Watch The Trailer For Beat Bugs, Netflix’s Beatles-Themed Cartoon Feat. New Covers

Netflix has announced a new animated children’s show based around songs by the Beatles. It’s called Beat Bugs, and will feature covers from popular musicians including Eddie Vedder (“Magical Mystery Tour”), Sia (“Blackbird”), Chris Cornell (“Drive My Car”), the Shins (“The Word”), P!nk (“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”), and over forty more.

In an interview with USA Today, series creator Josh Wakely explained the difficulty of getting the rights for the Beatles catalog, which have been notoriously hard to pin down: “I would say, ‘I’ve got this amazing idea for a kids show, and all I have to do is get The Beatles rights.’ People would roll their eyes. … I thought it would take four months. It took three years.” (The band just came to streaming services last December.)

Netflix has ordered two seasons worth of 13 half-hour episodes, which will each feature two 11-minute segments that contain a Beatles song, making for 52 covers in total. The show has the rights to around 300 songs for use in the future if it is picked up for additional seasons.
Watch a trailer featuring clips of some of the new covers below.

Young Thug - “F Cancer (Boosie)” (Feat. Quavo) Video

Young Thug has just dropped a video for the Quavo-featuring Boosie Badazz tribute “F Cancer (Boosie),” off of his new mixtape I’m Up. Boosie recently recovered from a successful surgery to remove his kidney cancer, and Thug pays him a visit in the Be El Be-directed clip. Despite the stylish pink scrubs, Thug doesn’t seem like a particularly competent nurse, but he does throw Boosie a hell of a party. Watch below via Pitchfork.

Tyler, The Creator - “Perfect” (Feat. Kali Uchis & Austin Feinstein) Video

Tyler, The Creator has just shared a new video for his Cherry Bomb track “Perfect,” featuring Colombian singer Kali Uchis & LA singer/guitarist Austin Feinstein. The clip is fairly simple, consisting entirely of colorful split-screen showing the three musicians performing their parts while facing the camera. Also, there are butterflies crawling all over Tyler’s shirtless body, because sure, Watch below.

Beyoncé - “Formation” (Official Video)

Beyoncé has just pulled a Beyoncé and dropped a new single on the world without warning, her first new solo track since 2014’s BEYONCÉ platinum edition. “Formation” is produced by Mike Will Made-It and co-written by Swae Lee from Rae Sremmurd, and it features a vocal sample from New Orleans bounce queen Big Freedia. Beyoncé and Jay Z’s daughter Blue Ivy pops up a few times in the accompanying music video. The song is supposedly a Tidal exclusive, but luckily for us, the video is also on YouTube, and the song is available as a free download here — kinda stretching the definition of “exclusive” there, but I am 100% OK with it.

Flatbush Zombies - “Bounce” Video

Grimy Brooklyn drug-rap group Flatbush Zombies will release the new album 3001: A Laced Odyssey next month, and last week, they shared the skittering single “Bounce.” But Flatbush Zombies singles often seem, more than anything else, like excuses for their generally-excellent videos, and “Bounce” is no exception. Directors Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman did everything they could to make the clip look like an old ’70s grindhouse movie, and the clip involves a strip-club crime spree, a crooked cop, a championship pitfight, and a baseball bat with nails sticking out of it. It is raw, nasty, narratively coherent, and just slightly NSFW. Check it out below, via Pitchfork.

Son Lux - “Undone” (Official Video)

Son Lux, aka Ryan Lott, is a classically trained electro artist who has quite the talent for evocative music videos. We’ve given him best video of the week honors a few times, most recently for “You Don’t Know Me” from last summer’s Bones. Today, Lott revisits that exceptional album, giving one of the more memorable tracks, “Undone,” the visual treatment.
The David Terry Fine-directed clip opens with a woman frantically running through a field before she is joined by what is presumed to be a lover and the narrative cuts to a blackened room where they perform enchanting interpretive dance choreography. The difference between the brightness of the shots outside running and the carefully constructed shadows of the inside scene makes for some brilliant light-and-shadow play. The man then chases the woman with his running form much more smooth and relaxed as hers is much more frenetic. The distance between them grows until the man disappears in a bright ray of light and she is left in the same field where she began, spent from the chase. This video is incredible.

