Read The Lastest Music News/Reviews

Matthew Houck, a.k.a. Phosphorescent, already had a jam-packed tour schedule with tons of summer festival gigs and fall European dates lined up. Now, he’s announced a new batch of U.S. shows, including two opening for the one and only, Robert Plant. It looks like the Brooklyn based singer-songwriter will be on the road for most of what’s left of 2013, which means you literally have no excuse not to see him and witness his excellent Muchacho album in live form.

For a preview, check out our report of Phosphorescent’s show from last weekend’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn.

Phosphorescent 2013 Tour Dates:
06/30 – Montauk, NY @ The Surf Lodge
07/13 – Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Bluesfest
07/14 – Burlington, VT @ Signal Kitchen %
07/16 – Columbus, OH @ A and R Music Bar %
07/17 – Cleveland, OH @ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame %
07/18 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners %
07/20 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
07/25 – Boston, MA @ Bank of America Pavilion *
07/26 – Newport RI @ Newport Folk Festival
07/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Prospect Park Bandshell *
07/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ XpoNential Festival
08/09 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/10 – Goteborg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
08/11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
08/13 – Helsinki, FI @ Tavastia
08/15 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkel...

Electronic-duo Fuck Buttons announced last month that their new album, Slow Focus, will be released July 23 via ATP. This will be the first album for the English duo since its haunting 2009 release, Tarot Spot, and they’ve already already given us a taste of it with the pulverizing buzzsaw of a single, “The Red Wing.”

Today, the group has shared a fittingly discombobulating and warped video for the track via Pitchfork. The clip is a series of mirrored scenes centered around a single girl dancing and looks like it belongs at the opening credits of a James Bond film—let’s call it From Fuck Buttons With Love. Check out the video for “The Red Wing” below.

The post Watch: Fuck Buttons’ “The Red Wing” Video appeared first on CMJ.

The South Side of the Chi.

Whilst fellow Chicago driller Chief Keef might be having a pretty crappy week all being said (despite his appearance on Yeezus), the city’s burgeoning rap scene is still moving onwards and upwards – something that’s plain and clear on this new cut from local rapper Giftz. Featuring a guest appearance from man-0f-the-moment

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

Music critics make mistakes all the time, and I made one two years ago, when I reviewed Austra’s debut album Feel It Break for Pitchfork. I gave that album a positive review, but it was one of those wait-and-see positive reviews, like, “They’re onto something here! Let’s see what they can do next time around!” This was wrong. They were not onto something. They did something. Austra was, and is, the group led by Katie Stelmanis, a much-admired fixture on Toronto’s art-punk scene with a voice like a heavily medicated soaring eagle. She’d linked up with a group of synthetic musicians and a pair of unearthly-beautiful twins who sang soft-monotone backing vocals, and together, they’d made an album of miasmic, uncanny synthpop, music that used the grammar of dance music to cast a warm spell that never once invited dancing. The album stuck firmly within a single mode, never varying from its thick and deep central sound, and maybe that lack of variance was why I didn’t entirely trust the spell that the album cast on me. If they expanded that core sound, I thought, maybe that spell would become stronger. This was dumb, because two years later, that album’s spell lingers; it might’ve even gained in strength. But it wasn’t entirely dumb, because now Austra have made an album that expands on their original sound, and it’s even better than the one that came before.

R...

Firefly 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

It's been crazy both in and not-in the NYC-area for festivals this past week. NYC was taken over by a very muddy Governors Ball last weekend (6/7-9), and this past weekend (6/14-16), while almost every Brooklyn venue took part in the Northside Festival, Toronto was hosting NXNE and Tennessee had Bonnaroo to name the ones we were most focused on. That's all behind us now, but those who are into festivals still have much more to look forward to this summer including another big one on the east coast this weekend.

