Wednesday Music News

07/10/2013

Katherine Humphreys

Yo La Tengo has released an animated magical video for "Ohm" from Fade. In it, two kids try to figure out what exactly a "Yo La Tengo" is. Where one takes the mathematical route (is that Marlyin Manson and Macy Grey I see in that equation?), the other is pulled into a full-blown world where a seahorse versions of Ira Kaplan abound and are fished by the yo la tengo factory. Luckily, both students receive an "A". [Stereogum]

New York's Captured Tracks, home of Mac Demarco, DIIV and Naomi Punk among others, is celebrating 5 years with a festival next month - and Widowspeak has released "True Believer" before playing at said festival. "True Believer" is a dream in a song, dappled leaves let gold slip through ambling vocals - it's easy to imagine a summer jaunt through the woods or along some sparkling creek with this one. [Stereogum]

of Montreal has decided after several albums of cluttered, bursting pop, to try out the old, simple, psych-rock style. And thus we have "fugitive air", a pleasant and easy-going ramble through 60s sounding riffs and bratty vocals - don't worry though, they have not lost their utterly theatrical lyrics or feelings. This is just one of the many faces of of Montreal. [Stereogum]

Leaving the realm of the ethereal counter-reality that Julia Holter has crafted with her first album must be scary - and the video for "In The Green Wild" feels exactly like that. Holter and a group of friends exist in an altered reality -- not the past but definitely not the present - in which they attend a surreal theater. And as the video twitches along, so does the track, which has fairly easy to make out lyrics throughout and features simple strumming and even horns at one moment. It's a big leap for Holter, and the results are pleasant if unexpected. [Stereogum]

If you weren't convinced by Shannon Shaw's work with Shannon and The Clams that she has one of the best belting voices making scratchy early days of rock-n-roll haze music, Hunx & His Punx have a new track that features those vocals backed by a jumping electric band. Shannon croons and weeps through "You Think You're Tough", but everyone cries sometimes. [Fader]

Seattle's punk scene abounds with college bands, but not many of their members are able to both be in a band and create their own label from scratch. Help Yourself Records is a collection of these punks, ones who can and will do it themselves regardless of the opinions or discouragements of the economy, environment, or amount of alcohol and cheeseburgers available. Not only is the label putting out Chastity Belt's upcoming album, No Regerts, but today they dropped "Cheezeburger" from Ubu Roi, a cool punk band whose ringleader, Matt Kolhede, has been slaving away making this DIY dream a reality for the past year.

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