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.

So far this year, DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ has shared the fun tunes “Will My Love” and “Keep Wondering Why,” and today she’s back the new clubby banger “Search For The Feeling (On And On).”

Last week Calvin Harris released his new song with Clementine Douglas called “Blessings” and was met with backlash due to its likeness to Chicane’s 1996 song “Offshore.” The English musician and DJ pointed out the similarities over the weekend, and now Harris is responding.

Yesterday (May 18) the Season 36 finale of The Simpsons aired and featured a parody of Sarah McLachlan’s “When She Loved Me” for a scene inspired by Itchy & Scratchy.

Did you really think they were done? Guided By Voices famously refuse to stop; earlier this year, they released their 41st album Universe Room. Rumors started spreading today that the longstanding band was breaking up, but that’s already been debunked by their team, who told Rolling Stone that their 42nd album is on its way.

Last month Justin Vernon shared the new Bon Iver album SABLE, fABLE. He promoted it with a basketball tournament in Los Angeles and did over two dozen brand collabs. Today, the indie fixture is teaming up with WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx for an unprecedented partnership.

I don’t have any firsthand experience organizing pyrotechnics for big stadium shows, but I know enough to know that you’ve gotta be careful with those. Maybe that’s why System Of A Down didn’t bring any of their own pyro on their recent South American tour, which wrapped up in Sao Paolo last week. But their fans are going viral online now for doing the exact opposite, bringing fire and explosives aplenty themselves.