I had a mind-blowing conversation with Susan Tedeschi today. The singer-guitarist and I were chatting about the upcoming 25th anniversary edition of her 1998 album Just Won’t Burn, so naturally I asked if she had any plans to make a new solo album. She said she wants to make a country album, a gospel album — and maybe a punk album!! I swear to God I’m not making this up.
She said she would want to write most of the punk songs — hopefully with an assist from Dave Grohl (whom she met last December when they both got awards from the Smithsonian) — but laughingly said she might also do The MC5’s Kick Out The Jams. Then she asked me for some others artists she should cover — so naturally I suggested The Clash, Sex Pistols and Dead Boys, all of which she dutifully wrote down. That distant ka-boom you hear is my head asplodin’. I’ll post the full interview in a couple of weeks when that reissue arrives, but suffice to say that chat was definitely the highlight of my day. Here’s everything that came in as a close second: All the best new videos and singles of the day, compiled into another all-killer, no-filler rundown. Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters:
Sprints | Up And Comer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “And so it begins… The last gasp and last grasp before the imminent swell. It feels like it’s taken our whole lives to get to this place, but we know it’s exactly where we belong. What started as a project between four friends has evolved into something so much bigger, and it’s all down to you. So firstly, thank you. Second of all, we are delighted to announce that our debut album Letter To Self is coming on Jan. 5. Our new single Up and Comer is also out today. It expresses an invisible narrative that has been constructed by the doubts and negativity Karla been fed by others, as well her own imposter syndrome. Letter To Self is an exploration of pain, passion and perseverance. It is the beginning of a most honest era. It’s anger, it’s happiness, it’s rage and ecstasy, it’s the full embracing of each other and who we are — and accepting it. And we can’t wait for you to hear it. Make noise and look after each other.”
Terra Lightfoot | Someone Else’s Feelings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This October, celebrated songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot will release her new album Healing Power. Today, she’s following up the LP’s debut single Cross Border Lovers with Someone Else’s Feelings, a song Terra wrote in England during Americanafest UK. “I remember standing in a room full of songwriters and someone was talking about doing an upcoming Bob Dylan tribute night, and they said ‘Isn’t it just so easy to sing someone else’s feelings?’ ” she says. “I excused myself and went to an old cemetery across the road from the venue, and the song fell out amongst a few British teenagers who were up to no good nearby. (They left me alone, though.) Someone Else’s Feelings, to me, was written about how we sometimes let other people’s opinions and feelings dictate how we feel about a situation. Sometimes we make excuses for other people, or we don’t speak up when we know someone is saying something we don’t agree with. The phrase in the last verse ‘Hung that picture in the hall’ is about how we sometimes carry other people’s opinions and words with us into our own worlds, and sometimes hold them in higher regard than our own emotions.”
Geese | Jesse
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Geese have shared a new track, Jesse, as the first taste of the forthcoming EP 4D Country. “Jesse” started as a really fast song, then morphed into a slower, psych-ier, more soulful track. It got left off of the album because we didn’t feel like there was a good place for it, but we’ve always really enjoyed playing it live,” says frontman Cameron Winter. 4D Country will feature three additional new songs as well as an expanded version of 3D Country, the title track to Geese’s second album.”
Hit Bargain | Degree Decree
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hit Bargain (members of Beach Fossils and Cold Beat), the angular Los Angeles four-piece known for their sardonic explorations of gender, power dynamics, and aging action heroes, returns with their latest album, A Dog A Deer A Seal. The album is named for the recipe of Chinese three-penis wine, and an apocryphal chimera representing the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Keeping with the theme of disparate animal parts, Hit Bargain flex their stylistic range across the album. In Degree Decree, they lope through a frenetic climate dystopia in a manner that recalls the ghosts of angst rockers The Blood Brothers and the art school agitation of Erase Errata.”
The Joy Formidable | The Hat
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Joy Formidable have premiered their latest track The Hat. Ritzy Bryan said: “I feel like your own inner reflections can take on a sensation like being in space, alone in the gravity of your own uncertainty, drifting and off balance but aware of how beautiful and extraordinary life is.”
Dad Brains | Nuclear Tourism
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dad Brains is the new video from Athens, Ga., slacker garage punks Nuclear Tourism. Dad Brains ingeniously bottles the twentysomething generational malaise Dustin Hoffman channeled in The Graduate, carrying it forward across the decades — and through the punk-rock shredder — to the here & now, the band pouring it out like a cold 40oz to soothe its homies’ Gen Z burnout. If you’re lookin’ for angsty, self-deprecating PBR-soaked fun, Nuclear Tourism deliver valiantly, their eyebrows singed by the torch of philosophical forebears from The Troggs to The Replacements to FIDLAR.”
Soul Glo | If I Speak (Shut The Fuck Up)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Philly hardcore experimental extremists Soul Glo share the new single If I Speak (Shut The Fuck Up), the band’s first new music since 2022’s breakthrough album Diaspora Problems. Produced at Jamtown Studios in Philadelphia by GG Guerra with additional drum engineering by Evan Bernard, it was then mixed by Steve Evetts, and mastered by Alan Douches. Diving into thrash-leaning hardcore punk, If I Speak (Shut The Fuck Up) is anchored by a trance-inducing beat with gritty, fuzzed out guitars enhancing the raw rage from within vocalist Pierce Jordan. He explains, “If I Speak is a song about channeling one’s voice and perspective through art or another creative expression. You can hear when people spend more time online than on their music. You can tell when people are more focused on a visual statement than a sound.”
Brad Stank | Natty Wine
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Liverpool’s finest, Brad Stank, is back with the announcement of his new album In The Midst Of You, and shares a new single, Natty Wine. As gentile and melancholy as ever, Stank’s low drawl anchors the softly sardonic track. Stank expanded on the track, saying, “This is a tongue-in-cheek song I wrote after being gifted a bottle of natural wine by a friend. I’m a working class boy who would much rather drink shitty lager at a party, Stella or Holsten Pils. I’ve got no right to be writing a song about natty wine but I was feeling bougie. It’s a love song in disguise, I liked the imagery of lyrics like ‘Your sweet loving just keeps dripping from the vine’ … Features the only proper guitar solo on the record, and my favourite piece of percussion: The wooden frog.”
Jon Muq | Runaway
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jon Muq is a singer-songwriter born in Uganda and living in Austin, Texas. His poignant debut single Runaway blends sounds across the diaspora, drawing eclectically from folk, soul, rock and afropop. Muq’s haunting vocals are front and center, a sound truly their own and instantly provoke reflection and resilience. The single is accompanied by a music video, featuring Muq alone, playing his guitar in his room — a fitting introduction to his remarkable story, a tale that is interwoven with the instrument which for Muq became a portal to another world. On Runaway, Muq said: “Running away from anything good or bad is never a weakness but rather courageous.”
Faith & Harmony | I Heard The Voice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Faith & Harmony is comprised of sisters and cousins who come from a family full of pioneers who defined the raw energy and heavenly harmonies of Eastern North Carolina gospel, including Johnny Ray Daniels and Dorothy Vines, the Dedicated Men of Zion and celebrated folk artist Freeman Vines. I Heard The Voice, the title track from their upcoming album, honors the sacred soul tradition, but the group also make it their own, putting their own spin on these sounds and styles. They preserve, but also innovate.”
Seablite | Pot Of Boiling Water
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Seablite are a four-piece pop band from San Francisco inspired by ’80s/’90s indie and shoegaze. Seablite were formed in 2016 when Lauren Matsui (vocals / guitar) and Galine Tumasyan (vocals / bass) bonded over a mutual appreciation of early ’90s Britpop and U.K. underground music. The pair began writing songs and soon after Jen Mundy (ex-Wax Idols) joined on second guitar and Andy Pastalaniec (Chime School) would eventually join on drums. They have released an LP (2019’s Grass Stains and Novocaine) and 7” single (Breadcrumbs c/w Ink Bleeds) and a 10” EP (High-Rise Mannequins, recorded and produced by Alicia Vanden Heuvel of the Aislers Set). The band are among San Francisco’s current indie pop renaissance and have opened for the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Charlatans and Ladytron upon their recent Bay Area visits.”
Anjimile | Black Hole
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Anjimile Chithambo, better known as Anjimile, has a new album titled The King. His first full-length since 2020’s breakthrough Giver Taker includes recently released singles: The powerful title track, the gently emotive Father, the protest song Animal, and the new single Black Hole. The songs of The King document the range of complicated emotions of Anjimile’s lived experience — from the deep appreciation of parental support to the grief, fear and anger felt in response to the murder of George Floyd. The King was written in the wake of the pandemic and the rising, ceaseless wave of police brutality against Black folks. The brutally honest reflection of 2020’s deadly summer is less reminiscent of the pink cloud of early sobriety and more rooted in the reality of seeing brutality with clear eyes.”
Allison Russell | Demons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Four time Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, activist, and multi-instrumentalist Allison Russell has released her latest single Demons from her highly anticipated new album, The Returner, out this Friday. Says Russell: “We all have our demons and there’s no spell to make them vanish for good. I’m not even sure we want such a spell. Demons have their uses. They just don’t get to call the shots anymore — WE PUT EM ON THE BUS BUT WE DIDN’T LET EM DRIVE — that’s what it comes down to. They don’t get to drive, and they can’t steal our joy. And yes that’s an Outkast homage at the end of the song.”
Badge Époque Ensemble | Air, Light & Harmony
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On Nov. 3, Toronto’s Badge Époque Ensemble return with their new album Air, Light & Harmony. The release keeps up the jazz-funk group’s torrid pace of releases as their sixth LP and fourth album since 2019. The release completes a trilogy of triptych-titled works, following 2019’s Nature, Man & Woman, and 2021’s Future, Past & Present. All three of these releases feature compositions which resample loops and stems from prior albums. Air, Light & Harmony takes this gambit further with in-house recycling of snippets from dusty LP copies of their own work (a la Portishead’s famed approach) featured throughout to create warped and ambiguous moodscapes. This emphasis on texture is befitting of BÉE’s only entirely instrumental album.”
