New Rubblebucket, Future Islands, Adult Leisure, Madison Cunningham, Adrian Sutherland

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Rubblebucket: Teardrops

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It's been about a year since the Brooklyn band's Earth Worship LP, and as they launch a fall tour they've released a new single. 

This time Alex Tōth takes on the lead vocal while Kalmia Traver provides harmonies. 

Flood Magazine calls it a "delirious synth-pop banger" featuring "vocoded vocals, funk-inspired bass, and warm synth beds."

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Future Islands: The Tower

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With the release of this single, the Baltimore band announced it has an LP coming early next year, called People Who Aren't There Anymore. Stereogum says this advance track is "a soft, haunted synth-rock jam with a buzzing low-end, and it makes lovely use of Samuel T. Herring’s singular voice."

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Adult Leisure: All For You

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We're catching up with this "melodic alt-indie" band - which formed during the pandemic and released its first EP in late 2022 - as they prepare to issue their second, Present State of Joy and Grief. Due in a matter of days, its four tracks will include this single that the group describes as a story of "a fragmented bond, infidelity and loss. ... Every moment of heartbreak captured across 4 minutes.”

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Madison Cunningham: Subtitles

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A little over a year after releasing her third album, Revealer - and as she tours with the U.S. opening for Hozier - the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has dropped this fresh single.

Cunningham she says it's "set at the end of the world where there’s this impending disaster that is quickly approaching, and everyone has been warned, yet the people below still bobble around going on and on bickering about human things, misunderstanding each other." 

Listen and then watch (or re-watch) the 2021 film Don't Look Up.

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Adrian Sutherland: Diamonds

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This roots-rocker from Canada's Far North has rolled out a pair of singles whose titles add up to that of his second solo LP, Precious Diamonds, to be released in March. The publicity for the release says "the idea that people came from the sky up above and were made from the sun was not only fun to explore lyrically, but is also a belief rooted in Adrian Sutherland's First Nation/Cree culture." Sutherland, formerly of the band Midnight Shine, traveled to Nashville to record the album with producer/musician Colin Linden, a fellow Canadian. 

Middle Kids, Nation of Language, The Struts, Deeper, The Rolling Stones: New music in our mix

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Middle Kids: Dramamine

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Photo by Pooneh Ghana

The indie-rock trio from Sydney have announced a new album on its way early next year, called Faith Crisis Pt. 1 (suggesting a second part will soon follow.) It will include the recenet single "Highlands" along with this track, which Stereogum calls "a giddy, jangly headrush that’ll probably sound great at festivals." It's a co-write by lead singer Hannah Joy and bandmate-husband Tim Fitz.

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Nation of Language: Surely I Can't Wait

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Photo by Shervin Lainez

The Brooklyn-based synth-pop band just released its third album, Strange Disciple. Four tracks had already come out as singles, so we're picking a fresh one for our New Music bin, although we'll sprinkle others into our big mix. The album's theme is described as "infatuation and how one’s reality can be warped by it." NME says the music is "imbued with layers of post-punk nostalgia, sure, but the kinetic energy in the arrangements steer it from being derivative."

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The Struts: Pretty Vicious

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Photo by Ben Cope

This is the title track of the British band's fourth album. Frontman Luke Spiller says the song came together very spontaneously, starting with the opening lines: "When you talk and everybody listens / And you walk and everybody whispers." He adds, "They aren’t super clever [lyrics], but they felt right. It’s more about the vocal delivery. That's what makes it dark and sexy."

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Deeper: Build a Bridge

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Newly signed to the SubPop label, this Chicago band has now released its third album, Careful! This single actually floated out over the summer, but just reached our ears with the LP release. Paste Magazine describes the group's music as "post-punk that is high strung and anxious," featuring "Nic Gohl’s David Byrne-like shriek."

