Saturday, July 18, 2015

@PumpUpThaVolume: Episode167 - Fixations


Episode167 - Fixations
♫Makin' a soundtrack for another planet to hear♫ on Episode167 - Fixations which features brand new sounds from M.I.A., Tame Impala, Little Boots, Baio, CHVRCHES, Mother Falcon, Du Blonde, MOURN, Erlend Øye, Ghostface Killah, Thundercat, Air, Gardens & Villa, Lana Del Rey and Ghost Pains...



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Previous: Episode166 - High

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♬Liner Notes♬:We're gonna keep knockin' it up a notch on PUTV with the buzziest new music around from Gardens & Villa, Tame Impala, Lana Del Rey, CHVRCHES, M.I.A., Thundercat, Baio and tons more... This is gonna get good!

M.I.A.
"Swords"
'Matahdatah'
Interscope, 2015
Notes: "Maya Arulpragasam thought she was done. After 10 years and four albums of diasporia-pop provocation and button-pushing, she had no plans to make new music, and was concentrating on other art projects. "Then I took this trip," she explained...premiering 'Swords' on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show... "
(@MIAuniverse)

Tame Impala
"The Less I Know The Better"
'Currents'
Interscope, 2015
Notes: "The essence of Tame Impala’s music isn’t the high, wistful voice of Kevin Parker, or the instruments he uses to build his songs. It’s not the haze of distortion and effects that got Tame Impala categorized as psychedelic pop on its first two albums, “Innerspeaker” (2010) and “Lonerism” (2012) — a haze that often clears on Tame Impala’s new and radically different album, “Currents.” The core of Tame Impala is its aura of solitude, starting with the simple credits for “Currents.” Although Tame Impala tours as a band, in the studio its music is entirely “written, recorded and produced by Kevin Parker.”" Tame Impala gave Episode019 its "Apocalypse Dreams" title track - and now they're back to rule the world. One of the first really big album for the new Global Release Day of Fridays?
(@TameImpala)

Little Boots
"Desire"
'Working Girl'
Dim Mak, 2015
Notes: "Though she's never enjoyed the same commercial success as Jessie J or Sam Smith, by refusing to play the industry game, Victoria Hesketh, AKA Little Boots, has not let her BBC Sound Of 2009 poll win define her. 'Working Girl' is her third record, but her first without major label backing and, appropriately, the title alludes to both her greater involvement in this record's creation, as well as the struggles that artists face as cash cows for their record companies. Refreshingly, this means that Little Boots is largely free to do what she wants, and it looks like what she wants is to become Sarah Cracknell from Saint Etienne." We heard a song called "Broken Record" from Little Boots on Episode060 in May 2013.
(@LittleBoots)

Baio
"Sister of Pearl"
'The Names'
Glassnote, 2015
Notes: "Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio announced in April that he will release his debut LP, The Names, this coming fall...  [Second preview song]“Sister Of Pearl” is a buoyant indie-pop experiment that sounds a lot closer to Vampire Weekend’s initial work than anything Baio has released so far... Baio told Pitchfork that “Sister Of Pearl” was written as “a Bowie and Ferry-referencing throwback pop song with a simple, straight-forward lyrical message: be who you want to be."
(@OIAB)

CHVRCHES
"Leave A Trace"
'Every Open Eye'
Glassnote, 2015
Notes: "The formula Chvrches perfected on 2013 debut The Bones Of What You Believe is far from broken, so on the first single from eagerly anticipated follow-up Every Open Eye, they absolutely do not fix it. “Leave A Trace” upholds the Scottish trio’s reputation for sparkling synthpop excellence, slowly expanding from an initial low-key burble to a chorus so victorious that you can almost see Lauren Mayberry’s fist pumping... It’s a song about getting over old heartbreaks, and it sounds tailor-made for a coming-of-age movie’s optimistically wistful final scene." CHVRCHES gave Episode062 its "Recover" title track - and I'm glad to have 'em back!
(@CHVRCHES)

Mother Falcon
"Kid"
'Good Luck Have Fun'
BitCandy, 2015
Notes: "Austin-based classical-pop collective Mother Falcon will soon fly back into your life with their third studio album, Good Luck Have Fun (out on August 14 via BitCandy), and to celebrate, they have unveiled a genre-spanning sunbeam of a new track called “Kid.” Layering Beethoven-era orchestral elements with funky bass-lines and jazz-inspired horns, “Kid” features breathy vocals from Claire Puckett, who sounds like Stars’ Amy Millan — if she took up residence at the Blue Note."
(@MotherFalconMus)

Du Blonde
"Black Flag"
'Welcome Back to Milk'
Mute, 2015
Notes: "The same [kind of reinvention from Bowie to St. Vincent] is true for Beth Jeans Houghton. The polymath pop of 2012’s Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose, along with her old name and band, have been scrapped. Now known as Du Blonde, she is a 25-year-old aesthetic chameleon emerging on Welcome Back to Milk in a spiked collar of unrelenting attitudeWelcome Back to Milk playfully stretches its tough skin. As punchy as “Black Flag”, “Chip to Go”, and “Mr. Hyde” are, they let her scream about unbridled revenge on love and revolting against authority. Her voice, reminiscent of Karen O, Cher, and Be Your Own Pet’s Jemina Pearl..." We heard from BJH way back on Episode027.
(@DuBlondeMusic)

