Bears And Bullets Albums Of The Year (#10-#1)

Continuing with list week, we hit the finale - the Best Albums of 2013, numbers ten through one. Read the countdown after the bump.

Bears And Bullets Songs Of The Year (#25-#1)

Continuing with yesterday's list, we count down the best songs of 2013 down to number one. See if your favorites made the list, after the bump.

New Arcade Fire video - Afterlife

Earlier today, director Emily Kai Bock introduced her new video for one of 2013's most resounding tracks, Arcade Fire's "Afterlife." And not to be outdone by the sheer weight of the song, which already had some treatment from frequent Arcade Fire collaborator Spike Jonze at the YouTube Music Awards, Bock introduced what may very yet be the year's best music video.

The Reflektor track follows the lives of three men - all of separate generations - in their lives after dark (hence, after "life"). The family follows three separate directions, running through a maze of frightening reality and perpetual longing for a common love.

Watch the resounding video below and grab the band's spectacular Reflektor LP today on Merge.

The National - Lean

Despite what reservations some might have for the Hunger Games film franchise, there's no debating that the soundtracks are surprisingly stellar. The first installment to the series was highlighted by Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter," and for the sequel Catching Fire, producer's have enlisted the likes of Coldplay and The National (among others) to lead the way.

The Ohio natives debuted "Lean," a somber (you can't really describe The National in many other forms) song driven by powerful emotives like love and every-longing - pretty fitting for the dystopian series. Check it out below and see the movie November 22.

Album Stream: Arcade Fire - Reflektor(!)

BREAKING:

Arcade Fire is streaming its entire fourth studio album Reflektor a few days before its October 29 release on YouTube and it's not a leak or anything.

Seriously, here's the whole album (with movie scenes to go with it). Check it out before its official release, courtesy of Merge.

Arcade Fire perform "Normal Person" and "Afterlife" on Colbert Report

With only a week to go before the release of the year's most-anticipated album Reflektor, Arcade Fire stopped by The Colbert Report to perform a pair of tracks not named "Reflektor." Included in the performance are two songs that the band previously performed on SNL special "Here Comes The Night Time," "Normal Person" and the album's second single "Afterlife."

Speaking of which, the radio rip of "Afterlife" has been subsequently taken down after yesterday, but the band has produced a lyric video instead.

Throughout the piece, Colbert constantly refers to the band as The Reflektors. The notion isn't a mistake, in case you missed the special story on the band's performance in Brooklyn last weekend.

Reflektor will be released October 29 on Merge. Watch the videos after the bump.

Arcade Fire - Afterlife (Radio Rip)

A night after Arcade Fire played a deceptive, tiny show in Brooklyn, in which the band debuted even more material from the massive double-album Reflektor, Zane Lowe debuted the album's second official single "Afterlife."

It's been a while since the "Reflektor" single debuted, so the wait for this has been surprisingly long. Luckily, it's another gem for the Arcade Fire catalog. Listen to the radio rip below and pre-order Reflektor on Merge before its October 29 release.

David Bowie - Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy)

Included in re-release of The Next Day, David Bowie's most recent album, will be a special, previously unreleased mix from none other than James Murphy.

The track, officially dubbed the "Hello Steve Reich Mix" of "Love Is Lost," was worked on when Bowie and Murphy joined forces for Arcade Fire's single "Reflektor," of which Murphy produced. Murphy explained why Steve Reich was the influence for the re-worked track to Consequence Of Sound;

“I was obsessed with Steve Reich’s clapping music, so I opened [the remix] with a phasing clapping piece,” he says. “I had a couple people. I had Hisham Bharoocha, who’s this percussionist-artist. He used to be in Black Dice and he’s done stuff with the Boredoms and he’s a friend of mine. So he was in town and I hadn’t seen him. He was doing this [piece] over at the Gallery where he was smashing up a room with some other percussionist-artists and I hadn’t seen him in a long time, so I literally just wanted an opportunity to hang out with my friend and work on something (laughs) since I’m always working and they’re always working. Sometimes you just have to be, 'let’s do this thing together,' so I had him come over and we just made this little clapping, phasing clapping piece, that began the track. It was originally going to be the whole remix, just clapping.”

The track formally premiered earlier today on Shaun Keaveny's BBC Radio 6 show, but is available to stream now below.

The three-disc reissue of The Next Day will be released November 5.

Arcade Fire - Here Comes The Night Time

In case you may have missed it, last Saturday, after the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, musical guests Arcade Fire debuted the half-hour "Here Comes The Night Time" special, featuring all new previously unheard music from the upcoming Reflektor LP.

Directed by Roman Coppola, the special featured performances of "Here Comes The Night Time," "We Exist," and "Normal Persons," as well as "Reflektor" and "Afterlife" during Saturday Night Live. As well, a slew of guest stars had small cameos, including; Bill Hader, Zach Galifianakis, Rainn Wilson, Jason Shwartzman, Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, Bono, Ben Stiller, James Franco, and Michael Cera.

Watch the whole, commercial-less special below. Reflektor comes out October 29 on Merge.

Preview: Arcade Fire's 'Reflektor'

We're still about two months away from the biggest release of 2013, Arcade Fire's fourth LP Reflektor. But today the band finally debuted something in the way of new music with a 40 second preview of the album. No lyrics, of course, but it does prelude something in the way of a single for next week.

Just a reminder, the James Murphy-produced album will be released October 29 on Merge.

New Atoms For Peace - Judge Jury and Executioner

As we look into the future of 2013, there's already a lengthy list of important releases headed our way. Among the ranks of Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, and (maybe) Daft Punk, Thom Yorke's well-known side project Atoms For Piece has scheduled an album release for late February.

The single "Judge Jury and Executioner" this morning on Zane Lowe's BBC 1 Radio Show, which also features a nice little visualizer video to go with it. Check it out below, and grab Amok February 25 and 26 (U.S.) via XL Recordings.

Friday Bears: Arcade Fire's "Sprawl II" videos

It's been a while for Arcade Fire, who are duly taking a break after a litany of summer music festivals, touring, and championing The Suburbs. Earlier today, the group released their newest video from the album, "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," more than a year after The Suburbs initial release, which is another in a series of interactive videos. If you have a webcam of any kind, you can play around with it here.

If you can't (or won't), check out the video and some kind of apology for its lateness below.

Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Bunch'a live performances

A solid handful of live performances have made their way around today, including two Arcade Fire songs on Sound Opinions (WBEZ 91.5 Chicago).

Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) (Live on Sound Opinions)



Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait (Live on Sound Opinions)



Le Butcherettes - New York (Live on Terroreyes.tv)



Fucked Up - Queen of Hearts (Live at NXNE Toronto)

Monday Bears: Two New Arcade Fire Songs

A few months prior to the release of the Arcade Fire's deluxe edition of The Suburbs (to be released June 27), a pair of unreleased songs premiered on BBC Radio's Zane Lowe Show, via Listen Before You Buy.

"Speaking in Tongues" also features the help of David Byrne, while "Culture War" fits the more conventional Subrubs-esque style.

UPDATE: Head over here to listen to the tracks, I had to take them down because of apparent malware bananary.

Bonnaroo 2011 lineup released

Manchester, Tennessee's annual Bonnaroo Music Festival's official lineup was released earlier today. Here are the meaty, dirty details:

• A week after news came out that Eminem would be headlining Lollapalooza 2011, the Detroit rapper surprised again, filling out the top of Bonnaroo's billing.
• After winning Album of the Year (and beating out Eminem), Arcade Fire will also be at Bonnaroo this year.
• My Morning Jacket, Buffalo Springfield (and friends), Lil' Wayne, Robert Plant, The Strokes, Decemberists, and the Black Keys are among the other notable larger acts.
• Bassnectar seems to be this year's big electronic act.
• For the rest of the lineup (Bonnaroo's site is currently stuck in traffic), check here.

Tickets for the festival go on sale this Saturday, Feb. 19.

New Radiohead. King of Limbs. Saturday.

Last night, I slept happily after witnessing Arcade Fire stun the music world by shafting mainstream pop, effectively giving indie and alternative music an actual landmark moment. But when I woke up to hear that Radiohead were releasing a new album this Saturday, it seemed sort of unreal.

All of this came a week after the White Stripes and LCD Soundsystem announcing the end of their careers, putting a solid bandage on that open wound.

News was released a little while back that the band had actually finished recording the album, which was supposed to be due out some time this year, but no one was sure exactly when or even certain that an album was coming out. Well, here's the rundown:

Radiohead's new album The King of Limbs is due out via digital release this Saturday, February 19. Soon huh?

• You can preorder the MP3 copy for a lowly $9, or the WAV copy (higher quality) for $14.
• One person who orders the digital copy will win their own two track 12" vinyl, signed by the group.

If you aren't the digital type (you're online, aren't you?) or if you wanna splurge a bit, you can order The King of Limbs "Newspaper Album," also available for preorder. The package includes.

• Two 10" clear vinyl records.
• A CD version of the record.
• A shit-ton of artwork (over 600 large and small pieces).
• A digital download of the album.
• All of these are available for preorder now, but the physical pieces will not be shipped until May 9. The Newspaper version with the MP3 download is available for $48, while the WAV version is $53.
• One person will also win their own signed pair of 12" vinyls.

So, the In Rainbows "pay what you want" project seems to have gone by the wayside, which may disappoint a handful of people. Be that as it may, it's Radiohead, so stop complaining. We can say through Radiohead at Ease that the album will likely be eight tracks long. Check the details here.

