News

Parquet Courts to release Live at Third Man Records

The indie rock band Parquet Courts played a set at Hack White’s Third Man Records in June. The recording of the performance will be released on March 3rd.

Named Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records, the band played 11 tracks from their discography including Sunbathing Animal “Black & White,” “Always Back In Town,” and “Dear Ramona” from Sunbathing Animal.

Listen to the clips of live versions of “Vienna II” and “Sunbathing Animal” here and see the tracklist below.

Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records Tracklist:
01. Duckin & Dodgin
02. Bodies
03. Black & White
04. Vienna II
05. Always Back In Town
06. Dear Ramona
07. Descend
08. Instant Disassembly
09. Raw Milk
10. Into the Garden
11. Sunbathing Animal

The live album is the latest of the installment in the label’s direct-to-acetate live album series. Previous bands and artists that have performed were The Shins, King Tuff, Divine Fits, and The Kills.

Damon Albarn writing an Alice in Wonderland musical

Never working on only one project at a time, Damon Alban in this last year released a solo album, worked with Brian Eno and Nick Zinner to rework “In C” by Terry Riley, and teasing a new Gorillaz album. He is now working on a theater production of Alice in Wonderland.

After composing the operas, Monkey: Journey to the West and the Dr Dee, Albarn is writing music for an adaption of the classic, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll. The musical is entitled Wonder.land, and will be put onto the stage next July at the Palace Theatre in Manchester as a portion of the Manchester International Festival. Rufus Norris will be the show’s director and has previously worked with Albarn for Monkey.

This version of Alice in Wonderland has been reworked to the digital age and follows the story of Aly, a 12-year-old girl, who creates an alter-who named Alice and puts herself into a virtual world.

“I’m fascinated by the idea of going down a rabbit hole, the otherworldliness and what that might mean,” Albarn explains.

Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes starts new band, Summer Moon

Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes starts begins a new band, Summer Moon. Fraiture is in the band on bass and vocals. Also in the group is Tennessee Thomas, the drummer of The Like, and Erika Spring from Au Revoir Simone, and guitarist Lewis Lazar.

The band already have a website and although there is no music yet, the band made their live debut at a birthday party for Thomas in Brooklyn, New York. The Examiner reports that their music is “harder than the melodic pop of both Strokes and Like, with Tennessee Thomas giving it jet propulsion.”

Fraiture worked with Au Revoir Simone for a cover of “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star in June of last year. Everyone said the collaboration was a one-off and that it was unlikely to record more together in the future.

The Strokes, on the other hand, were announced to headline for Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Also on the list are Pixies, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Tame Impala and James Blake.

The Strokes also confirmed that they were a headlining act at the Primavera festival in Spain in May.

Modest Mouse release new song and video

Modest Mouse recently released new song, “Coyotes” along side a video that follows the story of a coyote riding a train through Portland.

Fan site, Interstate-8, pointed out that the song is inspired by the real story of a coyote that took the MAX light rail train in Portland in 2002. To watch, visit Interstate-8.

The new track will be on the upcoming Strangers to Ourselves which is set to come out March 3rd. The track will be available for purchase digitally tomorrow and the 7-inch vinyl for the song will be included in the first 2,500 pre-orders of the new album from the official website.

Strangers to Ourselves was announced last month and it is the band’s first studio album since We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank in 2007.

Björk announces New York tour dates in support of new album, Vulnicura

Björk officially announced earlier this week the release of her new album, Vulnicura as well as tour dates in March. As well as her already announced addition to the New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, she will also perform a few shows at Carnegie Hall and City Center, beginning on March 7th. On Facebook, Björk said she will perform at the venue March 7th and 14th and then again later on March 25th, 28th, and April 1st and 4th. Pre-sales for fans begin January 19th and the general public will begin purchasing the 24th. The album’s co-producer, Arca, will be the opening all the matinee shows on tktktk. Björk is also set to play Governor’s Ball June 5-7, the final weekend of her show at MoMA.

Björk tour dates:

March 7 – New York, NY @ Carnegie Hall
March 14 – New York, NY @ Carnegie Hall
March 25 – New York, NY @ City Center
March 28 – New York, NY @ City Center
April 1 – New York, NY @ City Center
April 4 – New York, NY @ City Center
June 5-7 – New York, NY @ Governors Ball

Grateful Dead to reunite for a series of concerts for 50th anniversary

This year is the 50th anniversary of the legendary band, Grateful Dead and the surviving members have plans to mark the event by reuniting to play a trio of shows at Soldier Field in Chicago in July.

Set for July 3rd to the 5th, the show’s will be nearly 20 years since the band played their final show with their late singer, Jerry Garcia, which was at Solider Field as well. Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann chose Phish frontman Trey Anastasio in place of Garcia. They will also bring in Bruce Hornsby on the piano.

The band had many chances including an offer for $3 million to headline this year’s Bonnaroo but decided to play this trio of shows. The Dead say it’s unlikely that they will go on tour, Weir saying, “These will be the last shows with the four of us together.”

