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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 a new surprise album from Sturgill Simpson, a live album from Belle And Sebastian, and an extremely good new song from Sun June. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.

Sturgill Simpson – Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 2

Last week, with no warning, Sturgill Simpson fulfilled his wish of surprise-releasing a new album. Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 2 dropped out of the sky on Friday, featuring re-recorded versions of songs from throughout Simpson’s discography. With this second volume, Simpson made a point to record “everything I was too afraid to do on Volume 1,” he explained in a statement. The result is a collection of bold and imaginative versions of tracks.

The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You

Since The Avalanches took a 16-year break between their first and second albums, they have been very productive in the way of new music. We Will Always Love You is the Australian group’s second album in less than five years, delivering a staggering 25 songs with guest spots from Blood Orange, Leon Bridges, MGMT, Johnny Marr, Karen O, Rivers Cuomo, and more. Although the album runs more than an hour, the ideas never seem to stale, and each track feels fresher than the last.

Belle And Sebastian – What To Look For In Summer

After the release of new live albums from Arctic Monkeys, The Postal Service, Deafheaven, and more, Belle And Sebastian have joined the trend with What To Look For In Summer. The double live LP is culled from the band’s 2019 tour and “Boaty Weekender” cruise concerts, existing as a reminder why they should be considered “twee-pop legends,” as Steven Hyden called in the December 7 issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.

Osees – Panther Rotate

Ever prolific, Panther Rotate is the third release of 2020 from Osees, after Protean Threat and Metamorphosed. Despite its labeling as an outtakes collection, the LP shows how strong and versatile the band are as songwriters, even for those songs that were ultimately left on the cutting room floor when putting together the final album. There are two songs that span more than six minutes, and some that last less than one minute.

Rostam – “Under Control” (The Strokes cover)

Few things are more Meet Me In The Bathroom-core than an original member of Vampire Weekend covering The Strokes. Both bands were born on the streets of New York City, but represented very different parts of New York life. Rostam’s cover of The Strokes’ Room On Fire works really well and shows the shared blood of both bands, but the piano-driven cover also puts into perspective the difference in sensibility between the two bands.

Another Michael – “I Know You’re Wrong”

The forthcoming debut LP from Philadelphia trio Another Michael is one of my most anticipated releases of 2021. “I Know You’re Wrong” is the album’s first proper single, and is the type of lo-fi indie-pop jam that you will find yourself humming for days and weeks to come. But good luck hitting those high notes on the sparse chorus.

Sun June – “Bad Girl”

Two years removed from their debut LP Years, Sun June are already gearing up for their sophomore effort. The band has been teasing Somewhere with a series of singles, and “Bad Girl” is the strongest of all. The track takes on a soft, somber tone, telling the story of Laura Colwell’s desire to return to the recklessness of her childhood, “back when being bad was cool and being cool was everything,” they wrote in a statement.

Justus Proffit – “Peace From Medication”

Although Justus Proffit has been focusing much of his attention during the pandemic on his new low-key fashion label, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had time to create some new music. “Peace From Medication” is a standalone single that serves as an extension of the sound that Proffit presented on his excellent 2019 effort L.A.’s Got Me Down, driven by synths and drum machines for an infectious, relatable sound.

Proper. – “Don’t”

Proper.’s first song since the 2019 LP I Spent The Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better was co-written with The Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell, and serves as a call for justice in the name of those Black individuals who have recently been killed at the hand of police. “When the news broke of Elijah McClain’s passing, for a split second I truly believed it was my bandmate, Elijah, on my phone screen,” vocalist Erik Garlington wrote in a statement. “The last names don’t even match but the resemblance was uncanny enough to make me doubt for a split second, and that split second was horrifying.” It’s not an easy listen, but it’s an important listen.

Avery Springer – “Earlybird”

During the pandemic, Retirement Party’s Avery Springer has been working on a collection of solo work. “Earlybird” showcases one of Springer’s best vocal performances to date, and examines the reality of being a generally nervous person surrounded by very confident people. Relatable!

