Viennese electronic producer Fennesz will release a new album, Bécs, on April 28 via Editions Mego. It's his first full-length solo release since 2008's Black Sea . Check out the record's album art, above.
In addition to announcing the album, Fennesz has also shared a new track from the forthcoming release. It's called "The Liar". Listen above.
Listen to the previous collaboration between Fennesz and Autre Ne Veut, below.
Last night in New York, David Byrne was among a group of artists to perform at Le Poisson Rouge for a concert and rally organized by Content Creators Coalition-NYC. The goal was to raise awareness of and support for a terrestrial radio performance royalty—in the U.S., only the composers of songs get radio royalties, not the performers. (For example, Whitney Houston never got a royalty every time her cover of "I Will Always Love You" was played on the radio.) The organizers of the event are demanding Congressional action to change this.
To shine light on this issue, at last night's event, Byrne and others covered songs that were popularized by artists who were not the writers, and thus did not receive compensation for radio play. Byrne chose to perform Biz Markie's 1989 hip-hop hit "Just a Friend" (along with Tift Merritt and others). Watch below via Consequence of Sound. Byrne explained the choice in his newsletter:
Mr. Markie didn’t write that tune (although he did probably write the rap). The drum and keyboard loop was lifted from a Freddie Scott recording, but the song was written by Gamble and Huff, the great songwriting team that wrote for The O’Jays and The Spinners. So chances are Biz Markie didn’t see any royalties from all the radio play that song got.
Other artists who performed last night included Mike Mills of R.E.M., Marc Ribot, Cake's John McCrea, and more.
Photo by Deirdre O'Callaghan
The next television appearance for the National will be March 8, when the band serves as musical guest on "Saturday Night Live". Fellow New Yorker Lena Dunham, the creator and star of HBO's "Girls", will host the episode. Both the National and Dunham will be making their "SNL" debuts.
On March 3, the National's Bryce Dessner will release a split album of classical compositions with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. It's streaming in full now through Pitchfork Advance.
Watch the National on Pitchfork.tv's "Over/Under":
The latest young-adult lit/film phenomenon Divergent is going to produce one of the year's event soundtracks. In addition to the previously announced A$AP Rocky/Gesaffelstein and Chance the Rapper/Pia Mia/Clams Casino teamups, the soundtrack will feature a new collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and Tame Impala. The song is a reworking of Tame Impala's "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" with Kendrick on vocals, and it's simply called "Backwards".
The soundtrack also features new music from M83, Skrillex, Ellie Goulding, and a bunch more. It's out on March 11, followed by the film's theatrical release on March 21.
Divergent soundtrack:
01 Zedd: "Find You" [ft. Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant]
02 Ellie Goulding: "Beating Heart"
03 Pia Mia: "Fight for You" [ft. Chance the Rapper]
04 Ellie Goulding: "Hanging On" (I See MONSTAS remix)
05 Snow Patrol: "I Won't Let You Go"
06 Woodkid: "Run Boy Run"
07 Tame Impala and Kendrick Lamar: "Backwards"
08 M83: "I Need You"
09 A$AP Rocky: "In Distress" [ft. Gesaffelstein]
10 Pretty Lights: "Lost and Found" (ODESZA remix)
11 Skrillex: "STRANGER" [ft. KillaGraham From Milo & Otis & Sam Dew]
12 Big Deal: "Dream Machines"
13 Ellie Goulding: "Dead in the Water"
Deluxe exclusives:
14 Woodkid: "I Love You"
15 BANKS: "Waiting Game"
16 Ellie Goulding: "My Blood"
Watch a trailer for the film, followed by a Pitchfork.tv special featuring Tame Impala performing "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards".
Radiohead's Jonny Greewood gave a high-concept performance this weekend, playing at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in London alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra. He did a previously unheard song, the Guardian points out—watch video below.
James Murphy recently revealed his ambitious ideas for reimagining the sounds of New York City's subway stations. His hope is to create a system wherein turnstile swipe tones shift as stations fill up with more riders, so that turnstiles will effectively be playing pleasant music as the frequency of swipes increases. WSJ has a new clip of Murphy discussing his ideas, along with a brief preview of what the proposed tones would sound like.
