Ample Play Records Release FREE Sampler

    UK electro-Britpop-Indian fusion band, Cornershop, recently released their 8th studio album, Urban Turban, and want you to join in the celebration. Not only are they still offering 10% off the album when you order it from their website, but they’re giving you an easy way to check out the other great artists on their Ample Play label, too. Posted earlier this week at The Quietus, the free sampler offers tracks from Ample Play regulars like Jack Lesser Lewis and Matsuki Ayumu, as well as their latest signing, The Sufis.
    Check out Urban Turban via full album streams at AOL/Spinner or Globetronica, then head to the Cornershop headquarters, punch in the code “AMPLA7” and get 10% off your own copy of Urban Turban.
    Individually download the tracks and artists you want from the sampler, or click below to buy the whole set:

MV & EE Release Record, Stream Tracks

If you were to look over the discography of MV & EE you wouldn’t think that they’d be able to put out any more records, I think they have a thousand releases. But you’d be wrong. The new record, Space Homestead, comes out today, May 15^{th on} Woodist and they’re streaming a couple of the songs.

Admittedly I haven’t really listened to anything they have put out since Ragas of the Culvert but it is one of my all time favourite chilling out, smoking pot and taking a nap record, sorry Brightblack Morninglight, so I am pretty stoked on this.

Give the two songs a listen; if you’re like me, and enjoy lazy psychedelic Sunday afternoons with nothing to do, this might be a record for you.

Here are some live dates as well.

05/15 Baltimore, MD - Golden West Cafe 05/16 Washington DC - DC9 05/17 Hudson, NY - Spotty Dog 05/18 Montague, MA - The Bookmill 05/19 Biddeford, ME - The Oak and the Ax & 06/03 Becket, MA - Dreamaway Lodge 07/14 Asheville, NC - Inner Mountain Festival - The Grey Eagle (Acoustic and Electric sets) %  & = w/ BR Garm % = w/ dredd foole, willie lane, samara lubelski / herbcraft

Animal Collective Teases New Music

Fans of the psychedelic experimental music group Animal Collective will be excited to learn of the bands surprise announcement to release at last, a follow up to 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavillion. The new album, rumoured to be titled ‘Centipede HZ’, has yet to be given an official date of arrival, aside from sometime in September. However, in the past two weeks Animal Collective has been tantalizing fans with new dropped tracks that have been going viral, titled Honeycomb and Gotham.

Furthermore, a recent teaser video for the 2012 album has surfaced that gives us nothing but subliminal hints and clues about this album. In a distinctly Animal Collective fashion, we can all sit back and just fascinate over what kind of freaky electronic laser rock we can look forward to.



More “Know” about Animal Collect
Animal Collective Official Site

New Videos This Week - Dan Mangan, Wanting, Kanye West and More...

This has been a busy week for videos as artists are gearing up their PR campaigns for summer touring. It's a pretty varied mix, but there are some pretty big releases - namely, Dan Mangan, Kanye, Jack White, and Maximo Park. Which one's your fav?

Dan Mangan - About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All

Dan Mangan was THE indie darling in Canada last year, and for good reason. He almost reminds me a little bit of Feist during her The Reminder heyday - they are both just so cute. I appreciate that Canadian audiences will accept 'cute' musicians (as in, not everyone needs to be Taylor Swift gorgeous) that are clever and talented. This video goes well with the whimsical nature of the song.

A$AP Rocky - Goldie (NSFW)

As a relative newcomer to listening to hip hop (say, maybe six or seven years), it's been interesting to watch how it's evolved from a street-style, dirty money aesthetic to white collar designer chic. A$AP Rocky follows in the steps of "Louis Vuitton Don" Kanye West, repping Christian Louboutins, a "Comme Des FuckDowns" hat (a play on the relatively small Japanese label "Comme Des Garcons"), and enlisting help of Michelle Obama-designer-darling Alexander Wang to style the video.

Wanting - Drenched

I recently received Wanting's debut album, Everything in the World, to review and it's incredibly beautiful. The songs are all really great pop-ballads, and Wanting's voice is so, so beautiful. I'm also impressed by her lyrical aptitude, especially since she only learned how to speak English when she came to BC for boarding school at the age of 16. She also included some Mandarin songs on her album, which I think is really great. There's so much world culture here in Canada, and the Mandarin songs are just as beautiful as the English ones, even if I can't understand them. I feel this video doesn't do the song much justice, but it is only the first single so we'll have to watch for the next one. Watch for my full review of the album shortly.

Maximo Park - Hips and Lips

I was really excited to hear that Maximo Park is releasing their fourth studio album next month. The lead single, "Hips and Lips", is pretty good, bringing a bit more of a true rock influence into the mix as we've seen with Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian lately. The video is cute, focusing on a superfan that has dedicated a lipsynching video the the band. There's a funny little reveal at the end - I guess that's how he got the single first.

SBTRKT - Hold On Ft. Sampha

I'm so, so glad they made a video for this track. A friend had showed this to me a month or two ago, and I really liked it - it has that middle-of-a-breakup, angsty, emotional feeling that 99% of people can relate to. People change, and it's hard to see your once-partner giving you the cold shoulder. Anyway, the video is pretty quiet, and to be honest, I find it a little confusing. Maybe I need to watch it a few more times.

SBTRKT (feat. Sampha) - Hold On from ben boullier on Vimeo.

Kanye West - Lost in The World

This track isn't really new, but I guess Kanye had some extra time on his hands after wrapping up the Watch the Throne tour? He's taken the Bon Iver sample from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and embellished it with a few more rhymes and some backup singers. It's not that bad for what seems to be an 'afterthought' track, and when he starts rapping it gets a lot better. The video is pretty slick, mixing shots of girls, Kanye looking distraught and cloud watching.

Jack White - Love Interruption

I was a little surprised at how much attention Jack White's solo album, Blunderbuss, was receiving lately (it went to #1 not too long after its release) until I heard this song. It's a nice little country-folk track that channels some of the deep-south Tenessee culture White's been experiencing lately. I like his all girl band and co-vocalist, but does anyone else find it weird that so many attractive women go after him? Obviously this particular girls were paid to be in the video and/or in the band, but he was married to Karen Elson for six years.. I don't know. He reminds me of a rock star version of Edward Scissorhands.

New Songs New Songs New Songs! From Melody's Echo Chamber + CocoRosie

Its old news, CocoRosie’ announcing the release of "We Are On Fire" b/w "Tearz For Animals" 7" (digital as well), coming out June 5^th on Touch & Go. Well, today, in the year twenty-twelve, Monday the 7^th of May, We Are On Fire is available to the great unwashed, streamed to your ears via conduits and copper.  

The girls have a few shows planned to commence on June 6^th, cruising around California for four days. Voila!

06/06 San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom * 

06/07 Santa Cruz, CA Rio Theatre *   

06/08 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up *   

06/09 Los Angeles, CA Luckman Fine Arts Complex *

*w/ Sissy Nobby 

Also, the French psych-pop soloist Melody’s Echo Chamber, let slip a song from an upcoming Fat Possum 7” being released later this year. The record was recorded in her grandparent’s beach house in Cavalière France and mixed by Kevin Parker of Tame Impala.

She threatens to tour the US in the fall.