We are excited to share that “Boys Don’t Cry” & “Wake Her Up”, from our SiriusXM session in Nashville are now available to stream on your platform of choice. You can also listen back to the full session and interview
In August 2026, while between stops on the band’s global No Feeling Tour, American Football visited SiriusXM’s studios in Nashville to record a special live performance for their revered flagship channel, SiriusXMU—but there was also a catch. The invitation was contingent on an acoustic arrangement, as well as a cover song—both of which are rarities in the band’s nearly 30-year history.
Turning a challenge into an opportunity, the result is American Football’s first and only acoustic release. Boasting their seven-piece touring lineup—with contributing members Cory Bracken on glockenspiel, Justine Fallon on backing vocals, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Garzon—the band’s stripped-down configuration is lush with intimacy. “Wake Her Up / Boys Don’t Cry (SiriusXM Session)” captures the bare emotions of American Football’s music in a whole new light, while celebrating a timeless classic by one of their most beloved influences, The Cure.
released October 14, 2026
“Wake Her Up” Trumpet – Steve Lamos Guitar – Steve Holmes Guitar / Lead Vocals – Mike Kinsella Bass / Percussion – Nate Kinsella Guitar / Additional Vocals – Mike Garzón Synth / Glockenspiel – Cory Bracken Additional Vocals – Justine Fallon
“Boys Don’t Cry” (The Cure Cover) Trumpet – Steve Lamos Guitar – Steve Holmes Guitar / Lead Vocals – Mike Kinsella Bass / Additional Vocals – Nate Kinsella Percussion / Additional Vocals – Mike Garzón Synth / Glockenspiel – Cory Bracken
The leather-clad, tattoo-adorned band of brothers return for their sixth studio album, armed with lead single “Lost in Translation” and pristine guitar-playing. Following the loss of their mother and emotional rock, the brothers took time to grieve and now return as individuals, band mates, resilient and more deeply connected.
Recent intimate gigs across London prove the Las Vegas band still carry the same rigour (perhaps with fewer bottles of whiskey) and the same close knit bond with fans and new listeners alike.
Across a series of increasingly bold records, the band have laid out their grand rock & roll vision inspired by everyone from The Libertines to The Rolling Stones, by way of My Chemical Romance. Those first four records were driven by a desire to prove just how much the band could actually do, nailing everything from epic heartbreak to snarling vengeance. Palaye Royale return with a bold new studio album built for longtime fans and new listeners alike.
Palaye Royale return with a bold new studio album built for longtime fans and new listeners alike. Featuring 12 tracks produced by Chris Greatti (YUNGBLUD), “Amsterdamage” delivers a refined, festival-ready rock sound with strong retail appeal and a dynamic new chapter from one of modern rock’s most distinctive acts.
“Dancing Alone on the Concrete”sounds grander than Chura’s previous two albums—more players in the room and higher stakes, emotions and volume both at an all time high—yet some of its most memorable tracks are the ones that demonstrate Chura’s restraint.”
Plenty of dramatic and life-altering things happened in those seven years: She broke off an engagement, she left Detroit for New Orleans (and then Louisville), she gave birth to her first child, she ultimately returned to Detroit. But those events are not the true story of “Dancing Alone on the Concrete“, her third album and second for SaddleCreek. The true story of this album—the experience that gives it its thematic and aesthetic shape—is more simple than that. Here’s what happened while Stef Chura was writing the songs that would eventually become “Dancing Alone on the Concrete” She practiced the piano and the guitar a whole lot, and she went on dates.
Single for the first time in years, Chura used the 2020 Covid lockdowns as an excuse to start over in New Orleans, where, like everyone else, she was mostly stuck indoors, unable to tour or play locally. “I was just writing and practicing,” she says. “By playing the piano more, I was learning more about transposing chords and things like that. I was going back and forth, playing songs on the guitar and the piano, and it lent itself to the writing process in a nice way.” Chura’s singing voice has always been unique—it’s brassy but contained, like a muted trumpet, and on “Dancing Alone on the Concrete” she plays around with little hitches and lilts, punching her melody upward in “Leadweight” as she sings about someone weighing her down. That song moves along on a “Sweet Jane” shimmy, its punchiness lightly inspired by Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World.”