"I started noticing that the subway sounds quite brutal," Murphy says. "There's a missing opportunity at the turnstile." That opportunity could be seized as New York prepares to begin a big project to reposition the subway turnstiles to increase efficiency in stations. "Given that all that information is already at the turnstile, why don't we just make it a nice sound? Just make it pleasant."
Sounds like a nice idea, right? But New York City officials aren't really buying it—MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg told the WSJ that the current sounds are grating because of a "natural technical variation and we don't really care." He also pointed out that many people have had similar ideas over the years, and it would require a lot of resources "for an art project." So Murphy has ramped up his efforts with a website and a petition for the project—find it here.
Watch Murphy talk about the project and preview the sounds:
Cut Copy have released a new video for "We Are Explorers", from 2013's Free Your Mind . The video, created by Masa Kawamura, Aramique, and Qanta Shimuzu, features a stop-motion reel of 3D printed cutouts wandering the streets of Los Angeles. Check it out below.
Watch Cut Copy perform at the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival, via Pitchfork.tv:
Photo by Erez Avissar
Miguel, the R&B singer behind 2012's Kaleidoscope Dream and 2013's "#Beautiful" with Mariah Carey, has pleaded no contest to the DUI charge he incurred in August of last year. According to TMZ, the singer has issued an apology.
"Driving with alcohol in my system was reckless," he told reporters. "I'm really sorry and I'm taking responsibility for this mistake."
Miguel was sentenced to 3 years informal probation, fined $360, and ordered to complete an alcohol education class.
Watch Miguel perform under happier circumstances on Pitchfork.tv, below:
While performing in Anaheim, California in support of Miley Cyrus' Bangerz Tour last night, Sky Ferreira fell during her first song on stage. According to Ferreira's instagram, she spent seven hours in the hospital and ended up with 60 stitches on her lower right leg. Ferreira, who was shown in a wheelchair and covered in a ghost-like sheet on instagram, says that she wasn't even aware of the injury until ten minutes after her set. "I just figured it was some blood," she wrote, attributing the event to "#ThePowerOfAdrenalin".
Ferreira says she will continue to tour as scheduled. Check out pictures from her instagram below.
Read our interview with Sky Ferreira here. Watch Sky's video for "Everything Is Embarrassing" on Pitchfork.tv:
Nicki Minaj is being sued for $30 million by her former wig designer, Terrance Davidson, as All Hip-Hop reports. In the suited, filed today in Atlanta, Davidson alleges that Minaj sold and licensed wig designs he made exclusively for her. The suit is focusing on Minaj's faulty "American morality" rather than intellectual property law.
Minaj and Davidson's partnership lasted from 2010 to 2013, when Davidson left due to "creative differences." He also claims that Minaj's management encouraged him to pass on a multi-million dollar reality television show opportunity.
Watch the video for "Lookin Ass Nigga":
British house producer Julio Bashmore collaborated with Jessie Ware (again) last year on a single, "Peppermint", to be featured on his upcoming album. Now that track has got a its own peculiar, animated video, "inspired by the evolution of house." Watch below via Thump.
Bashmore's full-length will be out sometime this summer, as FACT reports.
Watch Pitchfork.tv perform "Imagine It Was Us" via Pitchfork.tv:
Last night's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" welcomed Arcade Fire as its musical guest. The band performed "Afterlife" off of last year's Reflektor —the segment began with frontman Win Butler filming the band selfie-style and ended with him singing from singing from the crowd. Watch below. Arcade Fire were among the first of Fallon's guests on "Tonight", following performances from U2 and Lady Gaga earlier this week.
When James Blake returned for the second phase of his BBC Radio 1 Residency, his playlist included a remix of Kendrick Lamar's "m.A.A.d. city". The remix was credited to Harmonimix, Blake's remixing alter ego, and Blake says he recorded it on a plane.
During his DJ set Blake also fielded another fake "phone call" from Burial, who according to Blake "wanted to come back on the show". Listen to the entire mix, which includes music from Outkast and Talking Heads, over at the BBC. Listen to the Kendrick remix below.
