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.)
Touch Girl Apple Blossom - "The Springtime Reminds Me Of…"
"The Springtime Reminds Me Of…" is a title that invites you to fill in the blank. For Olivia Garner, the season is a portal back to bygone love, full of "reminders that you're alive." Perhaps, like the singer and guitarist for Touch Girl Apple Blossom, the emergence out of winter perennially has you flashing back. "Time moves fast since I let you go," Garner sings. "The world keeps turning." Just as we all have our own associations with spring, the lyric is open to interpretation. Spring is about new beginnings, after all, and as the lead single from the Austin indie-poppers' debut album, this urgently jangling gem marks a stupendous start for whatever comes next. —Chris
Knocked Loose - "Hive Mind" (Feat. Denzel Curry)
Run-DMC's version of "Walk This Way" came out in 1986, so that means we've had a solid 40 years of rappers and metal bands getting together to make jagged, disreputable Judgment Night-type hybrid bangers. But it's possible that we've never had a fusion quite as ecstatically ugly as this one. As Knocked Loose get more popular, their adrenalized metalcore only grows more guttural and abrasive. On "Hive Mind," they go full berserker, and the few musical nods to rap, the scratches and 808s here and there, fit right in with the judder-groove breakdowns. But Denzel Curry plays the same fests as Knocked Loose, and he knows how to surf that catharsis without breaking his cool. The flavor-combination is bracing, but it works. —Tom
Cashier - "Part From Me"
"Part From Me," the latest single from Cashier's forthcoming EP The Weight, is "a celebration of rock guitar," according to bandleader Kylie Gaspard. All of the Louisiana four-piece's songs could be interpreted that way considering how much they shred, but "Part From Me" turns the volume up and the energy even higher. It's also "a love letter to singing," and Gaspard's impassioned belts over the turbulent riffs prove she's committed. —Danielle
Molina - "Golden Brown Sugar"
Molina songs are easy to sink into. It’s like falling asleep to rain. Her latest, "Golden Brown Sugar," is no different. The song is moody and swift with guitar reverb, slanted like a humid summer storm’s rain. It slowly builds, a small fury. Her voice braided through in a stream-of-consciousness: "A smug of sound/ And wavy walks shimmer/ All leaves that she greets/Are upside down." It’s all a pleasant blur. —Margaret
Chat Pile - "Masks"
The first 30 seconds of "Masks" sound muffled like you're standing outside of the gig, but the latest original single from Oklahoma City noise-rock greats Chat Pile doesn't take long to reel you into its madness. "Look around you now, they could be anywhere," Raygun Busch snarls over thrashing drums and discordant riffs. As the track unfurls, Busch never identifies these ominous, oppressive forces, instead advising you to not humanize them if they're not granting you humanity in the first place. "Masks" is about keeping on your toes while simultaneously standing 10 toes down. —Abby