Though it may seem like an obvious outcome considering the context, the album evinces a mastery of craft that only comes with constant writing, experimenting, and editing; the songs here unfold with the simple inevitability that powers all great songs. “Babydoll” bounces along on a bold power-pop beat that brings to mind the early New Pornographers, its lyrics simultaneously a pep talk, a punch-up, and a reflection on how hard it can be to claim one’s own space in a brutal world. If it also sounds a bit like Neutral Milk Hotel in anthem mode, that’s no accident: NMH’sScott Spillane and The Olivia Tremor Control’s John Fernandes both appear on the track, and the album was produced by Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo, who recorded much of the Elephant 6 output. “When I met Robert, I sent him some demos, and ‘Babydoll’ was the main one that [prompted us to ask if] we’re going to do this together, because he doesn’t produce records anymore,” Chura says.
At Athens’ Chase Park Transduction studio, Chura teamed up with producers, engineers, and session musicians David Barbe (Sugar) and Andy LeMaster (Now It’s Overhead) who played nearly as big a role in shaping the album as Schneider. Chura was also joined by her longtime drummer Ryan Clancy. They enlisted R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, who play together on “Danny,” which sounds a bit like John McEntire producing an Americana record. “Robert was like ‘Wouldn’t this sound great with Mike Mills playing bass on it? So David Barbe called him up, and Mike Mills and Peter Buck ended up playing on that song just from shooting the shit.” Squint and you might hear a bit of Michael Stipe’s bittersweet sensibility in the melody, too, but the song itself finds Chura at her least conflicted. It is a moment of pure longing: “Please don’t make me chase you all the way to New York City,” Chura sings to a person whose kindness seemed to offer her a way forward in a confusing time.
About that time. Once lockdown was lifted, Chura “maybe dabbled debauchery of some kind,” as she puts it. “The word ‘rumspringa’ comes to mind.” Much of “Dancing Alone on the Concrete” concerns the ways in which our need for love convinces us to betray ourselves just to keep the other person around. “I tried to change my thoughts for you, I tried to rearrange who I was for you,” she sings in “The Concrete,” “But you found out.” It’s an unusual framing—the issue isn’t the narrator’s selling herself out, it’s her getting caught doing so—which implies a certain level of personal resilience; try as you might, you can’t become anyone else for too long. “There’s a sadness to that song,” Chura says. “You write a song and then you sing it a bunch and you can lose the connection you had to it. But I remember when we were recording it, I teared up, I’d forgotten that it was a sad song.”
On first listen, you might forget, too; as you listen to “Dancing Alone on the Concrete”, you may keep forgetting how sad these songs can be, such is the sunniness of Chura’s sense of melody and the charisma with which she delivers them. When they turn toward darkness, they do so cleverly and with grace. “I know we’re connected, cause I’m going where you’re going,” she sings in “Leadweight.” On first blush, it sounds like nothing more than a confession of love and devotion. The line before it? “He drops me to the bottom of the ocean.” At least she’s bringing him with her.
“When I was in New Orleans, the freedom to date was exciting,” Chura says. “But there’s this search for love in the album, and no real arrival at any point in time.” Though that search is largely folded into plucky songs about fuckboys (“Thunder and Lightning”) and doe-eyed suitors (“Be My Hound”), in the tender “Lovesick,” the unspoken becomes the spoken. “I wanna be in love,” Chura sings, her voice suffused with a deep longing that makes her sound a bit like Natalie Merchant. “I want to forget slowly / And then all at once / That I’d ever known anything else.” Musically and thematically, it’s the album’s most straightforward moment, nothing but Chura’s voice, her piano, LeMaster’s drone guitar, and a desire so deeply expressed it feels bodily.
Stef Chura’s been through a lot in the last seven years. Maybe you’ve been through similar things. If you haven’t, it’s likely you will soon; everyday difficulty is the primary source here. But Dancing Alone on the Concrete’s key is right there, the adverb in the album’s title: alone. Not loneliness, but personal comfort, self-affirmation, healthy solitude. Not that you’ll find such therapy-speak on this record; it’s too embodied, too rich with experience. It’s clear that these songs come from a place of pain or confusion, that their genesis is in various forms of suffering—you can feel it. As Chura says, they’re about the search for love. And while they never quite arrive there, the rightful object of her affection is right there in every song, in the form of the person singing them.
Release Date: October 2nd, 2026
“Dancing Alone on the Concrete” is one of the best indie rock albums of the year; it finds Stef Chura in the company of indie rock giants, and my biggest takeaway is that she’s become one too.”
Seven years on from Midnight, Stef Chura returns with Dancing Alone on the Concrete, her third album and second for Saddle Creek. A lot changed in that time, but the heart of this record is simpler: deep practice, new songs, and the fresh perspective that came with starting over.
