Animal Collective’s New Film ODDSAC to Premiere At Sundance; My Guess There Will Be Few to No Animals Starring in Said Film (Unless You Count Panda Bear – He’s Super Cuddly) [Gorilla vs. Bear]
2010 Grammy Nominees Are Revealed, The Biggest Surprise In Which Being There Literally Are No Surprises (Except that The Fray is Apparently Still a Band) [Idolator]
Watch Phoenix Perform a Bunch of Songs in France for La Blogotheque; Elsewhere, Watch Various Blogs Plug these Videos of Phoenix Playing, Even Though La Blogotheque Posts Dozens of Takeaway Videos…Slow News Day For Everyone, Deal With It [La Blogotheque]
Kieran Hebden Has Been in the Middle of a Residency at London’s Plastic People, Which is Ending…To Commemorate Ending, He’s Giving Away a Free Four Tet Mixtape, Called Much Love to the Plastic People, Which Will Be Given to Some Tech-Savvy Raver, and Swiftly Leaked to the Web…Hoorah! [Prefix]
Stream New (And Extremely Depressing) Track From Portland’s Premiere Looping Ambient Artiste Eluvium, “The Motion Makes Me Last,” Which is As Cold and Barren As the Blizzard [Insert Year of Famous Local Blizzard Here] [Stereogum]
Lead Fleet Fox Robin Pecknold Talks About the Writing Process of the Next Fleet Foxes LP; Elsewhere…Remember That Band the Bravery? (That Band Who Wrote Shitty 2004 Post-Punk Revival Single “An Honest Mistake”?) Well…Here’s Them Performing a Baffling Cover of Fleet Foxes’ Adored 2008 Single “White Winter Hymnal” [Pitchfork]
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Stream Alicia Keys Performing an Update to the Now Ubiquitous Jay Z Blueprint 3 Jam “Empire State of Mind,” Which, If Not Already Cliched Enough, Actually Includes the Line “If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make It Anywhere;” Still Lacks Proper Vaudevillian Accent [Idolator]
Beck, Never One to Turn Away From a Fight (I’m Not Sure This is Accurate, But Let’s Run With It) Posts a Song About Harry Partch After Fiery Furnaces Matt Friedberger Made a Crack About Him – Learn More “In the News” Later Tonight at JM.com [NME]
Interpol Announce Fourth Album, and Claim it Will Be Better Than 2007’s Our Love to Admire, Which In Itself, Really Needed to Be Better Than Antics…But I Have Faith Guys!…Maybe; Released Early 2010 [Paste]
Stream New Animal Collective, “Graze,” The Opener to the Upcoming Fall Be Kind EP; The Track Undoes a Lot of the “Brian-Wilson” Pop Steps Merriweather Pushed Forward, Moving Back To Sprawling Psychedelia ; Let’s Call It Animal Collective “Classic,” or Better Yet “Animal Classective” [Stereogum]
Watch Ray Davies, Former Kink, Perform “You Really Got Me” on Letterman; The Most Surprising Part: Features an Enormous Choir of Middle Aged Men and Women. Least Suprising: Is a Bastardized Version of the Original, Sounding More Like Van Halen’s Awful Update [Prefix]
Myspace Buys Popular Social Network/Music Streaming Service Imeem, Meaning That Rupert Murdoch Probably Owns Songs You Haven’t Yet Recorded; Beware, Young Songwriters, Beware (But Please, Still Write Songs…I’d Be Out of Work Without You) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream L.A.’s Garage (Lolli)Pop Band the Dum Dum Girls Covering The Misfits’ “Last Caress,” Which is Just Alright, In My Opinion (But Don’t Trust My Opinion) [Myspace]
The Decemberists’ Turn 2009 Flop The Hazards of Love Into a Full Length Animated Film, Seemingly Still Determined to Prove That Listening to the 80-Minute Operatic Monstrosity is Somehow Worthwhile (It’s Not, Guys…There’s Petticoats, Outdated Literary Tropes, and Prog Breakdowns…and Somehow It Wound Up Not Awesome. Lick Your Wounds, Move on); Watch the Trailer Here [Pitchfork]
Watch Vampire Weekend’s Video For Contra Cut “Cousins;” Contra, Which I’m Already Declaring Both the Best and Worst Album of 2010-2020, Released January 12 [Stereogum]
compiled by Max Sebela
