Lacie Sue releases “Hush” from debut album due this summer.

Photo credit: Xavier Ducommun

Lucie Sue, the female-fronted French rock band who are set to make their festival debut this June at Hellfest, have released a second single in advance of their anticipated late Summer debut full-length album, unveiling “Hush” and an accompanying video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCjSIdIs9Bk).

The Antoine Doyen-directed video, which was shot in an abandoned and untouched ‘70s era hotel, features two mischievous children wreaking havoc and making their mother’s life hell.

“Hush,” which features driving riffs overlaid with powerful, infectious vocals, relays the chaotic struggle of a single mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown, facing the rebellion of her children. Lucie Sue explains: “’Hush’ is meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. I reject the idea of ‘parental sacrifice’ or ‘compromise,’ which creates unnecessary guilt. Kids should know how to cook, get around and organize themselves, forging a strong character.”

Lucie Sue previously released the song, and hockey-infused video, for “Battlestation.” New Noise said the track is “unapologetically fierce” and speaks to “femme empowerment,” while Riff Magazine said the track is “for those of us who always wished grunge was more metal,” and in Lucie Sue’s native France, Rolling Stone said the music is “direct and powerful, it mixes modern and vintage influences without forgetting the musician’s signature style…”

A child of the MTV generation, Lucie escaped to the sounds of L7, Metallica and PJ Harvey after her cello lessons at the Lyon National Conservatory. An accomplished visual artist, she pivoted to music during the COVID lockdowns; her stylish, DIY releases quickly gaining a devout following via social media.

A 13-track album is due for release later in 2025, with European tour dates to be announced soon.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]

Broncho release new single, “I Swear,” and announce North American tour.

photo courtesy of Broncho Worldwide

Oklahoma-based band Broncho present a new single, “I Swear,” off of Natural Pleasure, their first new album in six years, out April 25th. In conjunction, they announce a massive North American tour. Each track on Natural Pleasure is meticulously crafted, and today’s “I Swear” marries the sing-along energy of their 2014 breakout “Class Historian” with a downtempo, more mesmeric pulse. Its instantly addictive “da da da da da” refrain will feel like a homecoming for longtime fans. “I’ Swear’ had been running around in my head for years until I finally did something about it,” says Ryan Lindsey. “I always knew it would be on this record somehow.” The accompanying video was directed by the band and filmed in their hometown of Tulsa.

Listen to Broncho’s “I Swear”

Broncho – Ryan Lindsey (vocals, guitar), Ben King (guitar), Penny Pitchlynn (bass), and Nathan Price (drums) – has always been synonymous with reinvention, and Natural Pleasure marks their boldest transformation yet. Since 2014, they’ve been at the forefront of indie innovation, finding fans in legends like Josh Homme, Jack White, and Hayley Williams. Their music has been featured in iconic shows like HBO’s Girls and FX’s Reservation Dogs. Despite national recognition, Tulsa remains their spiritual home, a city whose musical lineage—from Leon Russell and JJ Cale to The Flaming Lips—infuses every note they play.

Natural Pleasure, the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Bad Behavior, is a kaleidoscopic dreamscape where lo-fi textures collide with psychedelic wonder. One of Broncho’s most defining features is Lindsey’s unmistakable vocal delivery—a phenomenon in its own right. His lyrics are often enigmatic, delivered in a way that feels like an instrument of pure emotion rather than straightforward storytelling. At first listen, it may be impossible to catch a single word, yet the emotional intensity he summons is undeniable. It’s a rare and uncanny ability—one that connects listeners to the music on a visceral level before the lyrics fully reveal themselves. It’s a testament to his singular artistry: instantly recognizable and deeply affecting.

Broncho’s live show is one not to miss. For over a decade, they’ve been selling out shows all across the world, from sweaty clubs to massive rooms while opening for bands like Queens of the Stone Age. They’ll play songs from Natural Pleasure, plus favorites from across their beloved discography. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am local time.

