Author: bella.king

OutKast apparently declined performing at the Super Bowl

Big Boi appeared on today’s episode of ESPN’s “The Dan LeBatard Show,” where he asked Big Boi about the most memorable sports event he has ever played. After a seeing, Big Boi then talked about how OutKast were invited to play a the Super Bowl halftime show once but they turned down the chance because André 3000 didn’t agree to play anything but full songs. Listen to his comments here around the four-minute mark. 

The songs they were to perform were “The Way You Move” and “Hey Ya!.”According to Big Boi, the organizers of the Bowl refused to give them enough time to perform both songs in full. Big Boi said,” [Andre] didn’t want to cut the songs, he wanted to do the full songs. He said, ‘Nah, can’t do it.'”

When Big Boi was asked if he tried to convince André to change his mind, Big Boi said: “A lot.” He also said they laughed about it recently. “Hopefully they invite us back,” he said.

Big Boi implies that they were asked to play the 2004 halftime show when the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” incident occurred during Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s performance.

Bloc Party dances in new video for “The Love Within”

Bloc Party recently premiered a synth-driven sound on their latest single, “The Love Within.” The song’s dance floor feel is in good use for its accompanying music video, which has a number of people doing some fancy footwork throughout a deserted mall. Frontman Kele Okereke makes an appearance in the Ivana Bobic-directed video, as well as a very unexpected reptile.

Watch below.

“The Love Within” is off the group’s upcoming LP HYMNS, which is set to be released on January 29th through Infectious Music/BMG/Vagrant Records.

Bloc Party also announced a lengthy tour across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Find dates below.

Bloc Party 2015-2016 Tour Dates:
11/09 – Glasgow, UK @ ABC Glasgow
11/23 – Tokyo, JP @ Studio Coast
11/23 – Tokyo, JP @ Hostess Club Weekender 2015
11/24 – Osaka, JP @ Big Cat
11/27 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Grote Zaal
11/28 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall
11/29 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus
12/01 – Paris, FR @ L’Alhambra
12/02 – Brussels, BE @ Royal Circus
12/03 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
12/04 – London, UK @ St. John at Hackney Church
12/30 – Lorne, AU @ The Fall Music and Arts Festival
12/31 – Marion Bay, AU @ The Fall Music and Arts Festival
01/01 – Byron Bay, AU @ The Fall Music and Arts Festival
01/05 – Melbourne, AU @ Forum Theatre
01/07 – Sydney, AU @ Enmore Theatre
01/10 – Busselton, AU @ Southbound Festival
01/29 – Cardiff, UK @ Great Uni Hall
01/30 – Southampton, UK @ O2 Guildhall Southampton
02/01 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
02/02 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
02/04 – Newcastle, UK @ O2 Academy
02/05 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland
02/06 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
02/08 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
02/09 – Cambridge, UK @ Cambridge Corn
02/11 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
02/12 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy Birmingham

TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Mike Patton, Doseone discuss Nevermen Album

TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Doseone, and Faith No More’s Mike Patton have recently announced that their long-awaited supergroup, Nevermen, would release an album, also releasing the above track, “Tough Town.” The have now offered more details about the LP. The self-titled record is set out on January 29th through Patton’s label Ipecac and Lex.

The self-produced album began session, reportedly, in 2008. Adebimpe and Doseone sent their collaborative demos to Patton. In a recent interview, Doseone said the trio’s mantra was “don’t rush the fuckin’ music,” thus the seven-year delay.

Real Estate’s Martin Courtney covers Pavement’s “Major Leagues”

Real Estate’s Martin Courtney has just released his solo album named Many Moons. He is appearing on Sirius XMU at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, November 4 to promote it. Watch him perform his cover of Pavement’s “Major Leagues,” recorded for the session.

Courtney also announced a brief West Coast tour; the dates are below.

Martin Courtney:

11-20 Brooklyn, NY – National Sawdust
01-18 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
01-19 San Diego, CA – The Casbah
01-20 San Francisco, CA – The Chapel

Courtney also performed “Airport Bar” for KCRW. Watch the video below:

 

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Haunted By You – Future Islands

2. Headphones – Mounties

3. Letterman – Gay Nineties

4. When I Get Older – Wild Party

5. Fortune Teller – Forest Fire

6. Vistalize – Caveman

7. Milky Way – Air Waves

8. Summer of Love – The Sandwitches

9. Teen Angel – Heavy Hawaii

10. The Look – Metronomy

11. Infinite Cities – The Bright Light Social Hour

12. Rodeo – Futurebirds

13. Lower the Heavens – The Donkeys

14. The Medic – Foxing

15. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You – Black Kids

16. Fight For Everyone – The Leisure Society

17. Fools Rush In – Peggy Sue

18. Swimming Pool – Emmy The Great

19. We Can Be Strong – Willy Mason

20. Shake Baby Shake – Gemma Ray

EL VY perform three songs on “CBS This Morning: Saturday”

EL VY—the project from The National’s Matt Berninger and Menomena/Ramona Falls’ Brent Knopf—have released their debut album Return to the Moon, yesterday, October 3oth. The celebrate, they performed “Paul Is Alive,” Need a Friend,” and “No Time to Crank the Sun” on this morning’s edition of “CBS This Morning: Saturday.”

Watch the video for “Paul is Alive” here, “Need a Friend” here, and “No Time to Crank the Sun” here.

