Kanye West has premiered a song from his upcoming new record on the side of a building in New York.

Kanye projected the video to ‘New Slaves’ onto a building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last night, before tweeting his intent for more to follow this weekend:

NEW SONG AND VISUAL FROM MY NEW ALBUM BEING PROJECTED TONIGHT ACROSS THE GLOBE ON 66 BUILDINGS, LOCATIONS @ http://KANYEWEST.COM 

Some of the locations include London, Chicago, Paris, Toronto and Sydney. Cities include multiple sites also. London, for example, will have projections at Brick Lane, Camden Stables, Shoreditch High Street station (as he did for Watch The Throne) and more.

Watch a full clip of the video projected in New York below. The still untitled follow-up to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is due out next month.

Here’s the full list of events in London and New York below:

London: Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th May

9-10pm Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

11.45-12.45 Camden Stables

1-2am Chinatown, Soho

12.45-2am Tate Modern

Sat 10.15-11.30pm Truman Brewery, Brick Lane

Sat 11.45-12.30pm Shoreditch High Street Station

Sun 10:30-11.30pm Shoreditch High Street Station

New York: Friday 17th & 18th Saturday

11:00pm – LaFayette St. & Howard St. SoHo

11:45pm – West 14th St. & 10th Ave. Meatpacking

12:15 – FIT 27th St & 6th Ave

12:30am – Columbus Circle Museum of Design & Arts

1:15am – Louis Vuitton – E 57th St & 5th Ave

1:30am – Prada W 56th St & 5th Avenue

Photo via Vine.

With their new record Trouble Will Find Me out in the UK and U.S next week, The National seem to have their sights and minds focussed firmly on the future, admitting doubts in a recent interview over their long-term plans as a band.

“The band has almost ended here and there,” singer Matt Berninger told The Grid. “I think we got past a lot of the ways it could have ended and ended badly.”

Despite having held it together for over a decade, producing six albums in the meantime, Berninger has revealed that it could all be coming to end within due course. “I don’t know how long is healthy to be a rock band,” he continued. “We’ve been on for almost 14 years, so another five years might be too much.”

But that’s not to say it would be anything but a mature decision to finish on a high, rather than an unpleasant low. “We’re actually at a better place with each other than we’ve ever been. I don’t think our band would end with an acrimonious situation any more. I think we’ve learned to love and respect each other now and we’re kind of past all that stuff. I don’t know if that means we’ll stay a band for a lot longer– but for a little while, at least.”

Trouble Will Find Me is out now in Belgium, Ireland, Australia and Germany. You can stream it on iTunes now.

[via Pitchfork]

Manchester venue Band On The Wall have unveiled a series of music courses and training schemes at their Manchester College-associated Centre for Music.

They already offer a BTEC diploma in Music Technology and Live 2 Sound engineering, but starting from September 2013 there will be a host of new courses including Foundation degrees in Popular Music Performance and Music Industry Management, as well as other qualifications.

To mark the introduction of these new courses, the venue will host a launch day of live music and talks – with The Charlatans man Tim Burgess, former The Word host Terry Christian and BBC 6 Music presenter Craig Charles all among the guests.

That’ll take place on 29 May, with more information available here.

[via CMU]

Musician, writer, actress and now new face of American Express. Carrie Brownstein quite literally can “be whoever she wants to be”, as she points out in this new ad.

The new advertising campaign for the credit card company features the Wild Flag and Sleater-Kinney member, and Portlandia star, playing a host of different characters in various sketches and scenarios. There’s a vinyl fetishist, a business man paying for ice cream on card and a shopping mom. It’s basically like Portlandia with more product placement.

You can watch the entire clip in full below:

Following her launch of the “world’s first app album”, Björk has now been announced as one of the speakers at this year’s Wired conference.

The technology conference, hosted by the American magazine and online periodical, will take place between 17-18 October at London’s Tobacco Dock. The Icelandic musician will join a panel full of pioneering technocrats.

Björk’s latest album, Biophilia released in October 2011, was released with a series of apps, described as a “multimedia exploration of music, nature and technology”. The app allowed users to engage with the themes of the album in various forms and even influence and alter the music being played.

Tickets for the conference start from £1,431 and are available here.

Daft Punk are pretty much the talk of every town at the moment, but one in particular today as the French duo launched their new album at an agricultural show in Wee Waa, New South Wales.

With Random Access Memories coming out on Monday (20 May), the electro pair have been picking up the pace on their marketing campaign. Now, having hosted a playback at the top of London’s Shard building earlier in the week, the band have now thrown at closing party in “Australia’s cotton capital”.

While Daft Punk didn’t make an appearance, you can still watch clips of the event, and one of fans spraying DP-themed graffiti around their hometown, embedded below:

Icona Pop‘s signature track and mega-hit, ‘I Love It’ will finally experience a release in the UK this summer, over a year after it initially dropped.

