Hot off releasing their 11th album this week, Paralytic Stalks, of Montreal returned to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Seemingly keen to make an impression this time they brought a fair amount of their stage with them, which makes each member look like they’re on some kind of trippy daytime television game show. Check it out below.

[via The Audio Perv]

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to look at the poster for a night like Check Yo Ponytail 2 – a monthly club/gig night at Los Angeles’ Echoplex – and dismiss it for being too “hip” or “scene.” Just look at that name, and the posters they have; it seems tailor made for people who want to show that they’re cool. But, thankfully everyone isn’t that cynical and further reflection upon the poster will make you realize that hey, this looks like a really good time. And that is exactly what Check Yo Ponytail 2 excels in: creating an event that is not too serious and good fun for everyone that attends, whether they are familiar with the acts or not.

The latest edition of Check Yo Ponytail 2 featured a host of artists that are currently mining the bedroom electronica pop aesthetic. Soft Metals, touring behind their debut album which came out on Captured Tracks last year, seemed to be in a state of complete bliss as they performed, which perfectly matched their brand of blissed-out music. The set started with a more ambient feel to the sound, with both Ian Hicks and Patricia Hall looking relaxed as they performed. Over the course of the set it became much more of a dance vibe, especially as the crowd became more active, and Hall reciprocated by dancing more and whipping her hair around at the most intense moments. She also seemed to let loose with her vocals which could range anywhere from angelic to ominous, fitting nicely with the music. By her side her partner looked much more studious in his work, manipulating his trio of synths just so to make the sound just right. The set had been delayed by technical difficulties, but by the time Soft Metals had completed their performance that had been completely forgiven.

Teengirl Fantasy followed Soft Metals on stage and set about business immediately. Like the previous act, they also started with a simpler, more ambient style, but they took their time about developing it, letting the various elements move in slowly and naturally over the course of their set. Previewing a whole host of new material, Teengirl Fantasy went through several different phases, at one point adding keyboards and synthesized tambourine for a 90s Balearic throwback style. Next they added vocals from Logan Takahashi, which were surprisingly passionate, before adding samples and use of a drum pad to the mix.

Over the course of their set Teengirl Fantasy seemed to be giving us a potted history of dance music, and judging by the complexity and intensity of the final portion of their set, they may have even given us a glimpse of the future, too. With everyone at rapt attention, Nick Weiss led the crowd in dancing, like a maestro guiding the crowd with his body movement, showing just how much his music meant to him. He had been pumped up through the whole set, but by the end it seemed that everyone in the audience was just as excited to hear Teengirl Fantasy’s new material as they were to play it. Throughout the set they had a smiley face plastered on the background, which might have been some kind of subtle hint at what kind of substances they recommend to take while experiencing a Teengirl Fantasy show, but whether or not people had indulged in such a thing didn’t matter, everybody would have been reflecting that smiley face by the time the duo finished their set.

The final performance of the night came from Com Truise, whose latest offering Galactic Melt has been receiving a lot of blog hype, and it seemed like the majority of the audience in attendance on this occasion were already fans and had come down to check him out. With the help of a live drummer, Com Truise literally reconstructed audibly what you might picture the phrase ‘galactic melt’ to sound like. Using oozing, slow bass that filled the room we got the ‘melt’ part, and the ‘galactic’ part came in the form of all the dated space age, “futuristic” sounds that were layered on top. It would be easy to criticize Com Truise’s music and performance for sounding antiquated, or even cheesy, but with a background made to look like an 80s video game, and style of music so appealing despite its obvious pitfalls, you can’t help but buy into the Com Truise show, and that’s exactly what everyone in attendance found.

Reflecting back on last night’s show it seems to me that at this point in time putting all three of these artists on the same bill makes a lot of sense; they’re all based in the same kind of electronic sound. But, based on the evidence on show last night, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me to think that by the time each of these artists brings out another album they could all be in quite different spheres from each other; the creativity and innovation on show certainly hinted that that was a possibility. It was just one more thing to ponder and enjoy for all the music fans in the audience.