Pre-order Natural Pleasure

Watch the “Funny” Video

Listen to “Imagination”

Broncho tour dates
Sat. June 14 – Tulsa, OK @ Guthrie Green
Tue. June 17 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Wed. June 18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Thu. June 19 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club
Fri. June 20 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Sat. June 21 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
Sun. June 22 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Thu. June 26 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Fri. June 27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
Sat. June 28 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Thu. July 17 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tannahill’s Music Hall
Fri. July 18 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Sat. July 19 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Sun. July 20 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
Tue. July 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
Wed. July 23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Thu. July 24 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Fri. July 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas
Sat. July 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Wed. Aug. 6 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
Thu. Aug. 7 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Fri. Aug. 8 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
Sat. Aug. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Sun. Aug. 10 – Detroit, MI @ The Shelter
Tue. Aug. 12 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Wed. Aug. 13 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
Thu. Aug. 14 – Nashville, TN @ TBA
Fri. Aug. 15 – Lexington, KY @ The Burl
Sat. Aug. 16 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Night Beats release a spooky, sexy new single – “Behind the Green Door.”

Night Beats announces a new 7″ single, “Behind The Green Door,” out April 11 on Suicide Squeeze. The video features the directorial debut by Danny Lee Blackwell, which was heavily inspired by Giallo films.

Watch the new video for A-side single “Behind The Green Door”

On side A, we’re treated to a down-tempo, minor key track drenched in the haze of vice, as if some aspiring Motor City outfit had traveled down to Austin and snuck into the studio to cut a song while The 13th Floor Elevators were on a smoke break. Or perhaps it’s more akin to a meeting between Ray Charles, Skip Pence, and Link Wray. Or maybe it’s Joe Tex grappling with Gram Parsons. Or Duane Eddy pairing up with Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Or maybe it’s just years of Blackwell distilling and translating the sounds around him into his own concoction.

Danny Lee Blackwell explains the story behind “Behind The Green Door”:

“This song started as a lone star instrumental, something I pieced together in my studio in 2024. I imagined dusty roads and dimly lit dance halls. I wanted the guitars to shimmer like heat waves on an open road. The rhythm to pull like footsteps across a wooden floor, soaked in smoke and neon. The lyrics followed, drawn from past and present—unwavering love, transcendence. The ‘green door’ is that threshold between devotion and disillusionment. The story lives not just in the words, but in the tones and textures, if uncovered.”

Watch “Behind The Green Door” video

Stream the track

Under the moniker of Night Beats, Texas native Danny Lee Blackwell has spent the last fifteen years exploring a nexus of vintage rhythm & blues, after-midnight soul, and sun-scorched psychedelia. On Night Beats’ latest offering, Blackwell presents two markedly different renditions of his song “Behind the Green Door.” On side A, “Behind The Green Door” is an invitation to enter the kingdom and dwell in the garden while the shadow of doubt looms nearby, a subconscious journey into the delights and pitfalls of unknown territories made manifest in the music of Night Beats.

Side B features the Rah John version of “Behind The Green Door.” According to the Night Beats camp, Rah John was discovered by Blackwell on his recent expedition to the island Koh Khram Yai, located off the coast of Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand. Not much is known about the young artist besides his love for 70’s Thai disco and dancehall tapes received from local sailors. Hearing a streak of revelry buried in the Night Beats tune, Rah John summoned a sunnier, breezier, and more exotic side to the Rhythm and Blues sway of the original.

Suicide Squeeze is proud to offer up Night Beats “Behind The Green Door” b/w “Behind The Green Door (Rah John Version)” out April 11 on seven-inch transparent violet vinyl, limited to 500 copies.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Suicide Squeeze Records.]

Slumbering Sun are “Together Forever” on their new single from their upcoming album.

Austin band Slumbering Sun share the first single from their forthcoming sophomore album today via Invisible Oranges. Hear and share the single “Together Forever” HERE. (And, now on all DSPs.)

Slumbering Sun also plays SXSW on Thursday this week at the annual Stoner Jam.

Hear and share the band’s debut full length The Ever-Living Fire via Bandcamp and Spotify. Watch and share the video for “Dream Snake” via YouTube.

Slumbering Sun is a powerful new melodic doom entity formed by members of underground mainstays TemptressDestroyer of Light and Monte Luna. Their resulting sound explores broader melodies and sonics than their other bands, inspired as much by Celtic folk standards as by doom, grunge and shoegaze.

Slumbering Sun makes music for crazy romantics. Keegan Kjeldsen, James Clarke, Kelsey Wilson, Garth Condit and Kelly “Penny” Turner joined forces in 2022 in order to weave a dreamy kind of doom that would incorporate shoegaze, grunge and prog. All were friends in the Texas metal scene, assembled from bands in Austin & Dallas, who sought to elevate the love and camaraderie they’d found over the years into an artistic vision. 

After releasing their debut, The Ever-Living Fire (2023, #20 debut on Doom Charts), Slumbering Sun played their first show at Stoner Jam during SXSW, embarked on a series of regional tours, and capped off the year with an appearance at Ripple Fest. The band spent all of 2024 making their second effort, Starmony, in between touring the Midwest, and releasing their single “Out of the Blue & Into the Void” — a brilliant mashup of Neil Young’s and Black Sabbath’s classic tracks. With no plans to slow down, and the band intends to make more metalheads than ever pound their fists and cry about their exes. 

Starmony will be available on limited edition LP and digital on May 6th, 2025. Orders are available HERE

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe?]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Ty Segall opens a “Fantastic Tomb” with his new single.

Photo credit – Denée Segall

Ty Segall rides back in with his 16th album, Possession, to be released May 30th via Drag City, and with today’s announcement, releases the lead single, Fantastic Tomb.” Following 2024’s Three BellsPossession sees Ty on the hunt for new horizons, hitting the trail beneath the big skies of our frontier empire to take us on a high-octane narrative journey. A literary set of lyrics co-written by his longtime collaborator, filmmaker Matt Yoka, paint an abiding view of quintessentially American stories. All the while, there are invigorated new sounds around every bend – glittering rhythm arrangements feature more of Ty’s own piano woodshedding than ever, joined in battle by sweeping movements of strings and horns. Rife with singing guitar leads and banks of Ty’s vocal harmonies, Possession features some of Ty’s most inspired songs to date.

Tapping Yoka to write with him was one of the keys to this new music. As a non-musician, Yoka’s language sense is different from the one Ty’s amassed as a player of music. With the trust they’ve developed over the years — brainstorming the visual worlds of Goodbye BreadManipulatorEmotional Mugger, and music of Yoka’s Whirlybird documentary — they throw the conceptual ball back and forth to translate a general feeling or a vibe into wicked lyric imagery, each acting as writer and editor in the process. Be it de Toqueville, duBois, George H. Nash, Howard Zinn, Bob Dylan or Smile-era Beach Boys, Ty’s sharpened narrative approach and storytelling takes a page from everyone’s history.

Today’s single, “Fantastic Tomb,” is an epic story-song. Desperate for something he can hold onto, our hero takes a job hitting the house of “a man worth more than a country could make,” only to find the treasure hunt to be just another ride to nowhere. The song is a modern American noir-cum-classic rock hoedown, scored with Ty’s burnt-filament lead guitar and ingeniously sealed with Mikal Cronin’s saxophone section.

Listen to “Fantastic Tomb”

Possession is Ty Segall’s own bizarre traversing of the American landscape, taking back alleys through complicated cityscapes and singing about the end of the rope while resisting defeat — suggesting an ecstatic new empire to build as he cruises the countryside. Ty is currently on a solo acoustic tour throughout North America, with a full band fall tour commencing in October. Tickets are on sale now.

Pre-order Ty Segall’s Possession


Ty Segall 2025 Tour Dates (new dates in bold):
Mon. Apr. 7 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips ^
Tue. Apr. 8 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Tower Theatre ^
Thu. Apr. 10 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East ^
Fri. Apr. 11 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel ^
Sun. Apr. 13 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre ^
Mon. Apr. 14 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ^
Tue. Apr. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ukie Club ^
Thu. Apr. 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg ^
Sat. Apr. 19 – Providence, RI @ Fete Ballroom ^
Mon. Apr. 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre ^
Tue. Apr. 22 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom ^
Wed. Apr. 23 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall ^
Fri. Apr. 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ Parkway Theater ^
Sat. Apr. 26 – Omaha, NE @ Scottish Rite ^
Sun. Apr. 27 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre ^
Tue. Apr. 29 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall ^
Wed. Apr. 30 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club ^
Thu. May 1 – Reno, NV @ Cypress ^
Thu. May 15 – Big Sur, CA @ Henry Miller Memorial Library *
Wed. Oct. 8 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern %
Thu. Oct. 9 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern %
Sat. Oct. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom %
Mon. Oct. 13 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom %
Tue. Oct. 14 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos %
Wed. Oct. 15 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre %
Sat. Oct. 18 – Sacramento, CA @ Crest Theatre %

^ solo acoustic, w/ Mikal Cronin (solo)
* solo acoustic
% full band

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Babe Rainbow – Slipper imp and shakaerator

Recorded in an abandoned warehouse on a banana farm, and named after a towable tractor plough made by the Bunyip company (“…a revolutionary ripper of great strength.”), Babe Rainbow‘s new album, slipper imp and shakaerator, is a trippy affair that blends psych-rock with surf vibes.

The album starts with a question: “What is ashwagandha?” Elliot O’Reilly‘s bass groove hooks you right away as you “swim around like yin and yang” and “plunge into oblivion” with them. “Long Live the Wilderness” encourages us (with great yacht rock guitar riffs from Jack Crowther) to take it easy and get outside now and then. Or maybe it’s “Now and Zen,” as the next track adds in some vocal echoes and warps the instruments to produce a neat effect.

“Sunday” dips into astrological themes and spacey, jangly guitar chords backed by Miles Myjavec‘s zero gravity-drifting drums. The instrumental “Apollonia” is a lovely transition to “Like Cleopatra” – a fun love song about taking your girl to outer space and treating her like a queen.

“When the milk flows” (featuring King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard‘s Stu Mackenzie – who mixed the album) is a bouncy track designed to get you to shake off your troubles. Mackenzie returns on “Mt dub” – which seems to be a song about surfing in Australia (which Babe Rainbow do often, as well as in other parts of the world) and learning that “You’re more loved than you know.”

“Aquarium cowgirl” has a fun beat and sounds ready for radio play as the band sings about how amazing it is to be alive, despite what many others would tell you. It’s interesting that there’s no apostrophe in the title of “Rainbows end.” It’s a sentence, and song (featuring Camille Jansen on guest spoken word vocals), about impermanence with dreamy synths to help you relax with the idea that all things pass. The album ends with “re-ju-ven-ate,” in which Angus Dowling asks the bold question, “What are you paying for?…Abundance, abundance for everyone.”

This is a fun record, possibly the most fun one I’ve heard so far in 2025. Have a good time with it.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Black Moth Super Rainbow return with new single from upcoming album due June 06, 2025.

Photo Credit: Black Moth Super Rainbow

Black Moth Super Rainbow –  now two decades into their candied up career – emerges from the technicolor pollen puckered Pennsylvania landscape with a new and reformulated fructose-blasted seventh album. Soft New Magic Dream is announced today for a June 6th release via Rad Cult, and it comes that familiar rush of flavors that pump directly from the BMSR soda fountain; that signature blend of strange neon nostalgia, sweetly melancholic synth pop wizardry, hip hop head bobbing, and citric acid tinged freak out flourish. 

