Stream The National’s High Violet In Its Entirety at NYTimes.Com

Focus Creeps‘ NSFW video for Girls’ “Lust For Life” generated a lot of commentary here and elsewhere. And one thing that lots of drive-by commenters complained about was that the “Lust For Life” video was mislabeled as “Hardcore XXX,” because, in fact, it didn’t actually go that far.

Well, they can stop complaining now.

Girls have contributed the songs “Darling” and “Solitude” to the gay hardcore short-film I Want Your Love. Created by filmmaker Travis Matthews, IWYL also features music from Glass Candy and Chromatics, from whom the film takes its name. The film premiered today on the Naked Sword website; I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but obviously this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK (NSFW) and for ADULTS ONLY:

VIDEO: I Want Your Love, a short-film by Travis Matthews →

Frank YangIt doesn’t seem so long ago – say, last August – that everyone wanted to know when those responsible for the mope-out/make-out soundtrack of 2009 – The xx – were going to make it to my town: Toronto. They made that long-awaited debut in December in support of Friendly Fires but before that show had even passed, they’d booked a return engagement for this past Tuesday at the Kool Haus supporting Hot Chip and then not long after that announcement, a third local show was slated for earlier this month with jj; talk about feast or famine. Of the two April performances, I opted to hit up the later one – yes, it meant passing up their first headlining slot, but I was much keener to see Hot Chip than jj, particularly after hearing how lacklustre their live sets were at SxSW.

There were definitely parallels between this show and the one in December; both found The xx’s significant buzz drowned out by that of the more established headliners and thus, still with significant swathes of the audience to win over. Working against them was the fact that the Hot Chip fans were clearly here for a party and The xx’s mood music had some trouble getting their attention, at least those standing in my vicinity. And it’s too bad that they found talking about their rec softball leagues more stimulating than what was coming off the stage, because in a short amount of time, The xx have become a much more compelling live act...

Photos: Hot Chip, The xx @ The Kool Haus – April 20, 2010
MP3: The xx – “Basic Space”
Video: Hot Chip – “I Feel Better”

PopMatters talks to Daddy G of Massive Attack.

Editors have released two new videos – one from In This Light & On This Evening and one for the track they released on a 7″ for Record Store Day last week.

Video: Editors – “Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool”
Video: Editors – “Last Day”

BBC talks to The Futureheads about their new record The Chaos, due out June 1.

Paste declares We Were Promised Jetpacks amongst the “best of what’s next.”

The Dallas Observer talks to Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit.

Charles Schulz

Yura Yura Teikoku - “Ohayo Mada Yaro” The first half-dozen episodes of The Loose Gang, no one really realises what it is. It's a funny sitcom, okay it's hilarious, but that's all people are saying. "Check out this program. Loose Gang. 'Loose' like 'free.'" It's got Mark Pimms, the guy from Big Country, that hysterical kid from Funny People, and the chick from Friday Night Lights. Mostly people don't describe the plot because the plot doesn't sound very interesting: a group of friends in a city, and not-friends, just acquaintances, sort of like Friends but with all of the city as the cast. Some of the characters you see more often, but there's always new faces - the camera's always veering off into a new apartment window, lingering on a different corner diner. Anyway, at first it's just that slightly buzzy new show, the show you see mentioned on Facebook or Twitter and ignore, because what's The Loose Gang anyway?, until that cute friend of R's talks to you about it over a picnic table one night and you go home and stream it, stream all of it, the entire first season, in the space of 24 hours.

Continue reading at Said The Gramophone →

[buy this wonderful reissue of two Yura Yura Teikoku albums, reputedly classics, but new to me, scarcely heard of here; they are a Japanese indie band that has been active since the 1990s]

Mew – “Beach”