Happy Friday! What a week! Alternative New Music Friday #Happens with Franz Ferdinand releasing their first new album in 7 years. David McGilvray is pushing the lead single “Audacious” Top 15 on the Alternative chart. He says Franz Ferdinand has over 2.4 Million artist streams a week in the US.

New singles out this week on Happens.vip Alternative Downloads from The Lumineers “Same Old Song,” Mystic Knights “This High Up,” and The Rockyts “A Girl Like You.” I have the new music queued up for you to listen, download and get song info below. 

Mumford & Sons is teasing new music is coming next Friday, January 17th. Check out the band’s IG post and get a taste of the new single HERE.

Such a bummer about iHeartRadio ALTer EGO being canceled for this Saturday 1/11 due to the LA Wildfires.

Randy Hawke and Lyndsey Bishop have been promoted at Mid-West Family Madison.

Loveline has returned on KROQ/Los Angeles. 

Find all the latest Alternative News HERE.

ALTERNATIVE NEW MUSIC DISCOVERY  

The Lumineers “Same Old Song” (Dualtone)

Listen & Download HERE.

The Lumineers released “Same Old Song” on January 8th. It’s from their highly anticipated fifth album, Automatic, due via Dualtone on February 14th, described as the Denver band’s most raw and personal release. 

The track was written by co-founders Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, marking 20 years of songwriting together. Schultz says, “The album explores some of the absurdities of the modern world, like the increasingly blurry line between what’s real and what’s not, and the variety of ways we numb ourselves while trying to combat both boredom and overstimulation.” 

Fraites adds, “People who think they have our number, they’ll be surprised.” 

The music video for the lead single “Same Old Song” features Schultz and Fraites performing in front of a living canvas where scenes play out like VHS home movies, creating a morphing collage of moments that feel both immediate and remote. 

It’s the first new music from The Lumineers since Brightside was released in 2022. The Lumineers will play at Extra Innings Festival on February 28th. They begin a EU/UK headline tour April 23rd in Vienna, Austria with arena dates through May. Look for US tour dates to be announced soon. Find tour dates HERE. 

Mystic Knights “This High Up” (AWAL) 

Listen & Download HERE.

Los Angeles-based trio Mystic Knights released “This High Up” to Alternative Radio on January 6th. It’s the new project led by Jet drummer/songwriter Chris Cester. 

Cester says, “I started a band with Emmanuel Castro and Aaron Eisenberg in my garage basically….I asked Noel Gallagher if he had any ideas for names…and he said “Mystic Knights”…so, given that all the songs were written between midnight and 6am…it felt appropriate.”

He adds, “This track hits hard and fast like a drug induced seizure – I’d know since I’ve had several!” 

The new track was recorded at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. It was mixed by Christopher Thorne (Blind Melon, The Afghan Whigs, AWOLNATION, Unified Theory, +LIVE+) at Fireside Sound and mastered by Brian Lucey (Arctic Monkeys, Cage The Elephant, The Black Keys). It marks Cester’s first music outside of Melbourne, Australia’s Jet.

The Rockyts “A Girl Like You” (Rockyt Records)

Listen & Download HERE.

Ottawa, Canada’s The Rockyts return with a new single “A Girl Like You.” It’s the solo project from the now Los Angeles-based Jeremy Abboud, who plays every instrument on his songs himself and self-produces engineers in his home studio. 

Jeremy says, “After returning from a road trip to Memphis, TN, inspired by the birthplace of rock & blues, visiting Sun Studio (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis) & not having had any instruments to play with, I stepped right out of the car & into my studio, & AGLY came exploding out the same night. Wanting to capture the original spontaneity & give it a raw 60s feel, I left my mics rolling as ideas came, & that’s what’s heard on the final record, most instruments being the 1st take. 

“Back when I was 16, I recorded an unhinged harmonica solo for a song called Have Love Will Travel, with The Rolling Stones & Beatles engineer, Eddie Kramer, & was amused when he told me it sounded ‘like Bob Dylan on acid!’ As I was writing A Girl Like You, I had the idea to revisit the harmonica solo & take things up a notch, so hopefully this one sounds like Bob Dylan on cocaine!” 

Lola Young “Messy” (Island/Republic)

Listen & Download HERE.

UK’s Lola Young released her single “Messy” in December 2024 to Alternative Radio. It’s from her album, It Wasn’t Meant For You Anyone, which was released on June 21, 2024. 

Lola, who was raised in South London says, “It’s definitely pop music but it’s an alternative record for sure. The way it moves is sonically unexpected.” 

She says, “The whole record is about love, beginning with struggle, ending in self-discovery and self-love. And understanding I don’t need to find myself in somebody else.” 

The album was recorded at 64 Sound Studio in LA with producers Jared Solomon (Remi Wolf, BROCKHAMPTON, Dominic Fike) and long-term collaborative duo Conor Dickinson and William Brown (Manuka). “Messy” features a parade of lyrical zingers: “I smoke like a chimney, I’m not skinny and I pull a Britney every day of the week…”, sashaying towards the unforgettable lines, “And I’m too perfect, so I show you that I’m not/A thousand people I could be for you and you hate the fucking lot.” 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Song Of The Lake” (Play It Again Sam)

Listen & Download HERE.

Melbourne, Australia’s Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds released “Song Of The Lake” in December. The new single arrives after receiving 2 GRAMMY Award nominations, the first ever for the band in 40+ years. It’s from the band’s 18th album, Wild God, released on August 18, 2024 produced by Cave and Warren Ellis, and mixed by David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT). 

“Song Of The Lake” is the opening track on the album. It has the effect of throwing its arms around the listener,” says Cave. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has a spring 2025 North American tour beginning April 15th in Boston leading into a headline performance at Cruel World Festival on May 17th in Los Angeles. It will be the band’s first North American shows since 2018. Find the tour dates HERE. 

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY #HAPPENS

Franz Ferdinand Releases The Human Fear

Glasgow, Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand released their sixth studio album, The Human Fear today via Domino. It’s the band’s first new album since Always Ascending in 2018.

The new 11 song collection includes songs that all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives. Franz Ferdinand worked with Mark Ralph, who produced their 2013 album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action.

Lead singer Alex Kapranos said, “Making this record was one of the most life-affirming experiences I’ve had, but it’s called The Human Fear. Fear reminds you that you’re alive. I think we all are addicted in some way to the buzz it can give us. How we respond to it shows how we are human. So here’s a bunch of songs searching for the thrill of being human via fears. Not that you’d necessarily notice on first listen.”

The band’s previous albums are Always Ascending (2018), Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action (2013), Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (2009), You Could Have It So Much Better (2005), and Franz Ferdinand (2004). Franz Ferdinand’s breakthrough single “Take Me Out” was off their self-titled debut album. 

This is the first studio album with new band members Audrey Tait (drums) and Dino Bardot (guitar). The record also sees Julian Corrie step forward to collaborate with frontman Alex Kapranos and bassist Bob Hardy on songwriting and creative duties.

Pretty much all written before they hit the studio, the idea was to have a songbook ready before they started recording and once in the studio it was all quickly executed – a lot of it recorded live with the band in the room and many of the vocals on the album being the original takes.

The cover artwork on The Human Fear was inspired by Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer’s self-portrait 7 Twists – Maurer’s work appealed because it does exactly what they want from their music: a striking immediacy that is impossible to ignore, but with a depth and vulnerability that bears many returns and satisfactory repetition.

Maybe this is a set of songs about fear, maybe this is a set of bangers from an era-defining band continuing their unquestionably living legacy. Is that something to be afraid of?

In December, Franz Ferdinand played at Q101/Chicago’s Twisted Xmas, KTCL/Denver’s Not So Silent Night, and KROQ/Los Angeles’ “Almost Acoustic Christmas.” The band returns in March for US tour dates beginning in Seattle on 3/24. Find the tour dates HERE.

OTHER NEW ALBUMS OUT TODAY

Magic City Hippies – Enemies (Create Music Group)

MORE ALT ALBUMS HERE

ALTERNATIVE IMPACTING SONGS

January 14, 2025

Lola Young “Messy” (Republic)

The Lumineers “Same Old Song” (Dualtone)

Jack White “Archbishop Harold Holmes” (Third Man)