What's New(s)?

Tame Impala releasing live EP

Record Store Day has become a virtual holiday for music fans in the last few years. With long lines and short supplies of must-have items, it's Christmas for people who lack holiday cheer. One band helping ring in that cheer this year is Australian psych-rock outfit Tame Impala. On April 19th, the Kevin Parker fronted group will release Live Versions, an EP of live tracks recorded during a 2013 show in Chicago. According to Parker, songs were included based on "how different the live versions are from the album version." 

Below you'll find a tracklist of those "different" live versions, along with the video for Tame Impala's "Mind Mischief" which made AllFreshSounds' list of the "Top 10 Music Videos of 2013." 

Live Versions:
1. "Endors Toi
2. "Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind"
3. "Sestri Levante"
4. "Mind Mischief"
5. "Desire Be Desire Go"
6. "Half Full Glass"
7. "Be Above It"
8. "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"

Chance the Rapper/James Blake releases alternate version of "Life Round Here"

On no uncertain terms, the "Life Round Here" remix pairing Chicago spitballer Chance the Rapper and post-dubstep/R&B artist James Blake together was one of the great music triumphs in 2013. On paper what seemed like a mess of styles played out as a meeting of two old acquaintances. Chance hopscotched into Blake's sullen landscape at just the right moment, imbuing it with a melange of bright colors. 

Yesterday, Chance shared "Save Yourself First", the long-promised second remix of "Life Round Here". While the first remix was an eye-popping arrays of color, "Save Yourself First" drifts back to weary black-and-white of the original. Chance doesn't even try his hand at right, instead he depressingly bleats, yelps, and generally moans over a disembodied Blake vocal. It's an engaging listen to be sure, but there isn't much "life" to be found.

Blake and Chance were reported to be rooming together in Los Angeles and are supposedly working on a full album together.







Neil Young delays reissue of Time Fades Away boxset

Time Fades Away is the great lost Neil Young album. Albeit not in the same sense that Toast or Homegrown is a "lost Neil Young album." Both of those efforts never saw the light of day. They were scrapped at various stages, Homegrown very near the last minute, and their tracks were siphoned for future records.

Time Fades Away meanwhile was actually released. It dropped in 1973 and kickstarted Young's famed "Ditch Trilogy", a challenging collection of records that upended the sunny folk that had made Harvest a run-away hit. And though it was the catalyst for two of Young's greatest works, he never felt much fondness for the release. Over the years he's repeatedly called it "the worst record I ever made" and it's one of two albums (along with Journey Through the Past) that Young has never re-released. 

That egregious error was set to be corrected this year with the issuing of Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set. The latest in the Archives Series would not only include Time Fades Away, but fellow "Ditch Brethren" On the Beach and Tonight's the Night as well as Zuma. Now that April 19 release date has been shuffled to an unspecified date in November. According to Pitchfork's reporting, a press release claims the move was made, "due to several other projects that Young has in the works that he wishes to focus on." The massive Pono Music project is certainly one of those works, not to mention a new album released by Jack White's Third Man Records and another memoir. 

Whenever the boxset does arrive via Warner Bros. it will be limited to 3500 copies and the individual albums will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl. While you wait for that unforeseen date enjoy a clip of "The Bridge", the penultimate track from Time Fades Away.

Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

What's New(s)?

Chance the Rapper and James Blake unveil new video

James Blake and Chance the Rapper's dizzying remix of Overgrown stand-out "Life Round Here" has rapidly become one of my favorite collaborative efforts of the year, and now the pairing has produced a video. The black-and-white clip maintains the dour nature of the Blake original, featuring Blake and Chance rolling around an overcast Hertfordshire, England in a low-rider. Along the way the two encounter: a misplaced priest and nun, a dissolving horse, pirates, and quarreling old men; but mostly it's about the unlikely duo just "wondering" and "wandering" looking for no place in particular. 

 "Life Round Here" (Remix)

Flying Lotus teaming with Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar's supporting spot on the Yeezus tour doesn't begin for a few more days, and already he's receiving some assistance. Earlier today LA-based Flying Lotus took to Twitter announcing: "Been helpin out w the new @kendricklamar show for the yeezus tour. It's gonna b so amazing." 

FlyLo has yet to reveal if he'll be DJ'ing on-stage for Lamar or if he'll be playing in an auxiliary role, but the possibility of a Kendrick Lamar/Captain Murphy collabo is more likely than ever before. Check out the nocturnal video for FlyLo's "Tiny Tortures" below, which stars floating iPhones, an unplugging Dreamcast, and a severely confused Elijah Wood.

 "Tiny Tortures"

Swans crowdfund new album

 

Swans are currently prepping their follow-up to 2012's mammoth The Seer, and as part of that preparation the band is selling a new live-album entitled Not Here/Not Now to fund the recording process. Recorded live during 2012/2013 tour dates, the release will be made in a limited run of 2000 with hand-drawn designs by frontman Michael Gira and feature previously unrecorded live tracks and acoustic demos from the forthcoming studio album.

If that weren't enough, the Young God website mentions a variety of rewards for purchasing the album, including the $500 option to have Gira "record and send to customer a video of a simple, short, original song, acoustic guitar and voice, with customers’ name in the song,  praising the customer, his or her ancestors, thoughts, dreams, and future or past lives, forever." 

