The second single from London-based duo Quenta, “The Two of Us” grips with a heady hip-hop and art-pop fusion, reminiscent of Demon Days-era Gorillaz. Described as “a journey into the realms of relationships, lovers or friends,” “The Two of Us” meshes hip-hop rhythms with dark brass components. The vocals emit a range of charisma and personality, practically laughing with menacing appeal upon the “it’s just the two of us,” beginnings.

An ominous swell past the one-minute mark excels into a bouncier piano-forward pull, as a mellower vocal disposition emerges alongside. The rise from hip-hop mystique into smooth-flowing pop and “game over!” vocal snippet makes for a compelling sound, reflecting the project’s eclectic and creatively melodic sound — even if it’s at time unsettling. “The Two of Us” is a creative success from Quenta.

Quenta also has an upcoming full-length on the way.

Later this year, Houghton is set to share his forthcoming sophomore EP. He has already teased the record with its lead single, “Talk About It All The Time,” and today he’s back with an early listen to another new track, “Listen Up,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Listen Up” is another of Houghton’s breezy genre fusions, pulling together a sunny guitar line, mellow beat, and insistent hook. Samples from vintage TV shows color the margins of the track wh

Local Natives are releasing a new album, Time Will Wait For No One, on July 7 via Loma Vista. Now they have announced some in-store performances at three Southern California record stores and shared a live performance video for the album’s recent single, “NYE.” Check it all out below.

Time Will Wait For No One includes three singles the band shared last year: “Just Before the Morning,” “Desert Snow,”and “Hourglass.” “Desert Snow” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when the album was announced they shared another single from it, “NYE,” via an amusing music video, and announced some tour dates. “NYE” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

For the album the band worked with three producers—John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Death Cab For Cutie, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten), Michael Harris (Lana Del Rey, Feist), and Danny Reisch (Sun June, Other Lives)—recording at various studios around Los Angeles.

The band

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)

05

Florry - "Drunk And High"

Keep the rootsy indie rock coming. Florry’s been leaning that way lately, and on the opening track from new album The Holey Bible — coming soon on the same label that gave us M.J. Lenderman’s Boat Songs — their flirtations with alt-country come home to roost. “Drunk And High” laces its power-pop jangle with pedal steel, fiddle, and Southern-fried lead guitar to glorious effect. Francie Medosch and friends hoot, holler, and harmonize atop the ruckus, until you end up wondering if Philadelphia

'Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says

Chaos in Russia works to Kyiv’s advantage, Ukraine officials said on Saturday, June 24, but it remains to be seen whether President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his army can capitalize on the disorder caused this weekend as mercenaries marched towards Moscow.

Late on Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a founder of the Wagner army, said he was halting his “march for justice” on Moscow after a deal that spared him and his mercenaries from facing criminal charges. The deal also exiled Prigozhin to Belarus.

“Today the world saw that the masters of Russia do not control anything. Nothing at all. Just complete chaos,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, urging Ukraine’s allies to use the moment and send more weapons to Kyiv.

The Prigozhin unrest, the biggest internal challenge to President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s paramount leader for

Osees Powerlift Their Way Through Synth-Punk on New Single and Video “Goon”

On their second single from their upcoming album, Intercepted Message, “Goon” wastes no time to turn the amps up with the help of some tasteful 80s synths.

June 23, 2023

Osees - Photo by Titouan Massé

Osees – Photo by Titouan Massé

Released just before they embark on their North American tour, garage-punk band Thee Oh Sees, currently going by Osees, are switching lanes into synth-punk on their latest track and video, “Goon.” Once a solo project of guitarist and vocalist John Dwyer, the band is known for constant name changes and reinventions from album to album. On their second single from their upcoming album, Intercepted Message, “Goon” wastes no time to turn the amps up with the help of some tasteful 80s synths. Ad

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Complete with verses and a chorus that comes rapidly in just over two minutes of track time, Dwyer’s voice, using his gravelly diaphragm,

Saw a dude with a They Live shirt on today, and we agreed it was the truth! A gem by a true master!

A stirring single from Chicago-based band SOFT CHARM, “soup” launches quickly into an exhilarating guitar-laden soaring amidst a calming acoustical pulse. The caressing vocal tone emerges amidst a lusher backing disposition; the seamless alternations between urging contemplation and subsequent soaring reminds fondly of Japanese Breakfast.

“Everything that you believe in is a lie,” the vocals let out, the bitter truth contrasted by the exuberant guitar play. The lyrics play poignantly, with this particular line reflective of current society’s trend toward false truths. The track itself “poses itself as a challenge” to such blind acceptances, and does so in rousing form with the climactic rock production.

Check out the band’s track description:

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        “soup” is a song about brainmelt. Lyrically it weaves gently but potently through subjects such as reproductive justice, gender affirming healthcare, gun control, and police brutality. It poses itself as a challenge to those who may be blin
  

Impressing in both twangy yearning and bright hooky rock, the I Don’t Hear You Anymore EP is a stellar release from The Money War. The Western Australian-based duo of Dylan Ollivierre and Carmen Pepper concoct a heartrending sound, authentically capturing a range of emotions.

“The songs are special to me because they remind me of moments in the last year where I felt desperate to express myself,” Ollivierre says. “In the past, we often had numerous songs to choose from, but nowadays, with three young kids, our time has significantly decreased. Therefore, a song only progresses beyond the ‘idea’ stage if it strongly demands to be realized.”

