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Beach House Announce New Album 'Depression Cherry,' World Tour

Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

Beach House have announced a follow-up to 2012's dream pop masterpiece Bloom called Depression Cherry which will be release on August 28 via Sub Pop in North America, Bella Union in Europe, and Mistletone in Australia.

The record was produced by the duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally themselves, along with Chris Coady (Future Islands, Islands) who also worked on their previous two albums.

In a press release Beach House explained:

In general, this record shows a return to simplicity, with songs structured around a melody and a few instruments, with live drums playing a far lesser role. With the growing success of Teen Dream and Bloom, the larger stages and bigger rooms naturally drove us towards a louder, more aggressive place; a place farther from our natural tendencies. Here, we continue to let ourselves evolve while fully ignoring the commercial context in which we exist. For us, Depression Cherry is a color, a place, a feeling, an energy… that describes the place you arrive as you move through the endlessly varied trips of existence…

A particular highlight is the sleeve itself, which will be manufactured with actual red velvet, similar to the limited edition maroon textured copies of Bee Gees' divisive 1969 record Odessa.

Check out the tracklist and tour dates below. You can preorder the clear vinyl here.

Depression Cherry

  1. Levitation
  2. Sparks
  3. Space Song 
  4. Beyond Love 
  5. 10:37
  6. PPP 
  7. Wildflower 
  8. Bluebird
  9. Days of Candy

Beach House World Tour:

8/18 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
8/19 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street Nightclub
8/20 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
8/21 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
8/22 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Small’s
8/24 – Albany, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
8/25 – Providence, RI @ Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
8/26 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
9/17 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
9/18 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
9/19 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Theatre
9/21 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theatre
9/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
9/25 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
9/26 – Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
9/27 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
9/28 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
9/29 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
10/1 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
10/2 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre
10/3 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
10/4 – Nashville, TN @ The Ryman Auditorium
10/6 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
10/7 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
10/8 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom
10/24 – Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Mandela Hall
10/25 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
10/26 – Glasgow, Scotland @ ABC
10/27 – Manchester, England @ The Ritz
10/29 – Paris, France @ Pitchfork Music Festival Paris
10/30 – London, England @ Shepherds Bush Empire
11/2 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
11/3 – Brussels, Belgium @ Autumn Falls @ AB
11/4 – Koln, Germany @ Gloria
11/5 – Luxemborg, Luxemborg @ Den Atelier
11/7 – Reykjavik, Iceland @ Iceland Airwaves
11/10 – Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene
11/11 – Gothenburg, Sweden @ Tradgarn
11/12 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser Medis
11/13 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
11/14 – Hamburg, Germany @ Kampnagel K1
11/16 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s
11/17 – Munich, Germany @ Freiheiz
11/18 – Lausanne, Germany @ Les Docks
11/20 – Barcelona, Spain @ Apolo
11/22 – Madrid, Spain @ La Riviera
11/23 – Lisbon, Portugal @ Armazén
11/24 – Porto, Portugal @ Teatro sa da Bandeira
12/9 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
12/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
12/17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
12/18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

Cold War Kids Are in a Giving Mood: Announce New Album & Tour, Drop Single "All This Could Be Yours"

New Music, Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

It seems Cold War Kids are in a giving mood; not even a month after frontman Nathan Willett and bassist Matt Maust released Is Exotic Bait, the debut album from their side-project French Style Furs, the Kids have revealed new single “All This Could Be Yours” to the world along with the announcement of new tour dates and an as-of-yet unnamed LP on Downtown Records this October.

The forthcoming record will be a surprisingly early addition to what has been a period of high productivity for the LA artists, with the full band’s last LP, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, coming out only little over a year ago, followed by the EP Tuxedos last fall, and one-off single “A Million Eyes” in March.

The new album will be Cold War Kids’ fifth overall, but the first with what appears to be a new lineup following reports that drummer Matthew Aviero has been replaced by Joe Plummer, who, along with guitarist Dann Gallucci, is best known for his tenure with indie rock classics Modest Mouse, in addition to work with The Shins, Mister Heavenly, and more.

The single itself kicks off with a piano riff just as last summer’s “Miracle Mile” did, followed by Willett’s signature vocals at their most piercing and a marching pulse of percussion from Plummer. A catchy track, “All This” further pushes the boundary of anthemic pop-ness for the band, leaving fans to wonder just would could be theirs come October.

Tour Dates:

07/20 – Chicago, IL @ Rock N Roll Half Marathon
07/26 – Tulsa, OK @ The Center Of The Universe
08/29-31 – Columbus, OH @ Fashion Meets Music Festival
10/20 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
10/24 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
10/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/18 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
11/19 – Solona Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
11/22 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst


Originally published on The Music Ninja

'Wish I Was Here' Soundtrack Contains New Bon Iver, The Shins, and More

Music News, TV/Film NewsWeston PaganoComment

Ten years ago Zach Braff’s last film Garden State did wonders for propelling indie, specifically The Shins, into the mainstream spotlight. It seems Wish I Was Here, his Kickstarter-funded forthcoming directorial sophomore effort, will be similarly musically inspired, with a soundtrack boasting many of the screenwriter and star’s favorite artists, including Paul Simon and The Head And The Heart.

The Shins appear once again with shimmering new tune “So Now What,” with frontman James Mercer taking a break from side-project Broken Bells to write the song specifically for this sountrack. Just as wistful and dreamy as they were a decade ago, the now Portland-based sextet seem eager to reunite with Braff with lines like “I guess we’ll just begin again / I hope you know you’re my best friend” making up the soaring chorus lifted by Mercer’s gentle and softened falsetto.

