The surf pop duo Best Coast has announced the follow-up full-length album to The Only Place. Entitled California Nights, the album is set to release on May 5th via Harvest Records. Watch the album teacher below, which features A preview of the title track.
The duo have a handful of shows planned ahead of the album release including a show tomorrow at the famous The Echo in Los Angeles. They also have planned shows at the festivals, South by Southwest, Shaky Knees, and Noise Pop.
The Firefly Music Festival, which takes place between June 18 to 21 in Dover, Delaware has released its 2015 lineup. At the beginning of the least there is Kings of Leon, the Killers, and an act that is yet to be announced, with rumors pointing it towards Paul McCartney. Also on the list are Modest Mouse, Spoon, Morrissey, Cage the Elephant, Gary Clark Jr., Run the Jewels, Snoop Dogg, Foster the People, Empire of the Sun, Hozier, Bastille, Zedd, Matt & Kim, Tove Lo, the Kooks, How to Dress Well, Sylvan Esso, Betty Who, Clean Bandit, and many more. Tickets from the pre-sale have been sold out but general admission and VIP passes are still available on the festival’s website. The entire lineup can be seen above.
Passion Pit has a forthcoming album entitled Kindred coming out on April 21st via Columbia records. Today, the new album was previewed with the release of new single, “Lifted Up (1985).”
The track was premiered during Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio One show. Listen to the track below which is played along with the cover for the album in motion.
Along with releasing this new song, the band has also confirmed the tracklisting for the album. A new single, “Where the Sky Hangs,” will be released tomorrow (February 17th) for the people who pre-ordered the album on iTunes.
Kindred Tracklist:
01. Lifted Up (1985)
02. Whole Life Story
03. Where the Sky Hangs
04. All I Want
05. Five Foot Ten (I)
06. Dancing on the Grave
07. Until We Can’t (Let’s Go)
08. Looks Like Rain
09. My Brother Taught Me How to Swim
10. Ten Feet Tall (II)
Hip-hop group, Death Grips, seem to continue to release stuff that suggests that they are not actually broken up. Even though they announced in July they announced that they are not together anymore, MC Ride, Zach Hill, and Flatlander threw the fans off with the release of a new album in January. As well as these surprises, fans are waiting for their band’s final album, jenny death.
Death Grips have now released a 19-minute video which shows the band in rehearsal, performing “Inanimate Sensation” and “Lock Your Doors” as well as what seems to be new material. This has sparked speculations of whether or not they will return to the stage.
Justin Vernon earlier this week announced the lineup for his first Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin this summer. The news however did not distract Vernon from other projects, especially with the English folk trip, The Staves.
Bon Iver last night joined the Staveley-Taylor sisters on stage during their show at the Hackney Empire in London. They performed “Make It Holy” together and will appear on the upcoming The Staves album, If I Was which is produced by Vernon. Watch the video here.
Jack White recently announced that “That Black Bat Licorice” is the latest single off of his sophomore album as a solo artist, Lazaretto. The 7-inch single will be available February 17th on Third Man Records and it contains a new song for the B-Side, a cover of “Blue Light, Red Light (Someone’s There)” by Harry Connick, Jr.
The rendition has the intensity of classic White but yet an element of a jazz rock musician. Listen to the track in here.
Host of the widely acclaimed The Daiy Show on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, will leave the show later this year according to the president of the network. Stewart has been the host of The Daily Show for over 15 years. He is expected to talk about his retirement on Tuesday night.
“For the better part of the last two decades, I have had the incredible honor and privilege of working with Jon Stewart. His comedic brilliance is second to none,” Michele Ganeless, President of Comedy Central, said in a statement.
Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera,” Ganeless continued. “Through his unique voice and vision, ‘The Daily Show’ has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come.
Jon will remain at the helm of ‘The Daily Show’ until later this year,” she wrote. “He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family.”
Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner from the National are working towards starting the inaugural Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival a two-day music and arts festival set to take place in July at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vernon’s hometown.
