Photo via Instagram
Rick Ross has revealed that his new album Black Dollar, the follow-up to last year's Mastermind and Hood Billionaire, is coming out this Thursday (September 3). Leading up to the album's release, he's sharing some new music, including the above single "Foreclosures" (which was produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and 8 Bars).
Tomorrow, he says he'll release a new single called "Money Dance" featuring The-Dream. There's no tracklist available just yet,
Stephen Colbert will make his debut as the host of "The Late Show" on September 8. He's announced a handful of his initial guests, such as Kendrick Lamar, who will perform on September 9 (not the inaugural broadcast, as previously reported). Today, he revealed the schedule for the show's second week, as The Hollywood Reporter points out.
On September 16, Run the Jewels and TV on the Radio will perform together. It's unclear what this collaboration will entail; Pitchfork has reached out to both acts' representatives for more information.
The Dead Weather will also swing by on September 14.
Read our feature on Run the Jewels, Last Rappers Standing.
Watch El-P and Killer Mike on Pitchfork.tv's "Over/Under":
SpongeBob Squarepants, the titular anthropomorphic sponge of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon show, is getting his own Broadway musical. It'll feature original music by David Bowie, Dirty Projectors, the Flaming Lips, They Might Be Giants, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, T.I., Panic! at the Disco, Lady Antebellum, Plain White T's, and Jonathan Coulton, as Entertainment Weekly reports. The play is set to run in Chicago from June 7-July 3 of 2016, with a Broadway run planned for the 2016-17 season. This isn't the first time Bowie has done something for SpongeBob. Back in 2007, he voiced a character on an episode. A statement from a Nickelodeon executive described that slate of musicians as "a dream team of SpongeBob fans," which confirms the stars spend as much time lazing around and watching cartoons as you and me.
Bowie also has another theater project in the works as well: he's co-writing Lazarus, a theater production based on his character from The Man Who Fell to Earth that will open this fall.
Photo by Alexandra Gavillet
Wavves' Nathan Williams has shared another track off the band's forthcoming album V, which comes out October 2 via Ghost Ramp/Warner Bros. The song, which was premiered by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show, is titled "My Head Hurts". Listen to it here.
Wavves has already shared three cuts from the album: "Flamezesz", "Way Too Much", and "Heavy Metal Detox".
Watch Wavves' episode of Pitchfork.tv's Frames:
Back in 2011, the Weeknd performed his first real show at the Mod Club in his hometown of Toronto. Last week, to promote the release of Beauty Behind the Madness, Abel Tesfaye returned to the Mod Club for a concert that was filmed by VEVO. He noted the significance of the venue on Instagram, remarking, "I can't explain the feeling. The first time I ever exposed my face to my fans in 2011. MOD CLUB will live forever in my heart..." (He even wore the same camouflage jacket that he wore at the 2011 show.)
Below, watch clips from the discography-spanning performance.
Last night, the Weeknd delivered a fiery performance of "Can't Feel My Face" at the VMAs.
Read our new interview with the Weeknd.
"Can’t Feel My Face"
"The Hills"
"Tell Your Friends"
"Losers"
"High For This"
"House Of Balloons / Glass Table Girls"
On October 27, Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein will release her memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl via Penguin. Today, she's announced a book tour, spanning dates at venues across the country. Each event will feature a guest interviewer, including Questlove, Amy Poehler, Dave Eggers, "Saturday Night Live" star Aidy Bryant, actress Gaby Hoffmann, Pitchfork Senior Editor Jessica Hopper, and more. Find the full list of readings and guest stars here.
The Chicago event, taking place October 30 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, is presented by Pitchfork and the MCA's "In Sight Out" series.
Read "A Certain Rebellion", our feature article on Sleater-Kinney.
Watch Sleater-Kinney perform "Entertain" at Pitchfork Music Festival:
The series finale of "Hannibal", which aired Saturday night, featured "Love Crime", the first new song from Siouxsie Sioux in eight years. It was co-written with "Hannibal" composer Brian Reitzell. You can listen to it below, as Brooklyn Vegan points out.
Speaking with TV Guide, "Hannibal" executive producer Bryan Fuller explained how the song came about:
Brian Reitzell knew I am a huge Siouxsie Sioux fan and have seen her in concert more times than any other artist in my life. We knew that she was a fan of the show, and we reached out to see if she'd be interested in writing a song. Essentially, she hasn't had a single in eight years, and she said she hadn't been inspired to write in a long time, but that Hannibal had inspired her and she would write a new song. It was an incredible honor. I told her it should be a love song between Will and Hannibal. She came back with this wonderful Bond theme of a ditty, and I just said that has to go over the finale. It was pitch-perfect.
Then it became the battle over... how do we pay for it? We didn't have any money left in the budget, and the studio wasn't going to put any more money into the show than they already had. I went to NBC and Sky, who are our American and UK broadcasters and said, "I know the show is canceled... and it's absolutely unheard of for a showrunner to come back to you and ask for more money for a show that has no further revenue potential for you. But it's Siouxsie Sioux and it's an honor and it's her first single in eight years." They both said, "Yes, absolutely, we'll split it right down the middle, and we're doing this because we love you, we love the show, and we love Siouxsie."