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Instead of sharing Christmas music this holiday season, Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin have decided to spotlight various Jewish artists each day of Hanukkah with their cover series The Hanukkah Sessions. So far, the duo have taken on music by Beastie Boys, Peaches, and Drake. Now, they’re pulling from Bob Dylan’s iconic catalog.

Giving their faithful rendition of Dylan’s 1966 classic “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” Grohl manned the drum kit as Kurstin provided the keys and harmonica. Sharing the cover on social media, the Foo Fighters vocalist wrote, “So now everybody must get stoned (not in the Law of Moses sense) as we put some blood on this track.” The quip referred to Dylan’s verse: “And they’ll stone you when you’re there all alone / But I would not feel so all alone / Everybody must get stoned.”

The cover arrives fallowing a big piece of news from Dylan: the singer recently sold his entire musical catalog for a huge sum of money. The sale to Universal Music Publishing Group includes over 600 songs that span over 60 years. While the exact number of the sale was not disclosed, some reports theorized it was nine figures, which checks out considering Taylor Swift’s Big Machine catalog recently went for $300 million.

Watch Grohl and Kurstin’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” cover above.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation brand has gone from a label producing records and managing artists to a full-on media conglomerate, expanding into sports management, social justice, and now, even book publishing. Today, Roc Nation announced its partnership with Random House to form the publishing imprint Roc Lit 101 to publish books from “a wide range of subjects such as music, sports, pop culture, activism, and art.” Several books are slated for release within its first year, including books from rappers Fat Joe, Lil Uzi Vert, Meek Mill, and Young Gotti, baseball player CC Sabathia, and music journalist Danyel Smith.

Incidentally, Lil Uzi Vert and Meek Mill are signed to Roc Nation management. Uzi’s book is described as “illustrated fiction” in the press release (fingers crossed for a superhero comic featuring Uzi with superpowers), while Meek’s is a “personal narrative telling a ‘story of criminal justice and survival.’” Fat Joe, Sabathia, and Yo Gotti are contributing memoirs, while Smith’s Shine Bright will tell the story of Black women as the foundation of American pop music. Roc Lit 101 also plans to release children’s books and cookbooks, as well as works that “defy genre altogether.”

Chris Jackson, publisher/editor-in-chief of Random House imprint One World Books, and Jana Fleishman, Roc Nation executive VP, will oversee the new imprint, which Jackson says “isn’t just about the books – it’s also about audiences: we want to find new voices and new stories, but also new readers.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Just over two years ago, LeBron James attended the grand opening of his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, the culmination of years of giving back to the community where he grew up. As the school continues to grow and serve a once underserved community, the LeBron James Family Foundation has been able to hear more of the issues facing that community and recognize further opportunities to help.

On Tuesday, James announced in Time Magazine as part of his being named 2020 Athlete of the Year that his foundation was breaking ground on a new community hub in Akron that will be called House 330, and will provide everything from job training to financial literacy assistance to youth sports access for Akron families.

“House 330 is going to be a sanctuary for our families,” says James. “It’s going to be a place where all our families can grow and learn. This will be a hub for everything possible our families will need.”

The name is in reference to Akron’s area code and looks to address issues they’ve heard families tell them about after talking with the folks that moved into the I Promise Village, the school’s new housing transition complex. The LJFF is working with a number of partners to provide services for the families, with JPMorgan Chase creating a space where bankers will work with families to assist with financial literacy advice and services, and Dick’s Sporting Good’s taking the top level of the parking garage in the complex they bought and building a recreational sports facility with basketball courts and soccer fields.

They will also provide a place for parents and kids to get job training, whether it’s working at the Old El Paso restaurant that will be in the complex or getting training in “plumbing, heating and cooling, food service, merchandising, accounting and event planning” at the facility. The goal for James is to create a safe space for families, but also one where they can acquire the skills and knowledge that goes beyond what is taught in schools to provide them with training that can help them get better jobs and have a better understanding of finances so they can budget and save and build a financial well-being.

