Longstanding Chapel Hill indie rock superheroes Superchunk have a new album Majesty Shredding out via Merge in September. The resurgent group participated in the AV Club’s ongoing “Undercover” series, which also birthed Frightened Rabbit’s Lemonheads, and emerge sounding very much like Superchunk doing the Cure’s “In Between Days.”
Tis undoubtedly the summer for bands — sometimes with “Teen” in their names — to sing about “teens” and “the summer” while placing shadowy self-portraits and/or “sun-dappled” lakes and oceans on their MySpace pages. Vancouver Teen Daze snuggles the zeitgeist perfectly with the Active Child-esque “Gone For The Summer Pt. Two.” Here it gets remixed, decompressed, and endlessly extended by aesthetic ally/Four Tet fan, Mississippi’s Spirituals.
“Sun” is the second video from Caribou’s Swim, following “Odessa.” This one is a little more fun. The clip’s middle-aged stars do an ecstatic dance while other, younger dancers do synchronized moves between them. Directed by Simon Owens, the same guy who did LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” Kermit video.
This morning Zane Lowe premiered the studio takes on a pair of Suburbs tracks Arcade Fire’s been playing at their various warm-ups in Canada lately. And when Zane premieres, the internet posts rips. Where they are for now, until YouTube complies: ”Ready To Start” at Hype Machine, “We Used To Wait” at We All Want Someone.
The Suburbs is out 8/2 via Merge, the band is out on the road this year via lots of hysterical fans who can’t wait to buy all the tickets.
On Friday the Arcade Fire debuted news songs in front of 75 people at Montreal’s Notman House. There were more in attendance last night at a warm-up show at the Granada Theatre in Sherbrooke, Quebec where the band continued showcasing bits and pieces from The Suburbs. (Thanks for the tip, CoS.) Folks weren’t supposed to bring cameras to the venue, but people don’t listen. Whet your appetite with chunks of “Rococo,” “Ready To Start,” “Empty Room,” and “We Used To Wait.”
Yesterday you heard “The Suburbs” and “Month Of May” in full. Today your Arcade Fire news expands considerably. We have the collection’s cover art — front and back — as well as an informative note from “Arkady Fireovitch.” As previously mentioned, the Neon Bible followup, the band’s third full-length overall, was recorded in New York and Montreal and co-produced by the band and Markus Dravs. These new elements were not previously mentioned.
