Teezo Touchdown has shared his cover of ‘Making Flippy Floppy’ for Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense. It follows Paramore’s rendition of ‘Burning Down the House’. Take a listen below.
Everyone’s Getting Involved, which is put together by A24, also features contributions from Lorde, Miley Cyrus, the National, BADBADNOTGOOD, Blondshell, girl in red, Jean Dawson, Kevin Abstract, the Linda Lindas, Toro y Moi, and more.
Kate Bush has been announced as the ambassador for Record Store Day UK 2024, which takes place on April 20. As part of the celebration, Bush will reissue ‘Eat the Music’, from 1983’s The Red Shoes, on a 10″ vinyl, with ‘Lily’ and ‘Big Stripey Lie’ as B-sides.
Bush shared the following statement accompanying the announcement:
What a huge honour to have been asked to be Ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day. It really is a great privilege.
Isn’t it great to see how the resurgence in vinyl has taken the music industry by complete surprise? It had decided to leave vinyl far behind, but it would seem that not everyone agrees! I love that! I know there are many, many artists who are just as excited to see the audience turning the tide.
In the same way that some people like to read a book on Kindle but also want to have a book as a physical object, a lot of people like vinyl and streaming. Both have different appeals.
The added bonus of vinyl is that it encourages people to listen to albums. An art form that I’ve always thought can be treasured in a unique way.
An album on vinyl is a beautiful thing, given a strong identity by its large-scale artwork. There’s a much more personal connection with the artist and their work.
It’s been fun putting designs together for some of the previous RSDs. This year’s design echoes the cancelled release of Eat the Music as the first single from the album, The Red Shoes.
The image was intended to be on the cover of the single bag and is now on the disc as a UV print.
The title, Eat the Music, is meant to be a playful nod to ‘If music be the food of love, play on,’ from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Each year Record Store Day gathers more attention, more momentum, and attracts more people who cram into indie record stores all over the world to see what’s up. What’s new?
This year, I hope you have a fantastic time at this very important event, and that you get to celebrate music that’s been specially released for you.
Very best wishes,
Kate
In America, Paramore will serve as the ambassadors for this year’s American Record Store Day.
Rosali has released the title track from her upcoming album Bite Down, which arrives March 22 on Merge Records. It follows previous singles ‘Rewind’ and ‘On Tonight’. Check out its self-directed video for it below.
“I had a string of conversations with close friends and family during the first year of the pandemic and a lot of talk that would circle around to everything feeling pointless,” Rosali explained in a statement. “‘Bite Down’ is about perseverance over the drowning depression with a prayer to come up for air, to keep living. In our isolation, finding community and support is necessary. We can find freedom when we find humility and compassion for others and are able to receive the same. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, everything has a price — energetically speaking — we are responsible for each other and for all living things.”
Charli XCX has announced that her new album is titled Brat, and it’s set to drop in the summer. The 15-track LP clocks in at 41 minutes and 23 seconds. A new single called ‘Von Dutch’ will be out tomorrow, February 29.
On X, Charli XCX recently called Brat “a club record,” adding “i was born to make dance music.. i came from the clubs.. xcx6 is the album i’ve always wanted to make.”
Charli XCX’s fifth album, Crash, arrived in March 2022. Last October, she collaborated with Sam Smith on the single ‘In the City’.
View this post on Instagram
Mdou Moctar have announced a new album called Funeral for Justice. The follow-up to the Nigerien quartet’s 2019 breakout Afrique Victime arrives May 3 via Matador. Check out a video for the lead single and title track below, and scroll down for the album cover, tracklist, and the band’s upcoming tour dates.
“This album is really different for me,” Moctar, the band’s singer, namesake, and guitarist, said in a press release. “Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.”
“Mdou Moctar has been a strong anti-colonial band ever since I’ve been a part of it,” commented producer and bassist Mikey Coltun, who has been playing with Moctar since 2017. “France came in, fucked up the country, then said ‘you’re free.’ And they’re not.”
“Ilana was the gateway album, saying that this is a raw rock band. And Afrique Victime was a summation of that vision,” added Coltun, who recorded the new LP over five days in a mostly unfurnished house in upstate New York. “With Funeral for Justice, I really wanted this to shine with the political message because of everything that’s going on. As the band got tighter and heavier live, it made sense to capture this urgency and this aggression – it wasn’t a forced thing, it was very natural.”
In 2022, Moctar released the Niger EPs Vol. 1 & 2.
