Brooklyn-based rocker/singer/songwriter Fiona Silver is back with a scorching 5-song EP, Hostage of Love, that is the perfect set up for your spring crush season. You may know Silver from her tour with Gary Clark Jr. this past year, or perhaps you caught her performance at the BUST Craftacular in 2016. But if you don't know her, we're pretty sure you will become an insant fan, just as we did. Silver has infectious energy and a soulful voice, and her original lyrics touch on heartbreak,...

The Fame and the Fame Monster. Born This Way and Artpop. Cheek to Cheek and Joanne. Lady Gaga has successfully rebranded herself six times over the course of her 12-year music career (and that’s without counting The Haus and Star is Born eras!), and it’s looking like she’s just done it again. Yesterday, Gaga released a brand new track and music video titled “Stupid Love,” the first single from what we can only imagine will be a new album and new iteration of the queen herself....

"The Man" by Taylor Swift’s music video was released, Thursday February 27 at 7 A.M. EST. Swift revealed that she directed this video which is different than her past videos. While Swift has directed music videos before, this is the first one that she’s created on this scale, with no assistance. Swift she also hosted a Q&A on YouTube, or a “mansplaining” as she puts it, for the video an hour before the video’s release. Oh man...music video tomorrow at 7 A.M. EST! And I’m going...

LA SANTA CECILIA La Santa Cecilia (Universal Music)     La Santa Cecilia’s lead singer La Marisoul (Marisol Hernández) is a powerhouse with a soulful, almost velvety voice. On the band’s seventh album, it embeds salsa, cumbia, and disco seamlessly into its punk activism. “Winning” is a biting track, poking fun at the emptiness of hashtag culture, but the album largely comes from a deeper place. Three of the four band members’ fathers died within the last year, and that grief is evident in the mournful “I’ve Been Thinking.” La...

Allie X — the Los Angeles-based pop artist by way of Toronto — has released her latest album Cape God. A distinct departure from her previous work, Super Sunset, Cape God is an intimate meditation on themes including belonging and identity. The lyrics acknowledge subtle moments of emotional pain that are fleeting and quiet which ultimately further sensations of isolation and despair. Told through the perspective of characters rooted in Allie’s own reflections of her teenage alienation, Cape God functions as an invitation to recontextualize the banality of...

Puss N’ Boots — the Brooklyn-based trio made up of Sasha Dobson, Norah Jones. and Catherine Popper — released their long-awaited sophomore album, Sister, on Valentine’s Day. And long-awaited it was, not just for fans but for the band members themselves. Jones, as everyone knows, has a successful solo career (not to mention other side projects and two kids); Dobson is a respected singer-songwriter in her own right. And Popper is basically a bassist to the stars. Not only was she a full-time member of Ryan Adams and...

CHASTITY BELTChastity Belt(Hardly Art) Chastity Belt was once the kind of band that wrote songs called “Giant Vagina” and “Pussy Weed Beer.” But since the group’s 2013 intentionally misspelled debut, No Regerts, its music has gotten more sincere with each album. After taking a brief break, during which singer/guitarist Julia Shapiro released a solo project, Chastity Belt is back in perfect form with a self-titled, fourth LP, which finds the band sharing vocal duties and sounding more cohesive than ever. Opening track “Ann’s Jam” is...

MADAME GANDHI Visions(Self-Released) L.A.-based artist and activist Madame Gandhi continues to break down the status quo on her latest EP, Visions. These tracks examine the pressing trials of our time—climate change, global capitalism, and patriarchy. “I’m not everyday trying to turn up to the sound of my own oppression,” she begins on “Waiting for Me.” Set against a flawless blend of her award-winning drumming, trap beats, Bali funk, and the sounds of everyday life, Madame Gandhi presents songs that make you think and make you dance. Add “Top...

1975’s frontman, Matty Healy, has announced on Twitter that the band will only be playing festivals with a gender-balanced lineup. After another approaching festival season with largely male-based acts, The Guardian’s deputy music editor, Laura Snapes, reached out to the band online suggesting a new term of agreement for them “that says you’ll only play festivals that commit to X% (ideally 50%!) acts that include women and non binary performers.” “Take this as me singing this contract,” Healy replied. The singer added that some festivals they had...

MOON DUOStars Are the Light(Sacred Bones) San Francisco psychedelic rock group Moon Duo dovetails disco, house, and intense funk on its seventh album, Stars Are the Light. Guitarist Ripley Johnson propels these influences to an otherworldly climax, hitting a full stride on “Eye 2 Eye,” while Sanae Yamada’s electronic rhythms on “Fall (In Your Love)” groove into your bones and send your head straight into the cosmos. Stars was flawlessly mixed by Sonic Boom, of the cult favorite band Spacemen 3, in the Portuguese Sintra...