Elliot Smith documentary Heaven Adores You to be released on Blue-ray and DVD

It has been announced by Eagle Rock Entertainment that a home release of the new Elliot Smith documentary, Heaven Adores You. The Nickolas Rossi-directed film will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital formats starting on July 17th.

The film is soundtracked by previously unreleased, and the occasional unfinished, songs as it focuses on Smith’s life and music through “the dense yet often isolating landscapes of the three major cities he lived in: Portland, New York & Los Angeles.” The release will come with an hour of extended interviews and a performance of “Heaven Adores You” from Aaron Espinoza from Earlimart.

Pre-orders for Heaven Adores You, which includes T-shirt bundles as well, are going on right now.

Ezra Koenig gives update on new Vampire Weekend album

It has been two years since the release of Vampire Weekend’s last album, Modern Vampires of the City. The frontman Ezra Koenig’s recent interview on the No Effects Podcast may have indicated that fans could have to wait longer for the band’s fourth album to come out.

Alrhough the band members have been in the studio in the past year, they have been spending time for various side-projects of their own and solo work. Koenig has worked with Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Major Lazer; Chris Baio has signed with Glassnote Records for his solo releases; and Rostam Batmanglij has been seen spending time with Charli XCX, Wavves, and Cloud Nothings since 2013. For the band as a whole, they are regrouping, slowly but surely.

Koenig says:“Right now we’re definitely gearing up to start working on another album but, we’re not in a zone of like getting in there everyday or anything. There have been discussions, of course there’s…in some ways, you know, we’re always working.”

Koenig hasn’t described what exactly it is they’re “working” on, but he does mention that some tracks may be from the Modern Vampires of the City sessions. “There are songs that are left over, not to diminish them, but songs that just weren’t quite right for the last album that I’m very excited about for the next album, so you know there’s little demos that I kind of listen to everyday.”

Koenig says that this period “in-between albums” is their “off-season,” something that s relazing and he emphasizes that it was a long time coming for the New York band. He says that they are “working on some other things, doing things here and there but you know, really just trying to not think about music too much.” “Every once in a while I’ll like, I’ll watch an interview with another musician, or hear a piece of music that gets me excited about it, but really this is kind of the point that … I’ve always wanted to reach – this is what I’ve been dreaming about for years,” Koenig explains.

He continues, “In some ways those three albums was like kind of one massive period of obsessing, making music, touring, all those things. And I think now for the first time in a long time I kinda feel like, a little bit more relaxed like ‘Yeah we’ll definitely make a fourth album.’ I’m not in a rush to dive into making an album because I feel like I want the next album to kinda feel like a new era anyway, so I’ve been kind of enjoying this time just chilling.”

Find the full transcription below:

Right now we’re definitely gearing up to start working on another album but, we’re not in a zone of like getting in there everyday or anything, it’s definitely…there have been discussions, of course there’s…in some ways, you know, we’re always working – there are songs that are left over, not to diminish them, but songs that just weren’t quite right for the last album that I’m very excited about for the next album, so you know there’s little demos that I kind of listen to everyday.

There’s songs that we’ve begun that I’m confident will be on the next album, but, right now it’s really kind of feels like the off season. Working on some other things, doing things here and there but you know, really just trying to not think about music too much. Every once in a while I’ll like, I’ll watch an interview with another musician, or hear a piece of music that gets me excited about it, but really this is kind of the point that…I’ve always wanted to reach – this is what I’ve been dreaming about for years.

I felt like all through my 20s, you know, with Vampire Weekend, it kind of felt like things started off at like a pretty fast pace and there was like a lot of pressure – you know, self-imposed pressure to make a follow-up album fairly quickly, and you know to make anything remotely good you know you have to put a lot of pressure on yourself, and then even with the third album, I still had this feeling personally of like, “Well okay. We made two albums, we have real fans, nobody could call us like a total flash in the pan or anything.” But even then, I still felt like, I still had this vision like “Yeah but if you could really make three albums, that’s like when it feels like a career or something”, and you know there’s something about the number 3 that seems like a natural type of unit. So I think finally–in some ways those three albums was like kind of one massive period of obsessing, making music, touring, all those things. And I think now for the first time in a long time I kinda feel like, a little bit more relaxed like “Yeah we’ll definitely make a fourth album”.