The 60,000 square foot facility is planned to open and be fully operational in 2022.

After having a near-death experience in the first part of his The Rager, The Menace mini-movie, Kid Cudi leaves his body behind in the second half, which doubles as his video for “Heaven On Earth” from his new album Man On The Moon III: The Chosen. Picking up where “She Knows This” left off, another scene from Pursuit Of Happyness plays in Cudi’s living room as he’s fished out of the water by a medic. However, in a surreal twist, it’s revealed that his drunk driving accident from the previous video never happened.

Instead, his car is still parked safely in the garage. Unfortunately for Scott, he does nearly find himself in a watery grave. When he’s pulled to the surface, it’s revealed that he was actually unconscious at the bottom of his pool. Parademics rush him to treatment in an ambulance that swerves and rocks wildly on an empty freeway as Cudi’s spirit pops out of his body wearing the same tailored black suit from his original “Pursuit Of Happiness” video from nearly ten years ago.

Spirit Cudi raps along to the song from atop the ambulance as it careens out of control and he ends up in a worse predicament than he was in before. There’s no “To Be Continued” message this time: Instead, the video quietly fades to black as Cudi walks away from the wrecked ambulance, a building in the background bearing the name of his song.

Watch the “Heaven On Earth” video above.

Man On The Moon III: The Chosen is out now on Republic Records. Get it here.

Smokey Robinson recently found himself at the wrong end of a hilarious misunderstanding. “Wrong end” might not be the right phrasing, actually: There was no ill intent behind his Cameo video confusion about “Chanukah,” which he didn’t realize was an alternate spelling of “Hanukkah” and pronounced “chuh-noo-kah.” After the video made the rounds online, the legendary artist is being a good sport about the situation and has vowed to re-record the viral video.

Last night, Robinson tweeted at Jeff Jacobson, who ordered the video for his mother, writing, “Hey @jeffjacobson – in the spirit of 2020, I’m gonna need a do-over! Please DM your mother’s phone number so we can try this again [laughing emoji].” Jacobson was happy to oblige, responding, “Coming right up, Smokey but you owe her and us nothing. We love you!”

Before that exchange, Jacobson pointed out what many people probably figured: He wasn’t upset about the mistake because he and his family got a great and memorable story out of it. He tweeted, “By the way, @smokeyrobinson can pronounce it any way he damn well pleases. He is a true legend whose music has been with me since birth. His kindness and generosity of spirit has already made this most-unusual 2020 Chanukah one of my family’s most memorable. Also, my mom says hi.”

Donald Trump Jr.’s been on a (disturbing) roll lately, alright. He recently appeared on Fox News is such a weird, amped-up state that people wondered if an intervention was in order. He also denied rumors that he was blitzed out of his mind at the RNC, and it’s hard to ignore those previous suspicious instances while beholding his weekend rant about Hunter Biden that led to a lot of “Motel 6” jokes and the masses wondering exactly what’s going on with the sitting president’s eldest son.

In the video, Don Jr. didn’t appear to be all-there while slurring his words and moving his mouth all strange-like while seemingly struggling to push out words. Of course, the video has been preserved for posterity by the Internet with both a #Motel6 hashtag and a reference toward the David Hasselhoff burger-eating debacle of 2007. Amid all of the jokes, Don Jr.’s ex-mistress, Aubrey O’Day (a Danity Kane singer who appeared on The Celebrity Appearance in 2011, and who was discovered exchanging “sexy” text messages with Don Jr. by his wife at the time, Vanessa), also saw the mess.

At first, Aubrey had one word to describe the video: “wtf.”

Then came the inevitable question from a Twitter user: “[W]as he always like this?… i guess we all have lapses we regret.” To that, Aubrey replied, “He wasn’t that. trust me.”

Still, Aubrey can’t get the video out of her mind. Two days later, she posted a bewildered GIF in response to Don Jr.’s amped-up state on Fox News.

