March 2012
71 posts
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Kasper Bjørke - Lose Yourself to Jenny
Copenhagen’s Kasper Bjørke has a new a new album called Fool coming out tomorrow. At first, we were like “Who the hell releases an album on a Saturday?” and then we realized why the album (his fourth for those counting) was given that title. Yup, it’s April Fool’s day on Sunday, except this isn’t a joke. The album will be available via HFN Music starting that...
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Slagsmålsklubben - Jake Blood
At long last, Swedish bit-poppers Slagsmålsklubben (their name is a comically literal Swedish translation of the title of the novel and film Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk), often abbreviated as SMK, are finally back with a fourth album (their first since 2007’s excellent Boss for Leader). “Jake Blood” is the first single (video directed by Unni Håkansson) from the group’s...
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Niki and the Dove - Tomorrow
Niki and the Dove have unveiled their new video for single “Tomorrow.” It is the opening track from the Swedish duo’s forthcoming debut album Instinct, which is released on the 14th May via Sub Pop.
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Owl Eyes - Crystalised
Melbourne’s Brooke Addamo is 21-year-old Owl Eyes and she may be the next big thing to come out of Australia. In fact, she is already “big.” Back in 2008, Addamo was a finalist on the sixth season of Australian Idol. Two years later, she was featured on Australian hip hop artist Illy’s single “It Can Wait,” a track that made it to #28 on Triple J’s...
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The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather
Keeping up with the “mysterious” theme from the last post, Los Angeles quintet The Neighbourhood (by the way, we love the fact that they spelled “Neighbourhood” with a “u” but hey, maybe they’re trying to appeal to our Canadian bias) are slowly but surely becoming the talk of the music blogosphere right now, partially because not much is known about...
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Elliphant - In the Jungle
Stockholm’s Elliphant is a real enigma; her real identity is still unknown to the internet, we think we know what she looks like from the pics she posts on the her social networks accounts but we’ve yet to see her in a music video, and there’s no information about any upcoming EP or album anywhere. All we know is that she is an artist under the charge of company Ten, the...
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Frankie Rose - Night Swim
Watch the video for Frankie Rose’s “Night Swim,” taken from her album Interstellar, available since February via Slumberland Records. Video directed by Laurel Parmet.
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Mary Epworth - Black Doe
Mary Epworth, sister of Paul Epworth (British producer extraordinaire, look at his impressive résumé here if you don’t know who he is—We guarantee you that you’ve heard a track that he’s worked on before), has had the video for “Black Doe” up on YouTube for the last two months now but it has somehow slipped under our radar until now. It’s a powerful track; we...
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Bahamas - Caught Me Thinking
Toronto’s Afie Jurvanen, who goes by the name of Bahamas (if his name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s part of the Arts & Crafts/Broken Social Scene extended family, having played with Feist, Amy Millan and Jason Collett among others), has just released a video for the very catchy “Caught Me Thinking” in which we can see him modeling a variety of hats as he...
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Dum Dum Girls - Coming Down
Watch the new video from lo-fi noise rockers Dum Dum Girls for “Coming Down,” taken from their 2011 album Only in Dreams available via Sub Pop. You can grab the track for free via their Soundcloud: yoink!
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Regina Spektor - All the Rowboats
Regina Spektor is back with a new song and video! “All the Rowboats” from her forthcoming album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (her first since 2009), which will available everywhere starting May 29 via Warner. The video was directed by Adria Petty & Peter Sluszka.
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Van She - Idea of Happiness
Aussies Van She have been readying up their second record Idea of Happiness with Tony Hoffer (his résumé includes work with Beck, Air, Phoenix and M83) for the past months. The final product is due out on July 6th, but their label, Modular Recordings, has just posted the title track of the album on their Soundcloud page to give us a taste of things to come. Sophomoric jinx? What sophomoric...
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The Hundred in the Hands - Faded
Brookyn electro post-punkers The Hundred in the Hands’ 2010 eponymous (and also debut) album was a masterpiece. It’s a term we don’t just throw around; it really was our favourite album from that year. And when they opened for Temper Trap (should’ve been the other way around) at Le National during the Pop Montreal festival, they totally killed. It is for those reasons...
