It’s been three years since ethereal pop princess Grimes released her self-professed hastily produced Visions, and we’re aching for a followup. “I made Visions in a couple weeks,” she told Entertainment Weekly, although it sounds like the work of a much longer process, experimental and glittery and dark and featuring Grimes’ typical child-like vocals blended with layered electronic soundscapes.
But her new work will see her move in a slightly different direction, with perhaps a more polished sound. “This is the first record I’ve made with an audience…this time the songs are kind of written,” she continues to EW. “You could theoretically play them all on the guitar or on the piano. In terms of the sound design, I got a lot better.”
This is refreshing news that comes of the back of Grimes’ announcement that she had ‘scrapped her album cuz it was depressing and I didn’t want to tour it.’
On the actual details of the album, Grimes has teased different alter egos, including “Screechy Bat…the metal one…and one that’s super vampish and sexy… like Ginger Spice.” Drawing from ’90s and nu-metal influences, she’s described tracks called Flesh Without Blood (a “staccato rocker”) and SCREAM.
Personally, we’re still hoping that the final cut of the very good REALiTi will make it onto the album, even though Grimes has expressed her distaste of her previous singles. “It’s a lazy song,” she says about REALiTi. “I hate Oblivion too. All the songs that are singles are songs people have to force me to do…I always hate the songs that are singles.”
If it’s any consolation, we thought Oblivion was absolutely bangers. Here’s hoping that her new work comes swiftly and delivers as much of a punch as Visions.
Downtown is Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s first official single since the acclaimed The Heist (not Growing Up (Sloane’s Song) featuring an unfortunate Ed Sheeran). It’s weird and dramatic and funky – but do we love the unashamed cheesiness?
Is the 70s inspiration perhaps too derivative and too reminiscent of recent hits like Uptown Funk? Does the track almost sound like a checklist of the “pop hit” elements that made Thrift Shop so successful? Is Macklemore’s ode to mopeds slightly contrived? Yes, yes, and a resounding yes. But there’s a particular quality of the song (and indeed the video, which you can watch below) that demands a second, third, and fourth listening.
Maybe it’s the unexpectedly comedic storytelling of the track that Macklemore does so well. The opening trill of pianos and very groovy cowbell-beat underscoring Macklemore’s insistence that he “don’t know nothing about mopeds” immediately evokes a 70s throwback that’s campy and self-aware. And it’s this self-awareness that makes this track stellar, moving effortlessly from witty verses packed with retro references to a sudden chorus that bursts with Freddie Mercury charm. Eric Nally’s voice soars into a range that can only be described as remarkable, giving the track a glittering and stadium-rock atmosphere that serves to further its 70s agenda.
All of this storytelling is contextualised by the video that elevates the track into the realm of unabashedly corny. Macklemore’s flares, Eric Nally’s motorbike chariot, the gang vs. gang West Side Story plotline, the line “Mow your damn lawn/And sit the fuck down!”, the final mass flash mob through the streets of Seattle. It’s all part and parcel of Macklemore’s schtick, his ability to tap into such subcultures, and it’s working – for now.
The results are in for triple j’s annual Unearthed High competition and the winner is a breezy two-piece outfit dubbed Mosquito Coast. But their music is far less gloomy than their name might suggest (a throwback to the 1986 film which featured a very anxious Harrison Ford on its poster).
“Mosquito Coast squeezed Call My Name into Unearthed High mere days before the competition closed but since then those charming, breezy hooks have been stuck to the ears of triple j listeners and presenters alike,” commented Unearthed Music Director Dave Howe. “Just as Call My Name is filled with a magnetic spirit, discovering Mosquito Coast has been a true joy and we couldn’t be prouder to call them our Unearthed High champs for 2015.”
Their winning track is an almost nostalgic acoustic ditty overlaid with beachy, summery vibes. It’s charming in a sense that could easily border on twee if it wasn’t for singer Naomi Robinson’s vocals, which are carefree and genuine and somewhat reminiscent of San Cisco – which is no surprise, with both bands hailing from Perth. The song’s simple production is rounded off by drummer Conor Barton. The boy-girl duo met at fourteen years of age and have been producing music in Naomi’s garage ever since – we couldn’t think of a cuter origin story if we tried.
Previous winners of Unearthed High include the much-acclaimed Asta (who is currently on a nationwide tour) and Japanese Wallpaper who we talked to during his recent tour for his new EP. We’re positive that Mosquito Coast has just as bright a future in front of them, if this new single is anything to go by.
