Wednesday Music News

11/08/2017

Jasmine Albertson

North Carolina's Superchunk have announced a new album called What a Time to Be Alive (not be confused the Drake and Future collaborative album of the same title). They've also shared the album's first single and title track. Frontman Mac McCaughan said of the political messages within new album: "The album is about a lot of things of course but mainly dealing with anxiety and worse in the face of incipient authoritarianism.... [It's a record] about a pretty dire and depressing situation but hopefully not a record that is dire and depressing to listen to." What a Time to Be Alive is out February 16 via Merge. Superchunk are playing Neumos on Tuesday, February 27 with Bat Fangs. [ Under the Radar ]

Chicago soul singer Mavis Staples is releasing a new album next week called If All I Was Was Black. Last night she stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform the brand new single "Build a Bridge." Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who produced the album, joined her on stage, along with Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste. If All I Was Was Black follows up 2013's One True Vine and is out November 17 on Anticon. [ SPIN ]

One year after the impactful 2016 election and many of us are still confused and shocked by the results. Minneapolis band Poliça have collaborated with Berlin collective s t a r g a z e, led by conductor André de Ridder, to put into words what many were and still are feeling: "How Is This Happening." The song was written the day after the election and taps into the anger felt by the results with lyrics such as: “I’ll fight until my days are done/ Protect the ones he prays upon,” and "Resisting him, resisting me." The song will be on a full-length collaborative album between the two bands called Music For The Long Emergency, which will drop February 16 via Totally Gross National Product/Transgressive. [ Line of Best Fit ]

Chicago rapper Open Mike Eagle is yet another artist that has released a song today expressing his discontent with our current reigning president, or "garbage king," as OME refers to him in today's new single "Happy Wasteland Day." While the beat may be breezy and languid, the lyrics and the correlating video express the deep=rooted fury over Trump's position and terrible leadership. Directed by Ryan Calavano, the video features OME and a crew of displaced civilians in a junkyard wasteland while the king watches on, laughing at their hardships. OME has been releasing singles at a quick pace the past month but no announcement of an album has been made. [ Stereogum ]

Related News & Reviews

Daily Roundups

Wilco are about to release reissues of their first two albums, 1995's A.M. and 1996's Being There. On both reissues are unreleased tracks and today we've received one from the Being There sessions called "Dynamite My Soul." The acoustic track features vocals from frontman Jeff Tweedy and his acoust…

Daily Roundups

Tuesday Music News

Ty Segall has released a new song "My Lady's On Fire." The prolific garage-rocker has been performing the song live for a while but has never released a studio version until now. The song follows a string of singles, including "Meaning," "Alta," and a cover of the theme song for Adult Swim show Squ…