The song, voted our Track of 2012, peaked at #2 in the group’s home country of Sweden, as well as reaching the top ten in the U.S, Germany and Canada, and will now be released as a single in the UK on 1 July.

It’ll be backed by remixes from Jakwob, Bobby Champs, Fix8 and Style Of Eye.

You can watch the Swedish electro pair perform it live on Jimmy Fallon below:

[via CMU]

The long-running debate and general nuisance of gig-goers recording concerts on their camera phones has reached a peak with the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Savages each speaking out in hope to deter fans from filming their shows illegally. Recent Mercury Prize winners Alt-J, however, feel like they’ve found the solution, premiering new technology last night which hopes to put an end to the problem.

The fourpiece, who also picked up the ‘Album of the Year’ award at the Ivor Novellos yesterday, debuted new app Soundhalo at their Brixton Academy show last night. The app hopes to discourage people from picking up their smartphones mid-gig by offering almost instantaneous live audio and visual recordings of each song played, available for downloading immediately after the band stop playing.

Soundhalo combines the mastered audio from the sound desk with the images shot by a video team, uploaded onto the cloud and ready to download for around the same price as a regular track.

You can find out more information on the app here.

[Photo by Burak Cingi, news story via The Guardian]

London indie-groovesters, Theme Park have unveiled details of an upcoming all-day event set to take place during August.

The band will headline the early-start show at the capital’s Village Underground on 3 August, with Gabriel Bruce, MT, Legoland and Transgressive DJs all confirmed so far.

The gig is priced at £12.50, with tickets available shortly here. More special guests are to be announced.

Photo by Sebastien Dehesdin.

With a new album coming later this year, influential hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan have revealed a new track in the form of ‘Execution in Autumn’.

The group had previously confirmed that they’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) with new album A Better Tomorrow, out in July.

The album is thought to be their final ever release, with RZA quoted as saying last year: ”There’s one last job Wu-Tang Clan must do”.

Before then however, stream ‘Execution in Autumn’ below:

[via Potholes In My Blog]

Having last released an album in 1999 and with no production credits to his name so far this year, it’d be sad to think that Dr Dre may be known more for his branded headphones than his music by the youth of today. But that might all swiftly revert back, with the hip-hop veteran telling LA Weekly recently that he’s about to head back to the studio.

“Now I’m ready to go back to my first love,” he is quoted as saying. “I’m going back to the studio. Not for any specific reason, but just to record because I love to record music. I’m going back in and hopefully the next Kendrick Lamar or the next Eminem walks in the door and I can work with that artist. I’m going to record forever.” This follows recent hints by Def Jam that he’s already working on music by the aforementioned pair.

Speaking to the publication in interview, Dre revealed that not only is he feeling inspired to make music again but that he is involved in an artistic medium at the moment too – with a NWA biopic movie tipped to be on the way.

“We just got the green light from Universal,” Dre revealed. “I was just with (Ice) Cube and F. Gary Gray yesterday writing the script, so it looks like it’s really happening. Gary is directing the movie. It’s going to be a true story. It’s going to be based on all the true events that happened.”

It’s not yet known when production on said film will begin, but exciting news either way.

[via Clash]

Coldplay have been awarded ‘Best British Act’ by the 2013 O2 Silver Clef Awards. The ceremony was hosted by the Nordoff-Robbins charity, which uses the proceeds to provide music therapy treatment to ailing individuals.

Why Coldplay were selected seems to simply be a matter of their gargantuan musical footprint. In an interview with Clash Magazine, David Munns, chairman of the Nordoff-Robbins organization, said: “Coldplay are one of the British music industry’s great successes. With over 60 million album sales and five consecutive no.1 albums, I can think of no band better placed to win the Royal Albert Hall Best British Act Award. They have dominated the British music scene for a decade and their music has influenced a generation.”

Munns went on to add: “Since the Silver Clef Awards began 38 years ago, the event has raised over £8 million for Nordoff Robbins, allowing us to transform the lives of many thousands of disadvantaged and vulnerable people with music therapy. But we still have a long way to go to ensure we can deliver our music services to all those who need them.”

This year the organization hopes to raise £500,000 from the awards to fund 20,000 “life-transforming music therapy sessions for children and adults across the UK.”

About receiving the award, frontman Chris Martin remarked: “Nordoff Robbins is an organisation that lies very close to our hearts. They provide life-changing music therapy for thousands of people each year and we’re humbled to collect this award in their honour.”

The band will collect their award on 28 June at the official ceremony, held at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

Liars have made two new songs available online, one called ‘I Saw You From The Lifeboat’ and another entitled ‘Perfume Tear’.

According to Quietus, the band’s Angus Andrew said of the decision to release the tracks online for free: “After releasing WIXIW and returning home from touring there was a palpable sense of creative relief and release. We relished in the opportunity to make stuff under no real directive and began almost immediately to produce all kinds of unrelated works. It’s a great position to be in creatively so we decided to share a small portion of the results with you today.”

About the tracks in particular, Andrews continued: “Both of these songs happened almost instantly, and, in sharp contrast to the music we produced for WIXIW, were not labored over or scrutinized. It’s been great for us to recall the immediacy and excitement of creating music on the fly – unrestricted by subject matter and void of preoccupations about how it should ‘work’ in the greater context of things.”

You can watch the video for the first track below (and go here to download both for free):

Currently mid-way through touring his recent solo record Regions of Light and Sound of God, Jim James has revealed that he will return to the studio with band My Morning Jacket after the summer.

Frontman, James recently told Rolling Stone that the group were “in the process of nailing down a studio”, expecting to start work on the LP in October. He continued to say that he’s currently unsure of the musical direction of the forthcoming record, adding: “I don’t know if anything’s come together yet. I’ve got a lot of starting places, I guess you could say.”

My Morning Jacket released their last album, Circuital, in 2011.

[via CoS]

John Grant has reported the theft of his laptop following his show in Brighton, which coincided with the city’s opening night of The Great Escape festival.

The American musician, who recently released his new album Pale Green Ghosts, asked fans for help in relocating the missing computer, writing on his official Facebook page:

“After our show in Brighton tonight, someone who was apparently in the audience stole my computer off the stage, which has my entire life on it, i am shocked and just completely speechless, i don’t understand why or how someone could do this, but if whoever took it is reading this, if you turn it in to the church where we played or leave it at Jurys Inn in Brighton, there will be no consequences, no questions asked. I have so many things on that computer which i need.”

[via 405]

All Tomorrows Parties have announced a second wave of acts for their final holiday camp weekenders being held in Camber Sands this winter.

It had already been confirmed that Television will headline the first of the ‘End of an Era’ events, running from 22-24 November, with it being revealed today that Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Low and Tortoise having been added to that leg.

The second weekend will be curated by the newly-reformed LOOP, with Mogwai among the new confirmations. That will take place between 29 November – 1 December.

You can check out the full list of acts confirmed so far below:

WEEKEND 1:
Television performing Marquee Moon (UK exclusive)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Dinosaur Jr.
Low
Tortoise
Les Savy Fav
Chelsea Light Moving (feat. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore)
Múm
Magik Markers
Har Mar Superstar
Blanck Mass
Dinos Chapman
Oneohtrix Point Never
Wolf Eyes
Il Sogno Del Marinaio featuring Mike Watt
Scout Niblett
Los Planetas
Hebronix
Standstill
Forest Swords
Refree
BEAK>
Headbirds
The Haxan Cloak
Demdike Stare
Eraas

WEEKEND 2:
Loop
Mogwai
The Pop Group
23 Skidoo
Fennesz
Ty Segall
Balam Acab
Edan (DJ set)
White Fence
Dirty Beaches
Föllakzoid
Tall Firs
Wolf People
Civil Civic
Eaux
Hookworms
New War
The KVB
Thought Forms
Kandodo
DJ Jonathan Toubin
White Fence

With a new album coming and some of the tracks being played live, Kanye West is set to appear on Saturday Night Live this, erm, Saturday as a musical guest. He recently told a New York crowd that he ”ain’t doing no motherfucking SNL skits”. Well, guess what, he just kinda did one.

You can watch this promo video for this weekend’s instalment of the U.S TV staple below, featuring Kanye alongside actor/director Ben Affleck and Portlandia‘s Fred Armisen. Who said Kanye can’t be funny?

[via CoS]

Guitarist for Celtic punk band The Pogues, Philip Chevron has been diagnosed with a terminal kind of cancer.

Chevron, who joined shortly after their debut in 1984, had previously been treated for – and subsequently recovered from – head and neck cancer in 2007 but was struck with another tumour last year.

A statement released online states the illness to be “inoperable and will prove fatal in time”, going on to say that “it is at present impossible to measure life expectancy”.

Chevron (pictured centre right) originally left the band in 1994 after struggling with alcohol and drug abuse, but rejoined the group in 2004 for reunion shows.

The full statement reads as below:

“The head and neck cancer for which he received treatment in 2007 and a clean bill of health in April 2012 has in fact returned. In August 2012, Philip and his doctors noticed a new tumour and this one is in a position whereby treatment is seriously ill-advised and would almost certainly cause a stroke or worse. The cancer is, in short, inoperable and will prove fatal in time, though it is at present impossible to measure life expectancy.

Chevron, who was last year part of the releases The Pogues In Paris and The Radiators’ Sound City Beat, is currently taking a break from both bands. The Pogues are on a prolonged time out, emerging only in support of matters relating to their 30th anniversary this year, while the Radiators From Space have formed a splinter group, The Trouble Pilgrims, in which Chevron plays no part. In recent times, Chevron has accepted several theatre music commissions, including the Old Vic Theatre in London and Galway’s Druid Theatre.

Philip thanks his friends, colleagues, family and management team for their enduring support and hopes to make some notable musical contributions before, as he puts it, the cancer becomes ‘lethal’.”

[via CoS]

Welcome to our weekly round-up of shows happening in the grand concert halls, dimly lit basements, airy cafe’s and grimy sweatboxes across the UK and Ireland. All acts featured come with the Best Fit ‘Seal Of Approval’ so you can be assured that your hard earned cash will be well spent. To tempt your wallets this week we’ve gathered dates from the likes of Empress Of, The Postal Service and Blue Hawaii.

Wolf People @ The Think Tank, Newcastle Upon Tyne 17/05

On their second album, Wolf People amplify the healthy appreciation of English and Scottish folk song traditions (as interpreted by the late ’60s British folk-rock movement) that has bubbled under their prog-fuelled fuzz-rock templates on past releases.

Tickets are on sale now. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more Wolf People shows.

The Postal Service @ Manchester Academy 2, Manchester 18/05

Ben Gibbard’s legendary outfit have reunited for a string of shows to celebrate the re-release of their debut album Give Up.

SOLD OUT. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more The Postal Service shows.

TRAAMS @ 100 Club, London 19/05

Sussex three-piece and recent Fat Cat signings are joining Parquet Courts at the legendary West London venue this week to shwocase their thunderous Rory Atwell recorded sounds in the flesh.

SOLD OUT. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more TRAAMS shows.

Empress of @ The Shacklewell Arms, London 20/05

Double Denim shining star Lorely Rodriguez – aka Empress of – promises to treat us to the slinky minimal pop of her recent ouvre.

FREE TICKETS. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more Empress of shows.

Lubomyr Melnyk feat. Gregory Euclide @ The Village Underground, London 20/05

Ukrainian pianist and Continuous Music pioneer Lubomyr Melnyk will be joined by American contemporary artist Gregory Euclide for two very special London shows at the Village Underground as part of his Corollaries Tour. Euclide will create new paintings on porcelain coated steel boards using sumi ink, inspired by Melnyk’s piano playing live on stage.

Tickets are available now. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more Lubomyr Melnyk shows.

Blue Hawaii @ Birthdays, London 21/05

Untogether is a beautiful album and we just hope this little East London basement will be able to do justice to the gentle nuances of their minimal pop sounds.

Tickets are on sale now. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more Blue Hawaii shows.

The Flaming Lips @ Brighton Dome, Brighton 22/04

Anyone who has ever read anything about The Flaming Lips knows they know how to put on a show, we’re sure the Brighton Dome won’t be any different.

SOLD OUT. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more The Flaming Lips shows.

Fenech-Soler @ Electric Ballroom, London 22/05/13

With their second album Rituals due out on 2 September via Warner Bros. the electro-pop four-piece are back with more punchy synths and impossibly addictive hooks.

Tickets are available now. RSVP via Facebook. Check out more Fenech-Soler show.

Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Massive Attack man Robert Del Naja are set to team up on the soundtrack of a new British documentary directed by London journalist Mark Donne.

The picture, entitled The UK Gold, will take an in-depth look at the country’s history of tax avoidance and – along with its famous musical composers – will also be narrated by actor Dominic West.

The director, Donne said of the soundtrack: “A pretty stunning soundtrack from the creative hearts of Radiohead and Massive Attack creates a spellbinding experience.” And of the film itself: ”This is a political documentary, but more than anything else it is an extraordinary story.”

Donne has previously worked with the likes of Carl Barat and Anthony Rossomando on The Rime of the Modern Mariner.

[via The Telegraph]

Following the death of Slayer‘s founding member and guitarist Jeff Hanneman, the metal outfit have now announced that they will host a public memorial for the late musician next week.

The remembrance will take place next Thursday (23 May) at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium from 3:30-7:30pm local time. The band say on Facebook that the event will be “free and open to the public on a first-come, first-in basic”, with “all ages” welcome.

The Californian musician (pictured second left), one of the thrash outfit’s core members, died at 49 after suffering a series of ongoing health issues during his last months including a debilitating skin disorder. An autopsy last week revealed that his passing was “alcohol related”.

[via CoS]

Gone are the days that ‘movie score composer’ was an actual lone job title. Now with the likes of Jay-Z producing the new Great Gatsby adaptation, musicians are more commonly being enlisting for cinematic soundtracks. This new Oneohtrix Point Never OST for Sofia Coppola‘s upcoming film The Bling Ring is still something to be excited over, though.