Check out our Pitchfork.tv interview with James Blake:
Matthew Barnes, aka Forest Swords, has shared a new video for "The Weight of Gold", a highlight from last year's excellent Engravings . This one is a special high-concept collaboration between renowned French choreographer and filmmaker Benjamin Millepied (husband to Natalie Portman!) and the dancer Billy Barry, who executes an intense sequence by the Dead Sea. Watch it below, via Nowness.
Read our Guest List interview with Forest Swords here.
Next Sunday, Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett have a shot at the Best Original Score Oscar for the music they created for Spike Jonze's Her . Here's a new behind-the-scenes video shot during the creation of the score, which finds Arcade Fire and Pallett working alongside clips from the film.
Real Estate's new album Atlas arrives on March 4 in the U.S. and March 3 in the UK via Domino. You may have heard album cut "Talking Backwards" or live radio versions of "The Bend" and "April's Song". Now, the band have shared the song "Crime" in the form of a guitar tab tutorial video. The clip, filmed by Charles Poekel and Brooke Salisbury and animated by Natalia Stuyk, features Martin Courtney and Matt Mondanile giving instructions—watch it below.
Watch an episode of Pitchfork.tv's "+1" featuring Real Estate:
Last night's BRIT Awards ceremony found Disclosure on stage with Lorde, doing a mashup of "White Noise" and the ubiquitous "Royals". (They were joined by AlunaGeorge's Aluna Francis, who does guest vocals on the recorded version of "White Noise".) That collaboration is now for sale on iTunes, per FACT, proceeds of which will go to the War Child charity.
Watch the performance:
And watch Disclosure's full set at last year's Pitchfork Festival in Paris:
The Krakow, Poland experimental festival Unsound will bring an incarnation of its music marathon to New York City from April 2-6. Returning after a one-year hiatus, Unsound Festival New York will bring Polish, European, and American artists together at Issue Project Room, David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, BAM Rose Cinemas, The Bunker at the Wick, the First Unitarian Church, Cameo Gallery, and other venues across Brooklyn and Manhattan. The lineup includes Demdike Stare, Oren Ambarchi, Suzanne Ciani, Huerco S, Ital & Halal, Paal Nilssen-Love, Phill Niblock, Porter Ricks, Vladislav Delay, Andy Votel, and more. The festival is co-presented by Fundacja Tone and the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
Unsound Festival New York will also be issuing a compilation CD of this year's acts, in collaboration with The Wire .
Blood and Fire Records was a reggae and dub record label founded in Manchester, England in 1994. They reissued roots reggae classics by King Tubby, the Congos, and many, many others. In recent years, the label has been inactive, but today, they've announced their relaunch in partnership with VP Records.
Their first release this year will be a limited 12" of Gregory Isaacs' 1978 track "Mr. Know It All", which is out on Record Store Day (April 19). That's the sleeve above. Listen below.
According to a press release, Blood and Fire will re-release between 10 and 12 of its collections this year with additional content and new packaging. They'll also launch a merch line. Steve Barrow, one of the co-founders of the label, will oversee the mastering, packaging, and compiling of future projects.
Drake's OVO Fest returns to Toronto for its fifth year on August 3-4. This year's event will feature OutKast as a headliner plus many more "special guests." Past performers at OVO Fest have included Kanye West, the Weeknd, James Blake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, and more.
Watch Kanye join Drake at least year's OVO Fest below.
Beyoncé: "Drunk in Love" [ft. Jay Z and T.I.] (Watch the Duck EDM-Trap remix) on SoundCloud.
The torrent of artists trying their hands at Beyoncé and Jay Z's "Drunk in Love" continues. This time it's Katy B with a downcast, live cover for Rinse.FM (in a medley alongside her version of Tinashe's "Vulnerable"), below. T.I. also has a verse on an EDM remix. That's it above, via Rap Radar.
Lil B is kicking off his 2014 mixtape run with a bang. The cover of his new tape, Basedworld Paradise , pictures his head atop one of the bodies in the fabled art for Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . It seems unbelievable that he hasn't done this already, but that is the magic of Lil B. Download the whole thing for free here, and watch the video for mixtape cut "Im Tupac" below.
