Lover / Killer: The New Single From My Brightest Diamond

August 14th, 2014 , by

New song out today from My Brightest Diamond’s forthcoming This Is My Hand.

Says Shara Worden of MBD: “‘Lover/Killer’ is based on the idea that we all have two sides: the lover, the warrior. We’re all capable of both. The lyrics started out with me singing ‘I am a lover and a killer’ over and over again. I was trying to channel ‘bad-ass,’ be the Karen O type, show off bravado. But as I sang it, I questioned why violence equals power. ‘At the wall in the mirror’ is the resolution of that. It’s facing your own demons and embracing the shadow of your character. It’s about embracing your own power and your own frailty.”

You can listen to the song over at Refinery 29 or above.

Preorder the album on iTunes, your local record, or from Asthmatic Kitty (or Paper Bag Records in Canada) here.

 

More New Music From Helado Negro: “Ojos Que No Ven.”

August 14th, 2014 , by

IMPOSE debuted a new song from the forthcoming Helado Negro album. It’s called “Ojos Que No Ven.” Here’s what IMPOSE wrote about the song:

Mysterious and yearning, it’s filled with lusty calls that whisper “ámame” (“love me”) and is a desirous dweller that simmers with sticky synths and tropical-leaning percussion.

Double Youth is available in CD, LP, and digital. You can even preorder it in a special VIP handmade edition, limited to just 100 worldwide. Preorder it here.

Be sure to check out the latest video to “I Krill You” here.

“Tell Them Memphis:” New Song from Castanets

August 10th, 2014 , by

Thanks to Stereogum for premiering the video to “Tell Them Memphis,” the latest from Castanet’s impending full length Decimation Blues. The video, directed by Sam Hamilton, is a slow, revealing single shot of a forested street as two skateboarders come over the hill. Stereogum’s Chris DeVille describes the song as “eerie and alluring, like a stranger’s comforting hand on your shoulder.”

This is one of our favorite songs on the whole album.

On Sunday, Dave O’Grady of Ireland’s Sunday Business reviewed this new Castanets effort. “Spellbinding,” he wrote, “and the album of the year so far.”

Of “Tell Them Memphis,” he wrote, “simply beautiful, proof that the power of a song is all a true musician really needs.”

Decimation Blues is available next week. You can reserve your copy of the limited edition marbled blue LP here.

Lyrics to “Tell Them Memphis:”
Take the rest, (believe I’ve) had my fill
Take it down to where the boys are laying still

Can’t figure where to go
Can’t say just how much it shows

But I can say that surely if I stay
That you would only bear the worst
The awful brunt of what the others might say
And wouldn’t that bear quite a thirst

Can’t figure what’s to become
When it’s hard enough to say just what we done

So if I don’t see you before you see them
Do give my best to those giving friends
And tell them ‘Memphis’
Though I am down the road a little ways

Out Now: Mozart’s Sister, Being

August 5th, 2014 , by

Mozart’s Sister debut full-length, Being, is out now. It’s what you’ve been waiting for. File under “dirtpop.”

Line of the Best Fit reviewed Being and wrote, “Sure, she’s quirky and she plays synth – but Caila Thompson-Hannant is most definitely not some Manic Pixie Dream Girl kind of creature. She’s got a sampler and the voice of cabaret diva but, most of all, she’s got a hell of a lot of chuztpah.”

Last week, the Montreal Gazette interviewed Caila Thompson-Hannant of Mozart’s Sister:

Being comfortable as a solo artist, she continued, involves “managing a way to be happy with what you’ve done. To stick by it even if it’s not what other people want you to do. When you can feel confident with what you’ve done, that’s when people will come around and want to be a part of it. There’s a lot at stake — I can’t up and leave myself.”

Read the interview here.

Mozart’s Sister is touring Canada with PS I Love You in September. Tourdates here.

You can order the album here.

Annnouncing Fumes, a New LP From Lily & Madeleine

August 4th, 2014 , by

Lily & Madeleine’s goal is to release an album-a-year for three years — a rare feat when the trend among singer-songwriters is to space albums by half-decades. So far, they’re on track: Fumes, the duo’s second LP, will be released October 28, 2014, 366 days after last year’s Lily & Madeleine.The sophomore album is a leap forward for the duo, a mature sentiment of two gifted young artists who have launched from their hometown onto the world stage with speed and grace.

When Indianapolis sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz first started making music together, it didn’t cross their minds that they could make a living at it. Although they now find themselves in an acclaimed full-fledged career, what got them here has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with the spirit.

“The music will always be first,” says Lily. Indeed, Lily & Madeleine’s artistic souls are obvious to anyone who has heard their recordings. From the beginning, the sisters’ calling card has been the breathtaking and intuitive union of their voices.

NPR’s All Songs Considered debuted “The Wolf is Free,” our first listen from the fall-bound album. It’s a wispy, ethereal, haunting song, a perfect summer track for that moment when the day turns to dark and the shadows start to loom among the trees. NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson, who’s heard the full record, praises, “This record has a little more of a kick to it…it’s fuller and more produced and more fleshed out…this whole record is zippier. I am excited about it.” Hear it on NPR here, or above.

