Amadou & Mariam‘s “Ce N’est Pas Bon” gets the remix tuneup from Bullion, the West Londoner who mashed up J Dilla‘s neo soul/rap beats with Pet Sounds. The Malian blues-rock duo are on a summer U.S. tour with Coldplay.
Northern California electro-pop trio Rubies directed the homemade video for “Diamonds On Fire,” a dance-y song from their recently released debut Explode From the Center. The main songwriting nucleus of Rubies is Simone Rubi (vocals, electric piano/synths and sometimes guitar) and bassist/vocalist Terri Loewenthal. Guitarist Nicolas Dobbratz, and various hired drummers fill out the live group. On Explode they also received assistance from Kings Of Convenience’s Eirik Glambek Bøe (not of Kommode), Feist, Lykke Li collaborator Lars Skoglund, Karl-Jonas Winqvist (aka Blood Music) and Dan Judd (aka Sorcerer). Despite Rubies’ penchant for Nordic collaborations, it’s just Rubi and Loewenthal in this forest video. The gals run under the evergreens, find a colorful cloth and dance underneath it.
LA indie-rock acts Fool’s Gold and Foreign Born both employ the township music of Africa in some shape or form and occasionally share band members. FB is the more traditional of the two but this danceable video for “Winter Games” doesn’t really bear that argument out. While they’ve shown their cosmopolitan side on some of the tracks off their recent Secretly Canadian LP, Person to Person, the shuffling two-step of “Games” merges the denizens of West Mali with LA’s sprawl. After all, everyone looks the same on the dancefloor.
Os Mutantes
“Teclar” MP3
Jul 15, 2009
The O.G. Brazilian crew Os Mutantes are getting ready to release Haih September 8, their first album in 35 years. If anyone thought the originators of Tropicália would sound rusty after all these years, “Teclar” proves us mostly wrong. The sun-dappled track opens with what sounds like castanets, but slowly reforms into a pastoral affair with hints of Eastern melodies and sawing percussion. Sergio Dias Baptista’s light lead vocals show his age in a good way. (via Pitchfork)
Wilco
Feist
“You & I” (Live on Late Show with David Letterman) Video
Wilco fans in LA and New York City already caught an eye and earful of Leslie Feist and Jeff Tweedy recreating their Wilco (The Album) vocal duet. Last night’s Letterman performance was for the rest of the world. Jeff and Leslie revel in their obvious camaraderie and their onstange grinning meshes well with the even keel vibe of the folk-rock track. Before settling into listening, Dave is quite tickled with his jokes about (The Album)‘s camel party cover art.
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)
