Music News

Neon Indian perform “Annie” on Jimmy Fallon

Neon Indian’s new album, VEGA INTL. Night School, is three days away from its October 16th through Mom + Pop/Transgressive. To celebrate the release, Alan Palomo and his band performed last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The band performed “Annie,” the lead single, “a pared-down version” of the visuals that the effects company designed for their upcoming tour. If the visuals were “pared-down” on the show, the concert must be intense. 

Watch the replay here

VEGA INTL. Night School is also streaming now through NPR.

Foo Fighters have recorded five new songs, including one with Ben Kweller

Foo Fighters, headlining both weekends of Austin City Limits, came out with exciting news on Friday night for the second performance of the festival.

“You know what I did last night?” Dave Grohl asked the crowd during their performance on Friday evening. “I recorded a fucking song in your beautiful city of Austin, Texas.” And that isn’t. “And I’m just gonna say it now: We recorded five fucking new songs in your beautiful city of Austin, Texas. And we’re gonna give it to you! But not tonight.”

“Just by chance,” Grohl continued telling the crowd. “I bumped into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in about 16 years, right as I was recording a vocal. This motherfucker walks in — I’m like, ‘Hey, man!’ — and he starts fucking singing the most beautiful harmony to the thing I was singing. I was like, ‘Get your ass in the vocal booth right now.’ And then he said, ‘Hey, if you want, I’ll come up and sing a song with you tonight.’” Austin resident rocker Ben Kweller took the stage to help with “some straight-up sweet, tug-your-heartstrings ballad shit” on “Big Me,” off of Foo Fighters’ self-titled debut, which had turned 20 in July. Watch below.

Unsound Festival concerts cancelled following satanism accusations

After claims that Poland’s Unsound Festival, that is starting tomorrow in Krakow, “promotes and propagates Satanism,” festival organizers have been forced to find different venues for several concerts scheduled to take place in two churches. “These accusations, initially made in a letter to St. Catherine’s Church, are completely unfounded, unreasonable, and slanderous,” the festival’s organizers wrote in an official statement on the Unsound website. “They undermine the good name of the festival, which since 2003 has been an enthusiastic participant in Krakow’s cultural life…We of course categorically deny that Satanism is now or has ever been promoted at our festival. The goal of the Unsound festival has always been bringing artists and audiences together in the promotion of art and culture.”

Officials at St. Catherine’s Church have decided to cancel a show from Britsh neofolk group, Current 93. “We are especially sorry because David Tibet — the founder and leader of Current 93 — sent us a statement in which he explains his faith as a Christian, as he has many times in interviews,” festival organizers say. “This letter was forwarded to the church, but without effect. He is upset and hurt by the fact we are now forced to change venues.” Also, Pitchfork reports that other shows at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul have been canceled as well. Pianist John Tilbury, jazz guitarist Raphael Roginski, and experimental electronic musician Rrose were scheduled to perform surprise sets at the venue.

Read the festival and Tibet’s statements here. Unsound starts tomorrow, October 11th and continues through the 18th, with this year’s theme being “surprise,” so no full lineup as been announces, but the confirmed performers are Andy Stott, Tim Hecker, Liturgy, Greg Fox, HEALTH, and Holly Herndon.

Listen to James Blake’s cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence”

James Blake returned to BBC Radio 1’s Residency last night, and was joined by Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, as Pitchfork pointed out. The two talked about a number of topics and Blake closed the show by playing a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence,” which was dedicated to a friend who passed away in New Year’s Eve. Even though he swaps his rippling guitar for his usual synths, creating a minimal, faithful cover, listen to it here. Hear the entire mix here via the BBC.

Kendrick Lamar announces tour dates for the Kunta Groove Sessions Tour

Kendrick Lamar is finally ready to go on the road to support his latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly. The MC has announced his plans for the Kunta Groove Sessions Tour, which will take place in October and November.

The eight-city leg will have Kendrick with backing band The Wesley Theory, named after the opening track off To Pimp A Butterfly, as well as Black Hippy collaborator Jay Rock. Dates have been announced for Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, and Oakland, and more details for the other four shows will be out soon.

Kendrick’s upcoming tour schedule also includes a one-off performance at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra and a series of radio station festivals.

