Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week, we got new music from The Smile, Katy Kirby, Militarie Gun, and more.
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Katy Kirby – Blue Raspberry
There’s a lot of indie music out there that sounds like Katy Kirby. But rarely do people do it as well as Kirby herself. 2021’s Cool Dry Place was a quiet, meditative record whose marvelous subtleties landed like gut punches. Newly signed to Anti- Records, the Texas-born, Nashville-based indie-folk songwriter has a lot more attention on her, and for good reason. Her new album, Blue Raspberry, is a masterful exercise in restraint, one in which the most memorable moments come from its quietude. There’s the gentle finger-picking and strings in “Party Of The Century;” the tender brush-drumming on “Alexandria;” and the swooning, orchestral embellishments of “Salt Crystal.” Blue raspberry may be an artificial flavor, but there’s nothing artificial about Kirby’s record.
The Smile – Wall Of Eyes
Within the span of less than two years, we’ve gotten two new records from The Smile, the Radiohead side project that features frontman Thom Yorke, guitarist and ad hoc everyman Jonny Greenwood, and former Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. It’s easily the most prolific Yorke and Greenwood have been as a unit in years, and, frankly, it doesn’t bode well for the prospect of a new Radiohead album. But it’s hard to complain when the music is this transfixing, ornate, and outright gorgeous, as is the case with Wall Of Eyes. Whether it’s the amorphous ambiance and muted percussion of “Teleharmonic” or the uneasy, crackling guitars of “Read The Room,” The Smile makes a compelling case as something greater than a Radiohead side project. They’re simply one of the greatest new art-rock bands around.
Joe Wong – “What Have You Done”
Los Angeles composer Joe Wong is back with his sophomore album, Mere Survival, in just a few days. Meanwhile, Wong has given us one more taste before it officially drops. “What Have You Done,” like much of his work, teems with orchestral flourishes and psychedelic production, courtesy of guitarist Mary Timony. From the swelling strings in the intro to the slapback echo that colors his vocals in the chorus, Wong’s latest tune is a kaleidoscopic reverie.
Fanclubwallet – “Band Like That”
The irony of naming a song “Band Like That” isn’t lost on Hannah Judge, the Ottawa musician who originally started Fanclubwallet as a bedroom-pop project. That one-person endeavor has now transformed into a proper, full-fledged four-piece. As the lead single for their forthcoming EP, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines, “Band Like That” appropriately lives up to its name. It’s the sound of a group of musicians playing in a room together, as Judge’s songwriting takes on a new life that feels more fully fleshed out than ever before. This band has made a great song about starting a band.
Shannon & The Clams – “The Moon Is In The Wrong Place”
Weeks before Shannon Shaw’s wedding, her fiancé, Joe Haener, died in a car accident. Understandably, it completely upended her life and her bandmates’ lives, too, as they were all close with Haener. Shannon & The Clams’ forthcoming album, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, traverses the tragedy, loss, and grief that arose from that moment. On the title track, the garage-rock group, with production from de facto member Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, trudges through the calamity together, underlining friendship’s importance in times of distress.
Liquid Mike – “American Caveman”
Power-pop-punk perfectly sums up what Liquid Mike is all about. The Marquette, Michigan outfit sneaks jangly earworms into riffs slathered in distortion. Imagine if Mark Hoppus fronted a DIY band, and you’d get some semblance of Liquid Mike. As last year’s S/T showed, this band has got hooks on hooks, and they’re nowhere close to running out of said hooks. Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot, their soon-to-be-released fifth album, is chock-full of them. Take “American Caveman,” whose harmonica melodies foreshadow frontman Mike Maple’s vocal melodies in the verse. It’s all so catchy that you won’t even notice it’s in the same time signature as countless Rush songs.
Future Islands – People Who Aren’t There Anymore
It’s hard to believe that Future Islands’ legendary Letterman performance is officially a decade old now. The new-wave revivalists took the late-night stage just a couple of months before their breakthrough album, Singles, introduced them to a significantly wider audience. People Who Aren’t There Anymore, which sees them reunite with mixing engineer Chris Coady for the first time since Singles, boasts some of the band’s catchiest music since that breakthrough moment. It captures the band’s freewheeling energy and frontman Samuel T. Herring’s gripping charisma, from the propulsive, dancey “Say Goodbye” to the powerful, wistful ballad “The Fight.”
Militarie Gun – Life Under The Sun
Life Under The Gun was a fitting title for last year’s Militarie Gun album. It blazed by in a brisk 27 minutes, Ian Shelton’s gravelly delivery acting as a lodestar for both his own career and hardcore as a whole. On Life Under The Sun, the LA band’s new EP, four songs (and a NOFX cover) from that record gain new life and context. Absent are Shelton’s howling vocals, replaced by contemplative crooning from himself and peers like Manchester Orchestra, Bully, and Mannequin Pussy. For a band so heavily linked to the contemporary state of hardcore, Militarie Gun displays a gift for a different kind of command: one where quiet, peaceful instrumentation is just as effective as Shelton’s signature OOH! OOHs!
Hurray For The Riff Raff – “Colossus Of Roads”
“Colossus Of Roads” practically spilled out of Alynda Segarra’s pen. Composed right after the tragic Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs in 2022, Segarra’s new single is an urgent yet measured missive, a call to arms for the queer community and against the hegemonic powers that try to stifle it. “Say goodbye to America / I wanna see it dissolve,” Segarra sings, their winsome melodies contrasting the monstrous imagery of gunfire. It’s easy to understand why it’s their favorite song they’ve written to date.
Finnoguns Wake – Stay Young
Finnoguns Wake, like the best punk bands, was born from sheer circumstances and kindred spirits. After Tim “Shogun” Wall’s best friend moved overseas, he got in touch with that friend’s brother, Finn Berzin. The duo hit it off immediately, and that camaraderie is apparent throughout the four tracks on Stay Young, their debut EP. Like if Oasis were actually a punk band and enjoyed each other’s company, Finnoguns Wake makes music that transcends scenes; Shogun played in groups like Royal Headache and Shogun And The Sheets, and Berzin had recently purchased a guitar when the pair started making music together. From the Britpop crunch of closing track “Strawberry Avalanche” to the talk-sing cadences of “So Nice,” Finnoguns Wake make their influences their own. Despite its creators’ distance in age and origins, Stay Young sounds like the creation of two close, inseparable friends.
Hurray For The Riff Raff is a Warner Music artist. .
