Evanescence have revealed the release date for their first album of new material in almost 10 years. Called The Bitter Truth, it’s set to arrive on March 26, 2021. The band have also shared a new single called ‘Yeah Right’. Check it out below.
‘Yeah Right’ marks the fourth single to be unveiled from the album, following ‘Wasted On You’, ‘The Game Is Over’, and ‘Use My Voice’, the latter of which was a collaboration between Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen, and more. Evanescence released their self-titled album in 2011.
Greta Van Fleet have announced a new album: The Battle at Garden’s Gate is set for release on April 16, 2021. Below, check out the band’s new single, ‘Age of Machine’.
The Battle at Garden’s Gate marks the band’s sophomore LP following their 2018 debut, Anthem of the Peaceful Army. It finds them collaborating with producer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, and more. “I’m always a little bit hesitant about my abilities as an artist; I think a lot of artists feel that way,” singer Josh Kiszka said in a statement. “But Greg hovering over me while I’m on the piano, taking an interest in what I was doing – that was really important for me.”
Drummer Danny Wagner added: “We realised that whilst growing up, we had been shielded by many things and we were unaware of a lot of things. And then we were thrown out into this huge world, and it was a bit of a culture shock at first. But as we started to travel a lot, meet new and different people and experience different cultures, our definition of ‘normal’ changed.”
Back in October, Greta Van Fleet returned with a new single called ‘My Way, Soon’.
“In the song, I talked about how much I yearn for peace because of the thoughts and voices in my head due to what I’m facing personally and what my people are facing as well,” the Nigerian artist explained in a statement. “So many bad things have happened, and I know many people can relate.”
Dua Lipa is the latest artist to perform on NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series. Joined by her band and backup vocalists, the pop singer performed four tracks from her latest album Future Nostalgia: ‘Levitating’,’Pretty Please’, ‘Love Again’, and ‘Don’t Start Now’. Check out the stripped-back set below.
Future Nostalgia, which came out in March of this year, was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, while single ‘Don’t Start Now’ is up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. Lipa recently collaborated with Miley Cyrus on ‘Prisoner’ and Belgian singer Angèle on ‘Fever’. During her Studio 2054 livestream, she also teased a new collaborative track with FKA twigs.
With some fantastic releases presented in 2020, Pastel has finished off the year by releasing his latest album Cereal. The album features well-played songs such as ‘Bamboo’ featuring elizatwinkies, and ‘Parx.’
In his latest album, the London-based artist mixes elements of Jazz with prominent guitar riffs and mellow vocals. Sonically, the album is a gift for those that love catchy music with rich production.
Growing up immersed in music, perhaps it was inevitable that Kate Bollinger would in turn utilise it as her means of escape and emotional release. Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, she grew up in the midst of a family that very much had music at their heart; her brothers can play a variety of instruments and her mother’s occupation is a music therapist. Since 2018, Kate Bollinger has released a slew of singles before issuing her debut EP I Don’t Wanna Losein the summer of 2019. Composed of thoughtful, self-aware ruminations that are oftentimes deceptively upbeat, the EP combines her signature jazz-infused, intricate guitar work with her soothing, buoyant voice firmly at the forefront. Vocally, she possesses a magnificent cadence that brings to life her genre-melding music, as well as garnering comparisons to an early Joni Mitchell or Laura Marling. Having displayed a proclivity for lo-fi tracks with a musical adroitness, she teamed up with producer and principal collaborator John Trainum for her sophomore EP, A word becomes a sound, which came out in late August.Featuring the blissful and philosophical ‘A Couple Things’, the more experimental percussive sound of ‘Grey Skies’ and stripped-back title track, the project shows a maturation of Bollinger’s sound.
We caught up with Kate Bollinger for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
The inescapable question: how are you and your nearest and dearest in these most bizarre times? Have there been any positives that you’ve taken from the lockdown experience?
After graduating from school in May I had planned to be on the road mostly, to be traveling for shows and sessions, so the pandemic certainly uprooted my life just like it has for many people. I will say it has forced me to be okay with letting days pass where I just think about things, cook, listen to music, talk on the phone, watch TV shows, knit, and go for walks. Historically I would feel depressed if I let a day slip by without having accomplished something, but I’m learning to see the value in living more day-to-day, putting more care into my immediate relationships, and letting other things rather than my productivity alone determine my happiness.
What are the main differences you’ve found between making your first EP I Don’t Wanna Lose and your latest release A word becomes a sound?
The process was different partly because of novelty. I had formed my first ever band only a couple months before recording I Don’t Wanna Lose, which we tracked live in a studio in Virginia all in one day. Luckily some of the guys in the band had been playing together for a while before playing my songs, so they had a preexisting musical understanding and comfort playing together, but it was still all very new for all of us. A word becomes a sound felt like a natural progression because I knew what worked and what I wanted things to sound like. It’s like anything else; you knit one scarf and it has some holes in it or you make it too wide, so the next time you make one you have more of an understanding of the size you want and you don’t leave it out for the cat to find. There were also obstacles because of the pandemic, like being unable to record as a full band, but we made it work and tied things together more slowly and in a more deliberate way, which really ended up serving the project well.