Reitzell told Entertainment Weekly, "Siouxsie hasn’t even stepped foot in a studio for eight years, and she said that this piece was the first thing that she heard that inspired her to do anything. And the good news is that I’m going to do a few more tracks with her. I’ve written a few more, and we’re not sure how we’re going to release the track, and that’s kind of unfortunate, but it will be out. We’ll get it out there somehow, soon."
Reitzell is something of a specialist in coaxing mysterious music legends out of their shells. He got My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields to work with Sofia Coppola on Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, and Talk Talk's Mark Hollis to contribute to the TV show "Boss". Read our interview with Reitzell about working with Hollis.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Miley Cyrus was the host of last night's MTV Video Music Awards. In between surprise-releasing a new album and getting into a tiff with Nicki Minaj, she also wore a variety of crazy outfits, told jokes, and aired pre-taped skits. One person who didn't care for her shtick was Chance the Rapper, who took issue with Miley saying "mammy" while introducing a sketch that featured her grandmother and Snoop Dogg, as well as her dreadlock wig.
He sent out a number of critical tweets:
These skits <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
The dreads <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
I think shorty said "my real mammy" <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
"Mammy" http://pic.twitter.com/kuwgo2lsNm
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
White squad...
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
Earlier this year, Pitchfork.tv's Contours series followed Courtney Barnett on tour as she supported Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Today, the Dan Huiting-directed tour documentary has premiered on Pitchfork.tv. Below, follow Barnett and her band on the road from Napa to New Orleans in late May and early June.
Read "Tired and Hungry and Alive: 36 Hours With Courtney Barnett" and check out the Contours multimedia tour diary.
Photo via Twitter
After teasing a new collaborative album on their respective Instagrams, Big Boi and Phantogram made their live debut as Big Grams this weekend with a three-song set at Epic Fest in L.A. During the set, Big Boi said the album would be "coming soon." Check out some fan footage below.
Big Boi and Phantogram previously teamed up on the Vicious Lies track "Lines".
Watch Big Boi's episode of Pitchfork.tv's animated series "Frames":
Watch Phantogram perform at Festival NRML:
Photo by Tonje Thilesen
This past weekend, Evian Christ performed at Leeds Festival. He was on his way to perform at Reading Festival, too, before Leeds security locked him in a holding pen. Christ claimed that the security guards mistook him for a VIP crasher who was "trying to break into the festival." Reading and Leeds festival organizer Melvin Benn then explained his take on the situation to NME. As he understood it, Christ "was found in a not very good state in the woods, without being able or willing to disclose who he was." Christ has now responded via Facebook, calling Benn a "top-class dickhead" and saying security had "no interest in any potential solution and seem[ed] hellbent on winding me up to the point that i might snap and get myself arrested." He concluded, "those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at a DJ they locked in a cage." Read Benn and Christ's respective statements below.
Melvin Benn:
Evian was found in a not very good state in the woods, without being able or willing to disclose who he was. He was effectively held till we knew who he was. He certainly wasn't prevented from performing under any circumstances. It was his decision not to perform, not the festival's.
Evian Christ:
was involved in a strange incident at leeds festival this weekend which ended up in me being detained inside a cage, as has been widely reported by everyone from quietus to lad bible. while i am grateful to have finally had my work acknowledged by lad bible, there are some things i need to address:
leeds fest, friday. after making sure blaze kidd + uli-k (who are performing with me) have got in a taxi home, i set about finding my own car so i can do the same. the artist car park is backstage and the festival layout is sprawling, so after being sent backwards and forwards by security staff i finally give up and ask one of them to call me a car to take me back there. the driver takes issue with me immediately and removes the pass im wearing that identifies me as a performing artist, asks my name ("joshua leary") and then tells me that my pass says something different ("evian christ"). i inform him that evian christ is my artist name, and that i also have a real name, but he appears unsatisfied by this explanation and keeps the pass
we drive past the artists car park and i identify my car (in which i have family waiting, younger brother etc), the security ogre grunts and bizarrely proceeds to take me to some weird area with a cage. i am detained in this cage and told that i am being held under suspicion of trying to "break into the festival without a ticket" - i remain here for a Very Long Time. the security guards seem to think i am there for their amusement, and a few times i am threatened with arrest by a police officer, once for saying "for fucks sake" into the distance, another time for "knocking a chair over". i am informed that i will remain detained in the cage indefinitely until i can prove beyond doubt that i am not trying to "break into the festival". i remind security/police they have removed the pass which i was presumably given for this explicit reason, and i suggest that my attempt to find the backstage carpark after DJing the radio 1 dance stage should be a sufficient indicator of my intentions. they respond that "anyone could have found [the pass] and stuck it on" (lol). later, i ask them to identify me photographically by googling by name, which i think is a good idea, but they have no interest in any potential solution and seem hellbent on winding me up to the point that i might snap and get myself arrested
at this point i only had a few percent battery so i managed to take a quick video, send some tweets, call my manager and DM brodinski who heroically tried to #free me to no avail. i "cancelled" reading in an attempt to gain some leverage in the situation but nobody around me gave a fuck anyway and seemed to think it was funny. over an hour afterwards i was set #free by a "more senior" member of the security staff who seemed as bemused as me by the situation. i asked for an apology and was not given one. thank you all for the #freeevian twitter campaign btw
i haven't wanted to go into this much detail until now, because if the festival had emailed me a simple apology I would actually have happily played reading. but i've sent two detailed emails to the festival organisers since friday and have received no response. last night, however, festival owner melvin benn found a moment in his busy schedule of being an a top-class dickhead to claim via the NME that i was "intoxicated and refusing to identify myself". even if that were true (it isn't), there's likely a better way to deal with that situation than to physically detain someone who isn't actually legally under arrest for anything. so im sorry melv, you weren't there mate, i was. i'd had a few drinks as i always do at a show (your festival provided them) but i was fine and your security staff removed the only form of identification given to me after i provided them with it. those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at a DJ they locked in a cage
as if this all wasn't ridiculous enough, yesterday i discovered that reading festival - too busy to respond to my emails trying to sort the situation out - thought it would be funny to create a cage behind the stage i was supposed to play on, labelling it as my backstage area. personally i didn't find this massively appropriate and overall i feel gutted to have had a terrible experience at a festival i attended twice as a kid and was really excited to play
we have big issues with regulation of police and private security services in the uk, nobody should be detained in a cage by an employer because they can't find their car. didnt really want to go into this much detail publicly and im absolutely fine, but when you see defamatory quotes flying around you kinda have to say something. anyway have a nice week fuck leeds fest xo evian
Read our "Guest List" interview with Evian Christ.
