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At Stereogum’s Range Life party during SXSW way back in March, Kitty, the self-proclaimed rap game Taylor Swift, shared her stage with the partied-out Das Racist associate Lakutis, and it was a for-real sweet moment. Together, they performed “Ay Shawty,” a track from Kitty’s D.A.I.S.Y. Rage EP. (Like “Barbie Jeep,” the Adult Swim single that Kitty released yesterday, “Ay Shawty 3.0″ is a Hot Sugar production.) And now there’s a video for “Ay Shawty 3.0,” and it’s sweet, too, all slow dissolves and sunstruck cinematography. Peter Wu directed the video, and you can watch it below.

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Slim Whitman, the singer known for the 1952 hit "Indian Love Call," died Wednesday (June 19) in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 89. His death from heart failure was confirmed by his son-in-law.

The sweeping falsetto vocals of "Indian Love Call" helped the single sell 1 million copies, as well as reach No. 2 on the country chart. It also became a Top 10 pop hit.

In addition, the single "Rose Marie" spent 11 weeks at No. 1 in England and reached the Top 5 on the country chart in 1954. Whitman joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1955. Between 1952 and 1954, Whitman earned eight Top 10 hits for Imperial Records. He landed his final Top 10 singles in 1971 with "Guess Who" and "Something Beautiful (To Remember)." - [CMT]

You may also remember that Slim Whitman's yodel saved us from Martians in 1996. A true country legend, we'll miss you Slim. Rest in peace.

A few videos are below.

Continue reading "Slim Whitman, RIP" at brooklynvegan

We’re quite familiar with Star Slinger’s propensity for cracking songs at their center and re-imagining them into glittering dance jams. Here, he’s flipped Miguel’s yearning “Adorn” into a kinetic, house-imbued cut but still kept its romance in tact. Check it out below.

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Sub Pop grunge-core throwbacks Metz are still punishing ears and bodies behind their noisy and wonderful self-titled debut record. The hardcore squonk of album highlight “Get Off” now comes packaged an animated video produced and directed by labelmate Chad Van Gaalen. If you want to learn about “The Origins of Smahmpy: The Flying Retriever” via some Robert Crumb meets Metalocaplypse animation, the strange tale below is just for you (via Stereogum).

The Canadians will head out on yet another tour this summer and fall, full of festivals and European dates. Check those dates below.

2013 Metz Tour Dates:
06/21

Garage-gaze trio Guards performed to a packed-house at Brooklyn Bowl Tuesday night as part of the Local X Local showcase in Williamsburg. The event celebrates local beer, art, food and of course, music. This was Guards’ first time playing in New York since December of last year. Sadly, this would also turn out to be the last time the band would play together (sort of).

At first glance, some might mistake Guards for the long-haired indie-pop group Cults. That’s probably because a few of them are actually former band members of the New York band: Drummer Loren “Ted” Humphrey and lead singer Richie Follin, who is also the older brother of Cults frontwoman Madeline Follin. Richie and Loren parted with the band in 2010 and began playing shows as the newly formed Guards. The visual aspect is about the only thing the two groups have in common. With Guards, Richie has taken his sound in a more rock-driven direction, as opposed to the dream-pop stylings of Cults. The band released their debut album In Guards We Trust earlier this year via Black Bell Records and have been touring heavily over the last few months, playing music festivals like Coachella and Primavera. 

Although In Guards We Trust is a high-powered album full of intensity, it hardly reflects the driving energy of Guards’ live shows. Follin’s animated performance sustained the e...

photos by David Andrako, words by Andrew Sacher

Deniro Farrar @ NXNE 2013

North Carolina rapper Deniro Farrar had a bit of breakout moment last year with Kill or Be Killed, his collaborative mixtape with Shady Blaze, and this year he caught ears with his solo mixtape, The Patriarch, which came out this past March. He's got ties to the cloud rap scene (he works with Ryan Hemsworth, Main Attrakionz, Keyboard Kid, etc), but similarly to what A$AP Rocky did on this year's Long. Live. A$AP, Deniro expands on the sound and at the rate that he's producing interesting material, he isn't fated to be pigeonholed with it. Deniro's already got the followup to The Patriarch, titled The Patriarch II, out now. You can stream the entire thing below, and it's available to download for $1 at bandcamp.

