Los Angeles-based duo TANGIENTS — multi-instrumentalists Chelsea Ray and Be Hussey — specialize in a unique take on shoegaze that draws from 80s post-punk, 90s shoegaze and dream pop anchored around Chelsea Ray’s dream-like delivery […]
Tag: Video Review
New Video: Afterlife Shares Atmospheric and Yearning “Lovers Maze”
Currently split between Paris and Copenhagen, Danish-born Olivia Danielsson is a multidisciplinary artist with a background that spans both music and fashion. Danielsson is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie pop solo recording project Afterlife.
With Afterlife, the Danish-born artist’s work reflects a cross-disciplinary approach in which visual and sonic elements are created in parallel. And as a result, her releases exist within a cohesive expanding universe that sees her exploring emotional and existential states unfolding through an intimate inner dialogue. Sonically, her work moves between ambient pop and experimental pop, rooted in an atmospheric, otherworldly quality.
Danielsson’s latest Afterlife single, The Bird-produced “Lovers Maze” is a hook-driven bit of electro pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios effortlessly gliding over a pulsing, Giorgio Moroder-like baseline paired with the Danish artist’s ethereal and yearning croon. The result is a song that evokes the sort of woozy, euphoric haze shared in the intimate moments between lovers with an uncanny, seemingly lived-in precision.
Shot on grainy VHS-styled analog film, the accompanying video follows the Danish artist in a long red dress wandering through a Danish forest. It’s one part music video, one-part fashion shoot.
New Video: Foo Fighters Return with Swaggering “Window”
Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiftlet, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee and Ilan Rubin — just released their Foo Fighters and Oliver Roman co-produced 12th album Your Favorite Toy today through Roswell Records/RCA Records.
The album was recorded at home and engineered by Roman and mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and features the previously released “Asking For a Friend,” the album’s title track “Your Favorite Toy,” and the album’s latest single “Window.”
Much like “Your Favorite Toy,” “Window” manages to not just sound distinctly Foo Fighters but seems a bit like a return to form, sounding as though it could have been a part of the There Is Nothing Left to Lose sessions but with a gritty barroom band-like swagger.
Directed by Jake Erland and developed from an original concept by Dave Grohl, the accompanying video stars Craig Parkinson as a window cleaner scaling the glass and steel exterior of a massive, modern skyscraper. And as Parkinson’s window cleaner dutifully does his job while listening to his favorite tunes, he observes the various inhabitants of each floor during some of their most banal and intimate moments with a detached, seemingly indifferent voyeurism. That is until he connects with one inhabitant, who is rocking out to the same tunes.
New Video: Britney Freud Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Feelings For Violence”
Dragut Lugalzagosi is a Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo project Britney Freud. And with Britney Freud, Lugalzagosi explores masculinity, vulnerability, love without focus on gender while advocating for men and boys to be more open about their feelings and emotions. He describes the project’s sound as “tender crooner noise, catchy limbo punk and a fresh take on indie rock.”
The Copenhagen-based artist’s Britney Freud debut single, “Feeling For Violence” is a brooding and atmospheric tune, featuring bursts of shimmering guitars, a supple and propulsive bass line, buzzing bass synths and a wobbling violin solo serving as a lush bed for Lugalzagosi’s achingly tender baritone croon singing lyrics lamenting the difficult end of an important friendship. The song’s narrator admits his complicated and conflicted feelings about the friendship and his friends with an unvarnished, unflinchingly honesty and vulnerability: The sense of hurt, betrayal and love the narrator feels is both palpable and deeply lived-in.
“An important friend relationship went to pieces and I felt lost, so I wrote this song and went to therapy. It helped. I still love him,” Lugalzagosi explains.
Directed, filmed and edited by Pelle Raft Calum, the accompanying video for “Feelings For Violence” follows a burned-out finance bro dancing and vamping on a high school track. He winds up in the woods where he explodes in violent frustration before collapsing from exhaustion. At some point, a disheveled figure, perhaps Britney Freud appears and offers the burned-out finance bro a comforting, understanding hug.
