This week in new music

Fri 25th Mar, 2011 in Local News

Every week the FL HQ gets bombarded with new music, so we’ve decided to start a ‘best new releases wrap-up’ to share some of the goodness with you.

In this week’s installment we have new stuff from Fleet Foxes, Friendly Fires, Wavves, Battles, Bill Callahan and new Snoop/Gorillaz collaboration.

Fleet Foxes lead singer/guitarist Robin Pecknold recently released a trio of solo tunes, but he’s not planning on going solo full time any time soon – the band’s new album Helplessness Blues is due out on the 3rd of May. Battery Kinzie is the first song released from the new album.

We’re hoping Friendly Fires return to Australia very soon – maybe for Splendour – especially if this is any indication of the new album’s sound.

Nathan Williams took to Twitter to release three ‘new’ Wavves songs from back when drummer Zach Hill was still in the band.

Battles new album Gloss Drop includes synth pop maestro Gary Numan, Eye from the Japanese psychedelic rock group Boredoms, Kazu Makino from indie rock outfit Blonde Redhead and dark disco experimenter Matias Aguayo who guests on this track Ice Cream.

We’d loved Bill Callahan’s last album Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle so we’re damn excited to hear this sneak peak of his new record.

Snoop welcomed us to the sounds of Gorillaz album Plastic Beach last year and this week we finally got to hear another collaboration from the cartoon band and the Katy Perry/Jessica Mauboy collaborating rapper for hire.

Low have recorded a new album C’mon in a 110-year-old former-cathedral in Minnesota. It’s due out on 8th April – but here’s a taste of the record Try To Sleep.
[soundcloud:http://soundcloud.com/inertiamusic/low-try-to-sleep/s-zhNI0

Okkervil River will release their sixth album in the coming weeks; here’s Mermaid acoustic ballad which will be exclusive to the Australian edition.

On the local front we have this rather special Cut Copy remix from their Modular stablemates Architecture in Helsinki who thought that reimagining the tune as a classic Roy Orbison record would be a fine idea,

Perth’s Snowman [pictured] recently announced that they were splitting up, but they have a parting gift for fans – a final album Absence. According to the band it’s “more seductive and more giving than the last record. It is a romance with fading memories and lost loved ones. It is a communication between the living and the dead. A séance of sorts. It’s about tearing yourself away from the things you love in order to progress and to move forward. Killing the myth…an eventual ‘coming to terms’ and letting go of all of these things. All things must pass. Change is inevitable… We were becoming increasingly aware that Snowman was on her last legs. So the album was shaped as a parting gift. A swan song of sorts.

Here’s the first taste of the record Hyena.

And One Of The Animals, the first single from Papa Vs Pretty’s debut album, which is due out mid-year.

These tracks from Cuba is Japan aren’t exactly freshly delivered this week, but as we received a beautifully packaged 7” vinyl copy of the tunes (complete with a knitted sleeve) we can’t overlook the tunes from the band’s upcoming debut album Canvas. You can pick up a copy of the 7” at the release party at the Worker’s Club in Melbourne next Friday 1st April.

And finally, just to make us jealous that we’re not going to All Tomorrows Parties, here’s a mix from curators Animal Collective featuring Big Boi, Kurt Vile, Meat Puppets and more.