The Wrap-Up: This Week in Music + 12 Cuts
The Wrap-Up brings you the 5 largest music news stories of the week as well as information about new album and music video releases. HEADLINES OF THE WEEK 1. New Of Monsters & Men album released After the four singles released over the course of...
The Wrap-Up brings you the 5 largest music news stories of the week as well as information about new album and music video releases.
Some Twitter stalking indicates that a new Beck song will premiere Monday, his first new music since 2014’s killer, multi-award-winning Morning Phase. He posted the album artwork for the song, “Dreams,” on his Twitter account yesterday, the same day that Pittsburgh radio station WYEP posted, “Monday – we’ll have a brand new song from Beck to debut on New at Noon @WYEP #newmusicmonday #beck.” Looks like we’ll have more Beck within a few days! If it’s anything like the last album, it will be aching, powerful, and an instant classic. And, if he’s already back in the studio working on new music, we’re hoping we see an album release soon–no more six year hiatuses for Beck!
3. The Arcs (aka The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach) share album art
In addition to being one half of the wildly prolific, talented, and popular The Black Keys (they’re headlining lots of festivals this summer), Dan Auerbach has created a new side project, The Arcs. He’s collaborating with loads of talented musicians on an independent album, titled Yours, Dreamily, that will be released on September 4th. The album will be “experimental,” Auerbach says, “The songs are really experimental, but not over your head. I hate when people try to be so obviously out there.” Listen to the first single, “Stay in My Corner,” apparently inspired by the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight and released early this year.
4. Disclosure and Lorde team up, drink milkshakes
A month ago we reported that Lorde had some new music in store…and some new friends. One of these friends seems to be electronic heavy hitter (and beatmaker behind last summer’s ubiquitous “Latch”) Disclosure. On Wednesday, Lorde Instagrammed a snap of the two hanging out and drinking milkshakes with the caption “making tunes and getting oreo milkshakes with @disclosure.” Lorde has long teetered on the edge of Disclosure-type electronica and dance, although Pure Heroine tended toward the minimal and downtempo. However, the two artists previously performed together (along with AlunaGeorge) at the 2014 Brit Awards, as you can see in the video above. Two such talented young artists can’t go wrong. We’re excited to see what they come up with…now we’re just waiting for a release date.
5. Surprise performances by Ezra Koenig and Andrew Wyatt at Gov Ball
New York City’s Governor’s Ball music festival featured a killer line-up with performances by The Black Keys, Florence and the Machine, St. Vincent, Rae Sremmurd, Tame Impala, and others. Some of the best moments of the festival, though, were surprises: on Friday, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig joined Chromeo for a rendition of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” (video below), shocking and gratifying the crowd from NYC, where Vampire Weekend started. On Saturday, he again appeared with SBTRKT for their collaboration “NEW DORP. NEW YORK.” off the 2014 album Wonder Where We Land. Unfortunately, the BRU staffer missed Koenig’s appearance with SBTRKT to see the simultaneous Flume set…during which Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow joined Flume onstage to perform their new collaborative single “Some Minds.”
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
1. New Of Monsters & Men album released After the four singles released over the course of 2015, we couldn’t wait to hear the new Of Monsters and Men album. Released on Tuesday, Beneath the Skin features eleven songs that expand on their incredible debut album, My Head is an Animal. The Icelandic band’s latest effort reflects their growth: they added layers of complexity with synths and electronics to their sound. The album is quieter, more pensive, and more reflective. Lead vocalist Nanna Hilmarsdóttir explains, “It’s getting back to the quietness and still being rowdy inside. Your head is still thinking millions of things. And everything is quiet. There are the quiet parts and there are the crazy intense parts and it’s finding the balance between it.” 2. Beck song coming Monday?
Some Twitter stalking indicates that a new Beck song will premiere Monday, his first new music since 2014’s killer, multi-award-winning Morning Phase. He posted the album artwork for the song, “Dreams,” on his Twitter account yesterday, the same day that Pittsburgh radio station WYEP posted, “Monday – we’ll have a brand new song from Beck to debut on New at Noon @WYEP #newmusicmonday #beck.” Looks like we’ll have more Beck within a few days! If it’s anything like the last album, it will be aching, powerful, and an instant classic. And, if he’s already back in the studio working on new music, we’re hoping we see an album release soon–no more six year hiatuses for Beck!
3. The Arcs (aka The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach) share album art
In addition to being one half of the wildly prolific, talented, and popular The Black Keys (they’re headlining lots of festivals this summer), Dan Auerbach has created a new side project, The Arcs. He’s collaborating with loads of talented musicians on an independent album, titled Yours, Dreamily, that will be released on September 4th. The album will be “experimental,” Auerbach says, “The songs are really experimental, but not over your head. I hate when people try to be so obviously out there.” Listen to the first single, “Stay in My Corner,” apparently inspired by the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight and released early this year.
4. Disclosure and Lorde team up, drink milkshakes
A month ago we reported that Lorde had some new music in store…and some new friends. One of these friends seems to be electronic heavy hitter (and beatmaker behind last summer’s ubiquitous “Latch”) Disclosure. On Wednesday, Lorde Instagrammed a snap of the two hanging out and drinking milkshakes with the caption “making tunes and getting oreo milkshakes with @disclosure.” Lorde has long teetered on the edge of Disclosure-type electronica and dance, although Pure Heroine tended toward the minimal and downtempo. However, the two artists previously performed together (along with AlunaGeorge) at the 2014 Brit Awards, as you can see in the video above. Two such talented young artists can’t go wrong. We’re excited to see what they come up with…now we’re just waiting for a release date.
5. Surprise performances by Ezra Koenig and Andrew Wyatt at Gov Ball
New York City’s Governor’s Ball music festival featured a killer line-up with performances by The Black Keys, Florence and the Machine, St. Vincent, Rae Sremmurd, Tame Impala, and others. Some of the best moments of the festival, though, were surprises: on Friday, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig joined Chromeo for a rendition of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” (video below), shocking and gratifying the crowd from NYC, where Vampire Weekend started. On Saturday, he again appeared with SBTRKT for their collaboration “NEW DORP. NEW YORK.” off the 2014 album Wonder Where We Land. Unfortunately, the BRU staffer missed Koenig’s appearance with SBTRKT to see the simultaneous Flume set…during which Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow joined Flume onstage to perform their new collaborative single “Some Minds.”