Watch Lil B perform "Like a Martian" at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival:
Photo via Hamilton Leithauser's Twitter
The Walkmen's indefinite hiatus is shaping up to look like a lot of bands' "indefinite hiatuses". Following what was advertised as their final show in December, they performed in New Orleans this weekend for the Rock On Foundation's first Alt-Star Party in celebration of the NBA All-Star Game. Stereogum points to video of their final song, the early favorite "We've Been Had", and a heartfelt and self-aware monologue from frontman Hamilton Leithauser:
"These guys are my best friends. It's not easy to knock us down because we have like five or six final shows, right? Like we have one and then we have another and we have another and then we have another. And then we have a reunion and then we have another reunion and then we have another reunion. 'Cause why the hell not? It's so fun playing with these guys. These guys are the best. Anyhow, you know what? This is the end. This is the last thing we'll ever do. But this is great. This is the first song we ever wrote together."
Watch the clip:
Watch the Walkmen in an episode of Pitchfork.tv's "+1":
Gearheads, rejoice: The much-anticipated return of Roland's 808 drum machine is near. After a lot of speculation about the comeback of the classic 808, FACT reports that Roland's new machines will be unveiled at the Brighton Music Conference on April 11 and 12. Rather than a simple new version of the old TR-808, Roland will release a hybrid of the TR-808 and the TR-909, and call it the TR-8. They'll also unveil a new version of the Roland TR-303 (called the TB-3), and some new machines. It's all part of Roland's AIRA line.
"With the TR-8, we have obsessively analysed and faithfully re-created every detail and nuance of the analogue circuitry of these legendary rhythm machines," the TR-8 description reads. "The boom and snap of the 808. The thud of the 909. The robotic click of an 808 rim shot or a classic 909 snare roll. It’s all here." Find more specs here.
Watch a YouTube demonstration of the new machine:
"Most days I wake up and wish I was Mac Miller. And sometimes I wonder does Mac Miller wake up and wish he was me? Probably not."
- Sufjan Stevens, peering deeply into the life of rapper Mac Miller (via Sufjan's Tumblr)
Electrofunk duo Chromeo has shared album art for the forthcoming White Women , the follow up to 2010's Business Casual, via a missed connections ad on Craigslist. According to the ad, the new album is set to drop May 12. Check out the cover above. White Women will feature contributions from Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Toro Y Moi, Solange, LCD Soundsystem's Pat Mahoney, and Fool's Gold duo Oliver. So far, the duo has shared "Come Alive", featuring Toro Y Moi, "Sexy Socialite", featuring Pat Mahoney, and "Over Your Shoulder". Watch the video for "Come Alive", below.
A few months ago, Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene put out a Craigslist-esque call for couples to appear in his new video "engaged in passionate and intimate sexual moments" and "in various states of undress." He explained, "I'm looking for real couples to come make out on camera for the greater good of vulnerability."
The video—for "Good Sex", the first single from his forthcoming solo album Darlings —premiered today at Stereogum and it is... pretty much what you're imagining. Directed by Samir Rehem, it features couples making out and taking off their clothes on a spinning, light-up dance floor, while Kevin Drew writhes around and humps the ground in a shirt that appears to be splattered with blood. You do you, Kevin Drew.
In Stereogum's accompanying interview, Drew says he had about "60-70" applicants, and that to choose the couples that appear in the video, he asked them questions like, "What’s vulnerability? What’s jealousy? What’s love? What’s lust? How scared are you?"
Darlings is out March 18 via Arts & Crafts.
Watch the video below. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.
Hudson Mohawke: Valentines Slowjams Chapter VII on SoundCloud.
In keeping with tradition, Hudson Mohawke has shared the seventh (seventh!) chapter of his Slow Jams mix for Valentine's Day. Download the 46-minute mix free on his site, or stream it above.
Watch Hudson Mohawke with Lunice and Future in an episode of Pitchfork.tv's "Selector":
The National have waited for the appropriate holiday to release the video for Trouble Will Find Me 's "I Need My Girl". Directed by Sophia Peer, the clip finds a bunch of couples slow-dancing in cocktail attire.
Watch the National in an episode of Pitchfork.tv's "Over/Under":
Boyz n the Hood/Poetic Justice director John Singleton will re-write, direct, and produce a biopic on the late Tupac Shakur, Variety reports. Singleton, who worked with Tupac on 1993's Poetic Justice, had been involved in the project before, but the deal fell through. Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, will executive produce. The new biopic will focus on Tupac's rise to fame from the early days of his career until his murder in 1996. No word yet on which actor will portray Shakur in the film. Singleton said in Variety:
“Tupac was the guy who I planned to do a lifetime of films with,” Singleton said. “His passing deeply affected my life as well as countless people in this world. His life story is important to my generation.”
Watch Tupac's music video for "California Love":
Maggie Estep, the writer and spoken word artist, died of a heart attack this week, EV Grieve reports and The New York Times confirms. She was 50 years old.
Estep was one of the major faces of spoken word performance in the 1990s, earning her reputation during open-mic nights in downtown New York. Her career resembled that of a musician; she played music festivals (including a stint on the Lollapalooza tour) and did television performances, most notably as part of "MTV Unplugged". She released two albums of her work: No More Mr. Nice Girl in 1994, and Love Is a Dog From Hell in 1997.
Estep has also written seven books. She was living in upstate New York at the time of her death. Watch a few of her performances below.
"Sex Goddess of the Western Hemisphere" on "MTV Unplugged":
"Emotional Idiot" on "Def Poetry Jam":
"Happy" on "Def Poetry Jam":
Photo via Instagram
In news that should surprise no one, RiFF RAFF is making a very natural foray into country music. He tells TMZ: "I love country music... I'm good at it and it's a good fit." He's shared a snippet of a Dame Grease-produced country song called "Take U Away", recorded under his Jody Highroller moniker. The full version is coming "shortly", he says—listen below.
Watch RiFF RAFF in an episode of Pitchfork.tv's "Over/Under":
Black Lips just released a new single called "Justice After All" via NME. It follows "Boys In The Wood", another recent track from the band's forthcoming record, Underneath the Rainbow , which comes out March 18 on Vice. (You can watch the video for "Boys In The Wood" here.)
Underneath the Rainbow was recorded partly in Nashville and was co-produced by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. Listen to the new track above.
Watch our "+1" interview with The Black Lips on Pitchfork.tv:
Radiohead now have an app, Thom Yorke writes. It's called PolyFauna and sounds similar in spirit to Björk's Biophilia project: "It comes from an interest in early computer-life experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious," Yorke describes. Inspired by The King of Limbs recording sessions, it uses imagery and sounds from "Bloom". That's a screenshot, above.
The app was created in conjunction with UK digital arts studio Universal Everything—download it free here (iOS) and here (Android).
The description reads:
"Your screen is the window into an evolving world.
Move around to look around.
You can follow the red dot.
You can wear headphones.
You can get some pretty strange looks on the train."
Photo by Erez Avissar
The xx will be in the U.S. next month, to perform a 25-performance residency of 40-person-capacity shows at Manhattan's historic Park Avenue Armory. Now they've announced a string of U.S. dates to follow the residency, maintaining the intention of playing small spaces.
According to a note posted by the band, they'll "try out some new things" with "stripped down production." Read the message in full below.
Also below, watch the xx play "Basic Space" for Pitchfork.tv.
The xx:
03-19-29 New York, NY - Park Avenue Armory
04-01 Wilmington, DE - World Cafe Live @ The Queen
04-02 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre
04-03 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre
04-04 Oxford, MS - The Lyric
04-05 Memphis, TN - The New Daisy Theater
04-07 Marfa, TX - Chinati Foundation
"Ten years ago today we finally released what had been my life’s work up to that point: The College Dropout. I say 'finally' because it was a long road, a constant struggle, and a true labor of love to not only convince my peers and the public that I could be an artist, but to actually get that art out for the world to hear. I am extremely grateful to each and every person along that road who helped, lent an ear, lent their voice, gave of their heart to that project, and to all the projects that followed, and are to come. I am honored and humbled by my fans, for the unwavering support and love over the past ten years. I wake up every day trying to give something back to you that you can rock to and be proud of. Ten years later I am still the same kid from Chicago, still dreaming out loud, still banging on the door. The doors may be heavier, but I promise you WE WILL BREAK THEM."
