So many artists, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. In these concertless times, that includes daily livestreams and live concert videos we love. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.

SMOKE DZA – “NO REGRETS” (ft. DOM KENNEDY)

The prolific and underrated rapper Smoke DZA is prepping a new album, The Hustler’s Catalog 2, and he sounds as great as ever over this triumphant, horn-fueled beat from Harry Fraud.

—

BOBBY DIGITAL (RZA) – “PUGILISM”

RZA, who you might have seen recently alongside Bob Odenkirk in Nobody, is gearing up to release a solo album under his recently revived Bobby Digital moniker. It’s titled Digital Potions and “Pugilism” is the hard-punching, kung-fu-informed first single.

—

LIGHTNING BUG – “SEPTEMBER SONG, PT. II”

Lightning Bug’s third album, A Color of the Sky, will be out June 25 via Fat Possum and here’s another lovely song from it. “September Song, Pt. II” was inspired by a month-long camping trip singer-songwriter Audrey Kang took on an island off the coast of Stockholm, Sweden in the summer when the days were very, very long. “I’d watch [the sun] disappear, this glowing orb sink into the sea every night to the point where I felt kind of insane, like I was hallucinating…and I started reliving memories but they felt like they were right before me and then I felt confused, was I reliving memories, or seeing into the future? I kept thinking to myself, each end is a beginning, each end is a beginning. So this surreal experience with time lay dormant in me, and then an entire year later, I was camping in the PNW, also on the shore, and I watched the sun sink into the sea, and suddenly those sunsets from Sweden rippled through me again very vividly. And when I came back to New York, I wrote this song.”

—

NASIMIYU – “WHITE LIGHTNING”

Brooklyn-based musician and dancer nasimiYu is releasing her first album in seven years, P O T I O N S, on May 7 via Figureight Records. The latest single is the dreamy, soulful “White Lightning,” which she says “is what I’m referring to as that burst of drug-like love chemicals you get addicted to in a relationship. The story is about a love addiction taking complete control of me until I finally learned how to manufacture that feeling within myself. It’s also about how, within lockdown, I learned to really look inward for the things I used to seek out there in the big busy world. The pandemic brought me into a much deeper friendship with myself.”

—

BELVEDERE – “CAMERA OBSCURA”

Calgary skate punk/melodic hardcore vets Belvedere are releasing new album Hindsight Is The Sixth Sense on May 14 via Thousand Islands/Lockjaw Records (including songs featuring guest vocals by Less Than Jake’s Roger Lima and Protest the Hero’s Rody Walker), and their catchy, fast-paced sound is as tight as ever on new single “Camera Obscura.” Listen, along with two previous singles:

—

BIG | BRAVE – “OF THIS ILK”

Genre-defying heavy/melodic trio BIG | BRAVE’s new album VITAL drops this week, and here’s one more song from it. It’s as towering as you’d expect.

—

LOVELORN (ex-CREEPOID) – “SICKNESS REWARD”

Former Creepoid members Anna and Patrick Troxell’s new band Creepoid will release their debut album What’s Yr Damage on July 16 via 6131, and new single “Sickness Reward” kinda sounds like a cross between New Order’s gothy synthpop and Garbage’s industrial-tinged alt-pop. It’s broodingly catchy stuff.

—

LUSTMORD & KARIN PARK (ARABROT) – “TWIN FLAMES”

Lustmord and Arabrot leader Karin Park are releasing a collaborative album, ALTER, on June 25 via Pelagic. The first single is the haunting, ethereal, 11-minute “Twin Flames.”

—

SOPHIA KENNEDY – “I’M LOOKING UP”

Sophia Kennedy’s new album Monsters is out in just a couple weeks and here’s a new single and video from it. “I’m Looking Up” features off-kilter, woozy production, while the video equally shakes things up while she vamps just a little.

—

FANA HUES – “YELLOW”

Pasadena, CA singer/songwriter Fana Hues released her debut project, Hues, in December, and now she’s shared a soulful, jazzy new single, “Yellow.” “I want this visual to be a deep sigh of relief after a dark time,” she says. “I want you to feel the rays of light only your homegirls can give you.”

—

JEREMY JAY – “SHOEGAZING AT THE MALL”

Singer-songwriter Jeremy Jay is back with new album Devils Daughters that’s out June 26 via Switchblade Sound. First single “Shoegazing at the Mall” is a little different than anything we’ve heard from him before, driven by a string quartet and more than a little gothy.

—

MINI TREES – “SPRING”

Los Angeles-based songwriter Lexi Vega has signed to Run For Cover Records. She’ll release her TBA debut LP as Mini Trees this fall, and for now, she’s shared a new single. “‘Spring’ is meant to be somewhat of a lighthearted love song about growing old with someone,” Vega says. “It confesses contrasting feelings of both fear and security that come with being vulnerable and fully known by another person. The underlying message is one of hopefulness though, resolving with the choice to believe this person will remain a constant in my life despite the changing nature of everything else.”

—

INDIGO SPARKE – DEMOS EP

Here are three demos of songs from Indigo Sparke’s recent album Echo, shown in raw and unvarnished style.

—

KERO KERO BONITO – CIVILIZATION II EP

After a couple records that had Kero Kero Bonito playing more traditional rock band instruments, we’re fully back into synth-n-laptops land and these three shiny, bright and danceable tracks are all pretty great.

—

DINOSAUR JR – “TAKE IT BACK”

After 36 years, most Dinosaur Jr fans know what to expect from new albums, but sometimes they throw a curveball. “Take It Back,” from the imminent Sweep it Into Space, is a wonderful surprise, set to a playful, bouncy keyboard riff that throws you off guard while providing one of the catchier moments we’ve had from the indie rock icons in a while.

—

PRONOUN – “I WANNA DIE BUT I CAN’T (CUZ I GOTTA KEEP LIVING)”

Pronoun has shared the anthemic new single off her new EP, OMG I MADE IT, due out June 11 via Wax Bodega.

—

SOMNURI – “TOOTH & NAIL”

Here’s the second single off Brooklyn sludge band Somnuri’s upcoming sophomore album Nefarious Wave, and this one finds the band going into fast, D-beating punk territory. Read more about it here.

—

TRADE WIND – “NINE TAILS”

Stick To Your Guns/Stray From The Path-related indie rock band Trade Wind have shared another single off their upcoming album The Day We Got What We Deserved, and it’s a moody art rock song with hints of Bon Iver, Radiohead, and more.

—

HELVETIA (JASON OF DUSTER) – “NEW MESS”

While his ’90s band Duster are back in action, Jason Albertini is still making records under the Helvetia banner and will release Essential Aliens on June 25. The first single from Essential Aliens is “New Mess,” and you can hear a bit of Built to Spill — Jason played in the band for most of the 2010s — in its bummed out breed of poppy indie rock.

—

MONSTER MAGNET – “LEARNING TO DIE” (DUST COVER)

Monster Magnet have shared another song off their upcoming album of proto-metal/heavy psych covers, A Better Dystopia, and this one’s of Dust, the short-lived NYC heavy psych band whose drummer Marc Bell aka Marky Ramone went on to join Richard Hell & the Voidoids and, of course, the Ramones. “Learning To Die’ blew me away when I was 15 and it still blows me away,” frontman Dave Wyndorf said. “Man, do I LOVE to sing this song. Dust was one of the greats.”

—

THE BRONX – “SUPERBLOOM”

The Bronx’s punk ‘n’ roll sounds as badass as ever on the latest taste of VI.

—

SMOL DATA – “EMOTIONAL LABOR DAY”

Smol Data (aka Long Island musician Karah Goldstein) will release her debut LP Inconvenience Store on May 14 via Open Door Records. New single “Emotional Labor Day” starts off as scrappy bedroom folk before turning into an indie-punk anthem.

—

DOSS – “STRAWBERRY”

Songwriter, producer and vocalist Doss is releasing her collection of music in 7 years. Her upcoming EP, 4 New Hit Songs, is due out May 7 via LuckyMe, and the latest single is the hypnotic, slightly shoegazey “Strawberry.”

—

LYDIA AINSWORTH – “CAKE”

Lydia Ainsworth’s new album, Sparkles & Debris, is due out May 21 via Zombie Cat, and the latest single is “Cake,” which she says was inspired by Townes Van Zandt. “I began to imagine what it would feel like to be in the shoes of the various women he’s often singing about,” she says. “In particular his song ‘Loretta’ which is one of my favorite songs of all time. I kept thinking about Loretta, feeling a kinship with her as well. I was inspired by his piercing lyric, ‘She don’t cry when I can’t stay, ‘least not till she’s all alone.’ ‘Cake’ is a song I wrote from Loretta’s perspective.”

—

WEEZER – “I NEED SOME OF THAT”

Weezer’s second album of 2021, Van Weezer, is due May 7 via Crush/Atlantic. As the title and artwork make clear, this one’s a tribute to Weezer’s love of Van Halen and other ’70s/’80s hard rock and heavy metal, and that comes through in the music and lyrics of this song, but it’s also unmistakably Weezer.

—

MIYA FOLICK – “KARAOKE (DEMO”

Miya Folick’s new demo was inspired by a poem she wrote in 2014 “after watching a man sing badly at a karaoke bar.” She continues, “The poem is kind of embarrassing, but captures a bit of why I write. I want to know who we are to each other.”

—

JORDANA – “PUSH ME AWAY” FT. MAGDALENA BAY

Jordana followed 2020’s Something To Say To You with a collaboration with Ryan Woods in March, and now she’s shared another collaboration, this time with Mica Tenenbaum of Los Angeles pop duo Magdalena Bay. “Push Me Away” “is a song written about one of my past friendships,” Jordana says. “It was an extremely strenuous friendship with a major push/pull dynamic – this song is basically a stream of consciousness reflection on the experience.”

—

ELLIS – “HOSPITAL”

Canadian songwriter Linnea Siggelkow released her debut LP as Ellis, Born Again, last year, and now she’s announced a new EP. nothing is sacred anymore is due out June 25, and the first single is “Hospital.” “I guess you could say I’m accident prone,” Ellis says. “But it’s those moments when bad or scary things happen that can be so revealing. You really see who shows up for you, who sticks around through it all.”

—

LITTLE SIMZ – “INTROVERT”

UK rapper Little Simz has announced a new album, and judging by lead single “Introvert,” it might turn out to be even more stunning than her great 2019 LP GREY Area. Read more here.

—

WIKI & NAH – “HIP HOP”

NYC rapper Wiki has announced a new project, Telephonebooth, entirely produced by NAH (the industrial rap project of Mike Kuhn, who was previously the drummer/vocalist of emo revival band 1994!). Read more about lead single “HIP HOP” here.

—

DOMKRAFT – “AUDIODOME”

Swedish psych-doomers Domkraft’s new album arrives later this month and here’s a heavy, trippy, 9+ minute track. Read more about it here.

—

PSYCHIC HIT – “LIVIN’ ON”

Bay Area band Psychic Hit channel ’70s hard rock and proto-metal and they do a lot of justice to that sound on this new song, which you can read more about here.

—

ILLUMINATI HOTTIES – “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA”

Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties gets slimed in the new video for “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA,” which is out on the band’s new label, an imprint of Hopeless Records.

—

THE PRIZE FIGHTER INFERNO – “ROCK BOTTOM”

Coheed & Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez releases his first Prize Fighter Inferno album in 15 years this Friday, and here’s a devastating new song and video from it. Read more about it here.

—

WARISH – “SCARS”

In addition to being a pro skater like his father Tony, Riley Hawk also fronts a genuinely good punk band, Warish. Read more about their new ripper “Scars” here.

—

Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.