Living between Detroit, New Orleans, and Louisville, and single for the first time in years, Chura spent the 2020 lockdowns writing, practicing piano and guitar, and going on dates. That back-and-forth between instruments shaped the songs, while her unmistakable voice still cuts through, brassy and contained.
Recorded at Chase Park Transduction in Athens with David Barbe and Andy LeMaster, and produced by Robert Schneider, the album also features Peter Buck and Mike Mills of R.E.M. on “Danny”
Muro“Dogs” b/w “Cats”, a double single out today from Land of Talk’s upcoming record, “Last’s” With “Dogs,” Powell tried to write a song that sounds the way listening to The Cure makes them feel. “I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but was thinking it would lend itself to looking back on loves lost, yearning, regret. What came out was a simmering rage borne from living under the patriarchy,” they say.
The result is a menacing groove interwoven with exploratory, carefree guitar lines and a crisp, seething vocal that ties it all together.Grounded by a grooving, hooky bassline, “Cats,” meanwhile, is punctuated by keyboard flourishes and playful percussive interjections. “When I listened back to the finished track,” says Powell, “I found those parts unintentionally sounded not unlike mischievous cats breaking into our studio after hours and jumping all over the instruments.” The song’s lyrics are the result of letting the creative tap flow freely.
“What happened lyrically was almost out of my control,” they explain. “I don’t always know or understand what my songs are about until years later, but I know for certain every song I write is a deeply personal and sacred process and offering.”
In August of 2017 we went to the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, to write and record at a place called Black Bay Studio. (It’s a super remote and lovely studio in the Outer Hebrides, and if you’re into that side of things you should definitely check it out). The 4 of us had been working under an old moniker since meeting in school, and we’d decided to change our name and start fresh.
We came home from this session with a handful of songs that (despite being recorded immaculately by our good friend Pete Fletcher) didn’t really work. This kickstarted a big change in us stylistically, and we started writing songs that would become the genesis of Do Nothing. I remember “New Life”, “Sunshine State”, and “Waitress” being written not long after this.
In that session, we tracked a piano ballad called “Mercy Seat”, the pre-chorus of which ended up becoming the latter part of the bridge for “Handshakes” about a year later.
Revisiting these pictures brought on a flood of memories. I remember Chris getting me to eat an olive each day we were there, to try and train my tastebuds into liking them (it didn’t work, but 6 years later I finally love them). I remember playing chess with Charlie and getting trounced every time. I remember Andrew learning shorthand for a journalism course he was doing, and being interested in it but finding it completely alien. Pete introduced me to the idea of putting gin in the freezer, which made it a whole lot more palatable to me.
When Chris records his vocals, the rest of us leave the studio to give him the space he needs to get the performance right. We stopped by the only shop for miles and grabbed some cans of Tennent’s and set up shop by the sea for the day. We played for hours with Cosmo, the studio dog. I took this photo of Andy, which is one of my favourites of him.
I then came down with some sort of flu for a few days, and didn’t leave the room I was sleeping in. Hearing music being made down the hall was soothing, but I also felt like I was missing out big time.
When I recovered, me and Chris sat late into the night listening to songs we loved the production of on the amazing studio speakers (lots of Adult Jazz). It totally changes music when you hear it as the band must have been hearing it as they neared the end of the recording process. Looking back I’m so glad we had this session. It set us on the path we’re currently on, and now our debut album is out, after 10+ years playing together. I’m immensely proud of where we are right now, with “Snake Sideways” out in the world, about to embark on our longest tour yet. In a few weeks we’ll be playing some of our favourite venues, with the iconic Rock City and London’s Koko being our biggest headline shows ever.
“Foreign Tongues, Loose Lips”, the deluxe edition of The Rolling Stones’s acclaimed new studio album “Foreign Tongues”, is released 27th November 2026 by Polydor Records. The new collection features five new recordings from the creative period surrounding “Foreign Tongues“, including ‘Where There’s A Will’, featuring Steve Winwood on organ, ‘Who You Callin’ Crazy’ featuring jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine, ‘Human Tide’, ‘Bad Luck Hideaway’ and ‘She Still Comes Around’
12” EP + 1CD The special vinyl edition features the five “Loose Lips” recordings on heavyweight red vinyl, housed in a distinctive single sleeve with matt and spot-gloss finish and die-cut centre hole on the front cover.
