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M83

Listen: M83 “Karl” From Knife + Heart Soundtrack

Mar 07, 2019

M83 has returned with his third feature film soundtrack, Knife + Heart, which will be released digitally tomorrow, March 8, on Mute. Knife + Heart is a French film directed by the brother of M83 frontman Anthony Gonzalez, Yann Gonzalez. The film premiered at the last Cannes Film Festival. The scoring project marks the first time Anthony has reunited with original M83 member Nicolas Fromageau since the group’s first two full-length releases, 2001’s self-titled studio album and 2003’s Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. Knife + Heart represents the first new collection of original M83 music since 2016’s Junk.

Here’s some info from the press release:

Knife + Heart is a noir-tinged erotic slasher that explores the seedy underbelly of Paris in the 1970s. Vanessa Paradis stars as Anne, the producer of third-rate gay pornography who strives to win back the affections of Lois – her editor and erstwhile lover – by shooting her most ambitious film yet. But events take a violent and dark turn when one after another, Anne’s actors fall prey to a masked killer whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Watch the trailer for Knife + Heart here.

Reflecting on the inspiration for Knife + Heart’s soundtrack, Yann Gonzalez says, “We wanted to recapture the Gialli ambiance of the ‘70s, to feel that sinister yet sentimental tone. Anthony and I
are both poetical and even sentimental, in a certain way. We wanted to dive in headlong,
particularly as melancholy and poetry are found in numerous ‘70s horror film soundtracks, from films
by Lucio Fulci to those by Mario Bava. I’m thinking in particular of the harrowing soundtracks of
Don’t Torture a Duckling or Twitch of the Death Nerve.

Commenting on the source material, he adds, “This principle of pleasure came rushing back. I got Anthony to listen to some old soundtracks from straight and gay porn films. He quickly gathered the musical codes and finally, the most beautiful tracks in Knife + Heart – the most pleasurable ones – are probably the ones he recreated for the film’s fake porn movies.”

Knife + Heart Screenings
March 15-21 – New York, NY – The Roxy Cinema Tribeca *
March 15-21 – Brooklyn, NY – Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn *
March 22-28 – Los Angeles, CA – Landmark’s Nuart Theatre +
March 23 – Boston, MA – Boston Underground Film Festival
March 27-April 4 – San Francisco, CA – Alamo Drafthouse Mission *
March 28-29 – Cleveland, OH – Cleveland International Film Festival
March 29 – Boston, MA – WickedQueer
March 29-April 4 – Los Angeles, CA – Arena Cinelounge
March 29-April 4– Yonkers, NY – Alamo Drafthouse
April 3 – Washington, DC – Alamo Drafthouse Woodbridge
April 5-6 – Detroit, MI – Landmark’s Main Art Theatre
April 5-11 – Chicago, IL – Music Box Theatre ^
April 5-11 – Philadelphia, PA – Landmark’s Ritz at The Bourse
April 5-18 – Grand Rapids, Michigan – Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
April 12-19 – Austin, TX – Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar ^
April 13 – Bethlehem, PA – Frank Banko Alehouse
April 19-25 – Denver, CO – Sie FilmCenter ^
April 19-25 – Phoenix, AZ – FilmBar
April 19-25 – Tucson, AZ – The Loft Cinema
April 23 – Winchester, VA – Alamo Drafthouse Winchester
April 26 – Pittsburgh, PA – PUFF/Reel Q
April 28 – St. Louis, MO – QFest
May 2 – Milwaukee, WI – Union Cinema ^
May 8 – Iowa City, IA – FilmScene

^ 35mm screening April 5-7 at The Music Box Theatre, April 12-14 at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, April 19-21 at Sie FilmCenter and May 2 at Union Cinema

* 35mm screening and Q&A with Yann Gonzalez on March 15 at The Roxy, March 16 at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn and March 27 at Alamo Drafthouse Mission

+ 35mm screening and Q&A with Yann Gonzalez and co-writer Cristiano Mangione on March 22 and 23 at Nuart Theatre

Boy Genius

Watch: Boy Genius KEXP Live Session

Mar 05, 2019

Boy Genius, the project between Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers, passed through Avast! Recording Co. for KEXP back in November of last year for an old fashioned tear-jerking session. It was just posted. It’s kind of eerie how well these three voices blend together. It comes accross on record for sure but hearing it live…Damn. Love Boy Genius. Cheryl Waters hosts.

Songs: Souvenir, Cowboy Take Me Away (Cover) Me & My Dog, and Ketchum, ID

Devendra Banhart

Listen: Rodrigo Amarante “That Old Dream Of Ours” From Devendra Banhart Unreleased Demos Vinyl

Feb 28, 2019

Devendra Banhart’s newest release is personal and unexpected, in keeping with his artistic approach. Banhart isn’t recording as much anymore and his latest offering is a curaiton of demos from dear friends, including Arthur Russell, Nils Frahm, Vashti Bunyan, King Tuff and more. These never before heard works collected over many years is being released tomorrow and is titled Fragments du Monde Flottant. It will only be released on vinyl, limited to 2000 copies, and each with one of six different colored cardboard packaging and one of six drawings by Devendra. Listen to “That Old Dream Of Ours” by Rodrigo Amarante below.

Says Devendra: “I’ve always loved demos, often much more than the final version. In fact, my favorite John Lennon song is a demo; its called “Friend of Dorothy”. It’s a masterpiece. This is an album of demos. You know who doesn’t like demos? The people who make them - that’s who! Wait , wait…. That’s not true. They do like their demos but they are definitely not gonna let anyone hear them anytime soon. They have big big plans for these songs. Fortunately , I don’t mind being extremely annoying when it comes to bothering/begging my friends to let me hear their demos. Unfortunately , I am not a very good dentist. This album could have been called “Pulling Teeth” if ya know what I’m sayin’….

Now, if i may take a moment to say what kind , generous , and patient the sweet people on this comp are. Thank you forever for enduring all of my emails, phone calls , texts, letters, and astral badgering! I am extremely grateful to you - I love you. I would also like to thank my ol’ pal Cyril Yeterian. He also loves demos and happens to runs the label that put out the record you are now holding, so that worked out nicely. I am also endlessly indebted to Dustin Reid for introducing me to Tom Lee, who allowed us a peek into the priceless vault of Arthur Russell’s demos & release this never before heard work from the great master!
Please enjoy this anthology of intimacy before everyone on it freaks out and doesn’t want you to hear their demos (on the bright side , at least 5 of them will show up at your house and pay you the big bucks to get this back!) This comp has taken years and years to put together. Wow. Has it been that long? Yep.
Love Above All - Devendra Banhart.”

Rafiq Bhatia

Listen: Rafiq Bhatia Reworks “Breaking English” feat. Sam Dew

Feb 23, 2019

One of the truly soulful pieces of music from last year was Rafiq Bhatia’s title track from his startling album Breaking English. Bhatia reworked the track, bringing in singer Sam Dew. An already divine song gets a further blessing. Listen and let it fill your soul.

Bhatia offers the following analogy for the feeling behind the music: “In August, I lost my grandmother. In Muslim funerals, there is a communal element in laying the deceased to rest. Dozens of mourners (family members, friends, and members of the congregation) all take turns as pallbearers, each shouldering the weight briefly before making room for the next person, singing in unison as the procession continues. It’s a teeming, resonant swarm helping to bear the final burden gently. (‘...a million other lights like me beside me and we’ll return again’)”

