Rich Aucoin gets dystopian, Dude York fall for you, Ada Lea parties down and more in today’s Roundup. Hey, I see somebody’s apparently making an authorized Led Zeppelin documentary. So, once you take away the repeated allegations of plagiarism, Jimmy Page’s drug addictions, the underage groupies and rape-y backstage antics (mud shark anyone?) and everything else the bandmembers don’t want to talk about, that should be about what, eight minutes long?
1 You can’t say Rich Aucoin isn’t trying. Not when it comes to songs like the funky electro-pop of his latest song The Other, the second single from his May 17 release Release. And not when it comes to the video for the song, which depicts a dystopian future I’ll let him explain. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Other video takes place on an alien planet where a tyrant rules a dystopian society divided into quadrants based on the various colours of the aliens’ masks. There is a strict no physical inter-coloured contact rule on this planet such that even the soldiers on this planet only touch others with long metal sticks. The Blue and Red heroes / heroines of the story live in their segregation watching their own versions of the news until they join forces in a rainbow revolution against the tyrant and the ruling class. Inspired by George Lucas’ THX, Ridley Scott / Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner, and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, the video reveals the album cover image of the upcoming release with my printed skull.” See the future:
2 Seattle indie-rock trio Dude York announced they’ll release their new album Falling on July 26 (check the Upcoming Releases page for all of today’s new additions). And they’re getting the ball rolling with the cool animated video for the noisy, yet undeniably hooky title track. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “The title track is a gleeful ode to new, unexpected love where all the details matter. “We used to like all the same shit/do you think we’d be friends in 2006?” Claire England sings. The track is pure pop gold, with equal parts sweet sentiment and Josie and the Pussycats-soundtrack playfulness. “I was starting to think/That it would be/When passion lined up with practicality,” England muses on those pesky expectations of love, gleaned from radio songs and rom-coms. “But I secretly hoped when it happened to me there would be no doubt/It would feel like falling.” Dive in:
3 Ada Lea is one of those artists who’s not big on capital letters in titles: The Montreal singer-songwriter’s upcoming debut album is called what we say in private. And the subtly beautiful first single is named the party. I don’t know whether it’s all some sort of e.e. cummings/k.d. lang tribute, or if the caps lock is broken on her computer, or if she’s just lazy. Either way consider yourself warned. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “the party came about after spending a magical night on the town with close friends. The song kind of just wrote itself. I always kept trying to make it a longer song, but nothing seemed to fit — or it felt like it was divulging too much,” Ada Lea says of the gently building, intimately hushed track. “I wanted to capture that delightfully unsatisfying quality of the night; being together but wanting something more to happen, yet reveling in the power that had brought us all together at that special moment. That’s life, though…isn’t it? When you’re truly living the moment, you get home and wish you could live it again and again.” Get on your stationary bikes and ride:
4 First it was a KISS album. Then it was a Kinks song. Now Destroyer is the handle of Vancouver rock collective Black Mountain’s May 24 LP. Of course, you probably already knew that, since they’ve already shared a couple of preview tracks from the disc. Here’s the third: The synth-laced ’70s Krautrock riffapalooza Licensed to Drive, which would fittingly be best listened to while speeding down the highway at night in a muscle car. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Licensed to Drive is heavy and exhilarating, and would easily be the most dangerous ripper on a titular film’s soundtrack. In the words of the band’s Stephen McBean: “A riff in A flat and some Neu / Nugent / Newman Motorik hustle. Was the vacation better than the journey or did the drive etch itself into your soul? I’d like to thank the DMV for the inspiration.” Put it in gear:
4 I’ve been a fan of Left Lane Cruiser for a while now. Why? Well, I could count the many fine ways in which the mighty Indiana blues-punk duo always bring it. Or I could just give you a link to their gritty, greasy and grizzled new shuffle The Waltz, from their May 31 album Shake and Bake. That really should take care of it. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Shake and Bake, the band’s new album, was cooked up in a van rolling heavy on the highway, headed by two baked and juiced musicians, veering across the lines, desperately steering towards rest and redemption at the nearest parking lot. It is a record about the juice that keeps the crowd dancing, the smoke that keeps the minds lifted. This is as real it gets.” Sweet jimma-jamma’s bama-lama:
6 Alex Lahey is giving you one more chance. The Melbourne singer-songwriter’s forthcoming album The Best of Luck Club arrives May 17 — but first she’s sharing the third and final single, the gorgeously hazy ballad Unspoken History. That about says it. Except for this. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “When I was in Nashville, I spent some time in a tiny writing room creating songs for this record,” says Lahey of the new track. “Towards the end of that time, I felt as though I was starting to exhaust my output and was starting to become complacent about what I had left to give. On one of my last days there, I was lent a guitar that was set up in a variation on open D tuning, which is something I never play in. In the process of nutting out chords and voicing in this tuning, the melody to the verses just came out. When I started putting words to it, it started off as being about one thing, but then morphed into something else, creating its own path very organically.” OK, THAT says it all:
7 I admit I don’t listen to a lot of Turkish music. But I definitely would listen to a lot more, if it all sounded as cool as Lamani, the hypnotically psychedelic hip-swiveler from Tolga Böyük and his group Islandman. I suspect you would too. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Lamani is the first single we’re sharing with you off Kaybola (which means to get lost to find a new way), our forthcoming sophomore LP. The record is chock full of ethno-cultural material from Japan to Bulgaria, including field recordings of Tuva, Central Asia throat singers.” You heard it here first:
