The Spirit Of The Beehive - “I Smell Bud” (Official Video)

The Spirit Of The Beehive’s self-titled debut is the kind of murky, densely layered record that is richly rewarding on repeat listens, and one that deserves a much wider audience than it has right now. The Philadelphia band has crafted an album that chooses to stay in the shadows, a storm cloud overhead and with no light in view. It oscillates between moments of beautiful, unbearable vulnerability and a tarnished ambience that slides towards tightly-packed noise, and it’s at its best when both of those things happen simultaneously. On “I Smell Bud,” an album highlight, they achieve a balance between these two that’s absolutely divine and deeply sad: “I can’t be myself when you are away/ It’s okay, we’ll do it your way.” And later, spoken in deadpan: “I wish that I was skinny, then I wouldn’t need to be cool and maybe you would need me more than I need you.” The whole song has a queasy roll to it, which is matched in their new video, shot at a house party with an unsteady hand, mimicking the dizzying nature of the track.

Breathers - “New Life” (Official Video)

Director: Sam Wagstaff
Starring: Rick Stewart & Abby Higgins
Director of Photography: John Manfredi
Gaffer / Co-DP: Michael Bremer
Edited by: Sam Wagstaff
Slime Master: Doug Bleichner
Stylist: Britney Hortman

The video for “New Life” was directed by Skeleton Realms’ Sam Wagstaff, and its a perfectly executed absurdist drama that perfectly mirrors the song’s carefree, cascading synths — an obvious nod to the 1980s vision of what “the future” would look like. An homage to trash culture, the protagonists’ garish costumery and makeup mimics some of the not-so-subtle perversion of John Waters’ least commercial films, it’s a love story centered around one of the most beloved comedies of the 1990s. If you’ve ever browsed the VHS section of a thrift store, then you know that Jerry Maguire is the most frequently disposed-of videotape of the 21st century. There’s always at least 15 sitting on the shelf, just waiting for a person who can tolerate Tom Cruise (is there such a person?) to seize it. Apparently there is such a person, and a Jerry Maguire obsession happens to be the catalyst for this video’s bizarre plotline.

Doe Paoro - “Traveling” (Official Video)

Futuristic torch-song expert Doe Paoro first captured our attention by combining cutting-edge experimental R&B with a striking, stylized visual aesthetic right out of the gate. She was “Born Whole,” but her sound has continually evolved since then, as demonstrated by the spacey EP she recorded with S. Carey at Justin Vernon’s woodland Wisconsin studio. Paoro’s latest stage finds her alongside new friends burnishing yet another update on her sound. She’s signed to Anti- Records, label home of Tom Waits and Neko Case, Dr. Dog and Calexico, Title Fight and Saintseneca, and will release a new LP later this year. In the meantime we get “Traveling,” a dumbfoundingly beautiful lovelorn ballad built from nothing but Paoro’s voice and Entrance Band frontman Guy Blakeslee’s guitar accompaniment. The chorus on this one is a killer: “I wanted solitude, and that’s what I got/ Now I’m a living island with only one thought/ ‘Maybe I was wrong.'” Dan Huiting directed the video.

Jozef Van Wissem - “Confinement” (Official Video)

The music of Dutch composer Jozef van Wissem’s can come off as either meditative or menacing. On “Confinement,” his relentless lute is adorned by bubbling, barely-there synths and minimal electronic percussion. The track’s equally hypnotic new video features gorgeously lit scenes of Van Wissem playing his lute throughout New York City. It’s a moody clip that magnifies the passing moments when vision is obscured by deep shadows or blinding lights. Following Van Wissem’s work in film scoring, this video feels especially fitting for his slow, mesmerizing compositions. Watch the video and see Van Wissem’s upcoming tour dates below.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - “Betty Vs. The NYPD” (Official Video)

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, those great ’90s garage-rock showmen, are about to release Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015, their second album since getting back together, in a couple of week. We’ve posted their first single “Do The Get Down,” and now they’ve made a video for another one, the gleefully spazzy “Betty Vs. The NYPD.” The band has a cross-dressing cameo in director Michael Lavine‘s video, but it’s mostly given over to a cartoonish police-station interrogation that turns into an even more cartoonish dance party. There is a whole lot of John Waters in this video.