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Julia Holter - Moni Mon Amie
L.A.’s experimental singer-songwriter Julia Holter’s second album Ekstasis (out on Rvng Intl) has been on regular rotation on our iPod for the last two weeks (it’s great to listen to on cold Montréal Winter nights, by the way), and our favourite track from it has just gotten the visual treatment. Here is the sepia-tinged video, directed by Belarusian-Israeli director Yelena...
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Catcall - The World is Ours
Sydney’s one woman band Catcall (Catherine Kelleher) makes poppy new wavish music reminiscent of Go-Go’s, but maybe we are just thinking that because of the cheerleader outfits in the Yvette Paxinos-directed video, who knows… What we know is that dig it and so should you. The track is taken from her debut album The Warmest Place which is due out on May 4th on Ivy League...
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Chromatics - Kill for Love
Following a series of delays, dreamy Portland electro-pop crew Chromatics’ long-awaited Kill for Love is finally available (it was initially scheduled to be released last January) via Italians Do It Better. The band had been steadily leaking videos (we’ve embedded all 5 of them here to save you the work) for the past months and now the wait is finally over. Tracklisting can be found...
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Garbage - Blood for Poppies
Garbage’s fifth album Not Your Kind of People won’t be released until May 15th, but thankfully, we won’t have to wait until then to get a taste of it. In fact, we get more than just a little taste of the album… in the form of two full tracks (out of the total of fifteen). Make sure you catch them at Osheaga on August 4th.
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Best Coast - The Only Place
The Southern Californian duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno, better known as surf rock band Best Coast, will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore album The Only Place via Mexican Summer on May 14th. Produced by the reputed Jon Brion (who had previously worked with Fiona Apple and Kanye West on their albums, on top of creating the scores for films such as Eternal Sunshine of the...
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Reptile Youth - Speeddance
Copenhagen-based duo Reptile Youth (that’s Mads Damsgaard Kristiansen on vocal duties and Esben Valløe on bass) has released its debut single “Speeddance,” out now via HFN Music (also home of Kasper Bjørke and Trentemøller). The track is killer and has been playing on loop all weekend long on our iPod. Possibly the best one we’ve heard in 2012 thus far, and in a perfect...
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Playlist: Hot Shit 003
Here is our 3rd official mixtape (previously: 1st & 2nd). New one posted every two weeks, for those not in the know), with most tracks taken from our posts from the past two weeks. Made with Everyone’s Mixtape. Bon weekend!
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Beach House - Wishes
As you may have heard, Beach House are coming out with their fourth album on the 15th of May via Sub Pop. Music nerds everywhere have been raving about “Myth,” the first song that has surfaced from the album on the interwebs, and you can include us in that group, but the gem of the album (yes, we are admitting to having snatched the leaked album) lies in “Wishes.”...
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Dragonette - Let It Go
The Toronto’s electro-dance trio Dragonette (Martina Sorbara, Dan Kurtz and Joel Stouffer) are putting the finishing touches on their yet-to-be-titled third album (which is rumoured to have 13 tracks) as we are speaking. They’ve been teasing us with some snippets that via their Soundcloud page. You can listen to them below. The first single off the record, “Let It Go,”...
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Saint Saviour - Fight
We have some Saint Saviour (real name: Becky Jones) news for you: her long-awaited debut album, titled Union, will be released on the 25th via her own label Surface Area. “I Call This Home” will be the first single off it. Finally, the first teaser appears in the form of a new song called “Fight” which you can download here. You can also grab her cover of Siouxsie and the...
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Ladyhawke - Anxiety (sampler #1)
Our favourite Kiwi, Ladyhawke (known as Pip Brown to her family and friends), has just shared a teaser video from her forthcoming album Anxiety. The clip, titled “Sampler 1” (which pretty much implies that there should be at least another one coming soon!), features 4 tracks from the album: “Sunday Drive,” “Black, White & Blue,” “Anxiety” and...
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Designer Drugs - Drop Down
Nu-ravers Designer Drugs (Michael Vincent Patrick and Theodore Paul Nelson) are back at it again. This time, they’re unleashing an official video for “Drop Down.” It’s directed by Kevin Calero and it’s taken from their first album Hardcore/Softcore which has been out since the beginning of last year via Ultra Music.
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Cosmo Black - Blind
Melbourne shoegazer Cosmo Black (whom by day goes by the name of Steph Hughes) drops a video from his forthcoming debut EP Break Before You Bend (which at quick glance seems like it should be released via 5/4 Entertainment on April 27th). The video for “Blind” was directed by Josh Harris. You also can grab the track as a free download here, as well as the Edwin Van Cleef remix of it...
