Music Updates - Free Music Related News

It's a hot week for Pitchfork/video news. The music industry's been buzzing about this one for the past six months, and today comes official word: Pitchfork has announced Pitchfork.tv, bringing "original mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and the most carefully curated selection of music videos online." That's some nice vertical brand building. May wanna set your pitchfork.tv bookmark now, looks pretty awesome. Although we're all going to have to wait until April 7th to peek at the the beta launch, Pitchfork's sent along some detailed info on the site's programming:

The young masters of bedsit indie pop Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, who landed a sweet slot in our three-day SXSW fiesta (between Kaki King and Letterman-beloved Liam Finn), offer up another track to remind you that the repeat-worthy Pershing drops just a few weeks after we all get back from Austin. The last cut "Glue Girls" gave us some shifty grooved power pop, "Think I Wanna Die" brings it back to their Brooming fresh-scrubbed and bright eyed sweet '60s stuff: you know that time, when songs started on the hook and boys followed lines like "Think I wanna die if you don't stay / Drop dead in place you can forget it / Carry a torch for days I'm gonna let it burn" with melodic doo-doo-doos ... and it all sounded sincere and real and made you feel like finding a gal to go steady with and take to the drive in.

Adding to our Madonna reportage, according to Rock Daily, Iggy and his Stooges are going to cover the Material Mom at this year's Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. (Looking at that pic to the right, he may also want to consider covering himself for the occasion.) What song do you think they'll tackle? Regardless, hopefully Iggy humps an amp in her honor. Though the idea of "Iggy doing Madonna" isn't quite as sexy as it would've been 20 years ago. In more R&R HOF news, Damien Rice will do Leonard Cohen. Which is great, because "Hallelujah" has never been covered before. The magic happens this Monday (3/10) at the Waldorf in NYC.

Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.

"You are in My System"
The System/Robert Palmer, 1983

Two artists, one song.

Always good to hear from these dudes around election time. A couple interesting things to note about the Presidents' catchy-ass new tune from the forthcoming These Are The Good Times People: The video was directed by Weird Al, the elastic vocalist dude hasn't aged a bit (a benefit of going bald young?), and the "she's a mixed up son of a bitch" chorus sounds so much like the Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare," we're deciding it's homage. The hyper-kinetic video includes a ton of flip book actions, Guitar Hero, split screen checkerboards, singing multi-colored hands, and three very excitable men.

So with the success of last month's white stripes giveaway, we're going to continue in the spirit of giving here at music for robots. I mean, why not? It's March. There's no national holidays and we all have to set our clocks forward this weekend - I might as well give you something to look forward to, right?

And what better than some 12"s from one of my alltime favorite bands? By now you've no doubt legally purchased a copy of Made in the Dark by our friends Hot Chip. Here we have the Ready for the Floor single, which features the Extended Mix, Soulwax Dub, Jesse Rose Mix, and the Shake a Fist (Diplo Mix). I have two copies of the 12" to give away.

So you know the drill - shoot me an email with Hot Chip contest in the subject line and I'll pick winners at the end of the week.

Oh,and before I forget- obviously we're no strangers to zunes here at mfr, so don't forget you can grab the So Deep single from that marketplace. I guess it's the only place the song is availble. You can grab that software here and find the hot chip zune page here.

go nuts.

Madonna's new single was leaked by a French DJ a couple days ago -- and now it's popping up everywhere. Like here. A lot of fun, oui? For their part, Warner's been really vigilant about folks YouTubing or otherwise uploading it. They issued a copyright claim post haste, but nobody should be surprised that "they were still not quick in enough for thousands of motivated fans of the Material Girl, who managed to download the video or song..." Also via AccuraCast "As of the time of publishing this article, only one video of the track could still be found on DailyMotion. The track included the voice-over of the French DJ announcing the new single at the start." Who knew Warner could be so efficient? Uploads will shift by the minute -- hope you like playing Whac-A-Mole, Bros.

WTF?! Something good must be going on with South Central because, yeah, this is our third post on the subject in the past week. Just when you thought your weekend was coming to a stop, we have the official blog premiere of South Central’s mix for No Love Lost Record’s excellent series:

South Central - NLLR’s Exclusive Mix (mp3)

Check out more of No Love Lost Records Mixtape Project at their MySpace profile and Facebook group.

Tracklisting (more…)

From the Been Meaning To Get To This file, here's a B-side from Robots friends Fourth Of July.

Fourth Of July - Heart Attack.

Fourth Of July put out a pretty sweet record called On The Plains last year. This band has a way of writing songs that worm their way into your consciousness; songs that are contagious. This is one of their best, I think. As Range Life Records' Zach Hangauer notes, it's a "slow-burner." It's a song for late-night driving, warm cups of coffee, and cold glasses of beer. It will also do for being high on Advil Cold & Sinus on a Sunday night, which happens to be my situation. This track is doing me a lot of good.

You can buy the excellent On The Plains from Range Life Records, and be sure to catch Fourth Of July when they come to your town.

These United States - First Sight .

Remember how a like minute ago in the Colin Meloy post I was talking about how the test of really great song is when it survives through mutation, adapting with the evolutionary process and still speaks to you on some deeper level even when some of the basic elements are rearranged or even changed completely? Ladies and gentleman of the jury I give you exhibit B.

These United States have been here before, track 1 on mfr vol 2 you may even remember. Their debut album, "A Picture of the Three of us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden" is just around the corner on March 4th, it was produced with Paleo and I'm telling you it's great. But I'm also telling you, you need to see them live. Fortunately for you they are making their way straight across the country and back in the next many weeks.

These US definitely have a rowdier sound when they are on stage and I honestly can't tell you whether I dig the more tightly controlled, lap-top world of the recorded album or the roadhouse show they put on live. I like 'em both. The important thing is the songs, the lyrics, the intimate melodies are there no matter what. Comparisons to Paul Simon are starting to get thrown around like Springsteen references these days, but in These United States case I think the apt comparison is to Simon's (and I would argue Jesse Elliot's) ability to keep a tightly gripped fist around a song--letting just the right amount trickle through his fingers.

Check out the myspace page to compare album to live tracks and get the tour dates which start Monday in Arlington, VA.