“We men dominate in several discouraging statistics and I’ve known boys and men who have committed violence, self-harm and suicide,” Lugalzagsoi says. “They’ve lacked a language for their emotions and a sense of being seen in a world of sometimes claustrophobic gender roles, norm porn and taboos. I often find it difficult myself navigating in being a man and opening up so let’s just have it: More love between men.”
New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck “LIFE KEEPS GOING”
Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu will be releasing his highly-anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE through OURNESS on May 15, 2026.
REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE reportedly sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity.
Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate.
“The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”
“LIFE KEEPS GOING,” the album’s latest single is a gritty, club friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, drum ‘n’ bass-like production featuring rapid-fire skittering beats, thumping, organ rattling low end and atmospheric synths. The track’s production evokes seemingly unstoppable force and movement and over the breakneck instrumentation, Owusu muses on time and the motions of life, finding strength and inspiration in their relentless, disobedient nature. Birth, love, war, heartache, despair, time cycling forward and death will continue well after all of us — and in turn, all of this — will be gone.
Directed by Isaac Brown, the frenetic accompanying video for “LIFE KEEPS GOING” was shot in Accra‘s massive Black Star Square, which was built for their independence and is steeped in national unity. We see Owusu by himself dancing and rocking out in the square and in a gorgeous, dream-like sequence on the beach at sunset. And although Owusu is a larger-than-life figure, his smallness in the face of such immense settings, the sea rolling in and out, the sky above are all serve as reminders of the song’s central themes — and why we need more unity in our world.
New Video: Tricky Teams Up with Marta Złakowska on Breakneck “Out of Place”
Trip hop pioneer Tricky will be releasing his 15th studio album, Different When It’s Silent July 17, 2026 through his own label, False Idols. The new album is the first full-length effort from the legendary and influential artist and producer under his own name in six years.
Different When It’s Silent came about during a rather prolific period of activity. Since 2020’s Fall to Pieces, Tricky has released material under several different guises including, Lonely Guest‘s 2021 self-titled effort, a collaboration with Mike Theis, called Theis Thaws, which released 2024’s Fifteen Days and last year’s collaborative album with Marta Złakowska, Out The Way.
Returning to releasing an album under his own name took on a different shape. Recored between Tricky’s home in France and sessions in Bristol, the album is reportedly a direct, focused batch of material that reconnects with the distinct sonic language that has defined the legendary artist and producer’s work since 1995’s iconic Maxinquaye. And he does by drawing deeply on the musical community that has shaped him and his work. Central to the album’s sound is Bristol-based vocalist Mitch Sanders, whose soulful falsetto is featured through such of the album’s songs. Their deep connection reflects a shared musical background and an instinctive chemistry between the pair.
“In my mind it was another side project” Tricky explains. But after hearing the material, his manager Alan McGee felt the songs clearly belonged to a Tricky record.
The 14-song Different When It’s Silent sonically sees Tricky blending skeletal blues, brooding electronics, distorted guitars and stark hip-hop rhythms into a sound that’s simultaneously stripped-back and expansive. The album moves fluidly across different styles while rooted in the restless experimentation that has long defined Tricky’s work over the past three-plus decades.
“I just love making music” Tricky says. “I’m grateful I’ve had the chance to live this life and keep creating.”
Different When It’s Silent‘s first single “Out of Place” feat. Marta Złakowska features a brooding and cinematic string sample introduction before morphing to a breakneck middle section which features Tricky’s imitable gravelly vocal with a punchy, almost punk-like deliver and Złakowska’s sultry yet restrained crooning. The song closes with a boarding and cinematic string sample. The result is as song that’s simultaneously forceful, uneasy and gorgeous while evoking the sweaty, self-aware sensation of somehow being out of place in your environment through a shifting series of contrasts.
Originally written for Złakowska’s own album, Tricky ultimately reclaimed the song for the forthcoming album.
Directed and edited by Steve Gullick, the accompanying video for “Out of Place” features the collaborators shot in blurred and constant motion in the foreground. In the background we see stylishly shot footage of each artist singing their respective part — or just being in a brooding photo shoot. It further emphasizes the feeling of being out of place.