Watch him perform at the 2013 Pitchfork Music Festival:
De La Soul recently Kickstarter-funded a new album, their first since 2004's The Grind Date. Previously, they announced that guests would include Damon Albarn, David Byrne (on a track called "Snoopies"), 2 Chainz (on "Whodini"), and Little Dragon (on "Drawn"). Over the weekend, they added a few more names. Usher, Pete Rock, Roc Marciano, Estelle, and Snoop Dogg will all feature on the record, which is currently being mastered by Bob Power.
In a video accompanying the update, Power deconstructed one of the tracks and its myriad live-recorded components. Watch it at Kickstarter.
De La Soul's campaign raised $600,874, well over its $110,000 target.
Watch the original funding video:
Surprise: Miley Cyrus has released a new collaborative album with the Flaming Lips called Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. Miley announced the album from the stage of the VMAs, following a performance of the opening track, "Dooo It!", featuring a posse of drag queens from "RuPaul's Drag Race" that climaxed in Wayne Coyne shooting smoke guns out of Miley's crotch. Listen to the entire album below. It features contributions from Ariel Pink (as previously hinted), Mike Will Made-It, Sarah Barthel of Phantogram, Miley's dad Billy Ray Cyrus, and Big Sean. Find the full list of credits here.
Here's the album cover:
VMAs performance:
Here's the video for "Dooo It!":
As previously announced, Kanye West received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at tonight's MTV Video Music Awards. And none other than Taylor Swift presented him with the award, calling him her "friend." "I'mma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time," she joked, referring to West's infamous interruption in 2009. Watch it below.
In his epic, instense acceptance speech, which can be watched below, Kanye expressed remorse, but also defended his actions. He talked about how the incident has shadowed him throughout his career, and how seeing Justin Timberlake "in tears" after losing Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2009 inspired him to get up on stage and defend Beyoncé.
He also said, "I still don't understand award shows," before launching into an indictment of the entire award show system.
Other quotes: "I will die for the art, for what I believe in." "We not gonna control our kids with brands."
And finally, he ended with, "I have decided in 2020 to run for President."
Earlier in the night, West joined Big Sean and John Legend on stage when they won the VMA for Video With a Social Message for Dark Sky Paradise's "One Man Can Change the World".
.@taylorswift and @kanyewest together once again at the #VMAs http://t.co/TF8kWtkcTb
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Does he have your vote America? @kanyewest accepts the Video Vanguard award http://t.co/pyg3SBh8gq
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
The Weeknd released his new album Beauty Behind the Madness on Friday. Tonight, he performed "Can't Feel My Face" at the MTV Video Music Awards. Jared Leto introduced the performance, which included a lot of pyrotechnics. Even Video Vanguard Award winner Kanye West got up and danced along.
Following the performance, the Weeknd starred in an Apple Music commercial in which John Travolta plays his driver, for some reason. Watch a clip of the Weeknd's performance, West's dance moves, and Apple Music's commercial below.
The Weeknd was up for three awards at this year's show: Best Male Video for "Earned It" (originally on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack), Best Collaboration for "Love Me Harder" with Ariana Grande (from her 2014 album My Everything), and Song of the Summer for "Can't Feel My Face". He did not win Best Male Video or Song of the Summer.
This is what you're missing if you're not watching our All Access streams at the #VMAs: http://t.co/fN6kxF2UPD http://pic.twitter.com/DVcUFLComh
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Salute @theweeknd. Now that's how you shut down the #VMAs. https://t.co/am4uO8Jgcz
— Apple Music (@AppleMusic) August 31, 2015
Nicki Minaj opened this year's MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of "Trini Dem Girls" from her 2014 album The Pinkprint. And then... Taylor Swift came out for a surprise duet on "The Night Is Still Young" and her own "Bad Blood". Watch video of the performance below.
