Month: September 2024

Over the past couple weeks, Linkin Park has been teasing something, and the prevailing theory has been that the group was getting ready to reunite following the death of singer Chester Bennington.

Yesterday (September 5), they made the big reveal: The band is indeed back, and there’s a new album (From Zero) and tour on the way. The biggest follow-up question from the announcement, though, is who is the new singer they just added?

Who Is Linkin Park’s New Singer Emily Armstrong?

Armstrong is the lead singer and co-founder of Los Angeles rock band Dead Sara. The group released a self-titled debut album in 2012, and it spawned what remains Dead Sara’s most successful single: “Weatherman,” which ranked on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Their 2015 album, Pleasure To Meet You, was a top-10 release on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart. In a 2013 interview, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl proclaimed, “Dead Sara should be the next biggest rock band in the world.”

Also joining Linkin Park is Colin Brittain, a songwriter/producer for artists like G Flip, Illenium, and One OK Rock who will play drums for LP. The band lineup currently features Armstrong, Brittain, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, and Joe Hahn. Rob Bourdon, a founding member of Linkin Park, is no longer in the group.

In a press release, Shinoda said of Armstrong and Brittain, “The more we worked with Emily and Colin, the more we enjoyed their world-class talents, their company, and the things we created. We feel really empowered with this new lineup and the vibrant and energized new music we’ve made together. We’re weaving together the sonic touchpoints we’ve been known for and still exploring new ones.”

The new members’ first song with the band, “The Emptiness Machine,” is out now, so watch the video above. Find the From Zero cover art and tracklist below, along with Linkin Park’s upcoming tour dates.

Linkin Park’s From Zero Album Cover Artwork

Linkin Park’s From Zero Tracklist

1. “From Zero (Intro)”
2. “The Emptiness Machine”
3. “Cut The Bridge”
4. “Heavy Is The Crown”
5. “Over Each Other”
6. “Casualty”
7. “Overflow”
8. “Two Faced”
9. “Stained”
10. “IGYEIH”
11. “Good Things Go”

Linkin Park’s 2024 Tour Dates: From Zero World Tour

09/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
09/16 — New York, NY @ Barclays Center
09/22 — Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
09/24 — London, UK @ The O2
09/28 — Seoul, South Korea @ INSPIRE Arena
11/11 — Bogota, Colombia @ Coliseo Medplus

From Zero is out 11/15 via Warner Records. Find more information here.

Steven begins today’s episode by apologizing to Ian and the Sum 41 fan community for his recent disrespectful comments on the pod — new information has come to light that made him rethink his snarkiness. Then there is a short Sportscast about the new NFL season, and more despair from Steven about the state of his fantasy albums draft team.

The guys then pivot to the new MJ Lenderman album out today, Manning Fireworks. It’s Steven’s favorite record of the year, and Ian likes it, too, though not as much. Steven also recounts seeing King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard live for the first time this week, which made clear just how huge that band is.

In the mailbag, they address emails about the worst contracts in music history and whether they “yay or nay” the band Girls.

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the emo band Floral Tattoo while Steven stumps for a new book by The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 205 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

For day-one fans of Toro Y Moi, his new album Hole Erth might be a hard left turn — especially the two songs for which he dropped videos as the album finally hit DSPs. In the videos for “Babydaddy” and “Madonna,” Toro embraces his inner horndog, employing trappy beats and singing with vocoder effects as he muses about the fairer sex on the two songs. Both videos have a scuzzy, home movie feel, with “Madonna,” which features Don Toliver, adding a night vision filter reminiscent of a certain notorious tape from the early 2000s, and the video for “Babydaddy” resembling strip club security footage. You can check out the former above and the latter below.

The songs are certainly a departure from the previously released singles for the album like “Heaven” and “Tuesday,” which featured nostalgic vibes evoking the innocence of childhood. It seems Toro is branching out with the new album, which also features rappers Duckwrth, Kevin Abstract, and Kenny Mason, as Chaz spreads his wings and leaves the washed-out vibes of his early Chillwave projects behind. Coming up, Toro will appear at the Las Vegas-based Life Is Beautiful Block Party — which should be the perfect venue for his to debut his racier new direction.