As of now, there’s been no official response from Don Jr.’s camp on the “Motel 6” video.

Just a week after his controversial remarks on Russell Brand’s podcast, Matthew McConaughey is dipping his toes into political waters again. This time around, the Magic Mike star stopped by Good Morning Britain where he opined on “cancel culture” while talking to host Piers Morgan, who, for the record, is not the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2. (He gets that a lot.) During the conversation, McConaughey criticized what he calls the “illiberal left” for preventing necessary confrontations by silencing opposing views. Via Deadline:

“We need liberals, what I don’t think we need is illiberals,” he told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. “What I don’t think some liberals see is they’re being cannibalized by the illiberals. There are extremes on both sides that I think are unfair… the extreme left and extreme right completely illegitimize the other side. They exaggerate the other side’s stance into an irrational state that makes no sense. That’s not fair.”

According to McConaughey, confrontation is key to making democracy work “really well,” and in his opinion, we’re not seeing enough of it. “I would argue we don’t have true confrontation right now, confrontation that gives some validation and legitimizes the opposing point of view. We don’t give a legitimacy or validation to an opposing point of view, we make it persona non grata, and that’s unconstitutional.”

The actors comments echo his concerns from last week when he appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast and chastised the illiberal left that “absolutely condescend, patronize, and are arrogant towards the other 50 percent.” While McConaughey’s remarks are in the context of not mocking Trump voters for refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election, his proposed solution works in any situation. “Let’s get aggressively centric,” he told Brand.

(Via Good Morning Britain on Twitter)

Twitter can be both a gift and a curse, depending on who’s using it, when, and why they’re using it. Fortunately for all of us, R&B living legend Dionne Warwick has been a true blessing for the past few weeks, using her profile to engage with fans and tease the young generation of artists currently ruling the charts. One of those artists was Chance The Rapper, who told Stephen Colbert during his appearance on The Late Show last night that getting roasted by Warwick has led to the two collaborating on new music together.

“I was very surprised that she knew who I was,” Chance admits. “But it was awesome. We’re working on a song.” The incredulous Colbert stopped him for confirmation that the two artists really are collaborating, leading Chance to call the opportunity “a huge, immense honor.” He then detailed how her Twitter shout-out led to the connection, although he conveniently left out the part where she prodded him with the question “If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name?” However, she did also say “Holy,” his collaboration with Justin Bieber, is one of her favorite songs, so it’s clear her teasing was out of love.

“It feels like my first taste of fame,” Chance joked. “I went to Starbucks the other day and they’re like, ‘Are you the guy who got tweeted by Dionne Warwick?’” The guest and host also spent some time reminiscing about Chance’s first mixtape 10 Day, how he and his wife Kirsten are being “defeated” by their two little girls in quarantine, and the open mic that launched Chicago’s group of peers, including Noname, Saba, and Vic Mensa, as well his reissue of Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama.

Watch Chance’s interview with Stephen Colbert above.

Megan Thee Stallion had a role in one of the year’s biggest songs by collaborating with Cardi B on “WAP.” She had a monster single of her own as well, though, as “Savage” was another popular chart-topper. What Meg doesn’t have under her belt yet, though, is a Christmas song. She changed that on last night’s episode of The Late Late Show, as she and James Corden gave the song a holiday-themed remix.

The new version of the song is all about Santa Claus (with Corden playing Santa) and their performance takes place on a Christmas-y stage, dubbed “Santa’s Twerkshop.” Meg brings some delightful new lyrics to the track, including gems like, “Bought a PS5 ’cause he’s good at online shoppin’ / If you sit on Santa’s lap, then you’ll see what else is poppin’,” and, “Naughty, got a thick body / Rosy red cheeks, people think he’s Pavarotti.”

The pair presumably shot this bit when Meg was a guest on the show last week. During their chat, they discussed Meg’s prosperous 2020 and her origins in music. On top of that, Meg performed a medley of “Savage” and her new single “Body” on the show.

Check out “Savage Santa” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.