Mix Tape 30
Mix Tape Thirty is another huge edition some awesome selections, check it out…
Global superstars BLACKPINK unleash the irresistible new single The Girls, the K-pop group’s first music since releasing the record-breaking U.S #1 album BORN PINK. Empowering and upbeat, The Girls debuted on BLACKPINK’s THE GAME — their hugely popular mobile game. This new song celebrates the quartet’s unstoppable rise to the top and perfectly encapsulates their defiant, fun-loving attitude.
“Stop sign, we burning it down,” BLACKPINK sings over bouncy beats on the addictive chorus. “Better watch out, we coming in loud.” The hitmakers then fire off a warning: “Bang bang! Just playing around, don’t mess with the girls with the girls with the girls.” JISOO, JENNIE, ROSÉ, and LISA are known for their innovative videos (they have a record 90M YouTube subscribers) and The Girls is no exception.
Rising rock hitmakers The Beaches unveil their newest single What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid in the final stretch leading up to the release of the quartet’s sophomore LP Blame My Ex on 15 September. Full of striking vocals and thrumming guitar riffs, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid is a belt-along crowd-pleaser for anyone tired of the insecurities and ‘what-ifs’ plaguing their minds.
Opening with attention-grabbing strumming from the band’s guitarists, Kylie Miller and Leandra Earl, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid starts off with a restrained tension that eventually bursts forth in the chorus. Lamenting the trials of navigating self-doubt in relationships, lead vocalist Jordan Miller puts a spin on the classic adage ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’ instead bluntly singing “what doesn’t kill you makes you paranoid / what doesn’t kill you makes you feel like your love ain’t s***.” The accompanying music video features the band’s members jamming out as frontwoman Miller confronts her inner voice in the mirror, ultimately shattering it to pieces.
Full of the group’s signature candour and attitude, the single is sure to resonate with new listeners and those familiar with the quartet’s particular brand of relatability alike. The band shares about the track:
“‘What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid’ is a song about feeling intense anxiety after a breakup. This had been my experience when my relationship had just ended. I wasn’t used to being on my own, so I found myself feeling really insecure in social situations – which was really surreal because I’m usually very confident and self-assured. However, the more people I’ve shown this song to, the more I’ve come to understand I’m not alone.”
UK indie royalty Bombay Bicycle Club are pleased to share I Want To Be Your Only Pet – a third new track from their forthcoming album My Big Day out 20 October 2023. The new track delivers a feverish, off-kilter whirlwind that builds harmonic tension with frenzied vocals, and culminates in an explosive hook that will undoubtedly thrive in the band’s live set.
“I was just playing around with guitar sounds at soundcheck, and started playing this riff. Jamie must have heard something in it because he got out his phone and started recording. For the next few months he would constantly text me to ask “have you written a song around that riff yet?” So finally I did to stop him harassing me” frontman Jack Steadman explains. “To me it sounds like if Abbey Road era Beatles had a love child with Rated R era Queens of the Stone Age.”
Award-winning, multi-platinum-selling band Thirty Seconds To Mars, consisting of brothers Jared and Shannon Leto, release their new song Seasons via Concord Records. The fourth song to be released from the band’s highly anticipated sixth studio album It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day, Seasons asks if we can accept change as we move through the many different seasons of life.
Earlier this month, the band headlined two sold out official Lollapalooza Aftershows at Chicago’s House of Blues, where they debuted Seasons. The band also made their eagerly-awaited return to the festival’s main stage for the first time since 2006. Forbes called their performance a “visual spectacle” with “an entrance that will be hard to top,” in reference to Jared jumping from the roof of the stage to start the set. The band were also joined by surprise guest, Bryan Garris of hardcore band Knocked Loose, lending his signature vocals to the classic MARS single, The Kill (Bury Me).
Three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Bay returns with a brand-new single entitled Goodbye Never Felt So Bad out now via Mercury/Republic Records. It notably marks his first release of 2023 and first new music since his 2022 third full-length album, Leap.
On the track produced by Gabe Simon [Noah Kahan] and co-written with Plested [Lewis Capaldi, Dean Lewis], James Bay said: “Goodbye Never Felt So Bad is a song about how crazy it can feel to say goodbye. There’s rarely ever anything good about it. I say goodbye to the people I love constantly, it comes with the territory of my work. I’m always traveling. It’s an amazing job but everything in life has its upsides and downsides. This summer I started playing the song live, way before I even knew it would be released. I just wanted to share new music for the thrill of it. You can’t ask an audience to like something, but every time my fans put their hands in the air, clapped along and by the last chorus they were singing the words. It’s been unbelievable. I’m really excited to share the recording with the world. I wrote it with my mate, the brilliant Phil Plested. I hope you love it!“
slowdive present their new track/video, the slab, from their highly anticipated fifth album, everything is alive, out Friday 1st September on Dead Oceans. Album closer the slab crashes into existence with skittering percussion, fuzzed out guitars, and ominous synths.
