Taking an orchestral approach to the art of the cover, Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back finds the musical icon tackling tracks by everyone from Lou Reed to Bon Iver.
Gabriel’s lush takes add a melancholy edge to formerly upbeat numbers like Bowie’s “Heroes,” while spinning darker songs, such as Radiohead’s “Street Spirit” and Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is a Cage,” into more minimal reflections on existence. The album’s title references Gabriel’s intention to have each artist cover one of his own songs in exchange; so far, Paul Simon and the Magnetic Fields have already returned the favor.
The first sounds of February should be refreshing and reassuring. Powered by Januarian inertia, the next mix contains first and second singles from upcoming albums, in addition, of course, to some burgeoning bands with promise. After the jump, ten essential downloads from this past week in music — all free for the taking! Lend us your ears and then tell us what you think.*
Meet our new favorite blog: How Fucking Romantic, a project by an ever-growing group of (mostly) London-based artists bent on illustrating every song on the Magnetic Fields’ epic three-disc classic 69 Love Songs. Like these artists, we fell in and out of love to these melodies, so each of these artistic interpretations is like a forgotten love note we just now found tucked inside an old binder covered in scribbles. Not that they had anything to do with it, but it’s almost enough to make us forgive the Fields for opening every episode of The Real World DC.
At this point, most of the songs in the set have been nabbed by artists — though not necessarily rendered into art — but if you’re an illustrator you might be able to call dibs on one of your own. Some of the ones we we kind of can’t wait for are “Papa Was a Rodeo“, “Time Enough for Rocking When We’re Old“,”(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy” and “I Shatter.” See some of our completed favorites after the jump and then go re-listen to your favorite tracks.
This week brings a handful of new releases, scaling from already-established bands (The Magnetic Fields, Beach House), to fledgling bands ( jj, First Rate People, Let’s Wrestle), to already-established musicians’ fledgling bands (James Mercer + Danger Mouse = Broken Bells, Josiah Wolf of WHY?). The connecting thread? They’re all tasty cuts, and free for the taking! So grab your fork, knife, and bib (precautionary measure), and prepare to go to town.
Good news, music fans. Indie rock mainstay The Magnetic Fields have a new album coming out January 26th on Nonesuch Records. It’s called Realism, and the cover art/title combo indubitably marks a shift from last year’s bright pink album Distortion. Does this mean they’re going back to the clarity of releases like 69 Love Songs and eschewing the reverb-drone of Distortion? Only time will tell, but we’re psyched either way. Check out the tracklisting after the jump.
It’s highly unlikely that Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan envisioned running a label twenty years after founding Merge Records; after all, they “never [even] had a five year plan.” [emphasis added] But that’s what they’ve found themselves doing. And it just so happens that what began “as a lark” is now one of the most successful labels in the country.
Indeed “Merge’s slow and steady rise from Laura’s bedroom to the Billboard Top Ten is, in many ways, an object lesson in what went wrong with the major labels.” And John Cook’s excellent chronicle of the rise, Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small, can be considered an object lesson in what goes right when someone truly digs the music. But Ballance and McCaughan aren’t just avid fans, of course; they’re players with a fan base of their very own. In fact, their band Superchunk is both a large part of Merge’s success and one of the most influential indie bands ever. Read More »
, can be considered an object lesson in what goes right when someone truly digs the music. But Ballance and McCaughan aren’t just avid fans, of course; they’re players with a fan base of their very own. In fact, their band Superchunk is both a large part of Merge’s success and one of the most influential indie bands ever. 