Stream Four Songs Off Gil Scott-Heron’s New Album, I’m New Here, Which, According to Brooklyn Vegan, Will Be Remixed By Goth-Brits The xx; Elsewhere, Does Anyone Know Whether or Not the Revolution is Going to Be Televised This Year? I’m Pretty Sure I Saw It On TV Last Year, But Who Knows…[Brooklyn Vegan]
Speaking of The xx, They Permanently Lose Keyboardist Baria Qureshi – Meaning They Are Now Contending With Only New Kids on the Block For Least Attractive New Kids on the Block Look Alikes [NME]
Stream Animal Collective Playing “Bleeding” Live, a Version of Which Will Appear on the Upcoming Fall Be Kind EP; Released November 26 [Stereogum]
Watch New Video From Clipse, “Doorman,” From the Oft-Delayed Till the Casket Drops, Due Out December 8; Clipse, We Get It, You Love Cocaine, It’s Played Out, No One’s Career Has Ever Been Defined By Their Love of Coc – Oh, Wait, Nevermind. Keep Doin’ What You’re Doin’ [Pitchfork]
Stream Flying Lotus’s Remix of Lil Wayne’s “I Feel Like Dying,” Which May Make You Feel Like Dying (I Apologize For Easy Joke, But C’mon, Flying Lotus’s Doom-Glitch Is Supposed to Make You Feel Like Dying) [Myspace]
Stream Memory Tapes Take On New Yeasayer Single, “Ambling Alp,” Which Retains All of the Original’s Inspiration, But Cuts Away the Almost-Sickening Attention to Detail (Read: Overproduction); Yeasayer’s Odd Blood Released February 9 [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Stream Solange’s (Beyonce’s Little Sister) Cover of Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca Highlight “Stillness is the Move,” Which is as Awesome as It Sounds – Elsewhere, Remember When Jay Z Went With Solange to Go See Grizzly Bear? That Was Cool [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
Stream Another 17-Minute Memory Tapes Jam, “Walk Me Home”…It’s Halloween Spooky, And Leads To Fun Puns Such As “Monstrous Memory Tapes” or “Memory Terrifying Tapes” [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Nas Joins Courtney Love and Method Man On List of Musicians Who Owe a Shit-Ton in Back Taxes (For Nasir, $2.5 Million); Well, Life’s a Bitch (Eh? Get it?) [Prefix]
Stream New Of Montreal “Wet Butcher’s Fist” Off the HHBTM Single, Which Sounds Like It Was Recorded It Was Sounded Underwater, and Features Kevin Barnes Admitting to Wanting to be a Sex Offender [You Ain’t No Picasso]
Canadian Hardcore Band/Polaris Prize Winners Fucked Up To Release Singles Collection, The Two-Disc Couple Tracks; Released January 26 [Pitchfork]
Stream All of Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be a Week In Advance of Its Release – This Album Isn’t Nearly Strange Enough; I Thought The Warner Bros. Were Supposed to be Pretty Crazy [Stereogum]
Animal Collective Joins Animal Rights…Collective, PETA, In Fight Against Bludgeoning Seals; If You Don’t Want To See a Seal Bludgeoned, Don’t Watch This Video [I Guess I’m Floating]
The Roots Push Baked Upcoming LP How I Got Over To Early 2010; Meanwhile, The Roots Still Playing on Jimmy Fallon Every Night, So No One Has Any Shortage of Roots (Except Licorice Root…I Can’t Get Enough of That) [Idolator]
Watch Norwegian Sleep-Folk Duo Kings of Convenience Play a Bunch of Songs in the Spin Studio Off Released-Today LP Declaration of Dependence; Grow Bored In a Matter of Seconds, Take Nap [Spin]
Madonna Getting Sued By Her Neighbor For Rehearsing To Loud; Shouts of “Damned Kids With Their Grasping at Straw Attempts at Former 80s Glory” Heard From Neighbor’s Apartment [NME]
Lego Freddy Mercury Will Appear in Lego Rock Band; Lego Moustache and Chest Hair Not Living Up To Precedent of Actual Moustache and Chest Hair [Idolator]
compiled by Max Sebela
Watch New Modest Mouse Video For No One’s First and You’re Next Single “Whale Song” – It’s Got Plants Playing Drums! And Strange Nautical Contraptions! [Pitchfork]