Funeral for Justice Cover Artwork:
Funeral for Justice Tracklist:
1. Funeral For Justice
2. Imouhar
3. Takoba
4. Sousoume
5. Imagerhan
6. Tchinta
7. Djallo #1
8. Oh France
9. Modern Slaves
Mdou Moctar 2024 Tour Dates:
Apr 14 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Apr 21 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Jun 5 – Atlantic City, NJ – Anchor Rock Club
Jun 6 – Harrisburg, PA – The Abbey Bar at ABC
Jun 7 – Richmond, VA – Cheers Brown’s Island
Jun 8 – Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom
Jun 9 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Jun 11 – Charleston, SC – Pour House
Jun 12 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
Jun 13 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
Jun 14 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo
Jun 15 – Indianapolis, IN – The Hi-Fi
Jun 18 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
Jun 19 – Detroit, MI – Magic Bag
Jun 20 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
Jun 21 – Buffalo, NY – Asbury Hall
Jun 22 – Greenfield, MA – Green River Music Festival
Jun 23 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
Jun 26 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
Jun 27 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Jun 28 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Cigarettes After Sex have announced a new album, X’s, which will be out July 12 on Partisan. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new song ‘Tejano Blue’, which you can hear below.
“The record feels brutal,” bandleader Greg Gonzalez said in a press release. “I could sit and talk about this loss to someone, but that wouldn’t scratch the surface. I have to really write about it, sing about it, have the music, and then I can start to analyse and learn from it. Or just relive it—in a good way. I don’t have that Eternal Sunshine-thing of wanting to forget.”
Commenting on the first single, Gonzalez added:
I grew up in El Paso & Tejano music is huge there. You could go to a lot of the bars in the city and hear artists like Selena, Los Ángeles Azules & La Mafia playing over the speakers. It was in the atmosphere around me back then, but I always rejected it and gravitated towards anything else I was attracted to really.”
Years later when I was living in New York City I finally started listening to Selena’s ‘Como La Flor’ at the same time that I was also listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins. I had the idea then to try to combine both of their sounds somehow, which felt a bit strange, but also felt like it was coming from a genuine place of rediscovering & finally connecting with the music that I heard around me in my youth.
The band have also announced a world tour in support of the album, including dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden and London’s O2 Arena.
X’s Cover Artwork:
X’s Tracklist:
1. X’s
2. Tejano Blue
3. Silver Sable
4. Hideaway
5. Holding you, Holding me
6. Dark Vacay
7. Baby Blue Movie
8. Hot
9. Dreams From Bunker Hill
10. Ambien Slide
Tara Jane O’Neil has returned with news of her first album in seven years. The follow-up to her 2017 self-titled effort is titled The Cool Cloud of Okayness, and it’s out April 26 on Orindal Records. Check out the lead single ‘Curling’ below’, along with the cover artwork and tracklist.
Recorded at O’Neil’s home studio in Upper Ojai, California, the new LP features contributions from her partner, dancer and choreographer Jmy James Kidd, drummer/percussionist Sheridan Riley of Alvvays, multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements, and, on a couple of tracks, guitarist Meg Duffy of Hand Habits.
Speaking about the new song, O’Neil shared in a statement:
‘Curling’ began as a bass figure, discovered on one of many afternoons in a desert studio inside the first year of the pandemic. Jmy Kidd and I spent the time there keeping our public practices of dance and music going but in private chambers of improvised realities. Most of the music on The Cool Cloud Of Okayness started in this way and then found fuller shape with time, intention, and Sheridan Riley on drums and Walt McClements on his effected accordion. Like mantra, propulsion, persuasion, ‘Curling’ is a repetitive drone piece, rendered as a lively jam.
Lyrically this became a portrait of a shapeshifter- transforming, transfiguring, evolving and surviving. With an eye toward the queer kids coming up in my hometown during this era of legislative oppression against inclusion, expression, and safety.
To quote another song from the record, ‘joy is a form of fight, We bright’
One step more, forward.
The Cool Cloud of Okayness Cover Artwork:
The Cool Cloud of Okayness Tracklist:
1. Cool Cloud of Okayness
2. Seeing Glass
3. Two Stones
4. We Bright
5. A Dash
6. Glass Island
7. Curling 05:32
8. Fresh End
9. Kaichan Kitchen
Chastity Belt have put out a new single, ‘Chemtrails’, from their forthcoming album Live Laugh Love. The track comes with an accompanying video directed by Ertuğrul Yaka, which you can watch below.
