Wednesday Music News

06/08/2016

Janice Headley

Following his stunning participation in A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and His Month of Song at Benaroya Hall last month, L.A. punk legend John Doe shares a video for the track "A Little Help," which, incidentally, gets a little help from Chan Marshall aka Cat Power. Doe explains, "There is beauty & simplicity in hard labor. Since the days of Woody Guthrie, farm worker rights have been an issue. The song was inspired by the timeless image of workers in the field which we in California see frequently. It was filmed by Dave Doobinin outside Salinas, CA; home of the John Steinbeck Museum. I wanted people to remember that every piece of fruit & every berry they eat was touched by a human hand." Watch below. "A Little Help" appears on Doe's latest solo full-length, The Westerner, out now on Cool Rock Records. [Under the Radar]

In support of that massive Grateful Dead tribute album that Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National curated, NW's own Unknown Mortal Orchestra stopped by Conan last night to perform the 1978 single "Shakedown Street." Watch below. The compilation, titled Day of the Dead, is out now via 4AD Records with proceeds benefitting the Red Hot Organization. [Consequence of Sound]

DJ Shadow teams up with Nils Frahm on the eerie electronica track "Bergschrund," which you can stream below. In an interview with FADER, Shadow says, "Nils Frahm is an insanely smart composer. He created a sinewy, gated vintage synth line which I then expanded upon, hopefully to complimentary effect. Our track is called ‘Bergschrund,’ an obscure German word for a particular type of crevasse, or ice cliff, usually found on mountains at very high elevations." Speaking of which, the upcoming DJ Shadow release is titled The Mountain Will Fall, out June 4th via Mass Appeal. [Stereogum]

Los Angeles-based band Local Natives have announced their third album, Sunlit Youth, will be out September 9th via Loma Vista Recordings/Infectious Music. Get a taste with the video for "Villainy" below. Founding member Ryan Hahn says via a press release that this track "is about realising that you have the ability to change your situation, that you can start again everyday. We applied that to how we made music this time around. We wanted all the new songs to have a different energy, to challenge ourselves to do something different each time." Catch the band on Tuesday, September 20th at The Moore Theatre, and keep an eye on KEXP's Twitter and Facebook accounts for a pre-sale code tomorrow morning! [Pitchfork]

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