Neko Case Teaser

Neko Case just released a snippet of a new song from her upcoming album:

Neko Case's follow-up to 2009's Middle Cyclone is officially on the way. The alt-country all-star released the trailer for her upcoming sixth studio album on Thursday night. The title is a mouthful. Case's next full-length is called The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. (Cue Fiona Apple joke.) (Spin )

Earworm of the Day: Cat Power - "Cherokee"

Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, has been making smoky, folk-inspired rock more than a decade now. Also she's gained widespread critical acclaim, she's never achieved the kind of stadium-filling audiences that other artists (with perhaps better publicists) have. I hate rolling out the old trope that "she's the real deal" if it means someone else is less genuine (and what is authenticity in something as transient as pop music anyway?), but I think it fits here.

"Cherokee" is from her latest album, Sun.

Patrick Wolf Continues to Tempt Us With Videos from His Upcoming Album

The US release of Lupercalia, Patrick Wolf's fifth studio album, isn't for another month, but the singer-songwriter has been steadily releasing videos for "The City," "Time of my Life," and now, "House":



Emily Manuel for Tiger Beatdown dissected some of theses new songs in a post titled, "Taking Liberties With Patrick Wolf ." It's definitely worth the full read, but here's an excerpt:

Where pop narratives more usually refer to obstacles like parents or spouses, Wolf takes the unusual tack of seeing the city itself as an antagonist to relationships. When I interviewed him recently for Billboard, he clarified that the song was a response to the recession, and seeing friends of his re-evaluate their relationships for financial reasons.

I'm really looking forward to the new record, but I could have easily written Patrick Wolf off as guilty pleasure -- except he's far too talented for that. What officially sold me on his magic was "Accident and Emergency,," a song that is by turns self-destructive and uplifting. Sick Mouthy  had another take on why a lot of people are reluctant to embrace Patrick Wolf as a serious artist:

Throughout all the music Patrick Wolf has released so far in his career (four albums with one due soon, and he’s not yet 28), there’s a musicality, a fluidity, a grace, and a melodicism to his songwriting that, for me, would transcend all the electronic splurges, the flamboyant showboating, the love of drama and poetry and passionate commitment to his art that might seem to others to be narcissism, if all those seeming pejoratives weren’t actually just as much a part of the attraction.

As a jaded, aging member of generation-x, his brand of pop/electronic/folk initially confused  me. There's a self-seriousness there, in addition to the flashiness,  that would really be off-putting if he weren't so good at what he does. And at times he does seem to be blatantly repurposing the sound of my generation's electronic pop, and doing it without a shred of irony. As someone who came of age with that music, and the backlash that followed it, that's just... weird. But I like it.

Listen to Thao and Mirah

Singer-songwriter, Mirah and Thao Nguyen of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down have recorded an album together and NPR has it streaming in its entirety .

This isn't their first collaboration, though. They performed together at San Francisco's Noise Pop festival last year, and later toured with their band, The Most of All. Of the new album its blend of each artists' styles, NPR's Michael Katzif says:

Separately, each has crafted a distinct identity: Mirah's songs are intimate yet robustly produced folk songs built around her breathy, mercurial voice. Thao's approach is more rollicking: She wails and warbles with raw energy and plays guitar with loose but impeccable chops. Together, they complement each other perfectly.

Listen Here

You Can also download a free MP3 of the song "Eleven" courtesy of Amazon.

In Current Rotation

This week's been sort of busy with non-blogging things, which means I haven't had time to write a proper post. After last week's Music Diary Project, I've had trouble trying to get back into the swing of things and catch up on what's been piling up in my newsreader, and it's been a little overwhelming. Things should straighten out by the weekend.

Until then here's some music I've been grooving to lately:

Listen to PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, Courtesy of NPR

NPR's Exclusive First Listen Series has PJ Harvey's new album Let England Shake streaming in its entirety a week before its official release:

The topics are as bleak and violent as they were on her most lacerating work, but this time the subjects are soldiers falling in battle ("like lumps of meat") and landscapes that have been torn up, both physically and spiritually. Much of Let England Shake feels like an elegy for not just her homeland, but also the entire world; the bitterness behind the title of "This Glorious Land" is underlined by words like, "Our lands are plowed by tanks and feet, feet marching."

Listen here.

Lucinda Williams Pays Tribute to the Late Vic Chesnutt

On the one year anniversary of his death, Spinner announced that Lucinda Williams's forth coming album, Blessed, will feature a track called "Seeing Black," written for the late singer-songwriter, Vic Chesnutt:

As [the title] suggest, Chesnutt, who was confined to a wheelchair after a car crash at age 18, struggled with more than his share of bleak thoughts. One of his last recordings, his contribution to the Dangermouse-Sparklehorse collaboration, 'Dark Night of the Soul,' was aptly titled 'Grim Augury.' Chesnutt died on Christmas Day 2009 after falling into a coma from an overdose of prescription drugs.

 

.Here's the track list for the March 1st release, via to about.com:

1. Buttercup
2. I Don't Know How You're Livin'
3. Copenhagen
4. Born To Be Loved
5. Seeing Black
6. Soldier's Song
7. Blessed
8. Sweet Love
9. Ugly Truth
10. Convince Me
11. Awakening
12. Kiss Like Your Kiss

Swanlights Streaming

Courtesy of NPR's First Listen Series, you can listen to Antony and the Johnson's new album, Swanlights, a week before its official release. Or you can watch the video for the single, "Thank You For Your Love," which is made of up of grainy Super 8 footage Antony shot when he first arrived in New York almost twenty years ago:

Antony and Bjork

I saw this on Fuel Friends yesterday and thought I'd share. Fletta, is the haunting new single from Antony and the Johnsons forthconing album, Swanlights, which will be available Oct. 12. From Spinner:

"Flétta' finds its beauty in a bare-bones approach. Bjork takes the lead as Hegarty provides a somber, strikingly minimalist piano part that turns progressively bubbly as it gains momentum. There are no other instruments or adornments besides those two famous voices, so the track glides by with a purposefully airy feel."

Single of the Day: The Vaselines - Sex With An X

The Vaselines first album in two decades  won't be officially released until September 14th, but here's a taste of what's to come. From The Guardian:

"Persuaded to re-form for a charity gig in 2008, McKee and Kelly were astonished to come across a whole new generation of bands – Vivian Girls, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Dum Dum Girls and more – fashioned in their image. It was sufficient encouragement for the pair to complete their long-awaited second album, set for release this September on Sub Pop. Saucily entitled Sex With an X, its 12 slapdash singalongs display a charming disdain for boring concepts like development and maturity."

Liz Phair's "Bollywood" Confuses Fans

To quote Dorothy Parker, "What the fresh hell is this?"

Over the weekend, Liz Phair posted a new song, "Bollywood," to her website and, well, calling the reviews mixed would be generous. Here's the basic info, via TwentyFourBit:

"Liz Phair just released her first new album in 5 years, Funstyle, via her official site. And thankfully, Phair is offering a taste of the insane first (rap) single, “Bollywood,” before you drop $5.99 for the 11-track LP. What appears to be a screenshot below is, in fact, the record’s M.I.A.-esque cover art, which should give you an idea as to the tongue-in-cheek nature of Phair’s latest career move. Frankly, I’m not exactly sure what is going on here, but a tsunami of snark will be hitting the blogosphere in due time."

Is it? Tongue-in-cheek, I mean? Lord, I hope. I've only half-heartedly followed Liz Phair's career since the release of Exile in Guyville, her critical, if not commercial, breakthrough (for reasons I've already discussed); so I shouldn't judge. But I will. I'm someone who, for pleasure, listens to atonal noise filled with extraneous clanks, beeps, and samples, and I still got through only thirty seconds of the song before I aborted it, head shaking. Apparently, I'm not the only one who is confused by this new, er, direction:

"But, no, you’re right, I can’t for the life of me figure out why she’s trying to sound like a painfully white, frightfully low budget parody of M.I.A., that doesn’t really scan for me either. I guess it’s just an example of how some people have a whole career’s worth of good music in them and some have one album." (Love is the Slug)

"I was one of those 90s teenagers who clung to "Exile In Guyville" like a life raft in high school, but the time has long passed since bashing Liz Phair for not sounding like the Liz Phair of yore was considered clever or fashionable or even remotely necessary, and so instead of lamenting the loss of "Explain It To Me" Liz, let's just focus on this Liz, and this song, which is, well, I don't know what the hell it is. What is this?! Is it a rap? Is it a dance song? Is it a skit? Is someone talking to her? Who is talking? What is happening here?!?" (Jezebel)