The package also includes the original Foreign Tongues studio album on CD in a card wallet. 12” EP – “Loose Lips” Side A1. Where There’s A Will2. Who You Callin’ CrazySide B1. Human Tide2. Bad Luck Hideaway3. She Still Comes Around Plus: “Foreign Tongues” original 14-track studio album on CD
“Laying On New Waves” the 2000s COLLECTION. Two definitive collections celebrating the 21st-century solo work of Peter Murphy, one of alternative music’s most distinctive and influential voices.
This deluxe collection brings together key Peter Murphy solo recordings from 2001 to 2017, alongside rare remixes and an extensive selection of live material, presenting one of alternative music’s most distinctive artists at his most prolific and creatively adventurous.
Available as 10-Disc and 9-LP vinyl box sets, “Laying On New Waves” brings together Peter Murphy’s acclaimed solo recordings from 2001–2017, featuring newly remastered audio, rare archival material and an extensively illustrated hardback book with contributions from John Robb, ANOHNI and Youth, plus an exclusive new interview with Peter himself.
The 9-LP edition features the vinyl debuts of “Dust”, “Unshattered”, “Alive Just For Love” and “Bare-Boned And Sacred”. Beautifully curated and packed with rare material, these landmark collections are a must-have for fans and collectors alike. Available for pre-order now with release on 4th December, 2026. Limited signed art print exclusively available through the official Peter Murphy store.
Also three substantial live releases documenting different chapters of Murphy’s career. ‘Mr Moonlight Tour – 35 Years of Peter Murphy’ captures Murphy revisiting the music of Bauhaus and his solo career, while ‘Alive Just ForLove’ presents an extensive live set spanning his remarkable catalogue. ‘Bare-Boned and Sacred’ offers another compelling live portrait, featuring material from across Murphy’s career. The DVD edition of ‘Mr Moonlight Tour – 35 Years of Peter Murphy’ adds a visual dimension to the collection, presenting the concert in full and capturing Murphy and his band performing a set that includes landmark Bauhaus material alongside songs from his solo catalogue.
Each album has been remastered, delivering enhanced clarity while remaining faithful to the original recordings. Housed in premium packaging and presented in a deluxe rigid bookcase- style box, the collection has been designed as a comprehensive archival edition for collectors and long-time fans alike.
At the heart of the set is an extensive hardback book featuring newly commissioned writing and rare archival material. Acclaimed author and broadcaster John Robb contributes an in-depth essay exploring Murphy’s remarkable creative evolution, while ANOHNI provides a personal foreword reflecting on Murphy’s enduring artistic influence. Long- time collaborator and producer Youth offers his own perspective on Murphy’s fearless musical journey and creative partnership.
The book also includes a brand- new interview with Peter Murphy, offering fresh insight into the making of the albums, alongside previously unpublished family photographs, rare studio & live images, and archival material drawn from throughout the period. Stylishly art- directed throughout, the package reflects the elegant visual aesthetic that has always accompanied Murphy’s music.
From the orchestral beauty of ‘Dust’ and the introspective qualities of ‘Unshattered’ to the adventurous songwriting of ‘Ninth’, the powerful modern rock of ‘Lion’, the rare ‘Lion’ remixes and the extensive live recordings across ‘Mr Moonlight Tour’, ‘Alive Just For Love’ and ‘Bare- Boned and Sacred’, this collection charts an artist who continually reinvented himself while remaining unmistakably unique.
Beautifully produced and comprehensively curated, “Laying On New Waves: The 2000s Collection is an essential celebration of Peter Murphy’s extraordinary solo catalogue, bringing together his major studio recordings, rare remixes and extensive live material in one definitive collection.
Alongside rare remixes and an extensive selection of live material, presenting one of alternative music’s most distinctive artists at his most prolific and creatively adventurous. Released in conjunction with Peter Murphy, this collection spans atmospheric studio albums, reimagined recordings and acclaimed live performances, charting Murphy’s singular artistic vision across more than fifteen years of inspired work.
Fresh off after the release of their live debut triple album, Big Thief have launched the Big Thief Live Archive, where fans can listen to “fully mixed concerts from the recent and distant past” for free, a press release notes. Inspired by drummer James Krivchenia’s love of the Grateful Dead’s extensive catalog of live albums, Big Thief’s version presently currently includes 10 sets, with a new performance to be added on the second Tuesday of every month moving forward.
”Every show we play holds a different energy,” the band wrote in a statement. “The songs are always changing and sound different every night, and we spend so much more time on the road than in studios, and so we felt a desire to create something that captures the ever-undulating aliveness of our music through time.”