Tame Impala’s in hot water again after being accused by Samm Culley – lead singer of 70s band Skull Snaps – of sampling the famous drum beat from Skull Snaps’ track It’s A New Day on their own hit Eventually, fresh off their new record Currents.
“Mr. Parker, my name is Samm Culley From Skull Snaps on your song Eventually you are using our drum sample from It’s A New Day you have not cleared this sample with us our musicologist says it is indeed our sample if we don’t hear form you in three days we will file the necessary papers in court against you and the record company,” writes Culley in an email signed off with “Sent from Windows Mail” and riddled with myriad spelling and grammar mistakes (sics for days).
This isn’t the first time Tame Impala has been accused of apparent plagiarism, with Chilean music site Rata claiming in 2014 that Feels Like We Only Go Backwards stole from pop singer Pablo Ruiz’s song Océano. She later admitted that the article was merely a joke.
It’s no surprise then that Tame Impala vocalist Kevin Parker has taken Culley’s warning with a grain of salt, posting it on Instagram with a less-than-serious message. “WOW unexpected compliment!” he writes, evidently chuffed that his work has been compared to It’s A New Day, which has been sampled by artists such as Common and The Pharcyde. “Sam Culley you have 3 days to fire your musicologist,” Parker jokes, “Anyone think this could be a hoax though?”
Check out the two songs for yourself below and decide for yourself. Hoax or no hoax – only time will tell!
Undisputed kings of sometimes-sentimental, always-kooky electronica Unknown Mortal Orchestra have just announced an Australian tour, with dates in December. They’re hot off the heels of 2013’s II which brought us the nostalgic and very chill So Good at Being in Trouble, as well as this year’s stunning Multi-Love. We can look forward to hearing their billowing new work live, including the recognisable piano-based title track, as well as Ur Life One Night – the latter complete with a disturbingly kaleidoscopic video.
The Kiwi band will perform headlining shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, with the tour being rounded off by appearances at Meredith and the new Fairgrounds Festival in NSW. Not bad for a band that was literally conceived in a bedroom.
In this agonising four-month wait for their gigs, have a listen to their recent live performance on KEXP, featuring a very dreamy rendition of So Good at Being in Trouble.
Lickety-split, it’s festival time again (okay, we acknowledge that this is a very loosely defined time spanning probably half the year from Splendour to Falls). Whether you’re a casual festival-goer or a hardcore punter travelling around Australia in a bid to attend every single one, this new documentary appropriately titled Festival might be worth your time. What it lacks for originality in title, it makes up for in content, following seven different people as they make their (sweaty, dirty, filthy, grimy, gritty) way through a three-day festival.
“This isn’t a concert film,” explains director and executive producer Michael Raspatello. “It’s not a behind-the-scenes look at any one festival. It neither vilifies nor glorifies the festival industry. This is a collection of stories from real individuals, a snapshot of what happens from 10000 people descend on a festival weekend.”
But apart from telling the stories of these seven festival-goers, the film also promises never-before-seen footage of artists such as Haim and Duke Dumont and Benny Benassi, as well as archival footage of the first ever Lollapalooza.
As if that isn’t enough to convince you, check out the trailer below and gee up for the abundance of festivals ready to hit Australia, including Meredith, Fairground, Falls, This That, and OutsideIn, or check out our recap of Splendour (In the Mud).
A new study published in The Lancet has shown the benefits of listening to music while in surgery and in recuperation. The study, which involved over 7000 patients, reported that patients who listened to music pre- or post-surgery experienced less stress and pain and even in some cases required less pain medication.
“Modern theories of pain suggest that pain experience is affected by physical and psychological factors,” the London-based researchers explained in the paper. “Cognitive activities such as listening to music can affect perceived intensity and unpleasantness of pain, enabling patients’ sensation of pain to be reduced.”
Or, in layman’s terms, music distracts you from sensations. And this is all too true – how many times have you been funking a little too intensely to The Weeknd’s Can’t Feel My Face, only to realise that the oven alarm has been sounding for a solid two minutes and your garlic bread is burnt? (No, just me?)
Of course, it also depends on taste. Fairfax’s National Music Editor Peter Vincent says that he’d prefer “a hard rock band” (in the same vein, maybe someone should point him in the direction of Okilly Dokilly, the new Ned Flanders-themed metal band hailing from Arizona). I’d probably lean towards Ke$ha and Lana del Rey’s 2010s hits Die Young and Born to Die for a good measure of morbid humour – or a classic like AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.