This coming weekend, Friday, June 21-Sunday, June 23, the Firefly Music Festival is returning to Dover, Delaware's Dover International Speedway, which is only about a 3 hour drive (directions) from NYC. The festival debuted last year, and like Governors Ball, they've upped their game a bit this year. There will be a bunch of great bands across four main stages, like:

On Friday, there's sets by Django Django, Dr. Dog, Action Bronson, Foxygen, Public Enemy, Grizzly Bear, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Earl Sweatshirt (who was added to the lineup in May) and more. And besides RHCP vs Earl (who start 15 minutes apart), the conflicts that day aren't too bad.

On Saturday, there's sets by Japandroids, Jim James (who replaced Imagine Dragons, so bonus points for that), Kendrick Lamar, Alabama Shakes vs Lord...

photos by PSquared Photography

Yo La Tengo @ Maxwell's, 6/15/2013

"This band does not exist without this club," singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan announced during Yo La Tengo's final appearance at the sainted Hoboken, New Jersey locale Maxwell's last Saturday. (The venue is set to close on July 31.) Kaplan's concision was emblematic of the night, during which the trio were tasked with wrapping up a 33-year-long relationship with the room in two 45-minute sets. That they did so with a good deal of real sentiment and a minimum of nostalgia was further testament to the strength of Yo La Tengo's connection to the place -- this was just another excellent gig at home.

Among other milestones, the uptown Hoboken bar/restaurant/venue was where eventual husband and wife Kaplan and singer-drummer Georgia Hubley first met at a Feelies show in 1980, where Kaplan soon worked as soundguy and Hubley as a DJ, where they hung out more nights than not and made a slow progression from playing covers at back-room parties to the first Yo La Tengo show in 1984, to, eventually, some 72 guest-studded menorah-lit Hanukkah performances between 2001 and 2012. - [SPIN]

What started as an opening slot (as their all-covers alter-egos Condo Fucks) for Scottish group The Pastels turned into a headlining set for Yo La Tengo when the latter's visas didn't come through in time. It was also fortuitous in some...

photos by David Andrako

Mikal Cronin / Shannon & the Clams @ Silver Dollar Room 6/14/2013

But the afternoon, and perhaps NXNE as a whole belonged to recent Merge Records signing Mikal Cronin. This was his third of four shows at the fest and while he appeared rushed due to time constraints, Cronin sounded exactly as you'd hope he would: poppy but scrappy, daring but focused and completely engaging.

Later that evening, the Silver Dollar Room swelled in anticipation of Shannon and the Clams, the Oakland act that's often difficult to label, but impossible not to enjoy wholeheartedly. Shannon Shaw displayed effortless grace and a somewhat seductive snarl throughout their buoyant set, which eventually had the floor of the Silver Dollar Room shaking in total agreement with their pungent garage pop ditties. Shannon and the Clams have been garnering acclaim for their recent Hardly Art full-length Dreams in the Rat House, and they're very well deserved. - [Popmatters]

After spending Thursday night (6/13) of Toronto fest NXNE seeing Nu Sensae, Merchandise, and more and then on Friday hitting The National in Yonge-Dundas Square and the M for Montreal showcase at Sneaky Dee's on Friday (6/14), we spent our Saturday (6/15) of NXNE at the Silver Dollar Room to catch Mikal Cronin whose new record on Merge, MCII, is one of the best guitar p...

‘One Half’ is the whole package.

Julianna Barwick has long been a purveyor of ghostly, shimmering choral ambience, but on ‘One Half’ she manages to strip back some of the haze to reveal an almost poppish sensibility. The track begins with a familiar swirl of wordless coos, but eventually collapses into an fully fledged piano-led ‘song’. Of course it’s still graced by Barwick’s omnipresent cavernous reverb, but her softly affecting vocals and lilting melodies bring to mind early Sigur Ros, maybe if they were performing in a local village choir somewhere quaint and rural. Hardly surprising really, as it was recorded in Iceland with a handful of Sigur Ros members and collaborators, including the wildly underrated string ensemble Amiina.