Today they share the new single “Open the Fucking Fantasy,”alongside an announcement of a North American tour in summer 2025. Check out the new searing new single via YouTube(as well as the video for the previously released “All 2 of Us”), and see below for the full list of tour dates. Pre-order the album here

It’s been seven years since the more sinister Panic Blooms, and in that time plenty has happened in the house of Rad Cult, but with Soft New Magic Dream, we are invited to bask in the analog sweet and sour embrace of that classic and here notably chilled out and snoozled up BMSR sensibility.

Soft New Magic Dream has a nuanced flavor profile; these are freaky love songs, they funk up crunchy and rattle the speakers here and there, they melt down gelatinous at the right temperatures, and even go full ballad in a few extra-soft spots. The album balances sugar kinked romance with their distinctive and here notably downtempo funky production. Never fully eschewing BMSR’s signature strange liquid centers, these songs still flirt with the uncanny while honing in on the deeply melodic and approachably groovy tendencies they’ve have been exploring in their twenty years of lid flipping. Soaring synth leads ribbon through taffy colored chord changes and highly tactile and fractured drum programming and breaks. 

Tobacco’s classic vocoder vocals, puckish as ever, burble fawning tenderness and body horror quasi erotic double dares in the fizzy saturated mist. These gummy serenades will leave you blissed out with a cavity-crumbled ear to ear grin.

As the BMSR project has evolved, from the scuzzier and folk-tinged backwoods leaf worship of the first albums into the more anthemic roller disco fog machine scenes of their mid-career, and then darker turns in the last few recent albums, Soft New Magic Dream feels like another subtle and surprisingly tender twist on that now-classic sound you’ve come to expect from BMSR. A turn towards something more serene, more direct, playfully wooing us without totally ditching that enigmatic crooked smile. 

Lose your toothbrush in the clouds and get ready to guzzle down this potent marshmallow cloudscape concoction optimized for falling into face first.

Black Moth Super Rainbow
Upcoming Tour Dates
8.7.25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
8.8.25 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s
8.9.25 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
9.11.25 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
9.12.25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
9.13.25 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
10.9.25 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl
10.10.25 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall
10.11.25 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Purgatory

Keep your mind open.

[Open your e-mail inbox to news and reviews by subscribing today.]

[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

The Ophelias release “Salome” from their upcoming album due April 04, 2025.

photo credit: Mikko Castaño

The Ophelias unveil a new single/video, “Salome,” off of Spring Grove, their new album produced by Julien Baker, out April 4th via Get Better Records. As first heard on lead single “Cumulonimbus,” a “bruiser of a ‘f*ck-you’ song” (AV Club), there are “zero songs about break-ups” on Spring Grove. Today’s teeth-gnashing “Salome” uses a Biblical story as a lens through which to view the experience of getting involved with an older man: “The knife // Swings heavy in // My hands // Maybe this was a mistake // I want your head on a platter.” It’s an album standout, emanating swagger through rousing guitar and precise, machine-like drumming. In the accompanying video, directed by the band’s Spencer Peppet and Jo Shaffer, shows the band wandering around a city to gather magic objects.

“‘Salome’ loosely follows the biblical story of (you guessed it) Salome, who danced for King Herod at his birthday celebration and was told she could ask for anything in return,” says Peppet. “She asked for the head of John the Baptist. While I personally have never facilitated someone’s beheading, I find the story and the way it has resonated with playwrights, filmmakers, and artists fascinating — a real depiction of ‘female biblical rage,’ as the TikTok girlies would say. The video is our campy camcorder take on that.”

