Big Boi + Phantogram Collab Big Grams Fall in the Sun With First Single

While Atlanta rapper Big Boi and New York electronic duo Phantogram are strong artists in their own right, both seem to thrive on collaboration. After Phantogram contributed three of the standout tracks from Big Boi’s 2012 album Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors, the trio has reunited under the Big Grams moniker and announced the Big Grams EP, set to drop later this month. And while the group’s previous collaborations are enough to make this exciting news, first single “Fell In The Sun,” (which premiered on Beats Radio 1) suggests that this team-up has brought out the best in both parties.

The genius of “Fell In The Sun” lies in the interplay between these seemingly disparate artists, as Sarah Barthel’s exuberant hook mingles with Daddy Fat Sax’s playful verses over a warm, crackling beat from Josh Carter that sounds like Big Boi’s “Shine Blockas” playing on warped vinyl. On the bridge Barthel sings, “Dealt this dope from ATL to New York,” but what Big Grams has cooked up might be even more addictive.

Big Grams EP is out September 25th via Epic/Republic

Youth Lagoon Gets Bitter In Third Single, "Rotten Human"

Trevor Powers, AKA Youth Lagoon, continues the rollout of his forthcoming third record Savage Hills Ballroom with "Rotten Human," his bitter third single behind "Highway Patrol Stun Gun" and "The Knower."

Showcasing increasingly dynamic and vulnerable vocals juxtaposed with a still introspective yet more unwavering drive, Youth Lagoon has newfound conviction but is still just as dissatisfied, itching to set the record straight over a cruising tide of dark melodies.

When asked what the new song means to him, Powers told Nerdist,

“Throughout the process of writing this album—about two years—I’ve gone on this spiritual journey to learn more about myself and my faults and all this stuff that I’ve tended ignore for a really long time. It’s so much easier to go through each day and forget the previous day or forget the hurtful things you said to someone or whatever it might be, just the shitty parts of your life. This song is addressing that. It’s really examining what it is that makes me who I am, and what parts of that are disgusting.”

"You are the habit I couldn't break," Powers laments later on in the track. As excited as we are for the new LP, I think we could say the same about him.

"Savage Hills Ballroom" in stores September 25, 2015 iTunes: http://smarturl.it/ylshb LP/CD: http://smarturl.it/YLSHB-preorder

Savage Hills Ballroom is out September 25th via Fat Possum. Check out Youth Lagoon's tour dates here.

Majical Cloudz Doesn't Blink Once In "Silver Car Crash" and It's Lovely

Majical Cloudz's new music video for "Silver Car Crash," the first single from his forthcoming sophomore album Are You Alone?, is a playfully off-putting and genuine little black-and-white journey with Devon Welsh as he balances on a railroad track and stares directly into your soul.

Earnest and simple, it eschews the grand production of moving masterpieces "Childhood's End" and "Bugs Don't Buzz," more resembling the DIY charm of "Savage," all without one. single. blink.

Are You Alone? is out October 16 via Matador.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" Video Is a Rabbit-Hole of Phenomena

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's third album, Multi-Love, is already a standout record this year, and now we have a new music video for its second single, "Can't Keep Checking My Phone," that is sure to be on the year-end lists as well.

A menagerie of unusual afflictions and other peculiar phenomena from Stendhal syndrome to divine intervention, the 4:21 runtime is chock-full of incredibly stimulating imagery with captions inspired by the style of trading card games like Mars Attacks. Directed by Dimitri Basil and Cooper Roussel (with art direction by Laura Gorun and Dominique Basil), it's just the type of thing you would hope to stumble upon in "an internet rabbit-hole researching at four in the morning," as described in UMO's Facebook post.

Put down your phone and click play on this (slightly NSFW) adventure below.

You Should Download the Surprise Mixtape Toro Y Moi Dropped Today

Just a few short months after Chaz Bundick released his last LP What For? in April, the prolific chillwaver better known as Toro Y Moi has surprise-dropped a new mixtape titled Samantha today via a dropbox link in his Instagram.

The 20-track album features collaborations with Rome Fortune, Kool A.D., Nosaj Thing, and fellow South Carolina native, Washed Out, as well as a photo gallery available for download as well.

Samantha

1. Power of Now
2. 2 Late [ft. Kool A.D. and SAFE]
3. Driving Day
4. Good Song
5. Pitch Black [ft. Rome Fortune]
6. Us 2
7. That Night [ft. Kool A.D. and SAFE]
8. Stoned at the MoMA
9. Room for 1zone
10. Want [ft. Washed Out]
11. ambient Rainbow
12. Benjiminz [ft. Rome Fortune]
13. Boo Boo Mobile
14. bytheneck
15. Real Love [ft. Kool A.D.]
16. Enough of You [ft. Nosaj Thing]
17. The Usual
18. Prayer Hands
19. Holy Nights [ft. SHORE]
20. welp, tour's over

Hear David Gilmour Dreamily Cover The Beatles' "Here, There And Everywhere"

Leading up to his forthcoming solo record Rattle That Lock, former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has unveiled a one-off wispy rendition of The Beatles' "Hear, There and Everywhere" in this month's issue of MOJO Magazine. The sleepy track originally appeared on the classic 1966 album Revolver.

