Alternative Music

Julianna Barwick's new album, Nepenthe, will be released August 20. It's her first album for new label Dead Oceans, and the follow-up to the magical The Magic Place, which was my #1 album of 2011.

Nepenthe was recorded in Iceland with Alex Somers of Sigur Rós-related offshoots Riceboy Sleeps and Alex & Jónsi, and finds Barwick's first-ever collaborations with other musicians: string ensemble Amiina, Múm guitarist Róbert Sturla Reynisson, and "a choir of teenage girls."

The teenage girls take on a semi-starring role in the 'album trailer' for Nepenthe, which is soundtracked by the astonishing song "Forever," on which they appear. It's an exciting taste of the forthcoming record, sounding as beautiful and ethereal as anything Barwick's ever done.

Nepenthe Track List:
1. "Offing"
2. "The Harbinger"
3. "One Half"
4. "Look Into Your Own Mind"
5. "Pyrrhic"
6. "Labyrinthine"
7. "Forever"
8. "Adventurer of the Family"
9. "Crystal Lake"
10. "Waving to You"

Like Care Bears Trucking:
June 18: London, England - Meltdown Festival
July 14: Kingston, NY - BSP Lounge
August 28: Brussels, Belgium - Feeerieen Festival
September 1: North Dorset, England - End of the Road
September 4: Paris, France - Les 3 Baudets
September 5: Utrecht, Netherlands - Night of the Unexpected
September 6: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Night of the Unexpected
September 7: Vlieland, Netherlands - Into The Great Wide Open
September 19: Minneapolis, MN - The Entry
September 21: Chicago, IL - Constellation
September 22: Detroit, MI - Museum of Contemporary Art
September 26: Toronto, ON - Double Double Land
September 27: Rochester, NY - Visual Studies Workshop Auditorium
September 28: Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Fest
September 29: Bloomington, IN - Russian Recording
October 1: Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum
October 2: Asheville, NC - Apothecary
October 4: New Orleans, LA - AllWays Lounge and Theatre
October 5: Baton Rouge, LA - Mud and Water

Photo © Derrick Belcham

With the June release of Austra's awesome second album Olympia moving ever-closer, the first single from the LP, "Home," has now spawned a video and remixes.

Domino is releasing a 12-inch —sometime "this summer"— with reworks by Detroit techno legend Kevin Saunderson and post-Mi Ami dancefloor dabbler Ital. You can already listen to "Home (Kevin Saunderson and the House of Virus Detroit Darkness Remix)."

And the video for "Home" comes directed by ace video-promo makers That Go, and features a single-take production shot from behind a two-way mirror.

Austra have also announced a whole pile more tour-dates coming in the wake of Olympia's June 18 release. Their August/September tour of America will come with bonus goodness: opening will be Toronto soft-rock types Diana.

Keeping You Occupied:
June 2: Dublin, Ireland - Forbidden Fruit
June 6: Zurich, Switzerland - Plaza
June 7: Luzerne, Switzerland - Sudpol
June 8: Yverdon-les Bains, Switzerland - L'Amalgame
June 10: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Bitterzoet
June 12: Paris, France - Le Nouveau Casino
June 14: Berlin, Germany - Lido
June 17: London, England - Hoxton Bar Grill
June 20: Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
June 23: Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
June 26: San Francisco, CA - The Independent
July 18: Nijmegen, Netherlands - Valkhof Festival
July 19: Ferropolis, Germany - Melt Festival
July 21: Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
July 26: Barcelos, Portugal - Milhoes De Festa Festival
July 30: Milan, Italy - Magnolia
July 31: Padova, Italy - Radar Festival
August 1: Feldkirch, Austria - PoolBar Festival
August 2: Salzburg, Austria - Stuck! Festival
August 3: Katowice, Poland - OFF Festival
August 10: Helsinki, Finland - Flow Festival
August 30: Detroit, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
August 31: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
September 1: Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock
September 4: Seattle, WA - Neumos
September 5: Portland, OR - MusicFest NW
September 10: Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
September 12: Dallas, TX - Trees
September 13: Austin, TX - Mohawk
September 14: Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds
September 15: New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
September 17: Atlanta, GA - The Earl
September 18: Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
September 19: Washington, DC - Black Cat
September 20: Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
September 22: New York, NY - Webster Hall
September 24: Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
November 25: London, England - Koko

Photo © Norman Wong

Band: The National
Album: Trouble Will Find Me
Label: 4AD
Release Date: May 21, 2013

Whilst the Dessner brothers strip back the atmospherics of High Violet, its successor still finds singer Matt Berninger gripped with anxieties, fixated on death...

In advance of the release of Trouble Will Find Me, the sixth LP for The National, the band have been talking it up with giddy, joyous terms; singer Matt Berninger and guitarist Aaron Dessner calling it everything from 'freewheeling' to 'fun.' Yet this is 'fun' as seen through the prism of The National: through their stately arrangements, through their sombre tone, through Berninger's mumbly baritone, and, mostly, through Berninger's lyrics, which have long seemed to delight in awkwardness, anxiety, and existential concern...

Read the full review: The National, Trouble Will Find Me

Artist: Wintercoats
What: Heartful EP
Label: Yes Please
Released: April 18, 2013

Heartful marks the third EP for Wintercoats —young Australian multi-instrumentalist James Wallace— after 2010's Cathedral and 2012's Sketches. On stage, bowing a violin and treading on a loop-pedal, Wallace strikes an Owen Pallett-esque pose. But Wintercoats' music has none of Final Fantasy's high drama/comedy, Wallace instead looking to create lingering, melancholy mood music of bashful disposition.

After starting out as instrumental project, Wallace has taken more to —suitably shy, quiet— singing. And his voice rings out —well, whispers out— across Heartful, whose title suggests how much the songwriter is wearing his heart on his sleeve.

"Burial" —amidst its synth drone and choral vocal loop— is about laying down and sleeping, waking up and living, and doing so all alone; about Wallace dealing with medication, dreams, and daily life in an interior fashion. The sounds on Heartful are just as intimate and insular; all the ambient hush, thrummed patterns, and elegant scrawl Wallace wrings from his violin feeling like musical expressions of self.

• Wintercoats, Heartful EP

Savages entered the year as one of 2013's most likely breakout acts, and they've hardly disappointed with their debut album, Silence Yourself.

Silence Yourself has delivered on all the advanced hype, standing as one of the year's best albums so far. Now, Savages will be taking it to where they truly shine: the live realm. The London-based band have a full 2013 on the horizon, including spots at Primavera Sound, Pitchfork Music Fest, and Glastonbury.

Your Head Is Spinning Fast:
May 9: London, England - Ministry of Sound
May 13: Brussels, Belgium - Botanique-Orangie
May 15: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
May 16: Cologne, Germany - Geb9
May 17: Berlin, Germany - Lido
May 19: Frankfurt, Germany - Zoom
May 20: Zurich, Switzerland - Kinski
May 21: Milan, Italy - Magnolia Club
May 22: Nimes, France - TBA
May 23: Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
May 25: London, England - Field Day Festival
May 29: London, England - Red Gallery
June 1: Porto, Portugal - Primavera Sound
June 6: Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
June 8: Manchester, England - Parklife Festival
June 18: Berlin, Germany - Zitadelle
June 19: Prague, Czech Republic - Tipsport
June 20: London, England - Yoko Ono's Meltdown
June 22: Hilvarenbeek, Holland - Best Kept Secret Festival
June 28-29: Pilton, England - Glastonbury Festival
July 4: Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
July 11: New York, NY - Webster Hall
July 12: Boston, MA - Middle East
July 13: Washington DC - Rock 'n' Roll Hotel
July 14: Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
July 15: Montreal, QC - La Tulipe
July 16: Toronto, ON - Mod Club
July 20: Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
July 21: Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock
July 23: Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater
August 30: North Dorset, England - End Of The Road Festival
October 4-6: Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
October 11-13: Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival

Photo © Richard Dumas

Back in January, Chaz Bundick turned out this third Toro y Moi LP, Anything In Return. Bundick and band are still peddling it far-and-wide, with a brand new slate of tour dates just announced. All the way up 'til November!

