Thursday Music News

04/04/2013

Dillon Sturtevant

Dan Deacon will release "Konono Ripoff No. 1" as an exclusive run of 500 hand-numbered 7" for Record Store Day on the 20th. Deacon has played the song live in recent months but this will be the first time it's been released. The song is performed by two different pairs of drummers -- the A-side is Kevin O’Meara and Jeremy Hyman, and the B-side is Denny Bowen and Dave Jacober -- and the dual drumming is part of what makes this track so fun. In the classic Dan Deacon sensibility the song twitches and tweaks in a perfectly-quantized electro-frenzy, and the pairs of drummers add a cohesive tribal backbeat to the wall of pleasantly freaky noise. You can stream side A below, but make sure to get out and get yourself a copy on Record Store Day while the limited supply lasts. [CoS]

Philly-based anthemic power-rockers Free Energy are also making their record store release available online today by sharing the b-side of their upcoming 7". "Wild Life" is the complement to the single "Girls Want Rock", and its classic Free Energy -- perfectly over-the-top and indulgent power-pop with glitzy guitars and big vocal hooks over chunky power chords and doubled guitar riffs. Free Energy are the Cars of 2013, but with way more fuzz. [CoS]

Remember when Dinosaur Jr. did a stripped-down cover of Phoenix's new single "Entertainment"? Well Phoenix have done their own stripped-down take, and have made a video for it, too. Where their first video for "Entertainment" was all about scope, majesty, and worlds-and-time-crossing epic imagery, this new video takes the opposite tack -- the band sits and lazes with their instruments in front of a green-screened illustration of Versailles, the only visual surprise after the first minute being a dog that wanders in. Check out the stripped-down, mellower version of "Entertainment" below. [Spin]

Cat Power also released a pretty laid-back video today for her song "Manhattan" from last year's Sun. The video follows her around Manhattan on the subway, the streets, the tops of buses -- and all the while she dances and sings along with anyone who will join in, or just by herself. It's a pleasant trip. Check out the video below. [Stereogum]

What's the only thing that could make a big-budget sci-fi post-apocalyptic movie bad? If you cast the waning Tom Cruise in the lead. And what could redeem that choice? A killer soundtrack from M83! Both are the case for the upcoming film "Oblivion". M83 have made the full soundtrack available for streaming online today, as well as the chilling cover art featuring Mr. Cruise dolefully strutting, head-down, along a decrepit Brooklyn Bridge. We've already heard a couple cuts from the album, but check out the whole thing here. [Stereogum]

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