Posted on 14 May 2009
This morning you may have caught Phoenix unplugged on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s “Lisztomania,” etc. A few hours later, we have the Bogstandard-directed video for the album’s oft remixed lead track “1901.” It was commissioned specifically by Dazed Digital, which is likely why you need to head their site to watch the lights flicker, turn into venetian blinds, and cast variously shaped shadows (including the numbers “1901″) on the band: So please do.
Even if you’ve found it elsewhere already, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is out 5/25, people.
Posted on 14 May 2009
Kitsuné, the French fashion label with a love for mixes and compilations, have teamed up with the Cobrasnake, the LA party photographer with a penchant for hipster trash scene portraits and hoisting dead-eyed tarts into the realm of the internet celebrity, for a two-track EP. Yay! It’s called Kitsuné x The Cobrasnake duh. This might not sound appealing, but know this isn’t a musical vanity project for Cobrasnake so much as it is just a brand-extender for Cobrasnake: he’s not credited with the music, he’s making the videos I think? He made this one anyway, filming a bikini girl running around on the beach to a pretty fun dance. The vid’s a couple of steps above Heidi Montag’s beach atrocity, so that is good news, and the song is actually pretty fun: it’s by Classixx (who were last seen making “Listzomania” even more of an ’80s jam, if you can imagine such a thing) and features Jeppe (who was last seen being himself in the wake of Junior Senior’s demise). It’s LA club fluff, but summery good times club fluff at that.
Continue reading New Classixx (Feat. Jeppe) Video - “I’ll Get You”…
Posted on 14 May 2009
Natasha Khan fans who purchased a Two Suns CD found a special surprise when ripping it to their laptop, being taken to a special site to download the bonus (and apparent live staple) “Lo-Fi” version of “Daniel.” Those opting to go full download for the album via iTunes do not get access to that reworking — in the promotional age we call this spreading the wealth — but of course mighty Apple’s iTunes store gets an exclusive an exclusive of their own in “Wilderness.” It’s pretty for a b-side, and of a piece with the more balladic and intimate moments of Two Suns. Listen:
Continue reading New Bat For Lashes - “Wilderness”…
Posted on 14 May 2009
Twilight Sad worked up a nice, icy wall of noise on their cover of Joy Division’s “Twenty Four Hours.” Returning from their U.S. tour with fellow gentle feedbackers Mogwai, the Scottish quartet has some post Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters material that tackles noise in a different way. “Reflection Of The Television,” the lead track from the forthcoming Forget The Night Ahead, brings the distortion, but in a more elegant, less raucous way. Actually, James Graham sounds a bit more Smiths-y in his vocal line than we’ve ever heard him. Not counting when they covered “Half A Person,” of course, but this is louder than bombs.
Continue reading New Twilight Sad - “Reflection of the Television”…
Posted on 14 May 2009
The NBC anchor on his new gig: “No one should fear me becoming a tragic hipster. I’m not going to bars in Brooklyn and drinking PBRs.” The Deer Tick fan also recommends Camera Obscura and the Veils. Read at RS.
Posted on 14 May 2009
This is the second of that pair of new songs that the Shins are performing with their revamped lineup these days. The first was “Double Bubble,” which Mercer described to us as a new wave sort of thing; together he says “they’re just a bit more rhythmic and “about the percussion” than the Shins previous incarnation. That said, “The Rifle’s Spiral” doesn’t sound very different from Shins past, just with chords being jabbed instead of strummed. Anyway you don’t have to feel too badly if you prefer these Joe Plummer’s beats to Jesse Sandoval’s, because Jesse now is the proud proprietor of a taco cart and didn’t need the Shins, anyway.
Continue reading New Shins - “The Rifle’s Spiral” (Live In Oakland)…
Posted on 14 May 2009
Victoria’s Secret continues soundtracking ads that they could likely get away with doing in silence, but so it goes. The first on our radar was Lykke Li and Heidi Klum selling us on the Ipex line’s microsmooth fabric and nipple concealment, then it was Joanna Newsom and Miranda Kerr on the Dream Angels push-up. This time they’ve paired Little Boots, aka Victoria Hesketh, with seven Victoria’s Secret models, showing us one bra you can wear in seven ways. The song’s “Meddle” from her forthcoming full-length debut Hands.
Continue reading Little Boots Puts Her Hands On The BioFit 7-Way Bra…
Posted on 14 May 2009
After more than a couple remixes, Phoenix are back to playing their songs sans other folks’ meddling, albeit with less instrumentation. Thomas Mars and Christian Mazzalai stopped by The Alternate Side and offered up Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” along with a reprise of Air’s “Playground Love.” It’s not actually a cover, though, since Mars did originally provide the vocals for the song on the Virgin Suicides soundtrack. That’s likely why he seems so comfortably in the zone, even in this stripped-down state.
Continue reading Phoenix Unplug Something Old, Something New…
Posted on 13 May 2009
Glasser is L.A.’s Cameron Mesirow, with an assist from Foreign Born’s Matt Popieluch. But essentially it’s a one-woman bedroom project for now, driven home by this cloudy one-woman video. Except for when there’s ten of her. “Apply“’s a highly percussive keyboard meditation, Cameron singing through delay and with a little Kate Bush in the mix. As her layered vocals pour in thing become a little more clear, and brighter, closeups of her eyes and her hands in mudra locks along the way. Pretty and simple song, fittingly simple and hazed video.
Continue reading New Glasser Video - “Apply”…
Posted on 13 May 2009
You’ve heard the song live for a while and perhaps caught it on Letterman, but now Modest Mouse are releasing the official studio version of “Satellite Skin.” The No One’s First And You’re Next-related 7″ is out 5/26, but the A-Side’s streaming at the band’s site today. As they note, the 7″ will be pressed on “limited edition orange vinyl with an embossed sleeve and individually numbered to 4000″ and backed by another newbie, “Guilty Cocker Spaniels.” (If you’re not one to use vinyl, don’t get our moth-wing feelings hurt, it’ll be up at iTunes, too.) Take a listen at MySpace. And keep eyes peeled for the video directed by Tool’s Kevin Willis. Also, check back here on Monday (5/18) when we’re premiering the aforementioned “Guilty Cocker Spaniels.”
