Indie Rock
Toro y Moi Remixes HAIM’s “3AM”: Stream
Earlier this month, Toro y Moi remixed Caroline Polachek’s “Hit Me Where It Hurts” with help from Deftones frontman Chino Moreno. The chillwave artist also known as Chaz Bundick has returned today with another reworking — this time for the three sisters of HAIM. Toro y Moi reimagined HAIM’s “3AM”, which appears on their Grammy-nominated album Women in Music Pt. III. While the original version saw the HAIM siblings play around with space and sparseness, this new remix is all about the layers and textures. Toro y Moi folds in echoes of electric guitar and fills voids with heavier bass. The whole thing reverberates with the kind of energy associated with a 6 a.m. wake-up call rather than a low-key, middle-of-the-night hang. Hear it for yourself below. Editors’ Picks Women in Music Pt. I...
HAIM Rework “Christmas Wrapping” Into a 2020 Hanukkah Song: Watch
Tonight is the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, so HAIM are stepping up to the plate to serenade its end with “Christmas Wrapping 2020”, a new song they released this afternoon. It’s a rework of The Waitresses’s 1981 holiday classic to be about Hanukkah, COVID-19, and all the chaos that ensued this year. The Grammy-nominated sisters unveiled the track on social media alongside a message for their fans. “HAPPY HANUKKAH!!” they tweeted. “Presenting our FIRST EVER holiday song: Christmas Wrapping 2020 (All I Want for Christmas is a Vaccine) 🔯🎄We hope this song helps you get through the holiday season.” As expected, “Christmas Wrapping 2020” is a clever spin on the holiday radio staple. Over a slinky bass line by Thundercat and production courtesy of Ariel Rechtshaid, HAIM g...
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Soundtrack Receives 10th Anniversary Box Set
Brie Larson in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Edgar Wright’s geeky action-comedy romance Scott Pilgrim vs. the World turned 10 this year, and part of the anniversary celebrations include a reissue of the movie’s soundtrack and the first-ever physical release of Nigel Godrich’s score. ABKCO has now set a release date of March 26th, 2021 for the anniversary release. Say hello to the official Seven Evil Exes Edition, an expanded, limited-edition, 4xLP picture disc box set featuring the soundtrack and score to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The OST, which is literally one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time, will include 24-minutes’ worth of unreleased music from Beck, Sex Bob-Omb, and the movie-only version of Metric’s “Black Sheep” as sung by Brie Larson — a fan-favorite that’s never be...
Kyle Meredith’s Best of 2020 Pt. 1: Stephen Malkmus, Ed O’Brien, Paul Banks, and More
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS For all of December, Kyle Meredith is looking back on his favorite moments in 2020. This week, we revisit talking with Stephen Malkmus as he geeks out about Led Zeppelin, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien balancing the darkness of the world with an optimistic light that he carries, Interpol’s Paul Banks finding his own new light within the band Muzz, King Krule discovering The Beatles, Sparks being masters at cussing, and Buzz Osborne who gets playful about the importance of music. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs deep into the artis...
Julia Jacklin Drops Cracked Christmas Song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”: Stream
Julia Jacklin is marking the holidays with the cracked new Christmas song “baby jesus is nobody’s baby now”. 2020 has been long and tumultuous, and for the residents of six continents it might be easy to forget that Australia began the year on fire. But down in Oz, where the holiday season overlaps with the dead of summer, it’s impossible to forget the bushfires that caused over $100 billion in damage alongside unfathomable ecological harm. Jacklin’s latest single imagines how a certain infant of legend might have fared in the Land Down Under. “She lost the baby,” Jacklin begins, “The house nearly burned down/ Baby Jesus is nobody’s baby now.” But her ambitions are larger — and more humorous — than just reliving a nationwide trauma. After all, ’tis the season for awkward family dinners and...
Kim Gordon, J. Mascis, and Fred Armisen Perform New Song “Abstract Blues”: Watch
Kim Gordon and J. Mascis during SMooCH 2020 The SMooCH livestream benefit for Seattle Children’s Hospital boasted an absolutely stacked lineup. In addition to Ben Gibbard, Duff McKagan, Isaac Brock, and Mark Lanegan teaming up to cover the Jimmy Webb classic “The Highwayman”, the hour-long event featured Kim Gordon, J. Mascis, and Fred Armisen debuting a new original song called “Abstract Blues”. Technically, these three played together before during Fred Armisen’s 2013 SNL farewell segment, but here the Sonic Youth frontperson, Dinosaur Jr. mastermind, and actor-musician operated as a fully-fledged band. The song features gnarled vocals from Gordon, flaming hot licks from Mascis, and a tight bassline from Armisen. It’s unclear whether this track was just a one-off creation for this event,...