Can't Always Be Home:
May 27: George, WA - Sasquatch! Music Festival
May 30: Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia
May 31: Vilnius, Lithuania - Loftas Festival
June 2: Dublin, Ireland - Forbidden Fruit Festival
June 3: Paris, France - Cabaret Sauvage
June 4: London, England - KOKO
June 5: Brighton, England - Concorde 2
June 6: Bristol, England - Thekla
June 7: Birmingham, England - Academy 2
June 8: Glasgow, Scotland - The Arches
June 9: Manchester, England - Parklife Weekender
July 11-13: Mariaville, NY - Camp Bisco
July 12-14: Louisville, KY - Forecastle Festival
July 15: Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre
July 16: Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
July 17: Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
July 21: Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
July 23: Honolulu, HI - The Republik
August 3: Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
September 7-8: St. Louis, MO - LouFest
October 8: Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
October 15: Nashville, TN - Exit In
October 16: Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theatre
October 17: Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
October 18: Columbia, SC - Columbia Museum of Art
October 19: Charleston, SC - Music Farm
October 25: Boston, MA - House of Blues
October 26: Montreal, QC - SAT
October 27: Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
November 1: Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom
November 2: Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
November 4: Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
November 7: Aspen, CO - Belly Up
November 10: Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre

Photo © Andrew Paynter

In a recent interview with guitarist Aaron Dessner, he described The National's great new album Trouble Will Find Me as being "a fun record about dying."

The fun comes in the album's looser, more joyous, free-flowing songs; the dying, well, that comes in Matt Berninger's typically anxious and bleak lyrics, sung, as ever in that beautiful baritone.

Berninger and the band-of-brothers will be taking Trouble Will Find Me out on the road for, well, most of the rest of 2013, really...

No One's Careful All the Time:
May 16: Ithaca, NY - State Theater
May 26: Boston, MA - Boston Calling Festival
June 4: Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
June 5: Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center
June 6: Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
June 7: Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for the Performing Arts
June 8: Richmond, VA - The National
June 10: Raleigh, NC - Red Hat Amphitheatre
June 11: Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
June 13: Montreal, QC - Lachine Canal
June 14: Toronto, ON - Yonge Dundas Square
June 15: Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
June 16: Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
June 21: Scheessel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
June 22: Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany - Southside Festival
June 23: Istanbul, Turkey - Istanbul Calling
June 25: Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal
June 28: Cork, Ireland - Live at the Marquee
June 30: Rome, Italy - Parco Della Musica
July 1: Milan, Italy - City Sound Festival
July 2: Zagreb, Croatia - Salata
July 4: Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter Festival
July 5-7: Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
July 14: Cincinnati, OH - Bunbury Festival
July 27: Byron Bay, Australia - Splendour in the Grass
August 3: Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
August 4: Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theater
August 5: Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
August 6: St. Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium
August 9: San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
August 10: Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre
August 11: Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Forever Cemetery
September 7: St. Louis, MO - Loufest
September 8: Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
September 9: Atlanta, GA - Cobb Energy Center
September 11: Charlotte, NC - The Fillmore Charlotte
September 12: Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
September 13: Louisville, KY - Iriquois Amphitheater
September 15: Madison, WI - Orpheum Theater
September 17: Morrison, CO - Red Rocks
September 20: Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater
September 21: Portland, OR - Edgefield Winery
September 22: Vancouver, BC - PNE Amphitheatre
October 31: Helsinki, Finland - Ice Hall
November 2: Copenhagen, Denmark - Forum
November 4: Berlin, Germany - Max Schmelling Halle
November 5: Düsseldorf, Germany - Mitsubishi Electric Hall
November 6: Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Rockhal
November 7: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Heineken Music Hall
November 9: Belfast, Northern Ireland - Odyssey Arena
November 10: Dublin, Ireland - O2 Arena
November 11-12: Manchester, England - O2 Apollo
November 13-14: London, England - Alexandra Palace
November 18: Paris, France - Le Zenith
November 20: Madrid, Spain - Palacio Vistalegre
November 21: Lisbon, Portugal - Pavilhao Atlantico

Deerhunter's new LP Monomania came out this week to a chorus of praise and puzzlement; the band's swerve into noisy, abrasive "nocturnal garage" both pleasing and provocative. To these ears, it's not quite the equal to 2010's Halcyon Digest, but it's still one of 2013's best records so far.