Following along slowdive’s electric trail of tracks — the suave (NPR Music) kisses, and skin in the game, ‘a clarifying shoegaze reset from the masters themselves’ (NYLON) — the slab continues previewing the sonic breadth of everything is alive to thrilling effect. On the slab, vocalist/guitarist Neil Halstead says, ‘This is the heaviest track on the record and as the name suggests we wanted it to feel like a big slab of music. We wanted it to feel very dense.’ Last month Slowdive wrapped their sold out headline tour across Australia and New Zealand, playing six dates across the two countries.
UK-rock back Neck Deep are back with their newest out-of-this-world single Take Me With You, available now via Hopeless Records. The new track finds vocalist Ben Barlow screaming for help into the unknown, letting everybody know that he would “rather be (hypothetically) abducted by aliens than stick round on this ‘hellish sack of burning trash.’”
“’Take Me With You’ is one of those songs where I had the title first. Literally as simple as “we should write a song about aliens called ‘Take Me With You.’ So conceptually and lyrically it was pretty straightforward,” says Barlow. “A few of us in the band are big UFO heads, particularly Seb, so we had a lot of fun writing this one.”
Barlow continues, “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a slight nod to Blink 182’s ‘Aliens Exist’ but you can blame Tom [DeLonge] for infecting my fragile mind at a young age and then going and busting the UFO world wide open. It’s ultimately a little bit of fun before we come at people with the more meaningful stuff a little later down the line.”
The Story So Far, a prominent band in the alternative music scene, has made a triumphant return with the release of a long-awaited single, Big Blind (produced and Engineered by Ben Hirschfield). This latest offering marks their first release since their critically acclaimed album Proper Dose in 2018. Demonstrating their distinctive style, the band’s new track showcases a captivating blend of compelling melodies and powerful vocals. With Big Blind, The Story So Far reaffirms their position as one of the most influential artists of their scene.
Multi-instrumentalist GUM (aka Jay Watson of Pond and touring member of Tame Impala) offers another taste of his forthcoming full-length album, Saturnia, arriving September 15th on Spinning Top Records, in the form of a new single and video for Music Is Bigger Than Hair.
Remarking on the track, Watson says, “Music Is Bigger Than Hair is a funny title, I think it’s referring to me getting older and feeling my mortality a little bit more, or at least my worth as a musician being tied up in the way I look. Feeling like it’s affecting my music, as if it has anything todo with it. Musically it’s one of my favourites because of Jesse Kotansky’s beautiful string arrangement.”
Perth power pop combo Rinehearts have premiered the video for their new single Could You Would You, taken from their just announced Dom Mariani-produced new album Full Bloom. Full Bloom is out October 13 through Cheersquad Records & Tapes in Australia and New Zealand, and venerable power pop institutions Kool Kat and Rock Indiana in the US and Spain. Rinehearts have also announced their Full Bloom tour, taking in shows in Victoria and WA in October.
Full Bloom will follow Rinehearts’ first album, Can’t Do Nothing, which was released in 2019. For the new album, the band was lucky enough to work with none other than legendary musician/songwriter/producer Dom Mariani (The Stems/DM3/The Some Loves/ Datura4). A longtime fine and fellow Perth resident, Mariani has described Rinehearts as “that rare band that you come across from time to time, doing their thing without a lot of fuss, but with true dedication and a knack for crafting perfect pop.”
Working with their hometown pop hero – one who is also a major player in international power pop circles – is a dream come true for the band, and the resulting recording is beautifully realised with the perfect combination of gorgeous tones, fizzy energy and amazing tunes. And while there is a crystalline perfection to the recording – with every guitar and vocal hook exactly where it needs to be – there is a full-bodied depth to the sound as well, one that feels like flesh and blood and a heavy beating heart, making each and every track sound passionately alive.
New single Could You Would You is indicative of the album’s quality. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed the rush of classic Teenage Fanclub or prime Fountains of Wayne will hear something pleasingly familiar in the lush harmonies and warm presence of the instrumental sounds.
Mantra of The Cosmos, the new group comprising some of the most influential British artists of the last 30 years, have collided once again to bring you their second musical offering in new single X (Wot You Sayin?), out now via BMG. The band road tested the track recently at their debut official performance headlining Glastonbury’s Glade Stage.
Made up of Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays, Black Grape), Zak Starkey (The Who, Oasis), Andy Bell (Oasis, Ride), Bez (Happy Mondays, Black Grape) and latest members Brix Smith of The Fall and Sharna Starkey of SSHH, who joined the band for their Glastonbury show, Mantra Of The Cosmos is more supernova than supergroup, but it’s a musical marriage that works. Inspired by Shaun’s schoolboy nickname “X”, ‘X (Wot You Sayin?)’ was co-written by Shaun and Andy with Zak bringing it all together on production. It builds steadily through spaced out sonics, a wonky drum beat and Shaun’s trademark enigmatic lyrics, bursting out into a chorus complete with triumphant horns and psychedelic guitar.
Describing the track, Zak says: “it’s a brilliant allegorical lyric by Britain’s Bob Dylan & velvety underground drone from Andy Bell.” Speaking on the project, Andy says: “It’s a pleasure to be part of Mantra of the Cosmos. Four like-minded souls who get off on the same music,” whilst Shaun adds: “It’s a fucking blast mate!! It’s great when we’re not all irate.”
Adelaide indie rock duo Teenage Joans achieve confection perfection today with their brand new single Candy Apple alongside the announcement of their debut album The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest, due out on Friday 13 October via Domestic La La. Following on from the release of the anthemic single Superglue earlier this year, Candy Apple may be sonically sweet – but the track also brandishes a searingly intimate narrative.
Of their new single the band share: “Candy Apple was our first introduction into writing songs with a way more honest and personal lyric style. When we wrote it we kind of knew it would point us in a new direction for this new era, as we think it definitely shows our maturity. We loved the metaphor of “falling in love with a candy apple”, the way something so sweet and beautiful can rot really easily, and we took that into both the aesthetic side of the album when we were making the visuals, and the thematic side of the album too.”
Psych-pop’s rapidly rising Butter Bath boldly unveils new single I Don’t Know How To Be Your Friend. The euphoric track is the latest offering from his forthcoming EP Rushes, due for release Friday 1 September. A kaleidoscope of warped synth and hazy guitars, I Don’t Know How To Be Your Friend unfolds into a sonic groove of melodic hooks and harmonies.
Shedding light on probing layers of introspection and relationships, Butter Bath talks through the meaning behind I Don’t Know How To Be Your Friend; “Sometimes in friendships you need to have difficult and honest conversations and often you don’t know if it’s going to be constructive or cause the relationship to spiral. The track is about wishing that I could put on a disguise and say exactly how I feel, the same way that school kids get their friends to break up with the person they are dating because it’s too uncomfortable to do it themselves. As an adult you know that being a good friend to someone sometimes means having direct conversations.”
Funky, dirty bass lines; jarring sci-fi synths and g-funk-inspired beats combine on Mick Jagger With a Laser, the new single from the legendary, Aria Award-winning Eora/Sydney outfit Art Vs Science. The grimy, robotic and endlessly catchy tune is inspired in part by the 1992 film Freejack, and features on the deluxe version of their successful 2022 LP Big Overdrive.
“Mick Jagger With A Laser is one of four new tracks we’re releasing as part of our Big Overdrive Deluxe album. The track started when we were all talking about and half-remembering a movie called Freejack (1992), which featured Mick Jagger as the villainous Victor Vacendak. It led to a hook for an instrumental track we’d been working on for a while and it made it all come together. Someone told us it sounds like garage Gorillaz, someone else has said indie G-funk… not good at playing the genre guessing game but we’re pretty proud of it and can’t wait for you all to hear it.” Dan W, Art Vs Science
Mick Jagger With a Laser proves the band are still as experimental, creative and entertaining as they were when they first arrived on the scene back in 2008. Sonically, The new single feels just as much Beastie Boys as it does Gorillaz, with intricate synth work, 90s style samples and epic, sci-fi imagery within the lyrics that refers to 1992 film Freejack, a box-office bomb that featured Mick Jagger, Emilio Estavez and Anthony Hopkins.
“It was one of those tracks that came together quickly once we’d unlocked its chorus. The rest of the tune fell in around the idea of the narrator in a feverish state in a 5 star hotel, awaiting a Spanish lass with great big teeth, only to find her usurped by murderous Victor Vacendak weidling a deadly future super weapon in his hands. Mixed by Dan Mac and produced by the band in collaboration with long time friend Berkfinger, it was a joy to make and we hope you like it.” Dan W, Art Vs Science
One of Australia’s finest exponents of psychedelic-garage-punk, Rocket Science have announced the release of their first new music since 2019, with the single Agitation out now via the band’s new home, Cheersquad Records & Tapes.
Delving into and delighting in post-everything nihilism, this first taste from Rocket Science’s forthcoming album Push Play is a bitter morsel.
‘Agitation is a litany of grievances, a shit list of actions, provocations, situations, and locations, was born of a howl into the void, a desperate dream shout, the kind that you want to shake you, out of the consumer, colonial dream, and into a new reality. A positive, wakeful now.’ Rocket Science
Do the Agitation with Rocket Science. Let’s move, shudder, and shake together on dystopian dancefloors!
Two-time Grammy-nominated rock group Plain White T’s are back with their latest single Would You Even, out now.
Leaning back into their pop-punk roots, Plain White T’s treat fans to a new sonic bop — fit with an undeniably catchy chorus and diary-honest lyrics. Known for their charming melodies and punk-centric guitar tones, Would You Even once again boasts the band’s ability to write memorable hooks and intoxicating hits. Fans can hear this latest single, along with Spaghetti Tattoo and Happy, on all streaming platforms.
“I always have this fear, when I’m creating something that I really love, that what if I die, and these songs I’m writing and pouring my heart into will just be stuck on my iPhone forever,” says Higgenson. “Never to be heard. Never to even get the chance to be hits. That’s the basis of ‘Would You Even.’ I was dating someone and I would drive home super late sometimes after hanging out with them, and then the next morning, I would think about how tired I was, and how stupid and dangerous that was. And that led me to the question, ‘Was this person even worth the risk? Would she do the same for me?'”
Alice Cooper has released his new single Welcome To The Show from his upcoming album Road, coming out August 25 on earMUSIC. Welcome to the Show, showcasing Alice Cooper’s signature blend of hard rock, theatrical storytelling, and haunting melodies is the third single released in prior to the August 25 launch of his Road album.
One of the most influential and iconic figures in music, Cooper’s latest offering taps into the essence of his classic hits while offering a fresh and invigorating sound, bursting with energy from the first note. “‘Welcome to the Show’ is just that: Telling the audience here it is. The show is ready to go and we are fully loaded. Here it comes!”, Alice says.
The Drums have debuted a new song titled Isolette, the latest preview of figure-head Jonny Pierce’s forthcoming sixth studio album Jonny. An album a lifetime in the making, Jonny is a body of work imbued with forgiveness and self-acceptance for the parts of himself that he’d previously blanched away from: the scared, hurt kid who worked hard to survive an abusive home, the young adult who peered out at the world through a hardened shell. Distilled aptly on the springy, guitar-gilded Isolette – the French word for ‘incubator’ – he delves into how that seal between himself and the world both offered a level of safety and led him into emotional starvation.
“My mother experienced what is referred to as a birth trauma when she was pregnant with me,” says Pierce about the inspiration for Isolette. “A doctor broke her water without her consent, and she immediately went into painful, traumatic labor. I was born prematurely. They rushed me into an incubator where no one was able to touch me. Over the course of the pandemic, I took a lot of psych courses. In child psych, I learned that it is of utmost importance for a mother to have skin contact with her baby. It’s fundamental for bonding. We didn’t have that. The love and trust you get from that initial bonding influences how you feel love and trust in future relationships. My mother had been violated at the time of my birth and I believe I became a symbol of that trauma. She detached from me emotionally, so on many levels I often feel like I never really left the isolette.”
K.Flay has joined forces with Pierce the Veil’s Vic Fuentes for new single Irish Goodbye – out now. It’s the latest to be released in advance of K.Flay’s forthcoming new studio album MONO – due out September 15th via Giant Music. Irish Goodbye is the album’s heaviest and hardest-hitting track, an intimately detailed portrait of choosing self-preservation over succumbing to possibly toxic desire. “I was screaming in the demo to that song and eventually I realized, ‘I have a friend who screams professionally, so maybe I should get him on this,’” Flaherty recalls. Irish Goodbye follow’s the electrifying Shy single, which was released in June with news of MONO, and the LP’s riveting guitar-driven lead single Raw Raw released in April just ahead of her co-headlining tour of the US with grandson.