TOUR DATES

3/1 – Boston, MA – Museum of Fine Arts Boston

3/6 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s

3/7 – Pittsburgh, PA – Andy Warhol Museum

3/8 – Oberlin, OH – The Sco, Oberlin College

3/9 – Toledo, OH – Peristyle Theatre at the Toledo Museum of Art

3/10 – Indianapolis, IN – Newfields: A Place for Nature & The Arts

3/15 – New York, NY – The Kitchen

3/22 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival 2019

6/28 - 6/30 - North Adams, MA - Solid Sound Festival

Randy Randall

Watch: Randy Randall of No Age “Shore Sunset, Pt. 1” Video

Feb 20, 2019

Randy Randall of No Age is releasing a ambient album. Oh yeah….His debut solo LP is titled Sound Field Volume One and is set to be released March 29th via Dangerbird Records. “The record is a series of ambient pieces inspired by California’s I-10 highway and the various landscapes along the route, from the desert sunrise in Palm Springs to the dense traffic of Downtown LA to the sunset at the Santa Monica Pier.” I mean, do you need to know any more?? This video created by Aaron Farley is for the track “Shore Sunset, Pt. 1”

From the press release:

“This project has been a really fun way to explore the many different environments of Southern California,” says Randall, “We drove along the 10 freeway from the desert at sunrise thru the suburbs in the morning, thru downtown LA in the afternoon and ending at the beach at sunset. This video is the first part of sunset and it reflects the way the beach interacts with the city and how people experience a peaceful environment right next to the highway.”

Sound Field Volume One is the next installment from the LA-based experimental music and visual art collective Arthur King Presents. Who is Arthur King? http://www.whoisarthurking.com/

Panda Bear

Listen: Panda Bear “Master” From New Album

Feb 08, 2019

You can always count on Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox from Animal Collective, to keep you off balance. With every new page turned in his sonically experimental solo career, he scrambles the frequencies while maintaining his neo-beach boy presence. Lennox just released his sixth Panda Bear album, Buoys. Get a taste of it with “Master” below.

Kurt Vile

Watch: Kurt Vile Tiny Desk Concert

Feb 06, 2019

Two lovable things come together: NPR’s Tiny Desk and Kurt Vile. Tiny Desk concerts curated by NPR Music consistently invites great artists to perform a few songs in its inviting setting. Accompanied by guitarist Rob Laakso, Vile came around to play “Bassackwards”, “Loading Zones” and “Peeping Tomboy”. Here’s what host Bob Boilen had to say about it:

Kurt Vile exudes a casualness at the Tiny Desk in his style and body language that is so unlike most anxious artists who come to play behind my desk. Sure, he’s done this Tiny Desk thing before, with Courtney Barnett. But even then, I remember thinking that he’s got something else on his mind — and it made me laugh this time around when Kurt played his opening tune, “Bassackwards,” and sang these words: “I was on the beach but I was thinking about the bay / Got to the bay but by then I was far away.”

That idea of being one place and thinking about another, for me, also connects to the way he plays guitar. He seems distracted, yet the complex guitar lines he so nonchalantly plays, along with his musical mate Rob Laakso, are effortlessly beautiful and lyrical.

After they played two new tunes from Kurt Vile’s latest record, Bottle It In, Kurt goes solo on an older, self-described “juvenile” song from long ago, recently revived during his Courtney Barnett collaboration last year. “Peeping Tomboy” has its own schizophrenic issues as Kurt sings, “I don’t wanna change but I don’t wanna stay the same / I don’t wanna go but I’m runnin’ / I don’t wanna work but I don’t wanna sit around / All day frownin’.”

On the surface, it all can seem just chill. But there’s a lot of rumination in these songs — and even when he’s gazing into the overhead office lights, I think he got his mind on the stars and the world at large.

The Twilight Sad

Watch: The Twilight Sad Perform “The Arbor” Live in Leeds

Feb 02, 2019

Seriously, what band is killing it harder than The Twilight Sad right now? Answer: Not a one. This just surfaced: Off the Glasgow band’s mega new record It Won/t be Like This All the Time, this version of “The Arbor” was captured in Leeds in June of last year and recalls some early Joy Division footage ...and mood. It should give you all the incentive you need to catch them when they come back around your way for theor full fledged tour for the new album. You can only imagine what they sound like now.