Bloc Party have shared a new music video for ‘Traps’, the first single from their upcoming sixth studio album Alpha Games. Directed by Alexander Brown (James Blake, La Roux) and produced by Ellis Fox (Rudimental), the clip sees the band performing the track in a packed warehouse. Check it out below.
Alpha Games is set for release on April 29 via Infectious/BMG.
Penelope Isles have shared a new music video for ‘Have You Heard’, a track from their latest LP Which Way To Happy. Check out the Jamie Thraves-directed clip below.
“I heard Penelope Isles on 6 Music and was blown away,” Thraves, who has directed the music videos for Radiohead’s ‘Just’ and Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’, said in a statement. “They seemed to channel all my favourite bands in one. I’ve been into this idea of reaching out to new bands via Instagram to see if they’d be into my music video work and Jack and Lily were open from the get go. They gave me an absolute gem of a track in ‘Have You Heard’ and they were totally open to what I wanted to do visually. This video is a nod and reference to a number of videos and short films I’ve made in the past, themes I’m interested in, and they gave me total freedom to do what I wanted. They are total stars and very down to earth and lovely people. They were so much fun to work with and we had a blast.”
Penelope Isles previously shared videos for the album tracks ‘Sailing Still’, ‘Iced Gems’, ‘Sudoku’, and ‘Terrified’. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Penelope Isles.
Robbie Shakespeare, the influential Jamaican bassist and producer best known as half of the duo Sly & Robbie, has died. The Gleaner reports that Shakespeare died in a Florida hospital after undergoing kidney surgery. He was 68 years old.
Born in 1953, Shakespeare was raised in East Kingston, Jamaica, surrounded by a musical family. After learning to play acoustic guitar as a child, he switched to bass when the legendary reggae bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett agreed to teach him. He later got an opportunity to play in the Revolutionaries, the house band at Channel One Studio, which is where he met drummer and longtime musical partner Sly Dunbar. In the mid-1970s, they split off from Channel One and started Taxi Records, their own production company. They formed their own band, Sly & Robbie, and continued playing as studio musicians on records like Culture’s 1977 LP Two Sevens Clash and Gregory Isaacs’ 1978 album Cool Ruler.
Sly & Robbie were also the focus of the Compass Point All-Stars, the group of studio musicians who worked at Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios in Nassau. There, they contributed to records by Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, and Robert Palmer. As they become more well-known, the pair played on albums such as Bob Dylan’s Infidels and Empire Burlesque and the Rolling Stones’ Undercover. As lead artists, Sly & Robbie released a number of albums between 1981 and 2014, most famously 1987’s Rhythm Killers, which featured an ensemble of musicians including Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell. In 2020, Rolling Stone named Shakespeare the 17th best bassist of all time.
“When it comes to reggae bass playing, no one comes close to having the influence of Robbie Shakespeare,” Jamaican prime minister Robert Holness wrote on Twitter. “He will be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music industry and Jamaica’s culture.”
“I am in shock and sorrow after just receiving the news that my friend and brother, the legendary bassist Robbie Shakespeare has died,” Jamaica’s Minister of Entertainment and Culture Olivia “Babsy” Grange said in a statement. “[Sly & Robbie] took bass playing and drumming to the highest level as they made music for themselves as a group, and for many other artists locally and internationally,” Grange continued. Robbie’s loss will be felt by the industry at home and abroad. He will be sorely missed.”
Lady Pills – the project of Boston-based songwriter Ella Boissonnault – has announced a new album: What I Want lands on February 11 via Plastic Miracles. The first single, ‘My Weight’, is out today, and you can check it out below.
The follow-up to 2019’s Pink Void, What I Want was written and recorded over the course of several months last year and is “a collection of endings, grief, and trauma, but told through the lens of someone who gained the autonomy and confidence to push through anyway,” according to a press release. “I hope this record inspires the same for anyone who hears it,” Boissonnault said in a statement. “What I Want serves as a painter’s canvas or a room full of tools that the listener can do what they want within.”
What I Want Cover Artwork:
What I Want Tracklist:
1. Daughter
2. Actin’ Tough
3. My Weight
4. Ugly
5. What I Want
6. The Conditions
7. She Said
8. Your Real Life
9. Mundane
10. Family
Khruangbin and Leon Bridges have announced their second collaborative EP. Texas Moon, a companion piece to last year’s Texas Sun EP, will be out February 18 via Dead Oceans/Night Time Stories Ltd. Lead single ‘B-Side’ arrives with an accompanying visual directed by Philip Andelman and shot in the J. Lorraine Ghost Town in Austin. Check it out below.
“Without joy, there can be no real perspective on sorrow,” Khruangbin said of the new EP in a press statement. “Without sunlight, all this rain keeps things from growing. How can you have the sun without the moon?” The group’s Laura Lee added, “It’s like a short story. And it leaves room to continue having these stories together. It’s not Khruangbin, it’s not Leon, it’s this world we created together.”
