The debut video from Jay Reatard‘s forthcoming Matador Records debut, Watch Me Fall, is a birthday party from hell. Lead punk bop single “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” features some snotty brats throwing water balloons, shoving cameramen into a pool and riding runaway horses. That clown is pretty freaky too. Watch Me Fall is out August 18th. Be sure to also check out this Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz-directed mini-doc on Reatard‘s history and the Memphis, Tenn. garage scene. As usual, Jay is touring a ton this fall.
Lumina
“I’ll Be With You” (Black Lips Cover) MP3
Aug 08, 2009
The next single from The Black Lips’ latest album 200 Million Thousand is “Drugs” and it’s coming out in the U.K. August 24th via Vice. The B-side features The Horrors’ lead singer Faris Badwan covering Lips’ sunshine-punk track “I’ll Be With You” under his Lumina guise. Badwan’s take drapes a gothic mist over the track as he sings like a vampire skulking about his castle. There’s a feature on The Horrors in our Summer issue.
Julian Plenti
“Games For Days” (Feat. Metric’s Emily Haines) Video
Julian Plenti (aka Interpol‘s Paul Banks) released his debut LP, Julian Plenti Is…Skyscraper, earlier this week. Now we get a convoluted and sexually perverse video, directed by Javier Aguilera. The vengeful clip for “Games For Days” finds Banks playing dual roles, alongside Metric‘s Emily Haines. They both trash a hotel room and it’s all very Léon: The Professional-meets-Spy vs. Spy. Some kinky handcuffs are also involved. Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper is out on Matador.
Though I have little to no working knowledge of the game of cricket (such a Yankee!) scrounging around the internet revealed that Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh’s (Pugwash) side project as The Duckworth Lewis Method is a reference to the beloved sport. For those interested, it’s the “mathematical way to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket or Twenty20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance.” (Thanks Wikipedia.) The Monty Python-like video for the cricket-inspired psychedelic group’s new single “Meeting Mr Miandad” is available above. In the clip, the Irish twosome float around in their camper van and it smacks of a hypothetical meeting between Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles, Super Furry Animals and The Dukes of Stratosphear. The Meeting Mr. Miandad single is out August 23rd. The release includes the single, an acoustic version and the phantasmagorical video.The Duckworth Lewis Method‘s self-titled LP is out now in the U.K.
The Danish oddities known collectively as Oh No Ono will probably be greeted with shrugs or disparaging comments here in the States. The members are from small towns in the north of Jutland but their helium vocals and unashamed pop arrangements are growing them an attentive audience back home. Think of The Dukes of Stratosphear and Mew swirling in outer space and you’ll come close to approximating this rising quintet’s second album, Eggs. Director Adam Hashemi‘s amazing video for Egg‘s “Swim” is an unsettling journey into the Oedipal complex of a youngster in a hospital, who might as well be the kid from The Shining or Let the Right One In. The haunting track is one of the darker songs on the eternally sunny Eggs. The video also features some gorgeous photography from DP Lasse Frank and a surprise ending. Eggs is not out in the U.S. but it was released in Denmark back in April by the mysterious label 01-11700170, in collaboration with Morningside Records.
Taken By Trees
“Watch the Waves” MP3
Aug 07, 2009
Taken By Trees’ beautiful, Dan Lissvik-produced upcoming full-length, East of Eden finally has a deserving single. When you pre-order the former Concretes singer’s second solo release here you can grab a copy of the Watch the Waves 7-inch for free. The B-side is the non-LP track, “Summer Sigh.” Also, watch the National Geographic mini-documentary of Victoria Bergsman’s trip to Pakistan to record the album here. “Watch the Waves” is highly percussive track with wafting flutes and cascading acoustic guitar lines by TKT’s longtime accompanying musician, Andreas Söderström. The trance-like, meditative music of Sufis comes to mind while listening. The sleepy-eyed, blissful photo on the single’s cover looks about right.
In related news, Noah Lennox sings back-up vocals on “Anna” and Bergsman sings “My Boys,” a slightly changed version of Animal Collective‘s “My Girls.” East of Eden comes out September 8th.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
“40 Day Dream” (Live at L.A.‘s Regent Theatre) Video
As far as live videos on YouTube go, they’re usually terribleorgodawful. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes (we featured them in our Summer Issue) have something of an anomaly on their hands with the relatively pristine (HD!) live clip for “40 Day Dream.” the parlor piano stomper references everything from TheMagical Mystery Tour and rockabilly to freak folk and choral music. Best line has to be this: “She’s got jumper cable lips.” The riveting video was recorded at Los Angeles’ Regent Theatre and edited together by the bands own frontman Alex Ebert.
Two Fingers
“One Flute Rhythm” MP3
Aug 07, 2009
The new limited-edition (only 1000 copies) album by the deebee duo (Amon Tobin & Joe “Doubleclick” Chapman) is titled Instrumentals and is due out September 8th on Paper Bag. The album features 22 instrumental tracks, including reworkings of some of the tracks from their self-titled LP, as well as 10 brand new, never before heard tracks. Here’s, “One Flute Rhythm,” a flute-enchanced, sinister dubstep track from the collection. There’s also the Bad Girlsingle to coming out September 1st.
The next single from 
Taken By Trees
The new limited-edition (only 1000 copies) album by the deebee duo (Amon Tobin & Joe “Doubleclick” Chapman) is titled Instrumentals and is due out September 8th on 