New Video: JOVM Mainstay Alewya Shares Sultry Club Banger “Saleh”
JOVM mainstay Alewya is an acclaimed London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Born in Saudi Arabia to an Egyptian-Sudanese father and an Ethiopian mother, the acclaimed London-based artist has spent her life surrounded by diaspora immigrant communities: She grew up in West London and after a several year stint in New York, she returned to London. Upon her return home, the Saudi-British artist developed and honed her ear for music through the sounds of the Ethiopian and Arabic music of her parents and the ambient and alternative rock albums of her brother.
She’s part of a generation of artists actively redefining global music, a generation that’s generally rooted in heritage, yet unbound by it. Describing herself as a painter, who makes music, Alewya approaches sound as texture and feeling, guided more by intuition than structure. Her sound and story help to widen the Black British frame, bringing the often under heard North and East African perspective into a much-needed focus.
Back in 2020, the JOVM mainstay burst into the scene with an attention grabbing feature on Little Simz‘s “where’s my lighter,” which caught the attention of Because Records, who signed the rising artist and released her critically applauded debut, 2021’s Panther In Mode EP.
Alewya’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, ZERO is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Because London Records. The album reportedly embodies years of artistic growth into an effort that’s both deeply personal and sonically expansive. But the album also marks a significant milestone, as it sees her boldly stepping into a new creative era, defined by fearless experimentation and cultural fluidity.
ZERO will include the previously released “Night Drive,” feat. Dagmawit Ameha and “City of Symbols,” “Eshi,” and the album’s latest single “Selah.” Produced by longtime collaborator Busy Twist, “Selah” is a sultry, club banger anchored around pulsing Afrobeats-like instrumentation and production paired with a propulsive, infectious bass line and the JOVM mainstay’s effortless, hypnotic delivery. “Selah came from playful instinct,” Alewya says.
Directed by Iggy London with creative direction by Lee Trigg and movement direction by Kitz Katila, the accompanying video for “Selah” captures the cathartic release of joy, sweat through color and dance at a Black London party. This kinetically shot video should remind you that there’s true freedom and unity on a strobe-lit dance floor — and that Black folk are fucking beautiful.
New Video: Die Spitz Shares Seething “American Porn”
Rising Austin-based outfit Die Spitz — Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Ellie Livingston and Kate Halter — can trace some of their origins back to when Schrobilgen and Livingston met in preschool. They befriended Halter in middle school. And they brought De St. Aubin into their friend group when they started the band back in 2022.
Initially, the quartet was looking to find reasons to hang out more often, and decided they should start a band after a late-night viewing of the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt. They settled on the name Die Spitz over a “brown bag of Fireball,” opting for the feminine German definite article in place of the English. “It reminds me of the Grim Reaper spitting,” Livingstone jokes.
Their first live shows saw them pairing originals with covers from some of their early inspirations including Black Sabbath, Pixies, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. Unsurprisingly, they express their ideas and themselves through a mischievously shameless blend of classic punk, hardcore metal, alt rock and more. They’ve also become known for riotous live show, where dueling cartwheels, members climbing rafters and solos while crowdsurfing could happen at just about any moment.
The Texan quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Will Yip–produced Something to Consume was released last September through Third Man Records. The album sees the band combining their passion, friendship, identity and artistry to fight against the inescapable decay and chaos that surrounds modern life, “There’s a political side to it, but addiction and love can also be all-consuming,” the band’s Ellie Livingston says.
Something to Consume‘s 11 tracks contains multitudes and yet feels singular. It’s an expansive and expressive collection of songs, unified in its sense of deeply held camaraderie and freedom. “We depend on our freedom — freedom to do what we want, present the ideas we want, make the music we want,” Livingston says. “Whether it’s based in metal or something soft, no matter which of us wrote the song, we all contribute and work together. As a person, I don’t have a strong ego or voice, but within this band each one of us is capable of so much more.”