Watch the videos for “Madonna” and “Babydaddy” above.

J. Cole has been lying low for the past few months, but thanks to ASAP Rocky, he’s back with a vengeance. The two blog era vets team up on “Ruby Rosary,” a mournful dirge for their foes produced by The Alchemist. There’s a lot of wordplay on this record, which features a murky beat just subtle enough to give them a lot of room to work. The Alchemist had previously hinted that he might have produced for J. Cole, and while this pays off a bit of that promise, it’s still not quite The Fall-Off… which means there may be more on the way.

“Ruby Rosary” is the second song Rocky dropped after delaying his album Don’t Be Dumb. Before this, Rocky dropped “Tailor Swif” despite the record previously leaking and his promise to keep any leaked tracks off the album.

While Rocky didn’t give a reason for delaying the album, he did say it had a surprising co-sign; “I sat, and I played the album for Tim Burton, and he was f*cking with it heavy,” he told Billboard. “He was rocking his head and he’s like, ‘Wow! I didn’t know you made that kind of music!’”

You can listen to “Ruby Rosary” above.

The Kansas City Chiefs started their quest for a third Super Bowl in a row with a win over the Baltimore Ravens, although it looked for a moment like that might not have ended up being the case. Kansas City came out on top, 27-20, after a Ravens touchdown as time expired in the fourth quarter was ruled out of bounds by the slimmest of margins.

Baltimore got the ball with 1:50 left and the ball on its own 13, and Lamar Jackson managed to march them down the field and into the red zone. After missing a pair of throws to Isaiah Likely and Zay Flowers on first and second down, Jackson fired a strike to Likely on the final play of the game, and it looked like he scored a touchdown that would put them in position to win — John Harbaugh planned to keep his offense on the field and go for 2 and the win.

But instant replay had other ideas. The referees looked at the touchdown, and it was determined that Likely’s toe was just barely out of bounds, thereby giving Kansas City the win.

Likely was magnificent on the evening, catching nine balls for 111 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately for him, he needed his shoe to be one size smaller to get a second touchdown and, potentially, a win in the season opener.

Megan Thee Stallion raps in Japanese with Yuki Chiba on her current hot single, “Mamushi,” but on her latest, she takes a trip to a neighboring country for another international collab. Meg teased “Neva Play,” the upcoming collaboration with BTS member RM, earlier this week, saying, “I’ve never heard him rap in this style before.” Now, we all get to hear his verse for ourselves. And, of course, the song comes with a video heavily inspired by Meg’s love for anime.

“Neva Play” is the second time Meg’s worked with the K-pop star, the first being her guest verse on the remix of BTS’ 2021 hit single, “Butter.” Meg and BTS had been teasing their reunion for the past two weeks, sharing emoji-filled posts to pique their fans’ interest in the upcoming collaboration. Although BTS has been on hiatus as a group owing to members’ mandatory military service, they’ve apparently banked more than enough material to keep their fans fed until the group’s return in 2025.

Among those projects is RM’s solo album, Right Place, Wrong Person, which dropped in May, and a travel show featuring Jung Kook and Jimin, Are You Sure?!

Meanwhile, Meg continues to promote her new album Megan, along with projects including a remix of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” for the NFL, a potential joint tape with GloRilla, and a hosting and performing gig at the MTV VMAs. She also just hard-launched her relationship with NBA player Torrey Craig. For now, though, you can check out “Neva Play” above.

Camila Cabello teased the deluxe “Magic City” edition of her album, C, XOXO just a week before its release, and as promised, it has arrived with a slew of new songs, including this notable number, “Godspeed.”

A stripped-down ballad, “Godspeed” finds Camila saying her goodbyes to a former flame as their fling fizzles — or, as she sings, “When the night is past its peak”
(most probably after a few rounds of breakup sex). The chorus consists of a refrain of the title, with some truly breathtaking vocal runs, and after the first go-around, the instrumental gets really warped, introducing glitchy effects and a haunting synth like a ghost echoing Cabello’s farewell.

