Wednesday Music News

06/14/2017

Jasmine Albertson

Beach House are releasing a compilation called B-Sides and Rarities, which features (you guessed it) previously unreleased B-sides and rarities on June 30 via Sub Pop. Today, they shared a video for the track "Chariot," which was self-directed by the band. The video depicts a movie theater audience watching stock footage prominently featuring former President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy, with a few appearances by Marilyn Monroe, while selected lyrics from the song occasionally flash beneath. The band explained the compilation in a statement, saying: "The idea for a B-sides record came when we realized just how many non-album songs had been made over the years, and how hard it was to find and hear many of them. This compilation contains every song we have ever made that does not exist on one of our records." [ Under the Radar ]

Last night, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The group performed “Rings of Saturn,” a standout from last year’s fantastic Skeleton Tree. The band recently released the career-spanning compilation Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 1984-2014. Skeleton Tree was released along with the intimate documentary One More Time With Feeling. Nick Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis recently scored Brad Pitt’s new film, War Machine. The band is on tour right now but is, unfortunately, skipping Seattle. If you're willing to road trip, you can either see them in Portland on Wednesday, June 21st at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall or in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday, June 22nd at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. [ Stereogum ]

Death From Above (f.k.a. Death From Above 1979) have shared their first music video since their name change for the single "Freeze Me." The video directed by Corey Adams follows what seems like a body-building cult as they spend a lavish day hanging out in a mansion while dancing, eating corn dogs (served by Death From Above's Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler), swimming, and, of course, working out before watching the rest of the world go up in flames. DFA are playing a handful of dates but none that include Seattle. [ Consequence of Sound ]

Last year, Rostam Batmanglij announced that he was leaving Vampire Weekend to work on a solo project and we now have an official announcement of that project. The debut solo album will be called Half-Light and will be released under just his first name Rostam. The album includes the previously released single "Gwan" as well as the just-released "Bike Dream." In a press statement, Rostam explained his choice of the title Half-Light. “When I read its definition, and found that it had a double meaning—that it referred to both dawn and dusk—I started to think of how those times of day are part of so many lyrics on this album,” he said. The idea of dualities also refers to ethnicity and sexuality, he said: “Any person growing up in America with immigrant parents experiences this dichotomy, of feeling both double and half. It’s something a lot of us who identify as queer experienced growing up as well, slipping between straight and gay worlds, code-switching. I say experienced in the past tense because I don’t know that that’s the experience today’s kids will have. Things are changing.” Half-Light is out September 8 from Nonesuch. [ Spin ]

Arcade Fire are never ones to do simple and straightforward promotion for an album or single release. For their upcoming single "Creature Comfort" they've created Creature Comfort Cereal, which they shared an advertisement for yesterday. They've now taken it another step by hiding the boxes of cereal around Dublin. Fans who locate the cereal gain admittance to a party after their show at Dublin's Malahide Castle today. “Creature Comfort” will likely appear on Arcade Fire’s forthcoming album Everything Now (out July 28 via Columbia). [ Pitchfork ]

Is it your lucky day? #CreatureComfort pic.twitter.com/wukPetLBYS
— Everything Now (@EverythingNowCo) June 14, 2017

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