“Something to Consume is an album experience for everyone. Whether you’re craving a smack of lively metal or a melancholy wave of grungey violin, there’s a piece of all of us injected. Something to Consume is a call to the multitudes of ways we as humans allow consumption to enrapture our culture as well as ourselves.”
Though they’ve only been playing together for a few years, the album shows a maturity and technical prowess wielded and wed to the service of their deep and abiding friendship — and a hope to inspire change. “Some people aren’t interested in being political activists via music, but it weighs on me heavily and I feel misaligned with my calling if I don’t,” Chloe De St. Aubin says. “The four of us are free spirits with multiple interests, and there’s no limit or power dynamic that can derail us.”
The album features the previously released “Throw Yourself to the Sword,” a bruising mosh pit friendly synthesis of thrash metal, stoner rock and punk featuring some of the hardest and grimiest guitar riffs I’ve heard in some time. The album’s latest single “American Porn” comes as the quartet announces a lengthy list of summer and fall tour dates. The tour includes three New York City dates: November 13, 2026 and November 14, 2026 at Warsaw. Both of those shows are sold out. But don’t worry, they’ve got a February 19, 2027 stop at Brooklyn Steel. As always, all tour dates are below.
“American Porn” sees the rising Texans channeling a seething synthesis of grunge and riot grrl punk that calls out sexist record industry insiders and perverted older dudes, who come to their shows to leer and objectify them. “It’s a very angry song,” says the band’s Eleanor Livingston.” “And I want the people that come to our shows just because we’re pretty women or they want to sexualize or objectify us to listen to that song and tell us if they’re still a fan.”
Continuing an ongoing collaboration with director Emily Sanchez, the accompanying video for “American Porn” is a surreal fever dream of a visual that wouldn’t be out of place on 120 Minutes. The video calls out gender-roles, stereotypes and beauty standards with seething anger and a sense of mischief.
New Video: Bummer Camp Shares “120 Minutes” MTV-Like “One Bullet”
Originally formed as a solo loop-based recording project by its founder and frontman, Teenage Halloween‘s Eli Frank, Queens-based grungegaze outfit Bummer Camp evolved into a full fledged band after the project’s earliest releases, 2017’s Winnebago Vacation EP, 2019’s Camp Somewhere, 2023’s Big Deal EP and last year’s full-length debut, Stuck In A Dream.
The band’s sophomore album, Fake My Death is slated for a May 8, 2026 release through Trash Casual. Recorded at a New Jersey-based The Animal, Farm, the album features Brett Bivona (lead guitar) and Jon “Steel Wolf” Markson playing bass, recording, production and mixing. Compared to the previously released home-recorded work, the Fake My Death sessions brought about a much tighter timeline and a more intentional approach, while still leaving room for extra texture and character.
“When I record at home I can take as long as I want goofing around and playing with different instruments,” Bummer Camp’s frontman Eli Frank explains. ““In the studio, time is literally money… a lot of money. So you gotta be focused and use your time wisely. We did end up getting the main bits done early so we could play around with percussion and other random stuff, I think it’s important to leave time for things like that because A) it’s fun and B) it adds character to the album.”
With Fake My Death, the Queens-based grungegaze outfit aims for a much, bigger, more focused album that thematically tackles anxieties that surface and fade, and the push and pull of wanting to disappear and wanting to continue onward. Rather than featuring songwriting at a distance, the album’s material frames those thoughts and feelings plainly and turns them into direct, melodic songs specifically meant to be lived with.
“‘Wanna fake my death cause I can’t stomach anything’ is a line from the song ‘Perfect Storm,'” Eli Frank says, talking about the inspiration behind the album and its title. “The desire to tune everything out to such a point that you just want to actually disappear forever is not going to help anything, especially yourself. You gotta take the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, and roll with it. In my opinion, whether you’re being punched or hugged, feeling something is better than not feeling anything at all.”
Fake My Death‘s first single, “One Bullet” is a melodic and hook-driven anthem that channels 120 Minutes-era MTV-era grunge featuring bruising, crunchy power chord-driven riffs while describing acute anxiety, depression and dissociation with an almost lived-in precision.