But whatever the track, the researchers found music so beneficial that they’ve strongly encouraged it as a tool – regardless of genre – to anyone undergoing surgery. Of course, there’d be factors that prevented all hospitals from using such a strategy – I’d highly suspect the risk of surgeons instinctively headbanging during an open heart – but we’re glad at this definitive link between music and recovery.
Amidst news that Thom Yorke is scoring the new Radiohead exhibition, composing music for a Broadway production and speculation that Radiohead is scoring the next James Bond movie (spawning way too many Exit Music (For a Film) jokes), Yorke has dropped a brand spankin’ new track.
It was almost overlooked at the Latitude Festival in the UK amongst all the commotion, but now, fan footage of the new song has arisen. The lyrics are almost unintelligible, but it’s speculated that that the track is from Radiohead’s (long overdue) upcoming album, of which details are still unclear. The track itself is low and brooding, glitchy and electronic but also with all of the superb gravity and meditative quality that Yorke (and indeed, all of Radiohead) is so known for. Have a listen for yourself below.
A busy Thom Yorke continues his world tour for his latest album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes in Japan, with a gig in Tokyo on August 15, where he’ll hopefully debut even more new music.
Well, this one’s an absolute dream for the heavy metal/Simpsons crossover fan base (however large that may be). A new band from Phoenix has pioneered a new genre of music suitably named ‘Ned-al’ (props for the pun).
At first glance, Okilly Dokilly may seem like just five middle-aged men in forest green sweaters and pastel pink polos (reminiscent of the actual Ned Flanders), replete with mustache and not-so-metal glasses. And they are – with the exception that they also produce some pretty rad metal headbangers. Their dedication to Ned is worthy of applause – not only do they dress like Flanders, they also base entire songs around him. “Most of our songs are direct Ned quotes,” reads their Facebook, making for an aggressively enjoyable listening experience. (Quite literally aggressively enjoyable, as you’ll find in the demos below.)
“Myself and our drummer were in line at a grocery store, entertaining ourselves by coming up with really cutesy names for really hardcore, brutal bands,” explains lead singer Head Ned in an interview to Rip It Up. “The name Okilly Dokilly came up and was very funny to us. I contacted a few friends, and here we are.” These friends in question are, of course, all named Ned – Bled Ned, Red Ned, Thread Ned, and Stead Ned.
Okilly Dokilly is truly a genre-bending band – which, according to Head Ned is “not as fast as Bartcore, and a little cleaner than Krusty Punk…a happy medium in the Simpscene.”
Whether Okilly Dokilly is just a transient musical fad or here to stay, we’re happy this band exists. They even have a song about the Leftorium – listen for yourself.
It’s been a massive month for Beats 1. First there was the launch at Apple’s World Developers Conference featuring cameos from Drake, The Weeknd, and Zane Lowe. Then the slow trickle of anticipation as more and more members of music royalty joined the ever-dynamic Beats 1 cast, including Dr. Dre, St. Vincent, and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig. And now, one month in, Quartz has analysed Beats 1’s most-played genres and artists, amongst other statistics.
With a top 20 list of most played tracks that included the likes of Calvin Harris (with How Deep Is Your Love) and Selena Gomez (with Good For You), the top spot was taken out by, predictably, The Weeknd with Can’t Feel My Face. It’s hardly a surprising choice, given its almost viral spread across radio and online and its criminally catchy hook (which, for the record, I heard way too many times sung by not-fully-there Splendour punters). But coming in at 107 plays over the month, it’s almost a little too reminiscent of the online furore surrounding Pharrell’s excessive promotion of his own single Freedom, with some taking to Reddit to complain about it.
The Weeknd also clocked in as the most played artist, with Drake, Disclosure, and reigning trap king Fetty Wap trailing close behind. And with such a huge lineup of hip-hop producers and musicians either headlining their own Beats 1 shows or featuring in top-played lists, it’s again unsurprisingly that hip-hop/rap was the most played genre (categorised by iTunes). It’s worth noting that Beats 1, although shaping up to be a largely hip-hop defined radio station, still features a relatively eclectic mix of tastes, especially with shows such as St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service.
Amidst all this technical jargon, we’re excited for the future of the radio station that claims to be “ALWAYS ON”, and can’t wait for new and dynamic shows coming up as more and more artists express their support for Apple Music and Beats 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEI4qSrkPAs