Thursday Music News

03/26/2015

Janice Headley

Run the Jewels have released a powerful new music video today for the track "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)." Director A.G. Rojas shows actors Shea Whigham ("Boardwalk Empire", "Agent Carter") as a cop and Keith Stanfield (Short Term 12, Snoop Dogg in the upcoming N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton) as an unarmed man in an exhausting, brutal, extended fight. In a statement, Rojas states, "When Run The Jewels sent me this track, I knew we had the opportunity to create a film that means something. I felt a sense of responsibility to do just that. We had to exploit the lyrics and aggression and emotion of the track, and translate that into a film that would ignite a valuable and productive conversation about racially motivated violence in this country. It’s provocative, and we all knew this, so we were tasked with making something that expressed the intensity of senseless violence without eclipsing our humanity." Watch the video below, and visit Spin for the rest of Rojas's statement. [Spin]

Syrian artist Omar Souleyman has been signed to Modeselektor’s own Monkeytown label. In a press release, the label says, "They say that we, Modeselektor, play at an awful lot of parties. Omar Souleyman has sung at a very, very large number of parties – wedding parties. We reckon that fits! The coolest man on the planet threw the wedding bouquet our way and we had no choice but to catch it. Welcome to the Monkeytown family!" They'll release his next album, Bahdeni Nami, on July 28th. Souleyman performs this weekend at the Treefort Music Fest. [Consequence of Sound]

Introducing new supergroup Pfarmers, a new project formed by Danny Seim of Menomena, Bryan Devendorf of The National, and Dave Nelson. The trio will release their debut album Gunnera on May 12th via Jurassic Pop, and you can stream a sneak peek below with the track "The Ol' River Gang." [Pitchfork]

Take a trip to the great outdoors with Built to Spill, who've launched a new music video today for the track "Living Zoo." In the clip, directed by Jordan Minkoff, two guys stumble across a cult in the woods, and end up truly transformed. (Truly.) Watch below. Their hotly-anticipated new album Untethered Moon hits stores April 21st via Warner Bros, and you can catch the fellas tomorrow night at the Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho. [Stereogum]

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