The 7-inch (via Merge Records), the first-ever in Buckner’s rich catalog, features a B-side for “Lost” and will include a digital-only cover of The Cars’ “Candy-O.â€
I’ll be at Stinkweeds tracking that one down (among others), but in the meantime, Merge has made a stream of “Willow” available via Soundcloud. And in even better news – I never thought this day would come – Buckner is tweeting. Seriously.
Cough up your email address below to get the four-song, 10-minute EP for free.
The band also released a video for “The Stone (Revolution!),” all full of hand claps and marching-band bass drums.
But all’s not lost: Brian King and Dave Prowse also dropped a new song that will be on the forthcoming album Celebration Rock, due out June 5 on Polyvinyl (pre-order here). “The House That Heaven Built” will be released as the A-side on the fourth installment of the band’s 7-inch series it started two years ago. (This B-side will feature a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds cover of “Jack The Ripper.”)
With “The House That Heaven Built,” Japandroids really make no bones about reaching for a bigger dynamic – the sort of uninhibited, call-and-response anthem that bands like the Hold Steady perfected. “On a lot of this new record, we actually tried to simulate the sound of what we thought the crowd would do during the songs,” King told Pitchfork.
Stream the track via Soundcloud below:
Here’s the Celebration Rock tracklisting:
1. The Nights Of Wine And Roses
2. Fire’s Highway
3. Evil’s Sway
4. For The Love Of Ivy
5. Adrenaline Nightshift
6. Younger Us
7. The House That Heaven Built
8. Continuous Thunder
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Turns out, Big Echo will be the last piece of work under The Morning Benders name. The band announced Sunday it was changing its name, and with good reason (via Buzzbands.la). As explained on its former website, the band learned the hard way that “bender” is a slang/derogatory term used to disparage homosexuals in the UK.
An excerpt from the band’s statement:
“1. We simply cannot go on using a name that is demeaning to the gay community. The reason we are making music is to reach and unite as many different kinds of people as possible, and the idea that our name may be hateful towards anyone makes us sick.
2. In the UK and many parts of Europe the name has simply become too distracting. The MUSIC has always been our number one focus, and we want to present that to people in as pure a way as possible.”
So the band has changed its name to POP ETC, marking the occasion by releasing a mixtape of 11 new (synthy) tracks under the new handle. Stream it below via Soundcloud or download it at the new website.
This is the first song of what Means (formerly of the Format) is calling a “potential series,” cleverly titled Live From My Cell Phone. “Partly because the songs are recorded straight into the FourTrack Recorder app on my iPhone 4S, but mostly as a cheap attempt to hide the fact they kind of sound like crap.” Come on: “Crap” is a little harsh. Let’s go with “lo-fi.” But seriously, this is a great idea, another way technology closes the gap a little more between artist and fan.
Means, who designed the album art for Source Victoria’s Slow Luck and played piano on the song “I Know You Well,” is teaming up with Photo Finish Records to release a 7-inch, titled Nona, on Record Store Day. So be on the lookout for that.
Still, I’ve only half-heartedly accepted streaming music as a way of life (the music may always be accessible, but my cell phone service won’t necessarily be). And so I’m wandering aimlessly – from MP3s to streaming, from my computer to my phone (and sometimes even still on my iPod … how quaint!). Most of the time I can’t remember what I actually own and what I’ve only streamed. It’s always too easy to find that next song.
And so these days it says something about an album when I can return to it and continue to find new ways to enjoy it, months after the initial listen. That’s been the case with Caveman’s CoCo Beware, given a wider release by Fat Possum this year after a self-release on the band’s Magic Man! label in the fall.
There’s an alluring sense of calm to the 10-track album, all dreamy and deliberate with swirling guitars and harmonies. At some points it reminds me of the Dodos in their less spastic moments.
After a string of SXSW dates, Caveman is pretty much on the road through the first week of May, including a stop at Club Congress in Tucson on April 28. To celebrate, the Brooklyn-based band unleashed an MP3 of the song “Old Friend” that you can download below or, you know, stream somewhere.
I’d also highly suggest giving a listen to “Thankful,” my favorite song from the album. I really fell for the imagery here: “You drove your car in the sea / looking for something to believe”:
The show’s promoter, Psyko Steve, commissioned Tucson artist Joe Pagac to paint a mural on downtown arts venue Eye Lounge at First Friday. It was a collaboration with Tigers frontman Charlie Brand to help promote the album and show.
Check the time lapse video of its creation above, set to the new Miniature Tigers song “Afternoons with David Hockney.”
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New Miniature Tigers: Female Doctor (plus album release date, tracklisting)
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Shaq Diesel crossed the line by dissing Dennis’ mustache at a Jive Records showcase in 1993, when Dennis (aka Kdz) was a member of Tha Grimm Teachaz and the Big Aristotle was moonlighting as a rap star. Fueled by O’Douls, Dennis had to reply. As Serengeti told me last month after we talked sports: “Kdz, as he was know then as, immediately came home and recorded ‘Shazam.'”
Almost 20 years later, and we have a visual accompaniment that includes Dennis dribbling Photoshopped Shaq heads. This is incredible.
The song is part of the Kenny Dennis EP that is coming out on Anticon on April 3. Not long before that, on March 20, Serengeti will release the Beak & Claw EP, a collaboration with Son Lux and Sufjan Stevens they are calling s / s / s. Pitchfork has the scoop.
Produced by Steve Albini, Attack has successfully transported me to my collegiate days, a time of musical maturation/realization that I’ll always cherish. When I turned on Attack on Memory for my wife, her response (as usual) summed up perfectly in three words what I struggle to say in 300: “This sounds familiar.”
It could be all that Sunny Day Real Estate, Pinehurst Kids and Seven Storey Mountain – with a touch of Jawbox and Jawbreaker – that I forced on her in my attempts to win her over (success!). And it all makes me feel a little old and relatively unaccomplished to think that the brainchild behind Cloud Nothings, Dylan Baldi, is 20 years old – in other words, he was about three years old when I was entering college and experiencing a musical awakening of bands that seemingly influenced his art.
Too bad I can’t buy him a drink on Tuesday night at Crescent Ballroom, but it doesn’t change the fact that Attack is one of the early greats of 2012.
Check the video below for the album’s leadoff track “No Future/No Past,” with direction by Ryan Manning. Read more about its creation here.
It’s sorta strange to think of Nada Surf frontman Matthew Caws as an elder statesman of the indie-rock game, even with that vibrant voice. But here he is in his 40s, a little gray around the edges and performing live in oxford shirts and sport coats.
Nobody could blame him for surrendering to nostalgia, as he does a few times on the new album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, and especially on the wistful lead single, “When I Was Young.” The video takes a pretty literal approach to the song, following a mop-haired kid’s sentimental romp through the city. It’s trademark Nada Surf — sweet and sincere with a hint of aching melancholy.
Meanwhile, the band played a record release show on Jan. 24 at Bowery Ballroom in New York. You can watch the hour-plus concert over at YouTube or see a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at Stereogum.