The Magic City edition of C, XOXO finds Camila continuing the sonic experimentation of the original, on which she collaborated with mostly rappers like Drake, JT, Lil Nas X, Playboi Carti, and Yung Miami. There’s certainly more of a hyperpop influence on this version of the project, as “Godspeed” has some subtle industrial percussion, while “Baby Pink” tries some UK funky house, and other songs play around in more traditional pop-R&B sounds.

You can check out “Godspeed” above.

C, XOXO: Magic City is out now via Geffen/Interscope. Find more information here.

After revealing the release date for her next album, The Great Impersonator, Halsey has shared its fourth single, “Ego.” Like its predecessor, “Lonely In The Muse,” it’s a rock-tinged anthem that projects all of the vulnerable, confessional energy of the first two singles, “The End” and “Lucky.”

“I can’t keep my feet on the ground,” she sings on the chorus. “I think that I should try to kill my ego, ’cause if I don’t, my ego might kill me.”

The pop-rock vibes just scream “late ’90s” and while the song doesn’t yet have a music video, you can picture the singer cruising through the desert in a convertible like that Britney Spears movie, Crossroads. “Ego” continues to live up to Halsey’s admission that ” I thought it might be the last album I ever got the chance to make. So I tried to do whatever I’d been wanting to do.”

However, the rollout for the album hasn’t been as smooth as that imagined convertible ride. In July, Halsey called out some of her fans for “being hands down meaner to me than any other people on the planet.” It seems the mission of her new music is to remind people “I’m a person. Not a character in a music video.”

You can listen to “Ego” above.

The Great Impersonator is out 10/25 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

September 14 marks the 25th anniversary of American Football’s debut album, American Football, and to celebrate, the band has been touring Europe, will tour the US, and has bought the house from the album’s cover photo. They’re also releasing a remastered version of the album, along with a covers edition featuring performances of their songs from Blondshell, Manchester Orchestra, and more.

One of the artists included is Ethel Cain, who previously paid homage to their first album with her 2022 video for “American Teenager.” Here, she sings a moody, atmospheric version of “For Sure,” which the band shared ahead of the cover album release. Cain also shot and edited the accompanying music video, which you can check out above.

In the press release, Cain said, “I knew I wanted to do ‘For Sure’ immediately. It’s always stood out to me every time I spin the record, and I knew exactly how I wanted to translate it into my sound. My favorite part of the entire track is the sound of the train going by the apartment I lived in back in Pennsylvania, stretched out like a synth at the beginning and end. American Football is one of those bands that really marked such a moment in time with their debut record, a mark with so much longevity that it found me the same way at 20 years old that I imagine it found everyone else the day it was first released: as an instant classic. Their sonic storytelling has inspired me in more ways than I can count over the years, so being asked to contribute to this covers edition was truly an honor. American Football forever.”

You can find more info about the LP1 anniversary at americanfootballmusic.com.

UK drill phenom Central Cee has had a stellar 2024 so far, building on his breakout last year with strong singles like “I Will” and the Lil Baby-featuring “Band4Band,” a buzzy rumored relationship with “Did It First” collaborator Ice Spice (since debunked), and prime placement on Asake’s Lungu Boy.

Today, he returned with “Moi,” a celebratory new single that compares his past tribulations to his current success. Soul chanteuse Raye joins him on the song’s intro, singing in French over a moody 2-step riddim before the song kicks over into full drill mode, although it stays upbeat and airy, as opposed to the usual heavy bass and dubstep wubs that usually define the genre. Cench reminisces on his sketchy past with tongue-in-cheek liknes like, “I used to sleep on a cheap sofa
‘019 we was kitchen whippin’ / If they had TikTok them times and a man asked me what I do for a livin’ / Then I would’ve started fibbin’.”

However, since then, he’s kept it real, saying, “Broke, I was sharin’ my bredrin’s clothes / Then I got rich and I kept them close / Talk about real, gotta mention moi.”

It remains to be seen whether “Moi” will appear on a new full-length project from the Shepherd’s Bush prodigy, but a new album would certainly be appreciated.

Watch the video for “Moi” above.