Kendrick Lamar 2015 Tour Dates:
10./20 – Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center
10/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center (Power 105.1 Presents: Powerhouse)
10/24 – Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion (106.7 The Beat Presents: The Beat Birthday Bash)
10/25 – Chicago, IL @ United Center (WGCI Big Jam) #
10/27 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle *
10/29 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall *
11/01 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre *
11/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum (Real 92.3 Presents: The Real Show) ^
11/10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *

* Kunta Groove Sessions Tour w/ The Wesley Theory and Jay Rock
# = w/ Future, Meek Mill, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd, Dej Loaf
^ = w/ Future, Jeremih, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd

Austin City Limits 2015: the best moments

Austin City Limits came to a close on Sunday night and it is time for us to reflect on the best moments of the weekend. The beautiful city of Austin hosted their 12th annual festival this yea and it has one of the most diverse lineups in its history.

Billy Idol still has it going on at 60. It seems as though we were transported back to the 1980’s as Billy Idol and his band came out sporting Idol’s classic blonde hair and clad in leather and denim. Still looking great at 60, it seems like Idol and the band haven’t aged at all in terms of energy. Playing hits like “Dancing With Myself” and Rebel Yell” (although having to restart “Rebel Yell” three times and sarcastically saying “one more time and if we can’t do it this time, I’m retiring”). It was an energetic set was jam-packed with hits and new material, which seemed to drag the show a little bit. However, the band can still put on a dynamic show 34 years later.

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Father John Misty did everything you could ever imagine him doing, and even more. He walked out, immediately raised his mic stand behind his back and continued to do his usual pretend striptease as Misty and the band went straight into their set. Although there were not as much sarcasm as expected from him during the set, he still made fun of those filming with their iPhones and even faked filming on a lucky fan’s phone, moving around and holding the phone out. His performance was dramatic, smooth, and entertaining as one would expect from Tillman.

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Tame Impala brings a psychedelic mood to the festival as they played a variety of songs from their catalog of albums and EPs including their debut album, Innerspeaker. Moving from song to song, the band accommodated to their hour-long set, joking about the heat and spraying water bottles over the front rows of fans during an instrumental break in between the songs. Kevin Parker’s voice was as trippy as it is when Tame Impala is in the studio. Even though they played shorter than they should have, it was a still a stunning set.

 

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High intensity is the simplest way to put Twenty One Pilots’ set as they played through their songs, ranging from hit to hit from “Tear In My Heart” from their smash album, Blurryface to “Car Radio” from Vessels. Running around across the stage, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun seemed to be relentless and filled with energy. They also initially came out in ski masks and Joseph with the classic black on his body that represents insecurities that he and everyone face that suffocates them. The highlight of the set was when Joseph climbed their stage, the Samsung stage, the largest stage at the festival, and performed the rest of “Car Radio” (or at least tried to with microphone issues) at the top of the stage, holding onto the Texas flag.

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As dreamy as in the studio, José González performed at Tito’s Homemade Vodka stage and seemed to put his audience into a trance with his enthralling yet quiet voice and fascinating instrumentals. Without talking much, González went through his set, which included a Junip song and new songs from Vestiges & Claws. The light show that went on  worked perfectly with his calming music and the setting sun behind the audience. His set was like the calm before the storm at the hectic, crowded, and sold out Saturday of the festival.

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Although coming on ten minutes late and the occasional slip of lyrics, The Strokes performed a worthy set for being closing out the first weekend of the festival. With the occasional snark from frontman Julian Casablancas, the band played through the majority of their discography including a large chunk of their hits including “Reptilla,” however disappointing a number of fans by not playing “Under the Cover of Darkness.” It was a special set as there have been rumors of the band having internal conflicts, but still recording a new album. Nonetheless, the band still sounded and performed as intensely as ever, even performing a one song encore, if it should be called that as they left the stage initially twenty minutes before they should have.

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There is one word to describe the Foo Fighter’s headlining two-hour set on Friday night: rambunctious. The band tore through their career-spanning hits, from “Best of You” to the set opener, “Everlong.” Still in the “throne” Grohl performed as energetically as ever, lecturing the crowd how to scream like him, claiming his secret his “vocal juice” (his champagne and beer). It was, to say the least, expected from everyone in the crowd that Gary Clark Jr. would join the band on stage as they recorded What Did I Do? / God As My Witness with him at the legendary Austin City Limits studio in Austin with him and Clark performed at the next stage an hour before. Nonetheless, it was as rowdy and loud as anyone would expect from the Foo Fighters, even twenty years after their debut album. Die-hard fans and the casual listener can all agree that this set proves that the band still has it going on.

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Joey Bada$$ and Glass Animals collaborate on “Lose Control”

The dissimilar worlds of New York hip-hop and British pop met on “Lose Control,” a joint track from Joey Bada$$ and Glass Animals. 