Following the announcement of the nominees back in July, Minaj tweeted her disbelief and disappointment that "Anaconda" was not nominated for Video of the Year and that "Feeling Myself", her collaboration with Beyoncé, was left out entirely. Minaj tweeted, "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year."
Swift took the message as a personal attack, responding, "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.." Ultimately, the two cleared the air, as Minaj clarified that she was not targeting anyone in particular, but rather making a general statement about racism and sexism in society.
Update 9:34pm: Nicki may have buried the hatchet with Taylor, but during her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop video for "Anaconda", she took aim at Miley Cyrus, who is hosting the show. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this week, Miley took issue with Nicki's complaints about "Anaconda" not being nominated.
Nicki fired back in her speech. "And now, back to this bitch who had a lot to say about me the other day in the press. Miley, what's good?" she sneered. Miley attempted to say her comments were taken out of context, but Nicki wasn't having it.
.@NICKIMINAJ just killed it opening the #VMAs and so did her special guest! http://t.co/Xpl2djiKQ4
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Nicki Minaj opened this year's MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of "Trini Dem Girls" from her 2014 album The Pinkprint. And then... Taylor Swift came out for a surprise duet on "The Night Is Still Young" and her own "Bad Blood". Watch video of the performance below.
Following the announcement of the nominees back in July, Minaj tweeted her disbelief and disappointment that "Anaconda" was not nominated for Video of the Year and that "Feeling Myself", her collaboration with Beyoncé, was left out entirely. Minaj tweeted, "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year."
Swift took the message as a personal attack, responding, "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.." Ultimately, the two cleared the air, as Minaj clarified that she was not targeting anyone in particular, but rather making a general statement about racism and sexism in society.
Minaj is nominated for four awards at this year's VMAs: Best Female Video and Best Hip Hop Video for "Anaconda", Best Collaboration for "Bang Bang" with Ariana Grande and Jessie J, and Song of the Summer for "Hey Mama", her collaboration with David Guetta. Minaj performed both songs at last year's VMAs.
.@NICKIMINAJ just killed it opening the #VMAs and so did her special guest! http://t.co/Xpl2djiKQ4
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Photo via Twitter
On today's episode of Pharrell Williams' Beats 1 radio show OTHERtone, the producer welcomed Haim to the studio. During the episode, the sisters revealed that they're getting their own Beats 1 show. When asked about the show's title, they told Pharrell that they might call it "Haim Time". They also revealed that they're working on a new album. Listen here.
Pharrell told the story about seeing Haim at SXSW in 2013, but then the sisters revealed that they once approached Pharrell at a mall in Miami in 2004. "Send me the demos," he told them at the time (but they didn't because they promptly forgot his phone number). The Haim sisters also talked about getting each other fake IDs and their family dynamic.
During the episode, Haim and Pharrell bonded over their mutual love of Prince, Steely Dan, and Carly Simon. The episode featured songs by Jay Z, Cass McCombs, U.S. Girls, Cyndi Lauper, Chaka Khan, Stevie Nicks, and more.
Coming up at 12PM PT, exciting news from @haimtheband on #OTHERtone! @pharrell @brokemogul http://t.co/rAPwDbsSan https://t.co/WS5fnPcd1x
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) August 30, 2015
This Sunday tune in to #OTHERtone at 12pm PT with @brokemogul & the hilarious and talented @HAIMtheband. @AppleMusic https://t.co/q4ERyHW7JJ
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) August 27, 2015
ICYMI: WE'RE GETTING OUR OWN SHOW ON @BEATS1 @APPLEMUSIChttp://pic.twitter.com/6Ac6Lox7Js
— HAIM (@HAIMtheband) August 30, 2015
During an interview with The Sunday Times, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde made comments about rape that have drawn widespread criticism. She was asked about an excerpt from her new memoir where she details being forced to perform sexual acts on a member of a biker gang as a 21-year-old. She told the Times that the incident was her own fault, and then, she made comments claiming that rape can sometimes be the victim's fault.
According to Jezebel, she said of her own experience, "...You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naive. ... They’re motorcycle guys! If you play with fire you get burnt. It’s not any secret, is it?”
When interviewer Krissi Murison revealed to Hynde that she was "shocked" by her comments, Hynde responded, “If I’m walking around in my underwear and I’m drunk, who else’s fault can it be?” Murison replied, "The guy who attacks you?" Hynde continued:
“Oh, come on! That’s just silly. If I’m walking around and I’m very modestly dressed and I’m keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I’d say that’s his fault. But if I’m being very lairy and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who’s already unhinged — don’t do that. Come on! That’s just common sense. You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him. If you’re wearing something that says ‘Come and fuck me’, you’d better be good on your feet… I don’t think I’m saying anything controversial am I?”
Her comments drew criticism from Lucy Hastings, the director of Victim Support, who told The Guardian, “Victims of sexual violence should never feel or be made to feel that they were responsible for the appalling crime they suffered—regardless of circumstances or factors which may have made them particularly vulnerable."
This isn't the first time she's discussed sexual assault in an interview. In a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone, Hynde said, "I had a few bad experiences, but the way I look at it now is, for every sort of act of sodomy I was forced to perform, I'm gettin' paid 10,000 pounds now. ... That's how I try to look at it, anyway."
