Blog: Pretty Much Amazing

This week on Tracking – a regular series in which we discuss our current favorite songs – you can listen to additions from Vampire Weekend, Savages, Postiljonen and Annie . Vampire Weekend - "Ya Hey" Rather than comically covering Outkast’s generation-defining anthem in reverse, Vampire Weekend’s stomp-along “Ya Hey” instead takes on a completely different, even more surprising task – reenacting one of the most memorable scenes in the Old Testament. In Exodus 3:14, when Moses famously [...]

We love DIANA's "Born Again," and if you haven't had a chance to fall in love with it yet, now's a good time - the director Geoffrey Pugen's put together some very-appropriate psychedelic visuals. Starring singer Carmen Elle , a lot of blown-out psychedelic colors, and some jungle animals, it's a perfect visual representation of the track's woozy, delirious vibe. The band's self-titled debut is out August 20 - stay tuned! #via Read more articles like " Video: DIANA - "Born [...]

David Bowie's newest video is for the title track from his excellent new record  The Next Day , and though it was directed by his frequent collaborator Flora Sigismondi  (she did the "Stars [Are Out Tonight]" video too), Bowie himself apparently "wrote and conceived" the concept. It's an insane enough concept that the video was banned from YouTube, but you can still check it out via Vevo: watch as an all-star cast that includes Marion Cotillard and Gary Oldman  checks out Bowie -as-rock & roll Christ in a [...]

Last we heard from the National , they were playing their  High Violet highlight "Sorrow" for six hours straight (that means, 105 times) at MoMA, as part of the artist Ragnar Kjartansson's piece "A Lot of Sorrow." The band also has a new record,  Trouble Will Find Me , coming out soon, so they took a break from their "Sorrow"-packed schedule to make this video for "Sea of Love," a new single from the record, and premiere it today via a Reddit AMA with Matt Berninger and Aaron and [...]

The golden-throated Sharon Jones returns with a new album with her Dap Kings on August 6. "Retreat," the first of 10 new tracks on Give The People What They Want , is explosive, as NPR deftly puts it. It's as strong as (if not better than) anything the singer and band have put out together – fans of both the singer and the band know this is definitely high praise, but we're willing to bet they'll agree after listening to "Retreat." STREAM: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – "Retreat" [...]

Here's an afternoon treat for you: stream Wild Nothing's lush and sepia-toned seven-track EP, Empty Estate via Rdio (sign in with Facebook if you don't have a free account). You deserve this. ––– Watch the brilliant video for the EP's first single, "A Dancing Shell": Read more articles like " Album Stream: Wild Nothing - Empty Estate EP " on PMA - Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Wild Nothing

by MIRANDA THOMPSON There’s one pub quiz question I always get right. Where was the first motorway opened in Britain? That’s the Preston by-pass in Lancashire, Northern England where it forms part of the M6. I get bonus points, right? I thought about the M6 when I first listened to Little Boots’s, aka Victoria Hesketh, second album, Nocturnes . Because, like me, she grew up in Lancashire (it’s a good, strong Lancastrian name, Hesketh). And I wondered, did she think of that same stretch of road when she penned album [...]

Brainfeeder's Thundercat shares a delirious and perfect little single called "Oh Sheit It's X." The track was co-produced by label head and virtuoso beatsmith Flying Lotus and will be on Thundercat's Apocalypse – which was also co-produced by Flying Lotus – due out June 4. Read more articles like " Thundercat + Flying Lotus - "Oh Sheit It's X" " on PMA - Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Flying Lotus , Thundercat

• Thundercat - Oh Sheit It's X

Any video that seems to bother the indie blogoshpere overlords by being "disgusting" is worth your attention. Yeah Yeah Yeahs have created a video that hopefully will disgust or otherwise bother thousands if not millions of fans, and that makes me happy for some reason. Maybe I was mosquito in past life, but I thinks it's a very well done animated video that actually compares well, anatomically speaking, with an actual video of a mosquito sucking on some blood. Read more articles like " Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Mosquito" [...]

Jeff Mangum's Neutral Milk Hotel are ever so slowly fleshing out their incredibly anticipated reunion tour. West and North East coasters will only find frustration (or potential road trips) here. 10/11 – Baltimore, MD @ 2640 Space at St. John’s Church (with Elf Power) 10/12 – Richmond, VA @ The National (with Elf Power) 10/14 – Covington, KY @ Madison Theater (with Elf Power) 10/15 – Urbana, IL @ The Canopy Club (with Elf Power) 10/18 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall (with Elf Power) 10/19 – Chattanooga, TN @ Track [...]