I’m not in a rush to…to dive into making an album because I feel like I want the next album to kinda feel like a new era anyway, so I’ve been kind of enjoying this time just chilling, and every once in a while like getting excited about making music but not quite to the point of wanting to be like making a schedule yet or anything like that.

Florence and the Machine release new song “Delilah”

Florence and the Machine will return with their highly anticipated album, How Big How Blue How Beautiful in under two weeks. There has already been a number of tracks released including “What Kind of Man”, “Ship to Wreck”, and “St. Jude”. The band jas now offered another new preview of “Delilah”. 

Although Florence Welch is still taking over a broken foot, her voice is still as strong as before. Listen to it below.

How Big How Blue How Beautiful will be released on June 2nd via Republic Records.  

How Big How Blue How Beautiful Tracklist:
01. Ship to Wreck
02. What Kind of Man
03. How Big How Blue How Beautiful
04. Queen of Peace
05. Various Storms & Saints
06. Delilah
07. Long & Lost
08. Caught
09. Third Eye
10. St Jude
11. Mother

Biopic about The Kinks underway from director Julien Temple

The Kinks commemorated their 50th anniversary last year with a career-spannijg anthology, which featured exclusive notes from David Bowie aptly named The Essential Kinks. The iconic rock band from Britain will now further with a new biopic named You Really Got Me.  

Julien Temples, who is best known for his Sex Pistols-based film, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and Glastonbury, a documentary about the history of the UK festival will be directing the film. This new  film apparently will focus on the intense relationship between the band’s brothers Ray and Dave Davies.

Temple  told Screen Daily recently: “This is an exciting chance to tell the Kinks’ story in a visceral and real way. The lyrics of The Kinks have always been fascinating to me and there is an amazing human story here as well which has yet to be captured on film.”
Johnny Flynn, singer-songwriter and actor, and George MacKay are planned to play Ray and Dave Davies respectively. Julien’s daughter, Juno Temple, will play Rasa, Ray Davies’ former wife, who would contribute to the band occasionally.  

You Reallt Got Me has apparently been a “long-time passion project” for Jeremy Thomas, the producer. He has secured the rights to both of the brothers’ autobiographies and has Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais writing the script. The film is set to start shooting later this year. 

The Melodic Tree Weekly Playlist

1. T-Shirt Weather – Circa Wave

2. Parents’ House – Milo Greene

3. Wild Country – Wake Owl

4. Hero – Family of the Year

5. No Rest – Dry the River

6. Youth – Daughter

7. Get on the Road – Tired Pony

8. State of Our Affairs – Mt. Desolation

9. Sweet Louise – The Belle Brigade

10. Wait for Me – Motopony

11. Road to Nowhere – Release the Sunbird

12. Ivory Black – Seryn

13. Bury Me Deep – Ivan & Alyosha

14. The Wolves & The Ravens – Rogue Valley

15. Oak Tree – Desert Noises

16. Prison Boxing – Cataldo

17. Sleeping Moon – Wes Swing

18. To Be Young – Tall Heights

19. Small Town – Aaron Espe

20. Tonight – Emy Reynolds

Killer Mike discusses Baltimore, Bill O’Reilly, and racism

Killer Mike appeared on “Real Time With Bill Maher” last night with a panel of John Waters, political scientist Charles Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and public policy expert Heather C. McGhee. The panel talked about the assumed link between violence and hip-hop culture, Bill O’Reilly, and Baltimore. The most notable thing Mike said about O’Reilly: “He’s more full of shit than an outhouse.”

Watch a full recording of The 13th Floor Elevators’ first performance in 47 years

The influential psych rock band, The 13th Floor Elevators reunited for their first performance in 47 years last weekend at Austin’s Levitation Festival. The hour-long set had the original lineup of Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall, John Ike Walton, and Ronnie Leatherman performing songs from its discography. 