Watch The Ophelias’ Video for “Salome”

While writing Spring Grove, old ghosts were popping up from Peppet’s past. She heard from people she hadn’t heard from in years, reached out to people she didn’t talk to anymore, and found herself dreaming vividly of ex-lovers, ex-friends, co-workers and acquaintancesAt a similar time, she was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, which she says created “a hyper-awareness of the body, a sense of removal where I could see myself from outside.” As a result, the album’s lyrics abound with references to premonitions, future-telling, and prophetic dreams. It’s a luminous document of facing the visages that haunt us, whether those of others or our own. Across thirteen tracks that alternately rage and soothe, Spring Grove picks at the nuanced textures of relationships and the multifaceted nature of personhood, smashing through the infinite refractions of the self to find clarity and new perspectives. The lyrics abound with references to premonitions, future-telling, and prophetic dreams.

While The Ophelias – Spencer Peppet (vocals/guitar, she/her), Mic Adams (drums, he/him), Andrea Gutmann Fuentes (violin, she/her), and Jo Shaffer (bass, they/she) – began as an “all-girl” band, they have since shed the reductive mantle of that label. With one queer and two trans members, these four individuals have collectively explored a vast terrain of womanhood, dancing around the center of that identity and what it means to move through the world. To that end, Spring Grove is primed to tackle a wide array of relationship dynamics, emotional negotiations, and power imbalances. There’s a simultaneous intensity and delicacy in its dynamics, and it’s a marked evolution in The Ophelias’ sound and storytelling.

Watch the Video for “Cumulonimbus”

Pre-order Spring Grove

The Ophelias Tour Dates
Fri. April 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy
Sat. April 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Broadway – record release show
Sun. April 6 – Vienna, VA @ Jammin’ Java
Tue. April 8 – Boston, MA @ The Rockwell
Wed. April 9 – Portsmouth, NH @ Press Room
Sat. May 10 – Lansing, MI @ Stoopfest
Sun. May 11 – Toronto, ON @ The Baby G
Tue. May 13 – Montréal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
Wed. May 14 – Burlington, VT @ Radio Bean

Keep your mind open.

[Dance over to the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Glare roasts your speakers with their new single – “Nü Burn.”

Photo by Sam Tellez

When you hear music like Glare‘s—the wild, loose and woozy drags of guitar; the impossible beauty of it all—what kind of landscape presents itself in your mind? Vistas big enough to be forgotten in. Deserts which stretch back to the beginning of time. Infinite horizons melting into pink bokehs. It’s Texas, isn’t it? 

Sunset Funeral, the band’s debut LP (out April 4 on Deathwish Inc. + Sunday Drive Records) is a fog of dreamy grief, where feeling supersedes language.  On first listen, the album—which scans as vast as desert sand—may overwhelm the senses. But look closer, and you’ll find a multiplicity of heavily crushed textures, treasures.

Their latest single, “Nü Burn,” is a crunchy and lilting number that harkens back to the band’s grittier hardcore roots. But even when they deign to go hard, you can hear a softening in Glare’s sound compared to any of their previous releases, as well as an attempt to lean into more traditional pop song structures. The music drifts heavenward, to be sure, though it’s still tethered down by steady foundations. It’s beautiful. It’s humid. It’s delirious. It’s music made by people whose feelings speak louder than their words. 

The band shares: “‘Nü Burn’ is about how it feels like the world stops when you’re grieving. ‘I’ll find you in a new sun, feel a new burn’ means finding those we lost in the warmth we feel… it’s a big, explosive song and probably our heaviest. When we finished writing it we immediately knew it’d be a single.”

Listen / share / playlist “Nü Burn” on DSP’s

Watch / share “Nü Burn” on YouTube

Formed in 2017 in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, Glare aren’t so much genre traditionalists as they are painters of wide realms and intense moods. The four-piece band has already accumulated a large audience, both in the flesh with their reputation for sell-out shows, and on the internet, a place where people go to short-circuit feelings through their screens. 

An album that’s been years in the making, Sunset Funeral is a document of unspeakable grief, charting the process of mourning and how it travels through our subconscious and dreams.

