Relive a New York City night out with Puck's first single, "Good Friends." Equal parts nostalgia-inducing and danceable, this track will remind you of the good old days —a small dark club, the thrill of a crush, glitter down your bra, and a tipsy subway ride home. Read on to learn more about Puck and how "Good Friends" came to be.  It's so cool that you've worked with artists like SZA. How does it feel to go out on your own with a solo project? How...

Though the members were born in the mid-late 1990s, Barcelona’s MOURN makesanthems of anguish, truth, and empowerment with a sound heavily influenced by the Y2K era. On the band’s new album, Self Worth, satisfaction comes with the refrain, “No matter where you are/Stay there.” The trio channels Sleater-Kinney, PJ Harvey, and Sebadoh, refurbishing and modernizing with cathartic Gen-Z brashness on songs like “This Feeling Is Disgusting,” “Gather, Really,” and “Men,” where they harmonize, “Many times I’ve said that I would like to be heard/But it’s...

Junglepussy, aka Shayna McHayle, manifests her true persona at full throttle on her fourth album—a soulful combination of trap, interstellar synth, blissful crooning, and brutally honest rhymes. Open-ing with the sensually sinister “Bad News,” the listener is welcomed to the cheeky yet haunted world of Junglepussy. The album’s brilliance lies in the dissonance between the backing tracks and the lyrics: on “Telepathy,” she intones, “I’m my own snack/Why you brought me to the store?” alongside a hypnotic synth; “Stamina” pairs orchestral strings with lines like...

The songs on Kevin Morby’s latest album, Sundowner, are informed by the isolated surroundings in which they were recorded—a backyard Kansas City shed, or a rural West Texas studio surrounded by pecan trees—in what Morby describes as his “attempt to put the Middle American twilight...into sound.” The album sounds like hanging out with your buds under a blanket of stars, cozying up by the campfire. (“Campfire,” in fact, is a particularly stand-out song, featuring Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.) Sundowner is richly textured but sparse and...

For their fifth album, avant-pop band Micachu and the Shapes have changed their name to Good Sad Happy Bad and shuffled the lineup with keyboardist Raisa Khan stepping into the lead vocalist/songwriter role, composer Mica Levi handling guitar and electronics, Mark Pell on percussion, and multi-instrumentalist CJ Calderwood joining the group as a new addition. There is familiarity in the charming experimentation the group has mastered over the years, with Calderwood’s sax accentuating the dissonance and wooziness that play off the album’s deceptively sweet melodies....

It’s safe to say that Shamir made the most out of quarantine. In March, he released his Cataclysm project, but his second 2020 offering provides a whole other glimpse into his world. The eponymously titled project is equal parts personal and poignant. The vulnerable “On My Own” delves into the complexity of emotions, while “Running” travels further into the human psyche, with a deep dive into struggles with gender identity. If there’s one important aspect to glean from Shamir, it’s that his superpower is making...

As we finally change the channel on the past twelve months of nonstop drama, one thing's for certain: we've all got our eyes set on sunny skies ahead. Well, no matter what frigid weather (or post-2020 existential hangover) you're currently trudging through, there is, indeed, a bright spot on the horizon. Spring break has arrived early, and you can thank The Sorels for this miracle of bubble gum-rock-n-roll-pedal-to-the-metal-fun. Naturally, the animated music video—lovingly created by animator Nick Friesen—is one part Saturday morning cartoons, three parts charming. New to the...

Jesswar says it best herself: “Got venom in my lyrics/Bodies drop when I spit it.” In her latest music video release for “Venom”, the Fijian rapper cycles through intense, neon-lit scenes with the self-assurance and expansive energy of 90s New York City emcees.  Surrounded by a cohort of powerful women dressed in black, Jessswar oozes confidence as she is escorted to her throne where she studies an underground M.M.A. fight between two women with the nonchalance of a Roman emperor. There is a fervor unfolding as...

If there’s a silver lining to 2020, it’s that the year is rife with subject matter for protest art. Whether it’s a confederate monument coated in anti-racism manifestos or a mural honoring those lost to COVID-19, creators around the globe have put their stamp on the world’s worst year, memorializing it through art. Musician Ani DiFranco is no different. Her forthcoming album Revolutionary Love, to be released on Righteous Babe Records, distills political and emotional fallout from 2020. Her latest single, “Contagious”, is a protest song about the...

Becky Stark, Steve Gregoropoulos, and Ron Regé, Jr.—aka Lavender Diamond—return after eight years with an album that weaves acoustic rock, electronic, and orchestral pop seamlessly into their own unique sound. This is amply displayed on haunting tracks like “Look Through the Window,” “Ocean and Ground,” and “Please Plant the Seeds.” Things pick up on “In the Garden,” “Flashback,” and “New Religion” with a crunchy guitar groove. Stark’s ethereal voice is reminiscent of proto freak-folk goddesses Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell, and Judee Sill. Now’s most definitely...