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. This week: New albums, weird onstage collabs, and a tragic cancellation.  

HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

 

1. Beck and St. Vincent take the T. Swift stage

Taylor Swift’s most recent tour has been full of guest stars, but the best on-stage surprise yet occurred on Tuesday when she brought out Beck and St. Vincent to sing and play “Dreams,” Beck’s killer single (and one of this week’s 12 Cuts!) together. St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) brought her vaunted guitar chops to the incredible collaboration, while Beck and harmonized on the lyrics. We’re glad Taylor Swift has the same kind of music taste we do! Beck and Taylor Swift sang “Dreams” together, but we kinda wish they had done a “Bad Blood”/”Dreams” mash-up. Not possible? Check out the flawless composite, titled “Bad Dreams,” below (via the Wall Street Journal and an anonymous Vevo user)! Taylor Swift x Beck – Bad Dreams from smiff prime on Vimeo.    

2. Charli XCX and Bleachers’ joint tour dates cancelled

Unfortunately–especially for any of you who had your eyes on the September 14th concert in Boston–Bleachers and Charli XCX have announced that they will not be able to continue their joint “Charli and Jack Do America” tour. The two artists made it clear that cancellation was not due to “creative differences,” but rather to Charli’s personal burn-out. She explained in a Facebook post:

As an artist I need to move quickly and write a lot to not feel restless. Sometimes touring really puts me in this isolated world where I feel down and sad but primarily I struggle to multitask and write songs at the same time which is what I need to do to feel OK….I had a really wonderful and amazing time touring throughout the first leg with Bleachers, one of the most incredible, energetic and kind bands (and crew) I’ve ever been on the road with.

Jack Antonoff, frontman of Bleachers (even if you don’t know Bleachers, then you certainly know his other project, fun.), attested:

since I found out my team and i have been scrambling to try and figure out a way to continue with the tour on our own, but It has been made clear that reworking the tour at this late stage without charli is not realistic….i’m deeply sorry and extremely disappointed that a decision as big as a cancellation is out of my hands — and you have my word that I will do everything in my power to make sure something like this never happens again in the future.

To summarize: Jack Antonoff would never, ever, cancel a show. Regardless of the story behind the cancellation, you can still catch Bleachers if you happen to be in Texas, North Carolina, or Canada in the next several weeks. The duo will also go ahead with their planned performance in New Jersey on September 19th.  

3. New Pearl Jam album for 2016 

We haven’t heard new music from Pearl Jam for a couple years, although they’ve been all over the place since then in the tour for 2013’s Lightning Bolt (and, of course, we’re still partial to their hits off of Ten, Vs., Backspacer, etc.). But that might change soon: bassist Jeff Ament recently revealed to VICE that, after the band’s end-of-year tour in South America, they’ll be back in the studio to record a new album. Also in the interview, he covered skateboarding, community engagement in South Dakota, and Pearl Jam’s legacy. Check out the full article here!    

4. The National are on their way with their seventh album

The National revealed that they’ve been working on a new album, with a “camp out retreat” in upstate New York a couple months ago and another retreat in LA coming up. It seems like the retreat was good inspiration: already, the rock-solid alt/indie rock band has “30 sketches of songs so far,” according to frontman Matt Berninger. That’s a lot for one album, and who knows what shape it will take as it develops “organically and naturally” over time. Potential release date? Who knows, but here’s hoping for early 2016! This will be the band’s seventh album, and their first since 2013’s “Trouble Will Find Me.”    

5. Watch the Mowgli’s live on Sunday (over the internet)

Consequence of Sound is presenting a free live-stream of The Mowgli’s in concert on Sunday at 3:30pm (2:30 CT). The BRU favorite (were you at their SCS show two years ago?) will be playing live from Chicago, and, if you happen to be in Chicago, you can go to the concert for free and relive the memories from one of their Providence shows. Head over to Consequence of Sound for the live-stream link.   And now, this week’s 12 Cuts above the Rest!  Images via, via, via, via