Watch Will Butler’s Furious, Kickass Letterman Performance + Stream Will Butler Policy

Will Butler has been playing with Arcade Fire for upwards of a decade, and he’s evidently spent some time thinking about how he’d present himself if and when he ever went solo. Yesterday, Butler released Policy, his first-ever solo album. Last night, he was the musical guest on the Late Show With David Letterman. And watching that performance, it’s clear that he thought long and hard about how he’d approach the whole thing. There was the unconventional backing band: Keyboardist, stand-up drummer, two backup singers, no bass, no guitar besides his own. There was the tuxedo and the slash of hair across his face. And there was the song: “Take My Side,” a punk song shot through with ’60s girl-group harmonies, played with basement-hardcore intensity. We don’t often hear guitar that sounds that scrambled on late-night TV. It’s a hell of a performance, and you can watch.

Jacco Gardner - “Find Yourself” (Official Video)

Jacco Gardner is on a mission of self-discovery, and the Dutch producer/multi-instrumentalist finds more than he bargained for in the video for his latest track “Find Yourself.” In the Bear Damen-directed clip — which is one half rainbow-paint-splatter acid trip and one half doomsday ’70s roadtrip to nowhere — the hero in question smokes a joint while driving in a heavily forested area and then has a harrowing, drug-addled encounter… with himself. Channeling Ariel Pink’s destroyed pop sonics, Gardner’s existential crisis includes just enough theatrics to keep you guessing. And those cars ain’t too shabby either.

Mike WiLL Made-It - “Choppin’ Blades” (Feat. RiFF RAFF & Rae Sremmurd’s Slim Jxmmi) Video

Mike WiLL Made-It has shared a video for “Choppin’ Blades,” a track from his recent Ransom mixtape that features RiFF RAFF and Rae Srummurd’s Slim Jxmmi. Mike WiLL and RiFF RAFF star in the video as used car salesmen, while Slim Jxmmi takes on the role of mechanic. Waka Flocka Flame also makes a cameo appearance. Riff’s character Sharky McStevenson frequently interrupts the song to espouse some documentary-style inspiration, and the whole thing ends with a party inside and outside the dealership.

of Montreal - “Bassem Sabry” (Official Video)

Last week, of Montreal released their 13th album, Aureate Gloom, and we heard the album’s opening track, “Bassem Sabry,” back in 2014. Today, the band release a video for the single, which was directed and produced by Ben Rouse, and features members of the band frolicking in a kind of psychedelic garden. Its absurdity and faded coloration recalls the excellent 1966 Swedish cult film Daisies.

Torres - “Strange Hellos” (Official Video)

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Torres will release her new album, Sprinter, in May, and we heard the record’s seething first single, “Strange Hellos,” at the beginning of this year. Today, Torres released the Casey Pierce-directed video for the song, and it’s a stunning accompaniment. Torres barely breaks eye contact with the camera as she sings, and at a certain point she’s flanked by two ghoulish figures in chains. It’s a subtle exploration of cultish imagery, but its magnetism depends solely on Torres’ fervent performance.

Shlohmo - “Beams” Video (NSFW)

After lending his slow-simmering, dark sounds to more popular alt-R&B artists like Jeremih and Banks last year, LA electro-bass producer Shlohmo kicked off 2015 by announcing his sophomore full-length, Dark Red, due later this spring. So far we’ve heard “Emerge From Smoke” and “Buried,” the latter of which received the visual treatment about a month ago. Shlohmo’s latest set of visuals comes today for the third single “Beams.” The track is driven by the producer’s signature lingering ominous bass, but brightened with off-time-on-purpose drums and flittering wind-chime synths. The clip finds the producer 3,000 miles away from his native LA, in NYC, getting into somewhat NSFW antics. Quick, jolting cuts of graffiti writing, naked streaking through bodegas, and late-night/early-morning debauchery are an invitation to a disorienting experience of a hedonistic night.

Holly Herndon - “Interference” (Official Video)

Today, 4AD announced they will release Holly Herndon’s sophomore album, Platform, the follow-up to her stunning experimental debut, Movement. Herndon, who was born in Tennessee but now calls San Francisco home, is getting her doctorate at Stanford’s Center For Computer Research In Music And Acoustics, which helps to explain the bold, unconventional technique in her production. “Interference” is the new record’s first single and opening track; it’s a glitchy and all-consuming torrent of electronically rendered sound.

