The bonus cut will be included on Vile's forthcoming It's A Big World Out There (And I'm Scared) limited edition 12" vinyl, which includes five other previously unreleased tracks. Click here for more details on the November 19 release. Fans making it out to the October 25 Terminal 5 show in New York City and the October 26 show at Philadelphia's Union Transfer will however have a chance to buy the 12" (in limited quantities).
That same day, Matador will also be releasing the Wakin On A Pretty Daze deluxe edition Deluxe Haze (Post Haze), which will include the aforementioned 12" and another previously unreleased track. Listen to "Feel My Pain" below.
Philadelphia's native folk-rock son Kurt Vile is prepping the fifth solo album in his lengthy catalog, Wakin On A Pretty Daze. The new album, out April 9 via Matador, will be a 69-minute double-LP, featuring the almost title track "Wakin On A Pretty Day."
The single will have an accompanying video soon, but for now check out the "Making Of" video below that features the nine minute track, and future tour dates after the bump.
With less than a week remaining in 2011, it's finally that time again for Bears and Bullets to unleash its 25 favorite songs of the year. As it was for the previous three years, there are certain rules that qualify a song for the list.
1.) The song must have been released during the calendar year.
2.) Even if the song was technically released during 2011, if it was leaked prior to January 1, 2011, then it also does not qualify for the list.
Last year, Vampire Weekend, in a decision that surprised even me, landed the #1 overall spot with "Giving Up the Gun." Something tells me that this time around it'll be a little more predictable. Let's see.
#25: Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire - The Last Huzzah! (Remix - ft. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, and El-P) Maybe it's the extensive collaborative effort put forward by Youtube rapper Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire that makes "Huzzah!" stand out more than anything else. Maybe it's the fact that the aforementioned eXquire lets the more well-known names stand up to the plate first, including El-P, who just flat out steals the scene with his '16-Step' verse that makes everyone take a little more notice. Maybe the points are drowned out through the sheer number of people getting their voice out here, but damn if every voice has something worth-while to say. Having one of the best videos of the year helps too.
#24: Kurt Vile - In My Time "In My Time" seems split on itself. On one side, Kurt Vile ranges through the memories of his youth, both in a positive light as "young and crazy" hinting at "discreet mistakes," but never finding solace in his adult life. On the other, he isn't concerned with why he was who he is. It's the kid in all of us (or at least the adult version of one we try to be), flailing between responsibility and self-inflicted reality. There's no definite answer, as "In My Time" drifts endlessly toward the end, repeating its cycles. The question doesn't need to be answered. It never has.
#23: The Field - Then It's White Not every good song needs emphatic moments of resound brilliance. For The Field's "Then It's White," the surrounding stills of looping echoes and piano seamlessly gravitate through the nearly eight minute session. There's a feeling of emptiness throughout, but not because the listener is waiting for something else, but because "Then It's White" reminds what those empty moments mean. The people, the sounds, the movement. It's all there without a word to be said.
#22: The Joy Formidable - Whirring Everyone's favorite surprise act from last August's Lollapalooza, The Joy Formidable made heads turn (or faces bleed) with "Whirring," a jarring, near-seven minute blast that spends nearly half of its time cruising through wonderfully surprising shoe-gaze. There's a bit of nostalgia here, to more-attuned versions of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth playing through, but to an audience that doesn't expect it. It may not be the genre's prime anymore, but songs like "Whirring" make you forget what you're missing.
#21: Wavves - I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl With WavvesLife Sux EP, Nathan Williams (slightly) ditched the super-DIY attitude of the group's previous work to something with a little more form behind it. That isn't to say that the band has completely ditched their "who gives a fuck, let's smoke" sensibilities (they wouldn't be Wavves without it), but just tried to sound them out a little more clearly. The song isn't totally about Dave Grohl, sans the chorus, but rather Williams deferring to his childhood dream while meandering through life's daily misery of living with his mistakes. I'm not gonna go out on a limb and say he's growing up, because I doubt it too, but it sounds like it for a minute.
We'll continue today with our top 25 countdown with albums #15 through #11.
