Category: Music

Brooklyn label Collect Records have announced they’re officially launching as a stand alone operation. Having previously co-released debut records from Touché Amore, Midnight Masses, and United Nations since their birth in 2009, founded by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly.

The label’s first official year of releases are set to include LP’s from post rock experimentalists Black Clouds, Vanishing Life (featuring members of Quicksand and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead), and Sick Feeling, with more to be annouced.

Head to www.collectrecords.org and follow @collectrecords to stay abreast of their movements.

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The philadelphia mural staring as the exclusive cover art to Kurt Vile‘s 2013 LP Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze, has been tragically defaced.

The epic artwork, created by king of the Philadelphia mural and sign painting Steve ‘ESPO’ Powers, was daubed with white wash by a local resident identified as Lee Mayjahs. He claims the mural was “attracting graffiti to the neighbourhood”.

Despite attempts by other locals to stop his offenses, Mayjahs, armed with a paint roller and copious tins of white wash, coated the entire mural, leaving a sticky, patchy residue in place of the phenomenal ESPO piece.

There is however, a silver lining to this tale. Mayjahs has admitted his actions were wrong and is claiming he was unaware of the piece’s cultural importance to the neighbourhood, despite having lived in the area for 15 years, and has offered Steve Powers a fee to come and re-paint the artwork. Read an interview between Lee Mayjahs and Philadelphia Metro reporter Leah R. Kauffman, posted to her facebook page yesterday.

Watch this short film about the creation of the mural.

Check out the VICE documentary, dedicated to Steve Powers and his art.

Did anyone manage to grab a ticket to British Summer Time in their impromptu £2.50 flash sale this morning?

The festival, set to take place over seven dates in July at Londons Hyde Park, had tickets for sale online this morning at the grand sum of £2.50. Featuring the headliners Black Sabbath, Neil Young, Arcade Fire and The Libertines, this was a rather suspicious deal considering yesterdays price of £69.

Those that took a gamble and gave their details to axs.com, the festivals ticket provider, will be delighted to know the company will be honouring their mistake and allowing ticket holders to access the festival regardless of the price they payed. Mysteriously, axs.com have now revoked the insanely cheap ticket deal and reinstated the original price.

Surely this will invoke rage in those that purchased tickets early, -they have been listed online since April- but hats off to all those that struck while the iron was hot. Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Sound Garden and Faith No More for less than a pint in Wetherspoons, get in.

BBC World Wide Productions France have announced they are working on a Daft Punk documentary in collaboration with French TV channel Canal +, also home to the Mogwai soundtracked series Les Revenants. The feature length documentary is said to cover the full history of Daft Punk’s career and is scheduled to air in 2015.

How deep inside the mysterious helmet covered lives of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter the film will dive, we cannot yet say, but there are serious grounds for a great documentary to be made here. With a career spanning over 20 years, the duo have garnered six Grammy awards and album sales of over 12 million. The 2015 flick will be the first ever offical film about the mysterious disco duo. Give this a spin for old times sake.

The Black Angels are back with what’s probably the best band photo of the year (look at that sky!?) and a new EP titled Clear Lake Forest, due for release July 21st via Blue Horizon.

The seven track EP marks the first offering of new music since 2013’s Indigo Meadow LP, with new track ‘Sunday Evening’ streaming online now. Hit play below.

Clear Lake Forest received a limited edition 10″ vinyl release on Record Store Day 2014, but on July 21st the EP will be released digitally, as well as CD and Vinyl.

Guitarist Christian Bland comments on the sonic fantasy The Black Angels have been living as of late, “After roaming through the Indigo Meadow, the time has come to journey to the Clear Lake Forest, where 7 tales of diamonds, executioners, and other strange occurrences await underneath the crystal waves lapping in the lake.”

Tracklisting
1. Sunday Evening
2. Tired Eyes
3. Diamond Eyes
4. The Flop
5. An Occurrence at 4507 South Third Street
6. The Executioner
7. Linda’s Gone

Big Deal have just shared a music video for brand new track ‘Always Boys’.

The three minute flick marks the dawning of a new era for Big Deal, with their Sakura EP due for release July 14th via Mute. ‘Always Boys’ offers a reminiscent nod to their trembling acoustic past before rocketing into full-band set up with soaring riffs wrapped around Alice Costelloe’s delicate vocal. Hit play below.

Big Deal will also release a deleuxe version of their last album June Gloom on July 21st. Catch the band on tour at the dates below.

UK Tour
18th July – Truck Festival
25th July – Secret Garden Party
1st Aug – Nozstock Festival, Hereford
8th Aug – Boardmasters Festival, Newquay

Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O has announced her first solo album will be released September 8th via Julian Casablancas’ new label, Cult Records.

Crush Songs is first official release from O since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ 2013 album Mosquito. The 35 year old singer has revealed the album will contain an intimate collection of songs recorded privately at the age of 27. She has also shared a hand written note about the album on her website.

Last night we saw the first screening of Positive Force: More Than A Witness. A new documentary exploring the history and ideals behind Positive Force DC, a punk rock activist collective that emerged in 1985, inspired by the creative, politically-charged fury of the Washington DC punk scene.

Bethnal Green Working Mens Club played host to a full screening of the feature length documentary before opening the floor to questions with host and Positive Force DC co-founder Mark Andersen.

The documentary sheds all light on Positive Force DC and its near 30 years of punk politics in action. Featuring interviews with Kathleen Hana, Penny Rimbaud, Ian Mackaye, Jello Biafra and many more punk icons involved with the collective, the film draws you into a 1980s and 90s DC, documenting Positive Force’s constant questioning and refusal of US government, noise protests, the creation of the PF commune, extensive gig footage and much more.

Positive Force: More Than A Witness is due for release imminently following a successful Kickstarter Campaign by the films director Robin Bell. Head to the offical website for details.

Here at Crossfire HQ the phrase “head-melting” is bannded around on a daily basis. What better phrase to describe rocking bands with? LA trio Liars take this to the next level in their new video for ‘Pro Anti Anti’, streaming via Nowness.

Check out the clip below, caputring Angus Andrew and Aaron Hemphill’s heads receving a plastic 3D rebirth, before meeting their sticky fate. Nice.

‘Pro Anti Anti’ is taken from sevnth album Mess, out now on Mute Records.

Photo Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Not often do fans and outsiders get the chance to peer behind the scenes, into a musicians thoughts and musings, catching a glimpse of their creative process. Yesterday a draft version of Bob Dylan‘s lyrics to 1965 hit ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, penned by the man himself, sold at auction for a record breaking $2m.

The four hand written pages, scrawled on hotel stationary, are said to feature unused ideas and scrapped lyrics that never made it to tape, as well as unseen doodles and drawings. Could these four pieces of paper be the most valuble written words in music?

The seller chose to remain anonymous, however the auction house revealed they were a fan from California who previously bought the lyrics sheet form Dylan personally. A life time fortune in exchange for four pages of one of the worlds most famous musicians’ scriblings. Worth it?