The single is accompanied by an trippy and mind-bending music video directed by longtime collaborator and multimedia artist Preston Spurlock.
New Video: SHUB and Sebastian Gaskin Team Up on Sleek, Intimate “I Know”
Dan “SHUB” General is a Mohawk producer and member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nation reserve in Canada. As a co-founder of the trailblazing and acclaimed, Juno Award-winning Indigenous electronic music outfit A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Hallucci Nation, General has been instrumental in the development of powwow-step, a blend of the ancient rhythms of powwow music with scratching, hip-hop, and modern, bass-heavy electronic music production.
In 2014, General left A Tribe Called Red and stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist and producer. His debut, 2016’s six-song PowWowStep EP featured collaborations with the Northern Cree Singers, smoke dance singer Frazer Sundown and a Blackfeet Nation-based drum group, Black Lodge Singers. Th EP won an Indigenous Music Award for Best Instrumental Album and the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (COCA) named him DJ of the Year in 2017.
Since then, the Canadian producer and DJ has released two albums, 2020’s War Club and last year’s Heritage (Part One). Conceived as part of a two-part series, Heritage (Part One) saw General stepping beyond the DJ both and boldly stepping forward as a composer, storyteller and artist dedicated to expanding the reach of Indigenous music on a global scale.
The second part of the series, Heritage (Part Two) is slated for a May 1, 2026 release. Across Heritage, SHUB brings together Indigenous artists across generations, using collaboration as a way to explore identity, community and continuity within contemporary music. The Canadian producer and artist is helping to actively expanding the space Indigenous artists occupy within modern music. Heritage (Part Two) completes that vision, bringing together voices across cultures and styles into a single body of work. “This album is about movement and growth,” SHUB explains. “It’s not trying to be one genre — it’s just where I’m at right now.”
Heritage (Part Two)‘s latest single “I Know,” feat. Sebastian Gaskin is a sleek, hook-driven bit of club friendly, contemporary R&B/contemporary pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats serving as a lush bed for Gaskin’s yearning and plaintive falsetto. While SHUB’s work has been known for being centered on blending traditional Indigenous sounds with electronic production, “I Know” is a deliberate and thoughtful shift in sound, stripping the more ceremonial aspects of his sound for an emphasis on intimacy and personal connection that will feel familiar — and universal.
The song also captures the organic and seemingly effortless chemistry of the duo’s collaboration. “Working on this one with Sebastian was one of those sessions where the chemistry was instant,” SHUB explains. “We actually ended up writing two songs that day, but this one stood out straight away. Sometimes a record just finds its own lane when the right people are in the room.”
That sense of connection carried into the song’s overall themes. “Shub & I wrote this imagining our cultures as a lover,” Sebastian Gaskin says. “It’s about returning to where we come from and remembering that our roots don’t just ground us — they hold us.”
Directed by Matt Guarrasi, the accompanying video for “I Know” feat. Sebastian Gaskin follows the duo through a late-night drive through Toronto, with the city’s light reflected on windshield that features stops on various rooftops for the duo to rock out on. Fittingly, the video further emphasizes the deeply reflective, almost brooding energy of the track.
New Video: Massive Attack Teams Up with Tom Waits on Hauntingly Eerie “Boots on the Ground”
Acclaimed Bristol-based trip hop pioneers Massive Attack — currently, Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall — signed to Play It Again Sam, and they celebrated the occasion in grand style: sharing a collaboration with the legendary Tom Waits, “Boots on the Ground”/”The Fly.”
“Boots on the Ground” is a hauntingly eerie track featuring sparse, twinkling piano, off-kilter and skittering percussion paired with the legendary Tom Waits’ distinctive gravelly vocal and some additional vocals from Waits’ son Casey. The song is the first bit of new material from Waits since 2011’s Bad As Me.
Sonically nodding at Johnny Cash‘s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” “Boots on the Ground” evokes a similar sense of Biblical apocalypse — but somehow much more venal, bloodthirsty, stupid and fucked up. It’s a song that lingers, reminding you of the horror-fueled hellscape we’re in.