#15: Destroyer - Kaputt
Dan Bejar is somewhat off-putting at times. The super-literate and carving intellectual drive of his work with Destroyer and The New Pornographers, mixed with his Gordon Gano-like vocal renditions were a constant confinement to me; respectful of the craft and ethic, but disappointed often in the execution. As it is, Kaputt, Destroyer and Bejar's best output yet, kinda curves the perennial temperament. The free-flowing jazz inspirations aren't terrifically overwhelming (good), and play a common chord in the back on songs like "Suicide Demo for Kara Walker," placated by Bejar's indelible song-writing, that finds its place comfortably. And for all the profoundly intellectual moments that tended to make or brake the Bejar status quo, they stand firmly on Kaputt. Pitchfork found a word for the album, "redeeming," that in a very strong sense, fits well. If anything, after all my biased notions, I'm underrating it.
#14: Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde Dye It Blonde could be effortlessly tagged as a less-egotistical glam rock staple of the early 70s, with all its wistful keyboard back-pulls and single-string guitar riffs, and it'd probably be remembered much more fondly then than it would be now. That isn't to say that Smith Westerns self-titled debut is anything like Dye It Blonde. There's confounding maturity and technical prowess that allows itself to be taken seriously, even if the songs come out like dripping call-outs to love and all its nurtured positives. It's a proud leap from the band's 2009 debut, but still comes out fun.
#13: The Antlers - Burst Apart Two years ago, The Antlers emerged out of the woods with Hospice, a charming, if not too delicate of an album. Lead-singer Pete Silberman's vocal were swept in downplayed and underwhelming pieces, which tends to work fine if there's little directive promise for much else. Burst Apart, however, allows Silberman to show that his high falsetto's can blend and carve a much more grandiose effigy in front of sparkling spirals of slow, decadent outputs. I'm not calling this anything close to stadium-esque profoundness, but the extra effort the Antlers push through is welcomed.
#12: Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo Philadelphia-native Kurt Vile rarely sounds like he's trying, whether he wants to or not. The majority of the tracks on Smoke Ring For My Halo and the rest of the Vile catalog are essentially easy progressions of the prolific singer-songwriter; loneliness, emptiness, feelings of more, etc. It's a deceptive measure of people like him, who aim not to show their tirelessness, even if their reputation says the opposite. Smoke Ring For My Halo is full of tracks that sound carelessly stacked, even behind cleverly displayed layers of musical prowess. And for musicians, maybe that's the correct mindset: work, work, work until getting it right just comes naturally.
#11: Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost How can a band like Girls that in all rights doesn't sound like they're doing anything terribly new, also sound like they're completely in their own world? Father, Son, Holy Ghost are borrowed pieces: surf rock, 60s pop, West coast garage rock, mixed with tempered sides of psychedelia and soul, that can be found anywhere in pop history, but really it's Christopher Owens that makes it stick. His well-documented background as an effeminate singer-songwriter raised in a cult (true) make him endearing as if he were some kind of well-read movie character. Maybe that's why Father, Son, Holy Ghost continues to surprise, replay after replay. You figure at this point you'd know Owens, but he surprises you with catchy, elaborate rock tracks like "Die" and you forget everything you suspect about what's next. Some albums are good because they make sense; their structure, songwriting, and progression. But here, you aren't supposed to suspect much, and it creeps forward even better that way.
For the video for "Baby's Arms," the second single off of Kurt Vile's fourth album (second with Matador) Smoke Ring for My Halo, director Todd Cole shot the entire Los Angeles video on a Windows Phone for quality that seems too good to be from an actual phone.
You can also check out the behind the scenes shots below.
Kurt Vile's new Ricardo Rivera-directed music video for "Jesus Fever," off the Philadelphia-native's Smoke Ring for My Halo, features Vile, who was recently tabbed for July's Pitchfork Music Festival, projector-walking through any nameless city, only to play his song underground in some oddly colorful subway.
Smoke Ring for My Halo is available now via Matador Records.
Kurt Vile's Matador full-length album debut Childish Prodigy, which features the previously mentioned single "Overnight Religion," is due out October 6. The Philadelphia native's new single (the opening track on Childish Prodigy) "Hunchback" is a bit heavier than Vile's previous work featured on last year's low-hum LP Constant Hitmaker, but it still features the slurry Lou Barlow-esque psych-pop that endeared his work.
Those who pre-order the album will receive a free copy of Vile's "He's Alright" 7" as well.
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