The Front Bottoms have been on the road for two years, supporting their self-titled debut with a seemingly endless string of gigs. Between shows, the Jersey natives also managed to write a second album, Talon of the Hawk, which expands the band’s approach while leaving their core ingredients — a poppy sense of melody, a [...]

On October 30, Maïa Vidal will release her debut studio album, God Is My Bike, in the U.S. Featuring guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs) on two tracks and an unexpected cover of Rancid’s “It’s Quite Alright,” it was previously only available in Europe and Japan. Vidal’s voice is one that made us stand [...]

  Nashville Singer-songwriter Andrew Combs will release his debut album, Worried Man, on October 30 via Coin Records.   We’ve got the title track, inspired by a powerful stimulant, for you to download for free.   “I was in Austin, Texas, for a little over a week, co-writing with some Texas amigos and sleeping on [...]

After major label drama and other tribulations, The Rescues are back, with the anthemic, emotional “Arrow.” The track is the first preview of the band’s upcoming album Blah Blah Love And War, due out next year. The lead vocals are split between Adrianne Gonzalez and Rob Giles, with Kyler England and Gabriel Mann in the [...]

(Photo: Piero F. Giunti) On the Tom Morello-produced EP Future Rock, indie rock activists Outernational blend revolutionary styles, bridging Clash-like anthems with world music and hip hop. Take a listen to the band’s single “Empty Lives,” a song with some pretty interesting origins, below. “We wrote this song in a cozy Phoenicia cabin one winter [...]

(Photo: B. Clemens) On October 2nd, Chicago folk-rockers The Giving Tree Band will release Vacilador, their fifth studio album. You can get yourself a free download of the album track “Cold Cold Rain” below. The vegan-friendly band, who’ve been compared to The Band and The Avett Brothers in the past, put themselves in the mindset [...]

The waiting is over. Take a listen to “Magnolia” from gritty roots rock band Alberta Cross. The melodic track kicks off their sophomore album, Songs of Patience, which was recorded in Woodstock, New York City and L.A., and comes out July 17th on ATO Records. “’Magnolia’ is my psychedelic take on one night out of [...]

Gothic folk artist Emily Jane White wrote “Requiem Waltz” back in 2009, when she was living in an abandoned house. Her living quarters have improved since then, and so have her musical prospects. NPR, Pitchfork, and The Fader have all sung her praises recently. The song appears on her new album, To Sentience, out June [...]

On July 26, the Dex Romweber Duo will release Is That You In the Blue? (Bloodshot Records), their sophomore record following 2009′s Ruins Of Berlin. Our favorite Silvertone 1448-bearing force of nature (that’d be Dex) was no doubt inspired by sis Sara’s wild rhythmic assault on the aptly-titled first single, “Jungle Drums.” The barely intelligible [...]

Southern singer-songwriter Matthew Mayfield recently dropped his debut full-length album, Now You’re Free. If the past is any indication, the record should do well; his last EP (and seventh in three years), Matthew Mayfield & The Blue Cut Robbery, took him to #1 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart last year. Mayfield raised the scratch to [...]

Just a few weeks ago, Spotify’s hand was forced by the record labels when the London-based music startup begrudgingly announced changes to its free (“Open”) platform. Those changes put stricter limits on free users’ song plays. That was the bad news, but now comes the good news for free Spotify users in Europe. (The service [...]

Do you remember the early-’00s peer-to-peer network Kazaa? We’d all but forgotten Kazaa from our high school days but, apparently, after years of lawsuits, the service has been up and running legally for some time. Kazaa, which emerged after Napster’s shutdown and gained popularity with P2P users, was more recently acquired by the search marketing [...]