New PJ HARVEY on the Way

PJ Harvey will release the follow-up to her collaboration with John Parish, 1996's Dance Hall at Louse Point with the new LP A Woman A Man Walked By, due for release on March 30th (UK) via Island. The tracklist is in (see below) and a full European tour is scheduled. I'm really excited about this album, but still I can't help but long for a return to form from Miss Harvey, one of my all-time favorite artists. 2007's piano-laden White Chalk still grabs my attention on lonely nights, but when will she rock our world again?

In related news, I recently saw the new Broadway revival of Hedda Gabler, starring Mary Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris (Hedwig), and Peter Stormare (Fargo/The Big Lebowski). It was a great adaptation (Christopher Shinn) of the classic Ibsen play, but most surprising to me was the fact that Polly Jean provided the original music, largely from reconstructions of White Chalk tracks. Harvey is a true artist and it only made this theatre experience more enriching.

Check out this video for "That Was My Veil", taken from Dance Hall... (1996). And this exceptional live version of "Taut" from her Uh-Huh Her Tour in 2004.

PJ Harvey ( John Parish) - Taut (live)


PJ Harvey and John Parish - A Woman a Man Walked By tracklist:

01 Black Hearted Love
02 Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen
03 Leaving California
04 The Chair
05 April
06 A Woman a Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All the Little Children Go
07 The Soldier
08 Pig Will Not
09 Passionless, Pointless
10 Cracks in the Canvas

CFCF - "Crystal Mines"

I admit, I don't know much about Montreal's CFCF, but I love zombie movies and I'm really digging on this track. Mike Silver is the man behind the music, with confessed influences as wide-ranging as Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, Vangelis, and The Boredoms. Here's some more background for you...

"Having first caught tastemakers’ attention with his contest winning remix of Crystal Castles “Air War,” CFCF has gone on to produce official remixes for talents such as Sally Shapiro, The Presets, HEALTH, The Teenagers and Hearts Revolution among many others."

"Crystal Mines" is the lead-off track on the new ep Panesian Nights, released earlier this week on Paper Bag Records. Check out the zombified video below, which reportedly uses footage from Nuits Rouges, some 1974 French film.



CFCF – Panesian Nights (tracklist)

1. Crystal Mines
2. Call Girl
3. The Explorers
4. Arctic
5. Sogni Rossi
6. Goodbye
7. Color Dreams

New ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Video "My Girls"

Awesome! A video for my second favorite track on Merriweather Post Pavillion, out now on Domino.

FOL CHEN - "The Believers"

by Matthew Dunehoo, contributor

From the cutthroat economic battlefield of the LA suburbs come Fol Chen, whose mechanical music style and vocal intimations are as cryptic as the images included in the beautifully eerie video for their brand new single "The Believers," directed by the accomplished collage animationist, Kelly Sears. This track seems to portray the dark Fol Chen. Asthmatic Kitty will release the band's debut album on February 17th.



Fol Chen - The Believers (mp3)
Fol Chen - The Believers (Clifford Lidell remix) (mp3)

ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS "Epilepsy is Dancing"

In conjunction with yesterday's release of “The Crying Light” LP, Antony and the Johnsons also serve up this spectacular new video for the track "Epilepsy is Dancing".  For lack of better phrasing, here's this...

"Antony asked his friends the Wachowski Brothers to work with him on a video for his new single "Epilepsy is Dancing". They in turn invited painters Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paradiso to create costumes and a mystical environment and choreographer Sean Dorsey and his dancers to bring the dream sequence to life. Antony's artistic partner Johanna Constantine stars as herself in the role of "Deer Monster". The video was lit and shot by the up-and-coming directors of photography, Chris Blasingame and Banker White, and produced by Jim Jerome. The production team collectively named themselves AFAS. Please enjoy the fruits of their San Francisco art party."



The Crying Light is available now via Secretly Canadian.

TELEPATHE - "Devil's Trident (Mi Ami remix)"

Brooklyn's Telepathe have been given the remix treatment quite a lot lately, but this new Mi Ami remix of "Devil's Trident" takes their sound in a whole new direction. Stripping away all of the vocals, San Francisco's Mi Ami turn the track into a throbbing chill out jam reminiscent of something The Orb would have done in the mid 90's.

Filmmaker Dan Nixon (Glass Candy/Chromatics) has directed a gorgeous video for the remix, set in the woods of East Sussex. I love how the light pulsates to the beat of the track.

New BEIRUT - March of the Zapotec

Beirut is on the verge of releasing the new two EP package of March of the Zapotec and Holland, two sonically diverse discs that display the range of Zach Condon's varying musical styles. The first disc (Zapotec) was recorded in Oaxaca, Mexico with a 19-piece band. The second disc (Holland) is credited to Condon's other monikor Realpeople, an electronic counterpoint to Beirut. Holland also features an old Condon favorite, the beautiful and lush "Venice".

The double ep is released February 17th via Ba Da Bing! Check out the new video for the track "La Llorona"...



tracklist:

Beirut: March of the Zapotec:

01 El Zocalo
02 La Llorona
03 My Wife
04 The Akara
05 On a Bayonet
06 The Shrew

Realpeople: Holland:

01 My Night With a Prostitute From Marseille
02 My Wife, Lost in the Wild
03 Venice
04 The Concubine
05 No Dice

New NEKO CASE - "People Got A Lotta Nerve"

I reported on the upcoming Neko Case album a few weeks ago and now we have the first single. "People Got A Lotta Nerve" is classic Neko - dreamy alt-country, with clever lyrics and a gorgeous voice. Simply by offering you this free track, Neko and her label Anti- are donating money to Best Friends Animal Society. Pretty awesome. Enjoy the single below.

Neko's new album Middle Cyclone hits stores March 3rd.

DOWNLOAD Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve (mp3)

You can also stream this track and older ones over at Neko's myspace.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Believe the Hype

I've finally had a chance to delve into the new Animal Collective LP Merriweather Post Pavilion, and I have to say it is worthy of the overwhelming buzz surrounding it. At times it sounds like euphoric rave music, executed with real instruments in the psych-rock nature that AC have previously perfected. Check out the Beach Boys-esque standout track "My Girls", now streaming at myspace...

STREAM Animal Collective - My Girls

Also, check out an awesome mash-up of the track with Frankie Knuckles' Chicago House classic "Your Love" over at Gorilla vs. Bear.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is out now on vinyl and will be released on CD and digitally January 20 (Inauguration Day!) via Domino Records.

FEVER RAY - 'If I Had A Heart'

Fever Ray is the new project by Karin Dreijer of The Knife. The debut album is being released in the US on March 24th via Mute.  Not unlike The Knife, Fever Ray sounds like Satan singing torch ballads in a post-apocalyptic cabaret.  The result is haunting, sinister, and epic.  
Here is the creepy video for the new single 'If I Had A Heart', directed by Andreas Nilsson, known for his elaborate videos for Jose Gonzales and The Knife...