Katy Kirby Curls Up in a “Cool Dry Place” on New Song: Stream
Up-and-coming indie rocker Katy Kirby is trying to decode the best way to go through life as a young adult. The most useful tool to do so is self-reflection, and she’s got plenty of it on her latest single, “Cool Dry Place”, which you can stream below. The song comes from Kirby’s upcoming debut album, Cool Dry Place, due out February 19th via Keeled Scales/Secretly. What starts off as a stripped-down, whisper-sung melody builds into a sweeping folk-rock ballad on “Cool Dark Place”. Kirby sings about her restlessness in a relationship with comforting vocal tones, but come the end, she inverts that subtle shiftiness with a gut-busting, deconstructed guitar solo that recalls Big Thief and early (Sandy) Alex G. In a statement, Kirby elaborated on the ways in which “Cool Dry Place” is a mu...
Sigur Rós Unveil New Orchestral Album Odin’s Raven Magic: Stream
Sigur Rós have unveiled their long-anticipated orchestral album Odin’s Raven Magic. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. The eight-song composition has been a mythical piece of the Icelandic band’s catalog for almost two decades now, so it’s a pretty momentous occasion for it to finally see the light of day. It was originally commissioned by the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2002 and has only been performed a handful of times since then. The version that you hear on the album was recorded during a concert in Paris in the early 2000s. Odin’s Raven Magic is an elaborate collaboration with the revered Icelandic musician Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson (and an ordained ‘chief goði’ of the pagan Norse religion Ásatrúarfélagið) and respected fisherman and chanter Steindór Andersen. However, desp...
Top 50 Songs of 2020
The 2020 edition of our Annual Report continues today with our Top 50 Songs of 2020. If you haven’t already, check out our Top 50 Albums of 2020, which came out earlier in the week. Also, be sure to tune in next week as we begin handing out our annual accolades and continue looking back on the strange year that was 2020. Upon being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago, Tom Waits said, “We love music, but what we really want is for music to love us back.” Believe it or not, it felt like music did that in 2020. For me, anyway. I know that it’s easy to see the world through pandemic goggles right now or strictly through the lens of racial injustice or political turmoil. Tragedy and frustration that keeps piling on can definitely cloud our vision or color our window on t...
The Hold Steady Announce New Album Open Door Policy, Share “Family Farm”: Stream
The Hold Steady have announced their eighth studio album, Open Door Policy. The follow-up to last year’s Thrashing Thru the Passion is due out on February 19th via the group’s own Positive Jams label and Thirty Tigers. The new full-length was almost entirely written and recorded prior to the pandemic. However, “the songs and stories explore power, wealth, mental health, technology, capitalism, consumerism, and survival – issues which have compounded in 2020,” according to frontman Craig Finn. Recording took place at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, New York with assistance from producer Josh Kaufman and engineer D. James Goodwin. The album is The Hold Steady’s second to feature their current six-piece lineup, which has been described by Finn as the band’s “best” iteration. Editors’ P...
Fleet Foxes Announce Virtual Concert “A Very Lonely Solstice Livestream”
Fleet Foxes have announced a special virtual holiday concert. Titled “A Very Lonely Solstice Livestream”, it will see frontman and principal songwriter Robin Pecknold perform a solo acoustic set live from St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York. “A Very Lonely Solstice” comes in support of Fleet Foxes’ Shore, which Consequence of Sound just named as one of the Top 50 Albums of 2020. It’s set to take place on Noonchorus on the Winter Solstice, December 21st at 9 p.m. ET; it’s a rather poetic date considering Shore was surprise-released on the Autumnal Equinox, September 22nd at 9:30 a.m. ET. The upcoming livestream will no doubt feature standout offerings from the acclaimed Shore. Also promised is a guest appearance from the Resistance Revival Chorus, an ensemb...
Top 50 Albums of 2020
As we return from Thanksgiving and head into December, our Annual Report will spend the next few weeks looking back upon the strange year that was 2020 and the music, film, and television that came with it. We begin today with our Top 50 Albums of 2020. You’ve heard it from me dozens of times already: 2020 has not been a normal year. And by that, I mean absolutely nothing has been normal. The music world hasn’t been immune, of course. I’ve spent more time cancelling flights and accommodations and trying to get tickets refunded than I actually did watching live music this year. Instragram became a concert venue, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions had no performances, and livestreams (which are pre-taped) seem to be the often-underwhelming future of live music at least for the forseea...