A pre-sale for the fan-club will take place February 12th and 13th and the tickets will go on-sale the next day on the 14th.

Sleater-Kinney premieres star-studded music video for “No Cities to Love

Rock band, Sleater-Kinney recently released the video for the song, “No Cities to Love,” which is the title track on their upcoming album.

The video has an array of celebrities singing the song before the actual band takes it away themselves. Among those who were featured were Andy Samberg, Sarah Silverman, Gerard Way, Connie Britton, Miranda July, Fred Armisen, J Mascis, Vanessa Bayer, Ellen Page, Natasha Lyonne, and more. Watch the video here.

The album, No Cities to Love, is expected to come out internationally on January 19 and in the U.S. on January 20.

Caribou puts together 1,000 track mixtape for fans

Producer and composer, Dan Snaith, known as Caribou, has had a productive 2014, releasing his latest album, Our Love. Caribou as also been playing shows around the world and will continue during the first half of 2015. Snaith says all his success is due to his fans’ loyalty and to show his appreciation, he curated a 1,000 track mixtape.

The mixtape is named “Longest Mixtape” and Snaith describes the mixtape as the “musical history of my life. I’m sure some things are under-represented or over-represented, but roughly speaking this is what has stayed with me.” Songs on the playlist includes from artists such as Wire, Boz Scaggs, Minnie Riperton, The Zombies, Kanye West, Warren G, Usher, Transvolta, Pusha T, Sly and the Family Stone, Arthur Russell, Led Zeppelin, Sun Ra, CAN, Nas, Eddy Grant, and various experimental pieces and random mixes.

Snaith tasks the mixtape’s listeners to shuffle the tracks as there is no set order and hopes people will send suggestions, “in the hope (that) this becomes a dialogue rather than a monologue.”

Listen to the full playlist here.

Read the thank-you note below:

The last few years of my life have been incredible, thanks in large part to all of you — so I’ve been thinking of how to say thank you.

As you can imagine, music has been a central love of my life since I was a teenager and over the years I’ve been introduced to a lot that has stayed with me. I’ve collected the majority of that music here — and I thought sharing it with you seemed like one way I could say thanks.

I’m sure some things are under-represented or over-represented, but roughly speaking this is a musical history of my life. Of course a lot of this music has come to me through my friends — thank you to Koushik, Kieran, Jeremy, Gary, Brandon, Jason, Sam, Ketan, Ryan, Toby and many others … Also, please share music with me that you think I would like but is not included here, in the hope this becomes a dialogue rather than a monologue.

I suggest you listen to this on shuffle as I made no attempt to sequence these tracks — I just entered them as I browsed along the shelves in my record collection. If you see dead links or duplicate songs please tweet me — @caribouband.

I hope you find something to enjoy here.

Thanks,

Dan

H&M announces Coachella inspired clothing line

Coachella Music and Arts Festival has been known for the fashion amongst it’s visitors as well as the acts that they bring in. Now, going to the festival looking fashionable can now be affordable as clothing chain, H&M, announced a new line of clothing inspired by the festival.

Named “H&M Loves Coachella,” the line will bring BoHo-chic looks known to come from the festival. Ladies can go through cutoff shorts, crop tops, tunics, wide-leg pants, and rompers. The men can choose from t-shirts and shorts.

The clothing line is affordable ranging from $4.95 to $49.95. About 350 North American stores will begin selling the line March 19th, and will be available worldwide and online the following week. The clothing will also be at an H&M pop-up shop that will be at the festival as well as exclusive designs and merchandise.

The Coachella line-up will include Jack White, AC/DC, Drake, Tame Impala, The Weeknd, Florence + the Machine, Ryan Adams, alt-J, Alabama Shakes, Steely Dan, St. Vincent, and many more. Although tickets to the actually sold out, H&M are giving away trips to the festival all through the month of March.

Death Cab For Cutie to release new album

Indie rock band, Death Cab For Cutie announced details for a new studio album. The album is named Kintsugi and is the eighth LP and will be released on March 31st.

The title is a reference to, as the bassist Nick Harmer said, a “Japanese style of art where they take fractured, broken ceramics and put them back together with very obvious, real gold. It’s making the repair of an object a visual part of its history.”

The frontman Ben Gibbard also added, “This is an opportunity for the band to become something it could only become by losing a founding member. It’s our goal to make records that rank amongst the best work we’ve ever done. I completely respect and understand why people love Transatlanticism or We Have the Facts… or Narrow Stairs. And I would hope that as we move forward, people listen with as little prejudice as they can and try to hear the music for what it is and not what they want it to be.”

Check out the 11-song track list below.

Kintsugi Tracklist:
01. No Room in Frame
02. Black Sun
03. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
04. Little Wanderer
05. You’ve Haunted Me All My Life
06. Hold No Guns
07. Everything’s a Ceiling
08. Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)
09. El Dorado
10. Ingénue
11. Binary Sea