Jul 27, 2009

Here’s another cut from Clipse‘s forthcoming third LP, Til the Casket Drops. “Warning” features Rock City. Oh, and those synths are definitely extraterrestrial. Best line: “Married to the game. Y’all just common law.”

Jul 26, 2009

Watch on YouTube

Arctic Monkeys asked Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Josh Homme to produce their third LP, and you can hear the influence on this sludgy initial single. (The boys still have that distinguishing bass riff though.) The “Crying Lightning” clip mirrors the Monkeys’ murky aesthetic, with the newly shaggy quartet rocking out on a small, computer-generated ghost vessel. The clip debuted on UK Channel 4 and on YouTube immediately after. Humbug comes out August 25th via Domino. The band’s first U.S. show in almost two years is at All Points West next weekend. The rest of the Monkeys’ fall gigs can be found here.

Jul 26, 2009

British power-pop artist/composer Devonté Hynes (aka Lightspeed Champion) recently wrapped up the follow-up to 2008’s Falling Off The Lavender Bridge. It was produced by Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley). In the interim, here’s “Heavy Purple,” a duet with Chairlift vocalist Caroline Polachek. The jazzy/moody track is from the new highly interactive Lightspeed Champion website. The free download was recently recorded in New York. Hynes had this to say:

“I started writing and recording the track at my friend Scott’s studio in Williamsburg and finished the song at Patrick from Chairlift’s home studio in Bushwick. I played all the instruments, and my vocal was done in one take. The intro features Aaron [Pfenning] from Chairlift (extracted from an old song of his), which has Caroline from the band doing weird vocal things, and Aaron also does a monologue at the end. The song was basically written as it was recorded.”

Jul 25, 2009

Here’s the thrash-tacular first single, “I Hate People” from ex-Be Your Own Pet singer, Jemina Pearl. It features her punk godfather, Iggy Pop. As we reported earlier, Break It Up is out October 6th on Universal/Ecstatic Peace. Pop sure knows how to choose his badass female duets. Pearl is touring with Islands this fall.

Jul 25, 2009

Here’s a seaside-ready remix of Victoria Bergsman’s (née Taken By Trees) “Sweetness.” Gothenburg’s Air France warp the original song’s slightly reggae cadence into a hazy, Balearic mantra for the summer months. “The Sweetness of Air France,” appeared as the B-side on Bergsman’s Sweetness 7-inch single. The former Concretes singer is prepping the release of the second Taken By Trees LP. It was recorded with local musicians in Pakistan and is being released September 8th, via Rough Trade. Studio‘s Dan Lissvik co-produced. There’s also a mini-doc clip on the recording of the LP on National Geographic Music. (via Chocolate Bobka)

Jul 24, 2009

Though San Francisco is full to bursting with psych-pop groups The Fresh & Onlys have cut out a distinct market for themselves with a handful of 7-inch releases on a number of labels. “Invisible Forces” is from their forthcoming Woodsist LP Grey-Eyed Girls and conflates post-punk murk with ‘60s pop.

The Fresh & Onlys Summer/Fall Tour:

07-25 Los Angeles, CA -The Echoplex +
07-26 Solano Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern +

07-28 Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theater *

09-21 Provo, UT - House Show #

09-22 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge #

09-23 Lawrence, KS - Jack Pot Saloon #
09-24 Memphis, TN - Goner Fest #

09-26 Bloomington, IL - Uncle Fester’s #
09-27 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern #
09-29 Ft. Wawyne, IN - Brass Rail #

09-30 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick #
10-01 Toronto, ON - Wrong Bar #
10-02 Ottawa, ON - Babylon #
10-03 Montreal, QC - Pop Montreal #%
10-05 Providence, RI - The Dark Lady #
10-06 Allston, MA - Great Scotts #
10-7 Middletown, CT - Wesleyan #
10-08 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge #
10-09 Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House #%
10-10 Pittshburgh, PA - 31st St. Pub @
10-11 Chicago, IL - Hideout @
10-12 Omaha, NE - Brothers @
10-13 Denver, CO Bender’s @
10-17 Portland, OR - Scion/Vice Event
10-18 Seattle, WA - Funhouse &
10-20 Oakland, CA - Stork Club &
10-21 San Diego, CA - Bar Pink Elephant &#
10-22 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo &#
10-24 Merced, CA - The Partisan &
10-25 San Francisco, CA - Budget Rock @ Bottom of the Hill

+ w/ Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
# w/ The Oh Sees
% w/ Golden Triangle
@ w/ Box Elders
& w/ Dan Melchoir

Jul 24, 2009

Boston multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter loves conflating his Southern roots with scraps of circus music, cabaret, bluegrass, old-timey folk, and funereal chants. His third release for primary musical project Beat Circus is called Boy From Black Mountain (out September 29th on Cuneiform). It’s the second album in Carpenter’s “Weird American Gothic” trilogy and features a cover illustration by Carson Ellis. Ellis is best known for her Decemberists covers and various children’s books. Beat Circus’ last album, 2008’s Dreamland, was in reference to the turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park that burned down in 1911. Along with the Beat Circus crew, Carpenter collaborated with longstanding musical compatriot Bryce Goggin (Akron/Family, Antony and the Johnsons, Bishop Allen).

Here’s a first taste of Black Mountain, with this backwoods accordion, piano and string piece, “The February Train.” Carpenter’s voice has the air of a man on a journey of self-discovery, akin to some of the slower Pogues ballads. The lazy journalist in me would categorize this under The Decemberists or Rock Plaza Central, but Beat Circus’ arrangements are more deceptive. They expand and contract with the thrum of a great Southern Gothic yarn. And when Carpenter sings “everything is true but nothing’s real” it’s sounds much more than a rock cliche.

As a trivia note, many of the tracks, such as “Boy From Black Mountain” and “Saturn Song” (a duet with Larkin Grimm) touch on Carpenter’s experience with his autistic son. A press note reveals that other songs delve into “fathers and grandparents [and] watermelon farmers in the rural Bible Belt.”

Tickets for the Boy From Black Mountain CD Release Show on September 11th at Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Middle East Downstairs go on sale today at the box office or through Ticketmaster. Grimm (who shares a mic with Carpenter on the album), Reverend Glasseye, Ketman and Mucca Pazza will also be at the event. They’re also playing Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory the next night.