Tag: Not Today

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Kim Gordon Shares Woozy “NOT TODAY”

The legendary Kim Gordon will be releasing her third solo album, the Justin Raisen-produced PLAY ME on March 13, 2026 through Matador Records. PLAY ME is reportedly distilled and immediate, and sees Gordon expanding on her sonic palette to include more melodic beats and the motorik drive of krautock.

“We wanted the songs to be short,” Gordon says of her continued collaboration with acclaimed, Los Angeles-based producer Justin Raisen. “We wanted to do it really fast. It’s more focused, and maybe more confident. I always kind of work off of rhythms, and I knew I wanted it to be even more beat-oriented than the last one. Justin really gets my voice and my lyrics and he understands how I work—that came forth even more on this record.” 

PLAY ME is the follow-up to 2024’s critically applauded sophomore album The Collective, which featured the two-time Grammy-nominated single “BYE BYE.” PLAY ME sees Gordon processing in her imitable way, the collateral damage of the billionaire class: the demolition of democracy, technocratic end-times-like fascism, the A.I.-fueled chill vibes flattering of culture — where dark humor voices the absurdity of our moment. But despite its frequent outward gave, the album is essentially an interior effort, one in which heightened emotionality pulses through physical jams, while rejecting definitive statements in favor of an inquisitiveness and curiosity that keeps Gordon searching — and ever in process.

Amid PLAY ME’s rabbit-hole reality bricolage, pitch-shifted vocals and shadowy layers of dissonance, the album’s material are clear-eyed about the attention they pay to a world that would rather you be distracted and rage-baited into oblivion. “I have to say, the thing that influenced me most was the news. We are in some kind of ‘post empire’ now, where people just disappear,” Gordon says, echoing the title of one of PLAY ME’s tracks.

PLAY ME’s lead single “NOT TODAY” pairs Gordon’s imitable croon with woozily dreamy production anchored around a motorik-like groove, bursts of feedback-driven shoegazer guitar textures, glitchy electronics and driving beats. “I started singing in a way I hadn’t sung in a long time,” Gordon says. “This other voice came out.”

The accompanying video was directed by Rodarte fashion label founders and filmmakers Kate and Laura Mulleavy with director of photography Christopher Blauvelt. Throughout the video, Gordon wears a hand-dyed silk tulle dress from an early Rodarte collection, that was custom-made for her by the Mulleavys. “She was our idol and we vividly remember fitting the dress with her in NYC,” the Mulleavys said. “When we started to conceptualize the video, Kim brought up wearing the dress, which we knew was perfect for the video idea.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Mike Dunne Shares Cinematic “Not Today”

Mike Dunne is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer, with a deep and abiding love of music across a wide array of styles. Late last year, Dunne released the breezy and anthemic Beatles-esque power pop track “These Eyes,” a song that to my ears sounded as though it could have been released between roughly 1968-1972.

He begins 2024 with “Not Today,” a slow-burning and cinematic song featuring some expressive and gorgeous, vaguely Romani-like violin playing paired with strummed acoustic guitar and Dunne’s effortless croon. The result is a song that sounds a bit like a synthesis of the baroque, chamber pop of Scott Walker, The Beatles and Joe Wong.

Dunne explains that the song is a zen story. “A boy in a small village decides he wants to become a monk. He goes to the monastery and knocks on the door,” the singer/songwriter explains. “The monk opens the peephole looks at the boy who asks if he can enter. The monk is livid…’how dare you bother me…go home and never return.’ The boy goes home. Next day he wakes up and still wants to be a monk. He returns to the monastery. Same response…but louder. The boy goes home. He wakes the next morning and decides he still wants to be a monk. He returns to the monastery, the door swings wide open and the monk says, ‘We have waited a long time for you…where have you been?’ This song is about perseverance, dedication, that sense of purpose that guides us. No drama, just focus. If you believe in something don’t give up, don’t give up, not today . . .”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Chicago’s Crawling Vines Shares a Breezy and Hook-Driven Bop

Jack Holston is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo psych pop recording project Crawling Vines. And with Crawling Vines, Holston is able to fully display his self-described experimental, genre-bending style rooted in inventive melodies and polished production.

Holston’s latest Crawling Vines single “Not Today” is a hook driven, breezy, and summery pop confection centered around twinkling synths, a sinuous and punchy bass line, some funk rhythm guitar and a blazing guitar solo paired with a distorted vocal. Ironically, written and produced during the cold winter, “Not Today” manages to sound influenced by Tame Impala and JOVM mainstays like Summer Heart and Washed Out while capturing the awkward and swooning pangs of love — both requited and unrequited.