“‘Just Be Friends’ feels like a really grown up continuation of themes/moods from my first two albums,” SASAMI explained in a statement. “I returned to some of the stream of consciousness, emotional lyrical writing style of my first album and kept riding the country wave that was in the fabric of Squeeze but with a bit more modern country influence. I love how country songs often tell a story. Longing, lingering, loneliness and lust. When I play this one live, I always dedicate it to anyone ‘sad and horny’ in the crowd… if that means anything.”
Blood on the Silver Screen is due out March 7 via Domino.
The Bridge_Work project showcase at Chicago’s Hyde Park Art Center brought together a dynamic collection of works from artists across diverse backgrounds and generations, celebrating contemporary creative practices while exploring intersections between the human body, environment, technology, and tradition. Among the standout pieces was Air Flows Between Us by artist Xingyu Huang, an immersive, participatory installation that explores themes of anxiety, interaction, sound, and traditional medicine. Through a sensory-focused experience, Huang invites viewers to connect with intricate emotional and psychological layers.
Embodied Anxiety and Tangible Experiences
In Air Flows Between Us, Xingyu Huang addresses the somatization of anxiety, where psychological distress—fear, tension, or unease—manifests in physical symptoms like dizziness, palpitations, and headaches. Inspired by interviews with individuals living with anxiety disorders, Huang translates these internal sensations—mental noise, accelerated heartbeat, trembling fingers, and fluctuating emotions—into distinct rhythms and sensory cues within the installation space. This externalization of anxiety creates a shared experience that brings an often-invisible struggle into a more relatable, empathetic realm.
Xingyu Huang- Air flows between us
A Space of Sensory Resonance
The installation immerses viewers in a space filled with sound and scent, forming an almost gravitational pull that guides powdered blue pigment—a mix of medicinal and dye forms of the woad plant—to fall in a pattern synchronized with bio-rhythm data. The powder slowly accumulates and dissipates, echoing the buildup and release of tension. This layering of sound and scent encourages viewers to step into a space where unspoken emotions can be felt in a visceral way, bridging gaps in human understanding.
Medicinal powder accumulated on the floor
Reframing Emotional Communication
In her artist statement, Huang discusses her intent to use sensory experiences to explore the complexities of human connection. Her work reconstructs emotional and physiological states, allowing viewers to engage with shared yet intensely personal experiences. Her background in architecture shapes her focus on spatial awareness and sensory environments, considering how physical space affects consciousness and emotional processing. Elements such as traditional medicine, botanical matter, ambiguous sounds, erratic movements, and enclosed spaces contribute to her nuanced investigation of the relationship between body, space, and emotion.
Artist Xingyu Huang in conversation with curator Yoonshin Park
The Silent Language of Anxiety
Following the exhibition, Xingyu Huang joined curator Yoonshin Park in a conversation titled “Sensing the Unspeakable: Soundscapes of Communication,” co-presented by Working Title and the Hyde Park Art Center in the Muller Meeting Room. This artist talk offered insights into Huang’s exploration of emotion, space, sound, and the complexities of communicating what words often cannot express.
Huang discussed the conceptual and technical challenges she faced while developing Air Flows Between Us, where sensory thresholds are explored through a blend of sound, medicinal herbs, and organic materials. She explained how the abrupt sounds produced by the installation’s mechanical elements contrast with the gently falling powder, symbolizing the tension within anxiety—reflecting both inner turmoil and outer calm. This interplay between violent and serene elements captures the often-overlooked duality of mental health struggles.
Art as a Bridge Across Sensory and Emotional Boundaries
The Bridge_Work exhibition demonstrates the power of art to transcend cultural and generational boundaries, creating a platform for shared experiences. Xingyu Huang’s Air Flows Between Us is notable for its innovative integration of sound, scent, and spatial interaction, transforming anxiety into a form that resonates both physically and emotionally. By breaking down traditional viewing modalities and constructing a sensory-driven environment, Huang prompts audiences to explore the intricate connections between body, emotion, and environment.
Through this dialogue, viewers not only experienced the subtle interplay between physical and emotional realms in Huang’s work but also gained insight into the challenges contemporary artists face when depicting complex psychological landscapes. As Yoonshin Park remarked, Huang’s work illustrates that art can serve as a conduit for emotional communication, transcending linguistic barriers and fostering deeper self-understanding and empathy.
Artist Xingyu Huang in conversation with curator Yoonshin Park
In this retrospective review, Air Flows Between Us stands out as a powerful yet sensitive approach to conveying universal themes of anxiety, empathy, and human connection, bridging sensory boundaries to create moments of profound introspection and understanding.
Japanese singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Ichiko Aoba has a new album on the way: Luminescent Creatures will be released on February 28 via her imprint hermine. Its lead single, ‘Luciférine’, is out today. Along with the news, Aoba has announced a 2025 world tour. Listen to ‘Luciférine’ below, and scroll down for the album cover, tracklist, and the list of dates.
Aoba’s previous album was 2020’s Windswept Adan, which was conceived as the soundtrack to an imaginary film about a girl who journeys from her home to the fantastical Adan Island. “Luminescent Creatures was born from Windswept Adan,” Aoba explained in a statement. “It began when I started wondering what happened after the protagonist of Windswept Adan disappeared along with the music of the island’s inhabitants. What would be left?”
Luminescent CreaturesCover Artwork:
Luminescent CreaturesTracklist:
1. COLORATURA
2. 24° 3′ 26.98″ N, 123° 47′ 7.5″ E
3. mazamun
4. tower
5. aurora
6. FLAG
7. Cochlea
8. Luciférine
9. prisomnia
10. SONAR
11. 惑星の泪 (Wakusei no Namida)
Ichiko Aoba 2025 Tour Dates:
Mon Feb 24 – Hong Kong, CN – Xi Qu Centre, Grand Theatre [with Musicians from HK Phil]
Wed Feb 26 – Seoul, KR – Sky Arts Hall
Wed March 6 – Taipei, TW – Zhongshan Hall
Mon March 10 – Barcelona, ES – Parallel 62
Tue March 11 – Valencia, ES – Teatro Rambleta
Thu March 13 – Milan, IT – Auditorium San Fedele
Sat March 15 – Zurich, CH – Mascotte
Tue March 18 – Hamburg, DE – Laiszhalle
Wed March 19 – Berlin, DE – Urania (Humboldtsaal)
Fri March 21 – Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg (Grote Zaal)
Sun March 23 – Groningen, NL – Oosterpoort
Tue March 25 – Antwerp, BE – De Roma
Thu March 27 – Paris, FR – La Trianon
Mon March 31 – London, UK – Barbican [with 12 Ensemble]
Wed April 2 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
Fri April 4 – Gateshead, UK – The Glasshouse
Sat April 5 – Glasgow, UK – City Halls
Thu April 17 – Honolulu, HI – Hawaii Theatre
Sat April 19 – Vancouver, BC – Chan Centre
Sun April 20 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
Mon April 21 – Seattle, WA – The Moore
Wed April 23 – Oakland, CA – Fox Oakland
Sat April 26 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern [with Wordless Music Quintet]
Sun April 27 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern [with Wordless Music Quintet]
Tue April 29 – Scottsdale, AZ – Scottsdale Center
Thu May 1 – Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
Fri May 2 – St. Paul, MN – Fitzgerald Theatre
Tue May 6 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
Wed May 7 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
Thu May 8 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral Theatre
Sat May 10 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre
Mon May 12 – Boston, MA – Berklee Performance Center
Wed May 14 – New York, NY – Kings Theatre [with Wordless Music Quintet]
Sat May 17 – Philadelphia, PA – Miller Theatre
Sun May 18 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
Thu May 22 – Mexico City, MX – Teatro Metropolitan
St. Vincent has shared ‘El Mero Cero’, the latest single from Todos Nacen Gritando, her Spanish-language reworking of All Born Screaming. Annie Clark has also announced new tour dates for 2025, including shows with Olivia Rodrigo and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Listen to the new version of ‘Big Time Nothing’ and check out St. Vincent’s tour itinerary below.
