Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces, and Thundercat form new supergroup WOKE

Adult Swim’s 2015 Singles program has given the long-awaited comeback of Ghostface Killah and DOOM’s project DOOMSTARKS recently. The summer music series has now helped to facilitate another meeting of minds.

This week’s release, named “The Lavishments of Light Looking”, acts as the official debut of WOKE, a supergroup made up of Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces, and Thundercat. The track was produced by Flying Lotus and much like its creators, has elements of hip-hop, electronic, jazz fusion, funk, and more. George Clinton also provides guest vocals on the song.

Listen to the song below or download it for free on Adult Swim’s official website.

WOKE is not the first time these artists have joined forces. Flying Lotus, Thundercat, and Shabazz Palaces have all worked together on various projects such as albums, tours, one-off tracks, and more.

Other 2015 Adult Swim Singles include songs from Slayer, Shabazz Palaces, Danny Brown and Clams Casino, Peaches, Swervedriver, Yung Lean, and Owen Pallett. Also, new Run the Jewels material is expected in coming weeks. You can download the tracks for free via Adult Swim.

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Aurora – Foo Fighters

2. Under the Cover of Darkness – The Strokes

3. Often – The Weeknd

4. Every Other Freckle – Alt-J

5. Blame It On Me – George Ezra

6. Fire and the Flood – Vance Joy

7. Car Radio – Twenty One Pilots

8. Better Man – Leon Bridges

9. Funtimes in Babylon – Father John Misty

10. Black Mambo – Glass Animals

11. Let It Carry You – José González

12. On the Road – Houndmouth

13. Sound & Color – Alabama Shakes

14. 10,000 Emerald Pools – BØRNS

15. Can’t Keep Checking My Phone – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

16. Smother – Daughter

17. Anna Sun – Walk the Moon

18. Love Like Ghosts – Lord Huron

19. Make Your Mind Up – Moon Taxi

20. Can’t Deny My Love – Brandon Flowers

The Flaming Lips to release 20th anniversary of Clouds Taste Metallic

This month is the 20th anniversary of Clouds Taste Metallic, The Flaming Lips’ seventh album and the last one to include guitarist Ronald Jones. The band is prepping for a deluxe reissue of the LP named Heady Nuggs 20 Years After Clouds Taste Metallic in anticipation.

It is set to be released on November 27th through Warner Bros., and it boasts bonus material such as B-sides and rarities added on to original record. The reissue will be sold as a five-LPbox set or a three-CD bundle.

The reissue has the original Clouds Taste Metallic; a compilation named Due to High Expectations The Flaming Lips Are Providing Needles For Your Balloons; The King Bug Laughs, a number of outtakes and rare tracks; and Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles, an unreleased live recording of a Seattle concert circa 1996.

Pre-orders have begun. Check out the full tracklist of the reissue below.

Heady Nuggs 20 Years After Clouds Taste Metallic CD Box Set Tracklist:

Disc 1: Clouds Taste Metallic
01. The Abandoned Hospital Ship
02. Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles
03. Placebo Headwound
04. This Here Giraffe
05. Brainville
06. Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World
07. When You Smile
08. Kim’s Watermelon Gun
09. They Punctured My Yolk
10. Lightning Strikes the Postman
11. Christmas At the Zoo
12. Evil Will Prevail
13. Bad Days (aurally excited version)

Disc 2: Due To High Expectations The Flaming Lips Are Providing Needles For Your Balloons / The King Bug Laughs (Oddities and Rarities)
01. Bad Days
02. Jets Part 2 (My Two Days As An Ambulance Driver)
03. Ice Drummer
04. Put the Waterbug in the Policeman’s Ear
05. Chewin’ the Apple of Yer Eye
06. Chosen One
07. Little Drummer Boy
08. Slow Nerve Action
09. It Was a Very Good Year
10. Sun Arise
11. Life on Mars
12. Ballrooms of Mars
13. Hot Day
14. Nobody Told Me
15. Magician Vs The Headache
16. She Don’t Use Jelly (Live @KJ103)