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Modeselektor - Berlin
Here’s a cardboard-animation video for Modeselektor’s “Berlin,” made by graphic designer François Chalet. Story, according to Stereogum, is that Mr. Chalet offered his services to the Berlin-based duo (that’s Gernot Bronsert & Sebastian Szary) and in exchange, they would play at his wedding. 3 sleepless weeks later, the graphic designer now has a finished...
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Tanlines - All of Me
Brooklyn’s Tanlines just released their video for “All Of Me,” directed by Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh, off their debut album Mixed Emotions which was officially released yesterday via Matador imprint True Panther Sounds.
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Osheaga 2012 lineup revealed
Osheaga, an annual 3-day music festival in Montréal since 2006, for those not in the know, has revealed their 2012 lineup and it’s by far their best to date (and believe us when we say that we are hard to please). Here are all the bands that have confirmed so far:
Friday August 3rd: Justice, Sigur Rós, Florence + the Machine, MGMT, The Weeknd, Franz Ferdinand, Amadou & Mariam, Fun.,...
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Crystal Fighters - Dreams of Disco (mixtape)
British/Spanish electronic septet Crystal Fighters have given us a couple of things to keep our minds off their very much anticipated sophomoric album (no date yet, but they’ve been working on it since the end of last year): a mixtape titled Dreams of Disco (free download!) and a video or “Plage,” taken from their 2010 effort Star of Love. They are currently on tour in the...
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Electric Guest - Troubleman
Los Angeles duo Electric Guest (lead singer Asa Taccone’s older brother is Jorma from Lonely Island) is getting ready to release their debut album Mondo, produced by none other than Danger Mouse, next month on April 24th via Downtown Records. They’ve already released a couple of music videos (“This Head I Hold” and “American Daydream”) but our favourite so far...
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Blood Red Shoes - Cold
On March 26th, British garage rockers Blood Red Shoes return with their third studio album In Time To Voices (which you can stream exclusively on NME right now) via V2/Co-Operative Music. Its first single “Cold” is available as of today on 7” or in MP3 format. Watch the video directed by James Lees below.
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Radio Soulwax - Under The Covers Vol. 3
Radio Soulwax/2manydjs/Soulwax have released this morning the third and final part of their Under The Cover series, so get your dancing shoes out because it’s the most danceable one! We’ve taken the time to embed the entire 3 part series below, along with the tracklisting, for your listening and viewing pleasures. Oh, and if you’re more of a on-the-go type of person, grab the...
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Kids - My Sincerest Apologies
We’ve randomly stumbled upon the fresh-faced electronic pop duo of Jonas Linngård and Maria Pettersson (yup, they’re Swedish), better known as Kids last weekend and it’s pretty much all we’ve been listening to since. Their self-titled debut EP emanates the pure pop bliss that only a song from fellow countrymen The Concretes can. Having doubts about our praises? Give the...
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Orbital - New France (feat. Zola Jesus)
UK electronic music pioneers Orbital are getting ready to release their first album in 8 years (that’s two whole Olympic cycles!) on April 2nd. The album, titled Wonky, will feature 9 new tracks and will be released through their own ACP Recordings. “New France” will be first single off the album and it features the darkwave princess Zola Jesus on guest vocals. The EP includes...
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Niki and the Dove - Tomorrow
Annie Mac got the first play privilege of Niki and the Dove’s next single “Tomorrow” yesterday on her show (on BBC’s Radio 1). The single gets a proper release on the 13th of May and their debut album Instinct comes out the day after via Sub Pop (it’s already on presale at Amazon).
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SebastiAn - Love in Motion
So, SebastiAn (born Sebastian Akchoté) commissioned Argentinian-born French filmmaker Gaspar Noé (you may remember his work in the extraordinary Enter the Void) to direct the video for his very Prince-y track “Love in Motion” (feat. crooner Mayer Hawthorne) and the result is exactly what you would expect: a very controversial video (which stars child actor Lente Tresor) that has...
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Miike Snow - The Wave
Here is the official music video for Miike Snow’s “The Wave,” the latest installment in the Jean Noel saga.
The video is a continuation of a thread which began in their last video for “Paddling Out.” In that video, a group of unfortunates were abducted to space in an experiment to create a perfect human named Jean Noel. Following some pretty brutal chainsaw...
