Another hectic week for excellent new music, so as well as the offerings below we’d also like to point you in the direction of new tracks by the likes of…Eerie Wanda, Lily & Madeline, Slingshot Dakota, Megan Bonnell, Bleached, Hudson Bell, Big Thief, Globelamp, Dream Wife, Woodpigeon, Bent Shapes, Aries, Sin Kitty, Melaena Cadiz, Mavis Staples (penned by Nick Cave no less) and Witching Waves.

5. Bad Dreams

Last year Carlisle’s premiere psych-rockers, The Lucid Dream, released their self-titled second album. This week however, keen to show they’re not resting on their laurels, they’ve already shared the first taste of their currently in-progress third album. That taster comes in the shape of an upcoming single Bad Texan, which will come out next month on 12″ vinyl accompanied by 6 Music Session versions of two tracks from last year’s album.

Prior to its release the band have shared the accompanying video to Bad Texan, the track builds on their previous output, but also sounds like a band upping their game. It may be nearly seven minutes long but it’s probably the closest they’ve got to something you could play in a nightclub, pitching their usual psychedelic-droning with a hint of anthemic baggy-beat, it’s the middle ground of Loop and The Music that you never knew would turn out so well. Whilst a new album won’t be out until later in the year, this certainly suggests that Lucid Dream’s ambition and ear for a tune remain firmly in place.

Bad Texan is out March 11th via Holy Are You Recordings. The Lucid Dream play London’s Electrowercz on March 26th.

4. Tacocat Got The Power!

It’s been an eventful week for Seattle pop-punkers Tacocat, not only have they shared a brand new single, Talk, they’ve also been confirmed as the performers of Who’s Got The Power, the theme tune to Cartoon Network’s re-imagining of The Power Puff Girls, no really, you can hear it HERE.

Whilst that is kind of amazing, we’ll concentrate on the single for now! Talk is the second track to be lifted from their upcoming third studio album, Lost Time. Whilst the album’s first single I Hate The Weekend showcased their fun throw-away punk side, Talk is an all together more down beat affair; muted-guitar strums and fluttering, rapid drum beats bring to mind the likes of Billy Talent, whilst singer Emily Nokes emotive vocal and candid, socially-conscious lyricism mark her out as a contemporary of Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves or Pretty Girls Make Graves’ Andrea Zollo. More than anything we’re reminded that when a group of best friends with something to say, get together and make music there’s little more exciting in the world, and Tacocat are timely remind of just that.

Lost Time is out April 1st via Hardly Art Records. Tacocat tour the UK in May, click HERE for details.

3. Don’t Shoo Lionlimb Away

Lionlimb are the Nashville duo of songwriter Stewart Bronaugh and drummer Joshua Jaeger. This week they have shared their latest single Just Because, the third track to be lifted from their upcoming debut album Shoo, which will come out next month. Shoo was recorded with producer Rob Easton after the band returned from a stint touring Australia as Angel Olsen’s backing band. Initial recordings were little more than drums and piano, but Stewart’s compulsive layering took Lionlimb’s into new direction incorporating jazz, rock and even soul.

Just Because might be their best single yet; gorgeous chords pulse out of a Fender Rhodes, bass lines seem to tumble from all angles, and guitars wail quietly in the background, all the while Joshua’s fabulous, lightly jazzy drums keep the whole thing careering in the right direction and Stewart’s vocal adds a delightful, emotive shimmer. Whilst citing a range of influences that stretch as wide as Miles Davis, Jackson Pollock and Elliot Smith might sound hard to live up to, early signs are that Lionlimb are more than up to the challenge, Shoo could be spectacular.

Shoo is out March 4th via Bayonet Records.

2. Slowcoaches On The Fast Track To Success

London-based trio Slowcoaches may describe their sound as slack metal, and suffix all their social media with the fact that they sux, but if the quality of latest single Ex-Head is anything to go by we can put all that down to little more than false modesty. Bringing to mind Lush, early-Ash and Sebadoh in equal measures, Ex-Head is a track that bursts out your speakers; a dense wall of distorted guitars, flailing drums rumbles beneath an impassioned grungy vocal, as singer Heather spins a tale of emotional black holes and working out how to manage your own mind in the face of its most crippling workings.

The track will be available as part of a 7″ single, out next week and marks the first material from the bands upcoming album, whilst details on that are sparse at the moment it should hopefully see the light of day later this year.

Ex Head is out February 26th via Leisure & District. Slowcoaches play London’s Sebright Arms February 25th, before a UK tour starting in March, click HERE for details.

1.Kiran’s Not Secret Anymore

It’s hard to imagine the meeting between Moshi Moshi and Kiran Leonard where everyone agreed the first single from his upcoming album, Grapefruit, should be the sixteen minute meandering maths-pop sound collage, Pink Fruit. It was a work of absolute genius, but accessible it was not. This week Kiran has shared the albums second single Secret Police, which is equally brilliant but considerably less divisive, and at only two and a half minutes, somewhat more conducive to radio play.

Secret Police is an epic piano-led piece, reminiscent of Amnesiac-era Radiohead, although Kiran also suggests influences including the guitar playing in Sufjan Stevens’ djohariah, the many voices of A Silver Mt.Zion and Randy Newman, to choose just a handful of the many, many things Kiran mentions in his press release. Having showcased two very different sides of his musical personality, Kiran has left us confused and excited in equal measures; exactly how you should feel when you’re waiting to hear what a uniquely brilliant artist is going to do next.

Grapefruit is out March 25th via Moshi Moshi. Kiran Leonard’s UK tour starts at the end of March, click HERE for details.