Disc 3: Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles (Live in Seattle 1996)
01. The Abandoned Hospital Ship
02. Unconsciously Screamin’
03. Take Meta Mars
04. Moth in the Incubator
05. Put the Waterbug in the Policeman’s Ear
06. Lightning Strikes the Postman
07. Bad Days
08. She Don’t Use Jelly
09. Chewin’ the Apple of Yer Eye
10. When You Smile
11. Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles
12. Love Yer Brain
13. Placebo Headwound

Stream Disclosure’s new album Caracel

Disclosure released their highly-anticipated album, Caracel, today via PMR/Island Records. Spotify users can stream it in full here. It is also available through Apple Music. 

The follow-up to Settle in 2013 marks the duo’s second full-length to date. Like its predecessor, the effort features songs written by Jimmy Napes and boasts a hefty amount of collaborators: Lorde, The Weeknd, Miguel, Kwabs, and Gregory Porter, and others. It also features the Lawrence brothers and Sam Smith reuniting after the breakout hit “Latch.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Disclosure talked about their approach for their second album. “There’s not any really club music on this one,” Guy said. “It’s all very club-influenced, because of the beats, but every song is like ‘Latch’ or ‘White Noise’ — a fully structured pop song.” Howard added, “The songwriting is the most important thing for us. I feel a lot of dance acts lack the cohesiveness that we can get.”

Order the album here.


Caracal Tracklist:

01. Nocturnal (feat. The Weeknd)

02. Omen (feat. Sam Smith)

03. Holding On (feat. Gregory Porter)

04. Hourglass (feat. Lion Babe)

05. Willing & Able (feat. Kwabs)

06. Magnets (feat. Lorde)

07. Jaded

08. Good Intentions (feat. Miguel)

09. Superego (feat. Nao)

10. Echoes

11. Masterpiece (feat. Jordan Rakei)

12. Molecules

13. Moving Mountains (feat. Brendan Reilly)

14. Bang That

15. Afterthought

Broken Bells share new song “It’s That Talk Again”

The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse have reunited as Broken Bells, returning with their first new material since After the Disco in 2014. Named “It’s That Talk Again,” the track plays like a Tame Impala song with soft synths and a groovy vibe.

Listen below.

Even though Mercer has maintained a low profile the last few months, Danger Mouse has been working on Adele’s new album, which is set to be released this November.

José González releases animated “Let It Carry You” video

José González has released an animated video for “Let It Carry You,” from this year’s Vestiges & Claws.A strange-looking man goes through an evolution and starts to fly, thus going on a journey. Malin Johansson, the director, explained in a press release that the clip shows what it is like “to be stuck in a state of emptiness and what it means to be carried away by something, and how that then transcends from a mental notion into a physical sensation.” Watch it below via Nerdist.

“Let It Carry You” is also the focus of  González’s newest release, a four-track EP that has remixes of the song by Holy Ghost! and producer Dino Soccio, and a live recording from a show in Los Angeles. It is now out through Imperial Recordings/Mute; check out the cover art above and tracklisting below.

Let It Carry You EP:

01 Let It Carry You
02 Let It Carry You (Live Version)
03 Let It Carry You (Holy Ghost! Remix)
04 Let It Carry You (Dino Soccio Remix)

Jose Gonzalez tour dates:

09-28 Hollywood, FL – ArtsPark Amphitheater
09-29 St. Petersburg, FL – State Theatre
09-30 Orlando, FL – The Social
10-01 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
10-02 New Orleans, LA – Republic New Orleans
10-02-04 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival
10-04 Little Rock, AR – Juanita’s Café & Bar
10-05 Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall
10-06 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
10-07 Columbia, MO – The Blue Note
10-08 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
10-09 Oklahoma City, OK – ACM @ UCO Performance Lab
10-09-11 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival
10-12 Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre
10-13 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
10-14 Mesa, AZ – Mesa Arts Center – Piper
10-15 Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
10-17 North Fork, CA – Bandit Town
10-17-18 San Francisco, CA – Treasure Island Music Festival
11-11 Zagreb, Croatia – Lauba