The good thing about limited time is that selectivity becomes of greater importance; that’s emphasized in the EP’s 4-for-4 success rate, not wasting any time during its brief yet memorable runtime. Opener “I Don’t Hear You Anymore” is immediately indicative of such, presenting a caressing folk sound. A lush acoustic guitar complements Ollivierre’s

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA signaled they are making good headway in contract negotiations with the major studios, suggesting Hollywood may avert a second strike.

In a video message to members Saturday, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland shared no details of the talks, but said they were progressing well.

“We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser focused on all the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” Drescher said.

The talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began June 7 and are being closely watched in light of the ongoing writers’ strike, which began May 2.

The writers’ strike has brought nearly all scripted production to a halt in Los Angeles. But an actors’ strike could be even more destabilizing for the film and TV industry.

An agreement with the actors, coming on the heels of a contract recently negotiated by the Directors Guild of America, would likely put more pressu

Although What Matters Most is his first studio album since So There, his collaboration in 2015 with the string ensemble yMusic, Ben Folds has been keeping himself busy. Aside from his day job as the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, he’s written a memoir (A Dream About Lightning Bugs), launched a podcast, displayed his photography in galleries in the U.S. and Europe, and appeared onscreen in films and television (including the hit Amazon Prime series The Wilds.). He’s also been nominated for an Emmy for his composition and performance of the theme song to the Apple TV special It’s the Small Things. So, what made Mr. Folds go back into the studio to make something as old fashioned as a pop record?

We spoke to Folds, who made a name for himself in the mid to late 1990s with Ben Folds Five, about the new album (recently released by New West) and whether it’s better to retire or turn into a heritage act.

Ian Rushbury (Under the Radar): You’ve said

TOKYO, Japan – Japan’s military is testing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service with an eye to adopting the technology next fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, June 25, citing unnamed government sources.

The Ministry of Defense already has access to communication satellites in geostationary orbit, but use of Starlink technology, operated by Musk’s SpaceX, would add a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, the Yomiuri said.

Countries around the world are seeking to build resilience against the risk of jamming of communications or attacks on satellites in the event of conflict.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been testing Starlink since March with the system deployed in about 10 locations and in training, the newspaper said.

Defense ministry spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment on the report outside business hours.

Starlink technology is being deployed by Ukraine on the battlefield, and Russia is attempting to block its us

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who advanced most of the way to Moscow halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move that their leader said would avoid bloodshed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and founder of the Wagner army, said his men reached within 125 miles (200 km) of the capital on Saturday. Earlier, Moscow deployed soldiers in preparation for their arrival and told residents to stay indoors.

The Wagner fighters captured the city of Rostov hundreds of miles to the south before racing north in convoy, transporting tanks and armoured trucks and smashing through barricades set up to stop them, video showed.

On Saturday night, they began withdrawing from the Rostov military headquarters they had seized, a Reuters witness said.

“In 24 hours we got to within 200 km of Moscow. In this time we did not spill a single drop of our fighters’ blood,” Prigozhin, dressed in full combat uniform at an undisclosed loca

In West Hollywood, home to one of the largest Russian-speaking communities in the United States, residents watched with hope and apprehension Saturday as a mercenary rebellion that threatened to upend the Russian government and undermine its bloody invasion of Ukraine appeared to subside.

Some were buoyed by the news that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy Russian entrepreneur who owns the mercenary army known as the Wagner Group, announced that he was halting his march to Moscow. Others, like Andrei Braginski, dismissed the armed rebellion as an insignificant development in Russia, where the invasion of Ukraine and its mounting casualties have become increasingly unpopular.

“They’re rebels without support,” said Braginski, 58, carrying a bag of groceries filled with cherries, Kefir and tomato juice outside Odessa Grocery on Santa Monica Boulevard. “I don’t think it’s going to change the war. [Prigozhin] won’t win and won’t weaken the Russian army.”

Braginski, who was born in Estonia, has

Earlier this month, General Motors announced that beginning in 2025, it will adopt Tesla's charging connector for all its electric vehicles.

With the announcement, GM joins Ford in partnering with Tesla to integrate Tesla charging connectors into the companies’ electric vehicles beginning in 2025, vastly expanding charging access for Ford and GM EV owners.

Tesla opened its charging technology, which it calls the North American Charging Standard, in late 2022.

“We invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to put the Tesla charging connector and charge port, now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS), on their equipment and vehicles,” Tesla said in a press release.

The announcements from Ford and GM are a major shift toward adopting the North American Charging Standard as the industry’s standard EV charging system. Both automakers' electric vehicles use the Combined Charging System (CCS), which has been a standard in North America. To make Tesla Super

Should go without saying, but:

Telegram and Twitter were big spreaders of misinformation during the Russian coup attempt. Credit: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The potential coup attempt in Russia by a paramilitary organization may already be over(opens in a new tab), but the misinformation sure did flow during the breaking global event.

On Friday, news quickly spread that the Kremlin-aligned private army known as Wagner Group, led by "Putin's chef" Yevgeny Prigozhin, was leaving the war in Ukraine and marching towards Moscow. This breaking news caught many by surprise, and people flocked to social media in an effort to make sense of what appeared to be a coup attempt.

However, with information sparse as events in Russia were still unfolding, misinformation and wild speculation ran rampant online, showing that modern day social media and internet news sources are still highly flawed and lacking.

A major issue with this particular event is that many of the mo