premiere: Queen of Swords – Rise Instead

Queen of Swords is the new project from Aerin Fogel, formerly of the awesome and severely under-appreciated early 2010's "cave pop" duo the Bitters, who dropped a few legit gems on labels like Captured Tracks + Mexican Summer. Unlike her former group's punchy and infectiously blown-out jams, her new project is all sweeping, dramatic, and achingly pretty indie rock, recorded with Bobb Bruno of Best Coast. One common thread remains, though: like we said in 2010, Aerin Fogel is still an absolute powerhouse, and her beaming and brooding voice might even be better suited for this kind of darkly dreamy pop. Aerin tells us the Queen of Swords LP is coming very soon; in the meantime, take a listen to the empowering lead single "Rise Instead" below: