Blog: Some Kind of Awesome

Nicolas Jaar 's collaborative 12" for Record Store Day sold insanely fast, and rightfully so. The release saw Jaar collaborating with Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno. But it's when you listen to Jaar's remix of Grizzly Bear 's "Sleeping Ute" that you fully understand. The remix is intricate, subtle in its execution and simply memserizing. As always, Jaar delivers.

• Grizzly Bear - Sleeping Ute (Nicolas Jaar Remix)

This past Saturday Record Store Day took place, and on that day MGMT released a limited run of cassettes featuring the song "Alien Days." For those who weren't able to buy one of those cassettes, the band are streaming their new single on SoundCloud. Check it out below.

• whoismgmt - Alien Days

Grizzly Bear have gone in an intensely reworked and rehashed Phoenix 's new Bankrupt! single "Entertainment," chopping the song up and creating a whole new mosaic of sounds. The result is pretty fantastic. Stream it below via Spotify or at Grizzly Bear Galore .

Disclosure have dished out big news this week. First, they announced that their debut album Settle will be released on June 3rd. Then, they announced that they signed to Interscope Records and will release a singles EP on April 30th comprised of "Latch," "White Noise," a Hudson Mohawke remix of "White Noise" as well as a new cut titled "You & Me." To end off the week the duo are streaming "You & Me," which will also appear on Settle when that hits in June. Featuring guest vocals from Eliza [...]

• Disclosure - You & Me ft. Eliza Doolittle

In between Coachella weekends, Alt-J made their U.S. late night television debut on Conan . Dropping by O'Brien's Burbank studio, the band performed An Awesome Wave highlight "Breezeblocks." The Leeds outfit did a fine job supporting their Mercury Prize-winning debut. Check out their performance below. If you're not attending Coachella this weekend, there are plenty of other opportunities to see Alt-J live. The band has a extensive tour plans, running through till September. Check out their full schedule after the jump.

Since they were already in the California neighborhood with headlining sets at Coachella, Phoenix headed over to Hollywood to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live! . Supporting their new album Bankrupt! , the French outfit performed lead single "Entertainment" along with "Trying To Be Cool," "Drakka Noir" and "Chloroform." Check out their performance below. Phoenix's fifth album Bankrupt! hits stores on April 23rd, and with an extensive festival circuit planned there are plenty of chances to [...]

A-Trak must be a big fan of OK Go's ridiculously fun and original music videos . With the help of kinetic artist Kinetic King , the DJ sets up an elaborate series of dominoes to match the grimy basslines and synths of his track "Tuna Melt." Ryan Staake directs. Check it out below along with a behind-the-scenes video.

Forget all those unofficial edits of Daft Punk 's "Get Lucky," delete them from your music library, because this is the real deal. At 12:01am this morning, the French robots' much hyped single hit iTunes. Pharrell's smooth vocals play around Nile Rodgers' funky guitar licks, while deep basslines are met with echoing claps and subtle piano keys. It's fantastic disco-inspired electro. Daft Punk are clearly back in full force. Stream the official radio edit of "Get Lucky" below, or grab it on iTunes or Amazon . Random Access [...]

Another new band for you guys to check out today in the form of The JCQ aka The James Cleaver Quintet. Their debut album, That Was Then, This Is Now , hit stores back in 2011 and since then they've gone through a few changes. Most notably, bassist Jimmy Diego has parted ways with the band. Now, on the flip side they've just announced their second album which is titled Mechanical Young along with a preview video of what we could expect from it. A few days later and they've let loose a [...]

We had good news from Dinosaur Pile-Up back in January with regards to a brand new album from the Leeds based rockers. They're set to release a follow up to the critically-acclaimed 2010 debut Growing Pains , with what is shaping up to be a damn decent difficult second release, Nature, Nurture later this year. Today though, we get to enjoy the official visual for "Derail" and it stars Diana Vickers. Yeah, people in the UK might be scratching their heads at the former X-Factor star being in the vid, but I imagine [...]