After much speculation towards the end of last year about a full on reunion tour, and then eventually confirming it The Beach Boys have announced their first performance in 20 years at this year’s Grammy awards. Rumour had it that Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson would not be joining the band on tour, but for this performance at The Grammys he will be there at least, which is great news, and it seems Brian Wilson will remain with them for the whole tour and album which is apparently forthcoming.

On the other hand, the band are set to collaborate with Foster The People and Maroon 5 in their performance, who have had two of the most inescapable and annoying radio hits in recent months with “Pumped Up Kicks” and “Moves Like Jagger” respectively. It has not yet been revealed song(s) they will be performing, but if I hear The Beach Boys singing either of those songs I think a part of me might die.

The Grammys are happening this Sunday February 12th in Los Angeles from 8-11.30pm and will be broadcast on NBC.

Shearwater’s seventh album Animal Joy is out on Sub Pop next week, but you can stream it now below courtesy of NPR. The album is the first to follow the “Island Arc” trilogy of Palo Santo, Rook, and The Golden Archipelago, and as such the band have decided to change their sound a little bit, making it a bit more rocky and a little less ornamented. As the press release said: “No glockenspiels were touched in the making of this album.”

Hear Animal Joy in its entirety below.

It’s been a long time since Fanfarlo’s second album, Rooms Filled With Light, was announced, and yet we still haven’t reached the release date (28th of this month). Back after it was first announced we heard two songs from it in quick succession, “Replicate” and “Deconstruction,” both of which showed us a pretty big change in style for the band. Now with only a few weeks left to wait, Fanfarlo have put out “Vostok, I Know You Are Waiting,” a somber piano ballad that is a little more similar to their material from Reservoir, but at the same time still shows the new found maturity that the other songs we’ve heard also possessed. Check it out below.

Later this year music zine Ad Hoc will be releasing a benefit covers compilation. One of the most eye-catching covers they’ve got on the collection is this version of “Clowne Towne” by How To Dress Well. The song is originally by Xiu Xiu from their 2004 album Fabulous Muscles. The original version is already quite spare, emphasizing the words and passionate vocals, but HTDW’s version takes that element to another level completely. Check it out below.

Experimental hip-hop troup Death Grips surprised a lot of people last year with their aggressive and impressive mixtape Ex Military, which ended up on a lot of year end best-of lists, including our Honorable Mentions section.

Due to that album’s intensity, we wouldn’t be surprised if you’re still recovering, but you’d better man up soon enough because the Californians have announced plans for not one but two proper albums this year, which will be distributed worldwide. Details about them are still forthcoming, but we can expect the first one in April.

That’s all we can tell you for now, but you can check out a brand new song and video called “Blackjack” below, which we would assume will be on the April album.

A project that has the potential to be a great one – or at the very least an interesting one – is the collaboration between Blur/Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen (who has previously worked with Albarn in The Good, The Bad and The Queen). Collectively they are going by the name Rocketjuice and the Moon, and although talk of the project has been around since 2008, their live debut was just in the Fall of last year. It had fallen a little quiet around this project, leaving us to speculate that it had just been a one-off live experiment that had fallen by the wayside.

However, that is not the case, and details of an album are slowly eking out. The main source of information is this month’s issue of British music magazine Mojo, who have a feature on the band (screen shot over at stadium-arcadium.com). The album is set to come out on March 12th (in the UK, US date forthcoming) and features guest spots from Erykah Badu, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (returning to work with Albarn again having featured on Gorillaz Plastic Beach and several African musicians and rappers. The album was recorded mostly in London with a few parts done in Chicago, Paris and Berlin.

Across the album’s 18 tracks we can expect to hear “all funk… goove music, music that makes you dance,” according to Allen. I guess that’s nothing less than you’d expect from an Afrobeat musician, one of the world’s most talented bassists and a man who seems to be able to mold himself into any musical guise. Let’s hope we get to hear something from it soon!

[via CoS]

Last week we got our first taste of Jack White’s solo material in the form of “Love Interruption,” a sort of bluesy number. The album, Blunderbuss, isn’t out for a while yet, but the “Love Interruption” single has made its way out to those who had ordered it, and now the b-side “Machine Gun Silhouette” has found its way online. It rocks, country style, with some great fiddling. Check it out below.

Veronica Falls only released their debut album last summer, but many fans will probably know that a decent amount of those songs were recorded a long time ago, so it’s unsurprising that the Londoners already have some new material to present. “My Heart Beats” follows the same formula as the majority of the songs from Veronica Falls, but it also seems as though they’ve amped up the power pop elements, making a super catchy single. It’s also surprising to hear them in such a sprightly mood considering this song was recorded on a boat in the middle of the River Thames just last week – which certainly would not have been a warm experience.

No details as to when or how this song will be released have been given, but at least you can stream it for free below.

Last week when we presented you with “Flash Addict,” the b-side to “The Hope,” we speculated about the fact that that song only sounded dancey because it is a b-side and won’t feature on Scuba’s upcoming album Personality. However, now we have “The Hope,” the official single which will be on Personality, and it’s a complete dancefloor banger too. It’s interested to hear Scuba move away from the murkier territories of bass music, and he’s showing himself completely capable of straddling the two styles.

The video for “The Hope” features a bunch of clips including people dancing, elephants underwater, old school science video clips and more. Check it out below and look out for Personality at the end of the month on Hotflush Recordings.

St. Vincent’s latest album, Strange Mercy, got plaudits from evey corner of the music industry (including being our number one album of 2011), and since then she has gone from an indie darling to something much bigger. This is extrapolated upon in the video for one of Strange Mercy‘s finest tracks, “Cheerleader,” in which Annie Clark is tranformed into a huge exhibition in an art gallery. The video is directed bu Hiro Murai, check it out below.

A couple of months back we told you about Willis Earl Beal, the new signing to XL’s subsidiary label Hot Charity. If you missed it, basically he is a traveling musician with a unique style and personality, and a lot of soul in his music. Last time out we presented you with the heartstring-plucking “Evening’s Kiss,” this time we have “Take Me Away” which is a more rambunctious number, complete with (what sounds like) bucket-pounding percussion.

Both songs will be on Beal’s upcoming release entitled Acousmatic Sorcery (cover above), which comes out on March 20th. Check out “Take Me Away” below.

Luke Temple’s solo project-turned-full-band will return in May with a new album entitled A Different Ship (that’s the rather glorious cover art above).

The album will come out through Secretly Canadian on May 8th. It was produced by long time Radiohead producer and collaborator Nigel Godrich, who was impressed with them at Glastonbury 2010.

Below you can check out the lead single “Make Up Your Mind” and the album’s track list.

A Different Ship track list:

01. Intro
02. Hard to Be Close
03. Make Up Your Mind
04. Alone but Moving
05. I Believe in Action
06. Over the Ocean
07. Made to Be Old
08. How Do I Know
09. Miracle of Mary
10. A Different Ship

Fresh from snubbing a chance to perform at the Grammys, Justin Vernon and his band brought Bon Iver, Bon Iver to Saturday Night Live tonight, performing “Holocene” and “Beth/Rest.” Apparently there was also a Lana Del Rey sketch on the show, but we haven’t seen it so we can’t make comment about it.

Check out Bon Iver’s performances below.

“Holocene”

“Beth/Rest”

LDR sketch:

[via The Audio Perv/CoS]

Considering her politics and the amount of world music influences she uses in her music, it’s unsurprising that M.I.A. has finally made a video that takes place in the Middle East. This video sees what happens when M.I.A. introduces a few of the more outlandish facets of Western culture into theirs. Watch below.

That might not be exactly what Payseur wants us to take away from it, though. In an interview with Spin about the upcoming album he pronounced that “People have been playing this pretty music that’s quiet and melodic and while there’s beauty in that, in making this album I’ve just ended up wanting to rebel against myself and make something really noisy.” Well, if he has made truly made some rebellious and noisy tracks, this ain’t it.