Towkio – “Clean Up” (Feat. Chance The Rapper) Video

Towkio – “Clean Up” (Feat. Chance The Rapper) (Dir. [LL])

I have endless envy for anyone who can do those hyper-complicated lightspeed footwork dances while maintaining an exquisitely bored facial expression.

Spookyland - “God’s Eyes” (Official Video)

We premiered Spookyland’s single “God’s Eyes” last month, and today the Australian band is following it up with a video. In the accompanying clip, the members of Spookyland perform in a studio while assistants in all white, Gap ad-inspired garb rearrange the space. It’s a sparse, minimal accompaniment to a thundering track. Watch the Joel Burrows-directed video.

Parquet Courts - Dust (Official Video)

Video directed by Johann Rashid

The Dead Weather - “Impossible Winner” (Official Video)

Jack White and Alison Mosshart’s band the Dead Weather have released a new music video for “Impossible Winner,” a track from their most recent album, Dodge & Burn. They’ve been teasing the video over the past few days with a series of promo clips showing off the cast of characters they’ve assembled for their jailhouse horror show. Yesterday, the video debuted on Tidal, but now it’s available for all to watch.

Majid Jordan - “King City” (Official Video)

Majid Jordan’s self-titled debut album is out today. To mark the occasion, the Drake affiliates have shared a new video for “King City,” a ballad that promotes the same breathy, pillowy aesthetic they lent to “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” but slower and with way more synth ripples. Director Common Good’s video tracks the end of a doomed romance and involves lots of wistful window staring. The song is a low-key jam, so watch below.

Holy Ghost! - “Crime Cutz” (Official Video)

It’s nice to have Brooklyn disco dudes Holy Ghost! in full promo mode. A few days ago they shared a teaser for their single “Crime Cutz” and today they’ve paired the whole funky thing with a matching set of visuals by director Ben Fries. The clip is a spectacular polychromatic light show set in an space with an old warehouse vibe, not unlike the disco clubs of yesteryear. The lights flicker, flash, and blink with the super funky beat that builds to a monstrous crescendo before a cool down with soothing oohs and pretty synths. Aubrey Cook stars as the dancer.w.

Fusilier - “The Moment” Video

Blake Fusilier, now known as Fusilier, is the former bassist for Boston band RIBS. The name change accompanies a jump into the forefront on his solo dolo, and man, was it a good move. To imagine this guy strumming three notes over and over again behind someone else is pretty depressing. On his first foray, “The Moment,” Fusilier’s voice is smooth and sultry, accentuated appropriately by a sexy-ass driving bassline. Pounding drums, an agile electric guitar riff, and catchy blips come in to balance the low-end heavy sounds and lift the track’s pulsing energy. Jackie Zimmerman and Max Berger’s visuals ooze with a seduction to match the bassline. Fusilier is shrouded in darkness with a warm light bathing one side of his face, contrasting the switching polychromatic backdrops behind transgender women and men in subtle drag passionately enticing the camera. The sexual tension on the track and video is brazenly palpable, just as Fusilier intended:

The video transformed into a display of gender fluidity. How we can all exist on this spectrum and be individuals outside of these labels while still being in the same room. This is how revolutions start. The Moment was always supposed to be about a revolution in the end.”

