Thursday Music News

12/21/2017

Jasmine Albertson

Erykah Badu stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night to perform a medley of "On & On" from Baduizm and a cover of Fela Kuti's "Sorrow Tears and Blood." The beloved Baduizm turned 20 this year but Badu was there to promote the latest Fela Kuti box set that she curated: Fela Kuti Box Set #4. Badu’s limited-run Fela Kuti box set includes seven personal essays written by Badu, never-before-published photos of Kuti, and “in-depth commentaries by veteran music journalist and Afrobeat historian, Chris May.” [ Pitchfork ]

Scottish post-rock band Mogwai have shared a new video for "Crossing the Road Material" from this year's Every Country's Sun, their first album since 2014's Rave Tapes. Shot at the Accord Speedway in Accord, New York by photographer Antony Crook, the video serves as a sort of mini-documentary on race car driver Johnny Herchinger. He speaks a bit about his love for racing while the song quietly starts and then we join him on the speedway during a race as the track swells until he crashes the car (it's okay, he lives and is totally fine). [ SPIN ]

Prolific Australian psych-rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have steadily been releasing singles leading up to the fifth (!) album of 2017. Previously they've shared "All Is Known," "Beginner's Luck," and "Greenhouse Heat Death," which all been wildly different styles and sounds. Today they've shared the hazy low-key number "The Last Oasis." Their fifth LP (whose name has not been announced) will follow up February’s Flying Mictronal Banana, June’s Murder of the Universe, August’s Sketches of Brunswick East, and last month’s Polygondwanaland. [ Paste ]

A decade later, Gnarls Barkley may be following up their sophomore album, 2008's The Odd Couple. According to a new CeeLo Green interview with DJBooth, the duo comprised of Green and producer Danger Mouse have reunited to make another album. “We have already started on a new [Gnarls Barkley] album,” Green said. “We’re halfway in and we have some overtures from the other projects that may not have stood the test of time, we don’t know yet.” The current plan is for the pair to get back in the studio in early 2018 and try to zoom through the rest of the songs in a week or so. Danger Mouse recently produced Green's new single off his upcoming mixtape Songbirds called "Brick Road (Cookin' Up)," which could give us a taste of the new Gnarls Barkley album. [ Consequence of Sound ]

Laura Marling has taken on Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" for the series finale episode of British television show Peaky Blinders. The show has a history of tapping artists to cover legendary songs, as they did with Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker, who cover Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" for the show's theme song. Marling is a perfect fit for the 1962 song off of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, as she's been compared to him in the past. Marling released Semper Femina back in March. [ Stereogum ]

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