That takes nothing away from its quality though. Just one listen to the purposeful chug of the drums and rhythm guitar, coupled with the delightful secondary guitar melody and playful bass will have you hooked instantly. Payseur’s vocals are the most similar to what he’s described, with lines like “I won’t sit here, I won’t take it” hinting at some underlying dissatisfaction. However, the vocal delivery is Payseur’s trademark breezy style, which fits nicely between the laid-back style of the rest of the song, melding together a pretty much perfect piece of jangle pop.

MP3: Beach Fossils – “Shallow”

It seems a little strange to me that Nicolas Jaar is only just releasing a video for his song “Materials” from his 2010 12″ Marks / Angles, but perhaps he feels it’s a good time to capitalize upon the newfound popularity that has been brought on by 2011′s Space is Only Noise album and his releases since.

The video, directed by Pondr, seems to be the lucid dream of a young boy discovering music in a very strange way. It’s an intriguing watch. Check it out below.

Nebraskan band Cursive have their seventh album I Am Gemini coming out on February 21st. They’ve already released “The Sun and the Moon” from it, and today Stereogum brings us another taste in the for of “Wowowow.” In the song Cursive do their usual trick of magically blending hardcore and pop punk to make it appealing to fans of both genres. Check it out below.

Almost three years ago, shortly after Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band had released their second album, Outer South, an hour-long documentary about the creation of the album called One of My Kind was released for free on to the internet. Now, it’s pretty much impossible to find anywhere, but the band is releasing the final cut of the documentary on DVD along with a bonus CD of outtakes.

The final version of the film has the full title One of My Kind: The Story of the Mystic Valley Band and is, by Team Love’s own admission “one for the fans.” Expanding on that thought, they add the sweet comment that it is “a release for those that were lucky enough to experience the magic and excitement of the Mystic Valley Band when their jackets were still clean and their chemistry was bursting with ideas and potential.”

The album of outtakes that comes with it features the four (really good) songs from the tour-only Gentleman’s Pact EP and seven other unreleased takes. It is available on both CD and LP, both of which come with the film on DVD.

One of My Kind will appear in stores from May 15th, but if you pre-order it online from Team Love you will receive it at the start of May. More information about the filming of the documentary can be read on Conor Oberst’s official site.

Below we have the trailer for the film and the tracklist of the CD. Also, at the bottom you can watch Conor Oberst performing the title track solo, which may be the way it ends up on the release, who knows.

One of My Kind CD track list:

01. One of My Kind
02. Gentleman’s Pact
03. Corina, Corina
04. Synesthete Song
05. Breezy
06. Central City
07. I Got the Reason #1
08. Phil’s Song (Learn to Stop Time)
09. Normal
10. Kodachrome
11. White Shoes (Reprise)

Yesterday on Australia’s FBi Radio, XL subsidiary label Young Turks took over. Amongst an exciting show that featured a live performance from Chairlift and a mix from The xx’s Romy, Jamie xx had a new song premiered. The song is entitled “Touch Me” and incorporates some balearic influences. You can hear the whole two hour show below, or if you just want the Jamie xx part we’ve cut that bit out for you to download and keep. Check out both below.

MP3: Touch Me (Radio rip)

Play list for the show:

Mark From Middlesex Intro…

Jack Penate – Didn’t I
Zomby – Natalia’s Song
Sampha – Indecision
Julia Holter – Goddess Eyes
Bullion – What Does She Know
Arthur Russell – Tone Bone Kone
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply
Francis And The Lights – It’ll Be Better
Chairlift – Met Before (Illum Sphere Remix)

(Rich Harrison Production)
Toni Braxton – Take This Ring

Chairlift Live Session
Ghost Tonight

Wake Up Call – Jack Penate
Jack Penate – No One Lied

Jamie xx – Touch Me (Instrumental)

Romy xx Little Mix!
Everything But The Girl – On My Mind
Elastica – My sex
Elizabeth Harper – Rock Like A Baby
Fleetwood Mac – Brown Eyes

Bullion Mix
Philboyd Studge’s Intro
Unknown Cases – Masimbabele
Bobby McFerrin – Drive
Blludd Relations – Even Steven
Paul White – Watch The Ants
Aphrodites Child – Such A Funny Night

Baroque-pop superstar Rufus Wainwright has announced a new album for April 24th (in the UK, the US will receive it on May 1st), his seventh full-length, and the follow up to 2010′s All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. The album is called Out of the Game and for its recording Wainwright enlisted the help of many interesting musicians.

