Author: bella.king

Biopic about The Kinks underway from director Julien Temple

The Kinks commemorated their 50th anniversary last year with a career-spannijg anthology, which featured exclusive notes from David Bowie aptly named The Essential Kinks. The iconic rock band from Britain will now further with a new biopic named You Really Got Me.  

Julien Temples, who is best known for his Sex Pistols-based film, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and Glastonbury, a documentary about the history of the UK festival will be directing the film. This new  film apparently will focus on the intense relationship between the band’s brothers Ray and Dave Davies.

Temple  told Screen Daily recently: “This is an exciting chance to tell the Kinks’ story in a visceral and real way. The lyrics of The Kinks have always been fascinating to me and there is an amazing human story here as well which has yet to be captured on film.”
Johnny Flynn, singer-songwriter and actor, and George MacKay are planned to play Ray and Dave Davies respectively. Julien’s daughter, Juno Temple, will play Rasa, Ray Davies’ former wife, who would contribute to the band occasionally.  

You Reallt Got Me has apparently been a “long-time passion project” for Jeremy Thomas, the producer. He has secured the rights to both of the brothers’ autobiographies and has Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais writing the script. The film is set to start shooting later this year. 

The Melodic Tree Weekly Playlist

1. T-Shirt Weather – Circa Wave

2. Parents’ House – Milo Greene

3. Wild Country – Wake Owl

4. Hero – Family of the Year

5. No Rest – Dry the River

6. Youth – Daughter

7. Get on the Road – Tired Pony

8. State of Our Affairs – Mt. Desolation

9. Sweet Louise – The Belle Brigade

10. Wait for Me – Motopony

11. Road to Nowhere – Release the Sunbird

12. Ivory Black – Seryn

13. Bury Me Deep – Ivan & Alyosha

14. The Wolves & The Ravens – Rogue Valley

15. Oak Tree – Desert Noises

16. Prison Boxing – Cataldo

17. Sleeping Moon – Wes Swing

18. To Be Young – Tall Heights

19. Small Town – Aaron Espe

20. Tonight – Emy Reynolds

Killer Mike discusses Baltimore, Bill O’Reilly, and racism

Killer Mike appeared on “Real Time With Bill Maher” last night with a panel of John Waters, political scientist Charles Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and public policy expert Heather C. McGhee. The panel talked about the assumed link between violence and hip-hop culture, Bill O’Reilly, and Baltimore. The most notable thing Mike said about O’Reilly: “He’s more full of shit than an outhouse.”

Watch a full recording of The 13th Floor Elevators’ first performance in 47 years

The influential psych rock band, The 13th Floor Elevators reunited for their first performance in 47 years last weekend at Austin’s Levitation Festival. The hour-long set had the original lineup of Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall, John Ike Walton, and Ronnie Leatherman performing songs from its discography. 

The 12 track set list included: “Nobody to Love”, “She Lives (in a Time of Her Own)”, and “Slip Inside This House” off of Easter Everywhere; “Roller Coaster”, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, and “Reverberation” from The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. As shown in the video, the crowd had immense love for the hometown band who sounded just like their last 60’s show together. 

Watch the full set below, as well as the setlist.

Setlist:
She Lives (in a Time of Her Own)
Fire Engine
Earthquake
Tried to Hide
Slip Inside This House
(I’ve Got) Levitation
Splash 1
Kingdom of Heaven
Nobody to Love
Reverberation
Roller Coaster

Encore:
You’re Gonna Miss Me

Rdio introduces $3.99 per month subscription plan

Rdio is now beginning to introduce a mid-tier subscription for $3.99 a month for hopes that it will stand out from an ever-growing streaming market.

The new service, named Rdio Select, includes unlimited ad-free radio with no limits on the amount of skips, 10-track, artist curated playlists, and a 25-song-a-day streaming limit. Users would also be able to download and stored 25 songs permanently, changing their downloaded tracks everyday as long as they do not go over that number.

talking with Buzzfeed, Rdio CEO Anthony Bay states that the company thinks that 25 songs “is more than most users download in a day, so we feel it’s enough.” He said later that he hopes to bring in new users who are not willing to pay the regular $9.99 for ad-free, unlimited mobile streaming but are able to pay the lower option. “We’ve all been flying airplanes that had business class only, there is no coach,” Bay said.

Although there are no hard numbers, it is believed that Rdio’s share in terms of streaming is much less than that of Spotify’s. They hope that this new price can attract people away from the ad-based free streaming of their competitor. Spotify, at the moment, is the only on-demand music streaming service that offers a free tier, that has been under fire from artists such as Taylor Swift who have pulled albums from the service. it is no accident that Swift’s face is on Rdio’s homepage.

Bay told Buzzfeed: “We agree with Taylor Swift that on-demand playback of what you want to listen to shouldn’t be free.”

TIDAL, another one of Rdio’s competitors, offered two tiers; a 49.99 a month Premium and a $19.99 HiFi service, both of which are avaliable for discounted rates when purchased as a six-month pre-paid package. After buying Beats, Apple is expected to launch a streaming service for a $7.99 monthly fee with no free option. They have also been pressuring labels to leave free services such as YouTube and Spotify all together.

Although it is nothing permenant, Rdio Select is being offered as a 60 day free trial, which is plenty of time to fill the 25 daily tracks with as much as you like.

Julian Casablancas + the Voidz preview “Human Sadness” video

Julian Casablancas + the Voidz have released a teaser for their upcoming “Human Sadness” video from their debut album, Tyranny. The clip features a variety of different images including war, fast cars, spaceships, beautiful women, and of Casablancas himself. Watch it below. 

The video will premiere on May 20 at the Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles, where it will followed by Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. It will be accompanied by a live audio. 

Casablancas + the Voidz will be performing an international festival tour this summer, along with dates from Casablancas’ other band, the Strokes.

Albert Hammond Jr. announces new solo album, premieres “Born Slippy”

The Strokes Albert Hammond Jr. will release a new solo album named Momentary Masters on July 31st. This is the follow-up of his 2008 album, ¿Cómo Te Llama? and the AHJ EP from 2013. Compared to his previous releases, which are put out on Julian Casablanca’s Cult Records, the album will be released through Vagrant Records. The album cover is above.

Produced by Gus Oberg, a longtime Strokes collaborator, Momentary Master will also have a handful of collaborators for the recording sessions including guitarists Mon Khmer’s Hammarsing Kharhmar and Bleachers’ Mikey Hart, bassist Jordan Brooks, and drummer Jeremy Gustin.

The first preview of the LP is “Born Slippy” which is can be listened to below.

Momentary Masters Tracklist:
01. Born Slippy
02. Power Hungry
03. Caught By My Shadow
04. Coming to Getcha
05. Losing Touch
06. Don’t Think Twice
07. Razors Edge
08. Touché
09. Drunched In Crumbs
10. Side Boob

Courtney Barnett releases an animated video for “Dead Fox”
Courtney Barnett has released the music video for “Dead Fox” from her new album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. The video was directed and animated by Rory Kerr and Paul Ruttledg, and has a plethora of animal characters including a beefy, tattooed shark and a fox that drives a tractor trailer recklessly. There are scenes of a couple being run over and an animated Barnett.Kerr and Ruttledg spoke about the video, saying:

“We liked how politically loaded and conversational the lyrics are. We wanted the animation to have a stylistic and organic look, hence most of the drawings were done on paper rather than digitally. To further compliment the lyrics, we thought it would be funny to have the animals in the video look as cynical as possible, as if they’d had enough with how humans are treating them.”

Watch the animated clip below.

 

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Just A Dream – Tobias Jesso Jr.

2. Exploding – Jim James

3. Sedona – Houndmouth

4. Black Metal – Max Jury

5. Reunion – Still Parade

6. Coins On Your Eyes – Revier

7. Collapse – Vancouver Sleep Clinic

8. For My Help – Hayden Calnin

9. A Thin Line – Blackchords

10. My Own – Whitaker

11. For You – Parallel Lions

12. Bridge -High Highs

13. Hold My Hand – Jen Cloher

14. I Would Die for You – Matt Walters

15. Brother – Matt Corby

16. Boardwalks – Little May

17. By Night – Puzzle Muteson

18. Baiulus – The Black Atlantic

19. Love Songs For Robots – Patrick Watson

20. Reconfiguration – Other Lives

Future Islands auction off “Letterman” cue cards, sneakers for Baltimore charity

Alt-rock band, Future Islands are auctioning off some of their stuff to help their hometown according to Billboard. The fund, The Fund for Rebuilding Baltimore, hopes to help “repair the physical and emotional damage that has been done” due to recent events.

Currently the cue cards from their last appearance on “Late Show With David Letterman”, sneakers frontman Samuel T. Herring wore during the taping, a signed print of the artwork from On the Water, a signed copy of Singles, an out-of print 12′ from 2010 and a copy of their split 7″ with Music Beat are up for grabs. Future Islands will match all of the proceeds from the auction exactly up to $5,000.

Here’s that “Letterman” performance:

Watch the band do “Seasons” at Primavera Sound 2014: