New Music This Week: May 16

highlighting new music this week from Artificial Go, Friendship, Aunt Katrina, Aminé, Standing On The Corner, Pile & MORE

Artificial Go

An overwhelming amount of music is released daily, and we're here to help you weed through it all. Every week, we share select releases we are all looking forward to and personalized picks from a few of our editors.

Welcome to our new releases guide featuring the most notable music released the week of May 16.

BLIGATORY Picks

Artificial Go - Musical Chairs

Art Punk, Jangle Pop, Indie Rock

via Feel It Records

write-up by Peter Doherty

Cincinnati-based band Artificial Go introduced themselves to the world of music in July of 2024 with the twee-but-stern sounds of their debut single "Pay Phone." The debut album Hopscotch Fever would be released a little later in September. Just eight months on, the band serve up their sophomore record Musical Chairs. At 26 minutes in length, it stands to extend on the debut by a staggering five minutes (!!), and all to its benefit.

Building on what the trio of Angie Willcutt, Cole Gilfilen and Micah Wu were working on with Hopscotch Fever, Musical Chairs harbors that signature and somewhat satirical tongue-and-cheek playfulness. Although, the avenue in which it sits has been—or is at least in the process of being—musically furthered forward. Nuances are making themselves known.

Artificial Go set about expanding on their somewhat innocent sound. With Musical Chairs, The Cincinnati three-piece further solidify their reputation as quirky, left-of-centre creatives.

Learn more about Artificial Go and their new album in our recent interview here.

Friendship - Caveman Waves Up

Indie Rock, Alt-Country

via Merge Records

Aunt Katrina - "Peace of Mind"

Indie Rock

via Crafted Sounds

write-up by Dominick Baglivo

Earlier this year, Pittsburgh’s feeble little horse amicably parted ways with founding guitarist Ryan Walchonski. On a brighter note, this week marked the return of Walchonski’s solo project, Aunt Katrina. In 2023, Hot packaged seven hybrids of electronic pop and indie rock into a dazzling debut. This week, Aunt Katrina begin the rollout of their first full-length alongside a beautiful lead single titled “Peace Of Mind.”

No longer a solo project, Aunt Katrina rounds out with Snail Mail’s Ray Brown on drums and Tosser’s Eric Zidar on guitar—with Nick Miller, Laney Ackley, and Emma Banks joining in for live performances.

The first full-length release from Aunt Katrina, This Heat Is Slowly Killing Me, is out July 11 via Crafted Sounds. Regarding the title, Walchonski says, “The van I was driving at the time had no air conditioning and I was driving to record at Alex’s house in College Park, Maryland 2-3 days a week in the absolutely brutal D.C. summer weather. I was listening to the band This Heat and feeling like their music was killing me.”

Atticus' Picks

Aminé - 13 Months of Sunshine

Pop Rap, Alternative R&B

via CLBN

Dominick's Picks

Global Charming - Four Second Fiddles

Art Punk, Indie Rock

via AT EASE

Kilynn Lunsford - Promiscuous Genes

Art Punk, No Wave, Experimental Rock, Avant-Pop

via Feel It Records

Knifeplay - Live in Seattle

Shoegaze, Slowcore, Dream Pop

via Funeral Party Records

Ada Lea - "baby blue frigidaire mini fridge"

Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter

via Saddle Creek

Montreal-based musician and singer-songwriter Ada Lea (real name Alexandra Levy) announced her new album, when i paint my masterpiece. The news came alongside its lead single, “baby blue frigidaire mini fridge.”

About the track, Levy says:

“The Chantal Akerman film where the camera moves in slow circular pans around her apartment. Then what if the frame quickly zooms out as far as it could possibly go? And in that wide pull back, what we recognize as universal is still ‘this chair, this window, this mountain view.’ Then, move out again, even further. What we are left with—three things: ‘our old time souls, this old time moon.’ Two things, I mean.”

when i paint my masterpiece is out August 8 via Saddle Creek.

Bleary Eyed - "Susan"

Baggy, Shoegaze, Indietronica

via Born Losers Records

Last month, Philly shoegazers Bleary Eyed announced their third album alongside the fuzz-heavy bliss of “Heaven Year.” Back with a swirling haze, “Susan” is the second single from the band’s upcoming Easy.

Frontman Nathaniel Salfi says, “‘Susan’ is a song lyrically recounting a missed love and how people will grow and find their higher self, even if it isn’t easily understandable.”

