News

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Bob Dylan has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. He joins the list of previous winners which  includes Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, Samuel Beckett, and more. Dylan was awarded the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Watch the video of the announcement below, as well as an interview with Sara Danius, the Swedish Academy’s Permanent Secretary, who called Dylan “a great poet in the English tradition.” You can find more information on past Nobel laureates here.

Cloud Nothings announce album Life Without Sound, share new song “Modern Act”

Cloud Nothings have announced the follow-up to their album Here and Nowhere Else and No Life for Me, their Wavves collaboration. Life Without Sound is set to be out January 27th via Carpark/Wichita. The announcement came with a new song called “Modern Act.” Listen to it below, with the tracklist, and the band’s upcoming tour dates. The album art is above.

The album was recorded with producer John Goodmanson in El Paso earlier this year. Dylan Baldi said in a statement:

Generally, it seems like my work has been about finding my place in the world. But there was a point in which I realized that you can be missing something important in your life, a part you didn’t realize you were missing until it’s there—hence the title. This record is like my version of new age music. It’s supposed to be inspiring.

Life Without Sound:

01 Up To The Surface
02 Things Are Right With You
03 Internal World
04 Darkened Rings
05 Enter Entirely
06 Modern Act
07 Sight Unseen
08 Strange Year
09 Realize My Fate

Cloud Nothings:

10-14 Greenville, SC – Fall for Greenville Fest
11-12 Santa Ana, CA – Outpost Festival
11-14 Oakland, CA – Starlite Social Club
11-16 Los Angeles, CA – Hi Hat
01-26 Cleveland, OH – Beachland ballroom
01-27 Toronto, Ontario – Lee’s Palace
01-28 Montreal, Quebec – Fairmount Theatre
01-30 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
01-31 Boston, MA – Paradise
02-01 New York, NY – Webster Hall
02-03 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
02-10 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
03-01 Copenhagen, Denmark – Loppen
03-02 Malmo, Sweden – Babel
03-03 Stockholm, Sweden – Debaser Strand
03-05 Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret
03-06 Hamburg, Germany – Knust
03-07 Berlin, Germany – Bi Nuu
03-08 Munich, Germany – Kranhalle
03-09 Cologne, Germany – Luxor
03-11 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
03-12 Brussels, Belgium – Botanique
03-14 Paris, France – Petit Bain
03-16 Bristol, England – Thekla
03-17 Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo
03-18 Manchester, England – Deaf Institute
03-19 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
03-21 London, England – Koko
03-22 Birmingham, England – The Hare & Hounds
03-23 Brighton, England – The Haunt

Watch Mitski’s new video for “A Burning Hill”

Mitski has released the music video for her song “A Burning Hill,” the final track off her album Puberty 2. It was directed by Bradley Gray and the video was shot during “a weekend just driving around New York and Pennsylvania.” Mitski said in a press release: “It felt like a vacation, but it was also quite emotional, as I was thinking about the song and what it means to me now while jumping in rivers and driving down dirt lanes.” Watch it below.

Listen to Skylar Spence’s latest new track “Faithfully”

Skylar Spence released his last album, Prom King over a year ago, and there has not been much from him besides remixes of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Your Type,” and A Sunny Day In Glasgow teasers across his twitter. Today, however, he put out “Faithfully,” a track that samples Aretha Franklin’s “Wonderful,” the same song he used to sample for “Mr. Wonderful” when he released it in 2014. Spence told The FADER that “Faithfully” is an older track that he wanted to release but is working on the follow-up to Prom King. Listen out “Faithfully” below.

Listen to Porches’ cover of Big Star’s “Morpha Too”

Porches have released a cover of Big Star’s song “Morpha Too.” Listen to it below. The original song was on Big Star’s second record, Radio City, in 1974. The band’s most recent release is the Water EP, which has demos from their album Pool.

Watch Solange in new film go behind the scenes of A Seat at the Table early stages

Solange released her brilliant new album A Seat at the Table last week. In a documentary called A Seat at the Table, Beginning Stages, she shares footage of the creation of the album. Watch it below. Solange says the film is “a look at the early days of jam sessions, experimentation, and the exploring of sounds and ideas for the album.” It shows Solange working on early versions of “Don’t Touch My Hair,” “Mad,” “Don’t You Wait,” “Where Do We Go,” and more. Sampha, Kwes, Kindness, Sean Nicholas Savage, Patrick Wimberly, Solange’s son Julez, and more make appearances. Find a statement from Solange about the film.

“A Seat At The Table, Beginning Stages” is a look at the early days of jam sessions, experimentation, and the exploring of sounds and ideas for the album.

While some of the jam sessions featured did not make the album, they helped to create and identify the sonic tone, and the early lyrics and concepts I wrote for the project.

This video is broken up into 3 different parts. The first and second parts happened in Long Island and New Orleans where I first started to jam and collaborate on ideas with the incredible artists and musicians featured (as well as some other incredible artist and musicians who are not shown here). A lot of these days would just start with me singing a melody or someone playing a synth part or bass line, and would transition into an hour long jam.

The third part is me taking all of these jams to New Iberia, LA with just my engineers and creating the actual song structures, building the sounds, and writing the lyrics and melodies.

I later took these songs to Los Angeles to work with Raphael Saadiq to help amplify the production, as well as record the vocals alongside Troy Johnson. When I look back at the beginning stages, I remember the powerful energy that set the tone, and that I’m so grateful followed us everywhere during the creation of this record.

The Flaming Lips to debut new music in yoga classes

Wayne Coyne announced on Instagram that The Flaming Lips will share “brand new, never heard before” music during classes at The Yoga Box in Oklahoma City. Classes on Fridays during October “will feature a special Flaming Lips Playlist” that will new music, “old classics and rare hard to find secret tracks,” and “cool remixes.” As Coyne points out, the class will help “you get your body and mind fucked with and made better and healthier and happier by the coolest yoga gals in OKC!!!!” Find the full announcement below. You can book an upcoming class at The Yoga Box here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLLxld3jC50/embed/captioned/?v=7

Watch Chance the Rapper’s Kit Kat commercial

Chance the Rapper has released his jingle for Kit Kat. Chance stays true to “Gimme a Break” tagline with his new interpretation. In the commercial, Chance is dressed as a lion for Halloween while still wearing his third mixtape hat. A candy bar version of Chance talks and sings the jingle to the lion version of Chance. Watch it below.

https://twitter.com/Kit_Kat_Break/status/783322971112890368

Watch Real Estate perform new song “Harpsichord”

Real Estate have been on tour with new member Julian Lynch and working on a new album. During their set at the Atlanta festival Project Pabst on Friday, they played unreleased material. A representative for the band says the working title of the track in the video below is “Harpsichord.”

A$AP Rocky shares new song “Crazy Brazy”

A$AP Rocky was named the Creative Director for MTV Labs earlier today. Rocky launched the “creative incubator” today with Atlanta rapper Key! and debuted a new song called “Crazy Brazy.” Watch the performance here and stream the song below. It features A$AP Twelvyy. The track is off of A$AP Mob’s upcoming mixtape, Cozy Tapes Vol. 2.