Your mother is a music therapist and your brothers are also multi instrumentalists: besides drawing you to music and perhaps highlighting the wonder of music, what other effects do you think this has had on your own drive to create music?
I think it meant everything to see my family members constantly working on their own projects. It was just the normal thing to do. I spent a lot of my childhood following my brothers around and wanting to do what they did. There was one week where we started a band called Paramecium – the two of them played drums and bass while I rapped nursery rhymes. My oldest brother is an animator and I remember sitting with him in the basement while he planned one of the episodes for his show, letting me chime in with ideas here and there. It was the same with my mom, she made children’s music while I was growing up and I sang on most of her albums as a kid. I was never pushed into music or pushed to be good at it, it was just really natural. I have a three year old niece now and it’s the same sort of thing – she’s constantly reading her little books because it’s what she sees her parents doing all the time.
What’s your earliest musical memory, one that has stayed with you?
I still remember certain lullabies that my mom would sing to me as I was falling asleep. I also have some early memories as a six or seven year old of going to see my oldest brother play shows with his high school band and dancing with his friends in the crowd.
Perhaps this is a mean question, but do you have a favourite track from A word becomes a sound, one that stands out to you on a personal level?
They’re all special to me, but I feel the most connected to ‘A Couple Things’ on a personal level, partly because I wrote it a few years ago and it’s one of those songs that twists and shifts and always means something to me even at different times in my life.
What’s your biggest dream musically, something that you think if you achieved you could truly say you had surpassed your own expectations?
There are some songs that make me feel this indescribable feeling or bring me to a specific place and time in my life. I just want to make songs that make people feel happy and inspired. I think that I’ll feel like I’ve surpassed my own expectations when I can listen to one of my songs and feel that it represents a part of me in the most authentic and precise way that it could. Those are my favorite kinds of songs.
If you could give your EP to just one artist with the guarantee that they’d listen to it and in turn receive feedback from them about it, who would you choose and why?
It’s so hard to pick one, but Feist has been one of my favorite artists since I was little. Receiving her feedback would just be sort of unimaginable. I feel the same way about Joni Mitchell and Paul McCartney. All three of them write in such a soulful way. I got to work with one of my favorite songwriters ever, Jay Purdy, when I was in high school. He’s lesser known than the other three, but he has written some of my favorite melodies and lines, so getting to work with him and receive his feedback was really special. I think feedback can also be harmful though, it’s good to get other perspectives, but it can be easy to take something that is the most authentic to you and turn it into something else. I’m constantly learning how to have the right combination of open and closed-mindedness.
The Cure frontman Robert Smith has unveiled a remix of Deftones’ ‘Teenager’. The new version of the White Pony track appears on Black Stallion, an upcoming double-LP celebrating the classic album’s 20th anniversary. Check it out below, along with the original.
“It’s amazing to hear Robert rework one of our songs and sneak his voice in there,” Deftones’ Chino Moreno said in an interview with NME. “If you’d have told me that when I was 15 years old, I would have lost my fucking mind and not believed a word you were saying. It was a dream.”
Black Stallion arrives on December 11 via Warner. It features remixes from producers and artists including DJ Shadow, Clams Casino, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Squarepusher, Purity Ring, Blanck Mass, Salva, and others. Deftones recently released their ninth studio record, Ohms.
Miley Cyrus appeared on The Howard Stern Show last night (December 3) to perform a cover of Hole’s ‘Doll Parts’. Watch it below.
In 2020 alone, the pop singer has offered her take on songs by Hall & Oates, the Cranberries, Billie Eilish, the Beatles, and more. Her live renditions of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ and Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ also made it into the digital version of her latest album Plastic Hearts, which came out in late November. Cyrus’ seventh LP features guest appearances from Dua Lipa, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and Stevie Nicks. Read our review of the album here.
100 gecs have dropped a new holiday song called ‘sympathy 4 the grinch’. The latest from Laura Les and Dylan Brady is a ska-influenced, anti-Santa banger that samples their own song ‘stupid horse’. Check it out below.
‘sympathy 4 the grinch’ follows 100 gecs’ collaboration with 3OH!3, ‘LONELY MACHINES’. The duo also contributed production to Rico Nasty’s new album, which is out today (December 4). Their remix album, 1000 gecs & The Tree of Clues, came out back in July.
Iggy Pop has shared a French language rendition of Elvis Costello‘s ‘No Flag’, a song from his most recent studio album Hey Clockface that includes a reference to Iggy and the Stooges. Check out ‘No Flag (en Français)’ below.
Iggy Pop talked about reworking the song in a Rolling Stone conversation between the two artists: “There’s a uniqueness to the French language,” he said. “No other language has vowels that sound like that. Learning a song that’s as quick as ‘No Flag’ took a month of practice because my lips weren’t used to those combinations…I [worked on it] for 40 minutes a day for about five weeks. You don’t want to do too much work on it at once or it’s not fun anymore.”
Costello responded: “You sound absolutely convincing in French. When I played your version to Muriel she said, ‘This is unbelievable. You’re so inside the song.’ Diana and I were both listening to it with tears in our eyes.”
Hey Clockface, Costello’s 31st studio album, came out in October. Iggy Pop’s most recent LP was last year’s Free.