Easy is out July 25 via Born Losers Records.

Lightheaded - "The View From Your Room"

Jangle Pop

via Slumberland Records / Skep Wax

Last month, New Jersey’s Lightheaded announced their sophomore album alongside the super sweet and sentimental lead single, “Same Drop.” Taken from the upcoming Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!, they’ve shared “The View From Your Room.”

Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! is out June 27 on Slumberland Records and Skep Wax.

Pile - "Born at Night"

Post-Hardcore, Art Rock, Post-Rock

via Sooper Records

The pile of Pile continues to pile up. Following last year’s Hot Air Balloon EP and the previous year’s All Fiction LP, the Rick Maguire-fronted band just announced Sunshine And Balance Beams. The news came alongside the brooding lead single, “Born at Night.”

“A Sisyphean fable concerned with labor and living. Sunshine and Balance Beams is the 9th Studio Album from Pile,” their Bandcamp reads. It’s out August 15 on Sooper Records.

Computer - "Dissolution Use"

Post-Punk, Art Rock

via Westerly Records

Karate - "Remembering To Forget"

Post-Hardcore, Indie Rock

via The Numero Group

Toner - "Raja Ali"

Slacker Rock, Noise Pop

via Smoking Room

Peter's Picks

Standing On The Corner - Baby (EP)

Hypnagogic Pop, Psychedelic Soul

via XL Recordings

Warming the waters for what's to be Standing On the Corner’s first album since Red Burns (2017), "Baby," is coupled with B-sides "R U Scared?" and "Friends 2day Enemies 2morrow," showing three sides to the New York collective.

The quintessential down-in-the-dumps grooves of SotC find life as viscous drips of molasses-like R&B leak out with the consistency of honey. It feels like the music is growing, blooming, and waking from a sleepy slumber.

"R u Scared?" sees SotC dip their wings in poetry. You could say that a lot of their material falls into "poetic" territory, albeit this time the instrumental ceases to exist. It's poetry without the backup of music—poetry in its purest form.

Diametrically opposed to "R u Scared?," "Friends 2day Enemies 2morrow" follows a playful, Tom and Jerry-like piano piece around and around. With no words, your mind fills in the scene.

"Baby," as well as the accompanying B-sides, is out now via XL.

Taxidermy - Let Go (EP)

Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock

via Pink Cotton Candy Records

Copenhagen-based rock band Taxidermy release their second EP, Let Go. The material lines up with a post-punk/post-hardcore ethos and sound palette: jittery guitars, grizzly bass, and semi-sung/semi-spoken vocals. The lead single released in the run-up to the EP showed a patient side to the band; "Impending" sits second in the tracklist and hauntingly drifts along. The two-minute mark sees the song come to life, and in time return to the bassline drift. The waves are in continuous brew. There's no rush to get where they're going. There's no rush to get where you're going. Let go, literally.

The Let Go EP showcases an up-and-coming Danish delight. Unwound are a band that come to mind that have traversed a similar lane. If that's anything to go by, then you know what you need to do!

Let Go is out now via Pink Cotton Candy Records.

Home Counties - "Spain"

Dance-Punk, Indie Rock

via Submarine Cat Records

London-based band Home Counties put their dancing shoes on for the subwoofer-filled sounds of "Spain.” The dance-punk etiquette that we have come to know Home Counties by finds itself conducted via the means of wall-wobbling floor-stompers once more. May of 2024 saw Home Counties release their debut album, Exactly As It Seems. Just over a year later, the band is once again releasing new material. Will we be on the receiving end of album number two sooner rather than later?

It takes time to fall into line, "Spain" is out now via Submarine Cat Records.

Home Counties play at a range of festivals across the UK this Summer, including Truck Festival on June 27 and A Stone's Throw Festival—of which I, Peter, will be attending!

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "Grow Wings and Fly"

Progressive Pop, Symphonic Rock

via p(doom) records

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard need no introduction at this stage. Over the past 15 or so years, year after year and album after album, they have cemented their place in the annals of rock. The third single in the run-up to album number 27, Phantom Island, takes the form of "Grow Wings and Fly." Let's get real high with the lizard wizards. Sit on the breeze; float on the fog of the sea.

Recorded in concurrence with their previous album Flight b741, Phantom Island is set to once again take a more orchestral route.

King Gizz's 27th studio album, Phantom Island, releases June 13 via p(Doom) Records.