Best New Tracks
- Ganglians: "Valient Brave"
- Discovery: "So Insane"
- Tiny Vipers: "Dreamer"
- Das Racist: "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)"
- DJ Kaos: "Love the Nite Away (Tiedye Mix)"
- YACHT: "Psychic City (Voodoo City)"
- Jay Reatard: "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"
- Mastodon: "Divinations"
- Free Energy: "Dream City"
- Julianna Barwick: "Bode"
Tuesday, June 16
Echo Chamber: Black Francis
"I was recently quoted about the state of the music business, and I was saying it should be kind of a $5 world right now. Records and tickets should be cheap, given the overpricing of the recent years and the state of the world economy. But now, this box comes out and I feel like the biggest shithead in the world."
-- Pixies frontman Black Francis at least feels bad about charging you $495 for Minotaur. (via Wired's Underwire)
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 16, 2009 at 11:45 a.m.
Tags: Black Francis, Echo Chamber, Pixies
New Song: Modest Mouse: "Autumn Beds"
Modest Mouse are following their recent post-Record Store Day single "Satellite Skin"/"Guilty Cocker Spaniels" with yet another, a 7" featuring "Whale Song" and "Autumn Beds", the latter of which you can hear below at Spinner. The 7" will be available in independent record stores this Saturday, June 20, for Vinyl Saturday.
Stream:> Modest Mouse: "Autumn Beds"
Posted by on June 16, 2009 at 11:35 a.m.
Tags: Audio, Modest Mouse
The Very Best Announce Debut Album
M.I.A., Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend guest
Back in 2007, a chance meeting at a second-hand furniture store led the Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya to team up with the European DJ/producer duo Radioclit to form the unlikely group the Very Best. Last year, they dropped Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are the Very Best, a leftfield surprise of a mixtape that joyously smashed borders and crashed year-end lists, including ours.
Radioclit drew all sorts of lines between various strands of African-influenced pop music and actual African music, backing Mwamwaya with everything from Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" to Michael Jackson's theme from Free Willy. Mwamwaya, singing in four different languages, made everything flow together effortlessly, bringing a dizzy lightness to every track that came his way.
Thankfully, that mixtape didn't mark the end of Mwamwaya's collaboration with Radioclit. This fall, the Very Best will return when Green Owl releases Warm Heart of Africa, the group's official debut LP. M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig will make guest appearances, on the tracks "Rain Dance" and "Warm Heart of Africa", respectively.
Check out a stream of the album track "Ntende Uli" here:
Next month, the Very Best will make their way to the U.S. for a few performances, including one at our own Pitchfork Music Festival. If these guys are anywhere near as fun onstage as they are on record, we're in for a good show. Dates below.
Video: Beyoncé [ft. Kanye West]: "Ego"
Here's yet another collaborative video with Kanye and an R&B diva, this one a black-and-white clip with some in-your-face Kanye spitting before Beyoncé shows off some of her "Single Ladies" moves.
Posted by Mark Richardson on June 16, 2009 at 10:40 a.m.
Tags: Beyoncé, Kanye West, video
Video: Jenny Lewis: "Black Sand"
Kaleidoscopic visuals and weather maps abound in the new Jenny Lewis video for "Black Sand", a track from last year's Acid Tongue.
Posted by Mark Ricahrdson on June 16, 2009 at 10:25 a.m.
Tags: Jenny Lewis, video
Video: Sonic Youth: "Sacred Trickster"
A trio of femme fatales bust up a haughty rooftop party in this video for "Sacred Trickster", the first single from Sonic Youth's new LP, The Eternal.
Lots more viewable Sonic Youth content-- including an exclusive performance, interview, and music video playlist-- over at Pitchfork.tv.
[from The Eternal; out now on Matador]
Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 16, 2009 at 10 a.m.
Tags: Sonic Youth, video
Prefuse 73 Gathers Battles, Tortoise, Hella Members for Risil Collective
As if Prefuse 73 mastermind Guillermo Scott Herren wasn't already busy enough with the fifty bazillion projects he's releasing this year, he's somehow found the time to round up practically everyone he knows in the experimental indie-rock universe and recruited them all into a sort of super-collective called Risil. And he knows a lot of people.
On July 23, Important will release the first full-length from the crew, which right now includes Herren, Hella's Zach Hill, Tortoise's John McEntire, Battles' Tyondai Braxton, School of Seven Bells' Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis, and Savath & Savalas' Eva Puyuelo Muns. That's a lot of people! The cover is above, and the tracklist is below.
White Stripes' Crazy 2007 Canadian Tour Gets a Documentary Film
Photo by Autumn de Wilde
In 2007, the White Stripes toured Canada. Or, more accurately, they toured the living hell out of Canada. They made a point to play every province and territory in the country, from big cities like Toronto to off-the-beaten-path locales like Whitehorse and Charlottetown, and they also captured their great Northern adventure on tape.
And Jack and Meg White didn't just stick to concert halls. They rocked a fishing boat, a classroom, a city bus, a public park, and a warehouse. It all ended with an extremely brief concert in Newfoundland. As we reported at the time, the Stripes were trailed by a film crew throughout the trek.
Back in April, we reported that a White Stripes film was one of the seemingly hundreds of projects Jack White had in progress. Now, the puzzle pieces are fitting together. The CBC reports that the forthcoming White Stripes movie is indeed a documentary about that Canadian tour.
Monday, June 15
Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy Team for Tour
America's Most Wanted tour also features Soulja Boy and Drake
And just like that, the hip-hop tour of the summer is a go. Starting July 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and wrapping up August 23 in Dallas, Texas, the America's Most Wanted tour features four of rap's most exciting stars traveling across North America on a single bill.
That's sometime-guitarist Lil Wayne, ad lib revolutionary Young Jeezy, YouTube impresario Soulja Boy, and "Best I Ever Had" upstart Drake teaming up in the name of economic security and maximum visibility. Feel free to start planning that "Prom Queen" bathroom break now.
Full itinerary below:
Cat Stevens Says He Forgives Coldplay for Stealing "Viva La Vida" Melody
"I have even copied myself without even knowing I have done it."
Last month, we reported that Yusuf Islam, the man formerly known as Cat Stevens, had joined the list of folks claiming that Coldplay ripped him off for their hit "Viva La Vida".
Islam told the British tabloid The Sun that Coldplay had plagiarized pieces of his 1973 song "Foreigner Suite".
But Islam's a nice enough guy that he didn't want to sue Coldplay over the dispute. According to the British rag The Daily Express, he even forgives Coldplay. (via TwentyFourBit)
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