Lucky Number Music

Dream Wife release their electrifying third album, Social Lubrication, this Friday, June 9th and today unveil the final single, the disco-leaning title track. “Social Lubrication” serves as a rally against the patriarchy as they call out unsolicited advice and gendered violence. “Exhausted. Done with being polite, done with sugar coating, placating, and pandering to patriarchal bullshit. Wanting to just exist, in this body without being pigeon-holed or judged for the bodies we exist in. Do the job well. Show up. Not play other people games. You can’t fix something rotten to the core – we need revolution not reform,” note the band on the track.

The single is out alongside a self-made music video with influences spanning from their album art to the Yellow Jackets opening sequence. Watch now below.

Sydney-based three-piece Middle Kids (Tim Fitz, Hannah Joy and Harry Day) are about to enter a new chapter in their career with the release today of their latest single, “Bootleg Firecracker“.

In 2022, the band made an impulsive decision to decamp to Eastbourne, UK in order to spend an intense six weeks with renowned producer Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975). The goal was to transform their lo-fi demos into something fresh, dynamic, and innovative, and to collaborate with a producer who could push the boundaries of a traditional rock band format to its sonic limit while still maintaining the essence of classic pop songwriting.

“Bootleg Firecracker” is the first taste of new music from those intense sessions. The song features beautiful fingerpicked acoustic loops, coupled with an edgy, loping drum groove, unlike anything we’ve heard in the band’s previous work. Lead singer Hannah Joy’s honest lyrics explore the concept of the titular ‘bootleg’ firecracker, an explosive yet beautiful force that also carries with it the risk of causing harm. The result is a warm, delicate, and contemporary sound that showcases the band’s creative evolution.

Joy describes “Bootleg Firecracker” as “a song about the power, magic, and risk of intimacy…It started out as an up-tempo chorus about dancing, but Tim (Fitz – co-producer and bassist) slowed it down, and we came up with this idea of the bootleg firecracker. Fireworks can be dangerous and risky, but there’s something about their explosion of light and heat that brings people together in celebration. I think love is like that.”

The track also includes an artistic contribution from Middle Kids’ fans, who submitted audio recordings of their own fireworks celebrations which are seamlessly woven into the outro of the song. The explosive theme crosses over into the official video which was directed by Toby Morris and features firework programming by the company used for Sydney’s legendary NYE celebrations.

Today, Dream Wife take on capitalism and faux-activism with the latest single from their new album Social Lubrication. Titled “Who Do You Wanna Be?”, the track is “about running on the capitalist treadmill and falling face first on the pavement. Hollow slogans, social media activism without action, leftist infighting, monetising feminism, ‘girl boss’, all soul crushing nonsense. Capitalism consumes everything. We should tear down the unreachable anxiety filled idea of perfectionism and move from hyper individualised narrative to collective action to create hopeful, rebellious, collective, systems of care. This is a call to arms for change.”

The single releases alongside a performance video filmed in an abandoned leisure centre pool in East London, watch below now.

Today, London collective HMLTD have unveiled a new video for “Days“, taken from their widely acclaimed new album The Worm, described as “a triumph of ambition” by The Sunday Times, and “One of the most well-executed concept albums of recent times” by Loud & Quiet. The video arrives ahead of two special performances at London’s ICA this week (18th & 19th May), where the band will perform The Worm in full for the very first time.

The band have also confirmed two hotly-tipped special guests for their upcoming live performances – Heartworms (18th May) and Picture Parlour (19th May) – tickets are on sale now.

Born of his “failure to accept the impermanence of things”, ‘Days’ finds frontman Henry Spychalski detailing love and loss, memory and melancholia, and time and its unravelling – as he explains: “In “Days”, the Worm that stalks the album takes on a new, particular meaning – as that kernel of doubt which, like a parasite, can burrow in and bury itself inside a relationship – growing inside its warmth until finally it overcomes it.”

The song’s accompanying video, directed by Spychalski, is in part an homage to Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée, transplanted into the world of The Worm.

London-based trio Dream Wife have today announced their brand new single “Orbit” and tour dates across UK, IE and US. “Orbit” follows the previously released singles “Leech” and “Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)”, and is taken from their highly anticipated third album, Social Lubrication, which will be released on June 9th.

The band explain, “Written through the joy of jamming together and locking into the groove like a multi limbed space age organism, ‘Orbit’ has a dance rock edge from the early noughties of bands like New Young Pony Club and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Lyrically, it was inspired by post-lockdown London coming back to life and sharing a space through friendship and community. And how each day you never know what’s in store for you or how a stranger can become someone close to you -for a day, a heartbeat, a phase, or a lifetime.”

Watch the Sophie Webster directed video for “Orbit” below:

The band’s autumn tour kicks off stateside in September for a number of shows before their UK/IE leg in October, which includes their biggest London show to date at Electric Brixton. Ahead of the tour, they’ll also be performing at a number of summer festivals and have just been announced as special guests at Le Tigre’s London show. All dates below and tickets on sale HERE.