Khruangbin released their latest LP, Mordechai, in 2020. Bridges’ most recent album was last year’s Gold-Diggers Sound.
Texas Moon EP Cover Artwork:
Texas Moon EP Tracklist:
1. Doris
2. B-Side
3. Chocolate Hills
4. Father Father
5. Mariella
Arooj Aftab is the latest artist to perform on NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’ series. Accompanied by violinist Darian Donovan Thomas, bassist and synth player Shahzad Ismaily, guitarist Gyan Riley, and harpist Maeve Gilchrist, the singer played three songs from her latest album Vulture Prince: ‘Suroor’, ‘Mohabbat’, and ‘Saans Lo’. Watch it below.
Aftab issued Vulture Prince back in April via New Amsterdam. Along with sharing her Tiny Desk concert, the Brooklyn-based Pakistani artist has now announced her signing to Verve. “We are so proud to welcome Arooj to the Verve Records family,” Jamie Krents, Head of Verve Records, said in a statement. “Arooj has made history with these [Grammy] nominations and we look forward to helping even more listeners discover the Vulture Prince album and her future recordings.”
Aftab was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Global Music Performance (for ‘Mohabbat’) at the 2022 Grammy Awards. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Arooj Aftab.
Moses Sumney has released a new concert film called Blackalachia. Starring and directed by Sumney himself, the 67-minute live performance film was created over two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina and features rearranged versions of songs from 2020’s græ and 2017’s Aromanticism. Watch it via WeTransfer below.
“Over the course of two days, we filmed 14 songs, totally live, the trees as our audience, the grasshoppers our background singers,” Sumney said in a press release. “The film is a wild imagining of what can happen when we seek not just to reclaim nature, but to reintegrate with it.”
The Live from Blackalachia album component will be out on December 10 via Sumney’s own label, TUNTUM.
Broken Social Scene have announced Old Dead Young: B-Sides & Rarities, a compilation of B-sides, rarities, and outtakes from across the band’s two-decade-long career. It’s set for release on January 14 via Arts & Crafts. The first single is a studio version of ‘This House Is on Fire’, an outtake from the sessions for 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. Check it out below, along with the full tracklist.
The collection will mark Broken Social Scene’s first proper release since their 2019 EPs Let’s Try the After Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
Old Dead Young: B-Sides & Rarities Tracklist:
1. Far Out (2009, From the Forgiveness Rock Record Pre-Order EP Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights)
2. Do the 95 (2001, B-Side to “Stars and Sons” 7″)
3. Curse Your Fail (2009, From Tour 7″ Split With Sea and Cake)
4. Not at My Best (2010, From the End Credits for Film It’s Kind of A Funny Story)
5. National Anthem of Nowhere (2004, Early Broken Social Scene Version of an Apostle of Hustle Song)
6. Golden Facelift (2009, Forgiveness Rock Record Outtake. Released on Globe & Mail’s Broadsheet Music Project)
7. This House Is on Fire (2009, Forgiveness Rock Record Outtake)
8. Canada vs America (2004, From the “Self-Titled” Bonus CD EP To Be You and Me)
9. Day of the Kid (2005, Released on Arts & Crafts 20th Anniversary Comp)
10. Stars and Spit (2006, B-Side to “7/4 Shoreline” 7″)
11. Until It’s Dead (2006, From Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Compilation At the Barricades: Vol 1)
12. All My Friends (2004, From the “Self-Titled” Bonus CD EP To be You and Me)
13. Death Cock (2001, Very First Recording With Producer Dave Newfeld. Released on A&C 20th Anniversary Comp)
14. Old Dead Young (2016, Hug of Thunder Vinyl-Only Track)
Girlpool have returned with ‘Faultline’, the Los Angeles duo’s first single of the year. The track comes paired with a Julian Klincewicz–directed video starring the group’s Harmony Tividad. “The Faultline represents everything you do as a means of escape that pushes you further into the very thing you’re escaping,” Tividad said of the new song in a statement. Watch and listen below.
‘Faultline’ follows Girlpool’s 2020 single ‘Like I’m Winning It’, which was remixed by Devonté Hynes, Porches, and Lydia Ainsworth for the Touch Me (It’s Like I’m Winning It) EP. Also last year, the duo shared a remix of Alanis Morisette’s ‘Reasons I Drink’. Their third LP, What Chaos Is Imaginary, arrived in 2019.
Porches, aka Aaron Maine, has shared a cover of Harry Styles’ ‘Adore You’. Check it out below.
“I thought it would be interesting to strip down ‘Adore You,’ this huge pop song, and see what happened,” Maine explained a statement. “I feel like I was really able to get lost in it and create this kind of eerier and darker version.”
Porches released his latest album, All Day Gentle Hold !, earlier this year.
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