Fiery Furnaces Will Release an Album of Covers. The Covers Will All Be Covering Fiery Furnaces Songs, Meaning Fiery Furnaces Remain the Most Despicably Annoying Band in All of New York [Pitchfork]
!!!, Maserati, and Holy Ghost! Drummer Gerhardt Fuchs Passes Away, Falling to the Bottom of a Brooklyn Elevator Shaft [NY Times]
Stream L.A. Girly Girls Best Coast’s New Single “When I’m With You,” Which Could Honestly Pass For the Vivian Girls, Only More Jangly, and Less Jersey (Also, Contains Simpler Chorus Than “Be My Baby” — “When I’m With You, I Have Fun”) [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Pavement Will Headline the Sasquatch! Festival in Washington; I Make Vow to Not Create Headlines Out of Pavement Headlining Festivals, as They Will Obviously Be Playing Almost Every One…Let This Sasquatch! Headline Blanket All Other Headlines [Pitchfork]
Watch Video For Blakroc (The Black Keys + MCs) Single “Ain’t Nothing Like You,” Which Is Appropriate to the Name, If the “You” They’re Referencing is a Remotely Entertaining Music Video; Also, C’mon Guys, Double Negatives Are So Not In [Prefix]
The Stooges Are Set to Record Unrecorded Material From the 70s, Which is Awesome Because Uhh…The Stooges, Fun House, and Raw Power Are Really Good Albums (Like REALLY Good!) [NME]
Thom Yorke Posts Blog Entry Against British Government’s Proposal For More Nuclear Power Plants, Under Extremely Inane Headline “Nuclear Power No Thanks;” Elsewhere, Remember When Thom Was Super Vague and Strange, and Consumed With Cartoon Cubes?…I Miss That Thom [Radiohead]
Watch the Pixies Perform Doolittle’s “Here Comes Your Man” on The Tonight Show, Which Sounds Exactly Like the Version on Doolittle, Except With Some Adult Contemporary Flourish; Speaking of the Pixies, Here’s a Free Pixies EP [NBC]
compiled by Max Sebela
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
Former Replacements Frontman Paul Westerberg Releases Surprise EP, P.W. & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys; Buy It! It’s Probably Got Songs About Youth! [Pitchfork]
Keyboardist From the Now-Defunct Harlem Shakes (Two News Stories at Once!) Records Entirety of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever to Tell, Using Only a Beat-Up Piano, a Drum Machine, and a Case of Sparks; Dude From Harlem Shakes Is Unquestionably The Fucking Man (Download It Here) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Watch New Flaming Lips Video For Embryonic Cut, “I Can Be a Frog” Featuring Karen O (It’s Pretty Standard Lips – Girl In Bikini, Girl Laughs, Girl Gets Animals Drawn Over Her With the John Madden Pen); Embryonic Released October 13 [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch Thom Yorke Perform In Rainbows Highlight “Reckoner” at The Age of Stupid Premiere; All Conclude Song Should Have Been Recorded Completely Acoustically – This Shit is Gorgeous [Stereogum]
Stream Of Montreal Covering Diana Ross’s “Love Hangover” Live in New York (This Is Pretty Sweet Even If You Actively Despise Of Montreal) [You Ain’t No Picasso]
Jay Z Says No One Is Afraid Of 50 Cent; Jay Doesn’t Speak For Me, Or My Gangly, Indie Rock Brethren, As Mr. Cent Is Significantly Bigger Than Us [Prefix]
Fucked Up Wins Polaris Music Prize For Chemistry of Common Life (You Made the Right Choice, Canada); Read Frontman Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham’s Provactive and Heartfelt Response in the Torontoist [Brooklyn Vegan]
Grizzly Bear Multi-Instrumentalist Chris Taylor Launches Record Label, Terrible Records; Pitchfork Runs Headline: “Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor Launches Terrible Record Label (No, Really)” – I Steal Pitchfork’s Joke, As No Other Joke Immediately Available [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
Pavement Adds Fourth Show To New York’s Central Park Summerstage 2010; Stephen Malkmus Unaware That By “World Tour,” Matador Expects Them To Leave Central Park [Brooklyn Vegan]
Watch Depraved Web Series Namaste! From anticon.’s Much-Beloved Why?; Why’s Upcoming LP Eskimo Snow Released September 22 [anticon.]
Stream Strokes Frontman Julian Casablancas’s New Synthy (Read: Not Really Worth Listening To) Song “11th Dimension”; Casablancas’s Debut LP Phrazes of the Young Released October 20 [Myspace]
British Art Dance Cutie Goldfrapp To Score Upcoming John Lennon Biopic Nowhere Boy — This Is Cool, But Confusing [Pitchfork]
Lego Iggy Pop to Star in Lego Rock Band; Watch Lego Pop Fall Into Lego Herion, Get Picked Up By Lego David Bowie, And Redefine His Lego Career Through A Lego Series of Lego Albums and Accomplishments [Idolator]
Stream to Pearl Jam’s New Album Backspacer A Couple Days Early…Or Don’t. I Probably Wouldn’t. Backspacer Released September 20 [Spin]
Andrew W.K. To Tour With Calder String Quartet; Shouts of “LETS GET THIS CRECENDO STARTED” Heard From Miles Away; Meanwhile, Quartet Unconditioned To Partying Quite So Much – All Report Hangovers, Immense Fun [CMJ]
Watch New Thom Yorke Video For “All For The Best,” Off The Upcoming Mark Mulcahy Tribute, Ciao My Shining Star; Ciao Released September 29 [Pitchfork]
Insane Clown Posse Fans (Popularly Called Juggalos – Find Them In The Faygo Aisle of Your Local Walgreens) and Slipknot Fans (Called Maggots – Find Them Looking Through Jack Skelington Coffee Mugs At Your Nearest Hot Topic) Don’t Get Along [Prefix]
compiled by Max Sebela
July 24, 2009
Thom Yorke: “The Present Tense”
TOP DOG
To us bloody yanks, the Latitude Festival doesn’t mean a whole lot. We have our Lollapaloozas, Bonnaroos, and Coachellas; who cares about a three year old festival in the quiant coastal village of Southwold in merry old Suffolk, England? But even in the massive shadow of its older brother Glastonbury, the young festival seems to have a lot going for it. And this year got some impressive acts: Bat for Lashes, !!!, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (nice), and, in one of the more significant sets, a Radioheadless Thom Yorke.
