Jul 21, 2009

When The Roots premiered the eponymous song from their forthcoming album How I Got Over (out October 20 via Def Jam) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in June, it sounded like a funky barn burner with plenty of horns. The studio version is slightly mure muted, with a Curtis Mayfield-esque groove serving as its melodic undercurrent. MC Black Thought has one of the best lines here: “Out in the streets where I grew up, first thing they teach ya’s not to give a fuck/That type of thinking can’t get you nowhere/Someone has to care.” It’s still extra smooth though. (Via Okayplayer.)

Jul 21, 2009

Philadelphia’s Free Energy, are releasing a self-titled 7-inch today on DFA Records, and you can get an earful of the eponymous track here. Like many FE cuts it’s a little slice of ‘70s pop heaven. I feel like I should be wearing more yellows and browns.

Jul 21, 2009

The London duo of Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze, aka The Big Pink, who we featued in our Winter ‘09 issue, are releasing their debut album, A Brief History of Love, September 14th via 4AD. A Brief History will feature previous singles “Velvet,” “Crystal Visions”, and “Too Young to Love,” as well as this new song, “Dominos.” It was recorded and self-produced at Electric Lady Studios in New York earlier this year. Mixing was done by Rich Costey (Mastodon, Mew, Muse, New Order, Rage Against The Machine), with the exception of “Velvet” which was previously mixed by Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The band asked longtime 4AD art gurus, v23 (Pixies, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil), to package the album artwork. For more details on the release, go here. The Big Pink also have some festival dates this summer.

Jul 21, 2009

Watch on YouTube

This past Saturday, The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit) performed in New York and Vampire Weekend‘s Ezra Koenig stopped by to sing his part on the sunny “Warm Heart of Africa.” (via Prefix)

Jul 21, 2009

Jarvis Cocker‘s official site posted a remix by Parisian Pilooski of his single “You’re in My Eyes (Discosong),” a cut from this year’s Further Complications. Pilooski is best known for his D-i-r-t-y 12-inch edits series (the most popular being his version of Frankie Valli’s “Beggin’”) and his role in the Dirty Sound System collective. Jarvis is preparing for a U.S. tour and is on the cover of Under the Radar‘s Summer ‘09 issue, which is on stands now.

Jul 21, 2009

Watch on YouTube

This past Sunday, Thom Yorke performed a 12-song solo set at Suffolk’s Latitude Festival. Read all about it here. At the very crowded Obelisk Arena, the Radiohead frontman, played a new song. The blogs are calling the sparse acoustic song “The Present Tense.” Yorke introduced the track by saying, “‘A new song, so you know, go for a piss.” The song was previously soundchecked at Radiohead concerts in Mexico and Toronto. Some soundboard recordings are up at Fine Fine Music, as well as an audience recording of “The Present Tense” At Ease has more YouTube clips. (via At Ease)

Full Setlist:

01 The Eraser
02 Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
03 Atoms For Peace
04 Harrowdown Hill (at the end of the song: “I’ll Be Your Bitch”)
05 Follow Me Around (”One that’s on the shelf and never made it off. Did you like that? Good! It’s on YouTube now”)
06 Everything In Its Right Place
07 The Present Tense (”A New song, so you know, go for a piss”)
08 Cymbal Rush
09 Black Swan (Not too confident about his guitar loops: “It’ll be a miracle if this works”
10 Videotape

Encore:
11 There There (”Anyone see Grace Jones? I want those costume changes. G-string. Is that a good idea?”)
12 True Love Waits (”This is another song that fell off the shelf once…and it’s still there”)

Jul 21, 2009

Self-taught Brooklyn-via-Montréal multi-instrumentalist Julie Peel is releasing her debut full-length album, Near the Sun, September 22nd, on American Laundromat. The folk singer/songwriter was previously featured on ALR‘s tribute compilations, such as Just Like Heaven (The Cure), Gigantic (Kim Deal), Dig for Fire (The Pixies), and Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young), but Sun is Peel’s debut solo album. That’s the album artwork on the right there. On record, she’s joined on bass, cello and upright bass by Cyrille Catois and on drums by Andreas Dahlbäck. Her acoustic guitar-driven sound recalls the delicate whimsy of Mirah, lounge-y lilt of Feist, and the twilighted flurries of Sharon Van Etten. Here’s a delightfully sleepy track from the forthcoming LP, called “Unfold.” Peel has plans to tour much of the U.S. in the fall but has only a few NYC dates on her Myspace right now.