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Brooklyn indie-pop sweeties, HAERTS, released another single today via ELLE off their anticipated debut album. As with their first single (the sprightly and spirited sundress jam Wings), “All The Days” puts us further on the edge of our seats, itching for a great summer-love record with megawatts of girl power provided by frontwoman Nini Fabi, formerly of folk outfit NINI + BEN.

Fabi

Eight years ago, Kanye West stopped by the Tim Westwood radio show in the UK and freestyled for about 12 minutes and it’s great. The year is 2005, so of course Yeezy is rapping about conflict diamonds in Africa, but many topics are broached, including how to make the best rap songs (get a beat from Kanye), and a verse that starts from reading messages fans are sending to him in real-time. Any number of lines could be highlighted, but here’s one that cracked Kanye up after he said it: “I’m out in UK, and I ask ‘em who’s the best and the say, ‘You, K.’” Watch the playback below (via Fake Shore Drive).

The Decemberists in Austin in 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

It's been a while since we've heard from The Decemberists, but the band's members are still finding ways to keep busy. Their side project, Black Prairie, whose lineup now includes four of the five Decemberists members (Chris Funk, Nate Query, Jenny Conlee, and John Moen -- aka everyone except Colin Meloy), released a new album this year which is a "soundtrack" for New York Times magazine writer Jon Mooallem's book, Wild Ones. You can stream that album in its entirety below, and read what Jon Mooallem had to say about it at Slate.

Black Prairie are also going on a tour which includes previously discussed stops at Bonnaroo and Newport Folk Festival. The tour hits NYC for a show with Michael Hurley at City Winery on July 29, the day after they play Newport Folk Festival. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Colin Meloy plays Newport Folk Fest too, so if he and his bandmates don't team up for at least one Decemberists song, that's just cruel and unusual. It's one of three solo shows Colin has scheduled (all festivals, none in NYC). All upcoming Black Prairie and Colin Meloy dates are listed below.

Finally, as mentioned, John Moen is releasing a new solo album, Revise Your Maps, on June 25 via Jealous Butcher Records. We already posted the song "Ramble Scramble" from t...

As summer quickly approaches, the oncoming heat is inevitable but so is festival season. Chicago has long been acknowledged as the birthplace of house music and returning for its second year is Wavefront Music Festival, the Windy City’s first and only beachfront festival. This year the festival will be debuting the Chicago Heritage of House Stage, paying homage to the forefathers of house music: Frankie Knuckles, Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, Gene Farris, Jamie Principle, original Hot Mix 5 member Ralphi Rosario, Teri Bristol and Psycho Bitch (Crobar) and Mike Serafini (Gramaphone Records).

Independence Day celebrations can continue through the weekend of July 5-7 as EDM artists pack the shores of Lake Michigan at Chicago’s beautiful Montrose Beach. The festival, surely to be as powerful as Chicago’s wind, will be hosts to acclaimed hit makers Eric Morillo, Fatboy Slim, Holy Ghost!, Jacques Lu Cont, Lee Burridge and many others.

And, of course, there’s the spectacular fireworks display over Lake Michigan. We’ll be giving away three pairs of VIP tickets, one pair of VIP passes per week over the next three weeks. Enter for a chance to win the first set of passes by providing your email address below. The first week of the contest will close on Friday, May 31 at 5 p.m. Start your summer with a bang.

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Indie bands have been mainstays of the late night talk show circuit for years now, but they're starting to infiltrate morning shows too. Case in point: Grizzly Bear just played Ellen this morning (5/24), which most certainly introduced their music to a new audience. (Yesterday, Michael Bolton was the musical guest.) You can watch them do Shields' track, "Yet Again," below (via P4k).

Continue reading "watch Grizzly Bear perform "Yet Again" on... Ellen?" at brooklynvegan

If it seems as though we’ve been talking about the National’s excellent new record Trouble Will Find Me for weeks now it’s because we have. Even though the record was just released this week, fascination with the band and a buzzing curiosity about how they might follow up 2010′s powerhouse High Violet have kept music writers (and our own comments sections) very busy over the past month or so. Initial reactions to the album have been largely positive, with our own Tom Breihan claiming that Trouble‘s “soft, majestic intensity is a reassuring and comfortable thing.” It’s a sentiment that seems to be at the core of what so many people love about the National — a band continues to age gracefully, not through a series of radical reinventions or extreme left-turns, but by playing to their own particular strengths as songwriters … which seem to have grown more formidable with each consecutive record.

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When you’re planning a remix album and want to piss off approx. half of your fan base, you call The Field, whose sprawling epics test the attention spans of even the most dedicated book reader under 30. His work on Sally Shapiro‘s 

Here’s another Japanese bonus track for you: Swedish metal lords Ghost B.C. take Depeche Mode’s most serene, meditative track in their catalogue — ahem, “Waiting for the Night” — and turn it into the sort of rock ‘n’ roll theatrical flair that Dream Theater or Roger Waters might conjure up.

As Exclaim.ca points out, the cover comes stripped off the Japanese edition of the band’s latest album, Infestissumam. Save yourself the shipping on eBay, however, and stream it below.

Infestissumam is now available via Loma Vista Recordings.

James Murphy aboard SS Coachella 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Staying in NYC this weekend? There's actually no shortage of things to do here, even though the weather forecast is less than ideal. Head below for our top 10 list of events going on this Memorial Day Weekend.

Continue reading "NYC Memorial Day Weekend Events (DFA Anniversary, Do-Over, Converge, Green-Wood Cemetery, Greg Proops & more) " at brooklynvegan

Sweden’s Shout Out Louds performed on last night’s Leno to promote their album Optica. Following interviews with guests Tyler Perry and Isla Fischer, the band performed album cut “Walking In Your Footsteps.” Check it out below.

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Hopefully you left room in your schedule for Bonnaroo’s first annual Roo Run 5K. No, really.

On Saturday, June 15th, amidst performances by Death Grips, Solange, and The Tallest Man on Earth, the festival’s “farmland becomes a raceway, with Bonnaroovians encouraged to sweat side-by-side along a designated course that twists across the Tennessee landscape. The 5k (3.1 mile) Roo Run is dirt-stomping, sweat-drenched history in the making.”

It’s never smart to run on a stomach full of booze, which is why the festival will provide all runners with bibs. (Hey, at least they have a sense of humor.)

At the Roo Run booth you