Monday News Mash-Up

Mark Linkous, better known to the musical world as Sparklehorse, took his own life over the weekend. Linkous had a previous brush with death after a near-lethal mix of meds in 1996. He leaves behind a strong if small canon of fantastically dark music, including last year’s Dark Night of the Soul, a collaboration with Danger Mouse and director David Lynch. Earlier this week it was announced that EMI would finally release the album in its original multimedia form, which will stand as one last tribute to the work and life of Linkous.

Harpless and egoless, Joanna Newsom made faces and tickled the keys on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Friday evening, playing “Soft as Chalk” from her latest release, Have One on Me.

Also on the video front, RJD2 just released the second video off his self-released ‘comeback’ album, The Colossal. Check out “A Spaceship for Now” and remember just how awesome RJ’s vids are:

A 1995 compilation meant to shed light on the plight of incarcerated AIM member Leonard Peltier titled Exiled in the Land of the Free never saw the light of day... until now. A former employee of Columbia Records has given the album the freedom it rightly deserves—and by freedom I mean completely free to download. The compilation features tracks from Rage Against the Machine, The Beastie Boys, Josh Homme pre QOTSA, Superchunk, and Giant Sand among a who’s who of 90s musicians. You can read more about Peltier and nab the zipped album here Reading Peltier’s Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance is also worth your time.

Do you have $80? Are you willing to commit it to great music? If so, Thrill Jockey is offering up the 2nd edition of their newly annual 12-inch Subscription Series. The series guarantees seven 12-inch singles in custom screen-printed jackets and features recordings from Javelin, Double Dagger, and Jack Rose to name a few. It is limited to 500 slots, so your window to join is oh-so-limited.

Foals are set to release the follow up to their 2008 debut, Antidotes. On May 10, you can pick up Total Life Forever, but right now you can watch the beautiful new video for “Spanish Sahara” (below) and download a remix of the song at the band’s website:

Carissa’s Wierd is getting the greatest hits and reissue treatment via Hardly Art. The band that splintered into Band of Horses, Grand Archives and various other groups is set to have They Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003 drop on July 13th with a planned reunion show taking place in Seattle sometime this year.

Alright, we’re going to leave you with one final video because this is too cute. Fifth graders of PS22 Chorus from the Staten Island elementary perform Phoenix‘s “Lisztomania”:

The KEXP Blog