i think i better follow you around

Benefits have shared a new single, “What More Do You Want”, off their recently released album “Nails” out now via Invada Records.

The video for the song was directed by John Kirkbride.

Kingsley Hall shared this about the track: “It’s about the corruption of power and the nagging possibility that things weren’t necessarily better in the old days, despite what everyone says, and how harking back to them may not bring you the glory you desire. It’s one of the noisiest songs we’ve ever constructed, completely designed with a brutal sonic impact in mind. Dale’s drums clang and clatter in a really beautiful way, they’re harsh and heavy but there’s a melody to them. Hugh and Robbie hurl giant slabs of noise into the mix and it all builds to be a monster. Despite the chaos, this is probably Benefits in our purest, noisiest form.”

The band is on the last shows of their European tour, they are also slated to play Glastonbury, however no dates for the USofA (nor Tijuana) have been announced yet. Hopefully that changes soon.

bar italia have shared their second single, “punkt”, off their upcoming album “Tracey Denim” out May 19th via Matador.

TRACKLIST:

1. guard
2. Nurse!
3. punkt
4. my kiss era
5. F.O.B
6. Missus Morality
7. yes i have eaten so many lemons yes i am so bitter
8. changer
9. Horsey Girl Rider
10. NOCD
11. best in show
12. Clark
13. harpee
14. Friends
15. maddington

The camera work for the video was handled by Mario Suardiaz.

The band will be doing a short, and from what it looks like, a sold out tour of NY and LA in June. Which we imagine would be followed by a somewhat more extensive tour in the Fall or Winter.

Clark has released the fourth single, “Dolgoch Tape”, off his Thom Yorke produced album “Sus Dog” out May 26th via Throttle Records.

Clark shared this about the song: “It was written for a friend to try to bring something consoling, and satisfying, but not in a fobbing-them-off way.”

Clark will head out on tour in June to support the album. No additional dates have been announced yet.

Killer Mike has shared a new song, “Don’t Let The Devil”, off his upcoming solo album “MICHAEL” to be released June 16th.

Killer Mike shared this about the upcoming album: “”MICHAEL” is my most autobiographical and independent album to date. RTJ is the X-Men, this is my Logan.”

The single was produced by No I.D., El-P, and Little Shalimar. Killer Mike added: “My favorite group (US) with my favorite producers! It’s our 10 year anniversary and MICHAEL is an origin story so I wanted to start w/ El.”

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit have shared the third single, “Cast Iron Skillet”, off their upcoming album “Weathervanes” out June 9th via Southeastern Records / Thirty Tigers.

TRACKLIST:

1. Death Wish
2. King Of Oklahoma
3. Strawberry Woman
4. Middle Of The Morning
5. Save The World
6. If You Insist
7. Cast Iron Skillet
8. When We Were Close
9. Volunteer
10. Vestavia Hills
11. White Beretta
12. This Ain’t It
13. Miles

One of the few things Isbell shared about the track was: “If we romanticize the past, we can’t really learn from it.”. Even though after reading that it might come in more like a life lesson than a reflection. Either way the song is amazing and devastating at the same time.

Jason Isbell shared this about the album via a press release: “There is something about boundaries on this record. As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.”

PJ Harvey has shared the first single, “A Child’s Question, August”, off her upcoming album “I Inside The Old Year Dying” out July 7th via Partisan.

TRACKLIST:
1. Prayer at the Gate
2. Autumn Term
3. Lwonesome Tonight
4. Seem an I
5. The Nether-edge
6. I Inside the Old Year Dying
7. All Souls
8. A Child’s Question, August
9. I Inside the Old I Dying
10. August
11. A Child’s Question, July
12. A Noiseless Noise

The video film was directed by Steve Gullick and PJ Harvey. The song also features backing vocals by Ben Whishaw.

PJ Harvey shared this about the album: “the record is a resting space, a solace, a comfort, a balm; which feels timely for the times we’re in. I think the album is about searching, looking and the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning.”

PJ Harvey also shared this about the recording process: “If I Inside the Old Year Dying is a very tactile, human record, that is partly because just about everything on it is rooted in improvisation: spontaneous performances and ideas, recorded at the moment of their creation.”

Guadalupe Plata have shared the third single, “El Cóndor Pasa”, off their upcoming (seventh) self titled album out May 5th via Everlasting Records.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Calima
2. La Cigüeña
3. Tia Tragantía
4. Al Infierno Que Vayas
5. En Mi Tumba
6. Ruina
7. Zapateado
8. El Cóndor Pasa
9. No Hay Dónde Ir
10. Y.N.T.M.A.
11. Nunca Llueve Como Truena
12. Malefico
13. Stabat Master

The video for the song was created and directed by Pilar Anguno & Paco Campano.

The story behind the song that was composed by Daniel Alomía Robles in 1913 and that’s been covered in multiple languages including Simon & Garfunkel in their seminal album “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is that it was the song that was used to teach Pedro De Dios how to play guitar with by his father.

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.