Author: bella.king

Bleachers release music video for “Rollercoaster”

Bleachers, the musical project headed by Jack Antonoff recently released a music video for their new single, “Rollercoaster.” Their new album Strange Desire was released in July and features guest on vocals from Grimes and Yoko Ono. The video was directed by Richard Shepard, the clip has the band performing standing up on top of a moving vehicle.

Antonoff said of the video:

The idea of getting on top of a car and playing on a highway felt distinctly 90s in a way that excited me about videos I saw growing up. Didn’t think it would be acutely dangerous — the breaks ended up going out and we literally almost died. There’s something special about almost dying for a video. Beyond that, “Rollercoaster” was written while I was driving home on the NJ turnpike. The song always felt like driving on a highway to me sonically. That part was perfect. Working with Richard was a dream because of his wide scale cinematic feeling. The car crash in his film Dom Hemingway is possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Shepard said:

Jack Antonoff came to me with the idea of the band playing on top of a van. I thought is was such a funny cool idea, and together we riffed on all the other stuff. The girl in the car, the fight at end. I was thrilled that Jack asked me to work with him on this. We shot out near Lancaster. We had a day to do everything, which was ambitious considering all the car stuff. I came up with the old ice cream truck idea, and it seemed perfect both visually and technically for what we needed to do. Of course the truck broke down while we were filming—including losing its brakes with the entire band on the roof—so we only had a few hours to get most of what you see in the video. It helps though, because we shot so much at magic hour with that beautiful lens-flaring sunset. Jack dressed Stefanie, the girl in the video, with his own wardrobe, which is why they look like doppelgängers. During editing Jack was very involved, helping set the tone and pace of the piece. It was a true collaboration, and I think the finished product is a great reflection of that.

Bleachers is also on tour currently and dates can be found below.

Bleachers tour dates:
10-28 Atlanta, GA – Center Stage *
10-29 Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom *
10-31 New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Music & Arts Experience
11-01 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s *
11-02 Dallas, TX – House of Blues *
11-05 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern *
11-06 San Francisco, CA – The Independent *
11-07 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom *
11-08 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Rio Theatre *
11-09 Seattle, WA – Showbox *
11-12 Denver, CO – The Bluebird Theater *
11-14 Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall *
11-15 Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre *
11-16 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater *
11-22 Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage *
11-23 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts *
11-25 Boston, MA – Paradise Club *
11-26 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer #
12-06 Norfolk, VA – 96X Winter Meltdown
12-19 Toronto, Ontario – The Edge Jingle Bell Rock
03-13 Tempe, AZ – Pot of Gold Festival
* with Wild Cub
# with Vacationer

John Cale releases touching tribute to Lou Reed

Lou Reed passed away at the age of 71 one year ago from today. Former Velvet Underground bandmate, John Cale, commemorated Reed’s vast legacy, and their own history by sharing a reworked version of his Music for a New Society single, “If You Were Still Around.” The tribute is matched with an equally emotional video.

The video has background images of Cale’s time with Reed and the Velvet Underground along with with Cale’s own performance.

Cale released a statement about Reed, saying:

A Moth and a Candle met. They decided to become friends. Everyone enjoyed watching their discourse – especially the risk takers. Then one day a big rain came. The Moth couldn’t fly and the Candle puttered out. Everyone laughed in bitter awe and blamed the rain. Most however knew the deeper truth – the Candle remains lit and the Moth will stay close.

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Tennessee – Kayleigh Goldsworthy

2. The Way I Tend to Be – Frank Turner

3. I Was a Teenage Anarchist – Against Me!

4. Whistle for the Choir – the Fratellis

5. Golden Skans – Klaxons

6. Mother – Said the Whale

7. You, Me, and the Boatman (Truth Is, I’ve Been Thirsty My Whole Life) – Quiet Company

8. White Night – The Postelles

9. Our New Intelligence – River City Extension

10. West Coast – Coconut Records

11. Escapee – Architecture In Helsinki

12. Cheap Sunglasses – RAC

13. Bruises – Chairlift

14. Your Ex-Lover is Dead – Stars

15. Bright Whites – Kishi Bashi

16. Song for Zula – Phosphorescent

17. Lights Out – Angel Olsen

18. Gun Has No Trigger – Dirty Projectors

19. You’re a Wolf – Sea Wolf

20. Reasons – Bombadil

Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

Beady Eye announces split

Beady Eye, fronted by Liam Gallagher, have announced their split. Gallagher tweeted the news Saturday morning, tweeting, “Beady Eye are no longer. Thanks for all your support. LGx.”

Gallagher formed the band in 2009 sith former Oasis guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell and drummer Chris Sharrock. As well as former Kasabian bassist, Jay Mehler. Beady Eye originally began as an attempt to continue musically as the lineup of Oasis after members decided they would “not quit making music together” even though Gallagher had a messy departure from Oasis in August 2009. They released two studio albums, Different Gear, Still Speeding and BE.

Gallagher gave no reason to the split, the band could have just simply dwindled. Archer suffered a skull fracture last fall after falling down stairs of his home, which led to the cancellation of tour dates. They played a series of shows earlier this year in the UK, but have been inactive since a Japanese stint in March and Coachella in April. NME points out that the band had also split with their manager, Scott Rodger, this past January.

The Decemberists announce new album

The Decemberists have announced their latest album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. The title and artwork for the album was shown on a mural in Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Singer Colin Meloy himself made an appearance at the mural and performed a brand new song from the album, “Make You Better”.

