It's that time of the week again - the best time of the week, if you ask us - where we hanker down to some great new music and wave goodbye to all the stresses of the previous days, ready in time for the weekend.
Before we look too far ahead however, let's firstly take a moment to congratulate last week's winners of our best track of the week poll.
And, with a drum roll please...leading the lot with the most votes was Dream Nail's Femme Boi, which won the hearts of 52.17% of you. Congrats!
Following on behind in the second place spot was Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers tongue-in-cheek I Used To Be Fun, netting 21.74% of the overall vote.
And racking up 8.7% of the vote each, was Empire State Bastard with their deliciously doomy The Looming, which finished neck on neck with Los Angeles, the first single from the new goth supergroup Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee (comprised of The Cure's Lol Tolhurst, The Banshees' Budgie and producer/former Compulsion guitarist Jacknife Lee).
To get involved on the next vote, select your favourite from this week's entries at the bottom of the page below.
Meet Me @ The Altar - Take Me Away
While some of us may have forgotten that this track ever existed, this cover of Take Me Away - as originally featured in the 2003 body-swapping comedy hit film Freaky Friday - will swamp you in nostalgia. So here it is again, ready to earworm its way back into your life thanks to Meet Me @ The Altar, who've paid their respects to Lindsey Lohan's punk rock era with a mostly loyal reimagining, albeit with a dazzling vocal key-change.
"Aside from it just being an absolutely iconic moment in pop culture, Take Me Away, Pink Slip, and Freaky Friday as a whole had a lot of influence over us growing up," the band say. "It’s everything we love all meshed into one - female representation in punk music, and on screen! Being able to pay homage to such an endless well of inspiration to us was really gratifying. It really takes you back to an era that I think we all miss.”
The Linda Lindas - Resolution/Revolution
Los Angeles alt. rock quartet The Linda Lindas have turned to the unexpected for new single Resolution/Revolution, inspired by the big and boisterous guitar riffs of Judas Priest and Pantera. Backboned by a menacing guitar line, the track is moodily defiant, bolstered by resolute lyrics about being strong enough to keep fighting in the face of injustice, with many opting to blame those around them instead of coming together in solidarity. “She [guitarist Bela Salazar] came in with a riff and as we worked together, it morphed into composition about making small dents in big problems to make a difference in the long run" says the band.
The Story So Far - Big Blind
Ahead of their trek across the UK and Europe with Blink-182, The Story So Far have unveiled their first new music in five years, an earnest delivery of noughties-inspired pop punk. Flushed with gliding vocal harmonies and a racing punk rhythm, the Californian foursome bounce back to their roots with a sound that's highly reminiscent of their earliest releases. Complete with cascading melody lines and cryptic lyrics such as 'And if you wanna play cards you better be careful / Small blind big blind I will stack the deck cause I know the dealer', it's a satisfyingly strong return.
Hey Colossus - Curved In The Air
Arriving with a monochromatic video that starts with a time-traveller entering Glastonbury's famous Tor, the band provide the simple descriptor: "A knight appears from the 11th Century, walks into town, watches band, hates band, hates 2023, goes back to the 11th Century". Meanwhile, a pulsating riff flickers and creeps around a spacious melody, as solemn backing vocals appear to help alter its sense of disturbed time, melding together its modern alt-rock haze with an ancient folksiness.
Jobber - Summerslam
Having debuted last year with the wrestling-themed Hell In A Cell EP, Brooklyn alt.rock quartet Jobber return with another nod to a golden age of mullets, oily moobs and under-sized spandex budgie-smugglers. “Summerslam is the first Jobber song that really resembles the heavy rock I used to hear growing up when WWF was at its peak,” vocalist/guitarist Kate Meizner explains, comparing the single to something you could have heard "from a WWF-era Summerslam commercial or in the background of WCW Beach Brawl ’99.” Meisner says Summerslam is about “people who enter positions of political power and become jaded, going through motions only to lose touch with how their actions impact real human lives.” If the idea of Smashing Pumpkins jamming with Helmet and Lush sounds appealing, Jobber are your new favourite band.
Yungblud - Lowlife
Given a digital ‘soft release’ back in June, Lowlife was sold as the beginning of a ‘new era’ for Doncaster pop-punk star Yungblud. Now it’s accompanied by a colourful video, likened by its creator to “an Emo Shameless” or “St Trinians on Acid”, in which Yungblud (aka Dom Harrison) and his younger self bounce around the streets of Camden, north London. “I knew it had to be shot in Camden Town and I wanted to be walking side by side with my younger self, guiding him through a fucked up world based on real memories and people I have encountered in my life,” Almost a message to myself saying that life doesn’t always have to be so deep and there is beauty to be found in chaos and opportunity in disaster.”
Queens Of The Stone Age - Negative Space
One of the most instantly accessible tracks on QOTSA’s In Times New Roman… album, and something of a throwback to the band’s early motorik riff-rock, Negative Space is about the feeling of liberation that comes with accepting that it’s impossible to control every aspect of one’s life, and just strapping in for the ride, come what may. “I was thinking about the nature of oblivion, Josh Homme told NME earlier this year. “You wanna hear a depressing thought? If you were cut loose from your spaceship, and you’re in a space suit, there’s nothing to stop you. You’d see Earth as you’re gently turning, until you’re like: ‘Fuck, I can’t see it anymore.’ And it’s just… [spreads his arms towards the cliff’s edge, gesturing at the vastness of eternity] …that. “
CHAI - NEO KAWAII, K?
Fronted by identical twin sisters Mana and Kana, Nagoya’s CHAI are surely the perkiest band ever signed to grunge incubation chamber Sub Pop, and the effervescent, genre-mashing, electro-pop of NEO KAWAII, K? is a joyous hymn to individuality and self-acceptance, as Mana explains: “Everyone is NEO KAWAII! This is CHAI’s answer, this is a fact in this world! We can finally say what it really means to us♡ Everyone’s a bit weird. Everyone’s different. Everyone’s awkward, almost to a point that it’s hard to relate. But that’s what’s interesting! That’s what makes it beautiful.” The band’s self-titled fourth album will follow next month.