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The Rolling Stones: Bite My Head Off

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Photo by Mark Seliger

The first collection of new Stones music in 18 years is getting mostly positive reviews, with Rolling Stone (the magazine) calling it "a vibrant and cohesive record" and The Guardian saying it "crackles with a sense of purpose. (OTOH, the ever-acerbic Pitchfork calls its 12 tunes "a bunch of hackneyed duds, polished until the character has disappeared.") Producer Andy Watt, who was also working with Paul McCartney at the time, invited him to make a guest appearance, which he does on this track. As Jagger tells it: "Andy said, ‘lets put him on this punk tune.’ Paul was amazing. I’d sung with Paul before. I was playing guitar, he was playing bass. He was great on it. He was amazing.”

Brand-new from Brittany Howard, Elephant Stone, Metric, Yukon Blonde, The Commotions

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Brittany Howard: What Now

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This will be the title track of the former Alabama Shakes lead singer's second solo album. Howard says it's "maybe the truest and bluest of all the songs” on the record. “I like how it’s a song that makes you want to dance, but at the same time the lyrics are brutal.”  A release date for the LP has not yet been announced.

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Elephant Stone: The Spark

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We're glad to hear new music from this Montreal band, led by Rishi Dhir, that blends psych-rock with classical Indian sounds. This is the first taste of Back Into The Dream, set for release in February. Rishi calls the track "my love letter to the art of songwriting, a tribute to the creative process itself. It's about that serendipitous moment when time and space align, allowing you to capture lightning in a bottle." 

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Metric: Stone Window

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Following last year's Formentera and the summer single "Just the Once" comes Formentera II. Written and recorded during the depths of the pandemic, "it plays out like a tormented dispatch from deep in the heart of the despair, uncertainty, and gloom of that particular period paired with some of the most inventive and inspiring music of the band's long career," writes AllMusic. We like this song's hopeful imagining of a window to a better world.

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Yukon Blonde: Not Interested

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We've been spinning a couple of the singles ahead of the Vancouver band's new album, Shuggie. With the release of the full LP, we're plucking out this track, wherein lead singer-songwriter Jeff Innes pokes fun at the selfish pursuit of instant gratification.

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The Commotions: The Time Is Now

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The Ottawa-based soul-pop band led by saxophonist Brian Asselin just released Volume III. We previously featured the lead single "Feel the Commotion," and now choose this number billed as "an old-fashioned jump/swing track with a modern, lyrical twist."

Featured new music: Rockers from Lizzie No, TALK and U2, plus a quieter Arkells

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Lizzie No: Lagunita

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Photo by Cole Nielsen

This single brings a rock-band backing to the singer-songwriter whose repertoire also includes soft ballads accompanied by harp. No describes her upcoming album, Halfsies, as "a journey from exile to freedom." American Songwriter says "The driving, electrifying tune features guest vocals from Brian Dunne and emotes a feeling of deep determination for better days to come."

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Talk: Wasteland

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Another artist known for a quieter sound ("Run Away to Mars," "Afraid of the Dark") goes full-tilt rocker on this single, to be included on his debut album, Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees. The artist, a.k.a. Nicholas Durocher, says "This post-apocalyptic wasteland dream world was a love letter to the island of misfit toys, to people who aren’t broken but just lost."

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The Arkells: Skin

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While Lizzie No and Talk crank up the amps, the typically exuberant pop-rock band from Hamilton, Ont., turns introspective and personal on its seventh album, Laundry Pile. Most of the lyrics deal with a romance breaking down, from the point of view of one still in love: "You told me, darling, it's time to move on." "Do I still have a shot in the dark, do I still have a piece of your heart?" And from this song, the catchiest tune in the bunch: "[You're] rolling your eyes when my heart's on my sleeve."

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U2: Atomic City

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Photo by Sam Jones

The venerable practitioners of arena rock whipped up this song that's vaguely about having fun in Las Vegas just before opening a string of dates at the new Sphere arena in that city. It won't join the ranks of the band's best works, but as Stereogum put it, "it's a hard-grooving, competent song." The band calls it an "homage to the magnetic spirit of the 1970s post-punk era with a nod to Blondie." In fact, there's enough of an echo of "Call Me" that Debbie Harry and her collaborator Giorgio Moroder get co-writer credits.