Glint - “While You Sleep” (Official Video)

We posted Glint’s evocative single “While You Sleep” last spring, but we haven’t heard from them since then. However, the NY rock trio is back today, sharing visuals for “While You Sleep” and upgrading it to lead single status for their new album Inverter. The song overflows with emotion, and director Ryan Rothermel’s video inspires that same feeling — well, feelings. A sunburned man meanders through the desert exhausted and aimless as he finds gold objects on the ground. The objects entertain him briefly, but obviously have no real worth as he searches for sustenance. Just as he finds what he believes to be something to drink, he discovers it is gold flakes, leaving him frustrated and angry. The clip is a great expression of the longing and desire that hangs over the track, and aptly depicts the anguish that results from sustaining the damage from those feelings for too long.

Baio - “The Names” (Official Video)

Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij just announced his departure from the band, and Ezra Koenig and Chris Tomson are off campaigning for Bernie Sanders. Meanwhile, bassist Chris Baio is off on his own. He’s been making twinkly dance music under his last name for a few years, and last year, he released The Names, his first full-length. Today, he’s got a new video for the title track, which he directed himself, filming it in London, where he lives now. Baio says that the video serves, “in a roundabout way,” as a David Bowie tribute. It’s a crisp, sparkly, enjoyable video, and it shows Baio spending a cloudy day wandering through the city, wearing a white dinner jacket and carrying a human skull. Check it out and read some words about it from Baio below.

Baio writes:

Last fall the image of a man walking around in a dinner jacket while holding a medical skull popped into my head. Why? Beats me! Your mind can take you to weird places. I’d wanted to take a stab at directing a music video for a while and thought “The Names” would be my chance.
I’ve lived in London for the past two and a half years and one thing I love about it is the green space. There’s so much of it. Crystal Palace Park in south London is the weirdest park I’ve ever been to with its huge dinosaur and gorilla statues. I thought it’d be the sort of place a man in a dinner jacket with a medical skull would hang out.
We also filmed in The George Tavern, a great pub in Shadwell. They told me Nick Cave’s performed there. I think that’s pretty cool!
On New Years Day, while I was nursing my hangover, I watched David Bowie’s Serious Moonlight tour film. In the performance of “Cracked Actor” he holds a skull that starts singing along. I had already finished editing this video but was really thrilled by the coincidence. In a roundabout way “The Names” is my tribute to David Bowie, my favorite artist of all time.

The Names is out now on Glassnote.

Timbaland - “Don’t Get No Betta” (Feat. Mila J) Video

Timbaland released a feature-heavy mixtape, King Stays King, at the end of last year and is following that up with a new full-length, apparently called Textbook Timbo, that is expected to come out sometime this year. Today, he’s shared an updated version of a track that appeared on last year’s mixtape, “Don’t Get No Betta,” with a sultry Sam Lecca-directed video accompaniment. The song features Mila J —.

Free Cake For Every Creature - “For You” (Official Video)

Free Cake For Every Creature make effortless, impassive indie pop that still finds its way to your gut through its easy relatability and into your brain due to some catchy melodies and phrases. It’s been less than a year since their stellar Moving Songs tape came out, but they are already back and gearing up to drop the full-length Talking Quietly Of Anything With You. The first offering comes in the form of the “For You” video. The song is more deadpan sincerity delivered in a delicate two-part harmony over subdued guitar strums and fun vocal flourishes. The video is a low-key chill session between friends shot in lo-def. The most fancy prop/effect are donuts hanging from strings and slow motion jumps. Sidewalk saunters with plenty of goofing around and genuine enjoyment of the company of friends make this clip too adorable. It looks like it was a lot of fun to make, and it will make you crave a donut or two.

Mr. Oizo - “Hand In The Fire” (Feat. Charli XCX) Video

Back in 1999, “Flat Beat,” an infernally catchy track from the French dance producer Mr. Oizo, topped charts all over the world. Part of its success had to do with its infernal catchiness, but you could also credit the video, which starred an adorable puppet named Flat Eric. A few months ago, Oizo teamed up with Charli XCX for a song called “Hand In The Fire.” And as Pitchfork points out, director Meat Dept.’s new video for the song stars two different Flat Erics, trapped in some sort of endless time-loop. It should be twice as big as “Flat Beat”!