Word came today, via Pitchfork, that Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson, is working on a solo LP with arranger/composer Nico Muhly (Grizzly Bear, Antony and the Johnsons). Producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Frightened Rabbit) let some details slip recently on the Calcutta blog, noting, “It’s going to be a largely acoustic guitar record but also with a lot of ‘out there’ string arrangements…strings, woodwinds, brass, and double bass, actually.”
The first track off the proposed full-length, “Boy Lilikoi,” is now available to download at Jónsi’s new site, for the measly price of an email address. (Now, that’s recession pricing!) It makes sense that this symphonic track burst out of the mind of Birgisson: loads of orchestration flutter about the mix in crashing waves and bombastic swoops. Katis’ description hit this one right on the nose.
The lyrics are also in English. (Supposedly a ‘lilikoi’ is a tasty passion fruit.) You can listen to a few more preview clips of new songs from the forthcoming release, entitled Go, on Jonsi’s site. Just click the letters.
Neutral Milk Hotel
“Oh Comely” (Live at The Knitting Factory, 1998) Video
More vintage Neutral Milk Hotel videos are circulating today from YouTube user goldenpuppy1. Two weeks ago Merge Records posted two lo-fi but still spectacular videos of the reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel playing songs live at New York’s Knitting Factory in 1998. Those fuzzy, VHS-quality videos feature solo performances from frontman Jeff Mangum. Now we’ve got more to listen to and watch during the holiday season to go along with those recent vinyl reissues of 1996’s On Avery Island and 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
The same user who posted the previous clips has added three more. Unlike the previous ones, these get Mangum’s band in the mix. On the eight-minute folk epic “Oh Comely,” multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster joins him on musical saw. The rest of the band joins in for “The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3” and “The Fool.”. Their psychedelic, funereal mélange of brass, accordion, and sawed banjo tickle the ears but also remind us of the large hole this disbanded group left in the 2000s.
All these videos just make us miss NMH that much more. More warbled footage or a reunion tour is desperately requested. (Via P4K.)
The moody-as-hell video for Scottish noisemakers The Twilight Sad‘s current UK single “Seven Years of Letters” sees three adolescents donning freaky, threadbare, cut-out cloth masks. They walk around a field with about as much menace as Freddy Krueger and Jason combined and shove a body into a ditch at one point. Yikes! Longtime fans of the group will no doubt recognize the facial stylings from the cover of 2008’s Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did. (You know, that’s the one where the cute little son is trying to suffocate his mother with a pillow.)
The MBV-via-Mogwai trio show their evil side (Do they have any other side?) in this Adam Stafford-directed and Accidental Media-produced clip. Good to see that “Seven Years of Letters” still has the ability to lop of your head with its wall of distortion.
The track is taken from the group’s latest LP, Forget the Night Ahead. It’s out now on FatCat.
Ex-Test Icicles dance-punker Devonte Hynes is returning with his second solo offering under his Lightspeed Champion stage name. Sophomore album, Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, will drop on our doorsteps Febuary 16th via Domino and is described in a press release as being, “a palette that draws on baroque ‘60s pop, Girl Group harmonies, classical music and even musical theatre.”
All of those sounds spring up in the time-warped, slightly psychedelic video for single “Charlene.” There’s a relationship showdown in a dingy cafe and some ugly moments of racism from the back of a pickup tearing through a parched desert. Don’t ask me about the spotlighted Disco Stew look-a-like though. If this strange video is any indication, Hynes’ new effort will be just as scatter-brained as 2008’s Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. (Via MBV.)
Final Fantasy
“E is For Estranged” (Live on IFC’s Dinner with the Band) Video
Owen Pallet, aka Final Fantasy, is better known for his masterful orchestral arrangements for bands such as Arcade Fire, The Last Shadow Puppets and Beirut, but in 2010 he’ll release his third LP under his FF moniker. To get us ready for Heartland, he performed “E is For Estranged” on IFC‘s Dinner With the Band, which airs tonight. In the video he showcases his ability to loop a full song out of just a violin and his voice. The album version features a 50-piece orchestra in Prague. The follow-up to the 2006 Polaris Prize winner He Poos Clouds is scheduled to drop January 12th via Domino. Also, check out the mp3 of “Lewis Takes Action.”
