Art Brut's in the midst of their North American tour to support Art Brut vs. Satan, but Eddie Argos and crew drove straight from the airport to Seattle's KEXP studios June 13th, where they blew through a version of "Summer Job." The summertime-slacker rock is one of the more juvenile tracks from Satan but is also fairly infectious (just check out that wordless chant). The song ends with a burst of guitar pyrotechnics and a smattering of lines from The Smiths' "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now." Art Brut vs. Satan is out now via Downtown. Argos penned an ode-to-DC Comics feature in the Spring '09 issue (spurred on by Satan cut, "DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake.") Maybe the frontman's geeky passion for Booster Gold or his recent trip to DC Comics' NY HQ(!) will make him forget about his crappy summer job.
Bloc Party already courted Big Beat sounds with their sophomore album, A Weekend in the City, and even more so with last year's Intimacy. On their new single, "One More Chance" they make the conflation of angular post-punk guitars and driving house beats seem almost complimentary. Not too shabby, especially after some of Intimacy's dodgier moments. The "One More Chance" single is out August 10 via Wichita. [Stereogum]
The Very Best
“The Warm Heart of Africa (feat/ Ezra Koenig)” MP3
As you may or may not know, The Very Best is the self-congratulatory moniker of the collaboration between Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and British DJ/producer Radioclit. Well, they've certainly earned the title in a relatively short time and are already aiming to build on that reputation with the announcement of a fall full-length album, The Warm Heart of Africa. The album is the follow-up to their endlessly sunny mixtape, Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are The Very Best, which is still available for free download. Like the mixtape, the debut will feature collaborations with several indie-rock heavyweights, including Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and M.I.A. The jittery highlife first single from Warm Heart, "Ntende Uli," is streaming now at Green Owl but here's the downright ebullient title track, "The Warm Heart of Africa." Like on the 2008 mixtape's rendition of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwasaa," Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig wrestles the mic with Mwamwaya. If you need to hear some more previews from The Very Best's latest they're touring a few U.S. cities amongst a handful of festival dates at Roskilde, Pitchfork, and Øya.
Modest Mouse
“Whale Song” MP3 Stream
Jun 20, 2009
Now this is more like it. Modest Mouse's "Whale Song" ditches the Ugly Casanova sound (banjos and the like) for the a B-side guitar epic to the just OK "Autumn Beds." The six-minute behemoth is very Moby Dick-like, as it slips in and out of the groove, drones, and thrashes about. The small bridge is where Isaac Brock's multitracked vocals come in briefly before a coda that wouldn't sound of out place on MM's debut This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About.
The single "Autumn Beds" b/w "Whale Song" comes out June 23, in preparation for the group's forthcoming EP No One's First and You're Next, due out in August on Epic. No One's First will feature unreleased tracks and B-sides from the band's previous two studio albums, Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004) and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007). Tripwire is streaming "Whale Song" at the link below.
French rockers Phoenix, who we interviewed for our Spring '09 issue, dropped by Ed Sullivan studios for a live jaunt through one of 2009's premier singles, "1901." The track is from the amazing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, out now on Glassnote and the band's own label, Loyauté.
Beck
“Sunday Morning” (The Velvet Underground cover - Record Club) Video
On Thursday, we reported about Beck's new Record Club venture. You know, where Beck and his buddies pick an album to cover in its entirety, spend one day recording it, and catalog the whole endeavor by posting a video track-by-track. Beck and his crew are starting off Record Club strong with their rendition of The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico, and today he posted the first song from the project, the quintessential opening cut, "Sunday Morning." You can hear/see it now, in all its intentionally grainy glory on Beck's website.
It's not too shabby for an ad-hoc session without rehearsal or arranging. One would hope the susequent posts show the songwriter's experimentative side though. "Sunday Morning" sounds almost like a carbon copy of the original, which isn't neccesarily a terrible thing. On Beck's website, he noted that the other folks in the studio included actor and fellow Scientologist Giovanni Ribisi, producer Nigel Godrich (who's also cover-happy these days with Supergrass), Icelandic singer-songwriter Thorunn Magnusdottir, session drummer Joey Waronker, and somebody that goes by the name Yo. Beck also noted that The Digital Underground's Sex Packets was originally on the docket so hopefully it'll be coming later? We hope so!
Air France recently recorded a aural paen to their hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden entitled "GBG Belongs to Us." This is pure dub-Balearic Disco that shouldn't be slept on. The Nordic duo even recorded a little "teaser" clip for the song, which can be viewed at the "Part III" link below. Follow "Part II" for a .zip file with the track or download it from our site. Christina Roos (of The Light Bulb Project, CAT5, ROOS) supplies lead vocals. "Part I" seems to be a very detailed travel guide/love letter to GBG.
Slumberland Records sure has the corner market on indie pop. Australia's Summer Cats is their latest signee after likeminded groups such as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Liechtenstein. "Hey You" is from Cats' debut full-length, Songs for Tuesdays, out July 14th. The C86-cribbing Melbourne quintet add some serious crunch and feedback to their keyboards-guitar onslaught. Think of a less folksy version of The Go-Betweens. The 2:39-minute mark comes quickly as lead vocalist Scott Stevens clicks off the usual warm-weather signifiers: "burning rubber," taking "cute" girls to the movies, and scoring on the first date all blur past appear in the rear-view mirror. Summer Cats make ecstatic jangle-pop made for your next trip to the beach.