First and foremost is Mark Ronson, the much in-demand producer, who showed his versatility last year by producing the Black Lips’ latest offering Arabia Mountain, but should be much more in his element on this release, especially since Wainwright has described Out of the Game as his “most pop” album yet.

Elsewhere Wainwright and Ronson had the pleasure of working with a batch of extremely talented musicians to bring the album into fruition. The album features fantastic guitarists in the form of Wilco’s Nels Cline and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner; vocalists in the form of Wainwright’s sister Martha and Miike Snow singer Andrew Wyatt; as well as Sean Lennon. Some members of the Dap-Kings were also brought in to bolster the sound.

Unfortunately we don’t have a song to offer you yet. All else we know is that the picture above is the cover art, the track list is below, and Out of the Game is available to pre-order now from his official site.

Out of the Game track list:

01. Out of the Game
02. Jericho
03. Rashida
04. Barbara
05. Welcome to the Ball
06. Montauk
07. Bitter Tears
08. Respectable Dive
09. Perfect Man
10. Sometimes You Need
11. Song of You
12. Candles

One of our favourite albums around the BPM office at the moment is Unicycle Loves You’s new one. The album, Failure, fuses the sounds of all their heroes from the early 90s like Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and more, and makes something that rocks and is both easy and extremely fun to listen to. The album is out on Valentine’s Day, but they have released the video for “Piranha” today, which is a typically charming low budget video that goes nicely along with the fuzzed-up sound. Check it out below.

Ironically, the moments on E Volo Love that are most similar to what I saw him perform on that occasion are the strongest. Perhaps it’s not surprising; he already seemed to know the sound he was going for, and didn’t really need to add any more people to his music, and in doing so it seems he has only made it less spectacular. The first half of E Volo Love seems to play out exactly how Fránçois thinks we want a continental-sounding indie album to sound; equal parts bouncy and ornate while our man describes to us various romantic contrivances. On “Muddy Heart” he even seems to admit that that’s what he’s doing, repeating the line “I’m trying to please you” over and over in the chorus. Fránçois can get away with a certain amount due to his French accent, and kitschy lines like “I’m cooling down my furies with the blues / And blue is the colour you always choose,” or “something about your eyes is like a neon sign,” but after multiple listens songs like “Edge of Town” and “City Kiss” don’t seem to offer much more than pleasant indie with a few tricks borrowed from bands like Beirut, Grizzly Bear and their ilk.

However, much like a good wine, the album mellows out and becomes better. Beginning with the seventh track (of eleven) “Cherchant Des Ponts” (“Looking for Bridges”) the album becomes more subtle. On display are brush sticks, simple guitar picking, and strings that come and go gracefully instead of coming in huge washes. Altogether this brings about a more accomplished sound. Best of all, it puts Fránçois front and centre in a crooner-like role. It also helps that he’s singing in French. Later on, “Piscine”’s dramatic piano base doesn’t bode well for the song, but a divine transformation into a boudoir-bumping synthy dance meltdown makes it one of the strongest on offer.

“Slow Love” and “Bail Eternal” are the most fully-realized of Fránçois’ sound evolution. Both songs are based around gorgeous keyboard melodies and don’t really need much else to top them off, but “Slow Love” plucks at the heart strings with a sweeping-but-not-mawkish violin section, while “Bail Eternal” enlists the help of a choir of female singers to deliver the emotional punch. Both songs seem to stay true to Fránçois’ origins in music while perfectly incorporating some of the grander themes that seem flat in the earlier songs on the album.

E Volo Love seems like the sound of a young man who is so excited at the various different musicians and instruments that he has at his disposal that he’s over zealously thrown everything into the mix. While much of it falls by the wayside, some of it sticks, and in “Piscine,” “Bail Eternal” and “Slow Love” in particular – and in several moments elsewhere – we have evidence of a talented songwriter. Whether Fránçois actually needs “the Atlas Mountains” is questionable to me, since he is the true heart of this project and it is on those songs I’ve mentioned where this is the most clear. It’s just down to him now to isolate his true forte and turn it into a whole album.