DTCV - “Miley Cyrus Wins The Race” (Official Video)

James Greer first came to prominence as a music journalist, and his memories proved invaluable when I was compiling an oral history of Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Greer then spent time playing in Guided By Voices and ended up writing a book about the band later on. Those iconic ’90s indie-rock acts will give you some idea of what to expect from DTCV, Greer’s band with vocalist Guylaine Vivarat, but the French singer-songwriter lends the music an air of shoegaze girl-group pop a la Vivian and/or Dum Dum Girls with dashes of both Françoise Hardy and Pat Benatar. (A press release explains that Vivarat is “a native of a small village in the French alps, which is sort of like being a native of a small village in Colorado, except French.”) Greer shot and edited the video for Vivarat’s song “Miley Cyrus Wins The Race” from DTCV’s upcoming Uptime! It features Vivarat in stark, dark black and white and is very alluring despite the absence of Ms. Cyrus herself.

AC/DC - “Rock The Blues Away” (Official Video)

AC/DC, bless them, are headlining Coachella this year and still unafraid to use the word “rock” as a verb in a song title. The band released their Rock Or Bust album last year, and their new “Rock The Blues Away” clip follows the videos for “Play Ball” and “Rock Or Bust.” This one is just as bare-bones as those two. It’s the band playing, for a bunch of fans, on an L.A. soundstage that doesn’t even bother to disguise itself as a sweaty nightclub. It seems that something like 80% of the fans are wearing AC/DC T-shirts, which is the oldest concertgoing faux pas in history. But I’d like to give shout-outs to the guy dressed exactly like Angus Young and to the very excited gentleman in the Ultimate Warrior shirt. David Mallet directs.

Ciara - “I Bet” (Official Video)

In the video for her Future-side-eyeing new break-up single “I Bet,” Ciara turned herself into the quintessential music-box ballerina. If you grew up as a little girl in a certain era, then you probably had one of those little pink music boxes that ostensibly held your jewelry. The box was great, but the real treasure was the ballerina who would twirl to the music that played when you lifted the lid. That ballerina was a symbol that summed up all the grace and elegance of womanhood, so Ciara deploying imagery from a little girl’s childhood in a video about losing her relationship with the father of her child is a tragic juxtaposition. But this is still the woman who gave us “Goodies,” so she transitions seamlessly into a sexy white leotard to deliver some of the song’s adult lyrics about cheating and lying. The song’s final line says it all: “Right now it’s killing me/ Because now I have to find someone else/ When all I want is you.” Ciara doesn’t get anything out of the posturing bravado of a break-up song, she’s just carefully relinquishing her dreams for their future.

Chief Scout - “Oh Shit” (Official Video)

Last year, Atlanta multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Trey Rosenkampff made his debut with the bluesy, freewheeling garage rock project Chief Scout. His new video for the pissed-off retort to an ex-lover, “Oh Shit,” fits the song’s jaunty, jaded energy with a pop-up storybook feel. Rosenkampff manhandles his recurring memories, which play out like dioramas, taunting him in all the small spaces of his life, before he rips them up and sets them aflame. “I hope the records that I got you skip when you play” might be one of the best music-related insults I’ve heard all year.

Samo Sound Boy - “You Come For Me” (Official Video)

On April 28th, Body High will release Begging Please, the debut solo album from label head Samo Sound Boy.

"You Come For Me"

Full track stream on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bodyhigh/samo-...

Director: Daniel Pappas (http://calcuttacable.com)
Starring: Nathalie Love

Future - “Just Like Bruddas” (Official Video)

Future continues to release a string of videos for his #MonsterMonday series, but it seems like he finally caught up with everyone else and realized that Beast Mode is much better than Monster. To that end, the visual he dropped today are for the Beast Mode cut “Just Like Bruddas.” And while the video mostly features Future rapping from a moving vehicle in a camo Bape hoodie, friends like DJ Khaled, Fabolous, and more make cameos. This song also marks a return to the slightly more emotional and nuanced Future from his Pluto era — there’s a ton of emotional Hornsby-style piano sampled on this song, courtesy of the tape’s producer Zaytoven. And there’s almost a hint of regret in some lines: “Shit ain’t been the same they talkin’ bout me on the ‘Gram / They say I turned my back on my baby mama.” Did Future read my last post about him? Time heals all wounds Future, and this piano soothing sample doesn’t hurt either.