Former Girls frontman Christopher Owens released his debut solo album Lysandre earlier this year, and the genre-spanning album is now getting a full acoustic treatment. Owens has released an eight-track acoustic version of the LP for free download. With the simple plucks of his guitar to aid him, Owens croons and swoons with calm delivery. Stream the acoustic version of "Here We Go" below for a taste of this, and download the full album here . Owens will be going on [...]

XL Recordings has issued a formal statement regarding the leaked Jai Paul album that hit Bandcamp this past Sunday: As widely reported, on Sunday 14th April, music by XL Recordings artist Jai Paul was illegally made available via a fake Bandcamp account. This music was not uploaded by Jai and it's not his debut album – it is a collection of various unfinished recordings from Jai's past. Neither XL or Jai will take any money from the sale of this music. We have been working with Bandcamp [...]

Following on from where their video for " The Phoenix " left off, Fall Out Boy's track "Young Volcanoes" sees the blindfolded band members reunited after their kidnapping in the previous clip. I honestly don't fully understand the plot of the two videos but I've got to admit after giving the album a few listens, Patrick and co still know how to make a damn catchy hook. The video sees the band smoking and snorting brightly coloured 'drugs' along with flashes of boobs towards the end. You could say it's not safe for work. I say, stick it to your [...]

I didn't realise we'd never posted anything London Grammar related. So how about we get familiar now, yeah? I was introduced to the group back in February via their EP Metal & Dust . The three piece from London spent the majority of last year recording a debut album which will see the light of day fairly soon I imagine. They have just dropped a new single in the mean time though, titled "Wasting My Young Years" it's a strong vocal number with some lyrics I'm sure many of us can relate to in some way or another. The [...]

• London Grammar - Wasting My Young Years

We've not really given enough love to M83 here on SKOA, so we apologise for that. You may or may not be aware that they put together a great soundtrack to the latest Tom Cruise blockbuster, Oblivion. Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau last night enrolled the help of Susanne Sundforør for a hair raising rendition of the soundtracks title track on Jimmy Kimmel Live . If you missed the broadcast last night, check it out above. If you like what you hear you can pick up the full soundtrack over [...]

Is it real? Is it a fake? This is the question we've all been asking these past few days about all of the so-called "official" leaks of Daft Punk 's highly publicized new single "Get Lucky." This time, though, it might just be legit. Earlier today, Sonic 102.9 in Edmonton dropped a radio edit of the single, but it has since been pulled. Since then Dutch radio station 3FM has posted a video of the exact same "radio edit." Check it out below and let us know if you think this is real or not. [...]

Thundercat , the alias of talented bassist Stephen Bruner, has announced a new album titled Apocalypse. The LP is the follow-up to 2010's excellent The Golden Age of Apocalypse , and is being executive produced by Flying Lotus . The two buddies even co-wrote Thundercat's new cut "Heartbreaks + Setbacks," which you can stream below. Apocalypse is out on July 9th on Brainfeeder. Apocalypse Tracklist: 01 Tenfold 02 [...]

• Thundercat - Heartbreaks + Setbacks

What begins as a regular day of skateboarding through the suburbs turns into a series of abnormal adventures for the character in Youth Lagoon 's video for "Mute." Check out the stylized clip below. Tyler T. Williams directs. Youth Lagoon's sophomore LP Wondrous Bughouse is out now.

This video made my day. Easily. Last month, Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio found out that he is a distant relative of Steve Buscemi, and the band hired him on to direct their upcoming April 28th concert at New York's Roseland Ballroom. This promo video sees Steve paying the boys a visit at the studio and the results are pretty hilarious. The awkward interactions between Steve and the band are priceless. Check it out below. Vampire Weekend's third album Modern Vampires of the City is out on May 14th.

Back in February we took part in BBC Radio 6's Music Blog Awards where we chose Disclosure 's "White Noise" as "The EP or Single That Has (Had) You Most Excited About A Full Release." Today that full release was announced. Titled Settle , it is the UK brother duo's full-length debut and will be released on June 3rd. The lead single for the album is called "You & Me" and features vocals from Eliza Doolittle. The song drops on April 28th. In the meantime, you can catch Disclosure on the [...]