You can always count on Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox from Animal Collective, to keep you off balance. With every new page turned in his sonically experimental solo career, he scrambles the frequencies while maintaining his neo-beach boy presence. Lennox just released his sixth Panda Bear album, Buoys. Get a taste of it with “Master” below.
Kurt Vile
Watch: Kurt Vile Tiny Desk Concert
Feb 06, 2019
Two lovable things come together: NPR’s Tiny Desk and Kurt Vile. Tiny Desk concerts curated by NPR Music consistently invites great artists to perform a few songs in its inviting setting. Accompanied by guitarist Rob Laakso, Vile came around to play “Bassackwards”, “Loading Zones” and “Peeping Tomboy”. Here’s what host Bob Boilen had to say about it:
Kurt Vile exudes a casualness at the Tiny Desk in his style and body language that is so unlike most anxious artists who come to play behind my desk. Sure, he’s done this Tiny Desk thing before, with Courtney Barnett. But even then, I remember thinking that he’s got something else on his mind — and it made me laugh this time around when Kurt played his opening tune, “Bassackwards,” and sang these words: “I was on the beach but I was thinking about the bay / Got to the bay but by then I was far away.”
That idea of being one place and thinking about another, for me, also connects to the way he plays guitar. He seems distracted, yet the complex guitar lines he so nonchalantly plays, along with his musical mate Rob Laakso, are effortlessly beautiful and lyrical.
After they played two new tunes from Kurt Vile’s latest record, Bottle It In, Kurt goes solo on an older, self-described “juvenile” song from long ago, recently revived during his Courtney Barnett collaboration last year. “Peeping Tomboy” has its own schizophrenic issues as Kurt sings, “I don’t wanna change but I don’t wanna stay the same / I don’t wanna go but I’m runnin’ / I don’t wanna work but I don’t wanna sit around / All day frownin’.”
On the surface, it all can seem just chill. But there’s a lot of rumination in these songs — and even when he’s gazing into the overhead office lights, I think he got his mind on the stars and the world at large.
The Twilight Sad
Watch: The Twilight Sad Perform “The Arbor” Live in Leeds
Feb 02, 2019
Seriously, what band is killing it harder than The Twilight Sad right now? Answer: Not a one. This just surfaced: Off the Glasgow band’s mega new record It Won/t be Like This All the Time, this version of “The Arbor” was captured in Leeds in June of last year and recalls some early Joy Division footage ...and mood. It should give you all the incentive you need to catch them when they come back around your way for theor full fledged tour for the new album. You can only imagine what they sound like now.
Mitski
Watch: Mitski “A Pearl” Animated Video
Jan 31, 2019
Mitski’s new video for the song “A Pearl” is really fuckng cool. It’s probably because Mitski is really fucking cool. “A Pearl” is from Mitski’s remarkable 2018 album, Be the Cowboy. The video is a collaboration with Spotify and was co-directed by Saad Moosajee, Danae Gosset and Art Camp. It’s really beautifully made. Check it out:
Avey Tare
Watch: Avey Tare “Saturdays (Again)” Video
Jan 29, 2019
Hey what do ya know, Avey Tare, aka Dave Portner, of Animal Collective has a new song “Saturdays (Again)” from a forthcoming solo album, Cows on Hourglass Pond (such an Animal Collective title), out March 22nd on Domino Record Co. The video was shared as well, animated and directed by Abigail Portner, Avey’s sister. Those quirky grooves are back y’all.
Preoccupations
Watch: Preoccupations “Compliance” Video
Jan 28, 2019
Calgary’s Preoccupations has just released another spooky video. This one’s for “Compliance”, the closing instrumental on last year’s album New Material. There’s a tonal consistency to the bands’ videos for sure. Watch this haunt below.
On the video, Preoccupations say:
“Compliance - The final track off Preoccupations third studio album New Material is a fresh and stark departure for the band: a climactic wall of all-encompassing noise and awe as two tones rise above the waves of sound and reach towards the cosmos, to eternity. This video directed by Nicholas Brown and Evan Henderson explores a post-apocalyptic universe featuring an enigmatic forest spirit named “Mariah”.
Mariah has awakened from eons of slumber to a world that has long been abandoned by humans and heavily mutated by their waste and consumption. As Mariah struggles to make sense of this new world, she grieves for the one she has lost forever. The Mariah creature was painstakingly designed and constructed by Brown, portrayed by Henderson, and captured by the haunting and beautiful cinematography of Adam Stewart. Compliance brings a close to this chapter of the band as we look towards the future and marvel at the new heights their music will take.”
PREOCCUPATIONS EU TOUR DATES:
Wed, JAN 30 - Dabadaba, San Sebastián, Spain
Thu, JAN 31 - Sala La 2 de Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
Fri, FEB 01- Loco Club, València, Spain
Sat, FEB 02 - sala Changó, Madrid, Spain
Sun, FEB 03 - Sala X, Sevilla, Spain
Tue, FEB 05 - Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, France
Wed, FEB 06 - Rockstore, Montpellier, France
Thu, FEB 07 - Spazio 211, Torino, Italy
Fri, FEB 08 - MONK - Circolo Arci, Roma, Italy
Sat, FEB 09 - Covo Club, Bologna, Italy
Sun, FEB 10 - Argo16, Venezia, Italy
Tue, FEB 12 - Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, Germany
Wed, FEB 13 - Gaswerk Kulturzentrum,Winterthur, Switzerland
Thu, FEB 14 - La Romandie, Lausanne, Switzerland
Fri, FEB 15 - Sommercasino, Basel, Switzerland
Sat, FEB 16 - six d.o.g.s, Athina, Greece
Thu, MAR 14 - Le Romandie, Lausanne, Switzerland
Sharon Van Etten
Watch: Sharon Van Etten Perform “Jupiter 4” on KCRW
Jan 25, 2019
The beautiful in every sense of the meaning Sharon Van Etten has just released an uppercut knockout of an album Remind Me Tomorrow and the track “Jupiter 4” is the body blow. She performed the track live for KCRW and you can watch it below. I can’t stop listening to this song, or thiis album. If your interest takes you further, and it ought to, she breaks down the album track by track on a new NPR All Songs Considered podcast.
Hand Habits
Watch: Hand Habits “can’t calm down” Video
Jan 24, 2019
Hand Habits is the latest band signed by Saddle Creek, a label that seems to have an especially keen sense for good artists. Fronted by Meg Duffy, a long-time member of Kevin Morby’s touring band, Hand Habits will release their sophomore album, ‘placeholder,’ on March 1st from their new home. The video for second single “can’t calm down”, directed and by Vanessa Haddad, was just shared.
