Following two special NY shows this past weekend at The MET and Le Poisson Rouge, Liars are offering fans a free download of two new tracks, “I Saw You From The Lifeboat” and “Perfume Tear.” A download of these tracks will “automagically” enter you in to win a piece of original artwork by Liars.
“I Wish That I Were Stone” is the mascot track from former PJ Harvey collaborator Mick Harvey‘s sixth solo album, FOUR (Acts of Love), out via Mute April 29th in the UK and June 11th in the US. Give the track a spin in the embedded SoundCloud player below. According to Mute’s copy on the forthcoming LP, FOUR is a bittersweet meditation on romantic love; “its loss, re-awakening, our ongoing struggles with it and its place in our universe.” The album is divided into three acts and plays out as a continuous song cycle. Unsurprisingly, PJ Harvey makes a canorous cameo on the track, “Glorious.” Harvey’s renown is three-fold: His career with The Birthday Party and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds; his soundtrack work on Chopper, To Have And To Hold and Australian Rules; and his production acumen on PJ Harvey’s Mercury Prize winning album, Let England Shake. [Via Mute].
The track is curiously titled, “Hey, guys! I Know The name Of The Culprits,” and can be streamed via the embedded player below. The track marks the second single to spawn from their upcoming album, “Hope Only Brings Pain” (Irregular Label), releasing March 14th.
Their latest record, The Terror (available for preorder now), is described by frontman Wayne Coyne as “bleak” and “disturbing.” From what I’ve heard so far, it appears to carry the DNA of the grim psychedelic aesthetic in 2009’s Embryonic — most assuredly a good thing. What follows is the walloping, 12-minute track, “You Lust,” if only to whet your palate.
Four years after their last effort, 2008’s Keep Your Eyes Ahead, Portland-based indie rockers The Helio Sequence are set to release their fifth LP Negotiations this fall on Sub Pop Records. Earlier this summer, the duo unleashed “October”, a simple gem of a pop song rife with soaring melodies and spacious, Eno-esque production. Now they’ve treated us to “Hall of Mirrors”, a song with equal parts of melodic goodness and sonic interest. Both are streaming below for your listening pleasure.
Sometimes music is like sex. It can be awkward and clumsy. Messy. Repetitive. But most times, it is an ecstatic pleasure without comparison. It can heighten the senses and take us to a world between reality and fantasy.
Panda Sanchez @ The Velvet Lounge in NW DC (July 25th)
In Harsh Light editor Richard Sanchez here. Bandmate Tayne Kim and I (a.k.a., Panda Sanchez) are playing at DC9 tomorrow night in NW DC. Doors open at 8PM. The Panda takes the limelight at 8:30 PM, opening for Tigertronic (9:30 PM) and headliners Gracias, Pero No Gracias (10:30).
Hey party people, Goodbye, Labrador (the Brooklyn-based indie punk band that got especial mention in our IHL Music Round-up last Friday) is releasing their refulgent, glimmering track, “Memoir,” as a free download here. It’s also embedded below for your ease of comfort (noise cancellation headphones recommended. You know you own a pair).
Mute Records recently announced the signing of Land Observations, alongside debut album Roman Roads IV – XI, set to release on September 4th, 2012.
In the sphere of mildly-to-wildly unlikely indie/pop music collaborations (see The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends and/or Little Broken Hearts), a quirky co-LP comes in the form of Love This Giant (4AD), courtesy of St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark and former, iconic Talking Heads lead David Byrne. According to the excerpts on their official site, the pairing was a clever matchmaking effort by Housing Works (a HIV/AIDS awareness community) in the fall of 2009 to conjoin Clark and Byrne for a night of new music on behalf of a charity event.