Friday Music News

06/16/2017

Jasmine Albertson

After an elaborate ad campaign for Arcade Fire's new single "Creature Comfort" that included a fictitious cereal ad for Creature Comfort Cereal and then placing said cereal boxes around Dublin for a game of Find The Cereal and Get Into the Afterparty, they finally released the actual song along with a video. The video features the band in a room filled with strobe lights, while the sparkly-outfitted band writhes around while performing the song, with the lyrics rolling by beneath and above the screen. The visual inclusion of the lyrics seems important since the song is essentially an anti-suicide campaign aimed at their (large) young fanbase. Everything Now will be released July 28 via Columbia. The band recently shared anagrams for the entire tracklist of Everything Now through an official Twitter account called @EverythingNowCo. Arcade Fire will be playing the Key Arena on Sunday, October 15th. [ Pitchfork ]

It's a great time for Canadian indie rock right now. After news of a new Broken Social Scene record (as well as the new Arcade Fire, of course), we now have a new release from Stars. The band released a new two-sided digital single, "Privilege"/"We Called It Love" which will be on an upcoming full-length. In the band's own words, "hello. we're back. we have a new album. it was recorded in Montreal and Connecticut with the great producer Peter Katis. We love him and thank him for being there for us. it's our first with our friends at Last Gang Records. we made this record for ourselves, for our kids, and for you. and we are so happy and grateful that you're still listening to our music. here's a couple of songs from the record." No other details about the record or an upcoming tour are known. [ Consequence of Sound ]

The Smiths have announced reissues of "The Queen Is Dead," the title track from their 1986 album, which they recently teased on Facebook with a cryptic photo. There are two new vinyl singles of the track, available in both 7″ and 12″ versions, that are available now. The 12″ version features a 1992 edit of the track previously only available on the “How Soon Is Now” CD single, and includes B-sides “Oscillate Wildly,” “Money Changes Everything,” and “The Draize Train.” The 7″ version comes with the B-side “I Keep Mine Hidden,” which is taken from the 1987 cassette release of “Girlfriend In a Coma” and allegedly the last Smiths song ever recorded. The announcement follows a new single the band dropped on Record Store Day, which included the etching “Trump Will Kill America.” [ Spin ]

After news Wednesday that Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmangli had a new single and upcoming album, we now have word that Chris Baio, also of Vampire Weekend is releasing his sophomore solo album Man of the World on June 30 via Glassnote. It follows his debut release, The Names, in 2015 under his last name (unlike Rostam who's releasing his solo work under his first). We also have a new single from the album called "DANGEROUE ANAMAL." Baio had this to say about the album in a previous press release: "Writing Man of the World was my way of processing 2016, a year that began with the death of my favorite artist, David Bowie, and ended with the greatest political disruption of my adult life - all while I was a nomad, an American living in London, touring two continents, never fully of either place. It's partially about being trapped in my own head, obsessing about things it was too late to change, feeling afraid and guilty and alone. It's also my attempt to document a certain sense of loss that felt both intensely personal and like part of a larger collective experience many were going through at once." [ Under the Radar ]

American Epic is a PBS documentary that debuted in May about the early-20th-century birth of the American recording industry — specifically, about the era when labels would go out into rural America to find blues and folk and country musicians. Helmed by Jack White, the show features a performance special called The American Epic Sessions in which musicians like Willie Nelson, Beck, Elton John, Alabama Shakes and Nas perform old songs in a rebuilt version of one of those original recording setups. Today we've got a new clip of White performing the obscure folk song “Matrimonial Inclinations" which will be available on the American Epic Sessions Soundtrack via White's Third Man Records. [ Stereogum ]

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