Stream Live Animal Collective Jam “Bleed,” To Be Released With Merriweather Highlight “Brothersport” As 10” Single December 8th…Coincidentally The Same Day That Fall Be Kind, The (Non)Existing Hypothetical Animal Collective Album is Scheduled [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Beach Boys Frontman/Mind Behind/Pet Sounds/Resident Crazy Person Brian Wilson To Finish The Compositions of Legendary “Rhapsody in Blue” Composer George Gershwin [NME]
Watch Grotesque New Converge Video For “Axe To Fall,” the Title Track To Their Upcoming Album (Warning: Not For Individuals Prone To Seizures, Nausea, Fear, Emotional Instability, General Sensitivity); The Excellent Axe to Fall Released October 20 [Stereogum]
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien Says Radiohead Will Make Another Radiohead Album Instead of Only Releasing Radiohead EPs; New Radiohead Album Released in 2010 – I Decide The Amount of Times I Say Radiohead In Post Will Directly Increase JM.com’s Rising Popularity; P4K Credibility [Pitchfork]
Sonic Youth To Appear On Gossip Girl Next Monday, Performing Acoustic Version of EVOL Deep Cut “Star Power” – Which Brings Me To the Most Important Question: Will Kim Gordon Smite Thurston in the Episode and Sleep With the Ever Stylish Chuck Bass? (Also, All Hope For “Indie”’s Continued Existence Lost) [Pitchfork]
Watch Video For New Moon Death Cab Single “Meet Me on the Equinox;” It’s So Irrelevantly Bland It’s Spoooooooky [Spin]
Daily Swarm Notes New Trend: Current Rock ‘n Roll Causes Rise In Number of Young Men Peeing in Public; New York Times Ought Run a Trend Piece On This [The Daily Swarm]
compiled by Max Sebela
The Wrens (That “Legendary” Jersey Emo-Punk Band Who Have Managed Legendary Status By Only Releasing Three Records Over 20 Years) To Play 2002’s The Meadowlands From Start to Finish; Elsewhere, The Wrens Probably Aren’t Releasing Anything Until Like 2016 [Brooklyn Vegan]
As Much As I Don’t Like 50 Cent, The Album Cover to Before I Self Destruct Is Fucking Awesome, and Makes a Good Case For 50 Taking Up Arnold’s Role in the Next Train Wreck Terminator Sequel [Idolator]
Watch Bruce Springsteen Debut New Song, “Wrecking Ball” At Giants Stadium; Going Against All Odds, Springsteen Surprises Fans By Writing a Song About Life in New Jersey….WHAAAAA? [Spin]
Fatboy Slim Announces Sideproject With David Byrne, Martha Wainwright, and…Cyndi Lauper?; Here Lies Love (Apparenty A Concept Album About Former First Lady of the Phillipines…To Whom None of the Above Most Likely Have Any Connection, Especially Lauper) Released Sometime in 2010 [NME]
Stream Another New Devendra Banhart Song, “Angelika;” Sounds Like a Donovan Song, Suddenly Overtaken By Buena Vista Social Club, Which is Not As Awesome As It Sounds; What Will We Be Released October 27 [Pitchfork]
Kanye West’s and Lady’s Gaga’s Fame Kills Tour MAY Be Cancelled ALLEGEDLY Due to RUMORS that Kanye POSSIBLY Is Checking Into Rehab For HYPOTHETICAL Alcoholism; In Other News, This Is An Unsubstantiated Rumor [Prefix]
The Compact Disc Celebrates Its 27th Birthday; Like Many 27 Year Olds, The CD Will Be Mourning Its Seemingly Imminent Death By Looking At More Youthful Versions of Itself Online (Hopefully Via Lala…What a Great Service) [Idolator]
Stream Animal Collective’s Remix of Phoenix’s “Love Like a Sunset” – Tribal, Glitchy, Airy; How Does Animal Collective Manage To Make Every Song They Remix Sound Like ANY Animal Collective Song? [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch New Black Lips Video For 200 Million Thousand Cut “Let It Grow;” Starts Pretty Normal, Buffalo 66 Style…Ends With a Lot of Aliens, And Slightly Necrophilia-Centric Images [Stereogum]
The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay To Release a Collection of Short Stories, Entitled Complicated Gardening Techniques In January; I Make Vow To Report Any Hold Steady News No Matter How Seemingly Insignificant [Pitchfork]
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Lily Allen, Who Recently Quit Music, Reissues Some of Her Music, Performs Music With Dizzee Rascal, Seems Completely Immersed In Music [Idolator]