New Video From Helado Negro

July 22nd, 2014 , by

Noisey has premiered Helado Negro’s latest music video, directed by Ryan Dickie and set to the album’s first single “I Krill You.” The video features Roberto Lange (aka Helado Negro) set against a projection of electronic nature: trees, bright lights, streamers, and lasers.

Helado Negro will be touring with Son Lux and Sinkane in the fall. See his tourdates here.

The album is out September 2. Limited edition blue vinyl, as well as VIP hand-made edition, are available to preorder here.

New Video, EP Out Now From My Brightest Diamond

July 16th, 2014 , by

It starts today: the latest phase in the musical evolution of My Brightest Diamond has officially begun with the release of None More than You, an EP of new material from composer/performer Shara Worden.

The five tracks collected here hint at a new direction for My Brightest Diamond, as Worden begins combining lullabies and laments of an almost tremulous intimacy with pop songs that take as much inspiration from classic poetry as they do from the latest dancefloor anthems.

Two of those tracks are a pair of vastly different takes on “Dreaming Awake”: the raw Son Lux Mix that opens the EP, and a mix by Mason Jar Music, who got caught trying to record the song at a secret session inside of an abandoned power station. Footage of that recording session—including the bust by the police, and the subsequent al fresco performance—has been uploaded to YouTube and premiered by Consequence of Sound, along with an embedded Soundcloud stream of the complete EP.

None More than You has been released exclusively on translucent purple vinyl or as a digital download here. In addition, iTunes has bundled together a Prismatic Edition of the forthcoming My Brightest Diamond LP, This Is My Hand, that includes a download of this EP, a pre-order of the LP (due in September), and a special advance download of “Pressure,” the lead track from This Is My Hand. It’s all available now.

New Video, Acoustic EP from Lily & Madeleine

July 8th, 2014 , by

A lovely new digital EP is out today from Lily & Madeleine. The EP highlights seven acoustic versions of songs from their self-titled debut, and features a striking version of “Sea of Love” by Phil Phillips, later covered by Cat Power. You can purchase the EP on Bandcamp, iTunes, in our own store, or hear it on Rdio here.

Having just returned from a robust west coast tour with cellist Shannon Hayden, Lily & Madeleine also managed to record sessions at KCRW, Jefferson Public Radio, See also KCRW’s history of “Sea of Love” here. And if L&M weren’t busy enough, they managed to shoot a new music video set to the original, album version of “And Tonight.”

Chris Schlarb Announces US Summer Solo Tour

July 7th, 2014 , by

“There’s a lot of freedom in playing solo,” says Chris Schlarb.

Fresh off the release of his new one-man, four-song, full-length LP, Making the Saint, Schlarb is taking to the road for a solo tour of the US this summer. Freed from the constraints of collaborative playing, his repertoire will encompass not only Saint‘s generous gamut from pop standard to long-form composition, but also covers ranging from Tears for Fears and XTC to ’60s soul duo James & Bobby Purify, in addition to material from both LPs recorded with his Psychic Temple project.

There will be a few surprises, too, says Schlarb: “Really, the only limitation is what I am able to come up with and execute.”

Schlarb’s tour will take him across the country and back, playing some 30 shows in just 40 days over July and August.

“Also,” adds Schlarb, somewhat mysteriously, “I built an 8 foot tall, mobile Psychic Temple to perform inside of.” This alone may be worth the price of admission.

A full list of Chris Schlarb’s tour dates is available at his official website, and Making the Saint can be purchased on CD, MP3, and limited edition white vinyl.

Watch “Year of the Tiger” from Sufjan’s Enjoy Your Rabbit

July 2nd, 2014 , by

It’s been thirteen years since Asthmatic Kitty Records released Sufjan Stevens’ Enjoy Your Rabbit, but we’d never pressed it to vinyl — until this year. Now that it’s available in limited edition, colored vinyl, we thought we’d celebrate by asking director and animator Geoffrey Hoskinson to create a video. We let him choose the song and the concept for the video. What he created is mesmerizing and beautiful.

We asked Geoff a few questions over email about the video.

What appealed to you about the song “Year of the Tiger?”
“Year of the Tiger” is a really outstanding track on the record. I love how it is like a soft ballad juxtaposed with noisy glitchy interruptions and a big climax. It is these dynamics that really appeal to me.

Could you talk a bit about how you made this video? It’s so vibrant and alive. What tools did you use?
The video was created with Photoshop and After Effects. I designed all of the pieces in Photoshop and then animated them in After Effects.

There’s some really interesting visuals here; obviously the tiger is important, but you even have tiger sperm swimming through to a sun-egg. Your work tends to address some life/death issues. Could you speak to that?
What mainly drove the visuals for the video was the concept of birth. This was inspired by the notion of the birth cycles of the Chinese zodiac and the (then) impending birth of my son. The vocal parts in “Year of the Tiger” sounded to me like a wordless lullaby for a baby. So in the video, I saw the tigers as spiritual beings who were calling a new soul into existence with their song.

You can buy Enjoy Your Rabbit here, or at your local record store.

 

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