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Watch Big Thief perform ‘Not’ on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Last night, Big Thief – “one of the most compelling bands working today” (Stereogum) – made an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
They gave a gripping performance of “Not,” the lead single from Two Hands, their new album out today via 4AD.
Two Hands has already received resounding praise from NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Exclaim, Vulture, Stereogum, AV Club, Boston Globe, and more.
Big Thief kicked off their largest North American tour yet this past Wednesday, having already played two of their three sold out New York shows. Most shows are sold out including the three Canadian shows in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM LUCY DACUS
Lucy Dacus’s 2019 EP will be released on November 8th on Matador Records
Following her acclaimed Holiday-themed singles La Vie En Rose, My Mother & I, Forever Half Mast’ and most recently Dancing In The Dark, today’s EP announcement comes with a new Halloween-inspired cover of Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’. Lucy’s 2019 EP will feature two more tracks celebrating the winter holidays – a cover of ‘Last Christmas’ and an original ode to New Years titled ‘Fools Gold’.
In this spirited cover, Lucy revamps ‘In The Air Tonight’ into a Halloween anthem by magnifying the original song’s ominous undertones, bringing the mythology behind Phil Collins’ song to the forefront with haunting vocals and penetrating reverb. In Lucy’s own words, “perhaps the best eerie bop of all time, and certainly the best drum fill. The image in the first verse is so unsettling- watching someone watch someone drown without moving to save them. People have wondered if this is something Phil Collins really witnessed, but the song is actually just a manifestation of his anger and frustration about his divorce. It’s tense, dark, and so much fun, as a good Halloween should be. This was the most fun I’ve ever had in a studio.”
Dacus has continued to go from strength to strength in 2019 – touring across Australia, Europe and North America, appearing at festivals including Primavera, Best Kept Secret and Hopscotch, making her Austin City Limits debut, opening for Mitski at two Central Park Summer Stage shows, and playing her biggest headlines to date, including a sold-out show at London’s EartH. Her writing career is taking off, with a recently published op-ed in the New York Times on the anniversary of Woodstock and another in Vanity Fair on Bruce Springsteen’s legacy. She expounded the unique approach of the 2019 song series in a recent interview with Spotify For Artists, and the release was also highlighted on The New York Times’ Fall Preview.
Dacus’s North American headline fall tour continues with a number of Midwest and West Coast dates before she heads East again, making a stop in Mexico City for Corona Capital. Including in the run is a stop at Vancouver’s Rio Theatre on October 21st
THE NATIONAL Share Video For ‘Hey Rosey’
The National unveiled the video for ‘Hey Rosey’, a track from I Am Easy To Find, the band’s eighth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s GRAMMY®-Award winning release Sleep Well Beast.
The track features the vocals of long-time David Bowie collaborator Gail Ann Dorsey while the video stars dancer Sharon Eyal, co-founder, co-artistic director and choreographer of L-E-V Dance Group, who also starred in The National’s ‘Hairpin Turns’ video.
The ‘Hey Rosey’ video is the latest instalment of visuals directed by Academy Award-nominated director Mike Mills (20th Century Women, Beginners), who also created videos for Hairpin Turns and Light Years’ as well as a 24-minute film, also called I Am Easy to Find, starring Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex-Machina).
Mike Mills had this to say about the video:
“I had always loved the work of Sharon Eyal, especially her improvisation. Luckily she was also a fan of The National and we began talking about her doing some dance work around the new record. For Hey Rosey, we asked her to be a continuation of Alicia Vikander’s character in I Am Easy To Find – a side of that character we didn’t see in that film, the unconscious of that character, but really left that for Sharon to interpret. I think in subtle, strange, but really powerful ways she found movements and gestures that echo the feelings and themes in Hey Rosey.”
ALDOUS HARDING SHARES NEW VIDEO FOR ‘ZOO EYES’
Aldous Harding shares a hypnogogic video for ‘Zoo Eyes’, the third and final single from her latest album, Designer.
Filmed in her native New Zealand by The Barrel director Martin Sagadin, Harding simultaneously compels and bewilders in ‘Zoo Eyes’ as she takes on multiple identities.
The New Zealander’s third album, Designer, was released earlier this year to widespread critical praise. After the sleeper success of Party (internationally lauded and crowned Rough Trade Shop’s Album of 2017), Harding reunited with John Parish, producer of Party, and spent three weeks recording and mixing Designer in Monmouth and Bristol, England.
Aldous Harding was recently awarded a prestigious Silver Scroll Award for ‘The Barrel’ (the New Zealand equivalent of the Ivor Novellos) and has been nominated in the Solo Artist category in this year’s Q Awards.
FKA twigs releases new song home with you
As anticipation mounts for the release of her second album MAGDALENE (8th November via Young Turks), FKA twigs today reveals more brand new music from the record.
‘home with you’ is another stunning statement from a truly multi-faceted artist, with FKA twigs producing and writing (with Ethan P. Flynn) the track as well as directing and starring in the accompanying video.
It follows the release of previous MAGDALENE tracks cellophane and holy terrain, her collaboration with Future that also featured an incredible FKA twigs-directed video.
Marrying the kind of unique, innovative production twigs is renowned for with some of her most classic, direct songwriting to date, ‘home with you’ is another enticing glimpse of what fans can expect from MAGDALENE.
“You can take the girl out of the suburbs but you can’t take the suburbs out of the girl. ‘home with you’ reinforced my reoccurring suspicion that when i’m in doubt, I should follow my gut and go home” FKA twigs on ‘home with you’, October 2019
MAGDALENE is the follow up to FKA twigs critically acclaimed Brit Award and Mercury Prize nominated debut LP1.
Created in a period where her confidence was knocked following heartbreak and laparoscopic surgery, MAGDALENE is the sound of twigs reconfiguring, emotionally and physically.
As she sings on ‘Mary Magdalene’, the album track that opened her highly-praised, sold-out live shows earlier in the year, “A woman’s time / A woman’s work / A woman’s time to embrace / She must put herself first”.
MAGDALENE is produced by FKA twigs and, as with LP1, the recording process has been directed by her at every stage. It was recorded between London, New York and Los Angeles over the last three years and, as previously reported, features major contributions from Nicolas Jaar alongside a host of other collaborators.
MAGDALENE sees FKA twigs creating a whole new artistic universe and it is, without doubt, her most masterful work to date.
The album features artwork from acclaimed artist (and long time FKA twigs collaborator) Matthew Stone.
FKA twigs recently announced an extensive set of European and North American MAGDALENE tour dates. Originally launched with a run of sold out shows in Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, London and Sydney in May, the MAGDALENE live experience weaves a tapestry of sound, performance, costume, pole dancing, Wushu, set design and lighting, and sees FKA twigs cementing herself as one of the most creative and experimental artists, performers, and directors of her generation.
The run of dates will feature FKA twigs’ biggest headline show to date: a hometown show at London’s legendary O2 Academy Brixton on 25th November The tour includes three Canadian shows:
November 2nd and 3rd at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre and November 17th at Toronto’s Rebel Complex