Todos Nacen Gritando arrives this Friday, November 15.
St. Vincent 2024/2025 Tour Dates:
Nov 16 – Mexico City, Mexico – Corona Capital
Nov 22 – Jakarta, Indonesia – Joyland
Nov 25 – Melbourne, Australia – Palais Theatre
Nov 26 – Ballarat, Australia – Her Majesty’s Theatre
Nov 27 – Melbourne, Australia – Forum
Nov 28 – Melbourne, Australia – Crown Aviary
Nov 30 – Hong Kong, China – Clockenflap
Jan 4 – Tokyo, Japan – Rockin’On Festival
Jan 6 – Seoul, South Korea – YES 24 Live Hall
Jan 8 – Manila, Philippines – The Filinvest Tent
Jan 11 – Los Angeles, CA – AlterEgo
Mar 26 – Curitiba, Brazil – Estadio Couto Pereira (w/ Olivia Rodrigo)
Mar 29 – Bogotá, Colombia – Estéreo Picnic
Apr 2 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros (w/ Olivia Rodrigo)
Apr 4 – Monterrey, Mexico – Pa’l Norte
Apr 6 – Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum
Apr 7 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater
Apr 8 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
Apr 10 – New Orleans, LA – Orpheum Theater
Apr 11 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
Apr 12 – Charlottesville, VA – Ting Pavilion
Apr 13 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
Apr 15 – Boston, MA – Agganis Arena (w/ Nick Cave)
Apr 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center (w/ Nick Cave)
Apr 18 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
Morpho – the Chicago-based project of guitarist Kristyn Chapman – has shared a new single from her debut EP, Morpho Season, which is out this Friday (November 15) via Hit the North Records. ‘Blue Light follows the previously unveiled tracks ‘Prism’ and ‘Half of Two’. Check out a video for it below.
“I’m a graphic designer and I spend a lot of time aligning to the center, left-aligning or grid-aligning things… Very exact with everything,” Chapman shared in a statement. “This song’s about being tired of that and wanting to be more free. It’s also about dependence on technology and phones… how digital our lives and memories have become.”
Long Island emo band Koyo have released a new song, ‘Mile a Minute’. It’s the title track off their new three-song EP, which is out today via Pure Noise Records. Check it out below.
“This is the first full band, full-send Koyo track after releasing our first record – for sure an intimidating prospect,” frontman Joey Chiaramonte explained in a statement. “We’ve been slowly but surely getting more music together, maybe keeping everything a little closer to our chests than usual. So we wanted to select one proper Koyo track to hold everyone down for a while. ‘Mile A Minute’ is a strong foot forward in this moment.”
After performing The Black Parade in full at When We Were Young this fall, My Chemical Romance have announced a summer stadium tour celebrating their seminal 2006 album. The band will play 10 North American shows across July, August, and September. Each show features support from a different artist: Violent Femmes, 100 Gecs, Wallows, Garbage, Death Cab for Cutie and Thursday (on the same show), Alice Cooper, Pixies, Devo, IDLES, and Evanescence. Check out the list of dates and a trailer for the tour below.
In a note to fans, MCR wrote:
It has been seventeen years since The Black Parade was sent to the MOAT. In that time, a great Dictator has risen to power, bringing about “THE CONCRETE AGE”; a glorious time of stability and abundance in the history of DRAAG. His Grand Immortal Dictator wishes to celebrate our rich and storied culture, fine foods, and musical entertainments by welcoming you to these great demonstrations of power and resolve. And lending voice and song for the first time in six thousand two hundred and forty six days, their work privilege ceremoniously reinstated, will be His Grand Immortal Dictator’s National Band… The Black Parade.