Deniro Farrar just played a big free rap show in Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square for NXNE, which also included Ludacris, Joey Bada$$, The Underachievers, Fat Tony, and more. A full set of pictures from that show is on its way HERE, but meanwhile check out pictures of Deniro from that show, in this post.

If you haven't been keeping up with our NXNE coverage, check out pictures of day 1, day 2, more day 2, and day 3.

More pictures and the mixtape stream below...

Continue reading "Deniro Farrar played NXNE, released a mixtape (pics, stream)" at brookl...

by Bill Pearis

Brooklyn's Ski Lodge have finally announced details of their debut album, Big Heart, which will be out August 20 via Dovecoat. That's the cover art above. The record was made in Los Angeles with producer Louis Pescov (of Fool's Gold), who produced Best Coast's debut. The LP's first single is ultra-catchy "Boy," which owes more than a little to The Smith's "Ask," and you may have seen them play in our BV Sessions video. You can stream the studio version below.

Ski Lodge have a few local dates coming up: Saturday (6/22) at Cameo with Superhumanoids and Bowmont (tickets); June 26 at 285 Kent with The Denzels, Haybaby and TOONS (tickets); and the Ace Hotel on July 14.

That Cameo show initially included Vancouver's Gold & Youth, but they've unfortunately dropped off the show.

All dates are listed, along with the single stream, below.

Continue reading "Ski Lodge announce debut LP, 'Big Heart,' playing shows (dates & new track stream)" at brooklynvegan

Given the internet

Sydney natives Empire of the Sun brought their theatrical brand of fantasy synth-pop to Jimmy Kimmel Live last night in Los Angeles. Appearing in support of their sophomore album Ice On The Dunes, the band gave a dynamic performance of the record

James Murphy remains busy. When not designing an actual soundsystem or aiding Arcade Fire with their new studio album, the former LCD Soundsystem frontman is writing music for a new Broadway production.

But wait, it gets even better. As Vulture reports, said Brodway production, an adaption of Harold Pinter’s 1978 play Betrayal, stars Mr. James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Maybe, if things go well, Murphy can write the new James Bond theme song. Please?

The production, also staring Rachel Weisz (Oz the Great and Powerful, The Bourne Legacy), is set to premiere in October.

Ever since releasing his queasy 2011 album Replica, the synth-drone experimenter Daniel Lopatin, the man behind Oneohtrix Point Never, has stayed busy. He’s recorded an improvised album with Tim Hecker, he’s played in Ducktails, he’s contributed music to Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring. And now he’s getting back to the business of releasing OPN music. Lopatin’s new album R Plus Seven is coming this fall on new label Warp, and a press release claims that it “comes as close as Lopatin has ever gotten to anything resembling traditional song structure.” Check out the album’s tracklist below.

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The Hydra series launches once more on Saturday August 24.

Last year’s series of The Hydra events managed to be some of London’s most essential, and from the looks of this launch weekend 2013′s series is going to be just as crucial. Underground Resistance collective Timeline will be headlining, and with Mad Mike Banks playing conductor this should be a slice of live techno that you won’t want to miss under any circumstances.

It doesn’t stop there though, sci-fi techno legend Jeff Mills, scene stalwart Robert Hood and Blueprint’s James Ruskin will all be dropping sets, making this a veritable explosion of serious, bullshit-free techno.

You know what to do – and to grab tickets and check more information head here.

Lyrics are not so important in

Blondie in NJ in 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Blondie are set to release their third album of the 21st century, following 2011's Panic of Girls, at some point this year, and while details on that album are still forthcoming, they have announced a tour in support of it. For the tour, they'll be taking out another group of punk legends, X. That tour includes Riot Fest Chicago and two NYC area dates: September 7 at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City and October 4 at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan.

Tickets for those shows go on sale Friday (6/21) at 10 AM. The AC show is on 24K presale now and the Roseland show is on Live Nation/Citi Cardmember presale now. Every ticket purchased for this tour will include five exclusive tracks from the upcoming Blondie LP.

All dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Blondie planning new LP, announce tour with X (dates)" at brooklynvegan

Murphy continues to embellish his post-LCD Soundsystem resumé.

Vulture reports that the former frontman will make his Broadway debut by writing original music for Mike Nichols’ production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. The show stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz; previews begin on October 1 and the show opens on October 27.

Since disbanding LCD Soundsystem in 2011, James Murphy has worked with the