New Music Friday: 5 Songs You Need Hear This Week (8/15)

Happy New Music to you and yours!

I hope that your weekend is off to a great start, and if it’s not, I hope that even one of these songs helps to turn it around for you…

“Specter” – Bad Omens

Speaking as someone who’s followed Bad Omens since their first album, it’s been fascinating watching their trajectory over the past few years, with their 2022 album The Death of Peace of Mind leading to such an incredible rise in popularity.

Now, they’re back with “Specter,” which technically dropped last Friday, but it was in the evening, so I’m counting it this week. The track starts with a haunting flow that the band does so well, before crashing into an epic chorus and eventually spiraling into an industrial crescendo.

Bad Omens is building to something big, it feels like, and this is a phenomenal start.

“God is an Animal” – Grandson

Grandson’s confrontationally virtuous approach to making music is so necessary these days, in an era where many artists feed us self-loathing and pity painted to look like some kind of credible honesty.

Masterminded by L.A.-based rock musician Jordan Benjamin, Grandson is a symbol of the right kind of rebellion, and his new single, “God is an Animal,” is one more brick stacked in the wall of resistance. Look for his new album, Inertia, out Sept. 5, with a big North American tour kicking off in October.

“Who’s Having Fun?” – Drain

The answer is Drain. Drain is having fun.

This song, hell, this whole band, is just the epitome of West Coast beach-core, and I’m fuckin here for it.

“Himothy Johnson” – Jorjiana

(Credit where it’s due… I have to shout out my friend Cutter for putting me onto this song.)

Jorjiana is so magnificently unbothered, and it seeps through music. From “Shark” to “ILBB2” with Glorilla and now “Himothy Johnson,” the Midwest rapper wears her authenticity on her sleeve while dropping bangers.

“All Falls Down” – Bleach Bath

Last but certainly not least… we have Bleach Bath, aka Abigail Kelly of Dashboard Confessional. This week, she drops “All Falls Down,” the first new song from her forthcoming project, The Container EP, out Oct. 10.

The song begins as a soul-baring pop-rock tune and eventually turns into a grungy-punk anthem that you’ll want to cathartically scream in your car. And you should.