In 2009 when they were both
coming to prominence, I frequently confused the bands jj and The
xx. I know I can't be alone in that confusion because they were almost
fated to be blurred together. Both trade in stark, dream-haunting pop.
Frequently the only sign of a pulse either have to show is a well-programmed
drum sequence. Both groups are "fronted" by vocalists who
simultaneously manage to sound self-assured and slowly withering. In reality
one of the most tenable differences between the two is that jj exists as a
Swedish duo and The xx are an English trio.
But it’s coming up on two years
since we’ve heard anything new from The xx, whereas jj are readying their third
LP, V. Today the duo offered the
first taste of the album with "all white everything".The song
begins with Elin Kastlander silently praying as crisp piano trickles in. In
such a desolate environment, Kastlander sounds defeated. Her hopes for mending
her "restless soul" are dashed when everything a possible companion
tells her is deemed "all Greek to me." "I've been up all winter
for someone like you and I know that you've been up all winter for someone like
me," she exhales in the following chorus. It's a common sort of
desperation, hoping someone else feels the same as you so you can justify what
seems absurd. Kastlander's desperation only grows as Joakim Benon’s high-strung
drum machine dots the barren landscape. At the apex of despair, around the 3:26
mark, she struggles to complete the question "have I said enough?"
When you're alone long enough, it becomes much easier to question every
decision you've made.
Andrew Bird premieres new album Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of...
Indie-folk/chamber-pop
artist Andrew Bird has been on a bit of cover kickas
of late, and today brought news that streak would continue with the
announcement of the indecisively titled Things Are Really Great Here, Sort
Of... Joined by recently formed backing band Hands of Glory, Bird is
delivering a full record of covers of alternative-country duo The Handsome
Family, who are best known for their 2003 track "Far From Any Road"
which was the True Detective season 1 theme song. The release comes a little
more than 6 months after Bird's last album, the seven song EP I Want to See Pulaski at
Night.
Things Are
Really Great Here, Sort Of... drops
June 3 and you can preorder the track on Bird's site. You'll find
a gorgeous, slightly rollicking cover of "Tin Foiled" here
via Pitchfork and below there's a teaser trailer for the LP along with summer
tour dates.
Tour Dates:
6/6 New York City, NY- BAM Harvey Theater (Studio 360 Radio Love Fest) 6/7 New York City, NW- Rough Trade 6/8-9 Washington, DC- Lincoln Theatre 6/10 Carrboro, NC- Cat's Cradle 6/12 Asheville, NC- Orange Peel 6/13 Manchester, TN- Bonnaroo
6/15 Tulsa, OK- Cain's Ballroom
6/16 Austin, TX- The Paramount Theater
6/20 Boulder, CO- Chautauqua 6/21 Telluride, CO- Telluride 7/2 Ann Arbor, MI- Power Center 7/4 Toronto, Ontario- Toronto Urban Roots Fest 7/5 Ottawa, Ontario- Ottawa Bluesfest 7/6 Montreal, Quebec- Jazz Fest 7/8 New York City, NY- Central Park Summerstage 7/10 Hanover, NH- Spaulding Auditorium at the Hopkins Center 7/11 Bridgeport, CT- The Klein 7/12 Lowell, MA- Lowell Summer Music Series 7/18 Vancouver, British Columbia- Vancouver Folk Fest 7/24 Calgary, Alberta- Calgary Folk Fest 7/26 Edmonton, Alberta - Interstellar Rodeo 8/1 Big Sur, CA- Henry Miller Library 8/2 Saratoga, CA- Mountain Winery 8/3 San Francisco, CA- Sigmund Stern Grove 9/19 San Diego, CA- Humphrey's 9/21 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
Spoon unveiling something on June 10
Back in March indie rock quartet Spoon teased
their recently completed eighth album with a short, cryptic trailer entitled
"Hi". And now after the announcement of inking with label Loma Vista, the Britt Daniel
led band have added to the album mystery with the above photo. Found on both
their Twitter
and Facebook
pages, the picture offers no other details other than that the band is doing
something on the date. "R.I.P." could be the name of a darker new
album, a new track, or something else entirely.
Whatever
it is the band is keeping quiet, other than to tell Rolling Stonethe record will accompany a
summer tour. In many ways the campaign resembles Arcade Fire's masterful run-up to Reflektor with all the similar
frustration of waiting. While you wait, ponder over this short clip of Spoon
performing new track "They Want My Soul".
Belle & Sebastian planning new album, tour, and reissues
2014 is shaping up to be a jam-packed
year for Scottish pop outfit Belle & Sebastian. Stuart Murdoch and company
have been working on a ninth LP with Gnarls Barkley/Youth
Lagoon/Animal
Collective producer Ben Allen. Though it's currently without a title,
tracklist, release date, or album cover, the band has been fastidiously
documenting the recording process for the album on Instagram.
And if their first album since
2010's Write About Love wasn't enough, the sextet is plotting a tour
that will include choice festival dates in: Germany, Austria, Spain, Poland,
and Sweden this summer, in addition to Austin, Texas this fall. Not enough?
Stuart Murdoch's directorial debut God
Help The Girl, which won awards at Sundance this year, will start
showing in the United States and Canada in the fall.
Finally, long-term home Matador
is prepping a reissue campaign of the band's catalog. Considering the "flat
production" found on the initial version of their magnum opus If You're Feeling Sinister
and the overwhelming fondness for it, the move is a no-brainer.
If you're still not satisfied,
watch the band briefly covering "Don't Stop Believing" and check out
the aforementioned tour dates.
Tour Dates:
6/9- Vienna, Austria- Arena Wien Open Air 6/20- Neuhausen, Germany- Southside Festival 6/21- Scheesel, Germany- Hurricane Festival 6/22- Hilvarenbeek, Holland- Best Kept Secret Festival 6/25- Copenhagen, Denmark- DR Concert Hall 6/26- Norkopping, Sweden- Bravalla Festival 7/26- Costa Brava, Spain- Festival Porta Ferada 7/28- Santiago de Compostela, Spain- Plaza de la Quintana 8/3- Katowice, Poland- Off Festival 8/8- Cesena, Italy- Rocca Mallatestiana 8/10- Palermo, Italy- Ypsigrock Festival 10/3- Austin, TX- Austin City Limits Festival 10/10- Austin, TX- Austin City Limits Festival 10/31- Paris, France- Pitchfork Music Festival Paris
Check back tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.
Titling
the A-side from an upcoming 7" single "Tambourine Light"
couldn't have been a mistake by psych-folk rockers Woods. Before lead singer Jeremy
Earl's voice can begin, his shimmering guitar riff engenders comparisons to The
Byrds’ epochal cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man". It's not just
Earl and his guitar tone; everyone in Woods manages to summon the spirit of the
folk-rock originators. Kevin Morby's barely there, but anchoring bass doesn't
fall far from the Chris Hillman tree. The way Aaron Neveu plays his lilting
drummer pattern, Michael Clarke may as well be manning the kit. Even Woods'
soft harmonizing exists on the same spectrum as the Roger McGuinn-led group In
the "jingle-jangle morning" it’s clear who Woods are following.
There
are digressions though. Earl's voice is best described as "quietly aching,"
whereas McGuinn's is routinely labelled "nasal" or "drawling." And
while that's a miniscule difference, it's an important one. McGuinn sometimes
sounded disappointed singing through those nostrils, but you got the sense he'd
move past it. With Earl, it's harder to tell. Sure he's looking up "past
the Sun," but at what and for how long? "Forever" is a word he
let's go of as the band gels into a restful groove. That said it's an eternity
where the bliss of it being "forever morning" can easily be
misconstrued as "forever mourning." In that period of time he's
pushed creeping shadows away and has felt all sorts of challenges come up
"against him." Hearing Earl describe these struggles you realize if
anyone's ready "for to fade," it's him.
"Tambourine Light" will be out July 8 on Captured Tracks and is backed by "Tomorrow's Only Yesterday".
Andy Warhol directed clip of a 1967 Velvet Underground concert surfaces
Last week was a very good week for the Velvet Underground. First there was the well publicized news that a 1966 acetate of the band's "Scepter Sessions" was going up for auction, and now Spin is reporting (with help from Open Culture) that a 33-minute film of the Velvets performing in Boston in 1967 was posted last Wednesday on YouTube.
Simply entitled The Velvet Underground in Boston, the Andy Warhol directed footage was found by the artist's museum in 2008 and premiered at New York's MOMA in 2010. Since then it was essentially gathering dust until a YouTube account called "John Colon" liberated it from the museum on the 21st. Shot at Boston's Tea Party Club, the clip bursts with sudden pans, zooms, and abrupt edits that are as jarring as the band's lacerating wall of noise. In fact, "noise" or more appropriately "noise rock" is the best way to describe VU's set since nothing is distinguishable behind Warhol's constant knob twiddling. Considering very little complete footage exists of the band, any performance is a complete revelation.
