Thursday Music News

11/30/2017

Jasmine Albertson

Fresh off a live performance on The Morning Show on KEXP, The National have released a video for the single "Dark Side of the Gym," a track off their critically acclaimed new album Sleep Well Beast. The video is directed by Justin Peck, the resident choreographer at the New York City Ballet, who also stars in the clip alongside Patricia Delgado. Watch their beautiful performance below. [ Pitchfork ]

British six-piece The Go! Team are releasing their fourth LP Semicircle on January 18 via Memphis Industries. Today they've shared the album's second single "Mayday." The ruckus, jubilant song features a beat made out of morse code and cheerleader-like calls made by the Detroit Youth Choir. Frontman Ian Parton said this about the song: "I’ve always wanted to do a song with Morse code in it and when I hit upon the idea of applying a mayday distress signal to love problems I was surprised it had never been done before. Once you got that idea you can really lay on the metaphors: 'hit by a category 5,' 'sinking fast in the sea I cried,' 'come in — do you read me.' I’ve always loved those soul songs which equate boy trouble to emergencies — pure Shangri-Las style melodrama, backcombed to oblivion." KEXP is bringing The Go! Team to Seattle on Friday, March 30 to play Neumos. [ Stereogum ]

Dirty Projectors is now mostly the solo project of Dave Longstreth, who released the self-titled eighth album under the name. Today the surreal new video for "Up In Hudson" has been revealed. Directed by the Los Angeles-based studio Encyclopedia Pictura, the visually stunning video is set in an alternate universe of humans with giant prosthetic noses and ears. “Through four very different couples, the arc of a relationship is portrayed in its stages of growth, death, and rebirth,” the studio said in a statement. “To unite our characters as we weave through their stories, we tried to present their vulnerabilities in a surreal way, right on the surface, in their faces.” [ Pitchfork ]

No Age are releasing their first new album in over four years in early 2018. Called Snares Like a Haircut, the duo have previously shared the lead single "Soft Collar Fad" and today they've unearthed the second one entitled "Drippy." The scuzzy, buzzy song has all the hallmark traits of a good No Age song but with a more melodic sound. Snares Like a Haircut follows 2013's An Object and is out January 26 via Drag City. [ Noisey ]

Craig Finn of The Hold Steady and John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats are mutual admirers and comparable colleagues in their field, both great lyricists in indie rock. With that in mind, it's natural that Finn would appear on the latest I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats podcast to cover one of their songs. The basis of the podcast is the Darnielle and host Joseph Fink discuss in depth one single Mountain Goats song each episode. The two are currently going through 2002's All Hail West Texas, so Finn took on "Fault Lines" from the album. Listen to the full episode here. [ Paste ]

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