Music Culture

Help

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds let you keep track of your favorite content on both MOLI and the Web right from your profiles. For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS.

Close

  • New Kanye Single Next Week? New Album This Year?

    Photo by Joseph Mohan

    "Love Lockdown" might sound like one of those novelty password-protected diaries they market to 11-year-olds, but apparently it's actually the name of a new single from rapper/producer/fast food mogul Kanye West. And it will be released via download Monday, September 8. That is, if the "label sources" consulted by MTV UK are to be believed.

    The MTV report suggests that a follow-up to last summer's Graduation "seems likely to be with us in the near future." A post on the blog of Def Jam UK A&R dude and radio personality DJ Semtex suggests the album could drop as soon as December. Semtex also says that "Love Lockdown" will be out on Monday, and that he'll play the song on his BBC radio show tonight.

    There's nothing amidst the usual array of half-naked girls and expensive shit on the Kanye blog to suggest any of this, but there is... um... sorry, got distracted there. Kanye's publicist did not return a request for confirmation.

    Both DJ Semtex and the MTV report also note that "Swagger Like Us"-- the M.I.A.-sampling, disappointing-save-T.I. posse cut that leaked last week-- isn't actually a T.I. song, as previously believed. It's a Jay-Z song. ("You thought this was a T.I. single right? You really thought that Hov was going to give this away?" writes Semtex.) It, too, hits iTunes on Monday.

    Kanye's got a brief European tour all lined up for November. Dates below.

    read more

  • Pitchfork.tv: The Walkmen: "The Rat" (Life from Juan's Basement)

    The third and final installment of the Walkmen's set in Juan's Basement ("In the New Year" and "On the Water" were earlier this week) finds them reaching back into their catalog for the classic "The Rat", a track we had at #6 on our list of the Top 50 Singles of 2004, while the interview portion finds them talking about what it's like to be on a new label.

    Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

    [original version from Bows + Arrows; out now on Record Collection]

  • Pitchfork.tv: Terry Lynn: "The System" [Video Premiere] (NSFW)

    The titles flashing at the beginning of this Rickards Bros.-directed video for vocalist Terry Lynn's "The System", from her album Kingstonlogic 2.0, hint at what you need to know about the "not safe for work" part of this video. It was filmed at a slaughterhouse, and some of the imagery shows an animal, specifically a pig, being treated with cruelty. So that should tell you off the bat whether you want to skip this one. For the interested, it's supposed to be a commentary on the violence in Jamaica, where human beings, also, are being killed with alarming regularity. All that and you can dance to it. Roll tape.

    Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

    [from Kingstonlogic 2.0; due 09/23/08 on Last Gang]

  • Of Montreal: Gigs With Fiery Furnaces, Laser Show!

    When Of Montreal tackled the Fiery Furnaces' "Tropical Iceland" on last year's "Suffer for Fashion" single, Pitchfork's Mark Richardson remarked in Forkcast that the match was "one quirky and occasionally brilliant indie band meeting another." So it shall be anew on a batch of December dates that find the family Friedberger sharing stages with Of Montreal.

    But the Of Montreal touring excitement doesn't stop there. Not only have Kevin Barnes and co. finally settled on a venue for their previously announced L.A. show on November 22-- the soon to be reopened Hollywood Palladium-- but they've laid out the details of one heck of a listening party.

    On September 12, at the Laser Dome in Seattle's Pacific Science Center, the entirety of the band's forthcoming Skeletal Lamping LP will be played, accompanied by-- yeah, you guessed it-- a friggin' full blown laser show. Alas, the band won't be in attendance, but you know as well as I do you'll be far too highblown away to notice. In other news, there is a thing that exists called a laser dome (but hardcore Subtle and Minus the Bear fans already knew this).

    Skeletal Lamping, in its many many forms, arrives from Polyvinyl on October 7.

    read more

  • Oxford Collapse Kick Off Another Tour

    Photo by David Needleman

    The itsy Bits-y Sub Pop band crawls across North America. Yes, with just a few weeks of rest since their last jaunt, Brooklyn rompers Oxford Collapse start another tour tonight (September 4) with an appearance at Portland, Oregon's Musicfest NW.