The soundtrack to the film, which features Emma Watson and follows a bunch of fame-obsessed teenagers, will showcase music by the likes of (deep breath, now) Kanye West, Azealia Banks, Rick Ross, M.I.A, Frank Ocean, Sleigh Bells and Phoenix. The score was put together by Lopatin himself and music supervisor Brian Reitzell.

It’ll be released by Def Jam on 11 June, before the movie hits the cinemas on 14 June.

[via Pitchfork]

Daft Punk are reportedly looking set to break Oasis‘ record for the fastest-selling album in UK chart history.

Music Week report that boo makers Paddy Power are slashing their odds for Daft Punk to outsell the Gallagher brothers and co’s 1997 record Be Here Now during its first week.

Oasis sold over 650,000 copies in its first week 16 years back, and now Daft Punk look likely to top it having already bagged the highest number of pre-sales for any dance album on Amazon.

As well as this, the French electronic duo have been at the number one spot in the UK singles countdown with ‘Get Lucky’ for the past three weeks. New album Random Access Memories comes out on Monday but, before then, can be streamed via iTunes right now.

DANIEL JOHNSTON: here, an exhibition and book launch honouring the cult musician, is set to open in London on Thursday 30 May.

The event will showcase a  photographic study by New York-based portrait photographer Jung Kim, exhibiting a collection of shots taken of the legendary alt-rock songwriter since 2008.

You can find out more on the book here. The exhibition will run until 9 June at the Protein Gallery on 18 Hewett Street, Shoreditch, East London. Tickets for the launch are free and available now.

Photos by Jung Kim.

The renowned Ivor Novello Awards have revealed the winners of their 2013 ceremony.

The awards, which heralds songwriting talent and “excellence in music writing”, were hosted today (16 May) at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

Among the winners were Emeli Sandé for ‘Best Song’ and ‘Most Performed Work’, Alt-J picking up the album prize for An Awesome Wave and The Maccabees for ‘Best Contemporary Song’. Elsewhere, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale picked up the ‘International Achievement Award’ and Calvin Harris was awarded ‘Songwriter of the Year’

You can check out the full list of winnersbelow:

INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Gavin Rossdale, Bush

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD

OUTSTANDING SONG COLLECTION

BEST SONG MUSICALLY AND LYRICALLY

NEXT TO ME
Written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sandé
Performed by Emeli Sandé
Published in the UK by Naughty Words Ltd – Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Stellar Songs Ltd – EMI Music Publishing

BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG

PELICAN
Written by Sam Doyle, Rupert Jarvis, Orlando Weeks, Felix White and Hugo White
Performed by The Maccabees
Published in the UK by BMG Chrysalis

PRS for MUSIC MOST PERFORMED WORK

NEXT TO ME
Written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sandé
Performed by Emeli Sandé
Published in the UK by Naughty Words Ltd – Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Stellar Songs Ltd – EMI Music Publishing

ALBUM AWARD

AN AWESOME WAVE
Written by Thomas Green, Joe Newman, Gwilym Sainsbury and Augustus Unger-Hamilton
Performed by Alt-J
Published in the UK by Kobalt Music Publishing

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE

ANNA KARENINA
Composed by Dario Marianelli
Published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing

BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK

LUCIAN FREUD: PAINTED LIFE
Composed by John Harle
Published in the UK by Chester Music

If the debut album from Cali sun-poppers Cayucas hasn’t got you in the mood for summer then we don’t know what will. Well, perhaps this bundle of goodies we got to give away from the band will do just the trick?

Here at Best Fit we have three pairs of tickets for the band’s first ever London show at The Lexington on Tuesday (21 May) to offer up, plus  two vinyl test pressings of the band’s record and even three special Cayucas-branded beach balls too!

For your chance to win a pair of tickets to the gig, simply share this article via Twitter or Facebook using the social media buttons above. But don’t forget to tag us in the post, or we might not see it.

Bigfoot is out now. Watch the group’s video for ‘High School Lover’ below:

Forthcoming plans following Beck‘s last release, 2012′s sheet music album of sorts Song Reader, have been vague and varying. But it seems like before an expected new acoustic album release later this year, Beck is to re-visit Song Reader one more time with a special London outing just announced.

The American musician will appear at the capital’s Barbican Centre on 4 July for a star-studded cast of big name companions, all contributing to perform the record in its entirety.

Among those taking part are the likes of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand (who announced a new album earlier today), Beth Orton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joan As Police Woman‘s Joan Wasser, The Staves, the Guillemots, Michael Kiwanuka, James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail. Also set to provide some backing are The Invisible‘s Dave Okumu on bass, and musical direction coming from Ed Harcourt.

Tickets are priced between £20-30 and go on sale tomorrow (17 May) at 10am, via the Barbican website.

[via DIY]

Franz Ferdinand will return this summer with their first album in four years.