Preorder your copy of King of Limbs now. Or not, you know, do what you want.

Monday Bears: Arcade Fire ... wins?

Last night, the 53rd annual Grammy Awards gave one of the most shockingly righteous awards in the show's history. After being nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year, the Arcade Fire seemed more like outsiders thrown into the comical ring for nothing more than pity and forced acknowledgement. A lot of people who know me have heard my on-again off-again verbal detest of the lauded award show. Year after inconsequential year, denominated awards were handed out like peripheral life-time achievement statues, giving awards to Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, and a dead guy.

Throughout the course of the show, the Grammy's were unsurprisingly Grammy-like: Lady Antebellum seemed to be getting every award they had been nominated for, and "Hey, Soul Sister" actually won something -- so, it didn't look good. To put things in an even wider perspective, Arcade Fire actually lost their first two awards to the Black Keys.

Three years ago, Radiohead was also shockingly nominated for Album of the Year for In Rainbows, only to lose to who-gives-a-fuck Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. I'm basically trying to tell you in a bevy of different ways that The Suburbs had virtually no shot to win Album of the Year.

Well, I was wrong. Happily wrong. Arcade Fire beat out Lady Antebellum, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry - four massive mainstream pop acts with legions of followers dwarfing anything the Montreal group has come close to. Barbara Streisand, who announced it, couldn't even seem to get the right words out of her mouth - like she couldn't pronounce the insanely foreign phrase "The Suburbs."

So, what does it all mean? Twitter indie-philes were utterly shocked (just like these people), and dishearteningly concerned that the group would transpose into the mainstream, even though their radio play is few and far between. Will the group actually get radio play now? How will "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" sound between an Usher and the Black Eyed Peas on top 40 radio?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but right now the band isn't just important to those of us who try to pay attention to more than 10 artists - they matter on a global scale. And whether that lasts or not, right now, fans like me feel like we won something.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Wednesday Bears: Bears and Bullets Top 25 Songs of the Year (Pt. III)

We'll continue our top 25 countdown with songs #15 through #11.

#15: Zebra - Beach House
The lead track off of Beach House's third album Teen Dream, "Zebra" perfects the Baltimore duo's ephemeral pop-scoping dream, collectively tying any of the looser knots heard on their 2006 self-titled debut and 2008 LP Devotion. While "Norway" and "10 Mile Stereo" may have been the beneficiaries of more word of mouth, "Zebra" is Beach House at their core; wildly impossible and poignantly conscious of what they do at their best - endlessly ethereal dream-pop.

#14: Ready to Start - Arcade Fire
"Ready to Start" isn't The Suburbs most defining moment. With what the album is, as a whole, it seems like "Ready to Start," is a bit of a misnomer, fitting beyond the group's three studio albums. It doesn't conjure the unbridled joy of "Wake Up," the childlike mystery of "Rebellion (Lies)," or the ascending propose of "Intervention," but what it first brings to the band's catalog is the idea of relentlessness - that a band so cued for for tight orchestrations and breathtaking execution can actually sound eager and engaged, and capable of so much more.

#13: Cold War - Janelle Monae
Janelle Monae's critically acclaimed debut The ArchAndroid brought a bevy of welcomed new approaches for the tiny contemporary pop starlet, namely Monae's casually unnerving approach for bigger and brighter sounds without compromising the integrity of simplistic perfection. "Cold War," behind the "Bombs Over Baghdad" drum roll, evokes strength in Janelle's apparent personal weakness. "If you wanna be free / below the ground's the only place to be," may be a bit bleaker than it sounds coming from Monae's soft, yet booming voice, but that's what sense comes here - the ability to transpose all those ideas in a tight, confound space, brilliantly pieced together.

Janelle Monae - Cold War



#12: Lovesick - Lindstrøm & Christabelle
This? It's the song from that commercial your not sure of that you think you might like. Maybe it's for a phone, I'm not sure, and at the rate that I write these, looking it up is a waste of both of our time. Regardless, "Lovesick" is one, for lack of a better term, one of the sexiest songs that is actually executed without throwing innuendo in the listener's face. Lindstrøm's well-spaced compulsion of sound, mixed with Christabelle's slow, whispery vocals connect to form a valiantly paced three minutes that end up sounding like it drifts infinitely.

#11: Power - Kanye West (ft. Dwele)
"Power" was most fan's first listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West's magnum opus album that would later dominate all others in 2010. It's a collective bash of the enigmatic march of "Jesus Walks" with a profound majesty that Kanye has been able to finally manipulate eight years into his notorious career. "Power" is a smack in the face, rather than that breath of fresh air that listeners always ache for, with it's tight-fisted blasting beats and menacing snarls, touching base on death and the delusion of power in the grandest of scales.