Timed to the archive’s launch, Big Thief have also released a live cut of “Incomprehensible” from an April performance in Dublin.
Dear friends,
For the last couple of years we’ve been creating a Big Thief Live Archive website, where you can find full, mixed concerts from the recent and distant past.
Every show we play holds a different energy. The songs are always changing and sound different every night, and we spend so much more time on the road than in studios, and so we felt a desire to create something that captures the ever-undulating aliveness of our music through time. In 2019 we started recording all of our shows. There are 10 shows up on the Archive right now and we will be adding new ones on the second Tuesday of every month hopefully forever. It’s all free. We made the website interactive so that you can choose tracks and make your own playlists.
Also, we are looking for a few things to help add to the Archive so if you have any of the below you can email bigthiefarchive@gmail.com:
-multi-tracks of shows before 2019, -pictures of setlists, -photos/videos. -posters -art (send us what you make!)
If you see anything wrong or off on the site, or have useful feedback, let us know at bigthiefarchive@gmail.com.
Mostly captured by Alice Wilder and al and Mixed by @faaaaab
Thank you so much to all who have come out to our shows over the years, it’s been such a treat revisiting these. We love you so much! Warmly, Big Thief
Recorded in two locations – Hydra and Hamburg – over the summer of 2024, the 11 tracks of “Only You Left” sees the band consolidate the bold experimentation of their previous LP, “Tableau” (2022), with a return to the more stripped-back, song-led approach of their early origins.
“You’ve got to die and be reborn between albums,” begins Henry Wade, guitarist for The Orielles, describing the foundations of the band’s fourth studio album, “Only You Left”. “It comes naturally,” adds singer and bassist EsméHand-Halford, “it’s not something we consciously do.”
Through this process of creative renewal, the Manchester-based trio – completed by drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford – have managed to weather a pandemic, defy the fickleness of a trend-led music industry, and emerge, phoenix-like, with something familiarly Orielles, yet altogether different.
“There’s nothing more trad than a three-piece,” quips Henry, in reference to the band’s decision to return to their roots as a trio. Originally from Halifax, the Orielles first came to recognition in 2018 with their debut album, the indie-rock “Silver Dollar Moment”, which is approaching its eighth birthday in February 2026. “These things come in like seven year cycles. So we’ve come in like a full circle back to a familiar place, just as different people.”
By exploring binaries and contrasts, the Orielles are finding shapes in the chaos and confusion of the world around us – it’s an undertaking that benefits from more than 15 years of close collaboration, driven by friendship and the artistic compulsion to find meaning in music.
A defining new chapter for Marika Hackman. Known for her unique lyrical perspective, vocal prowess, and distinctive guitar skills, Hackman again showcases her deft multi- instrumentalism, having played almost every instrument across her catalogue. Galvanised into fresh creation as the architect of her own sonic world, she navigates the spectrum of emotion that arises upon reaching life’s milestones. Across the record, she explores grief, a deeper understanding of the passage of time, and the swell of appreciation towards a newfound safety, all cut through with strands of hope in the face of chaotic times.
As the producer behind the album, Hackman quietly pioneered her own production style through hours of playful experimentation at her East London studio. Armed with a small jazz kit, a few select microphones, and an esoteric instrument collection gathered over twenty years of music making, she took inspiration from the dry sense of realism and rawness of early noughties radio. Honed from almost entirely acoustic instruments, immediate drums offer a backbone to syncopated mandolins, earthy sub harmonium, urgent pianos, and layered strings arranged by Hackman herself.
The production was solidified at Ramsgate’s Big Jelly Studios (aided by previous collaborator Charlie Andrew and Polly Mackey, aka Art School Girlfriend), making use of the converted chapel’s acoustics and subtle field recordings of the Kent shoreline, fireworks, and church bells, before being mixed by David Wrench (The XX, Frank Ocean, Caribou).
Lyrically, Hackman introduces new characters that speak back to her. On the bittersweet opening track ’33’, a children’s choir personifies nostalgic fear, while on ‘Half Painted Dog’, a reassuring choir responds to a love letter written to her pet. The record also features her most directly personal song to date, ‘Hello Sunshine’, a poignant ode to her grandmother set over strummed guitar and close-recorded bowed strings. Ultimately, “False Dogs” balances darkness with light, closing on ‘Crimson’ as a final landing place that offers small vignettes of everyday beauty
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