Kevin Bronson on July 21st, 2021

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In which we round up new songs from Velvet Starlings, Colleen Green and Nite Jewel — each being the second single from forthcoming albums by those respective artists.

VELVET STARLINGS, “Technicolour Shakedown”

Remember when live music — even the anticipation of it — would make you feel as if your head was going to explode? That’s the inspiration for Velvet Starlings’ “Technicolour Shakedown,” the follow-up to their June single “Back of the Train” and the title track of their debut album, out Aug. 27. Says 18-year-old frontman Christian Gisborne: “The track is an anthemic ode to going out and to the live music experience and … the energy of catching your favorite band on the local scene and being packed in a venue ‘like sardines’ — and loving every minute of it.” Nothing like a burst of retro garage-rock as we try to loosen the grip of the pandemic.

COLLEEN GREEN, “It’s Nice to Be Nice”

The follow-up to “I Wanna Be a Dog” — a song that’s about exactly what the title says — “It’s Nice to Be Nice” is the new single from Colleen Green’s forthcoming album “Cool” … and a song that’s about exactly what the title says. She adds, “This song is my ‘You Get What You Give’ by New Radicals except without the incongruous aggressive sentiment about kicking other rock stars’ asses. The title, though, the title’s sentiment is right on.” “Cool,” Green’s first album since 2015, is out Sept. 10 on Hardly Art.

NITE JEWEL, “Before I Go”

The follow-up to “This Time,” “Before I Go” is a stylish, sparsely beautiful lament that Ramona Gonzalez wrote on the floor of her apartment after her husband left her. “I really did mean before I go … forever, that I would die,” she says. “It was this feeling that tumbled into the container of song. The harmony and the melody became the safety net for the emotions that might kill me.” The tune is the second single from Nite Jewel’s new album “No Sun,” her first in four years, out Aug. 27.