New Name, Same Insufferable Bullshit
And we're back with a new name.
Hey, I'm changing my legal name and so the newsletter changes as well. My new name is Noëlle Midnight. The newsletter is Noëlle's New Noise.
It's a new year. Let's not waste time.
The Playlist
Holy shit, Father John Misty's new track from upcoming record Chloë is exactly what I needed this morning. I love it when Tillmann starts crooning and this is no exception. Close your eyes and drift away right up until Christian rap superstar TobyMac greets you on a collab with Sheryl Crow. Honestly, I normally wouldn't include Toby on here, but the nature of the collab was more than I could resist. There are two versions of this track and of course, I've chosen the remix. Fight me.
I love Greensky Bluegrass' new track, which is eight minutes of bliss. This sounds like Barenaked Ladies decided to do bluegrass and I actually think I need that in my life now. Who has Ed's number?
Okay, some introduction is needed here. Righteous Vendetta is a metalcore act that my band used to open for a decade ago. We ran into them on the road a number of times and I'm lucky to call guitarist Justin Olmstead a friend. He's worked as hard as anyone to get to where he currently is and I'm always glad to see new music from them. Here's No Vacancy, massive choruses and all.
I know you've been waiting for me to get to this, so... Ladies & Gentlemen: The Weeknd has a full album out today. Get to it.
Minneapolis sibling duo The Cactus Blossoms enlist Jenny Lewis for a country track that's so chock full of vocal harmonies that you'll want to slip into the fabric of your seat and never reemerge.
Kill Rock Stars is one of my favorite labels and they're celebrating their 30th anniversary by releasing a compilation of covers. Today we get Laura Gibson covering Horse Feathers. They're releasing the singles one at a time and you can subscribe to get them all for only $20. Or you can wait for this track to end and go right into Serengeti, who just doesn't fucking stop releasing goddamn music fuck. This one's a fucking ripper.
Guitarist Daniel Bachman has a new covers record out today where he plays obscure folk tracks. I love this shit so much. Go buy Lonesome Wearly Blues if you love this kind of thing as much as I do. This goes neatly into Waxahatchee's flute driven single Up In The Sky from the Apple TV+ Original Series: El Deafo. Based off of Cece Bell's graphic novel, it's a loosely autobiographical story about being deaf.
Broken Social Scene is doing a rarities and b-sides record, with today's single featuring Sebanstien Grainger of Death From Above. This track originally appeared on a 2009 tour 7" split with the Sea and Cake. Cool shit. Not for me, but cool. Indie trash will eat this up.
Here we go into a track that is custom made for my friend Liz. Yes, we've got David Byrne and Yo La Tengo covering Yoko Ono for a new Yoko tribute record that's being curated by Death Cab's Ben Gibbard. Christ.
There must be something in the water, cause Beirut is also doing b-sides and rarities. I'm not mad about it.
Ah, there we go. Forgot to take my Vyvanse. Let's see if this picks me up enough to get through the rest of the playlist.
I love this new track from Trenches. I didn't know them before today, but you bet they're on my radar now. Paired with A Wilhelm Scream's first new track in NINE YEARS, we've got some magic here. Rounding out the heavy music trio is Fit For An Autopsy, with the first track this week that's left me speechless. This is magic.
Don't hate me, but does the opening of this alt-J track sound like Drake's Hotline Bling? Holy fuck, the track that 2 Chainz and 42 Dugg are rapping over is either amazing or horrible, but it's unmissable either way. Talk about an attention grabber.
Songwriter Sleeping at Last has clearly been obsessed with space for a while. Since 2014's Atlas we've been seeing Ryan O'Neal release music built around astral themes and this new track celebrating the launch of the Webb Space Telescope is no exception. It's lush, peaceful, hopeful, and it's enough to even make a cynical bastard like me sit in awe for a few seconds. Thanks, Ryan.
After the ripping Sabaton track Soldier of Heaven, we're sent into Unknown Mortal Orchestra's nearly 20 minute long track SB-09. I really love stuff like this. The type of song that's unsettling and leaves you feeling like you're in a new type of space that we can't realize on Earth. It reminds me of Sufjan's Age of Adz or Bon Iver's 22, A Million, but with a focus on the psychedelic, surf, and field recordings instead of avant garde baroque pop. This is the latest in UMO's series of instrumental songs that they release for the holiday season every year. I'm going to absolutely go back and make sure I catch the rest of those.
AAAAAAAAA! I hope you're also listening in order and got hit by that Ben Rector track's choral opening. Hot damn, that was fun. This is Main Character music if anything is. WOOOOOOO.
There's a deluxe edition of Halsey's recent record out today, so I threw one of those track on here, cause fuck you I can do deluxe editions and this one's really good.
I'm slowly learning to love country music. A big part of that was The Highwomen's LP from 2019. Now, we've got one of the Highwomen releasing a first single from what appears to be an upcoming full length! Maren Morris' Circles Around This Town marks her first release since 2019 and I'm excited to see how this record turns out after this documentation of how challenging Nashville can be.
If you don't know Lauren Spencer-Smith, she's from American Idol and TikTok and this new track is a soft acoustic breakup song that washes over you in exactly the ways that you want radio soft pop to wash over you.
"When you said you loved me, well, you must have had your fingers crossed."
Breakup songs really hit me hard right now. Can't really think of why.
Indie collective MICHELLE have a new single in EXPIRATION DATE. I really like this one and love the idea of going into a relationship knowing that it's likely to expire, but choosing to make the most of it while you're able. I haven't been paying attention to AURORA's lyrics, but the vibe of it makes me want to cry. There's something about her music that grabs my soul. I'm so glad that I found her after she was featured in Wolfwalkers.
Okay, indie heads already know this, but The Smile is a new punk-adjacent Radiohead side project with Thom, Johnny, and Tim. I didn't know this, cause I'm not a legit indie head. Shame on me.
Producer Burial has a new EP out today that's really dark and promising. I can't wait to get through the full five tracks that he's stretched over 43 and a half minutes. Again, I want to cry after this. The type of tears that get lost because you're sitting in the rain and they blend in. Maybe I'm just emotional today?
Moving up next, we've got electronic musician Rezz with a new album out today! I initially found Rezz because of their collaboration with Underoath last year, and this new record isn't shy on the features, with PVRIS, Shadow Cliq, and Metric represented, among others.
Aaaaand now for the WEIRD TRACK OF THE WEEK. We've got Steve Aoki pairing up with DJ Diesel. Or, as you may know him better, Shaq. It's fun, right? This is fun? We're having fun?
I don't know how to write about rap, which means I clearly don't read enough about rap. Anyway, I won't do a disservice to Leikeli47 by pretending to be good at writing about this new track. I'll just say that I really enjoy it. Got any recommendations for good writers in the rap scene that I should be keeping up with?
Black/grindcore artist APES is here with a massive new EP featuring Full of Hell's Dylan Walker providing white noise-esque background tones. I don't know why the transition from this into Swamp Dogg's Soul to Blessed Soul worked so well for me, but I really enjoyed it.
This collaborative noise track from The Body and OAA feels like it should have Daveed Diggs on top of it. Someone make this happen?
Okay, I gotta push this out. Enjoy!