The intense verses like the ones found on Joey’s debut, B4.Da.$$ lead the way by the signature slinky production form Glass Animals’ Zaba LP. It is an unlikely but surprisingly good collaboration. Listen in here.
Joey and frontman for Glass Animals, Dave Bayley discussed the track with Noisey UK:
Joey:

“We were in New York and the session that was supposed to start at 11am, actually started at 11pm. I fuck with Dave heavy – we understood each other’s vibe straight away and worked through the night to create this fire. Nobody got hurt.”

Dave Bayley:

“I got hold of Joey’s mixtape back in 2012 and was hooked. A couple months ago I heard he was into Glass Animals so I got in touch, and when I was in Brooklyn he came by the studio one night. I started playing him some sounds. Within an hour we had the beat and he was like “I’m ready.” He got into the booth and put down pretty much the entire thing in one fell swoop…dude is so talented.”

Austin City Limits

Isabella King, the sole writer for the Melodic Tree is currently at Austin City Limits and as the connection to the Internet is not ideal, there will be no posts for today , the 3rd, and tomorrow, the 4th, but, no fear, we will be back up on Monday with photos of the amazing festival and the best moments of the festival! 

Talk soon. 

Ryan Adams performs his Taylor Swift covers at the Daily Show

To cap off his first week as host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah welcomed Ryan Adams for a performance of his covers album of 1989. Noah explained in a pre-show interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the singer-songwriter was not booked for being music’s flavor du jour currently. 

“He took Taylor Swift and… remade that to much acclaim and has done exceptionally well, and I really appreciate that … He’s done in essence what we’ve done here—he’s taken something that was loved by many, cherished by many, and has created a new version of it for himself. And people have gone, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We can still like Taylor Swift but we can also like Ryan Adams’ 1989.”

Adams and his band performed “Bad Blood” first for television. For the web, they played “Style” and “Blank Space,” and Adams spoke briefly about how the album was created. Watch all the clips here.

Austin City Limits reveals 2015 webcast schedule

Austin City Limits will live stream a variety of this weekend’s performance on Red Bull TV.

The Strokes, Run the Jewels, Father John Misty, ASAP Rocky, Alabama Shakes, The Decemberists, Gary Clark Jr., Royal Blood, Brand New, Billy Idol, Kurt Vile are among the scheduled artists.

Watch here, or watch through the Red Bull TV’s app on Android, iOS and Windows phone, through Apple TV, and Samsung TV’s Red Bull channels, and a free app on Amazon Fire TV, Kindle Fire, Nexus Player, Roku Players, Roku TV models, and Xbox 360.

Friday, October 2nd:
02:15pm – Talking in Tongues (1)
02:15 – Asleep at the Wheel (2)
03:00 – Royal Blood (1)
03:00 – In the Whale (2)
03:45 – Meg Myers (2)
04:00 – Nate Ruess (1)
04:30 – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (2)
05:00 – Leon Bridges (1)
05:15 – Brand New (2)
06:00 – Walk The Moon (1)
06:15 – Albert Hammond Jr. (2)
07:15 – Moon Taxi (1)
07:15 – Cherub (2)
08:15 – Gary Clark Jr. (1)
08:15 – George Ezra (2)
09:15 – Flosstradamus (1)
09:15 – Run the Jewels (2)

Saturday, October 3rd:
02:15pm – Waters (3)
02:30 – Milo Greene (1)
02:30 – Glass Animals (2)
03:15 – Echosmith (1)
03:30 – Misterwives (2)
04:00 – Father John Misty (1)
04:30 – Shakey Graves (2)
04:30 – San Fermin (3)
05:30 – Houndmouth (2)
07:20 – Alabama Shakes (1)
07:30 – G-Eazy (2)
07:30 – TV on the Radio (3)
08:20 – deadmau5 (1)
08:30 – ASAP Rocky (2)
08:30 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (3)

Sunday, October 4th:
02:15pm – Boom Forest (3)
02:30 – BØRNS (2)
03:00 – Jidenna (3)
03:15 – Lord Huron (1)
03:30 – Daughter (2)
03:45 – Amason (3)
04:30 – The Decemberists (1)
04:40 – Ben Howard (3)
05:30 – Vance Joy (1)
05:30 – Sylvan Esso (2)
05:30 – Strand of Oaks (3)
06:30 – Of Monsters and Men (1)
06:30 – Kurt Vile and the Violators (3)
07:30 – Hozier (2)
07:30 – NERO (3)
07:45 – Billy Idol (1)
08:45 – The Strokes (1)
09:30 – Dwight Yoakam (2)