Purity Ring is the duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick from Gobble Gobble; they have nothing to do with the Jonas Brothers. Their song “Ungirthed” is a hyper-addictive pop-dubstep sort of affair that sounds channeled from a sweetly futuristic broadcast originating lightyears away… a future in which actual purity rings have long been smelted away from memory.

The Ungirthed 7″ is out now on Transparent records.

A-side: Purity Ring – Ungirthed

B-side: Purity Ring – Lofticries

Purity Ring – Ungirthed (Christian AIDS Remix)

Mary Timony (Helium), Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) and Rebecca Cole (The Minders) have combined forces to create Wild Flag. The four women have had various overlapping musical projects, tours and shows for quite some time (Brownstein + Timony = The Spells, Weiss + Cole = part of The Shadow Mortons).

Read Carrie’s All Songs Considered NPR Blog Post for a brief explanation of how the band came about here. Their album is slated to be released some time soon on Merge Records, and you can listen below to “Glass Tambourine” from a single recently released for Record Store Day.

Wild Flag – “Glass Tambourine”

The latest iteration of the evolving persona of Ian Svenonius, the one time Sassy Magazine‘s “Sassiest Boy in America,” is Chain, of Chain & The Gang. Chain is currently spreading the word regarding the detrimental effects of liberty on civilization through a serious unserious, reverently irreverent version of the blues, complete with his charismatic spoken-sung lyrics and occasional Prince-like outbursts.

Svenonius, of course, is the always energetic, enigmatic and entertaining former singer of the late great Nation of Ulysses, as well as The Cupid Car Club, The Make Up and Weird War. (He is also the author of The Psychic Soviet and host of the online interview show, Soft Focus.) In reference to his previous projects, Chain & The Gang are most similar to The Make Up and their Gospel Yeh-Yeh Sound, and shares much of his former band’s appeal.

Svenonius seems at home fronting this new outfit: back on stage dressed in a retro-fit suit, his band members in old-fashioned prison stripes. His antics are as deadpan and convincing as ever, a testament to his unique brand of outsider ethos and his ability to remain in character (?) for two decades. (Too bad the critics at the NY Times don’t quite get it.) Chain & The Gang’s latest album, Music’s Not For Everyone, is out now on K Records.

Watch: Chain & The Gang – Youth Is Wasted/Living Rough

The REAL Pornographers

I am sure that Canadian super-group The New Pornographers have a tough time coordinating schedules. That’s the trouble with being ultra-productive and creative, I guess. Too many solo careers! Too many side projects!

So when it comes to shooting a video for new material, why not pick a bunch of other celebrities who aren’t actually in the band, but who also likely have insane schedules, and have them film a fake movie trailer for a made-up movie? (Complete with an additional fake promo for another fake movie?) Sure! Pure genius.

Watch Tom Scharpling’s clever take on The New Pornographers and “Moves,” from their latest offering, Together, out now on Matador Records. It features a laundry list of funny people cameos including: Jon Wurster, Julie Klausner, Kevin Corrigan, Wyatt Cenac, Horatio Sanz, Ted Leo, John Hodgman, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Todd Barry, Donald Glover, Esther Crowe, Michael Lisk, Gabe Delahaye, Max Silvestri, Jay Norton, David Rosenblatt, Terre T., Anna Copacabana, Rob Cuthill, Brian Turner, Alex Scordelis, Jonathan Fernandez, Therese Mahler, Candace Mills, Christina Stanley, Christine Tadler, Owinema Biu, Chris Spooner, and Jacob Wolk.

Watch: The New Pornographers – “Moves”

Then, read Pitchfork’s interview with director Tom Scharpling.

NB: Expectant Dads plot synopsis. Hilarious.

Love to hate him. Hate to love him. The talented and outspoken Kanye West’s most recent offering, My Dark Twisted Fantasy, has raised some eyebrows since its release with its cover, its perfect 10 rating on Pitchfork, and its accompanying long-form video for “Runaway.” Sure the whoopla has been next to nothing compared to past Presidential accusations or award show microphone stealing moments on national television, but nonetheless, random shit keeps public opinion divided on Kanye.

The latest in the mini-saga of stupidness happens to be the new video for the song, “All of the Lights.” The song itself is one of the standout tracks on the album, maybe bested only by “POWER.” The video in question is directed by Hype Williams, who apparently is a big Gaspar Noe fan.

And the controversies continue! As in: Can anyone actually hear all (any more than two) of the guest artists credited on the song? Does Enter the Void actually merit an homage in the first place, and if so, does this qualify? As you ponder away, searching for meaning in the machine, here’s a suggestion:

If you haven’t seen the original video, watch it here. (Though it seems to have been largely wiped from the free flowing internet at this point, you shouldn’t deny yourself your daily dose of Rihanna’s hotness). Then, I suggest playing the intro to Enter the Void on mute (below), with this handy-dandy sort of grime-dubstep-esque remix of “All of the Lights” playing along (way below). A perfect compromise for both lovers and haters.

Watch: Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe)… loop it twice.

Listen: “All of the Lights” (Dubstep remix)

Signs of life and creative good health from Brooklyn’s TV on the Radio: a new track from their newest album, Nine Types of Light. The new record will reportedly be out on April 12 via Interscope Records.

Listen: TV on the Radio – “Will Do”

PJ Harvey’s eighth record, Let England Shake, is out now. Hallelujah. It’s an eerily beautiful rumination on a world at war written over the last several years, reflecting both our current and past bloodied status as a civilization at large. One might file it under the category of an important work from an important artist. (Just a guess.)

Once again, Harvey is accompanied by her long-time compatriots John Parish and Mick Harvey, but on the record Harvey finds a new voice and affinity for autoharp among other things, which makes the record stand out from much of her already extraordinary catalogue. Listen and be moved.

Watch: “Let England Shake”

Watch: ”The Words That Maketh Murder”

Among the various indie outfits making danceable rock music over the last several years, Melbourne’s electro-synth-pop band Cut/Copy and their album, In Ghost Colours, immediately stood out from the increasingly populated crowd of LCD/Daft Punk proteges.

Dan Whitford et al return on Feb 8, with their third record, Zonoscope, which again aims to strike the perfect balance between band and DJ. Cut/Copy play NYC’s Terminal 5 April 1 and 2. They play the 9:30 Club in DC on March 29, and the Trocadero in Philadelphia on March 31.

Listen: “Need You Now” from Zonoscope, available from Modular Records

Blue Songs, the eagerly awaited sophomore album from discotheque champions Hercules & Love Affair is streaming at The Guardian.

Hercules leader Andrew Butler is the man who teamed up with Antony Hegarty and DFA Records to produce 2008′s “Blind,” the pinnacle of the recent electronic indie disco house phenomenon.

Listen: “My House” – from Blue Songs, available from Moshi Moshi Records on January 31

“My House” remixed by Stopmakingme

“My House” remixed by Hercules and Love Affair

The always lovable Matt & Kim have gone from food fights to fist fights with their latest video offering for “Cameras,” from their newest album Sidewalks. The video has everything one could ever want from MTV: fake blood, a kick drum pedal to the crotch shot, and people breaking through practice space walls via “Walk This Way.”

It’s an unconventional take on domestic conflict resolution that is sure to raise some eyebrows, though in the end a harmonious tag-team assault on some unsuspecting neighboring band wins the day.

Matt & Kim are on tour in Australia, and then in Europe through the spring. Sidewalks is out now on Fader Label.

Matt & Kim – Cameras (Mike D Remix)

Portland Dream of the 90′s

Indie-rock dynamic duo Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have moved their hilarious ThunderAnt project forward to IFC with Portlandia, a sincere and comical celebration of Portland, “a city where young people go to retire.”

Armisen and Brownstein take us on a tour of 90′s nostalgia, a time when the Pacific Northwest was the epicenter of a musical movement in which Nirvana would displace Michael Jackson on the top of the Billboard charts and Alternative music would earn its own Grammy category.

During the millenium’s final throes, Armisen was playing insane drums in Chicago’s angular and spastic Trenchmouth, and Brownstein was doing riot grrl guitar windmills as a part of Olympia’s seminal Sleater-Kinney.

You can watch Trenchmouth perform “The Volcanic Action of My Soul” at Emo’s in Austin, and Sleater-Kinney perform “One More Hour” from 1997′s Dig Me Out, during an in-store Tower Records performance in SoHo. Proof actual record stores once existed.

So pull out the Case Logic and import your 90′s favorites records to your iTunes library. You can twitter about sharing them on a torrent via your smart phone. Just don’t forget your Doc Martens. LOL

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

It’s your lucky day.
Some excellent music for your enjoyment…

1. Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Wind Phoenix“

2. The Thermals – “Now We Can See“
(Kill Rock Stars)

3. Bon Iver – “Blood Bank“
(Jagjaguwar Records)

4. Vetiver – “Everyday“
(Subpop Records)

5. Say Hi – “November was White, December was Grey“
(Barsuk Records)

6. M Ward – “Never Had Nobody Like You“
(Merge Records)

7. Mt St. Helens Vietnam Band – “Anchors Dropped“
(Dead Oceans)

8. Throw Me The Statue – “Purpleface“
(Secretly Canadian)

9. Crooked Fingers – “Phony Revolutions“
(Constant Artists Inc./Red Pig)

10. Antony and the Johnsons – “Epilepsy is Dancing“
(Secretly Canadian)

The influential poet-musician, Gil Scott-Heron, performed updated versions of his now classic repertoire before an eclectic and enthused crowd Wednesday night at New York’s S.O.B’s. Mr. Scott-Heron is perhaps best known for his ground-breaking spoken-word, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which ignited a generation (or two) of aspiring slam-poets, and continues to inform the best music of the current hip-hop literati, such as Common Sense, Mos Def and Kanye West.

The evening began with Mr. Scott-Heron opening with a monologue about Black History month and his efforts to move the month to May, due to several comical complaints in dealing with February. Perhaps this was a light counter to his more somber lyrical content, though nothing can be taken too lightly coming from a man who, with Stevie Wonder, helped advance the creation of the national Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

Musically, Mr. Scott-Heron sounded a bit more gruff, (we might call this older and wiser) and has thusly surrounded himself with an array of top-notch performers as his band (particularly on keys and bass). His songs retained all of the potency and relevance as when they were written, their lyrical content ranging from war to substance abuse to being down across this country.

Despite the dark topics touched on by Mr. Scott-Heron’s set, which included new takes on the popular, “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” “Winter in America,” and “The Bottle,” each of these songs were presented with a more positive swing, perhaps owing a faster more up-beat tempo. The latter song, which closed the set, was even referred to as a celebration. Mr. Scott-Heron, who is well known for infusing his music with a political edge, reinforced the feel-good atmosphere with comments alluding to the change of seasons in America, though never mentioning our newly elected President by name.

Gil Scott-Heron and his band play S.O.B.’s again tonight. He reports having negotiated a new record deal with XL Recordings, which will feature both new and updated older songs.

The Bottle

Not sure how the Welsh infiltrated my high school diary, but these fine young folks have made the emo album that played in my head through much of 1997. Who needs a Cap’n Jazz reunion, when you’ve got We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed? Los Campesinos! have the unique ability to make me feel vibrantly young and violently old at the same time.
(Er, thanks?)

Los Campesinos! – “International TweeXcore Underground”

Listen: “Miserabilia” from the new Los Campesinos! album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, is out now on Arts and Crafts.

June 16th, The Mercury Lounge (w/ Miss Derringer)

San Diego’s The Muslims might pass as any four random guys wandering the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, and very well may have during their recent trip out East. From afar, they could be… Vampire Weekend, let’s say. But on stage, The Muslims are no-frills, straight-shooting rock and roll. No coordinated wardrobes, no cute dance moves (see the prior post, Miss Derringer).

From the opener, “Beside Myself,” The Muslims immediately owned the stage. It was as if you found those four random dudes wandering on Houston, put them on stage, and nonchalantly ended up with The Velvet Underground. But the usual comparisons, including my own (see the Invisible Friend’s original post on The Muslims here), had little relevance during their set. Lamkin et al were noisy, energetic and brilliant to watch in their own right. Highlights included “Right ad Wrong,” “Bright Side,” and “Nightlife.”

Apart from their much talked about name, The Muslims have started to attract some more national admiration, like the distinction as a “Band to Watch” from blogger heavyweight Stereogum. The debut record is out on 1928 Recordings, and will be available again in July according to the band’s Myspace page. Along with the vinyl and bullet-beaten jacket, 1928 conveniently provides your iTunes with a CD version of the record plus several no-filler bonus tracks (new versions of some of the band’s best songs from their 2007 Demo). It’s a definite must have.

The Muslims – “Call It A Day”

A single of “Extinction” has been released on Sweet Tooth Records.

Listen: The Muslims – “Right and Wrong” and “Beside Myself” and “On My Time” available from their self-titled debut on 1928 Recordings.

http://www.myspace.com/themuslims