The somewhat Air-y lead single from Pittsburgh psychedelic mongers Black Moth Super Rainbow‘s now has a murderous clip. “Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise,”from the collective’s fourth longplayer, Eating Us, has plenty of aural sunshine to deliver, equally set off by dollops (nay gobs!) of macabre images. Vocoders, a lush instrumental overlay, and a Wall-of-Sound drum kit typify the strange video. It also comes with this equally odd description:
“Directed by Team Tobaxxxo, the video captures a day in the life of a besuited fellow whose big thrills in life are practicing good dental hygiene and toasting hot dogs. With a big day ahead, he’s recruited the friendly girls from next door to give him a hand. Lucky for him, the girls know just what it takes to put smile on a man’s face.” Bloody masacre juice anyone? Eww…
Pitchfork had the exclusive first listen of fourth Why? album Eskimo Snow earlier today. “This Blackest Purse” holds true to Yoni Wolf’s anti-rap schema for the follow-up to 2008’s Alopecia. The Bay Area indie-rapper’s lead track has a straightforward and stately piano melody that sounds more like an Arcade Fire song. There’s plenty of Wolf’s signature lyrical wordplay to ground the shift in aesthetics though. Eskimo Snow is due September 22 in the U.S. from Anticon and October 5 in the U.K. from Tomlab. (via Pitchfork)
Ramona Falls
“Russia” MP3
Jul 14, 2009
Ramona Falls is the stage moniker for Menomena‘s Brent Knopf, whose solo debut, Intuit, is out August 18 on Barsuk. The new project sees the Portland native inviting a bevy of Northwest indie musicians, including members of The Helio Sequence, Mirah and Talkdemonic. “Russia” is an adroit production full of flitting strings and shifting time signatures that make one pine for a new Menomena release.
The Dodos
“Fables” MP3
Jul 14, 2009
Now fans of The Dodos can give a long, hard listen to Time to Die, the followup to one of UTR’s top 2008 releases, Visiter. The San Francisco indie trio is combating last week’s leakage by offering a 320kbps stream of the whole album. “Fables” is the ebullient, strum-y third track off the forthcoming album. Time to Die will be released on Frenchkiss September 15. In a video on the site, singer/guitarist Meric Long explains: “We want you to hear it, and we want you to feel it.” Though the physical LP’s is unchanged (it drops August 31 in the U.K.), the digital release has been moved way up, to July 27 in the U.K. and July 28 in the U.S. For a week, the album will be available for digital download in the U.S. only at Amazon. (via Pitchfork)
Broken Social Scene
“Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” (Live in Toronto, feat. Emily Haines and Feist) Video
Stereogum reported last week about a Broken Social Scene reunion show at Toronto’s Harborfront. The bulging BSS lineup included, among others, Feist, Emily Haines, Kevin Drew, Jimmy Shaw, Brendan Canning, Jason Collett, and Amy Millan. It’s rare to see all those indie ladies onstage together but when it happens it’s quite memorable. The crew did some BSS tracks, most notably “7/4 (Shoreline).” Covers of Metric’s “Gimme Sympathy,” Collett’s “I’ll Bring The Sun,” Canning’s “Love Is New” and Drew and Feist getting their acoustic medley of “Safety Bricks,” “Past and Present” and “I Feel It All,” rounded out the set. Here’s a nice clip of everyone enjoying themselves during the old You Forgot It in People standby “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl.” (via Sterogum)
In this music video for Lily Allen’s new snarky single “22,” the pop anti-princess switches from drunk/disheveled to radiantly mysterious with the bat of a lash. “22” is the piano-led single from the self-serving sophomore album It’s Not Me It’s You. The video and song showcases one of the rare moments where Allen shows some vulnerability.
Indie-folkie Cass McCombs’ “You Saved My Life” has a new Eric Fensler-directed, slow-motion clip. In the video, footage of the twangy songsmith wandering through an outdoor soiree are interspersed between images of a wistful couple (think “Harvest Moon”) dancing in a shadowy room flanked by circuit board-like lights. Ryan Adams would kick himself if he heard that high lonesome pedal steel. McComb’s Catacombs (it rhymes!)is out now on Domino.