It’s remarkable music, and handled with Barwick’s signature light touch it never descends into manipulative, over-melancholic nonsense thank goodness. This is the latest taster of her forthcoming full-length Nepenthe, which is due out on August 20 on Dead Oceans. [via Stereogum]

This past weekend Barcelona welcomed musicians and their fans from all over the world, who flocked to the city for the revered Sonar festival. During interludes between acts, fest attendees may have noticed lengthy pieces of synth-based music soundtracking the space. Thanks to two former Red Bull Music Academy graduates, Claude Speeed and Yosi Horikawa, festival-goers were treated to spiraling soundscapes and captivating field recordings. The two pieces, entitled Inside and Outside, were released by RBMA and, clocking in at about 32-minutes total, they’re the perfect score to a quiet evening or post-party comedown.

Claude Speeed is a member of the post rock outfit American Men (which is misleading, since he’s Scottish) and part of the LuckyMe label family. As a solo artist his discography is sparse, but what is available paints a vivid picture of a more than competent sound designer. About 5,000 miles away, Yosi Horikawa manipulates ordinary sounds into rhythmically interesting pieces of music complete with a melancholia many strive for. This year’s Whispers From An Angel is a perfect example of that. Both Inside and Outside are available to stream below.

The post Listen: Claude Speeed And Yosi Horikawa Score Interludes For Sonar Fest appeared first on CMJ.

Yeezus has risen, Tom has weighed in, and you can hear it legally now. But if you want to dig a little bit deeper into your listening, Babylon Cartel’s Gianni Lee and Mike Blud have made a mix of songs they think Kanye West sampled for the album. The collection is not perfect — “Black Skinhead” does not actually sample Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People,” as per the credits. It also nods to the C-Murder reference by calling the song West quotes on “Blood On The Leaves” a Snoop Dogg song, but hey! Yeezy name-dropped the wrong housing project C-Murder grew up in, so we’re not working with a perfect science here. Check it out below and download here.

Read More...

The Patriarch II" title="Download the latest mixtape from Deniro Farrar, The Patriarch II" width="685" height="457" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-160584" />

The Charlotte, NC rapper keeps things grim on his latest effort.

Deniro Farrar has released a sequel to March’s impressive The Patriarch mixtape. Once again, Farrar uses his gravel-and-smoke voice in service of reality-rooted storytelling over woozy, cloud-meets-Memphis beats.

“Written in some of darkest and most bleak times in my life, this is my therapy,” Farrar writes. “Facing indescribable personal trials and tribulations, coupled with my family crumbling as I watch my lil bro and biggest supporter face a serious trial and jail sentence, I did the thing I was born to do. Write and express my life.” As you can imagine, Farrar is far from upbeat, but his personal struggles have inspired some moving material.

Beyond the boards, frequent collaborator Ryan Hemsworth returns and is joined by Australia production team KIRA, genre agnostic OWSLA-signee David Heartbreak, Felix Snow, Ryan Alexy, and more. Good Kid, M.a.a.D. City vocalist JMSN also makes an appearance on the Hemsworth-produced ‘Separate’. Stream/download The Patriarch II below.

Portland band Blouse offer up minimal, gauzy track “No Shelter” from their upcoming Captured Tracks release Imperium. The cut is a full blast of throwback pop that sounds almost liquid. Check it out here.

Imperium is out 9/17 via Captured Tracks.

You know that thing we do when a new Swedish pop artist emerges and feel it totally necessary to compare them to a) Robyn, b) Lykke Li or c) The Knife? Yep. It happens. Everyone is guilty.

Whilst Frida Sundemo is – to all intents and purposes – another up and coming hopeful emerging from the ever effervescent Swedish pop landscape, there seems to be something more organic at play here.

Stripping away the thrusting percussion and glacial sounding synths; imaging the song sung acapella, you’re thrown deep inside a classic melody akin to say, Loney Dear. There’s that yearning element to the vocal that makes everything that little bit more human.

Frida will open for Charli XCX tomorrow night (Wednesday 19 June) at London’s Islington Academy.