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

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Dickie Peterson, Bassist and Lead Singer of Foundational Metal Band Blue Cheer, Passes Away at 61 [Brooklyn Vegan]

Stream Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s Bleak Theme From the Film Adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; No Words, Just Grandiose Post-Apocalyptic Meandering [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Sufjan Stevens Is Going Through Serious Soul Searching, Questioning Point of Both The Song and The Album, Seems Loaded With Melancholia (In Other Words, Sufjan Stevens Feeling Exactly Like Sufjan Stevens) [Vish Khanna]

Stream “This Is It,” a Posthumous Michael Jackson Recording Featured in the Upcoming Jackson Documentary This Is It; “This Is It” and This Is It Making Good Case For This Not Really Being It, Unless “It” Is Mediocre Jackson Material [Pitchfork]

Musicians Come Together In London In Debate On Future of the Music Industry – While Everyone Familiar With Daft Punk Know They Have Already Figured It Out: Become Robots [NME]

Stream New Brooklyn Fuck-Core (Yeah, I Just Invented That Genre) Giants Lightning Bolt, “Flooded Chamber” – A Tribal, Ecstatic Blitzkrieg of Sound and Drums, Which I’m Pretty Sure Samples Radiohead’s “Pact Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” at The Beginning; Garden of Earthly Delights Released Tomorrow [Stereogum]

Stream New Fall Out Boy, “Alpha Dog” – Which Is a Hilarious Amalgamation of Overproduced Cock-Pop, and Gang Vocals That Slightly Resemble The Bee Gees; Elsewhere, My Readership Confused As To Why I Post New Fall Out Boy Song [Idolator]

I Like Elvis, But Not Enough To Dig Up His Body or Anything Weird Like That…Hmm…How Can I Show My Love For The King? I Know! I’ll Buy His Hair! (Yes, This is Real) [The Tripwire]

Stream Burial (That UK Dub-Guy Who…You Know, Everyone Loves) and Flying Lotus (That L.A. Glitch-Guy Who…You Know, Everyone Is Sort of Indifferent Towards) Collaboration; As Such, Track Is Sort of Unremarkable [Gorilla vs. Bear]

compiled by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Watch Yoko Ono Duet With Antony and the Johnsons’ Antony Hegarty; Feel Melancholy [Pitchfork]

Jay Z Finally Discusses The Whole Little Mama Crashing The VMAs Thing…Contrary To Popular Belief, Jay Believes Fighting Mama Not The Solution (C’mon Jay, That’s What You ALWAYS Say) [Prefix]

Stream Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro Singing a Cute Little Lullaby, “Kids Song” – If Only Kids Listened To This Instead of Stuff Like This…Or, To Take Things One Step Further Into Pseudo-Reality, This. [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Stream Los Angeles Dub-Glitch Guy Flying Lotus’s New Song “Satelllliiiiitteeeeeee” – Wandering, Glitchy, and Lovely [Myspace]

Dan Deacon Announces Fall Tour; Promotes It With Ridiculous Cartoon-Character Naming Contest (Just Spotted The Michelin Man) [Pitchfork]

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon Announces Hiatus For Bon Iver; Luckily, Unmap, The Recent LP From Vernon’s Side Project Volcano Choir Is Haunting, Sprawling, and Provides Vernon in the Meantime [Prefix]

Blur/Gorillaz Frontman Damon Albarn In Running For London Olympics’ Artistic Director (My Guess: Albarn Replaces All Athletes With Cartoon Characters, Who Perform As Avatars of Real Athletes, A La Those Food Races at Basketball Games) [NME]

Ryan Adams Has First Art Gallery Opening At New York’s Morrison Hotel; In Other News, Ryan Adams Doesn’t Seem A Very Talented Artistl; Should Probably Stick To Releasing 30 Albums a Year and Hanging With Elton John [Spin]

compiled by Max Sebela

NOT ROCK
Oh, Avalanches, you are so 2000. It’s been almost ten years since Since I Left You, the Australian electronic group’s debut, dropped all 3,500 of it’s samples on our heads (and simultaneously got many of us to dust off and shake our proverbial rear ends). And you’re coming back now? This could prove problematic…

Since I Left You was a DJ masterpiece the likes of which had probably not been heard since DJ Shadow’s 1996 debut Endtroducing…... The album was an aural party: from the opening tropical guitar lick on “Since I Left You,” to the swirling sampled vocals of jazz singer Marlena Shaw on “Two Hearts in ¾ Time,” to the robotic African drums on “Etoh” – it was a massive, inclusive 60 minutes of pure fun. For a relatively small release, Since I Left You managed to garner a fair amount of attention well before it came out, because the group had to clear such a massive amount of licensed music with the original owners (the album samples Madonna, for example, and she’s not exactly the easiest to steal from; though, considering Madonna’s latest work, she should probably be giving it away). Since I Left You delivered on this buzz, and the group seemed ready to take over the dance world.

And then they didn’t. After Since I Left You, The Avalanches went into some kind of DJ hibernation (I imagine this to be much like a bear’s hibernation, but with a lot more bass), and the buzz around the follow-up has been going ever since. The group would remix a track here or there, but even those slowed, and it’s now been three years since The Avalanches released anything at all. Reports that the follow-up would be purely ambient, or hip-hop, or world music all circulated around the Internet as the years went by, and now we’re up to date, nearly a decade past their debut.

A couple weeks ago in Time Out Sydney, Steve Pavlovic, president of The Avalanches’ label, Modular Recordings, insisted that the new album will be released before the end of this year, and that it is “really, really good” (it’s been a fucking decade, Steve, could we maybe get a better descriptor than that?). So, it’s confirmed: the Avalanches are still around. But is that a good thing? Maybe Since I Left You should remain The Avalanches’ one album, albeit a nearly perfect one. Because there is no possible way this thing won’t be disappointing.
More on The Avalanches: Since We Left You