So far, the coronavirus hasn’t had any effect on the fire hose of new music that’s coming my way. The last seven days saw another 500+ new submissions hit my inbox. Those have been winnowed down to these five. If you have any comments about any of them, please leave them below. That’ll help me figure out what to do with these things.
1. MGMT, As You Move Through the World
Single (Independent)
Recommended If You Like: Instrumental tunes to help you focus
Although not completely new—this is the B-side to a single entitled In the Afternoon which appeared earlier this year—it’s a mellow track that works well as background and/or chillout music. As the band wrote on Instagram, “Everyone knows we all need a seven-and-a-half-minute down-tempo ambient instrumental track to listen to while we’re not moving through the world.” Good point, that.
2. Shred Kelly, Dead Leaves
Like a Rising Sun (DevilDuck Records)
RIYL: Party rock
Not that long ago, Shred Kelly was playing to the ski crowds that showed up each season in their hometown of Fernie, BC. Since then the five-piece has played everywhere from SXSW to Reeperbahn (Germany) and Australian Music Week. This is their fifth album (due May 15) and if all goes well, they’ll be touring with the Dead South later this year.
3. Blue October, Oh My My
This is What I Live For (Up/Down-Brando)
RYIL: Muscular mid-continent rock
Blue October is one of those bands that has managed to acquire and maintain a sizable fanbase without necessarily becoming big stars outside a certain radius. Yet they’ve got more than half a billion stream and fourteen charting singles taken from the band’s ten albums. If you want to know how we got there, there’s a documentary on the band called Get Back Up coming in May. Watch a trailer here.
4. Perfume Genius, On the Floor
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
RIYL: Sigur Ros, some PJ Harvey, Antony and the Johnsons
Perfume Genius (it says Mike Hadreas on his driver’s license), is one of the more confessional indie-pop artists out there. Through his previous four albums, he’s written about everything from his sexuality (domestic violence, the challenges and dangers of being a gay man; he’s been subject to death threats himself) and his Crohn’s disease. Watch for the album May 15.
5. Eliza & The Delusionals, ALIVE
A State of Living in an Objective Reality EP (Cooking Vinyl)
RIYL: Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Kooks, Paramore
Here’s a fresh-sounding four-piece group from the Gold Coast region of Australia who have taken three previously-released singles and two new tracks to create an EP they hope gain then entre into North America. Fun stuff. Let’s see where this goes.
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