Pre-order Sunset Funeral here and see Glare on tour in North America supporting Superheaven this April and May.

Glare, on tour with Superheaven:

Apr. 26  Louisville, KY – Triple Crown Pavillion
Apr. 27  St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall
Apr. 29  Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
May 01  Las Vegas, NV – Fremont Country Club
May 02  Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco
May 03  Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre
May 04  Pomona, CA – The Glass House
May 06  Phoenix, AZ – The Nile
May 08  Austin, TX – Emo’s
May 09  Dallas, TX – Ferris Wheelers Backyard + BBQ
May 11  Chicago, IL – Metro
May 13  Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre
May 14  Toronto, ON – The Opera House
May 16  Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
May 17  Boston, MA – Royale
May 20  Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel

Keep your mind open.

[Burn rubber over to the subscription box!]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side.]

Don’t “Walk Away” from Anika’s new single.

Photo by Anne Roig

Anika — the British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson — releases the new single/video, “Walk Away,” from her new album, Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones. Following the “righteously hypnotic” (Paste) lead single, “Hearsay,” “Walk Away” is a surprisingly jolly 90s alt-rock tinged track with blatantly honest lyrics: “The truth is I don’t really like myself/ And the truth is I don’t really like anyone else… Sometimes I know, life can just suck… And the truth is, I’d rather you just go to hell… And the truth is, I’d rather the whole world did as well.”

On the track, Henderson says: “This song is saying all the things I want to say but am too scared to say or that society doesn’t accept me to say. It is dealing with mental health – the state of poor mental health in these fucked up, divided, isolated, social media, war, pest, rise of the right times. It is the deconstruction of the feminine – of topics considered to be private realm.” As inspiration, Henderson cites “the reckless nature of 90s /2000s Hole / Courtney Love records – of not giving a shit – telling it how it is, not scared to offend, not scared to be cancelled. We have also lost the space for healthy debate, for difference of opinion, shutting down those we don’t agree with, removing them from our social networks.”

The song’s accompanying video directed by Laura Martinova was shot in an ex-brothel in Berlin and “plays with the socially constructed ideas of femininity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them,” Henderson explains. “The character is quite sufficient by herself, sexually and socially liberated – and also a bit of a mess, destroying the prim and proper idea of how a good wifey should be. She is a hedonist, she lets herself go, she shows anger, she shows being drunk, she seems to enjoy dusting the pictures of the naked ladies very much, she is independent and breaking out of all the bars imposed by the patriarchy. The guy in the video never finds her, never even gets close, doesn’t in the slightest disrupt her life, he continues to look but she seems to always be a step ahead.”

Watch the video for “Walk Away”

Anika created Abyss out of the frustration, anger, and confusion she feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than her previous releases, the 10-track Abyss feels raw, urgent, and fueled by strong emotions. Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. As before, she wrote the songs herself, before fleshing them out with Martin Thulin of Exploded View, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio – comprising of Andrea Belfi on drums, Tomas Nochteff on bass (Mueran Humanos) and Lawrence Goodwin (The Pleasure Majenta) on guitar, with studio engineering done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson.

Watch the video for “Hearsay”

Pre-order Abyss

Anika Tour Dates:
Sun. Apr. 20 – Berlin, DE @ Volksbühne
Thu. Apr. 24 – Cologne, DE @ C/O Pop
Fri. Apr. 25 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Sun. Apr. 27 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Mon. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Omeara
Tue. Apr. 29 – Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Wed. Apr. 30 – Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)
Thu. May 1 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri. May 2 – Belfast, UK @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Sat. May 3 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Mon. May 5 – Brighton, UK @ DUST
Tue. May 6 – Paris, FR @ Gonzai Night @ Petit Bain
Wed. May 7 – Strasbourg, FR @ La Grenze
Thu. May 8 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Fri. May 9 – Zürich, CH @ Bogen F
Sat. May 10 – Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm

Keep your mind open.

[Walk over to the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]