Kanye West (ft. Dwele) - Power



Stay tuned, we'll return tomorrow with songs #10 - 6.

Tuesday Bears: Bears and Bullets Top 25 Songs of 2010 (Pt. II)

We'll continue our top 25 countdown with songs #20 through #16.

#20: On Melancholy Hill - Gorillaz
Damon Albarn's return to the studio as cartoon band frontman for Gorillaz yielded "Melancholy Hill" on an album that, more often than not, showcased the talents of others: Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, etc. The song stands alone on Plastic Beach as Albarn's highest achievement because it's only him. Aside from the plush synth drives, Albarn showcases what so many Blur fans remember from the 90s; a solemn and lonely voice that drives toward subtle beauty.

Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill



#19: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
"Sprawl II" is, in a way, the furthest departure Arcade Fire have ever taken from their coined sound. Regine leads the bass-heavy and synth-driven charge of an Earth catapulting spring that invokes her to scream "sometimes I wonder if the world's so small." It should be taken with a grain of salt, because there have been few times that Arcade Fire have sounded bigger

#18: I Think Ur a Contra - Vampire Weekend
Contra, as Vampire Weekend's second studio effort, came off to some fans as a bit more bumpy and rushed as its self-titled preprocessor - but that argument always seems to follow any band that explodes off a debut (Strokes, anyone?). However, "I Think Ur a Contra," and it is spelled that way, is, for a moment, cold and sad. There have been very few, if any moments in Ezra Koenig's short career that he has sounded so warm that even his minuscule heartbreak seems distant from "Contra's" wintry beauty.

#17: Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells
Oddly enough, Sleigh Bells softest moment from their ear-bashing (in a good way) debut Treats proved to be the record's most endearing track. The jagged guitar, borrowed a bit from Funkadelic, turns away from the group's typically bombasting approach, to turn on sly, jubilant and - most important here - catchy rhythm that escalates into a drifty high school daydream.

#16: Yulia - Wolf Parade
Wolf Parade, the now either defunct or on indefinite hiatus band, hasn't gotten their fair share of compliments since their 2005 debut Apologies to the Queen Mary. With what may have been the band's last work, Expo 86, the group produced "Yulia," a harrowing and true song about Soviet cosmonauts from the 50s that were lost in space to drift along through eternity. But focusing on the bleakness, and in a way, Wolf Parade's departure, takes away from the stark love song that "Yulia" turns into. Indeed, its face front value is something completely different, but here it can't stop from sounding so engrossing and tearful.

Wolf Parade - Yulia



Stay tuned, we'll return tomorrow for songs #15 - 11.

Thursday Bears: 2010-11 Grammy Nominees

Replace Clapton with Jeff Beck this year

Last night, the official list of the 2010-11 (I never get the time-frame right for this) Grammys was released. Now, I have no long-winded rant set in place, but lets see where this goes. You can download the entire pdf of nominees here.

Eminem topped all everyone this year with 10 nominations for Recovery, including Album of the Year, and Record and Song of the Year for "Love the Way You Lied (ft. Rihanna). Among the notables for Record and Song of the year, which are still two different categories for essentially the same thing, is Cee-Lo's (not Gwyneth Paltrow's) "Fuck You." We have a darkhorse.

Among the artists I perpetuate the idea of caring about, or legitimately do care about, Arcade Fire had a few significant nominations of their own for The Suburbs, including (gasp) Album of the Year. They stand a pretty long shot to actually win the award, but it's good to see that they at least got recognition for it. They were also nominated for two other awards, including Best Alternative Music Album, alongside Band of Horses, The Black Keys, Broken Bells, and Vampire Weekend. Surprisingly not nominated amongst them, Gorilliaz, for Plastic Beach. I'm not gonna get too worked up over the Grammys not nominating the right people every year though.

The Best New Artist Category, which sometimes sees a litany of indie acts (like MGMT last year), is a little flat this time around - something Bielebers will contest to. Aside from the Biebs, Drake, Florence & The Machine, Mumford & Sons, and ... Esperanza Spalding were nominated. Because I don't know who Spalding is, or care not to know who she is (i.e. Zach Brown band last year), she'll likely win. Oh, I checked her out, the first photos on Google came up with her next to a jazz bass. This is done.

I won't share the butt-fuckin'-ton of details, but I will declare this: In the Best Rock Performance By a Duo with Group or Vocals category, Jeff Beck's and Joss Stone's cover of "I Put a Spell on You" is nominated alongside songs from Arcade Fire, Muse, Kings of Leon, and The Black Keys. I'm guaranteeing a win for Beck and Stone. Guarantee.

It's just the way it is, and I've reluctantly accepted that the Grammys, despite being labeled as the most prestigious of music awards (if there is such a thing), will do less and less accurate justice as time goes by. I could be wrong, and see what I like (or hope) wins, but I know I won't be.