The end result of the Yours Truly Songs for Scratch pairing of Chance the Rapper and Nosaj Thing has been released, and damned if it isn't a shame they weren't collaborating on more than one song. "Paranoia" is an incredible collaboration; Chance's brooding lyrics go almost perfectly with the wide-open, never-in-the-same-place-twice beat that Nosaj puts together for him to go over. Enjoy it below, and start saying your prayers for these guys to come together again. Read more articles like " [...]

• NOSAJ THING - Paranoia

This year's Austin City Limits festival will last two weekends, October 4th-6th and 11th-13th, so you'll have two chances to roadtrip to Austin, Texas's Zilker Park to check out a killer, diverse lineup. Come for the big names - Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, the National, Tame Impala, Kendrick Lamar - and stay for the bands in small font - like Deap Vally, Savages, Autre Ne Veut, White Denim, MS MR . Check out the rest of the lineup here . Read more articles like " Austin City Limits' [...]

Vampire Weekend are offering up a stream of their much-anticipated third record Modern Vampires of the City via iTunes now until its physical release date on May 14, and it's glorious. With every release, VW take logical steps toward greater, but still accessible, experimentation - even the poppiest of MVOTC 's tracks ("Worship You," "Diane Young," and "Finger Back," which I've played nonstop for about three hours now) are layered and maximalist with unexpected but vital instrumentation, acrobatic vocal lines, and some of Ezra Koenig's smartest and most cutting lyrics to date. [...]

by PETER TABAKIS When it comes to pop cultural commentary, the internet does a spectacular job of making choirs out of disparate solo voices. Professionals and amateurs alike praise and ridicule, in blaring unison, seconds after a TV episode airs, a song drops, or a movie premieres. We, the chatterers within these electronic ones and zeros, live to recommend challenging cable shows, to endorse promising new bands, to champion offbeat indie films. This blog’s name is a nod at this very kind of enthusiasm. But nothing matches the relish we take in spewing bile [...]

We've been fans of Expensive Looks , the New York producer known to his parents as Alec Feld , and his shimmery Balearic pop for a while, so we're excited to premiere his new EP, Northern Winds. It may be only four tracks long, but Feld's got a knack for expansive jams, so the whole thing's twenty-two minutes that sound effortlessly like a slice of summer. Abstracted vocal samples, clubby backbeats, and undulating synth lines are the name of the game - sometimes (see: "Idol") they're instantly catchy and deliriously [...]

• Expensive Looks - Northern Winds

And just like that, MS MR are releasing their debut LP. Secondhand Rapture includes all four songs from one of your favorite EPs of last year, and then eight new ones. It's out May 13 officially, but it's available to stream right now via The Hype Machine . Read more articles like " Album Stream: MS MR - Secondhand Rapture " on PMA - Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: MS MR

June 18 is six weeks away, which means we have six weeks to get all speculative about the new Kanye West album. Rolling Stone is fearlessly leading the charge, pointing out that the album was recorded in a manner not dissimilar from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories , or West's own My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for that matter. He set up shop in Paris, and had a bunch of big name collaborators roll through. Daft Punk, Skrillex, 2-Chains, John Legend, Azealia Banks and Odd [...]

It's true, it's true! The 20/20 Experience has a part two! More JT will be ours to consume on September 30th. Following that, he'll be filling arenas across North America after doing the whole stadium thing with Jay-Z this summer. 10-31 Montreal, QC - Bell Center 11-13 Raleigh, NC - PNC Arena 11-15 Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena 11-16 Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena 11-18 Memphis, TN - Fedex Forum 11-19 St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center 11-21 Tulsa, OK - BOK Center [...]

Miguel and Mariah Carey have combined their beautiful-voice powers to make a little bit of radio-ready pop goodness. "#Beautiful" is everything a hashtagged song by these two artists should be. It'll get a video premier on wednesday, on American Idol , of course, and be a part of Carey's forthcoming LP, due out this summer on Island/Def Jam. Read more articles like " Miguel + Mariah - "#Beautiful" " on PMA - Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Mariah , Miguel

• mariahcarey - #Beautiful

Yours Truly do it again. This time, the video masterminds have thrown Chance the Rapper together with producer Nosaj Thing for to make a track "From Scratch." It's an enticing little video, and it sounds like the resulting "Paranoia" is going to be great track. That'll be available tomorrow, for now, enjoy the three minute video below. And while you're at it, go download Chance's excellent new mixtape Acid Rap . Read more articles like " Chance the Rapper [...]