The Big Pink, 'Crystal Visions' live video & 'Tonight' 7"

There's a new performance site that just launched called For No One. For the first session The Big Pink played an extended version of A Brief History Of Love opener 'Crystal Visions'. One of the better first tracks in recent memory:



There's also a 7" now available for 'Tonight'. This is a re-recorded version of what is found on their debut album and has a cover of 'Sweet Dreams' (Beyonce) on the B-side. Off-kilter covers have become a standard these days and most of them are pretty terrible, but somehow this is a great translation.

Order info and streams over on the official site.

(source: 4AD.com)

4AD Releases Limited 12" EP for Record Store Day

Many people get excited about April for Coachella. I get excited about April for a different reason: Record Store Day.

There have already been some nice announcements about what is going to be available this time around. Yesterday 4AD announced a limited 12" EP that sounds pretty neat. Consisting of 5 tracks from the likes of Blonde Redhead, Gang Gang Dance, The Big Pink, Tune-Yards and Ariel Pink, Fragments From Work In Progress offers early demos and unreleased songs while they are still in the stage of being worked out creatively. The label has made it clear that this will not be available digitally or otherwise.

These types of releases on RSD are what interest me most. Things that aren't just a repackaging of what a band has released before (although those can be nice sometimes too), but more of a special unique release that you can only get through an independent record shop on April 17th. Looking forward to picking this up amongst a hefty list of other things.

Also- how great is that cover art?

Tracklisting:

A1: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 'Menopause Man'
A2: Tune-Yards 'You Yes You'
B1: Blonde Redhead 'Not Getting There'
B2: Gang Gang Dance 'Slime City (Heaven)'
B3: The Big Pink 'With You'

The National, High Violet / Black Sessions #230

Surfing on Steam and I were chatting yesterday about these High Violet teaser ads and wondering who they were for. The National was one of the bands mentioned as a guess. And now it has been revealed that High Violet is the name of their new album to be released by 4AD on May 11th.

Not that I care so much about album names but I particularly like the name of this one. Supposedly its going to be 'angry'. Maybe it's an album's worth of material written right after Matt Berninger gave up smoking. While I love all The National albums, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers is my favorite. I feel like that had a bit of anger in parts. Since Matt sings in a low steady tone most of the time it's a nice contrast when the screaming starts. Hope the new album has bits of that here and there.

Here's this if you don't already have it. It's the Black Session they did sometime around the release of Alligator:

The National - Black Session #230, 04.29.05

1. All The Wine
2. Secret Meeting
3. Driver Surprise Me
4. Lit Up
5. Cherry Tree
6. Baby, We'll Be Fine
7. Geese
8. City Middle
9. Looking For Astronauts
10. Mr. November
11. Daughters of the Soho Riots
12. Abel
13. Wasp Nest

Download

Future of the Left, Travels With Myself And Another

Cardiff band mclusky came and went without ever really landing on my radar, but the band that Andy "Falco" Falkous and Jack Egglestone went on to form after certainly caught my attention. The pair joined up with Kelson Mathias (ex-Jarcrew) and became Future of the Left.

Their debut album, Curses, came out in the fall of 2007 and has been a fairly consistent listen of mine ever since. News comes that their sophomore release is called Travels With Myself And Another and is set to release June 23rd on 4AD.

They also have a brand new song for us to listen to:

“Arming Eritrea"

Additionally there's already a video available for another track from the new album,"The Hope That House Built":



"Manchasm", from Curses: