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 the a surprise new album from Typhoon, a new track from Hand Habits, and an exciting new album featuring Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.
Rhye – Home
Mike Milosh has been pretty prolific throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, and his latest LP Home doesn’t falter in its dreamy and ambitious approach. “It seems trite to describe Rhye as indie-pop given the grand melodies, powerful beats, and strikingly idiosyncratic perspectives that comes across in Mike Milosh’s singular music,” wrote Steven Hyden in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.
Typhoon – Sympathetic Magic
Almost three years to the date after unleashing their last album Offerings, Typhoon is back with a surprise new LP, which dropped out of the sky last Friday. Sympathetic Magic is as politically-charged as Typhoon has ever gotten on a record, taking on the pandemic and political unrest that has been on full display over the last year.
CARM – CARM
CJ Camerieri has had a hand in recent music from Taylor Swift, Paul Simon, The National, and plenty more, but now he has centered his focus on the release of a self-titled debut album under the moniker CARM, which features flourishes of horns and entrancing instrumentation, along with guest appearances from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Sufjan Stevens, and members of Yo La Tengo.
Kiwi Jr – Cooler Returns
Just over a year after releasing their debut album Football Money, Toronto quartet Kiwi Jr. are back with their sophomore effort, successfully building upon the template that quickly garnered them comparisons to Pavement. On Cooler Returns, the band’s “shambolic yet catchy songs are loaded with fractured riffs and lyrical non-sequiturs,” wrote Steven Hyden in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.
The Head And The Heart – Rivers And Roads: Live From Pike Place Market
In August of 2019, Seattle natives The Head And The Heart found themselves performing atop the city’s iconic Pike Place Market to 30,000 fans, the same market where they would busk at the beginning of their journey as a band a decade ago. The performance included energetic versions of tracks from throughout the band’s career, including “Honeybee” and “Missed Connection.” The group commemorated the event with a concert film and album, which can be watched in full on Amazon.
Palberta – Palberta5000
New York art-punk trio Palberta has been forging ahead over the last several years, dropping impressive album after impressive album. Palberta5000 might be the most intriguing of all the band’s releases to date, with Steven Hyden praising the band for finding “the middle ground between minimalist, deconstructionist indie and the danceable grooves and relentless rhythms of funk and R&B” in the latest Indie Mixtape newsletter.
Camp Trash – Downtiming EP
After generating a good amount of hype around their debut EP with the release of two promising singles, Camp Trash made good on the promise of an excellent (albeit short) collection of emo-inspired power pop tracks with Downtiming. The EP’s four tracks feel like a throwback to the height of teen movies, where a song like “Bobby” could soundtrack a high schooler surfing the internet for the first time. They should hang out with Beabadoobee.
Chai – “Action”
Japanese quartet Chai signed to esteemed indie label Sub Pop for their third full-length album Wink. “Action” is a great first taste of the LP, with glitchy electronic production and Mana’s affected vocals giving the song a unique futuristic aesthetic.
Hand Habits – “4th Of July”
Hand Habits’ Placeholder was one of our favorite albums of 2019, and now Meg Duffy is back with all new music on Dirt EP. The effort’s lead single “4th Of July” is what Derrick Rossignol calls for Uproxx a “climactic folk-rocker,” a slow-burning number that features little more than guitar and vocals at the outset before building to a dreamy, cinematic conclusion.
Matthew E. White & Lonnie Holley – “This Here Jungle Of Moderness/Composition 14”
Sometimes, it takes the creative push of a collaborative partner to help create your best work. This is the case for Matthew E. White and Lonie Holley, who claim in a press release that their new five-track effort Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection features the most exciting and explosive tracks of their collective careers. Lead single “This Here Jungle Of Moderness/Composition 14” is a sprawling seven-minute epic that encompasses everything from avant garde to funkadelic.
Deb Never – “Someone Else”
After running into a creative dry spell in Los Angeles, Deb Never packed her bags and booked a one-way flight to London, where she moved in with longtime collaborator Michael Percy with the only goal of writing an onslaught of music. “Someone Else” is the first taste of Never’s “London period,” a lo-fi indie number produced by Jam City that opens in a subdued, reflective nature before a hyper pop beat drops and transforms the song into something resembling a dance track.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.