Album of the Week: Laurie Anderson - Homeland

Laurie Anderson's Homeland, a self-described "concert poem," was born as a collaboration with Lou Reed during her 2008 tour. As a complete album, its lushly orchestrated songs bleed into one another, making for a somewhat difficult first listen, but the pay-off is well worth it. From PopMatters:

"Considered to be a 21st century extension of her 1983 multimedia project United States I-IV, the concert poem offered a stinging, uncompromising look at post-9/11 America; a time when civil liberties were squashed like bugs in the name of security; cameras watched every move in public; the economy was played in a rich man’s game of craps; wars were waged on hunches and innuendos; and foreign policy was treated by the Bush administration like the proverbial redheaded stepchild. Thus inspired, it was a challenging, humorous, moving and confrontational piece of musical art that left audiences equally intrigued and angered."

Track Listing:

1. Transitory Life
2. My Right Eye
3. Thinking of You
4. Strange Perfumes
5. Only an Expert
6. Falling
7. Another Day in America
8. Bodies In Motion
9. Dark Time In The Revolution
10. The Lake
11. The Beginning of Memory
12. Flow

Album of the Week: Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1

Robyn's career was supposed to follow the same trajectory as the other class of '98 alums (Britney, et al.), but instead she got wise, and put out quite a few smart, yet "under the radar" pop albums. Body Talk is eight songs longs and tethered by the single, "Fembot" Sarah from Feminste sums it up nicely in her post about pop music and misogyny:

..Oh, my internalized sexism. I’m doing my best to fight it, though. Here, have some Robyn. I have officially claimed this song on behalf of all ladybloggers ever called “funfeminists,” “fakefeminists,” or, of course, “fembots.”

Album of the Week: She & Him - Volume Two

I got a chance to listen to She & Him's Volume Two over the weekend, and oh, it's good. I'm not going to go into rock critic cliches and flowery prose, so just trust me, it's that good. A little backstory, though: I liked Volume One enough when it came out a couple years ago, gave it couple spins and indefinitely shelved it. Oddly enough, Volume Two doesn't really break any new ground, but it's stronger, and more polished. You can listen to the record in its entirety below, via NPR.

Spring looks to be really shaping up, as far as new releases are concerned. Also out this week is Goldfrapp's Head First. (The first single, "Rocket," has been available for download for a while now.) And next month Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, his first new studio album since 2007's Release the Stars, hits US shelves.

Album of the Week: The Runaways Mercury Albums Anthology

Ignore the clunky title. The Runways Mercury Albums Anthology  is a massive two-disc set of every Runways song you could imagine. The forty-one songs represent the best of the band (yeah, of course "Cherry Bomb" and "Queens of Noise" is there), plus a few live tracks. At nearly forty bucks, it's steep, and I don't know if I'd call "essential," but for the Runaways fan (and there are sure to be some new ones with the biopic opening Friday), there's much to love.

Speaking of the movie, the soundtrack is available digitally, but officially hits shelves next week, and boasts several artists from the late 70s -- including Bowie, MC5, The Stooges, and Suzi Quatro -- in addition to new versions of the Runaways' songs sung by Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, who play Joan Jett and Cherie Curry in the movie.

See the full track listing here.

New Bettye LaVette this spring

Soul singer Bettye LaVette has a new album of covers that will hit the shelves May 25. The thirteen songs on Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook span the British invasion era,  from The Beatles to Elton John. (I'm very anxious to hear her version of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.") Her 2007 grammy-nominated album, Scene of the Crime , was produced by The Drive-By Truckers and is considered a critical success making many reviewers' top lists for that year.

Track Listing:

1. The Word (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
2. No Time To Live (James Capaldi/Stephen Winwood)
3. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Bennie Benjamin/Gloria Caldwell/Sol Marcus)
4. All My Love (John Baldwin/Robert Plant)
5. Isn't It A Pity (George Harrison)
6. Wish You Were Here (David Gilmour/Roger Waters)
7. It Don't Come Easy (Richard Starkey)
8. Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney)
9. Salt Of The Earth (Michael Jagger/Keith Richards)
10. Nights In White Satin (David Hayward)
11. Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad (Eric Clapton/Bobby Whitlock)
12. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Elton John/Bernard Taupin)
13. Love Reign O'er Me (Peter Townshend) [BONUS TRACK]

(info via Anti- )