Music News

Watch Deerhunter play Fading Frontier tracks on KCRW Sessions

Deerhunter went to the KCRW studio in Los Angeles to perform four songs from their October release, Fading Frontier. They played “Breaker,” “Living My Life,” “Duplex Planet,” and “Snakeskin,” as well as “Desire Lines” from the 2010 Halcyon Digest and a song they improved called “Escape From The Nursery.” After the performance, lead vocalist Bradford Cox talked extensively with the host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, Travis Holcombe, about the music industry’s politics and the distance he feels from it:

I never asked for anything. I never sent out a demo in my life. I never asked any label to pay attention to me. Do I look like someone who would ask to play your radio station? If you saw me as a 10-year-old kid, you would think, “I hope this kid doesn’t talk to me.”

Cox also gave the station a compliment and thank you for letting the band perform in the studio:

It’s nice that some radio stations still allow us to do what we want to do and not just carbon copy our album for some promotional scheme.

Watch the performance and the interview here.

Fading Frontier is out on 4AD now.

Stream Grimes’ new album Art Angels

Grimes released her new album, Art Angels, via 4AD today. Spotify users can stream the album. It is also available through Apple Music.

The 15-track LP is Claire Boucher’s fourth following the 2012 Visions. The result of months of writing and time in the studio came only acter Boucher had scrapped an entire collection of songs.

One song on the album, called “Kill V Maim,” was written in the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt 2. “Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space,” she said to Q.

According to an interview with Dazed and Confused, there is a song “from the perspective of a butterfly in the Amazon as people are cutting down trees; there’s a song that’s from the perspective of angels who are polluted, so they’re crying polluted tears.”

Purchase the album here.

Art Angels Tracklist:
01. laughing and not being normal
02. California
03. SCREAM (feat. Aristophanes)
04. Flesh without Blood
05. Belly of the Beat
06. Kill V. Maim
07. Artangels
08. Easily
09. Pin
10. Realiti ^
11. World Princess part II
12. Venus Fly (feat. Janelle Monáe)
13. Life in the Vivid Dream
14. Butterfly
15. Realiti (Demo) *

^ = CD and digital only
* = CD only

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:

 

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.

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!”