New Music Friday | Sleater-Kinney, Keyon Harrold, Charley Crockett and More

The new-music spigot has been opened wide and there’s a ton of fresh tunes flowing forth. Here’s seven we caught in our proverbial bucket in order to share with you here.

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Rock 

Sleater-Kinney – “Needlessly Wild” 

Recommended If You Like: The Breeders, Sonic Youth, The Julie Ruin

Since their debut in 1997, the Corrin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein-led group Sleater-Kinney’s brand of angular rock has remained ruthlessly and fearlessly indefinable. The band’s latest album, Little Rope, is full of unique riffs and untamed melodies – that is to say, singularly Sleater-Kinney. 

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Jazz/R&B/Hip Hop

Keyon Harrold – “Find Your Peace”

Recommended If You Like: Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Butcher Brown

Trumpeter and composer Keyon Harrold’s playing has brought him in close proximity to some of the most in-demand artists of the ever-expanding worlds of contemporary jazz, hip hop and R&B. On his new record, Foreverland, Harrold brings some of those same artists – the pianist Robert Glasper, the hip-hop artist Common –  into his personal orbit, to appreciable results. 

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Folk/Country

Adrianne Lenker – “Sadness As a Gift”

Recommended If You Like: Big Thief, Angel Olsen, Waxahatchee

One of the best working songwriters alive, Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker recently released “Sadness as a Gift,” the second preview of a new LP. “Sadness as a Gift” is a warm, rustic strummer, enlivened by Josefin Runsteen’s violin, about the irrevocable end of a relationship. Read a review.

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Pop Punk 

Green Day – “Strange Days are Here to Stay”

Recommended If You Like: Nirvana, Rancid, Blink 182

The enduring Oakland-bred trio return with their first new record of their fourth decade as a band. Saviors arrives at a time when pop punk, the genre they brought to the mainstream, is not only no longer derided. It’s perhaps having its biggest mainstream moment (we see you Olivia Rodrigo) since the inaugural Warped Tour.   

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Country/Blues/Soul

Charley Crockett – $10 Cowboy 

Recommended If You Like: Tyler Childers, Drive-By Truckers, Vincent Neil Emerson

Charley Crockett, the Texas-bred, syrupy voiced cowboy, is back with another cheeky, soulful honky tonk stomper. 

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Rock

Cuffed Up – “Finer Things”

Recommended If You Like: Bully, Deep Sea Diver, Bloc Party

Listeners keen on both melodic, emotional indie rock and propulsive, tightly wound post-punk will find that Cuffed Up reside in the dead center of that Venn diagram. The group’s latest single “Finer Things” evokes a sunnier Bloc Party, with Liptock’s insistent drumming and Torrefranca and Apostolopoulos’ punchy guitar riffs all racing ahead in tandem. Read a review. 

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Jazz/Local 

Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y – “Bird Lives”

Recommended If You Like: Chick Webb, Art Blakey, Gene Krupa

The new release from Jacksonville-based drummer-educator Ulysses Owens Jr. and his ensemble Generation Y is an immediate reminder of the joy, nuance and innate humanness of jazz. Over the course the nine tracks of A New Beat, Owens Jr. and Generation Y deliver a rapturous set of hip standards and also originals penned by the assembled players. Read a review. 

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More New Music

Many of the tracks from our New Music Friday series are spinning on our music discovery station The Independent 89.9 HD4 and all are included on our Fresh Squeeze playlist on Spotify.