Music Updates - Free Music Related News

New Clinic Video - “The Witch”

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:13:00 +0000

This new video for "The Witch" has a very similar lava lamp look and set of Hawaiian shirts as the video for "Free Not Free," the first single from Clinic's forthcoming Do It!. This time out, though, everyone's standing up (besides the drummer, duh), and there are some Stan Brakhage-style splices and sped-up urban wrangler shots. Arty. Also, it's a good song.

Those hanging bottles remind us of Foals' hanging meat. That came out wrong.

Do It! is out 4/8 on Domino. The art looks like this, in case you have trouble finding it in the local record shoppe.

2008 PLUG Award Winners

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Unlike last year's PLUG Awards -- hosted by David Cross, performances by Malkmus and Tokyo Police Club, featuring iPod battles and other weirdness -- we couldn't make the presentation ceremony this year. So we missed out on Patton Oswalt, Nick Cave, the Forms, Dizzee, St. Vincent, etc. We also missed out on hearing our name as winner of Best Music Blog. That's all thanks to you guys so -- thanks, you guys! It'll go on the mantle right next to the family portrait and the shrinkwrapped K-Fed CD. Other big winners at the indie People's Choice Awards included Arcade Fire (Best Album, Best Live Act), Animal Collective (Best Indie Album), the National (Best Song), Justice (Best New Artist), St. Vincent (Best Female Artist), Andrew Bird (Best Male Artist), Pitchfork (Best Music Website), and Radiohead (Artist of the Year). Here's your full list of winners:

Kanye West & Chris Martin’s “Homecoming” Video Preview

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:44:00 +0000

For better and worse, '07 was the year of 'Ye. Knowing the man -- and we all know Kanye -- he's not gonna slow down just 'cause the calendar shifted. In fact, there are three lusciously b&w, "Vogue"-style stills at his blog from the Homecoming" video. So far, we see Chris looking like cut-out Spandau Ballet silhouette and Kanye with some post-modern, Coop Himmelblau architectural sense. And, of course, Chi city! Hopefully Lake Michigan gets a part.

Today Is SigurTube Day

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Hot on the heels of pitchfork.tv's announced plan to host on-demand full-length music documentaries comes similar news from YouTube. Only just for one band, for now: Sigur Rós is "the first group to ever have a feature-length music DVD streamed on the channel, with their acclaimed Heima documentary shown in its complete 97-minute glory." Also the band's taken over the video site's entire front page and all its "featured" videos for the day. For us, you, and the other 600,000 people that know who the band are, this is a huge deal. For everyone else it will just be confusing. But hey maybe this'll help Jonsi et al dial up their view counts. Take that, CSS.

New French Kicks - “Abandon” & Swimming Album Art

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:00:00 +0000

French Kicks remind us of a specific time in Brooklyn's history. We're not going to get Kokie's nostalgic on you, but we could, even though they never quite fit in what was happening at that time. Good for them. The New York quartet are back with a new album Swimming, their second for Vagrant. They produced and mixed it themselves. They did a good job, judging from the elegant pop cloudiness of the lead track "Abandon," which subtly folds hand claps, strings, and instantly familiar riffs into guitarist/vocalist Josh Wise's daydreaming. It pairs nicely with that new Notwist tune.

Grizzly Bear Bring Facial Hair To Craig Fegruson

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:30:00 +0000

There are only so many ways to keep the bajillionth performance of "the single" fresh. Band wide mustaches is definitely one of them.

CFCF

Travis — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:30:42 +0000

I’ve been totally in love with CFCF since that HEALTH remix first started being passed around six months or so ago. Something so classic and almost easy — a refreshing break from all the tireless nu rave, blog house, glitch house (or whatever we’re calling it this week) bangers that clog the airwaves. This is a new wave of midnight radio: dark nights and long drives, first loves and sweaty summers…

Midnight Star - “Midas Touch” (CFCF Remix) (mp3)

CFCF manages a cover that doesn’t feel like a cover… In all its 320kbps goodness:

CFCF - “How Bizarre” (mp3)

And for prosperity sake. Sounds like it could be on Italians Do It Better or something — eery and refreshing. When I first heard this I thought I loved HEALTH but I was wrong. My ears belong to CFCF:

HEALTH - “Triceratops” (CFCF Remix) (mp3)

PNAU

Travis — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:13:52 +0000

PNAU - “Baby” (MySpace)

We just posted that Breakbox remix of PNAU’s “Baby” — but the video for the track just premiered on MySpace and it is as addictive and cute as expected. Warning though, this song will never, ever escape your head.

SLU x SXSW

Travis — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:18:07 +0000

I am so excited, so so excited. In five days Rchrd Oh?! and I will be on (different) planes heading to the music nerd’s ultimate wet dream — SXSW. And if there is one showcase that you and I MUST be at it is Summer Lovers Unlimited’s at Beauty Bar on Saturday night. Ok, I know I’m already stretching myself thin on Saturday because everybody is pulling out all the stops for the final night, but this will be the show I’ll keep coming back to… think of it as SLU’s “coming out party.” Big, big things ahead for one of our favorite labels…

SLU put together this little mini-promo-download-only-ep to give your ears a taste for what’s to come…

The Tough Alliance - “Silly Crimes” (mp3)

Dandi Wind - “Adolescent” (mp3)

Apache Beat - “Tropics” (mp3)

The Homosexuals - “Let’s Celebrate” (mp3)

Twin Crystals - “Two Girls” (Demo) (mp3)

Cap and Jones - “1970s Heron Flow” (mp3)

Oh and Pop Montreal/Alien8 is the backroom so you can kill two birds with one stone.

New Breeders - “Bang On”

stereogum — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:15:00 +0000

You'll have to wait for us to evaluate it prematurely, but for now let's say Mountain Battles, the Breeders' fourth album and first since 2002, is totally worth the wait. And how. We all got a taste with "We're Gonna Rise" a ways back, but it didn't stay up at MySpace forever. No worries. Take a listen now to "Bang On," Mountain's second track -- it comes after the lift-off of opener "Overglazed," shifting that tune's upward arc, rattling out a noodling, clapped, percussive romper room/jump rope chant: "I love no one / and no one loves me / I missing, I'm missing," etc. Albini produced, but it's stripped so bare, you might have a hard time believing it. But then listen a bit more closely to the depth of what's been captured. And then think of the Breeders back catalog. And now listen.

[Photo by Chris Glass]