NEW INDIE MUSIC - WEEK 14

Hello, everyone! How was your weekend?! Did you spend it spinning the new Billie Eilish album?! It's pretty damn good, right?! Billie isn't the only artist who the team and I have had on heavy rotation over the last seven days, however! While we go and apply the finishing touches to our freshly redesigned homepage, then (!!!), why don't you check out who else the We Are: The Guard staff have been digging in this week's edition of New Indie Music, featuring Sky Ferreira, The Strumbellas, Modest Mouse, and lots more?!

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BILLIE EILISH – BAD GUY

Kicking off with the teenager and all-around human being of the moment: Billie Eilish. The 17-year-old is rewriting the rules of pop music as we know it with WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – a strikingly assured, daringly bold debut album that comes headed by the wicked “bad guy.”

P.S. Billie Eilish videos will never not be the stuff of nightmares.

I KNOW LEOPARD – SEVENTY LIES

I'm no angel, I've told plenty of lies in my lifetime, but trust me when I say that I haven't heard a song quite as catchy as this in a long while. I Know Leopard are sure to have you reaching for your dancing shoes with “Seventy Lies,” an infectiously groovy foot-stomper that I can only describe as a mixture between disco and “Elephant” by Tame Impala.

SKY FERREIRA – DOWNHILL LULLABY

It's been six long years, but Sky Ferreira is finally back to haunt us this 2019 with “Downhill Lullaby.” The first single to be unveiled from her forthcoming sophomore album Masochism is a disturbingly string-laden epic that sounds like it crawled straight out of a horror movie score, with Sky's ghostly vocals coming underpinned by the eeriest of bass throbs.

THE STRUMBELLAS – I'LL WAIT

Have you ever listened to a song that made you feel like your whole heart was going to burst?! As that's exactly how I felt listening to this song. Toronto indie-folk band The Strumbellas – who recently returned with their fourth album Rattlesnake – are passion personified on their latest single “I'll Wait,” a triumphant, anthemic ode to love and friendship that has “the sound of festival season” stamped all over it.

HIPPO CAMPUS – WHY EVEN TRY

It's never easy coming to terms with the end of a relationship, although Twin Cities indie band Hippo Campus are attempting to do exactly that on their radiant latest single “Why Even Try.” “On and on/The feelings burst and then they fall/Until later on/We walk it back and patch things up,” sings frontman Jake Luppen over a rising surge of clean-toned guitars on the Bambi cut, which explores feelings of apathy, despair, and hopelessness through an unexpectedly vivid lens.

TEAM ME – BLURRY PRECISE

Having announced their hiatus in 2015, Team Me are back in a big, big, big way this year with “Blurry Precise.” The Norwegian band's first material since 2014's Blind as Night is an impassioned indie-pop banger about breaking free from your thoughts, with the song coming complete with a kick-ass gang-vocal chorus that you'll want to scream from the top of your lungs.

MODEST MOUSE – POISON THE WELL

If there's one thing that the world needs in 2019, it's a dose of Isaac Brock. The Modest Mouse frontman's acid tongue has gone very much missed over the last four years, although it's like it never left us listening to “Poison the Well,” a two-and-a-half-minute stinger that finds Isaac in full-on attack mode: “So poison the well, our enemies are thirsty/They took our money and threw their own damn party, get it out.”

ABU – ONE DAY

It's rare that we premiere songs here at We Are: The Guard. That way, when we do, you know that it's going to be something worth listening to. Case in point: “One Day” by Abu. The Fribourg-via-Bern artist is soaring to nothing short of epic heights on his latest single, a powerfully anthemic tome about overcoming adversity that hears Abu's soulful voice cracking with emotion.

LUCY DAYDREAM – SLEEP / ERASE

Lucy Daydream are living up to their name and then some on their latest single “Sleep / Erase.” The team and I recommend that you don't drive or operate heavy machinery while listening to this cut from the Denver duo's recent debut album Awake & Dreaming, since it's highly likely to leave you zoning out to a place of utter bliss.

LIA – OUT OF CONTROL

She's collaborated with everyone from Leska to Lucian, but Lia is here to make her own mark on the music industry this 2019 with her first solo single in over a year – the otherworldly “Out of Control.” With dreamy vocal-driven verses meeting bass-heavy beats come the chorus, “Out of Control” is an ethereal club banger that's making my Monday morning feel more like a Friday night.

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Photo by Timothy Paul Smith on Unsplash

Jess Grant is a frustrated writer hailing from London, England. When she isn't tasked with disentangling her thoughts from her brain and putting them on paper, Jess can generally be found listening to The Beatles, or cooking vegetarian food.