i think i better follow you around

A24 will be releasing Steve McQueen’s new film, “Occupied City” on December 25th, which is a 4 hour documentary based on Bianca Stigter’s “Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945).

The synopsis reads: “The past collides with our precarious present in Steve McQueen’s bravura documentary Occupied City, informed by the book “Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945),” written by Bianca Stigter. McQueen creates two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city, and a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest. What emerges is both devastating and life-affirming, an expansive meditation on memory, time, and where we’re headed.”

Steve McQueen shares this about the film: “At first, I had this idea for an artwork that would project the present onto the past. My wife was writing this book and while talking to her, I thought it would be great to film the book. I didn’t think in a million years that my wife and I would collaborate, but somehow this emerged. With the rise of the far right being very vocal and given an actual platform, it’s being legitimized. I think when you get the images of what’s happening now and the actual stories of the past and put them together, it makes us question everything. It wasn’t a case of wanting to do something long. It was a case of wanting to do something right.”

Tiburona have shared the first single, “Pensando En Ti”, off their upcoming second album “Nos Extinguimos” out in January via Montgrí Records.

The video for the song was directed by Paula Puchi and Claudia Gracia.

Tiburona shared this about the song: “”Pensando En Ti” explores the implicit violence in the act of loving, in how desire, passion and obsession come together to create a portrait of the monstrosity of love elevated to its maximum power. Falling in love as a chase against the clock, as a terrifying attempt at possession, as a need for recognition and acceptance of our deepest shadows…in a dark lake, between the night and the green neon lights, between fishing rods and pastel colors.”

Pussy Riot have shared a new video, “Swan Lake”, just ahead of their new tour “Riot Days”.

The video was directed by Anna Aristarkhova in collaboration with Alisa Gorshenina (Alice Hualice).

Pussy Riot shared this about the song and video via a press release: “Children are the most vulnerable in this war. Children should not suffer. We demand the immediate release of all abducted Ukrainian children.”

Pussy Riot just started their US tour and this is a description of what their performance is: “Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. It’s a story of resistance, repression and revolution in a mixture of concert, rally, theatre and political happening.”

Helado Negro has shared the first single, “LFO”, off his upcoming 8th album “PHASOR” out February 9th via 4AD.

Tracklist:

01. LFO
02. I Just Want to Wake Up With You
03. Best For You and Me
04. Colores Del Mar
05. Echo Tricks Me
06. Out There
07. Flores
08. Wish You Could Be Here
09. Es Una Fantasia

The video for the opening track was shot, edited and directed by Roberto Carlos Lange, Helado Negro himself.

The title of the track stands for Lupe Finds Oliveros, which refers to Lupe Lopez and the minimalist composer and sonic meditation practitioner Pauline Oliveros. Lopez was a Mexican American woman who worked for Fender Guitar building amplifiers in the 50’s. All the amps were marked on the inside by a piece of masking tape with the amp builder’s name on it.

Helado Negro shares this about the inspiration behind the song: “Lupe’s amps are sought after, her care and touch apparently harnessed a special sound from this design. I fell in love with this story and this legacy and the mythology surrounding it. How craft touches us so deeply in the smallest ways. Deep care for the littlest things makes all the difference.”

Helado Negro will be on tour to support the album after it is released in February. Dates are below.

Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen did the score for A24 Celine Strong directorial debut “Past Lives”.

TRACKLIST:
1. If You Leave Something Behind
2. Crossing
3. You Gain Something Too
4. Do You Remember Me
5. I Remember You
6. Across The Ocean
7. Crossing II
8. In Yun
9. We Live Here
10. Why Are You Going To New York
11. Staring at a Ghost
12. Bedroom
13. An Immigrant and a Tourist
14. Eight Thousand Layers
15. See You
16. Quiet Eyes – Sharon Van Etten

The synopsis for the film reads like this: “Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.”

Bear shared this about it: “What a pleasure it was to score this film with Rossen and make music I feel very connected with. It still is a little bit of a mystery how it all came together. In the end, we had started developing those thoughts and where those themes would reappear into a color-coded graph where we’d say, ‘these three things are related because they’re telling this story. And then there’d be certain cues mainly focused on one of the themes in the film but maybe more of a theme related to Nora (Lee) and Arthur’s (Magaro) relationship, but then also still leaving in hints from her childhood relationship. We’d figure out interesting ways of intermingling those while simultaneously trying to do that so it’s not overbearing or bonking over the head…to let the viewer have their own feeling and have their own emotional interaction.”

Rossen shared this: “Grizzly Bear’s music was licensed in the past for films, but we’d never scored anything together, that’s for sure. It’s been a while since we had worked on anything together so it was an exploratory thing to see what that would mean for both of us, given our separate studio setups for me in Santa Fe and Chris in LA. I felt like it was a bit of a rediscovery process for us too, figuring out the scoring.”

Agender have shared the first single, “Damaged Girls”, off their upcoming album.

The video for the song was shot, edited and directed by Romy Hoffman.

David Scott Stone who co-produced with Romy Hoffman shared this about it: “I co-produced this with Romy at my studio at the beginning of the year, a mere 6 months after the last record we did together “No Nostalgia” was released. Savage track, a post punk slayer and the most extensive production and arrangement we’ve done together. Layers and layers of synths, thundering non-linear drums (now with stereo OH’s), unrelenting bass slashing guitars and as always Romy’s great vocals and lyrics.”

Agender will be playing next month at the Substance festival in L.A. at the Globe Theater.

bar italia have shared the second single, “jelsy”, off their upcoming album “The Twits” out November 3rd via Matador Records.

Tracklist:

1. my little tony
2. Real house wibes (desperate house vibes)
3. twist
4. worlds greatest emoter
5. calm down with me
6. Shoo
7. que suprise
8. Hi fiver
9. Brush w Faith
10. glory hunter
11. sounds like you had to be there
12. Jelsy
13. bibs

The band will be presenting the album via an art show in London which will be on display at the Frieze exhibition space on October 27th.

IDLES have shared the first single, “Dancer”, off their upcoming new album “TANGK” out February 16th via Partisan Records.

TRACKLIST:
01 “IDEA 01′
02 “Gift Horse”
03 “POP POP POP”
04 “Roy”
05 “A Gospel”
06 “Dancer”
07 “Grace”
08 “Hall & Oates”
09 “Jungle”
10 “Gratitude”
11 “Monolith”

The single features LCD Soundsystem James Murphy and Nancy Whang. Joe Talbot shared this about the song: “Is the violence that comes from the pounding heart of the dancefloor and rushes through your body and gives you life from music, from love and from you.”

The album was produced by Nigel Godrich and engineered by Mikki Gordon.

The video was directed by Jocelyn Anquetil.

Talbot shared this about the album: “TANGK. I needed love. So I made it. I gave love out to the world and it feels like magic. This is our album of gratitude and power. All love songs. All is love.”

The band will head out on a European tour beginning February 2024. No additional dates have been announced for North America, yet.

Noah Yorke has shared a new single, “Return Again (If I Wait)”, off his upcoming EP “Cerebral Key” which will be out via sly-tone Records.

Noah Yorke shared this about the release: “it was my first time in a studio for my own work

It was a great experience, and I am proud of the results. It has been a reflective and formative process to write and record this project for you, and I hope you enjoy it.”

Many many things are on the way from me and from sly-tone records, and I will post more soon about what’s to come! Thanks for being here.”