Democratic Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke is officially running for Ted Cruz’s Senate seat, as Spin points out. In the 1990s, O’Rourke was a singer and guitarist in the band Foss, which included Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta) on vocals and drums. “I wasn’t very good at it,” O’Rourke told the Washington Post earlier this year, explaining that his father didn’t fully back his musical aspirations either. “He won’t say it, but the expectation is: We didn’t take out loans for you to go to Columbia and then [play] in a punk band your whole life.”
O’Rourke, an underdog in the Senate race, is the “first prominent Democrat” to challenge Cruz for the Senate seat, according to the AP. In his campaign launch announcement earlier today, he promised to resist Donald Trump, saying he’d “fight when necessary against a president who is focused on building walls, or conducting military immigrant round-ups.”
Dr. Dre has been named to the Board of Directors of a group vying to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles, as Spin points out. The group, called LA 2024, is led by Casey Wasserman and includes Magic Johnson, Disney CEO Bob Iger, opera superstar Plácido Domingo, record executive David Geffen, Jason Collins (the first publicly gay NBA player), Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, and many others on the Board of Directors. L.A. is up against Paris in its bid for the 2024 games. The International Olympic Committee will elect the host city on September 13 in Lima, Peru. The Olympics have not been in the United States since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Father John Misty has shared a “radio edit” of “Leaving LA,” a 13-minute song from his upcoming album Pure Comedy (out April 7 via Sub Pop/Bella Union). The new version is under three minutes and consists of just the song’s first and final verses, cutting out some of its more topical lyrics (such as “Oh great, that’s just what we all need/Another white guy in 2017 who takes himself so goddamn seriously.”) Listen to “Leaving LA (Radio Edit)” below. Josh Tillman has previously shared several songs from the album, including “Ballad of the Dying Man,” “Two Wildly Different Perspectives,” “Total Entertainment Forever,” and “Pure Comedy.”
Sufjan Stevens has announced a new audiovisual live album, Carrie & Lowell Live, due out April 28 on Asthmatic Kitty. It was recorded on November 9, 2015 at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center in South Carolina, on Sufjan’s tour in support of his last album, Carrie & Lowell. As Asthmatic Kitty points out, today, March 31, is the birthday of the titular Lowell Brams, who is Sufjan’s stepfather and co-founder of the label. It is also the two-year anniversary of the album's release. The album will be released in both audio and video forms, with the video available on YouTube and Vimeo. The tracklist, which can be found below, features Sufjan and Gallant’s cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.”
01 Redford (For Yia-Yia and Papou)
02 Death With Dignity
03 Should Have Known Better
04 All of Me Wants All Of You
05 John My Beloved
06 The Only Thing
07 Fourth of July
08 No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
09 Carrie & Lowell
10 Drawn to the Blood
11 Eugene
12 Vesuvius
13 Futile Devices
14 Blue Bucket of Gold
15 Blue Bucket Outro
Encore:
16 Hotline Bling* (featuring Gallant)
Watch Sufjan perform "I Want to Be Well" at Pitchfork Music Festival 2016
Tyvek drummer Matt Z is the chef at El Club, an all-ages arts venue in Detroit. He frequently designs new pizzas for charity in collaboration with other Michigan artists, and has now tapped Danny Brown to come up with some delicious new pies to benefit InsideOut Detroit, a non-profit organization focused on exposing and teaching poetry and creative writing to children. “Danny threw out liver & gizzards as meat options to create.... Pepe Z (Matt Z) tried to put the gizzards on the pie, but the pairing was not compatible,” the venue told Pitchfork in an email. In the end, Danny came up with two pizzas: a “mystery meat” pie with liver and onions, and an “Easter Bunny” pizza with chocolate peanut butter and jelly beans. You can try them at El Club throughout the month of April—all proceeds go to InsideOut Detroit. Check out the pies above.
With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes albums from Bob Dylan, Mastodon, Pharmakon, Freddie Gibbs, Goldfrapp, Jamiroquai, Julia Holter, and Wire.
Bob Dylan’s new triple album takes on a slew of American standards. Artists covered by the Nobel Prize winner include Frank Sinatra (“I Could Have Told You”), Charles Strouse and Lee Adams (“Once Upon a Time”), Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler (“Stormy Weather”), Harold Hupfield (“As Time Goes By”), and Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh (“The Best Is Yet to Come”).
Margaret Chardiet’s new Pharmakon album explores “the moments when our mind can come outside of and transcend our bodies.” Contact is structured around the four stages of trance: preparation, onset, climax, and resolution. It’s led by the song “Transmission”—read Pitchfork’s review of the track.
UK duo Goldfrapp are back with their first album since 2013’s Tales of Us. The album was produced with John Congleton in Dallas and the Haxan Cloak in London. Check out their video for “Anymore.”
Jamiroquai’s Automaton is their first new album in seven years, following Rock Dust Light Star. Jay Kay co-produced the record with keyboardist Matt Johnson. Watch the music video for the title track.
After releasing Nocturnal Koreans last year, Wire return with a new album called Silver/Lead. It’s their 15th studio album, and it’s out on the 40th anniversary of the band’s first performance. Read Pitchfork’s “5-10-15-20” interview with Wire’s Colin Newman.
Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury have teamed up to soundtrack Free Fire, director Ben Wheatley’s new thriller about a shootout in ’70s Boston. The soundtrack, which also features a handful of songs by John Denver, the Real Kids, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, is out today via Invada/Lakeshore. Listen below. Barrow and Salisbury previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Alex Garland’s sci-fi film Ex Machina, for which they won an Ivor Novello Award, as well as Garland’s follow-up, Annihilation, and an episode of “Black Mirror.”
Broken Social Scene were the musical guests on last night’s episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” They performed their new song “Halfway Home” with guests Emily Haines and James Shaw of Metric, as well as Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars. Check it out below. “Halfway Home” is the first offering from Broken Social Scene’s forthcoming new album, which will be their first LP since 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. In a recent interview, Kevin Drew said the album is finished and should be out before the autumn. Last summer, Feist revealed that she’s on the record. Broken Social Scene head out on tour in May.
Sampha has shared Process, a 36-minute film that serves as a companion piece to his album of the same name, via Apple Music. It was directed by Khalil Joseph, best known for his work on Beyoncé’s Lemonadefilm. The new film is a series of vignettes featuring “ghostly spiritual surfer guides, crop circle dance formations, time altering narrative leaps,” and performances by Sampha. Much of Process (both the film and the album) are dedicated to Sampha’s mother, who died of cancer in September 2015. Watch it here.
Clips of the film will also broadcast at installations at the following addresses:
Storefront Locations (March 31-April 14)
Brookyln: 55 Wythe Avenue, 101 Bedford Avenue, and 106 North 6th Street
London: 58 Great Eastern Street and 10 Dray Walk
Wallscape Projections (March 31, April 1, April 7, and April 14)
Brookyln: North 7th & Bedford (7:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.)
London: Shoreditch High Street Station & Brick Lane (7:40 p.m.-12:40 a.m.)
Amber Coffman has shared a new solo song. Listen to “No Coffee” below. It’s taken from her forthcoming debut solo album, City of No Reply, which arrives later this year via Columbia. So far, she’s shared one other song, “All to Myself.” Coffman recently opened up about her departure from Dirty Projectors, as well as the end of her relationship with that band’s frontman (and now sole member), Dave Longstreth. “I consider it a loss to no longer be involved with Dirty Projectors, but ultimately walking away was the only healthy choice for me,” she said. “I’m really proud of the album I made and my hope is that people will listen to it on its own terms. I’ve waited a long time to share it and I’m looking forward to it.”
Yesterday, Logic announced that his new album was titled Everybody, and would arrive May 5. Now, the rapper has shared the album’s title track—listen to the song on iTunes and Apple Music. The announcement of Everybody (which previously had the working title of AfricAryan) came with a cinematic trailer showcasing the album’s cover artwork. The new LP marks the first studio album from Logic since the release of The Incredible True Story in 2015. (His surprisemixtape Bobby Tarantino was released last year.) Last year also saw Logic go on “The Endless Summer Tour” with YG, G-Eazy, and Yo Gotti.
Earlier this week, Calvin Harris announced a new song called “Heatstroke” featuring Young Thug, Pharrell Williams, and Ariana Grande. Now, he’s shared the official version of the track. Check it out below. There are also additional vocals from Starrah, who cowrote the song. The track follows Harris’ collaboration with Frank Ocean and Migos, “Slide.” Like he did for that song, Harris shared the full credits for “Heatstroke” (including a full list of instruments recorded for the track) in a tweet. Harris’ last studio album, Motion, was released in 2014.
