NPR Music - Phoebe Bridgers, Gilla Band, Wednesday, and more of the week’s best songs

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

We get big and loud this week with a surprise drop from Phoebe Bridgers and her song “On Video,” from the Primetime soundtrack; the monstrously disjointed “Placeholder” from Gilla Band; widescreened shoegaze from the Danish artist Trentemøller and more.  NPR Music’s Dora Levite joins host Robin Hilton as they share their picks for the best new songs out now.Tell us what you think with a review on Apple or Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] artists and songs:(00:00) Intro(03:22) Phoebe Bridgers: “On Video”(10:26) Gilla Band: “Placeholder”(17:25) Trentemøller: “Swerve”(23:31) Wednesday: “Carolina Murder Suicide (Avey Tare Remix)”(30:29) serpentwithfeet: “sentinel”(36:37) Lily Konigsberg: “Free Byrd”Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

This episode of all songs considered comes to you from NPR Music. It's where you'll find Tiny Desks, of course. Also reviews, deep dives. And on this show, much more frivolous, not as deep dives. Not deep at all. Not very deep at all about the best new songs and albums out now or whatever else is happening in the wondrous world of music. NPR Music also where you will find Tiny Desk contest producer Dora Levitt. Hi, Robin.

Happy to be here. So how is your weekend? I know that you went to some punk show or punk festival or what was it on the National Mall. Yeah, on the National Mall. It was a small, I guess small. Well, small because it was also pouring rain, which is how I got. I was going to ask, yeah. Yeah, how I got this wonderful cold.

Yes, I went to a small-ish punk festival in the National Mall. One of the first of something that used to happen semi-often, punk on the National Mall. Fugazi famously played on the National Mall. Yeah. I saw a video you posted of The Pit. you get in it? Okay, I'm sorry. Stage dives have gotten out of hand. It's ridiculous. It was insane. The video you posted was like they were all lined up and just like kept popping up and popping up and popping up and jumping off. It's no longer that taboo a thing to do. And so it's just everyone wants to do a stage dive.

And you know, the worst stage diving I ever saw was at the geese concert. Oh really? It was like a wave. People like you said would just get on stage and then jump into the crowd and then secure. and you would like pick them up and throw them on the floor and then it would be like the same people. It's ridiculous. Well, in the spirit of getting loud and letting it all out, I'm going all noise this week.

I'm going, oh, I should have gone all noise. I went a third noise. A third noise. Well, I mean, so I normally play the sad, sack stuff. I mean, I usually play pretty quiet or beautiful stuff. But we're talking about the best new songs out now, and I'm going big. Starting with the new one from Phoebe Bridgers.

Was that one that you were going to play? I didn't because I knew you were going to play it. Okay. Well, you're right. So, I mean, and look, we've talked a lot about Phoebe Bridgers and played her a lot on the show this year, but she's having a year. Just released Lost Weekend, her new album. First one in like five or six years, something like that. It was beautiful. Really great album.

Came out in August. I think it'll end up in a lot of best of the year lists. She's got this massive arena tour that's happening. No phones at that. I mean, that whole arena tour is a story in and of itself. You know, after the album came out, I kind of thought, all right, that's probably it for new music from Phoebe Bridgers this year. She should probably put out like a deluxe version at the top of the year or something like that. But she just surprise dropped a new song this past week.

I don't know. I don't think anyone really knew it was coming. No. A one-off single she did for the new movie, Prime Time. And this is that movie about Chris Hansen's TV show to Catch a Predator. She's also in the movie. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, she's got a role.

I mean, it's like it's not a major role. It's a small role, but she's in it several times, and it's an important role in it. I haven't seen it yet, but I was reading all about it. So her acting debut, this new song plays over the closing credits. It's called On Video, and it is a monster of a cut. You know, wasting wishes on the world. You could go home, but you would be birthday, girl. I've got a liquor child.

You know, I don't really do arena shows much anymore. I might make an exception because she will have no trouble filling an arena with that sound. No trouble at all. She is so incredible at playing with extremes. And like that's what her album before Lost Weekend, the final track, I know the end. Like that's the whole thing about that track. It's so loud and cathartic and it also has those incredible moments. And here, I mean, the final few seconds of this song is just my favorite part.

Yeah. I mean, the study and contrasts, I mean, you could teach an entire college course just on the contrast that you can find in any one of her songs. And that push and pull and that build and that release that she does just about better than anybody. right now. I think like a lot of her songs, another thing that's really smart about this cut is that the perspective keeps shifting. So you're not really sure whose perspective she's writing from. So the show for people to know it to catch a predator, basically reporter Chris Hanson documents these sting operations, right? Where investigators sort of set up lure and arrests, older guys trying to meet up with

minors. Yeah. I'm really sanitizing this here. And on this song, Phoebe Bridgers talks about a birthday girl. She says, I saw you making angels in the snow. I watched you like a common criminal. And it seems like maybe she's singing from the point of view of the predator here. But then she says, I saw it all on video. Yeah, I caught you on video. Right. So is it the audience that's watching?