The 12 track set list included: “Nobody to Love”, “She Lives (in a Time of Her Own)”, and “Slip Inside This House” off of Easter Everywhere; “Roller Coaster”, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, and “Reverberation” from The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. As shown in the video, the crowd had immense love for the hometown band who sounded just like their last 60’s show together. 

Watch the full set below, as well as the setlist.

Setlist:
She Lives (in a Time of Her Own)
Fire Engine
Earthquake
Tried to Hide
Slip Inside This House
(I’ve Got) Levitation
Splash 1
Kingdom of Heaven
Nobody to Love
Reverberation
Roller Coaster

Encore:
You’re Gonna Miss Me

Rdio introduces $3.99 per month subscription plan

Rdio is now beginning to introduce a mid-tier subscription for $3.99 a month for hopes that it will stand out from an ever-growing streaming market.

The new service, named Rdio Select, includes unlimited ad-free radio with no limits on the amount of skips, 10-track, artist curated playlists, and a 25-song-a-day streaming limit. Users would also be able to download and stored 25 songs permanently, changing their downloaded tracks everyday as long as they do not go over that number.

talking with Buzzfeed, Rdio CEO Anthony Bay states that the company thinks that 25 songs “is more than most users download in a day, so we feel it’s enough.” He said later that he hopes to bring in new users who are not willing to pay the regular $9.99 for ad-free, unlimited mobile streaming but are able to pay the lower option. “We’ve all been flying airplanes that had business class only, there is no coach,” Bay said.

Although there are no hard numbers, it is believed that Rdio’s share in terms of streaming is much less than that of Spotify’s. They hope that this new price can attract people away from the ad-based free streaming of their competitor. Spotify, at the moment, is the only on-demand music streaming service that offers a free tier, that has been under fire from artists such as Taylor Swift who have pulled albums from the service. it is no accident that Swift’s face is on Rdio’s homepage.

Bay told Buzzfeed: “We agree with Taylor Swift that on-demand playback of what you want to listen to shouldn’t be free.”

TIDAL, another one of Rdio’s competitors, offered two tiers; a 49.99 a month Premium and a $19.99 HiFi service, both of which are avaliable for discounted rates when purchased as a six-month pre-paid package. After buying Beats, Apple is expected to launch a streaming service for a $7.99 monthly fee with no free option. They have also been pressuring labels to leave free services such as YouTube and Spotify all together.

Although it is nothing permenant, Rdio Select is being offered as a 60 day free trial, which is plenty of time to fill the 25 daily tracks with as much as you like.

Julian Casablancas + the Voidz preview “Human Sadness” video

Julian Casablancas + the Voidz have released a teaser for their upcoming “Human Sadness” video from their debut album, Tyranny. The clip features a variety of different images including war, fast cars, spaceships, beautiful women, and of Casablancas himself. Watch it below. 

The video will premiere on May 20 at the Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles, where it will followed by Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. It will be accompanied by a live audio. 

Casablancas + the Voidz will be performing an international festival tour this summer, along with dates from Casablancas’ other band, the Strokes.

Albert Hammond Jr. announces new solo album, premieres “Born Slippy”

The Strokes Albert Hammond Jr. will release a new solo album named Momentary Masters on July 31st. This is the follow-up of his 2008 album, ¿Cómo Te Llama? and the AHJ EP from 2013. Compared to his previous releases, which are put out on Julian Casablanca’s Cult Records, the album will be released through Vagrant Records. The album cover is above.

Produced by Gus Oberg, a longtime Strokes collaborator, Momentary Master will also have a handful of collaborators for the recording sessions including guitarists Mon Khmer’s Hammarsing Kharhmar and Bleachers’ Mikey Hart, bassist Jordan Brooks, and drummer Jeremy Gustin.

The first preview of the LP is “Born Slippy” which is can be listened to below.

Momentary Masters Tracklist:
01. Born Slippy
02. Power Hungry
03. Caught By My Shadow
04. Coming to Getcha
05. Losing Touch
06. Don’t Think Twice
07. Razors Edge
08. Touché
09. Drunched In Crumbs
10. Side Boob