In February, Drake shared a new song with Wizkid called “Hush Up the Silence” on his OVO Sound radio show. Now, Wizkid has released the official version, retitled “Come Closer.” Listen below. Drake previously appeared on Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” with Skepta, before Wizkid returned the favor for Drake’s chart-topping hit “One Dance.” Drake recently released his highly anticipated new project More Life, which broke VIEWS’record for album streams in a single week and became his seventh album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
Jack Antonoff has released a new Bleachers song, “Don’t Take the Money.” It’s taken from the band’s upcoming sophomore album, which has yet to be announced. The song appears to feature backing vocals from Lorde. Earlier today, Antonoff left a piñata effigy of himself in New York City’s Union Square. Fans broke it open to find USB drives with the new song; watch that go down below. Bleachers’ last album Strange Desire came out in 2014. Since then, Antonoff has been working on a book about record stores that will be released later this year. He also co-produced Lorde’s sophomore album Melodrama. Earlier this month, it was announced that Antonoff is set to live-score a screening of The Breakfast Club in Los Angeles—that goes down tomorrow. Check out Bleachers’ upcoming tour dates below.
Bleachers:
03-05 Okeechobee, FL - Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival
05-14 Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Music FestivaL
05-27 George, WA - Sasquatch Music Festival
06-02 New York, NY - Governor’s Ball
06-15-18 Dover, DE - Firefly Music Festival
Over five years after declaring a hiatus, Broken Social Scene are back. The band have shared “Halfway Home.” It’s their first new track since 2010, when they put out Forgiveness Rock Record. “Halfway Home” will appear on the band’s new record, which Kevin Drew said is finished and will be out before the fall, in a new interview with SiriusXMU. (He previously teased a summer release.) They have not offered any other details on the album, but last year, Feist revealed that recorded for it. Below, listen to “Halfway Home” and Drew’s SiriusXMU interview. Scroll down for Broken Social Scene’s upcoming tour dates. Broken Social Scene are set to perform later tonight on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
Broken Social Scene:
05-23 Manchester, United Kingdom - Albert Hall
05-24 London, United Kingdom - O2 Brixton Academy
05-26 Neustrelitz, Germany - Immergut Festival
05-28 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix Club
05-29 Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Paradiso
05-30 Paris, France - Alhambra
06-01 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
06-03 Toronto, Ontario - Field Trip
06-24 Pasadena, California - Arroy Seco Weekend
08-04-06 Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Music and Arts Festival
Watch Broken Social Scene perform “KC Accidental” at Pitchfork Music Festival 2016:
On April 28, Mary J. Blige will release a new album called Strength of a Womanvia Capitol. Today, DJ Funkmaster Flex premiered her collaboration with Kanye West, “Love Yourself,” on Hot 97. Now, Blige has shared the official track. Stream it below. The song follows the previously shared single “Thick of It,” which was co-written with Jazmine Sullivan. Strength of a Womanalso features Kaytranada, Missy Elliott, Migos’ Quavo, DJ Khaled, and Prince Charlez. Mary J. Blige’s last album was 2014’s The London Sessions.
Last week, Gorillaz marked their return by releasing fournewsongs from their upcoming album Humanz. The group also shared the music video for “Saturnz Barz,” their new track with Popcaan. In addition to the standard visual, the clip was made available in 360-degree virtual reality. The “Saturnz Barz (Spirit House)” 360 clip has now set a record for the highest debut of a VR video in YouTube history, Billboardreports. The six-minute video—which involves a haunted house, a singing pizza, and a whole lot of chaos in outer space—was viewed more than three million times within its first 48 hours; its plays now exceed five million. The previous 48-hour record was held by Russian band УСПЕШНАЯ ГРУППА, who had 1.3 million views for their “СТРАННЫЙ” video, according to a press release. Revisit Gorillaz’s 360 video below.
It’s official: The music industry has regained a bit of its health, and that’s largely thanks to streaming. The RIAA announced today that retail revenue from recorded music in the United States grew to $7.7 billion last year, the highest sales level since 2009, The New York Times reports. That’s an increase of 11.4 percent, the biggest percentage gain since 1998. The RIAA said the growth was mainly driven by the rise of paid subscription streaming services such as Apple Music, Tidal, and the paid version of Spotify. Revenues from paid subscription services in America more than doubled, to $2.5 billion. Overall, paid and free streaming generated $3.9 billion in revenues, the first time it has made up more than half of the industry total. However, industry revenues were still only about half of their 1999 peak.
Cary Sherman, the president of the RIAA, which represents major labels, said in an online commentary, “As excited as we are about our growth in 2016, our recovery is fragile and fraught with risk.”
Beyond streaming, the industry’s biggest-selling formats continued to show a decline. Only 99.4 million full-length CDs were sold last year, and their revenues fell 21 percent to $1.2 billion, according to the RIAA. As The New York Timesreports, the last time fewer than 100 million CDs were sold was in 1986. Downloads slid 22 percent in 2016 to $1.8 billion.
Sales of vinyl albums, meanwhile, were up 4 percent to $430 million and made up their biggest share of total physical sales since 1985, at 26 percent.
As previously reported by Nielsen, streaming became the leading mode of music consumption in America last year. Overall on-demand audio streams leaped 76 percent to surpass 251 billion in 2016, according to Nielsen. Separately, BuzzAngle Music reported there were more streams on an average day in 2016 than song downloads for the entire year. According to BuzzAngle, Drake was the most-streamed artist of 2016 by a wide margin.
A Perfect Circle—the supergroup of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, Billy Howerdel, Matt McJunkins, Jeff Friedl, and ex-Smashing Pumpkins member James Iha—have signed a worldwide record deal with BMG, as Billboard reports. In a press release, Howerdel exclaimed, “We just signed a new record deal with BMG! Looking forward to sharing new music with you soon. New APC-2017!” Jon Cohen (Executive Vice President of Recorded Music at BMG) added, “We’re thrilled to welcome A Perfect Circle to BMG and excited to present their highly-anticipated new music to the world.” The press release also confirmed that the band are at work in the studio on their new record—their first since 2004’s eMOTIVe.
Next week, A Perfect Circle embark on their first North American tour since 2011. Upon the tour’s announcement in January, Howerdel said, “Getting back to writing music with A Perfect Circle is a great way to start the new year.” Check out the band’s upcoming shows below.
A Perfect Circle:
04-06 Las Vegas, NV - The Pearl
04-07 Las Vegas, NV - The Pearl
04-08 Las Vegas, NV - The Pearl
04-10 Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
04-11 San Diego, CA - Open Air Theatre
04-13 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
04-14 Reno, NV - Reno Event Center
04-15 Salt Lake City, UT - Mavrik Center
04-17 Denver, CO - 1st Bank Center
04-19 Kansas City, MO - Starlight Amphitheatre
04-20 St. Louis, MO - Chafietz Arena
04-22 Tulsa, OK - Bok Center
04-23 Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre
04-25 Austin, TX - Heb Center at Cedar Park
04-26 San Antonio, TX - Freeman Coliseum
04-27 Houston, TX - Smart Financial Center
04-29 Jacksonville, FL - Welcome to Jacksonville
04-30 Ft. Meyers, FL - Fort Rock Festival
05-02 Atlanta, GA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
05-03 Nashville, TX - Bridgestone Arena
05-05 Charlotte, NC - Carolina Rebellion
05-07 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
A Tribe Called Quest have released the video for “Dis Generation,” off their fantastic 2016 album We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service. In the new black and white video, the camera constantly moves over scenes of cars, a concert, flashing lights, and more. It’s directed by Hiro Murai (who directed episodes of Donald Glover’s “Atlanta”). Watch it below (via Noisey). The new video follows the group’s video for “We the People,” in which Phife Dawg appears as a moving mural. ATCQ most recently appeared during the 59th Grammy Awards, performing with Anderson .Paak.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are currently on tour behind their latest album, Flying Microtonal Banana. On March 31, they will perform at Webster Hall in New York City. Pitchfork is happy to announce that we will stream the concert live on our homepage and through Facebook Live. The show is part of our new Pitchfork Live series, featuring live streams that will occur throughout the year as Pitchfork covers concerts and events around the country. The Pitchfork Live stream of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s Webster Hall show begins at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday, March 31. See the rest of King Gizzard’s upcoming tour dates below.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard:
03-30 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theatre
03-31 New York, NY - Webster Hall
04-2 Boston, MA - Royale
04-3 Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall
04-4 Montreal, Quebec - Fairmount Theatre
04-5 Toronto, Ontario - Danforth Theatre
04-6 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
04-7 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
04-8 Chicago, IL - Metro
04-9 Seattle, WA - Neumos
04-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
04-11 Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
04-12 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
04-14 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-17 West Hollywood, CA - The Roxy Theatre
04-18 Las Vegas, NV - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
04-19 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
04-21 Indio, CA - Coachella
05-05-06-08 Madrid, Spain - Sound Isidro
05-31-06-04 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival
06-03 London, England - Field Day
06-05-08 Marina di Ravenna, Italy - Beaches Brew
06-08-10 Porto, Portugal - NOS Primavera Sound
06-09-11 Nîmes, France - This Is Not a Love Song
06-14 Manchester, England - Albert Hall
06-15 London, England - O2 Forum Kentish Town
06-16-18 Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands - Best Kept Secret Festival
06-16-18 Mannheim, Germany - Maifeld Derby
06-22 Paris, France - Cabaret Sauvage
07-21-23 Byron Bay, Australia - Splendour in the Grass Festival
Mac DeMarco has shared the video for the title track from his upcoming album This Old Dog. The self-directed clip follows several people wearing dog masks around Los Angeles. In a press release, DeMarco explained that the video depicts “A devoted dog discovers the meaning of its own existence through the lives of the humans it teaches to laugh and love. Reincarnated as multiple canines over the course of five decades, the lovable pooch develops an unbreakable bond with a kindred spirit named Ethan. As the boy grows older and comes to a crossroad, the dog once again comes back into his life to remind him of his true self.” However, you'd be hard pressed to actually find all that in the video itself. Watch it below.
Mac has also extended his tour in support of This Old Dog; find his latest itinerary below. The albumis out May 5 via Captured Tracks. In related news, DeMarco recently performed “This Old Dog” in a dog grooming parlor.
04-14 Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04-21 Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
05-09 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Burlington *
05-10 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *
05-11 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *
05-12 Toronto, Ontario - Danforth Theater
05-13 Toronto, Ontario - Danforth Theater *
05-14 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre *
05-15 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues *
05-16 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre *
05-17 Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works *
05-19-21 Gulf Shores, AL - Hangout Music Festival
05-20 Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle *
05-21 Asheville, NC - Highland Brewing Company *
05-22 Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small's Theater *
05-23 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
05-24 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
05-26-28 Allston, MA - Boston Calling
05-30 London, England - O2 Academy Brixton
05-31 London, England - O2 Academy Brixton
06-02 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
06-04 New York, NY - Governor's Ball at Randall's Island Park
08-05 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-09 Copenhagen, Denmark - Den Graa Hal
08-10 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
08-11 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West
08-13 Prague, Czech Republic - Meet Factory
08-14 Budapest, Hungary - Sziget Festival
08-15 Vienna, Austria - Arena
08-17 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-18 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-20 Saint Malo, France - La Route du Rock
08-23 Zurich, Switzerland - Zurich Open Air Festival
08-24 Asolo, Italy - AMA Asolo
08-27 Paris, France - Rock En Seine
08-29 Newcastle, England - The Academy
08-30 Edinburgh, Scotland - Usher Hall
08-31-09-03 Salisbury, England - End of the Road Festival
09-08 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theater
09-09 Portland, OR - Oregon Zoo Amphitheatre
09-10 Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
09-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
09-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
09-14 Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
09-15 Missoula, MT - Wilma Theatre
09-25 Durham, NC - Carolina Theatre
09-26 Athens, GA - Georgia theatre
09-27 New Orleans, LA - Orpheum Theatre
11-07 Hamburg, Germany - Grunspan
11-08 Berlin, Germany - Astra
11-10 Cologne, Germany - Kantine
11-22 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
11-30 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
The producers of “Serial” and “This American Life” have a new true crime podcast called “S-Town” that launched yesterday. Set in Woodstock, Alabama, “S-Town” (aka “Shittown”) investigates local resident John B. McLemore's claims that a member of a well-to-do local family got away with murder. Nick Thorburn (Islands/The Unicorns) composed “Serial”’s score, and “S-Town” also features original music, as Stereogum points out. Electronic artist and producer Helado Negro, “This American Life” contributing music producer and drummer for Gym Class Heroes Matt McGinley, and composer and Spacebomb co-owner Trey Pollard (who has worked with Helado Negro, Matthew E. White, Foxygen, and the Waterboys) soundtrack the podcast’s seven episodes. Composer Daniel Hart (who has collaborated with St. Vincent, the Polyphonic Spree, and Broken Social Scene) not only wrote the podcast’s theme, but released an entire album of music for the series. The Zombies’ “A Rose for Emily,” off their 1968 LP Odessey and Oracle,ends each episode. The song retells William Faulkner’s Southern gothic short story of the same name.
All “S-Town” episodes are now available to stream.
Explosions in the Sky have shared a stop-motion video for “The Ecstatics,” from The Wilderness. The Hayley Morris-directed clip features a series of crafted objects and rippling graphics that morph between human and natural forms. Watch it below. The band also expanded their tour—check out the dates below.
Explosions in the Sky:
04-06 San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger
04-07 Baton Rouge, LA - Varsity Theatre
04-08 Mobile, AL - Soul Kitchen
04-09 Birmingham, AL - Iron City
04-10 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon
04-12 St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Live
04-13 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre
04-14 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre
04-15 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
04-16 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
04-18 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live
04-19 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live
04-20 New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall
04-21 Providence, RI - Lupo's
04-22 Port Chester, NY - Capitol Theatre
04-23 Toronto, Ontario - Rebel
04-25 Cincinnati, OH - Bogart’s
04-26 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
04-27 Grand Rapids, MI - Covenant Fine Arts Center
04-28 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
04-29 Oklahoma City, OK - Criterion Theater
Watch Explosions in the Sky perform at Pitchfork Music Festival 2016:
Lana Del Rey has announced a new record, the follow-up to 2015’s Honeymoon. It’s called Lust for Life and it’s “coming soon,” according to her Facebook announcement. Below, watch her amazing black-and-white trailer for the record; scroll down for the transcript. Upon the release of her single “Love,” Lana said, “I made my first 4 albums for me, but this one is for my fans and about where I hope we are all headed.” In a subsequent interview, she explained that she’d been writing for the last 15 months, and “started out thinking that the whole record was going to have sort of a, like, a ’50s, ’60s feeling, with some kind of Shangri-La, early Joan Baez influences.” Ultimately, “as the climate kept on getting more heated politically,” she said, “it’s just a little more socially aware. That’s kind of a global feeling.” Recently, an ASCAP listing revealed a new Lana collaboration with the Weeknd, also called “Lust for Life.”
You know, in this town, an artist really needs a lot of space when they’re trying to create something special. A place to cultivate a world of their own, far away from the real world that’s around them. Luckily for me, I live right inside the middle of the “H” of the Hollywood sign. And this is how I spend most of my nights: perched high above the chaos that swirls within the city of angels below.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love to dip my toe into the muck and the mires of the city every now and then. Especially on Tuesdays. But truthfully, when I’m in the middle of making a record, especially now when the world is in the middle of such a tumultuous period, I find I really need to take the space for myself far away from real life, to consider what my contribution to the world should be in these dark times.
So each morning, I have the luxury of asking myself, “What shall I cook up for the kids today? Something with a little spice? Something with a little bitterness but is ultimately sweet? Or shall I take the day off and turn down the fire, and just take a moment to send my love to them over the ether?” Because sometimes, just being pure of heart and having good intentions and letting them be known is the most worthy contribution an artist can make.
So, even though these times can feel a little bit crazy, they’re not so very different from what other generations have experienced at one time or another before. Amidst all the uncertainty, and as we transition out of one era into another one, there’s no place I’d rather be than smack-dab in the middle of “Holly-weird” making this record for you. Because you, and the music, and this place, are my love, my life, my lust for life.
Gucci Mane and Nicki Minaj’s collaborative single “Make Love” has a new music video. It’s directed by Eif Rivera. In the clip, Nicki raps her verse while sitting on an inflatable unicorn. Watch it below. Earlier this month, Nicki released a trio of new songs: “No Frauds,” “Regret in Your Tears,” and “Changed It.” She also featured on David Guetta’s new track, and appeared in Jason Derulo’s “Swalla” video.
The 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony added a handful of guests this morning. Pharrell will induct Nile Rodgers, while new performers include Lenny Kravitz (with a tribute performance to Prince), Alicia Keys, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Indigo Girls. Also announced today: Dhani Harrison and Pat Monahan will induct ELO and Journey respectively. The new announcements join a lineup that includes Snoop Dogg inducting Tupac, Neil Young inducting Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne inducting Joan Baez, and more.
This year’s list of Rock Hall nominees included Chic, Depeche Mode, Janet Jackson, Bad Brains, Kraftwerk, Jane’s Addiction, MC5, Chaka Khan, the Zombies, and the Cars. While Chic were not inducted this year, Nile Rodgers has been given the Award for Musical Excellence. The ceremony, held at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center, airs April 29 on HBO, at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
Revisit Pitchfork’s rundown of the 10 Best Songs of the ’80s:
