Happy Friday, and happy release day for two artists that are not usually considered indie these days, but I am going to allow given the circumstances: Taylor Swift's folklore   and MisterWives' SUPERBLOOM . Both dropped albums at midnight (this morning), and while the MisterWives album was expected this week with singles already announced, both were a surprise midnight release today, day-of. AND, both albums have every song title listed without any capital letters (except SUPERBLOOM's last track, SUPERBLOOM ).  I have been lucky enough to see both acts live before, so this is a true quarantine treat. Taylor Swift's folklore  had zero singles before the release, and there are a lot of celebrity guests involved behind-the-scenes, including Aaron Dessner from The National , my fave Jack Antonoff ( Bleachers ), and Bon Iver, who features on track 4 of the album, exile (the best song):  She also had official videos ready for every song...her mind.  seven is also...

Hey Folks, Here's a small roundup of my recent good indie findings, some new to the world and some new to me: I recently discovered that the ending theme to iconic Cartoon Network show Adventure Time is not, in fact, a song by Rebecca Sugar , as most are! Instead, the song is called Christmas Island , and it is by the Olympia, Washington-based band  LAKE , off of their 2009 album, Let's Build a Roof:  https://laketheband.bandcamp.com/album/lets-build-a-roof-klp213 Whitney announced today that they will be releasing an album of covers in August, called Candid ! The first song came out in May on Bandcamp, a version of John Denver's Country Roads, featuring Waxahatchee :  https://whitneychicago.bandcamp.com/track/take-me-home-country-roads-ft-waxahatchee-2 , This is the best of the three that have been released so far, in my opinion. The third, a cover of Hammond Song by The Roches , came out today. The songs are not anywhere near the lovely lo-fi quality of the band's us...

Are you still at home for quarantine? Stuck inside during the virus? Then you, too, are probably also catching up on Netflix. Such a situation I myself have been in lately, I most recently finished the entirety of The Babysitters Club with my sister. There was very ubiquitous pop music throughout, especially individual songs with lyrics featured at the end of each episode. This was not so notable. But then, I watched  The Claudia Kishi Club , which is a documentary short that explores the legacy that the Babysitters' character had on readers. The short was fascinating and fantastic, but what stood out to me most was the song with this accompanying music video during the credits:  The Linda Lindas , I came to learn, are punk rockers ranging ages 9-15 years old, and they are fantastic. They are named after the song Linda Linda Linda by Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts . They are charming, and their outfits are incredible (not to mention their logo:  https://thelindalin...

If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of Japanese Breakfast.  Michelle Zauner is an incredible songwriter, musician, and composer, and I have been lucky enough to get to see her perform twice; the first time, I got to work tech for her solo performance at Brandeis APAHM! As my own band, Sproutfit , works on recording our first album, I have been going through the majority of Japanese Breakfast's early discography, trying to glean a sense of how she got from recording a-song-a-day in the month of June to producing one of the most impressive albums I have ever heard with my own ears, Soft Sounds From Another Planet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20iCZeU35eQ&list=OLAK5uy_kvYKKaMlrdlcu49F4cjfa3julL2osOtNw . Going through her early works, I found some beginnings of a couple of full-blown indie masterpieces I know and love, so if that's what you're into, here you go: Zauner's first band, Little Big League , put out the song Boyish  on their album Tropical Jinx:  ...

I know I said in my last post that I would not be confining Indie Cacophony to the harsh hands of the exclusively current release schedule of new music. But, because of the way of the world leading us to today being a Bandcamp Friday, I happened to have a couple of favorites this time to share: OMNI: Omni released a couple of covers today on Bandcamp through Sub Pop to benefit the Georgia NAACP, and one of them is an incredible rendition of Billy Joel's "The Stranger":  https://omniatl.bandcamp.com/album/the-stranger-b-w-art-for-arts-sake . It's available to purchase and free to listen. There is unfortunately another Omni on Spotify who is a lot less melodic than our Omni, and they also released music today. But theirs is on Spotify, and not donating to the Georgia NAACP, so don't be fooled. BABYBOY: Babyboy's second album is out today. Also Brandeis students, the production is incredible and ethereal (my bandmate, Gav McIsaac, helped record and produce!) My f...

Hello all, It has been a minute. And by a minute, I mean this is my first post in more than two years. I really lost traction, but I'm back again. Since I have last posted, BØRNS turned out to be a very bad person. After COVID-19 began, all of the independent venues I know and love had to close their doors to the general public. And, I began gaining actual work (internship) experience in the music industry. I understand more than ever how important it is to shed light on underrepresented artists, and I hope to help promote their work.  I will be trying more and more to link to artists' Bandcamp pages rather than their Spotify accounts, in order to give readers an option to purchase music directly from the source. Thank you if you are still subscribed to Indie Cacophony. You can expect to receive more posts going forward. I am also looking into adding more authors to the blog, so look out for their work!  This is still going to be published in a very casual, short writing style...