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10 New Tracks You Need to Hear This Week: Lower Dens, Oneohtrix Point Never

By Tom Hawking on

With the release schedule pretty much all wound down for the year, the stream of downloadable tracks has also largely dried up. Over the next few weeks, we’re therefore replacing our regular grab-bag of free MP3s with a more general roundup of new tracks that we reckon are worth hearing, downloadable or otherwise. Never fear, though — the downloads will be back in January! In the meantime, click on through to see what’s been floating our boat this week in terms of new music — there’s a pretty awesome Lower Dens remix, new stuff from Widowspeak and Foals, a free Oneohtrix Point Never rarity, Marnie Stern vs. Infinite Jest, a shitload of Lawrence English’s field recordings, why we love Bear Ceuse, and more. Click through and get listening! … Read More

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Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Can, Azealia Banks

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. The most notable piece of action this week is one of the tracks from The Lost Tapes, the new Can compilation over which we’ve been salivating for quite some time. Elsewhere, there’s a potentially #seapunk track from Azealia Banks, a new Mission of Burma track, Los Campesinos! covering The Beautiful South, new work from Slug Guts and Laetitia Sadier, a Cold Cave rarity, and an entire mixtape from Charli XCX. In other words, there’s plenty of interesting sounds awaiting you after the jump, and since they won’t cost a penny or land you an RIAA lawsuit, as your attorneys we advise you to start downloading immediately. … Read More

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Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Iggy Pop, Dan Deacon

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week there’s, um, Iggy covering the Black Keys, along with a slew of other interesting new tracks — everything from the return of Dan Deacon and Los Campesinos! to a new signing for one of our favorite labels and a soundtrack for entering a spaceship and leaving Earth for good. In other words, there’s plenty of interesting sounds awaiting you after the jump, and since they won’t cost a penny or land you an RIAA lawsuit, as your attorneys we advise you to start downloading immediately. … Read More

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Music

A Very Twee Valentine’s Day: 10 Indie Pop Love and Heartbreak Songs

By Sophie Weiner on

Twee pop may seem an obvious go-to for a Valentines Day playlist, with its reputation for painfully sweet melodies and lyrics coupled with cutesy instrumentation and aesthetics. However, as we’ve explained before, this genre isn’t just Zooey Deschanel and heart-shaped sugar cookies. With this playlist for your indie-pop Valentine’s Day, we’ve rounded up the best twee music both for basking in love and wallowing in heartbreak — or, you know, just telling it all to go to hell. As with all music in this genre, whatever the subject, if it’s not making you feel at least a bit warm and fuzzy, it should start looking for new work. … Read More

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Music

The Best Indie-Pop Singles (and Albums) of 2011

By Sophie Weiner on

Los Campesinos! have come a long way in five years of playing music together. When we heard the Welsh band’s Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP in 2007, we were instantly enamored of their twee-pop earworms with lyrics that you couldn’t help shouting along to. Since then, they’ve released three albums, each with progressively darker lyrics and a more aggressive, dissonant sound. So we were amused and unsurprised to hear that their new album, to be released tomorrow in the US, would be titled Hello Sadness, and were excited to absorb it in full (it’s now streaming over at NPR).

But Los Campesinos! are hardly the only twee band to grace us with new music in 2011. For those of you who are new to the indie-pop world, or who haven’t visited it in awhile, allow us to catch you up. Pop music has always been more about singles than albums, particularly in the age of iTunes. Inspired by Hello Sadness‘s lead single, “By Your Hand,” we’ve gathered up a selection of the best indie-pop songs of this year. As a bonus, we’ve also rated how well the album stands up in comparison. Enjoy, and tell us what we left out in the comments. … Read More

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Music

5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: REM, Oneohtrix Point Never

By Tom Hawking on

Another week, and another Monday morning. Let us ease you into Monday with our selection of the best albums streaming for free across the web. It’s a real mixed bag this week, with everything from shouty Welsh popsters Los Campesinos! to the atmospheric electronica of Oneohtrix Point Never, from the smooth space disco of Trentemøller to the urban alienation of Childish Gambino. Oh, and three new REM tracks. It’s all after the jump, so click through and get a-listenin’. … Read More

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Music

The Year’s 10 Best Underrated EPs

By Zoë Leverant on

Although many of us treat it like the LP’s short, weird cousin that everyone forgets to invite to parties, the EP is a rewarding but surprisingly difficult form to master. Often an opportunity for an artist to experiment with a new sound or expand on past ones, its tracks must be memorable but not overbearing. The perfect EP should satisfy on its own but still leave the listener anticipating a musician’s next release. With an overwhelming number of fantastic albums released in 2010, only a few EPs attracted widespread interest, leaving many worthy ones in the dust. Here are ten we think deserve a closer listen, perfect bite-sized records for your hungry ears, listed in no particular order. … Read More

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Web

Secret Messages, Mall Makeovers, & America’s Sassiest Boy [Morning Links]

By Caroline Stanley on

Books: Someone’s not such a big fan of Jodi Picoult [via Guardian]
Dance/Opera: Critics condemn London show featuring Israeli Defense Force dance troupe [via Guardian]
Design: Daniel Libeskind reinvents the mall (video) [via BW]
Film: The truth about those Lord of the Rings prequels [via Paste Mag]
… Read More

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Music

Exclusive: Catching Up with Harriet of Los Campesinos!

By Chris Kompanek on

The exclamation point in their band name is telling: Last year alone Los Campesinos! released two albums and now they’re now back in the States touring with Titus Andronicus, focusing on what Sarah Palin would call “real America” — you know, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma. They’ll end this leg of the tour with a two-night sold out stint at the Bowery Ballroom this weekend, but before these kids from Cardiff bring their delightfully twee indie pop to New York, we caught up with violinist Harriet Campesinos! (pictured above, far left) to chat about Heartland audiences, the free DVDs they’ve been scoring off fans, and the fact they aren’t going prog (yet).

Read the full interview after the jump. … Read More

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Music

Kanye West, Jay-Z and Thom Yorke Celebrate Obama’s Historic Win

By Iza Wojciechowska on

Musicians like Obama: KANYE WEST and JAY-Z made a song about Obama’s win and leaked it yesterday. “WE MADE HISTORY” is supposed to appear on Jay-Z’s forthcoming album BLUEPRINT 3. THOM YORKE is also in on the post-election euphoria, remixing his 2006 “HARROWDOWN HILL” to celebrate the president-elect. As of last week, it’s been available for free download on his site, because RADIOHEAD likes to do that. [Gigwise, NME]

But they don’t like fur: Apparently BURBERRY makes more than just expensive plaid — they also make clothes using real fur. And apparently many indie rock bands don’t like this Furberry fiasco and have made their opinions known. LOS CAMPESINOS!, ART BRUT and aptly named groups like SUPER FURRY ANIMALS and THE WOMBATS are among the bands that have signed a PETA petition, and some musicians have released statements decrying the abuse of our furry friends by the label. Maybe they’ve all been watching too much Shiba Inu Puppy Cam. [NME]

Can you guess which indie band recently cried wolf? … Read More

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