The KEXP Blog » Beck

Thursday News Threads

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:09:22 +0000

Canadian indie pop group Stars will release The Five Ghosts, their fifth full-length studio album, on June 22nd, adding to the already impressive list of upcoming releases. This is their first since 2007’s In Our Bedroom After the War, and will be the first release on the band’s own new label, Soft Revolution.

By now, you should know about Beck’s crazy Record Club that has already brought together a number of notable artists in it’s relatively short history to record a cover of an entire album in a single day. Annie Clark of St. Vincent announced on her Twitter that she, Beck, Liars, and Os Mutantes worked on the most recent incarnation recently.

Of Montreal performed on a kid’s TV Show, Yo Gabba Gabba. They play an original song called “Bananas Rice Applesauce Toast” about taking care of yourself when you’re sick. Check out video, below, from their segment of the show.

British singer-songwriter/rock icon Billy Idol is heading back out on the road and will be debuting his new band along the way, as he travels this summer for performances at major music festivals throughout Europe. North American dates are set to be announced soon.

OutKast’s Big Boi just released a new video for his track, “Fo Yo Sorrows”, which additionally features George Clinton and Too $hort. It was directed by Zach Wolfe and Dr. Dax. Below!

Band of Horses have found a label and nailed down a release date for Infinite Arms: the disc, due May 18th, will arrive via Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records. The band co-produced the disc with Phil Ek.

Where is MGMT? Possibly having a private party with you! For 6 U.S. cities, the band is giving clues via this website to the secret location and a password, and the first 6 people to arrive at each one with the password will be “part of a very special MGMT experience,” whatever that might be. Yesterday’s New York clues seemed to be longitude/latitude coordinates leading to a remote spot outside of Poughkeepsie.

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, otherwise known as She & Him, have just put out a video for their new single, “In the Sun.” Their new record, Volume Two, is out March 23rd. And, okay, this video is charming.

This Week In WTF: D’Angelo was arrested for solicitation, according to the New York Post. He reportedly offered an undercover policewoman $40 for oral sex in New York’s West Village at 2:30 a.m. Saturday night. Really? $40?!? What a cheapskate! In a statement, D’Angelo’s publicist said the singer would plead not guilty and reported he “is in good health and extremely excited about his forthcoming new album.” yikes.

Thursday News Threads 9/10

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:15:16 +0000

photo by Juliette Dalton

London hip-hop artist Speech Debelle was just announced the winner of the Mercury Music Prize, beating out strong contenders Bat For Lashes, Kasabian, La Roux, Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine, and Lisa Hannigan. Her album Speech Therapy (Big Dada) won for best album of the past year by a U.K. or Irish artist. Be sure to subscribe to our Song of the Day podcast, as we’ll be featuring Speech Debelle next week!

Beck pulled together MGMT, Devendra Banhart and Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale to join him for the next installment of his Record Club. They recorded Leonard Cohen’s entire legendary album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Here’s the video of “Suzanne” by this supergroup of sorts:

Matt and Kim just released via Pitchfork a remix to their song “Daylight,” featuring verses by one of the most important rap groups ever: De La Soul. It will be featured in the new NBA Live video game.

Matt & Kim - Daylight (De La Soul remix) (MP3)

T-Pain and his people just put out an app for the iPhone called “I Am T-Pain.” It’s essentially a way for any Joe Shmo to spend $2.99 and sing auto-tuned awfulness to perfection. If you weren’t already tired of this mainstream rap phenomenon, get ready to hear it everywhere you never wanted.

James Allan, frontman of the band (and other Mercury Prize nominee) Glasvegas, reportedly went missing nearly a week ago, in the days before embarking on a nationwide tour of the U.S. with Kings of Leon. When asked whether the singer would be joining the band at the shows, Glasvegas’ manager replied: “I fucking hope so.” (UPDATE: He’s turned up in NYC.)

A newly discovered spider species is being named after David Bowie. The large, hairy, yellow species was discovered in Malaysia and given the name Heteropoda Davidbowie, which seems somewhat appropriate considering Bowie’s important album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Sony Walkman outsold the iPod in Japan last week! This is the first time in more than four years that the iPod has not been the number one selling digital music device there. Will the US follow suit?

Updating an earlier news item: Liam Gallagher reportedly plans to continue fronting rock band Oasis without brother and primary songwriter Noel.

Thursday News Threads

RJ, KEXP — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:15:12 +0000

Christopher Nelson

The Polaris Music Prize Shortlist has just been announced, with KEXP favorites Fucked Up, Elliott Brood, Metric leading the way. You can check out the full list of candidates for the Canadian insider-voted contest here.

Sub Pop has a new addition to their roster: the fuzzy and poppy Dum Dum Girls. The LA band is actually just one girl named Dee Dee and the LP is expected in early 2010. Dee Dee recently had her first Dum Dum show at the Woodsist/Captured Tracks Fest, which we mentioned earlier, and you can check out some footage right here:

I like to think I do a pretty good job with my interviews, but I’m no Beck. The seminal musician has just launched an interview series that aims to keep the words “without promotional pretext or editorial direction.” First up, Tom Waits. Now that’s the right way to kick things off. You can check out the entire interview here.

After realizing that playing to a crowd of thousands of hippies in the middle of Tennessee may not be the best way to go out, Trent Reznor has announced his very last Nine Inch Nails tour dates before they “disappear for a while.” The five show tour includes dates in NYC, Chicago, and LA, but unfortunately, nowhere else.

Last year, DC’s Wale made a big splash by rhyming over a Justice sampled beat. Now, he’s rolling major label, and Interscope has just announced the release date of his album, Attention: Deficit, on September 22.

While Dan Auerbach was off doing his own thing, the second half of The Black Keys, Patrick Carney, was also getting busy with his own project, Drummer, featuring five Ohio-based drummers, including Carney, who all but one play other instruments. Here’s the title track to the album, due on Carney’s own label, Audio Eagle, which reveals a pretty strong early Built to Spill vibe… if they happened to throw a bit more keys (no pun intended) into the mix:

Drummer - Feel Good Together (MP3)

Like anyone who’s ever had a girlfriend, I’m so over The Notebook and Ryan Gosling. Every girl just drops everything and swoons at the mere mention of his name and for the rest of us, it doesn’t seem like our chances are getting any better: Gosling’s musical project with fellow actor Zach Shields, named Dead Man’s Bones, has just been signed to ANTI-. Great, as if that dude couldn’t already slay it all with his acting and looks, now he’s got music on his side.

Pandora, the previously free mind-reading radio that somehow never seems to get it right (at least for me), has officially been broken: the website has revised its rulebook to cap free usage at 40 hours a month with a $0.99 fee for unlimited access. Yeah, it’s a small amount, BUT IT’S THE PRINCIPLE THAT COUNTS.

School of Seven Bells has announced their first headlining US tour. The tour kicks off in Philly on September 25 and stops by Neumo’s on October 10.