This is only the most recent of many connections between the two groups of artists, which also include Gilmour's contributions to Paul McCartney's recordings of "We Got Married" and the ballad version of "No More Lonely Nights."

Rattle That Lock is due out September 18 via Columbia Records. Hear the first single and title-track here.

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Stream Cole Hamilton's Debut EP 'Afraid To Be Alone'

It’s hard to believe rising Tulane University sophomore Cole Hamilton didn’t begin writing music until his first year of college. It’s not that that’s too late in life, it’s just surprising considering the amount and quality of work he has already completed in such a short time when most of us were still trying to figure out which building our classes were in.

“I spent the whole year writing music and ended up with 20-plus songs,” Hamilton told us.  “From those 20 I took my favorite four and made the [Afraid To Be Alone] EP.” 

Hamilton recorded these tracks after returning to his hometown of Northbrook, IL where he reunited with high school friends Chris Neuhaus (drums), Paul Tisch (bass), Gracie Sands (guitar), Peter Roberson (trombone), Danny Neuson (trumpet), and Joseph Lee (saxophone) and worked with producer Craig Williams at Dr. Caw studios.

Afraid To Be Alone begins with catchy Two Door Cinema Club-inspired pop-rock tracks “(Just Between) Everyone You Know and Me” and "Louisiana" before descending into darker vocals evoking an Arctic Monkeys-esque swagger in “Crystal.” The EP ends with “Stay/Go,” a track adorned with a heavy horn section and an earnestness that will leave you wishing Hamilton would indeed stay instead of go. 

Afraid To Be Alone is out now and available on Spotify, which you can listen to below.

Life's a (Dirty) Beach in Beirut's New "Gibraltar" Music Video

Beirut have followed up the peculiar and playful music video for their forthcoming record No No No's title track with "Gibraltar," a slow, percussive number showcasing vocals from frontman Zach Condon as gentle as lazy waves on the beach.

It seems fitting, then, that the new music video accompanying the single has the band ambling across that very landscape, though in this case it is littered with trash. Surreality and smoothness are not the only traits the two videos have in common, though, with this one also being the directing work of Brother Willis.

Watch "Gibraltar" below.

No No No can be yours this September 11th via 4AD.

Tame Impala's New "Let It Happen" Music Video is Hallucinatory Hell

Tame Impala's recent record Currents is a stand-out so far this year, so it's only fitting that the music video for the opening track "Let It Happen" should be equally impressive.

Directed by Grammy-nominated filmmaker David Wilson (who also directed the band's Lonerism single "Mind Mischief" back in 2012), the video shows a hallucinatory and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge"-esque journey through skies of nightmares for the hapless protagonist.

Unfortunately (though understandably), the 7:49 minute track is cut down to 4:16 for the video, though the original length is cleverly displayed on the alarm clock featured at the 1:14 mark.

You can check it out below, but with a viewing experience this exhilarating you may want to be buckled in thrice like the character himself.

Majical Cloudz Announce New Album 'Are You Alone?', Release Single "Silver Car Crash"

Thankfully it appears that the first minimalist, white-colored album containing hauntingly emotive music from Majical Cloudz was not a one-off deal, with the Montreal-based duo of Devon Welsh and Matthew Otto announcing they have done it again.

This time it is called Are You Alone?, and you can hear the beautiful first single from this sophomore LP, "Silver Car Crash," below. Continuing the dreary yet intensely driven synthesizers and immaculately heavy vocals of 2013's Impersonator, the track is quintessentially Majical Cloudz.

In a Tumblr post today, Welsh revealed an Andy Warhol painting to be the song's main inspiration, saying,

“Our song “Silver Car Crash” is named after this painting by Andy Warhol, called “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)“. He made it in 1963 as part of a group of paintings that are known as the “Death and Disaster series”.
His paintings can sometimes be very spiritual and preoccupied with an other world, even though their surface makes them seem more innocent. (When I look at these paintings I always imagine that Andy Warhol is asking, “What happens after death?”)
I really like that kind of double meaning, and the way the paintings combine two different preoccupations that are, in life, always mixing together.
I think the song “Silver Car Crash” also has a kind of double meaning and combines emotions which are usually combined in some form anyway.
It was inspired by life but also by Andy Warhol!”

Andy Warhol's painting "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)"

An official statement on the forthcoming LP further explains,

“Building off a solidly-laid visual and sonic foundation, the narrative remains – simple yet emotionally forthcoming lyrics showcasing raw vulnerability, backed by sparse instrumentation and minimalist production. [Main songwriter Devon] Welsh delivers melancholic but melody driven vocals echoing off elemental tones, praising love and friendship, commiserating over heartbreak and sadness.”

Are You Alone?

1. Disappeared
2. Control
3. Are You Alone?
4. So Blue
5. Heavy
6. Silver Car Crash
7. Change
8. If You're Lonely
9. Downtown
10. Easier Said Than Done
11. Game Show
12. Call On Me

Are You Alone? is due out October 16 via Matador.