“It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom, but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos,” Massive Attack says. “Across the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neo-fascist politics. Seen within the American emergency, at home and overseas, this track contains pulses of callous impulse & abandoned mind.”
“One day many years ago I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate,” Waits explains. “Way back then, we sent them ‘Boots on the Ground’. Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this song will never go out of style. Man’s fiasco folly is a feast for the flies. Hence, the B side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12 inch ‘The Fly’ features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.
The new song is accompanied by a short film created by the trip hop pioneers, who collaborated with enigmatic photographer and visual artist thefinaleye. The evocative, high-intensity photo montage portrays the momentous and troubling American epoch that we currently inhabit and is yet to be named. And it comes in the aftermath of the largest public protests in American history focused on opposition to ICE/CBP raids, the militarization of domestic forces and state authoritarianism.
The short film quotes statistics and research by the following sources: American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Inside Higher Ed, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, US National Library of Medicine, US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Privacy International and FactCheck.org. Viewers seeking further information or wishing to take action are encouraged to visit aclu.org, veterans-aid.net,immigrantdefenseproject.org, and freedomforimmigrants.org.
Along with the single and video, Massive Attack have published an exclusive spoken word reflection on the themes of the work of novelist Omar El Akkad, who wrote American War, What Strange Paradise and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.
“Boots on the Ground”/”The Fly” is the first bit of Massive Attack material distributed under a Spotify exemption policy. More material is scheduled to be released prior and subsequent to their run of live performances, including their forthcoming European tour and summer festival headlining dates.
In keeping with their ongoing efforts to reduce carbon emissions across both the live activity and recorded output, Massive Attack have partnered with Good Neighbor to produce an ‘EcoSonic’ pressing of the single. Manufactured using 100% recycled PET (rPET) rather than traditional PVC, the record is fully recyclable and produced via an energy-efficient injection moulding process – a significant shift in record manufacturing. Packaging follows the same approach, with sleeves made from 100% recycled, FSC®-certified paper stock and outer slipcases produced from recycled polyethylene.
If you want to pre-order the vinyl, you can visit the Official Massive Attack Store or go your local indie record store for the limited edition 180g ‘EcoSonic’ record, mixed at random in red, white and blue, in a full color sleeve with additional screen printing. The band will be donating all profits of the sale of the vinyl edition to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the US Immigrant Defense Project. Both are very worthy causes, so if you have a few bucks, buy some vinyl and by supporting these musicians, you’re making sure these organizations can continue to fight the good, necessary fight.
New Video: The Afghan Whigs Share Surreal and Cinematic Visual for “House of I”
JOVM mainstays The Afghan Whigs — currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — released their ninth album, 2022’s How Do You Burn? to widespread critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Los Angeles Times, Spin,Stereogum, Billboard and others.
Late last year, saw the band tackling two songs — — Poliça‘s “Fake Like” and Still Corners “Downtown” — that seemed perfect for the band’s unique take on them.
The JOVM mainstays will celebrate their 40th anniversary this year with a monthlong tour with Mercury Rev that includes an April 30, 2026 stop at Webster Hall. Tour dates are below. You can visit https://linktr.ee/theafghanwhigs for more information, including tickets.
“40 years later, I still get to do the thing I love the most. Writing songs and performing them with my friends all over the world,” The Afghan Whigs’ co-founder and frontman Greg Dulli says. “I truly have to pinch myself.”
But in the meantime, the JOVM mainstays just shared “House of I,” the first bit of original material from the band since the release of How Do You Burn?Anchored around propulsive and pounding drums and churning guitar roar, “House of I” is a bit of return to grittier, nastier sound of the band’s early days paired with Greg Dulli’s imitable vocal singing lyrics are simultaneously caustic yet full of aching desire and swaggering ego.
Produced and mixed by the band’s Greg Dulli and Christopher Thorn, “House of I” was recorded at New Orleans-based Marigny Studios with additional recording and mixing at Joshua Tree, CA-based Fireside Sound. “Laid this one down in New Orleans last summer,” Dulli said. “Was looking for an up tempo banger and feel like we found one here.”