Stereogum reports that the line-up is being revealed. Vernon and Dessner have sent letters to those who had ordered presage tickets, each announcing an individual artist as well as confirmed by the Eaux Claire’s Twitter. The lineup as of now includes Low, Melt-Banana, Phox, Boys Noize, Tallest Man on Earth, Sam Amidon, S. Carey and Field Report, Phil Cook, Poliça, Colin Stetson, and Doomtree. The full lineup will be announced here on February 11th.
Here’s the letter that was sent out to those who preordered:
We took a leap of faith. We didn’t know if anyone would leap with us. And then there you were.
Sight unseen, you’ve agreed to join us at the inaugural Eaux Claires Festival along the banks of the Chippewa River this July.
We hope you can feel our gratitude.
Eaux Claires is more than just music. It will be an experience including and celebrating art in a multitude of forms — from the paintbrush to the pen, from the plow to the plate, from local brews to local bootstrappers. Above all, we want to share this place — the Chippewa Valley that has been so good to so many of us.
To make this work, we need early leaders. You are among them. To show our appreciation for your support at the start, here’s a sneak peek at just one of the many artists from the lineup we’re assembling:
We encourage you to share your artists by tagging this information #eauxclaires and broadcasting it in any way you choose. In this way, three quarters of the lineup can be discovered before the full reveal.
We also invite you to join us at http://www.eauxclaires.com on February 11th when we officially announce our lineup along with other surprises.
Right now the Chippewa River slips dark and silent beneath the sheeted ice. come summer, the water will flow warm and slow. Along the banks the grass will grow, and the night will fill with music and light.
We’ll join you there.
Michael Perry, Eaux Claires Narrator
Justin Vernon, Eaux Claires Curator
The trailer for the festival can be found here.
Bob Dylan was honored last night at a tribute concert to benefit MusiCares. The lineup featured Jack White, Beck, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Willie Nelson, and others. It also had a lengthy speech from Dylan who thanked his early supporters and jibed at critics of his vocals and other famous detractors according to Rolling Stone.
Young covered “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Beck covered “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” White did “One More Cup of Coffee,” Springsteen did “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and Crosby Stills and Nash performed “Girl From the North Country.”
Dylan thanked icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, the Staple Singers, the Byrds, the Turtles, Peter Paul & Mary, Sonny & Cher, and others for supporting his music in his speech. When talking about Hendrix, Dlyan said, “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere, turned them all into classics.”
He also talked about some famous artists who wrote him off early on, including the iconic songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and country legend Merle Haggard. “I didn’t really care what Leiber & Stoller thought of my songs,” he said, “’cause I didn’t like their songs, either.”
Dylan also said, “critics say I can’t sing, I sound like a frog. Why don’t critics say that about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. Why don’t they say that about Leonard Cohen? What have I done to get this special attention?”
Setlist:
Beck: “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”
Aaron Neville: “Shooting Star”
Alanis Morissette: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
Los Lobos: “On A Night Like This”
Willie Nelson: “Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)”
Jackson Browne: “Blind Willie McTell”
John Mellencamp: “Highway 61 Revisited”
Jack White: “One More Cup Of Coffee”
Tom Jones: “What Good Am I?”
Norah Jones: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
Derek Trucks And Susan Tedeschi: “Million Miles”
John Doe: “Pressing On”
Crosby, Stills & Nash: “Girl From The North County”
Bonnie Raitt: “Standing In The Doorway”
Sheryl Crow: “Boots Of Spanish Leather”
Bruce Springsteen: “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
Neil Young: “Blowin’ In The Wind”
Singer FKA twigs was known as simply “Twigs” until she found out that there was another act that had that name. The Chicago alt-pop act, The Twigs, have been playing as a group since the 1990’s and got the name first, Tahlia Barnett offered the band $15,000 for the name in 2013 but Linda and Laura Good turned the offer down. This is why Barnett added FKA to the name.
However, Billboard reports that wasn’t enough for The Twigs and they wanted a restraining order from Barnett to stop her from using “FKA twigs” as her name. The company that runs Barnett’s label, The Beggars Group, argued that acts have had made similar changes to their names to avoid any copyright infringement and therefore the Goods did not ultimately receive their restraining order. However, the sisters did keep the right to sue which they might do.
The Melodic Tree 