SQÜRL

SQÜRL is the droney, experimental rock project of acclaimed film director Jim Jarmusch.  The group's new "EP #260" is out in July on Sacred Bones.  Listen to the ominous creeping and crawling of "The Dark Rift" below.

Luke Reed

Earlier this year, Massachusetts artist Luke Reed released a pretty wonderful album of warm and jangly lo-fi jams called "Won't Be There."  And now he's released a new single that somehow tops it.  Listen to "I Don't Care About Anything But You" below and download it here via The Native Sound.

Carpenter Brut covers Michael Sembello

I'm still upset with myself for missing synthwave artist Carpenter Brut when he came through Austin earlier this year during SXSW, but i guess i can listen to what could have been with the upcoming "Carpenter Brut Live" album, due next month on No Quarter.  Listen to the album closing cover of Michael Sembello's "Maniac" below.  It's surprisingly good.

Boris

Has Boris really been around for 25 years?  Wow.  Anyway, the Japanese trio's latest opus "Dear" is out in July on Sargent House.  Watch the video for "Absolutego" below.

Norska

Today was my son's 4th birthday, and after a day spent with the family, hitting up the zoo, a flea market, a brew pub, a winery, and playing with Nerf guns in the house, it's nice to wind down with a storm blowing in outside, some of the last of a holiday ale i brewed back in January, and some heavy, psych-influenced doom metal from the Pacific Northwest.  Listen to "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" below from Norska's latest crusher, "Too Many Winters," and cop the LP here from Brutal Panda.

Bamboo

The UK's Bamboo sound like a collective of world music jumbled all together and then strung out in a hypnotic, synth-laden pattern, ebbing and flowing, an intoxicating swirl of sound that's both exotic and strangely familiar.  The band's new album "The Dragon Flies Away" is awash in different faraway sounds woven together with pop beats and upbeat dance moves, an almost cinematic opus relating tales about the Hannya demon mask from Japanese Noh theater (i had to look it up).  Listen to "Wake Up Your Heart" below and get the record from Upset The Rhythm.

Dead Cross

Dead Cross is the new hardcore supergroup consisting of Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Justin Pearson, and Michael Crain.  Fans of Patton, Slayer, The Locust, Retox, getting punched in the face, and violent shaking should definitely check it out.  The self-titled record is out in August via Ipecac (pre-order here), and they hit the road shortly after (Austin on 8/16!!!).  Listen to "Grave Slave" below...and tremble with anticipation.

Washed Out - Get Lost

Just in time for the holiday weekend (which i'm working on), and the impending summer, comes a new poolside boogie from Washed Out.  "Get Lost" sounds like the kind of endless dance jam that that will shake its way to the beach and back, a layer of cool haze over this (probably) terrifying summer.  Watch the trippy video below and get the track from Stones Throw.

Nick Hakim

New York artist Nick Hakim crafts an otherworldly style of R&B music, combining an almost lo-fi bedroom pop aesthetic with studio trip-hop beats and psychedelic soul.  The result is intoxicating pop.  Listen to "Bet She Looks Like You" below and snag the "Green Twins" LP from ATO Records.

Brian McOmber - The Triumph of Death

I was never a fan of Dirty Projectors, but evidently that band's former members always seem to catch my attention with their solo endeavors.  The most recent comes from their former drummer Brian McOmber and his score to the upcoming horror movie "It Comes at Night."  First and foremost, the film looks pretty good, and McOmber's score oozes dread and menace.  Listen to "The Triumph of Death" below, featuring coincidentally enough, Angel Deradoorian, another former member of Dirty Projectors.  And snag the soundtrack next month from Milan.

Downtown Boys - A Wall

It's a crazy, frightening, orb-filled world we live in, and good and confrontational political music is sometimes what we need to help get us through the bullshit every now and then.  Rhode Island punk rock band Downtown Boys are here to help.  New album, "Cost of Living," is due in August from Sub Pop, but you should definitely listen to the sax-infused "A Wall" below in the meantime.

Chromatics - Shadow

Did everybody watch the return of "Twin Peaks" last night?  Yeah, it was awesome.  Yeah, i'm confused to, but that's kind of the deal with David Lynch.  Anyway, channeling Julee Cruise, Chromatics showed up at episode's end performing at The Bang Bang Bar, and now "Shadow" is pretty much set as my internal soundtrack for the rest of the week.  Please let "Dear Tommy" come out this year.  Is that too much to ask?  Watch the new video for "Shadow" below.

Blak Saagan

Come take a journey to the outer edges of the cosmos, the vast expanse of the universe ahead of us, and then soundtrack that journey with quirky synth melodies like something out of a 1960's educational film, and you've pretty much nailed the lovely, sweeping sounds of Italy's Blak Saagan.  New album "A Personal Voyage" is out next week on Maple Death Records, but listen to "Cavalcando la Cometa 67P" below and prepare for takeoff.

GRYPT

It's dark and stormy in Austin today, so here is some adequately dark and stormy music from the hard to pin down LA trio GRYPT.  The group feels equal parts horror synth, 90's hip-hop, and darkwave pop, a kind of proto-witch house act for scoring surreal, street level nightmares.  Listen to "Tin Can Tomb" below and snag the "Tin Can Tomb (And Other Modern Interpretations of Hell)" EP here via Cleopatra Records.

Beach House - Chariot

Beach House has a collection of B-sides and rarities and what not coming out this summer on Sub Pop.  It's even got a Queen cover on it.  Anyway, listen to the dreamy (as expected), previously unreleased track "Chariot" below.

Ball

Man, do the Swedes know how to make the most mind-expanding, head-exploding psych rock, or what?  The eponymous new record from gutter-psychedelic freaks Ball is a churning mix of burnout biker acid rock, occult synths, coke-fueled freakouts, and oh so much hedonism.  It's fucking fantastic.  Get the record from Subliminal Sounds and watch the demon and devil courting video for "Satanas" below.

RIP Chris Cornell

I hate waking up to news like this.  Soundgarden's Chris Cornell passed away last night at the age of 52.  There are no confirmed reports of cause of death yet, but regardless, it sucks.  I always wanted to emulate his singing style, hitting those unbelievable high notes, but alas, i failed every time.  Listen to "Head Down" below, one of my all time favorites.  RIP Chris Cornell.

Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils?  I remember these guys.  A little bit shoegaze, a little bit dreampop, a little bit jangly guitar pop...they were great.  Turns out they still are.  It's just been a few years since we last heard from them.  New album "Somersault" is out June 2nd on Bayonet.  Listen to the jangle pop meets trip-hop vibe of "Social Jetlag" below.

Elder

June brings us new music from Elder which is always a good thing.  Listen to "The Falling Veil," a proggy psych jam that feels significantly less stoner metal than some of the Massachusetts band's former output.  That's not a slight though, the track is excellent.  Listen below and grab the "Reflections of a Floating World" LP from Armageddon Label.

Mutoid Man and Chelsea Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe supplies vocals for the closing track on Mutoid Man's upcoming "War Moans" LP.  That is all.  Listen to "Bandages" below and get the record from Sargent House in June.

Pink Frost

A little punk, a little psych, a little grunge, and a little stoner metal make for a mind melting new record from Chicago's Pink Frost.  "New Minds" is out next month on Under Road Records.  Listen to "Bare Roots" below.

Briana Marela

Here's some dreamy, balearic pop music from Seattle's Brian Marela.  "Quit" is ghostly and wistful, and is working just fine for me today surrounded by sleeping dogs and children.  Listen below and pre-order the "Call It Love" LP here from Jagjaguwar.

Flying Lotus remixes Twin Peaks Theme

With the third season of "Twin Peaks" just around the corner (this Sunday!), things are starting to hit a fever pitch around here, and unsurprisingly, i'm not alone in this.  Producer Flying Lotus just posted a remix to Angelo Badalamenti's "Twin Peaks Theme," which you can listen to and download below.  And while it's not anything that's going to change to world, it just gets me all the more excited.  Give me more!

Hired Goons

Hey buttholes, you need to get the "Red" EP from Austin punk rock outfit Hired Goons.  They're buttholes too, but they're fun buttholes.  And full disclosure, i know them and am related to one of them.  Get it here and stream the whole thing below...i'm sure you've got 8 minutes.

Hoops

Here's a little retro, lo-fi, warbly, synthy dreampop from Indiana's Hoops.  Snag the "Routines" LP from Fat Possum and listen to album opener "Sun's Out" below.  I'm off to a beer festival.

Elf Power

Veteran Elephant 6 band Elf Power, responsible for one of my favorite albums of last decade, 2000's fantastic "The Winter Is Coming," have a new album out today on Orange Twin Records.  Watch the video for "Halloween Out Walking" below and get the "Twitching in Time" LP here.

Thurston Moore - Aphrodite

While i'm not one to dissuade a music artist from tackling any and all manner of sounds he or she wants to attempt, digging on the roads less travelled and all that good shit, i've still got to admit that an impressive return to form from an all time favorite gets me a little giddy.  Ex-Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore's latest solo output, the noisy and swirling guitar rock of "Rock n Roll Consciousness" feels like the best work he's done in years, and goes off like a kind of nostalgia bomb in my head, but not detrimentally so.  Get the album from Caroline International and watch the video for "Aphrodite" below.  It looks and sounds like something we all would have seen and loved on "120 Minutes" back in the day.