New Video: Widowspeak Share Lush and Mesmerizing “No Driver”
New York-based indie outfit Widowspeak — Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas — are one of many bands to crop up in the busy local scene around the time I started this site, almost 16 years ago. They started out shuffling their gear between now, long-shuttered — and deeply beloved — venues like Glasslands, Cake Shop, 285 Kent, Death By Audio and a lengthy list of others, and their practice space at Monster Island Basement, which now is a Trader Joe’s. New York has fucking changed, y’all. Speaking of changes: the duo is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Thomas is a carpenter, Hamilton a waitress.
Recently, the duo announced that their highly-anticipated seventh album, Roses will be released June 5, 2026 through Captured Tracks. Deeply informed by their respective day jobs, Roses isn’t populated with dramatic overtures, but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. There’s the small observations before, during and after work: the ritual-like act of pouring water or coffee for customers, the bemusement and frustration of catching a cold on your only day off. Maybe you’re daydreaming about your life if you won the lottery — or maybe realizing that you already won.
The 10-song Roses was recorded last January at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek Island of Hydra, a studio located in an old house, tucked into the village’s steep hills. During the winter, without the rush of tourists, it’s quiet. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews and Noah Bond were the session backing band.
The album’s material was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with before being mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering.
Throughout the album, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, almost sepia-toned, vaseline coated lens. As always, the beating heart of their work is the interplay between Hamilton’s languid, dreamy and textured delivery and Hamilton’s bluesy, visceral guitar work.
Roses‘ will include the previously released “If You Change,” and the album’s second and latest single “No Driver.” “No Driver” is a lush, cinematic tune anchored around earnest, seemingly lived-in lyrics and the seemingly effortless craftsmanship that the band has long been known for. Of course, as always the stars of the show are Hamilton’s gorgeous, dreamily mesmerizing vocal and Thomas’ soulful, Crazy Horse-era Neil Young-like guitar work.
The song “is about knowing and loving people, who seem to thrive being on autopilot, at least for a while. It’s written from the perspective of trying to be supportive, and knowing it can be kind of magic when you’re in it, but also just waiting patiently for whenever they’re ready to move on from destructive behavior,” says Widowspeak’s Molly Hamilton. “I also kind of wrote it to my younger self. I’m 1000% on the other side of my wilder years (quit drinking almost seven years ago and now have a baby) but I definitely felt aimless for a long time. I care now, and caring about things and people and having a reason… is the whole point.”
“The video riffs on ‘Jesus take the wheel’; that’s it, that’s the concept,” Hamilton says of the accompanying video. “We have our friend Gary Canino from Dark Tea playing a Driver who’s kind of feeling the weight of the world, and Jesus (Johnathan Chriest) takes over as he goes about his night, dropping off the Mysterious Business Lady (Moira Spahić) and then picking up a couple other passengers. Kind of a ragtag group of people, Jesus driving them home.”
New Video: Hush Shares Lysergic “Funhouse”
Montréal-based trio Hush — Paige Barlow (vocals) and multi-instrumentalists Miles Dupire-Gagnon and Gabriel Lambert — are part of a new wave of Montréal-based acts actively reshaping psych pop. Each member of the band is an accomplished member of the local scene with the band featuring members of Hippie Hourrah, Elephant Stone, Anemone, and The Besnard Lakes.
Citing an eclectic array of influences that includes Broadcast, The Velvet Underground, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Steve Lacy, Cocteau Twins and Ariel Pink, the Montréal-based psych pop trio create a sound that’s simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking. Their music lives in the blurred light of perception — half memory, half hallucination — and is an invitation to lose yourself inside of their hall of mirrors-like dream world.
The Montréal-based trio’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Phasing is slated for a May 22, 2026 release through Simone Records. The album will include the previously released “The Mirrors Were Right,” the album’s opening and title track, “Phasing” and the final pre-release single, “Funhouse.”
