The Playlist

At NPR Music:
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/06/151778646/first-listen-best-coast-the-only-place

is that Joanna Newsom, playing here at the recent All Tomorrow’s Parties fest in the UK.

From Pitchfork’s ‘+1′ series:

You know, Cults. They did that song & innovative vid about the Jim Jones mess, “Go Outside.” Great debut album.

Indy favorite performance compendium site La Blogotheque now has a vid or two from their ‘Takeaway’ series of Perfume Genius doing some songs from his new album Put Your Back N 2 It. as that sentence a bit thick? That’s okay, the main thing is just to enjoy these videos I spied first on Pitchfork.

Look, here’s one now:

and here’s another one:

He’s good, right? I think he’s good. And look at those pretty nails.

I’ve been featuring Lower Dens’  Twin-Hand Movement album lately on The Playlist. Over at NPR’s music site, you can now hear a song from their subsequent album, Nootropics. They’ll be playing this year at South By South West – if you’re in Austin, check em out, I guess? A lot of people who aren’t going sure do keep close track of that festival!

Lower Dens, getting double exposure

The most beautiful song I heard in 2010 was Perfume Genius’ “Learning,” from his debut release of the same name. Now Put Your Back N 2 It is getting good reviews as well. A preview:

…album ‘Break It Yourself,’ in its entirety, at NPR’s music site.

[Sqqqqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!1one]

I came fairly late to The Magnetic Fields; an old neighbor introduced me to a few songs(something about a chicken) from their epic 69 Love Songs, and I was charmed. So I’m not as familiar with their synth poppish roots this album harkens back to. But I recently saw a documentary of Stephen Merritt & the band, called Strange Powers, was charmed again, then saw the NSFW video for the album’s second song, “Andrew in Drag,” and was charmed again, and now I’m as giddy to hear their new album Love at the Bottom of the Sea as any longtime fan.

Let’s listen together, shall we? All 34 minutes of it are streaming online over at the First Listen section of NPRmusic.org, where it’s competing with Andrew Bird’s Break it Yourself for my attention.

At Stereogum.com, it is surmised that this Bon Iver video (for “Towers,” from his Grammy-winning release from last year) could be from an alternate-universe Where the Wild Things Are movie.