this on the show. And that's who she's talking about. Like the, it seems like she might be questioning whether, whether or not the audience is somehow complicit here. Oh, interesting. Yeah. The audience is somehow who's watching the show and keeping the ratings high that they're somehow complicit here. Yeah, that's really interesting. That's a perspective I didn't think about. Yeah, because when to catch a predator came out, it was also, there was a huge question about its journalistic ethics of sure. Yeah,

whether it's appropriate to be broadcasting these things at all. Right. Yeah. So, Phoebe Bridgers

plays a character named Del, who is one of the decoys. Oh. Who lures guys to this staged house where Chris Hanson

then comes out and, you know, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I went on Reddit threads just to see like, what are people saying

about Phoebe Bridgers? And apparently people are loving her in it. Like she says she's a natural, amazing. That makes sense. Yeah. Her as actor seems like the next step for. Well, that's what somebody said in one third. They said, I see her going the way of like Cher or Barbara Streisand. You know, someone who's like a really great musician who ends up

becoming a really great actor as well. Yeah, an incredible actor. So on video, surprise or release from Phoebe Bridgers plays over the closing credits of the new movie Primetime. It just just came out. So do you want to keep it big or are you going to? I'm going to keep it big. All right. Yeah. I'm I'm going to keep it big with a song that I actually thought that you were going to start with. And I was like, oh, my God, I need to go to a backup. Okay. It's a song that just came out on Friday from the album Pugnello by the band, Gilla Band, formerly Girl Band. And I really wanted to start with this song because Gilla Band informs so much of my favorite bands and artists.

They're all inspired by Gillaband. And the song I want to focus on is called Placeholder. So full disclosure, I was going to play Elogia another cut from this. I feared that would have happened. From this record. But throw a rock at this album because I think any track is great. This whole record is so, it's just thunderous. You talk about a monstrous sound.

This is a beast of an album. Yeah, I had a lot of trouble trying to pick one song from this album because I loved every single one. and it is no surprise. I mean, I think the first time I was on the show with you, I played a model actress song. And they cite Gilliband as being their main influence. And you can tell with that just huge, overpowering drone that is created from guitar sounds, which is really incredible.

And I was reading a profile of Gilliband that came out last week where the writer Laura Snape interviewed a bunch of other artists like the rapper, Lucid and the group Lambrini girls. And they said that Gilliband, like, reinvented a type of guitar music. Yeah, I mean, I don't think they're the first to do this, but they've certainly brought new life to it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they're the kind of band.

I saw them back, I don't know how many years ago at South by Southwest, when they were still called Girl Band before they changed to Gilliband. And I was truly shook. I mean, it was the kind of show that you stagger out of because your bell has just been completely rung and you're like what just happened and they're they're just a force all of their music is sort of like this deadpan woozy it really is just like you've been punched in the face it's pretty twisted and very twisted and twisted is a good word for it so the album is pugnello and that just came out from from gillaband gillaband it's like gorilla without the

OR just Gila, gilla band. Okay, well, I played M83 on the show recently. Have that song, Blister Sunrise, if you heard that? Just a massive, you know, shoegaze dream pop cut. I got another one in that spirit from the artist known as Trenta Mueller. Do you know Trenta Mueller? I'm not familiar. So this is a Danish musician, Anders Trintemuller, just goes by his last name.

He's got a new self-titled album coming out in the fall and just released the second single from it. It's called swerve, and he says that he wanted this song to sound brutal and beautiful. Sounds awesome. Two great things that go great together in music, brutal and beautiful. Give a listen, I think he pretty much nailed it. Yeah, I was watching you when I hit playing, and you're like, okay, and then when the guitar came in, you had the biggest smile on your face. And I thought, all right, nailed it. Yeah, I loved that song a lot.

That was awesome. I mean, in a lot of ways, brutal and beautiful is the very definition of shoegaze. Yeah. Right? I mean, it's those loud, roaring guitars that you just feel deep in your bones, but also incredibly beautiful. And so Trenti Mueller is a multi-instrumentalist, and his songs up into now, they haven't always had vocals on him like on this. But this album is his first album to have vocals across every track. He works with a different singer on each one.

on this song we just heard is an artist that goes by the name Sakura. In a lot of cases, he would write the music and hand it off to the singer and just say, you do whatever you want. You know, you can add whatever you want, lyrics, melody, whatever. In this case, he had a lot of that in mind already when he handed it off. That's interesting to hear that because the vocals don't come in for a little bit. And as I was listening, I was thinking, you know, if this is purely instrumental, I wouldn't be upset about that at all.

