American Cockroach (Cooking Vinyl)  Deap Vally’s American Cockroach EP showcases the L.A. duo crawling out of its artistic shell yet again to expand the pair’s sonic range. For their second release of 2021, Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards explain the EP is “songs we’ve been working on for a while that run the gamut from deeply personal, to outright satire, and everything in between.” Continuing their tradition of collaboration, the power of three is amplified on “I Like Crime,” featuring Jennie Vee (Eagles of Death Metal),...

  Fall can often be the time that a summer romance turns sour. So what better way to mend a broken heart than to scream along with Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”? Nearly a decade after its release, Swift’s Red is getting a revamp as the next album in her lineup of re-recordings. Set to release on November 12th, we are one week away from channeling major 2012 nostalgia with Red (Taylor’s Version). Since Swift released her highly-anticipated Fearless (Taylor’s Version) back in April...

There's a track on Yola’s new album, Stand for Myself, called “Break the Bough.” The song’s mix of poppy soul and powerhouse vocals make it such a bop, it takes a beat to realize it’s about mortality. “The bass line came to me when I was riding my motorcycle back from my mother’s funeral,” she says. By the time she got home, the lyrics followed. “That moment of watching my mother’s casket be carried down the aisle of the church, I realized how much of her life was filled with...

One of Angel Olsen’s many superpowers is reimagining songs, both her own and others’. With the release of Aisles, Olsen takes five 1980s classics and puts her Angel-ic spin on them. Tracks like her cover of Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” remove the ’80s brassiness, as Olsen delivers smoothly strong vocals amidst an electronic symphony of production. She manages to disrupt the whole mood of each song she covers, in the best way possible. Take her version of Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance,” a song that loses...

That time of year where we all love to cosy up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and a copy of Vogue’s December issue has returned. And as always, Vogue has not left us unimpressed. Being released for sale on November 5th, British Vogue has chosen the pop-sensation turned award-winning actress, Lady Gaga, as their cover. And of course, in true Gaga style, the ‘Bad Romance’ singer expresses her confidence in her body and eccentric fashion sense in a shoot by Steven...

Chrissie Hynde is many things. She’s the leader of her band, Pretenders (founded in 1978), a proficient rhythm guitarist, songwriter, a fashion icon, and has one of the most unmistakably unique voices ever. Chrissie was Punk before it had a name, a vegetarian, vegan, and an activist for ecological and animal awareness years before it was trendy. She has been arrested for PETA’s various protests over the years more times than one could count. Ms. Hynde always take charge and does things her way. Chrissie...

Kathy Valentine was just 14 years old when first caught sight of her idol, 1970s glam rock bassist Suzi Quatro.  “It split the ground right open,” the Go-Go’s bassist recalled in her 2020 memoir, All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n; Roll Memoir. “Seeing [Quatro] doing what I had seen only men do changed everything. From that moment, I had one goal: to be in a kick ass band with a gang of like-minded girls and claim the life I wanted for myself.” With help from her...

Tuelo is a singer and songwriter from South Africa who beautifully blends punk, rock, and soul into her music, and today she's released a music video for her song “Saint Margaret”; an ode to her familial matriarch. The singer, whose full name is Tuelo Minah, took inspiration for this song by reflecting on the virtues we learn from our parents, and the way they shape our lives. In her music, Tuelo uses her voice to create soulful art-rock, inspired by the traditions of South African...

  SHANNON & THE CLAMS Year of The Spider (Easy Eye Sound) Shannon & the Clams manages to buoyantly ride the waves of grief on the band’s sixth studio album. Produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, the grungy punk quartet completed Year of the Spider just before the COVID-19 lockdown and in the wake of personal tragedies. Singer and bass player Shannon Shaw said it felt “like the end of an era.” The effervescent tracks cope with death on intimate and universal scales while celebrating making...

KING WOMAN  Celestial Blues  (Relapse Records) King Woman fans who have been waiting for a new record since the 2017 debut, Created in the Image of Suffering, will have their patience rewarded with Celestial Blues. These nine doom-metal/ shoegaze tracks bring us what we’ve come to expect from vocalist and band mastermind Kristina Esfandiari (who also performs as Dalmatian, Miserable, and NGHTCRWLR) and then some. From the striking album imagery to lyrics that reckon with a religious upbringing and struggles with trauma and mental illness,...