Blitzen Trapper‘s way of making folk-rock is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Thankfully, on their wily and self-released breakthrough Wild Mountain Nation (2007) and its mature sequel, Furr (2008), much of those experiments stuck in a brilliant splatter pattern. Now the Portland, Ore. sextet, led by the ever-sagacious Eric Earley, are set to release album #4, Destroyer of the Void. The new effort comes out June 8th via Sub Pop.
The band recorded the LP with Bright Eyes/M. Ward producer Mike Coykendall. Peter and Heather Woods Broderick of Efterklang contributed string arrangements, and singer-songwriter Alela Diane guests on one track.
Per usual, the influences are familiar and bluesy: Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Van Morrison, The Temptations, The Rolling Stones. Listen to the grand and stark piano ballad, “Heaven and Earth” above. Once that string quartet hits your ears you’ll be hard-pressed to not get a little choked up. Key lyric: “There is a love that sleeps inside of the canyons of our deepest dreaming lives/ a shelter that cannot be lost/ a name that is so deep and so far across.” From the sound of this cut alone, the group’s cutting down on the electro-hillbilly experiments of the past.
Well, the Canadian supergroup’s releasing two more Forgiveness cuts today. The rollicking “Forced to Love” and the sparse electro-pop tune “All to All.” The latter sees the ethereal Lisa Lobsinger on lead vocals. Both are available to stream above or to download at the band’s site. Man, you got to love double A-side singles! Forgiveness Rock Record drops May 4th. Gaze at the LP’s tracklist below and check out their upcoming tour dates here.
Forgiveness Rock Record:
01 World Sick 02 Chase Scene 03 Texico Bitches 04 Forced to Love 05 All to All 06 Art House Director 07 Highway Slipper Jam 08 Ungrateful Little Father 09 Meet Me in the Basement 10 Sentimental X’s 11 Sweetest Kill 12 Romance to the Grave 13 Water in Hell 14 Me and My Hand
Teenage Fanclub
“Baby Lee” MP3
Mar 23, 2010
Scottish indie-pop vets Teenage Fanclub return on June 8th with their ninth LP, Shadows, and a U.K./Ireland trek. Merge will issue the new LP. Their big gestured strain of rock is needed after the untimely passing of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton last week.
It has been five years since their last album, Man-Made, was issued. Shadows will be preceeded by the jubilant and jangly new single, “Baby Lee,” which you can download for free above. Check out the tour dates and tracklist here. And that’s the artwork to the right. North American dates are being scheduled for September.
The dance-inducing synthpop duo YACHT just released a new vid for their See Mystery Lights cut “The Afterlife.” There are lots of baptisms too look at here. Pretty much every kind you can imagine. The clip pretty much cements the Portland group’s love for conflating music with religion/cults. They have a ton of U.K. dates coming up with LCD Soundsystem and an appearance at Sasquatch! too. Check those out at their MySpace. Click the YouTube play button to watch “The Afterlife” unfold before your very eyes. (Via Prefix.)
“Hurricane J” is the new single from Brooklyn bar rockers The Hold Steady. The piano-led cut is off their fifth studio LP, Heaven Is Whenever, which drops May 3rd through Rough Trade in Europe and May 4th in North America via Vagrant. Singer/guitarist Craig Finn recently called the new release “less anthemic” in a press release, and though “Hurricane J” tries quite hard to be important, they have a tough time without multi-instrumentalist Mr. Franz Nicolay. Finn sings about the titular character, “crashing into the harbor this summer,” but this tune doesn’t sound like it will be featured on many summer mixtapes.
So, this might not be as memorable as anything off prior releases, or even the retrospectively disappointing Stay Positive (2008), but The Hold Steady persevere. They will hit the road next Friday (April 2nd), and continue through the BBQ months. (Via P4k.)
Swedish dance-pop queen Robyn plans to release three albums (or mini-albums) this year. In an interview with Swedish magazine Bon, Robyn talked about dividing up her fifth LP into three individual discs to be released in the spring, summer, and winter. No release dates have been announced, but the project’s first song, “Fembot,” is floating about the web.
The propulsive dance track debuted on on her official website last week, and continues the singer’s ongoing android theme, heard previously on Robyn’s “Robotboy,” the instrumental interlude “Bionic Woman,” and 2009’s “The Girl and the Robot” collabo with Röyksopp.
“Fembots have feelings too. You split my heart in too, now what you gonna do,” Robyn intones on the pure-pop cut. The 30-year-old songtress uses mechanical lyrics as metaphors for female aging and desires to become pregnant. Oh, and she also rap-sings about her Automatic Booty Applications. (I’m sure there are plenty of dudes that will grant her wish.)
The dancey, R&B tune will be released on Body Talk this June. Other songs yet to be heard include a rap-off with Snoop Dogg, the Diplo-produced “Dance Hall Queen,” which mysteriously leaked onto the net last month, another Diplo-helmed cut that sounds like a modern Ace of Base single, a Timbaland-esque track produced by Röyksopp called “None of Dem,” and one entitled “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do.”
Also, check out a behind-the-scenes Robyn documentary below:
Domino Records will digitally release the Arctic Monkeys’ third single from Humbug on March 23rd and on 10-inch vinyl on April 13th. “My Propeller” comes packaged with three brand new cuts: “Joining the Dots,” “The Afternoon’s Hat,” and “Don’t Forget Whose Legs You’re On. Be sure to watch “My Propeller” right here. Thirty Two directed the black and gray, silhouetted performance vid. The Sheffield, England fivesome are touring the U.S. now. They just added an additional date to their trek, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, in Pioneertown, Calif. (April 18th).
“My Propeller” (7-inch): 01 My Propeller 02 Joining the Dots
10-inch: 01. My Propeller 02 Joining the Dots 03. The Afternoon’s Hat 04. Don’t Forget Whose Legs You’re On
The Black Keys recently announced their forthcoming LP, Brothers, which Nonesuch will issue on May 18th. The sixth full-length was recorded at Alabama’s Muscle Shoals studios and mostly produced by Auerbach, Carney, and Mark Neill. Brothers features one track (“Tighten Up”) produced by Danger Mouse, who manned the boards for 2008’s Attack and Release.
You can preview that whistling organ/guitar cut at the blues-rock duo’s MySpace. Check out upcoming live gigs while you’re there. Additional dates will be announced soon.
Blitzen Trapper
Scottish indie-pop vets 
“Hurricane J” is the new single from Brooklyn bar rockers 
The Black Keys: 