As for their next record (out some time in Spring 2014), Gira is promising it will be "OVERLY AMBITIOUS" and soberly realizing "THESE DAYS, EACH RECORD FEELS LIKE IT COULD BE THE LAST. OUR HOPE IS THAT IF THAT TURNS OUT TO BE THE CASE, IT WILL BE JUSTIFIED. 

The tracklist for the Not Here/Not Now can be found below, and the apocryphal blast of "No Words, No Thoughts" after the jump.

Disc 1:
1. "To Be Kind"
2. "Just a Little Boy"
3. "Coward"
4. "She Loves Us!"
5. "Oxygen…"

Disc 2:
1. "The Seer"/ "Bring the Sun"/"Toussaint L’ouverture"
2. "Nathalie Neal"
3. "Kirsten Supine" (demo)
4. "Screen Shot" (demo)

"No Words, No Thoughts"

What's New(s)?

James Blake and Chance the Rapper have more in store

As previously reported on Tuesday's edition of "What's New(s)?" James Blake and Chicago spitballer Chance the Rapper teamed up for a dizzying remix of Blake's "Life Round Here", but the remix wasn't a one-off release. In an interview with XXL, Chance admits "the two kept in touch and started working together on a couple of tracks, including some original material." According to Chance, there's also a second version of "Life Round Here" we've yet to hear. Chance continued, "I love his records...So to do another version of one of his songs that I felt was already completed was… you know… you don’t wanna f**k somebody’s s**t up. I jumped on it and people seem to like it a lot. But I’m really excited for our other s**t too." After the chilled out/hyper-kinetic blend they brought on Tuesday, Chance can't be the only one excited.





Stream Mazzy Star's new album

This coming Tuesday, California dream-pop royalty Mazzy Star will release Seasons of Your Day, their first album of all new material in 17 years. The follow-up to 1996's Among My Swan, is streaming now on the Guardian and the orotund duo doesn't appear to have lost a step. Despite the near two decade delay, guitarist Dave Roback informed the U.K. publication "we were always recording and writing. We just didn't release any of it publicly." In a companion interview, vocalist Hope Sandoval the silence saying, "I don't think it's unusual at all. I don't think we were really in the mood to release music." 

"California"

Danny Brown debuts new video

The "adderall admiral" has debuted a new video "Dip" in the run-up to his soon to be released OLD LP. The video for the chattering synth track (directed by Rollo Jackson) features the Detroit rapper rattling through steamy back-stage scenes and raucous live performances. Brown pays tribute to Mac Dre and warns against being let into his zone. There's also cartoon animated pill popping, teeth gnashing, and eye bulging. In other words, it's exactly what you'd expect from a Danny Brown drug track.

 OLD is out September 30 via Fool's Gold.

Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s).

What's New(s)?

Queens of the Stone Age throw shots at Jigga

Though it's hard to imagine them inspiring a "Takeover" like response, Queens of the Stone Age had some less than kind things to say about "the God MC" in light of their recent performance at the Jay curated Made in America Festival. In an interview with the CBC 2's "Strombo Show" frontman Josh Homme referred to Jay Z as a "kook", saying "He has his security frisking the bands on the way in." When the festival security asked to look through his own bag, Homme threatened not to play, intonating "no one's ever done that." Apparently the band was also given a bottle of Jay Z's champagne, which they later broke tagging it as nothing more than "a marketing tool". Listen at around the 1:56:00 and 2:16:00 marks for QOTSA's commentary on the incident, where Homme also wonders aloud "people never say anything bad about Jay Z do they?", not unless your Lil Wayne or Nas.


  




Beck debuts "Gimme"

Rounding out this summer's trilogy of stand-alone singles, Beck has released "Gimme" to follow-up previous entries "Defriended" and "I Won't Be Long". According to NPR affiliate WXPN, none of the songs will feature on his forthcoming full length LP or his rumored acoustic album. "Gimme" tows the line between the two, feature an organic gamelan like sound before rapidly mutating into mechanical pitch-shifting vocals. The song is now available as a 12'' on Beck's website backed by a 30 minute extended mix B-side.

James Blake teams up with Chance the Rapper

James Blake's original "Life Round Here" distinctively recalled the "rainy days" he detailed in the overcast number; a dour keyboard providing the cloud coverage and Blake's cascading digital voice supplying the downpour. The song appeared before the RZA feature "Take A Fall For Me" on the excellent sophomore release Overgrown. Since then, Blake has logged studio time with Drake, Kanye West, and now Chicago upstart Chance the Rapper. Before debuting the remix on BBC 1 Radio, Blake fittingly called from Trent, England standing in the rain shooting a video with Chance for the new version. When asked by DJ Zane Lowe how the collabo came about, Blake spotlighted Chance's SXSW performance and said "I never really felt the track was finished, even when it went on the album, I just felt there was this space". Chance fills in that space with a dizzying verse that scurries through "roundabouts" and chips in for another round. The exuberant touchdown Blake dejectedly referenced is reinvigorated by Chance's own take on the Ickey Shuffle. 

Look for the video to appear in a future edition of "What's New(s)?" which is said to feature everything from "Somalia Pirates to Chevy Impalas."