Released last week, Baptist Girls, the debut release from Bro. Stephen (the moniker of singer songwriter Scott Kirkpatrick), has been picking up some quiet buzz. The album is chock full of somber and ornate indie folk, full of mourning, longing and solitude. It would have been a perfect addition to our recommended winter albums.

“Tears On Tape” is the record’s second track and sums up the sound of the record in a gorgeous three minute ballad. Check out the video for it below, and if you like what you hear then head to Bro. Stephen’s label Crossroads of America’s Bandcamp to stream the whole record and perhaps purchase it.

Look out for our review of Baptist Girls, coming tomorrow.

Next week Secretly Canadian is putting out Onwards to the Wall, the first new release from A Place To Bury Strangers in nearly three years. Sure it’s only a five track EP, but with the intensity that APTBS always brings, they can accomplish in five tracks what some bands can’t in twice as many. Plus, this release is worth noting just for its fantastic cover art (seen above).

The album has premiered at the Hype Machine, and we have it for you below now.

Back in 2010 London bass artist Scuba dropped Triangulation, which blew our minds and was Recommended by us upon its initial release, and then placed well in our top 50 records of that year. So, expectedly, we are excited for the release of his proper follow up, Personality, on March 6th via his own label Hotflush. The first taste of Personality sessions has dropped today in the form of “Flash Addict,” a song that is not going to be on the album, but will be the b-side to the first single, “The Hope.” He seems to be going for a more dancefloor-ready groove than the dark atmospheric stuff we knew from Triangulation, so perhaps it doesn’t quite fit into the vibe of the album hence its use as a b-side. We’ll have to wait and see. It might not have been what we expected, but we certainly are getting in the zone for this anyway. Check it out below.

Although we have every right to still be ticked off at Jason Pierce for announcing Spiritualized’s new album before it was even complete, inevitably ending up in the release date getting pushed back from what we were promised, I’m sure we’ll all forgive him in light of the fact that he will be taking his live power house on tour of North America in May.

The dates all take place in May and hit all the main North American markets. They stop just short of the end of the month in Vancouver, which makes me think they’ll probably also get added to Washington’s Sasquatch Festival to go on the end of this string, but we’ll have to wait and see. (Admittedly, they have to get back over to Barcelona to play Primavera Sound that same weekend, but it’s not impossible; Deerhunter and The Flaming Lips played both last year.) Dates are below.

05-02 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
05-03 Chicago, IL – Metro
05-04 Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theatre
05-05 Toronto, Ontario – The Phoenix
05-07 New York, NY – Terminal 5
05-09 Boston, MA – Paradise
05-10 Washington, DC – The 9:30 Club
05-11 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
05-12 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
05-13 Atlanta, GA – The Variety Playhouse
05-15 Dallas, TX – The Granada Theatre
05-16 Austin, TX – Emo’s East
05-18 Tucson AZ – The Rialto Theatre
05-19 Phoenix AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
05-20 San Diego CA – Belly Up Tavern
05-22 Los Angeles CA – The Wiltern
05-23 San Francisco CA – The Fillmore
05-25 Portland, OR – The Wonder Ballroom
05-26 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Rickshaw Theatre

[via Pitchfork]

On February 21st Cascine is releasing the debut EP from Michigan producer RxGibbs. The release is entitled Futures and across its six tracks blends cerebral pop with driving beats and chilled synths, creating the ultimate relaxing listening pleasure. You can get your first taste of this via the title track which was premiered at XLR8R and is available to stream or download below.

The Flaming Lips’ series of random collaborations rolls on, and their most recent excursion features two interesting guests. The big name guest (in the music world, anyway) is Erykah Badu, who comes in to sing passionately and somewhat seductively over the middle of this mostly-ambient track and in doing so changes the other guest, iPhone’s psyche Siri, from not understanding to understanding. It’s a strange song to say the least, but a rather pleasant one too. Check it out below courtesy of Pitchfork.