Indie: Last News

Sharon Van Etten has shared her new single ‘Porta’ and announced a set of UK tour dates – you can check out both below.The track is Van Etten’s first new music release of 2022, and it follows on from her May 2021 team-up with Angel Olsen on ‘Like I Used To’.Produced by Van Etten (vocals, synths, drum machines) and Daniel Knowles (synths), and backed by her live band of Jorge Balbi (drums), Charley Damski (guitars) and Devin Hoff (bass), ‘Porta’ was written in 2020, Van Etten says, “at one of my lowest lows”.“For most of my adult life I have struggled with bouts of depression and anxiety and coping mechanisms, and I sometimes let those dark moments get the best of me,” she explained in a statement. “During this time I felt very dissociated.

Rock En Seine has announced a new wave of acts for 2022 – check out the festival’s full line-up below.The French festival is due to take place across four days (August 25-28) at the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud in Paris.Tame Impala and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were announced as two of this year’s headliners last October, with Arctic Monkeys confirming their bill-topping appearance the following month.Today (February 8) organisers have added Joy Crookes, Griff, Perfume Genius and Remi Wolf to the line-up, as well as Soulwax, Izia, Aldous Harding, Crystal Murray, Lala&Ce, November Ultra, Nu Genea, Priya Ragu, Requin Chagrin and Vendredi Sur Mer.Additionally, it’s been confirmed that Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Ausgang will open for Rage Against The Machine at their standalone Rock En Seine date with Run The Jewels on August 30.⚡️ROCK EN SEINE 2022 ⚡️⛵️ Embarquement immédiat pour les nouveaux noms de cette édition XXL

Alt-J have shared a dreamy new single today (February 7) – listen to ‘The Actor’.It’s the final song to be released from the band’s forthcoming album ‘The Dream’, which arrives this Friday (February 11) via Infectious Music/BMG. It’s available to pre-order now.Describing the inspiration behind ‘The Actor’, the group said: “Hollywood, 1982.

Everything Everything have released the lead single from their upcoming new album today (February 7) – listen to ‘Bad Friday’ below.The single is taken from new album ‘Raw Data Feel’, which will be released on May 20. You can pre-order the album here.Explaining the meaning behind the new single and its accompanying video, frontman Jonathan Higgs said: “This song is about being a victim of violence, explaining it away through the gauze of a ‘crazy night out’.“We wanted the video to have a monochrome Ink Spots classicism to it, disrupted by elements of A.I.-generated imagery.

Caroline Spence has teamed up with The National’s Matt Berninger for her latest single.‘I Know You Know Me’ is the follow-up to Spence’s 2019 release, ‘Mint Condition’ and will be included on her yet to be named fifth studio album which is slated for release this year.The slow-burning track opens with acoustic guitar before Spence and Berninger exchange loving sentiments over lush instrumentation, duetting, “No matter where the storm is in my mind/ It’ll never be a place that you can’t find/ You hold the candle, oh, you hold the key/ I know you know me“. “I’m still beside myself that Matt agreed to be a part of this song,” Spence said. “I recorded my own solo version for my upcoming record, but always saw potential for it as a duet.

Franz Ferdinand have announced rescheduled dates for their Greatest Hits 2022 UK and European headline tour – see all the details below.The Scottish band were set to head out on the road next month in support of their ‘Hits To The Head’ ‘best of’ album, which is due for release on March 11 via Domino Records.Due to continued COVID restrictions in Europe, the second half of the ‘Hits To The Head’ tour has now been rescheduled for later this year. Some dates are still set to go ahead as planned in April.“We’re sorry to announce that due to ongoing covid restrictions across Europe and the logistics involved with putting on a tour at this time, we have had to reschedule the first half of our upcoming tour,” the band wrote on Instagram.“We’ve kept in all the dates we are logistically able to do but for all others we have had to re-schedule for later in the year.

NFT website Hitpiece has been hit with legal action after several artists criticised it for allegedly auctioning off their music without their knowledge or permission.The website was showing hundreds of what appeared to be active auctions for NFTs tied to artists’ albums and songs, from iconic artists such as The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Bob Dylan to smaller independent acts.The move led to a backlash from artists with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13 tweeting: “Hey you stupid fucks, we don’t have any deal with you or any NFT site and there SURE DOES LOOK like an active auction going on for a speedy ortiz song.”Bleachers‘ Jack Antonoff added: “Any bleachers NFTs are fake. At the moment I do not believe in NFTs so anything you see associated with me isn’t real.

Johnny Marr says that The Smiths “never fell out over politics,” but that they “probably would now.”Marr and songwriting partner Morrissey have had a number of high-profile beefs in the press since the band split up in the late 1980s, with Morrissey most recently asking Marr to stop mentioning him when giving interviews.In a new interview with The Guardian, Marr was posed questions by fans and celebrities about The Smiths, his solo work and beyond.In the interview, Marr was asked by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham: “Did the Smiths ever fall out over football or politics?”Marr replied: “We never discussed football so that’s that. And we never fell out over politics, but we probably would now.”A subsequent question from a fan then said: “Morrissey’s recent political views have cast a shadow over the Smiths for me – reaching back into the past and tainting something that was very important to me. I’m so disappointed in him.

