Farm workers unite (in kink)

Los Campesinos have a new LP out. Another solid effort in their string of good albums. "Hello Sadness" is the single and sounds appropriately campesino: fun and catchy but with well-thought, deeper-than-they-seem lyrics.

The video is a little weird, but their videos tend to be that (see here). Humiliation, feeders/gainers, S&M... all in good fun. Enjoy the kinkiness:

Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness from casey raymond on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of www.eqmag.com

The stag, the wolf and the two headed snake

I'm not gonna say much on this because you've probably heard it or read it in a million other blogs/magazines/interviews/tv shows. Fleet Foxes' new album is pretty epic. It's complex, beautiful and sad.

Robin Pecknold and company crafted a beautifully complicated song in The Shrine/An Argument, reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel and Pink Floyd — and Robin's brother, Sean, directed and animated a truly astounding video to go with it. It's pretty incredible how he manages to marry the sounds of the band with an amazing sense of story and style. It just fits. All around an amazing job.

Truly worth checking out in its almost 9 minute glory.

The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Hurting Touch

Loads of great videos have come out in the past week... I'll be sharing them with you throughout the next few days. But today I'm sharing perhaps my favorite of the bunch.

England's Friendly Fires released their second full-length earlier this year, shock-full of fun, dancy tunes... definitely check it out, it is conveniently streaming on Spotify.

Their latest video is for "Hurting" and it features a killer electric hottie with a thing for making TV-face miserable. What can I say, sometimes it's hard not coming back for more.

Have fun!

This special report from Last Choice news

So Cults, they're pretty popular. There's also a band from NY named cults that's popular too. Around the time they started to take off a rumor surfaced that the plan included a hip hop remix of their first album [sic]. Well apparently, drinking the kool aid doesn't always get you killed. Cults teamed up with Freddie Gibbs, a self described gangsta rapper from Gary IN, and released a remix of Bad Things. Honestly, I'm drinking the kool aid now. I thought this was either a.) never going to happen or b.) going to be a shitty attempt a blending genres better left separate. I was wrong. If you don't know F. Gibbs, you probably will soon. I've included a video from Cults for those of you for whom this post is lost on.

Hypetrak Premiere: Cults featuring Freddie Gibbs - Bad Things (Remix) by Hypetrak

Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.

san diego bands are good too

Wolf here. Guest posting again!

Cuckoo Chaos is a new band from San Diego, CA. In fact, had you been at our SxSW party you would have seen these fine young men. Frontman Dave Mead (handsome guy in the front there) happens to be a close friend of mine since high school. These days though they are rather popular seeing as Nylon and the NY Times are writing rave reviews. But I guess you've really hit the big time when I walk into Urban Outfitters and they are they are playing your song (really, I that happened to me a couple weeks ago and I wanted to tell all the snotty hipster employees "You know, I'm friends with these guys. So there!")


CuckooChaos-JesusFlagAmericanFish by NYLONmag

Enjoy!

Can I just pretend you're mine?

Timber Timbre is a Canadian band that has a few albums under their belt, garnering some quiet praise in the past few years, especially for their eponymous 2009 album.

They've got a new album out called Creep On Creepin' On and have just released the video for their first single "Do I Have Power." It's a beautiful animated story about a bad, bad boy suffering the consequences. The video was animated and directed by Carlos De Carvalho, who has some awesome work that you can see here.

You can download the song for free from Spinner.com

Enjoy the bluesy, creepy sound of Timber Timbre:

Do I Have Power - Timber Timbre (2011) from Carlos De Carvalho on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of Spinner.com

We are one

I don't usually like to re-post things that have come up in pitchfork or other big music blogs, but Die Antwoord is an old favorite of the blog (see here), and the news surrounding their new album and new video is too fun not to pass along.

They've just left Interscope Records due to creative differences — apparently Interscope wanted to tone down some of their lyrics — but they're going to be releasing their new album TEN$ION on their own... in my opinion it'll be better that way. Boingboing.net interviewed them, they said that they would only release the album on digital form and flash drives "because CDs are like motherfucking VHS."

Anyway, here's the video for their first single "FOK JULLE NAAIERS" of their yet unreleased album. But before you watch it, watch this short disclaimer by Ninja, explaining the use of profanity. It's all cool Ninja, it's all cool.

FAGGOT from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.

FOK JULLE NAAIERS from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.

Awesome Yolandi Vasser art by artist David Flores

Classic Hits from Cuba and Classic Hits

Last Choice ran into Casio Kids during my first SxSW in Austin TX. Although we only saw them play once that week, it certainly wasn't for lack of effort. These guys are also a part of one of my favorite music memories in Austin or at least my most memorable. The punch line is that they were introduced as Classic Hits and continued referring to themselves as that all week. They also got the joke when I drunkenly ran into them a year later. Thanks Casio.

Casiokids - Det Haster! from Kristoffer Borgli on Vimeo.

2pm on Sunday is something I look forward to every week. This is when for one brief hour we're treated to one of the most thoughtful modern hip hop shows. Hip Hop Hurray and Miss Manners have yet to disappoint. This past Sunday dj t-kay was filling in and did around the world in 60 minutes. The first track was off a new Cuban hip hop compilation that I don't think is for sale, but streams below.

Fun Fun Fun

I've got to admit I'm a little lukewarm on the Fun Fun Fun Fest lineup. Maybe it's a result of living in Austin long enough to be jaded. Or maybe it's because I'm not a devout follower of Slayer day. Or maybe I finally hate music. Or maybe I need some coffee.


Admittedly, I am pretty excited about Henry Rollins, Boris, and Russian Circles.

But let's be serious--I'm motherfucking stoked about Hot Snakes. I like their newer projects (Obits and Night Marchers), but nothing ever really beats the real thing. Speaking of the real thing, let's get Drive Like Jehu next year FFFFest. mmkay?

Here's a promo video for "Braintrust" off of Audit in Progress.

French Fairytale #1

In the about section of their facebook, Cours Lapin have written: "A theatrical underworld of twisted French fairy tales..."

The Danish band gives us its first of hopefully many fairy tales with Cache Cache, where semi-adorable girl zombies pop up from the ground to haunt a perfectly nice looking lady. The video is shot beautifully by Nadia Marquard Otzen.

The band consists of four film composers, and you can definitely get the cinematic vibe of the tune. Louise Alenius' voice is poetic and old fashioned without feeling dated at all. I really, really like it.

Their first album (I think) also called Cours Lapin came out last year through Fake Diamond Records.

Cours Lapin - Cache Cache from Fake Diamond Records on Vimeo.