These days, it’s harder and harder to get booked on American late-night shows. Those opportunities seem to be getting scarcer every week. So it’s cool that the swaggering Stockholm post-punkers Viagra Boys got a chance to hit our TV screens on Wednesday night. The Daily Show doesn’t book musical guests all that often, but they got Viagra Boys.
The young Maryland rapper/producer redveil has never reminded me of Chance The Rapper until this moment. Today, redveil follows “square one,” the impressive single that he released earlier this year, with “brown sugar,” a cutesy, flirty new track with a singsong chorus that definitely has a lot of Coloring Book-era Chance in its DNA. It’s even got a video where redveil dresses up all nice and a verse from Chicago/St. Louis great Smino, a frequent Chance collaborator from back in the day. (Smino is even on Chance’s new album Star Line.)
Kai Slater is keeping the music flowing this year, and doing it for some of the greatest record labels in underground rock history. After reissuing last year’s Sharp Pins album Radio DDR on K Records in March, Slater shifted gears from indie-pop to put out his post-punk band Lifeguard’s first album for Matador, Ripped And Torn, in June. He’s got another Sharp Pins LP called Balloon Balloon Balloon coming in November, and today he’s following up lead single “I Wanna Be Your Girl” with another new tune.
The expressive, exploratory musician Hannah Frances will release her new album Nested In Tangles next month, and we’ve already posted her early singles “Falling From And Further” and “Surviving You.” The LP’s only featured guest is Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen, who appears on the as-yet-unreleased “The Space Between” and who helps out on a bunch of those tracks. One of those track is Frances’ new single “Life’s Work.”
Equipment are back with a surprise new EP. Back in June the Toledo emo band shared the one-off single “espresso lemonade,” and today they sent fans a message via Bandcamp that reads simply: “hello. here are some new songs we’re proud of. physicals coming soon. playing some of this on tour next week. love u.”
This coming weekend, I’m taking my daughter up to Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion for the All Things Go festival. We went to the show a couple of years ago, and we had a great time. Since then, All Things Go has started running companion fests in New York and Toronto, and it’s also getting ready to release a new compilation called All Things Go: 10 Years, which benefits Jack Antonoff’s charity the Ally Coalition. Bartees Strange, who reps DC, is on this year’s All Things Go lineup, and he’s also on the charity comp, covering DC post-hardcore greats Smart Went Crazy.
Eliza McLamb is on a tear. Since last year’s Going Through It, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter has released a variety of brilliant singles, from the folk-rock stunner “God Take Me Out Of LA” to the poppy indie rock charmer “Quitting.” The advance tracks from her new album Good Story, “Like The Boys” and “Every Year,” have been similarly versatile and equally great. Today she’s back with another winner.
Hell yeah, new Danny Brown album, let’s fucking go! Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about Brown, a great underground rap veteran with furiously adventurous tastes, going all-in on glitchy, noisy hyperpop. In 2023, Brown teamed up with JPEGMAFIA to release the collaborative LP Scaring The Hoes and then released his own album Quaranta, both of which were incredible. Since then, Brown has collaborated with artists like Frost Children, Alice Longyu Gao, and 8485, and he also joined A. G. Cook at this year’s Coachella. Now, all that experimentation is leading up to the release of Brown’s new LP Stardust, which could well turn out to be incredible. Lead single “Starburst” is a great start.
Last month runo plum announced her new album patching. The Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter has shared “Lemon Garland” and “Sickness” so far, and now she’s back with “Halfway Up The Hill.”
California shoegazers Cold Gawd impressed us with last year’s album I’ll Drown On This Earth. In July, they emerged with their first new music since then, a single called “Golden Postcard.” That song came with a statement indicating it was for new lovers: “something that evokes the rush of a burgeoning relationship. It’s lustful, hopeful and consuming. Those feelings might be idealized but they’re nevertheless palpable.” Today they’re back with another new single, again with a romance-related inscription.