Beabadoobee has teased what to expect from her second studio album, saying the new record “sounds very 2006”.The new album, expected this year via Dirty Hit, will follow Bea Kristi’s 2020 debut ‘Fake It Flowers’ and last year’s ‘Our Extended Play’ EP.Speaking to Alt Press in a new interview spoke of the different sounds and styles she’s hoping to achieve on the new album.“It’s a lot of different vibes,” she said. “There’s not one song that sounds the same as the others.

Billy Bragg has praised a new academic project to catalogue the history of the English protest song from 1600 to the present day, saying that songs “can’t change the world” but can “bring people together”.A website catalogue of about 750 songs in the Our Subversive Voice project has been produced, presented alongside interviews with key songwriters.The University of East Anglia (UEA) project includes Royalist songs from the English Civil War up to modern entries like Grace Petrie‘s 2016 song ‘I Wish The Guardian Believed That I Exist’.Bragg himself has two of his songs in the catalogue – ‘Between The Wars’ and ‘It Says Here’, among tracks the artist has previously covered including Florence Reece’s ‘Which Side Are You On?’ – and told the BBC that the project was important to show the political tradition of songs in England.“People think political pop music was something invented in the 1970s, but traditionally song has been used to get messages out, without them being edited by the government or establishment,” he said.“When I took part in the miners’ strike in the 1980s, I was a little punk rocker guy… the folk singers were already there and their repertoire was more radical than mine and much of it had been written in the 19th Century.”Asked about the impact of protest songs, Bragg said: “It can change some things, but it can’t change the world. What it does is it brings people together in solidarity – for example to raise money for a cause.

Manchester Orchestra have announced details of two UK shows, set for later this year – get all the details below.The full-band gigs replaced two acoustic shows originally set for January this year, which were cancelled due to COVID-related issues.The new shows, at London’s Kentish Town Forum and Manchester’s O2 Ritz, come in support of their sixth studio album ‘The Million Masks of God’, which came out back in April last year.The band will play Manchester on September 15, before heading to London the following night.

Black Country, New Road have opened up about the departure of singer Isaac Wood and how it will change the band moving forward.Wood’s split from the group was announced earlier this week (January 31), days before the release of their second album ‘Ants From Up There’.“I have bad news which is that I have been feeling sad and afraid too,” Wood wrote in a statement. “And I have tried to make this not true but it is the kind of sad and afraid feeling that makes it hard to play guitar and sing at the same time.“To be clear: this is completely in spite of six of the greatest people I know, who were and are wonderful in a sparkling way.

The Strokes have announced a Mexican headline show, with Mac DeMarco and The War On Drugs as support.The concert will take place at Foro Sol in Mexico City on May 19. Tickets for the gig go on sale Friday, February 11 with a presale taking place on February 9.

Fontaines D.C. played a tiny London show for War Child last night (February 4), debuting new songs from third album ‘Skinty Fia’ – see footage, reaction setlist and more below.The show, at The Dome in Tufnell Park, came as part of BRITs Week, which will see the likes of Damon Albarn and Bastille also playing intimate shows in the capital over the next few weeks around the 2022 BRIT Awards, which will be held at The O2 in London on February 8.Opening the show with ‘Too Real’ from 2019 debut album ‘Dogrel’, the band played a 14-song set sprinkled with new material alongside old classics.“Youse are a guinea pig and a half,” frontman Grian Chatten told the crowd after the full live debut of superbly catchy new single ‘Jackie Down The Line’, the first preview of new album ‘Skinty Fia’, which is set to arrive on April 22 via Partisan.Chatten was on animated form, giving thunderous renditions of ‘Televised Mind’ and ‘A Lucid Dream’ from the band’s 2020 album ‘A Hero’s Death‘ and asking the crowd to join him in the chaos.

Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall has written a piece for Bari Weiss’ Substack criticising artists taking action against Spotify.In the essay entitled ‘When Artists Become the Censors’, Marshall takes aim at those he believes are threatening free speech, including Neil Young, who recently pulled his music from Spotify.On January 24, Young published an open letter – which has since been deleted – expressing his feelings about content like the Joe Rogan Experience podcast “spreading false information about vaccines”. This sparked a wider protest, with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Crazy Horse member Nils Lofgren following suit.“Something resembling a bottom-up authoritarianism has become the norm,” Marshall writes in the essay.

