When the Weeknd and Frank Ocean were getting famous and reaping tons of critical love last year, a small but vocal cabal of R&B-friendly critics carped that the indie rock writers of the world, people who historically haven’t cared much about R&B, were getting sucked in by showy art-school affectations, and that there were plenty of people already working within the major-label system who were doing great work to far less acclaim. Pretty much all these writers mentioned Miguel, an L.A.-born singer and songwriter who scored a few minor hits in 2010, as an example of the sort of artist who the critical zeitgeist was overlooking. And while I don’t think the existence of Miguel does anything to diminish the great things that Ocean and the Weeknd are doing, it is pretty true that he was slipping through the indie-blog cracks while releasing utterly luminous tracks like “All I Want Is You.” But Miguel learned. And over the first few months of this year, he pretty much made an Ocean/Weeknd album, except he did it in tiny Green Mile-style installments — three EPs, each three songs long, to a total of just under half an hour. And it appears to be working. Here I am writing about it on an indie blog.
A couple of days ago, Queens rapper Action Bronson posted a pair of offensive Instagram photos and captions, referring to a transgender woman as “it,” among other gross decisions. It led to him shutting down his Instagram account, and later unleashed a screed of not-quite-apologies on Twitter(which is still happening). The fallout from that, however, is far from over, as the LGBT community looks to Action Bronson for answers.
Just posted to SBTRKT’s Soundcloud account, with the note:
back in the studio. working towards eps/ album/ etc…. something new – no plan for it – just thought id share
No idea what a “gamelena” is, and there isn’t any real sonic connection between the cut and Indonesian gamelan music (which its spelling closely approximates). Who cares though, the track chirps and pulses with backwards hi-hats and a techno undercurrent, and it is a typically tasteful affair from SBTRKT. Here’s 2:43 from his new “eps/album/ etc” sessions (thanks for the tip, Amy!):
To date, Scissor Sisters have teed up two videos from next week’s Magic Hour LP: “Shady Love” which featured cute kids and Azealia Banks, and “Only The Horses” which featured platforms and horses. Both memorable, though neither of them gave Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme a chance to run satirical line reads on a late night infomercial production while wearing a Cramps jacket, which is why a) that video now exists and b) we are posting it here. There are laughs herein, if you find this premise enticing. It is up to you:
The frantic Aussie indie-popper Jonathan Boulet will release his sophomore album We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart next month, and he recruited the first-time director and former pro skateboarder Peanut to direct the video for his song “This Song Is Called Ragged.” The clip, near as I can tell, concerns what happens when a fancy art installation, one made out of garbage, explodes in the middle of the desert. Watch it below.
Beck will issue a single through Third Man Records, and today, previews of the single’s two sides were made available on Third Man’s website. So go there to hear (really brief) snippets of the twang-heavy “I Just Started Hating Some People Today” and the downstated, old-school country ode “Blue Randy.” Jack White produced both songs, playing drums on “Blue Randy” and contributing a number of things, including a “Punk Vocal,” to the A-side. True to form, Third Man will release 100 tricolor 7”s to be put on sale at Randy Records in Salt Lake City on 6/2. The single itself is out 5/28.
The year isn’t half over yet. We know that. But since everyone starts unveiling their year-end lists in November, we figured we wouldn’t be too far out of pocket if we unveiled our favorites of the 2012 calendar year the week before Memorial Day.
Our favorite album of the year (so far) is the one on which a talented young band teamed up with a production hero of the ’90s and immersed themselves in the decade’s hard, chunky, scraping, anthemic rock music. There’s no drift at all in Cloud Nothings’ Attack On Memory — just forward drive, rendered with style and conviction. That same Clinton-era ferocity is on display in a bunch of the other albums that appear on this list. Japandroids, Screaming Females both ran with it, and so, in their own ways, did Torche and Ceremony. Other albums don’t necessarily draw on that decade’s style, but they do sprint into chaotic combat in refreshingly concrete ways: El-P, Sleigh Bells, Killer Mike, Death Grips.
But it doesn’t make too much sense to impose a narrative on this list. There’s plenty of druggy float in the albums from Beach House and Future and the Chromatics, and plenty of glamorous sheen in the records from Chairlift and Rick Ross and Kindness. The albums that appear on our list don’t really share too much in common, except this: They’re all deeply personal, idiosyncratic visions. That, and we like all of them. Check out our list below.
Yesterday, we posted “Money Makin’,” the new twerked-up dance jam from A-Trak and Dillon Francis. And now, here’s the inevitable ridiculous video. This one has a few prominent cameos, Greg Nice doing Greg Nice things, and a dancing anthropomorphic ATM machine. Ben Solomon and Daniel B. Levin direct. Watch it below.