The Scottish indie band have today announced that fourth LP Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action will be released by Domino on 26 August. It follows on from 2009′s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

Check out the album’s tracklisting below, with a teaser video streaming at the bottom of the page. That’s the record’s artwork above.

Right Action
Evil Eye
Love Illumination
Stand On The Horizon
Fresh Strawberries
Bullet
Treason! Animals.
The Universe Expanded
Brief Encounters
Goodbye Lovers & Friends

Having recently announced their first live shows in two years, Fuck Buttons have now confirmed they’ll release a new album this summer.

The electronic duo will follow up their 2009 LP Tarot Sport with third effort Slow Focus on 22 July. It’ll come out via ATP Recordings, with pre-orders available here.

The tracklist for the release is as below.

Brainfreeze
Year Of The Dog
The Red Wing
Sentients
Prince’s Prize
Stalker
Hidden XS

The band will play the following live dates:

May
18 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
23 – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, ES.
31 – Optimus Primavera Sound Festival, Porto, PT.

June
21 – Best Kept Secret Festival, Hilvarenbeek, NL.
22 – Body & Soul Festival, Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, IRL.
28-30 – Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton UK.

August
15-18 – Greenman Festival, Black Mountains, Wales.
31 – ArcTangent Festival, Fernhill Farm, Compton Martin, Bristol, UK.

September
10 – Release The Bats, Melbourne, AU.

Isle of Wight weekender, Bestival turns ten years of age this summer, with a host of special celebrations planned for the occasion. One such surprise was announced aboard the festival’s take over of HMS President at London’s Victoria Embankment last night, with Fatboy Slim revealed as the Friday night headliner.

With Elton John and Snoop Dogg already confirmed to top the Saturday and Sunday bills, organiser and Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank unveiled the British producer as the third big name act at the launch last night, with Norman Cook going back to back with Rob Da Bank in an on-boat set.

Fatboy Slim was originally one of the headliners for Bestival’s first outing back in 2004 and returns to the Robin Hill Park event, which takes place between 5-8 September and is being billed as ‘HMS Bestival’, with a nautical theme planned.

Other artists set to appear at Bestival include MIA, Flaming Lips, The Knife, Wu Tang Clan and more.

Photo by Howard Melnyczuk.

Twitter was sent into a confused stupor, or at least retweeting frenzy, late last night when P Diddy posted: “MY BIG NEWS: So happy to announce that Im a series regular on DOWNTON ABBEY-my favorite show”. Not entirely accurate, but the rapper has starred in a new Funny Or Die spoof of the British TV show.

With news that Downton, or “Downtown Abbey” as Diddy puts it, has cast its first ever black character, the hip-hop star points out that people must have missed the one that already existed: Sean Coombs himself. He then reveals a series of snippets in which he’s been superimposed into the show.

Watch the clip in full below:

Massively prolific folk-rock outfit, The Mountain Goats are set to re-release 2002 LP All Hail West Texas.

The record, originally released on Emperor Jones, will see a vinyl reissue via Merge on 23 July. It’s most notable as being John Darnielle’s last lo-fi “solo” record of sorts before he expanded both his line-up and sound for follow-up Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, frontman Darnielle recently offered up the perfect retort to post-Daft Punk new album naysayers:

“So I listened to this Daft Punk album once while browsing the web. I will now unveil my critique” –the Internet, 5/13/13

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) May 14, 2013

Remember that Boards of Canada fan who found a rare “teaser” vinyl released to market their upcoming new album? Remember him putting it on sale via Ebay and the record fetching over $5000? Thought it was too good to be true at the time? Well, you were right – as now it’s been reposted on the online marketplace after a series of “non-paying bidders”.

The —— / —— / —— / XXXXXX / —— / —— 12-inch, which only runs for a matter of seconds and features static, noise and utterances of numbers, is now listed as a straight-up Buy It Now for the original sale price, $5700.

The seller is also accepting Best Offer purchases, with ten bids already made but rejected. The listing has 29 days left on sale.

Anybody who doesn’t have that sort of money to spend can just wait until the band’s new LP, Tomorrow’s Harvest, drops on 10 June via Warp.

Janes Addiction man Eric Avery, who was originally planning to join Nine Inch Nails as their new bassist on tour this summer, announced yesterday via Facebook that he is quitting the band.

The reasons of his departure? Being “overwhelmed” with the number of gigs he’d have to play, his statement reads. The musician says that he’ll now spend his time focusing on his film scoring work, staying near his home in Los Angeles.

The complete Facebook post reads:

“its with very mixed emotions i tell you all that im pulling out of NIN. i know. its been a tough call and i don’t know if its the right one. but i really want to focus on my musical life here in la, on film work in particular. as the tour dates kept growing… i just got overwhelmed. i just got home from a year of heavy travel with garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that nails demands… fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and 14. go get em gentlemen.”

NiN, fronted by Trent Reznor (pictured above), haven’t announced a replacement, but they are scheduled to play Fuji Rock Festival in Japan on 26 July, followed by Lollapalooza in August.

[via SPIN]

The fourth addition of Toronto’s OVO Fest is to take place at the city’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre this summer, with hometown curator Drake announcing the acts set to headline the first day’s proceedings.

Running from 4-5 August, the premiere leg will see dub boy wonder James Blake and R&B man of the moment Frank Ocean top the billing, with Drake himself closing the second day of the festival.

More “special guests” are to be confirmed shortly, with tickets on sale from 24 May. Until then, recap with Drake’s recent track ‘Girls Love Beyonce’ below:

“About to watch the New Girl season finale,” Taylor Swift tweeted earlier this week. And for good reason, as she continued: “I totally would be even if I wasn’t in this episode”. Yep, alt teen culture collided as the country-singer-come-pop-icon made an acting appearance on the Zooey Deschanel-starring FOX show.

Spoiler alert: Swift played the character of Elaine, the poetic, artsy “true love” type of Shivrang, who was in the middle of getting married to Cece, who had just revealed she was in love with Schmidt. This all ends with a double ditching at the altar.

The programme aired in the U.S on Tuesday (14 May). Watch the clip in full, via Vulture, beneath:

Kanye West is readying a new single and album release, or so we think, and he’s been prepping us with a series of bizarre performances. First there were yeti costumes, then diamond-encrusted masks, now he’s only gone and performed live from a fluorescent pyramid.

The hip-hop star played a surprise New York show last night, mostly inside said pyramid, and used the time to showcase some new tracks from the follow-up to 2010′s brilliant My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

You can listen to a clip of one bass-heavy cut  below:

And another, more autotune-friendly, one beneath:

Kanye also went on another of his now-infamous onstage rants, this time about celebrity culture, paparazzi and SNL.

Photo via Vine.

As previously anticipated, Google yesterday unveiled their entry into the music-streaming market, revealing a product called Google Play Music All Access.

The subscription platform, which costs $9.99 (£5.60) per month, offers users “millions of songs” ready for listening online. The system is much akin to market competitors like Deezer and Spotify, but is not yet available in an ad-funded free version.

The product had long been touted, but Google previously hit a roadblock negotiating licence deals with major labels. Now, they’ve reached an agreement with Warner, Universal and Sony, unveiling what they call “radio without rules”.

U.S users can get a free month trial right now via Google Play. For all those outside of the States, here’s what the interface looks like:

With Phosphorescent playing London’s Village Underground tonight and The Great Escape in Brighton tomorrow, the folk musician thought it a perfect time to announce that he’ll be heading back to British shores this winter.

At the tail end of the tour cycle surrounding recent album Muchacho, Matthew Houck will return to London for a lone date at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 26 November. Tickets for that show go on sale shortly.

Until then, watch Phosphorescent perform ‘Cocaine Lights’ live in session for The Line of Best Fit below:

[via 405]

U.S indie folk duo The Dodos have revealed details of their upcoming fifth album.

The record, and follow-up to 2011′s No Color, will surface on 27 August – going by the name Carrier. The recording process, the band say, was influenced by the death of the group’s guitarist (and member of Women) Christopher Reimer.

Before it does drop though, you can listen to the record’s lead cut ‘Confidence’ beneath:

Photo by Chloe Aftel.

The ever-prolific Ty Segall has announced a brand new album, SLEEPER coming out this summer.

The LP follows on from the three full-lengths that the musician released last year. It’ll come out on 19 August (UK) / 20 August (North America) via Drag City.

Ty Segall has released singles with his side-project Fuzz earlier this year, as well as announcing a series of reissues back in January.

Check out a teaser video to the upcoming record below:

[via Pitchfork]

Heading over to The Tonight Show next year, Jimmy Fallon still remains one of the U.S TV’s most ardent new music advocates with his Late Night show. And last night Phoenix were the latest in a long line of musical guests.

The French dance-rock outfit performed two cuts from their recent album Bankrupt!, specifically ‘The Real Thing’ and ‘Trying To Be Cool’, with a lot of ticker tape galore.

You can watch both tracks played live on last night’s show below:

[via Pitchfork]

Bloc are to mark their recent return by making an upcoming night at their new Autumn Street home free entry.

The London electronic music promoters announced last week that they’ve obtained the proper licenses to stay at the Hackney Downs studios for the long-terms, and now the last in their current gig series has been switched from £20 tickets to an email exchange system.

Green Velvet will headline the night on Sunday (26 May), with tickets available by entering your name and email address at the Bloc website.

Bloc previously experienced financial crisis last year after well-documented chaos which resulted in its flagship festival being cancelled after one day.