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is the band’s seventh studio album and follows their 2011, The King Is Dead. It has not been revealed yet of a release date.

The Grateful Dead to release documentary to celebrate 50th anniversary

The Grateful Dead will be celebrating their 50th anniversary with a full-length documentary out next year. The movie, authorized by the band, will be directed by Amir Bar-Lev and Martin Scorsese as executive producer.

The untitled project will follow the band from their origins in 1965, put light on the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, and close with what the band is doing right now. Interviews will be conducted with the surviving band members, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir will all be interviewed for the project, along with more people in the band’s history. The interviews will be spread amongst with never-before-seen concert and behind-the-scenes footage.

Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, and Weir said in a statement, “Millions of stories have been told about the Grateful Dead over the years. With our 50th Anniversary coming up, we thought it might just be time to tell one ourselves and Amir is the perfect guy to help us do it. Needless to say, we are humbled to be collaborating with Martin Scorsese … The 50th will be another monumental milestone to celebrate with our fans and we cannot wait to share this film with them.”

Scorsese said, “The Grateful Dead were more than just a band. They were their own planet, populated by millions of devoted fans. I’m very happy that this picture is being made and proud to be involved.”

SXSW announced preliminary music lineup

Returning to Austin between March 13th and the 22nd is the widely popular South by Southwest. The music part of the showcase takes place between March 17th through 22nd. Organizers announced a list of preliminary acts set to play over the course of that week.

Among that list are: The Dodos, Jessie Ware, The Pop Group, Thee Oh Sees, Carl Barat and The Jackals, Twin Peaks, The Twilight Sad, The Big Pink, Ben Kweller, Mew, Courtney Barnett, Twerps, Black Milk, Bishop Nehru, Alvvays, Pharmakon, Lust For Youth, Dry the River, Hey Marseilles, Moon Duo, The Octopus Project, Sleep ∞ Over, Ume, The Stone Foxes, Jonathan Toubin, Warm Soda, Natural Child, The Lonely Wild, Civil Twilight, Cheerleader, and Angus & Julia Stone. In all, over 1,000 acts will perform in Austin during SXSW.

Mark Duplass, actor/director is set to be one of the keynote speakers for SXSW’s film portion.

Badges to attend SXSW are available on the festival’s website.

Chance the Rapper announces that he will release a new album, entitled “Surf”

After releasing the Acid Rap mixtape last April, Chance the Rapper released a string of singles, standlone tracks, random collaborations, and remixes, limiting himself at how much he puts the out. In a recent interview with Billboard, the Chance said he has for a new album entitled, Surf, that he recorded with The Social Experiment, his band. Te album which will be available for free download and could be released by the end of the year.

Chance clarified that this new album would be “the first Social Experiment project” and not a solo album. The album will also feature trumpet player Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal).

Chance explained: The band has been backing me on a lot of the shows, so when you go to a Chance the Rapper show it’s billed as a Chance the Rapper show, and even though you bought a ticket for a Chance the Rapper show, you end up going to a Social Experiment concert, you know? And you get the full experience of the musicality of four seasoned players.”

Chance seeking to to explore new influences, since he is now a band leader, delved into theater, which he incorporates into his live shows. Saying, “It’s something different. It’s something new. It’s a bit of theater, It’s a culmination of going to all these dope concerts and seeing cool Broadway plays. A lot of influence has come from The Lion King musical. You could probably tell if you listen to ‘Arthur’. We’ve been trying to take in all these cool, different outside cultural experiences and make that into a free listenable project. That’s the new thing.”

Also, Chance has been collaborating a number of big-named artists such Pharrell, Frank Ocean, Rick Rubin, the members of Migos, J. Cole, and Emily King.

London Grammar Postponed Tour Dates

Indie rock outfit, London Grammar, have postponed dates on their upcoming North American tour which was supposed to begin this month. The band rescheduled the affected dates to January and February 2015. Tickets purchased for the November tour will be valid for the new dates.

The tour is in support of their debut album, If You Wait.

The statement reads:

“Due to unavoidable scheduling conflicts, it is with great regret that we have had to postpone our tour dates in November. We apologize to all of our fans for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you in January and February 2015 for what we hope will be a very special tour.” – Dan, Dot and Hannah / London Grammar

London Grammar 2015 Tour Dates:
01/21 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy (upgraded from Club Soda)
01/24 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre (upgraded from Port City Music Hall)
01/26 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
01/27 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
01/29 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
01/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
02/02 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Centre
02/03 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
02/06 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
02/07 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox Theatre

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. I Come From the Mountain – Thee Oh Sees

2. Weekend – Smith Westerns

3. Young Folks – Peter Bjorn and John

4. All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem

5. Do You Realize?? – The Flaming Lips

6. Fa-Fa-Fa – Datarock

7. 2080 – Yeasayer

8. Bury Us Alive – STRFKR

9. All Of Me – Tanlines

10. It’s My Part -Jonquil

11. Dreamers – Savior Adore

12. Til Tomorrow – Dwntwn

13. Key to My Heart – Zulu Winter

14. Wax – Theme Park

15. Playin’ With My Friends – Masters in France

16. Bloom – Gypsy & The Cat

17. Mr Polite – The Jungle Giants

18. Cherry Lips – Loon Lake

19. It’s Nice to Be Alive – Ball Park Music

20. My Gun – The Rubens

Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist