As we reported earlier, Daniel Johnston‘s Is and Always Was is due October 6th from Eternal Yip Eye Music/High Wire Music. The LP is the 48-year-old bedroom singer-songwriter’s first new release in six years. Hi-fi producer/Beck collaborator and former Jellyfish member Jason Falkner manned the board and also played a number of instruments and noted session player Joey Waronker drummed. On the new ‘70s pop-rocker “Freedom”, which you can download above, Johnston sounds pretty dang polished in his new evirons. Well, the music does anyhow. The full tracklist is below and the Johnston sketch to the right is the cover.
Is and Always Was:
01 Mind Movies 02 Fake Records of Rock and Roll 03 Queenie the Doggie 04 High Horse 05 Without You 06 I Had Lost My Mind 07 Freedom 08 Tears 09 Is and Always Was 10 Lost in My Infinite Memory 11 Light of Day
Alec Ounsworth
“Holy, Holy, Holy Moses (Song For New Orleans)” MP3
Aug 24, 2009
This Mo Beauty preview track adds to a growing addendum of solo music circulating this year from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontman Alec Ounsworth. First we heard the great “Skin and Bones” from the record he just released under his Flashy Python alter ego (which is still streaming in full). “Holy, Holy, Holy Moses (Song For New Orleans)” comes from Ounsworth’s other active solo project of the year, credited simply to Alec Ounsworth, though including a backing band of New Orleans professional musicians such as bassist George Porter, Jr. , drummer Stanton Moore, keys man Robert Walter and bariton and pedal-steel guitarist Matt Sutton. The downloadable cut above is the first listen from the forthcoming Anti- release.
Earlier today, Ounsworth told Stereogum about this about this particular set of songs: “New Orleans informed the spirit of the record, as it should. It’s not a New Orleans record, though, because, besides ‘Holy, Holy, Holy Moses,’ most of the songs weren’t written specifically for New Orleans.” Nsturally, “Holy” eschews the sounds of NOLA for a dour, even-keeled ballad with pianos, keyboards, and guitars, Ounsworth pleading with his Maker on behalf of a post-Katrina landscape. Mo Beauty is out October 20th on Anti-.
Radiohead
“These Are My Twisted Words” (Live at Frequency 2009 Festival) Video
By now, pretty much everyone and their grandma has heard Radiohead‘s newly-released, non-album/EP single, “These Are My Twisted Words,” many times over. Upon debuting the song, band member Jonny Greenwood suggested that it would probably be performed live sometime soon, and now it has. The band performed “These Are My Twisted Words” this Sunday at Austria’s Frequency 2009.
Yeah, Fuck Button‘s 10-minute burner “Surf Solar” sounds like the devastating soundtrack to catching a gnarly wave on the sun. Even in its radio edited state, the mesmerizing Tarot Sport opening track gets the job done. The new album is a very dense record, for sure, but it’s also a more polished one. But Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power sure do get the pulse pounding during the lead cut’s video. The Hung-directed clip features a raft of spazzed-out penguins who quickly transform into a bright kaleidoscope. Tarot Sport is due out October 20th in the U.S. (October 12th in the UK) via ATP. This fall the Bristol two-piece will bring their droning destruction on tour.
Dan Deacon goes the cute route in the Natalie Van Den Dungen-directed clip for “Paddling Ghost.” The ghost with an eye-patch and the skeleton pirate make sense since Deacon told me in an interview earlier this year that if Bromst had any semblance of an overarching theme it would be the story of a ghost coming back down to Earth after dying. This xylophone-heavy track highlights his vision of an apparition drowning in water. One would assume the spaceship and river of lava were added for kicks. The DayGlo electronic composer’s recent Bromst LP is out now on Carpark. Deacon was featured in our Spring ‘09 issue.
On August 24th, Glasgow’s self-proclaimed ‘fight-pop’ sextet Dananananaykroyd will release the follow-up to its debut LP Hey Everyone and single “Black Wax.” The new spastic single, “Some Dresses” also has a crazy video. The single is being released on London’s Best Before. “Dresses” will coincide with the band’s appearance on the Radio1/NME stage at this weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals. Watch the VHS-quality clip for some Los Campesinos!-like pop in the forest.
Vowels
“On Up!” MP3
Aug 24, 2009
James Rutledge had his hand in all the cookie jars this year. In 2009 alone, he’s released an album with Mush Records under the name Pedro, and toiled away on remix and production projects for Fever Ray, Bloc Party, Grizzly Bear, Late of the Pier, My Bloody Valentine and Telepathe. On top of that, last year he penned a song for the Sean Penn-directed film Into the Wild, and a four-hour remix of the Radiohead cut “Videotape” on a single VHS tape.
Vowels is a band consisting of the industrious UK producer/remixer and drummer Chris Walmsley (Psapp, Broadcast). Like Rutledge’s other work, Pattern Prism spins its influencess into a centrifuge of noisy tones. His new release is an intriguing mutation of krautrock beats and Terry Riley-esque haze. Some Dan Deacon-like admiration for video game music is thrown in for good measure on the engaging preview track, “On Up!” Pattern Prism is out September 22nd on LOAF. Before it was only available on import.
Them Crooked Vultures
“Dead End Friends” (Live at Melkweg, Amsterdam) Video
The new hard rock megawatt group Them Crooked Vultures, consists of vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss), bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana). The power trio’s only posted a 33-second snippet of “Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I” on YouTube thus far. With little to go on but that, fans of the group’s respective disographies are wondering what this three-headed beast may sound like in full.
Well, early last week the band’s gave a full song preview at a festival in Amsterdam. The track in question is entitled “Dead End Friends” and since it’s a live YouTube clip the sound is pretty whack. It’s very loud though, but what else did you expect from these dudes? Them Crooked Vultures supposedly have a completed debut album all locked away, ready for release this year or next.
Earlier in August, Chicago Sun-Times’ Jim DeRogatis reported that the threesome’s forthcoming disc, Never Deserved the Future will be released October 23rd. That claim has since been refuted by Vulture’s publicist. Looks like the Crooked crew are holding their cards close to their chest on this one. I guess this means Led Zeppelin won’t be reuniting?
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James Rutledge