MONO is the LA based, Illinois born artist, producer, and songwriter’s fifth full-length studio album and first since waking up one morning at the end of August 2022 with total hearing loss in her right ear—a freak occurrence her doctors deemed permanent, leading her to question whether she’d ever make music again. “For a while it was upsetting to even listen to music, so at some point I had to ask myself, ‘Can I still do this? Do I still want to?’” says the musician otherwise known as Kristine Flaherty. But soon after returning to the studio and resuming work on MONO, K.Flay found her sense of purpose profoundly renewed. “I felt an urgency I hadn’t experienced in quite some time,” she reveals. “It was like this massive sensory change had put me back into a beginner’s mind, where I felt so free but also compelled to put everything I had into making the record great.”
Following an incredible response to her fourth studio album, Hey Dawn, Fanny Lumsden has shared new single and video, You’ll Be Fine. The video for You’ll Be Fine is an hilarious, rollicking good time – complete with flying prawns, airborne spaghetti and slap-stick tomato sauce, in one of the most riotous food fights you’ll see!
Directed by Anna Phillips, with DOP Sam Brumby, You’ll Be Fine stars Fanny and husband Dan Stanley Freeman, with various band and family members lending their considerable talents!
The album Hey Dawn is a rich character study, with the singer-songwriter reflecting on the stories that have shaped her and those around her. It’s also a more sonically diverse outing than Lumsden’s previous records, incorporating elements such as guitar-based indie-pop into her trademark world of gorgeously crafted, emotionally rich acoustic song writing – including top 10 Airplay hit Millionaire, the quirky When I Die, haunting album title track Hey Dawn, personal tome Ugly Flowers, most recent offering Stories, and now pop/country banger You’ll Be Fine.
Metric have released their new single, Nothing Is Perfect along with a music video directed by Justin Broadbent. The song is an acoustic outlier that puts lead-singer Emily Haines’ vocals and lyrics at the forefront. Last month, exactly one year after the release of Metric’s 2022 album Formentera, the band surprised fans with an unannounced and unexpected part two companion album – Formentera II, set for release on October 13 via Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers.
Both Nothing Is Perfect and the previously released Just The Once are featured on the new album.
“Nothing Is Perfect” stands out on Formentera II as the lone track that is carried by only acoustic guitar and vocals. We explored many renditions of this song during the recording process, but in the end found that everything we tried adding seemed to detract from the essence of it.. Lyrically, “Nothing Is Perfect” takes the common expression away from its usual meaning, giving substance to “nothing” as a concrete thing that can be actively pursued and obtained: Nothing is perfect/ I’ve earned it/ All absence achieved/ No fences, no exits, no lies. For the official music video, we worked with Justin Broadbent to create an atmospheric and surreal visual accompaniment to enhance the otherworldly mood of the song, with stylistic nods to Terrence Malick and David Lynch. The song ends with a meditative and anthemic repetition of the word “nothing”, like I’m celebrating it and singing its praises. I love nothing!”
The Bamboos unstoppable evolution continues with the Disco / Boogie drenched Ex-Files, which is the first taste of their forthcoming eleventh studio album, This Is How You Do It. What might sound on paper to be a new direction for the band makes total sense once you recognise the trademark combination of Lance Ferguson’s Soul powered production style, their effortless groove and Kylie Auldist’s incredible voice.
Soul, Funk and Jazz music of all shades and flavours has always been an inspiration to the band’s founder / guitarist / producer Lance Ferguson, so it’s no surprise that the band continues to chart new musical pathways. “It’s 2023, so let’s not get caught up with things like musical convention, because everything is wide open now”, Ferguson affirms. “By definition nothing that we release can ever possibly be outside the sphere of “our sound” because that sphere is continually expanding, changing and redefining itself as we create the music”.
Delta Goodrem returns with her first new music since 2021’s No.1 album Bridge Over Troubled Dreams, with uplifting pop track, Back To Your Heart released worldwide. Written and produced by Delta, Matthew Copley and John Shanks, it is the first release on Delta’s label, ATLED Records.
Delta said, “I was inspired to write this new music from my experience of touring around the world last year. I knew I wanted the new record to be filled with songs that the crowd can sing back to me, and dance away the night to. Back To Your Heart is the first song that I wanted to share off this exciting new era of music together. The song is about letting go of your worries and fears that are in your head, and remembering to get back to what you love and lead with your heart. It’s anthemic, epic, pop. It’s all about living in the here and now, and that feels liberating.”
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