Download “Lucifer” by The Cult

Snag a free MP3 of The Cult’s new track, “Lucifer”, from their forthcoming release, Choice of Weapon (available May 22). Pretty good comeback (comeback? Well, it HAS been 5 years since their last release) for Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, the songwriting duo behind The Cult’s greatest hits.

The band’s first 2012 show will take place at the Auditorium Shores Stage in Austin, Texas on March 17 as part of the SXSW Music Festival. The show is free and open to the public if you happen to be in the area. More tour dates should be coming soon.

Listen: Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames record songs based on Woody Guthrie lyrics

Did you know about this? I just read a 3-star review of the New Multitudes CD – a collection of songs built upon unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics by Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline), Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket) – in the new issue (Paul McCartney-cover) of Rolling Stone. The magazine’s website did a feature on the release which one person commented, probably rightfully so, “Wasn’t this album called Mermaid Avenue?”

I’m snagging this from Facebook because it explains the project better than I can:

New Multitudes is an intimate interpretation of American icon and musical legend Woody Guthrie’s previously unrecorded lyrics from a dream team of Americana torchbearers: Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket). What makes this album such a rarity in today’s music world is the allowance of the songs’ infectious simplicity to stand alone in all their glory. In doing so, Farrar, Johnson, Parker, and Yames have paid the greatest compliment to Woody Guthrie and the collaborative spirit he so greatly embodied. This is an album which seamlessly converges the sepia-toned essence of the time honored past with the risks needed to forge the future.

There’s a small handful of tour dates scheduled to promote the release of New Multitudes.

Video/tour – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Quirky song. ’70s-inspired video (shades of The Beastie Boys “Sabotage” if you ask me). It’s the latest video by Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the Portland-by-way-of-New-Zealand outfit led by Ruban Nielson. “Strangers are Strange” can be found on UMO’s June 2011 self-titled Fat Possum Records release.

Read Kevin Elliott’s interview from July 2011 with Unknown Mortal Orchestra at The Agit Reader.

February and March 2012 tour dates

02/24 San Francisco, CA Clift Hotel
02/25 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex*
02/26 Santa Monica, CA The Central*
02/27 San Luis Obispo, CA SLO Brew*
02/28 Visalia, CA Cellar Door*
03/01 Santa Cruz, CA Coconut Grove Ballroom#
03/02 San Diego, CA Birch North Park Theatre#
03/04 Vail, CO Snowball Music Festival
03/05 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad#
03/07 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit#
03/08 Austin, TX La Zona Rosa#
03/09 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre#
03/10 Monterrey, Mexico Festival NRMAL#
03/12 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jack’s#
03/13 Houston, TX Fitzgerald’s#
03/14 Austin, TX SXSW
03/16 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre#
03/17 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue#
03/18 Reno, NV Cargo#
05/26 George, WA Sasquatch Festival

* = w/ White Arrows
# = w/ Girls

Sleigh Bells perform “Comeback Kid” on SNL

Haters gonna hate, I suppose. If this video of Sleigh Bells performing on SNL isn’t pulled off YouTube quickly, expect to see the comments section flooded with “What is this noise? The girl can’t sing in key!” comments (those comments are already appearing for the “Comeback Kid” official video).

The more I hear the song, the more I like it but am still not completely sold on Sleigh Bells.