THE KILLS Perform on Live From Abbey Road

The Kills will be featured on this week's episode of Live From Abbey Road, premiering Thursday night at 10:00pm est exclusively on the Sundance Channel. The duo perform a trio of tracks from their latest album Midnight Boom - "Getting Down", "Last Day of Magic", and "Goodnight Bad Morning". Check out some highlights from the episode...



Also check out this interview also from the episode...

New SANTOGOLD Video - 'Lights Out'

Santogold debuts "Lights Out", the third music video from her debut album. The track is perhaps the poppiest moment from the album, instantly catchy and hummable. Could this be the crossover hit Santi seems so intent on achieving? We'll just have to wait and see.

Santogold - Lights Out (music video)

ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Set to Return with New Ep and LP

Antony and the Johnsons are prepping a pair of follow-ups to their Mercury Music Prize winning album I Am a Bird Now. The first release will be the 5-track ep Another World, which hits stores October 7th via Secretly Canadian. The same label will also release the new full-length The Crying Light, due January 2009.

In the meantime, you can still get your Antony fix on the Hercules & Love Affair album and on the new Bjork single "Dull Flame of Desire", which will also feature remixes by Modeselektor. A new video for the single is also on the way.

Antony will embark on a special symphonic tour in September, where he will be joined by a local symphony in each city. Due to the scattered nature of the dates, I expect more will be added. Here are the dates as of yet:

9/5 Portland, OR
9/10 Milan, Italy
9/12 Zaragoza, Spain
10/14 Los Angeles, CA
10/16 New York, NY
10/30 London, England
10/31 London, England

ISAAC HAYES (R.I.P.) 1942 - 2008

"Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008)[1] was an American soul and funk singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer, and actor. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s, Hayes became a recording artist, and recorded successful soul albums such as Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971) as the Stax label's premier artist.

Alongside his work in popular music, Hayes was a film score composer for motion pictures. His best known work, for the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards. He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.

In 1992, in recognition of his humanitarian work, he was crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district. From 1997 to 2006, he provided the voice for the character "Chef" on the Comedy Central animated TV series South Park.

Hayes was found unconscious in his home located just east of Memphis, Tennessee on August 10, 2008 as reported by the Shelby County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department. A Shelby County Sheriff's deputy responded to Hayes' home after his wife found him on the floor near a still-running treadmill. Hayes was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08pm." -Wikipedia

Isaac Hayes - Walk On By (live tv performance)

New Video Friday

Lykke Li - Breaking it Up


Chromeo - Momma's Boy


Yelle - Ce Jeu

The Sky Report in San Francisco!

I'll be in San Francisco for the next two weeks, so posts may slow to a crawl for a bit. I'm just going to miss the Outside Lands Festival (bummer!), so if anyone knows of anything exciting going on in the Bay Area before then, please hit me up!

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Be back soon!

TELEPATHIQUE 'I'm Not the Man You Think I Am'

Like a 1992 prom gone wrong, Telepathique's new video showcases those days when you dressed up and took someone to the dance that you weren't exactly sure you were in love with, but were sure would please the parents (or in my case, would kind of disgust the parents). Either way, the video curiously explores the tangents of youth ritual. Not sure what the point is, but this Brazilian electro duo are still bubbling under my radar. The debut album Last Time on Earth hits U.S. stores today.

Heads up NYC! They play The Delancey on August 12th.

Telepathique - I'm Not the Man You Think I Am (music video)

LE CASTLE VANIA Remixes WALTER MEEGO

Atlanta based DJ Le Castle Vania grabbed my attention a couple years ago with his stellar remix of Snowden's "Black Eyes". Since then he has been at the center of the electro-indie world having released his own Troubletron ep and debuting his new side project Lies in Disquise. Now Le Castle is back with another great remix, this time in the form of Walter Meego's "Through A Keyhole".

Walter Meego - Through a Keyhole (Le Castle Vania remix)

BLACK LIPS, DEERHUNTER, KING KHAN Played McCarren Pool

With the help of the hilarious, makeshift emcee King Khan, Atlanta invaded McCarren Pool on Sunday with the glorious double punch of Deerhunter and Black Lips. It was a beautiful day for the summer party at the pool and all the bands infused the day with their raw talent and energy.

Black Lips were the headlining band and deservedly so. Their set was the usual chaos and mayhem we've grown to expect. The highlight for sure was the toilet paper fight during "Bad Kids", where King Khan, Bradford Cox and others stormed the stage, decorating the band with rolls of TP, which started flying into the crowd and back again. Check out the video below for the evidence.

Deerhunter were introduced by Les Savy Fav frontman Tim Harrington. The band didn't receive quite as rowdy a reception as the Lips, but their mesmerizing set blistered the adoring crowd with curiosity and intrigue. Bradford Cox led his newly formed version of Deerhunter through new tracks like "Nothing Ever Happened" and "Never Stops", both from the forthcoming album Microcastle, before closing the set out with a mind-altering, extended version of "Strange Lights".

King Khan and The Shrines opened for the two bands with their psychedelic blues funk, but Khan never really left the stage. Instead he constantly altered his costume, a crazy combination of tribal funk and glam androgyny. His pranks only seemed to accelerate throughout the day, most notably during Deerhunter's set when he bared his ass, which served as a sort of vase for a bouquet a flowers. This man is nuts!

Black Lips - Bad Kids (live at McCarren Pool)


Also, the brand new track from Deerhunter, "Nothing Ever Happened"...

M.I.A. Has a Hit!

After a Coachella meltdown and an announcement that her music career is over (for now), M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" has skyrocketed to #36 on this week's Billboard Hot 100. Of course the rumours of her demise are frivolous and she'll be back with a killin' album no later than early 2010 (trust!), more likely - late 2009. But in the meantime, relive the single of 2007, currently a hit at car washes across the nation - "Paper Planes".

M.I.A. - Paper Planes (music video)