Photo by Erez Avissar
Nearly seven years after its release, Kanye West will perform his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak in full at a one-off show, Consequence of Sound reports. The performance is scheduled for Friday, September 25 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Recently, West replaced Frank Ocean as the headliner at FYF Fest, where he brought out Rihanna and Travi$ Scott. This weekend, he will receive the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs.
Watch West's video for "Heartless":
Photo via the Phi Centre
Earlier this month, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) did a standup comedy show called "Happy Birthday! Shut Up." at the Phi Centre in Montreal. Tonight, Bey is performing a set called "The Benny Trill Show" at Pond Dalston in London, FACT notes. Listen to a live audio stream of the performance over at NTS Radio.
Watch a trailer for the event below in which he promotes a Dalston business and proclaims, "God shave the Queen!"
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Drake made a surprise appearance to close out Lil Wayne's Lil Weezyana Festival last night at New Orleans' Champions Square. The whole thing streamed via Tidal, but it cut out when Drake took the stage. The streaming service reported that their competitor, Apple, blocked Drake's performance from being streamed on Tidal.
Update (8/29, 3:15 p.m.): Despite Tidal's tweets (below) claiming that Apple was responsible for pulling Drake's performance from the stream, Drake's manager Future the Prince told Buzzfeed that it was Drake's decision to abstain from the festival's live stream. He said:
“The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal stream has nothing to do with Apple or Drake’s deal. ... Point blank, 100%. I made a business decision. Apple doesn’t have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have the power to do that are Cash Money and Universal, and they’re our partners. ... We wanted to make sure the stream represented us in the right way, and we didn’t have much insight into what they were doing. Aesthetics and quality are important to us and we didn’t have any control over that or time to investigate it. We were just there to participate in the benefit.”
Future said that he didn't understand why Tidal blamed Apple. "If you’re going to say something about the situation publicly, you should tell the truth," he told Buzzfeed. "They saw the opportunity to take a situation and spin it in their favor as a publicity stunt."
According to The New York Post's Page Six, Apple reportedly threatened to sue for $20 million if Drake appeared on Tidal's stream of the show. Drake reportedly has an exclusive agreement with Apple Music, while Wayne recently became one of the co-owners of Tidal. He performed three songs during the festival: "HYFR", "My Way", and "Back to Back", MissInfo reports.
Update (8/29, 11:15 a.m.): Video of the festival has now surfaced, including Drake's performance of "Back to Back". Find video below via Mr. World Premiere/MissInfo.tv, and check out the full setlist here.
1/2 Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience.
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015
2/2 We'll be back after the performance.
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015
It's been reported that proceeds from the festival are going to victims from Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans. The festival also featured a reunion of Lil Wayne's group Hot Boys and appearances from Master P, Curren$y, and Big Freedia.
Photo via Beats 1
Jaden Smith has a show on Apple Music's Beats 1 called "MSFTS Frequency", and on today's show, he sat down for a conversation with Flying Lotus. They discussed the origins of You're Dead!'s concept, the video for "Never Catch Me", and working with Kendrick Lamar. They also talk about potentially collaborating with each other. Listen here around the 45:30 mark.
Read our interview with Flying Lotus, and watch his episode of "Over/Under":
Photo via VRBO
After Bob Dylan survived a motorcycle crash in 1966, he and the Band recorded a bunch of music in the basement of an upstate New York house they called Big Pink. The legendary sessions were partially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, but the full archive surfaced last year as the latest installment of Dylan's official bootleg series. As Consequence of Sound points out, the house where the magic happened is now available for rent.
The West Saugerties house is available for $650 per night for a minimum of two nights. It's important to note that "the basement is not included in the rental." Find the listing here.
Wu-Tang Clan's GZA is hard at work on his new album Dark Matter, so much so that he's canceled a recent string of tour dates in order to team up with a "very rare collaborator". He posted the above photo on Facebook of him in the studio with Vangelis, the composer behind Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, and more.
The term "very rare" gets thrown around pretty frequently, but this really is a rare moment. Though the notoriously reclusive composer's work has been sampled frequently, this is Vangelis' first time directly collaborating with a rapper.
GZA promises that "brand new material" will surface in the spring.
Watch GZA's episode of Pitchfork.tv's "Frames":
Photo via Instagram
This morning, Yo La Tengo appeared on "CBS This Morning: Saturday". In addition to performing their cover of the Cure's "Friday I'm in Love" from their forthcoming album Stuff Like That There, they talked to Anthony Mason about their cover band origins, other band names they originally considered, and their apocalyptic new music video.
Photo by Alessio Bolzoni
Robyn's new project La Bagatelle Magique—a group comprising keyboardist Markus Jägerstedt and the late producer Christian Falk—recently released the Love Is Free mini-LP. Last night, the group made their live debut at Popaganda in Stockholm, Sweden (after their initially scheduled appearance at Dans Dakar was canceled). Watch video of the performance, featuring her "Love Is Free" collaborator Maluca, below.
Read our Update with Robyn from last year.
Watch an interview with Robyn for Pitchfork.tv:
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Drake made a surprise appearance to close out Lil Wayne's Lil Weezyana Festival is last night at New Orleans' Champions Square. The whole thing streamed via Tidal, but it cut out when Drake took the stage. The streaming service reported that their competitor, Apple, blocked Drake's performance from being streamed on Tidal.