MOURN
"Gertrudis, Get Through This!"
'Gertrudis'
Captured Tracks, 2015
Notes: "Mourn, a band of teenage Barcelona punks, released a really great self-titled debut album earlier this year... they’re following it up with a new three-song 7″ called Gertrudis. The first of those three songs is a splintered sprint of a thing called “Gertrudis, Get Through This!,” and it’s another sign that these kids know what they’re doing." They've also got a great video for this, too!
(@OhMourn)

Erlend Øye
"Garota"
'Legao'
Bubbles, 2014
Notes: "Erlend Øye has released a new album with Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar called Legao. The album was released on October 3rd. The album title of Legao is actually pronounced “legal” and is actually a Portuguese word meaning great or cool... The best part about “Legao” is that it has both reggae sounds and the sound that has made Øye known." I realized his 2014 LP slipped past me - when I saw he had even newer music! The song "Estate" is featured on the soundtrack of the Italian film, 'Onde Nostre'.
(#ErlendOye)

Ghostface Killah
"Return of the Savage"
'Twelve Reasons To Die II'
Linear Lab, 2015
Notes: "In 2013, Ghostface Killah teamed up with the psychedelic-soul producer and composer Adrian Younge to make Twelve Reasons To Die, a rap opera about a legendary killer who gains his power from 12 vinyl records, or something. It was good! And now they’re doing it again. Ghostface and Younge will release Twelve Reasons To Die II this summer, and judging by first single “Return Of The Savage,” the narrative will pick up where the last one left off."
(@GhostfaceKillah)

Thundercat
"Them Changes" (w/ Flying Lotus and Kamasi Washington)
'The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam'
Brainfeeder, 2015
Notes: "Strip away the technique, the phasers, and the astral glitter of Stephen Bruner's recent EP and what's left are the raw materials of loss and pain. He stares bald-faced into deep melancholy and then drops globs of dope bass shit on top. This has made Thundercat more than just a child of P-Funk, but a futurist songwriter who's in tune with the outer sounds of Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, and the rest of L.A.'s Brainfeeder label. On "Them Changes", a sampled beat from the Isley Brother’s "Footsteps in the Dark" introduces a shaggy '70s R&B groove before Thundercat's six-string bass sets the swirling mood."
(@Thundercat)

Air
"Playground Love" (Live On KCRW)
'The Virgin Suicides'
Rhino/Parlophone, 2015
Notes: "Sophia Coppola's debut film, The Virgin Suicides, turns 15 this year and it was the French band Air's first foray into film scoring. To celebrate, a deluxe edition of the soundtrack has been issued. Today's Top Tune is a live version of "Playground Love," which was used for the end credits and recorded back in the day on Morning Becomes Eclectic. It features vocals from "Gordon Tracks," an alias of Thomas Mars, the lead singer for the band Phoenix, who also wrote the lyrics."
(#AirFrenchBand)

Gardens & Villa
"Fixations"
'Music For Dogs'
Secretly Canadian, 2015
Notes: "Gardens & Villa are a California synth-pop duo (formerly trio) made up of Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen, who split with their drummer Levi Hayden and left the sleepy beach haven of Santa Barbara for a warehouse in the middle of Los Angeles. After 2014’s Dunes, the band went through a lot of changes, but their sound has remained the same crystalline, post-punk/synth amalgam that initially drew us in... Listen to their new song, “Fixations,” a morass of jumpy keyboards and circuitous, deadpan hooks...and look for their new album in August." It's G & V's second spin on PUTV.
(@GardensAndVilla)

Lana Del Rey
"Honeymoon"
'Honeymoon'
Interscope, 2015
Notes: "She’s been teasing it for a long time, and now it’s finally here: “Honeymoon,” the first single and title track from Lana Del Rey’s new album. The song is a slow, ravishing, stretched-out thing, with LDR crooning and even scatting over heavy, luxurious strings — a torch song that sounds like it’s made out of clouds. LDR has been selling lyric sheets for the song at her live shows, and an image of that lyric sheet is mostly what we see in the video below, though we do get a few seconds of grainy, ominous Super-8 footage at the beginning and end of the six-minute song." It's LDR's second time on the show.
(@LanaDelRey)

Ghost Pains
"Arboretum"
'Building Mountains'
Lackshamps, 2015
Notes: "On the Seattle quartet’s June release, Building Mountains, Ghost Pains continues to champion their excellent brand of punk influenced rock. They balance the spirit of punk, the heaviness of rock and the infectious nature of pop flawlessly... ["Arboretum"] finds a winding guitar riff and driving bass line supporting rising vocals which build into squealing guitars... and surely a sign of more exciting things to come from the talented Seattle group."
(@GhostPainsMusic)

This week's B-sides: Kamasi Washington, Sam Outlaw, In Tall Buildings, Weed, Flow Tribe and Bad Bad Hats

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♬@PumpUpThaVolume Music News♬:
#AlbumOfTheWeek: @TameImpala - '#Currents'
Album Of The Week: @JasonIsbell's Something More Than Free
Watch three new @ChemBros short films for the Born In The Echoes tour
Wilco drops free surprise album Star Wars
Hear an R.E.M.-approved EDM remix of "The One I Love"
Livestream Pitchfork Music Festival now
Stoked to see @againstme @TVonTheRadio @hustleanddrone @runjewels @KillerMikeGTO @therealelp @BlondieOfficial at @projectpabst! ☀️

(Thanks again to our #SongOfTheDay sources at @KEXP, @KCRW, @KUTX, @TheKeyXPN and @TheCurrent. Thanks to @TwilightCircus1 for the bed music - and thank you for listening!)

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