Yeah. Yeah, it's so full. Well, there's such a wash of sound with the vocals that it could be kind of an instrument in and of itself. Have you ever heard of the, I guess it's like a creative technique called Exquisite Quartz? Yes. So that's sort of what that. So basically it's something from the surrealists came up with in like the 1920s or so where someone makes something or writes a line or whatever and they hand it off to someone who then add something to it and then they hand it off and someone. And you end up with this, you know, completely unexpected piece of art that the originator

never would have come up with on their own. And that's sort of what's happening here with these songs. I really love that. I think that's a really cool technique. I really love that too. And I'm glad that we're finishing there because my next pick adds on to that a little bit. Oh, perfect. So Trent and Mueller, the song Swerve from his self-titled album that is coming out in November on

November 13. I typically really am averse to deluxe or expanded albums. Yeah, it is such a thing now. It's such a thing and it's such a thing in the past few years and it makes me honestly a little bit tired. I feel like when an album is made, it's like a perfect little envelope and it's passed off and it's a complete piece. Yeah. But my favorite album of last year, Wednesday's Bleeds, celebrated its one year anniversary with obviously a deluxe album. And to my surprise, I actually really, really loved the remixes because they were just passed off to another totally different type of musician and created something really beautiful.

And I was really struck by A.V. Ter from Animal Collective's remix of Carolina Murder Suicide. Yeah, wow. That is really different. And I hadn't listened to this deluxe version yet. honestly for a lot of the reasons that you said that you don't engage with them all the time either. I just thought, I'll get to it when I get to it. But that's really arresting. It's, I kind of like it more than the original. I really like it more than the original. I loved the original album front to back, but Carolina murder, suicide, never stuck with me.

Yeah. Because it is such a grand tale that Carly Hartsman tells, and she tells it so well. But the instrumentation never pushed it along. And what I love here is how much A-V builds out that instrumental. It feels like that allows you to fully fall into this very dark-twisted world that she's singing about. And every time I listen to the song, I notice a new thing. Like just now when I listened to it, I noticed it sounded like a monitor heartbeat beneath, which really breathes life into the story as well. Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of added textures and kind of a vibe shift.

it that it's very subtle in some ways, but just the way the little drum machine kind of keeps hammering away in the background. The beat doesn't really change at all. It all feels a little out of place in a way that makes the song even more unsettling and disturbing. Yeah, and it really, to what you were saying about exquisite corpse, it really does feel like this was passed off to A.V. Tare and he was able to fill in the spaces in a way that makes the entire song glow. Well, I've got one more, and that's my backup because I was going to play Elogia for it. And now I can't keep my promise of keeping it all loud. So this is from Serpent with Feet.

Did you hear the new Serpent With Feet single? I didn't. And I meant to. Oh, is so good. So this is an artist from Baltimore always makes just this strangely alluring music. Somewhere in the world of R&B and Gospel, but like broadcast from another galaxy, R&B and Gospel. He just announced this new EP coming later this year. Sentinel and the song I want to play is the title track. Who did I do right by?

How, how did I find a man with such a gentle eye? Now the name of it's giving his love. Who do I find love? Call me satisfied He takes his time Wow, takes this time my men's the road. And this base line loves me like it's the long. Transcribes our phone calls.

How can I choose it? I'm the sentinel student. It's shaping me. The sorrow free. He marshals street lights and stars. There's this old thing. Wow, you can really hear the gospel inspiration in that one. Yeah, that's incredible.

Yeah, it's like he's taking you to church. Yeah. But like everything is melting and exploding in color. And it's just, it's very spiritual. Yeah. And I love the shifts in perspective and the different voices that come in. It also does feel like there is a, just an all-knowing being involved as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. It's definitely a sense of something bigger than ourselves. It's very grand. Yeah. His voice has never sounded better. And it's doing a lot of the lifting here.

I mean, the song is actually pretty spare. There's hardly any instrumentation at all, hardly any percussion at all. But those voices are just so big and lift everything up. I think this is one of the most fully realized tracks he's ever done. I really agree. I feel like he's often been a little bit held back in his previous music and leaned into a lot of the subtlety of his voice. But I love the production here. I love the grainy, blown out aspect.

which I'm surprised to hear you love because I feel like in the past you've talked about how that overblown sound isn't your favorite. I just thinking about to like nourished by time. Oh, yeah. Wow, you would put this in the same campus nourished by time? A little bit, yeah.

A little cross, like in the Venn diagram, they're kind of overlapping. Yeah, maybe I wasn't hearing that. There's just, I don't know, it's so beautiful and there's so many interesting sounds flitting around and the flourishes with his voice, The way it's layered. I don't know.

It doesn't feel overblown to me. It feels like it lands just right. That's true. It's not the focus. It's just an added piece. Yeah. So the EP this is from, it's called Sentinel. And that's the title cut.

It is not out until the top of December, December 4th. But Dora, I know you got one more. Yes. I was really excited to see that Lily Konigsberg, who was like an old collaborator of Nate Amos from Water from Your Eyes. And this is Lorelei. And ever since then, I haven't really heard much from her, and I kind of forgot that I really enjoyed her music with Nate Amos until this song, which is called Freebird, an obvious riff on

the Freebird by Leonard Skinnerd. Freebird! Freebird! A similar theme of carefree catharsis, but it's deeply earnest and charming and incredibly catchy and kind of chronicles the past couple years of her being a bit MIA. So we'll go out on this. Dora Levitt. Robin Hilton.

Thanks as always. Thanks for having me. It's always so fun. And you're listening to All Songs Considered from NPR Music. Let's talk.