According to The New York Post's Page Six, Apple threatened to sue for $20 million if Drake appeared on Tidal's stream of the show. Drake reportedly has an exclusive agreement with Apple Music, while Wayne recently became one of the co-owners of Tidal. He performed three songs during the festival: "HYFR", "My Way", and "Back to Back", MissInfo reports.
1/2 Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience.
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015
2/2 We'll be back after the performance.
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015
It's been reported that proceeds from the festival are going to victims from Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans. The festival also featured a reunion of Lil Wayne's group Hot Boys and appearances from Master P, Curren$y, and Big Freedia.
Disclosure played a number of live cuts from their recent stint at Wild Life festival in Bright, England Apple Music radio station tonight. In addition to familiar cuts like "F For You" and "White Noise", they premiered a new track entitled "Hourglass", which features Lion Babe. They also spun cuts by Duke Dumont, SG Lewis, and more. Listen to a replay of the program here; "Hourglass" starts at the 1:47:55 mark.
Gregory Porter was a special guest on the duo's show; accordingly, they played their recent collaboration "Holding On", as well as some of Porter's solo cuts.
Watch Disclosure's full performance at Pitchfork Music Festival Paris:
Evian Christ photo by Tonje Thilesen
Evian Christ is one of the many artists performing at Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend. The producer's set at the latter fast went off without a hitch – but as Gawker reports, things went downhill after that, after festival security guards mistook him for a VIP crasher. As a result, Christ was locked in a security holding pen for an unspecified amount of time.
As Christ explained on Twitter,
reading fest cancelled (sorry) cuz leeds put me in a cage #freeevian http://pic.twitter.com/sArsBnR8fg
— evian christ 2015 (@evian_christ) August 28, 2015
really tho actually got put in a cage at a festival headlined by mumford and sons because the festival staff didnt believe i was a dj
— evian christ 2015 (@evian_christ) August 28, 2015
and thought i was 'trying to break into the festival' after my set
— evian christ 2015 (@evian_christ) August 28, 2015
The official Reading/Leeds Twitter has yet to respond.
Read our "Guest List" interview with Evian Christ.
Watch Evian Christ perform Pitchfork Music Festival 2013:
Toro Y Moi just released an entire collection of songs called Samantha, which he unveiled on Instagram, as Gorilla Vs. Bear points out. You can download it here. It includes the previously released "2 Late" with Kool A.D. and SAFE, "room for 1zone", and "Pitch Black" with Rome Fortune, as well as collaborations with Washed Out, Nosaj Thing, and more. It was recorded between January 2012 and August 2015 in Berkeley, California. Check out the cover below.
Samantha follows Why Not?, which was released earlier this year.
Samantha:
01 Power of Now
02 2 Late [ft. Kool A.D. and SAFE]
03 Driving Day
04 Good Song
05 Pitch Black [ft. Rome Fortune]
06 Us 2
07 That Night [ft. Kool A.D. and SAFE]
08 Stoned at the MoMA
09 Room for 1zone
10 Want [ft. Washed Out]
11 ambient Rainbow
12 Benjiminz [ft. Rome Fortune]
13 Boo Boo Mobile
14 bytheneck
15 Real Love [ft. Kool A.D.]
16 Enough of You [ft. Nosaj Thing]
17 The Usual
18 Prayer Hands
19 Holy Nights [ft. SHORE]
20 welp, tour's over
Watch Toro Y Moi perform "Say That" at the 2013 Pitchfork Music Festival:
Photo by Anna Weber
Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan has directed a 15-minute short as part of a new anthology film called Madly. Presented by MTV World, Madly is "six stories of modern love in all of its dizzying, sweet complications," each directed by a different person. Khan's short is called "I Do".
In addition to Khan's contribution, Madly will feature films by Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, Amores Perros), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Maps to the Stars), and more. Watch a trailer here.
Speaking to Pitchfork about "I Do", Khan said:
It’s about a bride, the morning of her wedding, being disturbed by subterranean weird feelings, message and signs. On the way to her wedding, something really crazy happens, and you’re left wondering whether she’s gonna go through with it. It’s all about redemption of grief, putting ghosts to bed before you can move into a fully committed relationship. It’s very countryside, weird, English, surreal.
She added:
I love directing. I worked with a brilliant DAP, Chloe Thomason—we had quite a strong female contingent, actually. She was my cinematographer, so we spent week beforehand sharing my favorite films, making storyboards, image boards, talking about color, types of light, composition of shots. I’ve been drawing a lot recently, I love the visual thing. It was really nice to have a collaborator again on that level. Directing actors was incredible. I think because of all the singing I do, it’s very much about being in your body and feeling things, so I felt like we had a good basis of understanding, ability to talk about nuances of performance. It was very whirlwind and I was worried I hadn’t got everything I needed, but then in the editing process—like an album—things just shine. Abi Fry, who played viola in the first Bat for Lashes band, she did the majority of the soundtrack. It was really nice to hand that over to someone. I did some synth drones but she was brilliant, she’s got beautiful pieces in the film. I can’t wait to direct a feature film, I really want to do it.
Khan will release the debut from her Sexwitch project in September.
Revisit our Cover Story on Bat for Lashes, "Glitter in the Dark".