“‘Chemtrails” started off as a jam when we were rehearsing for an upcoming tour,” the band’s Julia Shapiro explained in a statement. “I started playing that initial lead guitar part without thinking, and the rest came together pretty naturally after that. Gretchen’s drums along with Annie’s bass really drive the song – the drums remind me a bit of Protomartyr (love those boys!), and Lydia’s lead guitar line in the chorus is very rock n roll. The lyrics are about not being able to let go of things and retracing memories in your head. I reached out to Ertuğrul Yaka about animating something to the song because his work is often pretty dark and introspective, and he came up with a video that really fits the vibe.”
Live Laugh Love comes out March 29 via Suicide Squeeze Records. In addition to ‘Chemtrails’, it includes the early singles ‘I-90 Bridge’ and ‘Hollow’.
Shabaka Hutchings has announced his debut solo LP under the mononym Shabaka. Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, the follow-up to 2022’s Afrikan Culture EP, is due for release on April 12 via Impulse!. It finds Hutchings focusing primarily on flutes and softer woodwinds, with contributions from André 3000, Esperanza Spalding, Moses Sumney, Brandee Younger, Floating Points, Laraaji, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, Elucid, and more. To accompany the announcement, Hutchings has shared a Phoebe Boswell-directed video for lead single ‘End of Innocence’, which you can check out below.
‘End of Innocence’, and the album more broadly, “really signifies a departure for me, a departure from the bands that I’ve become known for playing in, and the arrival of the flutes in general,” Hutchkings explained. “I bring a lot of flutes to the album and explore different kind of sonic terrains, although for this track in particular, it’s not actually the flute, it’s the clarinet. It’s my first instrument, the instrument that I consider to be my primary instrument, so it’s really going back to what I feel most comfortable with.”
Opening up about the collaborative process behind the LP, Hutchings shared: “I invited a bunch of musicians I’ve met and admired over the past few years of touring throughout the United States to collaborate and everyone said yes, which I constantly find breathtaking,” he disclosed. The musicians gathered at Rudy Van Gelder’s historic studios, which “informed the sound of so many seminal jazz albums that have shaped my musical aptitude. We played with no headphones or separation in the room so we could capture the atmosphere of simply playing together in the space without a technological intermediary.”
Hutchings added: “Around the release of the Shabaka and the Ancestors album We Are Sent Here by History, I coined the term ‘sonic poems’ to express how I’m intending the listener to relate to the words associated with the sounds contained on the disc. Each title on this disc was extracted from a longer poem written specifically for the album which only achieved its full meaning in the presence of the music.”
Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Cover Artwork:
Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Tracklist:
1. End of Innocence
2. As the Planets and the Stars Collapse
3. Insecurities
4. Managing My Breath, What Fear Had Become
5. The Wounded Need to Be Replenished
6. Body to Inhabit
7. I’ll Do Whatever You Want
8. Living
9. Breathing
10. Kiss Me Before I Forget
11. Song of the Motherland
Keeley Forsyth has announced her third album and debut for FatCat’s 130701 imprint, The Hollow. It’s out on 10 May. To mark the announcement, Fosyth has shared a video for the lead single ‘Horse’, which you can check out below.
‘Horse’ was inspired by Bela Tarr’s final film, The Turin Horse, and Forsyth reached out to its composer Mihály Vig to ask for permission to “reimagine” his soundtrack score. “With this track, I roamed, capturing vocals in different spaces, forging a connection as I sang,” Forsyth explained in a statement. “I imagined battling against an invisible force, facing down challenges, pressing on, determined to breathe in this. I chose to refuse to be shackled by the chains of language here, surrendering instead to the primal dance of my body’s urges. My mouth moves in sync with the shallow breaths of my gut, and impulse guiding my every wordless utterance.”
The Hollow, which follows 2022’s Limbs, features guest appearances from Colin Stetson and Matthew Bourne. It was produced by Keeley and Ross Downes.
“We wanted to make something slightly more expansive, continuing to reference what we love from various genres without ever belong-ing to one,” Forsyth said of the record. “It’s with this ethos that we recognise aspects of sacred music, minimalist post-classical, dark ambient, film and theatre soundtracks. Forsyth layered her vocals into chamber choirs, applied pitch shifts and other digital processing, and speaks directly with clear articulate intention one moment to mumbled numb utterances in the next.”
The Hollow Cover Artwork:
The Hollow Tracklist:
1. Answer
2. The Hollow
3. Come And See
4. Eve
5. Turning [feat. Colin Stetson]
6. A Shift
7. Slush
8. Drag Me Down
9. Do I Breathe
10. In The Corner
11. Horse
12. Creature [feat. Matthew Bourne]
Quick Access
Our Culture
Helpful
© 2025 Our Culture Mag Limited. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 2/1/2025) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 2/1/2025). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Our Culture Mag Limited.