Raekwon debuts new collabo "Call of Duty" with Akon
If the Wu-Tang Clan really is
forever, then today is one of those days that offers unassailable proof. This
morning saw Ghostface Killah teaming up with BADBADNOTGOOD and Danny Brown
for a brilliant round of freewheeling; this afternoon Ghost's frequent
Wu-collaborator Raekwon dropped the latest effort from his upcoming sixth LP FILA
(Fly International Luxurious Art). Entitled "Call of
Duty", the track features a riotous hook from R&B singer Akon and
Raekwon nimbly recalling "roughed up stones" and "murders by number
in Monaco." He even crafts a slight allusion to his recent
feud with RZA, saying, "When we go, yo, we go together; whatever is
said, it’s still combat boots on the door." Not even internal disputes can
bring the Wu down.
(You can listen to "Call of Duty" here and look for FILA to drop later this year.)
Check back tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.
Finding the common thread
through "Six Degrees", Ghostface Killah's collaboration with Toronto
jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD and madcap MC Danny Brown, is near impossible. It's akin
to performing alchemy or decrypting James Joyce's Finnegan's
Wake. Sure you can try, but your attempt is going to end in embarrassment.
Ghost is arguably the greatest to ever do "stream of consciousness"
rap. He blends painstaking descriptions about the "tartar sauce on my S
Dot Kicks" with head scratchers like "fly
like Egyptian musk," delivering each with a similar command. In that
sense, Danny Brown is a direct descendant of Ghost. Making the most out of his
pinched-off, nervy flow he talks about "b**** p**** smell like
Penguin's" and avoiding
crack fiends on the way to the store with equal urgency. Both of their
brains leak like a sieve and every thought flows out with the same
pressure.
Emboldened by BADBADNOTGOOD's
minimalist noir-slink, Ghost and Brown fill in the blanks with a deluge of
details. While delivering bodies to Staten Island landfills, Ghost "creeps
like a caterpillar." To keep his evil third eye functioning, he pours
"bottles of the 150 over twisters" and blows "on the green
deadly." As drums pan back and forth, Ghost spotlights a fiend "with
a needle left stuck in his arm, died of bad fix" and doesn't even blink.
Like any "good" narrator he's careful not to romanticize any one
character. Guys from the block "stashing guns in shrimp bags" aren't
a tragedy, but a matter of fact. If Ghost opts for the ego-route with his
verse, Danny Brown nears full-blown id. He'll scratch you without thinking
twice if you dare stand in his way while watching Juice.
Rappers will be devoured "like butternut squash" if Brown feels his
tummy rumbling. Even the decision to go "drunk drivin' in a Charger"
doesn't scan as ill-advised. It’s just something to do. When you're as
unfiltered as these two, there's no telling what thought might come out.
"Six Degrees" drops as a 10-inch single through Lex on June 24 and can be preordered here.
Last
week on the blog, I was bemoaning a lack of Bonnie "Prince" Billy
songs in surf movies. I couldn't help but wonder aloud how the indie-folk
legend had been shut out of something he seemed tailor-made to soundtrack. But
in all of that huffing and puffing, I'd blown past an even more egregious
error: the lack of a Lana Del Rey Bond theme song. I understand the pop siren's
only been on the radar long enough to realistically appear in one Bond film,
2012's stellar Skyfall,
but what about the
new effort? Have the film's higher-ups even considered "Gangsta Nancy
Sinatra" or are visions
of Adele still dancing in their heads?
Whatever the case may be Lana
Del Rey's latest Ultraviolence single "Shades of Cool" acts as
a terrific tape submission for the role. Nearly every crucial component of a
Bond theme is here, from discreet percussion to subtle string flourishes and
bending guitars. In fact, hearing the wavering riff in the intro even my mother
was lead to ask "is this a Bond song? So if you're not picturing
crosshairs popping up when it hits, you're doing something wrong.
Getting the musical costume
right isn't enough though; you need to nail the performance as well. Themes
crafted by the likes of Garbage
and inestimable Shirley
Bassey have proven a Bond performance calls for an unflappable cool
papering over a flood of emotions, which Del Rey's being doing since she was "swinging in the
backyard." Even while dealing with a druggy partner she deems
"unfixable" in the airy chorus, she isn't the least bit flummoxed.
She can wait until she's no longer "one of many," but the one and
only. If the day never comes, if she never breaks through, she'll leave along
with the sweltering guitar solo ending "Shades of Cool". Tears may
bead down her face as she walks out the door and she'll still appear
stone-faced. Like 007 himself, she's a survivor.
Ultraviolence drops June 13 on Polydor/Interscope.