Now, Bradford Cox and co are taking the show on the road, peddling noise waste and rat tapes at a run of European Festivals and North American headliners...

Send My Heart to the Sea:
May 18: Utrecht, Netherlands - Le Guess Who
May 20: Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
May 21: Brussels, Belgium - AB Club
May 22: Paris, France - La Trianon
May 23: Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
May 30: Porto, Portugal - Primavera Sound
June 7-9: New York, NY - Governor's Ball
June 21-23: Camber Sands, England - ATP
August 23: Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
August 27: Sacramento, CA - Hawlow's
August 30: Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw
August 31: Victoria, BC - Sugar
September 2: Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot
September 3: Portland, OR - Music Fest Northwest
September 6: Salt Lake City, UT - Urban
September 7: Denver, CO - Bluebird
September 9: Minneapolis, MN - Fineline
September 10: Chicago, IL - The Metro
September 11: Cleveland, OH - Beachland
September 12: Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
September 13: Columbus, OH - Skully's
September 16: Boston, MA - Royale
September 20: Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
September 21: Washington DC - 9:30 Club
September 22: Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle
December 1: Tokyo, Japan - Hostess Club Weekender

Photo © Robert Semmer

With last week's surprising —and exciting!— news that Neutral Milk Hotel are reforming came with the promise that further tour dates were soon to be announced.

And here they are! The band now have a whole run of shows booked in the US South come October, and, thereafter, their first-ever tour to Australia were they've been outed, ahead of time, as headliners of Harvest Festival. Even more shows are apparently on the horizon, but right now this schedule is enough to make plenty of people plenty happy...

Up and Over We Go:
October 11: Baltimore, MD - 2640 Space at St. John's Church
October 12: Richmond, VA - The National
October 14: Covington, KY - Madison Theater
October 15: Urbana, IL - The Canopy Club
October 18: Memphis, TN - Minglewood Hall
October 19: Chattanooga, TN - Track 29
October 20: Birmingham, AL - Iron City
October 22-24: Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
October 25: Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
October 26: Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
November 10: Melbourne, Australia - Harvest
November 16: Sydney, Australia - Harvest
November 17: Brisbane, Australia - Harvest
November 28: Taipei, Taiwan - Hostess Club Taipei
December 1: Tokyo, Japan - Hostess Club Weekender

Name: Dungeonesse
From: Baltimore, Maryland
Story: Wye Oak/White Life cross-bred into bubblegum pop
Sound: Bright, fizzy, luminously (luridly?) melodic

In 2012, Wye Oak's Jenn Wassner debuted a solo project, Flock of Dimes, that swiftly changed from single to single. At first, her tracks came closer to Wye Oak's sombre sound, but soon she delivered "Replica," a brilliant piece of bubblegum pop whose fizzy synths and fluorescent melodies betrayed quality type spent with chart-pop.

It seemed to lead, naturally, into Dungeonesse, a new project whose first single, "Drive You Crazy," was even more of a pop-song sugar-rush. The duo finds Wassner collaborating with the ridiculously-prolific Jon Ehrens, whose string of projects has included the Art Department and White Life, and shown him to be a master genre-tourist.

The self-titled Dungeonesse LP, just pressed up by Secretly Canadian, finds Wassner's sweet singing layered over busy beats and luminous synths; sustaining a set of peppy pop-songs ranging from deliriously upbeat to slow-jammin'.

• Download: Dungeonesse, "Nighlight"
• Stream: Dungeonesse, "Drive You Crazy"
• Stream: Dungeonesse, "Shucks"
• Watch: Dungeonesse, "Drive You Crazy" video

Photo © Shervin Lainez