Read Kim Gordon’s interview with Kurt Vile

Kurt Vile’s latest album, b’lieve I’m goin down…, was announced with an accompanying biography blurb from Kim Gordon, who described the record as “all air, weightless, bodyless, but grounded in convincing authenticity.” Apparently, the two met initially in 2009 at a Dinosaur Jr concert and have kept in touch ever since — “she appeared at my merch table and I ran over there straight away,” Vile told Dazed magazine, who have published an interview between the two of them. They talk about the album, music biographies and a lost encounter with Neil Young. Here’s an excerpt:
Kim Gordon: What’s your favourite song on the album?
Kurt Vile: ‘Wheelhouse’, which is kind of meditative. I think that some – OK, all – of the lyrics are darker on this album, but I think my lyrics are always pretty dark. Although I did make a mistake before by saying that my albums were dark, because it’s not like they’re Radiohead or ‘women and children first’ or anything. It’s not total despair, I would just say they’re melancholy.

Kim Gordon: It’s not post-apocalyptic…
Kurt Vile: Yeah, it’s not exactly Marilyn Manson, is it? (laughs) I feel like when I say something sad, I mean it. I guess I’m just realistic. I think I’m smart enough – or I’ve got enough personality – to know that you always need a punchline at the end of it. Nobody wants a complainer.
Kim Gordon: For me, I didn’t really think of the record in terms of darkness. There are melancholy melodies, but I thought the lyrics were especially good and I thought that they were kind of mature, like someone who knows themselves and who is singing about ‘how it is’, but making that sound poetic. I like the way you spit lines and make it work. I don’t mean that in an emo way! (laughs)
Read the whole interview here.

Something Good Fest in photos

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Paper – Deer Vibes

2. Tangled In You – Tera Ferna

3. Oranges – Lonely Horse

4. A Taste of Silver – Until the Ribbon Breaks

5. Plumage – Menomena

6. Forest Gum – New Madrid

7. Moving to Brussels – Bhi Bhiman

8. Golden Twin – Wild Ones

9. Bad Law – Sondre Lerche

10. Heaven Knows – The Shouting Matches

11. Upswing – Prinze George

12. All I Want – The Reverb Junkie

13. James Dean – JR JR

14. Tangerine – Hydra Melody

15. Honey Jars – Bryan John Appleby

16. Feel Free – Tyler Lyle

17. Neighbor Song – Aunt Martha

18. Switzerland – The Last Bison

19. Hello My Old Heart – The Oh Hello’s

20. First Defeat – Noah Gundersen

Win Butler talks about Tidal’s “poorly managed launch”

Win Butler, known from Arcade Fire, talked to The Independent about the band’s new film, The Reflektor Tapes. During the interview, he talked about Tidal and their perception of it. Butler and Regine Chassagne were two of the artists that were part of the service’s launch. Even though the band does not regret their involvement, Butler was not thrilled with the impression of the launch gave.

He told The Independent: “None of the artists knew anything about the PR, it was a poorly managed launch, but conceptually the thing that we liked about Tidal was that it’s HD streaming quality.”

Butler also blamed major labels for the struggles of the service, and the price point of the HD streaming.

“They dictated that Tidal has to cost $20,” he says. “The major label music industry has completely ruined every aspect of their business. At every step of the way they’ve had the tools offered to them to create an industry that works, and they’ve completely blown it. That’s why we never had any interest in signing a contract with one of these companies because they’re clearly completely clueless.”

He said it would be “silly” not to talk about solutions for distributing art “at the table with Jay Z, Kanye and Daft Punk.”

Read the full article.