Watch Bat for Lashes' video for "Laura":
Photo by Véronique Côté
Last night, Arcade Fire bassist/guitarist Tim Kingsbury played his first show under the name Sam Patch. It took place at Bar Le Ritz PDB in Montreal as part of Passovah Summer Fest, and he was accompanied by Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara and Basia Bulat. Footage has surfaced from the set—watch it below.
Kingsbury has a Sam Patch album in the works. Speaking with Cult Montreal, Kingsbury explained that he wrote songs at hotels during Arcade Fire's last tour. He started recording when the tour ended and he's still working on finishing the album. In addition to Gara and Bulat, John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake) also plays on the album.
Describing the sound of the album to Cult Montreal, he said:
It’s evolved a bit, but the feel of it is definitely rock music — I guess weird rock music. This doesn’t sound very rock ‘n’ roll but I started using a nylon-string guitar and this old Vox keyboard and a Moog synthesizer and I was using an arpeggiator with it, and a little drum machine as well. I was playing around between those things and composing ideas, often based on an arpeggio. I’m used to playing with a big band and having lots of people around and everyone feeding off of everyone’s ideas, but this way I was setting up parts myself and expanding on that.
Photo by Mac Boucher
As Claire Boucher prepares to release the new album from Grimes, she has also launched her own artist co-operative. It's called Eerie Organization, and she's already signed her first artist. Canadian artist Nicole Dollanganger will release her album Natural Born Losers on October 9. Hear "You're So Cool" above, and scroll down for the album art and track list.
“It blew up my brain so hard that I literally started Eerie to fucking put it out because it's a crime against humanity for this music not to be heard," said Boucher of Dollanganger's music.
According to a press release:
Eerie Organization is an artist co-operative founded by Grimes that exists to help artists accomplish more than they would be able to on their own, without sacrificing any of their independence in the process. Although Eerie Organization will release music, it's not a staffed record label and will not be accepting submissions. Eerie will be releasing Grimes' upcoming album in Canada only. Future Eerie projects could take many forms, reflecting Grimes' own mercurial, multidisciplinary approach to creativity.
Natural Born Losers:
01 Poacher's Pride
02 Mean
03 White Trashing
04 Swan
05 In The Land
06 Alligator Blood
07 Executioner
08 American Tradition
09 Angels of Porn (ii)
10 A Marvelous Persona
11 You're So Cool
French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre has announced Electronica 1: The Time Machine, the first LP in a planned two-part series. He's enlisted quite the assortment of collaborators for the album, which is out October 16 via Ultra Music. M83, Pete Townshend, Massive Attack's 3D, Laurie Anderson, Vince Clarke (Erasure/Depeche Mode/Yazoo), Moby, Air, Little Boots, Tangerine Dream, Fuck Buttons, Gesaffelstein, director/composer John Carpenter, Boys Noize, Armin van Buuren, and Lang Lang all appear on the record.
The video for "If...!", his collaboration with Little Boots, is out tomorrow. Below, watch a trailer for the album.
In a press release, Jarre said:
I've wanted to tell a story for a while regarding electronic music history and its legacy from my point of view and experience, from when I started to nowadays. So I planned to compose for and collaborate with an array of artists who are, directly or indirectly linked to this scene, with people I admire for their singular contribution to our genre, that represent a source of inspiration for me over the last four decades I have been making music, but who also have an instantly recognizable sound. At the outset, I had no idea how this project would evolve, but I was delighted that everybody I reached out to accepted my invitation.
We've already heard Jarre's collaborations with Gesaffelstein on "Conquistador", with Massive Attack's 3D on "Watching You", and with Tangerine Dream on "Zero Gravity". (The latter was recorded before the death of founder Edgar Froese.) Below, revisit the video for "Glory", his collaboration with M83.
Electronica 2, the follow-up record, is set for a spring 2016 release.
Electronica 1: The Time Machine:
01 The Time Machine [ft. Boys Noize]
02 Glory [ft. M83]
03 Close Your Eyes [ft. Air]
04 Automatic (part 1) [ft. Vince Clarke]
05 Automatic (part 2) [ft. Vince Clarke]
06 If..! [ft. Little Boots]
07 Immortals [ft. Fuck Buttons]
08 Suns Have Gone [ft. Moby]
09 Conquistador [ft. Gesaffelstein]
10 Travelator (part 2) [ft. Pete Townshend]
11 Zero Gravity [ft. Tangerine Dream]
12 Rely on Me [ft. Laurie Anderson]
13 Stardust [ft. Armin van Buuren]
14 Watching You [ft. Massive Attack’s 3D]
15 A Question of Blood [ft. John Carpenter]
16 The Train & the River [ft. Lang Lang]
"Glory":
Baroness' last album Yellow & Green came out in July 2012. A month later, while on tour in England, the band was involved in a bus accident that left nine people injured. But by summer 2013, they were back on the road. Now, the band has announced a new album.
Purple is out December 18 via the band's newly formed label Abraxan Hymns. The album was produced by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney). Watch an animated clip for the track "Chlorine & Wine" below. The image above is just one quadrant of the full album cover art, which will be revealed later.
