Google Launches All Access Music Streaming Service
Google has officially launched their online music streaming service, All Access, named after the kind of treatment I can’t afford at strip clubs. The service will launch initially in the US, and will cost $7.99 a month for early adopters ($9.99 regularly / after June 30). There is a free option, but only for one month, AND you need to provide your billing information. Not cool, Google.
The service will run through Google Play, giving it the awkward name of Google Play Music All Access. Since Google is an information hoarder, they might have a leg up in the music curation process. Music libraries can be suggested based on the mountains of data Google has on its users, such as past history, Google+ circles and +1s, and other information it has mined from your head.
Is Spotify scared? Maybe a little, and granted I haven’t used the service yet, but it does not seem like a game changer just yet.
Eric Avery Leaves Nine Inch Nails
To all the people that think Trent Reznor = Nine Inch Nails, and that Nine Inch Nails = Trent Reznor, they would be surprised to hear that bassist Eric Avery has left Nine Inch Nails. Avery wrote on Facebook, “its with very mixed emotions i tell you all that im pulling out of NIN. i know. its been a tough call and i don’t know if its the right one. but i really want to focus on my musical life here in la, on film work in particular. as the tour dates kept growing… i just got overwhelmed. i just got home from a year of heavy travel with garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that nails demands… fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and 14. go get em gentlemen.”
NIN are about to kick off a tour on July 26 in Japan, before playing Lollapalooza and other festivals.
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Weekend Catch Up: Palma Violets
It’s a long weekend in Canada. I stepped outside for 10 minutes, my pasty white skin got burned, so I have retreated to the comfort of my couch. This means you get a Weekend Catch Up post, where we post great music that we didn’t get around to posting at one point or another. This weekend, you get some more Palma Violets.
Palma Violets are from London, England, and are a indie garage rock band. Their debut album came out in February of this year, and we previously featured the video We Found Love. The song featured today is Best of Friends, which my skin and the sun clearly are not. The track was voted the number 1 song of 2012 by NME. Check out the chaos in the video for Best of Friends by Palma Violets, and enjoy your weekend.
Palma Violets – Best of Friends
Weekend Music: Pedestrian – Hoyle Road (Falty DL RMX)
FaltyDL is a very exciting New York City-based producer. If this track is any indication, he’s got that mix between filling a dancefloor and making audiophiles drool nailed.
Filling the dancefloor… with smoke?
It’s a long weekend in Canada where we are – here’s hoping you make this weekend a long one wherever you are. Get it started by plugging this song into your best soundsystem and cranking it way up.
Friday Afternoon Funnies: Diddy and The Simpsons Spoof Downton Abbey
Yes, it’s Friday of the long weekend (for our Canadian readers). Yes, no one is reading this, and yes, I know these videos were making the rounds yesterday. But I’m halfway to drunkland (a very fun yet dangerous land) so you’re stuck with a double dose of Downton Abbey. The first video stars Diddy aka P Diddy aka Puff Daddy. And you thought Snoop Lion was a stretch.
I think Diddy is an average actor at best, which is a compliment I suppose, given that he is a rapper and business mogul. His appearance in Get Him to the Greek wasn’t doing it for me. So when I saw he was doing a Downton Abbey spoof for Funny or Die, I didn’t get excited. I actually didn’t watch it until someone told me it was pretty good. So here we are, with me doing a 180 to help convince you that the video below is actually funny.
For those who don’t know, Downton Abbey is a wildly popular British show. It apparently only stars white people. Okay, I’ve never seen it, despite living in the UK and loving all things British. Anyway, Diddy inserts himself (giggity) into scenes, sort of like how Billy Crystal used to do during the Oscar monologues. It comes off quite well – check it out for yourself below in this week’s Friday Afternoon Funnies.
The Simpsons also got in on the action, changing their opening sequence to spoof that of Downton Abbey. Check it out below, too.
Click for more Friday Afternoon Funnies
Will This App Make People Put Smartphones Away at Concerts?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have banned smartphone photos and recording at their shows. Everyone hates people who record at shows, yet everyone does it. How do we stop this? Soundhalo thinks they know (via Guardian).
Soundhalo launched an app that debuted at the Alt-J show last night at the Brixton Academy in London. The Android (and soon to be other platforms) app allows fans to download live tracks to their phone immediately after they were played. The idea behind this is that people can put their fuckin’ phones away and watch the show with their eyeballs and not a 3 inch screen. Maybe Google Glass can change this, too?
Alt-J drumm Thom Green said “I think it’s amazing that the whole show was streamed live on the internet. I’m glad they chose us to kick the whole thing off, it’s a real honour. It’s one of those things that you can’t really believe doesn’t already exist, it’s just so perfect. I can’t wait to see how far it goes and to watch it back myself and watch my own highlights on my phone.”
Will people still record with their phones though? Don’t some people just want the digital file knowing that they created? People take photos from far away when they could just as easily go online to some media site (such as the always excellent PeteHatesMusic) and get professional photos from there. For some people, it’s the experience and the crowd interaction they like. Hopefully they are in the minority and efforts from people like Soundhalo can change this. You can get the beta app from Soundhalo’s website.
Morning Music Notes – Long Weekend Edition
American Idol Have Announced The Latest Winner!Thom Yorke to Score Music for Film About the Exciting Topic of Tax Avoidance
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is sick of Jonny Greenwood becoming famous for scoring Hollywood films like The Master and There Will Be Blood and has decided to do something about it. Yorke is set to score the film UK Gold, which is not about gold records but rather about the history of tax avoidance (via NME). It is believed that Yorke’s soundtrack is the only way to draw any interest to a film about tax avoidance. The film will be narrated by Dominic West (McNulty) from The Wire. Sheeeeeiit!
Not McNulty
Bloc Party to Release New EP This Summer
Bloc Party clearly realized that everyone who is anyone are releasing music this summer. Rather than miss out (like I did during free burrito night at work, dammit!), guitarist Russell Lissack has said that Bloc Party will join the music release party (via Gigwise). Lissack told the Miami New Times, “We literally were just in the studio this week actually. We still need to do the vocals, but we’ve been working on six new songs. Depending on how the finished things pan out, we’re either going to put out a single or an EP. I think in June or July.”
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Arts & Crafts Trailer for Arts & Crafts: X (Collaboration Album)
In case you missed it last week, Toronto indie label Arts & Crafts have released the tracklist for their 10th anniversary compilation album, Arts & Crafts: X. Check it out below.
1 Broken Social Scene x Years: “Day of the Kid”
2 Apostle of Hustle x Zeus: “Bizarre Love Triangle”
3 Feist x Timber Timbre: “Homage”
4 Still Life Still x Zulu Winter: “Era”
5 The Hidden Cameras x Snowblink: “The Chauffeur”
6 The Darcys x Ra Ra Riot: “Time Can Be Overcome”
7 Chilly Gonzales x Stars: “Nothing Good Comes to Those Who Wait”
8 Hayden x Jason Collett: “Lonely Is as Lonely Does”
9 Gold & Youth x Trust: “Lady Bird”
10 Amy Millan x Dan Mangan: “Chances Are”
We now have an official trailer to go with the tracklisting. We get some snippets on the radio before the dial is turned to the next track. Damn kids and their lack of attention span. Many of these bands will be playing the Field Trip festival in June in Toronto, including a reunited Broken Social Scene. Check out the trailer below.
New Albums Due from Franz Ferdinand, Fuck Buttons
Good news for fans of Franz Ferdinand and/or Fuck Buttons. Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand will drop their fourth album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, on August 26.
This follows years of debuting live music, including at last year’s Field Day Festival in London. The album is the follow up to the 2009 disc, Tonight, and even has a short little album trailer below.
Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action album trailer
Also following up a 2009 album are Fuck Buttons and their follow up to the excellent Tarot Sport. The new album is called Slow Focus, and likely is not a description of their often hyper electronic musical layers. Slow Focus will be out on July 23. Check out their track from Tarot Sport called Olympians, which was actually played during the Open Ceremonies for the Summer Olympics in London.
Click to see the video for Olympians by Fuck Buttons
PeteHatesMusic Interview with Daughter
Daughter are a London trio (albeit with members from France and Switzerland) who have released a few excellent EPs, and at the end of April released their debut album If You Leave. The band started with just singer Elena Tonra doing her solo thing, but in her quest to expand her sound recruited Igor Haefeli on guitar and Remi Aguilella on drums.
Daughter @ The Great Hall, Toronto (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic / Martin Bazyl Photography)
Daughter are playing a headlining tour across North America right now in support of If You Leave. The band stopped by Toronto last week and were kind enough to chat with PeteHatesMusic before their show. Check out the interview below, in which we discuss being bad luck hockey charms, one word song titles, and the future direction of Daughter.
PeteHatesMusic Interview with Daughter
If you liked that interview, check out the interview that we did with CHVRCHES, in which Daughter is name checked by singer Lauren Mayberry. For more interviews, concert reviews, and general awesomeness a) “follow PeteHatesMusic on Twitter” and b) “Like PeteHatesMusic on Facebook“. It might be the best decision you make all day (note: highly unlikely).
Daughter – Still
Listen! Mount Kimbie – You Took Your Time (featuring King Krule)
We have PeteHatesMusic favourite King Krule combining with recently featured Mount Kimbie on what should be a track that makes our heads explode. The track is the Mount Kimbie song You Took Your Time and features the aforementioned King Krule.
We get a reeeeeeeeeal mellow and slow groove by Mount Kimbie, with King Krule doing his unique delivery thing over top of it all. The track is from Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, which is out May 27.
Mount Kimbie – You Took Your Time (featuring King Krule)
Morning Music Notes – 50,000,000,000 Useless Things
Google Launches All Access Music Streaming Service
Google has officially launched their online music streaming service, All Access, named after the kind of treatment I can’t afford at strip clubs. The service will launch initially in the US, and will cost $7.99 a month for early adopters ($9.99 regularly / after June 30). There is a free option, but only for one month, AND you need to provide your billing information. Not cool, Google.
The service will run through Google Play, giving it the awkward name of Google Play Music All Access. Since Google is an information hoarder, they might have a leg up in the music curation process. Music libraries can be suggested based on the mountains of data Google has on its users, such as past history, Google+ circles and +1s, and other information it has mined from your head.
Is Spotify scared? Maybe a little, and granted I haven’t used the service yet, but it does not seem like a game changer just yet.
Eric Avery Leaves Nine Inch Nails
To all the people that think Trent Reznor = Nine Inch Nails, and that Nine Inch Nails = Trent Reznor, they would be surprised to hear that bassist Eric Avery has left Nine Inch Nails. Avery wrote on Facebook, “its with very mixed emotions i tell you all that im pulling out of NIN. i know. its been a tough call and i don’t know if its the right one. but i really want to focus on my musical life here in la, on film work in particular. as the tour dates kept growing… i just got overwhelmed. i just got home from a year of heavy travel with garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that nails demands… fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and 14. go get em gentlemen.”
NIN are about to kick off a tour on July 26 in Japan, before playing Lollapalooza and other festivals.
Click for more Morning Music Notes