Ernest Gonzales, Mark Redito, Skylar Spence at the Paper Tiger (live review)

Ever since growing to popularity with songs like Fiona Coyne and Mr. Wonderful, Skylar Spence (fka Saint Pepsi) has returned to San Antonio, but now with a full band. On October 29th, 2015, Skylar Spence, along with Mark Redito (fka Spazzkid) and Ernest Gonzales, who is a local DJ in San Antonio, performed at the Paper Tiger in the midst of a tour in support of Spence’s first album under his new name, Prom King.

Ernest Gonzales played an energetic set to start out the night as people filed into the venue. He played remixes mostly, however, it still got the crowd moving and ready for the rest of the night. The ambiance he set created the tone of the night: energetic and lively.

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Redito has an undeniable stage presence as he played his remixes of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” and the standard iPhone text and notification tones. Although there was a brief stint where he had to restart his computer due to technical difficulties, thus halting the set, he continued with as much enthusiasm and energy as before he got the spinning wheel of death. Also playing originals, including tracks off of his 2014 album, Promises. Dancing and jumping around the stage and consistently interacting with the crowd, he never seemed to stand still during the whole set, except for the computer restarting incident.

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By the time Skylar Spence and Co. walked onto the stage, the intensity in the room had risen to the highest it had been all night and the band flew into their set, beginning “Private Caller.”  Spence mentioned during the set that he and the band felt like San Antonio was going to be one of their best shows of the tour during soundcheck, and they did not hold back their excitement about it. Jokes about Boston were said, breakfast taco suggestions were given out, and there was a short speech from Spence about how everyone who went to the show was “Mr. Wonderful.” It was an extremely upbeat performance from the band, each member getting into their performance and overall seemingly enjoying themselves.

Catch Skylar Spence and the band on the rest of tour which can be checked out below.

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Miike Snow release first song in three years “Heart Is Full”

The three people in the Swedish indie pop band, Miike Snow, have been on bus schedules since their 2013 album, Happy To You. Andrew Wyatt released a solo album Descender; Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (also known as the production duo Bloodshy & Avant) have worked together with major pop stars such as Katy Perry and Karlsson’s EDM project, Galantis, released an LP in June named Pharmacy.

Listen to it here via Stereogum.

“Heart Is Full” is off the band’s upcoming third album, III, which is expected to be out sometime in 2016. According to a press release, the trio worked on the record in New York, Los Angeles, and Stockholm, and is regarded as the “most innovative and creatively unified work thus far.” Says Winnberg about III, “It’s the original Miike Snow sound, but taken to the next level.”

Conor Oberst Hospitalized, Desaparecidos Cancel Tour

Desparecidos has been on tour for the past few months in support of their new album, Payola, their first in 13 years, but have been forced to cancel the rest of their tour dates after Conor Oberst was hospitalized for a bad case of “laryngitis, anxiety, and exhaustion,” according to a press release. It started with the cancellation of a show in Jacksonville last night, but it is now all of their dates being cancelled, including sets at The Fest and Fun Fun Fun Fest. Here’s a statement from their label, Epitaph:

Desaparecidos has been forced to cancel the remainder of their US tour dates. Conor Oberst fell ill while on tour in Jacksonville, Florida and was briefly hospitalized due to laryngitis, anxiety, and exhaustion. In consultation with his doctors, the band has reluctantly agreed to cancel all scheduled live dates. Conor will be heading home to Omaha to recuperate. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Here’s all the cancelled dates:

10/28 Ybor City, FL @ The Orpheum
10/29 Orlando, FL @ The Social
10/30 Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
11/01 Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall
11/02 Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s
11/03 New Orleans, LA @ The Republic
11/05 Houston, TX @ Numbers
11/06 Dallas, TX @ Trees
11/07 Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/09 El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls
11/10 Phoenix, AZ @ The Pressroom
11/11 Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
11/12 Los Angeles, CA @ The Teragram Ballroom
11/13 Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
11/14 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/15 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/17 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
11/18 Seattle, WA @ Showbox
11/20 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
11/21 Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
11/22 Omaha, NE @ O’Leavers
12/02 New York, NY @ Webster Hall (Oberst solo show)

Blood Orange shares new song “Sandra’s Smile” and video

Dev Hynes has not released a new album from Blood Orange since Cupid Deluxe in 2013, but he still has been in the limelight. hasn’t released a new Blood Orange album since 2013’s Cupid Deluxe, but he’s hardly steered clear of the limelight. He has collaborated with Carly Rae Jepsen and Heems, as well as pieced together a 45-minute film score, and put out two songs under the Blood Orange moniker,  “Delancey” and “Do You See My Skin Through the Flames?”.

Hynes has returned this week with another offering from Blood Orange called “Sandra’s Smile.” The melancholy song references Sandra Bland, a black woman whose controversial death during her Texas’ police custody in July added to the already growing racial tensions in the US. Hynes has written about issues like this before, including his previous song, “Do You See My Skin Through the Flames?” addressing racism and the Charleston massacre in June.

Watch “Sandra’s Smile” through its official music video, directed by Hynes, and by the song’s lyrics below.

blood orange sandra smile song Blood Orange shares somber new song Sandras Smile and video watch

Hynes is also set for his first US concert in 2o15. It is planned for December 12th at the Apollo Theater in New York City, and is a benefit show set to including Blood Orange “and Friends” performing old and new songs. Here is Hynes’s official statement on the gig:

“Playing music saved my life; if it wasn’t for the chance to play cello or piano when I was a kid growing up in Essex, I shudder to think where I’d be right now. At this point in my life, all that matters to me is giving back to communities and making people happy, so I have decided to put on a fun night of performances at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem that is hopefully affordable to all, with all proceeds going to the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music. New York City, let’s have some fun!”