Monday Music News

12/17/2012

Katherine Humphreys

Sufjan Stevens isn't the only one taking on Christmas. The XX covered Wham!'s "Last Christmas" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. It's just how you would expect it: a bit too serious for the cheesy lyrics, but then again The XX can make pretty much anything sound pout-perfectly pretty. And they sound like they're having fun, so check it out below. [Pitchfork]

On the twitter side of breaking news is the tweet "DNA upgrades, spontaneous evolution and NEW YEAH YEAH YEAHS RECORD ARRIVING SPRING 2013! finally." on the Yeah Yeah Yeah's twitter! Perhaps the mention of DNA and evolution have something to do with the mysterious photo that accompanied the tweet, or Karen O just thinks those subjects are as important as the new album. Who cares! New Yeah Yeah Yeahs! [Pitchfork]

Yes, I will report on Peaking Light's every move - today they gave us a delightful psychedelic surf video for their "Beautiful Dub" (remix of "Beautiful Son") directed by Mike Seely at The Creators Project. Feet dance across neon colored waves and sun light catches circles in the camera lens, vintage footage plus some color washes are too suited for Peaking Light's dub sound. In addition (if the video isn't enough), they put together a "Friday Freak Out" mix for Impose Magazine.[Stereogum]

Seattle music news demonstrates the diversity of our scene: the first bit is a new video from electronic late nighter Kid Smpl, and the second a live performance video from goth-billy King Dude at Sargent House Records in LA. Kid Smpl's video for "But I Don't", which premiered on FACT, is a mirrored and looped vision of dark/bright clouds - is that a face? - drifting by.

TJ Cowgill aka King Dude gave a spookily (is it possible for him to not be spooky?) wavering performance of "Vision in Black" as part of the Glass Room Sessions at Sargent House, which was filmed by Terror Eyes.tv.

Okay, having list overload yet? Everyone's lists are almost all out, so I thought I'd compile a list of the lists so you know who's got what going on. Pitchfork released their, yet again overly comprehensive (do they sleep?), lists - everything from best album covers to top 100 tracks to top music videos. Stereogum's got their "Top 50 albums" list which puts Fiona Apple and Frank Ocean out on top. Fader asked their favorite "Weirdos and Tastemakers" to give them the best piece of music of 2012 -including one of MoMA Ps.1's curators, Elite Gymnastics, a Gawker staff writer, Tao Lin, and a Rookie Magazine writer. NPR's list have been out for a while now, and it very... public radio-y... including everything from Regina Spektor to Andy Stott to Kendrick Lamar.

Let's not stop just yet. FACT magazine released their ever diverse and fascinating list of the best 50 albums of 2012, which although the magazine tends to focus on electronic music their list reflects incredibly diverse listening patterns. IMPOSE has the cassettes on lock down - their list of the best cassettes travels the world, they've got Portugal’s Pedro Rios or Branches, Magic Eye of Edinburgh and and Free Weed. XLR8R's got everything from best tracks to best videos to most overrated releases of the year - see for yourself. And be sure to check out our own lists from DJ's here!

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