUMMIT. Bringing the Global Music Industry to Aotearoa / New Zealand to Educate, Discover & Connect with the incredible musical talent of Aotearoa. Last Round of Speakers Announced! As the cherry on top of this year’s Aotearoa Artist showcase, Jaden and Jordan of LEISURE will take the stage to share their international journey with Charlotte Ryan of RNZ. The acclaimed New Zealand collective, celebrated for their distinctive blend of electro-funk and soul, made waves in 2023 with their fourth studio album, Leisurevision.