Pop stars loving acting at the moment. Charli XCX starred in the new season of Overcompensating and the Weeknd’s new film Hurry Up Tomorrow just hit theaters. Now, Bad Bunny is joining Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz for Darren Aronofsky’s forthcoming movie Caught Stealing.
We have a pope from Chicago, and now Finland has an envoy from a metal band. Freddy Lim is the frontman of the group Chthonic, and he was chosen by President Lai Ching-te as Taiwan’s ambassador of the Scandinavian country.
Last month, Samia’s exquisite Bloodless was our Album Of The Week. Last night (May 20) the indie singer-songwriter kicked off her tour and gave live debuts to the tracks and covered Waxatachee.
Paul Weller has announced a new covers album titled Find El Dorado. It features guests like Robert Plant and Noel Gallagher and takes on songs by Richie Havens, the Kinks, the Bee Gees, and more.
Artists like Cardi B, Randy Travis, Mary J. Blige, and the Dave Matthews Band have expressed support for the NO FAKES Act, a bill offering federal protection against unauthorized deepfakes of one’s name, image, likeness, or voice. Today, Martina McBride advocated for it before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law at a hearing.
In 2025, everything’s coming up These New Puritans. The brothers Barnett got a Charli XCX shout-out at Coachella. They got Caroline Polachek on a track. They got Alexander Skarsgård in a music video. They even got Hedi Slimane to shoot the above promo photo.
The new Smut song “Touch & Go” is rooted in indie rock history, but not like you’re thinking. Based on the title, you might think the latest Tomorrow Comes Crashing single takes influence from Touch & Go Records, a massively important label which — just like Smut — relocated to Chicago from elsewhere in the Midwest. But it’s actually inspired by “Time To Pretend,” the iconic opening track from MGMT’s debut album Oracular Spectacular. (MGMT will be the first to tell you they only recently became an indie band, but what does indie really mean anyway?)
Mama Killa is a hell of an album title, and its lead single suggests it will be a hell of an album.
Hey, one more new Stereolab song! The chic avant-pop legends have been whetting our appetites for Instant Holograms On Metal Film, their first new album in 15 years, with exceptional singles including “Aerial Troubles” and “Melodie Is A Wound.” You will not be surprised to learn that “Transmuted Matter,” the third and final advance track, also hits the spot. It’s got that often-imitated, never-matched “retro francophone lounge jazz of the future” aesthetic that Stereolab have been nailing for decades. You already know you love this song, but you’d better listen down below just to make sure.
David Balfe, the Dublin multi-hyphenate who makes music under the name For Those I Love, has a new single out today. “Of The Sorrows” is the first For Those I Love track since the project’s 2021 self-titled debut, which won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize as the best Irish album of the year. Over top of an electronic slow-build that sounds like a city after dark, Balfe delivers spoken-word lyrics centered on the refrain, “Stay here in Ireland.” It sounds a little like the Streets and a little like Real Lies.