News

M. Ward announces new album, More Rain, shares “Girl From Conejo Valley”

M. Ward will release a new studio album called More Rain on March 4th. Set out via Merge, it will be the singer-songwriter’s eighth album to date after A Wasteland Companion in 2012. The 12-track LP, which has tracks named “Pirate Dial,” “Confession,” and “You’re So Good to Me,” features collaborations with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Neko Case, k.d. lang, The Secret Sisters, and Joey Spampinato of NRBQ.

Ward began working on the LP four years ago, according to a press release, and he originally envisioned it as a doo-wop record. It is now considered a “true gotta-stay-indoors, rainy-season record that looks upwards through the weather while reflecting on his past.”

“I think one of the biggest mysteries of America right now is this: How are we able to process unending bad news on Page One and then go about our lives the way the Style section portrays us?” Ward noted in a statement. “There must be a place in our brains that allows us to take a bird’s-eye view of humanity, and I think music is good at helping people-myself included-go to that place.”

Ward, who works in She & Him and Monsters of Folk, as a preview, has shared the track “Girl From Conejo Valley.” Stream it below, followed by the tracklist.

More Rain Tracklist:
01. More Rain
02. Pirate Dial
03. Time Won’t Wait
04. Confession
05. I’m Listening (Child’s Theme)
06. Girl From Conejo Valley
07. Slow Driving Man
08. You’re So Good To Me
09. Temptation
10. Phenomenon
11. Little Baby
12. I’m Going Higher

Cayucas shares video for “Big Winter Jacket”

Californian indie-pop group Cayucas have come a long way since their 2013 debut, Bigfoot, but they still take pride in their graceful guitars and vocals. Today, they have shared the video to “Big Winter Jacket,” the lead track from their sophomore album, Dancing At The Blue Moon. The music video’s setting is in an American suburb with shots of home video footage with specks of scenes from a 1950s-esque neighborhood that seemed fresh out of the first Back to the Future film. Watch below.

Dancing At The Blue Lagoon is out now on Secretly Canadian.

 

Both Adele and Drake want Adele to remix “Hotline Bling”

Adele revealed in a recent interview that she wanted to do an official remix of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” “I love Drake so much, I even got the coat that’s in the video,” Adele said. In an interview after Drake Night at the Raptor’s game (via Fader), Drake agreed that the two should work together.

“I’d do anything with Adele,” he said. “I’d literally go to Adele’s house right now and do laundry for her.”

Now it’s a matter of waiting.

 

Tame Impala shares video for “The Less I Know the Better”

Tame Impala have released the video for “The Less I Know the Better” from their recent album, Currents. The story tells of a basketball player who’s heart gets broken when the cheerleader he fell in love with begins hooking up with the gorilla mascot of the team named Trevor. Watch the Canada-directed video here.

There are a few somewhat NSFW shots, but there are also some intensely imaginative shots as well, the dancers’ in King Kong hand outfits or the animated psychedelic breakdown. It is as creative as the album it comes off of.

 

The Killers prepare for 2015 Christmas single “Dirt Sledding”

For the past nine years, the Killers have released a Christmas single every year, with no exception to this year. The band’s preparing for a new one called “Dirt Sledding,” as mentioned in the Las Vegas Weekly profile of the band’s former tour manager and current Killers music video Santa Ryan Pardey:

A deranged Santa walks up to the camera in the middle of the desert, pulls a tomahawk out of his bag and lights it on fire. The crazed man in red throws the ax at his target, a stuffed teddy bear with a picture of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers taped to its head. It’s a bull’s-eye.

That’s the opening scene of “Dirt Sledding,” The Killers’ upcoming Christmas music video and annual charitable contribution to the (RED) Campaign.

Pardey’s appeared as a character in two of their singles already — 2007’s “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” and 2012’s “I Feel It In My Bones” — and he will return to his role in their upcoming video for the track, which the band is set to debut onJimmy Kimmel’s (RED) World AIDS Day show next Tuesday night, December 1st.

The band and associates have been hinting at the video, which was directed Matthew Gray Gubler, for the past month.

Wild Nothing announces new album Life of Pause, shares “TV Queen” and “To Know You”

Jack Tatum will return on February 19th with his latest Wild Nothing album. Life of Pause, which is the follow-up to Nocturne, will arrive through Captured Tracks (Bella Union in the UK/Europe). It has the first two singles “TV Queen” and To Know You.” Listen below.

The album was recorded in Stockholm and Los Angeles with Thom Monahan as producer. Peter Bjorn & John’s John Eriksson and Medicine’s Brad Laner guest on the album as well.

In a statement, Tatum discussed working on the new album:

I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me. I’m terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn’t need to be drastic, but every new record has to have it’s own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before.

Life of Pause:

01 Reichpop
02 Lady Blue
03 A Woman’s Wisdom
04 Japanese Alice
05 Life of Pause
06 Alien
07 To Know You
08 Adore
09 TV Queen
10 Whenever I
11 Love Underneath My Thumb

Watch Boots perform “C.U.R.E” on Colbert

Boots performed on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night for his first television performance after the release of his solo debut AQUARIA. The Beyoncé and Run the Jewels producer, known for his unique arrangements, gave the audience a spirit rendition of “C.U.R.E.” The performance was shown in a psychedelic way, with a glowing light show and morphed visuals. Watch the replay below.

M.I.A. releases new song “Borders”

M.I.A. announced Matahdatah, her upcoming new album/film about borders over the summer. It is described as “truly global and characteristically DIY,” and the release will have “a collection of new M.I.A. songs, each accompanied by videos directed and edited by M.I.A. herself with each video filmed in a different country,” according to an official statement.

“The concept for this LP is ‘broader then a border’ and MATAHDATAH is the journal ofMATANGI,” the singer said, adding, “Sometimes I move vertical and sometimes I move horizontal.”

There was already a preview of the LP with the audiovisual piece “Broader Than a Border,” that featured Matangi cut “Warriors” and a new song named “Swords.” Today, M.I.A.has released another installment as the beat-heavy track “Borders”. Listen below.

Watch Albert Hammond Jr. perform “Razor’s Edge” on Kimmel

In August, Albert Hammond Jr. performed The Tonight Show in support of his solo record, Momentary Masters, which had then recently dropped. Last night, Hammond performed on the late-night circuit again with his LP, playing standout track “Razor’s Edge” for Jimmy Kimmel audiences. Throughout the interview, The Strokes’ guitarist swung his guitar around as if it was a toy, slinging it over his back and holding it over his face.

Watch the replay below.

Iron & Wine performs a folk version of GWAR’s “Sick of You”

Through the ongoing AV Undercover series, there has been artists tackling some unlikely songs. Natalie Prass performed a Slayer classic as a jazzy lounger, Screaming Females turned Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” into a punk anthem, and They Might Be Giants performed ’90s R&B with Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills.”

There is nothing different about this week’s installment with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam putting his twist on GWAR’s “Sick of You.” Monsters and thrash metal does not really coexist with folk, and somehow Beam still managed to turn the track from Scumdogs of the Universe sound like it was naturally a part of his repertoire.

Iron & Wine is not new to covers. Beam and Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell worked together for a covers album named Sing Into My Mouth. The same can be said about GWAR, who covered Kansas, Billy Ocean, Pet Shop Boys, and Cyndi Lauper for AV Undercover.