Portishead Working On Follow-Up to Last Year’s Third; “It Could Be Out In a Year’s Time,” Meaning It Hopefully Won’t Take Another Decade [Pitchfork]
Stream Karen O’s Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack In Full; Feel All Fuzzy Inside, Grow Tired of the Seemingly Constant Clap Tracks [Stereogum]
British Post-Punk Dudes The Futureheads Working On a “Complicated” New Album; I Can’t Decide If It Would Be Sweeter If It Were This Kind Of Complicated, Or Some Other, More Complex Kind of Complicated [Prefix]
UK MC Lady Sovereign Arrested In Australia After Spitting In Someone’s Face; According To Twitter, Sovereign Believes Spitting “Nasty,” But Being Punched In the Head, Nastier [NME]
Watch New Andrew Bird Video For “Anonanimal” – Does This Remind Anyone Else of Day of the Tentacle? 90s Point And Click Adventure Game Fans? Too Niche? Guys? [Rolling Stone]
Stream Upcoming Air Album Love 2 In It’s Entirety; Simultaneously, See Who Else Is Currently Streaming Love 2 (Currently, There’s One Person In Siberia Listening, Probably Trying To Warm Up With Some Sweet, Breathy Air) [Prefix]
Nathan Williams From Wavves and Jared Swiley From Black Lips Got Into a Bit of a Scuffle, And Somehow Williams Won (Sort Of…He’s Just A Little Guy); Swiley Continually Calls Williams The F- Word (No, The Other, Really Bad F- Word) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Hey It’s Monday, We’re All Feeling A Little Down…Here’s A Couple New Sufjan Stevens Songs; Oh No, Now I’m Feeling Really Down [Pitchfork]
Stream Devendra Banhart’s Awesome Remix of Phoenix’s “Rome” – Devendra Being Good At Remixing Is Always Surprising, Like Remembering Cher Won An Oscar [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch Video For Taken By Trees’ (Victoria Bergsman, That Girl Who Whistles and Sings on “Young Folks”) Cover of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Banger “My Girls,” Re-imagined As “My Boys” (Its Stupid. Plain and Simple) [Stereogum]
compiled by Max Sebela
Mary Travers, Known For Her Work in Classic Folk Group Peter, Paul, and Mary, Passes Away at 72 [Brooklyn Vegan]
Billy Corgan Announces 44-Track Smashing Pumpkins Album Called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope; I Set Fire to a Copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness In Attempt to Feel Something [Spin]
Stream Animal Collective’s “Banshee Beat” vs. Beach Boys’ “I’m Waiting for the Day” – If Animal Collective Won That Fight, They Would Still Lose, As They Would Cease To Exist In That Back To The Future Paradox Way [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Kermit the Frog Tells People That He Is Not Dating Lady Gaga; People Fails at Differentiating Between “People” and Fuzzy, Marionette Puppets (Due to Deteriorating Eyesight of Journalism? Eh?!) [Idolator]
Ever Increasingly Irrelevant College Rockers Weezer Announce Ratitude Tracklist; Includes Song Title “In the Mall,” Which Pretty Aptly Describes Why They Ought Go Back to Garage [Spin]
Watch Chicago’s Andrew Bird and Brooklyn’s St. Vincent Collaborate in La Blogotheque; Experience Long Performance of Pure, Unadulterated Pleasantness; Feel Kind of Sick Afterward [Pitchfork]
The Clash’s Mick Jones and Topper Headon Rerecord The Clash’s “Jail Guitar Doors” With Billy Bragg and Prison Inmates – Headline Gets Progressively More Awesome Every Word Added [NME]
Activision Claims That Kurt Cobain Guitar Hero Avatar Sound and Legal; Real Nirvana Fans Still Feel That Problem Not Cobain’s Appearance, But Rather Features Cobain Smiling On Stage [Pitchfork]
Grizzly Bear Joins Bon Iver, Thom Yorke, and Death Cab for Cutie on Twilight Sequel New Moon’s Soundtrack; “Cool” Listeners Finally Forced to Admit That The Bands Are Listened to By Shit Tons of People (Note Again: Distinction Between People And Puppets) [Prefix]
compiled by Max Sebela