Eluvium
“The Motion Makes Me Last” MP3
Dec 02, 2009
Portland ambient composer Eluvium‘s forthcoming Temporary Residence LP, Similes, which is out February 23rd. After three long years of touring or a recording in his home studio, Matthew Cooper returns with the follow-up to 2007’s widely-acclaimed song suite, Copia. Above, you can listen to one of the new album’s hypnotic songs. It’s the first Eluvium track to feature vocals and percussion. (The rest of the album follows suit.) Cooper’s cavernous baritone adds a soothing and drone-y resonance to the plangent piano-led nocturne. The cover artwork is by longtime collaborator Jeannie Lynn Paske. She also did the watercolor-ink illustrations featured on the sleeves of Copia and 2006’s When I Live by the Garden and the Sea EP.
Similes:
01 Leaves Eclipse the Light 02 The Motion Makes Me Last 03 In Culmination 04 Weird Creatures 05 Nightmare 5 06 Making Up Minds 07 Bending Dream 08 Cease to Know
Shearwater
“Castaway” MP3
Dec 02, 2009
Shearwater is releasing their sixth LP, The Golden Archipelago soon. It’s dropping February 23rd in North America (and February 15th internationally), via Matador. The forthcoming long-player is “the third album in a triptych of excursions about man’s impact on the natural world,” according to an over-the-top post on Matador’s site. (The tranquil album artwork certainly mirrors that sentiment.) Below you can check out the outdoorsy tracklist, and above you’ll find a download/stream of the beautiful single, “Castaways.”
This time out, the Austin quintet turns their attention to life on islands. Thematic locales run the gamut from the Falklands and Madgascar, to Bikini Atoll and the Tierra Del Fuego. Check out the luminous trailer here.
The pretty indie rockers will package the upcoming CD and LP with a “50-page perfect-bound book featuring a set of extracts from a dossier of records, photos, regulations and images collected by Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg.” The vinyl also contains two bonus tracks. Shearwater tour Europe starting in February (dates below). A U.S. trek will soon follow.
Also, here’s a nifty, semi-recent interview with Meiburg and the birding/conservation blog, 10,000 Birds. (If you didn’t already know it, he’s quite the ‘birder.’)
The Golden Archipelago:
01 Meridian 02 Black Eyes 03 Landscape at Speed 04 Hidden Lakes 05 Corridors 06 God Made Me 07 Runners of the Sun 08 Castaways 09 An Insular Life 10 Uniforms 11 Missing Islands
Shearwater:
02-17 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg 02-18 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique 02-19 Paris, France - Le Nouveau Casino 02-20 Saint-Malô, France - La Route du Rock Winter Edition @ L’Omnibus 02-21 Brighton, England - The Freebutt 02-22 Leeds, England - The Brudenell Social Club 02-23 Glasgow, Scotland - Captains Rest 02-25 London, England - Scala 02-26 Diksmuide, Belgium - 4AD 02-27 Hamburg, Germany - Knust 02-28 Berlin, Germany - Magnet Club 03-02 Munich, Germany - Rote Sonne 03-03 Geneva, Switzerland - L’Usine (PTR) 03-04 Fribourg, Switzerland - Nouveau Monde 03-05 Milan, Italy - La Casa 139
Shout Out Louds
“Walls” MP3
Dec 02, 2009
The Swedish indie-pop quintet Shout Out Louds will be releasing their new record, entitled Work, on February 23, 2010. Work is the band’s third full-length release and their second for Merge. It was recorded in Seattle and produced by indie institution known as Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, The Shins).
You can listen to first single, “Walls” now. Apparently, it was the first track singer/main songwriter Adam Olenius penned for the new LP while secluded at home in Melbourne, Australia. Where the band’s last album, Our Ill Wills, was bursting at the seams with extra strings and percussion, this new set of songs pares down their exuberant formula. Hear their revamped, “organic” stylee above. Also, the track’s Ted Malmros-directed video is embedded below.
The SOLs will be playing a special album-release gig at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 1st. More tour dates are coming this spring.
Word came today, via 
Portland ambient composer 
rwater
The Swedish indie-pop quintet 
