Monday Music News

04/08/2013

Katherine Humphreys

The National has finally officially released "Demons" - a track from their upcoming album Trouble Will Find Me. Where the album artwork suggests a kind of duality of the self - a girls head looks at itself in a mirror - the song is similarly moody and heavy like much of their previous material. "I stay down with my demons," the lyrics repeat over and over, even as the music itself swells and crescendos. [Pitchfork]

If Jessie Ware isn't a pop icon already, she is well on her way to becoming one. Her album Devotion already has a massive following - her sweeping almost disco era pop presence is mesmerizing. Today she released a new video for the bonus track from the North American "Gold Edition" of Devotion - "Imagine It Was Us." Previous videos have shown her usually alone, her hair pulled up in her staple bun, but now we see her in a club full of friends, dancing with her high pony tail swinging. [Pitchfork]

Speaking of icons, legendary gospel and soul genius Mavis Staples has announced her second album working with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy - One True Vine. Not only does Tweedy produce this album, but he and his son are responsible for almost all of the instrumentation throughout. Featuring covers of Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That" and Low's "Holy Ghost," the record will be out on June 25th via Anti-. [Pitchfork]

Queens of the Stone Age played a new song at a show a few months ago, and today they released the studio version of the rock and rolling track, "My God is the Sun." It's a powerful and straightforward track, a head dive into rowdy guitars and near wailing vocals. Their album ... Like Clockwork [Pitchfork]

MS MR, the New York based pop duo who happen to be playing with Jessie Ware at the Crocodile Cafe tomorrow night, have a new video for "Hurricane." Where the tracks lyrics focus on the inner storms, the video seems to make that inner turmoil visible in the form of smoke issuing from the neck of a boy, green and pink slime running out of girls heads and mouths, and a muscular counterpart to a skinny boy pumping irons. [Stereogum]

Fans of The Flaming Lips have had to keep up with several decades of music creating - and are now gifted this 13 minutes long track "You Lust." It's actually the longest track the band has created since their work in the 80s. Its a saturating work of psychedelic journeying, just as you would expect from one of the biggest psychedelic acts still producing music, and yet despite their prolific output it somehow isn't boring. "You Lust" is streaming over at Stereogum.

Maybe a while back you heard Walsh, or maybe you heard COOLRUNNINGS, or maybe Dracula Horse Records, or maybe you haven't heard any of these things, and if you haven't, meet Brandon Biondo's (the common link between these bands and record labels) newest project - Shy Boys. Anyone who is a fan of DIY music will get a kick out of the story of how they formed, moving from one house to another and eventually creating the two tracks currently available - "Julia" and "Ride" - in the middle of the night. Stream the rocking good-vibes tracks below. [IMPOSE]

Okay, today might not have had that much to offer in terms of indie rock, but it does have this: The Pastels have a very cute not overly sugary new indie pop track out called "Check My Heart." It's the kind of work that you can easily imagine a stop motion music video full of hand made characters in a world created out of toilet paper tubes and tissue flowers. [Stereogum]

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