Who Arctic Monkeys

It’s not as if Iggy Pop has ever really needed to prove anything. If 2016’s Post Pop Depression—which he made with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Dean Fertita, and Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders—showed that he could still cause a ruckus, Free shows he’s still more than capable of keeping his audience on its toes. Iggy has always attempted to strike this balance between music for the body and music for the mind: As far back as The Stooges’ first albums in the late ’60s and early ’70s, a meditative raga like “We Will Fall” would counter the scrappy, visceral force of “No Fun,” or a track like “Fun House” would tack left with Ornette Coleman-inspired saxophone runs. Free finds him tapping those exploratory instincts even more deeply.

Belgian rockers Triggerfinger have announced that their upcoming album, Colossus, will be released on August 25 on Mascot Records. It's the follow-up to 2014's By Absence of the Sun, and is preceded by a video for Flesh Tight, the second track on the album.

Led by Daniel James Leopold, Austin, TX-based Leopold and His Fiction deliver soul-drenched, bare-bones rock 'n' roll that shakes with the power of 73-era Stooges while seducing with the R&B of Motown. The album was produced by Chris 'Frenchie' Smith (…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Jet) and Vance Powell (Jack White, Arctic Monkeys). Their songs have been heard on Sons Of Anarchy, Ray Donovan and Chevron/Texaco commercials.

Pull the Rope, the new record by Ibibio Sound Machine, casts the Eno Williams and Max Grunhard–led outfit in a new light. The hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain, but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album Electricity, the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club. Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffield-based producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno penning lyrics to music generated by Max and company’s jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the band.