Jul 11 – Seattle, WA – T-Mobile Park (Special Guest: Violent Femmes)
Jul 19 – San Francisco, CA – Oracle Park (Special Guest: 100 Gecs)
Jul 26 – Los Angeles, CA – Dodger Stadium (Special Guest: Wallows)
Aug 2 – Arlington, TX – Globe Life Field (Special Guest: Garbage)
Aug 9 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium (Special Guests: Death Cab for Cutie and Thursday)
Aug 15 – Philadelphia, PA – Citizens Bank Park (Special Guest: Alice Cooper)
Aug 22 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre (Special Guest: Pixies)
Aug 29 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field (Special Guest: Devo)
Sep 7 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park (Special Guest: IDLES)
Sep 13 – Tampa, FL – Raymond James Stadium (Special Guest: Evanescence)
Oakland-based artist Kathryn Mohr has announced her debut album, Waiting Room, arriving January 24 on The Flenser. The LP was written and self-recorded over a month in eastern Iceland. Listen to the first single ‘Driven’ below.
Mohr made the new album “within the walls of a disused fish factory surrounded by remote nature,” according to a press release. “Mohr spent hours immersed in the writing and recording of this album in a windowless concrete room lit with a string of multicolored light bulbs (which made their way into the album art), taking breaks to wander the factory or disappear up the shoreline—field recorder in hand. What came out of those recording hours are songs inspired by horror as extravagant as limb amputation by a faulty elevator and lyrics as maze-like and misguided as the torturous love and fears they depict.”
Mohr reflected: “Music takes me out of my body, immerses me in another world the way a film does. I begin and end in very different emotional states, doors open where there were no doors before– that is what I experienced making this record. If this inner movement is contagious, spreads to those who listen, then this was a record worth creating.”
Waiting Room Cover Artwork:
Waiting Room Tracklist:
1. Diver
2. Rated
3. Driven
4. Petrified
5. Take It
6. Elevator
7. Prove It
8. Horizonless
9. Cornered
10. Wheel
11. Waiting Room
Squid have announced their next album, Cowards, which will be out February 7 via Warp Records. The follow-up to 2023’s O Monolith is led by the single ‘Crispy Skin’, which arrives with a video directed by Takashi Ito. Check it out below.
“‘Crispy Skin’ was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets,” lead vocalist/drummer Ollie Judge said in a statement. “I think when most people read books like these they picture themselves as the sort of person that would take the moral high-ground within these narratives. The track was written about how the reality of having a moral-compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult.”
Judge added, “If I was actually in that world, I probably would be the coward in this instance.”
The music video serves as an adaptation of Ito’s award-winning experimental 1995 short film Zone. Ito offered the following description: “A film about a man without a face. His arms and legs bound with ropes, still without even a quiver in a white room. This man, enwrapped in wild delusions, is also a reconstruction of myself. A series of unusual scenes in this room that expresses what lies inside me. I tried to create a connection between memories, nightmares and violent images.”
Cowards features contributions from Danish experimental songwriter Clarissa Connelly, composer, pianist, and singer Tony Njoku, Rosa Brook of Pozi, percussionist Zands Duggan, and the Ruisi Quarte. Marta Salogni, Grace Banks, and Dan Carey helped produce the LP, which was mixed by Tortoise drummer John McEntire and mastered by Heba Kadry.
Cowards Cover Artwork:
Cowards Tracklist:
1. Crispy Skin
2. Building 650
3. Blood on the Boulders
4. Fieldworks I
5. Fieldworks II
6. Cro-Magnon Man
7. Cowards
8. Showtime!
9. Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence)
Minneapolis punk trio VIAL have announced Grow the Fuck Up, a re-recorded and reworked version of their debut project Grow Up. It’s set to arrive on November 29 via Get Better Records. They’ve also shared a video for the track ‘DIY or Die’. Watch it below.
“We rerecorded our debut EP Grow Up to look back on our progress as musicians and revisit some very nostalgic songs after 5 years of VIAL,” the band said in a statement. “It’s like a little love letter to our younger selves. When we first recorded Grow Up, we had very limited resources during the recording process and didn’t even use our own cables. We feel very lucky we’re able to revisit this EP now that we have access to the funds, skills, and equipment we’d always wanted to allocate towards these eight songs.”
