Watch New Video From the Twilight Sad for “Seven Years of Letters,” In Which the Band Commits a Fairly Grizzly Murder, Which I’m Not Convinced Is Entirely Fictional. Remember When the Band Was Robbed a Few Weeks Back? Could Be Revenge; Just Sayin’ [Pitchfork]
Jason Molina Feeling Worse Than Usual, Cancels Tour With Will Johnson (Which Was Supposed to Promote Their Album Together, Descriptively Titled Molina & Johnson…Now How Will Anyone Know About It? Even Molina’s Extremely Outdated Fan Site Has Nothing to Say About the Album) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls Covering the Chantels’ “He’s Gone,” Which is No More or Less Bubbly Than One Would Initially Expect [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Lily Allen Quitting Music For Two Years After Returning to Music After Quitting Music After Quitting Twitter After Threatening to Quit Music After Starting a Blog About Not Wanting to Do Music if People are Going to Steal Her Music; Elsewhere, I Just Downloaded a Ton of Lily Allen Illegally…Listening Party at My Place [Idolator]
Stream New Shearwater Song, “Castaways,” Which is Painfully Boring, and Much Too Vibrato-ed, Even For a Shearwater Track (But Does Feature a Daintily Keyed Piano…It’s Really Cute!); The Golden Archipelago Released February 23 [Stereogum]
Scott Kannberg, AKA Pavement’s Spiral Stairs, Negates His Own Statement That Pavement Would Never Record Another Song, Claims that New Songs Inevitable if Band Chemistry is Good; Chemical Composition of Pavement Unclear…Most Likely Includes Carbon [The Age]
Smiths Guitarist/Indie Vagabond Johnny Marr to Write Score for Film Starring Antonio Banderas and Snoop Dogg About Strippers; With a Cast Like That, How Could the Film Be Worse Than the Cribs’ Last Album? [NME]
http://www.nme.com/news/nme/48674
L.A. Fuzzy Girl Pop Band Dum Dum Girls Announce Debut LP, I Will Be; Released March 30 (And Features a Track Called “Bhang Bhang, I’m a Burnout” – Who Wouldn’t Be Psyched on That) [Pitchfork]
Billboard Says New Arcade Fire Album Due Out in May; Will Most Likely Feature Veiled References to Haiti, Religion, Family…Possibly Feature Inspiration From the Boss [Billboard]
compiled by Max Sebela
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
Watch Alicia Keys and Jay Z Play “Empire State of Mind” at the World Series; The Blueprint 3 Sucked and I Hate the Yankees – This Performance Manages to Negate Everything; Conclude: “Man, New York Rules” [Spin]
Former Harlem Shake (Not an Ice Cream Based Treat) Todd Goldstein Releases His First LP as ARMS Kids Aflame Stateside TODAY (Stream “Tiger Tamer” Here); Meanwhile, I Shamelessly Self Promote Our Website by Linking You to Our Coverage of ARMS at CMJ [Jezebel Music]
The Books Book (Heh?!) First Tour in a While; Somehow Manage to Dodge L.A., New York, and Chicago (Possibly Due to Fear of Urban Heckling? Just a Thought); Much Anticipated New Album Due Out “Early Next Year” [Pitchfork]
Download New Track From Brooklyn Psych-rockers Yeasayer, “Ambling Alp” (Does the Overproduction Present on this Single Secure That Yeasayer is Releasing 2010’s Veckatimest? Yes.) Odd Blood Released Early 2010 [Brooklyn Vegan]
Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon Will Release an Album Together December 22; Release C.S.I. Like Teaser Trailer (Hopefully That Means Album Will Be Ridden With Murder, Poorly Rendered CGI) [Prefix]
Stream New Untitled Dum Dum Girls Jam…Which I Want Desperately to Hate, Because it’s the Fucking Dum Dum Girls, But it Sounds Straight off Nico’s Chelsea Girl, and I Have a Soul [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Massively Overrated Band/Possible Co-Originators of What We Now Call “Indie” Spoon Formally Announces New Record, Transference, Set To Release January 26; Expect it to be Innocuous, Bland, Immensely Popular, and Contain Slightly Veiled References to Weed [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
October 25, 2009
This Week In Shows
THIS WEEK IN SHOWS
TUES, OCT. 27
Talk Normal, Pterodactyl, Antimagic
Cake Shop
8:00 PM, $8, 21+
Well I had a great time interviewing Talk Normal, and our writer Helen Buyniski claims their live set is awesome, but I’ve yet to see them perform, so I figure no better time than their Sugarland record release party! Visually they’re interesting: drummer Andrya Ambro uses all sorts of unusual objects to augment her percussion, and apparently this noise duo really works a show into a hypnotic drive. Plus, with Pterodactyl opening, it’s bound to be an intense party!
FRI, OCT. 30
Pissed Jeans, Awesome Color, Drunkdriver, Sleepies
(le) poisson rouge
6:00 PM, $5, all ages
Ye be warned! This is a NYU-sponsored show. But I, for one, don’t care, really. I’m mostly just impressed that NYU is going so hard. It seems very much in the Halloween spirit to go out and get bludgeoned by sound, and lord knows Pissed Jeans and Awesome Color know how to ravage a space with noise. To be honest, the psychedelic sounds of Awesome Color are a bit more my style than Pissed Jeans, plus I already know that I love their live show. (I was blown away by their set at Market Hotel this summer.) And on another note, after learning so much about Sleepies last week, I feel like I should see them in action, too.
Either Diplo and Switch are Making a Pointed Critique of Mainstream Nightlife, or They Are Just Really Excited for Halloween. Watch New Cartoon Zombie Major Lazer Video Here [Pitchfork]
For An Even Weirder Partially Animated Music Video, Watch Ida Maria Featuring Iggy Pop on “Oh My God.” Oh My God Is Right. This Shit Is Weird. [PopMatters]
No Age Designed A Vegan Skate Shoe. Very California. Oh Yeah, They’re In New York Next Week, Too. [The Tripwire]
Listen To New Song From Dum Dum Girls/Zoo Music Side Project Woven Bones [Stereogum]
Milkin’ It: Pixies Releasing Dolittle Shows as Live Albums…Ten Minutes After Show’s Are Over! [NME]
Listen To New Devendra Banhart “Wallilamdzi” [Stereogum]
Listen to Snippets Of New Moon Soundtrack. Not Sure How Much We Care…But Have Heard Good Things About Thom Yorke Track [Stereogum]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
Tom Waits Chats with Beck About Building Fires Out of Chopsticks [Pitchfork]
Dum Dum Girls Play Woodsist Fest, Immediately Sign to Sub Pop [BrooklynVegan]
Nine Inch Nails Announce Final Shows; Reznor Really Means It This Time [NME]
Black Keys’ Drummer Plays Bass in New Band Called Drummer — Follow That? [Stereogum]
The Dead Weather Album is Streaming Free for a Few More Hours, Before Jack White Takes it Down [SPIN]
Ryan Gosling Ups Indie Cred as Band Dead Man’s Bones Signs to ANTI- [The Tripwire]
compiled by Sean Hallarman