Sheer Mag

After a few years and string of excellent 7" EP's, it looks like we're finally getting a proper full-length release from Philadelphia 70's rock n' roll revivalists Sheer Mag.  The "Need to Feel Your Love" LP is due in July on Wilsuns RC, and i'm really digging that album cover.  Listen to first single "Just Can't Get Enough" below.

Jesse

It seems like there are a whole bunch of local Austin bands that i loved over the last decade who just kind of up and disappeared.  (I'll always remember you Harlem.)  One of those bands, the purveyors of dreamy, shoegazey Americana known as Pure X, released a string of excellent albums, and then vanished after 2014's "Angel."  Hopefully we'll get more music from them in the future, but in the meantime, we've got "Hard Sky," a solo album of wonderfully bleak Americana coming from band member Jesse Jenkins in June on Uniform Group.  Listen to the title track below.

Johnny Jewel - Windswept

After literal years of waiting and waiting for the elusive "Dear Tommy," an album that was completed...and then destroyed...and then recorded again, maybe to see the light of day at some point in the future, Johnny Jewel sure has been busy lately, issuing a whole slew of releases on his Italians Do It Better label.  In the last couple of days we've gotten videos for songs from the artist's new collection of soundtrack work, "Windswept."  Watch the videos for "Television Snow" and "Insomnia" below, expect to possibly hear them on the "Twin Peaks" revival later this month, and snag the album tomorrow.



And the other...

Chuck Johnson

If you've ever wondered what applying Eno-inspired ambience to a steel pedal guitar sounded like, have i got the album for you.  Guitarist Chuck Johnson's new album "Balsams," out in June on VDSQ Records, is a collection of ghostly Americana, like some quiet and faraway remnants of country music just floating in the ether of old, abandoned honky-tonks and broken down old cars.  Watch the video for the stark and haunting "Riga Black" below.

Forest Swords

Hey everybody, Forest Swords put out a new record on Friday.  Did i forget to mention that?  Shame on me.  Anyway, "Compassion" is available now via Ninja Tune, and it's a dark and moody piece of sound.  Listen to album opener "War It" below.

Japanese Breakfast - Machinist

It appears that Japanese Breakfast are going full on science fiction synth pop on sophomore effort "Soft Sounds from Another Planet."  Check the video for "Machinist" below and pre-order the record here from Dead Oceans.

Delia Gonzalez

Electronic artist Delia Gonzalez just released her new album "Horse Follows Darkness," her second on DFA Records, yesterday, and it's a mix of somber and intense synthesizer pieces inspired by the deconstructionist American westerns of the 60's and 70's.  Listen to the title track below.

LCD Soundsystem - Call the Police & American Dream

I have to admit, i was a little hesitant about a new LCD Soundsystem, feeling that "This Is Happening" was a perfect swan song when the group disbanded (temporarily) a few years ago.  I needn't have worried.  Main man James Murphy released two new songs last night, and they're great.  So now let's get super excited about a new record on the horizon.  In the meantime, listen to both "Call the Police" and "American Dream" below.



And here's the other...

Levi Thomas

Here's a psych-tinged folk country jam from Bay Area artist Levi Thomas.  "The Fear" single officially comes out tomorrow via Rough Beast, but listen below to satisfy your dusty, sunburned Americana itch.

HEAVEN - Lonesome Town

Here's another new, dreamy jam from the mysterious, Johnny Jewel-produced HEAVEN.  "Lonesome Town" comes from the upcoming EP of the same name, which should be out on Italians Do It Better sometime next week.  Watch the video below.

The I.L.Y's - I Love You Man

Zach Hill's Death Grips side project The I.L.Y's are set to release their third album "Bodyguard" in June, this time with a physical release via John Dwyer's Castle Face Records.  Listen to the psych and garage tinged "I Love You Man" below.

Slowdive - Sugar for the Pill (Avalon Emerson's Gilded Escalation)

It should come as no surprise that we are all super stoked around these parts for Slowdive's new album, out this Friday on Dead Oceans.  And to keep us amped up, the band released a remix of the second single today.  Listen to the sublime "Sugar for the Pill (Avalon Emerson's Gilded Escalation)" below, download it here, and be sure to snag the band's new self-titled record at the end of the week.

Orphan Swords

Belgian electronic duo Orphan Swords make noisy, droney, ambient music that sounds like something huge and ominous is inching its way closer to you, unseen and unknown.  Listen to the sprawling "Marchosias" below and pre-order the "License to Desire" LP from Aurora Borealis Records, out later this month.