The Record Company, The Joy Formidable, Screens 4 Eyes, Peter Gabriel, Goose, Wilco, Yukon Blonde, Pony Gold, Airport Impressions, The Metal Byrds - A double batch of New Music!

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Our music-pickers took last week off,
but they're making up for that by adding
10 fresh tracks to the New Music bin!

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The Record Company: Dance On Mondays

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After their record company dropped The Record Company (yup), the band chose to go back to basics, working on their own with bassist Alex Stiff taking on the producing duties for The 4th Album. Rock and Blues Muse writes: "The stripped-down approach suits the band well, with each song being built around a strong rhythmic base and colored with lap steel licks and tasty harp, both courtesy of guitarist/singer Chris Vos. There’s a hint of CCR swamp-rock in some tracks, and others lean toward acoustic Delta blues. Stiff and drummer Marc Cazorla lay down a foundation that’s both solid and creative, and Vos is in good voice throughout." This is the opening track.

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The Joy Formidable: Share My Heat

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Photo by Joe Singh

The Welsh trio of Ritzy Bryan (vocals/guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass/vocals) and Matt Thomas (drummer) has put out three singles this year - the latest a 15 minute opus. We will play the full version occasionally, but as a featured track in our New Music bin, we're using the 3:49 "radio single" version. Bryan says the song "is about true connection and love. Deep, selfless love between humans is a beautiful part of our existence, but I’m also singing about our inherent love for nature, the living world and our kinship to everything: plants, animals, mountains and lake."

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Screens 4 Eyes: Trip to the North

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This is the second track on a double-single release just released by the Tel Aviv group led by Yael Brener. We recently featured "Patterns," which Brener described as "in a dreampop/new wave style," whereas this one is "a more chilled psych-rock," a bit of a different direction for the Screens.

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Peter Gabriel: This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix)

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The tenth song in the month-by-month release of I/O is, says Gabriel, "a love song. It began with inspiration from some of the great Tamla Motown rhythm sections, so we're trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps."

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Goose: Travelers I

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This is the first of three tracks on an EP the Connecticut-based jam band just dropped. Together they make up a suite of songs the band has played live over the years. Guitarist/singer Rick Mitarotonda says the songs are "among a collection of material I wrote in the years prior to Goose forming." Making the studio recording of the suite "was a special time and place for me personally.”

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Wilco: Cousin

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Photo by Peter Crosby

On their 13th album, Cousin, Jeff Tweedy and company collaborate with Welsh musician/producer Cate Le Bon. After previously featuring the advance single "Evicted," we now pick the title track for our New Music bin.

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Yukon Blonde: You Always Get What You Want

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Photo by Raunie Mae Baker

Here's the latest track to spin out ahead of the Canadian indie-pop band's next album, Shuggie, due for release in a couple of weeks. Frontman Jeff Innes says of the song's beginnings: "I was listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac and The Flaming Lips in a kind of loop around this time, and I got really inspired by both bands ability to use the same chords throughout the whole song and just change the melody around." The lyric is about how easy it is to spend all our time with our devices instead of friends.

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Pony Gold: Love You Anyway

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Credit: Victoria Black Photos

Recently released as their second single, this is now the lead track on Take Me Somewhere, the debut EP from the emerging Victoria, BC-based duo of Theresa and Matt Bromley. Billed as "a love song for oneself," it features Theresa's songwriting and vocal and Matt's slide-guitar work.

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Airport Impressions: Waiting for Paradise

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From the Mediterranean nation of Malta comes this "melodic alternative rock" band that's working its first EP. This single was released over the summer and has now found its way across the seas and into our New Music bin. It's not our first impression of the band: We added the single "Light Years" to our mix in late 2020.

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The Metal Byrds: Shy Girl

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We first picked up on this hard-edged indie-rock band from Houston, Texas, in late 2020, and since then several of their tracks have been spinning on our nightly free-form show, The Detour. This new single is a highlight of their latest EP, Moments Before Sunrise.