    The exactly-one-month-long tour is in support of the band's recently released new album, Bits, and it includes dates with Love as Laughter and Takka Takka.

    read more

  • Neko Case Recording Fox Follow-Up, Touring

    Since that nasty little ankle injury she suffered in April, nearly all the Neko Case news has been about her guest appearances on other people's records. But what of the sanguine songbird's own follow-up to 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood? In fact, she's been recording it, aiming for an early 2009 release. In recent weeks, however, Case has been taking a break from recording to play some shows around North America.

    Her tour picks up again in California on September 12, and before it concludes toward the end of the month, Case will also play at least one show with the New Pornographers. The Pornos, meanwhile, have a few scattered U.S. dates and a jaunt Down Under in October.

    read more

  • Frightened Rabbit Tour With Death Cab, Spinto Band

    Photo by Shannon McClean

    From the hills of Selkirk, Scotland, the shores of Seattle, Washington, and the many chain restaurants of Wilmington, Delaware, they'll come: sensational Scots Frightened Rabbit have lined up a mess of dates with Death Cab for Cutie and the Spinto Band.

    Frightened Rabbit, who have been tending to a particularly vicious Midnight Organ Fight for much of the year, will meet up with the Spintos (whose Moonwink arrives October 7) in mid-October for just shy of a month together. The Rabbits' time with Death Cab, meanwhile, will be spent a little closer to home off in November. First up, however, is a UK tour that gets going tonight (September 4) in Leeds.

    read more

  • Thurston Moore, Matmos, Andrew WK, Mercury Rev Play Thirlwell-Curated Month at the Stone

    The experimental music community, for the win: JG Thirlwell, aka Foetus, has curated the entire month of September at improv/jazz innovator John Zorn's NYC club, the Stone. The calendar is so stuffed with awesome artists that Carla Bozulich and Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes have already played, and yet the lineup's power has barely been dented.

    Among those still to come at the Stone in September are Thurston Moore (with his Northampton Wools duo), Mercury Rev, Andrew WK (performing "piano improvisations"), Matmos, John Zorn himself, Michael Gira of Swans/Angels of Light, Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, Tony Conrad, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Skeleton Key's Erik Sanko performing with Doveman's Thomas Bartlett, Aa, Thirlwell's own Manorexia ensemble, Zs, Bridget St. John, David Grubbs, Petra Haden and Yuka Honda, and USAisamonster.

    A full list of the Stone's events this month is after the jump.

    read more

  • The Coathangers Sign to Suicide Squeeze

    Fearsome female foursome the Coathangers have signed to Seattle imprint Suicide Squeeze. Suicide Squeeze savvies might have seen this coming with the label's release of the Atlanta band's "Shake Shake" / "Dreamboat" 7" earlier this year.

    The Coathangers are currently writing and recording a new album for a spring 2009 release, but their schedule doesn't exclude a few tour dates. The band has a handful of shows in and (sort of) around its hometown this month.

    read more

  • New Music: Fuck Buttons: "Sweet Love For Planet Earth (Andrew Weatherall Mix)" [Stream]

    As announced in news the other day, Fuck Buttons are touring with Mogwai and they're also going to be releasing a single, containing Street Horrrsing closer "Colours Move". On the B-side of the single is this, the Andrew Weatherall mix of Horrrsing's opening track, "Sweet Love for Planet Earth". More than anything, I think, it illustrates one reason why these guys appeal so easily to people not normally interested in noise-- they delve into the heavy stuff with an obvious pop sensibility. Weatherall, a guy with a very good ear and a long history of revealing remixes, nudges the track gently in the direction of dance music. He adds some electro claps, a steady kick, and some dubby touches to inject space into FB's characteristically dense productions. All in all, a very nice reworking-- I'd be up for a megamix of the whole album, while he's at it.

    [from the "Colours Move" single; due 09/08/08 digitally (with a 12" to follow) on ATP Recordings]