i think i better follow you around

The National have shared the last single, “The Alcott”, before releasing their new album “First Two Pages Of Frankenstein” via 4AD.

The lyric video for the song was directed by Michael Brown.

The National have a long history of collaborating with artists like Sharon Van Etten, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Carin Besser, St. Vincent, Lisa Hannigan, Gail Ann Dorsey and many more, so it’s refreshing to see that they give space to up and coming artist like this Taylor Swift artist, hopefully she can use this to get her career jump started.

Aaron Dessner shared this about the song in a press release: “Matt wrote the main part of the song to some music I had written which Taylor had heard and I knew liked, so I thought it might be something she would really click with. I sent it to her, and was a little nervous as I didn’t hear back for 20 minutes or so. By the time she responded, Taylor had written all her parts and recorded a voice memo with the lyrics she’d added in a dialogue with Matt, and everyone fell immediately in love with it. It felt meant to be.”

Keaton Henson has shared “I’m Not There”, the third single, off his upcoming album “House Party” out June 9th via Play It Again Sam.

Keaton Henson said of the song: “I think I started writing this having (accidentally) caught sight of a video of me on stage, and just thinking that I didn’t recognise any of myself in it at all. The song itself though is about coming home from performing, or touring, or just being someone else publicly, and feeling like you need to just sit still and look for who you really are. It’s about the wind down, where you allow yourself to be human and flawed, and the fear that maybe one day you’ll come home or offstage, look for that real you, and not be able to find it.”

About the album Henson said this: “I wanted to make an upbeat confident pop record about depression and being a performer, written from the viewpoint of an artist who has hollowed himself out over a long career in the name of success, an alternate universe version of me, who is left empty and lonely from climbing to the top, but is still only able to express these feelings in the language of confident, performative pop songs.”

Those sentiments sound very familiar to the ones shared by Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke many years ago and that were documented in the film “meeting people is easy”. That being said this song feels a lot like an R.E.M. song and that’s a great thing.

Spotlights have shared their second single, “Sunset Burial”, off their upcoming album “Alchemy For The Dead” out April 28th via Ipecac.

The video was directed by John Pope and edited by Mario Quintero.

Mario Quintero shared this about the song: “’Sunset Burial’ is a self-reflective story about what goes through our minds while waiting to die. What it’s like to deal with feeling something as inevitable as death, and the last minute hope and fear that goes with it. All the while, feeling the calm and relief of passing on.”

The band will head out on a tour to support the album starting in late April.

Dave Lombardo has shared the second single, “Separation From The Sacred”, off his upcoming album “Rites Of Percussion” out May 5th via Ipecac.

Lombardo previously shared this about the album and the process of creating it: “Mike Patton originally gave me the idea as far back as 1998. He introduced me to Tito Puente’s Top Percussion album. I was already familiar with Tito and was a bit shocked that Patton was so musically diverse, and that he surrounded himself with musicians of the same mindset. That inspired me. I have had ideas that I’ve recorded on cassette over the years, but Patton kept insisting that I had to do a ‘drum album.’ So, the idea behind the album is years in the making. I just had to find the right time—for me—to do it. When the pandemic hit, I thought, ‘Well, I can’t tour now. I immediately started working on the record. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. I had my studio, all my drums. Nothing was in storage for once! My home became a place where I could be free and creative. On the one hand, the touring part of my livelihood had been taken away, but on the other, I finally had the time to educate myself on different software and recording techniques. It was a very educational and gratifying experience.”

The Antlers have shared a new single “I Was Not There which is out now via Transgressive.

The song was produced and engineered by Peter Silberman and mixed by their frequent collaborator Nicholas Principe. In addition to Michael Lerner’s drums, and Silberman’s vocals, piano and other instrumentation, the track also features Logan Coale (The National) on upright bass.

Peter Silberman says of the song: “Perhaps counterintuitively, “I Was Not There” is about the elusive experience of complete presence. Across three scenes, the song describes fleeting moments of clarity and wholeness, and the accompanying feeling of leaving yourself.”

Depeche Mode have shared the second single, “My Cosmos Is Mine”, off their album “Memento Mori” which was released March 24th.

TRACKLIST:
01 “My Cosmos Is Mine”
02 “Wagging Tongue”
03 “Ghosts Again”
04 “Don’t Say You Love Me”
05 “My Favourite Stranger”
06 “Soul With Me”
07 “Caroline’s Monkey”
08 “Before We Drown”
09 “People Are Good”
10 “Always You”
11 “Never Let Me Go”
12 “Speak To Me”

Dave Gahan said of the album opening track: “‘My Cosmos Is Mine’ just captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy.”

Martin Gore shared this about it: “It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to, I’m excited to be able to share it.”

Murray A. Lightburn has released the original soundtrack he wrote for the movie “I Like Movies” which was written and directed by Chandler Levack.