PJ Harvey looks like she might be back in the studio working on new music, if her latest social media post is any indication.Earlier today (February 4), the iconic singer-songwriter shared a series of black and white photos of herself in the studio, taken by Steve Gullick, seemingly teasing the arrival of new music.Dated 2022, the three pics show Harvey playing a guitar, fiddling with some guitar pedals, and sitting in front of a mic stand. No further information or context has been shared.You can take a look at the shots below:A post shared by PJ Harvey (@pjharveyofficial)Harvey’s last solo full-length was 2016’s ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’, which featured the tracks ‘The Wheel’, ‘The Community Of Hope’ and ‘The Orange Monkey’.In 2019, she composed the complete score for the stage play of All About Eve, directed by Ivo Van Hove and starring Lily James and Gillian Anderson.The celebrated artist’s discography has been the subject of a comprehensive reissue campaign by UMC/Island and Beggars over the last two years, who are aiming to “celebrate every aspect of Harvey’s recording career and afford a comprehensive and exciting look at the evolution of one of the most singular and extraordinary artists of modern times”.Previous vinyl reissues from PJ Harvey have included ‘Dry’, ‘Rid Of Me’, ‘To Bring Your Love’, ‘Stories From The City’, ‘Is This Desire?’, ‘Let England Shake’ and her second collaborative album with John Parish, ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’.The next album in her discography that is set to get a reissue is 2016’s ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’. Set to be released on March 11, it is the final entry in the reissue series.

Foals have teased a trance-y new single called ‘2AM’ – listen to it below.The group shared a short video clip featuring frontman Yannis Philippakis soundtracked by a trance-led new single, which was captioned “#2AM.”You can listen to it here:A post shared by FOALS (@foals) Back in December, Foals shared a new remix of their recent single ‘Wake Me Up’ by Gaspard Augé and Victor Le Masne.The Oxford band returned with the track in November, marking their first material since 2019’s sister albums ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: Part One’ and ‘Part Two’.The remix was a disco-tinged, synth-filled reimagining of ‘Wake Me Up’ courtesy of Augé and Le Masne, who are renowned for their work with Justice and Housse de Racket.The duo have previously remixed Jungle‘s ‘Keep Moving’ as well as Myd and Mac DeMarco‘s collaborative song ‘Moving Men’.The original ‘Wake Me Up’ landed at Number 12 in NME‘s 50 best songs of 2021 list. It was described as “the spiritual sequel to dancier moments like ‘My Number’ and ‘In Degrees’, but in truth it’s the fully realised disco infiltrator they’ve always threatened to write.” Speaking to NME upon its release, frontman Philippakis explained: “We just really wanted to write transporter music that would just take us out of that room and the current time and the whole situation with the pandemic.“We wanted to be transported anywhere else.

The Libertines have announced a special show in Newcastle this summer for the city’s Rock N Roll Circus festival.The band will headline the festival on Saturday June 11 as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of their debut album ‘Up The Bracket’. The album was released on October 14 2002, and is known for tracks like ‘Time For Heroes’, ‘The Boys In The Band’ and its title track.Rock N Roll Circus, set to take place in the Town Moor, mixes live music with elements of circus like aerialists, contortionists, stilt walkers, acrobats and more.

Porcupine Tree‘s Steven Wilson has announced that he will be releasing a new book about his life in the spring.Titled Limited Edition Of One, the autobiography is set to take a deep dive inside the story of Porcupine Tree’s ascent from teenage shredders to Grammy-winning prog-rock heroes, as well as Wilson’s subsequent solo career.“Limited Edition Of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read,” the official synopsis reads. “Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career.“Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream. From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.”STEVEN WILSON – LIMITED EDITION OF ONE Unlike any other music book you will ever have read.SPECIAL EDITION (WITH CD) and STANDARD EDITION:https://t.co/u8DqDTOBLz pic.twitter.com/CoLxh9eVMq— Burning Shed (@burningshednews) February 3, 2022Speaking about his decision to release a book, Wilson said (via Loudwire): “The more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual.

Kae Tempest has shared the second track from their upcoming fourth studio album ‘The Line Is A Curve’ – watch the video for ‘Salt Coast’ below.‘Salt Coast’ follows Tempest’s recent single ‘More Pressure’, which was released in January. The latter, which is the penultimate song on the album, features a guest appearance from Kevin Abstract of the LA hip-hop collective Brockhampton.“For me, it’s a song of upliftment, and it’s a switching of focus from some of the more heavy themes that come up in the record.

Mitski has shared the music video for ‘Stay Soft’ to coincide with the release of her new album ‘Laurel Hell’ – watch below.‘Laurel Hell’, which is out today (February 4), follows 2018’s ‘Be The Cowboy’. Mitski previewed the album with the tracks ‘Working For The Knife’, ‘The Only Heartbreaker’, ‘Heat Lightning’ and ‘Love Me More’.The video for ‘Stay Soft’ is directed by Maegan Houang, who previously co-directed the visuals for ‘The Only Heartbreaker’.