[via FACT]

Beyoncé has been forced to cancel last night’s show in Antwerp after health concerns.

The Belgium leg of the singer’s current Mrs Carter tour was set to go ahead on 14 May at the Antwerp Sportpaleis, but was pulled last minute with the star’s representatives citing “dehydration and exhaustion” as the reason.

The full statement read:

“Beyoncé has been advised by her doctors to rest as a result of dehydration and exhaustion and will not be able to perform in Antwerp, Belgium, tonight.”

The news has added to rumours that the pop icon is pregnant with her second child.

[via Guardian]

Orange County dream-poppers, Local Natives have announced that Wild Nothing will join them on the road for a series of live dates later this year.

The pair will embark on tour during September, and then through to October, for shows across North America. These will start with a gig at Fox Theater in Oakland on 12 September.

Local Natives will be playing tracks from recent album Hummingbird, while Wild Nothing will be promoting recent EP Empty Estate. The dates of their joint touring stint are as beneath:

September
12 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
13 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
15 Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theatre
19 Madison, WI – Orpheum Theater
20 Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
21 Toronto, Ontario – Kool Haus
23 Annapolis, MD – Rams Head On Stage
28 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
30 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle

October
1 Birmingham, AL – Iron City
2 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
6 Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
7 Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom

Photo by Burak Cingi.

Hip-hop’s most controversial star, Chris Brown is set to unveil a new single which will undoubtedly garner much uproar – as it will feature a previously-unreleased vocal recording from late singer Aaliyah.

The R&B musician, who passed away in 2001, will make a posthumous appearance on ‘They Don’t Know’ – which is expected to feature on Brown’s new album X.

That full-length will be released on 16 July, with the Aaliyah-sampling track in question likely to surface prior to that.

[via Pitchfork]

Most bands want to sell records, but Frankie & The Heartstrings care a little more than most. The Sunderland fivepiece have today announced that they’ll be opening a record store next month in their hometown.

Pop Recs Ltd will open on 1 June at the city’s former tourist office on Sunderland’s Fawcett Street. The band say the shop will “be selling all the current record releases from across Britain and beyond” as well as a “comprehensive range of music from artists in the North East”. There’ll also be a “performance area, recreational space and gallery wall” at the venue.

A series of launch shows have been announced, with The Futureheads, Maximo Park, Field Music, Bernard Butler, The Cribs, plus the band themselves, all scheduled to appear at in-store events. Frontman Frankie Francis said of the news: “It’s really brilliant. I love records, and to be able to become part of that community of people who sell records in the UK is exciting and in some way a bit of an honour.”

The shop will be located at the below premises:

In support of his most recent Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release, Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave has been employing local children’s choirs in each town he performs in.

Unsurprisingly, some parents may not want their kids singing the word “snatch”, as appears in the song ‘Mermaids’,  along with some of the other cruder, phallic-heavy notes in Cave’s songbook.

In an interview with the Independent, Cave said: “Sometimes you have to have three or four goes at finding the choir.  They come back going, ‘No, no, no.’ Especially in [the U.S.]. There were certain songs they wouldn’t sing.” Continuing: “Personally I find that ridiculous, but maybe I’m more liberal with things.”

[via Spin]

Jack White is so hell bent on preserving the past that he’s taking it upon himself to do the job with his Third Man record label.

Previously, the Third Man imprint teamed up with the blues label Document Records to reissue the likes of Charlie Patton, Blind Willie McTell and the Mississippi Sheiks. Now, according to CoS, White’s label is working with Sun Records to reissue 7″ singles from Johnny Cash (1956′s ‘Get Rhythm’/'I Walk The Line’), Rufus Thomas (1953′s ‘Bear Cat’/'Walking in the Rain’), and The Prisonaires (1953′s ‘Baby Please’/'Just Walkin’ in the Rain’).

Third Man say on their website, where the records are available to pre-order, “each release remains faithful to its original issue on Sun, replicating the classic logo and label design coupled with a striking Sun company sleeve that dutifully employs the rooster Sam Philips lamented losing as labels switched from 78′s to 45′s.”

The label also writes that “this will be an ongoing partnership between Sun and Third Man and future releases are already in the works.”

The promoting heads behind Bird On The Wire, Sexbeat and Rockfeedback have teamed up to start a new London festival, with the inaugural VISIONS festival announced today.

The premiere event will be held on 10 August at the East London warehouse spaces, namely Oval Space, Netil House and New Empowering Church surrounding London Fields.

Among those announced so far as !!!, Cloud Nothings, Iceage, Jeffrey Lewis, The Haxan Cloak, The Soft Moon, Molly Nilsson, Micachu & Terza and Beacon.

You can find more information, and purchase early-bird tickets, here.

The first round of early bird tickets have now sold out. A second tier priced number of tickets are now available through Billetto.