TRACKLIST:
01. Main Theme
02. Welcome To Sequels
03. I’m Gonna Hire You
04. I Love Doing Inventory
05. The Greatest Boss You Have Ever Had
06. Two Tickets To Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love, Please
07. I See You As A Placeholder
08. Do I Have To Wear The Sash?
09. Lawrence Walks Home
10. You Don’t Deserve A Frosty
11. Wild Things
12. So Your Mom Told Me About Your Dad
13. Do You Think I Could Just Sleep In The Store?
14. What Is Your Malfunction Lawrence?
15. Lawrence And His Dog
16. Hey!
17. Imagine The Ocean In Castaway
18. It Just Never Ends With You
19. Year End Movie
20. Steel Magnolias
21. We’ll Always Have Reject’s Night
22. Mr. Sub
23. Main Theme II (End Credits)

The film is based on Levack’s experiences working at a Blockbuster video store in the early 2000s in Burlington, Ontario.

Lightburn shared this about the score:
“A key piece in this process was ‘So Your Mom Told Me About Your Dad’. I woke up one morning with that melody in my head and immediately hummed it into a recorder. I went to the studio and worked with the scene where I heard the piece. I was able to see how this theme was telling the story of Alana and Lawrence and got to work. Chandler and I would have regular Zoom meetings with me playing feeds direct from the console in the studio with rough cuts of the film. I was eager to show her that piece and I think we both knew it was working. By the end, Chandler was in the studio with me, contributing musical ideas that really put a button on that particular scene in the parking lot. It was truly fun and wonderful collaboration like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”

Levack shared this: “Murray has crafted the greatest score in Canadian cinematic history for I Like Movies. When thinking about who could best articulate the emotional landscape of an angsty teenaged Blockbuster employee, I turned to the musician who got me through high school. Growing up in Burlington, Ontario, the 2003 album No Cities Left by The Dears was the only thing that helped me survive. The emotional intensity of Murray’s songwriting and sweeping orchestral configurations that turned Montreal ennui into perfect indie rock healed my soul and gave me some indication of what my future could look like. I was so honored when Murray agreed to score my first feature film. We had an incredible collaboration when he wrote an original rock song for my first short film We Forgot to Break Up and working with him on my first feature was an equal joy. The soundtrack to I Like Movies is quirky and heartbreaking with iconic earworms that give the Ontario suburbs their first-ever cinematic close-up. I’m so grateful to Murray for creating such a beautiful score and so excited for audiences to get to experience it”.

The National have shared their third single, “Eucalyptus”, off their upcoming album “First Two Pages Of Frankenstein” out April 28th via 4AD.

TRACKLIST:

1. Once Upon A Poolside (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
2. Eucalyptus
3. New Order T-Shirt
4. This Isn’t Helping (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
5. Tropic Morning News
6. Alien
7. The Alcott (feat. Taylor Swift)
8. Grease in Your Hair
9. Ice Machines
10. Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
11. Send for Me

The video for the song was directed by Chris Sgroi. Bryce Dessner said this in a press release: I had sent the song to Berninger so long ago that he’d forgotten about it, but Berninger wrote lyrics a few hours before the show and asked to perform it that night. “We rehearsed it twice without ever having had a demo and played it to the audience that night, and what you hear on the album was partially recorded during that performance. It’s got this raw, immediate feeling, and it made sense to leave the rough edges instead of trying to perfect them.”

Berninger said this about the lyrics: “Throughout the record there’s a lot of looking into the abyss and wondering if a relationship has run its course. “Eucalyptus” is about a couple splitting up their possessions after a breakup — like, “What are we going to do with the spring water we get delivered, what’s going to happen to all these plants?” It’s about all those little things you end up having to think about when you’ve become so connected to someone'”

David Tedeschi and Martin Scorsese co-directed, “Personality Crisis: One Night Only”, which is a documentary about David Johansen (New York Dolls).

“This film tells the definitive story of the culture-defying David Johansen, notorious ’70s glam punk lead singer of the New York Dolls. Framed around an intimate cabaret performance filmed in January 2020 at New York City’s storied Café Carlyle, PERSONALITY CRISIS: ONE NIGHT ONLY reveals Johansen’s enormous influence, transcending the walls of music as a window into the art and cultural evolution of New York City.”

Scorsese shared this via a statement: “I’ve known David Johansen for decades, and his music has been a touchstone ever since I listened to the Dolls when I was making Mean Streets,” Scorsese said in a statement. “Then and now, David’s music captures the energy and excitement of New York City. I often see him perform, and over the years I’ve gotten to know the depth of his musical inspirations. After seeing his show at the Café Carlyle, I knew I had to film it because it was so extraordinary to see the evolution of his life and his musical talent in such an intimate setting.”