As Radiohead begins preparations for a new album, drummer Philip Selway is about to release his second solo album, Weatherhouse, on October 7. Today, the band posted the SoundCloud link to the gorgeous “It Will End In Tears”, and is definitely worth a listen.
A few #longreads as you prepare yourself for the fact that you’re going to have to watch Jimmy Fallon next Tuesday…
Speaking of The Replacements, here’s an interview that USA Today conducted with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills talking about one of their musical heroes, Big Star. That band’s first two albums are getting reissues this week, so for those people that haven’t been able to find a used copy all of these years you are now in luck and now have no reason not to own and love #1 Record and Radio City. Mills is an expert on the subject, considering he wrote the liner notes for the reissues and is touring as a part of the musical collaboration project that does a live cover of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers album. And if you’re still in need of some convincing about the significance of Big Star, check out this entry of the “Primer” feature of the AV Club covering the career of frontman Alex Chilton.
The Wall Street Journal has an inside look at the collaboration between director David Fincher and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, providing fascinating insights into the nuts-and-bolts of their unique method of scoring films. Considering how great their previous collaborations have been (The Social Network and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo are two of the only film scores I listen to with any regularity), you should be eager to hear their work on the upcoming Gone Girl.
New music and videos for your recovery from the Labor Day Weekend…
Peter Matthew Bauer released the video for “You Are The Chapel”, the majestic closer to his stellar debut album. It’s a mix of both performance and lyric video, with a slight twist on the latter as you’ll see:
Spoon did a “Secret Show” for MySpace, and the site has posted their performance of “The Rent I Pay”. The direct link has been pretty spotty, so if necessary, check out the band’s Facebook page for an alternate link; and if they upload more, we’ll be sure to send you over that way.
Those aren’t the only albums coming out next week; Better Than Ezra was one of the bands that I loved from my youth, and not only are they still kicking, they have a new release next week with All Together Now. Billboard is hosting a stream if you want to check it out.
Frontman for The Strokes Julian Casablancas is set to release another solo album called Tyranny in a couple of weeks, and just released “Human Sadness” as its first single, a rather unorthodox choice considering it’s an 11-minute song.
TV on the Radio provided more information for their new album today, announcing that Seeds will be released on November 18, and also provided a list of tour dates for the fall. Also, the band posted the first single “Happy Idiot”, complete with lyric video.
The AV Club sets their sights on The Stooges’ legendary album Raw Power for their Permanent Records feature, and that fact alone should spur you to read it. Elsewhere on the site, various writers discuss songs they love despite cringe-worthy lyrics. I personally take issue with the first selection of “Conversation 16” by The National, whose lyrics I actually enjoy–the shock that comes from the drastic change in tone quickly turns to amusement, and I always enjoy cracking up when listening to the purposefully humorous chorus.
Pitchfork has an in-depth interview with Anthony Gonzalez, the mastermind behind M83, who discusses his early years as the group’s first three albums are getting reissued. If you’re only familiar with the group because of “Midnight City” and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, I suggest you pick up these albums when you have the chance because they’re just as gorgeous, though with less of an 80’s influence (which to some may be preferable).
Some fun stuff to flip through as you struggle to stay awake for another week of the Simpsons marathon…
In case you didn’t know, MTV aired their Video Music Awards last night, and I think the best way to sum up my feelings about the event is to quote AV Club writer Sean O’Neal: “Today is the 15th anniversary of me realizing I no longer care about the VMAs.” Nevertheless, Sean himself printed a “recap” of the show, but this was based purely on skimming articles about the show. If you’re still in the mood to talk about the VMAs, SPIN provides their own category of Worst Music Video and hands out their own award.
We’ve mentioned that Aphex Twin is finally releasing a new album with SYRO, and now Pitchfork has given us a quick preview of a longer interview to be published at a later date; among the most important items mentioned is the pronunciation of the album title.
And finally, Pitchfork decided to use one of the dead weeks in August to go full List-mania, with lists covering the best albums, music videos, and tracks of the last five years. The fact that Celebration Rock is not the number one album pretty much calls the entire enterprise into question (and the fact that two of the three paragraphs written about the album are pure garbage is also another great hint), but if you’ve got time to kill, then I guess you could read it.
I will say that they are correct about how great Tame Imapala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” is.
For those of you looking for reading material during the commercial breaks of the Every Simpsons Ever marathon…
Everyone’s looking forward to the new album from The New Pornographers next week, Brill Bruisers, and they’re making the media rounds in preparation. Be sure to check out their interviews with Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork.
If you’re in the mood for a troll-tastic list, there’s this countdown of the Best Video winners from the MTV VMA’s. You can tell it’s an awful list with its very first selection: a shitty argument stating that R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” is the worst in the 30 year history of the event.
[Ed. Note: “Sledgehammer” should be number 1, and “Virtual Insanity” should be 1a, with Chris Rock’s parody of the Jamiroquai video at 1b.]
Kicking off the week with a ton of new music and exciting news, as summer slowly morphs into fall…
It began with cryptic message from a giant blimp, but it’s official: Aphex Twin is releasing a new album. Richard James most recently released music as AFX, (with the vinyl-only release of Analord, though a compilation of selected tracks was later sold as an Aphex Twin/AFX release on CD called Chosen Lords), but even then it’s been a long time since we heard new music from him as those records were last released in 2006. Syro will be the first Aphex Twin album since 2001’s Drukqs; no word on whether we’ll have any more creepy music videos, but the artwork announcing for the release seems to suggest as much.
Fans of the site should be well-aware of how excited we are for Death From Above 1979’s upcoming reunion, and a warm-up show brought us some additional material to help whet our appetite. A fan has uploaded another track scheduled to appear from the new album The Physical World, courtesy of a free CD handed out to fans at the show. “Government Trash” lives up to its name, as the song shows the harder-edged roots of the band, and is a perfect example of trashy punk.
Interpol today gave us another taste of El Pintor with the release of “Ancient Ways”. It’s an uptempo track that shows that the band is really intent on piling up instruments on top of each other, similar to the style of Interpol, but with some of the edge of their earliest work.
KEXP has been uploading videos from a number of different groups that have stopped by their studios, and they’re definitely worth the time to watch all the way through. So far I’ve watched Peter Matthew Bauer perform an excellent set with a full cast of backing musicians (which is sure to irk Rick Moody, since it contradicts his point) and Cloud Nothings rip through their latest, and I’m looking forward to checking out the Broken Bells and Wye Oak sets soon enough.
Slate has an article that discusses the neuroscience behind people’s natural inclination to adore the songs of their youth, despite the fact that objectively they realize the songs are not very good. This inspired me to take a look through my collection to see if there was anything that I should be ashamed of, and I really didn’t come up with anything. But I’m going to post this video of N.E.R.D.’s “Rock Star”, because how often will I have the chance? I wonder what Pharrell ever did after this…
Videos, rare tracks, and lists to help get your week started…
We here at Rust Is Just Right love Red Fang, aka Portland’s Greatest Metal Band, and especially enjoy their goofy music videos. Their latest for “The Meadows”, which is found on a free new EP, is pretty simple: the band dresses up in some of their best suits and spends the budget for their video on a big feast, often shooting in slow motion. The video ends at what is probably my favorite pizzeria in Portland, so at least it has that going for it.
Speaking of favorite Portland bands, The Thermals posted a video this morning from their KEXP performance a few years back, playing a B-Side I hadn’t heard before called “I Can’t Let Go”. Judging from the time of the video and the style, it sounds like it’s from the Personal Life era.
The Flaming Lips side-project Electric Würms (where Steven Drozd takes over frontman duties and Wayne Coyne moves to the background) released two new songs today from their upcoming EP, Musik Die Shwer zu Twerk. You can find “The Bat” over on Bilboard, while NPR has “I Could Only See Clouds”. If you want a quick summation of their sound, it’s along the lines of their recent album The Terror, but even trippier.
Foo Fighters uploaded a quick teaser video last week for their upcoming album, and this morning released the full details about the release of Sonic Highways. The number “8” is prominently featured in the materials (even adding up the digits of the running time of 44 minutes). The coolest bit of news is that the LP version includes nine covers, including one for each city in which the album is recording (biting an idea that I had for my own band, but considering we never toured, I’m okay with giving Dave Grohl the credit).
Rolling Stone has a fun list with the Buzzfeedian title of “20 Insanely Great David Bowie Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know”; personally, I’m quite a big fan of most of Bowie’s catalog, but I know just how deep some people’s obsession with the man can be, so I’m taking this to be a learning experience.
And finally, The New Pornographers stopped by The Current Studio in Minneapolis and played a handful of songs, which you can check out right here.
We neglected to mention this article last week, but Pitchfork has a really excellent look at the business of making vinyl, delving into the specifics of the industry and their relationship with different record labels. They argue that the trendline shows that the vinyl “resurgence” is likely here to stay, but its ceiling is probably capped due to the physical capacity of the pressing factories at the very least.
Pitchfork also recently did an interview with Cymbals Eat Guitars, an underrated indie band that’s gearing up for a new album set to be released in a couple of weeks. Lenses Alien was a pretty solid release, but their debut Why There Are Mountains is definitely worth seeking out. Check out the first track of that one, “And the Hazy Sea”:
The Quietus has a couple of features worth reading this weekend. First, there’s an interview with Jody Stephens, the last surviving member of the brilliant group Big Star, along with John Fry, who helped engineered those albums. The two provide some great anecdotes and background about working on those records, as well as a first-hand account of the intra-band dynamics. Then there’s this tribute to Teenage Fanclub’s classic Bandwagonesque, an album that’s unfairly known more as the answer to a trivia question these days in the US than for its great quality.
And if you find that you still have time available this weekend, Interpol provided the entirety of their recent set at Lollapalooza on YouTube. That’s mighty kind of them.
Rust Is Just Right 