[BOOKS] David Bowie – Starman

Photo by Ray Stevenson, David Bowie at Home 1969

Paul Trynka illuminates Bowie's seemingly contradictory life and his many reinventions as an artist, offering over 300 new interviews with everyone from classmates to managers to lovers. He reveals Bowie's broad influence on the entertainment world, from movie star to modern-day icon, trend-setter to musical innovator. You can purchase the book here. 

World Unite! Lucifer Youth Foundation

Manchester band WU LYF, short for World Unite! Lucifer Youth Foundation, are mysterious as hell–they don't do interviews and don't divulge much to the press. They just premiered a new song at BBC’s Maida Vale studios called “Brooklyn Girls” as well as performed a track favorite off their debut album Go Tell Fire To The Mountain, called “L Y F”. WU LYF’s debut album is out September 6.

 

[FIRST LOOK] Twin Sister 'Bad Street'

Twin Sister release their first music video for the track Bad Street off their upcoming album In Heaven due out late September. "Shot at lead singer Andrea Estella's family's house in Long Island and populated by her bandmates, friends, and family, the video is a genuine peek into one of the many worlds that have shaped Twin Sister's wide ranging styles." Directed by Dan Devine.

[BUZZ] Gotye

Wouter De Backer, otherwise known as his stage persona Gotye, is a Belgian multi-instrumentalist based in Melbourne.  Somebody That I Used To Know is the second single released off the upcoming album Making Mirrors due for release August 19. The song harkens back to the vocal stylings of a young Sting of The Police. The song features New Zealand singer/songwriter Kimbra. The above film for the song was directed by Natasha Pincus. The music video also features body art by Emma Hack - which took 23 hours to shoot the stop-motion animation. With the album launch Gotye will perform at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Graphic Festival–which will feature animators and a 10-piece orchestra as part of his performance. www.gotye.com

[MUSIC VIDEOS] Pure X - Easy

...Video for Pure X's "Easy," the first in a series from Pleasure that visually explore the record's themes of pain/pleasure and agony/ecstasy. In collaboration with director Malcom Elijah the band works with images of numbness and the pleasure of control. These images, in the context of a traditional music video, reflect bleak lyrics in the context of a semi-traditional bright-sounding pop song. Director: Malcolm Elijah.

FOOL’S GOLD “WILD WINDOW”

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Fool’s Gold are gearing up for the release of their sophomore album, Leave No Trace, out August 16 on IAMSOUND. You’ve heard album track, “Street Clothes,” and now they are sharing with you one of Leave No Trace’s brightest and most “LA” tunes, “Wild Window.” Like a tightly coiled spring, the song bounces along, showcasing singer Luke Top’s passionate vocals and guitarist Lewis Pesacov’s signature tone and playing style, equally influenced by African guitarists as well as the likes of Johnny Marr and Robert Smith.

Fool's Gold - Wild Window by iamsoundrecords

Geoffrey O'Connor "Vanity is Forever"

Vanity Is Forever, being released September 27th via Chapter Music, is Crayon Fields frontman Geoffrey O’Connor’s first album under his own name, and his most ambitious, dynamic and sophisticated work yet. O’Connor’s fractured romantic reflections and lustful tributes play out over vast synthscapes, colossal stadium drums and flanged orchestral sweeps, creating a world that is at once ethereal and strikingly vivid.With a combination of restraint and fearless abandon, O’Connor embraces the conflicts of modern love in a manner as ambiguous as it is blunt, and as shameless as it is generous. His songs indulge in ecstasy, love, pride, failure and all the glamorous contradictions they become. He is both an adult with a juvenile mind, and a geriatric in the body of a young man. Painstakingly refined over two years, Vanity Is Forever is O’Connor’s most fully realized album to date, an epic pop melodrama that shifts seamlessly between seductive high-production dance hits, suave funk joyrides and modern synthetic power balladry. Recently, O’Connor has mesmerized audiences with an extravagant live show of dueling synthesizers, lasers, light sculptures and hypnotic projections. His diverse solo output – under both his own name and previous solo moniker Sly Hats – has seen him handpicked to support the likes of Fleet Foxes, Jens Lekman, School Of Seven Bells, Andrew Bird and First Aid Kit. In addition, O’Connor will release a series of steamy clips to realize his soap opera dreams. View a taste of what’s in store with a trailer for Vanity Is Forever.

Listen to a New Track by Gardens & Villa

In the year of the saxophone, Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa give us the flute. And along the way, Gardens & Villa effectively wipe clear the vaseline from the murky bedroom funk of recent days. Gardens & Villa bang out instant classics — each crystal clear and immaculate, but no less sweeping or languid. Their debut is a youthful exploration of just how opulent and pop starkness can go." Gardens & Villa continue on their North American tour as they wrap up dates with Foster The People and head out with Generationals, followed by shows with Craft Spells. Gardens & Villa’s debut LP is out July 5 on Secretly Canadian.