- Kanye West addressing fans, haters, and the ten years that have passed since the release of his iconic debut album, The College Dropout. (Via Kanye's Twitter)
Damon Feldman, the promoter behind the George Zimmerman vs. DMX boxing match, has decided to pull the plug on the event, TMZ reports. "Done with George Zimmerman," he wrote, "if you had a major payday sitting in front of you, I know no one else would walk away like I did."
TMZ reports that Feldman also said that there's "more to life than money". The two men were due to box on March 1, which is when DMX was promising to "gladly beat the shit out of [Zimmerman]" and piss on his face.
Today Rick Ross announced the tracklist for his forthcoming album Mastermind, which is due out on March 4 via Def Jam. The 16-track LP features guest appearances by Kanye West, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, The Weeknd, Meek Mill, Big Sean, and others. Sean "Diddy" Combs will co-executive produce alongside Ross. Listen to Ross and Jay Z on "The Devil Is a Lie", here. Check out the tracklist below.
Mastermind:
01 Intro
02 Rich is Gangsta
03 Drug Dealers Dream
04 Shots Fired
05 Nobody
06 The Devil Is A Lie ft. Jay Z
07 Mafia Music III ft. Sizzla & Mavado
08 War Ready ft. Jeezy
09 What A Shame
10 Supreme
11 Blk & Wht
12 Dope Bitch Skit
13 In Vein ft. The Weeknd
14 Sanctified ft. Kanye West & Big Sean
15 Walkin On Air ft. Meek Mill
16 Thug Cry ft. Lil Wayne
Watch Rick Ross at last year's Maybach Music Press Conference, via Pitchfork.tv:
The ubiquity of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" just hit a new peak at the Opening Ceremony for the Sochi Olympics. The Russian Police Choir performed an incredibly bizarre cover of the song, complete with solos and a little bit of choreography, on live television, and it's just... watch it here. Now.
The choir has been practicing—a video of them doing "Get Lucky" went viral last year, too.
In other weird Sochi Opening Ceremony news, the Russian fake lesbian pop duo t.A.T.u., who had hits in the early 00s with "All the Things She Said" and "Not Gonna Get Us", also performed. They did "Not Gonna Get Us".
Watch this incredible "shredded" version of "Get Lucky" and see how it stacks up:
Photo by Nic Serpell-Rand
Last night UK magazine The Fly hosted its annual Fly Awards. One of the musical performances was Thurston Moore teaming up with the Horrors to perform "I Can See You", a new rendition of a song that used to be called "Elixir Spring". The track may appear on the Horrors' forthcoming record, though it hasn't been confirmed. Watch footage below.
Listen to Thurston Moore's recent single, "Detonation", and watch him perform "Benediction" at the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival:
Iggy Azalea: "Fancy" [ft. Charli XCX] on SoundCloud.
Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX have collaborated on a new single called "Fancy". It was produced by the Invisible Men.
"Fancy" will be on Azalea's forthcoming record, The New Classic, out later this year. The track is released as a single on April 6.
Check out our Guest List with Charli XCX here, and watch her give a tour of her recording studio on Pitchfork.tv:
Lily Allen's video for "Air Balloon", the second single off her forthcoming record, is a bit lower-risk than the one for "Hard Out Here". Directed by That Go (Noel Paul and Stefan Moore), it's got a safari meets hippies meets... rave vibe. Still no word yet on the title or release date for Allen's new album.
When Brooklyn venue 285 Kent shut its doors, Pitchfork, Ad Hoc, and Todd P presented a final series of shows to send it off. Pitchfork.tv was there to document those last performances. Watch Autre Ne Veut perform "Counting" from Anxiety below.
Read our feature on 285 Kent here, and browse more photos from its final days. Check out more performances from DIIV, Wolf Eyes, and Fucked Up.