Following the accident, drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni left the band. In the current Baroness lineup, guitarist/vocalists John Baizley and Pete Adams are joined by bassist/keyboardist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson (of Trans Am).
A North American tour will be announced soon. The band plays the Reading and Leeds festivals in England this weekend.
Baizley said of the new album in a statement:
After releasing a lengthy and investigative record like Yellow & Green we all felt that we needed to make something much more direct and immediate. We wanted to write with our normal focus on artistry, balanced against an increased level of energy and focus. It was important for us to write our new songs with the type of enthusiasm and expressiveness that could act as a counterpoint to the album’s dark themes. As a result, the music came out in an intense, heavy and sonically captivating in a new way, which was important, loathe, as we are to fall into any kind of complacency pitfall or formulaic songwriting routine. Purple is the most fully realized representation of our intention as a band; considering the amount of physical and mental energy spent writing it, we have accomplished something which would have seemed impossible to us a couple of years ago.
Purple:
01 Morningstar
02 Shock Me
03 Try to Disappear
04 Kerosene
05 Fugue
06 Chlorine & Wine
07 The Iron Bell
08 Desperation Burns
09 If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain)
10 Crossroads of Infinity
Watch Baroness play "March to the Sea" and discuss their bus accident on Pitchfork.tv's "+1":
This Autumn, Le1f will release his album Riot Boi on Terrible/XL. Today, he's shared a video for Sophie-produced single "Koi". Directed by Simon Ward, the clip sees the rapper pull shapes on a beach as cartoon eyeballs, giant lips, and fluorescent fish circle overhead. Watch it below.
Revisit our Rising interview with Sophie.
Watch Le1f perform "Wut" at the Pitchfork Villain showcase:
When he isn't releasing music as Four Tet, Kieran Hebden also records under the name Percussions. Hebden has been mixing a Percussions track called "Digital Arpeggios" into his DJ sets for some time, but the song has never been officially released—until now. Hear it above, and check out the single art.
Watch Four Tet's full Pitchfork Music Festival Paris set:
Photo by Jim Newberry
Junior Boys' last album It's All True came out back in 2011. This year, they'll return with a new 12" on Jiaolong, the imprint run by Dan Snaith (Caribou/Daphni). It features the above cover of Bobby Caldwell's 1978 blue-eyed soul track "What You Won't Do For Love" as well as an instrumental dub version.
JIAOLONG016 Junior Boys - What You Won't Do For Love b/w dub instrumental 12" coming soon. https://t.co/bAteroBdyR Free download for 48 hrs.
— Caribou (@caribouband) August 27, 2015
Here's the original:
Watch Junior Boys perform "Playtime" on Pitchfork.tv's "Surveillance":
Watch Caribou's set at Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2014:
After Chvrches' "Leave a Trace" video was met with misogynistic comments, Lauren Mayberry responded on Twitter: "Dear anyone who thinks misogyny isn't real. It is and this is what it looks like." Today, she sat down with Cathy Newman for an interview on Channel 4 News to discuss internet trolls.
She said that while Chvrches attract hateful comments from trolls because they're in the public eye, “this happens to women all the time anyway, and I hate the idea that young girls who follow our band deal with stuff like that. I don’t want them to feel isolated, I don’t want them to feel like it is just happening to them, because it happens everywhere.”
Mayberry also discussed the psychological toll hateful comments have taken on her. She also relayed some recent experiences:
“Somebody tweeted me the other day, ‘If you can’t learn to deal with this sort of shit, stick a gun in your mouth before the record even comes out. I have one and I’ll give it to you.’ Personally, that’s horrifying, if somebody put that through your door, you would go to the police with that.”
She conceded that it's "scary, the idea of lawmakers coming in and sifting through comments and deciding what's acceptable and what isn't, and it's unrealistic to expect companies to do that." Instead, she argues that there needs to be "a shift in the cultural approach to women, and that will take time."
Here's the interview:
Photo by Dianna Walla
Chris Walla, formerly of Death Cab for Cutie, has announced a new solo record. It's called Tape Loops, and it's out October 16 through his label Trans Records. Check out the cover below. It's his first solo record since 2008's Field Manual, and is largely built around the manipulation of analog tape. It's all instrumental; there's no vocals. You can listen to the first track, "Kanta's Theme", above via Interview.
"I can't change a closed, physical tape loop with a mouse-click or a keystroke, and that’s precisely the point," Walla said in a press release. "Digital recording and editing often feels like working in a spreadsheet—it's not always a place for dreams."
Walla announced he was leaving Death Cab last year, after 17 years with the band. His final performance with them was last September.
Speaking with Tegan and Sara's Sara Quin in Interview, Walla elaborated a little more on his reasons for leaving the band. "On a more existential level, and eventually one of the things that led to me wanting to leave the band, was feeling like Ben [Gibbard]'s stories weren't coinciding with my own life in a way that I could continue to prioritize my whole living experience for," he said.
On his current relationship with the band, he said: "Those guys, they are my brothers. We haven't spoken a lot, but it doesn't change the fact that I love them dearly and I hope it all continues to go well. I hope that those relationships can be new again someday, and strong again, in a way that is probably very different from how they were, but not fraught. "
Tape Loops:
01 Kanta's Theme
02 Introductions
03 I Believe in the Night
04 Goodbye
05 Flytoget