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.
Mission of Burma
“1, 2, 3 Partyy!” MP3
Jul 13, 2009
The Matablog announced this morning that Matador will release The Sound The Speed The Light, Mission of Burma‘s third album since their 2002 reunion, fourth overall. The Sound… roars into your inner ear canal October 6th. The group recorded with current Burma tape manipulator/live engineer/producer, et al Bob Weston. The badass album cover is to the right. Also, Matablog mentioned that the album is “more or less divided into 4 sets or suites of 3 songs. Each suite explores a set of moods or colors, across the usual dizzying array of lyrical topics, from alcoholism to fleshly concerns.” The first track on offer, opener/party anthem “1, 2, 3, Partyy!,” can safely be cataloged under “alcoholism.” Despite the jarring count-offs, the track has the trappings of a classic Burma rocker like “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate.” Maybe there’s a teensy bit of “fleshly concerns” in there too. Other new jams include “Feed”, “Forget Yourself’, “Slow Faucet”, and “Good Cheer.”
Robin Pecknold
“Two-Headed Boy” (Neutral Milk Hotel cover) MP3
Jul 13, 2009
Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold played a benefit for the all-ages Seattle venue The Vera Project this past weekend at The Emerald City’s Neumos. Sandwiched between covers of B.B. King, Bob Dylan, The Magnetic Fields, and Fleetwood Mac, and more traditional covers, the Seattle native tackles the indie-folk sacred cow of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Two-Headed Boy,” and lives to tell the tale. Despite a few flubbed lines, Pecknold pulls it off swimmingly. The rest of the soaring setlist is downloadable at the blog Chocolate Bobka.
Italo-disco queen Sally Shapiro melts hearts with this adorable animated music video for second My Guilty Pleasure single, “Love In July.” The Johan Agebjörn & Roger Gunnarsson-penned single is available as a Paper Bag digital download on July 14 (North America) / July 17 (Europe) with remixes by Parker Lewis, CFCF, Bostro Pesopeo, and Le Prix. My Guilty Pleasure is out August 14th. Paul Leeny & partner David Loom directed the lovelorn tale of a trapped whale and an adventurous goldfish. Previosly, Leeny made an unofficial “Time to Let Go” clip, which Shapiro and Agebjörn liked so much they asked him to make an official one. In the video the two fishies fall in love, get encased by ice, but the summer sun melts away the ice floe and makes love possible. Awwwww… Shapiro and Agebjörn are interviewed in the current Summer 2009 issue of Under the Radar, now on stands.