“Funhouse” is a lush, shape-shifting tune with elements of dream pop, house music, trip-house and komische musik that’s mesmerizing, cinematic — and perfect for a deeply contemplative, neon-tinged, late night drive. The result is a song that features , hook-driven grooves with lysergic textures that seem to dissolve in front of your eyes and reassemble elsewhere while Paige Barlow’s ethereal vocal seems to coquettishly dance around and within the song’s groove.
Recorded largely live with various elements re-amplified through a Leslie speaker to create a swirling, three-dimensional feel, “Funhouse” sees the trio balancing mathematical precision with a spaced-out, almost blissy vibe.
Lyrically, the song probes the faith placed in systems meant to explain the world — romance, religion, identity — long after their answers begin to thin. As Barlow puts it, it’s a “theatrically messy interpretation of romance – a sequel of love learned.”
“It’s about the confidence people place in systems that promise meaning,” she adds. “They can start to feel like answers from a Magic 8-Ball—you shake it, wait for clarity, and sometimes the answer is just: try again later.”
Directed and filmed by the band’s Barlow, the accompanying video features looped lyrics projected onto footage of irises, further emphasizing the song’s and the album’s overall themes of perception and distortion.
New Video: Truck Violence Shares Urgent and Bruising “New Jesus”
Acclaimed and rising Montréal-based experimental act Truck Violence — founding duo Karysn Henderson (vocals) and Paul Lecours (guitar, banjo, production), along with Chris Clegg (bass, banjo) and Thomas Hart (drums and slide guitar) — can trace their origins back to its founding duo’s childhood: Henderson and Lecours grew up in a small, French Canadian town of 600 people, graduating in a class of nine. By the time they both turned 15, they were running a local studio and radio station. There was no industry support, no infrastructure, no template for what they were trying to do, only the work itself — and the conviction that it was worth doing.
When the pair turned 17, they relocated to Montréal, where they met Chris Clegg and Thomas Hart, who hail from different corners of the country and began building their band from the ground up.
The Canadian quartet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, The weathervane is my body is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through San Francisco-based label The Flenser and Montréal-based Mothland. Their sophomore album is reportedly a product of the process of building the band from the ground up. The album’s creative and writing process, the recording, the mixing and visuals were all produced employing a fiercely DIY process. This isn’t done as an aesthetic choice or a marketing angel, it’s because for the band, it’s the only honest option album.
The album’s cover art was shot on film by the band on Montréal’s Avenue du Parc. A figure perches atop a small Québécois-style house, hand built from reclaimed materials, spine curved, legs pulled in, bare-backed against a skyline that dwarfs everything beneath it. A rural thing dropped into the grit of a big city, small and out of place yet refusing to disappear. The body is naked and defenseless, open to the environment and every stimuli the world can deliver upon it.
Thematically, the album is a continuation and expansion of the angry statement of purpose of their debut, 2024’s Violence. Rooted in noise rock and post-hardcore traditions, the album is uncompromising in its refusal to be anything other than what is: immediate, self-determined and built entirely by the hands that imagined it.
The weathervane is my body‘s latest single “New Jesus” is a bruising and furious howl of desperation and disgust that’s urgent and is meant to shake the listener out of the doldrums of apathy and indifference.
“New Jesus” is a rant about the blatant fascistic slide occurring both to the south of our border and on screen. It is loosely about the ABC—Trump settlement and the post-January 6th election fraud cases,” Truck Violence’s Karsyn Henderson explains. “The lack of any broader moral compulsions beyond centralizing power on the political right has led to a culture of post-truth, where there is no reward in accuracy unless it leads to an augmenting of one’s political capital, which it rarely does. This is as destructive in politics as it is in art. There is surprising apathy among young people in regards to this slide, who believe the acquisition of power and the subsequent lording over that occurs, is merely nature, essentially; what will happen, will happen. With these lines of thinking, you find more people sympathetic to this mode, if it is both natural and inevitable, why not acclimate and reap the rewards. Why not join the fascist grift, degenerate art through tiktok, etc…”
Directed by Kirill Sommer, the accompanying video for “New Jesus” is a surrealistic fever dream that’s seemingly one-part Samuel Beckett play, one-part psilocybin trip, one-part Ingmar Bergman film.