Though listed as a headlining act, Thom started his gig at the crack of noon this Sunday, and even quipped to the cheering crowd, “Shhh… there’s people sleeping.” Hopefully there weren’t too many incapacitated Brits still in their makeshift beds, because not only would those lazy sods had missed a set from one of the best musicians around, but also, a new song that may make its way to one of today’s best bands. The new track’s name wasn’t announced by Yorke, but instead was introduced by him saying, “A new song, so, you know, go for a piss.”
Seeing as there’s little chance the title is “So You Know (Go for a Piss),” the internet gods have been calling the song “The Present Tense,” and already it’s an effective little number with some real potential. Radiohead fiends (*cough* such as myself) will be anxious to see where this song is going; on its own, it’s a nice mixture of Yorke’s lilting beauty and brooding, but who knows what wonderful touches Radiohead could put on it, especially with the mad genius of Jonny Greenwood. For now, we’ll just have to thank the blokes who recorded and leaked the track, since the BBC, even after promising to broadcast the entire gig, only played two songs from the set. Goes to show what you get with nationalized broadcasting, Britain.
Here’s York performing the new track, “The Present Tense”:
by Geoff Anstey
Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, Better Known as MCA, Diagnosed With Cancer; Tour Cancelled and New Beasties LP, Hot Sauce Committee Part 1, Delayed [Billboard]
Thriller Set to Break The Eagles’ Record As The Highest Selling Album of All-Time…Good. [Billboard]
Built To Spill Finishing Seventh LP, There Is No Enemy; Released Sometime In October [Brooklyn Vegan]
Andrew W.K. Appears On Fox News; Facially Ridicules Fox News, and Remains Awesome [Prefix]
Stream Neo-Hippies The Polyphonic Spree’s New Demo “Blurry” [Gorilla Vs. Bear]
Limp Bizkit Played First US Show In 5 Years; Guitarist Wes Borland Looks Straight Out of Apocalypto [Spin]
Ne-Yo Loves Fans, Hates Bloggers, And Is Really Quite A Sensitive Man [Idolator]
Stream New Islands Song “No You Don’t;” New LP Vapours Due Out September 22 [Pitchfork]
Satanic Verses Author Salman Rushdie and Alt-Rockers Dredg Confoundingly Come Together For Charity [Spin]
Lil Wayne’s Much-Anticipated (For All The Wrong Reasons) Rock Album Rebirth Joins Detox and Cuban Linx II On Long List of Rap Albums That Will Probably Never Be Released [Idolator]
Stream Thom Yorke’s New Song “Present Tense” Performed Live At England’s Latitude Festival [Spin]
British Police Investigating The Game And His Entourage On Charges Of Assault…And He Seemed Like Such A Family Man [Prefix]
compiled by Max Sebela
Chinese Democracy Leaker Sentenced to Probation and House Arrest…Axl Rose Remains Unscathed For the Crime That Was Chinese Democracy [Billboard]
The Killers Make Video For Day & Age Track “Goodnight, Travel Well” To Raise Sex Trafficking Awareness…PSA Music Videos Have Come A Long Way Since This [Spin]
Free Music Listening Service/Music Genome Project, Pandora, Avoids Bankruptcy [The Tripwire]
Polyphonic Spree Does Shows For Southern Comfort; Dinosaur Jr. Makes Videos For Playboy (Man, I Wish That Was Exactly What It Sounds Like) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Bruce Springsteen Extends His US Tour; Two More New York Dates Added [Spin]
TMZ (Read: Unreliable) Reports That LAPD Is Treating Michael Jackson’s Death As Homicide [NME]
Stream Thom Yorke’s Cover of Mark Mulcahy’s “All For the Best,” Off the Recently Top Dog-ed Mulcahy Tribute Ciao, My Shining Star [Stereogum]
Where Do The Babies Come From? You See Son, When An All Male Lo-Fi Brooklyn Band (Woods) Loves An All-Female Lo-Fi Brooklyn Band (Vivian Girls)… [Pitchfork]
Stream Brazilian Psych-Rock Legends Os Mutantes “Teclar,” Their First Single In Nearly 30 Years [Pitchfork]
D.C.’s Shudder To Think Announce Live Album, Live From Home; Released September 15 [The Tripwire]
compiled by Max Sebela
October 29, 2008
Advocating for Iceland With a Bit of Electronica
“Náttúra” is Björk’s ode to, and plea for, the environment. Respect it and handle with care.
Traditional of Björk’s trip-hop, her recently released single “Náttúra,” Icelandic for nature, was composed specific for a cause – to raise awareness in rally and protest for the ecological issues of Iceland. With an energy crisis and a massive corporate presence closer than the horizon, they face many problems America is in the thick of.
“Náttúra,” released by One Little Indian, is a simple, yet effective, composition of drum, bass, and vocals that encompasses beats Björk began her solo career with in the early 1990s. Tribal rhythms and significant lyrics teach to be humbled by nature and to respect your surroundings. In “Náttúra” Björk is joined on vocals by Thom Yorke of Radiohead.
More on Advocating for Iceland With a Bit of Electronica