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Sucré - When We Were Young
Sucré (that’s French for “sweet” pour ceux qui ne parlent pas le français) is a Texan trio comprised of husband-and-wife duo Stacy and Darren King (the latter also plays in indie rock band Mutemath) and Jeremy Larson. Their debut album A Minor Bird will be available starting April 10th in limited edition via Red Velvet, as well as in digital and analog format. Watch the...
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Thieves Like Us - Stay Blue
Synthpoppers Thieves Like Us (fun fact: The band’s name is lifted from a New Order classic) is about to release their fourth album Bleed Bleed Bleed. Newly signed on Captured Tracks, this 10-track album is also their first with female vocalist Martine Duverglas. The record drops next week, on March 20th. Watch the video for “Stay Blue,” and listen to “Maria Marie,”...
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Miike Snow - Paddling Out
The Swedish pop trio that is Miike Snow is getting ready to release their much-awaited sophomoric album Happy to You next week on March 19th. You can already hear bits and pieces of it everywhere as it leaked online yesterday (a quick search on Hype Machine for “Miike Snow” will confirm that), and we can tell to you that it lives up to the hype. Since we only do things legally on...
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TOPS - Rings of Saturn
Montréal indie popsters TOPS have released their first music video for “Rings of Saturn” off their debut album Tender Opposites released at the beginning of the month via evergrowing label Arbutus Records (also home of Grimes, Tonstartssbandht and previously Silly Kissers). The video was directed by Jasper Baydala and was shot using Betacam, which gives the piece its dreamy nostalgic...
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Housse de Racket - Chateau (Hey Champ remix)
To celebrate their North American tour (which starts today at SXSW), Frenchmen Housse de Racket are giving away the disco heavy remix by Chicago’s Hey Champ (pictured above) of their single “Chateau” for free: yoink! They’ll be playing in Montréal at Il Motore (get your ticket from Blue Skies Turn Black for a measily 13.50$) on the 23rd of March.
You can listen (and...
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Appaloosa - Sinister
We’ve got a 2-for-1 this morning: French nu-disco duo Appaloosa (Anne-Laure Keib and Max Krefeld) have released not one, but two videos for their track “Sinister,” taken from the Patchwork EP (released at the end of last year via Discotexas). The first one was directed by Mickaël Valli and Anne-Laure Keib. The second one was directed by Alexandra Vogt. We’ve also embedded...
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The Child - The President
Hailing from the wilderness of coastal California, The Child are a 4-piece band composed of Holly Marilyn, Norm Block, Lauren White and Peter Simon. They are fostered by Los Angeles upstart label Manimal Vinyl (Warpaint, Bat for Lashes, Papercranes, Sister Crayon) and have released their debut 6 track EP titled simply The Child. “The President” is the second video to come out from it...
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Marina and the Diamonds - Primadonna
“Primadonna” is the first single off Marina and the Diamonds’ sophomore album Electra Hearts (read more about it in our earlier post). Its video was directed by Caspar Balslev.
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The Shoes - Time to Dance
The long-awaited video for France’s The Shoes’ “Time to Dance” has finally made its appearance on the internets this morning. The gruesome piece was directed by Daniel Wolfe and includes scenes in which the Jake Gyllenhaal (yes, that Jake Gyllenhaal) batters a person in a park and strangles a man in an elevator. Viral potential? Definitely.
The EP includes remixes by...
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Darkness Falls - Timeline
Discovered by visionary producer Anders Trentemøller, Darkness Falls, the fruitful partnership of Josephine Philip (previously of Ja Confetti) and Ina Lindgreen, are an enchanting Danish rock duo fresh from the ever-expanding Copenhagen music scene. Their debut Alive In Us (you can stream it on Soundcloud) on HFN Music/Fake Diamond was critically acclaimed all over the blogosphere when it was...
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Rebecca & Fiona - Dance
Swedish bubblegum electropopsters Rebecca & Fiona release their second single (previously: “Jane Doe”) from their excellent debut album I Love You Man, released at the end of last year. The video was directed by Laerke Herthoni.
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Playlist: Hot Shit 002
We posted a playlist earlier this month when we first launched the blog and it was one of our more popular posts so we’re going to start a new tradition here today: we’ll be posting a new one on a biweekly basis (on the 2nd and the 4th week of each month) of all the tracks that had been on repeat on the Hot Shit iPod the previous two weeks. Some will obviously be taken from our daily...
