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 Car Seat Headrest, Yeule, Destroyer, and more.
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Yeule – “Skullcrusher”
Nat Ćmiel is something of a painter. As Yeule, the Singaporean songwriter has used each record as a canvas, filtering their personae through glitch-pop, ambient, and, most recently on 2023’s Softscars, digital shoegaze. On the forthcoming Evangelical Girl With A Gun, Ćmiel conceptualizes themselves as, fittingly, “the painter,” taking cues from the Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński and morphing their idiosyncrasies into darkly entrancing sonic portraits. “Skullcrusher,” which accompanies the announcement, points toward flirtations with trip-hop and goth-rock. Like their previous work, “Skullcrusher” simultaneously cements Yeule’s artistic footprint while treading novel territories.
Car Seat Headrest – “Gethsemane”
Who better to revive the rock opera than Car Seat Headrest? Frontman Will Toledo, famous for writing excellent 10-plus-minute indie-rock songs, has written yet another excellent 10-plus-minute indie-rock song, “Gethsemane.” This time, though, it’s situated within the larger context of The Scholars, which is billed as a concept record set at the fictitious campus Parnassus University. It’s the college where Rosa studies medicine, and she eventually resuscitates a dead patient and, in turn, gains supernatural powers that have lain dormant since her childhood. It’s a dizzying narrative, appropriately ambitious for the band’s first new album since 2020’s Making A Door Less Open. “Gethsemane,” with its epic sprawl, is merely one chapter of the story.
Destroyer – “Cataract Time”
When you see that a Destroyer song is eight minutes long, you know it’s gonna be good. Such is the case with “Cataract Time,” the penultimate cut from the marvelously titled Dan’s Boogie, which is out later this month. John Collins’ harp adds a hypnotizing, celestial quality to Dan Bejar’s universe, making it sound like a Destroyer guest spot on Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell. But that’s all before the luxe saxophones come in, reminding you that this is, first and foremost, a Bejar-run production.
Illuminati Hotties – “777”
Sarah Tudzin has hit another jackpot. Following last year’s excellent LP, Power, the Illuminati Hotties mastermind is back with a new single, “777.” Whereas Power is far gentler than IH’s typical tender-punk, “777” dials up the noise, albeit in a much different way than usual. Tudzin’s latest is a bona fide shoegaze song that resembles a punchier take on Loveless. Apparently, there’s nothing that Tudzin can’t do!
Fantasy Of A Broken Heart – “We Confront The Demon In Mysterious Ways”
Who doesn’t love a song title that’s a complete sentence? “We Confront The Demon In Mysterious Ways,” the lead single of Fantasy Of A Broken Heart’s forthcoming EP, resumes the oddball indie-prog of the duo’s debut, Feats Of Engineering. But, whereas Bailey Wollowitz and Al Nardo gallivant through fittingly dreamy landscapes on their full-length, its follow-up EP, Chaos Practitioner, is the drowsy awakening process. “We Confront The Demon…” resembles the half-asleep, half-alert state following REM, both the band and the brain activity. It’s lyrically confrontational, but its instrumentals are steeped in enough eccentricity to warrant the question of whether it all resembles reality or fantasy. Perhaps, it’s a bit of both.
YHWH Nailgun – “Animal Death Already Breathing”
There are a lot of noise-rock bands that find solace in the sprawl: droning guitar tone; blasts of discordant noise that slowly unfurl; vocals that don’t come in until the third minute. Then there’s YHWH Nailgun, whose tempestuous, frenzied outbursts are contained within the limits of three minutes maximum, threatening to break free from their constrictions at any given moment. The Brooklyn four-piece, on the precipice of their debut album, 45 Pounds, make adventurous music that flashes by at the speed of light. “Animal Death Already Breathing,” for instance, traverses 5/4 polyrhythms, clattering industrial percussion, and howling chants within the span of little more than 120 seconds. “Animal Death Already Breathing” is a showcase for how YHWH Nailgun packs suite-worthy ideas into impressively concise packages.
Phil Cook – “Buffalo”
Phil Cook is one of indie rock’s most prolific musicians, having performed on songs by Waxahatchee, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Bon Iver, and plenty more. But he’s also an artist in his own right. Appalachia Borealis, a forthcoming collection of piano instrumentals, is his latest solo endeavor in a storied career. “Buffalo” pays homage to Cook’s loved ones who live in the titular city. Paring down his artistry to its barest components, “Buffalo” unveils Cook’s majestic talents through disarming simplicity. Let Phil cook.
Mei Semones – “I Can Do What I Want”
Mei Semones can do whatever she wants, and she does. Blending bossa nova, math rock, and jangle-pop, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s predilection for combining virtuosic performances and memorable melodies remains unmatched. On her appropriately named single, “I Can Do What I Want,” Semones and her band weave their way through a vertiginous maze of frenetic strings, modulated time signatures, and ‘90s alt-rock guitars. She proves that, not only does she do whatever she wants, but also that she should.
Kelcey Ayer – “Different Planets”
The former Local Natives vocalist is back. Kelcey Ayer, who has previously shared music under the moniker Jaws Of Love., has decided to move forward with a project using his own name. As Ayer’s second-ever solo single, “Different Planets” unearths another side of the songwriter. Combining flamenco guitars, cooing vocal harmonies, and handclaps right on the downbeat, “Different Planets” presents Ayer in a fascinating new light. There’s certainly something more up his sleeve.
DJ Koze – “Brushtaxi”
Amid an electronic landscape dominated by soulless, interchangeable DJs and EDM producer duos, DJ Koze’s work is a balm. The German producer and synth savant’s take on electronic music is a genre-bending kaleidoscope that’s at once stupefying and divine. It’s like realizing that Elysium is simply a place where an auteur turns all the right knobs and incorporates all the right samples. “Brushtaxi,” the latest preview of next month’s Music Can Hear Us, turns that scenario into reality once again. It’s an instrumental, eight-and-a-half-minute Odyssey, a journey into paradise where the beats reign supreme and the dancefloor never empties.