Another new track commissioned for Wish I Was Here is Bon Iver’s eerie and minimalistic “Heavenly Father.” Justin Vernon’s vocals layer over a looping synth vibration in what, according to NPR, was an incredibly spontaneous recording:

They were enjoying it and laughing, but at a certain point, they just got quiet. When it was over, Justin started humming. We talked afterwards about the relationship between Zach’s character and his brother [Josh Gad], and Justin and Nate talked a little about their father — all the while Justin kept distractedly humming. Eventually, he sang out the words ‘heavenly father.’ Before I even left their house, Justin was recording the first version of the song in his downstairs studio. His inspiration was that immediate.

The complete soundtrack is due out July 15 via Columbia with the film hitting theaters three days later. There will be a separate vinyl release on August 5, with Garden State’s soundtrack being reissued the same day. Check out the tracklist below:

Wish I Was Here

  1. The Shins “So Now What”
  2. Gary Jules “Broke Window”
  3. Radical Face “The Mute”
  4. Hozier “Cherry Wine (Live)”
  5. Bon Iver “Holocene”
  6. Badly Drawn Boy “The Shining”
  7. Jump Little Children “Mexico”
  8. Cat Power & Coldplay “Wish I Was Here”
  9. Allie Moss “Wait It Out”
  10. Paul Simon “The Obvious Child”
  11. Japanese Wallpaper “Breathe In [ft. Wafia]“
  12. Bon Iver “Heavenly Father”
  13. Aaron Embry “Raven’s Song”
  14. The Weepies “Mend”
  15. The Head & the Heart “No One to Let You Down”

Originally published on The Music Ninja

"Do You" Want to Hear the First New Spoon Song in Four Years?

New Music, Music NewsWeston PaganoComment

After a four-year hiatus, Austin-based indie rock mainstays Spoon are back and as spry as ever with the first official single off their forthcoming eighth record, They Want My Soul.

“Do You” is classic Spoon, with Britt Daniel’s pleading vocals calling out over intertwining guitar and piano along with the type of softened, echoing “do-do-dos” only the best instant sing-alongs are made of. Despite the ferocious intensity of the three-eyed lion in the artwork, the track is actually quite warm and inviting, and you can almost feel the audiences clapping in time already.

Written immediately after Daniel’s side-project Divine Fits concluded touring last year, They Want My Soul is scheduled to become the Texas outfit’s first LP on new label Loma Vista upon its release on August 5th, though there’s still plenty of summer left to bounce along to this song in the meantime.

“Do You” is available for purchase on iTunes, or better, through the band’s new Vinyl Gratification program.


Originally published on The Music Ninja

Yeasayer's Anand Wilder Announces 'Break Line' Musical with Star-Studded Soundtrack, Releases First Single

Music News, New MusicWeston PaganoComment

Talk about an all-star cast: Yeasayer co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Anand Wilder and longtime friend and composer Maxwell Kardon have announced the completion of a new musical featuring fellow bandmates Ira Wolf Tuton and Chris Keating, James Richardson (MGMT), Christopher Powell and Ryan Kattner (Man Man), Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend, Discovery), K Ishibashi (Kishi Bashi, of Montreal, Jupiter One), Haley Dekle (Dirty Projectors), and more.

According to the press release, Break Line The Musical “harkens back to rock concept albums of the early 70′s,” exploring “the classic arc of lost love, betrayal, and pride,” and is based on “a labor conflict in a Western Pennsylvania coal town” that the duo’s fathers had discovered in “an old folk song taught in Quaker schools in the 1950s.”

Conceived six years ago, Wilder’s project began to take shape in between Yeasayer albums and is reminiscent of his band’s debut LP, with a lighter, springier version of All Hour Cymbals’ freakier folksy vibe. Taking inspiration from The Kinks and The Byrds, the musical puts a contemporary twist on a classic art form.

Ahead of Break Line’s release this July 15th on Secretly Canadian (July 14th, rest of the world via Mute), Wilder and Kardon have given us a small taste of what’s to come with ‘Wedding Day,’ a sleepy track that begins with children’s laughter and reversed guitar strums before Wilder’s croons raise the tempo into full-blown folk-pop festivity.


Originally published on The Music Ninja

Members of Cold War Kids and We Barbarians Form New Side-Project, French Style Furs

Music News, New MusicWeston PaganoComment
french style furs press photo.jpeg

The newest addition to the long list of supergroup side-projects forming in recent years is here: LA-based French Style Furs, made up of Nathan Willett and Matt Maust of Cold War Kids and We Barbarians’ Nathan Warkentin, has announced Is Exotic Bait, a debut LP due out July 8th via Frenchkiss Records.

Named after a storefront in Brooklyn and cultivated in spontaneity, French Style Furs pulses with the kind of creative urgency that comes with writing and recording in between shows, with Willett’s signature howls, barks, and wails giving restless life to lyrics inspired by Trappist monk and mystic Thomas Merton’s poetry.

Lyric video for "Solitary Life" by French Style Furs. Download Is Exotic Bait: http://bit.ly/1kcNTGJ French Style Furs. Cold War Kids + We Barbarians team up for the full length debut album, Is Exotic Bait, available now on Frenchkiss Records. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/1jtvzsh http://www.frenchstylefurs.com/ https://www.facebook.com/frenchstylefurs http://www.frenchkissrecords.com

As he does with Cold War Kids, Maust doubles as graphic designer and videographer, and has created a moving collage lyric video for ‘Solitary Life.’ The track itself opens with a bass groove of his (you can almost see him jerkily swaying on stage as you hear it) before swinging horns, Haley Dekle (Dirty Projectors) vocalizations, and even some cowbell are layered on. Check out the three singles available already and the current tour dates below.

Tour Dates:

6/2 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
6/9 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
6/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
6/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
7/7 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
7/9 – New York, NY @ Rough Trade


Originally published on The Music Ninja.